Hello all,

Tell me what you think.  All comments and criticisms welcome.  The
odds of this getting completed dependent on what feedback I get.

D.Fire (phongb9@idt.net)

-*-*-*-

An Element of Chaos
Prologue

by D.Fire

	Nabiki Tendo sat at her President's desk at Tendo Corp.
brooding over the disturbing reports laid before her.  The subject of
said reports was one Ranma Saotome.  They detailed his travels over
the past ten years, and the trend hidden within those reports was
clear and very disturbing.  Ever since the third failed wedding
between her sister, Akane, and Ranma, and the umpteenth time Akane
broke her engagement to Ranma, the man had left Nerima heading
outwards into Japan and beyond.

	Tracking him had been hellish, to say the least, since it
seemed that every photo taken of Ranma turned out blurred or, when
they were clear, always showed his backside.  Slowly flipping through
the detailed reports before her, Nabiki could not find a single, clear
picture of Ranma's face.  It seemed as though all her operatives
spread across the island had been made by this single man.  Even in
the photos not taken by one of her men turned out badly.  Ranma had
the uncanny sense to mis-pose for every photo that was destined to
come before her.

	Because of the photos, Nabiki had to make do with the
eyewitness reports that accompanied the mis-taken pictures.  And what
those reports detailed disturbed her to her core.  A trail of
misfortune followed Ranma wherever he went.  At the beginning, many
things happened directly to Ranma.  He always seemed to be in the
wrong place at the wrong time.  More fiances appeared out of the
woodworks as soon as they heard the name Saotome.  Ranma became
involved in many fights as he travelled.  At one point, he was even
involved in the underground street fighting circuit.

	Seven years ago, Ranma disappeared.  After his little "visit"
to Kobe and the earthquake subsequent thereof, Ranma vanished into the
mountainous region around Mt. Fuji.  At that point, Nabiki lost track
of him for a full five years.  That had initially bothered her
tremendously, but after reasoning that Ranma had probably disappeared
to learn some ultimate yet obscure form of martial arts, she was
reassured.

	When Ranma reappeared two years ago, things changed.  From
fires to murders to simple accidents littered the path behind him.
None of these occurrences could be linked directly to Ranma, and in
truth, Ranma was rarely touched by them, but something inevitably
happened when Ranma came into the area.  Often, he played the hero
when these things happened in direct proximity to him, but there was
something sinister in his demeanor, so that even those rescued were
wary of him.

	Ranma's path, when he reappeared, initially continued the
circuitous route he was following before.  After a couple of months of
this, he broke his pattern and headed toward a port and booked passage
to China.  Taking a luxury liner across the sea, he spent some time
"vacationing" and street fighting in Southeast Asian ports.  It
worried Nabiki that the records of his booking on the liner showed
that his entire fare was paid in cash up front.  Ranma had never had
that much money so far as her records showed.  He had been nearly
penniless before the Kobe incident, so where had his fare come from?

	Pushing aside this little bit of mystery, Nabiki continued
flipping through Ranma's file.  During his sojourn in mainland Asia,
he had disappeared again.  It more than disturbed Nabiki that Ranma
could seemingly elude her eyes so easily.  But he showed up three
weeks later, reappearing at the same hotel that he had vanished from.

	After several more weeks of "vacationing", he finally returned
to Japan.  No longer following any set path, Ranma wandered through
Japan aimlessly, rivaling Ryouga's sense of misdirection.  Sometimes
erratically appearing and reappearing kilometers away, sometimes
travelling on foot, Ranma blanketed Japan with his presence, chaos
following wherever he appeared.

	One month ago, Ranma's actions changed once again.  No longer
randomly disappearing, he seemingly stopped wandering.  Starting from
his current location, he began travelling in a straight line.  Ranma
was coming back to Nerima.

	She didn't know why it did, but this thought chilled Nabiki to
her core.  Perhaps it was the trail of chaos following Ranma wherever
he went, or maybe, just maybe it was because of the last photo in the
file, taken just a week ago.  The photo showed Ranma, the only photo
in her file showing him clearly.  This photo showed his smouldering
eyes, his gaze beaming from the photo, stabbing and into her soul.

	Ranma was coming.