White Clouds in the Blue Sky

"Of course not, Ranma," said Akane, quietly and tiredly.

Ranma could feel Akane beside him, over him.... "I'm... not dead...."

"No. You aren't," Akane said.

It was her hand.... It was her arm under his head.... She was holding him?

He couldn't open his eyes. And he was barely breathing.

A pain completely covered his chest, without any specific point even though he knew the exact place where it was all originating from. It was intense, the burning.... He felt he shouldn't move, because everything was barely holding together - and couldn't, as though his body wouldn't let him.

"You'll be okay, Ranma," said Akane. "We'll be okay."

How long has it been?

It started... so long ago, but it was really just so sudden.

The monster finally appeared, and so he followed it.

The monster waited in the middle of a park....

There was so much more to it all, but that was it all.... Simplified.

He had been dreaming - he remembered the dream so clearly, even the people's names. There was Rei.... The Urameshi's. Hell, even Doc Tofu was there! What the hell was all that about? A weird dream....

Suddenly, he had to know. "Akane.... The monster. Dead?" he asked.

"Dead." Akane's warmth seemed to fill him, as though she was tightly embracing him with her soul. "Don't worry, Ranma."

Don't worry.... He was dying - there was no doubt about that. But it was slowly, so maybe if he could get stitched up.... He wouldn't worry - just lie there, and wait.

"Akane.... Sorry.... Couldn't... save... nobod...." he started to say, but Akane pressed a finger over his lips.

"Don't talk."

It had been a very strange dream, really.... A dream at the edge of death?

If it didn't hurt so much, he'd hope this was all a dream too.... Lying in his blood, as though poised to sleep forever, with Akane's lap for a pillow.

If he could, he'd open his eyes, and it'd all be....

Chapter Three - Distant Twilight

Different, like he was somewhere else.

Home, at the Urameshi's, in his bed.

The scar slightly itched, but it could be scratched.

Slowly, he rose from bed, and began to dress - it was the first time he was going to school in some time. It wouldn't do to be late but maybe it wouldn't matter.

There was his homework on the desk.... Actually done - it was hard to believe that, but he got it finished somehow.

His bag near the door - he grabbed it on the way out to the kitchen where Missus Urameshi was waiting, with a nice smelling breakfast on the table.

Digging in, he chewed the food, without any thought, which was good.

Thinking was bad, like bringing a dull knife down his back, slowly and unsteadily.

Better to avoid - best to forget.

"So, it's okay then?" said the dead boy, who was sitting beside Ranma. He'd come from nowhere, like 'that last time'.

The blood on the boy's face had long ago dried.... The boy, really a young man, kept picking at it, trying to clean it off.

Avoid, forget.

Ranma paid his gratitude for the meal, and then stood. Time to leave for school.

Outside, Rei was waiting for him.

"Um, I was called this morning by the teacher...." Her voice trailed off, so Ranma almost couldn't hear her. "He said you'd be coming today, and maybe I should meet you...." He couldn't hear her, so he looked at her, and saw her face (what he could of that, considering she was staring at the pavement) was fully red.

When she seemed to finish, her mumblings ending, Ranma nodded. He hadn't heard half of what she said, but she was there.

"You're Rei, right?" Ranma asked.

"Oh.... Yes," said the girl.

He walked, and she followed behind. He listened, and she caught him up on the events in class. He didn't care though, but he listened. Apparently, Rei was the class rep.

The dead boy walked with him too, but Ranma paid him absolutely no attention. As far as he was concerned, the boy didn't exist.

"You're kind'a right, there," said the dead boy.

"You managed to get all that work done?" asked Rei, amazed. "That was weeks worth - you missed so much!"

"Yeah, I finished it. Not very good though," said Ranma. "Just filled it all out. Doubt any of it's A-material." It's all crap, really. Everything.

"That's still... neat," Rei said.

"Not really," said Ranma. It just kept my mind going. Didn't have to think about 'that'.

"Is that okay, though?" asked the dead boy.

Forget it all.... Live, then die. Well, not really 'live'. Just die, slowly.

Ranma's scar was itching, so he scratched it, inattentively, but it hurt from the touch.

"It's starting to wake up, Ranma," said the dead boy.

Tired of listening to the dead.

Why couldn't the boy just go? Be dead, and be happy being dead?

"Cause it needs to be stopped," said the dead boy.

What?

Ranma looked at the dead boy, who was looking away. "What'd you say?"

"You need to stop it," said the boy. "I don't know what it is, exactly, though. Some kind of man. Maybe a monster." He stopped, to let Rei speak to Ranma.

"I was just wondering what clubs you might be interested in joining?" Rei said, seemingly surprised and embarrassed, as though she hadn't expected Ranma to hear her.

Ranma hadn't heard her, whatever she had actually said before, but replied, "Probably none. Don't feel well enough to do anythin'." He really didn't feel up to anything - all his energy was just gone. "Not that interested, either." That was an understatement, he felt.

Rei looked about to say something, but stopped.

"Maybe it's a sickness," said the boy, speculatively. "I caught it, before. It tore me apart - and sent me out into the world like a mad dog. And now it's doing the same to you." He looked at Ranma. "I was wondering, do you ever cry for those who died?"

Stupid! Shut his mouth!

Rage tore through Ranma's mind, as though pulling him towards the edge of a cliff. And he was angry, yet he watched it happen, as though a third party in his own mind.

"I don't think you do, really. You don't even cry for yourself," said the dead boy. "Tough guy."

Kill!

Shut... up!

The world seemed to swim past Ranma's eyes. He began to feel nauseous, and so covered his mouth - bile poured into the back of his throat, and so he quickly spat it out.

And the scar...? Like it was going to burst!

"Ranma?" Rei's voice.... Ranma looked at her, and the pain began to recede.

The voice in the back of his mind.... He could hear it clearly: "Don't die...."

The new teacher.... Who the hell was he? Looked so familiar....

"This is Mister Ken Kurohoshi," said the homeroom teacher (whom Ranma also didn't know).

The man's name didn't trigger any memories, but the face....

Ranma felt something strange, and perhaps even dangerous about the man. The man - Ken, wasn't it? seemed almost ready to break out into laughter.

"Hi, hi, for those of you who didn't catch it the first time, my name is Mister Ken Kurohoshi," the man said. He looked at all the people in the class, smirking. His eyes rested on Ranma for the briefest of seconds, and Ranma saw in the man's eyes knowledge.... "Anyway, I'll be teaching you kids for some time.... I hope we can all get along," he said.

Where did the dead one go? Ranma searched, but didn't see him. It was just everybody who was supposed to be there, in the class.... Not that he cared. He really hoped the dead kid realised that he was dead, for once, and stayed in the grave.

'My feelings hurt,' he thought, slightly amused, eventually, as the teacher began his lesson. They seemed almost to throb, pulsating, as though actually physical, like a wound running down his spinal cord.

Ranma looked at his desk. Wasn't the first beast wanting to bother him.... Wanting to annoy him? It always seemed to show up, when the day began to dig its talons into his back.

It wasn't a real beast. It was some... thing that only laughed.... Grinned, and wanted him to fail, which he was - failing everything. Falling.... Breaking and crumbling. Being picked up in wind like he was turning into dust.... Oh, it wasn't real, that imaginary beast.

He, Ranma, was a real beast though - one that wanted to break and destroy. Just erupt and.... Stop... it all...! Bash, and just crush it.... Make it stop, the pain...! Make it end.... Burn all to ashes, then perhaps....

He was gripping his head, his fingers digging into his skull, and his hands covering his eyes.

And it was the scar that burned...!

"Ranma," said Mister Kurohoshi, suddenly, bringing Ranma from his mind. "Please pay attention."

Ranma looked at the teacher, and then had to stop from gasping.

The teacher seemed to in two. There was one form everybody could see, who was writing some boring lesson on the board.

But Ranma could another Mister Kurohoshi, as though it was some old photo where the person had moved too soon, making it look like there was two in the same space....

The form he alone could see watched him, and ceaselessly grinned.

Such an awful expression.... Like a skull....

The cold water ran down his hand, into the sink then down the drain. He watched it, and felt his hand grow colder until it hurt. Flexing his hand, he then brought it to his forehead, and felt some relief, as he was sweating. From what, he didn't know. It wasn't like him to get sick.

The water wasn't enough to activate his curse, turning him into a girl, but he could feel something stirring inside, like a yawn he couldn't get rid of.

That teacher, Kurohoshi was a freak.

But better not to worry about that man.

"He's here for you," said the dead boy, suddenly standing beside Ranma. "And maybe me too. It's his job."

The sound of the tap water was somehow comforting. It was steady, the... rhythm.

"I guess if he's here, then maybe we're running out of time," said the dead boy. "He's going to do something that'll force you to make a decision. And he doesn't care if it's the right one or not. But the thing is...." He stopped speaking, as though remembering he couldn't say what he wanted.

The dead boy eventually said, "I wonder what it's like to be dead?"

Ranma was almost tempted to ask, "Don't you already know?"

The dead boy replied to Ranma's unasked question, "This isn't being dead. You of all people should know this." He then said, "Anyway, I need you to know this. You need to trust me. Then I can show you the way."

Ranma didn't feel his hand anymore. It had gone numb from the cold of the water.