Rain poured down from the skies over Nerima without wind, without violence, just a steady gray downpour, stripping the changing leaves from the trees and pounding them to the street in sodden piles. It washed over the little knots of people in the cemetery, beat their offerings into the muddy ground, sluiced over the newly-set-up memorial stone. Friends, relatives, rivals, enemies, suitors, an intricate web of relationships, now disintegrating in the rain, with no center left except the name chiseled into the stone. There wasn’t even a body to say goodbye to; the rain and mud had buried all, far away in the mountains. No one could have lived, they said, and so Ranma Saotome was dead, and all they had were their memories.
“Come on, Xian Pu.” The old woman’s voice was harsh, peremptory. The purple-haired girl didn’t move.
“Xian Pu! Quit acting like a stupid outsider woman! He was only a male, and now he’s dead. Our honor is fulfilled; we need to go back to our village.”
Her face was wet, and not from the rain. “I loved him, Great-Grandmother.”
“I know. Do you think I’ve never lost anyone I loved? But you have to go on now.” Cologne led her great-granddaughter back to the Nekohanten.
“Ukyou-sama?”
Konatsu had to repeat himself several times before his adored mistress would look at him. This was a bad time for her; she had built her entire life around winning Ranma as her husband, and now he was dead. There would be no winner in the rivalry for his hand. The Chinese girl was gone now. Kodachi had never appeared. The kunoichi watched as Akane was led off by her sisters; the Tendou girl was like a zombie, staring blankly ahead, not speaking, not moving except when her sisters led her. And Ukyou…
“Ukyou-sama? We have to go back now.”
She turned to him, with eyes that glittered too brightly.
“We have to go back now,” Konatsu repeated.
“Mmm,” she agreed. “Gotta go back.” She pulled a little silver flask from her pocket and drank from it. “Yup, outta sake. Gotta go back.” She handed Konatsu the umbrella. “Bye bye, Ranchan.” Oblivious to the downpour, she walked away through the rain, her steps weaving.
We’re so clever, my Ranma-sama, thought the girl who watched from a nearby rooftop. They all think you’re dead. And now you’re mine. You’re mine forever. “Hohohohoho,” her laughter trilled over the city, lost in the pounding of the rain.
Nabiki looked over the papers. “These all seem to be in order. Maeda-san?” She handed them to the suit-clad, middle-aged man next to her.
“Yes. Did you negotiate this arrangement, Tendou-kun?”
Nabiki nodded.
“An excellent job, particularly for someone so young. This authorizes you to act on behalf of Khu Lon-san in the sale of the Nekohanten property. In return, you are responsible for paying any taxes on the sale and the winding up of the business, and transmit the proceeds to Khu Lon-san through the Bank of China. Everything bears the necessary seals; I see no problem.”
“I didn’t think there would be, but I value your legal opinion, Maeda-san.” Nabiki signed her name in neat characters and affixed her personal seal. She handed one of the copies to Cologne. “There you are, Obaasan. It shouldn’t take very long to sell; I’ve already had a couple of nibbles.”
“You are a most shrewd young woman, Nabiki. And now if you will excuse me, I have preparations to make.”
Nabiki walked toward the waiting car. Securing the services of the Kunou family lawyer had been a good idea. The old bat had tried to underestimate her again. Well, she might not have three thousand years of Chinese history behind her, but she had fourteen years of seeing through shopkeepers who thought her sister’s youth and gentle manner made her an easy mark. She’d miss the free ramen deliveries… but she had a plan for that too.
“Ano… Ukyou-sama? Shouldn’t we open the restaurant?”
“You open it if you want, ’Natsu-chan.”
“But Ukyou-sama…”
“I don’t care any more. Only thing I cared ’bout’s dead. Now go ’way’n’lemme’lone.”
“Oh no!” Kasumi and Nabiki stared into the empty guest room. Empty. The single futon folded and put away on the stack in the corner. The single backpack gone. No sign of Saotome-ojisama, either as man or as panda. No note. The only sign that the room had ever been occupied was the cardboard box in one corner, the box with Ranma’s clothing he hadn’t taken on the training trip. He hadn’t even taken it to the attic as Kasumi had asked.
“Look, Ranma-sama. Even my brother does not know of this place. Is it not lovely? Our own paradise of love, yours and mine…”
“Akane-chan, you really should eat something.”
“I’m not hungry, Oneechan.”
“I made your favorite, pork buns like Okaasan’s.”
I brought you something. Tea and pork buns. Even the littlest things led her back to Ranma, to times when he’d been nice, times when they’d been almost close. She was drowning in grief, she wished it would hurry up and get over with so she could be with him. Tea and pork buns Comfort on a cold night, under the stars, comfort and shared plans.
There was no response from the other side of the closed door. After a little while Kasumi went back downstairs.
“Ukyou-sama?”
“’sup, Natsu-chan?”
“Are you… going somewhere?” She hadn’t had the yatai out in months, but now it was packed. All her clothing, some of the cooking supplies. She hoisted the poles; from within came an ominous clinking sound like bottles knocking softly together. He had a feeling that if he checked the inventory he wouldn’t find a single bottle of sake.
“Nope.’m already there.” Tears trembled in her eyes, in her voice.
“Ukyou-sama…”
“See ya in hell, Natsu-chan.” She trundled the yatai out into the street. It was raining again; it had rained on and off more or less constantly since the funeral.
“Oh my. Otousan…”
“What is it, Kasumi?”
“I went out to get Akane, and…”
It didn’t look like there was anything wrong. No more wrong than everything was these days. Akane was in her usual place, sitting on one of the rocks next to the pond. Not moving, not speaking, not crying. Kasumi worried about that – she hadn’t cried at all. Not when they heard the rescue workers had given up. Not at Ranma’s funeral. Not once.
Then he saw what she was holding.
No, not my little girl, not my Akane! And yet part of him envied her, the part that longed to be with Kimiko forever, that he held in check only by his near-obsessive devotion to his daughters… her daughters… he had never been able to guide Akane through the tangle of her feelings for Ranma, but this, this was something he understood very well. He wanted to hold her, comfort her, but he knew there was no comfort for what she felt. There was only going on… finding a reason to go on. He had had the girls… what could he give Akane?
He settled onto the rock next to her. “It never does stop hurting,” he said.
She blinked. “O-Otousan?”
“When someone you love… leaves us. As Ranma did. As your mother did. still miss her every bit as much as I did then.t never stops. But you get used to it, you find the strength to go on.”
She gazed down at the tanto in her hands. A tear splashed onto the blade. “You had us,” she whispered. “You had a reason to go on. I don’t.”
“What about the school?” It’s the only other thing left of her, of our dreams. Could I keep her with that? With duty?
She barked a wild, bitter laugh. “A school with no students and no sensei? There hasn’t been a Tendou Dojo since Okaasan died. And now your precious heir’s gone, and don’t think to use me to get another.’ll never marry anyone but Ranma.”
“The school is your heritage. It always was. And you have a duty to carry it on.”
“I said I’d never marry anyone else.”
“No, but you could be sensei, carry it on and pass it to one of Kasumi’s or Nabiki’s children, or adopt an heir from among your students as was done in the old days. I’ve come to a decision, Akane-chan. I’m going to reopen the school, take in students again. I’d like you to be my assistant. Then when I can no longer carry on, you can take over and continue the school.”
Akane stared at her father. It was the old dream, her dream. The one that had kept her going in the dark days after Okaasan died… the one that kept her going when everybody made fun of her tomboyishness… the one that had shattered the day she walked into the bathroom and saw…
Anger flared in her. Otousan… he thinks he can hand me back my life just like that, as if… as if Ranma never HAPPENED? Who does he…
“Sounds like a challenge.” Nabiki lounged against the doorpost, her arms folded across her chest. “Do you think Ranma’d want you if you ran away from a challenge?”
Akane shook her head slowly. “No. He’d hate me.” She blinked back more tears.
Gently, insistently, Kasumi took the tanto from her. “You and Ranma will be together. In the next world, or in your next life.”
Soun spoke quietly. “I’ve made some very bad mistakes over the years, and the worst was abandoning our dreams for the school – your mother’s dreams as much as mine. I’ve shortchanged you, both as sensei and as your father. But we can change that. We can reopen the school, take in students again. You can still be the person… the martial artist… Ranma would have wanted you to be, if you’d been able to share your lives and run the school together.”
“Make Ranma proud of you, little sis,” Nabiki said.
Silently she nodded. Soun pulled her into his arms. She stopped fighting the tears then, she let them come and wept against the coarse cotton of his gi as if she were a little girl.
Nabiki scowled at her computer screen. What with the crisis of Ranma’s death, working on the Nekohanten sale, and now the reopening of the dojo, she was way behind on everything – especially her studies. Another round of entrance exams loomed on the horizon, and this time she fully intended to ace everything. Well, maybe she’d settle for a lower mark in physics, but…
“Nabiki?” She hadn’t heard Kasumi approaching the door. “Tatewaki-kun is on the telephone. He wants to speak with you.”
She groaned. “Kunou-chan? At this hour?”
“He said it was very important.”
Five months… he’s probably discovered his Pigtailed Girl is missing. “What do you want, Kunou-chan? Akane is not up to talking with you and your precious pigtailed girl is gone for good.”
“It is not either of my loves to whom I wish to speak tonight. Rather it is your assistance and wisdom I would seek. It is a matter of some urgency and delicacy… involving my sister.”
Kodachi? What did that nutcase do now? “Jeez, Kunou-chan, it’s pretty late… can’t it wait till morning?”
“It cannot. Please, Nabiki Tendou, I am in urgent need of your help. Can you come?”
She sighed. “Okay. Turn off the booby traps, I’ll be there in about ten minutes.”
“Ah, Nabiki Tendou. Thank you for coming. would not have intruded on your family’s grief or your studies, but the matter is urgent and I… I knew not where else to turn.” Kunou’s distress was apparent and genuine, even though his usual stilted phrasing. “I will pay any price you care to name for your assistance in this.”
“Let me see the problem, then I’ll decide how much to charge you, Kunou-chan. You were pretty vague on the phone.”
“Through here. She has been most secretive, but fortunately, Sasuke has been able to discover a way into her sanctuary.”
Nabiki followed along the narrow, dusty corridor. What kind of place is this house? Secret passages, hidden rooms… it’s like something out of a gaijin horror movie. What in the world is Kodachi up to that has Kunou-chan so upset?
“This is the place, Mistress Nabiki,” the little ninja whispered. “I’ll just open it a little bit and you can see.”
Nabiki put her eye to the crack. “Ma… masaka.”
The room was a bower of black roses. Trellises had been set up to hide the walls, cleverly lit so that no glare came out into the room, but the deep green shadows of the leaves seemed to glow. Even through the peephole, she could smell their heavy, dizzying scent. Inside, a table was set for two. It was the perfect intimate dinner for lovers… but Kodachi occupied the room alone. She wore an elaborate wedding gown, the most elegant that Nabiki had ever seen… except that it was black. Cascades of black lace, trimmed with black silk roses.
Kodachi didn’t act like she was alone, though. As Nabiki watched, she raised her glass to touch that of an invisible companion, inclined her head to exchange whispered intimacies, pretended to feed the person she was with. This seemed to go on forever. And then…
“Shall we, Ranma-sama?” Kodachi asked. She walked as though she were holding someone’s hand, leading him over to…
a huge bed. Its corner posts were more rose trellises, going up to a trellised canopy, so the whole bed was a bower. Kodachi removed the elaborate gown; it dropped to a puddle at her feet so she looked like she was standing in the center of an enormous black rose. Under it she wore nothing at all. Then she stepped out of it, managing to look as though someone else were leading her.
Nabiki watched, feeling sick. Kodachi writhed on the bed in a parody of sex with an invisible partner. Finally, she wrenched her eyes away. “I’ve seen enough.”
“Truly that Saotome is a foul sorcerer. To have so bewitched my sister, even from the next world…”
Nabiki sighed and shook her head. They’re both nuts. But at least this one’s still sort of fastened to reality. “Kunou-chan… Kodachi needs help. More help than you or I can give her. think she needs to be in a hospital.”
“Is that necessary? The scandal… and she so rarely leaves these rooms.”
“Kunou-chan, Kunou-chan… don’t you care about your sister? She needs help. And if it’s scandal you’re worried about, believe me. With all the celebrities going into ‘retreats’ these days, no one’s going to even blink. There’s a lot more scandal about having a crazy relative living in your basement or attic or wherever the hell we are. Anyway, that’s my recommendation. You’re the one who asked for my help.”
He was silent for a long time as they walked back through the maze of corridors. Finally, he spoke.
“You are correct, Nabiki Tendou. My sister must go to a place where she can receive better care than I can give. Alas, I am inexperienced in such matters. Can you… assist with the arrangements for such a thing?”
“Sure, Kunou-chan.”
“Of course I am prepared to pay a reasonable fee for your services.”
“Well, Kunou-chan, for this the only thing I’ll ask is… give up on my sister.”
“NANI??”
“You heard me. Akane has never liked you. Right now she’s trying to put her life back together, and reopening the dojo is the only thing that’s keeping her going. She can’t deal with anything else.’ve got a chance to get an unwanted complication out of her life, and I’m going to take it. You forget about Akane, or you forget about my help.”
“The fair and mighty Akane Tendou…” he murmured. “Very well. No matter. I shall devote myself to locating the Pigtailed Girl and freeing her from the foul sorcerer Saotome’s clutches.”
Nabiki shook her head again. He’s going to end up just like his sister. She couldn’t let that happen. Too much of the fabric of her life had unraveled already. Suddenly a future without Kunou to bait looked pretty dismal. “Kunou-chan… Tatewaki-kun…”
He looked up, startled at her use of his given name. Nabiki Tendou never called him Tatewaki. She never used kun to him.
“Tatewaki-kun… there’s something you have to understand about the Pigtailed Girl.”
The beach was dark except for the faint glimmer of starlight mirrored in the water, silent except for the sound of the waves. Ukyou had built a small fire, but it wasn’t really cold, and she wasn’t really hungry. The emptiness that ached in her middle was something food couldn’t fill anyway. Even sake was losing its ability to keep her from noticing how much it hurt.
The glimmering waves seemed to beckon her. Ever since she was a girl the ocean had been friend, companion, training partner. Ranchan might be out there somewhere, swept down a flooded river to the sea, rocked in the waves, returning to the mother of all life. Everything that meant anything to her…
She started walking toward the water. She wasn’t really thinking about going in; she wasn’t really thinking about anything. It was as though her mind had shut down and her body was moving by itself. So when a small dark lump caught her attention, she went over to it out of some idle, disconnected curiosity. The ocean would still be there later, after all… it was always there…
“P-chan?”
The pig wasn’t dead yet. She didn’t know why she picked it up, maybe some vague thought of returning it to Akane so that her onetime rival could have something, so at least one of them could have something… She walked back to her campfire; there was a kettle simmering so she could heat some instant curry. She’d really lost her taste for cooking.
But she got the surprise of her life when she used some of the kettle’s hot water to wash off the piglet’s scrapes and bruises. The piglet blurred, shifted, grew into a naked young man. A man she knew.
“Ryouga Hibiki?”
“Why didn’t you just let me die?” Ryouga’s voice was bitter; he turned his head away with closed eyes.
“Well, for starters, I didn’t know it was you! I spotted Akane’s pet piggie and I guess I had some half-assed notion of sending it back to her! Does she know you’re P-chan?”
He shook his head. “I was… I heard about Ranma, and was going to see her, but I got splashed, and I got lost, and Nabiki picked me up and took me to the dojo. And she, she just sat there with me in her lap and started whispering about how much she missed Ranma, and I couldn’t leave and I couldn’t stand listening to her, and then finally she went to sleep and I ran. I’ve been running ever since. Gods, I’m so pathetic…”
“No worse than me, sugar. The only way it stops hurting for me is if I get blind stinkin’ drunk – and even that doesn’t work too good any more. I was thinkin’ about walkin’ into the ocean when I found you.” A scalding tear rolled out of her eye, then another. They blinded her; the misery engulfed her, choking, burning.
He sat up and pulled her close to him. “Don’t cry, Ukyou-san, please don’t cry.” Awkwardly he patted her back, stroked the tangled mat of her hair. It was more comfortable lying down, so he pulled her down with him and simply held her while the fire burned low and died, and the stars wheeled silently overhead.
“I see, doctor.” Tatewaki Kunou handed the papers back to the white-coated man behind the desk. “Unfortunately, my father is… out of the country. He is also possibly as much in need of your attention as my sister is.”
“This boy she supposedly loves… your family opposed the match?”
“As head of the Kunou house, I did. But that is of no matter now. Even if I were disposed to change my opinion of Saotome, he is… no longer in this world.”
“Did he reciprocate your sister’s affection?”
Kunou sighed. “In all honesty, I must say that while he divided his attentions among many women, he evidenced no preference for my sister’s company. I am afraid their relationship existed primarily in her own mind.”
I don’t know if I can do this. Akane stood in the doorway of the dojo and eyed a half-dozen young boys. One in particular stood with a kind of arrogant confidence that reminded her a little of Ranma.
Uncute… clumsy… slow…
I am a martial artist! Wherever you are, Ranma… I’ll make you proud of me!
Yurgk.
Ukyou lurched out of her blankets and managed to make it to the latrine pit before she threw up.
“Are you all right, Ukyou-chan?” Ryouga turned from where he was making breakfast.
“Huh? Yeah, sugar. Musta had somethin’ bad last night.”
Ryouga frowned. “I don’t think so.’d be sick too if that were right.”
“Well, maybe I’m comin’ down with a bug.”
“Where are we?”
“Umm… just outside Kobe.”
“There’s clinics in a city. We’ll find one and make sure you’re okay.”
The white-coated woman doctor pushed her glasses up and leaned forward. “If you want to… to not have it, we can take care of that for you. Otherwise, you’ll need to arrange for prenatal care. I can give you the names of some physicians, and there’s a women’s center that can refer you to a midwife if you prefer…”
Ukyou gulped. “I… do I have to decide right now?”
“Of course not. We understand, you would want to talk it over with your family, and with the baby’s father. Only if you do choose to end the pregnancy, you’ll need to do that in the next two weeks. After that, not only does the law become more restrictive, but the procedure is more dangerous – as well as more expensive.”
“I understand.”
She walked out of the clinic, into the heat of a brilliant summer day. No sign of Ryouga, of course the jackass had wandered off and gotten lost. Just her luck.
“Ukyou-chan!”
Huh? He was waving to her from down the block.
“Ukyou-chan, I found something! I mean, I saw it from across the street, I didn’t dare go across and look because I didn’t want to get lost, but… what did they say at the clinic? Are you okay?”
“Huh? Yeah, I guess I’m okay.”
“Well, what did they say was wrong? It’s not okay to wake up sick like that.”
She laughed, a harsh, bitter sound. “Actually it is, it’s perfectly normal.”
“Ukyou-chan?”
“I’m pregnant, jackass! You knocked me up!”
“Ohh… Ukyou…” He couldn’t think of anything else to say or do, so he folded his arms around her and held her, gently, as though she was something fragile and precious and almost too wonderful to touch, until he realized that she wasn’t responding to his embrace. “Aren’t you… do you not want it?” he asked.
She drew in a long, slow breath. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “At first I just wanted to get rid of it… but I can’t… it’s alive, inside me… I don’t want any more death, even a baby I don’t want. can’t, I just can’t…”
“Sshh, it’s all right, Ukyou-chan,” he soothed. “Let me take care of you. It’ll work out okay.”
“You really think so, Ryochan?”
“Sure.” He grinned. “That’s what I wanted to tell you. Look what I spotted while you were in there.” He pointed to a storefront across the street.
The noren said “Hanako Okonomiyaki.” A sign in the window read “Business for sale; inquire within.”
Ukyou sighed. “Ryochan, I don’t have the capital to buy a going business – especially not in a prime location like this! Look – that clinic, and a whole bunch of office buildings with stores on the ground floor, any restaurant here’s got to be packed at lunchtime and do steady trade almost till the shops close, and it probably does okay for dinner too… the police headquarters is right around the corner, I bet the place makes its nut just feeding cops! There’s no way I can swing something like this.”
His hands gripped her shoulders like stone. “So we go find out. If we can’t, how much worse off will we be? Come on, we can splurge a little and buy lunch for a change. You hungry?”
In spite of herself, she started laughing. “Well naturally – I just hope I can keep it down. Okay, I’ll try it your way.” She took his hand and led him across the street.
“Nabiki! Telephone! It’s Tatewaki-kun,” Kasumi told her with a contented smile.
“Moshi-moshi, what’s up, Kunou-chan?”
“Nabiki Tendou, I have for some time wondered how I might express my personal gratitude for your assistance in the delicate matter of my sister. Would you care to have dinner with me Saturday night?”
“I don’t know, Kunou-chan, where did you have in mind?”
“You are fond of Italian cuisine, are you not? Then may I suggest Massa in Shibuya? Seven o’clock?”
Nabiki opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Massa??? Kunou-chan springing for a meal was rare enough, but Massa was the kind of restaurant you read about in magazines, the kind of place where you could spend more on a single meal than Kasumi’s whole food budget for a month. For two months. The food was no doubt fabulous, but the idea of such extravagance was enough to take her breath away.
Kunou apparently took her silence for agreement. “Fine, I’ll pick you up at six.” The line went dead, leaving Nabiki staring at the receiver in her hand, still stunned.
Kasumi hummed as she stirred the curry. She felt happier than she had been in months. It would be good for Nabiki not to be the one in control for once. Tatewaki-kun was turning into a nice boy, now that he had gotten over his obsession with Akane and Ranma’s female form.
She listened to her father’s footsteps, up the passage from the dojo and into the main house, the creak of the floorboard outside the bathroom door, and then the rush of water through pipes. She went to the kitchen doorway and looked across the garden; Akane was still in the dojo, doing kata. Kasumi watched for a while; it wasn’t one of Akane’s usual forms, but a flowing, graceful movement she could remember Ranma doing. Akane did the form twice more, then stared up at the kamidana for a long moment before bowing to the god-shelf and turning away.
Kasumi smiled to herself, and spooned curry into a covered dish to take to Toufuu-sensei.
NOTES, EXPLANATIONS ETC.
“Death is lighter than a feather; duty is heavier than a mountain.”
Originally this was only Akane’s story, a vignette of a suicide attempt and its aftermath. But then Kodachi insisted on butting in, so I added the rest of the fiancee brigade, and later turned it into the unbinding of the web of relationships that centered on Ranma, and Akane and Ukyou trying to rebuild their lives around other centers. cannot write Shampoo so she’s gone, back to China where eventually she will allow herself to be defeated by Mousse. At first this will be because she doesn’t care about what happens to her, but eventually she will find a quiet sort of contentment with him and satisfaction in taking a matron’s role in village affairs. And there may be more, who knows?
This is the first story in the Resurrection continuity that centers on “Find Your Way Back.” Ranma is much harder to kill than this…
Ukyou diving into a sake bottle seems to be one of the great fanfic cliches, but I started using it before I knew that anyone except myself wrote this stuff, so it seems she strikes a lot of people that way. didn’t know of Akari’s existence when I started writing this series, so in this alterniverse she doesn’t exist.
Kodachi’s madness comes from an old TV show called Wiseguy.
I have trouble writing the older Genma, so I wrote him out – his split with Nodoka is also taken from “Storm’s End.” Ditto for Happousai, I can’t write him in serious fics. There is an omake to this continuity, though, and Happi will be back in fine style, bringing even more insanity with him. (You don’t think I’d leave these guys living happily ever after, do you? I’m not that sappy!)
Massa, the restaurant Kunou takes Nabiki to, is real. It’s the home base for Iron Chef Italian Masahiko Kobe, so the food’s got to be fabulous – no doubt with prices to match.