‘RT’ is for the ‘Real Thing’ or just ‘Red Thread’ 

by Yui Miyamoto

Chapter 4- I realize.

As I put down all the things we had picked up, I looked at Shampoo again as she

and her grandmother conversed.I looked at them in relief and smiled throughout the rest of the day as we fixed the restaurant.

When we were done, I was given permission to go home early.

As I stepped out of the house, I quietly shut the door behind me.When I looked up, I saw someone that I least wanted to see right then...

“Shampoo...what are you doing here?”I asked uncertainly as I tried to straighten up my bag behind me.

“I tired.”She looked curiously at me.“What you do with bag?”

Oh, why does this have to be harder than it has to be?Why does this always have to happen to me?

I smiled, but I looked straight into her eye.“I’m going back to China, Shampoo.”

What do you say to that, huh?The usual ‘Goodbye, I’m glad to get rid of you’?Do you hate me or do you love me, Shampoo?Now is the time to show me...

“Oh...”She laughed and slapped my back.“Oh, Mousse, you kidding, right?”

I shook my head.“No, not this time.”

With all my memories, all my hopes, all my dreams, I took up what little pride I had left.I then bent over to kiss her gently on the cheek.

I can’t believe I’m doing this…

I whispered to her ear, “Goodbye, Shampoo.”

Do something, Shampoo…

I’m walking out without looking back.If I do, I’ll be in the same position as before…

“Oh, you be back later.I know you, Mousse.”She whispered without moving from her place.Shampoo wouldn’t turn around to look at me.“I know you will be back.”

Then please, keep me here.Let me be beside you, for always.Stop me Shampoo.Tell me everything I’ve said and done all my life…

…tell me that because I had made you the reason for my life that it was worth all your coldness and pain that I’ve endured…

Stop me Shampoo!Just give me some indication that you care a damn about me!!!

But on I walked silently…

And you didn’t even run after me…

As I leaned on the edge of the boat heading for China, I waved to nobody.

Bye Japan.

Goodbye to everything I thought would be mine.

I sighed and looked down at the water.“I can’t believe it took me this long to figure this out.”

There were so many things rushing to my head, and yet everything was so clear to me now...

I finally realized she wouldn’t ever think of me.She wouldn’t cry for me.She would never reach the kind of care and affection I felt towards her.Not with all the sincerity I put into everything...

I would have wanted to kiss her, but she had only thought of me as some annoyance who somewhat was a childhood friend to her.

Of course she had her soft spots, but never one for me.

From my pocket, I pulled out two fabrics.I dropped the red thread into the sea.“It was really a great dream.”

And I stared at the one I had carried in my pocket since I was seven...

...the green ribbon she had worn in her hair.

It was something I had carried throughout my life.When I ran around the village...when I came to Japan to defeat Ranma...when I went to Jusenkyo...when I came to live with you, Shampoo...

I looked up to the starry sky.

At that, I started to cry like a fountain whose flow of water would never stop.

“You’ll come back right?”she had said to me.

“No, I will stay with Shampoo in Japan.”

Ling clutched onto her shirt and tried her hardest not to cry.She was an prideful Amazon after all.“Mousse!I’m telling to you to stay!”

I got off the tree I was leaning on and stood in front of her.“I know you are my friend but I have to do this!”

“Why, Mousse?What will it accomplish?!”

Ling had been my friend since I was ten.She had helped me up one time when it was raining and I was stuck in the mud.Even if she was a prideful Amazon, she was one girl that was very, very kind to me.

“It will accomplish that I will be her husband when I defeat that Ranma Saotome!”

“Mousse… She shook in anger.And I had never seen her so mad...or for real.

“I can’t say goodbye forever!!!”

In the next second, she would shout at me something I had never expected her to say…

“Will you just stay here and defeat me?!” 

I looked at her in shock.The second best fighter in the village and one of the most beautiful...she was asking me something that I understood...if I heard right.“She was really a good friend and wanted to protect me,” I thought at that second.

She nodded as if in slight desperation and frustration.“Defeat me, Mousse.”

I shook my head and turned around.“I will go where Shampoo goes.”

“I respect your wishes.” Ling then sighed and walked in front of me so that we could look at each other face to face.She cupped my face in between her hands and smiled at me.“No matter what happens, I will always be here for you, Mousse.Okay?”

“Thanks, Ling.”I held her shoulder.“I’m glad we became friends.”

“Me too, dear Mousse,” she said.

But at that time, I did not understand if she was doing it as a friend for honor or if she really did love me as a man.I mean, she was a childhood friend and two years older than I was...

When I landed on a pier closest to our village (even though it was still quite far off), I was more than disheartened.I would have liked to have died on that boat by jumping off to sea.But as fate would have it, since my curse turned me into a duck, I could not.I would have to live with all my shame...

I walked for the rest of the day and finally made it to my village.It got harder and harder to think if what I did was right in the long run.“I’ve wasted my life and I love STILL that girl that doesn’t love me.”

“Hope.”I clung onto the green ribbon that I had cried upon countless times. “Green is the color of hope...that’s why I could never let go.”

“Mousse?”The woman in front of the village dropped her laundry and ran to me.

“It’s really you, Mousse!”And she jumped into my arms, without inhibitions and without thinking twice.

“Hi, Ling!”I smiled and hugged her back.

“I knew it!” she happily shouted.“I had a dream you’d come back to China soon.”

I nodded with mixed feelings of pain and joy.

“So, what happened to Sham-“

“I did not come back to talk about her.”I pushed Ling away from me. 

“Mousse? W-what?”

I positioned myself.“I came back to defeat you.”

She looked at me for a second with an expression I couldn’t even begin to describe.

Then, she positioned herself with her hands out in front of her.“I’m ready!”

As I fought, that green ribbon I had carried for so long disappeared forever from my sight.

And with its disappearance, I buried my feelings for the first girl I had ever fallen in love with.

Until now, 

Very painful as it is,

I finally realize...

With many tears behind and further caused by you…

There is really life for me after you, Shampoo...

But I still can’t see you not being in it.

I don’t think I ever will…

--

Author’s note:Yes, I know it’s very dramatic.But that’s just how Mousse is.He’s extreme, but he’s very sincere.The more and more I write about him, the more fascinated I become.

Well how was that, huh?I would have put Shampoo’s reaction to all this, but that would ruin the moment because this fanfic is and for Mousse.^_~I’ll do her reaction later…

Besides, I’m still sad and bitter about her.Heh.^^;;;

Talk to me!You know the e-mail!

Arigatou for reading and see you next time.