ukyoukwnji@aol.com


"Standing In The Way" (a Ranma 1/2 fanfiction)


Ranma 1/2 and all the characters therein are copyright Rumiko Takahashi
and are being used without permission.


Chapter III - A ram in the thicket


"I've never done this before, but this is more or less what you're
supposed to as you prepare yourself to commit seppuku, ne?"
Ukyou knelt in front of Mrs. Saotome. Her white yukata was opened
wide, and she was naked to the waist. She picked up her dagger.
"Where are you supposed to cut?"


Ranma simply gaped at his childhood friend. His astonishment
at her actions gave way to admiration. Unfortunately, he wasn't
admiring her courage for standing up to his mother, or her nerve
as she prepared herself, almost *cheerfully*, to join him in death.
No, actually, Ranma was staring at her naked chest. How's
_that_ for a man's man?
Of course, he had plenty of familiarity with the unclad female
figure, and not just of his own cursed girl form. He'd seen at least
two of his would-be fiancées naked before, as well: Akane (that
was an accident... really!) and Shampoo (that was *her* idea, not
his). But Ukyou... well, this was something new. He'd never even
seen her when she wasn't wearing binding. For that matter, did she
ever *not* wear that binding? But now, here she was, in all her
glory. Ryoga could get a nosebleed from just a hint of cleavage
showing between the torn straps than normally held her chest in.
As he continued to gaze as her, Ranma felt a slight tickle below
his right nostril. Much to his surprise.
She's as well built as I am, he realized. He made a quick mental
calculation regarding the fact that Ukyou was rather taller than his
girl form, and yet proportionately nearly identical. Kuso! She's
*better* built than me! For a moment, Ranma forgot where he was
as a goofy grin spread slowly across his face. Then the tickle under
his nose grew stronger, and he could taste blood on his lip.
Blood! Chikusho! If mom thinks I'm being disrespectful... Under
the guise of prostrating himself before his mother, Ranma brought his
face down to the ground, so that he could wipe the blood and the
grin off his face at least _somewhat_ surreptitiously. Looking up
cautiously, he was relieved to note that she was as transfixed by
Ukyou as he had been. Presumably for other reasons, though.


Nodoka could feel her gorge rise. It was enough she was honor-
bound to slay her husband and only child, wasn't it? Why... why
was this girl demanding to be killed, too? This was making it too
difficult. She had to talk some sense into Ukyou.
"Ukyou, dear... I can't do this for you. There's no reason you
have to do this."
"No reason? You're destroying my reason to live, and you say
there's no reason?"
Her reason to live? Isn't that exaggerating a little? There
*must* be something else. "Well... what about your art? Your
okonomi-yaki?"
"My 'art' -- HAH!" Ukyou resisted the urge to spit at Nodoka's
feet. "What is art without soul? Answer me that, mother." Once
again, Nodoka winced at the title Ukyou was bestoying upon her.
"You destroy Ran-chan, you destroy my soul. He is the one I love.
There is no 'art' without love. Oh, yes, there's still okonomi-yaki...
but so what? Without love, it is only so much fuel for the stomach.
I am dead already without hope of love. For you to slice my head
off here and now would be a mere formality, understand that?"
"Uh... but seppuku... that's such an extreme measure for you to take..."
"And it's not for you?"
Nodoka sighed. Was Ukyou forcing her to explain this oath over
and over until she made some mistake in its recitation, and
inadvertently let them go?
"This is different. Dearest made an oath to me that he would die
if Ranma was not a man's man. Ranma's fear of me is proof that
Dearest has failed in his oath. Thus, he and Ranma must die. That
was the agreement from the beginning. But you know all of this
already.
"As for you, you have no oath to fulfill like Dearest and Ranma,
here. You have no duty that would require you to..."
"That's not true, mother." Another twitch from Nodoka. "When
your husband took my father's yatai, I was pledged to go with him,
and to train with him and Ranma. Eventually, should the fates will
it, I was then to marry Ranma when we came of age. When your
husband left me behind, I vowed to hunt them down and seek
vengeance upon both of them for the way I had been treated.
"Of course, I discovered that your Ranma was completely unaware
of the deal that had transpired between our respective fathers, and
thus ignorant of our engagement. He was blameless, and so I
renewed my love for him, and my vow to marry him, that I had
discarded the day your husband discarded me. But *you* know
all *this*.
"With this act today, you will be fulfilling my first oath -- that of
vengeance on your husband -- a thousandfold. In fact, this is far
beyond any punishment I ever could have imagined visiting upon
him. But you take Ranma away from me before I can fulfill my
second vow. This is punishment far beyond any I could have
expected to fall upon him ...and me.
"I am nothing, now that my vow of vengeance has been fulfilled.
I am less than nothing, now that my vow to marry Ranma cannot
be fulfilled. What point is there for me to go on? At least I can
die next to my darling Ran-chan, having defended him to the best
of my abilities. Faithful to the last. His faithful..." she saw
Nodoka brace herself for the word 'wife' or 'bride', and decided
not to be so cruel to her. "...his faithful love." There. That's
true enough. Even if it *isn't* an exclusive love on his part, it
*is* love. And no one's gonna take that away from me!


"Which reminds me... I didn't see Akane when I arrived. Shouldn't
she be here to give her iinazuke support? Where is she?" As
despairing as her earlier words had been, Ukyou was surprised
at how smug her last question had sounded. Well, where *was*
Akane, after all? At Ran-chan's greatest need, she's nowhere to
be found. But *I'm* here for him, she smiled to herself.
Nodoka's response wiped the smile off her face, and chilled her
to the bone: "She's in her room, resting. She became more and
more hysterical as the morning wore on, as she realized I was
utterly serious about this. Once the blades were sharpened and
the two of them..." she gestured at Ranma and Genma "...entered
the tent, her hysteria reached a sort of fever pitch, and she became
rather violently ill. Dr. Tofu had her put under heavy sedation, and
he and Kasumi carried her to her bed. She may not wake for
several days."
Both Ranma and Ukyou jerked their heads up to gape at Nodoka.


Akane...


Despite being under the same roof as she had been, Ranma had
no idea about Akane's reaction to his impending suicide. Perhaps
it was because he and his father had been kept sequestered in the
dojo since early morning. Perhaps it was because he was too busy
sweating about his own fate to be concerned with Akane's emotional
state. Perhaps, having been pounded by her too many times to the
tune of "Ranma, DIE!" it never occured to him that she might even
be moved to tears, let alone illness. She...she really *does* care?
The shock of the news drained the blood from his face. As an added
benefit, it cured his nosebleed.
Ukyou blanched at the news as well. While she had always known
that Akane cared about Ranma, she was firmly convinced that she
loved him more that Akane did. Perhaps even more than Akane was
*capable* of doing. But now... now, she recognized what Akane was
going through... and remembered...


Even well-trained runners will occassionally collapse at the end
of a hard-run race, tired to the point of illness. Ukyou was no
runner. She was athletic, to be sure, having been trained in the
martial arts by her father, and having practiced hand-to-hand
combat against her Ran-chan for some time now. But her prime
art was that of cooking. 'Make okonomi-yaki, not war,' that was
the Kuonji creed... at least in jest. It was true, though, that the
immense combat spatula that was the family trademark was rarely
used save in the direst of circumstances. And at her tender age,
Ukyou wasn't even able to lift it. As for running... well, martial
artists don't generally emphasize running; you're supposed to
stand and fight, after all.
So it was no surprise when, after chasing after her father's yatai
for several kilometers at top speed, her stomach muscles began
to cramp up. Her legs buckled, and she fell to her knees and began
to retch violently from the exertion. Tears mixed with saliva on
the dirt beneath her as she tried to regain her breath, her
composure... and her stomach. It was a losing battle, just as the
chase had been. It was all she could do to stagger off the road
and into a clump of bushes before throwing up and passing out.
Some well-meaning fellow villager found her in the bushes, and
carried her back to her parents.
Ordinarily, cramps caused by excessive running pass in a matter
of minutes, or at most hours. Ukyou, however, not only did not
recover quickly, butworsened over the course of the next few days.
The sickness was not really with her stomach, after all, but with
her heart. And as she lay in bed, humiliated at her rejection at
the hands of the Saotomes, she resolved never to let it happen
again. She willed herself to die. Not physically, but emotionally.
Indeed, she recovered speedily shortly after her resolution. But
she had ceased to feel anything... but rage.
That rage, of course, drove her on until the day she caught up
with the Saotomes. And when Ranma called her 'cute'... her
emotions were reborn, like the phoenix from the ashes. She
had returned from the grave itself.
But now Akane was doing the same thing.


Ukyou couldn't know for sure whether it was a conscious act or
not (probably not; she's no more able to admit she cares for him
than he is for her, she thought), but she knew that Akane was
willing herself dead. So, she loved Ranma that much, too.
But if she doesn't realize what she's doing...
She doesn't deserve to die....


"Mrs. Saotome! Then listen to me! You may not be able to bring
yourself to kill me, but don't you realize that's *exactly* what
you're doing to Akane? Ah..." she raised a hand, as Nodoka
opened her mouth to protest, "you don't have to lay a finger on her.
She's willing herself to die, for his sake! She may not know it,
but she is! And you're the only one who can stop this! Please,
don't let her die, Mrs. Saotome!" Ukyou then turned toward her
darling Ranma, tears welling up in her eyes. There was no reason
to remain stoic anymore. She had lost... or, at any rate, she was
unable to win, even now, against Akane.
"Oh, Ranma! I thought I was the only one willing to die for your
sake!" She threw herself at him, crushing him in an embrace that
pressed skin to skin from cheek to navel. Nodoka watched, wide-
eyed, at her son's uncertain reaction. Slowly, he freed his arms
and set them gently on Ukyou's shoulder blades as she continued
to bawl onto his already wet yukata sleeve.
There was a sound of rustling fabric, and Ranma could feel another
tickle in his nose coming on. Ukyou's breasts were pressed tightly
to his chest, and his body was responding to the pressure. Oh,
geez, no. I don't need this embarrassment on top of everything
else! Where's some cold water when you need it?
Presently, though, Ukyou could feel it, too, and her sobs cut off
abruptly.
"...Ran-chan? Is that...? Are you...?" His hands jumped to her
shoulders, and he pushed her to arm's length. She looked down.
*THAT* was making that rustling noise? he thought as he stared
at the bulge in his drawstring pants. It was so strong, it was
starting to hurt. Ranma turned a deep shade of crimson, and then
turned to face his mother. He spoke through gritted teeth.
"That's it. If I have EVER wanted to die of embarrassment, this
is it. Let's get this OVER WITH." Ukyou looked crestfallen, and
then despairing. She reached for her knife as Ranma picked up
his. Nodoka blinked, then sadly stepped back a step, and raised
her katana.
Something was wrong about this scene, she mused to herself.
Something was missing... something like...
"GENMA!! He's *gone*!!"