It was a day when the rain came pouring from the sky. A day when I ran in my
yellow rubber boots through the puddles and grumbled about the weather. A day
when Ranma crossed my way carrying a bright red umbrella over his head and a
warm smile on his face. A day when being close to him under the small umbrella
caused a fuzzy feeling in my tummy. A day when he took my hand for the very
first time. A day when I squeezed his hand back. A day when our gazes met like
never before. A day when time remained still.
…
A day when no further words were required and we kissed. A day when the most beautiful sensation of all time rose inside of me. A day when that feeling faded soon. A day when a hard pain hit me, suddenly. A day when the whole world turned completely red. A day when I coughed blood. A day when I saw Ranma cry.
A day when I had so much to say.
A day that was not complete.
A day when I stopped breathing.
***
Act I - Only one Day
"Are you ready, Ranma?"
Mister Saotome looked very honourable in his dark tuxedo. Almost like one of those important business men. Very unusual to see him like that. Ranma, though, was wearing his usual red shirt from China.
"I won't come", he said in a voice lacking any emotion when he briefly turned around and then again leaned his forehead against the cool windowpane. "It had rained just like that back then… just like that…" His voice was low and weak.
Carefully I moved towards him and then slightly bowed down to him. His eyes were all dry. Pensively he did not let his gaze let go of the rainy landscape.
"Oh Ranma…" I said, shaking my head while I straightened up again. "I should've known better. You just are an insensitive jer--"
"We can go now" Nabiki appeared in the door frame. Her eyes were completely empty. If there was one thing that I was always envious for then it was her inner strength. My strength only ever meant to break bricks. Not too efficient now that I think about it. Nabiki though was able to control herself, the way she acted, her thoughts, her face, her appearance. But now… now there was nothing, absolutely nothing. Even if she had pulled her usual, mysterious smile for just another poker face - her redden eyes would have revealed her anyway.
"Nabiki…"
I breathed. "There's no need for you to..." But she did
not look at me.
"He… doesn't want to…" Mister Saotome stuttered quite insecure after
a while.
My sister nodded. "I don't care whether you'll come or not. As if… as if that…" Not completing her sentence she turned away and then rather sailed than went out of the room, so softly was she treading.
"She blames me for it…" whispered Ranma. He
had not turned his face to his father yet and instead counted the raindrops
that hit the steamed up glass of the window. "31, 32,... 33,.... 34, 35, 36,.... ....
....... 37,...."
"Ranma, my boy. At least you ought to…" began
Mister Saotome in a warm voice and laid a hand on his shoulder.
Furiously Ranma shook it of and then turned to him.
"THE HELL I OUGHT TO, GOT IT?" he screamed and his face was distorted
of anger. Then his expression smoothened again when he was going into his
former position and kept one following the rain. "What's it for? It's only
one day like plenty of others." The knocking sound of the raindrops that
hit the windowpane was getting louder for a few seconds when a strong wind
blew. "Dammit", he growled. "Now I gotta start all over again…
1,... 2,... 3,... 4, 5, 6,..... ..... 7,... 8, 9, 10,...."
Resigned his father shook his head and then with hanging shoulders left the room. Ranma was still keen on counting when the others left the house.
I sighed, not knowing what to do now. "Ranma…" I said eventually in a calm voice. "Can't you be normal - for once?
No reaction. As if I had expected anything else. Three minutes passed
by, four, five, until he heavily stood up and slowly passed me.
His behaviour made me really mad, at the same time though I was curious where
he was going to go, and therefore I secretly followed him. The door to his room
stood a crack wide open. When I peeked inside I saw that he opened the lower
drawer of the sideboard, his face still not showing any kind of expression. He
pushed some clothes aside and then his eyes slightly lightened up in a split
second. Suddenly he was holding a tiny thing in his hand. He took it at eye
level so that he could look at it closely. I had to try hard to see what it was
that he pulled out. And suddenly I recognized it…
It was the tiny heart of chocolate that I once gave him on Valentine's Day. I was too shy to buy him something bigger, something greater. And so I decided for giving him the smallest piece of chocolate that I could find. Somehow it reminded me of my own heart. It was so miserable and poor and yet full of love. I was afraid he would not like it or he would be disappointed. But then he bowed down to me in a slow motion and said without taking his surprised look off the tiny present: "It's perfect."
...
Now he was holding that heart in his hand. The thin film in which it was wrapped, sparkled. Hard to believe he really kept it for so long. So he really was serious, he liked it. But his expression was not like before. Where did all the vividness go that I always found in his eyes and in his smiling face? Suddenly he turned around and threw it into the waste-paper basket. "Dun need that anymore", he whispered bitterly.
I was petrified. Did he really do this? I would have expected he had eaten it
up by then… But to throw it away, so cold hearted…
"I know ya here." He suddenly said. I winced. He noticed me? - I immediately thought. I was about to step closer when I saw he was watching at the window where Ukyou carefully climbed into the house.
"What do ya want?" His voice was as cold as ice.
Breathing heavily, Ukyou stared at the ground. "Ranma…", she calmly said to him. "That's not the right way."
"So?" he asked, still speaking coldly. "And what is the right one?"
She cleaned her throat. "Too many things have happened, I know. But you need to bring yourself to… do certain things… to be able to leave them behind you… to close a chapter of your life… to finish it…"
"That's what I did." His voice was getting
even colder, so cold like I never heard him speaking before. "It's over. I'm through with
it. I have killed Shampoo."
---
~End of Act I
I seriously hope I didn't scare anyone. Sounds pretty dark, yup… Just read the next acts to learn more. I have written this story a while ago (in German btw.) when I was very depressed and down. ;_; But when translating the story I decided to edit some parts so that it sounds less angsty. So: Don't be afraid to read act II! ^_^ For all my very nice readers of 'Elysium': I promise I'll update the next chapter soon but since it's a quite long one and aside that, at some parts harder to translate than I first figured, it will take me some more days. I noticed that after I was right in front of kicking my own *beep* when I saw what stupid mistakes I made in the translation of the first chapter. So yeah, I'll just spend some more days on it for (hopefully) better quality. :/
//Chiyo May//
*dying for comments*