Gomen nessai.  This time I saved it as a dos txt file.  It should work.

p.s. everything that is contained within is copyrighted to someone else.
Don't sue!

"I love you Akane."  Four simple words, but said with sincerity.  Why had he denied her those words?  For that matter why had he denied them to himself?  He had always loved her.  Sure she had her rough spots, she had a hair trigger temper, was always hitting him and was so jealous it hurt, yet through all that he still loved her.  But now she would never hear those words...because Akane Tendo was dead.  She was dead and he could find no-one else to blame but himself.  It happened five years ago today, June 3rd.  

As she had done so many times before Akane ran off on another of her fool errands.  She just up and left, leaving only a note saying that she would be home shortly and for the family to not worry.  As always Soun and Genma had shoed him out the door to find her.  "It is your duty as her fiancee." they had said.  So off he went, grumbling all the way along about how she was so stupid and look at all the trouble she was making him go through.  When he finally caught up to her Akane was very angry at being followed, but saw that there was nothing she could do.  She explained that a village had called the dojo asking for help.  There was a creature that was causing havoc in their town.  He had laughed at her, laughed at her story.  Later when they came face to face with the monster Ranma was no longer laughing.  It had been a huge thing.  They confronted it and the battle had been long and hard.  Both Ranma and Akane were badly hurt, still they continued on unabated.  Finally Akan!
e ma
de the mistake of getting too close to the creature.  It grabbed her and tossed her into a nearby pond.  Ranma dove in after her.  She knew Akane could not swim and that she had to save her.  Just as she reached Akane and was about to grab her hand she was pulled away by the creature.  Ranma fought desperately to free herself from the monsters grip the whole time Akane calling her name begging her to help.  It was then that Akane sank below the surface.  For the first time in her life Ranma felt true fear.  She mustered up enough strength and broke free of the monsters grip and dove underwater after Akane.  Again just as she was about to grab Akane's hand she was grabbed from behind by the creature.  And she was held there, mere inches from being able to grab her fiancee's hand.  Whenever one of them would lunge for the other the creature would pull her back just far enough that neither could not grab hold.  Ranma could feel her lungs burning for air and knew that Akane must n!
eed air even more.  She was panicking now, she could not reach Akane nor could she break free of the creature.  Akane must have seen this fear in Ranma's eyes because hers softened.  Ranma saw a look of forgiveness and understanding appear on Akane's face and knew this was the end.  Just then Akane succumbed to the maddening urge to breath, exhaling all the air that remained in her lungs and taking in a lungfull of water.  It was then that the light went out of her eyes for the last time.  Akane became still and began to sink.  
Ranma screamed.  Had they been on dry land the scream would have been so intense that it could have toppled mountains.  She fought the monsters grip even harder now.  The creature effortlessly dragged her to the surface and threw her onto dry land.  Then, it laughed.  A long mocking laugh.  Mocking the sorrow she now felt.  And then it was gone.  Without thinking she dove into the water again.  There was still a chance, wasn't there?  People had been revived after being under water for some time hadn't they?  It took her a while but she finally found Akane's body and brought it to the surface.  Ranma did everything in her power to revive Akane.  After some time she gave up hope.  Akane was dead.  The mere acceptance of this drove her into hysterics, and before she was through she had laid waste to everything around her.  The last action that she performed before beginning her return trip was to boil water so that she could change back to a boy. 

The trip back to the Tendo dojo was the most difficult he had ever taken.  He carried Akane's body with him the whole way stopping neither to rest nor eat.  When he arrived back at the dojo he went straight to the backyard.  He stopped before the patio holding tightly onto Akane's still form.  The family saw the look in his eyes and they knew.  Kasumi dropped the plate that she had been holding, Nabiki and Genma stared slack jawed and Soun cried.  At that Ranma fell to his knees and began to sob.  He began mumbling that it was all his fault and that he had dishonored the family, he should have saved her, he loved her.  He pounded his fists on the ground and cried.  At that moment a familiar figure came out into the yard "Kasumi, did someone drop a plate?" it was Ryouga.  He walked onto the patio and suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.  He saw the collective looks of sorrow on the faces of the inhabitants of the dojo.  Then he saw Akane.  His heart shattered.  The next person !
he saw was Ranma.  The rage that grew in him was unparalleled and he launched himself at his f
riend/foe.  He was surprised when Ranma made no move to defend himself but did not think on it long.  If Ranma wasn't going to fight back all the better.  "Ranma, I'm going to kill you!!!"  In all the times he had said it before he had never really meant it, but now was different, now Ranma deserved to die.  He unleashed a fury of attacks on Ranma that left him bruised and battered.  On several occasions one could hear Ranma's bones breaking.  Every time Ranma was knocked down he would simply get back up to take more of a beating.  Finally when Ranma was unable to stand Ryouga prepared to strike the killing blow.  "Ranma," he said in a menacing tone, "now at the end of your life there is one thing I would like to know.  Why won't you fight back?  Why won't you fight for your life?"  "I don't deserve to live."  he said it in such a resigned tone one would think he was asking Ryouga to finish the job.  He began to cry.  Ryouga was shocked.  "I failed Akane, I couldn't save her. !
 It'
s my fault that she's dead.  I should be dead not her.  Ryouga...I loved her.  Ryouga...please finish the job."  Ryouga fell back, a look of pure shock on his face.  He was actually begging Ryouga to kill him.  Ryouga faltered, his hatred leaked away to be replaced with the most heartfelt pity.  It was then that he knew.  Knew that Ranma had done all that he could.  At this realization he lept from the yard and ran off, unable to face Ranma any longer.  Unable to face what he had almost done.  The next few days had gone by slowly and painfully.  Ranma had been admitted to Dr. Tofu's clinic and was recovering from his wounds.

Ja ne!!

Ran-chan

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Lucas "RANCHAN" Muzzatti
Science student at U of T     LONG LIVE RYOGA HIBIKI!!!
ranchan@mail.accent.net
                 
                 Member of the Church of Ryoga:
   Protector of Akane while Ryouga's Lost and Ranma's not Around

     "If you killed me right now I'd die a happy man." Ryouga Hibiki
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