Ranma 1/2 and all the characters in this story are owned by Rumikio Takahashi.
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A Day in the Life...
I round the corner at a run and skid to a dead stop. Oh no. I forgot. How could I have possibly forgotten? My only excuse is the state of near panic I had found myself in when I realized that I had slept in and only had half an hour to get to school. But even that is a flimsy excuse to forget the carnage that greets my eyes. Dozens of lovesick young boys are scattered bonelessly around the entrance to the school. Most are unconscious and those hardy enough to last longer will soon loose their tenuous grip on awareness.
I stand a safe distance back, attempting to keep myself uninvolved with the events before me. I can see now that it's almost over, the final challenge has been issued and accepted. With a mighty blow the final enemy is booted into orbit. Left standing is a slightly breathless and irritated Tendo Akane. Also watching from the sidelines I see her fiancée, Saotome Ranma shake his head slightly in disbelief.
"Ya know Akane, everyday I just keep thinking that Kuno will finally clue in, and everyday he proves how stupid he really is."
"Shut up Ranma", Akane growls. "If you hadn't made us late again, then maybe we could have gotten here before Kuno and avoided this whole mess. Let's just get out of here before YOU get us in anymore trouble!"
And ignoring Ranma's angry attempts to defend himself, she rushes off. There they go, Furikan High's Dynamic Duo. That mighty young martial arts couple. The brave, the beautiful... the oblivious.
Not for the first time I wonder what those two and all their kind see when they look at the world. Is everything just another battle for them? Some kind of melodramatic, ridiculous game that they prance through? Do they even notice the other people around them? The normal, the sick, the quiet, the weak, all those who do not fulfill their expectations of superhuman abilities?
I'll probably never know as I fit somewhere in the last group. I, like the vast majority, simply watch the fantastic battles that rage so commonly through our streets. Yes, I watch them fight bravely and fiercely for honor and privilege and to defend those they love. And then, after it's over, just like everybody else, I start to pick up the pieces.
The pieces of the buildings that have been so thoughtlessly destroyed. The pieces of memories and dreams and hopes that have been blasted by one more inane "ki attack". The pieces of lives that have been interrupted and uprooted once more. And then I curse whatever force it was that caused these people to ever exist. Whatever twisted impulse makes them go on wild rampages for no more reason than boredom. With no more thought than proving themselves the best.
And then I pray for somewhere, somehow, some hero to save us from their tender mercies. I'm not in love with Saotome Ranma or any of his friends or enemies. I do not envy Tendo Akane. I do not lie awake at night dreaming of somehow becoming one of them.
Those instead are my nightmares. Nightmares of becoming like them. Uncaring of the suffering that I cause by my recklessness, oblivious of the fear that people hold me in. Feeling like some kind of hero for defeating yet one more world-destroying monster after I selfishly unleashed it on the world.
I remember witnessing a battle once. I have no idea which enemy Ranma and co. was fighting this time. Nor do I have any idea why. I didn't stand, gazing in awe at their mighty prowess; instead I huddled in a doorway, praying to God that nothing would happen to me. After what seemed like an eternity of terror, suddenly it was over. All was quiet in the streets again. Slowly, trembling, I uncurled myself from my hiding spot and looked around.
The devastation was incredible. Walls had caved in, there were giant holes in the ground and piles of debris were scattered liberally around. Slowly other people emerged. Shaking and shivering just like me. I met some of their gazes. Blank eyes and faces stared back at me. Expressions that I had only seen on TV, on the faces of survivors of terrible catastrophes. A sudden loud wailing woke me from my stunned state. A little girl sobbing in loss. I ran over to see if she had been injured. Luckily she was only bruised and shaken, but the source of her grief had not faired so well. Lying shattered on the ground were the pieces of what had once been some kind of porcelain figurine. From the few shards remaining I judged it to be a little cat statue. The small child blinked tearfully up at me as I clumsily tried to comfort her.
"It was my Mommy's," she whispered, heartbroken. "She gave it to me to take care of before she went away for a long sleep. I promised her that I would take care of it and keep it safe for her until she came back."
I blinked back my own tears at the thought of this little girl losing such a treasured momento of a dead mother. And then, in time-honoured fashion I went about trying to fix what little I could in the aftermath of yet another "battle".
I blink rapidly in surprise, realizing that I have been standing in front of the gates to my school, lost in contemplation. Looking at my watch I swear and start running to my first class. After all, there is nothing that I can do to make any of them pay for everything that they've done. Nothing that anybody can do. They are too strong, too powerful and too wrapped up in their own sick, twisted world to every be the true heroes they imagine themselves to be. Real heroes don't break people's houses for fun. Real heroes would sacrifice themselves to stop even the possibility of an innocent being hurt. Real heroes are the kind of people who will eventually take people like Saotome Ranma and Tendo Akane down.
Someday, I know, this will finally happen. And when it does, I and all the rest of the normal, ordinary people in this city will rejoice.
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A Day in the Life...
I round the corner at a run and skid to a dead stop. Oh no. I forgot. How could I have possibly forgotten? My only excuse is the state of near panic I had found myself in when I realized that I had slept in and only had half an hour to get to school. But even that is a flimsy excuse to forget the carnage that greets my eyes. Dozens of lovesick young boys are scattered bonelessly around the entrance to the school. Most are unconscious and those hardy enough to last longer will soon loose their tenuous grip on awareness.
I stand a safe distance back, attempting to keep myself uninvolved with the events before me. I can see now that it's almost over, the final challenge has been issued and accepted. With a mighty blow the final enemy is booted into orbit. Left standing is a slightly breathless and irritated Tendo Akane. Also watching from the sidelines I see her fiancée, Saotome Ranma shake his head slightly in disbelief.
"Ya know Akane, everyday I just keep thinking that Kuno will finally clue in, and everyday he proves how stupid he really is."
"Shut up Ranma", Akane growls. "If you hadn't made us late again, then maybe we could have gotten here before Kuno and avoided this whole mess. Let's just get out of here before YOU get us in anymore trouble!"
And ignoring Ranma's angry attempts to defend himself, she rushes off. There they go, Furikan High's Dynamic Duo. That mighty young martial arts couple. The brave, the beautiful... the oblivious.
Not for the first time I wonder what those two and all their kind see when they look at the world. Is everything just another battle for them? Some kind of melodramatic, ridiculous game that they prance through? Do they even notice the other people around them? The normal, the sick, the quiet, the weak, all those who do not fulfill their expectations of superhuman abilities?
I'll probably never know as I fit somewhere in the last group. I, like the vast majority, simply watch the fantastic battles that rage so commonly through our streets. Yes, I watch them fight bravely and fiercely for honor and privilege and to defend those they love. And then, after it's over, just like everybody else, I start to pick up the pieces.
The pieces of the buildings that have been so thoughtlessly destroyed. The pieces of memories and dreams and hopes that have been blasted by one more inane "ki attack". The pieces of lives that have been interrupted and uprooted once more. And then I curse whatever force it was that caused these people to ever exist. Whatever twisted impulse makes them go on wild rampages for no more reason than boredom. With no more thought than proving themselves the best.
And then I pray for somewhere, somehow, some hero to save us from their tender mercies. I'm not in love with Saotome Ranma or any of his friends or enemies. I do not envy Tendo Akane. I do not lie awake at night dreaming of somehow becoming one of them.
Those instead are my nightmares. Nightmares of becoming like them. Uncaring of the suffering that I cause by my recklessness, oblivious of the fear that people hold me in. Feeling like some kind of hero for defeating yet one more world-destroying monster after I selfishly unleashed it on the world.
I remember witnessing a battle once. I have no idea which enemy Ranma and co. was fighting this time. Nor do I have any idea why. I didn't stand, gazing in awe at their mighty prowess; instead I huddled in a doorway, praying to God that nothing would happen to me. After what seemed like an eternity of terror, suddenly it was over. All was quiet in the streets again. Slowly, trembling, I uncurled myself from my hiding spot and looked around.
The devastation was incredible. Walls had caved in, there were giant holes in the ground and piles of debris were scattered liberally around. Slowly other people emerged. Shaking and shivering just like me. I met some of their gazes. Blank eyes and faces stared back at me. Expressions that I had only seen on TV, on the faces of survivors of terrible catastrophes. A sudden loud wailing woke me from my stunned state. A little girl sobbing in loss. I ran over to see if she had been injured. Luckily she was only bruised and shaken, but the source of her grief had not faired so well. Lying shattered on the ground were the pieces of what had once been some kind of porcelain figurine. From the few shards remaining I judged it to be a little cat statue. The small child blinked tearfully up at me as I clumsily tried to comfort her.
"It was my Mommy's," she whispered, heartbroken. "She gave it to me to take care of before she went away for a long sleep. I promised her that I would take care of it and keep it safe for her until she came back."
I blinked back my own tears at the thought of this little girl losing such a treasured momento of a dead mother. And then, in time-honoured fashion I went about trying to fix what little I could in the aftermath of yet another "battle".
I blink rapidly in surprise, realizing that I have been standing in front of the gates to my school, lost in contemplation. Looking at my watch I swear and start running to my first class. After all, there is nothing that I can do to make any of them pay for everything that they've done. Nothing that anybody can do. They are too strong, too powerful and too wrapped up in their own sick, twisted world to every be the true heroes they imagine themselves to be. Real heroes don't break people's houses for fun. Real heroes would sacrifice themselves to stop even the possibility of an innocent being hurt. Real heroes are the kind of people who will eventually take people like Saotome Ranma and Tendo Akane down.
Someday, I know, this will finally happen. And when it does, I and all the rest of the normal, ordinary people in this city will rejoice.