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.
-------------------------------
Chapter 1 - The End of One Life
-------------------------------
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.
-----------------------------------
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.
---------------------
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.
---------------------
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.
---------------------
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.
----------------------
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.
--------------------
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.
--------------------
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.
--------------------
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.
-------------------
Soun cried, and cried. His daughter was hurting and his family line will
never be joined with the Saotomes.
-------------------
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.
------------------
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.
-----------------
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.
-----------------
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.
-----------------------------------
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.
-------------------
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.
-------------------
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.
-------------------
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.
-------------------
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.
-------------------------------------
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.
-----------------------------------
Author's notes:
Thanks to the numerous pre-readers and those who sent C&C on this
series.
Happosai's death scene in the second version was more graphic, but less
believable. If you want to see Happy die a horrible death, here is the
altenate version:
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 even produced. "You- you
killed him!" she shouted, her voice like gravel. "DIE!" Her chi aura
shot into him.
Happosai felt her chi wrapping around bones and internal organs. He
screamed in pain and horror as his manhood was ripped apart from him. He
was in shock. He could not move.
"You have taken away from me the man I love, and I will see you dead for
it," Akane said darkly. "I will see that you die painfully."
Several bones in Happosai's left hand were ripped out of his skin. Then
his right fore arm was crushed. He struggled, trying to free himself
from Akane's chi grasp. He still couldn't move.
The others assembled stared at Akane and Happosai in shock and fear.
Those who could think, didn't dare interfere in fear of Akane's possible
reprisal.
Happosai's right leg turned to powder. His kidneys flattened into
pancakes. His left leg shot into his body like spear, ripping intestines
and crushing lungs. The fact he was still alive was a testament to the
master of Anything Goes Martial Arts tenacity and struggle to live.
Akane's chi wrapped firmly around Happosai's body and head. With a
disgusting sound of flesh ripping and bones coming apart, Happosai was
decapitated.
Those gathered could no longer hold their lunch at the gruesome sight of
Happosai's death.
Akane stared at the corpse, only realizing then she wasn't dreaming
about what she'd do to Happosai. She had really killed him. Her mind
failed her looking at the sight. She collapsed. She would never be able
to remember what she just did.
Now, the only people who thought of Happosai, did so angrily. No one
mourned his passing.
(Just a note- this version Akane didn't remembet killing Happy. In the
perfect anger blast version- she does remember.)
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