The Truth is Beheld by All
By RVincent
All characters portrayed in this fanfic are used without permission and are the property of their respective copyright holders. They are used by fans for fans with no intention of making any money, please for the love of god don’t sue me! Thank you, now on with the fic.
* = Thinking but its not used in all instances
“” = Spoken words
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Ranma was in the bathroom preparing for a bath in the furo, of course the reason for this particular bath was that he was a girl again thanks to a wakeup call from Akane. He could have just changed back with a kettle but it wouldn’t have been as relaxing and for some reason the water from a kettle always seemed a little to hot for her. Ranma had just finished rinsing off with cold water before jumping into the hot bath when suddenly a huge panda pushed her out of the way and sat in the furo himself effectively keeping Ranma out of the furo.
"What did you do that for old man!" yelled a naked Ranma. To which Genma replied "Your not the only one around here that uses this bathroom, why don’t you go talk to you fiancée Ranma.” Ranma who was thoroughly disgusted with that particular idea decided just to walk out of the room before things started to get violent, she turned on her heel and slid open the door into the changing room and started to put her clothes back on. As soon as she had finished getting dressed into her favorite Chinese outfit she decided to go downstairs and see if Kasumi had finished breakfast, she loved the fact that there was a constant supply of good food in the house, all those years of traveling on the road made her appreciate having food, and having someone as kind and as good a cook as Kasumi around was a god send.
Ranma, who was distracted in her own thoughts, barely register the door opening in the hallway right in front of her. On reflex she did a backflip when the door was only a centimeter from her nose and even closer to some of her other attributes. "Hey watch what your doing Aka.." the words died in Ranma's throat because in her path stood a fuming Akane. "You were listing to me through my door, Weren’t you! Admit it!" Yelled Akane in a voice Ranma knew all to well. "Um..Well..Uh..No..uh I was just uh.." words seemed to fail Ranma, he knew if he didn’t calculate what he said before he said it he would say something to make Akane even angrier which was the exact effect his broken speech was having on her right now. "I've had it with you!" Akane screamed at her "I never want to speak to you again!" with that Akane spun toward the stairs and left.
"Jeez, why does Akane always have to be so mean to me, she wouldn’t let me even explain myself" Ranma said with a hint of melancholy. She walked down the hallway the same way Akane did just minuets prior and she went straight to table in the dining area and noticed Akane was absent, he must have really made her angry, but the more Ranma thought about it the more aggravated she got, she didn’t do anything wrong, she was just walking down the hall and Akane just happened to open the door at the wrong time.
Kasumi, seeing Ranma's downcast look asked in an almost sad voice "Ranma are you alright you seem somewhat...sad" "It's OK Kasumi, Akane's just a little mad at me, but it wasn’t my fault, I just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.” “Oh that’s too bad Ranma" Kasumi said in sympathy, she had seen many of Ranma and Akane's fights and knew just what he was talking about, she could picture it in her minds eye. "You better hurry up or you'll be late for classes today Ranma" Kasumi said slightly more cheerfully. "I'm not going, I've been slacking off on my martial arts training and I decided that I'm just gonna stay home today, besides what do I need math and stuff for, a martial artist doesn’t need anything like that" said Ranma feeling proud of herself for defending her reasons like that. Kasumi simply smiled, sat down Ranma's breakfast and walked into the kitchen to finish cleaning the dishes from everybody else’s breakfast’s.
Ranma was now alone, that in itself was strange, but he was also thinking about some very pressing issues. Things that he usually avoided thinking about because he wasn’t up to it. Mainly about his fiancée problems, the girls had been reminding him more and more of this issue, even Ukyo had been more aggressive in presuing Ranma's heart. Normally Ranma tried not to think about this kind of thing, it tended to make him depressed, not as depressed as Ryoga but depressed enough to be unsettled. She slowly ate barely paying any attention to her food letting her thoughts drift.
The first girl that came to her mind was Akane, she was cute when she smiled, and sometimes she could be really nice. However though she was violent, unreasonable, she cant cook, she's a lead weight in the water, and she never trusted him. For some reason though she found herself attracted to Akane, maybe because they were so much alike. Both Akane and herself liked martial arts, they were both stubborn and proud people and took pride in their accomplishments. Also there was that pact between the families and both the fathers pressuring them together, it was so confusing to Ranma. He wasn’t sure if he liked her because of his honor trying to get him to fulfil it or if he truly had feelings for her. She decided she liked Akane, at least a little and decided to let her thoughts drift to another girl.
The next girl that crossed her mind had long black hair tied at the back of her head. She wore a leotard and had a laugh that she could never forget. "Kodachi" the name came from her lips in a whisper. She physically shivered at the thought, Kodachi had poisoned her, tried to kill her, and didn’t seem to like her curse, she was also a borderline psychopath. No, Kodachi did not seem to hold any standing in the fiancée race, she didn’t even have a valid claim to her. Someday she would have to figure out a way of getting Kodachi off her case she could always pay Nabiki or something, she just hoped Kodachi would not flip out and start attacking them and stuff. Ranma's focus shifted yet again from the black haired girl in a leotard to a certain amazon.
Shampoo, when she first heard her name she almost fell over laughing, but she soon found out Shampoo was nothing to laugh at. When she first fought Shampoo at the amazon village she scoffed at her abilities as a martial artist. As Shampoo hunted her though she found out Shampoo played for keeps. However when Shampoo found out she was really a he Shampoo left for home. Even though Shampoo had been trying to kill her for months now he felt sorry for her and didn’t want to make her sad, he was even tempted to go after her. So when she came back he was glad but when she found out she was still supposed to marry her she became upset again. There were only two things that Ranma did not like about Shampoo one was the fact that she had hunted and tried to kill Ranma for months, that sort of put her on edge around her even though she would never admit it. Second was that she turned into a cat and cats really scared her, even though it let her understand Ranma's own curse she could not marry a girl that turned into a cat because of her phobia. Another factor in this was Cologne, she was tricky and devised lots of plans that she would use to try and capture Ranma. Ranma did respect Shampoo as a warrior now and treated her in such a way unless he wanted free ramen in which case he would just use a little bit of the Saotome charm on her. Inadvertently her thoughts started to drift again to one last girl, his best and oldest friend.
Ukyo, his best friend, one of his only real friends, and his oldest friend. She was kind, and treated him good, she wasn’t as stubborn as Akane and she listened to reason, but she didn’t really think about her as a fiancée' that often, she just thinks of her as a friend. "I know Ucchan loves me" she said to herself, she didn’t want to hurt her but it looked like she was going to have to, but he would do anything to protect her, out of all of her fiancée’s he like Ucchan the best but only as a friend, he considered Ucchan more family like then Genma. She just didn’t like Ucchan like a girl friend, only as family/friend. So it was decided she couldn’t marry Ucchan because he thought of her too much as family. He Refused to marry Kodachi because she is crazy, and he didn’t want shampoo because she turned into a cat and her family was tricky. She just hoped she didn’t hurt Ukyo too bad with this decision. She was his best friend after all he just hoped she could forgive and forget and keep being her friend. She knew Akane sort of kind of liked her too and she hoped that she would start liking her too.
She had just finished eating her breakfast when Kasumi walked back into the room for her plate. "Oh Ranma you seem happier" exclaimed Kasumi in her sing song voice, "Well I just worked some stuff out" said Ranma with a smile, "I think that I'll go and practice Kasumi see ya later" and with that Ranma left for the dojo.
"Ill start with some stretches" said Ranma as she stooped down in order to properly stretch her back, it was at this moment that one of the ceiling beams decided to give way. It fell from directly over Ranma and being in a unstable position it fell right on her back pinning her to the ground. "Ugh......owwwww" growned Ranma as she pushed herself to her feet despite the fact that she was pinned to the ground. She stood unsteadily on her feet, an angry red and black bruise forming along the small of her back. She felt like she would collapse at any minute so she decided to set down in the corner. Of course she had taken harder hits from Ryoga but all of those times she was either expecting it, or in a battle ready position where her chi could be focused to dampen blows. What could have caused the ceiling beam to fall like that anyway, she glared at the ceiling with a look that threatened violence, maybe the ceiling was getting revenge on her for all the holes......
After resting for a while Ranma decided that he wanted to get out of the house. Just walk around the town for a bit, sure everybody was in school except Shampoo and Mouse and Ryoga, come to think of it more people were out of school then in school. Oh well maybe he would be able to enjoy a peaceful walk around town anyway. Walking down the street she surveyed the damage that had been inflicted by her and her 'friends', walls had been patched, pot holes filled, and windows replaced, it looked like a new town since the last time she had really looked at it. The sun was shinning, the sky was blue, it really was a beautiful summer day.
She walked past the Ucchan and sure enough there was Ukyo right outside arguing with a delivery man.
"I said that I wanted ten orders of pickles, now go back and get the other five unless you want me to get angry!" screamed Ukyo at the delivery man, "I’m going I’m going, I’m going" he repeated over and over again until he was in his truck and out of sight. "I swear if they mess up my order one more time I’m gonna have ta hurt someone" mumbled Ukyo to no one in particular. Ranma snuck up behind Ukyo and when her mouth was right by her ear she said in a normal voice "Hi ya Ucchan" immediately Ranma regretted her course of action, without Ukyo really thinking about it, reflexes took over and Ranma meet Ukyo's spatula dead on for the upteenth time in her life.
Ukyo looked down where her spatula rested on the pavement and peered at the figure beneath it, "Ranchan!" she yelled and scooped her up with the spatula and brought her inside. "You just hold on Ranchan I'll help you" Ukyo said with concern, she laid her down on a table in the Ucchan and went to get her some water for when she woke up.
It was about ten minuets later when Ranma started to stir. She pushed herself into a sitting position with her hands and looked around. "Where am I" she asked anyone within listing range "Your at my restaurant Ranchan" Ukyo said her voice still laced with concern. "Ukyo, what am I doing here?" questioned Ranma "Well I sort of hit you" Ukyo responded in a pathetic voice. "Oh well I was sort of looking for you anyway" "You were!" Ukyo said happily, stars appearing in her eyes. "Yeah, I'm kind of hungry, I didn’t eat a big breakfast" Ukyo face faulted
Ukyo didn’t say anything with precision and ease bore throughout years of practice Ukyo had thoroughly cooked the Okonomoyaki in the record time of one minute and fifteen seconds. She flung it off the griddle and directly onto Ranma's plate, "Eat up" she said happily. And eat he did, for a full ten seconds before he was done. "Ahhhh.... that was great Ucchan, could I have another?" Ranma asked full of pep, "Another hot one coming up Ranchan" Ukyo said with a smile. While Ranma was waiting intently for his next Okonomoyaki Ukyo took the time to admire him, "Ranma what do you think of our relationship?" Ranma almost choked on his food, he was thinking the exact same thing, struggling to come up with an answer he said the first thing that came to his mind. “Ummm, Uhh.. Were friends and all, your my best friend Ucchan" she said forcing a smile, she knew this wasn't the answer she wanted to hear. She looked at her with a dead serious expression on her face and said in a even tone "Is that all you really think of our relationship", Ranma knew that she shouldn’t answer the way she was thinking but it was the only thing that came to mind, hopefully it would spare Ukyo some pain down the road.
"Ukyo" she said, her voice stern "Yes?" she questioned "I’ve got something that I’ve been meaning to tell you" he continued "something I should have told you a long time ago" Ukyo was hanging on Ranma's every word, Ranma was going to tell her how he really felt finally after all these free meals she would get paid off. "Ukyo, you are my best friend but, that’s all you are too me, I could never really think of you as a fiancée let alone my wife, I’m sorry Ukyo, I hope we can still be friends." Ranma didn't want to see what came next, so while Ukyo was still in shock he fled, she was just going to get mad at him and hit him anyway, so much for it working out he thought with a tear coming to her eye.
Ukyo had just heard the thing she most feared hearing in her entire life, her fiancée, Ranma, did not love her. She was so shocked she just stood there and watched him leave, she didn’t even try and stop her. Then the full magnitude of the situation hit her, her life may as well be over, and to her it was over. Almost her entire life devoted to him and still she had come up empty handed. It just wasn’t fair! She would have done anything for him, to be with him, but no sacrifice in the world would be able to bring him back, if she ever had him in the first place that is. Nothing turned out, it was hopeless, she may as well be dead, she slowly turned her head downward toward her throwing spatula with a wild expression in her eyes
Ranma started leaving the Ucchan in a fast walk but that walk turned into a jog and soon is was a full out run. Running from what he wondered, running from Ucchan? But why? he thought to himself, why would I want to run away from her if I wanted to keep her as my friend? I’m not making the same mistake the old man did, he turned around back toward the Ucchan, I’m not going to leave you behind to suffer! So, with his determination built up and his mind set he headed back toward the Ucchan, although it was a considerably slower pace. But first she made a little stop by Dr. Tofu's office for some hot water.
As Ranma neared the Ucchan he immediately noticed that the feeling around the place had changed, what once was a enjoyable light atmosphere was replaced by a heavy depressing atmosphere, one would almost think Ryoga was here. At the back of his mind there was a nagging feeling 'something is wrong' but he just chalked it up to Ucchan being angry. Maybe they would patch up and Ucchan could still be his friend.....
All future thoughts left Ranma as he surveyed the sight before him. His friend Ucchan was standing behind the counter, her hand was raised and she was bleeding from her wrist, she had bought her other hand up and was preparing to do the same to her other wrist, her mini spatula gleaming in the light as she did so. Ranma suddenly snapped out of his reverie and shouted "Ucchan what are you doing! Stop it!" Ukyo turned toward Ranma noticing him for the first time "What does it look like I’m doing stupid" her voice was beginning to break from her emotions "without you I may as well be dead, I’m, I’m just make’in it official" she went to cut her other wrist but Ranma tackled her from the side. Ukyo looked up at Ranma from her position on the floor, *him, all for him, my last thoughts will be of him* she thought to her self before passing out in his arms.
Suddenly it dawned on Ranma exactly what Ukyo was doing, she was going to kill herself. He looked down toward her bleeding wrist and immediately started to search the Ucchan for bandages to patch it up, though all his years of martial arts he got hut often so he was fairly confident that he could patch it up all by himself, in a mater of minutes he found all the necessary materials and started on the task at hand, soon he was done dressing the wound and he carried her upstairs and laid her down on the bed. He looked at her face, so peaceful and calm and wondered how he could ever cause her to hurt herself like that. *I really like Ucchan but I didn’t realize how much she liked me, she was willing to die for me, I didn’t think that anyone was willing to die for me* he thought to himself "I’m sorry Ucchan, sorry for everything, sorry for hurting you, sorry for letting you hurt yourself, but most of all I’m sorry for rejecting your love, please Ucchan wake up" he said in a pleading voice. But she didn’t, she lai there taking shallow breath after shallow breath but she seemed to be getting better thank god. Ranma decided that it might be a long while before Ukyo woke up so he decided that he should go, he wrote a note telling her to call the Tendo dojo the second she woke up he put it on the nightstand next to her bed and then he left. He felt guilty for leaving her like that but decided it was for the best, besides he didn’t want her getting angry with him the second she woke up.
On his way home he had a long time to reflect. He thought about what Ukyo had done, by far her reaction was the most extreme thing he could think of. To try and kill herself she must have been really depressed, but then Ranma got to thinking what if she had killed herself, he couldn’t imagine life without her, he didn’t want a life without his Ucchan. If Akane left with some guy he would be furious, but he couldn’t even imagine Ukyo even marring anyone, he just couldn’t deal with it. Could it be he cared more for Ukyo then the woman he loved. Yes, it was true, he cared about Ukyo more then anyone else in the world, more then his worthless old man, more then Shampoo, even....even more then Akane. Now it was clear to him, Ukyo, he would marry Ukyo. Suddenly he remembered something Kuno told him once, he told it to Ranma's girl form on the playing field by Furinkin High, "What we have we prize not whilst we enjoy it, but loved then lost, why then we rack the value and find the virtue possession would not show us whist it was ours" that sort of summed up the way he felt right now, he just hoped the Akane's reaction would not be as severe as Ukyo's otherwise he would really be in trouble.
Ranma walked slowly into the gates of the dojo, all was quiet, Kasumi was in the kitchen, Soun and Genma were playing shogi but aside from that everyone was at school so Ranma went upstairs to sit in the furo until Akane got home. Although he was far from tired he soon fell asleep in the warm waters and in almost no time at all Akane has arrived home. She got home the same time she normally got home, about 3:45 and she went upstairs to her room and slammed the door.
Ranma woke with a start, he was relaxing in the furo when he suddenly heard a door slam. *That would mean Akane's home* he thought and he decided to get out of the furo and get dressed. He walked out of the laundry room and straight to Akane's room, he knocked on the door and called out to Akane "Hey Akane, its me Ranma, let me in I’ve gotta ask ya something. Slowly the knob turned from inside and Akane stood in the crack of the door "Could this wait till later Ranma, I’m kind of busy?" she said in a monotone voice. Ranma was about ready to do just that, wait till later but he remembered where it got him earlier "No" he said his voice as impassive as stone, "No, we have to talk right now" Akane was taken aback by the stern voice he used and moved out of the doorway, "Well I guess we can talk right now I guess". She went over to her bed and sat on the corner of it, Ranma moved to the opposite corner of Akane and sat down.
"Akane, I like you a lot.........” Ranma started to say, but Akane had already jumped to conclusions, he likes me, he really admitted he likes me.... ”but I cant marry you I’m marrying someone else" Ranma said in an even tone. Akane thought she was ready for anything, he could have said he was going on another training journey and be gone several weeks, maybe he could have said he was going to China to look for a cure for his curse, but no, not this, she wasn’t prepared for this. Akane was rendered speechless and seemed to just stare off into space. A question suddenly popped into her head, a simple question, but a simple question with an important answer. "What made you decide" she asked on the verge of crying. "Ukyo tried to kill herself" he said as serious as she had ever seen him. "Tried to kill herself?" she asked hopping that he would clarify. "I told her I could not marry her and left, when I walked back in she has slit her wrist and said her life was not worth living." he said struggling to keep control "I ran at her and prevented her from cutting her other wrist, she passed out and I dressed her wound, I thought she was going to die, and I realized how important she was to me." he finished up the last part while choking out a strangled sob.
"I hadn’t realized how important I was to her, her family rejected her, she has no friends, the only thing that she has is her shop, and the only reason she has that is to stay close to me." he paused "Everything in her life has been for me or because of me, I cant believe how blind I was not to see it before, I just hope that she can forgive me." he finished up and stared at Akane, expecting her to blow up at any minute. "What are you staring at me for, I don’t care what you do, go ahead leave, go see your darling Ucchan" she said her last word dripping with venom. "So you understand?" Ranma asked nervously "Of course I understand, now get out of here, our fathers set this engagement thing up anyway, I never liked you and never will, now get out of my room!" she yelled almost in tears, *She understood, finally something goes right for me!* he ran out of the room but in his excited state failed to notice just how sad she was and how her words dripped with sarcasm. "Ranma" she said silently to the room in a pleading voice, but Ranma was gone.
Ranma ran out of Akane's room, his thoughts were in a jumble but he felt great. *Finally maybe my fiancée troubles are over, maybe just maybe all the chaos is finally over and I can just live my own life, yeah that'll be nice*
He started walking back to the Ucchan, maybe Ukyo was awake, but it suddenly started raining and Ranma became Ranma-chan to his/her dismay. Ranma steadily jogged up the street in the rain and before she realized it she was at the Ucchan. She left in such a hurry earlier she failed to lock the door or even put up the closed sign *I hope no one stole anything* Ranma thought to herself. She walked inside and closed the door behind herself, it was dark in the Ucchan, the door was closed, the drapes were pulled, the lights were off, and even though it was the middle of the day it was raining outside right now, overall the Ucchan had a very dark and uninviting atmosphere. Ranma hesitantly called out "Ucchan are you awake yet!" silence was the only answer she got so she tuned toward Ukyo's room and began climbing the stairs. She began running over scenarios in her mind trying to come up with the best method to attack this particular situation. Until he reached Ukyo's door at the top of the stairs.
She hesitated for a few seconds before deciding to go inside. Eventually though she just reached out and turned the knob and went in. It was dark inside the room and the pitter patter of rain could be heard at the window, it was also slightly hot because of the lack of ventilation. She cautiously went over to the bed and sat on the edge right next to Ukyo's head. She slowly extended her arms and placed her hand on Ukyo's shoulder, Ranma shook her lightly "Ukyo wake up, its me Ranma" she said softly, almost a whisper.
Slowly, ever so slowly, Ukyo's eyes fluttered open and she stared at Ranma sitting next to her. "Am I dead, is this heaven" she asked almost afraid of the answer. "No Ucchan, your not dead" Ranma said with a measure of happiness in her voice. "Ranma, why did you save me?" she asked, her voice pleading "Why couldn’t you have let me die?" her voice was breaking from her emotion and she broke down in tears, grabbed Ranma's shirt and started to cry into it. Ranma, in her most sincere and pleading voice replied "Because I love you......It took me almost losing you to realize but now I know your the most precious thing in the world to me....I don’t think I could go on without you...." at the conclusion of her statement Ranma too started crying and held Ukyo even tighter to herself and together they sat, in the darkness, crying and murmuring soft sounds to one another trying to re-assure the other everything would be ok. After several minuets of mutual comforting Ukyo broke the silence. "I thought you said that a real man never cries" she said through the tears. "Well, I’m making an exception just this once, because I love you Ukyo Kuonji.”
And there they sat, for hours uncounted. Talking and laughing and holding each other. They were happier then either could ever remember being before in their life. And together they were and to them they were the only one’s in the world. And that’s all that mattered.
The End
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This fanfic originally started out having a lemon plot but it evolved and became something where I just didn’t have the heart to include sex. This was one of the first fanfics that I ever started. I started this one before I even started anything else that has previously been published by me. Ukyo is one of my favorite characters and I believe that she deserves whatever she wants. Her reaction may seem a little extreme in the fic but to me I rationalized my reasoning behind it fairly well. I would like to thank anyone that has managed to read this mindless dribble and if you want to read more you can go to my home page at http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/brodie/735/ there is a link to my fanfic page there and wav’s and such and some is from other series like slayers and pokémon. 1900