Red-head MST...
******
(We see Ryouga Hibiki and Urd walking down a street. Urd looks around.)
Urd: Where are we?
Ryouga: I think we're in Boston...hey, here's a bar. (They look at a
orangish-pinkish building with a sign leading downstairs to a bar. The sign says
"Cheers.")
Urd: Looks good. Let's go in. (They walk downstairs and enter Cheers. They see
the regulars from the Cheers cast drinking and eating. They look up and see
Urd...)
Cheers' cast: Norn! (Urd face-faults.)
Ryouga: Well, it's nice to be noticed, I suppose...(Cheers theme music starts to
play.)
******
(Back in heaven, we see Skuld and Ranma looking at Heaven's wedding chapel.)
Ranma: So, this is where Mr. P & that cabbit are gonna get hitched at, huh? I
had no idea that they have a church here in heaven.
Skuld: You have no idea the number of multiple marriages that happen here, even
in heaven.
Ranma: I thought heaven didn't need a church.
Skuld: That was before Michangelo got here. He didn't like the fact that none of
the buildings we had even looked like what he thought heaven should be, so he
started to build.
Ranma: But, Michangelo is a painter! (Skuld looks mad.)
Skuld (grumbling): That explains the nude sessions he and I have been having...
*******

On Sun, 13 Dec 1998, Vincent Diamante wrote:

Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1998 16:33:04 -0500 (EST)
From: Vincent Diamante <diamante@gonzaga.org>
To: ffml@fanfic.com
Subject: [FFML] [fanfic][samuraishodown] And Giving Fuji: Prologue

This is my first real work in eons.  I beg of you...C&C!

Andrew: No problem. Just don't start bombing me, okay?
Lina: Why would they want to bother you?
Luna: Because no one like him.

I just don't see fanfics based on Samurai Shodown and am
in dire need of any comments or critiques which you can
give me.  Thanks a bunch for reading it (and a pox on
both your houses if you don't. ^_^ )  Actually...forget
the pox thing; this is a strange fic.  Most of the inspiration
for this comes from Virginia Woolf and Mishima Yukio; it
was written while listening to Scriabin sonatas.  It is
also an experiment in stream of consciousness.  I have
no idea how well (or poorly) this will be recieved...so...
if you can comment on this...please do so, publicly or privately.
Thanks in advance...

A-ko: Well, Samurari Showdown I and II were really good, but III & IV aren't as
good, and I've never understood the guy that looks like a girl that carries an
umbrella even Ryouga would envy...
Ranma: Uh, A-ko, I think he's talking about this fic, not the video game.

And Giving Fuji - diamante@cs.analog.org
---------------
-  - - --p r o l o g u e-- - -  -

  "I'm so...so tired.  So tired..."  Rimururu stared at the fire in
earnest, struggling to keep her eyes open.

Kasumi (from Pokemon): Apparently, she was doing her 401(k) forms.
Izumi(looks at Kasumi): Who are you?
Kasumi: I'm Kasumi from Pokemon...and I'm here with Pikachu and my water-from
Pokemons. (The water pokemons already jump on Ranma. Instant girl.)
Ranma-chan: I'm already not liking this...

					      It was a beautiful sight,
hypnotic dance of red and orange reaching up and kissing the black sky
with their embers.  She poked around her knee and winced.  Rimururu
slid herself a bit closer to the fire.  Her older sister was telling
Shizumaru a story which she had not heard before, so she tried her best
to sit upright and listened attentively over the crackle of flaming
wood.  Nakoruru began to recount an encounter she had with a warrior
on a small island to the south.

Andrew (imitating Nakoruru): I really liked the fact that this boy was really
good in bed...
Everyone else: Andrew!
Izumi: So...why are you here? (Pikachu pops out of Kasumi's shirt.)
Pikachu: Pika, pikachu!
Kasumi: Pikachu is supposed to be the best man for Ryo-ok-hi's wedding. (Washu
sobs.)

				  He was a man of great movements who
allowed himself to be filled with anger and evil to complement his
strength in motion.  For Genjuro, for that was indeed his name, there
was nothing in death which could affect the being as death was simply
a lack of feeling.  No good, no evil could come about through death,
he reasoned, and so he focused on the physical and emotional, bringing
about suffering upon those he met and relishing in what he brought
to both commoners and those able with sword.

A-ko: In short, your honor, my client Genjuro did not exist!!!
Andrew: I have no idea what you're saying...

  "He wasn't living, and he doesn't live," Nakoruru said.

Kasumi: You mean he was a virus?
(Izumi hits her head on the wall.)
******
(We switch over to the "Cheers" bar where Urd and Ryouga are getting really
drunk.)
Ryouga: Blimy, I ne'er thought to see the day where I'd get married with some
bloody 'abbit...
Urd: Well, don't mind me, you bloody fool.
Ryouga: You know, you're the most prettiest girl I've ever met.
Urd: I'm not a girl, I'm a bloody woman!
Ryouga: 'ool. Say, bartender, can I have a ham sandwich on rye?
Woody (from Cheers): Sure. Coming right up. (However, he trips over Sam, and Sam
pours a cold Budwiser to Ryouga. Instant pig. P-chan starts to float. Norm looks
at Sam. He reaches for his wallet.)
Sam: Er, Norm, what are you doing?
Norm: You know when I said that I'll pay my bar tab when pigs fly? Well, how
much do I owe you? (Sam faints. Ryo-ok-hi comes in to see Urd grabbing a hold of
P-chan, and she kisses the piggy. She's also pretty drunk from drinking carrot
vodka.)
Ryo-ok-hi: MIYAA!!!
******

  Shizumaru shuddered at the thought.  To face a man who desired pain
and suffering and dealt in its barter!  No, no he would never meet such
a person, no, no, a monster.  Nakoruru exaggerates...no!

Andrew: A little bit exaggeration never hurt anyone.
Ranma: Then you've obviously never seen my dad on a training trip.

							   She speaks
truth in all cases.  A demon who floats on clouds.  A giant who wielded
a pillar of stone.  A fish's back upon which a person could stand and
travel from land to land.

A-ko: Getting a refund from the IRS.
Lina: Finding a blonde that's intelligent.
Luna: Finding an honest lawyer.
Andrew: She whom must be obeyed.

			    Oh yes, this story was far more plausible.
A murderer, a killer.  Yes, far too plausible.

Washu (imitating Shizumaru): So...you wouldn't own a certain bridge, now, would
you?

					        As eloquent as

Nakoruru's description was, he still was one who killed.  No,
tortured.  Torture was infinitely less preferable to death.  He knew
that from personal experience.

  "I really don't know why, but I've not seen Genjuro for two years,"
Nakoruru said, "but he!  He was a giant man of little leverage!

Izumi: Maybe his should have moved his fulcrum down a bit...
Pikachu: Pika, pika, pikachu!
Kasumi: Well, maybe, but you really think you could move the world with a lever?

Mamahaha!"  A falcon darted from a nearby tree and alighted on a
nearby log.  "We'll be home soon," she said.  "I'm sure you know what
I want to say."  She stared at the bird as it raised a considerable
ruckus.  "Mamahaha, you know I need to stay here with them."  He (for
Mamahaha was, indeed, a he) flew to Nakoruru's shoulder and chirped
almost silently into her ear.  "Yes.  There.  Don't worry."  He flew
out of sight and northward.

Andrew: He's just looking out for some babes.
Belldandy: I'm sure that wouldn't be necessary.

  Shizumaru shook his head.  "I'll never understand what you can
hear.  How they talk."  He laid his head down, using his umbrella as a
stiff pillow.

Ranma (imiating Shizumaru/Ryouga): It's a cruel and lonely world.
Andrew: Yeah, like he's looking for the Tendou Dojo...

  "I hear chirping," she said.

Kasumi: That was before she was picked up by an American bald Eagle.
Lina: Lousy golfers...

******
(We see a drunken Ryouga and Urd running through the streets of Boston as
Ryo-ok-hi--as a spaceship--destroys everything in her path.)
Ryouga: How as I suppose to know she'd follow us?
Urd: Not feeling good right now...did you really have to tongue me?
Ryo-ok-hi (in a loud voice): Miyaa! Miyaa! (Half of Boston is blown away.)
Ryouga: Well, I wouldn't have if that Carla waitress didn't poke me in the back!
Ryo-ok-hi: MIYAA!
(They turn around. They see a mosque and Christian Amanpour on a rooftop...)
Urd: Where are we now?
Ryouga: I think we're in Baghdad. (Ryo-ok-hi destroys nearly half of the
city...Ryouga and Urd runs into a building. They bump into President Saddam
Hussein. <...> indicates Arabian.)
Hussein: <In the name of Allah! Ryouga, my boy!>
Ryouga: <Hey, Saddam!>
Urd: <You know the President of Iraq?>
Ryouga: <I'm on first-name bases with many world leaders.>
Hussein: <Are you still trying to rid yourself of that fouled pig-curse?>
Ryouga: <Sadly, I still turn into a wretched pig everytime it rains.>
Hussein: <Well, my offer still stands to come here.>
Ryouga (whispering): <Saddam, I need your help. There's this American ship
that's chasing us. I need you to strike it down!>
Urd: Uh, Ryouga, can you come here for moment...
Hussein: <Who is this young lady that you are with, and why is she not properly
dressed?>
Ryouga: <She's one of the Houris. She doesn't need to be dressed.> (Saddam
Hussein faints. Urd strikes him down with a thunderbolt.)
******

  Rimururu yawned and stood and walked away from the fire.  "No more
stories," she said.  She walked until a great wolf, a gray wolf lay
before her.  "Shikuruu?" she whispered.  The wolf's ears perked up.
Rimururu knelt down beside him and lay her head upon his warm belly.

  She slept until, a fire burned.

Izumi (imitating Nakaruru): Aw, man...Smokey the Bear's gonna beat my ass again
for keeping this fire going!

- - -

  He wailed and wailed and wailed.  He was to die, and die that day.
Scurry, he thought, scurry through the wall.  Consigned to flames of
wall, consigned to walls of flame.  No, he would escape with his life.
A burning house, a life ripped away, he could create another.  Yes.
Yes.  Run away.

Andrew: A bit of stream-of-consciousness thinking for you...
Ranma: Seems like this stream's run dry.

  The burning ceiling fell upon him and he screamed his scream of
life.  Images of his flesh burning away to bone filled his head and
left as he threw his body through the door.  A body, a body, a
soldier, a body, a soldier, a sword.  Another burning house, a soldier,
an arrow in a body, a body consumed.  He threw himself to the wind,
to life and nature.  A sword buried itself in him and he fell, quick
quick! into the design of the world.

Luna (imitating a house decorator): I think this world needs some chartuse
curtains, don't you? It would add so much life and color in this drab world!
Lina: I think you need a kick the pants, sis.

  Jealousy is what surrounds him, and control is what takes them and
they burn a village to the ground.  "I am jealous," he said.  Pillage
and death, death and life.  "Death and life.  Same thing."  He turned
his head and looked upon and old woman crawling toward him.  He drew
his two swords and stared at her.

Andrew (imitating Bill Clinton): Damn you Hillary!
Nabiki Tendou (popping her head out of the door): President's Clinton's odds of
being guilty in the Senate: 10-1.

  Fear too her and she pleaded for mercy, but a strange tongue leapt

>from her mouth and she was incomprehensible.  Japanese samurai do not

like the Ainu tongue.

Kasumi: It's too pointy and blue colored! Besides there's a pierced tongue ring
in that tongue!

		        She screamed for all to hear and she was heard
and cut short and never to be heard.

Ranma: Pres. Clinton was finally finished with Monica Lewinsky. Now it was on to
Linda Tripp.

  He saw her head on the grass and said, "I am not honorable."

Andrew (imitating Nixon): But, I am not a crook, either!

								  He
then stared at his two swords and said, "I am Yagyu Jubei."

Everyone (imitating people at an AA meeting): Hi, Jubei!

							      He took
this to mind and decided that one sentiment must win over the other
and the latter filled his mind, filled his mouth to the point where
he needed exclamation.  He shouted.  He screamed.

Kasumi: His Oakland Raiders weren't going to make the playoffs.
Andrew: I keep waiting for more action to happen...but it doesn't.

  And all heard his name.

  Soldiers under him marveled at this outburst.  They had upset him,
these Ainu people.  They must die.  They must pay to us what we are
owed.  They must give of themselves for a scream.  They must give of
themselves for a name.  A soldier asked of the rebel leader.

  "We poisoned him, at the peace talks," said another warrior.

Washu (imitating a warrior): You really want to poison David Stern at the NBA
meetings?
Ranma: But since they couldn't kill President Clinton, the Republicans decided
to impeach the little bastard instead.

  "Never say that."

  "Yes."

  Jubei looked upon his creation and deemed it successful and he
walked away from the blazes.  The moon shone full and he blinked once,
twice as the light entered his eyes.  No more beauty, and thoughts of
beauty, and lazy dreams and bears, and peace and war.  Just the sun
and moon and birds of the sky to bear witness.  Only loss and knowing
loss and giving loss.  Plates of nothingness he would bear to his
liege!  Plates of nothingness!  Imagine!

Akemi: Those aren't plates of nothingness, they're plates showing a goose in a
snowstorm...
Lina: Hey, Jubei...are you sure those plates are from the Franklin Mint
Collection?

- - -

  In the morning they would go north and not south and backward and
not forward and Shizumaru would see a room.  And Rimururu would see
a room.  And Nakoruru would have no room, no place to lay herself, for
she was she and Ainu and everything except Japanese and Shizumaru.

Andrew: Translations, please...
Ranma: And since they had no room in the inn, they had to go to a stable. But
unforunately, the stable was in New Jersey.
Izumi: So, Nakoruru is from Massachusetts? (Andrew & Ranma face-fault.)

She would talk to Mamahaha and hear voices and she would ask why she
wasn't home and she would answer and he would answer.  And answers
were never quite so sufficient as to fulfill, only to whet.

Luna: I didn't know falcons can whet wood into objects...

  The three would give everyone a place to rest.  

  "Don't cry," she said once to her younger sister.  She brought earth
upon earth.  Rain fell from Nakoruru's eyes and there was naught to be
grown beneath her.

Kasumi: Hey, Shizumaru...why don't ya use that dumb umbrella of yours for once,
huh?!

- - -

  There are no simple phrases.  No one knows that here.  "I am here."
All hear that and all accept that.  Simple inn, bedroom above, bar
below, luxury of rest.  Rest and thoughtfulness.  A sword beside him
and a pillow under him.  Another day of rest, he was sure the caretaker
would not mind.  He did not eat and had no wish to.  A sword beside him
and a scar beneath him.

Akemi: And a Miller Lite on the table...
******
(We see Ryouga and Urd running away from Baghad as Ryo-ok-hi is still chasing
them.)
Ryouga: Why in the heck did you kill President Hussein?!
Urd: I didn't think he'd believe me as a Goddess. Besides, he'd probably would
have asked for a wish or something like that...
Ryouga: A wish, like I wish was wouldn't get lost?
Ryo-ok-hi: MIYAA!!!
(Suddenly, a beam of light surrounds Urd and she glows. She goes high up in the
air and screams. Bolts of lightning eminate from the Goddess of the Future and
hit Ryo-ok-hi the spaceship and Ryouga. Suddenly the screen is completely
lit...)
******

  How it longed for another like it in every way! Genjuro thought.

  Longing!  Such unfulfillable longing!  Turning retreat into advance,
turning loss into victory!  Longing!  He didn't desire the longing,
only that it be implanted and that he lose responsibility.
Responsibility!  What brings about loss!  What destroys death...
responsibility of all things!

Andrew: What the heck? That's the kind of thinking that got Captain Taylor in
trouble...

  A window to the north and a sight of Fuji revealed being to him and
he thought of being and shoved it out of his mind.  Stop looking at me.
"Stop looking at me!" he said.

Lina: Well, okay, but you don't have any clothes on...

				 A few birds flew by and he cursed them.
He cursed them heavenward and commanded them to look at the god.  Never
will they see the darkness he has seen and never will they enjoy that
satiable emptiness, that longing!  That longing!

Izumi: Gee, he seems depressed.

  Great loss never affected him for he never experienced such.  Simple
loss he did see far too much of.  Such simple losses.  He thought of
them and tormented himself again and again and battered himself again
and again.  Simple loss is incredible loss.  That he should experience
but overwhelming victory or the narrowest of defeats...

  Fire cursed him and water cursed him and earth cursed him and air
cursed him.  And he cursed them back to what they have always been.
"Go and look at your god!  Go and laugh with your god!" he said.

(Everyone laughs at Genjuro.)

  He planned for victory that day.

- - -

  The sunlight from the shack's lone window immersed Rimururu as she
slept beneath a single, heavy cotton sheet.  Shizumaru did love her. He
did love her.  Nakoruru knew this and walked to where he lay and woke
him.  She filled his vision as he drifted out of slumber.

  "Dreams are never this beautiful," he sighed.

  Nakoruru lightly slapped his cheek.

Kasumi: Pervert!
Izumi: I don't know, Kasumi, Shizumaru is a cutie.
Pikachu: Pikachu?
Kasumi: No, Pikachu, you can't tell a boy's size by the umbrella he
carries...oh, my!

  "I'm up."  He sat up and quickly dressed.  He went to a wall and
picked up his sheathed sword and brought the strap over his shoulder.

  "She needs her sleep," said Nakoruru.

  "She is beautiful," Shizumaru said.  He gazed at her as she rolled
over under the sheet.  It covered her petite figure and more as she
dreamed dreams of burial and life and lack thereof.  She had worked
until noon the day before to give everyone a proper burial.

  "I know."  She knelt down and picked up her sheathed sword and tied
it around her, behind her waist.

  "I know," he said.  Rimururu was pretty, had been pretty for as long
as Shizumaru laid eyes upon her.  She spiraled around his head for
eternity and laid in his thoughts.  Shizumaru knelt close to her and
asked her to wake up.  She was pretty.  She rolled under the sheet a
bit, then sat up.

  "I'm awake, I'm awake."  As Shizumaru turned toward the door,
Rimururu threw the sheet off and brought her only attire over her.
It still smelled a bit of the sweat which had soaked in the day before.
She had worked hard to put earth over those who deserved it, and those
who warranted it.  She tied her sheathed sword around her waist just
as Nakoruru had done.

  She was aged seventeen years, her sister two more, Shizumaru one
less.  She never did feel comfortable about being with a boy younger
than she.

Lina: That is until the first menage-a-trois...
Everyone else: Lina!!!

  An open door from a dirt floor with light glaring at the three,
Rimururu looked upon mounds of earth and shook.  Before her was death
and he scared her, perhaps only her, perhaps her sister as well.  She
followed and walked around ground.

  "I walk among dead."  There were thoughts of death in her head and
she wished them alive that she might find them dead from her hand.
Moments were few for want of death but she wanted that of death, or
of thoughts of death.  They filled her and she choked on saliva.
Tears moistened her coat.  She choked on saliva.  Rimururu called to
her sister and she came in sullen steps upon experienced earth.

Andrew: Man, is this a morbid piece of fiction or what?
Ranma: Or what...

  "Nee-chan?"

  "Yes?"

  "We changed the shoes?"

Washu (imitating Rimururu): You mean from those Adidas to the Nike Ninja
Sneakers with the Silent Pumps? Yes, we did.
A-ko (imitating Nakoruru): No, onneechan, we needed those pumps!
Andrew (imitating Shizumaru): I prefer high heel shoes myself.

  "Yes."

  "Why?"

  "They step backwards.  They go back."  Nakoruru dried her
sister's tears with her hair.  "Everyone goes back."

  "I cry mountains."  She looked into her sister's eyes and they
were far too gentle.  They should be stern and taut and unforgiving!
"I cry Fuji.  I scream and shout Fuji!"  The volume engulfed Nakoruru
and she was moved.  She knelt and felt her heart as it beat a rhythm
into her head.  "And Fuji is dead!  And Fuji is dead.  And Fuji is
dead."

Ranma: Gee, all this crying over a bankrupted camera company...
Andrew: You know, none of this is making any sense...

  "Fuji is dead," Shizumaru said.  There was no thought, him, only
fact and fact was Fuji's death.  "I gave her."

  Because none disputed him, it is easy to understand why they
traveled to Edo.


-   -  - -- -  -   -
That's the prologue...I hope someone is reading this.  :)  As
I said before, I'd really appreciate any C&C as I've not seen
any Samurai Shodown fics (outside of multi game based fanfics).
Thanks in advance...

Andrew: Okay...let's give some C&C. Ranma?
Ranma: This fic seems to me to be very incoherent.
Andrew: I agree. I can't make heads or tells what's going on.
A-ko: You know, I haven't said much. But I want a three-way thing going between
Nakoruru, Rimururu, and Shizumaru! (Everyone face-faults.) Besides, it doesn't
seem apprarent to me the Shiz-chan loves Rima-chan.
Kasumi: I think the other characters seem to be very cardboard-like
characters...no depth to them.
Pikachu: Pika-pikachu!
Kasumi: Well, yes, Pikachu I know that this is a prologue, I'll give him that.
Akemi: All I can say is...where's the beer? This is going to be one heck of a
depressing fic. (Washu starts to cry again.) See what I mean?
Andrew: Just make sure Washu doesn't try to call out from heaven.
Belldandy: Oh, no worry. Washu can't die, we won't let Dr. Kevorkian get in
here.
Skuld (to Belldandy): Marcie, you're weird.
Belldandy: Skuld, why are you calling me Marcie? (Skuld face-faults.)
(Suddenly there's a huge flash of light...)
******

(Poof! P-chan and Ryo-ok-hi in their wedding suits. Luna is sitting right next
to Ryo-ok-hi is a lovely orange carrot-style dress as the Maid of Honor. The
bridesmaids are Diana, Midnight, and Jiji. Next to P-chan is Pikachu, the best
man, along with Mokona, Uura, and Totoro. Sister Angela, from One-Pound Gospel,
is the minister. P-chan turns and looks at Urd, who's sitting in the pews along
with all of the anime characters past and present. The church is packed.)
P-chan: Bwee?
Urd: Well, you wished never to be able to get lost and Ryo-ok-hi wished that you
two would get married now...both were granted. You'll never get lost ever again,
if you marry Ryo-ok-hi. (P-chan begins to cry.)
Sister Angela: Why am I doing this? I'm a nun not a minister!
Kami-sama: Why ask why? Try Bud Lite! (He gives the Nun a bottle. She chugs it
all down.)
Sister Angela: Good point...Dearly beloved...
Andrew (whispering to Akane Tendo): Oh, boy...
Akane (whispering): Well, it couldn't get any worse...
Azusa Shiratori: Wai! All those kawaii animals to huge and squeeze and torchure
with! (She starts running towards the wedding group.) Charolette! Phil! Monique!
Bellique! All those kawaii animals!!!

SKlathill

******
To be concluded...