A/N: If I had a million dollars, I probably still wouldn't own any of these characters. Oh, but I'd try.
Takahashi, look me up sometime?
"Life After Death"
By: Ranichan
When you live in a ward encased in chaos, you tend to forget that beyond the city limits live ordinary people who live ordinary lives and die ordinary deathes.
He was all but ordinary.
To live such an extraordinary life, one could not be satisfied with anything but an extraordinary death.
He was 17. With the threat of his schooling ending, he had yet to choose who he would spend the rest of his life with and the time he'd have left to spend with her was dwindling. He had come to the conclusion that he wanted her, he knew all along, and he now knew he had to tell her.
One evening, he took it upon himself to seclude himself from the chaos that usually followed him as he pondered how best to express his feelings.
As he sat in his favorite spot under the bridge, thoughts of her distracted him as he recalled with intricate detail, the color of her eyes, the smile that dimpled her face, the soft blush of her cheek, the pout of her lips... love turns everyone into a poet.
In his mind, he pieced together words meant only for her. "You should know that no matter what, I'll always be there for you. We've been engaged for about as long as I've known ya and that almost ruined it for us. School's bout to end and with it, I know that Pops will either force me on another one of his training trips or everyone will pressure me to choose. Before that happens, I just want to tell ya... as a friend, as your fiance," he thought confidently, "I owe it to ya to tell you that for the longest time... I've... I've... nah!"
Words couldn't seem to convey all that he was feeling, least of all his words.
"I love you."
It was perfect.
Throughout his epiphany, he had failed to notice the rainstorm that seemed to have just fallen upon Nerima. Thunder bellowed above and echoed loud under the bridge.
"Shit." Ranma cursed as he was shaken from though. How he hadn't noticed before was beyond him as water had begun pooling under his feet. The little lake was slowly consuming the ground on which he sat. "Gotta get outta here..." he sighed knowing he wouldn't make it home a man.
As he stepped from under the safety of the bridge, he felt the familiar sensation of the transformation from Ranma to Ranko earning another light curse under his breath.
As he took off, lightning cracked through the sky, immediately lighting the dark sky. Thunder boomed threateningly and suddenly, a branch struck by lightning fell upon the head of none other than Ranma.
He was out cold.
"Oh my, such strange weather we're having..." Kasumi gasped as the electricity threatened to go out.
"Yea..." Akane gulped blankly, feeling her stomach turn.
The next morning, the sky still shone overcast. It had rained all evening. Akane woke to unusual banter coming from the guestroom down the hall.
"Ranma, my boy! Time for your morning romp! If you don't keep training, you'll be soft, my boy! Leave it to your father to help whip you into shape!" Genma bellowed as he threw open their closet, as if in seach of Ranma.
"What are you doing...?" Nabiki questioned grouchily rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"What seems to be the problem?" Soun clamoured in.
Soon, Genma found himself facing the entire house, angered at his lack of consideration. "I... I was just looking for Ranma..." he offered, shrugging.
"Well, where is he?" Akane shot.
"Oh my, I don't recall him coming home last night. He wasn't even at dinner..." Kasumi mused aloud.
"Oh boy, Ranma missed a meal!? Call the coastguard!" Nabiki responded sarcastically. She nonchalantly walked into the bathroom turning on the water for a fresh bath. At that, the inhabitants of the house disappated knowing Ranma was fine, except Akane.
She couldn't shake the feeling that something just wasn't right. Her conditioned response to whenever he went missing was to assume the worst. He was with one of them and jealousy would ensue. But a feeling in the pit of her stomach disabled her from doing so. "Ranma..." she sighed, her brow furrowed.
Hours dripped into days and Akane found herself growing sick with worry. He wasn't with Shampoo or Ukyo, they had come by on a daily basis asking what she'd done to him, why he hadn't been coming out. She had, for a while, thought Kodachi had caught up with him and was holding him captive through methods of strong paralysis, but even she had come around demanding to know what she had done with her precious Ranma-sama, so she was ruled out, reluctantly so.
She soon found herself dazedly walking around for any sign of him. What she felt was more than merely missing him. He had left without saying goodbye. But she felt more than sadness, she was eager, she was distraught. Something was wrong, she instinctively knew.
One evening, egaer to find some part of him to which she could hold onto, she climbed up to the roof, a place he often occupied, and thought. "Why would he leave without saying goodbye? I mean...not to me, of course, but to anyone!" but she could only lie to herself for so long, "So what if I do care whether he said goodbye? He's gone so it doesn't matter! But why!? Where have you gone, Ranma? What were you running away from? Could it have been... me?" she mused, lost in her thoughts.
The next day, as she aimlessly trudged through Nerima, she cam upon the fence a certain pig-tailed martial artist she knew would scale and balance on whilst on their way to school. She was tempted to climb but resigned to just hold the cold metal in her hands. She looked past the fence and out to the lake where a small bridge Ranma frequented, sat. Before she knew it, she was standing on the bridge staring blankly into the water.
She unintentionally shivered and decided to make her way back home and wait for any news of him. She sullenly trudged down along the muddy banks of the now bloated river. Nights ago, the rain had flooded the river leaving the shore weak and easily broken. Akane walked carefully, mindful of the fragility of the ground upon which she stood.
Dazedly, she walked on until she accidentally tripped over a fallen branch. She was face down in dirt and mud and her temper flared as she pushed herself up, her left hand grazing something unfamiliar. She looked down to find the cold hand of Ranma, his body half underwater, his clothes sullied with mud.
Akane cried bewilderedly and gasped, dropping his hand. Suddenly, everything began to make sense. She huddled closer to his body crying out his name repeatedly, as if each time she did, he was given a little bit more life. "Ranma... Ranma. Ranma? Ranma! RANMA! RAN-MA!" Sick with sorrow, she sobbed raggedly for hours cradling his lifeless body before she was finally discovered, her voice hoarse.
A/N: More to come soon, don't start hating it juuuust yet. Wait for the final chapter to flame me, please!!
Second and final chapter coming within the hour, pinky promise ;)
PLEASE READ FURTHER!
P.S. IN CASE THIS WASN'T MADE CLEAR ENOUGH,
Ranma was not killed by the branch hitting him. He was knocked out and as the lake was flooded with rain, he actually drowned, at least, that was my intent. Sorry if that was not illustrated. 'K thats all.