“Akane...” Ryoga sighed heavily and stood, shaking the sand out of his hair. His eyes took on a far-away look as he stared out at the red-gold colors of the rising sun. The light reflected off the ocean waves, turning them a deep crimson. Ryoga felt the familiar ache again, as if all the world around him was cheerful and bright, yet he was still lost in the darkness. Always lost.

The waves slapped against the shore near his feet, and Ryoga stumbled backwards, afraid to let the water touch him for fear of transforming. It was enough that he had to contend with a broken heart, turning into a pig would not be a welcome obstacle.

The shining waters beckoned him, and Ryoga had the sudden urge to touch them, to wade in and immerse himself in the red and shining that confronted him, and to be made new within the waters. But he didn’t, because he wanted the pain to remain. Without it, he wasn’t sure if he could still consider himself human. He had to feel each emotion of loneliness and sadness. The dark emotions inside made him real, and he somehow felt that the only joy he would ever find must start inside his wounded heart.

Ryoga reached down and grasped his backpack, pulling it over his broad shoulders, barely feeling the weight. Then he walked away from the sand and the crimson waves, facing away from the sunrise towards the still-darkened landscape. The music seemed to fade as he retreated into the gloom.

Step by step, the Lost Boy trudged down a dirt path, eyes on the ground. His heart was heavy and his mind was full of rapidly churning thoughts about where to go and what to do. The shadows stretched out before him, and with each step he felt himself reaching farther into the darkness that surrounded his heart, away from light and home.

“Home...” Ryoga spoke hesitantly, savoring the word. He couldn’t remember a time before Akane when he’d truly had a home. Nerima had, for a time, been a place of friends and warmth, a place he could always go and be recognized and greeted, even if only by an insult from Ranma. But that was lost now. Nerima would never feel like home to him ever again. But if Nerima wasn’t his home, then where was it?

Ryoga shook his head to clear his thoughts and slumped tiredly against a fence. The sun had risen now, banishing the night completely. The fence provided the only shadows, and in those shadows Ryoga wished to remain. But the sun kept calling to him, daring him to step out into the light. To face and overcome his pain instead of wallowing in it. And no matter how much Ryoga tried to hide from it, the half-heard music would not stop haunting him until he stood in the sun.

The Lost Boy stared around him for a moment, taking in the landscape that surrounded him. Up ahead was a signpost, marking off directions. Each arrow pointed a different way, down a myriad of paths. But to Ryoga, every one would always lead eventually to Nerima, and to the heartache he had faced there.

“Once was enough,” Ryoga stated resolutely to whatever entity was trying to get him to abandon his private pain. “Why won’t you leave me alone? I’ve already lost once and I’m sick of it. Anywhere I go, it’ll always be just like Nerima. I have three curses now: the curse of the pig, the curse of direction, and the curse of the brokenhearted.” With that announcement, Ryoga wandered back down the road, keeping still to the shadows.

It was noon, and the sun was directly above Ryoga, filtered through the tree leaves as he wandered aimlessly through a forest. He had long ago lost track of where he was. He wasn’t even sure if he was in Japan anymore. But it didn’t matter. Nothing seemed to be important now except to walk and keep walking, and to not think about that which he was walking away from. But it seemed now that every way he turned, the sun was calling to him, and the music was getting louder.

The world around Ryoga seemed suddenly small and stifling, and Ryoga felt the tears coming again. He pounded on a tree in frustration, splitting it in two with one blow. But the Lost Boy was too wrapped up in his own emotions to care. He hated the oppressive loneliness that drove him to tears, but he was too frightened to leave it behind.

“I don’t want to cry,” Ryoga murmured. “What kind of warrior cries? I’m always the one left in tears, and I can’t stand it. I’m being weak! I promised that I would never be weak again...so why can’t I stop?” He felt a sob rise in his throat and gave way to it, allowing himself to let go of his bottled up emotions once more. And Ryoga cried again.

Ryoga waited until the episode had passed, then started to move again. He traveled for hours in the green darkness of the forest, aware of the passage of time only because of the rapidly lengthening shadows before him. The entire world seemed to stretch out before him, beckoning him to come out and enjoy it. But Ryoga’s mind kept drifting back to Nerima, to the Tendo Dojo where the shattered pieces of his heart still remained. Ryoga was truly lost this time.

The forest ended abruptly, as if it had been suddenly sheared away by an invisible hand. The same path was stretched out before Ryoga once more, branching out into two different directions. One path seemed to lead into midnight and silence, while the other led straight towards the gold of the setting sun, where the music seemed to grow louder.

“Which way to go?” Ryoga murmured. “Does it really matter? I’ll only get lost anyway. But I wonder....” He glanced down the bright path. What were the words to that song that kept haunting him? It couldn’t hurt to find out. Ryoga started down the path towards the horizon.

The crimson hues of the setting sun lit up a familiar farm in front of Ryoga. He stared, scarcely believing what he saw. He ran forward to read the sign which stood out front.

Unryuu Farm.

“Akari? I--I made it to Akari’s?” Ryoga felt a strange hope grow within him. After all that searching, he had found her at a time when he hadn’t truly wanted to. But something about the farm seemed to be calling to him. And for once, Ryoga realized that he could understand every word that blew by on the wind.

“But will she still want me, after all this time?” Ryoga considered. He had chased the impossible dream that was Akane for so long...perhaps Akari had forgotten about him. Perhaps she had moved on, found someone else.

....Or perhaps she was waiting for him still, ready to welcome him with open arms, though he had spent all his affections on a woman he had always known that he could never have.

“It’s getting dark,” Ryoga murmured thoughtfully. “And I couldn’t just walk on by, after I’ve finally found my way here. I guess I’ll never know if I’m supposed to be here or not unless I enter. After all, I’ve gotten this far...”

Ryoga knocked on the door.

Go back!