Two urns stood under the photographs of two women and two men. A memorial to individuals that had lived with two bodies each.
The photo of the dark-haired boy was much older than the other three. Ranma hadn't held a male form for a long time before she died. And the stress evident in the eyes of that young man had been missing from the cheerful face of the young red-haired young woman in the next picture. A red-hair that had already been darkening toward her mother's hue.
The two photos of Ranma's husband showed a rather grim and serious individual with a firm expression and a look of discomfort that had been induced by the novelty of having his, and then her, picture taken. The male herb was hung side-by-side with Ranma's female form, the two other pictures shuffled to the side like shadows of the center pair.
Incense was burning at the new shrine, emblazoned with charms and prayer papers wishing a good afterlife. And before the shrine, a woman sat in the white robes of mourning, her face veiled as she knelt before the shrine and made her observance for the souls of her daughter and son-in-law.
She'd been a fool and wasted too much time in childish inability to accept her daughter's decision. It had only been recently that Nodoka had finally come to terms with her daughter. And by then, Ranma and her husband had had less than two months to live.
Tears streamed down Nodoka's face in spite of her attempt to remain stoic. It wasn't fair. She was reconciled with her child, only to see her murdered scantily two months later. It just wasn't fair.
She didn't even have Genma to turn to. Her husband's gluttony had caught up to him soon after Ranma's curse was locked, and he'd died of a heart attack. Perhaps...perhaps if Ranma hadn't chosen then to give the news that she'd given up on a cure, then they could have spent the last few years as mother and daughter, rather than strangers with a common name. But that was past.
There was only one comfort she had in this. And that was a secret her daughter had told her on their last meeting.
She was a grandmother. She didn't know where the children were, or what they were like. All she knew was that she was a grandmother and that Ranma had left the children with someone who would take care of them. Someone that would be hard to find. She found comfort in that.
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Mon, 14 Jul 2003 08:51)
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