One Last Thing
By princess-elli100
Akane is walking down the sidewalk, sounds of cars and people bustling by can be heard. She clutches the books in her arms to her chest as if protecting them from the cruel world. She sighs, dropping her backpack on the ground.
"With these cookbooks to guide me, Ranma will HAVE to try my cooking!' she thought, determinedly as she stuffed the books inside her backpack. Any normal person would believe that this action would be safe to do on a sidewalk. You never expect horrible thigns on a sidewalk. But of course, something drastically changed Akane's point of view on that subject.
"Watch out!' came the worried voice of a bystander. Akane, not believing it involved her, continued waht she was doing before, not even glancing up for a second.
Her head jolted up as she heard the sounds of a car gone out of control. Akane's eyes widened in horror.
"AHHHH!"
"That sounded like Akane!" said Ranma to himself, as he ran on the fences of Nerima to where he heard the scream. "What the heck is she up to now?" Ranma was forced out of the house to find his beloved fiance, Akane. By who, you ask? None other than Soun and Genma.
"Stupid Akane. Why'd you have to run off like that?" Ranma asked outloud.
Ranma slowed down as he approached a huge crowd of people gathered at the side of the road. 'What's going on here?' he thought. Then he saw the ambulance lights. It was an accident.
Ranma frantically pushed his way through the crowd.
"It can't be..no, it just can't be!" he told himself. As he pushed his way to the front of the group, he saw them close the back of the ambulance truck. Ranma gasped.
"Who was in the accident?" Ranma asked a bystander. His was was covered in worry and sadness. Of course, he had a tinge of hope that maybe Akane wan't in the accident and it was someone else.
The man noticed the worry in Ranma's vocie. "Well, it was a girl about your age. She had short black hair and she was dressed in a school uniform is all I know," the man answered. Ranma's eyes widened.
"Akane!" he screamed. He ran towards the ambulane truck.
"Um, excuse me. This area is restricted.."
"Akane!" he called, reaching out towards the car, trying to catch a glimse of the girl's body.
"I..must see her..." Ranma finally gave up the struggle to try and get past this cop. Usually, he would have forcefully got past him, but now, he felt as though everything inside him broke. He just wanted to see Akane, know she'll be alright, and find out this is all just a bad dream. It's a shame it didn't end up that way.
"I'm sorry, sir... " stated the cop as he continued to hold Ranma back. He bit his lip.
"I assume you knew this girl...?" he asked.
Ranma just nodded, then let his head fall limply. The cop looked around a bit, then sighed.
"Come with me," he whispered and Ranma looked up inot the cops face. He nodded again.
Now all the Tendo's and Ranma and Genma are sitting in the waiting room of a hospital. They are all anxiously awaiting someone...anyone... to come down the hall with information on Akane. Nabiki is sitting, nervously biting her nails. Kasumi is trying to help comfort her crying father, while Genma and Ranma both sit in complete silence. Ranma's eyes are puffy and red. Usually someone would have said something about him crying over Akane, but everyone knew this is most definitely not the time.
"Mr. Tendo... you may come in now..." came the voice of a man. Ranma looked up, a small glint of hope shining in his aqua blue colored eyes. Soun sniffed a bit before standing up. He started folliwing the doctor, as did Ranma. "I'm sorry.. the patient has requested to see only Mr. Tendo," he said to Ranma. Ranma's heart broke in a million peices in that instant. Akane... didn't want to see him?
As Ranma sat down, completely dumb-struck, he slumped his head over and slowly drifted off to sleep.
What seemed like a few minutes to Ranma, a voice awake him from his slumber.
"Akane wants to see you," came the voice of Akane's sister, Nabiki. She smirked as Ranma stood up and practically ran to where the doctor stood. The doctor nodded and led Ranma to Akane's room.
"Akane," Ranma called as he practically flew to the seat next to the bed Akane was resting on. She was in critical condition; he body was hooked up to a breathing machine. The accident must had severely damaged her lungs, so it was hard for her to get oxygen. Ranma moaned as he seem how bruised the poor fair skinned girl was. He light skin was blotched with black and purple bruises and both her legs were broken and her right arm was fractured.
He sat and watched Akane's chest as it rose and fell to the beat of her heart. He could tell she was having trouble breathing just by the sounds she made and the way her chest moved.
Ranma bit his lip as he tried to hold back his tears.
"Wha..what happened?" he was finally able to speak as he looked up at the doctor. The doctor took a deep breath.
"She was in an accident. While on the sidewalk, she unfortunately fell prey to a drunk driver who payed no attention to the road and, well... you know..." it was obvious he had trouble explaining things like this to his patients family and friends. This young man seemed too close to be a friend, and he was obviously not family...
"Can I.. have a moment alone?" Ranma muttered, not raising his head to look at him again. He nodded and left, slowly shutting the door behind him. Ranma tried to keep a straight face, but it seemed as though he had no control over his mouth and it automatically formed into a sad frown. The harder he tried to not look so sad, the more he frowned.
"Akane... how could you? How could you die on me like this?" Ranma whispered as he seen her chest movement get slower and slower, as though her life was slowly dieing away. She wasn't dead yet, but Ranma knew her fate; she wasn't going to last too much longer. She was lucky to even be alive now.
"I never got the chance to tell you... I love you, Akane Tendo," he whispered the first part in her ear, the second part he pulled away to say.
"Why...do you wait...until I'm dying...to tell me?" Akane whispers. Ranma's heart skips a beat. "Akane!" he screams.
"I..I'm sorry," he said afterward. Akane then opened her left eye and looked up at the pig-tailed martial artist and smiled.
"I..I lo..." before she was able to finish, she sighed deeply and wasn't able to finish her sentance. Akane had stopped breathing.
"A..Akane?" Ranma questioned, eyes widening. He put his ear close to her mouth to see if he can hear her breath, the breath of the one that holds his heart...
"AKANE!" Ranma screamed, tears filling his eyes.
A few days later was Akane's funeral. Ranma stood behind everyone else, behind a tree. He watched in silence as they lowered the coffin into the deep, dark ground. He shivered.
After everyone left, Ranma walked over to the grave. He sniffed and looked down at the tombstone.
"My dear Akane," he muttered, dropping the flowers he had bought onto the grave.
As he stood up to leave, something caught his eye. It was..Akane's diary. Ranma stopped back down on his knees. He picked up the small pink booklet and opened it. Supposedly they had found it in Akane's backpack the day she died.
Ranma opened it up, turning to the last entry recorded. It was the day Akane died.
Today I will make sure Ranma will try my cooking. I'm going to the store to pick up some cookbooks. I'm going to get cookies and cakes; Ranma loves cookies. I remember the day Kodachi and I made him cookies; he ate all of mine and then got sick. Silly Ranma...
I know... he's an insensitive jerk, but... I care for him. He's the man that holds my heart. If only I could tell him how I truely feel; oh, it'd free my soul. But don't worry! I still have plenty of time to tell him how I feel; "I love you, Ranma,"
Ranma smirked as he put down the diary. "You're so foolish and naive, my love,"