Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Second Chances ❯ The End of One Life ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Second Chances
By Lord Archive

The first chapter is sad and dark. The following chapters are not.
This story begins over six months after Manga volume 38.
Legal Babble: Characters are owned by Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Video, etc..., and are used without permission. I'm only borrowing them. I'll return them. I can't afford the overdue charge Nabiki insists on.

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1 - The End of One Life
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Akane could not believe what she saw before her. Ranma had defeated the monster Happosai had summoned, but he was wounded. Badly wounded. She rushed to Ranma with tears filling her eyes.
She kneeled at his side. "R-Ranma?" she uttered, her voice shaking.
Ranma said weakly, "Akane. I'm s-sorry. I got... careless."
"Be quiet, save your strength."
"I... I'm sorry, Akane... I wanted to... marry you... I'm sorry... I hadn't told you that... I love you."
Her eyes lit up. He had finally admitted he loves her. Everything would be all right now. Everything would be better.
"I do love y..." The fire of life in Ranma's eyes were extinguished as his heart stopped. He now just laid there, dead.
"Ranma?" Akane cried. "Ranma, please don't leave me. Ranma, I love you, don't leave me." She gathered his body into her arms and screamed, "RRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNMMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!" The scream was heard for kilometers around.
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Ukyou sat at the Tendo Dojo. She couldn't understand how some dopey monster Happosai summoned could kill Ranma, but it had. She hadn't stopped crying since she arrived at the place Ranma died, just after hearing Akane's gut wrenching cry of his name. Now here she was at Ranma's funeral days later. His casket in front of her, and she just couldn't understand it.
Ukyou saw Kasumi lead Akane into the dojo. She noted with bitterness that Akane didn't show any signs she had been crying. The bitterness was short lived when she then noticed Akane didn't show signs of any sort. Akane wasn't emotionally alive.
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Shampoo stared at the casket in front of her. She realized for some time now that she had lost him, but continued to chase him in case... anything unfortunate happened to Akane. Besides, she couldn't return to her village unless Ranma was her husband or dead. She hoped and prayed for the former, but it was to be the latter. Ranma was gone, and no one gets to have him.
Shampoo saw Akane enter the dojo. Not surprised at her state. Shampoo knew Akane loved Ranma more than she let anyone, including herself, know. Shampoo thought Akane loved Ranma more than she did and perhaps more than Ukyou did as the evidence showed.
The biggest surprise at the proceedings held for Shampoo was that Mousse was not elating how she was free of Ranma. He just sat next to her, mourning the passing of Ranma and only offered to comfort her in her time pain. He did not force his presence on her.
She was unnerved at how little pain she actually did feel. Sure she cried when she found out Ranma was dead and it does hurt, but even Kodachi showed more reaction to his death. She guessed it was because deep down she had given up on Ranma. So, alive or dead, it didn't matter, he was already lost to her.
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Kodachi laughed, and laughed. Her fragile hold on sanity cracked when she saw Ranma's dead body. When she went to attack the wretched Tendo girl who took Ranma away from her, she had been stopped by a combined attack from Ryoga, Shampoo, Ukyou, and Kuno.
Kodachi's injuries from the battle had sent her to the hospital. Her actions there had her committed. She had severely hurt two orderlies in an attempt to leave and hunt down Akane.
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Ryoga stood in the back of the dojo, tears streaming down his face. Akari was next to him trying to give him emotional support. Ranma had been the closest thing to a best friend to him, and his first love, Akane, was obviously in great pain from Ranma's death.
"You know, that's how Ranma was when he thought Akane died at Jusendo. He couldn't take the pain so he shut himself off, as Akane is now," Ryoga said in a low voice.
"Will she ever get better?" Akari asked, sadly.
"I-I think she may end up like her father, never able to go through a day without crying. Either that or her anger will be such that she will have to be restrained to prevent her from destroying everything in sight."
"Oh." Akari looked at Akane. She now cried not really for Ranma, but for the pain Akane felt and wondered if she would feel the same if Ryoga died.
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Konatsu was above Ukyou, holding onto the ceiling. He worried about how she was to fare after Ranma died. He was upset that Ranma had died, Ranma had been his friend and he had precious few friends.
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Kuno stood like a stone statue on the other side of the dojo door from Ryoga. It pained him to see how the spell that sorcerer Saotome had cast on Akane hurt her after his passing. He wanted to comfort Akane, but Nabiki threatened to make him a woman and send the Kuno clan to the poor house if he even talked to her. For now he just honored his adversary, as he was the only man to hold his own against his might.
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Nabiki was at a loss. She played peace keeper, not wanting to have the insanity of Ranma's life to invade his funeral. She wished now she had used her skills to end the insanity rather than fuel it. She purposely delayed the marriage of Ranma to Akane because she felt her sister wasn't ready. Now Akane had lost any chance to ever marry him, and it was Nabiki's fault the wedding attempt had failed.
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Kasumi sat next to Akane. It troubled her greatly that Akane had retreated so far into her own world that she may as well be dead. Kasumi had seen it before, her father was like that when her mother died. Kasumi knew Akane would come out of it eventually, but she won't be the same person she was before.
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Soun cried, and cried. His daughter was hurting and his family line will never be joined with the Saotomes.
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Nodoka sat on the other side of Akane. Nodoka cried at the lost of her son so soon after finding him. He had proven to be a 'man amongst men' to his dying breath and hated that the oath of Seppuku had kept him away from her for so long. All she wanted now was her son, if he was truly a man or not.
Nodoka looked down at Akane. She did not care that Akane never married Ranma. She was going to help this girl who her son loved as if the girl was her daughter.
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It was a surprise to many guest when Genma walked into the dojo in human form, crying with tears sorrow. He had screwed up so much when raising Ranma, he was not going to make a mistake now. Genma knew his many mistakes had hurt Ranma greatly, and his mistakes with Happosai had caused the death of his only child.
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Cologne was next to Shampoo. She regretted that Shampoo would never get to marry Ranma, but knew how hopeless that had become. This outcome would work out for the best for Shampoo in the long run, but Cologne never wanted it to happen.
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Happosai? Well, Happosai wasn't there. When he had arrived at the scene of Ranma's death to see what his monster had done, he meet several angry martial artist. He held his own against them. Actually he was winning, despite fighting Genma, Soun, Ukyou, Ryoga, and Shampoo all at the same time.
Ryoga and Genma laid into Happosai using chi attacks. Genma was even using his forbidden moves to attack Happosai. Ukyou and Shampoo were upset that their presence was only helping the lech.
It wasn't until Happosai touched Akane to regain his strength that the battle ended. Akane looked at Happosai with such anger and rage she glowed with a chi aura greater than Happosai ever produced. "You- you killed him!" she shouted, her voice like gravel. "DIE!"
Akane grabbed onto his head in a death grip. He struggled trying to get her to let go. He started to feel her gather her chi for a chi blast. She was gathering it between her hands, which happened to also be where his head was.
Akane let out a shriek of rage as she fired off her chi blast. A perfect anger chi blast with the point of origin being between Happosai's ears.
Happosai exploded into gory little bits.
Some of those watching lost their lunch.
Akane stared at the corpse, well what passed for one. Only then did she realize that she wasn't dreaming about what she'd do to Happosai. She really had killed him. Her mind failed her looking at the sight. She collapsed.
Now, the only people who thought of Happosai, did so angrily. No one mourned his passing.
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Ukyou kept her restaurant closed for the following week. She spent most of the time crying. She tried to visit Akane once, but she was still emotionally dead. Ukyou did see signs that Akane was coming out of it as she mumbled a couple times. At one point Ukyou heard Akane say, "The Baka died before I could tell him that I love him." Ukyou knew Akane wasn't talking to her since Akane stared off into space while saying it.
Ukyou was upset by Akane's reaction. Ukyou always felt she deserved Ranma the most, that she loved Ranma more. But, Akane proved that wrong. Despite her insults and the number of times she hit Ranma, Akane was in greater emotional pain over his death than anyone else.
Konatsu had spent those days as shoulder for Ukyou to cry on. He wanted to help her in anyway he could.
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With Ranma's death, nothing held the Amazons to Japan, so they packed up and left days after the funeral. Shampoo and Mousse stopped by the Tendos before leaving to wish them better times and gave an offer of help if they ever needed it.
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Kuno had visited his sister in psychiatric ward. When he started spouting how the evil Saotome had bewitched his sister, he was given a nice padded room for himself.
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Ryoga, seeing what Ranma and Akane had lost for waiting 'until the time was right,' gathered his courage and proposed to Akari. She happily accepted.
Ryoga was still upset and depressed at what had happened. He thought if he was a little sooner in getting there, if he could have done more, Ranma would be alive. The man whose existence he had cursed many times over and attempted to kill on many occasions, and he would do anything to bring him back.
Akari wanted to help Ryoga, she gave him the love that kept him from going over the edge. But, Ryoga needed to release the feelings of depression that built up in him and made a large pond at Akari's farm from repeated Shi Shi Hokodan blasts he fired several times a day.
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Almost a week passed before Akane came out of her emotional death. She spent the next several days crying. Nodoka was not going to let her handle the pain alone, but she also knew, for what happened, Akane would need professional help.
It was two weeks after the funeral when Akane first saw the psychologist. It had to take some convincing that Akane wasn't delusional when she talked about how Ranma died and mentioned his curse. The doctor was upset that no one had come to see a psychologist before then, especially about Ranma who undoubtedly had many mental scars that should've been addressed.
Talking to the psychologist helped Akane greatly. She started to function and three weeks after Ranma died she returned to school. Everyone avoided her, which suited her find. She wished it had all been a nightmare, one she'd wake up from. She wanted Ranma back. She wanted to tell him that she loves him.
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Akane stared out into the stormy night with eyes dried from having cried too much, her thoughts drifted over the past two year since Ranma blew into her life. Two years that afternoon, and he missed the anniversary by four weeks.
Akane had been crying since she found Ranma's journal a couple days ago. She only read the last couple entries and found out Ranma had actually decided to deal with Ukyou and Shampoo and marry her today. Akane was amazed that Ranma actually remembered the importance of the day let alone planned to make it the most important one in their lives. And now it'll never be.
Akane thought of all the mistakes she had made, from their first meeting to their final moments. So many times she had gotten angry at him for things that were not his fault. She wanted to take it all back. She wanted him back.
Akane couldn't bear the pain any longer, she couldn't go on. A short trip to the kitchen or the dojo to get a nice sharp blade, and she could join him. She could see him again. She would... be dead. No! As much as it hurts. Oh, Kami-Sama, how it hurts! She couldn't bring herself to leave the world just yet as it would cheapen Ranma's death. He took some of the injuries in the final battle saving her. He would want her to live.
Akane decided to use the emergency number the psychologist had given. She needed to talk to him some more. Akane was shaking as she went to the phone and dialed the number.
On the third ring it was answered, "Goddess relief line. Hold on for one moment."
Akane thought, confused. She then noticed the television suddenly turned on in the living room. No one should be in there, it was three in the morning. She let the phone drop, if this was a burglar, he would regret trying to rob her home.
Akane stopped and was sort of amazed at a woman, who was cursing while she tried to get out of the television.
"I don't know why my sister is in love with these stupid machines," the woman said.
Akane came to senses and went into a battle stance. "Who are you, and what are you doing to my TV?"
"I'm Urd. I am a goddess, and you've been granted a wish." She finished by wrangling her foot out of the television, and sent it crashing into the floor.
Akane lost it for a moment.
"Yes, you get one wish," Urd replied.
Akane blinked.
"You don't have to. For the time being, I can read your mind."
Akane became elated, saying excitedly, "I can get him back. I've wished to get a second chance with Ranma..."
However, because of the way Akane blurted out her words, what Urd heard was, 'I get him back? I wish to get second chance with Ranma...' Urd then began to glow, and a beam of light shot skyward. "Granted."
"Granted what? I didn't make my wish yet," Akane said, getting upset.
"You wished for a second chance, and now you've got it?"
"Huh?" Akane questioned, suddenly growing tired.
"Now go to sleep, Akane. Tomorrow WON'T be a new day," Urd smirked, as she faded from existence.
"What did she mean by that?" Akane yawned as she dragged herself to bed. She grabbed Ranma's journal and hugged it tightly as she feel asleep.
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