A bridge made out of one of the big tree's roots was leading towards the entrance of the farplane. Only a single Guado guard was standing next to the entrance, as it is sacred to all of Spira's people, and the fiends never enter that place.
When Mia was leading Ranma, Shampoo, Nabiki and Kasumi to this entrance, Yuna and the others were approaching it from the other side.
"Hey guys," Ranma greeted them. "Goin' to the farplane as well?"
Yuna nodded. "I want to see my father. I have to think about something..."
Ranma introduced them to Mia Guado. "She's the local healer and she believes the farplane will be able to get this fiend out of Shampoo's head."
"That's great," Yuna said. "I so much hope it will work, Shampoo."
Shampoo nodded uncertainly.
A strange, wavering barrier made up the entrance to the farplane. Nothing was seen behind it but blurry shapes and colors. Before entering, Yuna turned around, smiled and stepped forward. She passed through the barrier like through the surface of a vertical lake.
'Reminds me of Stargate,' Ranma thought.
Wakka, Kimahri and Tidus followed Yuna. The rest was staying behind to watch Shampoo, as she approached the barrier, tail nervously curled around her waist.
"You really think this works?" she asked Mia. The young healer nodded. "We should try, at least."
Shampoo faced the shifting wall before her and gulped. She stepped forward and reached out with her hand.
'Don't go in there,' an angry voice hissed. 'You don't have the guts to resist me.'
"Sh-shampoo not scared of you," she muttered. "Go out of Shampoo's mind!"
'What can you do? No one likes you. No one ever will care for you. You WON'T make me go away.'
"Shampoo will... Go out!"
'You can't even speak properly. Do you think Ranma wants someone who talks like a dimwitted little twit?'
"GO OUT OF MY BODY!"
The loud yell was the last straw. The Alpha Fiend screeched one last time in protest, but as Shampoo took another step towards the barrier, it knew it had lost. A slight twinkle of light floated away from Shampoo's head, then she breathed deeply.
"Don't hear it anymore," she said. "I believe it's gone."
"Great job," Ranma cheered. "See, toldya you could do it."
"I'm so glad for you, Shampoo," Kasumi beamed. Even Akane gave her the thumbs up.
Shampoo smiled. She knew for sure that she wouldn't be able to win Ranma's heart OR to take him as her Airen, but at least she had his and Akane's friendship... and after all the Alpha Fiend made her do, she was satisfied with that.
After all this time, the long-lasting competition for Ranma's love was over.
Well, if you don't count Kodachi...
----
They got ready to follow their friends into the farplane. While the Tendo sisters and Shampoo went in, Ranma's gaze fell onto Rikku and Auron. "You're not coming?" he asked.
Auron stared on the ground. "I do not belong there."
"Come on, it'll be fun," Ranma tried.
"Searching for the past to find the future... This is all that is there," Auron replied. "I need it not."
"You're not really going to see the dead," Rikku explained while balancing on the balustrade. "More like your memories of them. People think of their relatives, and the pyreflies react to them. They take on the form of the dead person - an illusion, nothing else."
"You're not coming as well?" Ranma asked.
Rikku shook her head. "I keep my memories inside. Memories are nice, but that's all they are. See ya later."
Ranma shrugged and followed his friends into the farplane.
----
The 'foyer' of the farplane was nothing spectacular... only a round circular disc floating in the middle of nothing...
But if you look down the edge...
Enormous terraces were aligned like some sort of giant stairway. Cascades of water were flowing down and plunging into the endless void, and next to those rivers, thousands of flowers in different colors were blooming. And all over the place, pyreflies were floating through the air.
It surely was a sight to behold.
Ranma looked over to Yuna and Tidus, who were standing before a couple of translucent persons... Yuna's parents, according to their clothes. Ranma recognized Lord Braska from his statue at the temple, and her mother was wearing Al Bhed clothes.
Wakka was standing on the other side of the disc, looking at the floating form of a woman in a black dress. The Tendos were keeping him company. Mia, Shampoo and Kimahri were waiting for everybody in the middle.
Ranma walked over to Akane.
"So this is the woman Wakka was in love with?" he quietly asked.
"I guess so," Akane nodded. "Her name's Lulu. It seems like he was holding onto his theory that Sin was sending his victims forward in time, like it happened to Tidus. But I think, finally seeing her here on the farplane has opened his eyes."
Ranma looked over the black-haired woman with the strange dress and hairstyle. "Looks a little grumpy to me," he muttered.
Akane giggled. "Yes, he said she was like that most of the time. But underneath, she had a good heart."
Ranma looked around. "That's really an awesome place, don'tcha think? Besides, Rikku told me the persons people see here are not really the dead, more the memories of dead people, projected by the pyreflies."
"Please, Saotome," Nabiki half-mocked. "Do you believe that? How do you think would the pyreflies recognize if the persons someone remembers are dead or not? And besides, wouldn't that mean they would affect... us... as well...?" Her voice was growing weaker and weaker while saying that last sentence.
"What's wrong, Nabiki?" Akane asked. Nabiki only pointed to a certain point next to them.
Her sisters turned around... and gasped.
"M... mother..." Kasumi whispered.
Mrs. Tendo was floating before them, wearing an elegant kimono, similar to the one Ranma always saw his mother with, and looking at her daughters with a sad smile on her face.
Kasumi ran up to her and tried giving her mother a big hug. But her hands only grasped empty air. She stepped back and looked at her mother's image in astonishment.
Akane let out a small sob. "I can't decide if seeing her like this is cruel or not."
Ranma decided to let the three sisters alone for a little while and went over to Tidus and Yuna.
Tidus turned around. "Hey, Yuna decided. She wants to continue this journey."
Ranma blinked in confusion. "Umm... that's good and all, but... why wouldn't she want to?"
"Oh yeah..." Tidus scratched his head in embarrassment. "You weren't there when Seymour told Yuna... You know... He asked her to marry him."
"What?" Ranma blurted out? "Him? Marry Yuna? That silly guy?"
"Ranma," Yuna scolded with a shocked voice. "He's a maester of Yevon. He has every right to propose to me. And he only did because of Spira's people... so he proposed to me as a maester."
"Even so..." Ranma looked at her irritated. "Marriage...? With HIM?"
Yuna only frowned. Tidus laughed. "Hey, you're not the only one that doesn't like him, you know?"
Ranma snickered. "Let's go back, okay?"
"But before that..." Yuna turned to Tidus. "Try calling for Sir Jecht. Give it a try. Don't worry. He won't come."
Ranma and Tidus exchanged a nervous look. Jecht couldn't be here, that's true.
Because... he was Sin. Yuna just didn't know that.
"I'd rather never see him again," Tidus muttered.
"What makes you hate him so?" Yuna asked.
"It was his fault that me and my mother..."
Suddenly, the image of a woman in casual clothes appeared before them.
"Mom?" Tidus said surprised. "It's her!"
"She's very pretty," Yuna observed.
"But... wait..." Tidus shook his head. "No one ever performed the sending on her."
Yuna thought about that. "She must have accepted death when she was still alive."
"Hey," Tidus asked in a half-annoyed tone of voice. "That's my mother you're talking about."
"Oh," Yuna said embarrassed. "I'm sorry..."
Ranma looked at Tidus' dead mother and felt sorry for him. Ranma himself didn't see his mother for a very long time, even before he and his father started that whole 'Ranko Tendo and Mr. Panda' act. But she was still alive. And before he went to Spira, he could see her every week, almost every day.
But Tidus... this was his only chance of ever seeing his mother again...
"I just figured out why I hate my old man..." Tidus murmured.
"Why?" Ranma asked curiously.
"Whenever my old man was around, my mother wouldn't even look at me. Maybe that's when I started to resent him, even hate him. When he left us... Mom lost all her energy."
"Sad story..." Ranma said.
Tidus nodded. "The old lady next door told me... when a lovebird dies, the one left behind... It just gives up on living so it can join its mate. It was just like that. I hated my old man even more."
"Guess I can understand that reason..." Ranma nodded. "My Pops isn't really the best father on earth, but even after all he did... I can't really say I hate him. I just think he's a big old buffoon, that's all."
"You know..." Tidus added. "There's another reason... whenever I was sad about something..."
----
(flashback)
Tidus' parents were standing at the rail of their houseboat and looking at Zanarkand's skyline.
"Mommy," young Tidus yelled in his high voice.
His mother turned around her head a little. "Just a sec, dear."
Jecht snickered while holding his wife. "Ah, go to him. He'll cry if you don't."
----
Tidus looked down. "He always called me 'crybaby'... I hate that..."
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Tue, 25 Jul 2006 13:28)
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