[FFML] [shortfic][Ranma]Hatred

Hatred
By Libby Thomas
'Ranma 1/2' characters are owned by a person you already are aware isn't me.

People hate you when you're different. I found that out today. I found that out with an accident.

We've been married for two days now, Ranma and I, and as I sit here in the hospital, looking over his battered and bruised body, I thought that we should be enjoying our honeymoon, we should be enjoying life together. Instead, I'm here watching as doctors patch up my beloved husband, not because of a fight that he had with Ryoga or Mousse or any of the others, but because he's different.

The day had started off so innocuously. We were here, in Hawaii, enjoying a well-earned honeymoon after all the years of struggle, all the years of fighting with ourselves and each other. It was over now, though; we were married, and his parents even set us up on a week's Honeymoon in Hawaii, where I've always wanted so desperately to go. Yesterday, we arrived, and enjoyed our first night and life together as a couple. Everything, from the sunset, to the lovemaking, was perfect.

Today is when everything went wrong. We were at a beach on the Northern Shore, when I decided to do a little snorkling in the ocean. Ranma, in his girl form, came along with me, and at one point decided to go back to the nearby food stand and get us a couple of sodas.

The majority of what else happened was contained in the copy of the report given to me by the police: that a large man attempted to get Ranma to go out with him. Ranma, being in girl form, explained that "she was here with her spouse" and couldn't do that. Now, that would have been acceptable, except for the fact that the guy's girlfriend popped up and misunderstood the situation. Enraged, she threw a glass of warm tea at Ranma, triggering his change.

Most people in Japan, faced with the sight of a gorgeous young woman in a bathing suit suddenly changing gender, would have simply just backed off out of confusion, or left in shock. However, this man, according to witnesses, screamed out, "Fuckin' fag!" and attacked Ranma. Now, that would have been easy if it remained one-on-one, as Ranma would have easily have defeated him. But apparently more and more joined. Ranma may be the best martial artist in the world, but when you have dozens of men the size of American football players attacking, even someone like Ranma (already hampered by the confines of having to wear one of my suits) can fall. He could have one if he'd used his ki-strikes and such, but my husband has always been honorable. More so than the savages he was fighting at the time.

And all that time I spent out in the water, I never heard Ranma slowly losing to those monsters who attacked him not because he was a threat or dishonorable, but because he was different. I never heard the shouts of "Get the drag queen" or "Beat the shit outta that homo!" I never heard any of that, never knew that even my presence as his wife might have done something about that. But then again, it could have made things worse. People who hate blindly never listen to reason--it's a threat to neat little paradigms.

By the time I came back to the shore, it was over, and the police were there in droves, arresting the instigators. The paramedics were also there, mostly to pick up the several injured attackers that Ranma took out, but mainly there to try to save my husband, who was diagnosed in critical condition. He had been saved by a couple who were intelligent enough to not blindly follow the crowd, to see that a person needed help from beasts too inhuman to even think about what they were doing. It was they who saved him, who I have to thank. As the officer spoke to me, phrasing the questions with that "Your husband probably will not survive, Mrs. Saotome" look, it was they who were at my side, offering me assistance and support.

What's most ironic of all is those two kindhearted souls were a homosexual couple, the very same type of person that my husband was accused of being. But because these gentlemen, who looked more like a pair of guys "scoping out babes on the beach", did not fit the stereotype, they were left alone, even as my husband was being torn apart for the crime of having a curse on him that he cannot even control, a curse he doesn't want and doesn't like. Truthfully, I am grateful that those beasts left those two gentlemen alone. They nearly killed my husband because they thought he was one of those which they blindly hated. I shudder to think as to what they would have done to the real thing.

As I sit here, looking at my husband, who's stabilized but in a coma, the tears roll down my cheeks in sorrow. Sorrow, but never hatred--I refuse to sink down to the level of the beasts who brutalized my Ranma. Tomorrow, I'll have to call everyone back in Nerima and tell them what happened; to ask them to come if they can or to offer their prayers and support. But at least I have two people here who are willing to be at my side during this crisis--living proof that these so-called "unnatural people" are more natural and humane than those who oppose them.

People hate you when you're different. I found that out today, and the knowledge was paid by my husband's blood.

Author's Notes:
This is dedicated to the memory of Matthew Shepard, whose tragic death reminds us all that we as people have a long way still to go before we can eradicate bigotry once and for all. All of us, straight, gay, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, Jewish, gentile, or whatever have an obligation as human beings to ensure that the world is free from such barbaric and primitive notions. Animals of the same species accept each other regardless of the differences in pigmentation--why can't we? To use that clich�, but very true phrase: "Why can't we all just get along?"
Oh, and if any of you are trivial enough to send me a note asking who he married, you clearly need to rethink your priorities.