Disclaimer: The characters of Ranma 1/2 are the creation of and rightful property of Rumiko Takahashi. They are used here without permission. I hope that my rendering of them will not be an insult to Takahashi-san's creative genius. ;)

Farewell, my love…

A martial artist in his prime is forced to say goodbye to the one woman he ever truly loved…

With one final effort, the young woman completed the last sentence of what would almost certainly be the last entry in her diary. Hands shaking, she placed the blue leather-bound book on the bedside table and turned her attention to her children, who had fallen into an uneasy sleep curled up against her under the covers. Sadly she ran skeletal fingers worn thin by long illness through their long, wavy locks of dark hair. She would miss them so much, these beautiful girls who loved her as unconditionally as she loved them, these, dear, wonderful children who were the product of the love she shared with her husband. They did not understand what was happening. She didn't have the heart to explain that she would soon be leaving them. She could only try and love them as much as she possibly could in these few days she had left.

Someone knocked the door, and then it swung open and closed. Her husband stood before her, eyes red rimmed, face gaunt and tired. These last few months had been nearly as hard for him as it had been for her. He was a martial artist — sworn to protect the innocent and the people he loved. In the years that they had known each other, he had saved her from danger many a time. It had embarrassed her a little, how she had needed his help. After all, she was martial artist too. She had come to accept it, though, and even cherish his gallant rescues. Now though…she was facing a danger that was unseen, an enemy that was whittling away her defenses little by little, a foe that was slowly but surely draining away her life. And it was an enemy her husband could not defeat. She knew that it was eating at him from inside out, the knowledge that he could do nothing to help her, nothing but slowly watch as the unseen adversary took her away from him.

"I brought you some water," he whispered hoarsely, offering her the glass of warm liquid in his hand. He gently supported her back and the glass as she drank, letting the water flow into her parched throat and ease her constant thirst.

She could see that he was struggling against tears. It would not be long now, and they both knew it. Soon, she would be forced to leave him for the next world. She didn't want to! Tears shimmered in her own eyes as she tangled her fingers in his wonderful long black hair and ran them over his strong jaw. It was a cruel destiny that forced them apart before they could really begin enjoying their lives together. How she wished that, when she was younger, she had told him sooner how she really felt about him….

It had been an arranged marriage, and they had both fought against it tooth and nail. Each of them wanted their own choice of mate and resented their interfering parents' selfish desires to have them wed to carry on the family name and the dojo. It wasn't long though, before she had come to like him, and as the weeks and months passed, the liking had slowly turned to loving. It was never easy though. It had taken such a very, very long time before they both worked up the courage to express their mutual love for each other, and even longer to resolve the other difficulties that arrived thick and fast after they publicly announced their decision to marry. In the end though, they had been married. It had been the happiest day of her life, possibly only overshadowed by the birth of her first child and the two subsequent ones after that. She loved him…she loved him so much.

She wasn't aware that she was crying until she felt the arms of her husband envelope her from behind. She clung to him, desperate for the comfort she had always found in his arms. Unable to hold back any longer, she began sobbing uncontrollably into his shoulder, and he too wept streams of warm salty tears that mingled freely with her own. When her sobs began to slowly die down, she reached deep down into her inner reserves and found the strength to speak.

"You…you must be strong…my love. Our children…they need you. They need you…to be there for them, to comfort them when I am gone. Take care of them…"

"I will," he promised, tears still dripping down his cheeks, "I'll take care of them. I'll do my best, for your sake and for theirs…I love you…never forget that…never…"

She managed a faint smile. "I…I love you too. Goodbye, my love…my Soun…"

"Goodbye…"

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Saotome Ranma flipped the page over. It was blank. All the remaining pages in the book were blank. So the page he had inadvertently opened the book to was the start of the very last entry that Tendo Haruko had ever made to this diary. He couldn't suppress his surprise. Akane's mom…this book had belonged to her.

He had found it tucked under one of the floorboards at the corner of the guestroom after he had kicked his father into said corner of the guestroom (during their usual morning sparring session) and knocked him out, breaking part of the floor in the process. Curious, he had opened the blue leather-bound book at random and found himself reading the last entry Akane's mom had made in it.

He shuddered. There was one line she had written that gave him the chills. Until now, he has always protected me…but this is an enemy he cannot defeat. He thought of all the times that he had rescued Akane from danger. Was he foolish enough to believe that he would always be able to protect her from everything and anything? The thought of losing her the way Mr Tendo had lost his wife was incredibly painful. The thought of losing her at all…he swallowed, hard.

Staring at the diary, still lost in thought, it suddenly occurred to him that he should return it to Akane and the rest of the Tendo family. It was only right, after all.

The man he called father, who up till now had been slumped unconscious in the corner of the guestroom, groaned loudly and began to stir. It was probably the smell of Kasumi's breakfast rousing him from his stupor. Ranma stood up and exited the room, not wanting yet another scene with his father at the moment. As he did so, he slipped the blue book into his pocket. When they found one of those rare quiet moments in a day, he would return it to Akane, and she could show it to the rest of the family whenever she wanted to. It didn't even occur to Ranma to show it to the whole family at breakfast — it just seemed right to him to give it to Akane first. And maybe…just maybe…he would finally find the courage to tell her….

"RANMA! Hurry up idiot, we're going to be late for school!"

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A word from the Author:

Hi everyone, hope you enjoyed the story! If you were duped into believing that the couple in the first section of the story were Ranma and Akane, (until I gave it away in the second last sentence of course), then I did my job right! ;)

The inspiration for this story was taken from one of the very first Ranma 1/2 fan fictions I ever read, which was also aimed at getting the reader to assume that the couple was Ranma and Akane when it was in fact Soun and his wife. I've never come across that story again, and I haven't a clue who wrote it and where I read it. However, I retained a vague memory of it and created my own story, the diary and the present-day Ranma being one of the twists I added. If, by any chance, the original writer of that story is reading this right now, thank you very much, and I hope you won't be offended, after all, I certainly did not copy your story word-for-word and tried to pass it off as my own. In fact, I daresay it's probably quite different from yours by now. Thank you once again!

For the curious ones out there wondering how the diary got into the Tendo guestroom, here's my clarification on this "background story": The way I see it, after Haruko's death, Soun could barely stand the sight of her personal items because it brought back too many painful memories. However, the diary was too precious to be disposed of completely, thus he hid it in a room he rarely used, that is, the guestroom. He intended to show it to his children when they were old enough, but he simply forgot all about it as the years passed. And so the diary remained in the guestroom, waiting to be unearthed by an unsuspecting Ranma…you know the rest. :) Yes, it's a little too convenient…but I'm the one writing the story!

I know I should be working on my first story, but with the pressures of the new school year among other worries, I've been experiencing a sort of writer's block where that one is concerned. I will definitely get down it sooner or later, but I've got to clear the block first, and this is my way of getting back in sync with the Ranma universe. Hopefully I'll be making more progress on the other story soon! Thank you all!

choralmelody