Chapter 1 Prelude It was just another "normal" day in the Tendo dojo, or at least as normal as things could be with Ranma and Akane around. As usual, Akane was chasing Ranma for calling her a kawaikunai tomboy. Ranma was just routinely running around the house to avoid Akane when he noticed something was odd. A distant noise, more felt than heard, was coming closer and closer... BOOM! A flash of iridescent light erupted in the sky above the Tendo dojo. After the light dissipated, Ranma and Akane noticed that a strangely looking hovercraft simply appeared above the sky and was gracefully hovering above the Tendo dojo. "What... what is that!" exclaimed Akane as she stopped chasing Ranma to gasp at the incredible sight. "How should I know, Akane?" answered Ranma as the hovercraft prepared its descent. The unknown craft gracefully completed its slow descent. Although it was still impossible to see the faces of the people inside, Ranma did see some people inside and figured that there were at least three people inside. The engines of the unknown craft died out as it completed its descent. The hatch of the craft slowly opened and a girl with thick glasses, roughly around Akane's age, jumped out of the craft. "Hey, who are you and what the heck are you doing here?" demanded Ranma immediately. The girl replied, "Oh, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Lucca the genius from Truce Village by the Guardia Kingdom in 1000 AD circa. Sorry for bothering you guys, we will be leaving shortly." "1000 AD!" exclaimed Ranma, "Uhh... Akane, when is that?" "Baka!" facefaulted Akane, "What have you been doing in school all this time, Ranma? Do you ever learn anything? One thousand AD is... let's say roughly 1000 years ago, Ranma." "Oh, I knew that, I was just testing you," replied Ranma, embarrassed. Returning his attention to Lucca, he continued, "Uhh, would you mind telling us how you get here? I mean... you're from another time period, right? So... how did you get here?" Lucca laughed, "Oh, the Epoch, of course," realizing that she didn't really clarified anything, Lucca continued, "That's the thing over there. It is kind of like a hovercraft and a time machine combined. I named it the Epoch. Using the Epoch, my friends and I can travel through all known time periods freely. Don't you agree the Epoch is truly a work of genius? Belthesar was truly a genius to make such a radical concept possible. However, the Epoch would never work without my genius. It was I who..." Lucca continued to brag and blabber something about she was such a genius and how incredible technology was. Ranma tried to be polite but eventually got tired of this, not to mention he didn't know anything about technology. He tried as politely as he could and interrupted, "Look, this is very... um... interesting, but would you mind telling us who are these people in there? Why are you here, anyway? Do you just decide one day to drop by Nerima?" Lucca replied, "Oh, these people are my friends. Let's see here. Crono is the one with the spiky hair and Marle's the girl that is next to him. We got some more friends, but the Epoch can only fit three people comfortably." "Okay, so... again, why are you here? Do you just get here for the heck of it? Are you looking for something or what? Travelers from 1000 AD don't just come to our neighborhood everyday, you know?" asked Ranma. "Oh, Marle wanted to go on a little vacation and I decided that we should visit the 20th century. We are just sight-seeing right now. After here, we will probably stop at China." replied Lucca, "Robo told us that since martial arts originated from China it is probably a good bet that we will find someone experienced in martial arts there. After we defeat Lavos our fighting skills seems to erode in such a peaceful world. So we decide to work out a little bit in order not to lose our fighting skills." Ranma didn't understand one bit of what Lucca was talking about, but hearing the words 'martial-arts', Ranma become immediately excited and asked, "Wait! Are you guys martial artists?" Lucca shrugged, "Not exactly. Our abilities far exceeds the so called 'martial artists', at least in certain areas, anyway. We are looking for martial artist simply because we feel that they might be the only people in this world who are good enough. I personally would have opted to going to future because I would assume that in the future there would be better combat technology. However, Robo told us that the destruction of Lavos had an immense effect on the space-time continuum. As a result of Lavos's destruction, the future was peaceful and therefore all forms of technology were devoted to peacekeeping, not war. So there. That's why we're here. To seek competition. Well, the travel brochure says that Japan is a nice place, so we decide to drop by here first. It is a purely a coincidence that we should land on top of your house, I assure you. After that, we shall go to China, presumably the best place to find decent martial artists." Ranma still didn't understand completely, but he understood enough. He declared proudly, "Ha! You don't need to look for competition in China! I, Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes Martial Arts School, will handle all of you by myself! Come on! Let's see what you got!" "Why are you so enthusiastic, if I may ask?" puzzled Lucca, "Excuse me if I may seem rude, but we've just meet for less than 10 minutes and you're volunteering to do us a great service. I thought martial-artists don't just fight anyone they see. I heard martial artists consider themselves above the society and would refuse even formal challenges! Why are you so eager to fight?" "Fighting is my life. I don't need a reason to fight someone," answered Ranma, "Heck, if I have money I'll pay you to fight me! Enough of this, let's go!" Akane listened to this and could only sigh. she thought, "All right then, your gracious offer is accepted. I'll promise to go easy on you" replied Lucca. "Even though I rather use technology over fighting, one does need to workout once a while. You want to fight now? Hm... not that I would mind, but we're kind of short on time right now. We have dedicated this week to sight-seeing and we don't want to ruin our vacation. After all, Marle is busy all the time and she rarely have time to relax. So, how about next week? We've got seven members including me on my team, so that'll give you sometime to look for your friends. Hopefully that'll give you enough time to find someone remotely good enough." "Hey look, just tell the girl to wait," interrupted Ranma, "Let's fight right now!" "Why should I listen to you?" retorted Lucca, "Look, my friends are more important than you. At any rate, you might want to think about getting all the help you need. Normal human beings cannot expect to defeat the great Lucca. After saving the world from being destroyed there just isn't fun in fighting anymore. Good luck to you and your friends, you'll need it. For now I must leave." "No, let's fight right now!" shouted Ranma as he got into a fighting stance. "No, we really don't have time. As I told you earlier, I value my friends over anything else. We've had enough fighting for the moment, and we just want to take a break of it, okay? The fight can wait," replied Lucca as she began to walk back to the Epoch. Ranma of course didn't bother to reason with Lucca. To him, that girl not only insulted his fighting ability but also ignored a challenge from him, Ranma Saotome! Ranma quickly decided that this pesky girl must be taught a lesson for ignoring him. "Look out, I'm going to attack you!" warned Ranma as he lunged toward Lucca. As much as Ranma hated fighting girls, he hated people who ignored him even more. thought Ranma, Lucca didn't even bother to dodge Ranma's attack. Ranma's fist landed square on her shoulder yet she showed no signs of pain whatsoever. Just as Ranma was pondering why his attack didn't work, Lucca sighed, "What brutes, resorting to hand-to-hand combat. If I had the time, I wouldn't mind teaching you a little lesson, but right now I don't have the time. I'll remember that Ranma, whoever you are." "Don't mind him, he is always like this," explained Akane, "He forgot to add something. Fighting is not all he do in his life; he also knows how to make a fool of himself as well as he knows fighting. I've to put up with this baka since forever. He is actually in one of his nicer modes today. By the way, I'm Akane." "Okay," continued Lucca, "I'll remember this. You've until next week to get ready. We shall meet again..." With that, Lucca walked back to her Epoch and jumped back in the pilot's seat. In matter of seconds the Epoch was alive again. It hovered above the sky above the Tendo dojo and disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. Meanwhile, Ranma still could not understand why his attack failed. thought Ranma, thought Akane, Akane scolded Ranma, "Ranma, why are you always fighting? Don't you ever get tired off that?" No response. "Hello? Ranma, are you awake? What's wrong with you!" shouted Akane as she slapped Ranma lightly several times. Akane's words and slaps snapped Ranma out of his thoughts, "Oh, Akane. Are you talking to me?" "Of course! You think I'll just hit you for fun? I was worr..." Akane blushed immediately after she said that, "Never mind what I just said! I'm hitting you because you aren't listening. Now, that was very rude of you to punch a girl like that. She doesn't seem that bad to me. Of course she was a bit... conceited and self-centered, but that wasn't so bad compared to you! You didn't have to hit her like that. Tell me, Ranma. You were going easy on her, right? I mean, I first thought you were quite angry and was going to hurt her! Well, since she is all right, I guess that means you didn't hit her as hard as I thought you might have. Maybe you do have some sense in you after all. Or maybe it is just your Mr. I-don't-fight-girl personality again." "Yeah..." replied Ranma absent-mindedly, without really listening to what Akane had said and completely missing Akane's blushing, "Of course I went easy on her. Yeah, you know that, don't you. I hate fighting girls. Yeah, that's right. That girl is all right because I went easy on her. Yep, that is what happened, Akane." Akane sighed and mused over Ranma's reaction. she thought, Akane silently went back to the house, leaving only Ranma to ponder why his punches were ineffective.