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Ranma 1/2: What Cost Love?
By Jack Staik
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She walked through the park, trying not to show the tension.
The Memorial towered a good twenty meters above her, on the
location that was once Furinkan High School. The location
where the Peacemaker had made her proclamation ten years
earlier.
She chuckled at that thought. The Peacemaker. Even she
thought of her former spouse by that title. Few remembered
that the Peacemaker had another name once. Fewer still knew
that this woman and the Peacemaker had been man and wife.
Until the Curse of Jusenkyo had driven them apart. Before
the Art had transformed one of them forever.
She looked up at the great slab, with the immortal words of
the Proclamation inscribed on it;
"It is the duty of the strong to protect the weak,
and the powerful to wield power in the defense of right.
Therefore, it is my duty to protect as many as are in my
power.
"It lies in my power to protect all that live.
"From this day forward, I declare that the practice
of war is forbidden.
"The nations of the world are hereby commanded to
surrender their arsenals to me for immediate destruction.
All means of mass warfare, and the means of producing them,
are to be destroyed immediately.
"Those nations that fail to obey will feel my wrath."
Several nations did feel that wrath. Nearly twenty million
died before the governments of the world surrendered and
disarmed themselves. For ten years, no weapon more powerful
than a shotgun or pipe bomb had existed on Earth.
She remembered their childhood in this district of Nerima.
They had had fantastic adventures, and she had been strong.
But after their marriage had fallen victim to Jusenkyo, her
ex-lover had re-dedicated herself to the Art that had been
her first love, and attained levels of power and mastery
unheard of save in myth and legend.
She hopped to the top of the Memorial and waited.
In the skies over Tokyo, the sound of a sonic boom tore the
air.
Since supersonic aircraft were, by the declaration of the
Peacemaker, weapons of war, and Tokyo lacked a spaceport,
it could only be one thing;
The Peacemaker approached.
All knew the tales, watched the news. A generation grew up
learning of the molten ruins that were once proud Beijing,
mighty Moscow, and ancient Baghdad ... and Who had made
them thus, and why.
Priests prayed in their temples. People knelt in the
streets and prayed to whatever gods they believed in.
Some prayed to the Peacemaker, for there were those who
said that She was a goddess.
(Of course, anytime anyone tried to make a temple or church
to Her, it was leveled the next day by Her hand. But still
they prayed.)
Atop the Memorial of the Proclamation, a woman sat. With
her finely honed senses, she felt a slight change in air
pressure.
"Hello," she said.
The figure who stood behind her said nothing.
She turned and gazed at face of her one-time lover and
spouse.
"Still wearing that stupid pigtail, I see."
She touched it self-consciously. "I've grown used to it."
The woman pulled her gaze from the Peacemaker. "You know
what today is?"
The Peacemaker shook her head. "I ... lose track of days."
"Today would have been our twentieth wedding anniversary."
The Peacemaker sat down besides her, but a short distance
away. They were together, but not touching.
"Twenty years?" the peacemaker said in disbelief. "Has it
been so long?"
"Another lifetime ago," the woman agreed.
"When we were young, and life was full of promise." The
Peacemaker sighed. "And we were two different genders."
"Damnit! It didn't matter to me!" the woman cried. "Why did
it matter to you?!"
"It didn't."
The woman looked at her in shock. "Then ... why?"
"Because it did matter to you," the Peacemaker answered. "I
could tell. The way you refused to talk to me. The way you
pulled away. When the Curse became permanent ... you went
away. Even though you were right there, you went away."
The woman hung her head. She'd dealt with this in therapy,
but it was so hard to remember that, with *her* so close
that she could smell her. "I was ... ashamed. I kept
telling myself that the outside didn't matter ... but it
did, didn't it?" She took a deep, shuddering breath. "And
when I finally was ready to reach out ... "
"I was gone."
"And I don't hear about you for another ten years. When you
tell the world to beat their swords into plowshares. And
beat them into doing it."
The Peacemaker nodded. "When I left, all I had was pain ...
and the Art always helped me deal with pain. So I threw
myself into it. Cologne, Happosai, even Herb and Saffron. I
even journeyed to the Kami Plane and learned from Hachiman-
sama Himself. And then I pushed the Art further."
The Peacemaker got up and paced nervously. "One day, I
realized that I had gone so far, no one was a challenge. I
had all this power, I had to do something with it. And my
Mission was the only thing I could do."
"Is it so important, then?" the woman asked. "More
important than ... than love?" She put her hand on the
Peacemaker's red Chinese shirt. "We can try again. We've
both grown. We can make it work."
The Peacemaker sighed. "You don't understand."
"Then explain," she replied. "I'm listening."
The Peacemaker was surprised at the earnest tone of her ex-
spouse's voice. She tried to think of a way to explain.
"Do you know how many people I've killed?"
The woman nodded. "About twenty million."
The Peacemaker nodded in agreement. "Twenty-three million,
one hundred eighty-four thousand, six hundred thirty-two.
And I remember every face." She sat back down. "In order to
do what I had to do, I had to ... let go of part of
myself." She looked from the woman's face. "I'm ... not
worthy of your love. I'm ... a monster."
"No," the woman insisted. "You're still the person I
married." She reached out, embracing her. "We were happy
once, we can be again."
The Peacemaker pulled away. "And have you considered what
would happen if we tried? We'd never be left in peace! The
crap we went through when we were kids with challengers and
fianc�es would be amplified a million-fold! Half the people
on this planet want me dead, and the rest think I'm a god!
Not to mention the ones who think both!" She snarled. "Damn
Kuno. And his damn cultists!"
The woman nodded in agreement. "You could just disappear."
The Peacemaker laughed, a melancholy sound. "Are you nuts?
Do you have any idea what would happen?"
"What could happen?" the woman asked. "The governments
don't have any weapons or factories -"
"Just last month, I had to wipe out a Canadian cavalry
force," the Peacemaker said. "And I'm wrecking hidden
factories and arsenals on a regular basis. Not to mention
labs, refineries, reactors, and all sorts of things." She
sighed. "It seems that the only thing that really stops war
is everyone's fear of it. With me gone, I figure Earth
would be in the middle of a World War in about two weeks."
The woman gasped. "Is it really that bad?"
"Worse."
The woman looked away. "Come back. Let them kill each
other."
"You don't mean that."
She shook her head. "I don't know."
They just sat silently for several minutes.
"Do you want to come back?" the woman asked.
"Yes," the Peacemaker answered, without hesitation. "Would
you let me come back, even knowing the cost?"
"Yes," the woman answered, also without hesitation. "But
you won't."
The Peacemaker nodded.
"Could you ... train me? We could be together..."
"To attain these levels, I had to immerse myself in the
Art. I gave up everything. Love, happiness, most of my
humanity ... I love you too much. I won't do that to you."
"You ... still love me?" the woman asked.
"Yes. Do you still love me?"
"Yes."
The two women sat in silence for several hours.
"What will happen ... after you're gone?" the woman asked
the Peacemaker.
"The Age of Peace will end as it began - in blood."
"How long will you live?"
The Peacemaker shrugged. "Happosai and Cologne lived three
and a half centuries, kept alive by their ki-mastery and
obsessions. My ki-mastery has passed theirs, and my
obsession is as strong ... a millennium, perhaps two."
"Have you considered having children?"
"Not without you."
The woman brushed away a tear.
"The medical sciences are really advanced now," she told
the Peacemaker. "They can combine two ova and create a
girl-child. We could have a daughter."
"To be my heir?" the Peacemaker said, her voice deep and
bitter. "No, I won't do that - not to that child, not to
anyone. Let my legacy die with me, and let my enemies
scream when I have no heirs for them to vent their rage
on."
"So - that's it."
The Peacemaker nodded.
The woman looked at her hopefully. "Will you - visit me
again?"
"Call me the same way, and I'll come."
The woman chuckled. "If I can. Ryoga's always hard to get a
hold of."
The Peacemaker smiled. "You two always got along. He'd make
you a good husband."
The woman shook her head. "It'd never work. Too much past.
None of us ever got over the P-Chan bit."
"I did."
The woman looked away in pain.
The Peacemaker grimaced. "Sorry."
As the Peacemaker got up to leave, a gentle hand touched
her shoulder.
She looked at her former spouse's face, and saw the
question in the eyes...
A gentle, lingering kiss...
The woman's eyes were closed when her lover left.
She opened her eyes and scanned the heavens. Some clouds
were blown apart and a sonic boom sounded in the distance,
the only trace of the Peacemaker's passage.
"Damn you," she whispered. "And damn me for still loving
you."
She hopped to the ground and headed home. "Take care of
yourself, Akane-chan," she whispered to the dark. "I'll
always be here if you need me."
Ranma touched her short hair. "Pigtail looked better on
me."