Disclaimer:
    Megaman X character designs belong to Capcom.  I'm just borrowing 'em, 
guys.  I'll have 'em power washed before I bring 'em back.  Yeah, yeah, I'll 
even hot wax 'em.  Ranma characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi.  I'm just 
borrowing 'em, Rumiko-san.  I'll have 'em power washed before I return 'em.  
Yeah, yeah, I'll even hot wax 'em.  There's a character design that I 
borrowed from the Sonic anime, but that should be it.  He'll be waxed and 
washed too.

Flashfyre5 Presents
A Flaming Amarant production
In association with Digital Wizardry Studios, Minnesota

The Opening Bet
Chapter Five: Dear Diary, part one


" " = speech
[ ] = panda board
< > = thought
/ / = written
 
*   *   *   *   *   *

    An excerpt from the diary of Nabiki Tendo, dated 3/3/97

        /March 3, '97/
    /Profits decent today.  School's opening tomorrow, so they should be up 
soon.  Barely had enough to squeeze by last month.  Have to cultivate new 
sources of income.  The graffiti's eating up way too much money.  I've got 
half a mind to just leave it up, but that wouldn't be fair to Ranma and 
Akane.  They've already had to put up with so much.../
    /I didn't write this down before because I didn't think that it was 
important enough.  Time has proven me wrong.  The longer things go on, the 
worse they get.  I'm afraid that we'll have to move soon, just to get away 
from the hate.  Problem is, it's mostly my fault.  I wish that I could tell 
Akane, but she'd hate me forever.  I wish that Kenji was still alive.  He was 
always a good source of wisdom whenever I was at my wits' end.  I wish that I 
could honestly say that it wasn't my fault that he got killed.  I wish.../
    /I wish that wishes could make things right.  They can't.  That's why I 
have to./
    /I'll start at the beginning.  Ranma's been here for almost five weeks 
now, and the school's been closed almost as long.  I never said why, but it's 
time now.  A Reploid out to kill her attacked our school in search of her.  
He was armed with powerful bombs, and blew up the west wing of the school.  
The other wing had to be demolished due to structural weakness.  All things 
considered, it's a tribute to the construction industry that they were able 
to build a whole school in five weeks./
    /I digress.  This all really started the day that the school came down.  
I'd followed Ranma to the basement.  He'd been acting funny, and I wanted to 
know why.  I wish that I hadn't./
    /Wishes again...  I wish too much these days./
    /Anyways, I had snuck down, matching my footsteps to Ranma's 
conversation.../

*   *   *   *   *   *

    "You're nuts, Doc," Ranma said, shaking his head.
    "Do you have a better explanation?" the unseen voice replied.  Ranma 
stopped shaking his head, thinking for a minute.
    "If you're right, how do we fix it?" Ranma asked, serious.  Another 
shining, molded plate of metal was welded onto Akane's body, the repairs on 
that section complete.
    "We don't," Dr. Light replied.  "If things haven't sorted themselves out 
by now, this is most likely permanent."
    "Well, can't we undo it ourselves?" Ranma continued stubbornly.  He was 
leaning back against the wall of the basement, thinking.
    "Not a chance," the Doctor replied.  "The sheer amounts of power that 
we'd need would be astronomical!"
    "How astronomical?" Ranma asked.
    "Well...," Dr. Light foundered.  A careful, precise coat of paint was 
applied to the completed section.  "Do you know how much energy our sun 
produces?"
    "So we'd need enough power to make a star," Ranma mused, pondering ways 
to produce that kind of power.
    "No, we'd need about a billion times that much," Dr. Light amended.  
Ranma immediately facefaulted with a crash.
    "That kind of power doesn't even exist!" Ranma exclaimed, pulling himself 
back up.
    "My point exactly.  Like it or not, Ranma, we're all stuck here," Dr. 
Light admonished.  The paint job was completed, and the appendages that had 
been attending it moved on to work elsewhere.
    "Damn," muttered Ranma, sliding down the wall.
    "Ranma..." Dr. Light continued, his voice pained.  Ranma looked back up, 
his disappointment in his eyes.
    "Yeah?" Ranma replied from his position on the floor, his knees bent up 
to his chest.
    "I may not be the only thing that was transferred to this world without 
being changed," Dr. Light said.
    "What do you mean?" Ranma asked, confused.
    "Most of this will need to wait until I can safely reactivate Akane, but 
I will say now that there were more than a few violent, dangerous Reploids 
with a great deal of power in my world.  Many of them had a desire to 
annihilate humankind.  If one or more of them is in this world..." he trailed 
off.
    "It'd be a really bad thing," Ranma finished, nodding.  "How long till 
you can wake up Akane?" he asked again.
    "Two hours, forty-nine minutes," Dr. Light told him.
    "I'm going to go to sleep.  Wake me up when you're ready to activate 
her," Ranma instructed the doctor.  That said, he allowed his body to power 
down into a sleep mode.  As he slept, the whirrs, clanks, and hisses that 
came from the work of repairing a damaged Reploid continued uninterrupted.

*   *   *   *   *   *

    /That first night was the turning point.  I heard Ranma talking to Dr. 
Light down in the basement, and I saw the big blue capsule that contained the 
doctor busy repairing my sister.  That kind of drove it all home for me.  The 
world had changed, and things weren't going to get any better.  As soon as 
Ranma went to sleep, I ran from my spot at the top of the stairs.  As soon as 
I got to my room, the first thing I did was call Kenji.../

*   *   *   *   *   *

    "Iwata household," said Kenji's voice over the phone line.
    "Cut the crap, Kenji.  It's me," Nabiki cut him off.
    "Nabiki, what's up?" he asked.  Nabiki knew that her frankness had to be 
relaxing him.  He hated it when she was mysterious and devious to him.  She 
normally was, just for that reason.  The only times that she was curt and 
frank with him were when she had something immediate and important for him to 
do.
    "I need you to compile a list of every Reploid in Tokyo, and a synopsis 
of their personality," Nabiki explained.  There was a moment of silence as 
Kenji processed the information.
    "You're kidding, right?" he asked  "Tokyo's one of the biggest cities in 
the world, and you want me to go poking around every neighborhood it's got?"
    "I'm serious," Nabiki denied, unconsciously shaking her head.  Kenji was 
silent again, thinking.
    "I'll do what I can, Nabiki, but I can't promise you anything.  There's a 
lot of people around, even if you only count Nerima," Kenji said.
    "Fair enough.  You'll get a bonus for this one if you can give me a big 
list," Nabiki teased him, adding incentive.
    "I don't do this for the money, you know," Kenji surprised her by saying.
    "Then why do you?" Nabiki asked, her surprise getting the best of her for 
once.
    "It's fun," he said.  "'Night, Nabiki."
    "'Night," Nabiki replied, hanging up.  She sat at her desk for a few 
minutes, thinking on everything that had happened that day.  "Geez, things 
are just getting crazier and crazier," she muttered.  Then she rose, grabbed 
her camcorder, and made her way back to the basement, where she would wait in 
hiding for the next series of events in a day that had already had far too 
many.

*   *   *   *   *   *

    /If I had only known what was going to happen.../
    /I snort as I write, because even I realize that the knowledge wouldn't 
have helped me much.  Kenji would've still been alive, but that's little 
consolation now.  I'm not sure if he'd want to live in the world that Nerima 
has become lately.  I sure don't./

*   *   *   *   *   *

    Akane's world was a wild orgy of color, sound, and noise.  Her mind 
soared through a never-ending tunnel of... reality.  Though Akane knew that 
such a thing could not exist in the real world, the tunnel was comprised of 
what she knew must be real.  Some of the images and sounds she knew well, 
like her mother's soothing, calming voice, and Nabiki's rare times of true 
happiness.  Others were completely alien to her.  One scene in particular 
stood out in her memory, though it was the first time she'd seen it.
    She saw a metal hallway passing around her as she glided smoothly into a 
long hallway, the ceiling vaulted.  In front of her was a big robot, easily 
twice her size and five times her weight.  Akane watched as a metal clad arm, 
her own, she realized, rose up and fired blast after blast at the towering 
beast.  The thing shrugged off the normally maiming blows, and fired a 
powerfully charged ball of electricity at her.  Akane tried to dodge, but it 
was too late, and the paralyzing blast struck her.  The big robot then walked 
over, picked her up, and put her into a holding capsule.
    Suddenly, another robot, armored in white, gold, and blue burst though 
the door.  Though most of its body was smooth, like Ranma's, it had the 
occasional sharp edge, giving the robot a decidedly lethal appearance.  It 
too fought the huge robot, but fell the same fade that Akane had.  The metal 
behemoth walked back over to her, and taunted the fallen warrior.  The 
paralyzing electricity drowned out whatever sounds that there might have been.
    Then, a miracle happened.  Akane watched as she burst free of her prison, 
and leapt onto the back of the gigantic robot.  She dimly heard herself 
saying something, but the interference dulled it to indecipherability.
    The white-armored robot screamed something from his prison, but Akane 
couldn't make it out.  She tumbled away from the big robot, and saw that much 
of its body had been destroyed.  She struck the ground and tumbled to lie 
flat of her back, staring dimly at the ceiling.  Soon, the other robot came 
over to her side and knelt, crying.  Her view became shaky, and seemed to 
zoom in on the white robot.  In a flash of inspiration, Akane realized that 
she was being picked up.  Though she still couldn't hear, she was able to 
lip-read to a limited degree, and made out the word 'Zero' from the white 
robot's unheard speech.  Then, just as suddenly as it had come, the vision 
passed, and she was alone in the tunnel of light and sound.  Other visions 
came and passed, but something about that one kept turning over in Akane's 
mind.  Before she could figure it out, however, the tunnel began to burst 
with an incredible amount of pure light.  It blinded her, even as she 
squinched her eyes shut and raised her arms to shield her face.
    "System reboot complete," she heard an aged male voice say.  Slowly, 
cautiously, Akane opened her eyes again.  Instead of a field of blinding 
light, she saw Ranma, standing right in front of her.  She tried to step 
forward, but found that she couldn't move.
    "Akane?  Are you all right?" Ranma asked, his worry plain.
    "I-I can't move," she replied, her voice a bit shaky.  Though she was 
worried about her paralysis, the stutter had not been a result of that worry.
    "Doc, why can't she move?" Ranma rounded on some unknown person.  Akane 
saw a flash of light off to her left.  Straining her eyes, she was able to 
see that a welding torch was halfway through repairing a gaping rift on her 
shoulder guard, and two heavy grappler arms were bending the two broken 
halves back into place.
    "I had to restrict her movement.  I'm doing some very delicate repairs on 
her inner works right now, and any jostling could cost me hours of correction 
work," the aged voice responded.  The reassurance seemed to calm Ranma.
    "M-my voice is funny," Akane managed, looking at Ranma again.
    "Your vocalizer was nearly destroyed in whatever fight you were in.  It's 
a miracle that there was enough left for me to repair," the voice explained.
    "Thanks again, Doc.  Sorry about blowing up at you," Ranma said, sighing 
a breath of relief.
    "W-who are you talking to, Ranma?" Akane asked, looking around as much as 
she could.
    "Oh, sorry 'bout that, Akane.  I was just talkin' to the guy that's 
patching you up.  I call him Doc," Ranma explained.
    "That's Doctor Thomas Xavier Light," rebuked the voice with a tone of 
annoyance.  More kindly, he continued, "But you're more than welcome to call 
me 'Dr. Light.'"
    "T-thank you Dr. Light," Akane said.  "Whoa!  That did something," she 
suddenly exclaimed.
    "Really?  Hmmm...," The doctor mused.  "Well, I suppose that that does 
make your vocalizer functional, if more than a little jury-rigged.  It should 
be fine for now, but try not to get it banged up so badly next time, or it'll 
have to be replaced."
    "I really appreciate this," Akane said, trying to get a look at her 
mysterious caretaker.  Unfortunately, since she couldn't move her head, she 
was limited to about a hundred degrees in front of her.
    "Don't bother, Akane," Ranma said, sensing her interest.  "He's a 
computer program inside of a big capsule.  Once you're fixed, I'll show you 
what I mean."
    "Umm... okay," Akane replied, confused.
    "Well, now that I know that you're all right, I've got to head upstairs 
before the others start lookin' for me," Ranma said after a short silence.  
"Doc, why don't you do the explaining, all right?  I'm still kinda confused 
about the whole thing."
    "I will, but remember that it's still just a theory," Dr. Light agreed.
    "Yeah, whatever," Ranma said, turning.  "I'll check on you tomorrow 
morning, Akane.  G'night."
    "Goodnight, Ranma," Akane returned as Ranma climbed the basement stairs.

*   *   *   *   *   *

    /I waited for a few minutes.  I had to wait, because if Ranma saw me 
leaving he'd know that I'd listened in on his conversation.  On the other 
hand, he might notice that I wasn't upstairs if I waited too long./

*   *   *   *   *   *

    "He's a nice boy, if a bit quick of temper," Dr. Light commented.
    "A little," Akane agreed.  "But he's usually pretty nice."
    "Is that so?" Dr. Light said.  "I think that he may care for you more 
than you think."
    "Ranma?" Akane exclaimed.  "He's a girl in his human form!"
    "Really?  Pardon me, in that case," Dr. Light apologized.

*   *   *   *   *   *

    /I'm no telepath, but as I crouched behind a few old cardboard boxes 
filled with mounds of ancient memorabilia I knew exactly what Akane was 
thinking.  <But he was born a guy...  What if Dr. Light's right?>  As soon as 
Dr. Light suggested that Ranma liked Akane as "something more than a friend," 
I knew that there was a good chance that he was right.  It all adds up, and 
if there's one thing that I'm good at, it's math.  My big worry then was that 
Akane might reciprocate.  Ranma was the exact mix of 'manly' honor and 
strength and a somewhat 'feminine' understanding that Akane needed so badly.  
Add to that the Nyannichuan, and I found myself wondering if Ranma'd found 
his first pick for the 'open minded girl' he'd talked to me about earlier.  
It bothered me, but I had other things to attend to.  Business would be in 
shambles if I didn't tend to it tonight, and I still had homework to do.  I 
snuck out of the basement as soon as I could./

*   *   *   *   *   *
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