Chapter V
There was an old saying: Hell hath no fury. And like many people, often a hidden rage was harboured in some that could not be restrained.
Martial artists were trained to control their emotions and to allow their actions to voice their words, but sometimes accidents happened and tragedies occurred.
Ryoga gasped as he saw the broken pieces of the Nanban Mirror on the ground. He held Akane in his arms, but then gently laid her down to look at what he had done! He tried to pick up the pieces to put them back in the mirror's housing like a puzzle, but it was no use.
Happosai came to him. There was absolutely no way home for them.
"Ryoga, I told you this may happen!" Happosai said upset. "Everything is destroyed!"
"No! No! No! It can't end like this?" Ryoga panicked.
Happosai had spent years watching Ryoga grow into a great martial artist.
Ryoga was trapped in Ranma's body from the 'Switcharoo' and Happosai had become a father-figure to the kid since he had no one else. He was worried about Ryoga, the kid needed a lot of guidance. And over the years, Ryoga developed a lot more confidence and was no longer afraid of his own shadow or water. Happosai was proud of him.
But Ryoga's anger on the other hand was a separate story. Ryoga had a short-fuse and would often get angry at the smallest thing. Happosai tried to tame it, but obviously it was not enough.
The mirror had remained static and couldn't be used for ten years even with crying on it and asking it to take them back to the past. In that time, all they could do was wait until it unfroze itself. There was no explanation for the occurrence. They both thought it was broken for good. Then a month ago, it came back to life. They then planned a trip, this one.
The plan was to return to the past, defeat Ranma to satisfy Ryoga's lust for revenge, because Happosai knew Ryoga had been thinking about it for ten long years, and then return things back as they were before the accident.
It was a paradox. If Ryoga defeated Ranma, stopped the Switcharoo, then none of what happened to either of them would occur. It was strange and confusing. If the original incident was stopped, how could they come from the future to stop everything from occurring?
They just hoped things worked out.
Unfortunately, things didn't turn out as they had hoped.
Ryoga had killed Ranma and Akane, and everyone else, in an unrelenting bout of rage with an Ultimate Shi-Shi Hokodan blast. His emotions had erupted beyond his control and destroyed everything in a quarter mile radius. Even the Nanban Mirror.
They couldn't fix things now.
Suicide. Ryoga was emotionally unstable, and after what he had done, Happosai wouldn't put it pass the boy to take his own life.
"I killed them all! I don't deserve to live." Ryoga said distraught. "The Ultimate Shi-Shi Hokodan is too dangerous. Its secret has to die with me."
Happosai knew others had the knowledge, even he knew about it, and how to use it, but he was nowhere as powerful, or could tap Ryoga's depressive well, to use it with such gusto.
"A martial artist never gives up, no matter the situation, Ryoga." Happosai's firm tone caught Ryoga's attention. "Killing yourself is not the answer! Living is the greatest challenge every martial artist must face even when things go awry."
Ryoga sharply turned to the diminutive martial artist. "How can I go on after what I've done? And the Nanban Mirror is smashed. This wasn't the plan. It wasn't supposed to be this way. I didn't know my own strength and my emotions got the better of me when I saw Ranma again. I need to fix this somehow! Happosai what do I do?"
"You have only yourself to blame, Ryoga. You have a genetic disposition for violence. Ever since I first met you, you've been angry and swearing revenge on Ranma at every opportunity for what he did to you at Jusenkyo. But falling in that spring of drowned pig was an accident. Let me tell you something Ryoga. Despite all the training, you don't have a hope in hell of beating Ranma in a fair fight. And you know why? Because with each battle you engage with him, you're not only fighting him but yourself. Your own pride and ego. For a martial artist to be driven by emotions is poor stratagem, because most assuredly, the one who loses is you. A win is empty. You lose even before you begin. You must fight smartly."
"I beat Ranma, but I lost…" He looked at Akane. "…everything!" He nodded. "You're right. In trying to defeat Ranma, I only defeated myself."
"But that doesn't mean it's the end of it. You still have a lot more fight in you. Use that passion and emotion to help others and atone for your sins. Learn to control your anger, instead of letting it control you."
"There has to be a way to fix this, old man," Ryoga said. "This can't be the end."
"I'm afraid it is," Happosai said.
Water spouts suddenly burst everywhere from the damage Ryoga had inflicted upon the area, they came from the underground plumbing of the Tendo house. He was wet, but not longer changed. He was free of his curse, but in the end—it cost him everything!
He stood on his feet and then looked down into a near-by puddle. He saw the face of his rival staring back at him.
Happosai's words rang true. He had so much more to give and he vowed right then and there that would spend the rest of his life atoning for what he had done today.
His brow rose and suddenly an idea sprang to mind.
"Water! It can act like a mirror, right, old man?" Ryoga said excitedly. "Let's gather up all the pieces of the mirror. If it works, we can go home."
Along with Ryoga's training and separate from his own personal attempts at self-control at no-longer being a pervert and stealing women's underwear—that was a difficult feat—he helped educate Ryoga in the ways of the Anything-Goes Martial Arts and even learned a few things of his own along the way. Science, Mathematics, Geography, Chemistry, and Sociology, were all subjects Ryoga learned of his own violation, plus more, since he had missed so much school when he was younger. It helped him to think better on his feet in new ways.
Happosai cocked his head confused, but helped gather up all the pieces, every last one, and then they fled from the scene. They didn't want to be in the area when the authorities arrived.
A few miles away, they then put them all in a pile. Then Ryoga spent time painstakingly sorting them and piecing them together like a jigsaw puzzle organizing them under water in a near-by puddle. All-in-all, it took a couple of hours. He told Happosai what he had in mind, but the elder martial artist had his doubts. Happosai had never seen the mirror used in such a way.
But he wondered if this future-Ryoga had ideas an old man never considered. Perhaps all the education had done Ryoga a world of good and made him think outside the box. This new Ryoga was a far cry smarter then the old Ryoga Happosai once knew. If anyone else came across this Ryoga now who knew the old one, they would say he was acting out of character. But more often than naught, people had to change for their own good.
"Now what?" Happosai said, once the Nanban Mirror was pieced back together underwater in its housing. Although the cracks were noticeable, all the pieces fit nicely. The mirror had broken and crumbled cleanly, so no piece was left out. "I still don't believe this will work. The mirror is broken."
Ryoga smiled confidently. "It was broken before, right? We had to wait ten years for it to 'fix itself' for us to travel to the past. I believe this will work. You didn't raise a dummy, Master. I've made mistakes, but if history teaches us anything, we should learn from them."
"You certainly have, to a degree," Happosai said. "I only wish you could control your anger."
Ryoga nodded. Happosai knew the boy was feeling grief for what he had done. But there was no need to add salt to the wound. "I'm sorry," he said.
"I know this will work," Ryoga said. "The water will act as a reflective clean surface to replace the cracked mirror. The Nanban Mirror still has its magic. Now all that's left is for one of us to cry, so a tear can fall into the water. Then we can make a wish."
"You know, that's very smart." Happosai smiled. He gave Ryoga a hearty congratulatory slap on the back. Ryoga smiled. "I underestimated you, lad. I'm happy to call you my student."
"There's more to me than meets the eye," Ryoga said. "I used to travel a lot, but on my journey's I took books to read. I schooled myself. It's just around Akane I forget myself and act…"
"Love will do that," Happosai said. "I know the feeling. In my younger days, I was in love with…"
"With anything in a skirt," Ryoga finished jokingly.
"Hey! Respect your elders."
Ryoga laughed.
Happosai smiled. "You really love Akane, don't you?"
"With all my heart and soul," Ryoga said. "But until I'm cured of the pig, she must never know my true 's just the way it is and how I feel, or felt back then."
"I can attest to that. First impressions are sometimes everything."
"Well, I think first impressions went out the window a long time ago, but if Akane ever knew I was P-Chan, I would just die. And she would never let me sleep in her bed again." He smiled.
"Pervert!"
Ryoga smiled. "Takes one to know one," he said lightly. "If this works, I'll return to being the old me again," he said. "I'll also become nothing more than Akane's pet P-Chan. Akane and Ranma will be also still be engaged. And I'll be an after thought. That's hard to fathom, but if things have to be that way, I rather let fate work its magic than love be forced upon an unwanted heart."
"You really do have a philosophers soul, Ryoga," Happosai said. "I'm going to miss you, this you. As for love, it takes time. You're still young and you're going to be even younger when time reverts back to normal. Enjoy your youth while it lasts. And try not to be so angry. It's not worth the effort. Just maybe you'll find someone else to enjoy your life with other than Akane?"
Ryoga mused. "Well, there was this one farm girl," he said. Then shook his head. "No, Akane is my only love. I can make it work. I know it." Ryoga leaned over the puddle and looked into the mirror. Once again the face of Ranma Saotome stared back at him. He turned to Happosai. "Ready?"
Happosai nodded. "Time to think of something unhappy to make you cry, son."
Ryoga looked inward, but then he turned to Happosai, and smiled melancholy, and a tear fell down his cheek, and splashed into the water.
Then Ryoga made his wish.
To be continued...
