No Title Yet, prologue
by Trisha Sebastian

[This is a work of fanfiction.  This means that I'm not getting any money
of any kind for borrowing Takahashi-san's characters and twisting them
in this fashion.  Please don't sue me, 'kay?]


***China, about 13 years ago***

Two people appeared over the horizon, paced by a horse with baggage.  The 
guide in the ill-fitting Communist work clothes pulled nervously at his 
shirt collar.  He looked at the note again, written in unfamiliar characters.
He swallowed, the lump in his throat refusing to disappear.  As they got
near, he called out in his best Japanese, "No, you must stay away.  Very 
dangerous to be here."

"Nonsense!" a man yelled back in Japanese.  He stopped in front of the
guide.  "The great Kunou Koreaki can tread wherever he wi-- OOF!"

The woman standing a step behind him didn't appear to have moved, but the 
man glared at her, then broke out into a smile.  "Forgive my rudeness,
but I have been traveling for many days, waiting to come to these legendary
springs.  I trust you have all the accomodations ready?"

The guide stumbled over his next words, trying to find their equivelant
in Japanese.  "This no hotel.  No lodging.  Is training ground."

The man raised his eyebrows in surprise.  "Training ground?  Even better.
After a long training session, I will soak in the hot springs and we 
will find lodging elsewhere."  He turned to his wife and smiled.  "My
katana, please?"

The woman took out an ornately designed cloth package, about a yard and a 
half in length.  Unrolling it, she took out a long sword, the hilt gold-
encrusted and wrapped tightly in gold cord.  She handed it reverently to
her husband and stepped backwards.

He flashed his teeth in a grin and unsheathed his sword.  He brandished it
high to the sky and exclaimed, "While I am on this earth, none shall
defy the will of the great Kunou Koreaki!  Men shall tremble and women..."
He looked nervously at his wife who was looking back with a bland look
on her face.  "...women shall tremble, too!  So says the current star
of the kendo world!"  He leaped to the top of one of the poles and it
bent slightly under his weight.  He started to do an intricate kata, 
leaping from pole to pole, an occasional oath emitting from his lips.

The guide looked nervously at the wife, who had strolled to one of the pools
and peered in.  "You mustn't do that, madam.  Very bad curse."

She knelt next to the pool and stuck her hand in to the wrist.  She pulled
it out and looked at it.  "My hand is tingling."  She straightened up and
turned to the guide.  "They're cursed, you say?"  She looked up at her 
husband who was slashing at an imaginary opponent in the air.  "What kind 
of curse is it?

The guide half-closed his eyes and repeated the legend.  "Very long ago,
sorcerer cursed springs.  Many people and animals drown in springs.  Now,
whoever fall in springs, take body of person or animal who drown there."

The woman inhaled sharply, her eyes focused on her husband as he swiftly
conquered an opponent on one pole and leaped 20 feet to the next, his foot
almost slipping.  The guide swallowed nervously, cursing his own fate
as the bearer of ill-timed tidings.  He looked at the woman and saw
the indecision on her face.  Would she warn him and break his concentration?
She fingered the katana wrappings, the tanto achingly near her grasp.
Or would she hope for the best and pray to what gods she had that he
would not fall?  The guide sighed and remembering the countless other
martial artists who visited the training ground, he trudged to the pump
near his hut and filled a kettle with water.  Giving the woman a hopeful
glance, he went inside to his kitchen.

The woman stood alone by the pools and watched her husband leap and slash,
oblivious to the danger he was in.  She noticed him slip once, grabbing the
pole about a foot from the top to swing himself to another pole and cling
to it with one foot.  He grinned down at his wife.  "I might have taken
a nasty tumble there."

She nodded silently, her eyes wide.  She took a breath and said, "Kore-san,
wouldn't it be best to rest now?  We've had a long trip and you must
be hungry.  I'll make lunch for both of us."

"Nonsense, Akiko-san!" Koreaki laughed.  "I'm as strong as I always was!"
He flexed his muscles, his mouth opened wide in a smile.  He struck a pose 
and as he did so, he overbalanced, falling off the pole.

Akiko leaped over a pool towards her husband.  She caught him in mid-air
and heaved him as far as she could towards the dry ground.  She didn't 
notice the other pool until it was too late.

She fell in with a mighty splash.  Akiko thrashed around in the deep pool,
her heavy kimono weighing her down.  She untied it hurriedly, but her long
brown hair got in the way and she ended up pulling out half of it in her 
hurry to loosen her kimono.  She reached behind her and felt the tanto slip 
from its coverings and fall towards the bottom of the pool.  Akiko moaned
in despair and reaching out to get it, she got tangled up in the long
sleeves of the kimono.  She felt that tingling sensation again, this time
suffusing her entire body, making it hard to concentrate on getting her 
bearings.  She swam towards the bottom, her kimono loosening and falling
away until it floated over her as she groped around the inky darkness,
searching for the tanto.  Above her she could hear the muted tones of
her husband shrieking for help, and below her was nothing but more water.
The tingling sensation rose to a peak, increasing its furor to a buzz that
shook through her whole body, causing her to spasm in shock.  She abandoned
all hopes of reaching the tanto and started to swim back to the top.

Koreaki shrieked again, and with a mighty blow from his katana, he felled 
one of the bamboo poles.  The guide hurried out, the steaming kettle in one
hand.  "What is wrong?" he asked, knowing the answer already.

"My wife!  She fell in!  She can't swim!" Koreaki chopped the pole down
to about eight feet and plunged it in as far as he could.  He could have
sworn that the pools were only six feet deep from the looks of them,
but as he thrust down, he realized that he couldn't feel the bottom.  He let
go of the pole and watched, horrifed as it sank into the depths.

Akiko was about to surface when the pole came down, spearing her floating
kimono and smacking her soundly on the head.  Suddenly engulfed in darkness,
she let out a yelp.  That was her last mistake.  Akiko swallowed in the 
water of the pool and her eyes bulged out.

Koreaki groaned and sank down to his knees.  He howled, "Akiko!!!!!"
Akiko, her body becoming heavy and bloated with water, turned toward the 
sound and blacked out.


***12 years later***


Ranma laughed as he leaped to the top of the bamboo pole.  The guide groaned
with frustration, and trudged to his pump.  "Come on, old man, give me
your best shot."

"I'll not go easy on you, Ranma!" Genma shouted, already perched atop
one of the pols.  They leaped towards each other, kicking furiously before
finding purchase on different poles.

The guide finished filling one kettle and heard a splash.  He sighed and was
about to fill the other when he heard a scream.  Turning around, he watched
as the man ran over to the pool where the boy had fallen in.  "My son!
Where are you?"

The pool churned with the flailing of limbs and finally a shape shot out
of the pool and landed heavily on the ground with a wet squelching sound.
A woman stood up, blinking against the sudden bright light.  The gi was 
real tight on her and it bulged across her breasts, the pants coming to her
mid-calves.

She looked around and her eyes fixed on Genma.  "Who are you?"

Genma's mouth dropped open and he stared at the woman.  She turned to
the guide.  "Where is Koreaki?"

The guide blinked his eyes and gaped at the woman.  Her hair was shorter now,
black, and tied back into a pony tail.  Her eyes were a shade somewhere
between brown and blue.  She was shorter than she used to be, but taller than
the boy.  The guide held out his hand to her.  "Welcome back, Akiko Kunou."


TO BE CONTINUED......


AUTHOR'S NOTES:

11-10-97:  This idea came about while a bunch of us were gabbing about
story ideas.  Someone dared me to write it and I did.  I have no idea
where this is going, and as I wrote this, I started to feel real close
to Akiko Kunou.  Anyway, this might push back the 'Ukyou's Other Woman'
schedule...

C&C can be either sent to the ML or to me directly at:
<ts007983@student.fullerton.edu>
Anyone who want to take a shot at naming the fic can contact
me here, too.

Foxtrot the Furryous, CBTFH, retired