And so, we move on to the prologue to Book Two.  I've attempted to clarify 
exactly what kind of chaos Zhu Shu has been feeling since the merge and 
hopefully this shows that better.  As always, C&C welcome.
************************************************************************

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 characters property of Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, 
Kitty, and Viz Video.  Sailor Moon characters property of Takeuchi Naoko, 
Koudansha, TV Asahi, and Toei Douga, and DIC.  Ah! My Goddess property of 
Fujishima Kosuke, Kodansha, TBS and KSS films; AnimEigo, Studio Proteus, and 
Dark Horse Comics.  Other characters who may cameo are property of 
respective owners.  All are used without permission.  I did not write this 
for profit, but for practice.  Will be removed at request of original 
creators or authorized rep.

Zhu Shu (who shoo), Tao-Ching, Xi'an Chi (zy-an chee), and Clans' Dragon and 
Skorpion are mine, and may be used so long as I am asked beforehand.

And thanks to DB Sommer for allowing me to use Ai Konjou and the Furinkan 
Combat Cheerleaders.

************************************************************************
Book Two: The Dragon's Child

Prologue: The Dance of Shadows

Zhu Shu watched Shan Pu walk down the hall towards the stairs and sighed.  
That had been far harder than she had thought it would be.  Shan Pu's eyes 
had barely left her the entire time she had helped her dress, and the 
unspoken desire had nearly been more than she could stand.  Her heart had 
screamed at her to accept the invitations from Ranma and Shan Pu to join 
them as another wife, but she knew too well the disaster that awaited if she 
had.  She was happy her friend was on her way to her engagement, she just 
wished. . . .

She turned and looked at the formal Mandarin gown laid out on her bed. She 
really should put it on and go down to join the ceremony, but she just 
couldn't summon the will to.  Her mind whirled with too many conflicting 
emotions: happiness, jealousy, relief, despair. . . ever since she had 
merged chi with Akane, she had felt like she was dancing along a razorblade. 
  The chaotic whirlwind of Akane's passions had nearly shattered the iron 
control she had been forced to build following Ying Ying's death, the sole 
defense she had against the overwhelming grief. . . .

She sat on the edge of the bed and picked up the small framed picture Kasumi 
had given her of their kiss on the subway.  Her first day with the Tendos 
had been so chaotic . . . and yet . . .  Kasumi had made her feel so 
welcome, despite the way she had surprised her the night before.  The eldest 
Tendo sister had forged a freindship with her that Zhu Shu cherished.  As 
desireable as she found Kasumi, there was no feeling of tension between 
them.  Kasumi knew Zhu Shu's preferences, knew Zhu Shu thought she was sexy, 
and simply accepted it, so it had become a non-issue.  Kasumi had been there 
when she'd needed advice on how to deal with Akane, and had even actively 
helped.

But this?  This was something Zhu Shu couldn't bring herself to lay at 
Kasumi's feet.  How could she burden her with such chaos?  No, it would not 
do to expose such a fountain of light to the darkness that had consumed her 
soul with Ying Ying's death, or the delicate balance she had achieved to 
survive.

Until Akane. . . .

She shut the thought out as she stood and went to her closet, choosing a few 
simple dresses . . .  She had to go away . . . she needed time to think . . 
. to figure out which of the emotions rampaging in her head were really 
hers. . . to try and find some way to regain the emotional control the chi 
merger had nearly shattered.

After she had packed the dresses, she reached behind her back and drew her 
swords. . .  She removed the ribbons, then picked up her pack and the small 
sword stand Rei had given her, heading down to the small shrine the Tendos 
kept.

The peace that washed over her as she entered helped to calm her raging 
thoughts. She needed that calm . . . she needed a counter to the chaos her 
life had become.

As she set the swords down and draped her signet ring over them, she 
realized where she should go . . . where she could find enough peace to 
think.

She prayed to the Dragon to watch over the Tendos while she was away, and 
she felt the comforting sense of his presence . . . It gave her the strength 
to push her mental storm back and gain at least a little equilibrium.

Control. How had she lost control? She had only intended to prepare Ranma 
for Shan Pu, and to guide him to happiness with Akane . . . How had she 
allowed herself to become so entangled?  In the momentary peace of the 
shrine, she had to admit that the chi merger had only intensified what had 
already been happening.  She had been slowly losing her emotional armor 
before it had turned her soul into a battlefeild. . . .

She found herself looking at the small duck nameplate Akane had on her door 
. . . She'd been so engrossed in her musings, she had wandered back upstairs 
- more evidence of her loss of control - but she had her answer.

Akane . . . the unexpected fianc�e . . . the wild card.

Akane, the girl who had found the chinks in the armor she'd built around her 
heart . . . the girl who had stolen away that heart. . . the girl who had 
nearly driven her to abandon her duty, her honor. . . to throw away the very 
things that had allowed her to go on living once Ying Ying had died.

And yet . . . it was never to be. She was Ranma's fianc�e, and soon to be 
Shan Pu's.  She could never be hers, not in any honorable way.   Not in any 
way that would not lead to a despair she would never wish to see on Akane's 
face.  No. . . it was better to spare her that fate.

Back downstairs. She stood in the shadows to see Ranma accepting Shan Pu's 
betrothal, noting the jealous look on Akane's face.  She sighed, hoping 
Akane would not cause Shan Pu too many problems for a few days.  She just 
needed to regain her equilibrium before the wall fell and allowed the black 
flood of her grief to once more drown her in it's cold embrace.

Outside. she walked down the street, not really going in any particular 
direction, just wandering, led by the swirls of her thoughts and the 
maelstrom of the emotions she'd inadvertently drawn from Akane. . .

Why had they merged chi?  Other than the ceremonial joining with Shan Pu as 
her blood-sister, and the bonds she had with her swords, only Ying Ying had 
merged with her.  It had been so wonderous, so joyous a bonding between 
them, eagerly tying their lives together in thier love and joy at sharing 
that love.  Yet for all the ectasy of shared sensations, they had not shared 
each others memories and emotions.  What had made Akane so different?

She passed Ryouga, determinedly heading for the Dojo. She figured he might 
find it next week, as he was heading in exactly the wrong direction. She 
smiled. She could sympathize with the lost boy . . . she had felt like she 
was lost all the time recently too, wandering aimlessly through a blizzard 
in the dark. . . .

Why had Ranma had to go and ask her to marry him?  Why hadn't he just left 
their friendship alone?  She had never meant for him to learn of her love. . 
.

Her heart ached. . . and the loneliness threatened to overwhelm her. . .
Alone. She'd been alone for too many years. . . ever since Ying Ying . . . 
until she came to Japan . . . where everyone cared for her . . .

The aloneness had been easier to bear when no-one cared . . . when no-one 
knew about her heartache and failure but her aunt and grandfather . . . the 
caring all her friends showed her had thrown the loneliness into sharp 
relief, and brought back the whispers of her grief.  That it had not already 
poured from the cracks in her wall of control and drawn her back screaming 
into the abyss was a wonder she couldn't explain.

Footsteps . . . behind her. She stopped and turned.

A shadowy figure walked up the street towards her, her features lost in the 
twilight. The dying rays of the sun twinkled off the headpiece of her long 
golden staff, the ruby seeming to draw the light in and burn. Long silver 
hair swirled about her ankles along with the long white robe trimmed in red 
and black. Zhu Shu blinked.  As she drew closer, that sense of familiarity 
grew stronger.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"A messenger, My Little Mouse with the eyes of a Dragon."

Recognition came. . . She had seen her nearly five years ago. . . after. . .

The memory swept across her, of the day she had succumbed to the blackness, 
had lost herself in the torrent and been dragged under.  The wind had played 
through her hair as she stood on the cliff where they had so often come to 
get away from the village, where they had. . . the grief had been so 
overwhelming and it would never end. . . could never end.  All she had 
wanted to do was see Ying Ying again. . . She had stepped forward. . . .

And awoken in her bed to the kind face before her, all memory of how she had 
gotten there missing. . . lost in a golden fog.  Only the echos of Ying 
Ying's voice in her ears.

<<I am here. . . .  Always and forever, I am here.>>

That echo had allowed her to wall away the despair, to face the world once 
more and somehow make it through.  There was nothing the world could throw 
at her worse than the loss of Ying Ying.

But she had not done it on her own.  When she had awoken, she had the Dragon 
tattoo on her back.

"I remember you." Zhu Shu said slowly. "You came the day. . ."

"The Dragon claimed you." the old woman finished. "Yes. That was the first 
of our meetings. There have been others, in dreams."

"Why are you here?"

"As I said . . . I am being a messenger."

"And what is the message?" Zhu Shu looked at her curiously . . . was that a 
faint trace of green in her hair?

"The Wheel of Souls has spun out once more that which once was. Look to the 
past to find the answers of the future. Be strong Dragon's Child, for the 
future you choose may affect more than just yourself. The game has just 
begun. You may face many dangers and many foes, yet behind them all is the 
same enemy. Choose your destiny with care, Little Mouse. . ." She turned to 
go.

"Wait!" Zhu Shu called. "Who are you."

The old woman turned. "We will meet again soon enough.   I must come to you 
twice more in the flesh ere my onus to you is done and you meet me, for my 
first time anyway. I have not always looked as I do now." A sad sigh came 
from her lips. "I fear I must apologize for my actions when I first meet you 
. . . I . . . regret them very much . . . I hope you will remember that, 
after. . . ." She turned and continued down the street.

Zhu Shu wanted to run after her . . . to ask her what her puzzling words 
meant, but she couldn't move her feet. Then, she was gone, lost in the 
shadows. . .

A wave of dizziness washed over her as she sat up . . . suddenly aware she 
was laying on a bus stop bench. She couldn't remember how she had gotten 
there. A golden haze once more lay over her memories of the last several 
hours . . . She had been walking in the early afternoon and now . . . a 
glance at a bank clock down the street showed it to be after midnight. . . .

She shook her head . . . such a strange dream.

She stood and looked around, realizing the street looked vaguely familiar, 
then turned around and realized why. Behind her, steps rose up to a hilltop 
covered in cherry trees around a shrine. She was where she had been heading: 
Hikawa Shrine.

Dismissing the disquieting vision, she climbed the steps to the first place 
in Japan she'd actually felt comfortable at and quietly opened the shrine 
doors. The main shrine was quiet, the still glowing embers of the fire dimly 
illuminating the room. Zhu Shu nodded to herself.   Stepping within was an 
almost plapable relief as she felt the peace of the shrine envelope her and 
lessen the roar of her inner storm.

Walking to the shrine's center, she mentally laid out a dragon mandala on 
the floor, fixing its boundaries in her mind's eye and ensuring there were 
no obstructions with in it's confines. Satisfied, she finally closed her 
eyes and saw only the mandala as she drew out her ribbons and began to 
dance. . . .




*******************************************
The most preposterous motion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up it that the 
Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the 
saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by prayers, and becomes 
petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, 
without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the 
oldest, largest and least productive industry in all history.
-- Lazarus Long --


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