I do not own Ranma ½
Heaven in Your Eyes
It had been a month since the attempted wedding between Akane and Ranma. It had been a chaotic event which seemed to be a microcosm for the lives and relationships of the people surrounding Ranma. However it had unknowingly been a catalyst as well. While the two were still not wed, it was almost painfully obvious how deeply and genuinely Akane and Ranma loved one another. On some basic, instinctual level, all the participants in the failed ceremony knew that Ranma was no longer slipping away from them, he was completely gone.
But like a motor burning through the last few drops of fuel, the chaos and violence in Nerima had gone into a fever pitch as the inhabitants who had a vested interest in Ranma began to recognize that the war of attrition for his love was far past the point of being won.
The battles between the fiancés and enemies surrounding Ranma had become more frequent, more dangerous, and more desperate. Strangely enough the Tendo Dojo was perhaps the only area unaffected by this change since the focus of the competition had changed from winning Ranma to outright elimination of the competition.
The fiancés knew that they had lost, subconsciously at least, and they were out for blood. Ukyo was relying on her bindings not to hide her sex, but rather to keep her cracked ribs courtesy of Shampoo from becoming more damaged. Mouse was nursing a broken hand thanks to Kodachi, and Tatewaki was bald thanks to … well actually no one really knew why Tatewaki was bald, but it was definitely a bad sign.
Without any idea of the tensions simmering in Nerima, Ryoga was returning after a month long trek through the Japanese hinterlands. He had spent the time in a state of almost total isolation, by choice for once; the wild flora and fauna his only company. He had truly welcomed the silence and solitude of his journey because it had allowed him time to dwell on the issues most important to him without the possibility of interruption. These issues being Ranma, Akari, and Akane, specifically how he truly felt about these people.
Ranma, the person who had occupied Ryoga's thoughts for the past several years, Ryoga's enemy, the one whom Ryoga blamed for every evil which befell him. Every time Ryoga felt a negative emotion, hate, anger, sadness, depression, all of it stemmed from the archfiend Ranma. However the more he fought Ranma face to face and not just in his imagination, the longer Ryoga actually interacted with Ranma, the more that Ryoga realized that while Ranma was far from perfect, he was not the demon that Ryoga had mentally built him up to be.
Ryoga had come to realize that Ranma was basically a regular guy, one with faults and imperfections, but one with assets as well. Over the previous months, and especially following the weakness moxibustion fiasco, Ryoga's and Ranma's relationship had changed from one of enemies to one of rivals with the potential for friendship. Ryoga wasn't sure whether he and Ranma could ever truly be friends so long as Akane was in the equation, but he doubted that he would ever make the mistake of believing Ranma to be his enemy ever again.
As for Akari, while it seemed like the possibility of a relationship was present, Ryoga was not so sure. Akari was a nice girl, but whenever he was with her, he felt almost like she was a surrogate for Akane, a consolation prize, hell she even looked just like Akane.
He supposed that he root of the problem was that he just didn't know enough about Akari. She seemed nice and she enjoyed raising pigs, which seemed to be the basis for her acceptance of his cursed side. But in a way Ryoga felt like his curse was almost immaterial to Akari, like she would have felt the same whether he had it or not, or even if he had something even worse; almost as if the only important factor in choosing a boyfriend was whether they could defeat her pig or not. It didn't really seem fair to try and build a relationship where he viewed her as a substitute for Akane and she viewed him as being acceptable because he met her basic criteria for a mate.
So deep in his heart Ryoga knew that his relationship with Akari was superficial at best, but this led him to reflect on the complicated circumstances surrounding himself and Akane.
At heart Ryoga was a romantic, when he was younger, he had been fascinated with epic tales of adventure and romance. He had come to idolize the concept of love, how two people could care deeply for one another, complimenting each other's strengths and compensating for each other's weaknesses. In short in Ryoga's mind, true love could take two people and create a union, a connection between them that gave them strength no matter the distance between them, or the odds they faced. Even if the whole world were against them, two people in love could stand firm and so long as they had each other, it was enough.
Ryoga had spent years ruminating on love and knew that without it he was less than a man, somehow incomplete. Akane had been the first person with whom Ryoga felt the possibility for a relationship based on love. But how had he approached the opportunity he had been granted? With lies and hypocrisy. Yes, he showered Akane with gifts when he was lucky enough to find her, he complimented her at every opportunity, and she was the first thing he thought of every morning and the last thing every night.
But as of late Ryoga had begun to wonder if such acts stemmed from his feelings of true love, or from his sense of shame. Every time he met with Akane he lied to her, he lied by not revealing the truth about his … condition.
Every time he appeared as P-chan, Ryoga knew that he abused Akane's trust, and every moment he kept silent about P-chan, he betrayed her. It was true he had never tried to take advantage of his being Akane's pet, but the liberties allowed pets are vastly different from the liberties allowed other people. P-chan had been Akane's confidant, she had told him her hopes, her dreams, her fears, and her secrets; safe in the knowledge that he was merely a dumb animal, incapable of truly judging her or sharing her private information with others. The fact that he had slept with her and had been present while she had been nude only exacerbated his breach of her trust.
Ryoga knew that true love could not be built upon lies, but he feared Akane's reaction when she learned the truth. She was his first and so far most passionate love, so he was terrified of losing the chance at such a relationship. But Ryoga was also aware that the longer he delayed in revealing the truth, the greater his breach of Akane's trust it would seem and the less likely she would grant him her forgiveness.
He had thought long and hard about his choices during his time alone and Ryoga had come to a decision, he would reveal his secret to Akane. If she forgave him then their love was meant to be, if she rejected him … well the world was a big place to get lost in. Ryoga was certain that after a little while, say fifteen to twenty years, he would be ready to look for love again.
Fortunately for his resolve, he had reached his decision just as he reached the outskirts of Nerima. Unfortunately for Ryoga, Akane was not the first person he stumbled upon.
Evening had fallen, the sun had just dipped below the horizon but the streetlights had yet to come on. Ryoga was hopeful that he would be able to make it to the Tendo dojo in a week, maybe less. However he was stopped in his tracks as a horrible cackle bounced through the canyon the high rise buildings on either side of the street created.
"Oh hohohoho. I see that tonight I have been blessed. The foul fiend who so often troubles Lord Ranma has crossed my path. If I rid the world of your presence, I'm sure that Lord Ranma will be so thankful that I will be buried under the weight of his praises." Proclaimed a female voice which seemed to echo from all directions around Ryoga.
Ryoga instantly went on alert; only one woman had a voice which so masterfully blended seduction and insanity, Kodachi. He released the pack from his back and slipped into a solid defensive stance, scanning the nearby area for the crazy Kuno. While he had a fairly strict policy against fighting girls, Ryoga knew that Kodachi was unpredictably insane. That unpredictability combined with her skill and years of practice meant that if he failed to take her seriously as a threat, there was the possibility that she could actually do a lot of damage to him.
With a familiar cackle, Kodachi swept out of the semi-darkness, dressed in a leotard which had a lower neckline than her older version, with gymnastic clubs in either hand. She was fast, almost as fast as Ranma, in an instant she was in striking distance of Ryoga. He dodged her first swing, but she quickly spun and delivered a blow to his right shoulder. The club burst into a collection of splinters, revealing the now bent metal bar that had been embedded in its depths.
Ryoga shrugged off the blow and took the momentary diversion to grab Kodachi by the wrist.
"What are you attacking me for?!" he asked.
She struggled for a moment against his concrete grasp before responding, "It's simple really, Lord Ranma is my one true love, and anyone who wishes him harm is thus my enemy." She tensed momentarily, and then swung her remaining club at his crotch. Ryoga released Kodachi in order to block the club and in doing so shattered it as well, rendering it useless, while Kodachi skipped away out of his reach.
The streetlights chose that moment to come to life, bathing the scene in harsh artificial light.
"Listen, I don't know who told you that I wanted Ranma dead. It's true that because of him I have seen hell, I've faced humiliation and hardships you can't imagine. For years, my entire life it seems, I wanted him to share my pain, to know what it was like to live a life in hell, but that is in the past. I've grown up and realized that we all live through our own personal hells, his was different than mine, but it was just as bad." Ryoga said trying to placate the girl.
Kodachi didn't seem too interested in listening to what Ryoga had to say however since she gracefully leapt on top of a nearby streetlamp, pulling a gymnastic ribbon out of hiding. She twirled it expertly and then snapped it in Ryoga's direction. He easily caught it on his forearm, it wrapped around tightly, and if he had been weaker, it might even have left a bruise. However the body of someone who trains by having large boulders slam into them is a bit more robust than the average martial artist.
"I'm not going to fight you." Ryoga announced before pulling the ribbon tightly, hoping to cause Kodachi to lose her balance.
"That would make my victory much easier." She responded while using the momentum Ryoga had provided to leap to another streetlamp. Once she alighted she immediately reached down and unhooked a hoop, throwing it at Ryoga with all the strength she could muster.
She was so fast in her actions that Ryoga was only barely able to turn around in time to mostly dodge the hoop streaking at him. The edge of the hoop was razor sharp and sliced into his cheek before the hoop buried itself in the pavement of the street.
"I won't fight you, but I won't be defeated by you either. Give it up Kodachi, you might be faster than me, but I'm stronger than you and can take anything you can give out. Don't you realize this fight is pointless? Sure Ranma may not like me, but his fear of you is stronger than anything he might feel for me."
"Shut your foul mouth peasant!" Kodachi shouted, launching herself from the streetlamp at Ryoga. She began throwing quick kicks and even quicker punches. Ryoga had been right, she was faster than him, he was only able to block about half of her attacks, but he had also been right about her strength versus his toughness. Ryoga easily ignored the few attacks which did land, her blows feeling like the barest of breezes.
However when one of her small, fast fists connected with the cut in his cheek, pain blossomed in Ryoga's face and he instinctively lashed out. The assault caught Kodachi off guard since it was the first time since the conflict had begun that Ryoga had attacked. However she easily leapt over Ryoga's fist, as well as his head, continuing the leap into a summersault and then a series of beautifully executed flips which ended at yet another streetlamp.
She mounted it like a makeshift parallel bar, but before she could reach for the weapon that was more than likely stored there, Ryoga marched over to the streetlamp and after wrapping it in a bear hug, wrenched it from the ground.
Kodachi fell down to the street, but was quickly on her feet again, watching as Ryoga casually tossed the solid concrete pole aside as if it were nothing. Ryoga faced Kodachi, the absence of the light from the streetlamp casting long and dark shadows as the other streetlamps attempted to take up the slack of their fallen comrade.
Kodachi slowly straightened up and started adjusting her leotard. "I see that you were correct when you said that you were beyond my physical strength."
Ryoga began to relax, sensing that Kodachi had finally come to her senses.
"However," she continued, "I seldom rely only on my physical strength alone!"
So saying she rushed once again towards Ryoga, he moved to block her attack, but it was just a feint. Her other hand containing some sort of vial threw a powder into his face.
The powder flew into his eyes, nose, and even mouth since it had been open slightly at the time. The dust began to choke Ryoga and he bent over coughing, trying to clear his airways, while furiously wiping at his eyes in order to alleviate their burning.
"You said that Ranma has made you see hell." Kodachi said, standing over Ryoga, knowing that the fight was over and that she had won. "Well then I suppose that I have managed to ease your suffering while at the same time insuring that you will never threaten my precious Lord Ranma again."
Ryoga coughed deeply a final time and spit out a clump of mucous and powder. "What do you mean? What have you done to me?!" He croaked out.
"Why I've done you a favor, I've made sure that you will never be able to see hell again, much less anything else." Kodachi began to chuckle, and soon was engrossed in a full out maniacal laughter.
Ryoga cracked his eyes open and blearily saw Kodachi's figure towering over his still bent form. Then blinked and rubbed his eyes in order to get the dust out, but when he opened them again, it seemed like somehow the dust had gotten worse. Kodachi was now a collection of shadowy blurs against a backdrop of bright blurs.
Ryoga rubbed his eyes once more and opened them again. Then he tried to open them again. But it was no use; it made no difference if his eyes were open or closed, all he could see was blackness.
With a roar of rage Ryoga lashed out at where he thought Kodachi was standing. But his fist met nothing but air. He threw a few more punches, ever more wildly, but judging by the sound of Kodachi's laughter she was more than capable of dodging the ones which came anywhere near her. After a few minutes Ryoga slumped to the pavement in defeat.
"What … what did you do to me? How long does this last? How do I get my sight back?" He asked Kodachi in a defeated tone.
Her echoing laughter which grew ever more distant was his only answer.
Ryoga sat on the deserted street for several minutes, maybe hours before he decided that maybe an abandoned street in the middle of Tokyo, or maybe Hokkaido, was not the best place to come to grips with his situation. He stood up and began to walk back to where he thought he had dropped his pack. He ran into the side of a building, signaling that he had gone too far. So he turned around and ran into a lamppost.
Eventually Ryoga resorted to crawling around on his hands and knees, sweeping his arms in wide circles. After a few hours he eventually was able to be reunited with his worldly possessions. So he strapped his pack on again and stood up. He walked until he ran into the side of a building again, then he used the wall as a guide and he began to walk parallel to it.
Two days later the sun was warmly shining down on Nerima, but to Ryoga it was still the depths of the night he had fought Kodachi. The tips of his fingers were raw and left bloody smears as they rubbed against the walls we walked beside. He had been able to find food and water in his pack by feeling through the pockets, but he knew that he was running low.
Suddenly from right beside him a soft voice spoke out. "Ryoga is that you?"
Ryoga had not encountered any other people during his trek, at least no one who had come close enough to him to engage in discussion. The abrupt intrusion caused Ryoga to jump back and lose his balance as he hit the edge of the sidewalk he was walking along. He toppled over into the street and while he was lying there, the owner of the voice quickly moved to help him up.
"Oh my, Ryoga are you alright?" She asked.
Ryoga felt her hand on his arm, trying to provide him support so that he could get up. Not wanting to burden the girl with his weight, Ryoga got back to his feet under his own power.
"Kasumi, is that you?" He asked.
The girl in question seemed nonplussed by his question. "Yes of course it is me Ryoga. Are you alright?" She asked again in an even more concerned tone than before.
Ryoga was caught between politeness and his desperate need for help.
"Actually Kasumi, there seems to be something wrong with my eyes. I'm kind of having difficulty in seeing right now. Do you think that you could lead me to a hospital or something?"
"Oh my! Certainly! Please follow me." Ryoga felt nimble fingers pulling on his shirt sleeve and he began to follow the direction the tugging indicated.
Several minutes later they arrived at the nearest medical facility, the E.R. of Nerima General. Luckily for Ryoga, Kasumi had felt that his injury was too pressing to travel the extra distance to Dr. Tofu's clinic.
Kasumi guided Ryoga through what seemed to be a maze in the waiting room before pausing. "Here Ryoga, sit down here." She guided him into a stereotypical hospital waiting room chair. "I need to go over and sign you in."
Ryoga was left alone once again, surrounded by the murmur of several people, punctuated by the occasional cough, also waiting for the chance to see a doctor as soon as possible. Ryoga hated hospitals, the only times he had been in one were when he was injured to the point of near fatality, or when he was visiting someone who was traveling beyond that point.
There was a rustling of clothing as someone sat in the seat next to Ryoga. "The nurse at the station said that it will probably be at least 45 minutes before the doctor can see you. Hopefully I'll be done with this paperwork by then." Kasumi said in her soft manner.
Ryoga felt like the lowest kind of scum, of all the people he had to turn to for help, he was relieved that it was the kind Kasumi he had happened upon, yet at the same time he felt that he was abusing what little relationship he had with her by forcing her to help him in such a manner.
"I'm really sorry about this Kasumi; I'm sure that you were doing something important, and I just walked in and interrupted you. If you want to leave, then go ahead, I'll be fine." Ryoga said, putting his head in his hands so Kasumi wouldn't be able to see his expression.
Kasumi reached over and patted Ryoga's shoulder while responding, "Ryoga, you are a friend of Ranma's, and I'd like to think a friend of mine as well. My family can deal with my absence for a few hours right now, but I don't think you can. You can't see at all can you?" Ryoga nodded slightly, dejectedly. Kasumi continued, "Then you need me right now, especially to fill out these forms." She finished lightly. "By the way what is your personal information?"
Ryoga, still curled up in his chair, responded despondently, "In my bag, there should be a wallet in there with all the info you need."
Ryoga heard a rustling coming from near his feet, and then the scratch of a pen as Kasumi began to fill out the stack of papers.
The minutes stretched out like hours, the background noises of humanity falling into a background drone, which coupled with the aura of calmness emanating from Kasumi, combined to allow Ryoga to succumb to the sleep which he had been too afraid to indulge in since the … incident.
Ryoga abruptly awoke when he felt someone shaking his shoulder. "Come on Ryoga, the doctor it's your turn." Kasumi said, putting a hand on his elbow to assist his standing up.
Ryoga felt for and found his pack, he slipped it on, then followed the familiar tug on his sleeve. After several turns and twists, leaving the sound of a full room behind, Kasumi stopped and led Ryoga into another chair, this one much more padded and supposedly more comfortable than the ones in the waiting room.
"Hello Mr. Hibiki." Said a masculine voice, "I'm Doctor Itoshiki, let's see what the problem is today." There was a rustle of papers, then a clicking sound. A hand grasped Ryoga by the shoulder, then a few moments of silence. "How long have you been having difficulties with your sight Mr. Hibiki?" There was another click.
"A couple of days." Ryoga replied, "I was having a fight with another martial artist and they threw some sort of dust into my eyes. Since then I've been like this."
The doctor hummed to himself for a moment, and then lightly grasped Ryoga by the head, tilting it against a cold metal plate. "Please hold your head steady against this rest. There was another clicking sound and the small humming of an exhaust fan. "Look up please, now down … left. Now look to the right, now up again please. Now look straight ahead. Hmmmmmm." The click sounded again, followed by the scratching of writing. "You can lean back again."
The scratching of writing went on for a few more minutes, accompanied by the creak as the doctor shifted in his chair. Ryoga wasn't sure where he should be focusing his unseeing eyes so he sat where he was uncomfortably, hopefully looking at the floor.
The scratching stopped. "Mr. Hibiki, I'm going to order some further, more in depth tests, but from my preliminary analysis, it looks like there has been significant damage to your optical nerve. I'm afraid that your condition might be permanent."
Ryoga's mind blanked out, the word permanent echoing through his consciousness. Permanent, as in not ever going to be getting better, as in never being able to see again, permanent meaning that on top of his turning into a pig, as well as his hopeless sense of direction, he had lost perhaps his most important connection with the world, his sight.
Now he would become hopelessly lost without the benefit of being able to at least see where he was, and what would happen when he turned into P-chan? He already had almost insurmountable problems with being a pig, but how would a blind pig ever survive in the wild?
Ryoga would never remember the next several minutes, during that time Kasumi and the doctor had a long discussion, during which they set up an appointment for further tests. It made no impact on Ryoga. The next thing he was aware of was being once again outside the chemical smelling hospital, being led once more by the kind Kasumi.
Suddenly it was too much for him, something inside Ryoga burst. He shook off Kasumi's touch and began to run blindly away. He distantly heard the Tendo girl call out after him as he ran, but he paid her cries no mind as he ran as fast has he could. There was the sound of cars suddenly braking, horns blaring, and tires squealing. Ryoga didn't pay any attention to them either. He slammed into something metallic, but shrugged it off. He kept running as fast has he could, randomly changing direction after every impact with something else.
He hit a wall and while he couldn't see the wall's breaking point, he was still Ryoga Hibiki, so using his brute strength to break on through to the other side. Then there was another wall, and another. No matter what the obstacle though, Ryoga either went through it or bounced off it. Hours later he had left the city, no longer surrounded by walls of concrete and the sounds of humanity, but rather the songs of birds and the splintered remains of the trees he had run into.
Ryoga fell to his knees and put his head in his hands. He was lost and alone, it was cold and dark. He suddenly remembered all the other times in his life, at home, lost and alone in a dark and cold house, alone in a dark and cold classroom, alone and cold in the dark wilderness. For his entire life Ryoga had been alone, alone in the dark, alone in the cold. And now he knew that he would be lost and alone in the cold darkness for his entire life.
Ryoga's figure became engulfed in a thick purple glow, growing ever more opaque. The area around him began to first steam, and then burn as his aura expanded. The remains of trees burned, and then vaporized as Ryoga unleashed his despair, anger, and depression in one cathartic burst.
Several hours after Ryoga had run away from Kasumi, night had fallen and Kasumi had returned to her family's dojo after searching as much of the town as she could, asking after the lost boy. While there were numerous signs and sightings of his passing, she was unable to locate the actual boy.
The full moon was rising as Kasumi reached the gate to her home, when the western sky was suddenly lit by a bright purplish light which drowned out the dying light of the day's sun. A huge beam shot out of the distant forests of Japan and raced up into the sky. It stretched higher and higher, Kasumi watched stunned as it showed no signs of slowing or stopping, but rather it almost seemed to accelerate as it clipped the moon.
The light, which scientist would later explain as an asteroid traveling at near the speed of light which had vaporized over Japan, igniting the chemicals it had left in its trail, died away, leaving a crescent hole in the moon through which stars shown. The night seemed darker than it had been, and much lonelier as Kasumi softly muttered, "Oh Ryoga…"
