Warning:
this will not to be a nice story.
this has nothing to with any of my previous fics.
this will not be written fast.
this is a glimpse of what is to come from me in the following weeks.



Ranma 1/2:  Half Truth, (Deadly Lies)


[Prelude]

	Ukyou began to scrape down her grill.  She took a break to wave
goodbye as the last customer walked out.  It had been a busy day, and it
took it's toll on her.  She would have loved to leave the cleaning for
later but she knew the grill wouldn't wait.  It took all her energy to get
the little blackened bits near the edges, Konatsu always missed them which
is why she did it herself.

	She heard the sound of cans crashing down in the back room, she
sent Konatsu back there a good ten minutes earlier.  She shook her head and
hoped that he remembered to lock the back door at least.

	Ukyou stopped and rested her head in her hands, all she wanted now
was a warm bath and a trashy romance novel.  Her thoughts were interrupted
by the Konatsu's entrance, she didn't bother to look up.  She turned slowly
towards the storeroom door, "You can take off early, I'll fin.."

	Her words were cut short by the flow of red liquid she saw coming
from the door.  It was deep red.  The most familiar shade of red.  The one
all people have seen at some point in their lives, but rarely in this
quantity.  "..Konatsu?"

	Ukyou stepped through the door, coating the soles of her feet in
the red liquid.  Her instincts threw her back against the wall as she
entered.  Her eyes could see but her mind couldn't register the images into
a coherant thought.

	He was dead, there was no mistaking that much.  The damage was too
extensive, too grotesque for him to be alive.  Reality began to set in on
Ukyou and the realization that the door had opened earlier.

	Konatsu couldn't have done it, but that only left one other option.
She looked once to the open door to the alley and back down to Konatsu's
broken form.  Her attack spatula was sitting in the other room next to the
grill but she reached over to her bandolier hanging from the wall next to
her.

	Ukyou took a deep breath and drew two of her throwing spatulas.
The pool of blood continued to grow, it threatened to reach the alley if
not stopped.  Ukyou pushed the door wide open with her free hand.

	The dining area was empty and the only sound to be heard was that
of blood dripping down the drain behind her grill.  She calmed her nerves
and looked to her grill.  Her attack spatula was missing, she took another
scan of the room.

	She crouched at the edge of the counter and looked to the door.  It
was locked and the shades were drawn.  There were a couple of tables
outside her line of sight, but that meant she was out of it's line of sight
as well.

	She looked down again in the blood she was standing in.  It
extended past her, and past the counter now.  Then she saw them, the
footprints.  The pool of blood was reclaiming them slowly but they were
there.

	Her eyes followed them down the counter and to the door.  At first
she thought they ended there, but then she noticed the faint trail leading
back to the other side of the counter.

	She jumped out from the counter just as her spatula sliced into the
space she had been hiding.  She attacked instictively with the throwers in
her hand.  She saw one slice cleanly into a thigh but the other bounced
harmlessly to the ground.

	Ukyou wasn't as fortunate, crashing into a set of her chairs.  Her
head hit the metal edge of a seat sending a wave of disorientation through
her body.  Her eyes came back into focus as the spatula's edge came down on
her prone form.

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