This story was inspired by nothing more than a simple picture of Ukyo.  
If anyone wants a peek at the pic, just ask me.  It is in JPG format. 

  
Ranma 1/2 = (C) of Shogakukan  
  
"Saishu no Wakare"  
- by WebDragon  
  
Comments are welcome, of course. 
----------------------  
  
                            SAISHU NO WAKARE   
                                 (Final Farewell)   
    
     Ranma awoke in a cold sweat in his bed, the morning light
blinding him temporarily as he opened his eyes and beheld the dawn
of a new day.  <D-damn.  It was just a dream>, he thought to
himself.  He sat up and clutched his forehead in one clammy hand,
the other resting on the blanket.  <It...it had been so real>. 
Beside him, Akane stirred and reached a hand out, questing for him. 
Ranma smiled and put his hand on hers.  Her fingers latched onto
his with an intense fervour and she drew him close to her.   
   
     He responded and brought his face down to hers.  And he
kissed her lightly, a soft brush of his lips that belied the intensity of
emotion he was feeling at the moment.  Love first and foremost,
mixed with a considerable amount of....relief.  His eyes began to
tear up but he blinked the tears away.  <Don't think about it>, he
told himself.  

     But it was hard not to.  It seemed like it had only happened
yesterday, instead of six weeks ago. The vividness of that moment
still hadn't diminished in the slightest.  An involuntary tear rolled
down his face and he quickly wiped it away.   
   
     Then he lay down and enfolded Akane in his arms.  A firm,
yet gentle grip he gave her, a brush of skin on skin, while the cool
breeze blew in from the window, laden with the chirps of morning
birds.  This was what he needed to get a grip on himself.  Akane
snorted and instinctively snuggled closer to him, her face on his
chest.  Ranma rested his chin on Akane's head and laid there,
thinking of his dream.....   
                                   * * *   
     Ukyo was walking beside him on a road next to a field full of
wildflowers.  They were both grown up and she was dressed as
Ranma had last remembered her.  She had black tights on and she
wore her favorite okonomiyaki shirt - the one that reached halfway
down her thighs and was tied up at her waist.  Her hair, cascading
down her back, bore a white ribbon in it.  The only things she were
missing were her bandolier and her giant spatula.   
   
     He remembered her hugging him.  It was a gentle hug, nothing
at all like the fierce embraces he usually received - right before
Akane malleted him, that is.  It was an embrace full of unspoken
meanings and emotion, and he had returned it without reservation.
   
     It was out of love that he had hugged her back, but it was not
the kind of love he reserved for Akane.  It was deep friendship,
nothing more, and the both of them had known it.  Then they had
broken the hug and Ranma continued walking with Ukyo up the
road.   
   
     They were the only ones in this semi-surreal world of
humming insects that played in a score that included bird song and
the rustle of the wind in the tall summer grasses.    It was like a
symphony of life, Ranma mused.  A cloudless sky with a mantle of
blue covering the whole of the earth, and a sun lending life to
everything under its gaze, provided for a background scenery as the
insects, the birds, and the wind sang their song.     

     It had felt like old times again; Him and her, walking through
a world free of worry.  No decisions to be made, no real life
matters pressuring him to act.  It had been....complete freedom.
   
     Then he had taken a step forward and noticed that Ukyo was
no longer beside him.  He had looked back and he had seen Ukyo
standing in the field.  How had she gotten there?  He had turned
back and walked back to her...or tried to, but he kept moving up
the road.  Everytime he tried to move towards Ukyo he advanced
the same distance away.  "Ucchan!!!  Come back!!", he had yelled
as he stretched his hand out to her.     
   
     Ukyo had just given him a smile, full of longing and love, and
unspoken words.  Then she had waved goodbye and she began to
walk off through the meadow, the tall grasses swaying back and
forth as she made her way through them.  Ranma cried out again
and tried to reach her, but she kept progressing further and further
until Ukyo was a small figure in the distance.  She turned about
then and waved again.  Then the shade of a tree's branches hid her
from view and.....   
                                                                            
                                 * * *     
     That was when he woke up.  <Ukyo....>   
   
     He looked down guiltily at his wife and stroked her hair.  She
just kept on snoring away into his chest.  <That's the Akane I
know>, he thought wryly to himself.  Releasing Akane, Ranma sat
up and went to the washroom.   
   
     He looked at himself in the mirror and grimaced.  God, he
looked like hell.  He touched the bristle growing on his chin and
over his upper lip.  And to think that just five years ago, when he
was sixteen, he had worried about NOT growing a beard.  It came
with growing up, he supposed.  He reached for the razor, to make
himself presentable, but he paused.  <I wonder....>  He turned on
the cold water tap and lowered his face to the stream.  Then he
splashed a handful of water on his face.   
   
     Instantly the curse took effect and he shrank in size and
became a woman.  Then she looked up into the mirror, turning off
the cold water tap as she did.  The bristle was gone.        

     Yes!  A revolutionary turn of events for men everywhere who
didn't like to shave!!  Just dunk yourself in Jusenkyo's very own
nyannichuan and you will never have to shave again!!      

     <Hah.>  Ranma-chan stood back from the basin and
examined herself.  Her female body had aged at the same rate as
her male body did.  Where a cute girl would have been standing
five years ago, a thoroughly beautiful and sexy *woman* now posed
before the mirror,  her red pigtail hanging seductively over her
shoulder and brushing a straining breast under a sheer, sleeveless
shirt....Ranma-chan shuddered at that thought.  She could never
think of herself as a woman.  Never, never, never.     
   
     "Morning, Ranma."   
   
     Ranma-chan jumped and turned about.  Akane stood there in
her nightgown, grinning at her.  Then she brushed past Ranma-chan
and she went to the basin, to brush her teeth.   
   
     "M-morning, Akane."  Ranma-chan flushed a deep red. 
Caught posing in front of the mirror *again*!!  Really, this curse
was causing her more trouble day by day.  Swallowing her
embarrassment, she butted in beside Akane and began to brush her
teeth as well.   
   
     Her thoughts returning to her dream, Ranma-chan couldn't
help but think about Ukyo.  Akane was saying something but she
didn't hear a word of it.  Right now, all her senses were directed
inwards to try and remember how Ukyo had sounded like, yet, try
as she might, she couldn't recall anything at all.  Not until she
silently mouthed `Ran-chan' to herself.  Those words had flowed
from Ukyo's lips countless of times in greeting, or in jest.  In
sorrow or in anger.  But no matter the reason, `Ran-chan' had been
said with love at its essence.     
   
     Unrequited love now that is.  Forever....and....and ever.  A
hot tear drop fell from her face and hit Akane's hand, which was
just reaching for the hot water tap.  Akane paused, and then she
turned to Ranma-chan.   
   
     "Ranma....what's wrong?", she asked with concern.   
   
     "Nothing.  Nothing at all, Akane."   
   
     Akane brought her hand up to her lips, and tasted the wet spot
on her hand with the tip of her tongue.  Ranma-chan wrenched the
hot water tap on and splashed her face with it.  His tears mixed with
the comforting warmth of the stream of water and he wept silently. 
Then he felt a hand lift him up from the basin by the chest. 
Akane's hand.   
   
     "Ranma....I'm sorry.  I should have known."   
   
     "Don't be, Akane.  It's just that....that I still remember it so
clearly."  Ranma turned the tap off and turned away from Akane,
so that she couldn't see his tears.   
   
     "We've already said...our goodbyes, Ranma.  Please, let her
go.  I weep for her too, Ranma, but...but we can't change what had
happened in the past."     
   
     "It may be in the past...but it's still there.  Ucchan...."   
   
     And Ranma's memories fell back six weeks.  To that day of
sorrow......   
                                  * * *   
     It was a morning under grey clouds when they had assembled
at the place.  Ranma, Akane, all the Tendos and Saotomes. 
Shampoo, Mousse and Cologne.  Ryoga and Akari.  Even
Happosai.  All wore clothing of purest white as they assembled
around a grave.  Ukyo Kuonji's final resting place.   
   
     An illness of some sort, the doctors couldn't identify it, had
struck Ukyo two weeks before.  It had progressed with a fury that
stole the spark of life from Ukyo and rendered her bedridden. 
Ranma could still remember the moment she had passed away.     
   
     She had opened her eyes, while lying in her bed, and she had
whispered two words in a voice so soft only Ranma could hear.   
He remembered leaning with his ear close to her lips as everyone
else in the room strove, in vain, to hear what Ukyo was saying.   
   
     "Wakare, Ranchan", had come her voice in a trembling
whisper meant for his ears only.        

     Farewell, Ranchan.  Then she had squeezed his hand in one
last grip, full of unspoken love, and she had closed her eyes.  And
passed away into the realm of spirit, her going-away seeming to
leave a vacuum of feeling in Ranma, a void that he couldn't fill no
matter what he did.  She took something from him, something
which they had shared since childhood, and he knew that nothing
could ever replace what he had just lost.
   
     For one of the rare times in his life, he had wept.  Fiercely
and unashamedly.  No words had come.  Though he had tried to bid
her farewell, he couldn't.  Silence had greeted silence, except for
his sobs of anguish splitting the air apart with their intensity, his
fingers digging deep into the bedsheets and rustling cloth on cloth.
   
     The Ucchan had been closed down and Nabiki had taken care
of all the legal details.  Ranma had told her NOT to sell the
restaurant under any circumstances, and Nabiki had merely looked
him in the eye, and had said, "I wasn't planning to, Ranma."   
        
     Ranma's thoughts returned to the present when the priest read
out the final rites.  All assembled spoke the ritual words in
solemnness.  Then the casket was laid in the ground and one by one
people came forward, with their last words and parting gifts.  Ryoga
gave a bandanna, while Akari draped a silken handkerchief,
embroidered with little pigs, on the casket.   
   
     Cologne gave a beautifully wrought jade brooch, and Mousse
placed a kiridashi beside the brooch.     
        
     Shampoo came forward then.   
   
     "Zaijian....wo de pengyou."  She placed a bonbori reverently
on the side of the casket and stepped back, tears already welling up
in her eyes.  No doubt, for all her talk of `killing' and `slaying',
Shampoo's first encounter with death had sobered up her view of
the world.  With no one else to hold, Ranma being on the other side
of the grave, Shampoo laid a hand on Mousse's and squeezed. 
Mousse hardly noticed at all, for once seeing without his glasses.  
        
     The adults of the gathering gave flowers.  Nabiki took a piece
of paper, with writing on it, out of her pocket and tore it in two. 
These she laid on the casket, putting Cologne's brooch over the
pieces to keep them from flying away.  Ranma caught the words
`Loan' on one piece of paper before Nabiki strategically placed
Mousse's kiridashi over the words.     
   
     Akane produced the framed picture of the group shot that was
taken on Toma's island.  This she put, with great care, inside the
grave and on the casket.   
        
     Ranma came forward last of all, right after Akane.  He laid a
hand on the wood.   
   
     "Ukyo.  You've been....my best friend.  I'm no good at this
sort of thing, as you already know, so I'll....I'll make it short. 
Farewell, Ucchan.  We'll always...."   
   
     Ranma choked and struggled to regain his composure.     
   
     "...We'll always....remember you.  Ucchan.  I'm sorry
I've...nothing to give you.  I'm sorry."   
   
     Akane laid a hand on his shoulder and spoke words of comfort. 
He put a trembling hand on Akane's.   
   
     "All I can give you is my farewell, Ucchan.  Please forgive
me."   
   
     And he turned away, so that he wouldn't have to see the first
spadeful of soil being put in.     
                                  * * *   
     Ranma left the bathroom, followed closely by Akane.  He sat
down heavily on the bed and sighed.  Six weeks had done nothing
at all.  His best childhood friend was gone and he had done little but
comfort her.  He....he wanted to have done more for Ukyo.  It was
not fair!        

     It was because of him that Ukyo had gone through all that she
did.  Hell, she had even opened a restaurant, so that she could
support herself, for she was living where Ranma did.  That had
showed alot of strength of character on her part; that, as well as
being coupled with a fierce, unabashed love for him and for life in
general.      

     Had there been a week that went by without him eating at least
one of her okonomiyaki?  Did he or didn't he help her through that
boom in her business, until she could hire more help?  Why, it had
only seemed like yesterday that he was just chatting with her about
life in general while gobbling down an okonomiyaki.....
        
     Even now Ranma thought he could just hop down to the
Ucchan and see her cooking the okonomiyaki with enthusiasm while
handling two different phone calls at once and serving customers
with zest.  It would be as if nothing had ever happened, nothing had
ever changed.  There she would be, envisioned Ranma, flipping an
okonomiyaki to a customer, then she would call out a greeting to a
regular, and then speak  on the phone to her friends.  Long brown
hair flying, eyes wide with excitement, the smell of cooking
permeating the atmosphere.  That was  the trademark of the Ucchan
- enthusiasm and a love for cooking and pleasing the customer.    

     And there he would be, with Akane at his side, waving to
Ukyo.  She would flip them two okonomiyaki and keep on working,
albeit with less emphasis on the cooking and more of her attention
directed to Ranma.  Maybe....just maybe...nothing had ever
changed.  Perhaps if he ran down there fast enough....she'd still
be....    
   
     One look at Akane's sober face destroyed that fantasy.  God,
he missed her.  <Wakare, Ranchan.....>, rang her words in his
mind over and over again.  She had said...goodbye.  After a
journey of a thousand miles, searching for him, trying to become his
wife but failing, she finally ended her too-short quest with an
uttered farewell to him.  Her best friend and fiance.  It felt, in some
way, his fault that Ukyo had passed away.     
   
     Ranma silently changed into his red shirt, which Kasumi had
modified to fit his bigger frame, and his black pants.  Then he left
the room.   
   
     "Where are you going, Ranma?", asked Akane.   
   
     "Out for a walk.  I'll be back later, Akane."   
   
     And he felt Akane's eyes follow him all the way down the
hallway and out of the house.     

     Ranma stepped out of the Tendo Dojo into the sunlight.  It was
a warm day and he basked in the heat of summer as he left the Dojo
boundaries and walked to the Ucchan, like he had done everyday for
the past week or so.  His feet traced familiar paths and he deftly
avoided the old woman with the ladle of water.  Down an alleyway
and over that house.  Past Furinkan High and turn that corner....  
  
     The Ucchan.  It looked the way it had always been, except the
windows were shut and the door was locked.  It had the feel of
Ukyo all about it.  Indeed, she had spent most of her time after
school running the business.  And when the day ended, she would
retire to her room upstairs.  In short, it had been her life.     
   
     Ranma walked up to the front door and paused.  He hadn't
entered since her passing away, but right now he needed to *feel*
Ukyo - and maybe reconcile himself to her.  Yes.  That's it.  He
produced a key and unlocked the front door, and stepped inside.  A
thin layer of dust covered everything, from the chairs to the tables
to the grill, and the seats by the counter.  Any moment now,
Ucchan would come running out of her room to see who it was...... 
        
     But she didn't come.  He imagined Ukyo behind the counter,
smiling at him even as she scraped the grill clean.  He walked over
to the seat by the counter, his favorite one, and sat down.  Then he
rested his elbows on the counter and stared sightlessly up into the
skylight, then down at the new wood floor, and finally into the
semi-darkness where shapes of dusty chairs and tables awaited the
use of customers'.  Except, there were not going to be anymore
customers, now.
     
     "Ucchan.  I'm...sorry for coming into your place without
asking your permission, but I feel as if I hadn't said my goodbyes
yet."        

     Ranma sighed.  "I know I said goodbye...at the service, but I
didn't even say anything like that when...you bid me farewell. 
`Wakare, Ranchan', you had said.  Well, I'd like to say goodbye in
the same way, but it's not the same.  It's not...the same without you
here to hear me.  It's not the same without you, period."   

     Ranma shifted around on his seat and faced the spot where
Ukyo would have stood if she...she was still alive.   
   
     "Do you remember our childhood together, Ucchan?  Of
course you do.  How could we forget the fun days we had?  And
the day you scraped your knee on that stone, I remember how
you...you shrieked when the iodine was put on the wound.  Then
we climbed that tree and couldn't get down until my dad pulled the
both of us from there.  And our daily fights.  Yes.  Did you really
enjoy them?  Even when I kept defeating you?"   
   
     Ranma didn't feel the least strange talking to the air.  To him,
the Ucchan would always answer - in his heart.  He knew what
Ukyo would have said. "Yes, Ranchan!" or "Those were the times,
right Ranchan?" had been her typical answers.   
   
     Ranma got up and went around the counter.  There.  A spot on
the floor worn bare by her constant pacing and moving about.  He
squatted down and rubbed it with his fingers, feeling the smoothness
of the wood in that spot.     
   
     A glint of metal caught his eye and he peered under the
counter.  Ukyo's big spatula and her bandolier.  The bandolier had
just one throwing spatula in its pockets.  He pulled the big spatula
and the bandolier out with trembling hands and stood up.  And he
placed them on the grill and looked down at Ukyo's weapons.
   
     Suddenly, seized by an urge he couldn't explain, Ranma went
upstairs to Ukyo's room and entered it.     
   
     Here.     
   
     This was where Ukyo had passed away.  Ranma felt tears
welling up again but he swallowed and pushed them away.  And he
walked about the room, feeling the presence of Ukyo all about him. 
The room was sparse, yet comforting in a fashion.  Strangely
enough, there were no posters or pictures of him anywhere in the
room, unlike Shampoo and Kodachi's rooms. 
   
     A little blue book caught his attention.  It was centered right
on her desk and it seemed to beckon to him.  Ranma picked it up
and opened it tentatively.  It...it was Ukyo's diary and in her
handwriting.  He shut it quickly.  Hesitation gripped him and he
stood holding the diary for a long moment, not knowing whether to
read it or put it down forever.  Finally, he slowly turned to the
bookmark in the diary and he began to read what had been written
there.     

--------------------   
June 29th, 1992   
--------------------   
     Dear diary, I hope to go on a date with Ranchan today, my
FIRST ONE, - that is, if my business allows me to.  I know the
regulars won't really mind....   
   
          I know of a place we both could go to!  I'll get the train tickets
for the both of us for a round trip back to my old town.  
I've always wanted to revisit that place, especially that meadow we 
used to play  in when we were kids.  Anyhow, better get back to
schoolwork or else my grades will suffer.....   
-------------------   
   
     Ranma flipped the page, but it was blank.  The next one was
blank too.  Then he caught sight of two pieces of paper
bookmarking a certain part of the diary and he flipped to that.   
   
-------------------   
July 5th, 1992   
-------------------   
     Dear diary, I finally got the train tickets for our date.  They're
the indefinite kind, the ones that aren't postdated, and I hope to
catch Ranchan for a visit back home TOMORROW.  Oh, I'm *so*
excited!!   
-------------------   
   
     Ranma pulled a train ticket out and looked at it for a long
moment.  It had bookmarked a part of the diary written three years
ago.  He ran a finger over the words in the diary, trying to imagine
Ukyo's excitement as she had written those words.  He could just
see her now with a smile on her face, her pen scratching furiously
on the soft paper of the diary.  Yet, something didn't sit quite right
with him.  There was something he was missing.  And what were
those circular ripples at various spots on the page, around the
words?  It looked like...water damage, or something similar.

     On a hunch, Ranma turned the page.  It was blank.  He flipped
the diary and skimmed through the rest of the pages.  They were
ALL blank.  The reason why slowly dawned upon him.

     Him and Akane had been married since July 6th, 1992.  And
today was July 5th, 1995.  Their anniversary was tomorrow.  And
Ukyo had meant to take him out on her first date on July 6th, which
had just happened to be the day Mr. Tendo and his dad had sprung
that surprise wedding - in order to avoid the fiasco that had
happened the first time around.  

     Ranma put the diary down and slowly let out his breath.  And
all this while....Ukyo had been acting so nice to the two of
them....so joyful and optimistic.

     Ranma suddenly wondered how Ukyo had been keeping her
tears within her.  He thought about the....strength and courage to
keep on smiling day to day to the customers.  Ranma thought about
the cheerful attitude she had always assumed whenever he and
Akane visited, despite her knowledge of their wedding three years
ago.  Akane had told her about it herself.  

     But what he and Akane didn't know was this secret grief she
had been hiding within herself.....this anguish over having her first
date disrupted in the worst possible way, this sorrow that she had
hidden.  Sure, she had cried when Akane told her about the
wedding, on July 15th just nine days after, but she had seemed to
have reconciled with them.  They had thought no more about it
since.
 
     All the missing feelings of frustration, anger, sadness and
betrayal, which Ukyo had never shown since the second wedding -
it all became apparent to Ranma now.  His image of Ukyo, full of
life and happiness, now changed to one where she was hunched over
her desk in absolute grief, her limp hair hiding her face from view. 

     He could just hear the hollow thumps now as Ukyo slammed
her fist over and over again on the shut diary.....

     Ranma suddenly put the ticket in his pocket and closed the
diary, carefully, and he held it close to him as if he were holding
Ukyo, not the diary.  The desk told him of endless nights spent
dreaming, hoping, fantasizing...and the diary confirmed what he
suspected.  It had been devoted solely to him, and no other.  No
wonder she had stopped writing after July 6th.  

     The diary went back to its original spot, the remaining ticket -
Ukyo's ticket - bookmarking a certain spot in the diary.

     He left the room, closing the door behind him, and he scooped
up Ukyo's big spatula and her bandolier.  Ranma left the Ucchan
and headed off with a purpose for the first time in six weeks.  He
was finally going to make peace with Ukyo.   
                                 - - - - -   
     Ranma stepped off the train and left the train station behind. 
The town where he had spent some of his life in had changed. 
Then again, it HAD been fifteen years, hadn't it?  Memory guided
his steps through the town and to the spot where the okonomiyaki
cart would have been if his father hadn't stolen it.  It too was no
longer the same.  Carts selling ramen and various other foodstuffs
now occupied the streetside, but no one was selling okonomiyaki. 
<Fitting...>, Ranma supposed.  He walked down the street and
weaved in between people and made his way out of the town.   

     He reached the beginnings of the meadow via a winding road.
Strangely, it was still untouched by real estate developers.  And he
took his first tentative step into its greenery since his abrupt
departure fifteen years ago.  The sights and sounds of the field of
life enfolded him and seemed to welcome him back.  Ranma
followed a well-trod path - to the big rock that sat like some
brooding giant in the middle of the field.    
   
     A mountain, it had seemed to him when he was young, and a
mountain it still seemed.  It hadn't changed a bit, this immutable
rock that he and Ucchan had, and maybe would have, scaled to look
down over their domain.  With a leap, he soared in the air and
landed lightly on the rock.  Ranma laid the spatula and the bandolier
on the rock and he sat down.  Sunlight washed over him and
warmed his face as he turned to face the sun, eyes closed.  Then he
turned away and looked down at the rock.
   
     Here was the spot where he had usually sat, and there was
where Ucchan would have perched.  Ranma contemplated the spot
now, imagining Ukyo sitting there, her long hair hiding her back as
she faced away from him, long legs curled up beneath her.  He
imagined her turning about and pointing out some wonder of nature
they hadn't seen yet, an excited smile on her face.        

     Then they would have sprung off the rock and run, to try and
catch the dragonfly or to watch the dandelion puffs spin in the wind,
one by one spiralling into the heavens.  Perhaps he would catch her
and initiate a wrestling match.  Or, maybe she would race him back
to the rock.   

     Or, maybe she would unwrap her lunch and share a slice of
okonomiyaki with him.  He would always slink about her, like a
predator, and try to take pieces of okonomiyaki from her without
her knowing.  It had become a game of sorts with the both of them,
Ranma trying to sneak a piece, Ukyo trying to eat it up as fast as
she could.   
   
     Ranma patted the spatula and felt a pang in his heart.  This
was the spatula she had always worn.  Day in, day out, it was slung
on her back.  It had never left her side, except under extreme
circumstances.  And this bandolier, it had always graced her front
and added a feeling of the martial spirit to her feminine curves, for
it would usually be filled with throwing spatulas.  Now, there was
only one left.  He could almost imagine her wearing them now. 
Almost.   
   
     All they were missing....was Ucchan herself.  <Why did you
have to go?> he asked silently.  <Why?>     
   
     "Ucchan......" he whispered, his eyes watering up, his hands
clutching uselessly at the air, the warm air of the meadow, in a
useless gesture of trying to catch - or bring back - something...or
someone.  
        
     "Ranma."   
   
     Ranma started and looked around in great surprise.  Ukyo?! 
Where is she?  She...she isn't gone after all!   
   
     Something poked his leg from below and he looked down.  It
was....Akane.   
   
     "Akane!?  H-how did...did you get here?"   
   
     "I followed you.  I simply took the same train as you did." 
She looked up into his eyes, matching him gaze for gaze.  He wiped
his eyes.
   
     "Akane, you didn't go into Ukyo's room.....did you?" he
asked her after a moment.
   
     "Do I look insensitive to you, Ranma?  Of course I didn't."  
   
     Ranma sighed and swung down from the rock, grabbing the
spatula and the bandolier as he did.   
   
     "Look, Akane.  I can explain this....."   
   
     Akane threw herself into a hug with Ranma, holding him tight. 
No words broke the sounds of nature for a long time, then Ranma
hugged her back.  Then she spoke.   
   
     "Ranma....this is eating you up from the inside.  I know you
didn't have the opportunity to say goodbye to Ukyo.  God knows
that I know, seeing you mope for six weeks straight.  But is this
what Ukyo would have wanted you to do?  I...I know she really
loved you, Ranma.  I can even forgive her attempts to bomb me at
our first failed wedding - she had seen you slipping away from her
fingers.  She had known you first before I did, or Shampoo, or even
Kodachi.  It just didn't seem fair, to her."     

     Ranma considered telling her about Ukyo's diary....and what
she had written there, but he stopped himself.  No sense spreading
more grief to Akane as well.

     Akane took a deep breath.  "So, that's it.  People don't see
how I could forgive her at all, but I can.  Four years take alot out
of a person's spite for another, and I didn't have the energy to waste
in a vendetta against Ukyo."  Akane looked up into Ranma's face. 
"Anyhow, enough about me.  I've said my goodbyes, Ranma, to
her.  Can you do the same?  Ukyo wouldn't want you going through
your days like this."     

     He looked at his wife, and he felt love, so much love for her
that he almost cried again.  Akane knew what he was going
through.  Akane loved him, very much.  

     She understood.  

     Ranma took Akane's hand in response and led her through the
meadow, both of them not saying a word.  Ranma stopped at a
certain tree and he bent down, and he saw the faintest scratchings
of hiragana.  His name, written in hiragana, was above Ukyo's
name, also etched in hiragana.  His eyes made out other writing,
mostly declarations of friendship, that progressed from a child's eye
level in a spiral that worked its way down the tree trunk.  He and
Akane bent  low and circled the tree, to read the writing.  Ranma's
words abruptly stopped but Ukyo's continued onwards.  "I hope he
comes back"...."Where is he?  Ranchan?"....all the way down the
tree to its base, where the last words were "I'll find him wherever
he is."   
   
     Ranma sat down on the ground heavily.  He was going to have
to give Pop a really severe beating in practice today, or tomorrow. 
Akane sat down beside him, and Ranma leaned back on the tree. 
A leaf fell as the wind swept the branches and it landed just ahead
of Ranma's feet.  The two of them didn't speak for a long while,
then Ranma broke the silence.   
   
     "We always came to this tree, Ukyo and I.  And with one of
her father's spatulas, we would carve stuff into the trunk every once
in a while, when we felt like it.  This tree, and the rock, were
like....I dunno, pathways or something to the magic world of this
meadow.  This was *our* place, we had told ourselves.  We would
never grow up to become adults....as long as we remained in here
because we would never age, nor change....nor die."  
  
     Ranma sighed and crossed his hands over his knees.    
  
     "Well, that was what we had thought.  Maybe....maybe it was
true.  Maybe this meadow is a magical place.  But who knows now?
Especially....especially now."   
   
     Ranma looked over at Akane.  She motioned for Ranma to
continue, watching the leaves fall from the tree.   
   
     "Anyways, it was where we came to hide from what our
fathers had demanded that we do.  And we had played many things,
back then.  You know....the safari hunter or aeroplanes in a
dogfight....you name it, we played it.  All except `House'.  We
never thought about fiancees, or fiances, or stuff like that, y'know? 
Not back then."   
   
     Akane didn't reply and Ranma fell silent.  The long minutes
passed lazily and the song of the meadow sang them into a drowsy
state.  Akane leaned over to Ranma and held his arm.  Then the
both of them heard laughter, high pitched and tinkling.  They
opened their eyes and looked at the big rock, where it was coming
from.       

     Two children, both about six or seven in age, were scaling the
rock.  One child, wearing a red shirt, crouched on the top of the
rock and looked up into the sky, his mouth wide with wonder.  The
second child, obviously a girl by the way she was dressed,
clambered up beside him and stared at the sky as well.  The boy
pointed out a cloud shape and the girl squealed with amusement. 
They took turns pointing out clouds, and dragonflies, and anything
in the sky that  caught their fancy.   
   
     "Look...an ae-ro-plane!!  Zoom!!  Zoom!!"   
   
     "It's...making clouds!!  Look!  Wow...."   
   
     Ranma stood up and brought Akane up with him.  Then he
took the small spatula out  of its pocket he put the bandolier on a
low hanging branch.  He gave it, and the tree, one final pat of
farewell, and he lead Akane to the big rock.  The two children sat
up and waved to the two of them.  Akane waved back and then the
children of two generations met face to face.   
   
     "Hi!!  I'm Suroichi!  What's yours?", squeaked the boy.   
   
     "And I'm Haruko!", added the girl.   
   
     Ranma smiled.  The inheritors of the meadow had come to
claim their place at last, in the form of Suroichi and Haruko. 
Ranma reverently laid the spatula beneath the big rock and took a
step back.  The two children regarded the shiny item inquisitively. 
   
     "Suroichi....Haruko?  Please don't take the spatula away,
alright?  Whatever you do, just leave it where it is", said Ranma to
the two children.  They nodded and took turns touching it, but they
respected Ranma's wishes and didn't move it from its final resting
spot.  Perhaps they felt the power, and the significance, of it.  Then
Ranma bent down and, with the throwing spatula, he began to
inscribe words on the big rock's side, with painstaking care.  The
two children and Akane watched him in curious silence.  He
finished and he laid his makeshift pencil next to the big spatula.  He
stood up and turned about, as if composing himself.   
 
     "Ranma....?", inquired Akane.  Ranma smiled reassuring at
her and turned to face the rock, and the tree further off, where the
bandolier swung in the wind.  Akane scooped the two children up
and put them down from the rock.  This was going to be an
important moment for Ranma.  

     After a while, Ranma opened his eyes.  And looked up.
   
     "Ucchan....I'll never forget you.  I had never said goodbye but
this is where it had all started, so I thought it would be fitting to
make peace with you here."  

     He paused to allow the lump in his throat to settle.  

     "You had bid me farewell just before you....left.  I'll say
goodbye, in my own words and my own way, in this meadow where
everything had begun....so long ago."  

     <And I'm sorry about the date....Ucchan.  But I'm here now. 
I'm back.  You had found me....and now I've found you.> he said
in his mind.

     Ranma heard the wind rustle the tall summer grasses and the
leaves of the trees in response to his words.....and his thoughts.  He
took a deep breath and put his hand on the big spatula for the last
time.
     
     "Wakare, Ucchan.  I'll...I'll really miss you."   
   
     With that, Ranma took Akane's hand and led her from the field
of memories, following the well-trod path, and back to the road that
led to the town, and to the real world.  They left the meadow
behind them, along with the wonders of childhood past; the realm
of dreams, unchanging, immortal.
   
     On the way back, inside a booth of the train, Akane turned to
Ranma.   
   
     "What did you write on the rock, Ranma?"   
   
     Ranma smiled and stroked her face with his fingers.  The train
hooted a last farewell to the town where he had grown up in...the
town to which he would never return.  For he had made his peace. 
   
     " `Saishu no wakare, Ucchan' ", he said as he dipped his head
close to kiss her.   
---------------------------   
 
      Comments?   Boy, am I glad to get this sadfic off my chest.  
     -WebDragon (kmark@odyssey.on.ca)