"…reports are still streaming in… The passengers in the 757 planes en route from Boston to Los Angeles are all confirmed dead," the report continued.

Nothing else stirred nor made a sound in the warehouse cum apartment save a sniffling sound from a little blonde girl in the corner. Minnie May had waved goodbye to Rally yesterday as she boarded the plane that was going to take her to Boston, and then from there to Los Angeles. She had smiled and waved, and Rally had waved back at her before disappearing into the corridor heading towards the tarmac. Now she realized she'd never see her friend again.

"Oh, Rally…" she sobbed as she held on to a long-sleeved red leather coat and continued to cry…

"…rescue workers are still trying to locate the victims who are said to be trapped inside the fallen towers…"

At a home in the Nerima ward of Tokyo, a couple sat riveted to their seats in front of the television. Ranma and Akane Saotome didn't have any relatives in New York, nor did they have friends there. But seeing all those lives snuffed out like candles was more than the others could bear.

Soun had fainted dead away. Kasumi followed soon after, and Genma murmured something about damn hoodlums and went to comfort his wife. Nabiki, in a rare show of emotion, had broken down in tears. She'd had a friend in the towers working for the Nikkei Bank. She had only just fallen asleep.

The only ones remaining, the couple held hands as they witnessed the horrors on the screen. "Ranma, what's going to happen now?" Akane asked, her voice showing fear and uncertainty. She looked at her new husband's face and was shocked to see the same emotions reflected in his eyes.

"Honestly? I don't know, Akane. I really don't know," he replied, holding her close for both her comfort and his.

In a temple near Nekomi Tech, a young goddess cried as her younger sister soothed her; the eldest was getting drunk as a way of relieving the pain she felt…

Keiichi just watched, numb, as people were killed in mere moments. He kept repeating the word "why" over and over again.

The end.

Author's notes: The tragedy of September 11, 2001 in New York was a horrible incident. What made it doubly so was that the murderous bastards who planned this have no honor, striking down those who could not defend themselves. They struck without concern for the lives they were going to take, killing without revealing their faces. FDR once called the Pearl Harbor bombing ‘a day that will live in infamy’; I wonder what he would have called this? I think I speak for my countrymen in the Philippines when I say that we offer our sincere condolences.

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Last revision: May 21, 2007