gziped /pub/archive/anime-fan-works/Ranma/ranma.darkness-and-light.gz Adrian Wong <711788@ican.net> A thousand thanks to the following pre-readers: Gary Klepp - who had not only given me a lot of ideas of how to mordify it, but had taken the time to sent the story to VARIOUS other prereaders as well. Torrence A. Griffin - who warned me about the wrath of the Akane Lovers shall they read this :) Zen - for liking the story SO MUCH (you will see why) and helping with the grammar for the FINAL product. He will probably do an Akane side story for this fic as well if he has time and/or inpiration. Tzigane - for commenting on Ranma & Ryoga parts as well as agreeing to write a Kodachi Side Story for this. Ryan Anderson: For liking the story so much that he is now writting the Shampoo side story for me. Sean Connor: For pointing out various wrongs in the story, and agreeing to write the Ranma side story for this fic. There are others that have C&C for the draft on the FFML. I thank them here as well. Now on with the story (which is in the attached file due to its size) and ONCE AGAIN, PLEASE C&C! A writer like me can NEVER see the faults in my own writting without others to comment on it!!! ################################################################# From: Adrian Wong <711788@ican.net> D A R K N E S S A N D L I G H T All relevant characters copyright by Rumiko Takahashi and some others. This story is copyright by Adrian Wong, 1997. P r e l u d e : In a tidy, medium sized restaurant that hadn't even opened yet, a chef was already cooking on the griddle. With intense care, despite her unusual speed, a large piece of starch was flipped over and over to ensure that it could solidify completely without being burned. The chef smiled at the enticing scent coming from the pastry: the product of exceptional cooking skill. If only that chef could have had the same skill in the art of loving as well. She sighed as she added in the meat and vegetable to the pastry, turning it into an extra large okonomiyaki. A slight panic ran through her body. What if he was actually angry at her? Should she still go, and made a fool of herself? Maybe it would be better for everybody's sake if she could just give it all up. But she couldn't. Despite all the barriers between them, some set by him, some by her rivals. . . mostly by his honourless father, she could still feel the yearning emitting from the captor of her heart, whether the others realized it or not. The same yearning for companionship that had attracted her like a moth to fire since she was six. She hadn't ever seen anyone who could be dazzling both in his happiness as well as sadness. She could still remember that day as if it was yesterday: ############################FLASHBACK############################ After one of their more intense sparring sessions, two little martial artists rested under the shade of a large tree. The armed one wiped the sweat from her face as she breathed out a sigh. "Ran-chan . . . you can REALLY be tough when you want to . . ." Not getting a response, she turned sideways, and saw her friend already fast asleep, looking as innocent as an angel. The little girl smiled as she stared at that face. Even though her macho disguise as a boy had restricted her to being his friend, there was always something about him that led her to think that they could have been a little bit more. Suddenly, the little boy rolled over, and encased the little girl in a hug, causing her to yelp. "Ran-chan! What do you think you . . ." Not wanting that hug to be broken off, she silenced abruptly. "Ucchan . . ." Ran-chan mumbled as he smiled with contentment in his sleep. Ucchan was shocked, a thousand possibilities going through her child's mind. Finally, though, she settled on one of them: Ran-chan had found out that she was really a girl, and genuinely liked her! ################################################################# It was then that she had asked her father to arrange for a formal engagement between her and Ran-chan, so they could live happily ever after. What an awful mistake. Ten years later, as they met again, he tried shutting her out with his apparent obliviousness. Yet there was no way that she would give up on a bet before all the cards had been shown. Before her devotion and sacrifice had been shown to be one-sided and futile. Dark eyes hardening in determination, she packed the okonomiyaki into a delivery box. "Konatsu!" "Yes, Ukyou-sama?" A long-haired, slender young ninja appeared in front of her, seemingly out of nowhere. Being used to his skill demonstrations, Ukyou didn't even raise an eyebrow. "I have some business to attend to this morning; mind the shop for me until I come back, okay?" "Ukyou-sama! You've finally allowed me a chance to prove myself to you! I'm so happy!!" The overly pretty boy exclaimed excitedly. Ukyou liked his enthusiasm. . . even though it often resulted in disasters that she was left to clean up after. "Just remember, for any type of okonomiyaki that you sell, DO NOT LOWER THE PRICES DOWN TWO 2 YENS LIKE THE LAST TIME!!" "HAI!" The ninja boy saluted her, and skipped over to set up the assortments from behind the grill. Happiness was written all over him. As she walked down the streets under the glistering but hazy sunrise, Ukyou couldn't help but marvel once again at the amount of devotion Konatsu was giving her. If only this was the night and there was a wishing star, she'd make a wish that her Ran-chan could be the one loving her like Konatsu did. It was then that she caught sight of a cross far away, on top of the pointed tower of the newly finished cathedral that towered over all the household rooftops on this side of Nerima. Ukyou didn't know much about Christianity. But she knew enough of the bits and pieces about it from past religion teachers as well as some of her customers. The cross . . . the symbol of the son of God. A thought entered her mind at remembering that. Shouldn't He, who stays with His people always, be much more powerful than a wishing star that comes and go in a flash? Ukyou's dark eyes flashed with a suddenly playful thought as she stood still to stare at the far away cross, intending to make a quick wish for herself. She stopped, remembering Shampoo's and Kodachi's repeated attempts to accomplish just that through various potions, all of which somehow managed to push Ran-chan further away with distrust. Perhaps it wasn't such a great wishing line after all. Ukyou started again. Yes, that's a better start. Ran-chan had been gradually shutting her out nowadays . . . and even after that successful reunion with his mother, he still looked tired and sad . . . when he thought that nobody else was watching him. <. . . to see his dreams and learn his nightmares . . . to help in defeating the darkness haunting him . . . and to rejoice in the light of his triumph.> Ukyou shivered at the melodramatic turn that her wish had taken. Yuck! She was even worse than Kuno. She stood there for a moment, idly trying to rephrase her wish. Then she noticed the shops on the streets beginning to open up for business. With that, Ukyou looked away from the cross and took the short cut to the Tendo Dojo via the rooftops. ################################################################# D A R K N E S S A N D L I G H T by: Adrian Wong A DARK Ranma 1 / 2 Fan Fiction. All relevant characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. This story copyright 1997 - Adrian Wong Author's Rambling: Special thanks to all those on and off the FFML that had contributed ideas about the good and bad points regarding POISON. In the beginning, I was merely trying to create a long version of POISON. As time passed by, however, I've changed the story too much to be called a "long version". Inspirations, some of them contrasting, came in a frenzy. . . all of which eventually led to this somewhat familiar but NEW story. Only several tiny clips were remained from POISON in this finished monstrosity, and even they had been modified considerably. Warning: This story is guaranteed to be even more controversial than my previous work, POISON. Situations of adult nature are ahead, even though this is NO lemon fic (at least I don't think it is). Young readers and those with weak stomachs. . . be prepared for anything. Note: Dialogues are in " " Thoughts are in < > Songs are in * * ################################################################# PART 1 Is it really her that you want? The question, which only he could hear, echoed in his mind as he absently braided his hair into a pigtail. Even though the effects of the dragon's whisker had worn off long ago (See manga volume 15), he still braided his hair due to force of habit. Sitting beside him at the dining table were two girls. On the table were two report cards, which the two girls were looking through at the moment. "Oh, this isn't fair! I could have gotten an A+ in Calculus instead of just an A. I was just one mark behind the standard!" Akane bit her lips as her fists clutched her red dress. The boy thought as he tied up the pigtail with a string. Nabiki was a mask of cold calculation. "Hmm. . . so that new computer teacher did dare to fail me after all." Didn't he know that Tendo Nabiki had more profitable businesses to take care of other than her studies? Besides, she only wanted a passing grade! "Just wait until I spread some interesting photos regarding his private life around. Hmm . . . say, Ranma-kun, you never did tell us last night about YOUR scores on the exams." Startled out of his train of thought, the boy struggled for words. "It . . . it's not important, Nabiki." Ranma said hesitantly. "C'mon, Ranma. At least tell us your average." Akane said. When Ranma answered in a most reluctant manner, the sisters were stunned. "Ranma. . ." Nabiki said seriously. "For 1000 yen, I will keep this as a secret." "Baka! I told you to study more often!" Akane said hotly. "I have to spend all my time practising the Art!" Ranma, who wasn't in a good mood to begin with, snapped back. And a big paw of a hand slapped him hard on the head. "Ranma! Akane is also a martial artist! Yet I don't see her getting low grades!" Genma bellowed. "But she spent only one-tenth of my effort in training-" "What's that supposed to mean?!" Akane's face turned scarlet with rage. How dare this freeloading baka insult her like this in her own home?! "I was only saying-" "That's enough from you! Have I trained you all those years just to have you turn out to be such an unmanly disgrace to our school?" Genma Saotome asked indignantly. Ranma reacted as if he had been slapped. "Unmanly disgrace?" "If you're not, then stop acting like one and cease your whining! Now come with me to the dojo; I'm going to whip you back into shape." The big, overweight man headed toward the dojo. Ranma gritted his teeth to force down his anger, then gradually sighed and followed his father into the dojo. Rebellious as he might appear to be, Ranma always obeyed his father in the end. After all, his father had been a lot better to him since they had come to stay at the Tendos. He could still remember how Pop used to be, once upon a time. . . ########################## FLASHBACK ############################ The boy, leaning against a tree, was feeling miserable. Today was his birthday, his first day being seven. He wanted so much just to be with his friends, grappling, wrestling, or maybe even just talking would be fun. But he had to spend it alone. At his age, he didn't know the word lonely, yet. All his young mind could figure out was that he felt miserable without his little buddies. Well, actually, he could do without Yusaku-chan, who teased him about not having a mother, and Ratiko-chan, who said that he looked like a girl with his hair. But he wanted to be with his Ucchan. Of the bunch of kids that he had befriended in Kyoto, Ucchan was his favourite pal, his best friend. Almost as good as he was in what his Pop called "the Art", Ucchan was the son of a great cook. They both liked the same things (food and fights) and had gone through some interesting adventures together (they once joined forces to defeat a evil gambler who ripped off little kids). Even fighting with Ucchan was fun, as Ucchan always lost to him, and Ucchan's father would always selflessly reward his "victory" with a free lunch. The boy's train of thought was abruptly cut off as a foot swept him off his feet and he landed heavily on his rump. The huge, bespectacled figure towered over him. "Son! How many times do I have to tell you NOT to let your guard down?!" "Sor. . . sorry, Father." The boy picked himself off the ground as quickly as he could. "I was thinking. . ." "If you think too much during a real fight, then your opponent will surely find an opening to take advantage of! Now come with me, we need to do the morning workouts." The man said. "Pop, I . . ." "What?" "I want to go back to Kyoto to be with Ucchan again." The boy said meekly. His father looked nervous for a second, then his gaze hardened. "Son, friends come and go. Just forget about that boy and find some other kids to play with. A real man must learn to move on." "But Pop, why can't we move back to Kyoto? We can always continue our training there, and me and him can go to school together-" "QUIET! I will NOT accept such display of weakness from you, Boy." The huge man's eyes glared into those of his son's as he spoke in a stern voice. "A man cannot allow himself to long for another that way. It is . . . unnatural. Traveling from one place to another is the path of a martial artist. You shall not mention that boy. . . ever again. Is that clear, my son?" The little boy looked puzzled. "But I only wanted to-" SLAP!!!!! "IS THAT CLEAR?!" The boy, with one side of his face covered by a red hand-print, replied in a stunned voice. "Yes. . . Father." "Good. Now, show me the move that I taught you yesterday." The boy obliged, and trained through his entire birthday without another thought of his best friend. ################################################################# "Transvestite! Pervert! Jerk! Loser. . ." Remnants of Akane's curses chased after Ranma as he strode away faster and faster. Normally, he would have made himself believe that Akane's violent curses toward him were just a tomboyish act, and wouldn't have been affected by them one bit. But after spending more than a year with her, he began to see the possible falsity of that notion. Not that it helped, of course. "My son, of all the girls around you, I think most highly of Tendo Akane." Nodoka had once said to her son in the privacy of her house, smiling in a motherly way as she did so. "Miss Kuonji is. . . a very passionate person, someone that can make a very good friend. But given her. . . independent personality, I doubt if she can make a traditional housewife. Shampoo. . . well, let's just say that girls like that have all their assets on the physical side. As for Miss Kuno. . . for the love of your mother please don't even think about it." "You see?!" Genma said on the side. "Even your mother thinks that Akane is the one for you. And you said that the engagement was a mistake. . ." "Ranma-kun," Kasumi had said once to him at the Tendos. "You must make a choice before anybody gets hurt." "But I don't know who I want. . ." Ranma had replied, hoping to delay the inevitable. "Ranma-kun," Soun had said on the side. "You have always risked yourself to come to my daughter's rescue in the past when she needed it, surely you must have felt something for her. Besides, it's the honorable thing to do." Nabiki cheerfully joined into the conversation. "What? You don't think that you can just walk away from her after FREELOADING at our house for so long now, do you?" <. . . Of all the girls that I can choose from, it just had to be HER that everybody sticks up for.> Ranma sighed as he stepped heavily into the dojo. * * * * * * * The Tendos were all gathering around the dining table, waiting for the fast food takeout that had been offered by a certain 'friend' of theirs. "Baka, baka, baka. . ." Akane mumbled to herself. Soun turned to his daughter. "Don't worry, daughter. I'm sure that Ranma will come and apologize to you real soon." "Oh, my. What did Ranma-kun do?" Kasumi asked. "That jerk! Saying that I only spent one-tenth of his effort in training. . ." "But he does practice much more than you, Akane-chan." "Sister! How could you stand on his side?!" Akane, the youngest child who was loved and cherished by her family, the one who was most reluctant to apologize or accept defeat, pouted. "Well. . ." "Morning, everyone!" Ukyou, carrying an extra-large order of okonomiyaki, leaped over the exterior wall of the garden and entered the house. "Here is something for the family." She placed the food on the table. "Thanks, Ukyou-san." Soun Tendo smiled, if a little bit too politely. Ukyou was slightly nervous, even thought she didn't let it show through. Being back in "enemy territory" after bombing up that arranged wedding was a heavy weight on her mind. Striking dark eyes scanned the room, glistering a bit under the sunlight. "So, where's Ran-chan?" Akane, who was about to pick up a piece of okonomiyaki, tensed up on impulse. Kasumi, who was pouring Ukyou a cup of tea, answered the question. "Ranma-kun and his father are sparring in the dojo, Ukyou-san." Ukyou sipped the tea. "Thanks for the tea, Kasumi-san. I think I will go say 'Hi' to him." "Grrr. . ." A bright aura flared around the Tendo girl, prompting her family to back away from her a bit. "My. If she did this often enough last winter, we could have saved a bundle on the heating bill." Nabiki smiled with amusement as she flexed her slender arms. Luckily for her, Akane couldn't hear a word that she said, being so focused in her anger. One thing that really inflamed her about Ranma was his ability to attract the most persistent kind of women, who all happened to be top martial artists! Before all of them showed up, SHE was the best there was. Then came Kodachi, who was sneaky, but not quite skilful enough to hurt her reputation as the best female martial artist of Nerima. As if some unknown forces against her had noticed that, there came Shampoo and Ukyou. From then on, her kempo skill was being cruelly downplayed as a joke. What's worse was that she couldn't stop those two from chasing after HER fiancee with brute force, and Ranma became her only hope in warding them off. Yet the fact that he had chosen to accept them as friends gave those two even more reasons to chase him, thus crushing that hope out of her. Ranma WAS a playboy. That's what came into her mind every time this issue resurfaced in her head. If only he would drive them away once and for all, then all would be alright. But no, HE had to be the nice guy when it came to dealing with any girl aside from HER! Dammit!! And it was SHE who had always risked herself to save his ungrateful behind whenever he got into trouble!! Without her turning off that hot water ring, he'd have been killed at Mt. Phoenix! Ungrateful jerk! In her anger, Akane had clutched her chopsticks so hard that they snapped. Ukyou saw this and sighed to herself as she walked towards the dojo. She wondered. * * * * * * * Inside the Tendo Dojo, the Saotomes were sparring. Genma was fighting with unusual intensity, surprising Ranma. "Yaaah!" Ranma yelped as he ducked under a high-kick that would have crushed his face had it made contact. "Take it easy, Pop! What's gotten into you?" Genma ignored the question and fought even harder, pushing his son back. Ranma tried to counter-attack, but his father was just as fast as him in his defences. "You've been having it way too easy, boy!" Hw thought back on all that he had been through in the name of honour. . . Martial arts was something that had been forced upon Ranma since he was old enough to think. He didn't like the painful path at first. But having no way out of the deadly Saotome School, which involved dangerous training methods like being thrown into a pit of hungry cats with fish paste on one's body, Ranma had gradually grown to love what he couldn't fight. At 16, he hadn't yet lost a battle that he couldn't win back. He had focused literally ALL of his time in studying the art of Anything Goes. He even went to pathetic lengths to prove his "manliness", hiding his true self under layers and layers of masks as a result. It was true that in the very beginning, before his true gender was revealed to the Tendos, he had been secretly charmed by Akane, the only smiling face in the house. But that smile didn't last long, as she quickly discovered his manhood under the most embarrassing circumstance. From then on, her smile had become a rare thing, almost permanently replaced by a scowl. He had thought about leaving, but "honour" demanded that he successfully woo the Tendo girl to inherit the Tendo Dojo. Ranma had made himself love her, pasting that brilliant smile on her face inside his mind whenever he thought about her, shutting out her scowl whenever he could. Tiring as it was, it worked, and his efforts had ensured his and his father's successful stay at the Tendos for over a year. He did have some kind of charm after all. Even as a child, the boy had already possessed a special attraction that drew everybody to him. By repeatedly engaging him to various young girls with rich fathers, Genma had more than enough to fund their training trip. As he continued to mature. . . No. . . He didn't want to remember that. . . Yet the old memories had already slipped into his mind before he could put up his defence. ########################## FLASHBACK ############################ The boy was. . . surprised to say the least when his father told him about having a party for his twelfth birthday. Several weeks ago, his Pop had took him to yet another family. The boy was left to sit under a tree in the yard, watching his Pop's animated conversation with the man of the household. Pop always brought him along on what he called "business trips" like this, which he couldn't fully understand. After all, what use could the boy be being there? Had he been a formally educated child, the boy would surely thought about the possibility of the business being related to him. But then again, unlike all the kids that he passed on the road, he hadn't been to school for a day in his life. The truth was, he didn't even have a chance of interacting with anybody other than his Pop. "Your training will be all that you need in life, boy." Pop's words echoed in his brain. Finally, the man in the house shook his head, and his Pop had looked much more dejected than a failed salesman. That night, his Pop almost strangled him in fiery. "You p__! You unproductive piece of s___! Nobody, NOBODY is willing to engage his daughter to you anymore!! At this rate, we would both STARVE!! STARVE!!" Pop shouted, looming his bloated face over his son's. The boy didn't understand a word his father was saying, all he was worried about at that moment was the well-being of his neck. Pop tossed him onto the ground like a rag door, leaving the boy gasping for breath. That was three weeks ago, and Pop had been a lot harder on him since then. And now, out of the blue, there comes this birthday party, one that he never had before. How could he not be overjoyed? ################################################################# While Ranma's mind was running wild, his father had already leaped over him. The older Saotome's arms became a blur as they shot toward the back of Ranma's head, mercifully knocking the memories off it. The boy fell face first to the ground, and Genma dragged his head up by his pigtail, then twisted his head back so he was staring at his father's face. "You listen to me and listen to me good, boy. I am tired of seeing you jeopardising your engagement with Akane. Everything is going well for us for a change, and I'd really hate to see you you screwing it up." He stared into the boy's eyes. "Just remember how things were like in the old days . . ." These words sent shivers up Ranma's spine. Genma continued in a voice so sincere that it sounded phony. "And you will know how fortunate you are to have this engagement-" "Ran-chan!" Ukyou, who just stepped in, called out at her fiance. Genma let go of his son's pigtail and quickly strode out the dojo, ignoring the girl whose dowry he had stolen with a false promise. Ukyou ran up to Ranma, who was struggling back up. She frowned as she saw the paleness of his face. "Jesus! Is your father trying to kill you with his insane sparring methods?" Ukyou asked, her heart already aching for him. "I'm okay, Ucchan, really I am." Ranma forced himself to give a reassuring smile and quickly turned away from Ukyou's dark eyes, shutting her out. Every time that Ukyou saw him like this, she wanted to plead with him, to slap him, to do anything that could get him to open up to her before he got eaten alive by whatever pains that she couldn't know about. It was times like these that she would really came close to despising the Tendo girl for not doing her duty to rescue her fiance from his everyday demons. Then she remembered the reason for which she came. "Ran-chan, about what you said to me at school about the . . . wedding? Does that mean-" "Hey, you. Father ask me to come ask you to breakfast." Akane strode into the dojo, cutting off Ukyou as she stared crossly at Ranma. Lowering his pride (and self-worth for that matter), he walked up to Akane. "I'm sorry." He mumbled. "It's all right." Akane said dismissively as Ranma hurried out. Ukyou walked up to Akane, frowning. "What was all that about?" "That jerk! Insulting my Martial Arts skills, saying that I only spent 1 /10 of his time in training . . ." As Akane ramble on, Ukyou could feel herself REALLY despising the Tendo Girl. In the past, she wouldn't have minded how Akane was treating Ran-chan, since she thought that they didn't get along anyway. But after seeing how whole-heartedly Ran-chan had been protecting Akane from various threats for about a year, she could tell that the Tendo girl DID hold a special place in her love's heart. Ukyou could almost see how her Ran-chan was drifting further and further away from her . . . . . . and into the hands of the only girl who could afford to treat him like dirt. Ukyou spoke up crossly. "And the point is?" "What?!" "It still doesn't explain why Ran-chan was apologizing though, does it?" The tone of her voice was not lost on Akane. "Hey! Are you saying that I do not work as hard as him in the Art?" "That goes without saying, you-!" Ukyou stopped herself before using any coarse language. She was always "the sensible, supportive fiancee", thus couldn't afford to act barbaric toward the "legitimate fiancee" if she was going to keep that status in Ran-chan's heart. So instead, she forced down her anger and tried to reason in a more or less civilized manner. "None of us, not even Ryoga, worked as hard as Ran-chan on his martial arts. Why do you think he can be the undisputed champion of our group for so long?" Akane was still inflamed with anger though. "OKAY! So maybe you got a point. But couldn't he at least be more sensitive toward my feelings about it?!" Ukyou couldn't help but retort angrily this time. "How about YOU being more sensitive toward HIS feelings? You know damn well that he is careless in his manners, yet he still cared so much about you it is almost irrational." "What?!" Akane was startled. "Remember how I teamed up with Shampoo to destroy that wedding of yours? I thought I was doing him a favour, I really did." Ukyou lowered her dark eyes, long lashes trembling as she continued. "But then he berated me the next day at school, saying that I was trying to ruin things. I asked him if it means that it was . . . you . . . that he really wants, and he ran away, as if pursued by a pack of CATS!!" Akane simply stood there stunned. Ukyou's dark eyes became teary with frustrated emotions. "I cared about Ran-chan's happiness, more than you ever would or could! If you turned out to be the one that he wants, which I won't understand why , I. . . I might give up. . ." Akane gasped. "You?! Give Up?!" "WELL, I'LL HAVE TO, WON'T I?!" Ukyou almost barked. "The only reason that Ran-chan considers me as a friend is that I'm about the only fiancee that he has who could somewhat sacrifice her own pride to tolerate the other ones, especially YOU! If I make a scene after he has actually choose you by his own free will, I will lose only my love but also my best friend . . . I will lose everything that had fuel me for ten torturous years struggling on the road." She finished with a whisper. Akane actually looked slightly sympathetic. "Ukyou . . ." Ukyou turned to her, a thousand emotions flashing through her face. "I'll always love him, Akane-chan. I'll always want him for myself, having made him the centre of my life for ten years. That's why I can warn you right now: If you want to keep him, then you'd better shape up your act and start being a little bit better to him. That way, at least Ran-chan will have more reasons to stick by your side. You keep on treating him like dirt, and you will squash whatever weird love that he feels for you. Keep doing this, and I WILL successfully take him away from you. Nobody can tolerate living under another's mercy forever." "You're taking this too far. . ." Akane said weakly. "If I am, it's because I love him." Ukyou stated firmly. The two girls stared intensely at each other for a long time. Then finally, Akane looked down and away. "You won, Ukyou." Akane said, facing away and clutching her fists. "Akane-chan," Ukyou smoothened her features. "this is not about who has the better claim on Ran-chan. This is about HIS happiness, the thing that you should pay more attention to if you love him. As long as you are like this, I won't give up my pursue of Ran-chan." "Who said that I love. . ." Akane immediately stopped herself from saying the habitual lines and actually thought it through. "I. . . I. . ." Ukyou sighed, knowing that the two of them would have stayed in the dojo for eternity if she was to wait for Akane's answer. "Come on, let's went back to the house." Akane sighed also. "Go ahead." ################################################################# D A R K N E S S A N D L I G H T by: Adrian Wong A DARK Ranma 1 / 2 Fan Fiction. All relevant characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. This story copyright 1997 - Adrian Wong Author's Rambling: Special thanks to all those on and off the FFML that had contributed ideas about the good and bad points regarding POISON. In the beginning, I was merely trying to create a long version of POISON. As time passed by, however, I've changed the story too much to be called a "long version". Inspirations, some of them contrasting, came in a frenzy. . . all of which eventually led to this somewhat familiar but NEW story. Only several tiny clips were remained from POISON in this finished monstrosity, and even they had been modified considerably. Warning: This story is guaranteed to be even more controversial than my previous work, POISON. Situations of adult nature are ahead, even though this is NO lemon fic (at least I don't think it is). Young readers and those with weak stomachs. . . be prepared for anything. Note: Dialogues are in " " Thoughts are in < > Songs are in * * The song presented in this chapter is Madonna's "Live to Tell", copyright by . . . whoever it is supposed to be copyright by. ################################################################# PART 2A Inside the Tendo Dining Room, Ranma was eating a lot less. . . enthusiastic than usual. What his father had said in the dojo was forcing repressed memories back into his mind. Nabiki switched on the TV, on which a blond gaijin woman was singing agonizingly on a stage with a grand cathedral setting. *I have a tale to tell. Sometimes it gets so hard to hide it well. I wasn't ready for the fall, Too blind to read the writings on the wall. A man can tell a thousand lies, I've learned my lesson well. If I live to tell the secrets I have learned too well, You will burn inside of me! Truth is never far behind, You've kept it hidden well. If I live to tell the secrets I knew then that night, It will have the chance again!* At the end of that sentence, the woman collapsed onto a confession stand, curly locks obscuring her face. Ranma sighed. After an entire morning of flashbacks, he really didn't need to hear a song like that right now. The idea of confession, of exposing weakness and inner secrets, however artistically displayed it was, unnerved him. But being that this was the Tendo residence, there wasn't much he could do about it. "Ranma! I challenge you!!" Ranma's train of thought was immediately broken as a projectile bandanna whizzed toward the side of his head. He dodged it, and stood up to confront the stocky, bandanna clad boy standing on top of the garden wall. "Long time no see, Ryoga. What do you want with me this time?" Ranma said with his standard mask of annoyance. Ryoga glared down at Ranma with hate filled eyes, as he had always done since he had tracked him down at Nerima. "What I've always wanted. . . REVENGE!" the boy that was doomed to travel for eternity leaped up into the air, yielding his umbrella. For a split second Ranma looked weary . . . and sad, then he quickly hardened his eyes as he launched himself upward toward his opponent. CLANG!! In one fluid motion, Ukyou had pushed Ranma aside and cleanly sliced Ryoga's umbrella in half with her giant spatula. Ranma somersaulted in midair and landed on the front of the semi-open dinning room as Ryoga fell head first onto the glass-paved yard. "Ucchan, that's my fight!" Ranma protested. Ukyou ignored him and approached Ryoga, picking him up by the front of his shirt. "Couldn't you just leave Ran-chan alone for once?!" Ryoga slapped her hand away and bared his fangs. "Shut up! You don't know what he has put me through!" "Actually, I've been meaning to ask you for quite some time now, what has he put you through?" Akane approached them with a questioning look. "He. . . that is. . . I. . ." Ryoga fumed helplessly, unable to expose the real reason in front of Akane. "Akane-chan, one of your friends is on the phone." Kasumi called out to her from the dinning room. "I'm coming, sis." Akane walked back into the house as Ryoga gave a sigh of relief. "You can't hide the truth forever, you know." Ranma said. "Shut up! It's all your fault anyway!" "Well, excuse me! But I'm not the one who dragged you all the way to Juse-" Ryoga clamped his hands over Ranma's mouth as he peeked at the Tendos. "Not here, you idiot!" "Just be mature and stop blaming everything on other people, Ryoga." Ukyou said indignantly as the boy glared at her. Ranma sighed and said. "Look, Ryoga, let's go somewhere else so we can settle this once and for all. You're becoming a pain." "That's my line!" Ryoga scowled. "Ran-chan, are you sure? You got quite a hit from your father at the dojo. . ." Ukyou asked with concern. "I'm FINE, Ucchan. I'm a martial artist, for Christ's sake!" Ranma said in an exasperated tone, and turned to Ryoga. "Now come with me!" The boys both leaped over the fence and disappeared. Ukyou sighed as she stared after them. Ran-chan can be so damn macho sometimes! But that, along with all his other traits, made him even more attractive in her eyes. Her mind became troubled at that. Just then Akane came back into the dinning room. "Where are Ranma and Ryoga?" she asked, looking out to the yard. "My boy is merely going to teach that Hibiki boy a lesson in humility." Genma said absently as he picked up the bits and pieces from Ukyou's okonomiyaki and dropped them in his mouth. "That. . . jerk!!" Akane's anger got the better of her. "Why couldn't he just leave Ryoga-kun alone!" With that she angrily exited the front door. "Oh! My poor little girl is trying to stop a life and death fight between the best martial artists in town. . . and all by herself! She is going to get hurt for sure! Waaaaahhh!!!!" Soun sobbed like a baby. "Well, I can always go help her. . ." Ukyou said. "Will you really?! Oh thank you so much!!" Soun brightened up. ". . . only if you agree to nullify her engagement with Ran-chan." she finished with a smirk. "Waaaaaahhhh!!!" Soun's cry renewed with a vigour. "Now I have to look for a new heir!" "Hey, hey! I was only joking!" Ukyou tried unsuccessfully to block the gushing tears with her giant spatula. She sighed in disgust as she left the flooding house in search of her rival. * * * * * * * Meanwhile Ranma and Ryoga had settled down at the athletic field of Furinkan High. The holidays had started, and the place was completely deserted. "So, ready to take the beatings that you deserve?" Ryoga gave him a nasty smile. Ranma stared at him with no hint of anger on his face. He didn't know if he was making the right choice by doing this, but this feud between them had to stop. It was driving Ryoga mad . . . it was driving him mad. "Why do you hate me, Ryoga?" Ryoga didn't notice the lack of hostility. "You got me cursed, Baka!" Ranma took a deep breath. "I've said it before and I'll say it again. . . I DIDN'T DRAG YOUR SORRY HIDE TO CHINA! IT WAS YOUR OWN FAULT THAT YOU FELL INTO THAT CURSED SPRING!!" "YOU RAN OUT THAT DAY, IF ONLY YOU HAD BEEN THERE-" "I'VE WAITED THREE DAYS FOR YOU ON THAT EMPTY LOT RIGHT BEHIND YOUR HOUSE!!" "BUT. . . but. . ." Ryoga couldn't find an appropriate comeback for that one. Ranma's eyes darted around, as if making sure that no one was spying on them, and walked toward Ryoga. "What had happened to you? You didn't used to be like this in junior high. . ." Ryoga froze as Ranma's words hit him. "Don't you remember the time when you ran after me after I took that bread. . . and what happened afterwards?" Ranma grilled his eyes into Ryoga's, trapping him. "Don't you remember that?" Ryoga panicked. Ranma was talking about a time in his life when everything suddenly appeared to be hopeful, the only time when he wasn't lonely. Their relationship were once so innocent. . . well, maybe not entirely that innocent. But still they were so close and trusting toward each other that the even word friendship' failed to describe it. And then, Ranma didn't show up on that fateful day, and Ryoga immediately went to look for him. More and more misfortune befell upon him in his search for Ranma, until finally, the world clashed down upon him in a place called Jusenkyo. That had driven him to his unending quest for revenge from his ex-best friend. For a drifter with nothing else to do, this quest had become the goal of his life. "Ryoga. . ." Ranma's eyes glistered ever so slightly as he hesitantly said what he didn't dare before. "You are not the only one getting the blues from this crazy world. We might not be able to go back to be like we were in junior high. . . but" he struggled with his words. "But at least stop hating me, dammit!" And now, his perceived enemy had actually managed to lower his pride, and asked to dissolve their grudge. Should he gave in? Gave in to those dark eyes and let everything be forgiven? But if he did, then everything might repeat themselves. He knew he would be tempted to gave in to his past. And he won't allow that. He could never allow himself to be that close, that sincere, to Ranma ever again. Not after all that had happened. Not after all that misfortune that he had suffered that was related to him. Not after how he denied his part in his suffering. Especially not after how he left without a trace, leaving him to deal with this cruel world on his own. It doesn't matter whose fault it is, somebody HAS to pay. Everyone who had caused his immense suffering, in anyway, HAS to pay. . . Besides, he couldn't possibly allow himself to fall back. He had to be firm now. There should never, never have been anything between them. Not now. Not EVER. With that in mind, he struck Ranma in the stomach, hard. * * * * * * * POW!! For the first time in many years, Kodachi was regretting her actions. CLING! CLANG! CRACK! CRASH! Her opponent was skilfully disarming her the sets of gymnastic weapons that she was hiding under her cape, breaking down her defences so quickly that she could hardly have time to leap away. PONG!!! People always tell her that it is dangerous to cross people for amusement, for sooner or later she is going to cross the wrong person. Somehow, all those that she had drugged, ambushed, and schemed against before had either failed to get back at her or didn't even try. "For the Black Rose, who isn't the right person to cross?" Kodachi had once questioned with amusement. This time, she found the answer. "Hiya!" a swift centre kick caught her in the stomach, sending her crashing into a concrete wall. "This for putting poison in Nekohanten's food, dishonourable psycho." Shampoo elegantly put down her foot as she stared arrogantly at the crumbled girl in front of her. Really, her super-strong Airen tended to attract the most annoying weaklings for some reason. Then a series of flashbacks regarding her past fights with a certain martial arts okonomiyaki chef came into her mind. Before fighting her, Shampoo didn't think too highly of her skills, since training in fighting with kitchen tools and food couldn't possibly be more effective than training in standard armed and unarmed kung-fu. However, Shampoo had forgotten something VERY crucial regarding the practical skills of a martial artist: his/her training environment. Shampoo was trained in her own village ever since she was a child, in which all her opponents were top warriors. However, they were also her family, friends, acquaintances, neighbours . . . people that wouldn't cause her any real damage. Also, their tournaments were all bound by a strict set of rules that would ensure them to be fair. As such, Shampoo was skilful . . . but somewhat less than experienced in all-out fights. Kuonji Ukyou, the heir to the Kuonji Combat Okonomiyaki Techniques, was trained in the actual mean streets, with combat-skilled business rivals (martial artist cooks like Crepe Joe), gangs (groups of thugs, some armed with guns, who would demand *protection fee* from a lone girl running her own tiny business), and all kinds of villainy types who would not hesitate in causing her permanent harm or worse in satisfying their own personal gains. Being in such a harsh environment since she was six, the girl was skilful as well as experienced in any kind of combat situation. After several fights, it was apparent to Shampoo that Ukyou was most certainly, if not more than a match for her. Not that she was scared of her, of course. After all, an Amazon always faces whatever challenges that came her way. It's the origin of their proud heritage. She smiled with pride once more as she turned back to the defeated girl. "You not Shampoo's class. . . actually, you not even AKANE'S class." Shampoo smirked. "At least tomboy have kempo skills, while you just cheating weakling. Ranma not yours, will never be." "Grrr. . ." Kodachi painfully stood up and glared at her rival. How dare this bimbo say that?! The Black Rose had blossoming beauty, devious schemes, and immeasurable wealth. As long as she was willing to put some effort in getting what she wanted, the unknown ribbon of fate would spontaneously twirl around her in a vortex, snapping whatever that she wanted right into to her hand. It was this kind of dark security that sustained this thorny flower, glamourizing her face and fuelling her laughter. Ranma-sama, the only thing that she truly desired, the symbol of the word "boyfriend" to a withdrawn girl, the only one willing to get her out of jams that she deserved to be stuck in, happened to be an exception. She almost smiled as she remembered that day when she had challenged the Tendo girl at Furinkan. Her Ranma-sama had denied his feelings for her with a flushed face. But once she started crying, he immediately consoled her, more tender than any other lover in the world. It was then that he told her the real barrier between them: his fiancee. It was so discouraging. If truth be told, she could barely hold her own against Akane, the first fiancee: that was when fighting fair. As if that tomboy kempoist wasn't tough enough, OTHER even better martial artist girls had showed up one after another throughout the year that the Black Rose had claimed Ranma-sama for herself, each wanting this strangely enticing man for herself. What started out as a lighthearted quest of love had turned into a nightmare of unending battles with less devious but more powerful opponents. But the Black Rose never backed down from challenges. If she can't inflict pain with her skill, then she might as well do so with her tongue. "You win this time. But know that I shall fight to my last breath to have my Ranma-sama! The last thing he could ever want is a barbaric, illegally immigrated, uneducated Chinese slut like you!" Kodachi spat out with venom, stinging the Chinese girl with her thorns as she prepared herself to leapt over a chosen rooftop and away. ################################################################# D A R K N E S S A N D L I G H T by: Adrian Wong A DARK Ranma 1 / 2 Fan Fiction. All relevant characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. This story copyright 1997 - Adrian Wong Author's Rambling: Special thanks to all those on and off the FFML that had contributed ideas about the good and bad points regarding POISON. In the beginning, I was merely trying to create a long version of POISON. As time passed by, however, I've changed the story too much to be called a "long version". Inspirations, some of them contrasting, came in a frenzy. . . all of which eventually led to this somewhat familiar but NEW story. Only several tiny clips were remained from POISON in this finished monstrosity, and even they had been modified considerably. Warning: This story is guaranteed to be even more controversial than my previous work, POISON. Situations of adult nature are ahead, even though this is NO lemon fic (at least I don't think it is). Young readers and those with weak stomachs. . . be prepared for anything. Note: Dialogues are in " " Thoughts are in < > Songs are in * * The song presented in this chapter is Madonna's "Live to Tell", copyright by . . . whoever it is supposed to be copyright by. ################################################################# PART 2B Shampoo's amusement was immediately gone, replaced by pure, white hot pain that had been piling up ever since she settled down in Nerima. . . a place where a frightfully large number of locals treated her and many other Chinese immigrants like some kind of unwanted disease that had invaded the body of their nation. There were case after case of primal fear and unreasonable hatred that was directed against her kind. Against her. Many a morning she would find hate-filled messages sprayed onto the exterior wall of the restaurant, telling her family to go home in the rubiest way possible. Once her great-grandmother had even caught one of those racist pigs and delivered him to the police station. The offender only got fined for a thousand yens. In her everyday waitressing, boys had made advances towards her, and girls had scorned her for making their boyfriends turn their eyes. They always kept their contempt under sunny, close eyed smiles though, not that Shampoo couldn't see through them with her feline instincts. Had it not been for a skilled, handsome, unique pigtailed boy that was entirely free of all prejudice, Shampoo would have left this hostile place long ago. She could clearly heard those words once as she left the Tendo dojo after paying a visit to her Airen. "My boy will not marry that Amazonian hussy!' "Crazy girl. . . don't even know how to use the door without breaking it." "Hmph! Chinese bimbo. . ." "I'll bet every yen that I have that her 'bimboness' has something to do with her backward upbringing in mainland China . . ." "Oh, my . . ." This cruel conversation went on and on as she stepped further and further away, unable to do anything without upsetting her Airen, until - "Stop talking about Shampoo like that!" the boyish voice cut off the conversation in a frustrated tone. "She's not a bimbo! She just . . . does things differently than us, that's all." Outside, Shampoo stopped. "What?!" "Ranma-kun . . ." "My, how absolutely protective of your cute little Airen . . ." "You jerk!! I knew you had something going on with that slutty airhead!" The boyish voice protested. "I was only saying . . ." "SHUT UP!!!!" a shrewd shout cut him off. CLING!! CLANG!! CRASH!!! Various sounds ranging from bones being cracked to the skull being smashed could be heard. "Oh, my!" Tears sprang down Shampoo's face as she leapt up onto a roof and ran into the night. Whatever guilt that she might have felt for trying to get Ranma for herself through Chinese love potions vanished at that instant, replaced by the necessity to have him as her own AT ALL COST. Otherwise, not only that all her and her grandmother's past sacrifices would have turned into ashes, but also that the only one willing to defend her in this foreign land would have to endure this hell for eternity. Right now, she fiercely locked Kodachi's eyes with her own. "You insult mean nothing to Shampoo. Shampoo proud be Chinese and Amazon. Shampoo stay for Airen no matter what, and psycho girl or any other no can change that!!" Kodachi was slightly taken by how Shampoo could successfully deflect her insult with her level of Japanese. It was then that she caught sight of the pillar of light shooting dramatically toward the sky. After several seconds, the light seemed to be caught by gravity, and slammed down to the ground in a blast. "Aiya! That Furinkan High direction!" Shampoo said, her anger forgotten for the moment. Kodachi gasped. "The Shishi Houkoudan. . . it's that beast Hibiki! That incompetent fool! He's probably trying to hurt dear Ranma-sama again! Why I ought to. . ." By then, the Chinese girl was already leaping towards Furinkan High in full speed. Not wanting Shampoo to take the glory of saving HER love, Kodachi stopped her babbling and followed. * * * * * * * POW!!! Ryoga's fist missed his head by inches. "BAKUSAI TENKETSU!!!!" the pigboy caused an explosion on the ground, attempting to blast him with rocks. He really was going all out against him in his attempt to drown out their past. <. . . WASTED!!!!!!!> Ranma, in his blind rage, didn't even attempt to dodge the falling rocks. Instead, he simply let the rocks hit him as he darted forward to close in on Ryoga. "Kechuu Tenshin Amaguriken!!!!!!" hundreds of strikes landed on Ryoga's face, making the bigger boy stagger backwards. Ryoga struck out blindly at him with his iron fist, which he dodged. Narrowing his eyes and cooling down his body, Ranma began to lead the now hysterical Ryoga into a circular path of hot fighting aura. It doesn't matter that Ryoga will probably be crippled for life after this, it will probably serve him right! In a circular path, he lead the chi-emitting maniac closer and closer to a certain centre. . . "RANMA NO BAKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" a furious battled cry reached Ranma's ear. Out of a corner of his eyes, he saw Akane racing toward him with promise of physical pain written all over her aura-covered features. His already cold body froze even more as a maniacal laughter also reached his ears. "HOHOHOHOHO!!!!! I'll save you from the tomboy, Ranma-sama!" yet another voice cried out to him in alarm. "Ran-chan! Don't do it! You'll kill him!!" finally, a loud cry of "Pig-boy no hurt Airen!" could be heard through the chaos. Normally, Ranma would have stopped his attempt at throwing the mother of all Hiryu Shoten Ha(s) with all these new additions to the danger zone. But right now, his glacial rage is telling him to crush Ryoga at all cost. His cold body continued to drag everybody closer and closer to the centre of the circular path. Everything was in a frenzy in the path of motion: with Akane releasing a hail of vicious punches at Kodachi, with Kodachi countering with twenty or more clubs, with Ukyou rushing forward to stop Ranma, and finally, with Shampoo aiming a bonbori at Ryoga. Ranma, his mind beginning to detach from his body, finally reached the centre point of the circular movement of hot chi. Ranma thought distantly as his fist shot up at the sky. And the world went black around him. * * * * * * * In the realm of twilight. Twisting like a wounded serpent, the boy began moaning in a strangled voice. The clawed hands digging into his face, the maniacal eyes boring into his soul, the evil voice tearing at his ears with gross, debasing words like. . . "Son-in-law! Son-in-law!" Huh? His eyes came into focus as he saw the aged face looming over him. "Yaaaaahhhhhh!!!!! Old Ghoul!!!!!!!" Ranma yelped. PONG!!!!! "Thank heavens that he has come out of it!" Cologne said with relief . . . after flattening Ranma's face with her staff. The girls in the backroom of Nekohanten all gave a sigh of relief. Ryoga, being laid on a chair, was still unconscious. A bespectacled duck was lurking behind Shampoo. Supporting his forehead with a hand, he slowly sat up. Looking around, everyone but the ancient Amazon and Mousse-duck was more or less wounded. "What happened?" "You almost killed us all with a super-charged Hiryu Shoten Ha!" Akane scowled at him. "If Hiba-chan no came and interfered at last minute to cancel whirlwind's power, we all goners." Shampoo said a little sternly, then smiled and leapt toward Ranma. "But no worry, Shampoo forgive you!" She ended up slamming face first into a giant spatula. "At least have the common sense to wait until he has recovered before you give him your bear hug!" Ukyou scolded as Kodachi giggled at the Chinese girl's minor "defeat". Ranma fell back down on the low cupboard supporting him as his weary eyes stared past the four girls in his life. None of them had came to him by his choice. All of them had been shoved into his face either by his father, or by fate. The worst was that all of them held him responsible for their feelings toward him. Just his luck. "Mind if I stay alone in here for a bit?" He asked. "I think I would like a nap. . ." Cologne frowned. Her son-in-law, admitted to feeling vulnerable? Definitely unusual . . . "Aiya! How about Shampoo stay with Airen here. . . alone. . ." Shampoo purred temptingly, leaning close to Ranma. Mind you, she didn't consider herself as being cheap or anything. After all, with regards to romance, she believed that there's nothing like the direct approach. Besides, Ranma is the ONLY one that she could seduce with such vigour. And Ranma knew it. Shampoo's wooing, despite how it looked, was a sincere offer. That's why he could never bring himself to refuse her. Growing up on the harsh roads, he could never quite push away anyone who took the effort to please him, much least a girl. So he simply didn't react. Cologne's eyes widened. Maybe Ranma actually liked Shampoo more than he would let on, if he was really staying with that lame excuse just to have some private time with her. A smile formed on her face. "The pervert said he wanted to be ALONE!" Akane growled shrewdly from behind the Chinese girl, angered by Ranma's passiveness in these situations. "Or is your Japanese so bad that you didn't understand him?" Shampoo looked sideways over her shoulder at the Japanese girl. "Shampoo no see tomboy any good in Chinese either. Beside, is duty of wife care for husband instead of babble insult." Akane gritted her teeth. Damn it! Nekohanten was a place in which each passing minute might allow either Shampoo or Cologne or BOTH to somehow mind-control Ranma with potions or pressure-point strikes or cursed jewelry or whatever Amazonian techniques that they knew about. And the baka was PURPOSELY staying here! Was he just stupid or did he really want to be enchanted by that over-endowed bimbo? "Hmph! What do I care? You two deserve each other anyhow!" with that, Akane stormed off, reminding herself to beat up Ranma once he got back to the dojo. But before that, she needed to go pay a visit to Doctor Tofu to borrow some ancient scrolls regarding the counter to EVERY Chinese bewitchment there was, especially the Amazonian ones. Kodachi narrowed her eyes dangerously at Shampoo. How dare that lowly waitress fawn over HER property like that? Yet the high and mighty gymnast knew that she couldn't possibly take the direct approach with the better martial artist, especially with the injuries she got from earlier. "Guess the Black Rose should depart as well. . ." Kodachi looked sultrily at Ranma as she took out a black rose and tossed it to the object of her desire . . . who backed away, fearing the potential of paralysis powder in the flower. Kodachi's sultry smile immediately dimmed into a sad look as she bit down on her lower lip. In protecting herself from the heartless world, she had grown so many layers of deadly thorns that even her love wouldn't touch her anymore. Ranma saw the sadness in her eyes and looked uneasy, for it was in rare moments like this that he would once again saw the vulnerable, love-sick girl that had so openly proclaimed her love to him on the Tendo roof. That was before the paralysis drugs, before he knew of the ruthlessness that she possessed. Gingerly, he picked up the rose, and looked back at her. Kodachi's smile returned, slightly bitter-sweet, as she saw how Ranma had struggled to overcome his distrust with her. "One day, Ranma-sama, I shall save you from all these lowly peasants, and you shall know where you heart lies." her smile turned icy as she shot an arrogant look at Shampoo and left with a toss of her high ponytail. Shampoo hmphed at the direction of the retreating Black Rose, then turned to stare at the remaining girl as if expecting her to make a challenge of some kind. Ukyou was visibly tensed, but she forced herself to relax as she remembered the wedding incident. "In the past I would have fought over him with you and made another mess, but not today. I've learned my lesson already. . ." she thought back to her involvement in the wedding bombing that had almost trashed her reputation and angered Ran-chan. "I just hope you will eventually learn yours. Beside, Cologne HAD just saved all of us. . ." With that she strode into the restaurant area. Cologne thought to herself. Then she grabbed the now fuming bespectacled duck by its neck and went out to leave her great-granddaughter with her chosen husband. "C'mon, boy. You have some serious cleaning to do around here!" Shampoo turned back to Ranma, happy in her easy victory. "Now we two alone!" she hugged her Airen tight with a look of pure satisfaction on her face. Ranma sighed. He really hate to do this, but he had to. "Shampoo, I . . . err . . . I really DO need to be alone." Shampoo pouted in the cutest way that she thought was possible. "You no want Shampoo?" "I REALLY need a nap right now, and you are distracting. . ." "Shampoo be good girl, stay quiet-" "Shampoo. . ." Ranma repeated, more firmly this time. And Shampoo looked downcast. How could he possibly resist her like this? It's just not rational! "Shampoo wait outside." She dejectedly went for the door. "Wait!" Shampoo turned back hopefully. "Yes, Airen?" "It's nothing personal, really." Ranma stressed every word that he said with sincerity. "Shampoo know." the Chinese girl smiled at seeing that. "She be patient." With that she left the room as well. Ranma patiently waited until the door was closed. Finally, he was alone. He turned to the unconscious Ryoga, who was groaning on the chair. Looking at his comatose form, a thousand feelings were roaming in his mind. Ranma was once so sure about his hold on the lost boy that he could never even dreamed that Ryoga would seriously turn against him. He had even believed that all their fights through the year were merely heated sparring sessions. But today he proved him wrong, didn't he? After gathering his inner strength for a LONG time, Ranma walked over to Ryoga, yanked him up by his collar, and stared at his face with his dark eyes. Feeling the tugging at his shirt, Ryoga slowly opened his eyes, and found Ranma's directly in front of his. He looked at the bits of light, fresh scars on Ranma's face: the results of his Bakusai Tenketsu attack. He had expected this face to be full of fury and anger. Instead, it was perfectly neutral. They stared at each other like this in complete silence for what seemed like an impossibly long time. Ranma finally spoke up in an even voice. "Thanks, Ryoga, for showing me how wrong I was about you. . . about us." with that, he loosened his hold on Ryoga and strode out, back into the new life that he had fought so hard to keep. Ryoga stared at the door closing behind Ranma. He had finally managed to wipe out his past, along with their shaky friendship. Collapsing back onto the chair, he cried like he would never dare to do in front of anyone. ################################################################# D A R K N E S S A N D L I G H T by: Adrian Wong A DARK Ranma 1 / 2 Fan Fiction. All relevant characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. This story copyright 1997 - Adrian Wong Author's Rambling: Special thanks to all those on and off the FFML that had contributed ideas about the good and bad points regarding POISON. In the beginning, I was merely trying to create a long version of POISON. As time passed by, however, I've changed the story too much to be called a "long version". Inspirations, some of them contrasting, came in a frenzy. . . all of which eventually led to this somewhat familiar but NEW story. Only several tiny clips were remained from POISON in this finished monstrosity, and even they had been modified considerably. Warning: This story is guaranteed to be even more controversial than my previous work, POISON. Situations of adult nature are ahead, even though this is NO lemon fic (at least I don't think it is). Young readers and those with weak stomachs. . . be prepared for anything. Note: Dialogues are in " " Thoughts are in < > Songs are in * * The song used in this part is Madonna's 'Live to tell'. ################################################################# PART 3 It had been half-an-hour already, yet Ukyou still remained on a corner seat of the Nekohanten. Even though she had a business to run, it wasn't that important when compared to the goal that she had pursued through love, hatred and love again for ten years. "Lunch crowd come soon, spatula girl." Shampoo said, slightly annoyed at Ukyou's persistence. "Unless want food, say bye-bye." "Shampoo, your manners." Cologne chided her great-granddaughter absently as she prepared the ramen, slightly disappointed by the fact that Ranma wasn't here for Shampoo after all. Shampoo pouted and went to set up the tables. Mousse went to help her immediately. "My love. . ." Shampoo turned to him with exasperation. "Mousse please give up! You drive Shampoo insane with pursuit!" "But I love-" "Before love someone. . ." Shampoo stared him in the eye. "You need backbone first!" Just then, Ranma opened the door and stepped out. Shampoo's beautiful eyes immediately flashed with excitement. She would have clung onto him, had Mousse not clung onto her first. "NO, Shampoo!!" Mousse wailed agonizingly. "I'll change! Don't go to him!!" "Mousse let go!" Shampoo started beating on him. Ranma seemed surprised to see Ukyou still there. "Don't you need to open your shop for business?" "Konatsu can manage. . ." Ukyou said. ". . . I hope." * * * * * * * Meanwhile at Ucchan's, a bunch of teenage boys were idiotically munching on okonomiyaki, blissfully unaware of the fact that they were burnt and only half the original size. Konatsu, once again disguising his masculinity under a scarlet kimono, was delicately re-applying his lipstick behind the counter. "So, who wants anther *crimson attack* okonomiyaki special?" Konatsu asked in his best sultry voice, secretly forcing down his revulsion at the consequences. "ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!" the already lipstick covered boys shouted in union. the ninja pressed his crimson lips together, and took up the orders. But still, he felt proud of his ability to pay back the one who had rescued him from those ugly, abusive stepmother and sisters. Closing his eyes, letting Ukyou-sama's beautiful/handsome face settle firmly into his mind, he took up the order of a beardless boy. * * * * * * * Walking wordlessly together back to the dojo, Ukyou noticed Ranma looking at her strangely, and asked. "What is it, Ran-chan?" Ranma looked into her striking dark eyes, unable to stop himself from voicing out his thoughts: "I guess. . . you are the only one who really do love me, Ucchan." Ukyou's face flushed, revealing her excitement. "Well, so do the others . . ." She said testily to her love. Ranma startled her by looking sad instead of embarrassed. "One of them is obssessed with the idea of owning me. Another one wants me so badly that she makes herself all catty. Yet another one simply take me for granted." "Ran-chan. . ." Ranma gathered his strength as he turned to the one girl in his life to whom he owe everything, yet never really able to pay back. "Ucchan, I. . . oh God. This is hard to say." Ukyou's excitement dropped down into a cold knot of fear. She remembered the conversation after the wedding all too clearly. Then she stopped walking and steered herself. "What is it, Ran-chan?" Ranma stopped also. He took in a deep breath, and said what he had to. "There could never be anything aside from friendship between us now, Ucchan." Ukyou, even though she was half expecting this, was traumatized when the real thing happened. Nobody could calmly accept defeat, especially not one who had sacrificed so much to ensure its success. "All that I've done . . . washed down the drains . . ." she breathed out the words in a whisper as she began backing away, her widened eyes becoming vacant. Ranma looked worried as he stepped forward. "Ucchan-" his sentence was cut off as Ukyou's eyes suddenly narrowed as her hand shot out at his face. To Ukyou, it was an automatic reflex. This man had given her such high hopes, only to let it crash down again. Why wouldn't she slap him? It was in that split-second that a flash of light caught the corner of her eye. That light seemed to have cut through the fire blinding her, allowing the look of pain and concern on Ranma's all-too handsome face to force itself into her mind. Ukyou's hand stopped abruptly about an inch from his face. The resulted air-pressure, however, still managed to toss up his unruly bangs, which fell gently back onto his forehead, above his now surprised looking eyes. Apparently, he was expecting the slap to land. Ukyou slowly turned to the direction of the light, and saw beautiful, multi-coloured pieces of glass sparkling under the mid-day sun, reflecting the light onto all directions. They were parts of the gigantic glass window, splendidly made in patterns that showed the image of Christ, flanked by angels, looking down from above the open gates of the majestic looking cathedral on the cross of which Ukyou had made her wish that morning. She noticed for the first time that they had stopped right in front of its front door. Ukyou slowly turned back to the even more guilty looking Ranma. She couldn't held back her tears anymore as her hand trembled and slowly dropped. She hurt so much, yet her heart forbid her to take it out on the man that she was destined to love till eternity. "Why?" she sobbed. "Because . . ." Ranma hesitated, thinking about how to phase his upcoming sentence in a way that made sense and didn't reveal too much. "Because . . . I guess it was because at the beginning, I was stupid enough to think of you as a boy. Afterwards, even after I found out the truth . . . I just . . ." "Can't think of me as a girl?" Ukyou asked while crutching her fists, bitterness threatening to break out in her voice. Ranma looked guilty as he turned his face away. He didn't answer the question. "Too many things had happened between now and the time that we were six . . . I can't tell you what, not yet anyway." Ranma lowered his eyes, long lashes fluttering. "Ucchan, I owe you so much. When I meet you again, and you fell for me. . . I didn't, I couldn't woke you up from you dream. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have let this drag on." Ukyou fought to control herself. She had been sacrificing so much in hopes of winning her love. Now, she could only hope to have the strength to keep on sacrificing in hopes of cutting her losses and keeping her friend. Yet the bitterness within her heart was too much for her to bear. Her righteous self was helpless as her hand slid toward her back to unleash the giant spatula . . . It was then that a sudden breeze blew passed them, and hundreds of tiny, white paper bookmarks drifted out from a stand at the entrance of the Church's gate, showering upon them. As some of them fell onto the ground, Ukyou could read the words on some of those that are facing up: Do one to others, as you would have others do one to you. ----- The word of Christ Suddenly, a set of images flashed through her mind. They were the images of a pretty ninja boy, dressed in a waitress outfit in hopes of tempting customers, working overtime despite minimal pay, flashed through her mind. Konatsu had sacrificed so much of his energy as well as dignity in his undisguised love for Ukyou. Yet the boy had never, ever slashed out at her simply because she couldn't reciprocal that love. Rather, he remained a friend by her side, helping her whenever he could without ever asking for any reward other than her happiness. Could she not do the same for Ran-chan, who was not only her love but also her closest friend? Lifting up her hand to wipe off her tears, she took a couple of deep breaths as she spoke up bravely against considerable strain. "It. . . wasn't your fault, Ran-chan. If anything, it was your father's . . ." a spark of hope suddenly crossed her heart. "But you still love me though, don't you?" Turning away, Ranma struggled with himself, then replied. "I don't know what love is, Ucchan. I just know what it isn't." Ukyou persisted. "Whatever had happened, I can still love you as you are." Ranma turned even further away. "You can, Ucchan. But it will only cause you even more pains . . . pains that you don't deserve." Ukyou's heart sank even lower than before as the bitter edge threaten to return to her voice. "Why? It is Akane, isn't it? She is the one the that you want, is that it?" "Ucchan. . ." "But why?" Ukyou asked, urging him to tell her the reason that had puzzled her for so long. If she was going to lose, at least she wanted to know why. "You said it yourself that she doesn't love you. Is it because you love her? Or is it just a matter of honour? If my first guess is right, then I. . . I'll withdrawn my hold on you. But if my SECOND guess is right. . ." fire sparked in her furious, yet still beautiful dark eyes. "Then there's no way on earth that I'm giving up on you! I'm the one who formally gave your father my only livelihood as my dowry. Akane hadn't given him hers yet!!" "But I CAN'T be with you! Can't you see that?!" Ranma was getting frustrated as well. "Then you love her. . ." Ukyou's voice dropped as she lowered her eyes. "Actually . . . it's nothing as glorious as that . . ." Ukyou looked up, startled and confused . "What?" Ranma lowered his eyes. "I can allow myself to be dishonest to her: I could never do the same to you . . . not for very long anyway." with that, he leapt up over a rooftop and ran, leaving the stunned Ukyou to stand on the empty street, in front of the empty cathedral. Ukyou bent down, and slowly picked up one of those bookmarks. Turning it over, she took in a drawing of the Sacred Heart. A ring of thorns, materialized from human misdeeds, pricking into the heart, paining it. Christ had given up His life on the cross, in an attempt to save all men from sins . . . . . . only to find them willingly fell back to their sinning. The pain of the Holy Heart. . . is really the pain of a sacrifice of blood and tears turning out to be futile. She had learned that Christ had bore that pain with love . . . as per His duty as the Saviour of the world. Could Kuonji Ukyou bear the same kind of pain . . . as per her duty as the best friend of Ran-chan? He is the son of God, and she only a teenage girl. . . But her pain was so much lighter . . . Slipping the bookmark into her shirt pocket, she staggered back to her store with a troubled heart hounded by pain and uncertainty. * * * * * * * Ranma got back to the Dojo, the refuge that kept him from the horrors of the past. Sighing, he slowly walked upstairs back to his room. He told himself. "Saotome-kun, judging from the way things are going, I can't see our children getting married in the near future." Soun's worried voice could be heard from the dinning room. "How is that, Tendo-kun?" His father's voice sounded casual and disinterested. Soun's voice seemed to have an edge to it. "Saotome-kun, I mean, open your eyes and look around! Ranma is still being indecisive in his choice of fiancees, even after a whole year. And from the way that Ukyou you engaged him to keep coming after him, I doubt if he could resist her for very long." The casual laughter of Genma could be heard. "Now, now, Tendo-kun. You are worrying yourself over nothing. After all, we both know that he can't escape from his duties." Ranma raised an eyebrow. Using his martial arts skill, Ranma slowly tiptoed back down the stairs soundlessly. "Don't be so sure, Saotome-kun. You son is growing up fast, his martial arts techniques strengthening by days. Once he got onto his own feet he might fly away from this place like a young bird from its mother's nest: never to return." Genma snorted. "Got onto his own feet? Now THAT'S a laugh, Tendo. Still remember WHY did we allow ourselves to become Happosai's students? It wasn't like we weren't both already skilled martial artists, even though we were only teenagers at the time . . ." Soun's voice visibly dimmed. "Saotome-kun, it was the will of our parents, a matter of . . . honour." "Oh, quit covering up your sentence with such modesty, Tendo-kun. They SOLD us, in return for some of the Master's ancient treasures, get it?" "Saotome-kun!" Genma continued on, not hearing him. "And you know why I didn't refuse to be sold to Happosai? It was because I didn't know how else I could have survived otherwise . . . if I wasn't mistaken, that was you reason too, wasn't it, Tendo?" Soun remained silent. "Now back to my son. We both knew his inadequacy in everything aside from martial arts. He hadn't even been in school until junior high, and he don't socialize well with others. He could never get a high enough mark to enter college and get real jobs. Other dojos will have their own heirs: so that option is out. His future, like ours used to be, had already been set." Ranma's heart froze. Soun finally spoke up. "But what about that Kuonji girl? What if she had decided to support him?" "Tendo, Tendo. You don't think I haven't though of that, have you? If he even dare to be more than friends with Ukyou, I'd tell her his one great secret. Once she found out, she'd dump him like a rock for sure." Genma finished with satisfaction. "Saotome-kun, that was . . ." "Cold? I don't think so. Why, my parents simply left me as a slave to Happosai when I was Ranma's age. I . . . I have at least ensured him a dojo and your lovely daughter. I've outdone myself. . . really I have. . ." the last few words was said quietly to himself. "Actually, you are right, Saotome-kun. We have BOTH outdone ourselves in rasing our children." Soun convinced himself. "Always giving and giving . . ." "Talk about giving . . ." Genma suddenly switched the subject. "Tendo-kun, about that financial problem that you have mentioned the other day . . ." "What about it, Saotome-kun?" Soun's voice sounded hopeful. "You are finally going to get a real job to lift a load off my shoulder? That's my friend." "Be serious, Tendo-kun. How much cash can an old man like me pull in? It's my boy that I'm talking about." "Ranma? But didn't you just said . . ." "I said he couldn't stand up on his own feet, but that doesn't mean that he can't make money with MY guidance . . ." "Huh?" Genma lowered his voice. "Between my son's curse, the enormous Kuno fortune, and Tatewaki's thick skull, bringing in money isn't even a problem." Outside, Ranma breathed in sharply as his eyes widened in either shock or anger or both. Soun actually seemed to consider it. "But how far will the *pigtailed girl* be willing to go to accomplish this task though?" "Leave that to me, old friend. Leave that to me. When Ranma is through with that boy, we could have afforded immediate weddings for Akane as well as Kasumi and Nabiki." "Saotome-kun! What will I ever do without you?" Soun asked with gratitude as Ranma tiptoed away soundlessly, his eyes so still that they look lifeless. He went back into his room, closed the door, and slumped down against it like a lose-jointed marionette. A song leaked out of the stereo in Nabiki's room, permeating the atmosphere around him. *If I ran away, I never have the strength To go very far~.* Couching in a lump behind the door, Ranma's eyes, unlike his mind, remained to be still. Slowly though, tears began to flow down his expressionless face. Normally, he would be disgusted with himself for being unmanly, for dishonouring his clan with this act of weakness. But he didn't care about honour. . . about anything . . . anymore. People always say that words can break just as good as stones and sticks, he could see why that was now. Was this his fate? To be put down, and berated, and used, and exploited over and over? To pay back debts he didn't know he had owe to all those around him till eternity? To have every future shut off from him by his own father? *How could they hear The beating of my heart~.* Standing up slowly, Ranma walked over to his backpack. He checked his money (or what he has of it), first aid, change of clothes, etc. Finally, he took out a flat, black box from it's hiding place, and opened it for the first time in years. Inside, was a set of neatly folded black Japanese robes, the type usually worn by samurai. . . or executioners. After staying over at the Tendos, the old days had became nothing more significant than nightmares. Genma seemed to have improved from being malicious into simply being irresponsible. It was enough for Ranma: he could accept such a man as a father-figure. As long as the man accepts him as something like a son. *Where will they go, The secrets that I hide, Where I grow old?* Thinking about the past year, Ranma almost laughed at himself. He was so damn GRATEFUL when Pop told him that he didn't have to go on like that anymore. For once his father will be leeching off someone else instead of him. He actually thought that he could get a new life by submitting to this engagement! And he thought he had gotten smarter. Picking up the dark fabric, he neatly folded the robes back into the box. Putting the box into his backpack, Ranma sprang out the open window like a phoenix from its nest. Remnants of the song kept on ringing in his mind. *How will they hear?* He leapt aimlessly, from one rooftop to the other, trying to clear all thoughts. He wanted to scream, to tell everybody who would listen about all that he had been through. But he couldn't. *When will they learn?* Because he knew too well that people would only saw it as HIS own dishonour. They would do nothing but point fingers . . . *How will they. . . know ~ ?* . . . and laugh. Just when he thought he would have been eaten alive by his own frustrations, something familiar and tiny at the same time intercepted him. "My darling Ranma-chan! It has been so long~" a bucket of cold water was thrown onto Ranma, quickly followed by a disgusting old lech. "Oh, what bliss it is to feel your bosoms again!" Ranma-chan stopped in her tracks, and smiled at the promised relieve of anger that the wrinkled midget could offer. "Eh?" Happosai, who was still hugging her breasts, was startled to find no attacks from his student. Gently prying the old man off her, Ranma-chan bowed, and rapidly skipped away. Not willing to lose his prey so easily, Happosai gave chase. After a while, it seemed that he had lost her. Sighing sadly, the over-aged pervert was just about to went home when a voice called out to him from above. "Master. . ." Happosai looked up, and saw Ranma-chan sitting cross-legged on the edge of a particularly high rooftop, leaning seductively against her backpack. Her red locks were untied, flowing in the wind like a burning flame around her smiling face. The Chinese pants were gone, leaving her shapely legs bare from under the red Chinese shirt. "Wanna play?" she purred, eyes narrowing in a smile. The wrinkled ball of meat was excited beyond believe. Finally his favourite student has realized the futility of her struggles and decided to give in willingly! He launched himself at her, but she grabbed her backpack and leaped away at the last minute. Landing lightly on the opposite rooftop, she called out flirtatiously. "Over here, Master!" Happosai leapt after her, determined to do some serious groping on that red embodiment of temptation. In his heat and passion, his guard slowly slipped away. In his focus on those flawless long legs, he couldn't see the eerie light in Ranma-chan's wide eyes, nor where she was leading him. * * * * * * * The evening was approaching. The sunset casted a red glow over the lone figure sitting by the small fire that he set up under the bridge. Tent components were lying around the glass in a mess. A big bowl of water was suspended above the fire, into which other ingredients would be added to turn it to soup once it was hot enough. His head was lowered like a defeated man, causing his thick bangs to cover his upper profile. "Thanks, Ryoga, for showing me how wrong I was about you. . . about us." Ranma's voice rang in his head. Finally, his depression and bad temper had driven away his past companion. His only companion. The only one who could tolerate his violent outbursts and survive his punches. The already cold and lonely world had froze over for him. Hatre is the result of not being able to forget, and not being able to forget is the result of denying an undeniable past. Such was the case of his feelings towards Ranma. He hated Ranma for being a better fighter than him. He hated Ranma for leaving him. He hated Ranma for the feelings that he aroused in him. And he hated himself for using the affection of the innocent, unsuspecting Akane as a mean to get back at Ranma. The girl was the centre of Ranma's new life: by taking her away form him, Ryoga thought that Ranma's world will became empty and meaningless once more . . . just like his own. And so, nervous and jittery as he was around girls, Ryoga had set out to steal the Tendo girl's heart away from Ranma . . . . . . and had his own heart unknowingly stolen by Akane instead. She was so . . . angelic to his eyes, always showing him the kindness that she would seldom show to Ranma. What was merely an act of revenge had turned into a sincere pursuit . . . of someone who didn't even know of his love for her. He who had planned to destroy Ranma had almost destroyed himself instead. Yet he kept on trying to destroy Ranma's happiness, and had kept on pursuing Akane even after sweet, gentle Akari had came into the scene. When Ranma was getting closer to Akane, Ryoga would still try to beat him up for 'tainting' her; and when Ranma was turning away from Akane, Ryoga would still try to beat him up for hurting her. He just COULDN'T allow himself to let up on him . . . . . .him who had changed his life since that day . . . ########################## FLASHBACK ############################ On a cloudy day, two boys in junior high uniforms were standing opposite to each other in a vacant lot. Several lengths of extra large pipes were placed horizontally on one side of the lot, creating a background for the two. Distant thunders could be heard, dramatizing the scene. "Now we shall fight, man to man." the one with short hair growled. The boy standing in front of him, with his hair tied into a ponytail, simply looked amused. "Wow, you are surely taking things far, Mr. Take My Bread And Die." He taunted. "Shut up, Saotome! None shall cross Hibiki Ryoga and live!" With that he launched himself at his opponent. While Ranma appeared to be much more agile, Ryoga was clearly stronger. they thought in mutual admiration. The fight continued on, until rain stared pouring upon them. Just when Ryoga was considering about how much of a disadvantage will he have fighting in the rain, Ranma had already crawled into one of the large pipes. "Come back out and fight, coward!" Ryoga was outraged. "Just shut up and come inside before you get soaking wet, baka." Ranma said in a bored voice. Sensing the thickening rain, Ryoga grudging got into the pipe with him. He sat tensely as Ranma pulled off the string tying his wet ponytail, letting his wet hair flow down his back as he comb through them with his fingers. Stray locks of long hair beside his unruly short bangs was glued to his face like twisting snakes suspended in motion. Ryoga stared . . . and continued to stare, unable to remove his eyes from those locks, until those dark eyes looked sideways, meeting his . . . ################################################################# "GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Shocked out of his memory, he turned to the source of the hideous wail, and saw Happosai being stuck between two uninsulated, high voltage wires in midair. With the current going thought the old man's body, it was almost a miracle that he could still scream. Immediately picking up a rock, Ryoga threw it with his inhuman strength at the midget, pushing him off the wires. The charred meatball dropped down to the grass. Ryoga was about to went up to the possibly late ancient master when the feeling of someone behind him made him turn back. Ranma-chan, her flaming red hair flowing freely across her face in crimson strands, was staring coldly at him. For some reason, her Chinese pants weren't there to cover the long legs under the long Chinese shirt. Ryoga was at a loss for words. After what had happened today, what could he say? So he simply stood there stupidly as Ranma-chan began to silently walk over to him. Her eyes were so cold that the boy involuntarily stepped back. "What are you, some kind of nemesis of mine to torment me to eternity?" she asked, her eyes freezing him in place. "Just give me another minute, no, another 30 seconds, and the old freak would never be able to lay another finger on me or anyone again." Ranma-chan pointed to the spot where Happosai had fallen: the pervert was nowhere to be seen. She turned back to Ryoga, almost hissing. "Why must you keep on screwing up my plans, when I have already cut all ties with you?" "Ranma. . . I" Ryoga squeezed his eyes shut as he spoke up with considerable difficulty. "Listen, I just want to say. . . that I. . . Ranma!?" Realizing that Ranma-chan was already walking away as he opened his eyes, Ryoga ran after her. "Wait!!" Ranma-chan stopped abruptly, and Ryoga almost bumped into her. Several long seconds passed away and Ranma-chan still didn't turn back. Ryoga decided to forced out his words before all was lost. "I. . . I'm sorry. . . for everything, okay?! There, I said it." Ranma-chan turned over her head to look sideways at Ryoga, strands of bright red fluttering across her neutral face. "Sorry doesn't mean anything." "Then what do you want from me?!" Ryoga yelled in his frustration. Looking back at this boy who had given her wounds inside and out, Ranma-chan's eyes suddenly flashed with an eerie but enticing light that cooled down Ryoga's heat immediately. Clamping both of her small hands onto Ryoga's shoulder, she pulled the boy toward her until their faces were only inches away from each other. Ranma-chan's red hair was tossed against his face by the wind, stroking a fire that was never meant to be. Ryoga could even felt the heartbeat behind her ample bosom as she pressed herself against his chest. Ryoga's expression was one of surprise. "Ran. . . Ranma. . ." Ranma-chan leaned forward, her eyes obscured by her flowing long hair. As she opened her delicate lips, Ryoga could feel her soft breath blushing against his throat. "Stay. Still." She commanded in a soft but husky voice. Ryoga obeyed. His breathing quickened as Ranma-chan's breath trailed downwards. Nobody else, not even Akari, had given him the strange sensations that he was experiencing now. Memories and images flashed before his mind in a frenzy. . . . . . and choosing that unexpected moment, Ranma-chan bit down into the flesh between his neck and left shoulder. It wasn't just a normal bite. Rather, it was THE BITE, with a year of piled up frustrations fuelling its strength. She was relentless in her strength, and the skin of the lost boy gave way immediately as blood gushed out in tiny fountains. Ryoga gasped as his head flew up in pain. Every sense in his body screamed at him to push this ferocious mad woman away. But with his inhuman physical endurance, he stayed still, knowing that he had to pay back what he owe. He looked up the sky, where the blood red was rapidly fading into darkness. Finally, his knees buckled and he fell onto the glass. The last sight that greeted him before unconciousness was Ranma-chan staring down at him, her red hair, red Chinese shirt and her now blood red lips contrasting her pale skin in a most dramatic way . . . ########################## FLASHBACK ############################ In the springtime of Japan, the sakura trees in a certain park are showering pieces after pieces of pink petals onto the ground. Amidst the fluttering pinkness were two boys that are fighting with incredible speed and strength. Eventually, both fell to the petal covered ground in exhaustion. "THAT was some workout." Ranma breathed out. "Feeling tired so soon?" Ryoga taunted as he tried catching his breath. "As if you weren't." Ranma hmphed. "You've received even more hits then I!" Ryoga snorted. "I suppose that would have mattered if your punches aren't so damn weak! I can't believe it, you have all this speed, and yet not an ounce of strength. No wonder that I could wrestle you to the ground that easily all the time." "Heh. . . you didn't exactly do much damage to me all those times either, did you?" "That was only because. . ." Ryoga couldn't continue his sentence as his thoughts were drawn to something else entirely. "Ryoga, I've know you for quite a while now. Yet I've never seen your parents." Ranma, with his arms outstretched and his head thrown back, slowly sat up from the sea of pink using only the strength of his waist. "Where are they?" Ryoga looked away from him to gather the words for his sentence. "They are kind of like me. . . always lost. Somehow both sides of my family are no good with directions." Ryoga said, getting moody as well. "It is so frustrating. My parents are loving, caring and all that. But what good is that when they are always lost and away? It's like they don't exist in my life at all!" "What would I give to have parents like yours. . ." Ranma muttered as he flexed his arms. "But anyway, does that mean that you have nothing to hold onto in this place?" "Well. . . nothing much." Light sparkled in Ranma's eyes. "Ryoga, since neither of us has anything going on in here, what do you say if the two of us just left this place and start anew somewhere else? This will probably be the most exciting training trip we have yet to date." Ryoga looked confused "Eh? But why can't we just stay here?" Ranma sighed. "You can. . . but I can't. You know how I've skipped school for two weeks already?" Ryoga rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Well, actually, I wasn't there either. I kinda got lost. . ." Ranma looked bored. "If only you'd look outwards instead of in to see where you're going for once. . ." Ryoga glared at him. Ranma smiled playfully and threw a handful of pink petals over Ryoga. "Anyway, the reason that I was away was that someone here was after me, Ryoga. I have been hiding from him all this time." "Who is that guy? Someone else that you have pissed off like you did me?" Ryoga asked, jokingly. Ranma's eyes lowered and Ryoga began to look concern. "Ranma?" Ranma frowned as he looked up at his innocent face. "Can't tell you yet. You probably won't understand until years from now." "Hey, you're talking to me like I'm a kid or something." Ryoga looked pissed. Ranma laughed as he flicked off a piece of sakura petal on the lost boy's nose ridge. "I've been through WAY more than you, Ryoga. You are a kid compared to me." Ryoga suddenly leapt up from his lying position and came back down to push the more slender boy back down onto the sea of pinkness. "How's this for a kid?" he said while pinning Ranma underneath him. Ranma looked into his eyes with sudden seriousness. "Well, Mr. Adult, answer my previous question: will you go with me?" Ryoga signed as he ran a hand through his hair. "Oh, all right! I'll go. It doesn't matter that much to me anyway. After all, I always ended up travelling even when I didn't want to. It would be nice to have a guide for a change." Ranma looked slightly troubled as his expression darkened. "That guy will still be after me, Ryoga, and that could be trouble. Will you. . . stick by my side no matter what will happen?" Ryoga's boyish face looked sincere. "I promise." Ranma's smile returned as a strong breeze blew by, almost burying the two under an infinite sea of pink. ################################################################# Drifting in and out of a seemingly endless dream of red sky, red hair, red Chinese Shirt, and red lips, Ryoga felt strangely relaxed. In fact, it was almost as if he was lying on the soft bed at his home that he had missed so. But even in his state of half consciousness, he knew that he couldn't have made it back home on his own, especially not after Ranma had- Ranma?! He panicked as the events that led to his unconciousness rushed back into his mind. With an immense effort, he opened his eyes, and found out what he couldn't believe. He was at home, lying on his own bed. The wound between his neck and shoulder was now covered by layers of bandage. He sat up disbelievingly. Ranma-chan? She saved him even after all that? Ryoga frantically looked around the room. But she wasn't there. As his eyes passed his desk, a piece of paper caught his attention. Ryoga immediately walked over and picked it up. His eyes widened as he saw the words written on it. After reading it over twice just to be sure, the paper slipped from his fingers. That's not how it's supposed to be. Hardening his eyes, he decided that for once he won't stay passive and let things take their toll. He had to do something. ################################################################# D A R K N E S S A N D L I G H T by: Adrian Wong A DARK Ranma 1 / 2 Fan Fiction. All relevant characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. This story copyright 1997 - Adrian Wong Author's Rambling: Special thanks to all those on and off the FFML that had contributed ideas about the good and bad points regarding POISON. In the beginning, I was merely trying to create a long version of POISON. As time passed by, however, I've changed the story too much to be called a "long version". Inspirations, some of them contrasting, came in a frenzy. . . all of which eventually led to this somewhat familiar but NEW story. Only several tiny clips were remained from POISON in this finished monstrosity, and even they had been modified considerably. Warning: This story is guaranteed to be even more controversial than my previous work, POISON. Situations of adult nature are ahead, even though this is NO lemon fic (at least I don't think it is). Young readers and those with weak stomachs. . . be prepared for anything. Note: Dialogues are in " " Thoughts are in < > Songs are in * * ################################################################# PART 4A Under the dim light of the sunrise, Ranma was staggering down a random street in Nerima. The flowing hair was once again braided. His legs were shaking, but not because of the fact that he hadn't slept for the entire night, and was now carrying his heavy backpack. Rather, it was because of the fact that he had spared Ryoga, the one who had tormented him for over a year with his fanatic challenges. When he, or rather, she, bit into Ryoga's neck last night, she had expected the latter to freak, to push her away, to attack her, to do anything that could have given her a reason to torture him to death. Instead, he bore it in silence. And that, had cut through Ranma-chan's rage, and slapped her back into her rational self. Blood was gushing out in a fountain. Should she continue? Or should she stop? Ryoga's pulse was weakening at a frightening rate. Conscience that she always thought of as a burden kicked in, and she released him. The lost boy fell, his blood straying in all directions. His eyes were still open, reflecting Ranma-chan's stunned expression as she tasted the blood on her lips. Her eyes looked up and away from that face, and saw a cross on top of a pointed top of a distant chapel that looked blurry under the sunset. Ranma-chan looked down at Ryoga again, saved him without a second thought, and took him back home. And Ranma thought he was cold enough to get his revenge. Why did that baka had to choose that particular moment to be so damn honorable? It was almost like fate was purposely working against his revenge. And why did he felt so strange after seeing that cross? Ranma silently berated himself as contrasting feelings rushed over him. Had it? Ranma-kun muttered aloud as he turned a corner. "That wasn't fair-" His sentence was cut off as he became face to face with one person that he thought he wouldn't have to see ever again. * * * * * * * Akane was in a crabby mood as she was going through her ritual of morning jogging. Her anger cooled down somewhat as she remembered how Ranma HAD been staying behind at the Nekohanten. "That wasn't fair-" a familiar voice, followed by a familiar face, appeared right in front of her. Akane was startled at first at seeing Ranma's backpack. Then her face hardened into a scowl. "You pervert! Where were you last night?!" Ranma looked at this girl who had walked all over him for over a year. Strangely, as if her spell over him had been broken, Ranma could suddenly handle this once fatal question with surprising calmness.. "You need not worry about that, Akane." he said in an even voice. Akane was stunned. This wasn't Ranma. This COULDN'T be Ranma! The Ranma that she knew could never sound so cold, so distant. He should be paralysed by her anger, franticly making some incoherent retorts that could only serve to give her even more reason to trash him. "What. . ." Ranma cut her off with politely restrained impatience. "Because starting from yesterday, our engagement was nullified. From now on, I will no longer be a burden to your household. . . I can't guarantee the same thing about Pop though. It was nice knowing you." Ranma smiled and drifted away, as cool as a piece of autumn leaf. Akane looked at his retreating figure with her jaw almost hitting the ground. This couldn't be right. Ever since the day Mr. Saotome had brought him to the Tendo house, Ranma had became hers to own, her to control, hers to be jealous over, hers to. . . love. He wouldn't, couldn't possibly left her. This just wasn't how their story was supposed to end! He's her's!!!!! Leaping up like a furious leopard over Ranma, she landed right of in of the boy, who didn't even finch. "This isn't funny, Ranma." she said, trying to maintain confidence in her voice. "It's not meant to be." Ranma replied as he stared evenly at her. Akane franticly tried to think of something to say. "We are engaged by our own fathers. . ." "And not by our own free wills." Ranma said casually as he attempted to walk around Akane. The girl blocked him, frustration on her face. "Ranma! You can't just ran out on our engagement! Think about your father-" Ranma looked amused. "About what? About how he threw me into a pit of cats? About how he had engaged me to a dozen fiancees, and left it to me to sort out the mess? About how he-" Ranma abruptly stopped himself before revealing too much. "He might not be the best of fathers, but he did managed to brought you up." Akane said with a hint of anger. Ranma laughed. "And how, pray tell, do you suppose he went about to do it? The phase "getting a job" is obviously not part of his vocabulary." "Well... he... he had obviously done something!" Akane said. "That no doubt he did. How else do you explain Ukyou's blind rage when she re-discovered me here?" "So Mr. Saotome ran away with her dowry, but Ukyou's father was just as much to blame for her sufferings. If he didn't attempt to BUY himself a son-in-law, none of this would have happened!" Akane went over what she just said. It didn't sound right, but for argument's sake it would have to do. Ranma looked sideways at her. "Oh, and I suppose your father behaved differently on this issue?" "Don't you dare say that! My father loved you as he would his son!" "Really? Whatever makes you think that Mr. Kunoji didn't care for me?" "I..." Ranma continued. "As for your father, no... you entire family, whose side were they always on whenever we got into a fight?" "It... it was always your fault! Chasing other women, avoiding my cooking..." Akane was struggling to come up with retorts. "THEY CAME TO ME, OKAY!? I've never encouraged any of them, let alone chase them. And how dare you be angry at me for not eating your cooking WHEN NONE OF THE TENDOS EVEN DARED TO WALK NEAR IT?!!!!!!!" Ranma was burning with rage. "Have you said enough yet?" Akane was turning white. Ranma closed in on Akane. "No! For once I'm gonna give you a piece of my mind! None of you have never considered me as a part of the family. Remember how Mr. Tendo tied me up and hang me in the Dojo when I dated Ukyou and Shampoo under the influence of magic? Kasumi... well, I can't say much about her, since she always kept her distance. As for Nabiki, she kept on selling NUDE photos of me in both forms, and TO MY CLASSMATES!!! Would they do this to you? WOULD THEY??" "Ranma, I . . . they . . ." Akane was starting to sob as her shell of righteousness shattered. Ranma pushed her against a wall. "I know why they all treat me like this. To them, I'm not someone who was engaged to you, but someone who was SOLD to you. They think that I deserved to be beaten, exploited and humiliated because I am leeching off the Tendo household and inheriting THEIR Dojo! Dammit! I have never wanted your Dojo! I DON'T DESERVE ANY OF THIS! I should have left long ago, to show them that I aren't interested in munching off the O' mighty Tendo fortune. But no . . . my father WANTED YOUR DOJO AND INSISTED THAT WE STAY HERE! I didn't know that I had a mother then, and he was the only family that I had. Naive as I was, I stayed with him and endured the hell that followed. SO DON'T YOU CRITICIZE ME FOR *DISHONOURING* MY FATHER!!!" Akane turned away and cried. "But what about me? All this time that you had stayed, I thought you-" "Love you?" Ranma asked as he loosened his hold on her. "Well. . . I . . . I did love you unconditionally. . . and for such a long time too." those words were so much easier to say now than in the past, when they were still meaningful. Akane turned around in shock "Because I liked you enough, and people that had mattered a lot to me were forcing us together. Also, you . . . you're so drop-dead beautiful when you smile, and you were the first Tendo ever to be kind to me. And even though my damn macho pride had prevented me from saying this before . . . I AM grateful to you for helping me won the important battles, even though it was stupid of you to risk yourself like that all the time. But without your help, I would have been killed a long time ago." "Ranma . . ." Akane blushed. She never knew that he thought that way about her. Ranma continued as his toned saddened. "Anyway, I thought. . . I thought that everything would be all right if I choose you . . . and then I could . . . I could have something like a family to hang onto. And that . . . and that you will love me back and everything will be all right . . . just like one of those sentimental anime shows." Ranma crutched his fists as he continued. "Obviously I was wrong. Nobody would ever really see me as anything more than a tool to defend the dojo. And you . . . you takes what I did for you for granted. I know I'm not the most perfect boyfriend in human history. I can be rude and boorish at times, and would sometimes put my foot right into my mouth . . ." "Lot of times." Akane corrected him as she wiped at her teary eyes. Ranma continued on, as if he hadn't heard her. "But I . . . I have NEVER let you down in ANYTHING before, not when you needed a partner to defend the Dojo from challengers, not when you needed somebody to vent out your anger on, not when . . . not when you needed me to stay loyal to you despite all other temptations." he then turned toward Akane, startling her. "And you would still keep on pushing me away with suspicion and anger, expecting me to keep on reaching out to you all the while." The accusation stabbed into Akane's heart, hurting her. She wanted desperately to say something, to show him how wrong he was about her. But nothing came up to her mouth. Because he was right. "I had tried, God be my witness I HAD tried so damn hard to stay by you . . . but I can't do it anymore." Ranma bit his lower lip. "You are getting angry more and more often, Akane. That kind smile of yours, the smile that had kept me by your side all this time, it was beginning to fade from my memory." Ranma's eyes became slighly watery as he asked one final question. "If you can risk your life for me so often, why can't you risk putting aside your anger and give me a chance to get into your heart for even once, no matter how hard I had tried?" without waiting for an answer, he turned away, leapt up over a rooftop and disappeared. Disappeared from Akane's world. Looking back upon the entire year that they had been together, it wasn't hard for Akane to tell that Ranma was working way harder than her on building their relationship. With a finacially stable family (thanks to Nabiki) and an officially approved engagement, the youngest Tendo daughter could even afford the luxury to sit back and scorned at Ranma's other fiancees tearing each other apart. They were the unfortunate ones, with no substantial forces backing their claims upon Ranma. She thought of them as lowly, desperate banchees, throwing away their dignities to try winning him over with their cat-fights. She thought of herself as a higher, purer being, always a step above the others because a traditional, "honorable" arrangement was on her side. Actually, tradition was also on Ukyou's side, but since the girl had nobody here to back her up on it, it was somewhat invalid. As for Shampoo . . . Well, her Amazon law couldn't bind Ranma legally in Japan. China, on the other hand . . . With her strong leverage, Akane even had the pleasure to constantly beat up Ranma for being a womanizer (which she now began to realize he wasn't), something that none of her competitors could afford to do. Somehow, she had seldom been grateful for all that he had to put up to be with her in the past: the seemingly predictable result of this "war" had boosted her arrogance too much. After all, who would take care in treasuring something that she had gained so effortlessly? That's exactly why he left her now. From now on, she will have no suitors other than that sorry lot at Furinkan High that challenged her day in day out. All that good-natured taunting, toleration, consideration, protection and devotion . . . gone with the wind. "BAKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! " Roaring like a wounded tigress, she punched and kicked at whatever that was in her way, demolishing walls, lamp posts, fences with her kempo skills. Nothing was able to stop her, until a giant spatula blocked one of her punches. "Akane-chan?!" Akane looked through her blurry eyes, and saw Ukyou standing there in her boy's get-up. With the last strip of her frustration spent, the kempoist collapsed onto the ground in a sobbing mess. Ukyou was simply taking an early walk in the morning to work off the contrasting thoughts battling in her mind after knowing Ran-chan's choice. Dammit! He didn't deny not loving Akane, nor did he deny loving her. But he still insisted in pushing her away as far away as possible! How could she, who had given up everything for Ran-chan, possibly lose to someone who had barely raised a finger to please him? No, she had to stop thinking this way. If Konatsu could have stayed as her friend despite her preferring Ranma, then she should have been able to stay as Ran-chan's friend despite him preferring Akane. It was then that she saw whom she thought was the victor of this love-tri . . . no, love-pentagon. Her own depression was shocked out of her as she saw her kempoist rival plowing through everything on the street that her fists were strong enough to plow through . . . which was just about everything. After stopping the rage-fuelled girl with her spatula, Ukyou was further stunned by the sight of her collapsing on the ground and started crying. Tendo Akane was an extremely proud girl, and it was almost impossible to imagine her breaking down right in front of other people. Besides, didn't Ran-chan decided to choose her? Putting their rivalry behind them, she immediately kneel down beside the heart-broken soul. "What's the matter, Akane-chan?" Ukyou asked as gently as possible, almost as if imitating Kasumi's gentleness. Their relationship was a volatile one, thus she must be careful in her approaches. "You. . . were right, Ukyou. I don't. . . deserve Ranma." Akane said between sobs. "He. . . didn't come home. . . saw him. . . just now. . . said that our engagement. . . nullified. . . He had . . . had enough. . . of me. . . said I used up. . . all his. . . love. . ." Akane's crying renewed with a vigour. "HE'S GONE!!!!!!!" In the past, Ukyou HAD dreamed of seeing Akane finally having to let go of what she didn't pay to earn. But seeing the horrifying pain that the girl was in right now had squashed whatever satisfaction that Ukyou might feel. As martial artists, both girls had their share of experiences in dealing with physical pains. But being brought up under the warmth and protection of her family, Akane didn't had the survival skills that Ukyou had in dealing with emotional pains. Ukyou now silently berated herself for ever wishing the loss of Ranma on Akane. Looking at Akane's piteous state, Ukyou bit down on her lower lip. In such an awkward moment between tense rivals, what could she do? The words on the bookmark came back into her mind: Do one to others, as you would have others do one to you. If she was the fallen one, and Akane the bystander, what would SHE want the Tendo girl to do? "I am so selfish." Akane continued to cry. "I never . . . never take the time to . . . love him back . . ." "No!!!" Ukyou's cut her off. "Don't ever say that. You have loved him back!" Akane looked up through her teary eyes, startled. "What?" Ukyou was startled herself after realizing what she had said. Was she actually capable of saying such encouraging words to her rival? But somehow, Akane's pain had triggered Ukyou to continue on. "Don't you remember how you had once dived into the sea trying to save him from Cologne's Shark-Fist? You didn't even know how to swim!" "How . . . how do you know about that?" Akane asked with tears in still dripping down her eyes. "Ran-chan told me, of course!" Ukyou sighed. "He always talked about you when he came to my place . . . Back on the topic: Remember about the time that you had almost burned yourself trying to help him in learning Hiryu Shoten Ha? And what about the time when you had used yourself as a bait to save him from the Eight-Headed Serpent?" Akane stared at her in awe as she started to wipe off her tears. "Ukyou . . ." Ukyou continued on and couldn't stop. "And who was the one who almost turned permanently into a doll saving Ran-chan from Saffron at Mt. Phoenix? You have loved him back. You may not know how to show it properly but you HAVE loved him back." There, she had given her rival a bundle of reasons to try and continue to dominate her love. But somehow, she felt her own depression disappearing after speaking out the other side of the truth: the one that she often refuses to see in the past. She bent down and helped the other girl back onto her feet. "Here, get back up. Tell you what, let's have some free okonomiyaki at my restaurant, ne? It's on the house." Akane slowly stood up as she looked at her rival in a new light from her blood-shot eyes. "I finally know why Ranma always insisted in going over to your restaurant so often despite my hammering." she muttered. "You made a very good shoulder to cry on." Ukyou sighed as the two of them walked toward her restaurant. If she had been able to go so far in trying to be somewhat selfless, she might as well go all the way. "If I can't even comfort a *friend* in her time of need, how can I ever hope to actually love someone?" "Friend . . ." Akane looked suddenly weary. "Is all this kindness simply because of the fact that Ranma had ran away from me for good?" Ukyou looked weary herself. "Have I ever NOT show 'kindness' toward you , even way back when Ran-chan was still taking you as his *real* fiancee? The bombing at the wedding aside: those flash-bombs were meant more to stun than to hurt." Akane sighed. "Sorry." "Now just because Ran-chan was running away-" Ukyou stopped herself as she realized something. "Actually, where would he be running to?" "To you, to Shampoo . . . perhaps even to that nut Kodachi." Akane said darkly. "Not that I can stop him anymore . . ." "Not likely." Ukyou said as she told her about Ran-chan's "confession" to her from the day before. Taking in Akane's state, she omitted the part about Ranma saying that he didn't love her. Ukyou modified it a bit so that Ran-chan had chose the Tendo girl for "purely logical reasons". Akane's eyes widened at hearing that. Apparently, there were more missing pieces in the puzzle than she thought there was. The "wild horse" had broken free. Free from all those who had loved him, those who had hated him and those who had used him as a dollar tree. But who in the world could he turn to now? Seeing the Nekohanten in the distance, Ukyou immediately made a change of plan. "Let's save the okonomiyaki for another time. For now, We need to discuss something with the others." Akane didn't object. ################################################################# D A R K N E S S A N D L I G H T by: Adrian Wong A DARK Ranma 1 / 2 Fan Fiction. All relevant characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. This story copyright 1997 - Adrian Wong Author's Rambling: Special thanks to all those on and off the FFML that had contributed ideas about the good and bad points regarding POISON. In the beginning, I was merely trying to create a long version of POISON. As time passed by, however, I've changed the story too much to be called a "long version". Inspirations, some of them contrasting, came in a frenzy. . . all of which eventually led to this somewhat familiar but NEW story. Only several tiny clips were remained from POISON in this finished monstrosity, and even they had been modified considerably. Warning: This story is guaranteed to be even more controversial than my previous work, POISON. Situations of adult nature are ahead, even though this is NO lemon fic (at least I don't think it is). Young readers and those with weak stomachs. . . be prepared for anything. Note: Dialogues are in " " Thoughts are in < > Songs are in * * ################################################################# PART 4B Still wandering aimlessly, Ranma was getting increasingly bitter and tired as he realized that he had no where to go. Pop was so right in saying that he couldn't make it on his own. He obviously couldn't return to the Tendo Dojo, now that he had already cut all ties with them. Then there's always the Nekohanten, but then Shampoo would probably try to corner him into marrying her had he dared to stay there. As for Ucchan's. . . No, he couldn't possibly impose at her place. He simply wasn't worthy. . . and the Ryoga incident didn't help either. . . Funny how a man should have been through all these instead of a woman. Perhaps that was the reason that fate had given him that particular curse. Looking at all those cases around him, it wasn't hard to conclude that all of the Jusenkyo curses were strangely fitting for the cursed ones. Ryoga, for one, was as clueless as a piglet. Shampoo emitted a sensuous but playful feline feel even in her human form. Mousse, with his water bird combat styles and occasional simpleness, did somehow resemble a duck. And his father . . . what other being could hide it's sharp claws and deadly fangs behind a seemingly harmless appearance as well as a fuzzy panda? Walking into what appeared to be a park dejectedly, he took off his backpack and rested on a bench. He was a bit startled as he noticed for the first time that he was right outside the side of the new cathedral. Looking into the opened side door, he could feel himself being drawn by what he could see of its interior: an infinite darkness, contrasted by the beautiful light shining from the various coloured glass windows. But Ranma didn't feel like going into the strange and unfamiliar zone that he knew nothing about other than that it was a place for marriage ceremonies to take place. Marriages . . . engagements . . . liaisons . . . Throwing back his head and closing his eyes, Ranma replayed his entire life over his head. Through the memories, he could recognized only two things that constituted his existence . . . . . . to be used. . . and to use. So what's the point of going on? There were but two roads ahead of a hopeless case like him right now. He could either end his miserable existence with a whimper, or he would exact his remaining revenge with a loud bang. His one. Single. Greatest. REVENGE. Opening his eyes and reaching into his backpack, he took out the box with the black Japanese robes. ###########################FLASHBACK############################# It was the night of a minor Japanese festival. A certain Japanese market place was alive with motion. Most of the stores had set up tents for fish snatching, mock target shooting, and various other games. Many parents had took their kids for a night out at this joyful festival. Everyone was having a good time. Well, almost everyone. Amidst the happy crowd was a boy who was wandering around the market place. As he strode forward, several bystanders who REALLY looked at him all moved out of his way hastily. The boy stopped as he caught sight of something. It was a run-down antique' shop, the kind with dim-lights and lots of items that looked like antiques but are not really old enough to be antiques. There were all kinds of old traditional clothing, all of which were used and discarded by somebody of some older generations. His glassy eyes was glued to the black, Japanese robes hanging at a corner of the store. Slowly, he walked into the store. The store owner frowned as he saw the boy entered. How old could he be? Thirteen? Fourteen? Certainly not someone old enough to be interested in anything from his place. He was about to hush the kid out of the store when the kid's face became visible in the dark. And the store owner stepped back. Now mind you, the boy wasn't hideously deformed, at least not physically. Rather, he was quite good-looking, with his dark brows, large eyes and delicate chin. It was his expression. Has anyone ever seen a Japanese marionette? You know, the type with lifelike features craved onto a piece of lifeless wood? The store owner had two or three of those dolls in his own shop, and would always cover them up at night simply because he didn't want to see them in the dark. Their lifeless eyes are always wide and still, seemingly looking past whatever they are looking at. Just as the boy's were. The boy picked up the smallest of those robes, which was still a bit too large for him. His lips curled into a smile, even though his eyes stayed the same. "Say, have you got a smaller size?" The store owner would have laughed, had the kid not been so. . . creepy. Instead, he simply replied. "Eh. . . you see, these robes were meant to be collected and treated as antiques, besides, I do not think a little boy could. . ." The boy turned to him with a deathly smile, which was downright gruesome under the dim light. "I'll take it anyway. How much?" The store owner was about to overcome his fear and hush the weird kid out of the store when the boy took out a thick bundle of cash. The deal was done immediately. The boy hugged the black robes to himself with a mesmerized expression, the first real expression that the store owner could see on the young face. Somehow, the kid was not a bit disgusted by the fact that the body that used to be in the outfit was now probably either a hundred. . . or dead. He slowly walked out of the store, whispering to himself all the while. "Someday, someday when I'm big enough to wear this, the odds shall turn. . . and Pop shall pay for dragging me away from the vacant lot." ################################################################# Holding the black robes to his shoulders, Ranma realized that he was indeed big enough to wear it now. Smiling to himself, he savoured the thought of repaying a man with so much traditional honour in his words in the most traditional outfit of all. A wave of sleepiness washed over him as the previous, sleepless night took its toll on him. Lying down on the bench, Ranma crutched the robe tight to himself. His face was to the cathedral's side door, and his slowly closing eyes were struggling against sleep to take in the spectacular colour of what he could see of the coloured glass windows that looked so bright in the darkness. They looked so much like bright-coloured drawings . . . but of whom? That note that he had left to Ryoga, was it really a farewell note? Or was it a cry for help? As his eyes closed completely and sleep took over, he didn't remember, and didn't care, anymore. * * * * * * * In the late afternoon in Nekohanten, every local customer was greeted by an unusual sight that rendered them speechless. Shampoo, Ukyou, Akane and Kodachi, all of them sitting around the same table, without engaging in any visible form of combat. Konatsu was the only non-female at the table, and was for once devote of exaggerating ribbons and lipstick at his boss' suggestion. Today was a special day off that Ukyou had granted him, being that he had handled business so surprisingly well by himself yesterday. Right now, he had came along to help in something that Ukyou told him was important. Nearby, Mousse was waiting on tables while Cologne was cooking behind the counter. A worn out looking Akane had just finished her story, and was tiredly peeved in seeing the look of intense joy on Kodachi's face. "Hohohohohoh! This is heavenly! My beloved had finally got the good sense to dump the abusive tomboy! Surely he would come to the Black Rose by now." Kodachi began throwing black rose petals around from her seat, her smile brilliant but detached in her attempt to drown out other less pleasant possibilities. "Shampoo find that hard to believe." the Chinese girl muttered as Mousse patiently swiped the petals off the floor with a broom. But deep down inside, she was just as excited as Kodachi was. "Guys! The most important thing here is not who is going to get Ran-chan." Having an entire morning to reorganize her once contrasting thoughts, Ukyou could now saw the problem from a more objective point of view. "The way I see it is that he had probably rejected all of us-" "Aiya!" Shampoo cut her off. "Shampoo cooked for Airen, fought for Airen, LOVE Airen more than all others!! No way Airen no want Shampoo! " "I love you much more than he ever had!" Mousse said to her with desperation. Shampoo turned her head away in distain. "Mousse's love no matter to Shampoo. Shampoo only want Ranma." "I don't like this any better than you, sugar. But we've all heard how often he had voiced against this entire engagement mess. Besides . . ." Ukyou told them about what Ranma had said again, and the excitement on Shampoo's and Kodachi's face visibily dimmed. Shampoo shook her head and looked at Ukyou defiantly. "Shampoo no believe Ranma no love her until hear it with her own ears." Ukyou sighed. "Suit yourself. But anyway, the problem is that he now has absolutely NO ONE to turn to. He had probably close to no money, and I doubt if he could make money with his martial arts as I do with my okonomiyaki. We've got to find him and help in whatever way that we could." Konatsu looked concerned. Even though she didn't show it now, his boss had been shaken and distraught yesterday as she came back to the restaurant. "Ukyou-sama . . . are you sure you can do it?" Ukyou turned to the face that is now handsome instead of pretty without makeup, and said something that only he could understand. "If you can do it . . . I can." She smiled meaningfully at Konatsu as he blushed. "Ukyou-sama. . ." Admiration could be seen in the boy's eyes, as usual. Konatsu's eyes became slightly teary as he remembered about a fateful incident. In the past, when he used to cross dress, everybody had thought that he was a lesbian attracted to Ukyou. But when his ugly stepmother tried dragging him back into slavery, Ukyou had interfered, announcing that she was willing to take "her" under Ucchan's roof despite "her" womanly preferences to the shock of Ranma and Akane. Konatsu could love her unconditionally because he owe her for his freedom. But whatever did Ukyou owe to Ranma? Meanwhile, Kodachi's state of mind could be shown in the sudden appearance of the twirling fury that was her ribbon. "HehehehehahahahahahaHOHOHOHOHOOHOOHOHOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Absorbed in her dream world, the Black Rose began laughing with abandonment as the other teenagers cautiously edged away. Shampoo looked around at the now empty restaurant with her jaw dropped. "Why authority no institutionalize her?" the Chinese girl hissed. "In your language: she rich." Ukyou whispered back. "I can't wait here anymore." Akane stood up. Just hours from what had happened in the morning, and already she looked barely a step above a hospital patient. The short hair that was always neatly combed was now in disarray, and the smooth cheeks that were always flushed with youthful pinkness had paled into dead white. Large eyes that were always twinkling with glistering light had dimmed, with a hint of dark shadows underneath them. However, the determination was still in her, struggling against the depression. "Ukyou's right, Ranma could be in trouble. With no money and no one to turn to, his martial arts skills will only be a source of trouble for him. Besides, engagement or not, I can't just let it end like this . . ." the girl gritted her teeth. ". . . not like this. . ." Just then, Ryoga suddenly strode certainly, if somewhat raggedly into the Nekohanten, surprising everybody. A row of bandage was covering the lower side of his neck. "Thank the kami that you guys are all here!" "Ryoga-kun. . . you looked so. . . unconfused. Did you actually find your way here?" Akane asked in awe. "Thank the kami, yes." Ryoga said, breathing heavily. "It's easier to find your way looking out than in. . . but that's not important anymore! Ranma is about to do something drastically stupid, and shall he succeed, it would gain him nothing and ruin him instead. We've got to find him right now!" Everybody tensed up. If even Ryoga was so concerned, then the situation must be even more serious then they had though. Even Kodachi calmed down. (Of course, none of them really know about the past between Ranma and Ryoga by then.) Ukyou stepped forward and asked. "What is he trying to do, Ryoga?" Ryoga looked around the restaurant in alarm. Seeing that no outsiders are there, he took out the note left to him by Ranma. "Just read this." >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> It's over. I can't keep on tolerating things the way they are anymore. I have already been pushed too far into a one-way street: never able to turn back. Such a life is nothing but a gradual decay. However, I'm still a warrior. When I go down, I will surely go down with a bang. . . and together with he who had forced me into what I've become today. If you still have << several words wiped out with liquid paper >>, then bury this deep inside your head. After all, I'm quite sure that you WON'T have the sense of direction to interfere much anyway. It was nice knowing you . . . even though I had hoped that it had been under more honorable circumstances. Ranma >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "He. . . wouldn't." Akane paled. "Oh, Ranma-sama. . ." Kodachi held a fist against her mouth as she trembled, surprising even herself. Shampoo looked close to be in tears. "Airen. . ." "But why?!" Ukyou asked. . . puzzled and enraged at the same time. "What would have prompt him to write a suicide note like this?" "I'm not entirely sure." Ryoga saidin a slightly uncomfortable fashion. "But in the meantime, we must find him and stop him at once! Everybody agreed immediately, but Mousse looked slightly hesistant. "Mousse." Seeing that, Cologne leapt forward to land in front of him. "You're going too." The boy snapped on impulse. "I don't have to listen to your orders-" "Indeed you don't." The old woman cut him off. "But what would Shampoo think of you if you won't help your friend in his time of need?" "But he's an obstacle in my quest to gain Shampoo's heart-" "An obstacle that had helped you numerous times before, not to mention fighting by your side in various battles. Rivals don't necessarily make enemies, don't ever forget that." Mousse relented. "Alright, I'll go." After all, he didn't hate Ranma THAT much. * * * * * * * *Will you . . . stick by my side no matter what will happen?* The boy asked, slightly uncertain. The reply was sincere. *I promise.* With that, a storm of fluttering pink blew over, and the air was filled with the sweet scent of roses . . . Roses? Ranma's eyes slowly opened, and saw a sea of blinding red in front of her. Bits and pieces of red were fluttering in the air, blushing across Ranma's face. "You have awaken, my precious pigtailed girl." a gentle voice reached her ear. Ranma-chan shot up from the embrace that she was in, and saw Kuno looking lovingly at her. She looked around, and saw that the two of them were in the Kuno Mansion's rose garden. There was a gentle breeze, in which rose petals danced by like scarlet butterflies. "How did I get here?" she asked. "Alas, my delicate beauty. Thou art sleeping alone on a park bench by the side of the Godly cathedral, and a horrid lawn sprinkler was rudely spraying its contents onto thy flawless complexion. I, Kuno Tatewaki, being the gentleman that I am, took thy unprotected self under my care as I passed by." "Oh." Ranma-chan looked around. "So where is my backpack?" Kuno didn't answer her. Instead, he leaned forward. "Pigtailed girl, what's the need of travelling, when the Blue Thunder now stands before thy beauteous eyes in all his magnificence?" Ranma-chan frowned. Genma's plan to use her in conning money out of Kuno flashed through her mind. She really wasn't in the mood for Kuno's broken and incoherent poetry right now. Her voice hardened. "Just give the damn thing back to me so I can go, Kuno." "Alas! How could thy voice sting so coldly against one who loves thee as much as I?" Kuno asked, seemingly hurt. Ranma-chan looked closely at him. The breeze got even stronger, and red flower petals showered down upon them in a storm. The type of flower petals in this garden was different, but the result was almost the same: a beautiful, short-lived illusion. This was reminding her too much about the time in the sakura park. "I shall love thee till the end of this hollow world. . ." Kuno said. He probably meant it too at that moment. To Ranma-chan, however, that was the breaking point. She flew up her head and laughed bitterly, startling Kuno. "Pigtailed girl, what . . ." Ranma-chan wiped at the tears around her eyes as she brought her voice under control. "Love . . . haha . . . you can actually . . . haha . . . just stand there and expect me to believe that . . . haha . . ." "But I do love thee, pigtailed girl! Oh behalf of my honour-" Ranma-chan snapped, conveniently taking out her frustrations on him. "Don't talk about honour! You haven't learned any! All that your perverted mind have ever wanted from me was my body!!" "My goddess! Know you not that my love for thy spirit is stronger that for your flesh?" Kuno exclaimed, and he believed it too. The redhead looked at him with contempt, which puzzled him. "You mean that you will still love me for being me no matter how my looks will change?" "Alas, thou art insecure indeed. . . Thy unworldly beauty was nothing more than the outward manifestation of the radiance of thy soul. For as long as-" "You don't know what you are saying!" Ranma-chan shouted, cutting him off effectively as she began walking away. Kuno ran after her. "My love! Do not turn away from me!" Ranma-chan stiffly continued on. "Just shut-" without paying attention to where she was going, she crashed into Sasuke . . . who was currently carrying a kettle of hot tea. "Look out, pigtailed . . ." Kuno trailed off as the change took place directly in front of him. The feminine, curvy figure vanished, replaced by a lean and tight-muscled built that stretched the no longer baggy Chinese clothes. The dramatic red hair turned black, framing a still delicate but definitely more masculine face. The long legs became even longer, adding quite a bit of height to the now unmistakerbly MALE body. Kuno would scream, had he found the strength to do so. He had lost so much of his wits that he couldn't even decorate his speech with poetry. "Saotome... it's you?!" Ranma-kun simply stared back at him wordlessly. ################################################################# D A R K N E S S A N D L I G H T by: Adrian Wong A DARK Ranma 1 / 2 Fan Fiction. All relevant characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. This story copyright 1997 - Adrian Wong Author's Rambling: Special thanks to all those on and off the FFML that had contributed ideas about the good and bad points regarding POISON. In the beginning, I was merely trying to create a long version of POISON. As time passed by, however, I've changed the story too much to be called a "long version". Inspirations, some of them contrasting, came in a frenzy. . . all of which eventually led to this somewhat familiar but NEW story. Only several tiny clips were remained from POISON in this finished monstrosity, and even they had been modified considerably. Warning: This story is guaranteed to be even more controversial than my previous work, POISON. Situations of adult nature are ahead, even though this is NO lemon fic (at least I don't think it is). Young readers and those with weak stomachs. . . be prepared for anything. Note: Dialogues are in " " Thoughts are in < > Songs are in * * ################################################################# PART 5A A group of teenagers were ignoring the cries of amazement from the ordinary pedestrians as they leaped from rooftop to rooftop across Nerima. To the passer-by's on the streets who saw them, they looked like two boys and five girls. A closer look, however, will definitely confirm that they were three boys and four girls instead, since Konatsu wasn't in makeup nor drag anymore. "Ryoga!" Mousse called out to the boy leading the group. "What?!" Ryoga asked without turning back. He was in a race against time after all. "WHERE EXACTLY ARE WE GOING?!" Ryoga froze in mid-step. "I don't know." Everybody facefaulted and almost slipped off the respective rooftops that they were on. After burying Ryoga under a wide assortment of weapons, the originally frantic group began to really think hard about the situation at hand. "We need to stay calm." Akane said, crutching her chest and breathing heavily. "Think! Where on earth could he be right now?" "According to logic, he's probably hiding out at where he is least expected." Mousse said, trying to show his intelligence in front of Shampoo. Konatsu looked puzzled. "Which is?" "I still think that Ranma-sama would be coming to my place in search of my affection." Kodachi said matter-of-factly. "That no good suggestion. It BEYOND least expected." Shampoo discarded the idea with a serious air, enraging the gymnast. * * * * * * * "You . . . all this time . . . all this time you have been the pigtailed girl?!" "That's right. So you have finally got it after all this time." Ranma-kun smiled viciously, enjoying the shock and disbelieve on Kuno's paled face. "How do you like my spirit now, huh? Still think you can keep your big words about LOVE, HONOUR, and all that JUNK?" Kuno was speechless. The pigtailed goddess that had enchanted him so had been nothing more than a beautiful cover for his hated rival. He had been in love with an illusion all this time! He fell down onto his knees. "Even one like yourself cannot stand up to your own promise. You people are all alike. . ." Ranma lowered his eyes and whispered to himself. "I wonder if Uc. . ." he closed his eyes in pain. "Better not take the chance to find out." "Pigtailed . . ." Kuno mumbled through his rapidly receding soberness. Ranma's large eyes snapped open and shot him a cold look. "It's Ranma Saotome, the *honourless clad* whose *spirit* you had never liked much before. Now just give me back my backpack and let me go." Kuno couldn't move, apparently traumatized. Without a word, Sasuke walked up with his backpack. Ranma strapped it on, and left in disgust without turning back. "Love!" he spat out the word like a curse. * * * * * * * Gathering her wits, Ukyou dragged Ryoga out of the pile of weapons. "Ryoga, you're obviously a much closer friend to Ranma than we all thought you were in the past." Ukyou was referring to the fact that he was the one who get the suicide note from Ranma, and was mildly puzzled by the sudden blush on his face. She ignored this for the moment. "Have you any idea WHO it was that he wanted to drag down with?" "Well. . . not really." "Think harder! This is a life and death moment for Ran-chan. Any second now, he might be a goner. If we know who he is after, then at least we will still have a chance of saving him by waiting where his target is!" Ryoga tried, but without much success. After all, he had never seen Ranma really hating anyone before. Then suddenly, he remembered something that he didn't think was all that important in the past. That fateful conversion in that garden of fluttering sakura petals . . . ###########################FLASHBACK############################# "Anyway, the reason that I was away was that someone here was after me, Ryoga. I have been hiding from him all this time." "Who is that guy? Someone else that you have pissed off like you did me?" Ryoga asked, jokingly. Ranma's eyes lowered and Ryoga began to look concern. "Ranma?" Ranma looked up at his innocent face. "Can't tell you yet. You probably won't understand until years from now." ################################################################# But who could Ranma be running away from? And why did he say that he won't understand? Then suddenly, the answer hit him like a ton of bricks. Really, who else could it be?! Ukyou saw his expression and leaned forward in expectation. "Well?" "All this time . . . it was his . . . his . . ." "His what?!" "His father." Ryoga said as he gritted his teeth. "W H A T ? ! ? ! ? ! ? ! ? ! ? ! ? ! ? ! ? ! ? ! ? ! ? ! ?" * * * * * * * Inside a corner store, the daughter of the store owner was allowing a handsome young man to use her phone. Right now, the young man was deep in conversation in a slightly grave voice. "Yes, I know shouldn't have just left without telling anyone. . . I'm sorry to have you worried. . . Anyway, please come to the Tendo Dojo by the end of the day? . . . You shall understand everything by then. . ." with that, he put down the phone with his head down. "Thanks." he said to the girl, who smiled back with a blush, and left. the girl thought to herself. * * * * * * * The entire group of martial artists were racing back full speed back to the dojo. It was taking a long time since Ryoga had a tendency to leapt off to the wrong direction every now and then. Mousse yelled in frustration as he pushed Ryoga back to the right direction. "How could you turn right when everybody was going left?!" "I. . ." Ryoga knew that he was getting too nervous to focus on where he was going anymore. "Ryoga!" Akane leapt beside him and ran with his speed. "Why exactly did that baka want to kill his own father?!" "Yeah!" Ukyou used her spatula to whack Ryoga back to the right path as he headed off course again. "Mr. Saotome is a worthless scum of a thief, but that's no reason to kill someone!" "Could it be that Ranma is really a psychopath under the guise of an idiot teenager all this time?" Mousse asked as he ran beside them, and was momentarily slowed down by a bonbori strike. "You no say that! Airen must have reason!" Shampoo shrieked, her originally pretty face distorted in anger. How could he even DARE to insult her love at a time like this?! "Sorry." Mousse muttered sheepishly as he put on a pair of new glasses to replace his own smashed one. Kodachi skipped past them, self absorbed and absent-minded as ever. "You're right, lowly illegally immigrated Chinese waitress! Ranma-sama is always honorable in his actions!" Shampoo swore in the name of her ancestors that she will trash this mad girl to average her Amazonian dignity. But not now, not when Airen needed all of their help so much. . . Konatsu leapt up to beside Ukyou. "So what are we going to do when we get there, Ukyou-sama? Gang-up on him and beat him senseless?" Ukyou frowned as she continued to run. "I was thinking about solving this non-violently. . ." "Not possible." Akane said as she turned to Ukyou. "Ranma ALWAYS prefer his fists over his brains. . . especially when under stress." "Akane's right." Ryoga said as he ran beside her. "We have to do whatever it takes to stop him from just throwing his life away like this!" "And why do you care?" Mousse asked the lost boy with curiosity as he caught up with him. "I always thought you hated him." "I. . ." Ryoga fumbled for an excuse, unsuccessfully. "Leave him alone!" Akane turned to the Chinese boy with a sharpness to her voice due to intense stress. "Can't you tell that Ryoga-kun has been friends with Ranma for all this time?!" "Well. . ." Mousse was a bit taken back as he mulled over this in his head. Ryoga breathed a sigh of relieve as he silently thanked Akane. * * * * * * * The atmosphere of the Tendo dinning room was slightly unnerving as the leaders of the two schools of Anything Goes simply sat together and said nothing. Soun tried to get Genma to play a game of Go with him, but the latter declined. "What's the matter, Saotome-kun?" Genma was clueless himself. "I have no idea, Tendo-kun. Maybe it's just that Ranma had left without telling anyone. . . not that I can't make him come back. Somehow I just happen to sense that . . ." "Great doom shall befall." The two middle-aged man immediately turned to the origin of that even voice, and encountered the sight of Ranma leaning against the doorway, wearing something that was definitely not Chinese style. A set of black, traditional, executioner's robes. "Ranma! Where have you been?! Did you know how worried we all are about you?!" Genma got up angrily. "Did you know how Akane had been worried about you for the whole night?! What kind of a man have I raised you up to be?" Looking at this man who had fed off his life for so long, Ranma's eyes narrowed as he tossed back his now free flowing hair. "The mirror image of your essence, only way better presented, thus much more profitable." "What?! Now dare you talk to your father-" Ranma cut him off. "As for Akane, neither of you need to worry about HER worrying about me." Soun got up, his voice holding a hint of thunder. "And what exactly do you mean by that, Ranma-kun?" Ranma turned calmly to Soun. "It means that I've already nullified my engagement with her. From now on, she's free as a bird." "W H A T ?! How. . . how dare you dishonour our families like . . . SAOTOME-KUN!!!!!!" he roared at Genma, who looked nervous and shamed. "Ranma-kun. . . I don't know what kind of trick you're trying to pull-" "What makes you think that I'm trying to pull anything?" Ranma asked with mock innocence. Soun was growing into demonic proportions as he advanced on the boy. "DEFIER OF A MOST SACRED PROMISE-" "A promise made by HIM, not me." Ranma shot the demonic being a cold look, and it sagged immediately, returning into a sobbing mess. "Wahhhhh!!!!! He's so scary!!" Soun cried a river, as usual. Ranma looked briefly at the unworthy master of the Tendo clan with detached amusement, then turned back to his own father, who was clearly in a rage. "Let's settle what I've returned for once and for all out in the dojo, old man, just you and me." Ranma smiled coldly. "It's what I would call. . . a family affair." "You. . ." Genma growled, slightly unnerved by the drastic change in his son. No. . . it can't be. He couldn't possibly have the backbone to REALLY defy him. . . Yet the truth was right in front of him. * * * * * * * "Finally we're here!!!" Ryoga shouted in triumph as he and the rest of the top teenage martial artists all leapt over the exterior wall of the dojo into the Tendo yard. "Not so loud! We need to take him by. . ." Ukyou's hiss was cut off by the sight of Soun crying in the dinning room. ". . . surprise." "Daddy!" Akane leaped forward, landing beside her father. "What happened?!" "MY POOR, POOR DAUGHTER!!!" Soun hugged her as he continued to cry. "To think that wretched boy would dishonour his father by withdrawing from the engagement. . ." "Ranma. . . he's back already?! Where is he?!" "He is in the dojo, hopefully being given a lesson in honour and duty by Saotome-kun. . . Daughter?" Soun suddenly realized that he was talking to thin air as a herd of footsteps could be heard racing off to the dojo. * * * * * * * The teenagers all slowed down upon being close to the outside of the Dojo. "Now what we do?" Shampoo whispered. "We will all soundless tiptoed to the entrance, then rush in all at once!" Ukyou said as she readied her spatula. "We can only hope that we came in time. . ." "It's about time for us to really talk about the dept that you owe me, POP." Ranma's unusually dark tone of voice could be heard from inside the dojo. Everybody breathed a sigh of relieve as they continued to move toward the entrance, glad that he was still with the living. "I'm your father!" Genma growled angrily. "Without me, you won't even exist, boy!" "Hahahahahahahahaha. . ." A throaty, sinister laugh that was strangely mixed with the elements of crying seeped out of the Dojo, sending shivers up everyone's spines. Kodachi finally got a taste of her own medicine for the very first time, and was deeply disturbed by it. Ranma's voice became slightly haggard as he continued to speak. "I won't even . . . haha . . . exist without . . .hehe. . .you. . . WITHOUT YOU I WON'T HAVE TO EXIST AND ENDURED THE HELL THAT FOLLOWED, YOU LEECH!!!!!" The boy apparently had some trouble catching his breath after shouting like that. "It's about time... for you to see... what I've been through... because of YOU." Ranma laughed bitterly again. "I'm beginning to sound like Ryoga, aren't I?" "I won't be surprised. . . considering how you used to hang around that incompetent lost boy ever since junior high." Genma's voice was dripped in venom. Outside, Ryoga was gritting his teeth in anger. Genma continued on. "I saw what was going on that rainy day in the vacant lot, BOY. To think my own heir will behave in such . . . perverse conduct . . . It is poetic justice that you got cursed as a girl, for you are not worthy to be a MAN!!" Ranma was silent. He knew?! ############################FLASHBACK############################ On that first day in the vacant lot: The two teens were trapped inside a length of pipe in a vacant lot. Out of the corner of his eyes Ranma could see Ryoga looming closer to him. He looked sideways, expecting a sneak attack. What he saw instead shocked him to say the least. The . . . admiration in the other boy's eyes wasn't an alien sight for Ranma. But HIM?! He who was foul-tempered and macho to the point of being comical. . . guess one can never stereotype special groups. Then a bold plan suddenly came into his mind. Shocked out of his trance by Ranma's strange stare, Ryoga immediately backed away. How could he have felt that?! It was so. . . unnatural. . . Immediately he put on his usual mask of rage. "Just thinking of ways to make you pay back, thief." "Hey, that piece of bread was fair game for anyone around it who is the most capable." Ranma made himself smile in a boyish but arrogant fashion that he knew would irritate the other boy. If he succeed. . . Ryoga's real rage returned with a vengeance. "Just wait until the rain stops. . ." "But what's keeping you now?" he leaned forward and asked, continuing to push what he sensed were the right buttons. Ryoga scowled, and with a speed that was shocking even to Ranma, he pushed the more slender boy down and straddled him. Grinning in triumph, he raised a fist in such a threatening way it looked comical. "Now, you shall pay." Ranma smiled, narrowing his large eyes. Ryoga was confused. Wasn't the kid supposed to be scared or maybe even angry? "Wha. . . What are you smiling at?!" Feeling the strength pinning him down, Ranma felt a sinful thrill channelling through his body. Yes, Ryoga WILL be helpful to him. "And how, may I ask, do you expect me to pay? I have no money. . . none that I can have a hold on anyway." Ranma tilted his head up, his eyes glistering as he studied up at his supposed captor. So utterly clueless and dense . . . so lonely . . . so innocent. . . so unlike those . . . "A man cannot allow himself to long for another that way." Pop's pathetic excuse to get him away from Ucchan all those years ago rang through his head, fuelling his decision. Ranma's eyes became slightly predatory, which could be easily mistook as a sigh of passion under this circumstance. Slowly snaking his now free arms up over Ryoga's back, Ranma drew the surprised boy closer down to him. "However, if it is something else that you want. . ." with that, he proceeded to use every last trick he knew that could have produced the most powerful response from the teenage Hercules. For once, Ranma was pleasantly surprised to have noticed that these repulsive acts wasn't that repulsive anymore when this boy was his partner. The two spent a long time inside that pipe. Outside, the rain continued to pour and the thunders continued to roar. At a far corner of the vacant lot, unnoticed by anyone, a pair of glasses glinted under a large umbrella. ################################################################# Outside, everybody turned to look at the lost boy with quadrupled-sized eyes, who looked like he was under ice water. Mousse, and even Konatsu, turned slight shades of green. "Aiya . . ." Shampoo flushed. "No think husband into . . . this." "Ryoga-kun. . . you two. . ." Akane whispered with disbelief. "You'd better have a good explanation for this, Hibiki." Kodachi hissed as she took out her clubs. "Shhhhh!!!!" Ukyou hushed them as she fought to suppress the intinctive revulsion in her chest. "Not so loud!" she whispered as she finally reached the entrance to the dojo and peeked inside. She was surprised to see Ranma's entirely different fashion style, which she found to be. . . sinister. His head was lowered, and long hair from behind his short bangs was obscuring half of his face. Ranma spoke up again. "Perverse conduct. . . hmph. And who. . . do you think TAUGHT me . . . to act in such . . . perverse conduct, huh?" Ranma's voice was clearly shaking with disgust and anger at the same time. "Who sent me off to . . . the party for my twelfth birthday. . . where that rich guy . . . where that rich guy. . ." Genma's voice seemed to have lost its previous strength due to a dread of some form. "Now hold on a second there, boy. . ." "Where that rich guy used me!!!! Over and over!!!! TOGETHER WITH HIS SICKO PEDOPHILIC BUDDIES!!!!!!!!!!!" Ranma's head shot up as the memories drilled themselves back into his conscious mind, prompting him to recount the dreadful tale. ########################### FLASHBACK ########################### It was a splendidly decorated room, with a classical, long table occupied with roast beef, roast chicken, and many other steaming buffet items. Two people were sitting across the table. One was an expensively dressed man, who we shall call The Man for convenience's sake. The other side of the table sat a ponytailed boy who was eating like there was no tomorrow. He was obviously a much younger version of Ranma, a lot more frail and innocent than he was now. The Man smiled, innocent looking in the little boy's eyes. "So how do you like your birthday party so far?" "It's the coolest! I've never ate anything like this my entire life!" The boy said between bites. "If only Ucchan is here..." "Ucchan?" The Man asked. "He is my very best friend!" Ranma said brightly, then his voice saddened a bit. "My only friend... who I haven't seen for years... If only Pop didn't have to move around all the time for training... Actually, Mister, are you Pop's friend? Pop didn't told me much as he dropped me off here." "You could say that I'm his business partner." The Man gave a slightly mysterious smile. Both stayed silent as Ranma continued his eating. "Ranma..." "Huh?" "Wild horse... Such a special name for a little boy." "I'm not just a little boy, I'm a martial artist! Look!" Ranma stood up and proceeded to do a kata, he frowned as he swayed a bit. "That shouldn't have happened..." "Very nice." The Man licked his lips. "But can you do it without clothes on? I want to see how you use your muscles." "But..." Ranma instinctively turned a deep shade of red. "What's the matter? I am your friend and I want to study your technique." Ranma hesitates, then took off his shirt and tried the kata again. "The pants." The Man urged. The little boy looked scandalized, then steadied himself and said. "Sorry, Mister. I can't." "Why not? You are a big boy now, what have you got to hide? We're both guys. C'mon, it's no big deal." The Man moved forward, Ranma stepped back. A perfect demonstration of predator and prey. "I guess I should wait for Pop outside..." Little Ranma continued to step back with a nervous expression. The man smiled, continuing to approach him. Then suddenly, his knees buckled and he fell on his rear. The man smiled, scary in his twisted hunger. "Now, little wild horse, you're obviously too tired to even walk out of this house. So why not let me carry you off to my bed so we can have some further fun with some of my friends..." "I can't move . . . What did you put in those food that you gave me?!" Ranma looked shocked. "Just something to help you relax, little man." The man's voice was devious and the little boy's frightened look was almost heart-breaking. The Man picked him up and the boy couldn't even struggle. "If you... do anything... funny to me, Pop WILL kill you!" Ranma tried to act tough, but his voice wavered considerably. The Man laughs as he carried the boy up to the more frightful chambers of the mansion. "Your *Pop* knows exactly what is coming to you, daddy's boy. Why else do you think he brought you here? Besides, everybody knows that horses are meant to be ridden." W H A T ? ! That's not possible! Pop is the only person that he could rely on. . . he wouldn't. . . In the bed chamber, the thinly veiled mask of respectability wore off as the demon showed his face, together with his goons. That night was painful, not only because of the combined violations of his body, but also the warring voices in his head. <. . . would he?> As if further torturing him, the night stretched on and on, reaching toward eternity. The boy continued to hang onto the notion that his father was guiltless like a fish to water. . . Until finally, after eternity had passed and he was once again civil and decent, if not back to full strength, his father came back for him. . . . . . and happily took a packed envelope from The Man before picking up the shattered remains of his son and left. "That's my boy!" Genma beamed as if his son had gotten a straight A report card, and the boy suddenly realized the falseness of his Pop's infamous teachings about being manly. The man then promised his son that he would never have to do something like that again. Even that turned out to be a lie, as the money was soon wasted away by drinking and gambling. Apparently, all that talk about how a martial artist must have self-control was a lie too. "Go make your father proud, son!" Night after night, Genma would say those words with utmost sentiment before handing his boy over to less than virtuous adults with ready checks. It became Ranma's "career", something that his father would place on the same level with his martial arts accomplishments. Two years passed by in this most twisted fashion. Ranma began to find his unorthodox "job" getting easier and easier as time passed by. Well, when a guy is stuck with doing something, he would gradually learn to endure it. In the beginning, he still had the courage to resist his fate for all that he was worth. Not that it helped, since his Pop wouldn't let him stop "working". The boy never seemed to be good enough to defeat his father. His numerous escape plans had all ultimately failed, gaining him more beatings and numerous lectures with the old "honour thy father" theme. Gradually, the drive behind his rebellion died down and he simply didn't care anymore. He knew that he could never be accepted by anyone who knew the truth, not even himself. Probably not even Ucchan, shall he see him now. Then one day in a motel room, Genma came to him right after he had finished his "work". Pop had been putting on weight lately: not surprising considering the amount of money his son brought in every day. It delighted Genma to no end seeing how Ranma's prize was getting higher and higher as he matured, instead of the other way around. "Good work, my boy." Pop was so proud of him that he looked almost fatherly. "Sure, Pop." The boy replied as he cooly observed his father's figure. "I've got another good deal for you tonight. It's a GIRL this time!" Pop smiled in an almost good-natured fashion. "Go make your father proud, son." The boy simply twisted his lips in distaste as he began putting on his clothes. The last "girl" his father set him up with was a psychotic old hag who insisted the boy to call her Mommy during the deed. "By the way, son," Pop said, "you're going to school starting next week." The boy looked weary as he looked up at his father with eyes that were lifelessly dim. "Why now, when I have done without school for so long?" "Because one day, you will need it." "Yeah, right." "I'm serious, son! One day. . ." Genma stared into the future with much drama, "you will marry someone whose dojo will eventually be under the Saotome name! Then you will be clean-cut and respected once more!! Of course, I'll need to further your training . . . hmm, a training trip to China after your first school year should do the trick . . . " Ranma simply turned around to blush his hair at the mirror, shutting out the babbling glutton behind him. ################################################################# Ranma stared coldly at his father, who was trembling with a red face by now. Whether the cause was shame, or the fury caused by a discoved shame, could not be determined clearly. Ukyou could almost felt the burning ache in her chest as her whole body trembled. A father, a martial artist for that matter, corrupting his son like this?! How could anyone even stand the thought of doing someything like this to his own flesh and blood?! And for such a long time?! How dare anyone torment the only one that had mattered to her in such a perverse fashion?! Indescribable fury burned through the girl's body as she clutched tightly onto her giant spatula. The fury was not hers alone to feel. Akane was burning with a red aura, a look of disbelieve on her face. Shampoo took out her pair of bonbori, her look cold enough to freeze water. Kodachi's ribbon was already twirling, and for once, there was a glint of righteous anger in her eyes instead of evil hatred. Ryoga was still in shock at the moment, while Mousse and Konatsu were paralysed by one shocking secret after another. Genma glared at his son. "You liked being the whore that you were! I saw it with you and Ryoga: you had obviously enjoyed it!" "I did, didn't I?" Ranma spoke up, surprising his father. "In the beginning, I was . . . only trying to be Ryoga's friend. Just simple, ordinary friends. I had none then . . . What happened afterwards was because . . . because I was afraid, afraid that friendship alone cannot get him to help me in the way I need him to. I was desperate, because I NEEDED him to help me . . . TO HELP ME GET AWAY FROM YOU!!!!!" The boy shouted. He spoke up again in a low voice. "I screwed up what could have been . . . an actual friendship. You have made me a whore, you've made me selfish and manipulative . . . you've made me just like . . . just like . . ." He crunched his fists as he spat out the last word, " . . . YOU." Before Genma could spoke up, Ranma continued. "And I'm not the only one whose life you had screwed up either. If only . . . if only you hadn't dragged me away from that vacant lot, I would have waited for Ryoga on the fourth day . . ." "?!" Ryoga's senses rushed back into him at hearing that sentence. ###########################FLASHBACK############################# On that lost day of hope and promise: With pink sakura petals drifting down all round him, Ryoga's boyish face had looked sincere as he answered Ranma's request to stick my his side. "I promise." Ranma smiled as a strong breeze blew by, almost burying the two under an infinite sea of pink. Finally, he could be free, together someone that he can truly trust and rely on. Ryoga looked down at the outline of Ranma's body under the red tanktop, and couldn't start his next sentence as his attention was drawn to something else entirely. He knew where his true preference lay, and the number of time that he had nose bled due to the sight of alluring actresses on TV strengthened that belief. But somehow, Ranma had proved to be an irrational exception. With his large eyes and delicate chin, the androgynous teenager looked like a girl dressed up and acting as a boy: enough to arose him, but not quite to the point of making him nose bleed. Ranma's eyes narrowed in a satisfied smile as he saw Ryoga's intense stare. He knew what would come afterwards. That first day in the vacant lot had began as nothing more than a scheme to gain his freedom. But somehow, as the number of their "sparring sessions" grew, Ranma had became increasingly attached to Ryoga's simpleness and loyalty. He was surprised by how good a company Ryoga could make. The act of "giving" himself over turned out to be . . . surprisingly rewardable. Ranma's smile returned as a strong breeze blew by, almost burying the two under an infinite sea of pink. Finally, he could be free, together someone that he can truly trust and rely on. Even if Genma could manage to track them down yet again, he will not be able to defeat BOTH of them at the same time now, will he? No longer will he be enslaved to that life-sucking glutton. Sakura in its full bloom, passion at it's peak - neither of them can last very long. Somehow, nobody seemed to know that. Ranma grinded Ryoga tight against himself in a sea of dead but still beautiful flowers, secure and certain in a bright future together with this loyal being. Slowly, the two's movements began to accelerate, crushing the unfortunate pink petals caught between them. Ranma kept on talking despite's its increasing difficulty. "We are leaving. . . tomorrow morning, Ryoga. I'll be waiting. . . at that vacant lot that we. . . fought. . . for the first time. . . right behind your house. Don't. . . be. . . late. . ." Eventually, both of them had exhausted their heat through the strenuous deed. Feeling absolutely secured in that entanglement of arms and legs under the blanket of flower petals, Ranma allowed himself to fell asleep. * * * * * * * Sitting on one of those pipes at the vacant lot, Ranma began to get scared as two days passed by and still Ryoga hadn't arrive. Dammit! Why did Ryoga had to wander off by himself at the park? Ranma was thinking about getting the lost boy back to his house first, and have him STAYED there as he went to gather his stuff to come back in the morning. But Ryoga was gone as he woke up: something that he hadn't anticipated in happening right after his promise. But Ryoga would never have abandoned him just like that. He was probably just trying to find a washroom or something by himself . . . and got hopelessly lost once again. But either way, this is bad. He couldn't stay at the vacant lot for too long each time, fearing that his Pop might find him there, and all will be lost. On the third day, as he went there again, Pop did find him there. And all was lost. ################################################################# D A R K N E S S A N D L I G H T by: Adrian Wong A DARK Ranma 1 / 2 Fan Fiction. All relevant characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. This story copyright 1997 - Adrian Wong Author's Rambling: Special thanks to all those on and off the FFML that had contributed ideas about the good and bad points regarding POISON. In the beginning, I was merely trying to create a long version of POISON. As time passed by, however, I've changed the story too much to be called a "long version". Inspirations, some of them contrasting, came in a frenzy. . . all of which eventually led to this somewhat familiar but NEW story. Only several tiny clips were remained from POISON in this finished monstrosity, and even they had been modified considerably. Warning: This story is guaranteed to be even more controversial than my previous work, POISON. Situations of adult nature are ahead, even though this is NO lemon fic (at least I don't think it is). Young readers and those with weak stomachs. . . be prepared for anything. Note: Dialogues are in " " Thoughts are in < > Songs are in * * ################################################################# PART 5B Genma cut him off. "So that was why you were sneaking around that vacant lot! You wanted to *elope* with him, was THAT it?!" "SHUT UP!!!!!!" Ranma shouted, "Because of you, Ryoga had searched the entire world for me! FOR OVER A YEAR!! He had even followed us to China! It was because of you that his life was destroyed, that he could never be a normal man again!! It was then that he started hating me! You have turned one of my best friends into my worst enemy!!" Finally, it all made sense to Ryoga now. He began hating himself, hating himself for having blamed his tragedy on someone who hadn't abandoned him, but was dragged back into a twisted hell due to HIS arriving late. And when their paths crossed again, no only did he not give Ranma the friendship that he had so desperately needed, but had unreasonably turned against him like a lover scorned, adding salt to his wounds for an entire year. Ranma didn't fail him: he failed Ranma. "You have no friends!" Genma growled, "I had always been the only one for you. And now you are pushing me away by this display of dishonour." "You have always tried to keep me for yourself." Ranma looked away, "Your prized property . . . When I was but a baby, you took me away from my mother under the guise of training. And whenever somebody actually tried to befriend me on the road, you would have us moving again. Thanks to that engagement to Akane, finally I could have assess to some kind of human interaction that aren't perverted." His eyes became watery as he spoke in a softer voice. "You know what? In the beginning, each enemy that I had made, each fiancee that had showed up . . . I cherished them. I liked them just for being there, fighting me for their loves, hounding me with their claims . . . projecting their own ideas of what I am onto a lost soul. I was able to turn into something new based on those ideas . . . then Ryoga had showed up. But it was alright in the beginning, since neither of us could brought ourselves to look back into the past, thus cannot destroy the layers of lies that I am hiding behind now. I was relatively save in my new identity . . . for a while, before Ukyou, the beginning of my entire history, the one whom you have robbed away from me, showed up again in my life." Outside, Ukyou was momentarily distracted from her anger at hearing that. Ranma's eyes stared off into space. "She was in my first memory ever of not feeling alone, my first memory ever of befriending another, my first memory ever of opening my heart to another, and much later, after seeing the inner strength and beauty that had been refined from all the pains and battles that you had put her through, my first memory . . . ever of loving someone, instead of just liking them." Ukyou's eyes widened. She was right all alone, despite what other people may think! Ranma DID love her! Shampoo silently dropped to her knees as Kodachi stood unmoving, but with tears steaming down her wide eyes. "Before she came back into my life, I could lie to anyone around me. I could even allow myself to lie to Akane, who I really THOUGHT that I was in love with. It was easy to lie to her, because her instinctive anger had prevented her to reach out to me, thus allowing me to conceal myself." Akane's eyes lowered as she heard that. Ranma lowered his eyes. "But Ukyou, to whom I had already opened my heart to as a kid, did not have that problem. I tried shutting her out in this new identity by being a jerk who no longer opens up to her. It didn't work: she knows how to decode my lies, thus see my true feelings." "Have you any idea how much I had wanted to just ran off with her in the middle of the night, to gain my freedom once and for all? But I couldn't. Whenever I'm with her . . . I tend to reveal too much of myself . . . so much that I'm sure that one day she would have discovered the truth about me not being the carefree, manly, winsome hero that she wanted so much . . ." Ranma lowered his head, his bangs covering his eyes, "That I'm nothing but a humanoid toy." For once, Genma was silent. "I can't have that. . . so I sticked by Akane. She is a nice girl when she isn't violent, and reasonably cute. Through those rare life and death moments, she had shown that she did care for me as much as I did her. I have already gotten around to liking her before Ucchan showed up again, and I though . . . I just might take a step further to actually LOVE her just to avoid Ucchan." Ranma shut his eyes as if in pain. "I was wrong. She was incapable of even remotely tolerating me when neither of us were in danger . . . I guess . . . I guess it's because both of us were equally hot-headed. We . . . it just couldn't work out." Outside, Ukyou silently cried to herself. Ran-chan had actually avoided her for all this time because of THIS?! How stupid can he be?! Can't he tell that she would have him no matter what had happened? And most of it wasn't even his fault!! Inside the dojo, Ranma looked up and stared at his father with eyes sparkling with an eerie tinker of light. "And now, all of this shall come to an end." Genma shifted his weight, steadying himself for any sudden moves. "And what was that supposed to mean, boy?" Ranma's lips twisted in a slight smile, even though his eyes stayed the same. "Exactly what it means: both of us are finally going to get what we really deserve. In the past, I had been held back by my own cowardice. Right now, nothing can possibly hold me back anymore." "What we really deserve?" Genma frowned as he stepped back, and find himself already against the dojo wall. Suddenly, the wooden wall behind him suddenly craved inward as he almost staggered back. "Yes, Genma. What you two really deserve." A woman's voice, trying to sound neutral, came out to be slightly shaky. A split second later a gleaming metal blade that had sliced open the wall was pressed against his neck. He didn't even need to look up into his assassinant's face: there was only one person who cold be the owner of this all to familiar looking katana. "I should scold you for what you did." Nodoka said in a dry voice, "But no words could describe you hideous crime." "No-chan... how..." Genma's sentence was cut off as Nodoka slapped him hard with her left hand as she held onto her katana with her right. "Does it hurt?" Nodoka asked, her face filled with mournfulness instead fury. It was the mournfulness of hope being destroyed, of sacrifices turning out to be futile and pointless, of a woman whose life as well as that of her son were destroyed due to her inability to break up a marriage when she had still got the chance. "But it was nothing compared to the hurt that you had given him . . . and me." she whispered in a frightfully even voice. Ranma spoke up with a smiling face that was somehow sad and vengeful at the same time. "We have been escaping from our duties long enough already, Pop. Now is the time to perform our duties . . . like you used to tell me to." "Du . . . Duties?" Genma asked, unnerved. Ranma's smile turned secretively predatory. "Forever forgetful when you want to be . . . our duties to prove our honours by committing seppuku, of course." Outside, everybody immediately tensed up. "Sep . . . seppuku . . ." Genma breathed out the word that had been the chore of his nightmare for ten years as he fell onto his knees. "That's right, Genma." Nodoka said with a sad smile, "If your lives had proven to be dishonourable, at least, at least let them end . . ." A single tear dropped from her glistering eye. ". . . with honour." Ranma lowered his eyes as he smiled. "Finally, I can prove myself to be honorable for once, while you shall get the punishment that you have always deserved." He thought back to the conversation that he had heard between the two Anything Goes masters, "I must say I have to thank you for your plan to have me seduce Kuno: I would never have the strength to do this had it not been for that final push. I hope seppuku will be as painful as it looks, for then I can pay back all that I've done to Ukyou . . . to everyone, by letting you drive me into doing all these sick things for so long." he turned to his mother, "Now I have a request." "What . . . is it, son?" Nodoka asked, pressing down a sob. "I want to be the one doing the execution at Pop's turn . . . with you doing my turn after I was done." Ranma said evenly as he looked at how Genma was trembling. "Can I?" Nodoka closed her eyes as tears continued to flow down her face. "Will it made you feel better if your father is to die at your own hands?" "No." Ranma said, almost sadly. "But it can give me the certainty that the man who was the beginning of all this will finally pay for his crimes. It can give me the satisfaction, however sad it might be, of justice being done." "As you wish then, my son." Nodoka said, turning away her face as she handed him the katana as well as a short dagger. Ranma stared at both weapons for a long time. In the past, he was once so scared of them that he would not reunite with his own mother. Now, he longed for the closure that they could have brought to this twisted mess. With a flick of his wrist, the short dagger was embedded right in front of Genma's kneeling figure. Standing behind his father, he raised up the katana as his eyes turned glacial. "It is time: get on with it." Genma looked at the dagger in front of him, which was glistering with a chilling cold light. After all the effort that he had put into avoiding this dagger, he still ended up having to commit seppuku? The feeling of the katana raised behind him was forcing his hand to reach out to the dagger. Looking in, Ukyou was stunned by what she was actually seeing. In the past, as she struggled alone to survive in the cruel and unsympathetic world, her heart often became bitter as the husband promised to her wasn't there to help her in her time of need. At times like that, she would fantasize about all the different types of gory death that she swore she would have made Genma Saotome suffer for his heartless betrayal of the Kuonji family. But she wasn't prepared for it to actually happen outside of a cruel daydream. And worst of all, Ran-chan, his son, was going to be the one carrying out this bloody execution! Honorable or not, this is . . . sick . . . Her heart skipped a beat at realizing something else: had he gone through killing his own father, then there will be no power in heaven nor hell to stop him from doing the same to himself according to his clan's code of honour! Watching his father's shaky hand, Ranma's cold eyes became sad of an instance. Genma Saotome was a failed martial artist without discipline. Now he, along with his son, had to pay for the consequences. Had the man been able to control his greed and selfishness, and avoided the temptation of giving his son over on that first night, then maybe none of this would have happened. Had Genma's choice been a little bit different . . . a kind of hesitancy began to build in Ranma's arms as Genma's hand had finally reached the dagger. "RAN-CHAN, NO!!!!!!!!" A familiar scream from the entrance of the dojo shattered Ranma's concentration as he felt the world crumbling onto him. She was here all along! The one who had mattered the most to him had seen through the image that he had created for her!! "It's not worth it!" Ukyou shouted as she rushed in, along with all the rest of his peers from outside. "He is not worth bloodying your hands over-" But Ranma couldn't hear a word that she had said. All he could think of was that SHE KNEW!! She knew about his past! She knew about his seduction of Ryoga!! She knew that he was- So shocked was he that he didn't feel the sudden pain in his midsection. Ukyou's scream was cut short as she saw Ranma's father thrusting the dagger into the boy's stomach. A split second later, he was gone, leaving a hole through the dojo wall that he had bursted through. Nodoka stared at the hole in disbelief. The man who had practically abandoned her, who had corrupted the character of her son, had fled from his just punishment after hurting her boy once more?! With a shout that was uncharacteristic of her she grabbed the katana form Ranma's numb fingers and proceed to chase after the man who had destroyed the mask of tradition that was once of value to her. Meanwhile, Ranma was still staring at Ukyou with a mixture of shame and horror on his pale face as he slowly backed away. The dagger fell from his stomach, and blood began to stray across the black robe. Ukyou was staring at the blossoming bloodstain on the black fabric in horror. What had she done?! Because of her, Ran-chan had been stabbed! "Ran-chan . . ." "Don't . . ." Ranma whimpered as he continued to back away. Ukyou took a step forward, her voice trembling. "The wound . . ." "DON'T LOOK AT ME!!!!!!!!!!" Ranma yelled as he turned and ran through the opposing exit of the dojo. "Wait! Ran-chan! Your wound-" Ukyou ran after him through the exit, but he wasn't there anymore. She looked wildly around, but there was no trace of him anywhere: the faint trail of blood stopped abruptly at the the open space. After finally finding out that her love was real, he had disappeared from her world again. Ukyou fell onto her knees, tears flowing down her face, as the rest of the teenagers tentatively gathered around her, none knowing what to say. Konatsu knelt down beside her and gave her a slightly hesitant embrace. "Don't cry, Ukyou-sama. Ranma WILL come back he had gotten past his shock. He even said . . . said that you are the one for him. . . don't cry . . ." He himself fell into tears as he realized the strength of Ukyou's love for Ranma, a love that can cross seemingly unbreakable boundaries . . . and that he himself could never even hope to replace him in her heart. Quietly stepping back from the group, Ryoga staggered away with his head lowered, unnoticed by any of them. "Forgive me . .. forgive me . . ." he mumbled to no one in particular. * * * * * * The gang of teenage martial artists had spent days searching for Ranma non-stop, save for Ryoga, who had disappeared as well. Whether he was just lost or had purposely went away from them was not known then. One day, Akane remembered about Nodoka and went to the Saotome residence to console the heartbroken Mrs. Saotome together with the equally heartbroken Ukyou, Shampoo and even Kodachi. It amazed all of them how well they had managed to get along after Ranma had disappeared. Even Kodachi, once the other girls' common enemy, seemed tolerable after all. Who knows? Perhaps they could have been great friends had it not been for their common rivalry. As the girls walked up to the house, they saw a sign stabbed onto the front lawn. [SOLD] Akane knocked on the door of a neighbouring house and asked an old woman about what had happened to Mrs. Saotome, and was told that nobody knew her whereabouts: she had simply disappeared after selling her house. Even the last possible link to Ranma was gone. Kodachi was the first to give up. The loss of Ranma had extinguished the dark fire that fuelled her, leaving the girl clear minded for the first time in years. She had turned from a glamourous, over-confident demoness into a drowsy, withdrawn girl who seemed to have lost interest in everything in this world. The last significant thing that she had ever done was to publicly renounced all her previous gymnastic victories and gave the trophies to her shocked opponents, causing an uproar at her school. That was before she had quitted the gymnastic team. Shampoo had persisted for a month longer than Kodachi. Then she, too, had to finally admit that even if Ranma was coming back, he won't be coming back for her. Mousse was treating her as if she was made of glass. For once he wasn't mentioning anything about his love in their conversations, fearing that it will further upset the already depressed girl. Cologne had been making preparations to sell the Nekohanten, and was patiently teaching Shampoo some Japanese martial art techniques that she had picked up over the year so that their stay in Japan wouldn't be exactly pointless. Akane was once again fighting hordes of boys every morning after the school days had begun again: the news of Ranma having ran off had spread out. After an entire year of fighting with dozens of first class martial artists that had appeared due to Ranma, she had unknowingly improved so much that fighting with the untrained boys had became a even more effortless thing to her. The discovery of her improvement was the only consolation to Soun, who had no longer got a male heir to inherit his dojo. With no more romantic tensions in her life (not significant ones anyway), Akane had devoted herself solely to the art and her academic routines. Yet night after night, she silently wondered how it would have been if she had shown more tolerance and understanding toward Ranma when he was still hers to own. As for Ukyou, she never gave up. By day she managed her restaurant, and by night she would have checked every place that she could around Nerima to try to find her Ran-chan. On nights that she became too tired, Konatsu would have done it for her, not having the heart to refuse her; he knew that it would have been futile. It was ironic how the girl that Ranma had finally admitted his love to would have to be the one to suffer the most. Konatsu did, however, caught sight of a familiar looking bum dozing off on the side of the front door of a bar on one of his night searches. The white bandanna covering his baldness was gray and black with dirt, and the glasses on his bloated, greasy face were broken. Crutched in his hand was a half empty bottle of low quality sake, of which odour he was reeking of. Konatsu passed by the no-longer significant lump without looking back: the man that was the cause of all this interconnected misery had got what he deserved. Ukyou began going occasionally to the cathedral to attend masses. It did gave her some peace of mind. However, she still prefer going to the place at its emptier hours, savouring its peculiar beauty and its quietness. Kneeling on the long benches, with the glass windows casting sharp, coloured shades onto her then unearthly features, the girl would pray repeatedly for the second part of her initial wish to come true: that she could be with her love once more in the light of his hopefully new life. Eventually, the no longer cross-dressing Konatsu was discovered by a talent scout from a certain studio. After demonstrating his infamous singing abilities right in the restaurant, he was offered a two-year contract by the studio that had promised to groom him into an idol singer. "I . . . I can't." Konatsu replied hesitantly to the talent scout. "Ukyou-sam . . . san needs me to help her run this restaurant." "Oh hush, silly." Ukyou chided him as she offered the talent scout a piece of okonmiyaki. "Before you came, I have been running a yatai all by myself when I was six, and a restaurant since I was ten. Whatever makes you think that I can't get by on my own?" "But this is you time of need, with your work and your search for Ranma-san . . . " "And you think I am going to feel better by dragging you down with me?" Ukyou smiled wearily as she shook her head. "Am I that selfish?" "Ukyou-san . . ." "Remember what your stepmother had said as you left her to come to me, even if she didn't mean it?" "That I'll have to learn to leave my nest and take my own flight?" Ukyou looked into his innocent large eyes, and sighed. Konatsu had a even rougher childhood than she had, being abused by those ugly creatures. However, unlike her, who was forced into the mean streets, the boy was imprisoned inside some run-down erotic cafe throughout his earlier years. He was still very much a stranger to the outside world. The more "worldly" girl spoke with a mature air despite the fact that they were the same age. "Now I'm going to say the same thing to you, kid. But this time, I mean it. I can't let you waste your talents away by being a waiter at my restaurant any longer: you're much more than that, and you know it. Its time for you to get out to the real world and be what you are truly gifted to be." "Ukyou . . ." Konatsu was almost in tears. Turning to the talent scout, Ukyou then proceeded to expertly bargain for a more profitable contract for Konatsu with business skills that put him in awe. All these years of making a living on her own had paid off by giving her business experiences that was well beyond her age. There was a part in the contract that had stated that Konatsu MUST move away to a bachelor's apartment assigned by the studio. The image of a rising idol singer/actor in Japan is very fragile, and his fans will usually be very possessive. At least during the beginning, Konatsu couldn't afford the possibly negative impact of him actually living together with another girl in the public's eyes. So with a heavy mind but secretly excited heart, Konatsu left "Ucchan's" and went on to pursue his goal. After Konatsu was gone, Ukyou had became even more busy than before. The sudden increase in workload, combined with her own almost nightly searches, had wore her down considerably, even though she tried hard not to show it to anyone. Konatsu had insisted on coming by to help out whenever he could, but his increasingly busy schedule wouldn't allow him to do much. All that she could do was to pray to have the strength to keep herself together through all this. On one particular morning, a tired Ukyou was drowsily preparing for the business of the day as usual. As she had began pulling up the front gate of her restaurant, a letter was tossed into the restaurant through the slit. Alerted by this strange delivery, she hurriedly opened the gate and rushed outside, but nobody was there. After looking around the street suspiciously, she went back inside the restaurant to open the letter. Her eyes widened as she saw the first word on the letter. Ucchan: * * * * * * * Later that morning, at the Nekohanten, Cologne was washing dishes as Shampoo listened to Mousse as he read a Japanese letter to her. She was desperately trying to keep a calm expression as the words sank in. "Shampoo: I heard that you are finally going back to China. Therefore I, who had been avoiding everybody for all this time, have to apologize for all that I had done, before it is too late. "First off, I have to apologize for dishonouring you in front of the entire Amazonian assembly over a year ago. It was most dishonourable of me to fight you after eating your price, without even apologizing for my rudeness. "The second thing that I have to apologize for was that I had misled you all this time without ever correcting you. Forgive me, but I am not the tough warrior that you thought I was. Friends were entirely too important to a selfish jerk like me. I was scared of losing a friend, and as a result, led you to believe that we could be more just friends. But we couldn't. I think that's obvious now. I know this will be a violation to your law, which demands you to trap any outsider man who had defeated you into marriage. I am sorry about the dishonour that you will be put through because of me. "Enclosed together within this package is the secret scroll of the Saotome School of Anything Goes, with every step of my art depicted in details. Hopefully, by strengthening yourself with these techniques, you can somehow regain your status among your people. Also, there is a check in this package. Hopefully, it can cover the plane tickets and other travelling fees for all three of you on your trip back, if not the expenses of staying in Japan all this time. "By the way, I wanted to thank Cologne for teaching me all those amazing techniques: can't believe I was such a jerk that I hadn't ever been grateful to her for all the times that she had unconditionally helped me. Also, please tell Mousse that under different circumstances, we might have been better friends. I can only hope that all of you can someday forgive me for all the pains and troubles that I had caused. Ranma" Mousse finished as he took off his glasses and looked up to Shampoo's direction. Shampoo quietly picked up the scroll and began reading through it. She laughed softly as she read through some of the Saotome techniques, such as the Deadly Escapement Technique, the Descending Tiger Apology Technique, the There's 100 Yen On The Floor Distraction Technique . . . crystalline drops fell onto the scroll, staining it. It took her a moment to realize that those were her tears. "Shampoo . . ." Mousse heard her sniffing as he took out a handkerchief from under his sleeve and handed it to her direction. Shampoo's laugh had turned into sobbing as she took the handkerchief. "Ranma . . . Shampoo so sorry . . ." she sobbed as she wiped at her eyes, "She want Airen . . . but not if hurt him with guilt." Cologne sighed as she finished the last dish and hopped over on her staff. "Guess we should have told the poor boy about the truth before all this had happened." Shampoo turned to Mousse as she continued to sob. "Why Mousse never tell Ranma? Thought you want break us up." "About how that Amazon Law Book that we show outsiders is different from the standard one?" Mousse sighed. "Should he know an Amazon has the right to release an outsider man from her Kiss of Love anytime that she wants, he might have turned against you in rage. You will be hurt, and I don't mean physically." Mousse looked sadly at her. "I would rather scare him away with my skills than to have you crushed by his hate." "What skills?" Shampoo snorted as she wiped off the last of her tears. "But . . . thanks, Mousse. For always care for Shampoo, even when she no deserve." "Shampoo . . ." Mousse's eyes lit up. "Does that mean . . ." "We friends." Shampoo said, "Very good friends . . . but no can be more." She winced for the first time at seeing the dejection on the boy's face. But, like Ranma before her had discovered, it really doesn't payoff to give anyone false hopes. * * * * * * * At noon, a gentle breeze was blowing through a gigantic greenhouse, as its top was open. The breeze was a bit cold, no surprise considering how the fall was approaching. Lying lazily on a garden couch placed there, with pieces of beautiful black petals falling elegantly onto her tired features, a girl with her free falling long hair in dishevel was shivering slightly, yet too tired to go back indoor. She supposed maybe she should have gone to school instead of just lying here in this garden doing nothing. But she wasn't feeling well, and had only one important class today to attend. Tired and depressed, she decided that it wasn't worth the trouble. Looking at the falling petals from her sinister yet glamourous flowers, she sighed as she knew that the botanic symbols of her prowess were about to wilt under the cooling weather. Yet, she didn't feel like saving them. "Mistress Kodachi!" The wilted rose forced herself to sit up at the sound of Sasuke, dull eyes looking up at her loyal ninja. "What is it?" she asked, yawning. "It . . . it's a letter to you . . ." said the ninja as he shakily held out a letter to her. "Just put it in my room and I shall burn it later." Kodachi wiped at her eyes. ". . . From Saotome Ranma." The letter was snatched from his hand in a flash. Barely controlling her trembling hands and tearing opening the envelope, the girl began reading through the letter. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kodachi: I heard that you have changed a great deal since I was gone. You have honestly renounced all of your previous victories - empty trophies won by unorthodox means. I am glad that you have finally to admit your wrongs before it was too late: it takes a really brave person to have done what you did. I know. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kodachi lowered her eyes as tears steamed down her face. No, she hadn't done it out of bravery nor honour. She had simply done it out of her cowardice and her despair of the futility of life. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> But what was all that talk about the Black Rose "wilting away"? There were rumours among the girls at your school about how you had quit the gymnastic team, how you are skipping classes, and how your grades are on the verge of plummeting. Is it . . . because I have left? If it is, then I have to apologize for my indecision in the past. But there can never be anything more than friendship between us, I think you know that now. I know that you think you love me, but basically that is only because you think that I am the only one who will spare you any kindness. Well, that won't be the case for very long, if you will only pull yourself together: join back the gymnastic team, and raise your marks again. You, of all the people I know, do NOT have the right to give up on life. Just look at how good you have it! You're rich, you're smart, and . . . don't tell the others, but physically, you are the most desirable girl in Nerima. And now, with your new-found honour to go with your looks, you can easily have friends or even boyfriends a thousand times better than me in no time. So try your best to blossom once more, preferably without thorns attached this time: they scare away bees and butterflies that would have come to you otherwise. I have fought you before, and I know that even without cheating, you should be able to win any gymnastic contest that you want, and enter any University that you desire. You have a future, don't just let it slide away. P.S. Please tell Tatewaki that I am sorry for not letting him find out earlier, and that I was in a blind rage when I said all those things to him. Ranma. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kodachi sobbed heartily as Sasuke looked concerned. She now knew that she never did have the best lover in the whole world: she had the best friend in the whole universe, without even realizing it. Her classmates were all happy at seeing her wasting away. They thought of her downfall as an indication of a major threat removed from the society . . . Hell, even she thought so herself! But even after being the target of her selfish yearnings for all this time, Ranma STILL encouraged her to straighten up once more, regardless of the possible consequences that might have! Gradually, she brought her sobbing under control and wiped the tears off her face. "Sasuke." Sasuke, not knowing what to expect from his volatile mistress, asked gingerly. "Yes, Mistress?" Kodachi smiled a genuine smile that could finally reach her eyes, surprising the ninja. "Close up the top of the greenhouse. My roses have still got a lot of blossoming to do." * * * * * * * In the afternoon at the Tendo Dojo, Akane had just returned a little late from school when she found the entire household rushing out to her. "What is goi-" "Oh, my poor baby!!!!" Soun wailed as he swept Akane into his arms for a teary hug. Kasumi and Nabiki simply stood behind him and stare. "What's the matter, Daddy?!" Akane yelped. "Akane-chan, Ranma-kun has sent us a letter." Kasumi said with a hint of nervousness. "WHAT?!" Akane threw off her father and rushed up to Kasumi. "Where is it?!" "Right here. It was in the mailbox when I came back." Nabiki said as she handed her an opened letter addressed to Akane. Akane took a look at it and frowned. "Hey! It was addressed to ME!" "So?" Akane glared at her older sister. "Why was it opened?!" Nabiki smirked. "Oh, sorry about that. It's just that the outline of a check was showing through ever so alluringly from beneath the paper envelope, and I just couldn't help but open it." Akane was a little bit taken back as she heard that. "A check?" "Yes, it was for the expenses that he and his father had cost us during their stay here." Frowning quizzically, Akane took out the letter and read it. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Akane: I heard that you have improved in just about almost everything since I have left. That's good: our decision to split up appears to be the right one for both of us after all. Still, I have to thank you once again for your kindness to me during my stay. Even though you had never truly known me, that smile of yours when you let your guard down had considerably brightened my life to a large extend. Mom told me to tell you guys that the two of us are doing fine on our own. I have finally secured a somewhat positive source of income, thus allowing me to repay our debts. Surprisingly, Mom does not think that it is wise for us to be visiting the Tendo Dojo until the engagement thing has truly blown over. I would never have believed that she would say this, but Mom told me that after all that she had seen me been through in "honour" of the Saotome line, she had finally realized the unfairness of it all to force the two of us to be married. She now claims that it is dishonourable to even engage one's children in the name of honour: clan duties are insignificant when compared to the love and compassion that a parent must give her own flesh and blood. She hopes that Mr. Tendo would understand and forgive her decision to free us one day. Enclosed together within this envelope is a check, which can hopefully cover all the expenses that me and Genma had cost the Tendo household. We both wish you, as well as your household, true harmony and happiness. Ranma >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Akane quietly folded up and letter and put it back into the envelope. Whatever sparks of fire that had been between them had truly extinguished, forever replaced by polite and platonic friendship. She guessed she would have to live with that now. Beside her, Soun was crying a river. "Oh! How could Genma's wife do that to us? Now I TRULY have no male heir for the dojo!" the middle aged man wailed. Akane frowned. Her father was STILL not over this insanity? "Daddy, aren't I good enough as a heir?" "But . . . Saotome-kun . . . the promise . . . it's just not right! The two heirs to the Anything Goes MUST be married in order for the bloodline of the school to be strengthened!" Akane narrowed her eyes. "I see . . . so me and Ranma are really nothing more than tools to heighten the power of the school, is that it?" Soun was taken back by her sudden bitterness. "Akane . . . I . . ." "If you do value me as your child, then follow Mrs. Saotome's example. If not . . ." Akane forced her voice to harden. "Just remember what had happened to Mr. Saotome after pushing Ranma too far." With that, she walked up the stairs into her room. Kasumi and Nabiki quickly followed her, leaving Soun standing there stunned. "Akane-chan, was that really necessary?" Kasumi asked inside the closed door of Akane's room, frowning. Nabiki joined in as she picked up that day's newspaper from Akane's desk and began skimming through it. "Yeah, I mean, judging from the amount that Ranma is repaying our family, the guy must have finally became financially capable somehow. He might not be such a bad catch anymore." "That's not the point!" Akane said with frustration. "It is about time for Dad to REALLY see what being a father is all about, before he got deeper and deeper into that honour thing until he became another Mr. Saotome!" Kasumi's eyes widened as she held a hand to her cheek. "Father is nothing like Mr. Saotome, Akane-chan." "Not yet, he isn't." Akane sighed. "Sister, you know very well that I can protect myself these days even if Dad had decide to engage me to someone else again. I was only saying those harsh things for Dad to change, for his own good!" "Well . . ." Nabiki, meanwhile, let out a small whistle as she read out a commercial aid at the Arts and Books section. "Of love and tears, kempo and kendo, human and animals, the new manga that rocked the Japanese Comic Market . . ." Her eyes widened. "Ran 1 / 2 ?!" "What?!" Akane gasped. "Oh, my! What a familiar name." Kasumi said. All three of them gathered around the newspaper as they looked at the aid. It showed the drawing of a ponytailed (not pigtailed) boy and a ponytailed girl, startlingly similar looking, performing kata as a gang of armed and unarmed teenagers were drawn to the background in various battle poses. Below the drawing were the pen names of the creators of the manga: Rumiko T.- Artworks R.R. - Story "R.R. huh . . . what a cheesy pen-name. Hmph! He just had to wait until AFTER splitting up with my sister to find a way to become loaded. How typical of men." At a the bottom of the aid was the front cover of the first volume of the manga, which here it said can be found at every manga store across Japan. It showed a long haired girl with bangs parting in the middle smiling down on a blushing, ponytailed girl. It's title was: Friendship and Beyond. With a thousand feelings coming into her mind, Akane could only smile wearily as she stared at the drawing that had so expertly captured a moment of her past. ################################################################# D A R K N E S S A N D L I G H T by: Adrian Wong A DARK Ranma 1 / 2 Fan Fiction. All relevant characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. This story copyright 1997 - Adrian Wong Author's Rambling: Special thanks to all those on and off the FFML that had contributed ideas about the good and bad points regarding POISON. In the beginning, I was merely trying to create a long version of POISON. As time passed by, however, I've changed the story too much to be called a "long version". Inspirations, some of them contrasting, came in a frenzy. . . all of which eventually led to this somewhat familiar but NEW story. Only several tiny clips were remained from POISON in this finished monstrosity, and even they had been modified considerably. Warning: This story is guaranteed to be even more controversial than my previous work, POISON. Situations of adult nature are ahead, even though this is NO lemon fic (at least I don't think it is). Young readers and those with weak stomachs. . . be prepared for anything. Note: Dialogues are in " " Thoughts are in < > Songs are in * * The song used in this part is "Falling in love with you". ################################################################# E p i l o g u e : The "Kuonji Okonomiyaki House" was a cross between a grand western restaurant and a traditional okonomiyaki place. The place was a lot larger than Ucchan's, and several young women were cooking on the long griddle that lined the counter. The dinning area was packed with young couples, as it was on every night since its opening. There was a small stage with karaoke machines in front of the restaurant, on which a long haired boy with hair tied up in a high ponytail was singing a hauntingly sultry song. With incredible eye-contact that spoke volumes to his audiences, the singer skilfully lured them into a particularly sensual twilight zone. *Take my hands, Oh, take my whole live too~, I can't help, Falling in love with you~.* A beautiful girl with flowing dark hair smiled at the boy's confidence and boldness from behind the counter, remembering a time in the past when he had acted like a timid little doe. Things changed, a lot. The singer finished his last act with a thrown smoke bomb, mysteriously disappearing from the stage. The young people cheered loudly. This handsome boy was no stranger to the hip crowd. As an upcoming idol singer, Konatsu has the type of cross-gender sensuality that was especially attractive to the new generation of Japanese. He was a "bishonnen", and a top quality one at that. More than that, his incredible dancing skill and on-stage charisma had marked him as an undeniable true talent instead of just another boy with a pretty face. Also, his spectacular portrayal of a ninja in his new movie had showed off another talent of his: martial arts. It was rumoured that he was the lover of the boss of Kuonji's Okonomiyaki House, even though both claimed that they were only friends. Anyway, Konatsu still made a habit of performing at the okonomiyaki place every weekend, despite his rising fame. Looking at her new restaurant with her glistering dark eyes, the girl smiled contently. Finally, her childhood dream of honest prosperity had come true. In a month or so, twenty smaller sized okonomiyaki restaurants, all entitled "Ucchan's", will open themselves at various urban spots of Tokyo. They were the franchised branches of her restaurant, each of which selling her rich styles of okonomiyaki all over Tokyo, and in about a year, with even more branches, all over Japan. The reason for such rapid success? Ran-chan. Enclose together with his very brief letter for her was a check containing a shocking number of digits. He claimed that it was his family's repayment for the shame and poverty that the Kuonjis had suffered after Genma had stolen Ukyou's dowry, her only livelihood at that time. She was shocked at first. How on earth did Ran-chan get all that money? He didn't leave a forwarding address, and Ukyou had no way of finding him on her own. For a moment she was worried that he had done something stupid in order to repay that huge dept to her. Her fears were calmed almost immediately as Akane had come over to tell her about the Ran 1 / 2 manga. She was pleasantly surprised that Ran-chan had finally learned some kind of money making talent. That is what sustains a man in the real world. In the past, everybody had assumed that Ranma would have eventually turned out just like his father. Now, through his own struggle, that unfair assumption had been killed off once and for all. Worries aside, Ukyou immediately used the money to open this much larger restaurant. She had specially designed this restaurant to be something that JUST had to catch people's attention. And it did; only a month into its opening, various business corporations had immediately made various propositions to start a chain of restaurants based on hers. After going through various interviews with all their representatives, Ukyou had settled on one that is willing to include HER specified receipts in their contract: she wouldn't want the franchised stores to cheapen the name of the Kuonji legacy with cheap ingredients and bad cooking. And the rest is history. During that time, Ranma had sent another much longer letter to apologize for his "cowardice and withdrawal" from her. He claimed that he shall return on a certain night. And tonight was the night that he had promised to return to her. Anxiously, Ukyou waited behind the counter as her hired hands began to clean up the place. It was almost midnight, and the customers were beginning to leave as the store hours were about over. One thing puzzled her though: why was that last letter written by traditional oriental ink feathers instead of Ran-chan's usual ball pen scribbling? And that wasn't the only mystery about Ran-chan either. Why was it that "R.R." had kept such a low profile even after the manga had became a success? At first she thought it was because Ranma was afraid of Soun's pestering had he discovered the Dojo heir's whereabouts. But Mr. Tendo had calmed down long ago, through Akane's less than gentle methods, and there was no longer any need for that. Ukyou thought as she waved her hired hands goodbye after they had finished their work. Konatsu also left, desperately needing sleep for some recordings at the studio tomorrow. Ukyou walked outside of the front door of the restaurant, anxious for Ran-chan's arrival. * * * * * * * Hiding in the darkness of an alley by the corner, two figures were watching her. One of them was apparently pushing the other out to the open street. "Be a man about it!" he whispered harshly. "You brick-brain! I can't believe that you would actually set me up like this!" another whisper could be heard, "Sending her a letter under my name to tell her that I would come-" "It is about time for you to stop running away from her, from everybody! I did what I had to do!" The first voice hissed. "Now go up to her before it is too late!" "What about you? It's about time for you to show yourself too!" "Dammit! You know that I am different!" the first voice sounded frustrated, "I am not wanted by anyone here! But you, you have her to go to." "Ryoga . . ." the second voice dimmed. "Listen to me, Ranma. Ukyou did NOT mind that twisted mess had happened to you in junior high. She loves you just for existing in this world. You DON'T turn away from girls like that, especially not when you feel the same way about her!" Ranma hesitated for a moment. ". . . but what about you and Akari? It didn't exactly went well after you told her about us . . ." Ryoga's voice was sad. "My case is different. Me and Akari are just not suited for each other. She likes me simply because of the fact that I can beat her sumo pig. And I, I liked her simply because she was pretty and gentle and that she gave me the attention that I desperately needed. I never did really understand her . . . and that situation was mutual. That was why it went so badly . . . Now GO!" "Then why are you staying here?!" Ranma asked, still trying to delay the inevitable. "Because I'm not the one that she is expecting! I'm not even sure if I'm one that she wants to see right now, especially not after she's found out about what had happened between us. Besides, even if she didn't mind, this IS the night of you and her reunion: it is neither the time nor the place for me to show up." "Ryoga, if she won't mind about me, she won't mind about-" Ryoga cut him off. "But I do . . ." Ranma winced at the heaviness in his voice. It hadn't been easy for Ryoga to put the past behind him either. Ranma put a hand on his shoulder. "Ryo-" "Now GO!" Abruptly, Ryoga pushed his forever indecisive friend out into the main street, into Ukyou's plain view. "Uc . . .Ucchan . . ." Ranma stammered, losing all his wits at the sight of her. A gentle night breeze tossed strands of her soft, brown hair around her face as bits of starlights were reflected in her dark eyes, making the girl looked more illusory than real. Ranma's heart skipped a beat. Could this unearthly apparition even stand the sight of someone like him, now that his past was naked to her starlit eyes? The unearthly apparition, however, didn't hesitate in leaping over and pulling him into a tight hug. "Ran-chan . . ." Ukyou breathed out the word as she buried her face in his shoulder, stunning him. "Finally . . . you come back!" Ryoga looked at them wistfully from the dark alley. After splitting up with Akari and travelling for eternity under guilt, he had ran into Ranma by accident. Ranma was enrolled in another high school (naturally) far and away from Nerima. Under the watchful eyes of his mother, Ranma had improved quite a lot in the schoolwork that he never did pay attention to in the past. He had also gotten quite an income by selling episode after episode of his past to a manga artist, sugar-coated and through coloured glass, and with his REAL curse to back him up on it. Apparently, he was also quite gifted at writing comically prankish dialogues: something about him that had never been quite appreciated when he did it verbally in the past. After seeing his unkept state, Ranma had offered him a room in the new Saotome residence to stay at. Ryoga had accepted such hospitality just so that he could be able to repay his first friend by reuniting him with his love. Now that it was done, it was time for him to disappear once more for both their sakes: he himself was the living reminder of Ranma's dark, disturbing past, and could not risk showing up too soon least he destroyed everything. Besides, even though Ranma didn't know yet, Ryoga had long been cured of his misdirection problem. One is only lost when one wills himself to be lost by closing his eyes to this world. Finally brave enough to face reality, it was time for him to go back home, and start a less absurd life. When his friends were ready to see him again, they shall find a new man with a more honorable purpose in life. With that, he leapt up over a rooftop, and disappeared into the dark but star-dotted sky. Meanwhile, Ranma was still shocked by the intensity of Ukyou's embrace. "Ucchan, even after all that you have known about me, you still . . ." "Ran-chan, your past actions . . .that with Ryoga and all . . . wasn't entirely honorable. But under such a desperate situation, I . . . I might have done the same thing too." "Ucchan . . ." "Don't be too hard on yourself: it's unfair to not only you, but me and the others as well. It was all in the past now: don't let it ruin the future." Ukyou's eyes were getting teary as she looked up at him. "Besides, if you love me, my heart is yours to hold on; and if you don't, just tell me, and my shoulder will still be yours to lean upon. Either way, I will still care for you, just as I have for almost everyday since I have known you when we were five." Ukyou's voice dimmed as she continues, "Even during the ten years that I have hated you . . . I was still in love with you. It's just that . . . I wasn't strong enough to keep that love from turning into hate then . . . I am now. So DON'T ever just ran away from me like that again!" "Never again, Ucchan. Never again." Tears flowed freely down Ranma's face as he returned the embrace. As they both stood there, supporting each other with their embraces, Ukyou saw something through her teary eyes over Ran-chan's shoulder. It was the pointed top of the now familiar tower of the cathedral, outlined with stings of light bulbs to give it a shiny outline by night. On top of it was the now light dotted cross, upon which Ukyou had made a wish. That wish had finally come true, after bringing her through a necessary journey into darkness that she didn't think she was capable of undertaking in the past. But through the tiny glimpse of hope and faith within her, she was able to come back out into the light not only save and sound, but a much improved person as well. Smiling gratefully at the shiny symbol of Christ, Ukyou again rested the side of her head upon the shoulder of her wish came true. T h e E n d I might be repeating myself, but I JUST have to thank the following people here once more: Gary Klepp - who had not only given me a lot of ideas of how to mordify it, but had taken the time to sent the story to VARIOUS other prereaders as well. Torrence A. Griffin - who warned me about the wrath of the Akane Lovers shall they read this :) Zen - for liking the story SO MUCH (you will see why) and helping with the grammar for the FINAL product. He will probably do an Akane side story for this fic as well if he has time and/or inpiration. Tzigane - for commenting on Ranma & Ryoga parts as well as agreeing to write a Kodachi Side Story for this fic. Ryan Anderson: For liking the story so much that he is now writting the Shampoo side story this fic. Sean Connor: For pointing out various wrongs in the story, and agreeing to write the Ranma side story for this fic. There are others that have C&C for the draft on the FFML. I thank them here as well.