* First word of warning:
This is my first fanfic, as well as my first attempt to return
to writing in many years. I am vary out of practice, and probably
was not vary good back then either. However, I now am attempting
to recover that lost voice I had once held in writing-if not
improve upon it. Please please, C&C are not only wanted, but also
desired and surely needed.
** Second word of warning:
None of the characters in this story belong to me. That being
said. Please don't tell Nabiki, as I really can not afford what
price she might set. All of what is set forth here, is meant to
honor and praise those stories that have meant so much to me.
Thank you Takahashi, for without your fun and wonderful stories,
I would have had far few reasons to laugh and smile.
*** Third, a hint of background: You may want to want to skip
this.
This is a minor cross-over fic set in the Ranma-verse with some
characters from KOR. This fic is, as of yet, still untitled. My
first attempt at a title revealed just how much thought I had put
into the title before I sent it off, ie: had been used before,
and gave the wrong impression as to what the story was about. I
once again apologize. Now, not being very good at naming things,
I think I have a better title; however, before I pen this title
to my story, I shall ask if anyone knows of its previous use. (I
don't want to step on any more toes than I have already) This
preliminary title is "Ojiichan's question."
This is a Revison of Chapter 1. I apologize for the time in
getting chapter 2 out, but recent events have kept me busy
elsewere. Chapter 2 is almost ready for C&C. I still think this
is missing something, but I still don't know what.
Thanks for your time, now on with the show. And please, C&C
are very much wanted and needed.
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"Tonight's special presentation of 'The Battle of the Bands,
' with host and teen idol Hayakawa has been cancelled do to
technical difficulties. Instead, we will be playing Japans Hunted
Heritage after these messages."
Ranma sighed and lowered his head, 'Now what.' Normally, the
last thing he would be doing is waiting from Akane to come down
from her room, especially to watch some dumb show where thousands
of girls throw themselves at some pompous pretty boy. However,
Kasumi had insisted that he spend this evening with her. Ever
since that non-wedding night, Ranma had had a feeling of imminent
doom-that this life, the closest feeling to belonging to a home
that Ranma could remember, was about to end.
"Boy, she let me have it then," Ranma smirked to himself. 'I
'm just lucky Dr. Tofu was there.' His smirk slowly turned into a
frown. 'Not since then . . . she hasn't hit me once.' Somehow,
that hurt more.
Try as he might, he could not blame Nabiki completely for
the devastation that had ran that night. 'No, even before
everyone else turned up to destroy everything, I had ruined it.'
That he had realized when he heard Akane crying that first night.
He had wanted to go to her, but didn't want to get hit, or make
things worse. 'I wish she would get hit me and get it over with.'
He looked around the Tendou living room. 'Is this really
what home feels like? So much pain . . . so much . . .and yet,
they still have not kicked us out yet.'
"Here, eat!" Akane spoke while thrusting a plate of cookies
in front of Ranma.
Ranma looked back and forth between the stairs and the
kitchen. "Your not the only one who can use a window." Akane
quipped. She wasn't sure why he wanted to watch TV tonight with
her, but she felt Nabiki probably had a hand in this. 'They all
seem to get some perverted joy from this.' She waited for him to
insult her cooking, 'Just give me the excuse.'
Ranma knew there was no escape this time. Picking up one of
the cookies, 'Please, help.'
Suddenly, there was a knock at the front door. 'Saved!' Ranma
thought as he jumped up. "I got it!" Ranma yelled.
"Raaaannnma!" Akane growled.
"Who could it be at this hour?" Ranma asked with a smirk,
not to have answered, but anything had to be better than his
other option. Opening the door, Ranma froze.
There stood a man perhaps in his thirties. He had short dark
hair, and was clearly dressed for a much colder season than it
was. Form a glance Ranma could tell he was not a Martial Artists
and had probably never even been trained in The Art, and yet
something about the feeling this man gave off made Ranma tense.
With him was a girl about Ranma's age. 'She's had some training,'
Ranma thought, 'but was definitely not even near Akane's level.'
She too was dressed in winter wear. Her hair was a shiny black
with faint red highlights, which fell loosely around her
shoulders. The man looked uncertainly at Ranma while the girl
looked like she had seen a ghost. He knew he had never seen
either one of them before, but somehow they both felt familiar.
'No, not now, not again. I am sooo gonna kill you old man,' Ranma
thought defensively as the only logical reason to Ranma for them
to be here occured to him.
Almost as if in a nightmarish answer to his thoughts, the
girl sprang forward, giving Ranma a tight hug that felt like she
never wanted to let go. Ranma might have thought 'why me,' if his
world had not suddenly begun to spin fading to black.
As Ranma collapsed, he nearly took the girl down with him;
after all, she had not been expecting him to suddenly go limp.
The new girl glared at Akane who stood before her clutching a
mallet with a suspicious looking dent in it.
"Do what ever you like, it's not like I care or anything!"
She yelled at the unconscious form that was Ranma. She turned
and started to storm off down the hallway.
"You," Hikaru spat. "You shall never do that again!"
Nabiki, who had been watching the whole thing silently from
atop the stairs now gasped as she watched the girl begin to glow,
if one could call it that, black. Darkness and shadow seemed to
be radiating from her in a way darkness should not be able to.
Then she leaped into the air, aiming a death strike at Akane.
Akane had turned just in time to watch her jump into the
air. She had expected some form of attack. 'Why should she be any
different from the others.' What she did not expect was to see
such a powerful black aura tinged with such a deep crimson red
surrounding the girl as she leapt at her. Akane was about to
dodge out of the way while blocking, she knew she could never
move fast enough to get completely out of the way, when mid way
through the strike, the girl seemed almost to stop in mid air,
then landed roughly on her feet. The girl spun around to face her
companion.
'Even physics appeared not to be involved where Ranma life
was concerned,' Nabiki quipped to herself. 'It's a pity Ranma is
still out of it. I would have liked to learn how to do that.'
After all, it would have been kind of fun to break a few laws of
physics during certain classes she would have to be taking in
college.
"Hikaru-chan, do you want to go home already?" The man
asked. At least now Nabiki knew the name of one of their guests.
Hikaru looked down toward the ground and shook her head. "Then
apologize to Akane."
'So he knows who Akane is.' Nabiki wasn't sure what to make
of that. She was sure of one thing though, she didn't like it
when someone else was holding all the cards.
"But . . ." she started, but he just stared at her. Turning
around slowly, she faced Akane, her head hung low. Then she said
softly, "Sorry about that."
"Oh, hello Kyosuke-san. Long time no see, ne?" Kasumi asked
from behind Nabiki. Now Nabiki was at a total loss. She had hoped
to catch this wild tale from the beginning. Now it was obvious
she was the only one who didn't know what was going on.
"You know him, oneechan?" Akane asked trying to grasp
something just out of reach.
Nabiki's familiar smirk returned 'At least I'm not the only one
in the dark here.'
Kasumi only beamed that gentle smile of hers.
"Ah, yeah." Kyosuke said somewhat uneasy. He had hoped none
of them would recognize him. Some reason though, since she was
the only one that recognized him, he felt the first hint that
they might actually be able to pull this off, if Hikaru could
bide her time. Inwardly he sighed. How could he be doing this?
Certainly, he felt he was following the path of the greater of
two evils. He could still stop this. 'What right do I have to be
here in the first place? I wished I had talked it over with
Madoka. She would have put a stop to this. How evil do I have
have to be to even think of doing this.' He looked to Hikaru,
'actually it had been her idea. But I am going along with it.'
"Tendou-san, we need to talk . . . Alone," he directed
toward Kasumi.
"Okay, how about in the kitchen?"
With a grin that sent shivers up both Nabiki and Akane's
back, he responded "Sure." Both Akane and Nabiki looked
questioningly at Kasumi who softly strolled down the stairs
toward the kitchen. The two strangers followed closely behind.
Akane just watched.
Nabiki, on the other hand, was down the stairs just as soon
as they all passed into the kitchen. "Nabiki!" Akane hissed,
"what do you think you are doing."
Nabiki smiled back as she tried to listen to what was being
said, 'Now she talks to me.'
Akane had felt like her life had turned into a public show
for everyone else to enjoy at her expense every since Ranma got
here. She had always hated that, especially when it had ruined
one of those special moments. 'I more than anyone should be
against this,' Akane thought as she joined her sister at the
door.
After a long silence, they booth looked at each other
quizzically. Akane barged on in, demanding to know what was going
on. The kitchen was empty.
"Kasumi!" Akane yelled. "They just kidnapped Kasumi!"
Ranma, who had just now begun to stir, found himself being
dragged though the kitchen and out onto the streets of Nerma
while Akane was muttering something about Kasumi being kidnapped
and it must have been something he did. He spotted the empty bag
of Pillsbury's Instant cookie dough on the way through the
kitchen. 'Those were instant cookies?'
Nabiki walked back over to the couch and waited. Something
was not right here. She was sure that if they had left, she
should have heard a door, a window, something, but they were gone
without a trace in just the short time it took her to get down
the steps. She had walked out of her room expecting to see the
final nail in Ranma's coffin. Instead she was meet by two people
who knew far too much for Nabiki to be comfortable with. Together
they had just walked right in and spirited off the only person,
who might have had some kind of a clue what was going on.
Ghosts. Demons perhaps. Perhaps some forgotten gods. Perhaps
the very Gods that watched over Ranma and Akane. Nabiki smirked
at the thought. Now she was letting this whole curse thing get to
her. No gods or demons had spirited her away. Sure Ranma had
fought some pretty weird things during their stay here, but not
Gods. 'Unless you count the 7 unlucky gods, after Ranma got
through with them.' No, there was a logical explanation this
time, and Nabiki was just missing the key piece to the puzzle.
Ranma would bring her back safe and sound, or Nabiki would see to
it that he died a slow agonizing death.
She picked up one of the cookies off of the tray and was
running to the bathroom a few seconds later, 'How do you mess up
instant cookies!'
========= ========= ========= =========
We the unwilling, led by the unknowing,
are doing the impossible, for the ungrateful.
We have done so much, for so long, with so little,
we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.