Chapter 5:

Till the End of Time, Part 3

The young girl sighed as she looked around the cafeteria. All the other tables were full but hers, and all the other children had friends. It wasn't unusual, she was the new girl afterall, and she was rather timid and shy about approaching others. There was one group in particular that she was interested in however. Most of the kids were her age, but there were a couple first graders, and a third grader sitting with them as well. She smiled slightly to see some of the older kids in that group.

She turned away, wishing and dreaming wasn't going to change the fact that she was in a new place, with new people, and no friends. She was simply a five-year-old child displaced from everything she had known. She opened her lunch box, okonomiyaki again. It had been her favorite meal, if only because her father rarely ever cooked anything else.

She sat there staring at it for a moment, deciding whether or not she really wanted it. She almost wished she had someone to trade with, that or that her father would make a traditional bento box.

"Excuse me."

The girl looked up. Standing across the table from her was a young boy with a short black pigtail, smiling widely at her. She blushed slightly, he had been part of the group she had been focused on a moment earlier. "H-hi."

"You look lonely over here, want to come eat with me and my friends?"

The girl nervously looked away, then back at the boy with a smile. "Sure."

"I'm Ranma, what's your name?"

"U-Ukyo."

"Nice to meet you Ukyo, I'm sure we'll be great friends."

--

Ukyo looked around her father's shop. She'd been running it every day after school, ever since her father fell ill. It had been a day since she'd seen Ryouga and Akane in there on a date, but still, the jealousy wouldn't quite go away. She had been thier friend for many years, and could easily count them both as some of her best friends. Still, it didn't change the fact that she had never so much as even been on a date. Everyone else was in a relationship. Nabiki had Kuno, Ryouga had Akane, even Kasumi seemed to have something going on with a local doctor.

It wasn't even that they were happily in relationships, she had never even been in one. It wasn't that there hadn't been opportunities though, most of them came recently. She simply didn't have time for them anymore, not while she ran the okonomiyaki shop for her father.

She let her thoughts gather, then put them away as another of her friends walked into the shop. At least with her, she felt as if she wasn't alone. The new girl, Nodoka, she was still single, and didn't appear to be interested in anyone, well, not too interested anyways. "Hey Nodoka, nice to see you."

"Ukyo? You work here?" Nodoka smiled as she approached the counter with a smile, and took a seat.

"Yeah, kinda. My father owns this shop, I've been running it for him since he fell ill."

Nodoka smiled and watched as Ukyo cut some cabage for a batter. "It's nice that you're helping him. Think I could get one with pork?"

Ukyo chuckled slightly as she started cooking. She prided herself as the second best okonomiyaki chef in all of Japan, giving her father the distinction as first. She'd always had great respect for him, and had always strived to be just like him one day.

Nodoka however noticed something in Ukyo's expression as she watched the other girl cook. She could clearly see the mix of emotions, despite the mask of happiness that Ukyo was wearing. "Hey, uh, Ukyo. What's the matter?"

Ukyo paused and looked at Nodoka a bit confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you're smiling, but it seems hollow, like you're somewhere else." Nodoka shrugged a bit. "I don't know, you just seem a little upset about something, that's all."

"It's nothing, really. Oh, did you hear? Ryouga and Akane are getting married. They came in here yesterday and Akane asked me to be her Maid of Honor."

"Is that so? So, they decided on a Western style wedding then." Nodoka smiled slightly, then looked to the ground and sighed. "Actually, I was kinda there when Ryouga proposed, it was just a coincidence, it was before I met any of you."

"Figures, I'm always the last to know."

"You're a little jealous of them, aren't you?"

"What? I am not! Aren't you the jealous one? You did hesitate a little when I brought it up."

"Yeah, I am a little, but so are you, I can tell." Nodoka smiled slightly as Ukyo placed the okonomiyaki in front of her.

Ukyo looked Nodoka over, then noticed a ring hanging from her neck just above her breast. Something distant seemed to flicker in Ukyo's mind, something familiar, but at the same time, she wasn't sure what it was. "That's a nice ring, where's it from?"

"Oh, that old thing?" Nodoka sighed and put her chopsticks down with a sigh. "It's nothing, I just found it in a little trinket shop in Kyoto."

Ukyo shrugged a bit. She didn't exactly believe Nodoka, but she felt it rude to pry too much. She had only met the girl just recently, and they weren't all that great of friends. Well, not yet, she hoped they could be good friends. She watched Nodoka for a moment as she stepped back from the bar to go about some cleaning and preparations for the shop. Finally, the silence got to be a little too much for her, so she changed the subject. "I overheard Ryouga last night, asking Akane to move in with him. Isn't that great for them?"

"Yeah, it's great."

--

"You're okonomiyaki really is the best Ukyo!"

"Th-thank you Ranma." Ukyo blushed as her father chuckled. It had been almost a year since she had moved to Nerima and everything had been great, she had many friends, she was enjoying school, and she had fallen in love with cooking again.

She watched the young boy at the counter as he ate the okonomiyaki she had cooked with much gusto. He had been the first person to approach her when she moved to Nerima from Osaka, and she could easily count him as her best friend. She wanted to tell him that she liked him, more then that, but she couldn't, she knew he was more interested in Akane.

"I could eat this every day Ukyo."

She smiled slightly, she wore her mask of happiness as she went about cooking a second okonomiyaki for Ranma.

Ranma watched her carefully for a moment then put his chopsticks down. "Hey, what's wrong Ukyo?"

Ukyo paused a moment, then slowly turned at Ranma and looked at him confused. Her father had gone into the back to work on one of his sauce recipes, leaving the two children alone. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you're smiling, but it seems hollow, like you're somewhere else." Ranma shrugged a bit. "I dunno, you just seem a little upset about something, that's all."

--

Ukyo froze as she was making some noodles for her okonomiyaki, then slowly turned and looked at Nodoka. The red-headed woman was wearing a pigtail, one that seemed very much like that of a boy she had known so long ago, that ring she wore the spitting image of the one Akane had given him when he left. Her personality, and her mannerisms, even so far as the way she spoke to Ukyo, they were all the same.

Ukyo set the unfinished noodles down, then walked towards the counter as Nodoka had finished eating. She hesitated a moment as she picked the plate up, then set it back down with a slight sigh as her eyes began to water. "Th-that's not funny Ranma."

Nodoka looked up at Ukyo, almost in shock, but said nothing for a moment. She then looked away and sighed. "When did you figure it out."

"Just now, we had an almost identical conversation almost eleven years ago. What happened?"

"It's a long story Ukyo. But, Ranma doesn't exist anymore, alright? Please, don't tell anyone Ukyo, They're all so happy, I don't want to ruin that for them, let them keep thier memories of Ranma, and let me be Nodoka, ok?"

Ukyo nodded slightly, Ranma had always been able to tell her things he could never tell the others, secrets only the two of them had shared. She quietly placed a hand on Nodoka's shoulder and smiled at her genuinely. "It's a promise."