SIREN

A Ranma 1/2 fanfic by Jonathan S. Haas

---

Author's preface:

This is my second fanfic which I've published, the first being "Guess
Who?" "Guess Who?" was fairly dark, and this one is even darker. If you
don't like dark fiction, don't read this. I've got another fic which I'm
working on which is quite a bit more upbeat.

---

Akane stared sadly at the newspaper in front of her, its 72-point
headline screaming a tale of disaster to anyone who glanced at it. The
story was about a seemingly inexplicable wave of death that had swept
the male population worldwide. The toll in human life was estimated in
the millions, but it was hard to calculate an exact total, since many of
the people whose job it was to tabulate this sort of thing were among
the casualties. And, Akane thought with a heavy heart, it was all her
fault. The full enormity of it hadn't even begun to sink in. What do you
do when you're responsible for the greatest calamity ever to befall
mankind? Love potions, she realized, were a grim business.

It had begun so innocently. Something had drawn her into the old gypsy's
shop... she didn't know what. As she walked past it, a sudden urge had
caused her to turn and enter on a whim. She remembered the day well...
the weather was dark and gloomy, with low clouds only grudgingly
allowing the sun to make an appearance every now and then. It had looked
like rain, and she remembered hoping that Ranma had remembered his
umbrella. The wind was silent and still. And amid the grey Nerima
streets, the mysterious store had seemed to glow brightly, calling her
inside.

The interior of the store was a bewildering array of flasks, philiters,
and bottles, with all sorts of strange labels. This shelf held a wide
assortment of strength tonics. That shelf was reserved for hair
restorers. One shelf was devoted entirely to a concoction that claimed
that a single drop would render one fireproof for a day. And over
there... "Love Potions".

As the store had drawn her into it, so the love potions called her over
to them. She walked over to them, fascinated. Her first thought was that
what she really needed was an anti-love potion, to use on Kuno, and
maybe a few of the more zealous boys of Furinkan High. But then she
thought of the one man whose affections she might actually want to win.

The wizened proprietress of the shop noticed the objects of her
attention, and hobbled over. "So, my dear," she coughed in a voice
toughened by age, "You seek a way to win the heart of a man, do you?"

Akane felt herself blushing. Avoiding the question, she asked, "Do these
things really work?"

A short bark of laughter preceeded her answer. "Of course, my dear,"
replied the old gypsy. "All of my preparations are fully guaranteed."

Akane hummed. "How do they work?"

With surprising agility, the gypsy plucked an oddly-shaped bottle from
the shelf. The liquid inside seemed to sparkle, and it swirled around in
unpredictable patterns. As Akane stared, mesmerized, the gypsy spoke.
"This potion acts directly on your voice. No man who hears you within 24
hours after you swallow it will be able to resist you. If you take a
drop, you'll have a friend. If you take two drops, you'll have a lover.
And if you take a full teaspoon, you'll have a devoted slave.
Guaranteed."

With an effort, Akane tore herself free of the hypnotic hold of the
bottle. "But I don't *want* him to be my slave. I just want him to love
me. I don't need him becoming obsessed or anything." Here she was
thinking of Kuno... she didn't need to turn Ranma into another one of
*those*. And she certainly didn't want Ranma acting the way Shampoo,
Ukyo, or Kodachi acted.

"Well, my dear, that all depends. If the man you use this on has no
feelings for you at all, the potion will indeed turn him into a mindless
slave to love. But if he's already inclined towards you, the potion will
deepen and enrichen his feelings, into a warm, true love. Are you
willing to take that chance?"

Akane was. Ignoring a little voice inside her which screamed, "You're
acting just like Shampoo! Or even Kodachi!", she thrust a 5000-yen note
into the gypsy's hand. She'd been saving that money for a long time, and
something within her told her she was squandering it, but she couldn't
seem to resist the pretty bottle with its mesmerizing liquid. She barely
heard the gypsy tell her that the bottle contained enough potion for
three full-teaspoon doses. And as she left the store, into what was now
a steady downpour, she failed to catch the evil glint in the old gypsy's
eye as she said, "Come again."

---

*ring*

*ring*

"Hello, this is KRMT, Radio Nerima, you're on the air. What's going on?"

The voice on the other end of the line was shaky. "Please..." it managed
to gasp.

"Please? Please what?" The DJ was already regretting patching this
caller straight through to live without screening him first, but it was
late at night and probably not many people were listening anyway.
Besides, if the caller turned out to be some sort of wacko, maybe he
could have some fun with him.

"Please... please... I need to find her. Do you know where she is?"

"Find her? Just whom are you looking for, sir?"

"The girl... please... I need her. The girl with the voice of an angel.
Please... where is she?"

The DJ laughed. "Sorry, buddy, but I don't have a clue what you're
talking about. And I don't think *you* have a clue, period. Next
caller!"

*click*

Telephone lines only transmit the voice. They don't carry emotions, so
the DJ couldn't feel the caller's deep, unfathomable desperation. If he
could, perhaps he would have realized just how serious the situation
was.

---

In her room, Akane stared at the bottle for a long time once she got it
home. Finally, she headed down to Kasumi's kitchen, and was relieved to
find it unoccupied. Rummaging through the utensils, she found a plastic
spoon labeled "T". Carefully she removed the stopper from the bottle and
poured it into the spoon. She felt a brief flash of anger when she
realized that the contents of the bottle barely filled the spoon once,
rather than the three times promised by the gypsy. Oh well... if the
potion worked as advertised, one dose would be all she'd need. She
closed her eyes, held her nose, and downed the syrupy concoction.

She was pleasantly surprised to find its flavor not at all unpleasant.
It was sweet, with a faint taste of citrus. A floral fragrance, possibly
roses, was also present. Her previous experience with strange potions
was that they tended to taste terrible. It was good to find an
exception.

She found her heart beating a little faster than normal, but she wasn't
sure if that was an effect of the potion, or just her own nervousness.
Taking a deep breath, she headed for the dojo, where Ranma was
practicing some moves. This was it... she was on.

She paused outside for a moment and watched Ranma practice. He was
beautiful. She knew that "beautiful" wasn't a word normally applied to
men, but there was no other way to describe the smooth fluidity of his
motions. He transitioned from one move to the next without pause or
hesitation, and he looked for all the world like a skilled ballet
dancer.

She cleared her throat. Instantly, Ranma froze. He was in the middle of
a kata, and he was balanced on one foot, his arms akimbo. Slowly, he put
down his foot, and lowered his arms to his side. He turned to stare at
her, an expression of amazement on his face.

This was not the reaction Akane had expected. She looked down at the
ground, then stuttered, "I... I just came in to say hi."

Ranma's face remained stunned, and then slowly, his features broke into
a smile. "Akane," he said, "You look great!"

Akane felt the blood rushing to her cheeks. She turned her face to his,
and smiled at him. Ranma walked hesitantly over to her, and took her
hand. His palm was warm and he continued to wear a foolish grin as he
looked directly into her eyes. She felt as if her heart would burst. The
old gypsy was right, she thought happily. This stuff really works.

"Would... would you like to go for a walk?" Ranma's answer was to wrap
his arm around her waist, and lead her out the door. The clouds were and
the rain were gone, and the day had turned bright and beautiful.
Together, they strolled away from the Tendo home and onto the sunny
Nerima streets.

---

Television news organizations often have problems filling an entire hour
each day with programming. Unless something monumental happens, there
usually just isn't enough news. And so many of the major news companies
have taken to broadcasting "filler" during the later parts of their
programs... little happy stories, not really newsworthy, but fun to
watch, and time-killing. Yesterday, they'd told the story of a
94-year-old Italian woman who was running for Parliament. Tomorrow,
perhaps, they'd show a kindergarten in Finland, where the kids had built
a detailed model of Helsinki entirely out of Legos. Today, they were
showing some sort of parade in Tokyo. The parade's route took it through
the ward of Nerima. Televisions across the world were tuned to the
spectacle of floats and bands heading down the Nerima roads.

Akane was drowning in happiness as she and Ranma walked hand-in-hand
through the busy streets. As the gypsy had promised, Ranma wasn't acting
as though he had lost his mind entirely to her... he was acting like an
ordinary person who was deeply in love. They chatted aimlessly about
nothing as they walked. Every now and then, they'd look at each other
with secret smiles. Neither one of them noticed that all the men they
passed stopped to stare after Akane as they walked by.

Coincidentally, their route took them past a parade, and they paused to
watch it. They didn't notice that they stopped in front of a TV news
van. Neither one of them noticed the way that the news reporter and his
techies stared at them openmouthed. Neither one of them noticed the
reporter's microphone, well within receiving distance of Akane. Neither
one of them noticed the satellite dish atop the van, beaming the event
live, worldwide. They were too wrapped up in their own joy.

---

Jeffrey Nichols was perfectly ordinary, in every respect. He'd never
done a single unique thing in his life. He was a certified public
accountant... a reasonably good one, but nothing special. He had a wife,
whom he loved, and three children, of whom he was fairly proud. He lived
in a modest suburban home, and rode the subway each day to work. He had
male-pattern baldness, a minivan, and a mortgage. He was the sort of man
at whom nobody would look twice.

He'd been working on a client's income tax return at home, with his TV
tuned to the news. His attention was focused on his work while the TV
news showed some sort of feel-good story about a parade in Japan.

Approximately one hour later, he sat, numb, at his desk. He'd spent the
hour in emotional turmoil, trying desperately to recover from the
agonizing aching in his heart. He truly loved his wife, and she truly
loved him, and he considered his wedding to be the happiest day of his
life. But now, sitting there, he couldn't even remember her face. From
the fateful moment he'd caught the voice of some Japanese girl coming
from his TV, all he could think about was her. He tried to forget her.
Having failed miserably, he contemplated the prospect of living out the
rest of his life without ever seeing the goddess whose voice he had
heard. He was unable to cope with that unbearable thought.

At the urging of his wife, he'd purchased a handgun about three years
ago, for home defense. He'd never had occasion to use it. Now, he
fetched the weapon from its hiding place and stared at it. After a long
moment of hesitation, he wrapped his mouth around the muzzle.

In the last action of his life, Jeffrey Nichols finally achieved a
unique mark of distinction. He was the first to take the easy way out
because of Akane's love potion. He wasn't the last.

---

An American student was found dead in his one-bedroom apartment. His
room was littered with telephone books. He'd worked his way through the
first, calling every number, and had made it up to the letter "R" before
he'd collapsed at his desk of exhaustion and hunger. He never rose
again.

A German millionaire spent his entire fortune in one day organizing a
futile manhunt for "the goddess in Japan". He was shot dead by his wife
when she learned he'd squandered their millions in a search for another
woman.

Tatewaki Kuno, his indecision broken at long last, burned his entire
collection of memorabilia of his "pigtailed girl". The blaze escaped the
fireplace and spread throughout the Kuno mansion. Kuno survived the
conflagration. His sister and father did not.

A brawl erupted on a college campus in England, as men fought over who
would eventually win the love of the mysterious woman nobody had ever
seen. At first, the battle was waged with fists and feet, but before
long, the knives came out, and then the fire. The resulting riot
destroyed the campus, as well as ending the lives of hundreds of people
who hadn't even heard the fatal broadcast.

The death toll mounted to the hundreds, then the thousands, then the
millions, before anyone realized the connection between the fatalities.
And by then, it was too late. Many of those who did not end their own
lives or have their lives ended for them were reduced to gibbering
insanity. The asylums couldn't even begin to hold them all.

All told, perhaps one percent of the world's population was destroyed.
Economic calamity ensued, as companies were left without managers,
hospitals were left without doctors, farms were left untended to rot.
Entire cities were reduced to ghost towns. Millions of families were
displaced from their homes and had nowhere else to go. Many of them
formed roving nomad bands, traveling from place to place, doing whatever
was necessary for survival with little regard for the law. Civilization
was not destroyed, but it was dealt a crippling blow.

Ranma loved Akane with all his heart for the rest of his life.

---

Author's notes:

Feedback on this story would be greatly appreciated at
jhaas@microsoft.com. If you liked it, please write. If you hated it,
please write. If you were indifferent to it, please write. I want as
much feedback as I can get.

I got the idea for this story while dreaming aboard a plane. Inspiration
comes from the strangest places...

Thanks to Rumiko Takahashi, for creating the Ranma universe. Thanks also
to United Airlines, for without their flight, I wouldn't have gotten
this idea.

And extra-special thanks to Stephanie Gonzales, for support, for
feedback, and for inspiration.

--JSH