Sunset on a Long Day

Thanks for the Feedback: GoldenRat, Wonderbee31, Dumbledork, The Violent Tomboy, bissek, mdizzle, Dragon Man 180, Xtor49, RockBane, ss4-link, Deus X Machina, weebee, Pearl, meikouhaikitsune, kikyou-sama, Xoni Newcomer, JakeTheSheepy

Disclaimer: Characters and setting are the property of Rumiko Takahashi and Yoshihiro Togashi, I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

Koenma fidgeted. He glanced at the cave. He looked to the darkening sky. He checked his watch. "Err, it's taking Botan a while to get back. Perhaps we should wait elsewhere."

Kurama nodded. His day had started with Kasumi's nervous breakdown and had gone rapidly down hill from there. He was physically and emotionally exhausted. "I'll take Ranma home. If Botan runs into any problems have her contact me there."

"I'll help your mother look after him," Ukyo volunteered quickly.

"Ranma lives at the Dojo," Akane objected. "That's where his dad is, why do you get any say?"

"Because my mother and I actually care about what's best for Ranma," Kurama said darkly.

"Ku'so!" Atsuko sworn. "Someone has to tell Genma."

"Why? So he can take advantage of Ranma's injuries?" Kurama demanded.

Atsuko slapped him. "Just because he isn't good at being a parent doesn't mean he doesn't care about his son."

"You could have fooled me," Kurama replied.

"Save the self-righteous riff for someone who hasn't heard it all before," Atsuko said. "I'm going to go find Genma."

Tofu caught Koenma's elbow. "I understand that Ranma's condition is more metaphysical than physical but he is in a coma, it would be best to have him under a doctor's care."

"What he needs most is someone on hand to kiss him once everything's in place," Koenma said. "I hear Minamino-san has more or less adopted him, that'll neatly get around the whole transgender awkwardness." Both Akane and Ukyo jumped to attention at Koenma's mention of a kiss. "I'd rather not risk activating the curse while Ranma's soul isn't in his body generating ki. And I remember all the fuss when we tried to get Kuwabara here to kiss Yusuke."

"That was you guys?" Kuwabara exclaimed. "That's a relief."

"Anyway, I imagine that the boys won't want to kiss Ranma because he's actually a boy and the girls won't want to because he's currently a girl."

"I don't mind!" Ukyo volunteered enthusiastically.

"Do you think I would risk his life being brother over anything so stupid?" Kurama stated.

"It wasn't stupid," Kuwabara muttered to himself. "It wasn't like anyone told me it was like mouth-to-mouth, I just started having this freaky dream about kissin' another guy!"

Akane decided Koenma was pretty smart; if someone had to kiss Ranma a platonic kiss from someone's mother seemed like a very good solution… still it was Kurama's mother who'd been volunteered which meant letting Kurama take Ranma and Kurama hadn't sounded nearly bothered enough by the idea of kissing Ranma; she'd had a bad feeling about him ever since he lumped her in with Kuno and Mousse and gave her poison ivy. Besides – "Why does someone have to kiss Ranma?" Akane asked. "He won't like it. Ranma was really upset when Sanzenin Mikado kissed her. He didn't want to kiss me or anyone else when he wrecked 'Romeo and Juliet'. He won't like it."

Kurama caught Ukyo by the back of the collar as she leaned forward to kiss Ranma. "It won't work now," he said. "We need his spirit."

"Oh," Ukyo said innocently.

"I'm taking him home," Kurama reiterated, this time no one objected but they all fell in behind him and even though he knew it was a bad idea he was just too tired to make them go away.

Shiori knelt on the floor beside her couch stroking Ranma's hair lightly with one hand, her other was locked tightly around her son's wrist, keeping Suichi close. Shiori didn't know what to think really, they'd told her Ranma had died, everyone seemed to believe that; Koenma had introduced himself as the Prince of Spirit World and her son took him seriously, she'd felt Yusuke's heart not beating.

Across the room Genma stared at his child in shock. "He never even gets sick, Tendo. Not unless he eats your youngest's cooking; how could he have been killed?"

"You heard the –er, um -Kami, he'll get better Saotome. It's not as if he's really dead," Soun replied as he patted his old friend on the shoulder.

Kasumi stayed hidden behind her father for fear of Tofu-sensei's reaction should he see her. She chewed on her lower lip and there were tears in her eyes as she watched Ranma and wished there was something she could do.

Koenma cleared his throat loudly to get everyone's attention. "The good news is the harmonics for Ranma's body and spirit are very closely aligned, the frequencies come into alignment every few weeks. If we miss this shot we'll have another chance before the month ends. However–" Koenma paused dramatically. "It really would be for the best if Ranma were restored in the next month or two. Yusuke, you remember that your spirit had to return to your body to restore its ki even during your trials? Ranma is already living on borrowed energy, while I suppose it would be possible to maintain his body indefinitely with transfusions it's makes a mess of the signal to noise ratio, if that gets much worse than it already is, his spirit won't be able to come into synch with his body anymore. On a related note, Ranma's curse burns through his ki, which is the last thing we want. Elder Cologne has graciously offered to supply us with water-proof soap –"

"I've got a soft spot for this one too," Cologne said to no one in particular but her great granddaughter smiled gratefully at her.

Koenma cleared his throat purposefully. "I've already started the process, if we have his soul within the month – roughly – all he'll need is a kiss to spark the reunion between his spirit and body. Yes it has to be a kiss. And yes, it has to be on the lips," Koenma added before Akane could asked.

Botan burst into the crowded room, "I couldn't find him!" she exclaimed.

The room exploded into chaos.

"Shut up!" Kurama commanded forcefully, which startled his mother. Under his fierce glare the others quickly subsided. "Do you think Spirit World found him first?"

Botan nodded unhappily. "We'll never get him back now," she cried.

Genma collapsed. Shiori's grip on her son's wrist tightened to the point of bruising. Soun burst into fountains of tears. Yusuke and Akane started glowing with poorly suppressed power.

"You said he'd be fine," Ukyo accused Koenma. Both she and Akane looked ready to attack the Spirit World Prince.

Kasumi walked into the kitchen, those with ears that were more than human could hear her sobbing. Nabiki looked like she was going to be sick. Ryoga tried to picture a world without Ranma as his rival and failed completely. Shampoo hid her face against Hiei's shoulder so no one would see her tears.

"Has his soul already been judged?" Kurama demanded.

"Well no, the paperwork is always backed up, especially when Koenma-sama isn't there to stamp documents," Botan replied. "But security around the Waiting Room is incredibly tight. The waiting tends to make spirits nervous and if they bolt once they get to Spirit World it's all but impossible to convince them to come back."

"Then we still have time to get him back," Kurama said.

"But the security!" Botan objected.

"I'm one of Demon World's most notorious thieves," Kurama stated. "I'll get him back."

"Shuichi?" Shiori asked and the redheaded boy blanched. Shiori saw the look of utter horror on her son's face and pulled him into a hug.

Kurama remained tense and unresponsive to his mother's attempt to reassure him. Shiori remembered how she used to worry because her adorable little toddler had seemed all but incapable of accepting affection. Most children grew into that stage as they began asserting independence but Shuichi had been born determined not to rely on anyone for anything. Then he'd suddenly stopped giving her reasons for concern. After a bad scare when he'd tried to reach a cupboard that was too high and nearly fell onto broken glass everything had changed. For the first time Shuichi let her hold him without tensing, he would always remain reserved and altogether much too much grown-up for his age but he gained an openness and warmth that had been missing before. He hadn't tensed up when she hugged him for so long that Shiori had almost forgotten. "Shuichi?" she asked in a soft, frightened voice.

Kurama hugged her tightly for a long moment and bowed his head to bury his face against her shoulder. "I am so sorry Mother," he whispered. Then gently he pulled away from her. "I give you my word that I'll explain – I'll explain everything - when I get back. However, if Ranma is to be saved time is of the essence." Then he turned his back on her. "Botan, Koenma, we'll need to go over specifics if I'm to pull this off."

"I'm going to help," Akane stated.

"Me too!" half the room chimed in.

Hiei laughed in their faces. "The only reason the fox takes partners on a job is so he has patsy at hand."

"I said I'm going to help," Yusuke announced as he caught Kurama's arm. "If you say no, I'm gonna pound ya until you say yes."

"Even if you have the power of a Kami I would still refuse you. Yusuke your power isn't subtle and neither are you. You'd only get us noticed." Kurama raised his voice slightly. "That goes for the rest of you as well. The best thing you can do is make sure Ranma's body stays safe until I get back."

Outside the window there was one other being listening to the going-on's inside. 'So they're assembling a party to rescue Saotome,' Mousse thought to himself. His forked tongue flicked out to taste the fear and unhappiness lacing the air. 'I truly came for that traitorous bitch; how dare she not love me! But this all started with Saotome, if not for him she would be mine by now. Who knows, it might be entertaining to watch them all standing by helplessly while he wastes away, but how to destroy a spirit?"

Upstairs Kurama grilled Botan and Koenma about the obstacles he'd face in stealing Ranma back from Spirit World.

Genma knocked politely on Kurama's door.

"What do you want?" Kurama demanded.

Genma vanished, a moment later he reappeared leaning against the windowsill with a small packet of Demon World seeds from inside a locked drawer in Kurama's desk sitting in the palm of his hand. "I'm not unskilled as a thief," Genma said. "I can help."

Kurama hesitated. "I still think you're an abusive bastard without the decency to feel shame for selling your son to feed your fat belly," he said.

Genma gritted his teeth, he nodded and pulled Kurama's notes on the Waiting Room's security closer so that he could read them.

Downstairs Cologne and Shiori took charge of applying the waterproof soap. Ukyo volunteered to help and was turned down. Soun had insisted that, as Ranma's fiancée, Akane ought to help. Both Shiori and Kasumi began to object to the inappropriateness of the suggestion but Ryoga beat them to the punch by punching Soun. Akane promptly malleted the lost boy for hurting her father then punched her father for making perverted suggestions. Clearly, Ranma wasn't at fault this time, Akane wasn't even completely certain that Ranma's current state counted as alive but she'd built up such a temper over the day that she needed some release.

"That's quite enough girly," Genkai declared. She firmly led Akane out to a quiet corner of the Minamino's porch. Under her breath Genkai muttered, "That nitwit claimed you weren't using ki-abilities as a part of your martial arts."

"What? Ranma was talking about me behind my back?" Akane ranted, caught with her temper still running high.

Genkai smacked her sharply. "He was worried about you after making himself sick using an anger based ki attack. But it never occurred to the Nitwit to tell me about that ridiculous hammer of yours or about the way you subconsciously reinforce your physical strength with you misbalanced ki. Feh, I'm not going to give the lecture individually. Stay put while I round up the other moron."

Genkai walked back inside. "First one student, then another, now I've got four unruly teenagers to contend with. Why couldn't the nitwit have friends like Kuwabara? At least he didn't need to be led by the nose to avoid self-destructive power-ups," she muttered. Genkai glanced toward the couch where Ranma had been laying earlier. "I'd better have four students or I'll find a way to give that brat a piece of my mind."

She found Ryoga engaged in a glaring contest with Hiei and Kuwabara, Yukina's presence was likely the only reason blood hadn't been shed. Genkai grabbed Ryoga by the ear and hauled the loudly protesting boy out onto the porch.

"You're both several months behind Ranma so you're going to have to work your asses off if you expect to catch up," Genkai announced. 'That should keep them from arguing about whether or not they're going to be trained. How the hell did I talk myself into this? Oh yeah, keeping two of the morons out of trouble is the most useful thing I can do right now; I'm not a thief and I'm not a nursemaid.'

Seeing that she had Akane and Ryoga's full attention Genkai continued. "Get this straight: I'm not teaching you to fight. I'm going to teach you when to fight and how not to destroy yourselves in the process."

"Why not?" Akane demanded.

"Because I like challenging myself," Genkai retorted. "If you two morons manage to master that then I'll teach you to fight." She shook her head. "Most of the demons who'll bother to take advantage of the weakness in the Kakkai Barrier are going to be the man-eaters and the trouble-makers. We're going to need all the fighters we can get, but the way you are now you're worse than useless. Your bad habits will eventually destroy you and you don't know the difference between a victory, a pyrrhic victory and a damned waste of effort. Let's start with bad habits: Unbalanced ki."

Ryoga responded automatically as Genkai settled into lecture mode. His lack of a directional sense had always denied him the chance to attend any sort of regular lessons so he was generally quick to accept when anyone offered to teach him. For Ryoga learning was like a scavenger hunt for the pieces to a jigsaw puzzle. Every bit of knowledge he gathered was a precious fragment to be fitted into a larger whole in the hopes that someday he'd have enough random bits to guess what the picture was.

Akane had a harder time settling down. Since Ranma's arrival Ryoga had been the only one to offer to teach her anything new about the Art and Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics hadn't turned out so well. She was insulted that Genkai-sensei had implied that she'd fallen into poor habits but Akane was determined to prove she hadn't then Genkai would take her seriously and teach her to fight better. And since Genkai was a woman she wouldn't call Akane a tomboy for being good at Martial Arts. Also it gave her something to think about besides whether or not Ranma was going to survive; she'd thrown herself into Martial Arts during her mother's last illness as well.

"The both of you use a strong emotion to focus your ki into a physical attack; you nurture and encourage that emotion to grown in order to increase your strength. It's not a healthy practice."

"My Shi Shi Hokodan has never made me throw up the way Ranma did," Ryoga argued.

"It's the difference between someone who's been smoking for years taking a nice long drag on a cigarette and a first time smoker doing the same," Genkai said dismissively. "Ranma would probably choke if he tried one of the cigarettes Yusuke's body is certain it needs, but it's not healthy of either of them."

"I'm not addicted to anything," Akane huffed.

Genkai's eyes narrowed. "It's a rush when you get angry. You're more powerful, you don't feel afraid anymore. You train yourself to get angry at the drop of a hat so if you need that power it's easy to access. Before long your temper had a hair-trigger, just in case you need the boost your rage provides. Sometimes you make a mistake and get angry over nothing but it's better to have the power when you don't need it then to not have it when you do. Only it's not just power, it's anger and it makes you lash out. You feel guilty afterwards but guilt makes you weak so you convert it into anger too… Seductive is the Dark Side, but once chosen forever will it dominate your destiny."

Akane and Ryoga blinked at Genkai in befuddled disbelief. She cackled at their expressions then turned serious again. "You didn't know any better. You found something that worked and stuck with it." Then Genkai shrugged and added. "Of course I have to question the intelligence of anyone who cultivates wrath, despair or hubris as a means of getting stronger…"

"What's hubris?" Ryoga asked.

"Excessive pride," Genkai replied. "I told you two that you had a lot of catching up to do, not that Ranma hadn't made the same mistakes."

Akane and Ryoga both sat up a bit straighter at that.

"But your habits are more entrenched." Genkai singled out Ryoga with a look. "You gave in completely to despair and allowed yourself to become an evil spirit. You destroyed without rhyme or reason; there is blood on your hands."

Ryoga shrank into himself. After seeing the Chapter White video he'd known but he'd fought to hang on to his delusions because this was the truth he hadn't wanted to face: He'd killed people. He could say it wasn't his fault because he'd been temporarily insane, he could blame Sensui for forcing him to watch that horrible, horrible video and somehow he was certain that it must all be Ranma's fault because it was always Ranma's fault, but that was where his intense desire to maintain his delusions ran into a stumbling block. Over the course of the last few hours it had slowly sank into Ryoga's brain that there was a very real possibility that Ranma would never wake up; that the next time Ryoga's wandering brought him to the Tendo Dojo or Furinkan High there probably wouldn't be anyone there to answer his customary challenge. And somehow that thought made blaming Ranma singularly unappealing. When his reflexive laying of blame faltered so did his delusions.

In that moment of hesitation before he could make the mental transition from blaming Ranma to blaming Sensui Ryoga remembered a town full of people who had always been hospitable to the lost boy. He knew that they hadn't deserved what he'd done to them, no matter how Sensui had twisted his perception of the world. He'd know them. He should have known better.

"When you gave yourself over to despair that completely the damage to your personality multiplied. I would wager that you couldn't find an optimistic thought if your life depended on it right now," Genkai continued. "But I've spoken with Cologne and Tofu about you. You do have some rudimentary ki training: the Bakusai Tenketsu and your cloth of steel technique. The cloth of steel technique is ki manipulation on a more conscious level." Genkai made a scoffing sound. "Cologne seems to believe it's a bad idea to encourage thinking in anyone under the age of eighty." Her gaze sharpened on Ryoga again. "Go practice your cloth of steel technique until you can't see straight then come tell me what that's supposed to accomplish. And don't break anything while you're at it!"

"Yes Sensei," Ryoga said, hoping he'd be able to find Genkai again within a week or two.

"What about me?" Akane asked.

"I had no plans for teaching you," Genkai admitted.

"What?" Akane squawked.

Genkai rapped her knuckles. "Learn to listen before reacting," she ordered. "Of course I'm going to teach you. As you are now you harm yourself and everyone around you. Your anger prevents you from dealing with the things that cause it, it robs you of the patience needed to improve yourself and having you lash out at people around you is simply no good. Not training you would be negligent of me."

"But you said…"

"That I hadn't made plans. I only realized you needed training fifteen minutes ago," Genkai snapped. "I've had nearly a week to figure out what I was going to do about the directionless wonder. I don't know what sort of foundation you have under that mess. The rubbage needs to be cleared away and the foundation shored up or anything we build will be unstable. I could charge in blindly and force your warped ki channels back into proper alignment, but the process could tear your personality apart or kill you."

Akane thought about being as strong as Ranma right here, right now; even with the risk it was tempting.

"Besides, it's not truly your achievement unless you work for it," Genkai said. Akane blushed in shame. "This isn't a life or death matter, you can afford the time to do it right," Genkai huffed.

Akane was about to ask what she could do to help Genkai figure out where to start when Cologne came outside. "Can I see Ranma?" Akane asked instead.

Cologne nodded. "Top of the stairs, first room on the right."

Akane hurried inside.

Genkai gave Cologne a disgusted look. "You discouraged Ranma from using the Shi Shi Hokodan or his own Moko Takabisha and helped Xian Pu, Ranma and Ryoga all establish a decent basis for ki training, even if they didn't know what you were doing. At the same time you stood by and did nothing for that girl. You spent months watching her condition degrade."

"She was an obstacle while my great granddaughter was pursuing Ranma," Cologne replied without remorse.

Ranma felt like he'd been swimming for an eternity. The far bank of the river was still invisible and the other bank had vanished behind him a long time ago. He was starting to think he might have been a bit hasty in his decision but sitting there thinking about being dead had been creeping him out. Unfortunately swimming wasn't much of a distraction.

His pop had always told him that a true Martial Artist would be willing to give his life for his art. Ranma was pretty sure this wasn't what Genma had meant; Genma had also taught Ranma that the best course of action in a fight against overwhelming odds was to run away until he could figure out a way to win. The fight with Sensui had been a Saotome Ultimate Secret Technique sort of situation, but Ranma hadn't been able to run, not with so much riding on the fight. Genma only talked about a Martial Artist being willing to die for his Art when Ranma balked at this latest insane training scheme or when certain unmitigated failures like Jusenkyo or the Neko-Ken came up.

Ranma suspected his father would be unhappy about him dying. Of course if Sensui had succeeded Genma would end up with things a lot worse than Happosai threatening him and Ranma knew that his father valued his own hide, a full belly and a comfortable bed more than he valued his son, so maybe Genma would think he'd made the right choice.

Akane and Ukyo would be upset but it was probably for the best in the long run. Ranma was starting to see how lucky they'd been when Shampoo had been defeated by someone like Hiei; he gave her a loop-hole in the marriage laws and they were happy together. He couldn't count on lightening striking twice. Even if Ukyo or Akane fell in love with someone else their fathers' promises still held them honor-bound to marry him just like his pop's promises bound him to them. He couldn't marry them both. Ukyo's dowry and ten years of her life were already gone. Genma and Soun were too stubborn, too fixated on what they wanted to let Akane back out gracefully. They'd be sad that he had died but it did break their deadlock without any loss of honor or loss of face. Now they were free to find someone who came with fewer complications attached.

His friends would miss him but if they choice was between him and Kuwabara Ranma was fairly certain Yusuke would choose Kuwabara. And even if Shampoo missed him she'd still have Hiei.

Genkai would miss him too but she'd taught him that there was a lot more to honor than defeating all challengers. She taught him that he could lose and still retain honor, that some battle just weren't worth fighting and sometimes there were more important things than winning. She'd made him think about the stakes involved in his fights. She said people who staked their lives and happiness in battles fought over pride were the worst sort of fools. She also taught him that some battles couldn't be avoided and sometimes the stakes were worth risking everything. He knew he'd been fighting for the right reasons when he'd faced Sensui. His tomboy-sensei would miss him but she'd agree with his choices.

Kurama and Shiori-san made him feel like part of their family; not just a freeloader. But technically he was just a freeloader. Ranma hesitated somehow that didn't ring true.

Almost angrily he pushed that thought aside. Some people would mourn him, but no one needed him; he'd done the only thing he could and regrets were stupid.

He kept swimming.