Nathan D. Bickford <SeBickford@Worldnet.att.net>

Author’s notes:

This piece is not truly necessary to read, but it may be an interesting bit, nonetheless. However, it also may deal with philosophies and ideas that might rival your own. Just take what I am saying as true with a shaker of salt -- These ideas are what I am going to make this story go by. It has a little lime extract put in as well; just enough for a little flavor. It’s little enough for you citrus intolerants out there to wrinkle your nose at, but still ‘empty the glass.’ Other than that, happy reading!

Necessary Disclaimer: Ranma and Co. are not my creation. They were made by that Demigoddess known to her followers as Takahashi. If anybody says that I said otherwise, they will be shown some Tae Kwon Leap and be given a "Boot To The Head" Ó . I also do not make any money from them. Suing me will give you little and take even more. You will be losing money for lawyer fees and be given a "Boot To The Head" Ó for your efforts of wasting my own resources.

C & C needed. Flames extinguished and cyber-booted.

Soul friends: Prologue

Soulmates. Many people are either looking for or have found theirs. The search for a soulmate is when one spirit is looking for its complimentary spirit to ‘form one soul in two beings.’ A soulmate transcends race, age , and even gender. (In some cases, it has even transcended species, but I am NOT even going to start on that.) Now if only the bigots, the narrow-minded, and the prejudiced could grasp that concept, many of the world’s problems would be gone and it just could possibly be a whole lot easier to live. But since they don’t, I won’t continue bad-mouthing them. It would just be a waste of time and space (As if *THIS* isn’t?).

Spirits and souls are constantly being created, indefinitely/permanently suspended, eradicated, and reincarnated. The process of creating souls is way too complicated to understand. Even the greatest philosophers would only start to grasp the straws of a mile wide haystack, so don’t worry about finding the needle -- just realize that new souls are created and leave it at that.

Indefinite and permanent soul suspension is a tough thing to explain, because religions have different sets of beliefs (ergo the different religions). For the Christian, there is purgatory and hell , respectively (or disrespectfully, depending on how one feels about these places). In the Ranmaverse, another place of indefinite suspension is Jusenkyo. Please wait, this point will become extremely important.

Occasionally, there are spirits that walk on the mortal plane. They are usually called ‘ghosts’. They wander around, for one reason or another, usually because of some ‘unfinished business.’ There are also people out there - exorcists - who believe that these ghosts have no right to be here at all. They make it their mission to put these spirits ‘to rest.’ What they may not realize is that they are not so much "put to rest" as they are fully and totally eradicated from existence. There isn’t any spark of life at all. It’s just… gone. To get a better grasp of this, you may want to read the Ranma 2096 storyline.

Then there is reincarnation. - the recycling of souls. People don’t like to think of themselves as being "recycled," so religions created the word "Reincarnation." When one thinks about it, it DOES sound a lot fancier. But I am digressing. Anyway, as a spirit enters a new life, it brings in its subconscious experiences from previous lives. In that way, with each rebirth, the spirit grows and matures. As the spirit matures, it adapts and ever-so-slightly mutates. As the spirit is reborn, it changes slightly then, too. This is because of genetics and astrology (By the way, that is why some people don’t seem to be their signs, or are nothing like their parents - the being is a compromise of the three parts).

Genma and Ranma are two examples of different levels of spirit maturity. Genma has had only two previous lives. He was a solder of Rome, dying during one of the Huns’ plundering attacks. His second one was when he was a Viking, dying of scurvy on the way home from one of their missions. With those experiences and the fact that he was born a ‘Super-Martian’ (thank-you, Dr. John Gray!) this time around, is it any wonder that he has such an aggressive nature and a sexist attitude?

And Ranma? He’s on his eighth life so far, so he has a LOT of previous life experience that has been leaking into him. That is why he has matured as well as he has, considering Genma’s tutelage and influence. Ranma is still a bit of a jerk, but previous lives can only go so far; and Ranma never was a politician. A Neanderthal, a serf, a carpenter, an arms-master, a nun (Hey! Only the body itself needs gender. The spirit transcends it. Just to note, he was female as a serf as well.), a samurai (In Kuno’s lineage no less!), and a Native American, yes; but NEVER a politician or any political standing. So he _IS_ a bit gruff, crude, and too blunt at times; but as I said, previous lives can only go so far.

Ranma was lucky enough to have found his soulmate twice before: once as the serf and again as the arms-master. He and his soulmate were so much in love with each other so much that everything else -- poverty and war and just plain hard times -- seemed trivial to them. But then she drowned during a battle. Ranma was devastated because he felt that he was partially at fault for her death; he committed suicide by gutting himself with his dagger soon afterwards (As a side note, that is why one of the reasons he, then she, became a nun in her next life -- as a form of retribution, subconsciously, from previous transgressions) Ranma never saw his soulmate ever again… until his current life.

Now, if he wasn’t trying to get rid of her, things could be perfect.

Interestingly enough, Ranma hasn’t met her physically yet; just occasionally in his dreams. This means, ironically, that none of his current fiancees is his soulmate. Ukyo is an interesting case. She is what is known as a ‘soul-friend.’ A soul-friend is spirit who, no matter their differences or how different thereof, to the point where they _would_ be enemies, they can be friends; or even married and live a wonderful life. In fact one of Hitler’s soul friends was a Jew. If they had met, who knows what may have happened? But then, someone would considered lucky if he or she could even find even *one* of his soul friends. Ranma could be considered Irish, because he’s about to meet another one. I’m digressing again. If Ranma’s soulmate remained asleep, Ranma and Ukyo *could* have been a great couple, (Theoretically, he could be happy with anybody he chooses) but then there wouldn’t be any point to this story being written in the first place.

The reason she is asleep? That is a story that is quite tragic. It happened in China. It was pure coincidence that they even met in the first place. The winter was early and harsh and they were looking for wild game for their respective homelands by the start of spring. They were tracking the same bear. Imagine their surprise when they went out to collect it that they saw two arrows in the beast. Or, for that matter, somebody ELSE coming out of the brush to collect the animal only twenty meters away! They were naturally arguing who killed it and would claim ownership. Being who they were, they agreed to have a battle with the victor claiming the animal. It started out fast and furious, but then slowed down to an almost erotic dance. Before long, they were making love right out there on the forest floor. Without a clear-cut victor (And having such a wonderful time in each others company >;-), they were willing to split the bear. When she went back to the Amazons and he to the Musk Dynasty, they were questioned as to why only half an animal was brought back. All they admitted to their respective superiors was that they came upon somebody else who needed the food just as badly. Their superiors didn’t delve any deeper, even if they _were_ curious of why they had a smile a kilometer wide. The Musk then started to notice that he had that same I-could-be-boiled-in-hot-oil-and-I-still-wouldn’t-give-a-dang smile after he came back from the forest every third day. Meanwhile, the Amazons noticed that she would walk around in a half-dream state. The males thought that she would be an easy bride. Their broken bones and lost teeth proved otherwise.

It is unknown which side actually started it, even back then, but sometime in midsummer, the Amazons and Musk were giving each other a lot of flak. It was all about border disputes -- who owned what where, where they could expand, and what was considered neutral ground for the two of them. All attempts by the lovers to pacify their own side went unheeded. Soon enough, the two factions were at war. It wasn’t long afterwards that the lovers were found out. They were captured by the Musk and charged with consorting with the enemy and being traitors to the cause. The two were able to escape, but were followed. They stopped and made their stand for the final battle.

At Jusenkyo, fifteen hundred years ago.

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Final notes

If you’ve reached here, THANK YOU! This is a new thing for me, writing a story in general. I’m sorry that there wasn’t much of Ranma or even a STORY at all in this. However, I just felt that this prologue needed to be written, just to give you the gist of what’s going to happen in the future. By the way, What if Hitler DID meet his soul-friend? World War II MIGHT have been avoided, but on the downside, the whole world could possibly be in the Great Depression. If you don’t understand this, take a course in economics. You will.

Long live the Avatar!