(Eimii props herself up in bed, groaning from the exertion)
Ouch...
Well, I'm still recovering from stepping in front of a Hiryu Shoten Ha and
subsequently being smote by the Almighty Mallet, but i decided to post
this anyway. This is my unedited first draft of the prologue of my first
ever fanfic. I haven't got a title yet, but that might end up being
superfluous anyway. About half of my brain cells died horrible, flaming
deaths while i was writing this early this morning, so i may not be able
to continue it. But anyway, here it goes: C&C, flames, and death threats
will be happily accepted...


"The world is a dark and empty place."

Not a very original statement, but expressing the depth of Ryouga's
current depression would take vocabulary well beyond his regular verbal
strata, and he really didn't feel like wasting the breath.

Ryouga glanced again at the crumpled piece of card stock clutched tightly
in his right hand. The words written on it appeared floating behind
Ryouga's eyes before he even had a chance to un-curl his fist.

'You, Hibiki Ryouga, are cordially invited to attend the wedding of Tendo
Akane and Saotome Ranma, and witness the joyous union of the Tendo and
Saotome family lines. The ceremony will be held at noon on June 20th,
1996, in the Tendo Dojo. The reception will begin at 3:00 pm. Please be
prompt and properly attired.'

June 20th, three days ago. And Ryouga hadn't even set foot in Japan
any time within the last week. 

"GOD DAMN IT!!" Cried the lost boy as he drove his fist through the nearby
wall, tears of rage and saddness streaming down his cheeks. A peculiar
whirring sound caught his attention, and for the first time in almost a
week Ryouga stood back and took in his surroundings. 

He was in a maze of some sort. Row upon row of very futuristic, and
strangely organic looking modules lined the walls, all of them softly
dronning in unison. 

*Well*, Thought Ryouga bitterly, *I've really done it now*. It was clear
to him that, wherever he was, he was nowhere near the Tendo Dojo.

*Three days...* He had recieved the invitation almost two months ago, and
had immediately set out towards the dojo in order to prevent this tragedy.
And yet, despite all of his determination and advanced notice, all of his
efforts had come to naught.

*Why??!! Why must I be cursed so?! What have I ever done to deserve
this??* Ryouga slumped forward, suddenly unable to find the strength to
go on. 

"Oh Akane..." *Right now, because of my incompetence, you could be...you
and Ranma might be.......NO!*

"NOOOO!!!"

Ryouga stood ramrod straight as he howled his anguish at the sky. A
blinding green column of light and heat expanded outward from the lost
boy's form, scorching the walls and floor. Then, as the weight of his
emotions drew it downward unto the abyss of his soul, a ten meter wide
sphere of light descended upon Ryouga's now kneeling form.

"No..."



Somewhere within the Yggdrasl central data storage archives, there was an
explosion.

Alarm klaxions blared, and panic and chaos reigned throughout the heavens.
System administration deities scamble back and forth throughout the Yggdrasl
complex, franticly trying ti locate and contain the disturbance.

It is now several hours later. Vital systems are slowly coming back on
line, but much of the archives were consumed by the yet unexplained
explosion. The Yggdrasl logic systems are attempting to extrapolate from
secondary data storage stacks, trying to fill in the gaps as quickly as
possible. A particularly heavily damaged archive is the personell
archives. As many gods and godesses are on hand at the moment, the
computer asks that they log into the system so that it might fill in the
missing profiles. After several more hours 97% of the deity profiles are
sufficiently filled in to allow for easy identification. The last 3% are
difficult, as these personell profiles have been completely wiped, and the
deities in question are not available to assist. 

Having compiled a list of unfilled positions, the computer begins to
access external files, in the hopes that there will be some reference to
the occupants of the unfilled positions. This search is largely fruitless,
as most personal and performance information is immediately routed to the
personell profiles for storage. In the end, the computer comes up with
nothing more than a piece of office joke mail. A list of comically
exagerated personality archetypes of various deitic positons. 
The computer then proceeds to scan the Yggdrasl complex for unidentified
persons matching the archetypes of the various missing gods and godesses.

Ryouga, meanwhile, has fallen asleep in one of many gardens in the
Yggdrasl complex. He is propped up at the base of a tree, snoring loudly.

<UNIDENTIFIED LIFE FORM #0047: MALE, HUMANOID; ABNORMALLY HIGH LIFE FORCE
READINGS; CURRENT EMOTIONAL STATE: DEEP DEPRESSION>
<CROSS REFERENCING: DOCUMENT 0001>
<POSSIBLE MATCH FOUND ___ 'God of Unrequited Love: Man is this guy a
downer. The sort that can make you depressed just by looking at him.'>
<POSITIVE MATCH CONFIRMED :: CONTACTING FOR DATA COLLECTION>

Rouga was roused from his fitfull sleep when a computer screen seemed to
grow out of the tree tree trunk behind his head. Groggily rubbing his eyes,
Ryouga cast an irritated expression at the offending piece of hardware.
There was a prompt of some sort on it. The word [NAME:] was printed at the
top of the screen, with a blinking cursor after it. Ryouga shrugged
noncomitially, then decided that since he wasn't likely to get back to
sleep, he might as well play along.

"Hibiki Ryouga" he recited, and was pleased to find that the first line
now read [NAME: HIBIKI RYOUGA]. A new prompt had appeared, just below the
first.

[CLASS:]

Ryouga debated this in his head for several moments, then responded
"Umm, Middle?"

<SUBJECT RESPONSE "MIDDLE" UNKNOWN ARGUMENT :: EXTRAPOLATING>

[CLASS: 2]

"Er, ok." remarked Ryouga intelligently. Then yet another prompt appeared.

[CATEGORY:]

Ryouga's irritation was returning, as the initial novelty of this
situation was beginning to wear off. He was losing valuable sleep time
because this stupid tree wanted to play twenty questions! To make matters
worse, Ryouga had absolutely no idea how to answer this latest query.

"I don't know." He spat sourly to the tree.

<CATEGORY: ? :: CROSS REFERENCING TO RELATED POSITIONS ___ CONFIRMED 87%
CHANCE THAT POSITION GODOFUNREQUITEDLOVE IS A CATEGORY 2 POSITION - CROSS
REFERENCE BOOLEAN = LOVE> 

[CATEGORY: 2]

"Well, that was easy enough." Remarked Ryouga, as the number lept, 
unbidden, to the screen. 

[LIMITED/UNLIMITED]

*Hmm...must be like a True/False question. Ah well, it's a good a way to
decide as any, I suppose.* Thought Ryouga, as he dug a coin out of his
pocket. 

Ryouga flipped the coin into the air, catching it halfway through its
descent and  and slapping it on his other forearm. Glancing at the coin,
Ryouga spoke to the screen, "Hea...Er, I mean Limited."

[HIBIKI RYOUGA]
[CLASS:2 CATEGORY:2 LIMITED]
[THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION]
[HAVE A NICE DAY]

<SUFFICIENT MINIMAL INFORMATION OBTAINED :: COMPILING>

A blast of pure white light erupted from the computer screen, catching the
still somewhat drowsy Ryouga completely off guard. 

Ryouga awoke several minutes later, a strange tingling sensation
momentarily surging through hid body before fading. After reducing the
offending tree, now sans monitor, to toothpicks, Ryouga proceed to stalk
off in a random direction, muttering under his breath something about
"stupid trees" and "cheap shots".  




And so ends the alpha prologue to my first (and possibly my last) fanfic. 
Please send C&C, Flames, Death threats, and letter bombs clearly marked so
that i might open the latter two last. 

Thank you-
~Eimii