Alright2.  I once read a series of books where, during the space between the 
books, numerous events happen that were never 
written.  I’m using that kind of style.

Suitable title not available

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don’t own these people.  They are someone else’s.  If you have a 
problem with that, I have a recommendation for you that involves a fork that is 
probably anatomically impossible.  Have a nice day.

 : )
 “I hate that man!” Misato bellowed as she slammed the door behind her.  Ritsuko 
took that moment to reflect upon the wisdom of becoming Misato’s roommate.  It 
had seemed simple enough.  Combine their incomes and rent an apartment in Tokyo 
2 in order to get themselves out of their stuffy dorms so that both of the girls 
could keep the things they liked at home (meaning Ritsuko’s cat and Misato’s boy 
friends).  Ritsuko took of her glasses and leaned back from the homework she had 
been doing to rub the bridge of her nose as Misato stormed by.

“Who was it this time?” the brown haired girl asked Misato. Misato had stormed 
into the kitchen by then and was already starting in on the twelve-pack she kept 
in there at all times.  Misato slammed back a full can, stopping only when it 
was empty, and then crushed it and tossed it over her shoulder on to the ground 
as she reached for another,

“Who was it this time?” she yelled.  “It’s that damned Kaji again. Who else 
would it be?”  Crunch, toss.  Another can on the ground. “He was flirting with 
another girl again.”  Crunch, toss.  Another can on the ground.  “How can any 
man be that unfaithful?  He told me he had to go to the bathroom, and when I 
turned around, he had cornered a waitress and they were both giggling.” Crunch, 
toss.  “He makes me sooo mad!” Misato’s face was a bright purple as she slugged 
back another beer.  

Ritsuko knew this drill all too well.  After Misato had finished the cold beers 
in the fridge, she would be just hammered enough not to care that the other 
beers she kept under the sink were warm. Misato had planned it that way. It 
never failed to amaze Ritsuko how someone could be that well organized, yet 
still be a slob.  She looked over to the growing pile of empty crushed beer 
can’s behind Misato, and decided it would be better to get out of the apartment 
for now.  Ritsuko stood and began to clean up her homework so she could hide it 
where Misato couldn’t get to it in her drunken state. Misato continued 
her drunken rant about her unfaithful boyfriend as Ritsuko picked up her keys 
and purse, and quietly exited the apartment. By this time Misato had finished 
off her priming twelve, and had dragged out a twenty-four box from under the 
sink and was well on the way to carpeting the floor with cans. Ritsuko locked 
the door behind her as she left.


As Ritsuko took a deep breath of the humid air in the hot August night, she 
reflected on Misato. How the two of them had ever became friends she would never 
understand. They were polar opposites, one quiet and studious, the other loud 
and over-impulsive. As Ritsuko began to walk to the bus stop that would take her 
the mile into town, she decided that maybe it wasn’t that unusual that the two 
were friends. ‘After all,’ Ritsuko thought, ‘opposites attract.’ 


Ritsuko glanced at her watch as she waited at the stop. It was ten to ten. This 
would be the last bus onto campus. If she did some drinking, she would probably 
have to call a taxi home, but it wouldn’t be that expensive, and it would help 
her relax, she decided.  Her course set she set off to enjoy herself.  


Ritsuko squinted her eyes as she entered the dimly lit bar. Cheap fluorescent 
lights proclaiming different brands of beer provided most of the illumination, 
as well as the periodically flashing pinball and coin machines. A light hazes of 
smoke a testament to the crowd. Most of the booths and tables were full of 
chattering groups, relaxing after a full day of school and work. Ritsuko 
recognized several students, but decided not to call attention to herself as she 
crossed over to the bar and ordered a beer from the bartender. She leaned 
against the counter and watched a flickering T.V screen flashing news clips, 
the volume too low to be heard over the dull roar of the crowd. After a minute 
of observing the screen, she took another glance around the bar, looking for 
someone to talk to.


The room had its comfortable share of shabbily dressed persons laughing freely 
and chatting, drunkards in their drinks, and single individuals desperately 
searching for companionship of the intimate nature. Ritsuko noticed one of the 
desperate individuals slowly making his way across the room to her. Ritsuko made 
herself private wager as to what his opening line would be. She made another on 
how quickly she could shoot him down.


“Hey, hey,” the man said upon arriving next to Ritsuko. Ritsuko sipped her beer 
as he leaned on the counter, a little too close to her. “Have we met before,” he 
continued, his voice a little slurred from the drink in his hand, “I could swear 
I’ve seen you before.”


Ritsuko turned to look at him. “That was without a doubt the most pathetic and 
cliché pick up line I have ever heard in my entire life. Get lost and come back 
when you pick up some elegance, and some charm,” she told him calmly, as she 
took another pull from her bottle.


The man blinked twice at her response, his mouth opened. A table nearby began to 
laugh loudly at her response to his overtures. The man’s mouth closed and his 
face turned resentful. He angrily tipped back a gulp, and wiped his mouth off 
with his arm as he turned away and staggered angrily to the other side of the 
room. Ritsuko smiled to herself as she continued her search of the room. She 
noticed a group wearing tie-die and smoking cigarettes talking over a table full 
of CDs. Next to them, a small group semi-well dressed young men were all hitting 
on the same young lady at the same time. One table over in the corner a lone 
figure sat hunched over a bottle, apparently content to drink himself into a 
daze. Another table over a middle aged man and his wife….


Ritsuko suddenly straightened and turned back to the lone figure in the corner.  
‘It couldn’t be,’ she thought to herself as she peered intensely at the figure.  
She took a quick moment to finish off her beer, and then ordered another one as 
she studied him. ‘It is,” she told herself and she crossed the room to stand 
next to the table. The figure looked up at her, as it poured itself another 
glass from the half-empty bottle. 

“Ah, dearest Rits-chan,” Kaji murmured. “I see I am discovered. Now that you’re 
here, please pull up a chair.” Ritsuko was rather startled when he didn’t flash 
his signature grin. She studied Kaji carefully as she sat down. His face was, as 
usual, unshaved. He wore a red button up shirt and black pants with black 
loafers. What threw her most off was that his usual ponytail was done up as a 
pig tale instead. The whole affect rather unnerved Ritsuko for some reason. She 
took a drink of her beer as Kaji threw back the small glass he had just poured 
himself, and then she tried to start a conversation.

“If you keep drinking like that,” she told him, “you’re going to regret it in 
the morning.” He glanced at her from his hunched up position and stopped pouring 
for a bit.

“You might be right,” he commented. “If I stop drinking, will you take me home 
and tuck me in?” he continued with a leer.

Rather then be offended, Ritsuko just laughed. She had long ago found her 
earlier summation of his character to be accurate. He would hit on anything that 
moved, but very rarely bothered to follow through. “You really pissed off Misato 
earlier. Can’t you wait until after the date to flirt with another women?  You 
know how Misato can be,” she continued. Kaji finished pouring a glass, but 
rather then drink it he just swirled the fluid around the cup for a bit.

“Do you really want to know why?” he asked in a low voice and a serious tone.  
Ritsuko looked at him sharply. Kaji’s cheerful demeanor had completely vanished 
as he continued. “It’s ‘cause I would like to spend tonight alone.” He through 
back the drink, and began to pour himself another. 

Ritsuko was flabbergasted. She had known Kaji for the eight months he had been 
attending the University. He had rather shocked her.  He was the captain of the 
martial arts team, though he rarely, if ever, bothered to compete in the 
tournaments. With the extra training he had given the other members of the team, 
the team still came out the victors in almost every tournament and event they 
had participated in. Kaji preferred to spend most of his time studying and 
completing his homework for his classes. It seemed to Ritsuko that Kaji was just 
using the excuse of the team to get himself into the school so late in the year, 
and to keep his attendance cheap through scholarships. He hardly ever attended 
parties, and although he flirted constantly with every girl in every class he 
had, he rarely dated. Ritsuko was sure that Misato was his first semi-regular 
girlfriend all year. He almost never drank, rarely touching any beer at the few 
parties he did attend. Yet, here he was, virtually screaming at her to go away, 
and well over half way done a bottle, and here Ritsuko’s eyes widened, of 190 
proof straight everclear. It didn’t take a person of Ritsuko’s intelligence to 
see that something was wrong.

Ritsuko watched him closely as Kaji poured himself yet another glass of the 
clear alcohol. Normally anyone who drank that much everclear would have been 
under the table in a puddle of vomit. Kaji seemed hardly the worse for wear, and 
still going strong.

“Alright,” she said, as she came to a sudden decision, “what’s eating you?” She 
put her beer down in front of her and folded her arm as she regarded him. 

“Why, dearest Rits-chan, whatever do you mean?” he asked innocently as he tossed 
back another cup. He began to pour again, when Ritsuko reached over the table 
and stopped the bottle. He turned his eyes from the cup and looked at Ritsuko 
through his bangs.

“I’m serious,” she told him, and she meant it. “What’s wrong?  I’ve never seen 
you pull a binge like this before. Hell, even Misato would be under the table if 
she had had this much.”

Kaji snorted and gently pulled the bottle free from Ritsuko’s grasp and poured 
the cup full. Rather then drink it, though, he pushed it across the table to 
Ritsuko. She looked at it and then at him. “Drink,” Kaji told her, “and I’ll let 
you know ‘what’s eating me’.”  

Ritsuko eyed the cup and then picked it up. ‘He’s been slugging these back like 
their water,’ she thought. ‘How bad can it be?’ She threw the drink back in one 
gulp, and then discovered just how bad it can be.

After she had finished coughing and chugging her beer to get the fire out of her 
mouth, and Kaji had finished laughing, she looked at him and said, “Now spill 
it.”

He told her.

“I was out of the country at the time,” he began. “I was getting treatment for a 
condition I suffered from. Don’t ask me what it was,” he told her as she began 
to speak. “You’ve never heard of it before, and it’s long since cured. I had 
just finished the treatment, when it happened.” He stopped and poured himself 
another half cup before continuing.  

“What happened?” Ritsuko asked, though she had a suspicion what it was.

“Second impact happened. I had no idea what was going on at the time. All I knew 
was that all hell had broken loose. Rioting, floods, and enormous storms.  An 
extremely harsh winter had sprung up, caused by the clouds and ash of the impact 
blocking the sun. I was waylaid up in a small village for almost four months. 
When it was finally safe to travel, I set off for home as fast as I could. Along 
the way, I managed to find out what had happened. Traveling conditions were 
tough, and getting supplies and transportation was hard. It took me another two 
months to reach the cost, and another month to get transportation. The passage 
was hard, a storm had blown up out of nowhere, and delayed us another month 
before we finally reached our destination. By the time I had finally made it 
home, it was too late. All of Tokyo had been drowned, swallowed up by the sea.” 
Ritsuko watched as the usually upbeat, cheerful, and charming man in front of 
her took an entire fourth a bottle of everclear and chugged it as if it was 
nothing. He waited with his eyes closed and shuddered as the alcohol hit his 
system all at once. “Today is the anniversary of my returning to Tokyo. Today 
was the day fifteen years ago when I discovered that all of my family, and most 
of my friends were dead.” He raised his hand to catch a waitress's eye, and 
waited as she came to call.

“Can I help you?” she asked politely.  Kaji waved his hand at his bottle.

“I’m out of everclear. Would you be as kind as you are beautiful, and bring me 
another bottle?” he asked with a cheerful smirk. The waitress blushed slightly 
and moved to comply. As soon as her back was turned, Kaji’s smile vanished.

Ritsuko was at a loss. She had heard her fair share of sob stories, and truth be 
told, this wasn’t the worst of them. The most disturbing part of this story was 
that it was Kaji acting this way. In addition, she couldn’t get this itching out 
of her mind. There was something familiar about the outfit he was wearing. She 
just couldn’t place it. She decided the best thing she could do, was keep him 
talking, maybe help him reach some type of catharsis after his tragedy.

“You said most of your friends were dead. What happened next?” she asked as the 
waitress finished bringing another bottle of everclear. Kaji blessed her with 
one of his soul shatteringly good-looking smiles and a twenty. The waitress 
blushed and thanked him as she left. Kaji poured another shot, and pushed across 
the table to Ritsuko. She looked at it distrustfully.

“It’s rude to let a man drink by himself as he talks about himself,” Kaji told 
her with a wry little grin. Ritsuko braced herself and took the shot. She 
followed it with another beer chaser. Things were beginning to feel a little 
fuzzy, and she wasn’t surprised after all the alchohol she had drank. She 
wondered briefly how Kaji could still be going after drinking so much.  

“I was took in by a man I never really respected,” Kaji continued, after Ritsuko 
was calmed down and he had had another drink. “I always figured him as a 
perverted old man. And he was, but there was more to him then that. I never 
really bothered to try to understand him, but as he took care of me through my 
shock and depression, he surprised me. I saw a side of him I had never really 
seen before. He was very old. Most of the people he had ever known were dead.  
His oldest friend and ex-love had died in Tokyo after the impact, but he coped.  
He coped by surrounding himself with beautiful women. He would do things to them 
to make them angry, which was why I thought he was just a pervert originally.  
But there was more to it then base lust. He got the women to chase him, to make 
him feel wanted, to give him a reason to keep alive. I guess it kind of rubbed 
off on me a bit. There’s no better reason to keep going then that there are a 
dozen beautiful women who want you, and want you to stay alive. I took a page 
from the old man’s book, but toned it down a bit,” Kaji laughed as he said this.  
“I don’t know what I would’ve done with all the underwear the old man had.”

“What happened to the man?” Ritsuko wanted to know.  

Kaji sighed, but with was a bittersweet smile. “He was very old. After his ex 
died, he had no real reason to go on. After I recovered enough to take care of 
myself, he left me a note, and went off to die.”

“He killed himself?” Ritsuko asked, horrified.

“No, no, no.  He was very old. The only reason he was still alive was that he 
was too stubborn to die. He went to a place he had fond memories of, and just 
stopped trying to live. I just hope he’s happy with his ancestors and friends.”  
Kaji ignored the cup and took a long swig from the bottle. Ritsuko felt herself 
swaying a bit. She didn’t have Misato’s endurance for drinking. It was about 
time to head home, but she didn’t want to leave Kaji alone just yet.

“What happened next?” she asked as she swayed slightly. Kaji looked at her, and 
grinned slightly, a shadow of his usual cocky self. He poured her another shot 
and pushed it across the table. Ritsuko looked at it, and tried to decide if she 
really wanted to know. Curiosity won out over caution, and the drink went down.  
It didn’t burn as much as the others had, and she fuzzily chalked it up to the 
fact that she was falling down drunk.

“I trained,” Kaji continued. “I lost myself for a bit in martial arts. Then I 
decided that I need a real education, and that I can’t let myself stay a stupid 
jock all my life. I took night courses to get my high school diploma, then came 
here, using a scholarship and my skill to get into this prestigious University.  
And every year, on this date, I drink to friends and families, lost and gone.”  
Kaji punctuated this last statement with an enormous swig. He put down the 
severely depleted bottle and fixed Ritsuko with an appraising look. “You’re 
drunk, and you want to go home, don’t you?”

Ritsuko jerked up from the beginnings of a slump. “Got me in one,” she answered 
in a fuzzy tone. Kaji laughed and got up.  He stood still for a second, and 
swayed once with his eyes closed, and then patted Ritsuko on the shoulder.

“I’ll call you a cab, alright?” he asked. Ritsuko nodded blearily. She hadn’t 
meant to get this drunk, but sometimes these things happen. She looked at the 
clock and realized that it was a little after twelve. Had she really been here 
that long? It had seemed like minutes. Out of the corner of her eyes, she 
tracked Kaji as he moved back from where he had been talking on the bar 
telephone. She tried to stand to go to meet him, but ended up leaning against 
the booth in an effort to keep herself from falling. Kaji finished the trip back 
and put an arm around her as he helped her stand.

“Come on.  You’re in no condition to wait by yourself, he told her. They 
staggered to the bar door and left, a small pile of bills at the booth and two 
empty bottles the only marking of their passage.


The first thing Ritsuko became aware of when she woke was a splitting hangover.   
She could honestly say that it wasn’t the worst hangover she had ever had, but 
that did little to comfort her. She pushed the sheets off the futon she was 
lying on when something struck her. She didn’t own a futon. As she glanced 
around the room, trying to find out where she was and ignore her headache at the 
same time, several other things struck her. One, she was in her underwear. Two, 
her clothes were neatly folded by the side of where she was sleeping. Three, she 
wasn’t in her room. Four, she could hear the noises of someone in the kitchen.  
All this added up to a simple conclusion: she must have gone home with someone 
else in a drunken stupor. She sighed to herself as she rubbed her head and 
reached for her clothes.  

Ritsuko was struck with a sudden certainty that today was going to suck.  

As she finished pulling on her jeans and buttoning her blouse, someone knocked 
on the door. Ritsuko grit her teeth and decided to see whom she had went home 
with last night. She pulled open the door.

“Good morning sunshine,” Kaji cheerfully greeted her, grinning from ear to ear 
as he held a tray with breakfast on it. Ritsuko felt like crying.

Three minutes later they were both seated at a low table in the main room of 
Kaji’s apartment. Ritsuko was trying to eat over the pain in her head, as Kaji 
cheerfully inhaled a bowl of miso soup and a bowl of rice. Ritsuko tentatively 
spoke up.

“Umm, Kaji,” she began. He turned to look at her and his grin threatened to 
split his head in half. “Uh,” she continued, “what happened last night?” 

“You mean before or after the passionate sex?” he asked. Ritsuko face faulted.  
“Just kidding,” Kaji laughed again at the expression on her face. “Well, after 
we finished our drink I was escorting you to a cab when we were accosted by an 
individual. 

“Who?” Ritsuko asked.

“A young man who you earlier told to ‘come back when you pick up some elegance, 
and some charm’ apparently thought that a knife counted as either.” Ritsuko’s 
eyes widened and Kaji continued as though he didn’t notice. “After I informed 
the ignorant citizen on why I was the captain of the martial arts team, you 
collapsed on me, totally out of it. I decided that I wasn’t going to send you 
back unconscious and by yourself in a cab. I also didn’t want to go back and 
face a drunken Misato while carrying your soused body to your apartment, so I 
brought you back to mine. After I made you comfortable,” Ritsuko became aware of 
her blush and was furious at the way Kaji grinned at it, “I went to bed on the 
couch.”

“And I’m sure you loved every minute of it, you pervert,” Ritsuko sighed as she 
rubbed her head, her hangover disappearing, and an even worse headache started.  
Kaji only chuckled at her response. Ritsuko continued her breakfast, at a slower 
pace and thought about what happened last night. There was something about the 
way Kaji had dressed last night that was rubbing her the wrong way. Kaji had 
returned to his simple ponytail and T-shirt combination, but Ritsuko couldn’t 
forget about how he had looked last night. She continued to think about this as 
she ate her breakfast, sparing him occasional glances at him, while he seemed 
content to let the silence rest at the table. It was probably nothing, but for 
some reason, she couldn’t get it out of her mind. She absently reached across 
the table to get the beaker of water and fill her glass as he reached for more 
soup, and the resultant collision sent the beaker tumbling on the table, dowsing 
both of them with cold water. This caused Ritsuko to pause slightly. Something 
about cold water…

“Clumsy tomboy,” she heard Kaji mutter under his breath as he stood up and 
started ringing his shirt to get the excess of water out of it. The words hit 
Ritsuko like a hammer, or a mallet…

Kaji finished his impromptu shirt-drying dance and turned back to the table to 
find Ritsuko staring at him and gawking. He blinked twice, nonplussed by this 
reaction. “Um…Is there something in my teeth?” he asked nervously. Ritsuko stood 
up and crossed the room without saying a word, the shock still keeping her 
speechless. She covered his chin with one hand and brushed his hair back with 
her other. She didn’t even notice, bur Kaji began to get nervous at their 
closeness.

“What is it?” he voiced nervously.

Ritsuko knew what had been nagging at her before. Why his clothes had seemed so 
strange, and yet so familiar. “Ranma,” she breathed.

Kaji’s face fell. “Kuso,” he swore. “I hoped you were too drunk to make the 
connection.”


End of ‘Suitable title not available’ chapter 2.

Chapter three might come eventually.