Author's warning:
	This is not a happy fic.
	This is not related to any other fic of mine or anyone else's.
	This is a rough draft of the first part, read with the intent of
C&C else wait for the final chapter or final draft.  When completed it will
be intended for one sitting, there will be no "Chapters."
	Overall effect may or may not be lost by reading now.

	You have been warned.

Everything Zen Productions presents...

	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 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.


[Chapter 1]


	Kasumi placed the phone gently back into its place.  There was a
subdued silence about her, abnormally so.  She could hear the sound of
fighting in the background, Akane was upset about Ranma missing the dinner
she made for him.

	The sounds grew louder as Ranma rushed past Kasumi standing in the
hallway.  Akane followed shortly, mallet in hand and ready to strike.
Kasumi waited for return path through the hallway.

	Effortlessly she placed her hand on Ranma's shoulder as he passed
for the second time.  He nearly slid out in his effort to stop.  She
motioned to Akane who came barreling in and she stopped as well.  There was
a look in her older sister's eyes that told her simply to wait.

	Ranma saw the look as well when she began to speak, "Ranma..
there's been an accident."

	He searched for the meaning behind her words, "what is it Kasumi?"

	She found it hard to look Ranma in the face, "there was nothing
anyone could do for her, she was too far gone by the time they found her...
I'm sorry Ranma but your mother has past away."

	His legs gave out, he would have fallen if not for the staircase
for him to lean against.  "How?"

	"Natural causes, she just never woke up.  Her heart stopped
sometime late last night."  Kasumi could see the pain clearly on Ranma's
face, "her body will be with Dr. Tofu for a time if you'd like to see her."

	Ranma looked like a child clinging to the stairs.  He stared ahead
sightlessly past Kasumi, past Akane.  "Tomorrow morning, right now I just
want to know where my damn father is."

[...]

	The fight between father and son was brutal in it's honesty.  Genma
lost quickly.  His own feelings of guilt and remorse held him back, not
that it could have stopped him.  Ranma only stopped his assault before the
killing blow, distracted by the appearance of Soun.  Genma could only watch
as his son charged off into the night.

	He leaned heavily on his friend Soun.  Even then his pronounced
limp kept movement just a step above a crawl.  "I have to find him."

	"Just rest now Saotome, he'll return on his own."

	"No Tendo, I must find him now.  I have to make him understand,
make him understand the things I did, I did for him."

	Soun nodded silently and helped his friend to the front gate, "then
we go together."

	Soun called to his daughters, watching from the doorway, "Kasumi.
Nabiki.  Akane.  Lock the gate when we leave, and watch over each other
tonight.  We may not return till morning."

	All three watched them walk out into the darkness, Akane was the
one to finally close and lock the gate.  Her home of sixteen years felt
suddenly very cold, cold and empty.  Ranma was gone, the fathers had gone
after him, she had only her two sisters to comfort her.

[...]

	Nabiki got the morning paper from the front gate.  Some of Genma's
blood could still be seen where he had leaned against it.  She used her
sleeve to wipe it but with little success, most of it had dried overnight.

	Her wiping turned to scrubbing, and her scrubbing turned to
scrapping.  Kasumi called her to breakfast which seemed to break her
facination with the red, almost black stain.  It reminded her of death, and
that was not something she needed reminding of.

	Nabiki took her place at the table and tossed the paper to the
side, where Akane picked it up.  Their father hadn't returned yet and Akane
was still a bit on edge.  She riffled straight to the sport section and
lost herself in the latest baseball scores.

	Kasumi was the first to notice, Nabiki was the first to act.  Akane
watched as the paper was torn from her hands and slammed to the table.
"Hey, I was reading that!"

	"Well read this!"

	Akane looked back down to the paper and began to read slowly to
herself at first but aloud as the words took hold, "Kuonji Ukyou, owner and
proprieter of Ucchan's Okonomiyakiya was found murdered late last night, in
what police are classifying as a failed robbery attempt.  Also found was
the body of Kunichi Konatsu, part time employee of Ucchan's.  The police
have no leads as of yet but time of death has been placed at late evening
shortly after closing.  There were signs of a struggle and it is now
believed that the assailant may have been injured before..."

	Akane's narrative was cut short by a dull thump and the sound of
floorboards creaking.  The sounds moved in a linear fashion, all three
recognized it as coming from the second floor.  The sisters looked to each
other squarely as Akane picked up a cutting knife from the table.  "Ranma?
Is that you?"

	The sounds stopped as the sisters got up and crept silently to the
sliding door.  Akane opened it in one swift motion revealing the empty
hallway.  She peered out, knife at the ready.

	A door slammed on the second floor, which meant a bedroom.  One of
their bedrooms.  All three scurried in one mass to the hallway, there they
just stared up the flight of wooden stairs.

	"Ranma?"  Akane's only answer was silence.

	Nabiki put her hand on her sister's shoulder, "daddy?"

	Kasumi forced a small smile, "Mr. Saotome?"

	Akane took a step up the stairs but jumped back screaming at the
sound of breaking glass.  She nearly fell into Nabiki causing all three to
panic and run for the door.  Akane made it first and threw the door wide
open.

	The person on the other side screamed, faced with a knife wielding
Akane and her two screaming sisters.  Akane dropped the knife as Ryouga
lowered his arms and tried to pull his heart back down into his chest.

	Tears in her eyes Akane hugged Ryouga fiercefully, "My god Ryouga
I've never been so happy to see someone my entire life."

[...]

	Cologne sipped her morning tea and flipped through the paper as
Mousse prepared for the day.  Shampoo had left earlier for her morning jog,
for all three it was like a morning ritual.

	Cologne read only the sections which interested her, this consisted
mainly of the comics and obituaries.  It was the latter that grabbed her
attention, the listings of Saotome Nadoka and Kuonji Ukyou in particular.

	The tea tasted bitter in her mouth, she kept reading.  There was
something to both articles that disturbed her greatly.  She couldn't place
the feeling but it seemed to place a haze on her thoughts.

	She began to push the haze aside and called to Mousse who was about
to open the front, "don't bother Mousse.  We're not opening today.  Go lock
up the back, when Shampoo returns we have somewhere to go."

	Cologne needed to see for herself, her intuition sensed a great
danger ahead for herself and everyone.  The more she thought about it, the
more she could sense until the haze of thoughts faded into a light mist.

	There was a crash and the sound of metal against metal coming from
the kitchen.  Cologne raced her way to the back as Mousse was thrown to the
wall beside her.  His white robes were already stained red from gashes in
his arm and leg.  He was alive but his crumpled form could do little in the
way of defense.

	Cologne deflected a volley of knives sent to finish off Mousse, and
stood between him and the thrower.  The haze in her mind was starting to
throb slowly, it returned with a vengance but the amazon matron stood her
ground.  "Am I to be next little one?"

	Her attacker remained silent as another volley of objects were
thrown.  Her vision was starting to fade as motions became a blur.  She
used her staff to deflect what seemed like dozens of angry projectiles, but
even the ones she could deflect back at her attacker did little to slow the
onslaught.

	Her hearing was starting to fade as well.  The sounds of
projectiles hitting the floor, the clanging of metal on tile, began to
drift into the distance.  In the distance she could hear a police siren,
faint, but the only sound that grew louder as the battle progressed.

	It was then she noticed the blood, her own blood, she was bleeding
from a dozen tiny scratches.  She was slowing down, she was being hit.  She
could barely feel the pain, her senses were leaving her.  Cologne thought
quietly to herself perhaps she could last long enough for Mousse to escape
at least, if he had not done so already.

	It was then she felt the breeze at her neck and the world faded to
white.

[...]