The Eternal Lost Lurker (EternalLostLurker@worldnet.att.net) After receiving positive responses to the fic idea I threw out (and no takers), and realizing that I have somewhere specific in mind to go with this thing, I'm going to continue it myself. So without further ado... (Brief note: Depending on whether or not you have some sort of JIS-decoder, you'll either notice that some of the chapters have both an English title and a Japanese title, or that some of them have a pile of gibberish after the English title. I'm trying to stick to the artistic vision and flavor of Evangelion, and this effect will become more pronounced over time, as I become more proficient with kanji. ReGenesis: Half Impact A crossover of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Ranma 1/2 by The Eternal Lost Lurker Neon Genesis Evangelion is owned by GAINAX. Ranma 1/2 is owned by Takahashi Rumiko. Used without permission. 0:0 Prologue 新 精機 The towering golem known as Evangelion Unit-01 tumbled errantly through the upper layers of Earth's rapidly decaying atmosphere. The great construct vainly struggled to shed an unwanted skin it had picked up: the tattered remnants of that which had almost been the final form of the eighteenth Angel. The wisp of an Angel was determined that with this great beast, the events which occurred on Earth would be able to happen somewhere else where a civilization was prepared to evolve to its next stage. Neither being was prepared for the sudden opening, like a great chaotic maw, of a dimensional vortex in the upper limits of Earth's gravity well. Before Angel or Eva could react, the gaping portal swallowed them up into its depths, and closed, as far below, the Earth began to calm from the forces of an extraordinary birth. As suddenly as the portal had devoured the biomech and its parasite, it belched them out above a vibrant landscape, dominated by a chain of majestic peaks. Eva Unit-01 was, miraculously, still conscious as it plummeted towards the rocky spires. It was aware of a number of things: it was falling extremely fast, it had no AT Field, and its structural integrity had been severely weakened by the stress of its journey through Earth's gravity well and the oppressive energies of dimensional travel. The Evangelion had only a brief moment to register something akin to the human emotion of panic as it slammed into the high mountains. As opposed to exploding, as many machines would, Eva Unit-01 shattered, twisted fragments of its body flying in various directions, landing in valleys and crevices between the cliffs. The shredded Angel was thrown a great distance by the force of the collision, and found itself plunging into one of a hundred or so springs in a valley nestled deep within the mountains. Some strange magical force within the water set to work on the bedraggled, incomplete creature. If the Guide who watches over the Jyusenkyou springs hadn't been enraptured by the sight of some enormous machine crashing into the cliffs of Baiyankala range, he would have noticed that one of the cursed pools had begun to shimmer, as a ghostly bluish-white cross blazed just beneath the surface. Then, it was gone. 1:0 Liberation 私 は だれ ですか？ The Guide smiled for his new customers, a middle-aged, stocky man with wire-rimmed glasses affixed to his head with loops, and a kerchief covering a bald head, and a teenage boy with black hair in a ponytail and sharp grey eyes. Both wore white training gis and bore heavy wilderness packs on their backs. "Welcome customers, to ancient training ground of Jyusenkyou, valley of cursed springs. Come, I show you valley now." The two travelers shucked off their packs and took in the sight before them: a mist-shrouded valley, dotted with dozens of clear, unpolluted springs, most with bamboo poles jutting from their depths. "Man, this place don't look dangerous," the boy said. "Oh, Mister Customer, no underestimate valley of cursed springs like that," the Guide began. "There over one hundred spring here, each with own tragic legend and..." "Let's go, Ranma!" "Right behind ya, Pop!" The two Japanese men sprang onto the bamboo poles, adapting ready stances. The Guide panicked. "Customers! What you doing? Is very stupid to go on poles before you hear my tragic story!" "I won't go easy on you, boy," the elder said, pushing his glasses onto the bridge of his nose. "That's just the way I like it!" The two leapt at each other, rapidly exchanging blows in midair, and nimbly landing upon the poles again. The Guide's panic was not diminished in the least by this feat. "Customers, please come down from there! Is for own good!" The pair began dueling again. The boy pulled a quick move and slammed his father straight down, where the older of the two splashed down in one of the springs. The boy landed on his pole, arms crossed, smirking arrogantly. "Yo Pop, we done yet? ...Pop?" "Aiyah..." the Guide said, as a giant panda surged from the spring, landing on the pole opposite the boy and assuming a ready stance. The youth began to freak out, waving a trembling index finger at the beast as he shouted at the Guide, "Wh...what the hell *is* that?" The Guide sighed. "Customer fall spring drown panda, Shonmaoniichuan. Very tragic story of panda that drown in spring two thousand year ago. Now whatever fall in spring take body of panda." "Hey pal, you ain't said nothin' about that to us! ...Pop! No! AAAAAHHHH!!!" The Guide winced as the boy splashed down. Rushing over to the side of the spring where the lad had fallen, he crouched down. The panda landed on a pole above the spring, guffawing. The laughter quickly died, both at the panda's realization of its own altered voice, and at what the Guide said. "Customer fall spring drown girl Nyanniichuan. Very tragic story that one. Girl drown there one thousand five hundred year ago. Now whatever fall in spring take body of young girl." The panda's eyes widened in horror as a slim, small form half-emerged from the spring. It was a girl, about the same age as the boy who had fallen in the spring, perhaps slightly younger. Her skin was eerily chalk-white, ghostlike. Her hair, tied at the nape of her neck in a loose ponytail, would have been completely white, if not for the slight cyan tinge to it. There was almost no color at all to her crystalline grey eyes. Her face was virtually devoid of expression as she glanced down at herself. An ill-fitting gi top clung soggily to her frame, doing little to conceal her healthy pulchritude. "See?" the Guide said. "Now you is young girl." "I see," the girl said, her voice flat and emotionless. The girl and the panda were escorted by the Guide to a small cottage at the edge of the valley. "Very sorry customers, but you should have listened before you do stupid thing," the Guide said. "What is this place?" the girl asked in her toneless, quiet voice. The Guide blinked. "You lose memory? That not happen often. It shock of curse, you get memory back." Taking a deep breath, he said, "This Jyusenkyou, pools of sorrow, where springs have curse magic." "Curse...magic?" the girl asked curiously. "Over years many thing drown in spring. Thing that drown in spring, its soul trapped by the waters. When other thing fall in spring, take on body of what drown." "What about the souls?" the girl asked. The Guide shook his head. "Souls not leave pools ever." "I...see," the girl said. "This...is China, isn't it." The Guide nodded. "Yes, you in China." He poured some water from a bottle into a kettle and set it on a wood stove. "I heat water. Curses affected by water. Cold water now turn you into girl. Hot water turn you back into boy." The albino girl blinked at that, but said nothing. After a few minutes, the Guide removed the kettle from the stove, and poured some water over the panda. The girl watched impassively as the panda shifted, shrank, and became a stocky, bald man. The man grasped her by the shoulders worriedly. "Ranma? Are you okay, boy?" The girl blinked, but said nothing. "Mister customer, you son still in shock. Happen sometimes. Perhaps better if turn back first. Then maybe get over shock quicker." "Yes, yes, you're right. Go ahead." The Guide poured the hot water over the girl. Both watched in anticipation as the curse was reversed. After a moment, their jaws hit the floor in unison. The former girl looked down at himself, and blinked twice. "Aiyah..." the Guide said. Where once sat an expressionless albino girl, now sat an expressionless albino boy, taller, broad-shouldered, well-muscled. His skin was still chalk-white, his eyes were the same crystalline grey, and his hair was tinged only the faintest shade of blue. "Ranma! Boy, what..." The middle-aged man turned to the Guide, who looked on in abject horror. "You! What did you do to my son?" "I...this no ever happen before. I not sure what went wrong..." "Fix this! You did this to him, fix it!" The boy spoke. "Don't blame him for your mistake," he said, his voice utterly devoid of emotion. "You did this to us. To me." The two middle-aged men stared at the boy in shock. "Ranma...?" The boy shook his head. "Don't call us...me...us...Ranma. It's not our...my name anymore." He stood, and walked out of the cottage. Genma found Ranma sitting on a rock outcropping, chin resting on his hands, staring out at the springs of Jyusenkyou. "Ranma? Son?" he asked concerned. The boy shook his head. "Ranma isn't here anymore. I'm not Ranma." Genma gripped his son's shoulder. "Boy...I know, this is a shock...I'm sorry...I know this is all my fault..." The boy shook his head again, and spoke in that maddeningly calm voice. "There is no blame in this. We're better off this way." The elder Saotome didn't know what to do. He knelt before his son, concern evident on his weathered face. "What's going on? Talk to me..." Without warning, a spark, an angry fire, flared into the boy's colorless eyes. Genma backed up nervously. The boy didn't understand it. There was a memory that wasn't his, yet it was, yet... Gendou No, that's Genma. Saotome Genma... Ikari Gendou The boy which once thought he was Saotome Ranma peered intently at the face before him. As he did so, somehow the features shifted, adding hair where there was none, filling in a light scruff of facial hair, darkening the glasses. Gendou And as the image in his mind completed itself, the boy who was and was not Ranma became angry. 1:1 Retribution しねよおやじ The boy stood up, a cold hatred smoldering in his eyes. Genma gulped, and leaped backwards warily. "Ranma...?" Before he had a chance to react, the boy was upon him. Roundhouse, jab, uppercut, sweep...attack after attack, which Genma found himself unable to block. The middle-aged martial artist cried out in pain as his son tore into him. The Guide, attracted by the noise, ran towards the site, and stopped several meters away, watching in fascinated horror as the boy landed blow after blow upon his father. "Mister Customer! Calm down! What you doing?" What are we doing? Retribution Why? This is wrong... No it isn't. He caused this He didn't know He knew He's our father This excuses nothing Stop this, it's crazy! No You're killing him! He deserves it One final kick resulted in a sickening snap, as Genma's head lolled to the side at an unnatural angle. The boy, breathing raggedly, stepped back from the corpse, sweat dripping from his brow, plastering his pale cyan hair to his forehead. The Guide's face was blanched, his expression one of pure shock and horror. Recovering from the one-sided battle, the boy once again resumed his expressionless demeanor, and said, "I'm leaving. Do whatever you want with this." With that, he went into the cottage, and moments later, emerged with one of the traveling packs, which seemed a bit fuller. We can't go alone Yes we can Why must we? We don't need anyone Where will we go? Japan Where in Japan? Nerima Why? He was going there Since when do you care what he wanted? It's better than roaming China Who are you? Who are you? Saotome Ranma. No you aren't Huh? We are not separate, we are one. You are me, and I am you. So who are we? ... I don't know. You don't...? I was once known by a name What was it? Ayanami Rei Is that who we are then? No Why not? Not in this form. I was a girl Oh. ... So who are we in this form? I don't know, you tell me How about Ayanami Rui? Fine Ayanami Rui checked his compass, and headed east.