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Previous Chapters can be found at http://aleh.anifics.com or
http://tannim.anifics.com. Fanfiction.net, when it's up, also hosts my
stories.
-- Attached file included as plaintext by Ecartis --
-- File: ReflectionSS1b.txt
Disclaimer:
When thou doest think that I doest own these series, thou knowest that
thou art having a flashback to thy experiences with lysurgic acid.
-------------------
The following are excerpts from the third edition of Chizuru Noriko's
masterpiece "Heaven and Hell: The Life of Saotome Ranma" (copyright 2873, 2878
and 2883 by Rabid Squirrel Publications), which is generally considered to be
both the best and the most accurate biography of Saotome Ranma ever written. The
full text is available in E-book format from Rabid Squirrel's psinet page, or in
hardcopy at your local matter replication center for the price of three Alliance
credits or fourteen Neoyen.
-------------------
Reflection,
By
Aleh
Sidestory One: Heaven and Hell
Chapter One: Akane
-------------------
No biography of Saotome Ranma would be complete without mentioning Tendou
Akane, the woman he loved. His feelings for her were legendary, inspiring some
of the greatest romances ever written. Unfortunately, however, none of them
actually capture the spirit of what really happened. Most of them take a rather
clich�d approach to the matter or drop important character traits.
Neither Ranma nor Akane were the star-crossed lovers that Wolfgang Smith
portrays, but two people who went through heaven and hell together and came out
closer for it.
-------------------
When Ranma and Akane first met, Akane was, for lack of a better term, a
nervous wreck. Kunou Tatewaki's infamous proclamation meant that the boys who
sought her were interested in her as a prize, as an object, rather than as a
person. In addition, were one of them able to defeat her, Akane *KNEW* that he
would both assume that he had the right to do whatever he wanted and that she
would be powerless to resist.
Accordingly, Akane lived in constant fear, constantly looking over her
shoulder, terrified of the possibility of rape...
-------------------
Given all of this, is it any surprise that Akane was, at first, hostile to
Ranma? It wasn't until after the Jusendo incident that she really admitted to
herself that her fears (about Ranma, anyway) weren't really justified. Still
later, after she found out the truth about her pet pig (during an incident
involving mutant wombats, a vorpal rabbit, and something called the Holy Hand
Grenade of Antioch), Akane was finally able to say with confidence that a good
portion of the events that had led to Akane's initial opinion of Ranma was
simply a long string of accidents and misunderstandings. From that point, their
relationship progressed rather quickly.
-------------------
Akane's death is the subject of much debate. While the bare bones of the
event are common knowledge, and not disputed, there are several unanswered
questions, even to such people as Setsuna-sama and Belldandy-sama. Not even Urd-
sama was able to clarify the situation to a significant degree, only mumbling
something about 'regressive probability recombination'.
Here's what we know. Approximately six months before Ranma's eighteenth
birthday, he began throwing himself into his training, intending to challenge
Happousai for the title of Grandmaster of the Musabetsu Kakutou Ryu. On X, X,
1997, Ranma went on a training trip to the mountains, with the intent of issuing
the challenge upon his return. Shortly before he left, Xian Pu, who had been
growing desperate because of his increasing closeness to Akane, looked through
his backpack for largely unknown reasons. Among other things, she found an
engagement ring. Either she or Khu Lon managed to surmise, correctly, that it
indicated that Ranma planned to ask Akane for her hand in marriage upon his
victory.
Here is where the unknowns come into play. During the three days that
Ranma was away, neither Nabiki nor Kasumi noticed anything unusual going on.
While the Joketsuzoku would be able to give further information on what happened
within the Nekohanten, none of them survived long enough to answer any questions
on the subject. What we do know is that three days after Ranma left, Xian Pu
left the Nekohanten, bonbori in hand, and killed Tendou Akane.
-------------------
Ranma returned from his training trip with fortuitous timing. Upon his
arrival at the Tendou dojo, he 'felt a disturbance in the wa of the home'
(whatever that means; Kasumi-sama had considerable difficulty trying to explain
it), and rushed in to investigate. He burst into Akane's room less than a second
after the fatal blow, just in time to see Xian Pu leaving the scene. When
Kasumi-sama got back from purchasing the week's groceries, she found Ranma
crying over her sister's lifeless corpse. It wasn't until over a day later that
she managed to coax the story out of him.
-------------------
Around two days after he found Akane's corpse, Ranma's mood suddenly
changed, a large part of his grief turning into anger. Ranma, being who he was,
had thought of Xian Pu as a friend. After what she had done, though, the
feelings of betrayal caused what good will he had felt towards her to turn into
active hatred. He, for the first time since the Kumon Ryu incident, unsealed his
father's forbidden techniques.
Xian Pu died shortly afterwords.
-------------------
Shortly after Xian Pu's death, Mu Tsu attacked Ranma in a blind rage.
Ranma... was not sympathetic, to put it mildly. According to hospital records,
Mu Tsu suffered a severed hand, two broken arms, a shattered collarbone, three
cracked ribs, a punctured lung, and a concussion, just to name a few of his many
injuries. When I asked her about what happened, all Nabiki had to say on the
matter was that, and I quote, "Ranma was pissed."
Kasumi, on the other hand, speculated that it was Mu Tsu's comments that
resulted in his injuries; if only a fraction of what the few bystanders report
him as saying is true, the only thing that saved Mu Tsu's life was what remained
of Ranma's dislike of killing. Of Nerima's Joketsuzoku population, Mu Tsu was
the only survivor.
-------------------
The aftermath of Akane's death brought many changes to the status quo in
Nerima. Soun and Genma reluctantly dissolved the agreement to unite the schools
after seeing Kasumi and Nabiki's outrage at the suggestion that one of them take
up the engagement. Ukyou dropped her own engagement, deciding that being Ranma's
friend and consoling him in his grief was more important than marrying him, a
decision that she later described as "the hardest choice I've ever made". Kunou
Kodachi attempted to seduce Ranma, claiming that they could finally be together
now that "that worthless strumpet" was out of the way. She was hospitalized with
a broken arm and three fractured ribs and later committed.
Ranma was inconsolable, practically catatonic with his grief after
avenging his love's life. During all of this, one person took the time and
effort to break through the walls that Ranma had built around his heart. Tendou
Kasumi stood vigil over him, comforting him as he cried and wiping away his
tears. Kasumi later said that she thought of him as a little brother and that
even with the loss of her sister weighing heavily on her heart, she couldn't
leave him to grieve alone.
This isn't to say that the others didn't try to help; Ukyou and Nodoka
also spent a considerable amount of time in the attempt. Ukyou, however, had a
resturant to run, and couldn't afford to spend too much time away from it, even
if she wanted to more than anything. Nodoka was a more complex case. It wasn't
until I interviewed Nodoka herself, only days before her tragic death, that her
reasons for not joining Kasumi in her vigil were revealed...
In short, Nodoka couldn't bear to see Ranma reduced to the state that
Akane's death left him in. Nonetheless, she did visit frequently, often spending
as much as nine hours a day at his side.
-------------------
Unfortunately for Nodoka, Mu Tsu survived, despite his considerable
injuries. Within two months, he had returned to his villiage and reported on
what had happened. The Joketsuzoku elders took offence at what Ranma had done
and decided to send a group of warriors. They returned in coffins. Eventually,
they sent a group headed by the elder Shu Fang, who certainly did not live up to
her name's meaning of 'kind, gentile, and sweet'. As a point of fact, while she
was the least skilled of the Joketsuzoku Elders, she was also the most sadistic.
After arriving in Japan, she made a decision that would ultimately lead to her
people's destruction: in order to torture Ranma for his so-called crimes, she
decided to attack and kill those that he cared for, starting with his mother....
A week after implementing the first stage of her plan, Shu Fang and her
entire party were dead.
-------------------
Ranma was furious. In fact, virtually all of the sane, non-Joketsu members
of the so-called 'Nerima Wrecking Crew' rallied to his side. Ryouga, when he
next showed up, joined Ranma in his fury. Genma, for once showing a backbone,
taught Ranma the Yama-sen-ken and gave him permission to use it at will. Even
Happousai agreed to help, teaching Ranma a number of valuable techniques.
Perhaps most importantly, he also helped Ranma overcome his fear of cats,
turning his biggest weakness into a great asset. This, perhaps more than
anything else, helped shape Ranma's later attitude towards the man; after the
Joketsuzoku Wars, as they were later known, Ranma regarded him with considerable
respect, even if he did frequently refer to him as a 'perverted old freak'. No
one has ever accused Ranma of being either overly polite or formal, after all.
In fact, some of those who knew him speculated that it had become almost a token
of affection. If true, these speculations provide further evidence of the theory
that Ranma had never been taught how to properly relate to others when he was
younger; insults might very well have been the only way he knew to show
affection. Even years after Akane's death, he still refered to her as an 'uncute
tomboy', although under the circumstances, the frequent addition of the word
'my' can be taken as a given.
-------------------
Author's Notes:
Well, I finally finished this part. Well, I hope you enjoy it. I'm
presently having considerable difficulty writing a scene in Chapter 5 of the
main story, but I've also been working on a new omake/alterverse, which may
eventually become part of a series (completely independant of the main story,
but it should be... intertaining, to say the least). Basically, it's a variant
on the 'X Raises Ranma' series of omake by Gregg Sharpe, wherein I reverse the
theme. In other words, 'Ranma Raises X'. In this case, Ikari Shinji. Hopefully,
it'll be rather interesting. :-).
In other news, I have a new website at HTTP://aleh.anifics.com. It's still
under construction, but it works.
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