Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and all its characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi and have been used without permission. This fanfiction was written for personal enjoyment, and hopefully the enjoyment of the readers.

Key:

"speech"

::thoughts::

flashback

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Usotsuki

by Rain

Part Six.

Akane's cup of tea from the night before is still in the kitchen that morning, cold and stale and smelling of 6:17 am.

Plodding downstairs for the second time in the past few hours, Akane once again heads for the kitchen.

She is a bit confused to find the occupied.

Walking in, oddly enough it is to find Kasumi standing at the counter with her own tea cup before her. It seems Akane wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep last night.

"Kasumi-oneechan?"

"Ara, Akane. What are you doing up at this time of night?" Kasumi asked, sounding startled, but tired.

"Er, nothing really, I was just thinking some tea might help me sleep better," Akane lied.

Kasumi nodded benignly and moved a hand towards the steaming tea pot that sat next to the cutting board. Akane moved towards the leftover from before instead. Her face is reflected in it, cold and bland and full of yesterday's problems and today's lack of solutions.

"Oh, was that yours? I was about to wash it out." Akane didn't say anything.

Silence presides for the better part of the next six minutes.

"I didn't even hear you in the kitchen. You're so quiet, Kasumi-oneechan," Akane said suddenly, more to fill the pressing silence than anything else.

The note in her hands is dry; no tears, but her eyes are too dark and lost and bare to cry anyway.

Kasumi, already aware of what the note was sure to say, and of the empty room upstairs, doesn't run to the others to announce who is missing, as she did the last time, when Ranma had left to earn his strength back. That felt like so long ago. She simply walks up behind Akane and puts her arms around her from behind, leaning her head on Akane's shoulder. Akane's whole body shudders with suppressed agony.

"I wanted… I wanted to ask him…"

"I know," Kasumi murmurs soothingly.

"No… You don't. That was before. Tonight, all I wanted to ask… was… was…"

The teacup shatters on the floor, the bitter water separated from the diluted dregs, dirtying Akane's

reflection on the clean floor.

"Oh, Ranma…" Akane twisted her ring, but didn't remove it. "Why did you marry me?"

*           *           *

Ranma sat in the park. The park that he had frequented with Akane, and many of the other bizarre characters in his life. He had wanted one last look at all the familiar places before he left for good.

He didn't plan on returning, why else would he pack all he had?

Hopping up onto the fence he used to walk every morning, before Jusenkyo, he stepped along the clanging steel bar, something he could probably do blindfolded by now.

Why had he stopped walking up here since he went to China? He really couldn't recall.

::Of course,:: he reminded himself. ::Akane.::

After Jusenkyo he had experienced something he never wanted to again, not after what had almost happened back in China… After he had almost lost her… He had felt fear every time something little separated him from her… He still had nightmares sometimes, when he would wake up in the middle of the night, his covers a mess, whispering her name that he had been screaming in his dream. Because in those dreams, no matter how hard he shook her, no matter how he begged her, she didn't wake up.

Even little, silly things that seemingly weren't worth the thought, or at least they hadn't been until then. Like walking beside her instead of up here.

He missed being close to her. He missed having an excuse to brush his fingers against hers as they walked in close vicinity of one another, pretending it was an accident. He missed looking sideways at her when she was preoccupied, and he missed the clear, strong sound of her voice, even if she was usually yelling at him.

He was just stalling now. And he knew it.

*           *           *

Akane was breaking bricks in the back garden.

So what if it was a little past 7? She could care less if she was keeping Nabiki from her beauty sleep. She was frustrated, angry, full of pent up manic energy… But mostly afraid.

::He's not coming back, is he?::

Akane ignored her nagging doubts and just hit the bricks harder until a cloud of dust and chalk surrounded her.

Breathing heavily, and preoccupied with worries of Ranma and the day before, she didn't hear the soft swish of heavy metal through the still morning air. Only when the slicing pain cut across her side, when she collapsed to the grass, the wind knocked out of her and sporting a nasty gash across her side, did she turn to find Shampoo crouching on her garden wall, one menacing bonbori outstretched.

"Sh… Shampoo…" she coughed, spitting up a bit of blood.

"That right, kitchen-wrecking pervert girl," smirked Shampoo, a murderous gleam in her eyes. "Shampoo come get rid of last obstacle for good. Should have done this long time ago."

She accentuated her remark by striking again. Akane only barely dodged it, rolling across the grass. Stumbling to her feet, clutching her side with one hand and her other extended in a battle stance, Akane readied herself for another attack.

"You're mistaken, Shampoo," she sneered coldly. "You're too late, but so am I. Ranma and I have already married. But he's long gone by now."

Shampoo looked as if she didn't understand at first. Then her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Shampoo not believe pervert girl. She lie. Airen no leave. And no way Airen marry violent pervert kitchen-wrecking girl," she laughed dumbly.

"Well, he did, no matter what you say," Akane raised her voice, a touch of pride in it. Then she realized she had no reason to be proud of it, not any more. He'd left, hadn't he?

Then why did she feel as if he were still close to her?

*           *           *

::Come on, now. You haven't got a reason to stall anymore,:: Ranma's mind told him. Akane's face swam before him in response. He shook his head, trying to clear it. ::Enough. It won't do any good torturing yourself.::

When he lifted his head he caught sight of something strange.

Shampoo was flitting through the early-morning shadows in the direction of the Tendo house. Now, there was nothing unusual about this, except for the fact that she was carrying her bonbori.

She hadn't carried those with her since she had stopped trying to kill him. Bonbori were only meant for one purpose, he remembered bitterly, and that was to work as a kind of mace, and bludgeon the opponent over the head. Ranma swallowed nervously.

This was not good.

And so he followed, trying to ignore the fact that he was probably using this as an excuse to stall even longer.

But something just didn't feel right.

*           *           *

Akane screamed again as Shampoo delivered a deadly upper cut with one of her bonbori, barely missing her chin.

::When did she start using those again? Those things are seriously dangerous, she wouldn't use those unless…::

Akane froze.

::Unless… she really is serious… Unless she really is trying to-::

Shampoo was gathering a monstrous amount of violently red ki between her hands, the bonbori tossed aside.

::Oh no.::

Shampoo was laughing. A cold, bitter laugh that held none of the usual playfulness in it. She wasn't just fighting with Akane over some silly little right to time with Ranma, or anything menial like that, no, this was beyond their typical sadistic teasing.

She was out to kill.

*           *           *

The sounds of a fight reached Ranma's ears as he made his concealed way towards the Tendo house.

::Kami-sama, why did I come back here?::

But that feeling of dread refused to go away.

He could hear the telltale clang and slice of Shampoo's bonbori.

::What is she going picking a fight with Akane for? Doesn't she know that we already-::

Ranma stopped suddenly. A shrill scream pierced the air. It shook him to the core, and he knew that scream far too well.

::She knows. And she's going to kill her.::

Ranma, of all times to freeze up, found he couldn't move.

::RUN.::

He ran.

Vaulting the wall, he was just in time to see Shampoo release a gargantuan ball of fiery red ki straight towards Akane.

All he could think was ::Block it, Get in front of her and block it, for the love of Kami run!::

He shoved past Shampoo, running faster than he had ever run in his life and it still felt agonizingly slow.

"AKANE!" he screamed, taking a running jump right in its path.

*           *           *

Before Akane could react, Shampoo was releasing the blazing ball, and it was coming right at her. She couldn't get her lungs to force out a scream.

She was feeling faint from the sense of panic that was spreading through her body like fire, shouting at her to run, but her legs felt as heavy as lead and she couldn't move a muscle. Strangely enough, she wondered if this was what a deer in headlights felt like.

She was almost sure she heard someone scream her name, and it sounded like Ranma. For a split second, her heart lifted, but it was then that the hot, burning, swirling mass overtook her and darkness enveloped her senses.

*           *           *

Ranma was, when it most mattered, a fraction of a second too late.

As he watched, horrified, Akane dissolve into the flaming ki, he could have sworn he felt his heart shoot straight up his throat. The minute, tiny piece of a moment that passed between when he hit the ground right where she had been standing and when she crumpled to the grass beside him felt so small it was almost as if there had been no time gap at all.

Ranma, at that moment, crazily found he understood what those Olympic runners must feel like when they lost a race by thousandths of one second. It wasn't enough time to do anything, but there was just enough to lose everything.

But Ranma couldn't feel anything at all. He was numb all over as he feebly shook Akane, pleading with her to open her eyes.

He shouted her name again, getting no response.

It was the most sickening and horrific sense of déjà-vu he had ever experienced.

End Part Six.

Muahahahaha, another evil cliffhanger. Hint: I don't plan on killing anyone off. That's all I'll say! *winks covertly*

Until my next post; next day delivery or sooner, guaranteed!

::Rain

P.S. Contact me at creepyoldmanwink@yahoo.com

I am not a creepy old man. I am a teenage girl. It's a joke with a friend. So there. ^_~