Afternoon of an Ukyou

by Gregg Sharp

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ever wake up in the middle of the night with a story written,
just waiting for you to put it down. here's one, warning, it's a darkfic.

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AFTERNOON OF AN UKYOU (alterniverse/dark)


My name is Kuonji Ukyou, and I am in Hell.

It all started eight years ago. My father and
the father of the man I love arranged our
betrothal, for all that we were kids at the time.

Genma, father of the aforementioned love of my
life, ran off with the dowry and left me behind.
Ranma saw me chasing after them from atop said
dowry, a yattai or foodcart. When I fell, he
was there, off the cart and in front of me.

He didn't even know I was a girl at the time,
or of the engagement. It was years before I
told him of that. Genma tried to leave me
behind again, of course, but now that Ranma
knew that I was supposed to come with them...

We travelled through Japan, me making those
little Japanese pizza (Okinomiyaki) and 
helping to furnish money on this training
trip. We trained in the martial arts, you
see, a form of kenpo that accepts anything
that works as part of its style. So we
travelled, learning and practicing the 
martial arts, me training further in a 
sort of anything-goes cooking as we couldn't
always make anything even close to my 
specialty dish. The yattai was itself
impounded at one customs point in China
and we never saw it again.

By that time, Ranma and I were best friends
and more. He knew of the engagement, even
though his father always downplayed the 
event. If I'd known why back then, we'd 
have left the old fool and struck out on
our own. But If and Then, or Maybe are
just our way of not wanting to face What
Is.

It was one of the good times when things
had gotten abruptly and finally worse.
We had stayed too long shortly after going
into China on the way to some fabled 
training grounds called the Pools Of Sorrow.

Ranma had been laughing his head off, the
walls around his self having temporarily come
down. I can't even remember the joke that
I'd told him, though the next scene was
burned in my memory.

Ryouga Hibiki. A sort of friend of Ranma's,
a rival more accurately, had followed us
all the way from Japan. He came out of the
woods and attacked, yelling "Die Ranma" as
he slammed his fist into Ranma's neck.
Ranma never saw it coming, just looked 
surprised as he stopped laughing with his
neck vertibrae snapped.

I don't know what happened to Ryouga after
that, it was some time later that Genma
came back to camp. Ryouga was gone at that
point, though he'd left his tracks. If
either me or Genma see that boy again, I
doubt he'll survive very long.

We did go on to Jusenkyo, bringing the body.
We weren't very far and we could at least
see that Ranma got a decent burial. Then
we met the Guide, who thought Genma was
here for something else.

In the center of the Cursed Springs Of
Jusenkyo is the First Spring. Genma had
a long conversation with the Guide, and
the Guide apparently told him the details
thinking that this was WHY Genma had come
here.

Genma took me to the First Spring, and
had been talking to me, and I was still
too wrapped up in grief to notice much.
That ended when he threw his son in the
First Spring. I fell for it, racing into
the Spring to retrieve him, yelling at 
his father for doing such a stupid thing.

I can't believe I was that stupid, but
maybe it was just being on autopilot while
dealing with Ranma's death.

Now hot water returns me to myself. Cold
water touches me, and everything goes 
black. Ranma is back for those times.

Cold water literally turns me into Ranma,
his face, his form, his memories and
thoughts, his feelings and his soul if
you will. Hot water restores me.

In a way we're closer than ever. Some
lovers wonder if they've truly captured
the heart of the other in their life.
Mine IS the heart of my other, and our
lives are inseperable.

My most recent awakening was back in
Japan, where I found myself facing three
women of close to my own age and their
father. Genma had a prior engagement 
that he neglected to inform me or Ranma
about.

After all, I can't marry Ranchan now.
Ranma's been engaged to marry some girl
who hates me for my "attachment" to her
fiance, and apparently hates her fiance
even more.

Me, I'm stuck this way. To find a cure
means going back to a dead Ranma. We're
closer than lovers, but more distant
than ever. I can never see his smile
again, never to hold him, nor feel his 
arms around me the way I've been aching
for since when I had thought we'd have
the time. 

We'd never even kissed.

I am Kuonji Ukyou, and I am in Hell.

Gods I miss him.
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just a little something that popped into my
head on a sleepless night. gomen nasai.

gregg sharp/metroanime@aol.com