A Ranma � fusion fanfiction.
Set after Jusendo, but before the attempted wedding.
A little dark for the first chapter, but should get better later. I think
it's a pretty original plot, so give it a shot and let me know what you
think. More author's comments to follow the fic.
****************************
Everyone said that it was okay, but that didn't make it hurt any less.
Saffron had had to be stopped, he knew that. But in his mind, he couldn't
stop seeing the man die, over and over again. He woke night after night,
rushing to the bathroom to cleanse himself of blood that only he could see.
No soap seemed to be able to wash the guilt from him, no words of
consolation could make the dreams stop coming. Ranma was reaching his edge.
"All I wanted was for Akane to be safe," moaned Ranma. Why did everyone have
to mess with his life? "All I wanted was to have her in my arms, alive."
Ranma got up from the stool in the bathroom, heading back upstairs. Time to
face the nightmares once again.
****************************
Akane stared at the ceiling, trying to clear her mind. She kept waking from
dreams of Jusendo, always different. In the most recent one, Ranma just
didn't have what it took to destroy the Phoenix God and she'd had to watch
his death.
What was worse though? Watching Ranma die fast in battle, where
he belonged, or watching him die slowly from the guilt of his battles?
She sighed, "I just wish that I knew how to make the hurt go
away. How to heal that wound for him." At Jusendo Akane had heard the
words she'd longed to hear for so long.Ranma loved her, but now she was
losing him again.
****************************
The next morning, breakfast was quiet compared to the norm.
Ranma and Genma still sparred over the food, but it was clear that Ranma
just didn't have his heart in the fight.
"So, Saotome, you going to grace us with your presence at school today?"
asked Nabiki. She was getting tired of seeing Ranma moping about the house
every day, just doing nothing.
Ranma looked up from his miso with a half-hearted smirk. "Whassamatter
Nabiki? Not enough money coming in without me there to fight?"
Nabiki winced at his comment, and then stood to leave, "Fine Saotome. Stay
here all day and rot. See if I care. Akane, you better finish up soon; don
't want to be late again today."
With a glance at Ranma, Akane began to clean up her dishes off the table.
"Ranma. Please think about coming back to school, you can't just stay here
for the rest of your life." With one last backward glance at Ranma, she
disappeared into the kitchen.
Ranma just stared at his bowl until Akane had left the room, then stood. "I
'm goin' out back to think."
Just as Ranma was about to leave the room, Kasumi said, "Ranma, wait. Maybe
you should go and talk with Dr. Tofu later today? He might be able to help
you talk this out." Then with one of her cheery smiles, she began to clear
the table of breakfast.
Ranma stood at the door for a second, and then kept walking out towards the
dojo. Tofu wouldn't understand. Couldn't understand. Tofu hadn't ripped
anyone apart with his bare hands.
****************************
Ranma sat on the rocks around the koi pond, his features blank and his body
unmoving save for the slow, regular movement of his chest. The morning was
clear and crisp with a gentle autumn breeze blowing through the yard.
On the inside, however, Ranma was a roiling sea of emotions and despair. He
didn't really feel like he could talk to anyone about his experience, and he
was having trouble keeping his feelings under control. Nobody would really
understand him and everyone seemed to have an ulterior motive.
Sure his best friend Ukyo would comfort him if he went to her, but Ranma
wasn't sure how much of that would be concern for him and how much was a
calculated play to win him from Akane.
He desperately wanted to talk to Akane about Jusendo, but something always
happened to interrupt. Someone always ruined it. Usually it was him. He
just got all mixed up trying to talk to her and everything just came out
wrong.
Maybe he could talk to his mother about it? But no. a 'real' man doesn't
cry after a battle. A _real_ man doesn't lie awake at night shivering and
wishing for it all to just go away. He'd be forced to commit suicide
instead of getting the comfort he needed.
Suicide. The thought had entered his mind once or twice since the fight at
Jusendo, and some times it looked like one of the best ways out of all this
pain and suffering. Some times like now.
As Ranma sank deeper into despair, he began to glow a sickly
greenish-yellow. The aura grew around him like a foul cloud, expanding and
darkening in color.
"Maybe it would just be for the best if I vanished," thought Ranma. He knew
how to use the Shi-Shi Hokoudan, the perfect form could wipe him from the
face of the earth with enough power behind it. At the very least, charging
up and releasing a huge Shi-Shi Hokoudan would leave him drained to near the
point of death.
As Ranma began to build up power for his Perfect Shi-Shi Hokoudan, a figure
walked on to the porch. He had walked right through the house and neither
martial arts master in there had noticed him, nor had Kasumi. The gate and
doors had opened easily under his touch. Death will not be denied.
The figure was garbed in black from head to foot in a black robe. The hands
sticking out from the robe were pure white bones. The face death presented
was a skull, the bony face perpetually grinning at his grim task. As Death
watched the scene unfold he reached up to his bony head and pulled back the
cowl of the robe. What had once been the grinning skull of death became a
man's head. He stared in wonder at the forces gathering around Ranma in
open shock. He had never seen anything like it.
As Ranma began the final steps in his chi gathering, he felt a new presence
enter the yard. Annoyed at the interruption, he cracked an eye at the intru
der. He was surprised to see.death. That's the only person it could have
been with the bony hands and black clothing.
Death saw that he had been noticed and began to head towards his client to
get the collection over with.
Ranma saw death coming for him. Death had stepped off the porch and was
walking across the yard where Akane destroyed her practice dummies. Akane.
Ranma suddenly remembered her smile. It filled his mind and he needed to
see that smile again. And Death was coming for him, he'd never see that
smile again!
Ranma seized the anguish he felt at that last thought and hurled his chi at
this figure who would deny him one last look at Akane's smile with a mighty
roar of "Shi-Shi Hokoudan!!"
As Death walked towards his client he saw the energy coalesce into his hands
just as the boy yelled some curse or exclamation at Death. It was right
before the beam lanced out to strike him in the chest that he remembered he
had removed his cowl.
The beam was huge. It had all Ranma could force into it. The figure of
death was blown back into one of the support beams on the Tendo porch,
creating an awesome explosion of dust and debris on impact.
Death was beaten and dazed by the blast, but alive. He slowly opened his
eyes and looked up from the ground just in time to see the jagged edge of a
torn support beam heading straight for his face.
Ranma shuddered at the crunch. There was a spasm through the body of Death,
and then it was still. He was dumbfounded. He had killed Death. Not
knowing what to do, Ranma went over to the body to get a closer look. He
was in shock. He had killed another person.
"Hello."
Ranma whirled around to see a beautiful woman standing there. "Who the hell
are you?" Ranma demanded.
The woman smiled and said, "I'm Clotho, an aspect of Fate. I'm here to help
you get situated into your new job."
"My new what?" asked Ranma, bewildered at this odd turn of events. Things
were rapidly becoming surreal to him.
Clotho glanced down at the corpse and the pooling blood there and finally
said, "Why, you killed Death. Now the job has to get passed on to someone.
Congratulations, Ranma Saotome, you are the new incarnation of Death."
***************************
Copyright Info:
Ranma � is property of Rumiko Takahashi, Kitty TV, et al.
The Incarnations of Immortality books are property of Piers Anthony.
This is a not for profit fanfic, by a non-profit college student. Please
don't sue.
Author's Notes:
1) I'm not sure if this is fusion or crossover. I'm not having Ranma
replace Zane in the Incarnations Of Immortality series, but a character
doesn't just appear in R1/2, they become one of the main chars. Kinda.
Regardless - This will be based more in the R1/2 world rather than in the
IoI books (no series plot revolving around Luna).
2) I would love to hear what people would think of continuance plotlines.
Write the death chaps quickly, and move on to different chars for War, Fate,
Time, and Mother Nature; or go with the Ranma-as-death story for the whole
story and really flesh out a good plot.
3) I would love to have some input on where you think the story should go,
or good plot ideas. My skeleton plot usually doesn't survive my writing
process; the story tends to get away from me...
Rev .1 9/30/01
Rev .2 10/1/01
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