Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime.creative
Subject: [Ranma][FanFic] Red Tower, Black Tower, Grey Slabs
Date: 13 Aug 1997 10:17:08 GMT


Luca Signorelli (SignorelliL@alma.it)
--- RED TOWER, BLACK TOWER, GREY SLABS ---

----------------------------------------------------------------------



As she fell asleep on the outward lip of the granite buttress, Ukyou
Kuonji heard the noise of the jetstream winds blasting through the
West Ridge pinnacles, leaving only the broken clouds behind it like an
unknown alien spaceship's exhaust suspended over the sky of Northern
Karakoram. This memory of the TV shows she used to watch as a young
girl had filled her oxygen-deprived nights since their arrival on the
Savoia basin. Later, as weariness had finally overcame her, she dreamt
of the great Kobe port and coastline, interminable rows of cargoes and
oil tankers, prowling like titanic sphinxes of steel. And she dreamt
of her father calling the customers near their okonomiyaki cart, while
she played with the paper tissues with the "Ucchan" logo on it.
Regularly, these dreams would wake her up, and she would wearily check
the wristwatch to see how many hours it was from sunrise. Again she
turned on one side, trying to disentangle herself from the endless
straps and loops of their shelter, and observed Ryouga sleep. She
recognised the familiar pattern of Cheyne-Stokes respiration - long,
deep breaths more and more irregulars, followed by nothing at all for
what seemed an eternity, and finally a rapid reprise of lung activity.
At their current altitude, this meant his brain was starting to lose
its battle to survive on a lower oxygen intake.

Ukyou stood still for a bit, fixing her eyes on the zenith, and tried
to observe any sign of sky colour's change. They were in full
north-western exposure, so they couldn't see the sunrise on the
opposite side of the mountain - the sun extending its light over the
tops of Central Asia's heartland. Again, she looked at the great
diadem of stars high above their bivouac spot - the Summer Triangle
inverted, with dim Altair at the zenith, bright Vega on the lower left
and remote, savage Deneb on the left, the most luminous object in a
4000 cubic light years area around Sun. Ukyou dreamt of Furinkan
astronomy lessons, and Mr. Ohtani, their science teacher, explaining
that if Altair would be at arm's length, on the same scale Deneb would
have been one mile away. Even at this distance, its unimaginable
luminosity made Deneb brighter than Altair. And she would slowly
juggle Altair and Vega, the shepherd and the princess of the Chinese
legend, and all the "Ucchan"'s patrons and Ranma and Akane with them
would laugh and cheer and Ranma would ask politely to Ukyou if she
wanted to dance. She felt happy.

-- Reawakening --
Ukyou woke up fully, and started the long early morning routine. They
had only three gas cartridges left so she would take extra attention
not to spill the snow content of a small aluminium pan. At 21.000
feet, melting the snow in two cups of lukewarm liquid is a process
taking hours, so Ukyou would eventually do another unfruitful check of
the climbing material left - the Polish-made titanium ice screws, the
green and yellow runners, the set of hexentrics and nuts and tri-cams,
the Grivel 14-points crampons and the short shafted, curved ice axes,
with the Grivel mark on the inner part of the blade. Their two
surviving climbing ropes were carefully coiled behind them, attached
with a long chain of karabiniers to their belay point.
Ukyou made a conscious effort to put her altitude boots on - but
exhaustion forced her to stand back, breathless, trying to regain the
nervous strength necessary to accomplish this task. She would
concentrate, as she used to when training those ten years of anger so
long ago, on the simple details - the number of passages the string
would make into the boot, the "SCARPA" huge sign on the left, the
marks left by countless rocky edges on the sole.

-- Caresse --
"Ranma and I went out
right at the school
in the snow"
As the sun's glare turned Karakoram's night into huge varieties of
blues and whites - deep or delicate shades of blue for ice, blinding
white and grey for snow - Ukyou remembered when once, many years
before, in a January afternoon, Ranma had asked her to come in the
large open field of the Furinkan's back for a walk in the snow. Akane
was nowhere near, and they had played, throwing snowballs and
stumbling breathless, laughing. Back then, she had felt so glad that
this memory had frozen solid, as the masses suspended 3000 feet above
them, on the top of the mountain. This snow is the same snow of that
afternoon, long time ago, the sky is the same sky, and I'm Ukyou - she
thought. The sweetness of that afternoon could loom in the distance,
as the Mustang Tower profile, just 10 miles in front of her, but still
unreachable as Deneb or Nerima. "Time and my direction are
unalterable, my movement is another one", Ukyou thought, and looked
again up, in the direction of the invisible summit of K2.

-- Sky --
Two tiny figures moved upward, on the left limit of a stone spur,
right on the upper edge of the Shield, the immense, overhanging stone
slab topping the West Wall. The upper shape carefully advanced on the
mixed, difficult terrain, while the lower uncoiled the rope.. At
10.000 miles from Tokyo, at 21000 feet above the sea level, a young
Japanese girl, her face covered by layers of tissue and protective
glasses against the UVA devastating effect, continued her slow,
hopeless upward progression toward Earth's second summit. Her face is
withered, aged of years, her lips broken, her breath irregular. One
step, another hit with the ice-axe. The young girl knew that, there,
everyone is alone. She felt comfortable with it - she wanted
desperately to reach the top and, in some way, she's always been
alone.

-- The Avenue of the Dead --
When it came Ryouga's turn to climb, he tried to forget his weariness,
focusing on this momentary task. His lack of direction's sense had
been made more acute by altitude, but the holds were tracing a route
even he couldn't lose. That was the reason he had started to climb -
apart from the desire to stay with Ukyou, the only person that could
really understand his misery. Valleys are routes you cannot fail,
mountains are unmistakable signposts. Akane's delicate features were
still solidified on everything he saw, but the same nature of the
monoliths bordering the icy highway of the Baltoro glacier helped him
to force this memory back. Ryouga could remember every mountain name,
and repeated them as a mantra while forcing his body up. "Pajiu,
Trango, Liligo, Urdokas, Uli Biaho, Biale, Urga, Doksam" and finally
the immense Concordia junction - that Ryouga knew he would see again
once they had been higher that the West Ridge at their right. He could
barely remember Concordia, but this gigantic ice plaza merged, in
Ryouga's memory, with the four lane highway junctions outside Tokyo he
hated so passionately because of his direction's sense.

-- Spider gods have lost control --
"See now - Ursa Major
Mallory and Irvine disappearing into a cloud
See now - smoking mirror
Texcatlipoca will teach me how"
Ryouga had received a postcard shortly after Akane's wedding. It had
been sent by the two newlyweds during their honeymoon trip in Mexico
and the scene displayed was the Avenue of the Dead, the sacred street
among grim Aztec temple-pyramids of Teotihuacan. Then, Ryouga had felt
insulted - he suspected some hint of Ranma's insensitivity lurking
behind that present. But once on his way to K2, he had realised how
that postcard was just foreboding the place he and Ukyou had walked
into, a colossal sacred road no Aztec or Mayan architect could ever
have conceived. Ukyou and he had recently only few occasions of
physical intimacy, but in a sense this was their honeymoon, of an
intensity Ranma and Akane wouldn't ever dream of.

-- The model --
On the belay stance, Ryouga looked again at Ukyou, her lean body
wrapped in the black altitude jacket and gore-tex trousers. She's my
invisible presence in this painful climb, Ryouga thought. Ukyou's
intense, secret beauty, still somehow sensible through the multiple
strata of her climbing outfit, seemed to provide a solitary source of
sanity in the vertical desert that surrounded them.
"Don't you understand, Ryouga?" - she had told him once, after one of
the training climb they had done together in the Japanese Alps -
"don't you understand how close to the abyss we've both been? All
those years - while you were losing all your self-respect after Akane
and I lost mine chasing Ranma... Ryouga, they say love is the best
part of youth. Those bloody fools at Furinkan could see that you were
the right person for young Mrs. Tendo. I mean, you loved her, that's
more of what anyone of us could say about Ranma. You were the knight
in shining armour, Ryouga, compassionate, chivalrous, always ready to
step back in darkness as the situation required. And circumstances
have denied you even a small chance to play equally with Ranma - I
suspect that, even after all these years, Akane still doesn't realise
how much you loved her. We've spent the best days of our lives after
an obstinate brat and a frigid young woman that couldn't see past her
nose. A lot of people, after I tried to snuff Mrs. Tendo, thought I
just showed my real face to the world. All Akane's girlfriends, you
know, all those chicks who couldn't ever conceive life without a man
around, said that I deserved what happened later. We were nearly on
friendly terms, me and Akane. I suspect that I did it just out of
desperation. I've always hated the idea of losing and I've lost
everything, as you did, poor Hibiki. We've lost our youth, our hope,
whatever any spoiled middle class kiddo in bloody Furinkan considered
his sacred right. Be young, be careless. We've never been part of
their clique. I'm happy all this is behind us."

-- Progressive shift --
Later, when they became lovers, much of Ukyou's bitterness seemed to
evaporate - or maybe, her wounds had been healed. In contrast, Ryouga
had discovered how his coyness and angst had been changed into a vague
sense of inadequacy when other people he didn't knew well were around
- he had often those recurring dreams of anxiety, like being unable to
provide urgent answers in front of a huge crowd. To Ukyou's amusement,
he still bled profusely from the nose, especially the first time he
had seen her in the raw. Only the old difficulties with his sense of
direction really troubled him - but Ukyou, always the strong one, had
been his cure. He had found all the pleasure and terrors to be lost
inside Ukyou's maze of flesh. The discovery of her (and his) body had
been a definitive watershed, a point of no return. The movement of her
mouth, the angularity and at the same time the composure of her facial
bones, the enigmatic longing of her eyes, the warm excitement of their
skin surfaces making contact, the outline of her pectoral girdle
against his mouth, the serpentine touch of her legs around his body,
the persistence and depth of her breath during the climax, all this
composed a territory Ryouga had many times tried to explore. There,
their identities ceased to make sense.

-- I go, but you shall wait until I return --
They had arrived the western side of the mountain after a twelve day
trek from Askole up the Braldu valley and the Baltoro glacier. They
had only a trekking permit, but they had avoided any trouble from the
omnipresent military teams patrolling all the Karakoram border of
Pakistan - a presence enforced since the Siachen War with India back
in 1985. Their apparent invisibility had been taken by Ryouga as a
sign that destiny favoured their project - an alpine style, early
season attempt at the unclimbed west face of K2. They had avoided
asking for a climbing permit - by the way, they couldn't afford it.
Shampoo, one of the few still left from the Furinkan years, suggested
openly that they had both gone mad - but had given also her support to
collect equipment. Ryouga's writing career was just now paying off,
and Ukyou's business, now flourishing again after having been forced
out of Nerima in result of the Wedding Fiasco, still could not pay the
high costs of the expedition. Ryouga had consumed all his inheritance
plus the money made selling his parents' house for the material - it
was clear they were going to live on peanuts for months. Shampoo had
shaken her head, and said she didn't hope to see them back.

-- Something lost in Karakoram --
Only Cologne, who had kept a watchful eye over Ukyou since Ranma's
wedding, seemed to understand and approve the secret urgings behind
their plan. "You're not the first, neither the last to look for
something lost in Karakoram", she said while browsing with the tip of
her staff over Ukyou's large and utterly unusual library. It was
located in Ukyou's bedroom over the "Ucchan", and included titles
equally divided between cuisine books, books on the Great Patriotic
War (the way Russians call the Eastern Campaign on WWII), books on
mountain lore and books on a divinatory ability called geomancy -
something that Cologne itself had suggested Ukyou to study. "The
hazards and allures of such a destination need not be stressed" the
old matriarch added pensively "but I sense that you have some reasons
to go there. Because, as they say, it is always a matter of
motivations, isn't it?"
She then gave them a presentation letter for an old acquaintance of
hers, that still lived in Askole.

-- Slowly and mechanically in darkness --
Their training, by all standards, was superb. In their late twenties,
they hadn't lost anything of their old physical qualities. Ryouga was
very strong, as Ukyou was incredibly agile. She had done a string of
solo climbs in the Alps, including the fearsome McIntyre couloir at
the Grand Jorasses North Face in five hours, and the South Face Direct
of the same mountain in ten - both in winter conditions. Ryouga had
several difficult routes on the Yosemite and Zion parks in USA under
his belt, plus an entire season of ice climbing in the Canadian
Rockies, and three routes in the Denali area in Alaska. What they
lacked in high altitude experience they hoped to get through skill and
strength, but K2, possibly the most difficult mountain on Earth, was
entirely another affair.

-- Outer space --
Even in the current situation - after four days of difficult climbing,
surrounded by miles and miles of wasteland, near the upper limit of
troposphere, alone as few people could ever be on our planet, their
heads rattling with traces of cerebral oedema, Ryouga couldn't avoid
noticing how Ukyou's features seemed more and more incorporeal, part
of the ice and rocks, the malevolent presence of the suspended
glaciers looming of the west ridge making a fit background for her
uneasy, statuary presence. He remembered the first afternoon spent at
their small base camp in the Savoia basin, well content to find, as
foretold, that no expedition was already in the area for the annual
combined assault to the flanks of world's second highest mountain.
Ukyou sunbathed on an platform made with tent covers and rucksacks,
seemingly careless of the dangerous effects that UVA have at 17000
feet. Ryouga had spent hours following with his eyes the contour of
Ukyou's naked body against the sweet, snowy waves of the glacier
surface, the blinding white contrasting with the black gashes of
crevasses. The silence, broken only by the rumble of the heat-induced
avalanches far over the American Towers, slowly became palpable, part
of the landscape as the glacier, the chrome coloured sky and Ukyou.
Before them towered the rectilinear shape of K2 West Face, enclosed
between the fantastic staircase of the ridge and the SW spur. The wall
itself seemed to recede inside the mountain - its most striking
feature, the so called Shield, overhung near the top. Its multiple
gneiss strata limited to the right a curvilinear ice couloir, shaped
as a giant scimitar slash. Seen from their position, the whole
composition reminded Ryouga the funereal mask of a dead god, like
those he had seen in many derelict Chinese villages on his way to
Jusenkyoo's springs, long time before, in what now seemed another
life.

-- The citadel --
The climb itself started few days later. They had attacked at midnight
the lower 45 degree tilted icefield, as aggressively as altitude (and
energy) allowed. Ukyou, the ice specialist, lead the first part in few
hours under the residual light of the moon. When the sun finally rose,
they had already entered the rock bands above. The climbing had turned
into a brutal affair, requiring all their stamina and skill. They were
alternatively leading every pitch, even if Ryouga's self-esteem could
have, in a different situation, exacted a stable leader role on rock.
They had climbed slowly but regularly, baked from the intolerable heat
reflected by the Savoia basin cauldron. When the evening came, they
had ascended nearly 2000 feet over the wall base, and had finally
reached a diagonal ramp that could have, according to Ukyou's
calculations made over an old Polish telephoto, got them to the left
of the overhanging area, near the border of the Shield.
Ryouga could not make any plan out of this. He was, already,
irremediably lost. He only knew that there was something up, something
down, rock before them and an increasing chasm behind their backs. He
didn't care - Ukyou was his guide, and he ever relished on his
sensation to be completely out of touch with their tridimensional
position in space. He used to think of himself as an impaired,
defective piece of the human race's gene pool, but Ukyou had taught
him that you can't find nothing of value if you don't lose yourself.
The important things is to learn how to find your way back.

-- Topography --
"If you look at Karakoram on a conveniently scaled map" said Cologne
during one of the preparatory meetings held on Ucchan's back "you'll
see that its major sub-ranges seem to run parallel, but they tend to
converge toward the Upper Baltoro basin." She inhaled another puff
from her pipe. "Usually, it is the Pamir that is referred to as the
Roof Of The World, because from its central position it seems to be
the originating point of the Greater Ranges of the Earth. However, any
practitioner of serious map reading - an overlooked but interesting
art - will immediately observe how it is Northern Karakoram that has
the honour to be the Mother Of All Mountain Ranges. It is the greatest
ice expanse of the world outside the Poles - and its average altitude
is higher than Himalayas. Not only that - it's located far north than
the Abode Of The Snow, so its climate is arid and cold."
"Have you been there, great-great-mother?" asked Shampoo, who was
following Cologne's description with wide-opened eyes.
"I've been learning and teaching in the Hunza's area for some time,
where people are said to be healthy and strong even at a venerable
age, but I've more or less explored much of the whole range. The
peoples inhabiting these places are rugged as their land - and they
know many forgotten things. There, I've made many friends and some
enemies, not all of the human variety. An interesting place for sure."

-- The Old Ghoul --
She had been, alternatively, the foreigner ensnaring Ranma in his
plots, the fierce warrior training Ryouga over the mountains, the old
woman eternally smoking a pipe loaded with God-knows-what and managing
the Nekohanten with ruthless ability - or the learned explorer of
things old and mysterious. Through all his life, Ryouga had always
been attracted by Cologne's vague past, by her rigorously locked
armoires and closets - that Shampoo assured him to be full of nameless
wonders - by her books written in many languages and many alphabets
(that she seemed to know perfectly), by the confidence that she put on
everything she did. The failure to marry Shampoo, thus providing new
and strong blood to her family, was generally regarded as her greatest
defeat - but once Akane and Ranma had wed and Shampoo clearly stated
she wasn't going back to Jusenkyoo (Mousse hadn't agreed, and had
returned to China in a bodycast), she had lost interest in the matter,
and turned her attention to Ukyou. Her reliance seemed to come from
the perception she had the entire eternity to reach her goals.

-- Decline and fall --
Ryouga suspected that much of Shampoo's new found friendship for Ukyou
had to do with her sense of guilt - after all, it was Shampoo who had
organised the failed bomb-plot that had disrupted Ranma's first
wedding, and Ukyou had been the only one to pay for the consequences.
Cologne had manoeuvred much to insure that authorities wouldn't
proceed against Shampoo, but Ucchan didn't had her connections. She
had seen her license revoked, and had been charged for attempted
manslaughter. Being underage, she would have probably got out with a
reprimand, but Ranma had insisted for a full scale legal action
against his ex childhood friend. Ryouga had tried in vain to turn
Ranma to a more lenient attitude. "I'm sorry, Ryouga - Ukyou could
have killed Akane. She'll not get away with it." The evidence that the
bomb probably wouldn't have killed anyone, the circumstances, even an
appeal for indulgence by Kasumi, nothing had moved Ranma (and Akane)
to forgive and forget. Through he could understand some of Ranma's
motivations, Ryouga had been infuriated. "One year ago they weren't
even admitting they loved each other and now that blockhead plays the
poor man's Valentino!" he had later told Shampoo. Ukyou had ended up
under probation for three years, but only the Saotomes final departure
from Japan had effectively ended her tribulations. She had got her
license back and opened, with Cologne's help, another restaurant.
Ryouga had found more and more difficult the idea to deal with Ranma
after all that, and he had politely turned down a free trip to the
States for their second child birth. Not only because of Ukyou - he
had never really come to terms with Akane's definitive loss. Ryouga
had now lost most of his old friends.

-- The only one remaining was the unlikeliest --
Kuno Tatewaki's calamity had been second only to Ukyo's: in the time
span of a morning he had found himself to be Furinkan's greatest
source of hilarity. The discovery that Ranma Saotome and the pig
tailed girl were the same person had been the last straw. The image of
himself - handsome, rich, heir of an ancient family, basically perfect
- had cracked to a myriad of opaque fragments. For one year he had
refused to leave Kuno's Castle. Word was that he had tried to kill
himself. He could have - only Sasuke's lasting devotion had prevented
the ex-Blue Thunder from putting an end to his anguish. Two years
later, his sister Kodachi married an American tycoon, and went to live
in a closely guarded community for rich people into New Age nonsense
("Basically it was Wired meets Castaneda meets Mein Kampf every
morning before breakfast - best thing for her, really"). Shortly
afterward, Kuno had entered college. He was a deeply changed man.
While attending University, he and Ryouga had established an atypical,
but still mutually beneficial relationship. Kuno needed someone to
help him gather the scattered bits of his life. Ryouga needed someone
to talk to - apart from Ukyou - and he had got unlimited access to
Tatewaki's library. It had been like opening an Easter Egg and
discovering that the present is actually far better that first
presumed. Most of the books were poetry classics: Ryouga, now timidly
turning his focus toward a writing career, had found some of the
lyrics strangely fitting his present state of mind. The two had spent
entire days discussing Ryouga's voyage memories and arguing over the
correct use of a word. Kuno's seriousness had first amused, the
puzzled Ryouga. "I'll never decide if this guy is a genius or a
psychiatric casualty", he had once remarked. Ukyou, faithful to her
roots, still didn't like the ex kendo's promise. "He's an upperclass
bastard - those people acts as if Tokugawa Hayeasu were still alive."
But when Kuno, after taking his PhD, had got a job for the UN and
left, she couldn't avoid noticing how Ryouga had suddenly become much
more uneasy than usual. Somewhere in him hung in balance - couldn't be
much longer before he had to make a choice.

-- The wait --
In the cramped darkness of their fourth night on the wall, lighted by
the small, modified stove, they had only spoken intermittently. Ryouga
felt tired - his muscles were stinging, he had a vague headache and
his throat was sore. While drinking the brew prepared by Ukyou he
checklisted all the medical preparation and pills he was supposed to
take before sleeping - Diamox to increase disposal of body fluid,
Decadron to prevent cerebral oedema, Roincol to stimulate circulation,
Zymox for his throat. He decided against a tempting dose of Valium -
its depressing effect on breathing centres was too risky for the
current situation. He put his aching head outside the tent, resting
over a flat rock. It was already completely dark, the mountain's
outline on the opposite side of the basin could only be vaguely
guessed. He wasn't familiar with stars patterns, but he could identify
Venus, shining brighter as anytime in the last ten years. Temperature
was dropping rapidly - he could no longer hear the noise of avalanches
on the lower slopes of the mountain. The stillness was absolute. He
vaguely outlined the increasing outward profile of the buttress over
its head, tomorrow's target high above their current location: a
small rocky pulpit on the beginning of the ascending ramp. He took a
deep breath.

-- The staircase --
The last few days had been immensely difficult, and their attempts to
disentangle from the West Face upright labyrinth had drained all their
energies. The lower, slanting ramp had ended up well left of the
Shield's right margin, bordering the avalanche-stricken couloir, but
still right of the immense gneiss buttress, cleaved by a vertical and
inaccessible incision into the rotten rock. They were now on another
pulpit: above them the wall curved on a overhanging ceiling. On the
left, the rock was uniformly vertical, except for a sequence of vague
steps. So they had to attack the overhangs directly. It had taken them
three days of technical, exhausting big wall climbing, that Ryouga had
constantly led, leaving to Ukyou only the task to find the correct
direction. The overhangs were a rotten, unstable inverted staircase,
held together only by the intense freeze - the afternoon heat had
triggered more than once several rockfalls. Most of their equipment
had gone there, including two of their invaluable climbing ropes. Once
there, no return was possible anymore - unless they reached the top or
some escape to the NW ridge was possible In any case, their last tie
with the horizontal ground had been severed.

-- Inside, Ukyou wrote in her diary --
"As we're getting into the heart of the wall, and we're just burning
more and more bridges behind us, I wonder how Ryouga's coping with the
disorientation and pressures of this condition. I've observed him
during our trip up to the Base Camp - he looked like a kid choosing a
new toy on some hyperstore's bench. Our knowledge of Ryouga's past is
so limited - he has spent most of his teens hiking through Japan from
corner to corner - probably the most crucial landscape on Earth. He's
seen a lot, more than anyone else of his age - he's more familiar than
me with these geological marvels. I was observing him as he climbed
the third class ground bringing up to the entrance of the ramp. He was
putting all his attention on the few feet of rock before him. As
always, when he's doing something important, his concentration seemed
sourceless, entirely disembodied."
She turned the page, then continued:
"For all the imageries and memories, Ryouga must start to experience
an intense claustrophobia - coming here could have been a way to
relieve his internal pressure, to put some order into his confused
inner world. Ryouga's always been so intense, taking everything so
seriously. I still remember the first time we met - and that plan to
have him engaged to Mrs. Perfection and Ranma posing as an Overtly
Annoying Female to prevent Ryouga from accomplishing anything. It's
always a source of wonder for me that their relation didn't end in a
bloodbath - must be something with Ranma's luck."
"Discussing his direction's sense impairment with Obaba, I've often
suggested that it has to do with some form of gene alteration. But she
says that Ryouga loses his sense of space (and time) because,
differently from us, he's able to forget himself completely. Ten years
ago, his obsession, the object of his close attention was Akane; now
something else that even he doesn't know. Maybe this mountain, maybe
all the mountains he's seen through his life, or the tall structures
clawing the sky from Tokyo's centre... sometimes I wonder if it was
right for him to follow me into this trip."

-- Spindrift --
The following day, the sun was a radiant cartwheel. The ramp narrowed
in a oblique chimney, few feet deep. While climbing simultaneously,
they tried to follow the bottom of the slanting crack, more to avoid
the unendurable heat reflected by the glacier, rather than for any
tactical consideration.
As the temperature soared, the avalanches put themselves in motion
once again. As soon as the sun touched the upper tip of the West Wall,
their noise neared more and more. Their current position was
relatively safe, but the mere reverberation of thousands of tons of
ice and rock racing down the sinuous Scimitar Slash was terrifying
enough. Later, a bigger chute had literally resonated on the entire
basin. A vertical gneiss pillar screened the couloir at their right -
but they had seen, seconds after the concussion, white spirals of snow
appearing behind the pillar, racing down at terminal speed toward the
glacier. They were implausibly attractive. When the shockwave wind
came, only a pale leftover of the detonation that should have been
felt inside the channel, Ukyou had tried in vain to capture some of
the frozen spindrift floating around her head

-- The tightening arcs --
Ryouga looked down. The exposure was more terrifying than anywhere he
could remember: the falling rock and ice debris no longer hit the
lower rock steps. On any California big wall climb, you can spend days
with your feet dangling on mid air - but the surrounding panorama
seems to have been designed by a committee to reassure the climber
that he's still on our planet. Here, they were truly getting lessons
in vertigo - right on the shores of this petrified vertical landscape.
They stopped for a while, enjoying their progressive separation from
the valley floor. As usual on these long climbs, most of the time they
were silent - their heads full of the noise made by their own
heartbeat. The sounds could have been catalogued for their intensity
and variety - the distant thunder of avalanches, the unnerving
staccato of rock chute, the grim roar of the high winds against the
unreachable rock spires of the West Ridge, now plunging toward the
abyss in a near vertical rampart arc at their right. And silence, a
sound itself - Ryouga had never heard a silence like this. For him, it
was a signal that this place had been forsaken in a sense more true
than any other in the Earth.

-- The nightfall --
For the whole day, they had been troubled by an increasing fatigue and
dire warnings of imminent altitude problems. Ryouga's headache was
unrelenting, and Ukyou's breath had an ominous, gurgling sound. As the
night came, they decided that another bivouac, now well above the 8000
metres mark, would have killed them. So they got rid of most of the
heavy gear, and pushed forward after a couple of hours of
uncomfortable rest. The summit was still invisible, but they were now
on a prevalently icy terrain, so their speed had sensibly increased.
The first few hours they climbed into a dark but clear night,
illuminated only very late by the raising moon. But later, abruptly,
the sky became translucent and vibrating - a sure sign of weather
change. The gale erupted soon afterwards, this time arriving from the
north. In a matter of minutes, visibility was reduced to few meters.
Ryouga unroped quickly - there was no use of it in the current
situation. He had cut for the first time in five days this tenuous
link with Ukyou - the sense of isolation for an instant overwhelmed
him.
Ryouga pushed hard to keep pace with Ukyou, who was literally racing
toward the summit. He checked the altimeter again - 2:00 AM, 8450
metres. Darkness was absolute; the entire universe was limited to a
few inches of snow and rock illuminated by his frontal lamp. "As long
as I'm concentrating, I'm sure I'll not lose myself - just concentrate
and follow Ukyo's light." Ryouga felt his nerves stirring, his
determination focusing toward an point invisible in the darkness
above.

-- Mars --
Ryouga was now desperately breathless. He tried to keep a steady
rhythm but every ten steps he had to stop to swallow big bites of thin
atmosphere. Around his minuscule world of light, and the grey and
black outline of Ukyou ten steps forward, roared a netherworld of air
masses gunned at 100 miles/hour against the mountain walls - the
frightening voice of God, as Ryouga considered while, once again, he
checked his distance from Ukyou and the unknown abyss below. "We must
have three kilometres of emptiness under our feet - if the wind
changes direction, they'll not even find small bits of us." Forward
and upward, cutting their way up the icy summit, fifty meters of
vertical gain per hour, their march continued.
Ryouga was puzzled, because he could see, with the corner of his eyes,
a girl climbing on his right. Her traits were confused, but the face
was familiar. She seemed to enjoy the situation, but Ryouga knew that
she was alert and checking his progresses. Once, when he tried to
bypass a small rocky boulder on the left, she intervened. "You should
try on the right, dear Ryouga, on the left is dangerous." Ryouga
obeyed promptly - the girl was obviously familiar with the place.
"Hey, what's a cute girl like you doing here?" he thought.
The girl giggled, or at least, that's what Ryouga presumed. I must
remember to be polite: once on the summit, I shall introduce this girl
to Ukyou - strange that she's never told me we were three up this
damned mountain. But when will we arrive? I mean, it's been days since
we left our last bivouac, and I know that once up, there's something
very important I should do, but I don't remember what... I should ask
Ukyou, but she's always so busy with the restaurant... if only we
could stop for a minute and have some rest, maybe I could remember. If
only...
"RYOUGA! RYOUGA! IT'S HERE! WE'RE ON THE SUMMIT!"

-- See now, Ursa Major --
It was true. The ice slope subsided, and there it was, a long and
narrow snowy dome, like the top corner of a cathedral's roof. Ryouga
couldn't think of nothing: he felt an inexplicable sense of relief.
They were there - this was the only significant place of the world,
now, and an endless knot had been quietly extricated. He sat down,
unable to speak, searching for words and thoughts that had, suddenly,
slipped away. Around, everything was black and impenetrable. Just my
luck, Ryouga thought, I'm up here and I don't even have a view. Well,
who cares - we don't have to climb anymore. We can go home, now...
Then, the sky opened.

-- Worn codes and signs unknown --
Like a whale, the mountain top emerged from sea of cloud and for an
instant Ukyou and Ryouga were as two stranded surfers riding it,
pushed on by the force of the high winds. The light had changed - dawn
was not far away, and the entire eastern horizon, that they were now
seeing for the first time, seemed on fire. Abruptly, the sea of clouds
parted, and the entire space around them was freed. The triple summit
of Broad Peak, whose size Ryouga had found so oppressive while walking
up from Concordia, was nearly seven hundred meters below them - and
beyond stood the long theory of the Gasherbrums and the placid profile
of Baltoro Kangri. They were in the top of a vertiginous space,
surrounded everywhere by a multitude of mountains, white on the
southern side and black toward China, as prostrated worshippers before
an unimaginable deity. Ryouga could perceive, for the first time in
his life, the curvature of the horizon. He looked up to the canopy of
stars, and raised his fist in triumph. But when he looked down again,
for one instant glimpsed, hundred of miles away in the inhuman morning
light, the solitary mass of Nanga Parbat, the Naked Mountain, Earth's
highest wall around the bend of the river Indus.
He sat down, numb and suddenly tired. The girl had disappeared, but he
tried again to remember why they were there, and what was the
important thing he had to tell to Ukyou. For the first time since they
had reached the summit, Ryouga remembered he wasn't alone. He turned
his eyes to Ucchan.
She was sitting upright with her legs stretched out over the two sides
of the summit, calmly singing to the stars.

-- Tour Rouge, Tour Noire, Grey Slabs --
Her face seemed to be millions of years old, but all the grievous
years had vanished from her self-immersed eyes, and she was singing in
an unknown language, coolly measuring the invisible orbits of stars
with her chant. Ryouga didn't understand the words, but, in that
instant, he knew that Ukyou had finally made peace with her own
obsession. He sat nearby. The winds noise abated, and they stood
together in silence on the summit, hand in hand, waiting for the
sunrise to come over the forgotten mountains of northern Karakoram.

-- Later, Ryouga wrote in his diary: --
"Aurora's rising
showing up its multi-lights
I watch it coming
A fearsome growing
beheading my illusions,
empress of visions
The veil of Maia
has been torn before my eyes
Aurora's rising"

The silence lasted only few minutes. The clouds had gathered again,
and were upsurging at fearsome speed, like a tidal wave. In seconds,
the summit was engulfed. Ukoyu slowly rose, and put back her helmet,
the glasses and the hood of her altitude jacket. She turned to Ryouga.
"Let's go down. Now."

-- All the way down --
"So, there it is" Ukyou said with a coarse voice "Down this slope
until the serac barrier. Then, we traverse under the serac wall to the
Bottleneck. After that, it's a matter of keeping our direction through
the Shoulder, until the second serac barrier and the Black Pyramid.
Later, we'll reach the fixed ropes - and from there it should be just
a matter of sliding down to safety. How do you feel?"
"Fine - just groggy from the altitude. And you?"
"Tired, but once we'll get into some thicker air we'll both feel
better. Down we go, Hibiki."
They were 100 meters under the summit, where they had stopped to brew
something on their way down the SE face and the Abruzzi spur. On this
side of the mountain, the wind was less violent - but it was snowing,
in heavy and irregular flakes. "The storm could break in earnest at
any moment. Let's try to stay clear from the exposed part of the
ridge." Ukyou stared again in the direction of Broad Peak and
Concordia, now invisible. "We've well earned our view, haven't we?"
She looked exhausted.
Ryouga was alert. He hated descents. The immense tension he had felt
before reaching the summit had been now released, and he could feel
all his weariness. He was worried for Ukyou - she looked really
distraught. Unfortunately, and particularly under these conditions, it
was out of the question that he could lead the descent, at least until
the Black Pyramid and the beginning of the fixed ropes. A direction's
mistake would have meant a jump down 3000 meters towards the
Godwin-Austen icefall, or even a longer distance on the Chinese side.
The most difficult part of their climb, the true ordeal, had finally
arrived - and they weren't in the best condition to confront it.

-- Descent --
The silence had returned. Ukyou was leading, keeping her balance with
one short axe, and placing carefully her crampons one in front of the
other. A few feet above Ryouga followed, keeping several coils of rope
around his waist. He was paying maximum attention to avoid any
quantity of snow to enter inside his carefully tied altitude jacket;
otherwise Ukyou would have to carry P-Chan down to the Base Camp. His
smaller lungs would have made him hypoxic in few minutes - and dead in
less than one hour. "I'm running the gauntlet here," Ryouga thought
again "Mom wouldn't have approved."
Ryouga noticed how his vision was much clearer, and he had no more
hallucinatory signs. He was curious to hear what Ukyou had seen on the
summit (if anything) - but this wasn't the place, neither the time.
Maybe back at the base camp or, better, back in Tokyo, before the
grill of New Ucchan's, with a cold Kirin and a freshly made
okonomiyaki...

-- Blast Furnace --
Ryouga's stomach closed in a fit of homesickness. It had been nearly
two months since they had left, and it would take them another month
to return home. I'm thinking much more clearly now, he thought, must
be all the silence and activity of the last few days. Maybe, Ryouga
considered, when I'm back home I could have something fixed. I must
not forget it again. That thing with Ranma isn't right - I must go
there and try to make him reconsider the situation, and make peace
with Ucchan. Maybe she doesn't care anymore, but maybe not. I know I
can make it - Ranma will listen to me, if I use the right words. And
even Akane will agree. It would be a little bit like the old days...
In a couple of hours, they had arrived at the serac barrier. Their
pace was agonisingly slow - Ukyou was evidently spent. Slowly, the
grey sky above them wasn't grey anymore. Like an immense ceiling, the
big serac closing the top of the Bottleneck was growing upon them,
with all its volume.
"OK - there's a fixed rope here. Must be a leftover of the Spanish
expedition last summer." Ucchan carefully considered the anchorage: a
group of steel, L-shaped pitons all tied together with a long runner.
"Looks like it can hold. What do you think?"
"Don't know - to me it looks really decrepit and moreover, I hate
fixed ropes. Better than downclimb all the way to the Shoulder with
that thing aiming at our heads, anyway." He pointed at the serac.
"I'll change the runner and I'll go down first. Try to rest a bit."
Ukyou smiled wearily.

-- The last throw of the dice --
Once he rearranged the anchorage, Ryouga clipped a Stitch plate (they
had left their Jumar handles on the opposite side of the mountain),
and slowly applied all his not inconsiderable weight on the rope. Then
he started the descent. In a few seconds he was immersed in a grey
wall of clouds. He stopped to check Ukyou's position. She was up
there, sitting on a rock lump, her features blurred by the swirling
clouds. Ryouga focused again his attention on the descent.
At the end of the rope - that was anchored as well with a large
hexentric into a crack - Ryouga sat waiting for Ukyou to come. The
temporary solitude was oppressive - and he couldn't wait to get out of
the serac chute line. Incredibly, the terrain below seemed to decrease
in verticality: it was, with all probability, the upper border of the
Shoulder. Well, with a bit of fortune we'll get to the Black Pyramid
this evening - and tomorrow, or the day after, down to Godwin-Austen.
Then, a quick stroll to the Savoia base camp, and after that the long
trek back to Askole. Ryouga felt, for the first time, that they were
going to make it.
A noise came from above, like a mattress hitting against a remote
obstacle. The serac is coming down, he thought casually. He looked
around for a shelter, but the snow slope seemed uniformly featureless.
Ryouga stood rigid, waiting for something to come out of the upper
mist and crush him where he was. He felt no fear, only a vague sense
of disappointment.
Nothing came. Minutes passed. Ukyou, he thought. He was disoriented.
If she had fallen, the couloir would have channelled her fall, and
then the slope isn't so steep... Oh, damn it! She must have collapsed
on the rope, she was too tired... I must get up and see what's going
on. Once he had made a decision, he grabbed the rope and started the
long haul to the upper stance. The storm, as Ukyou had predicted, was
intensifying fast, and Ryouga had to break trail in two feet of
freshly deposited snow. The climb up was a torture. His muscles,
already tender from the compression on descent, were now simply
refusing to cooperate. Suddenly, he recognised the place where he had
stopped to check Ucchan's conditions. Reluctantly, he looked up. The
small platform was now covered again by some inch of snow, and the
small boulder was still there, but Ukyou was nowhere to be seen.

-- The Kyoto Stone Gardens --
On the belay stance, Ryouga Hibiki thought of Mick Burke, the British
TV operator vanished near the top of Everest in 1975. They had
discussed his fate in a smoky tea-house at Askole, on their way to
Baltoro. He could remember Ukyo's hooded eyes as she explained her
theory:
"You can be on the top of a mountain, at the centre of a vertiginous
space completely empty. My father took me to the Fuji in pilgrimage
when I was 12, and I sat there on the top, as the horizon just grew
and grew again. My breath was condensing in visions, in complete,
utter indifference. I felt it again only another time, just after
Akane and Ranma's wedding. I was in Kyoto, at the Stone Gardens - I
stared at the boulders emerging from the white sand and I imagined
them as islands in the sky, the way I see big mountains. I just
couldn't leave - the empty space was the same as the top of Fuji, the
empty space where all sorrows are nothing but forgotten. I think that
Burke did the same. He didn't die on his way up, because the top, as
the garden's stones, would have attracted him irresistibly. And he
didn't die on the descent, because the consciousness to have reached
the top would have given him the strength to come back. I think he
just sat there, on the summit, oblivious of everything."

-- How wrong I was --
The certainty that Ukyou was dead fell on Ryouga. Knelt on the snow,
he remembered the first time they had meet, a morning long passed, in
a faraway place.. He sat there, thinking about the restaurant, the
school, the Wedding Fiasco, trying to control himself. I did not
imagine it would end that way. I'm always supposed to be the one
making a dumb mistake, dying in some stupid way. It's not fair.
He didn't really knew what to do. Try to find her? She must have taken
the wrong direction, and she's fallen through the external border of
the ridge, all the way down to the mountain base. Or maybe, she's just
lying ten meters from here, and I can't see her because of all this
fuckin' mist. He started shouting her name. But the storm's howl was
deafening: it was difficult for him to hear his own voice. Breathless
again, he stopped. He tried to look for footprints, but the snow had
cancelled everything
He opened his rucksack, looking for something. There it was, in a
lateral pocket - Ukyou's ribbon, that she had given to him before they
started the ascent. It used to be green, but through the tears Ryouga
thought that now it seemed to be of a bleached white.

-- I can't remember as well as I can't forget --
What's happening to me, Ryouga thought while opening his way once
again down the mountain, is nothing special. It's something that has
already occurred to billions of people. We're all bound to lose our
beloved ones. It could have happened ten years ago in a car accident,
or thirty years in the future from a sudden illness. It's happened
today - it's just a matter of statistics. Why do I complain? Why
something so banal as the death of a human being, my Ucchan, should
matter to anyone but me? The mountain doesn't care, though.
The depth of the fresh snow deposit was increasing. Ukyou died less
than one hour ago, Ryouga thought, and things are already changing -
the snow that I'm seeing now, in less than another hour, will be
buried by other snow that now is forming one mile above my head in
some cloud, and will melt once this storm ends. The storm, the snow,
the wind, the mountain - they don't care about Ucchan. I'm the only
one. As long as I live, as so long as I believe she's alive and I wait
for her, she'll be alive somewhere.
But I won't live much longer - he thought bitterly - I need to get out
of this storm soon, and I'll never found the way alone. "Ici Michel,
Ici Michel...": a confused memory of a documentary he had seen ten
years before. It must have happened here, Ryouga thought. That French
guy who was radioed out of the Shoulder in whiteout conditions, only
to die two years later over Everest. You see? It's just a matter of
being ripe for it. Just a matter of statistics.
For hours, he walked trying to keep a straight line. Several times, he
arrived on the icy perimeter bordering the abyss. He was terminally
tired and, what was worse, he didn't care. Weariness is like fear,
Ryouga thought, something that's in your stomach. But there's a point
after which you don't listen to your body anymore; your stomach wants
to live, but your mind doesn't care.
Maybe I should stop and wait for the storm to cease. But I've not the
strength to dig a snow cave and, in the open, I wouldn't last enough.
And all our remaining gas cartridges were in Ucchan's rucksack.
He fell in the snow. I feel so tired, he thought. I could probably win
a weariness championship. He laughed hysterically. He laughed again,
in anticipation, when he felt the dampness of the chunks of snow that
had sneaked through his altitude dress, and were now inexorably
melting.

-- A very fragmented picture --
P-Chan waded through the mass of bottomless snow, in an extreme and
futile attempt to find his way out of the storm. Almost weightless, he
swam over the sugary mass, but the snowfall was now so intense that he
was in danger of being literally buried alive. Everything was white -
uniform, sickening white. He couldn't discern the sky from the ground.
His lungs were burning like hell, and his sight was slowly going out
of focus.
P-Chan laughed again. And laughed more and more listening to his
piglet voice imitating a laugh. What an odd thing. Seconds ago
everything was white; now I'm into a jet black curtain. Oh, it doesn't
matter; because now the curtain will open, and in a few hops I'll be
in the back of the Tendo's dojo. Kasumi will offer everyone tea and
brownies, and Akane will hug me and sing something for me. And then
we'll go in her bedroom, and she'll allow me to sleep on her pillow,
and no, Akane, I don't feel like playing, I'm so tired, so bloody
tired. And there's too much snow, and I feel so cold - please, Akane,
let me sleep a little more, just a minute more...
But Akane was gone - and the curtain had lifted. Just for a second,
Ryouga glimpsed another image. In front of him, beyond a river, stood
a great city. It was burning - and he knew that he, and the other
people shivering from the cold as he was on the river bank, had to
ferry across the river and go into that city, because, at their back,
there was no more space to retreat.
"Ne sagu nazad", not one step back, Ryouga Hibiki thought in a
language he didn't knew. The line has been penetrated at several
points. We're the last reinforcement and we'll get there and try to
hold the beach-head across the river. What a strange thing - to be
here, and I'm not even P-Chan anymore. He clenched his fist, and
prepared to cross.
Miles above him appeared, immense, the face of Ukyou.

-- She was pining to go back home --
My, I can't control my limbs. My hands are shaking so much, and I
can't stop crying, and if I do the wrong move, I'll lose all the hot
water I've prepared. And it's not even really hot, just warm - God
please help me, hope it's warm enough. And simultaneously I'm pumping
pure oxygen into P-Chan's lungs, from the small bottle I had hauled up
the mountain, in the bottom of my rucksack. Hell, he's not reacting.
My goodness, I'm sure he's dead - he's probably got an heart attack
and now, when the water will be ready, I'll have back a dead Ryouga, a
stone cold, dead Ryouga. What sense does it make to come up such a
dreadful mountain if you turn into a bloody swine every time you step
into a drop of water! What a stupid idea it was from the beginning -
this dude's place is just in bloody Japan, with someone to watch over
him all the time. I can't wait any longer, I just hope it's warm
enough, just warm enough - I don't have any other gas cartridge
left... wake up, jackass, wake up wake up WAKE UP WAKE UP!!!!!!

-- Snow melts in the sun --
He perceived Ukyou's head pressing against his chest. The transition
had been instantaneous and disorienting, like waking up one morning in
the wrong bed. Ryouga perceived first mass, then gravity again - the
unique sensation to be back into our time and reality. Another thought
raced through his head. Maybe it isn't true, maybe it's me and Ukyou
and we're both dead. He felt again a surge of panic. He tried to
scream, but his throat seemed obstructed.
Ukyou turned toward him. For one instant, she looked puzzled, as if
she were having difficulty identifying him. Then she stood against the
wall of the snow cave, unable to speak.
"Where are we?" The sound of his own voice surprised Ryouga.
Ukyou looked at him, and Ryouga thought that as she was probably going
to give some abrupt or sarcastic answer. But she simply stared at him,
with an expression of deep relief, then his hand and kissed it.
"What a stupid trick to do, Ryouga."
Ryouga looked at her. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever
seen, even with her deeply sunken eyes and broken lips.
"What happened at the Bottleneck?" He asked, but he wasn't sure he
really wanted to know.
"I don't know. A bit of the serac has fallen, and I've beaten the hell
out trying to stay on the right of the couloir. I called your name
many times, but the storm was too strong. Then..."
She paused, trying to find the words.
"Then?"
"Then, I don't know - maybe I'm too tired. Anyway, I stumbled onto you
while trying to get near the second icefall. I was sure you were going
to get straight in the most dangerous place. I wouldn't have seen you
if not for your bandanna. I thought you were dead, Ryouga. Or better,
you probably were and then you're resurrected. Welcome back to our
world, jackass." She smiled again.
Ryouga closed his eyes. He discovered he was happy, and considered how
mysterious and powerful was that sensation. He closed his eyes and
inhaled again the tenuous air of the 8000 meters.
"Sorry to interrupt your reveries, Ryouga, but I think you have to
dress, and try to help me out of here. I can't even stand on my feet."
She continued to smile.

-- Blind Cassiopeia --
For Ryouga, the next 48 hours were one long and continuos dive. Ukyou
couldn't walk anymore: her toes were frostbite, as all the fingers of
her right hand. She couldn't held onto the fixed ropes - Ryouga had to
literally drag her down, out of the Shoulder's limbo.
They found the ropes more easily than presumed. Ryouga made an
improvised harness for Ukyou, and tied her on his back. Anyone else
couldn't have found the strength to haul her down all through the 2000
meters of the Abruzzi spur but, now, Ryouga was a man with a purpose.
All his strength was returning. Whether it was because they were
plunging back into the denser strata of the atmosphere, or because of
some other internal drive, Ryouga hadn't felt so strong since his days
of training in the mountains along with Cologne.
However, their descent from the mountain was still a fighting retreat.
The Black Pyramid was completely white, plastered by a three-inches
coat of verglas. The ladders on the House Chimney were useless, buried
as they were under the ice. Ryouga had to rappel where possible, and
downclimb where not. Ukyou was semi-delirious, but her vital signs
were good. It was now a matter of coming down fast, and ask for help
at the military base at Liligo, a few miles south-west of Concordia.
The lower, easier slopes were even more arduous - there was an
unimaginable quantity of snow. Here, the only thing that Ryouga could
do was plod down, front pointing step by step and stopping every
twenty meters to take his breath. Nevertheless, he was feeling
exhilarated, albeit still worried for Ukyou's conditions. They didn't
even really bivouac: Ryouga's sleep was limited to a few and sparse
naps, resting his body against the rock, dozing intermittently,
awakening at Ukyou's every moan.
The second night on the spur the sky cleared partially for some
minute. Ukyou was laying on her back, her face exposed to the sky.
Suddenly, she covered her eyes.
"Is everything OK?" Ryouga asked.
"I don't know - it's just that Vega is blinding me."

-- Now, I'm back again into this city --
Three days after reaching K2's summit and eight after their departure
from the Savoia basin, in a steel grey morning, Ryouga Hibiki and
Ukyou Kuonji reached the Godwin Austen Glacier and, three hours later,
the site of the traditional base camp. No one was in. Using stones and
scavenging the remains of the previous expeditions, Ryouga made a
shelter for Ukyou. She was in pain, but more or less attentive.
Before leaving for the four hour walk to Concordia, Ryouga slept a bit
on a flat rock near Ukyou. When the alarm clock awoke him, she was
looking at the summit of K2, now peeking out of the clouds. The view
was fantastic - the Mushroom, a suspended glacier over the SSW ridge,
looked like an ancient fortress.
"We did it, Ryouga. We really did it. Didn't it seem to you as if it
had been impossible?"
She was right. It was a familiar moment after every difficult climb,
when you look back at the summit and ask yourself: have I really been
there? Really me?
Ryouga thought: hadn't we crawled up to the summit, it wouldn't mean
nothing to us. These pillars, the web of ice encrusted the cracks and
couloirs, they are signals we give a significance each time we come
here.
In Ryouga's mind, the Godwin Austen moraine was a prehistoric highway
over the streaming bed of ice. On the opposite side there was the
small rocky pyramid of the Gilkey Memorial, with all the names of
climbers fallen on K2 written on improvised plaques, made out of
frying pans and tin plates.
He knelt near Ukyou: "While we were high on the mountain, I thought
that maybe, when back in Tokyo, I would get in touch with Ranma and
settle things." His voice sounded as if he finally felt all his
obligations had been finally met.
Ukyou lifted here eyes. They were beautiful, full of sadness and
understanding.
"There's no chance to repair the evil that I did to Ranma and that
Ranma did to me, if evil has it really been. Maybe Ranma could change
his mind, but I don't think so, and probably it wouldn't be right. You
can't change the rules of a game when you're losing, Ryouga. But it
doesn't matter anymore, because I feel for you something for which
there are no words. You're bound to fight against the inevitable as I
tried once, but you're the only person I know that could really do
this, and win his battle against time. And that's why I love you,
Ryouga Hibiki."
Ryouga smiled, and felt the darkness inside him rent asunder. He put
on his rucksack, and raced down the glacier, toward Concordia.

-- Later: Altair --
Ryouga sat inside the Nekohanten, waiting for Shampoo to get ready for
the New Year's Eve party at Ucchan's. He was trying to focus his eyes
on the small letters on the border of the "K2" menthol cigarette
packet. He had got the habit while convalescing on the Islamabad
military hospital, after treatment for minor frostbite. Everyone else
said that these cigarettes were the worst - Ryouga had bought two
crates of them before leaving Pakistan. He was fascinated by the image
drawn on the packet - K2 as it is seen from Concordia. He put his
fingers on the top and let it slide down along Abruzzi's spur, trying
to put in relation every place on the image with his own memories. The
Bottleneck, the Shoulder, The Black Pyramid, The Red Towers, House
Chimney... his finger always came back to the top. Only six month
before he had been there. There. There. There...
Cologne came to the table, bringing an opened Kirin. "Shampoo's
getting ready. She'll be here in a minute."
Ryouga didn't answer. The temperature inside the restaurant was
suffocating.
"If you don't mind, I'll wait outside. It's too hot here." He got the
bottle and left.
The street before the Nekohanten was covered by a thin layer of snow
and empty, except for a tall and gaunt figure staring at the
restaurant's ensign. He had a carefully trimmed short beard and a
regular tan that contrasted with his fashionable grey dress. It was
Kuno.
"I wasn't sure about the place. I mean, it has been so many years
ago." Ryouga was glad to see him - he got another beer and a chair,
and they sat outside the Nekohanten's door.
Kuno was back in town for some month, before his next assignment - he
planned to get married with an Italian girl before the end of next
year. He needed some rest and Ryouga noticed how Tatewaki's eyes
always stared at an indefinite point before him. His next to last
responsibility had been in Central Africa. Here, another inter-tribal
war had exploded - United Nation's intervention had been, as often,
too late and not enough to prevent a genocide.

-- Later: Vega --
Kuno had quickly discovered that you can get used to everything, no
matter how horrible and revolting. He had seen mass graves, and spoken
with people whose families had been burned alive in churches. He had
saved kids of one ethnic origin from being killed by their own mothers
belonging to another. And he couldn't prevent people who had
participated in the earlier massacre from being lynched by survivors.
One day, in charge of a military team, he had evacuated the survivors
of a refugee camp that had been stormed by the opposite faction. He
had rounded up a small group of children who had survived the ordeal.
Some of the mothers, panicking, had tried to launch their kids over
the high barbed wire fence - there were small bodies hanging from it.
One was still alive. He had lost his right arm and was completely
entangled by wire, but he was still alive, his eyes crazed by the
pain. Mercifully, he had died a few minutes later. Kuno's squad
removed the corpses and burned them in a roadside ditch.
The surviving children had been put in Kuno's vehicle, and they had
started the journey back to the UN camp. One hour later, they had
found an obstacle across from the road. While they waited for it to be
removed, the kids had improvised a soccer game with a rounded tin can.
So far, Kuno had succeeded in maintaining his composure. But as he
realised the incongruity of this children's game on the very border
of hell, something inside him had snapped. He had cried for hours,
unable to stop himself. One week later, he had resigned.
Ryouga sat silent as Kuno, his profile stern and hieratic as anytime
he could remember from the Furinkan's years, calmly unfolded his
story. His marvellous and daring mountain adventure had become
trivial: Ukyou and he had just been two tourists in distress over some
exotic holiday location. They hadn't done anything really important -
just climbed a remote mountain no-one cared about. He felt his ancient
angst and sense of purposelessness lurking behind a black corner of
his own conscience. He wondered if even Ukyou had ever felt that way,
since they had come back. Suddenly, he realised they hadn't yet
discussed what had really happened that morning on the Shoulder.

-- Later: Deneb --
Ryouga turned his head. Cologne had silently slipped behind their
shoulders.
"Kuno-san, our tradition says that when Mongols sacked the city of
Tien-tsin, they raised to the sky pyramids of severed heads. I don't
think the world is much changed since, and I'm afraid it will never
change." The old, diminutive woman's expression was blank.
"I don't know, ma'am. But I'm afraid I don't buy this anymore. Someone
tells me that's all to do with human nature, and human nature doesn't
change. If it is true, it's horrible, and I don't think it is true.
It's an excuse for people like my sister and her friends. I'm tired of
hearing lectures on how natural and inevitable these things are. They
aren't. Not at all. And if they are, I hope to face one day the one
responsible of all that, and give him a slap for every human being
that had ever to meet human nature. I really hope so, ma'am. Really."
Cologne didn't answer.

-- Tour Rouge, Tour Noire, Grey Slabs --
Kuno would chaperon Shampoo to the New Ucchan, so Ryouga left. Since
their return from K2, Ryouga's orientation sense had improved a lot,
and now he didn't risk anymore spending days trying to get back home.
Nerima's street were all uniformly covered by the same, thin layer of
snow, coldly reflecting the streetlight's yellow glare. The wall
seemed to be incessant, but Ryouga was glad to be there.
When he arrived at the restaurant, Ukyou was upstairs. She had been
adamant that they weren't going to keep it open for New Year's Eve, so
the light inside was dim, and no one had yet arrived for the party.
Ryouga sat on a bench near the counter. He felt dazed. Something in
the conversation with Kuno had stirred a movement inside his brain,
but he could not identify what it was.
Without notice, from the upper room, came Ukyou's voice. She was
singing - the same song Ryouga had heard on K2's summit, 21000 miles
from Tokyo and 8611 meters over the sea level. He still couldn't
understand the words, but now the tone was different. It wasn't
anymore a call of triumph: just a slow, sad tune sung by a young woman
dressing for a New Year's Eve party.
Ryouga understood what he was trying to remember. He got his pocket
diary, where the unfinished poetry stood:

"Aurora's rising
showing up her multi-lights
I watch her coming
A fearsome growing
beheading my illusions
empress of visions
the veil of Maia
has been torn before my eyes
Aurora's rising"

Then he added

"And even I should see the face of God
It will mean not so much for me
because I've heard
the voice of a merciless Jesus Christ
who's lost his wish for our redemption."

What a beautiful trick they played on us, Ryouga thought. It's really
true that the door will not open, and Akane won't come in smiling,
dressed in yellow and green, ready for the New Year Party? Is it
really possible that Kasumi will not enter and, as in the dream on the
mountain, she'll not bring me some tea and brownies? For me, for
Ukyou, for Kuno, for the kid on the barbed wire fence. They're gone.
What a terrible, splendid joke.
He leaned back. He could still see the image of the distant city
beyond the river, blazing in flames - the same he had glimpsed, beyond
hope but at last at rest, on the mountain shoulder. But the scene
changed - as seen through a limited field of vision, like an iron
slit: the sky was lead, the ground was steel - a voice shouted orders
in an unknown language. There were towers of smoke on the horizon, and
shapes streaming toward him like a torrent of rats. Instinctively, his
hand searched for an invisible ignition key.
I know that everyone's going to his duty - whatever the situation,
whatever the outcome. He clenched his fist again, and suddenly felt
much better.
He closed the notebook, and went upstairs to Ukyou.

THE END

----------------------------------------------------------------------

RED TOWER, BLACK TOWER, GREY SLABS
a story by Luca Signorelli
edited and proofread by Lyn Daniel and Francis Sanchez
"Aurora"'s lyric written by Andrea Signorelli


----------------------------------------------------------------------

To the memory of
Ubaldo Rey, who found his way out of the Shoulder
and
Alan Rouse, who couldn't.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

I love getting mail, rants & grunts, even of the aggressive variety. I
can be reached at
SignorelliL@alma.it
or through snail-mail at
Luca Signorelli
Corso Belgio 105
Turin (Italy)
or by phone/fax at
011/8991336


Ryouga, Ukyou, Cologne, Kuno, Ranma, Akane, Kasumi and Mousse are
products of the talent and fertile imagination of Ms. Rumiko
Takahashi, and I don't claim any right on them (of course!). Ranma 1/2
is a marvellous example of literary genius applied to popular fiction.
To paraphrase someone, I can imagine the world without "X-Files", but
not without "Ranma 1/2." So please, Ms. Takahashi, don't sue me!

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Notes
This story is my first attempt to write fiction directly in English,
and without the learned, skilful and invaluable help of Lyn Daniel
(for the entire text) and Francis Sanchez (for the first part), it
would have been an unreadable typo-fest. Lyn and Frank's contribution
has been even more commendable because of their commitments and the
length of this story. My deep gratitude to them.

The idea that the Wedding Fiasco (Ranma and Akane's first attempt to
marry) could have such serious consequences has been suggested by a
discussion I had with Caroline "Kun-Chan" Seawright, High Priestess Of
Ryouga and victim of one of my longest and direst attempt to make a
decent interview. To her, again, my eternal acknowledgement.

My debt with James Ballard is immense, so I feel a bit uneasy to quote
only a part of it. Anyway, the first few lines of this story are
inspired by the beginning of his short story "The Terminal Beach."
Also, the structure is similar. I believe that he invented the only
narrative technique worth using in this end of century, and I plan to
use it for most of my future fictional output.

Of course, I've to include in this thanklist my brother Andrea. He's
always begging for coming back to his regiment (believe me, I don't
know which regiment is talking about) but his help and inspiration are
second to none.

Someone may find my portrait of Ukyou, Ryouga and Kuno downright
depressing and a far cry from Rumiko Takahashi's solar atmosphere.
Anyway, it occurred to me that in "Ranma 1/2" there's an undercurrent
of subtle melancholy, as if all the frenzy, fun and gaiety of Nerima
was just taking place on the border of the abyss, in a world where
sunset is not far away . Of course, it may be just a matter of
interpretation...

K2 is the second highest mountain on Earth, but it's also the most
beautiful, most dangerous and, along with Gasherbrum IV and Cerro
Torre, most technically difficult - far, far more than Everest. On its
flanks, acts of unimaginable heroism and incredible stupidity have
been perpetrated, and every three climbers attempting its summit, one
dies. It's a place that defies description so, if you want really to
know what's like, you should at least buy a book. K2 isn't documented
well as Everest, but there's a batch of decent book on it. The best
one I know in English is "K2 - The History of The Savage Mountain" by
Jim Curran (London - Hodder and Stoughton).

K2 "true" West Face (not the WSW, climbed first by Japanese in 1978)
is one of the last unclimbed big walls on Earth. The West Face has
been attempted only twice by extremely competent teams, that have
renounced well below the 7000 metres limit because of avalanche
danger. In the Golden Age of Himalayan Climbing (the mid-80's) it
would have attracted hordes, but now it's difficult to think it will
climbed any soon. In fact, along with the nightmarish Makalu West
Face, it remains as one of the symbols of the impossible

If you feel that Ryouga and Ukyou's ordeal has been exaggerated, think
about it twice. In fact, it is the other way round. I've assumed that
Ryouga and Ukyou's nearly supernatural strength and knowledge of
ancient arts would have helped them in the environmental condition to
be found on K2. No actual climb has inspired their story, but the
closest I can think it's Robert Schauer and Woycek Kurtzyka desperate
attempt at Gasherbrum IV's "Shining Wall" in 1985 - maybe, so far, the
most difficult mountain climb EVER. Similarly, Ryouga's close call on
the Shoulder has been to some extent inspired by the 1986 catastrophe,
so tautly described in Mr. Curran's first book on K2: "K2-Triumph And
Tragedy".

Ukyou's hypotesis on Mick Burke's fate (read on the subject the
brilliant account by Pete Boardman, the last men who saw Burke alive,
in "Sacred Summits" ) has been suggested by Reinhold Messner's "The
Limit Of Life." This is an interesting but little know book dealing
with the psychological effects of altitude climbing, written by the
first man who climbed all the 8000's.

Ryouga's poetry ("Aurora") and Ukyou's song ("Tour Rouge, Tour Noire,
Grey Slabs") do really exists. They're both included in Braindamage's
CD "The Turning Point." The former has been written by my brother
Andrea, but the latter is mine!

Most of "Red Tower, Black Tower, Gray Slabs" contents is fictional:
Kuno's tale unfortunately isn't. Thanx to Michele Ricca for his
nightmarish first-hand account, told me on the 1996's Xmas eve.

A quick n' dirty glossary: 14-points crampons are metal devices to be
attached to the sole of the climbing boots. They have 12 metal spikes
perpendicular to the sole, and 4 frontal slightly oblique. They are
used for progression on ice terrain, to prevent slipping. Karabiners
are oblong rings with a spring loaded gate, used to connect the
climbing rope to a piton or any other anchorage. Hexentrics are metal
blocks of several shapes, used universally (along with other metal
spring-loaded expanding devices and/or pitons) to provide anchor
points in rock cracks. Rappels (or abseils) are means of descent on
steep terrain using a double rope anchored on rock (or ice). A belay
point is a safe stance where the rope is anchored safely. A Stitch
plate is a friction device used to control the rope during descent.
Last but not least: Ukyou and Ryouga don't use bottled oxygen, still
the norm when climbing at extremely high altitudes. At 8000 meters
oxygen pressure in the atmosphere is one third than at sea level. Most
mountain expeditions brings bottled oxygen to reduce hypoxia and
survive a longer time at these altitudes. Anyway, the bottles are
heavy and cumbersome, and someone thinks that they are a form of
"cheat". Since Reinhold Messner daring oxygen-less ascent of Everest
in 1978, there's a trend to climb the highest mountains of Earth
without it. Anyway, risks are enormously increased, as the recent
statistics shows.

Turin (Italy), late July 1997