IN MEMORIAM
What would you do for the woman you loved?
----- -----
Disclaimer:
Ranma 1/2 is not mine to do with as I please, et cetera
----- -----
-PART TWO: LOVE-
-the past-
Yesterday, Akane Tendo was laid to rest.
Ranma stood next to the grave, feeling hollow and empty. The rain pouring down from above had already soaked him through to the bone. It was almost as though the rains were mocking him, reminding him what his pride had cost him.
Akane had died for that pride. Try as he might, he couldn't banish the images that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
They'd found the waters of restoration, sacred water which would lift their curses once and for all. He and Ryoga had beaten the guardian and stepped forward to take a drink, a drink that would cure them. Akane was there, she had refused to stay behind this time because she was tired of staying at home and waiting while everyone else risked their lives in some distant land. Though he had tried to talk her out of it, Ranma couldn't deny that part of him had been... happy... to have her along. Happy for her company.
He remembered clearly looking back to her before taking a drink of the waters of restoration. He remembered the happy look she wore as she waited for him on the bridge leading to the well. He had finally found his cure and she was happy for him.
Ryoga had been the first to drink. He'd made up some excuse or other about why he needed the water so Akane wouldn't become suspicious. Ranma didn't remember what. It didn't matter. Ryoga was driven to his knees by the affects of the water, and for a moment Ranma had thought that he had been poisoned. Then Ryoga had cried out in ecstasy that he could feel it working.
That had been enough for Ranma, and he too drank the water, feeling the power of it flowing through him. The feeling... it was incredible, beyond any description. He too was driven to his knees, barely able to cope with the sensations rushing through his body like lightning.
That must have been what the guardian was waiting for, waiting for that moment when his two strongest opponents would be laid low by the waters of restoration. He'd risen again to strike, almost casually batting Akane aside, sending her plummeting over the edge of the bride, into the ravine below...
Ranma could feel the tears coming to his eyes, the vice grip on his heart, as he recalled it again. Akane fell screaming into the ravine, and there was nothing Ranma could do but call desperately to her, he couldn't even move. There was nothing he could do.
He didn't remember much after that. Ryoga destroyed the guardian, every drop of his pain and grief at seeing Akane fall to her death unleashed at once on her killer. Afterwards it was all just a daze of pain, suffering, and grief as Ranma worked his way down the mountain to find the body of the girl he loved.
He fell to his knees by her grave as he started to cry. There was no hiding it anymore. He loved her. He'd been in love with her for a long time, and now she had been taken from him. All the chances they had had been wasted, all those opportunities to tell her how much she meant to him were gone, and now there was nothing. Only a grave, a stone marker, and the rain. The cold, mocking rain.
But then the rain was taken away. He no longer felt the rain pelting him, only hearing a dull pop pop pop.
He looked up to see Akari holding an umbrella over him.
"You'll get sick," she said, her voice sympathetic, but sad.
She'd been here since before he arrived, but he'd forgotten about her. He wanted to push away the umbrella, to tell her to leave him alone, but he... he couldn't. Something about those eyes, the pain in those eyes, stopped him cold. He said nothing as he got back to his feet.
They stood there for a while, neither of them saying anything. The rain continued its dull pop pop pop against the umbrella.
"I... I came to find Ryoga," Akari said quietly. "He left a week ago and I haven't seen him since. I thought he might be here."
So that was why she was here.
"She meant so much to him," Akari continued. "I never realized how much until... until after it happened. With her gone... its like he doesn't see the point of living anymore."
"Sometimes I want to hate her," she said. "What she's done to him, what loving her did to him. I want to hate her for the pain he's feeling now. I know he would never feel that pain for me if I were gone..."
"Akane didn't do anything," Ranma said softly. He was just too drained to say much more.
"I know," Akari said. "None of this is her fault, it's nobody's fault."
You're wrong, Ranma thought, it is somebody's fault. It's my fault.
"But there's nothing I can do," Akari said. She looked like she was about to cry. "I love him, and I can't take away his pain, I can't make it right again. I can't stand to see him suffer like this."
She tried to compose herself, and more or less succeeded. "I just have to be strong for him," she said. "I just have to do what I can for him."
Almost as though Akari's words had summoned him, Ranma sensed another, familiar presence stepping up next to him, though the rain hid any sound he made in his approach.
"Ranma," Ryoga said, an urgency clear in his voice, "you have to come with me."
Ranma looked over to his one time rival and was surprised to see the resolve in his eyes. But he didn't care. "Go bug someone else," he said.
"We don't have time for this!" Ryoga snapped. "You have to come with me to China!"
China! Something about the thought of that country only filled Ranma with anger. "Leave me alone!" he shouted. "I ain't interested!"
"You don't understand, Ranma!" Ryoga sounded desperate. "I've found a way, but I need your help! It has to be you!"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ranma wanted to know. "A way what?"
"I found a way to bring her back!" Ryoga declared.
-----
-the present-
Akane awoke to find herself in a bed at Dr. Tofu's clinic. She was drenched in sweat, and she could feel her heart pounding, leftovers from the terror her nightmare had brought to her.
Dr. Tofu sat next to her bed. Unlike so many times before, there was no look of calm, cheerful reassurance on his face. When she saw his face, she saw uncertainty, fear, and horror that he couldn't conceal.
The sight chilled her to the bone.
She could see him try to adopt a nonchalant look. "How are you feeling, Akane?" he asked. It wasn't working. His eyes... they still reflected something awful.
The pain in Akane's head had lessened greatly, but she could still feel it, still feel the dull ache deep inside her skull. And there were other things too. She felt... it was intangible, it defied description, but she felt... wrong.
"My head hurts," she said as she sat up. "What's wrong with me, doctor?"
"It..." Dr. Tofu paused, like he was trying to find the right words to say. "It's nothing you need to worry about. It's probably just a migraine."
She didn't believe him. She didn't believe him one bit. There was more he wasn't telling her. She could read it in his eyes. "It's because of me," she said. "It's because I... came back. I can feel it."
Dr. Tofu said nothing.
"What's going to happen to me?" Akane demanded.
"Nothing's gonna happen to you," Ranma said as he came into the room. "You're gonna be fine. I've just gotta go get some stuff for you from China."
"China?" Akane felt a feeling of fear. He was going to China. Somehow the thought filled her with terror.
Ranma sat on the bed and took her hand. "I'll only be gone for a few days," he said, trying to reassure her. "After that, you can get well and things can go back to normal."
She held his hand, and accepted his reassuring words. The fear was still there, and once again old questions that she had long forgotten had returned. What was she?
But still, she accepted his words as he embraced her and held her close for a moment. She knew she could put her faith in him, that he would do everything in his power for her.
He looked into her eyes. "I won't let anything happen to you."
She nodded. "I know."
------
-the past-
"Here it is," Ryoga said as they stood before the entrance to a cave.
"What is this place?" Akari asked. She'd refused to be left behind, wanting to accompany Ranma and Ryoga on their journey deep into China's Bayankala mountain range. Ranma had been against it. After Akane... But Akari had insisted, and Ryoga had agreed.
Something had been going on between Ryoga and Akari. All through this trip they had shared a tent, and what they had been doing hadn't been hard to guess. But why would he let her come along at all? Why would Ryoga put Akari in danger like this?
"It's the home of an ancient mystic," Ryoga said. "The Musk Dynasty comes to him for advice. He's powerful, and he has a way to..." he hesitated, as though he was afraid speaking it would curse them, "...to bring Akane back."
He entered the cave. Ranma and Akari both followed without a word.
As they ventured deeper into the darkness of the cave, the only light provided by their flashlights, Ranma realized something. It seemed silly to think of it now, but Ryoga hadn't gotten lost once. He'd led them exactly to where they needed to go. Or if he hadn't, he seemed pretty sure of himself.
"Hey Ryoga," Ranma said, "are you sure you know where you're going?"
Ryoga didn't answer. He just kept going.
"It's because he loves her so much," Akari said softly. "This is his only chance to bring her back."
Ranma didn't say anything.
"I'm just her replacement," Akari said. There was a trace of bitterness in her voice.
A voice echoed through the darkness. "The echo of fangs once again haunts my dwelling," it called. "It does not learn. I told it that I cannot help it with what it seeks. What it wants is beyond its abilities. The connection must be both ways I told it. The scarlet cord must bind the suffering to the lost, but so too must it bind the lost to the suffering. It does not understand."
Ranma was on his guard at once, searching for the source of the voice, but he couldn't find it. He didn't have any idea where it was coming from.
"I do understand," Ryoga said, "and I've brought someone who can do it. You have to help us."
"Help the echo of fangs?" the voice responded. "I was beyond ancient when Hideyoshi crossed the sea dreaming of empire. Before Himeko ruled in its land I had known hundreds of generations. I remember the star of the savior in the west, and have counseled Sun Wu. Now it tells me what I must do. Such presumption."
There was silence for a moment before the voice began speaking again.
"Oh ho," it said, "others have come as well. What would bring a rice farmer's wild horse into my house? It is most unsanitary. But this other... A bright lamp gripped in the claw of a dragon soaring among the clouds! Beautiful! Why hasn't the echo realized what it has? Why must it persist in chasing the lost scarlet divinity?"
"That's none of your business!" Ryoga shouted.
"Echo echo," the voice said in an almost mocking singsong tone. "Echo of love, false, nothing but reflection. Not real at all, just an echo of lost dreams. But the horse..."
Ranma felt... something. Like otherworldly eyes were watching him. The voice kept speaking.
"This farmer's horse, what it has is real. Yes, I see it now, I see what the echo hoped for me to see. It seeks the scarlet divinity... no... it seeks the scarlet rice farmer."
"You're talking about Akane, aren't you?" Ranma demanded. "Are you saying I can bring her back?"
"The wild horse has the link," the voice said. "It has the connection. The link between the horse and the scarlet divinity extends beyond the mortal realm. It is the scarlet cord between the lost and suffering. It need only know how to pull to raise up what it desires."
"Then tell me what I need to do!"
"The wild horse is eager, this I understand well, but I do not believe it understands the cost. This world and other world are always in balance, soul for soul. One cannot upset the scales. Try as it might, the scales will be balanced in the end."
"I'll do whatever it takes!" Ranma declared.
"I believe it will." There was silence for a couple of moments. "Very well. My services shall be granted, and I shall tell it what it wants to know. I shall tell it the purpose for what it calls Jusenkyo."
-----
-the present-
Ranma had been gone for days, and as she sat on the porch looking at the stars, Akane could feel his absence like a knife in her heart.
She realized that this was the first time since... since she had come back, that she and Ranma had ever been separated for more than a few hours. It was funny. When they had first met all those years ago, she had never imagined how much it would hurt to not have him close to her.
She was afraid. Every night when she slept, nightmares awaited her. She couldn't remember any of them, only that they filled her with terror, horror, and a sense, an inescapable feeling that she didn't belong in this world anymore, that her very existence was wrong. On those nights she wanted, so desperately wanted Ranma to be there, to be there for her when she woke up in terror, to hold her and chase away the demons, and tell her it was all okay. But he wasn't there.
She needed him. She could feel it in her heart. She needed to hold him again, to tell him she loved him again, because...
Somehow, she knew she was running out of time.
"Momma," her daughter called to her as she ran out onto the porch and flung her arms around Akane's neck in an exuberant hug. "Dinner's ready. I helped Auntie Ukyo do the cooking."
Akane smiled as she returned Omi's hug. "I can tell," she said. Her daughter's arms and face were covered in flour. "You need to go wash up before you make a mess everywhere."
Omi pouted at the idea, but she didn't raise a complaint. "Yes Momma," she said dejectedly. "When's daddy going to get back from his trip?"
For a moment Akane felt a brief twinge of pain in her heart. "He'll be back soon," she said. She kissed her daughter's forehead. "Now get going. After dinner we'll go get some ice cream."
That brightened Omi's eyes considerably. "Okay momma!" The six year old shot off like a rocket.
Ukyo came over and sat down next to Akane. "Are you sure you're up to it?" she asked.
Akane nodded. Ranma had asked Ukyo to stay at the house and keep an eye on her while he was away. "I'll be fine. The headaches aren't as bad as they used to be." It was more or less true. The pain wasn't as intense as it had been before. Most of the time, she barely noticed it anymore. "Will Daisuke be joining us?"
Ukyo shook her head. "He has to work late tonight. He wanted to take me up to Hokkaido for the weekend, but..." Her voice trailed off.
Akane winced. Ukyo and Daisuke had been going out together off and on since their last year in high school. It never really seemed to get very serious between them, but Akane felt a little ashamed that she was taking Ukyo away from someone she cared about. "I'm sorry."
"No," Ukyo said, "it's okay. I'm happy to help you out."
"You don't have to stay," Akane said. "Really, I'll be fine."
"It's no problem," Ukyo said. "It's nice to get away from the restaurant for a while. Besides, Ranma asked me to stay with you. There'll be other times to see Hokkaido."
Akane could hear a hint of worry in her voice, though Ukyo hid it well. Akane knew that she, Ranma, and Omi had become very important to Ukyo. She'd been on her own for so long that they had practically become her family, and now she was afraid that something terrible was about to happen to that family.
"I'm going to be okay," Akane said. She didn't believe it, but she felt she had to say it.
"Yeah," Ukyo said. "Everything is going to be okay."
From inside the house, Omi began hollering that it was time to eat.
-----
Far away, Ranma had returned to the cave.
"The horse returns," the voice said. "It did not listen, it did not understand, the scales balance. The scales always balance."
"You know what's happening to Akane!" Ranma called out. "Tell me how to make her well again."
The voice laughed a sad laugh. "It did not listen. Only heard what it wanted to hear. Wanted all it did. Sought the scarlet rice farmer. Could not move beyond. Like the echo, tragic tragic echo now silent, the lamp now dim, but perhaps not forever."
"You have to help me!" Ranma demanded.
"It does not understand, it only rages and demands. It got what it wanted, it got its scarlet rice farmer. Now it complains in its petty mortal view that the time is too short. It understands well that it anchors the scarlet rice farmer to this world but it assumes that the scarlet cord can be stronger than the scales, that the scales may remain tipped for eternity. It is wrong, the scales will balance and the scarlet rice farmer will return to its place."
"I won't let her die again!" Ranma declared. "Tell me what I have to do!"
"Poor echo, echo, silenced because it could not move beyond. A sad, sad affair. It failed to extinguish the lamp. The lamp is dim, but growing brighter, yes, brighter. Soon it will glow brightly again and it will soar again among the clouds."
The voice paused. When it spoke again, it was almost grave, as though for the first time it understood the pain of the mortals who sought its counsel.
"The scales will balance. Will always balance," it said. "It knows what it must do."
What would you do for the woman you loved?
----- -----
Disclaimer:
Ranma 1/2 is not mine to do with as I please, et cetera
----- -----
-PART TWO: LOVE-
-the past-
Yesterday, Akane Tendo was laid to rest.
Ranma stood next to the grave, feeling hollow and empty. The rain pouring down from above had already soaked him through to the bone. It was almost as though the rains were mocking him, reminding him what his pride had cost him.
Akane had died for that pride. Try as he might, he couldn't banish the images that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
They'd found the waters of restoration, sacred water which would lift their curses once and for all. He and Ryoga had beaten the guardian and stepped forward to take a drink, a drink that would cure them. Akane was there, she had refused to stay behind this time because she was tired of staying at home and waiting while everyone else risked their lives in some distant land. Though he had tried to talk her out of it, Ranma couldn't deny that part of him had been... happy... to have her along. Happy for her company.
He remembered clearly looking back to her before taking a drink of the waters of restoration. He remembered the happy look she wore as she waited for him on the bridge leading to the well. He had finally found his cure and she was happy for him.
Ryoga had been the first to drink. He'd made up some excuse or other about why he needed the water so Akane wouldn't become suspicious. Ranma didn't remember what. It didn't matter. Ryoga was driven to his knees by the affects of the water, and for a moment Ranma had thought that he had been poisoned. Then Ryoga had cried out in ecstasy that he could feel it working.
That had been enough for Ranma, and he too drank the water, feeling the power of it flowing through him. The feeling... it was incredible, beyond any description. He too was driven to his knees, barely able to cope with the sensations rushing through his body like lightning.
That must have been what the guardian was waiting for, waiting for that moment when his two strongest opponents would be laid low by the waters of restoration. He'd risen again to strike, almost casually batting Akane aside, sending her plummeting over the edge of the bride, into the ravine below...
Ranma could feel the tears coming to his eyes, the vice grip on his heart, as he recalled it again. Akane fell screaming into the ravine, and there was nothing Ranma could do but call desperately to her, he couldn't even move. There was nothing he could do.
He didn't remember much after that. Ryoga destroyed the guardian, every drop of his pain and grief at seeing Akane fall to her death unleashed at once on her killer. Afterwards it was all just a daze of pain, suffering, and grief as Ranma worked his way down the mountain to find the body of the girl he loved.
He fell to his knees by her grave as he started to cry. There was no hiding it anymore. He loved her. He'd been in love with her for a long time, and now she had been taken from him. All the chances they had had been wasted, all those opportunities to tell her how much she meant to him were gone, and now there was nothing. Only a grave, a stone marker, and the rain. The cold, mocking rain.
But then the rain was taken away. He no longer felt the rain pelting him, only hearing a dull pop pop pop.
He looked up to see Akari holding an umbrella over him.
"You'll get sick," she said, her voice sympathetic, but sad.
She'd been here since before he arrived, but he'd forgotten about her. He wanted to push away the umbrella, to tell her to leave him alone, but he... he couldn't. Something about those eyes, the pain in those eyes, stopped him cold. He said nothing as he got back to his feet.
They stood there for a while, neither of them saying anything. The rain continued its dull pop pop pop against the umbrella.
"I... I came to find Ryoga," Akari said quietly. "He left a week ago and I haven't seen him since. I thought he might be here."
So that was why she was here.
"She meant so much to him," Akari continued. "I never realized how much until... until after it happened. With her gone... its like he doesn't see the point of living anymore."
"Sometimes I want to hate her," she said. "What she's done to him, what loving her did to him. I want to hate her for the pain he's feeling now. I know he would never feel that pain for me if I were gone..."
"Akane didn't do anything," Ranma said softly. He was just too drained to say much more.
"I know," Akari said. "None of this is her fault, it's nobody's fault."
You're wrong, Ranma thought, it is somebody's fault. It's my fault.
"But there's nothing I can do," Akari said. She looked like she was about to cry. "I love him, and I can't take away his pain, I can't make it right again. I can't stand to see him suffer like this."
She tried to compose herself, and more or less succeeded. "I just have to be strong for him," she said. "I just have to do what I can for him."
Almost as though Akari's words had summoned him, Ranma sensed another, familiar presence stepping up next to him, though the rain hid any sound he made in his approach.
"Ranma," Ryoga said, an urgency clear in his voice, "you have to come with me."
Ranma looked over to his one time rival and was surprised to see the resolve in his eyes. But he didn't care. "Go bug someone else," he said.
"We don't have time for this!" Ryoga snapped. "You have to come with me to China!"
China! Something about the thought of that country only filled Ranma with anger. "Leave me alone!" he shouted. "I ain't interested!"
"You don't understand, Ranma!" Ryoga sounded desperate. "I've found a way, but I need your help! It has to be you!"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ranma wanted to know. "A way what?"
"I found a way to bring her back!" Ryoga declared.
-----
-the present-
Akane awoke to find herself in a bed at Dr. Tofu's clinic. She was drenched in sweat, and she could feel her heart pounding, leftovers from the terror her nightmare had brought to her.
Dr. Tofu sat next to her bed. Unlike so many times before, there was no look of calm, cheerful reassurance on his face. When she saw his face, she saw uncertainty, fear, and horror that he couldn't conceal.
The sight chilled her to the bone.
She could see him try to adopt a nonchalant look. "How are you feeling, Akane?" he asked. It wasn't working. His eyes... they still reflected something awful.
The pain in Akane's head had lessened greatly, but she could still feel it, still feel the dull ache deep inside her skull. And there were other things too. She felt... it was intangible, it defied description, but she felt... wrong.
"My head hurts," she said as she sat up. "What's wrong with me, doctor?"
"It..." Dr. Tofu paused, like he was trying to find the right words to say. "It's nothing you need to worry about. It's probably just a migraine."
She didn't believe him. She didn't believe him one bit. There was more he wasn't telling her. She could read it in his eyes. "It's because of me," she said. "It's because I... came back. I can feel it."
Dr. Tofu said nothing.
"What's going to happen to me?" Akane demanded.
"Nothing's gonna happen to you," Ranma said as he came into the room. "You're gonna be fine. I've just gotta go get some stuff for you from China."
"China?" Akane felt a feeling of fear. He was going to China. Somehow the thought filled her with terror.
Ranma sat on the bed and took her hand. "I'll only be gone for a few days," he said, trying to reassure her. "After that, you can get well and things can go back to normal."
She held his hand, and accepted his reassuring words. The fear was still there, and once again old questions that she had long forgotten had returned. What was she?
But still, she accepted his words as he embraced her and held her close for a moment. She knew she could put her faith in him, that he would do everything in his power for her.
He looked into her eyes. "I won't let anything happen to you."
She nodded. "I know."
------
-the past-
"Here it is," Ryoga said as they stood before the entrance to a cave.
"What is this place?" Akari asked. She'd refused to be left behind, wanting to accompany Ranma and Ryoga on their journey deep into China's Bayankala mountain range. Ranma had been against it. After Akane... But Akari had insisted, and Ryoga had agreed.
Something had been going on between Ryoga and Akari. All through this trip they had shared a tent, and what they had been doing hadn't been hard to guess. But why would he let her come along at all? Why would Ryoga put Akari in danger like this?
"It's the home of an ancient mystic," Ryoga said. "The Musk Dynasty comes to him for advice. He's powerful, and he has a way to..." he hesitated, as though he was afraid speaking it would curse them, "...to bring Akane back."
He entered the cave. Ranma and Akari both followed without a word.
As they ventured deeper into the darkness of the cave, the only light provided by their flashlights, Ranma realized something. It seemed silly to think of it now, but Ryoga hadn't gotten lost once. He'd led them exactly to where they needed to go. Or if he hadn't, he seemed pretty sure of himself.
"Hey Ryoga," Ranma said, "are you sure you know where you're going?"
Ryoga didn't answer. He just kept going.
"It's because he loves her so much," Akari said softly. "This is his only chance to bring her back."
Ranma didn't say anything.
"I'm just her replacement," Akari said. There was a trace of bitterness in her voice.
A voice echoed through the darkness. "The echo of fangs once again haunts my dwelling," it called. "It does not learn. I told it that I cannot help it with what it seeks. What it wants is beyond its abilities. The connection must be both ways I told it. The scarlet cord must bind the suffering to the lost, but so too must it bind the lost to the suffering. It does not understand."
Ranma was on his guard at once, searching for the source of the voice, but he couldn't find it. He didn't have any idea where it was coming from.
"I do understand," Ryoga said, "and I've brought someone who can do it. You have to help us."
"Help the echo of fangs?" the voice responded. "I was beyond ancient when Hideyoshi crossed the sea dreaming of empire. Before Himeko ruled in its land I had known hundreds of generations. I remember the star of the savior in the west, and have counseled Sun Wu. Now it tells me what I must do. Such presumption."
There was silence for a moment before the voice began speaking again.
"Oh ho," it said, "others have come as well. What would bring a rice farmer's wild horse into my house? It is most unsanitary. But this other... A bright lamp gripped in the claw of a dragon soaring among the clouds! Beautiful! Why hasn't the echo realized what it has? Why must it persist in chasing the lost scarlet divinity?"
"That's none of your business!" Ryoga shouted.
"Echo echo," the voice said in an almost mocking singsong tone. "Echo of love, false, nothing but reflection. Not real at all, just an echo of lost dreams. But the horse..."
Ranma felt... something. Like otherworldly eyes were watching him. The voice kept speaking.
"This farmer's horse, what it has is real. Yes, I see it now, I see what the echo hoped for me to see. It seeks the scarlet divinity... no... it seeks the scarlet rice farmer."
"You're talking about Akane, aren't you?" Ranma demanded. "Are you saying I can bring her back?"
"The wild horse has the link," the voice said. "It has the connection. The link between the horse and the scarlet divinity extends beyond the mortal realm. It is the scarlet cord between the lost and suffering. It need only know how to pull to raise up what it desires."
"Then tell me what I need to do!"
"The wild horse is eager, this I understand well, but I do not believe it understands the cost. This world and other world are always in balance, soul for soul. One cannot upset the scales. Try as it might, the scales will be balanced in the end."
"I'll do whatever it takes!" Ranma declared.
"I believe it will." There was silence for a couple of moments. "Very well. My services shall be granted, and I shall tell it what it wants to know. I shall tell it the purpose for what it calls Jusenkyo."
-----
-the present-
Ranma had been gone for days, and as she sat on the porch looking at the stars, Akane could feel his absence like a knife in her heart.
She realized that this was the first time since... since she had come back, that she and Ranma had ever been separated for more than a few hours. It was funny. When they had first met all those years ago, she had never imagined how much it would hurt to not have him close to her.
She was afraid. Every night when she slept, nightmares awaited her. She couldn't remember any of them, only that they filled her with terror, horror, and a sense, an inescapable feeling that she didn't belong in this world anymore, that her very existence was wrong. On those nights she wanted, so desperately wanted Ranma to be there, to be there for her when she woke up in terror, to hold her and chase away the demons, and tell her it was all okay. But he wasn't there.
She needed him. She could feel it in her heart. She needed to hold him again, to tell him she loved him again, because...
Somehow, she knew she was running out of time.
"Momma," her daughter called to her as she ran out onto the porch and flung her arms around Akane's neck in an exuberant hug. "Dinner's ready. I helped Auntie Ukyo do the cooking."
Akane smiled as she returned Omi's hug. "I can tell," she said. Her daughter's arms and face were covered in flour. "You need to go wash up before you make a mess everywhere."
Omi pouted at the idea, but she didn't raise a complaint. "Yes Momma," she said dejectedly. "When's daddy going to get back from his trip?"
For a moment Akane felt a brief twinge of pain in her heart. "He'll be back soon," she said. She kissed her daughter's forehead. "Now get going. After dinner we'll go get some ice cream."
That brightened Omi's eyes considerably. "Okay momma!" The six year old shot off like a rocket.
Ukyo came over and sat down next to Akane. "Are you sure you're up to it?" she asked.
Akane nodded. Ranma had asked Ukyo to stay at the house and keep an eye on her while he was away. "I'll be fine. The headaches aren't as bad as they used to be." It was more or less true. The pain wasn't as intense as it had been before. Most of the time, she barely noticed it anymore. "Will Daisuke be joining us?"
Ukyo shook her head. "He has to work late tonight. He wanted to take me up to Hokkaido for the weekend, but..." Her voice trailed off.
Akane winced. Ukyo and Daisuke had been going out together off and on since their last year in high school. It never really seemed to get very serious between them, but Akane felt a little ashamed that she was taking Ukyo away from someone she cared about. "I'm sorry."
"No," Ukyo said, "it's okay. I'm happy to help you out."
"You don't have to stay," Akane said. "Really, I'll be fine."
"It's no problem," Ukyo said. "It's nice to get away from the restaurant for a while. Besides, Ranma asked me to stay with you. There'll be other times to see Hokkaido."
Akane could hear a hint of worry in her voice, though Ukyo hid it well. Akane knew that she, Ranma, and Omi had become very important to Ukyo. She'd been on her own for so long that they had practically become her family, and now she was afraid that something terrible was about to happen to that family.
"I'm going to be okay," Akane said. She didn't believe it, but she felt she had to say it.
"Yeah," Ukyo said. "Everything is going to be okay."
From inside the house, Omi began hollering that it was time to eat.
-----
Far away, Ranma had returned to the cave.
"The horse returns," the voice said. "It did not listen, it did not understand, the scales balance. The scales always balance."
"You know what's happening to Akane!" Ranma called out. "Tell me how to make her well again."
The voice laughed a sad laugh. "It did not listen. Only heard what it wanted to hear. Wanted all it did. Sought the scarlet rice farmer. Could not move beyond. Like the echo, tragic tragic echo now silent, the lamp now dim, but perhaps not forever."
"You have to help me!" Ranma demanded.
"It does not understand, it only rages and demands. It got what it wanted, it got its scarlet rice farmer. Now it complains in its petty mortal view that the time is too short. It understands well that it anchors the scarlet rice farmer to this world but it assumes that the scarlet cord can be stronger than the scales, that the scales may remain tipped for eternity. It is wrong, the scales will balance and the scarlet rice farmer will return to its place."
"I won't let her die again!" Ranma declared. "Tell me what I have to do!"
"Poor echo, echo, silenced because it could not move beyond. A sad, sad affair. It failed to extinguish the lamp. The lamp is dim, but growing brighter, yes, brighter. Soon it will glow brightly again and it will soar again among the clouds."
The voice paused. When it spoke again, it was almost grave, as though for the first time it understood the pain of the mortals who sought its counsel.
"The scales will balance. Will always balance," it said. "It knows what it must do."