Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Thirst for Blood ❯ First Drop ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and Sailor Moon are not mine. Don't bother suing me I'm a student AKA flat broke. L

Thirst for Blood : First Drop

By: Dusk

In small home in Nerima a family was gathering.

"So who is this Ranma, Daddy?" a young woman with short brown hair asked.

"I hope he isn't too young, young men are so... young." A woman barely two years older commented.

"Boys, who cares." A younger girl voiced.

"I have no idea. I've never met the lad." Commented the girls' father.

This elicited two glares and on look of astonishment from Soun's daughters.

"What do you mean you've never met him?" "How could you engage us to someone you've never met?" "Oh father, how could you?"

The last, said by Kasumi was what caused Soun to feel a small measure of guilt, even though he couldn't comprehend what he had done wrong. Kasumi just had that way with people.

"Give the lad a chance. He might impress you. He and his father recently journeyed to China."

"Oh China." Nabiki was impressed. If they could travel to China just for martial arts they must have money. Money was important in a possible fiancée.

"So they went to China, big deal." Akane was less than impressed. A real martial artist wouldn't need to travel all over the world. After all Akane had learned just fine staying at home.

It was while each of the girls contemplated what Ranma might be like that the doorbell rang.

"Oh that must be Ranma" Nabiki said as she headed towards the door. Her father trailed her by mere seconds.

What greeted them when they arrived at the door was thoroughly shocking. A policeman stood waiting, a thin brown envelope in his hands. Nabiki was a little worried and unnerved at the same time. Her first thought had been that the policeman was here to bust her for her crime ring at school. Gambling not to mention extortion and blackmail were less than welcome in schools. Once she saw how thin the envelope was she became puzzled instead. She was sure the police would have gathered much more than a few mere pages on her.

"Hello, I am sorry to trouble but are you Soun Tendo?" asked the policeman. His face and voice clearly communicating that this was a serious matter.

"Yes I am. How can I help you?" Soun was a little unnerved himself. He and Genma had led a less than honest path under their former master, but like Nabiki he was confused by the apparently small envelope.

"Do you know a Genma Saotome?" Asked the police officer.

"Yes I do. I'm actually expecting him here shortly."

"I'm afraid he won't be coming. Could I have a word with you in private."

"Hey this business with the Saotomes concerns me as well. I'm staying." Nabiki disliked being treated like a child; she also had insatiable need to know anything and everything, especially anything involving a future in-law or husband.

"Very well may I come in than." The officer looked resigned as he asked.

"Yes of course. This is my daughter Nabiki. Kasumi and Akane are waiting in the family room."

Nabiki watched as the officer entered their home. She knew he was bearing bad news. That worried her some. If Genma had endangered her family he would pay.

The officer followed Soun into the family room and sat down at the table. He placed the envelope on the table. "Mister Tendo I must warn you this isn't a matter that should be shared with anyone who isn't an adult."

"It's okay, my daughters are very mature." Soun said. Nabiki almost laughed at that. Akane, mature, not by a long shot, Nabiki thought to herself.

The officer sighed and pulled the contents from the envelope. "Genma Saotome was found in china by a local police force. Only the bare minimalist of information was found on him, an old birth certificate and an address book with only your name and address in it. The local police forwarded the information to us as well as some of the evidence. The body will be sent over for autopsy and burial once it has been positively identified."

Soun just looked at the man and promptly fainted.

In another area of Tokyo a similar gathering was taking place. The members weren't family but the ties that bound them were arguably stronger than the ties of blood. After all the senshi had been bound together for millennia. On the other hand the senshi acted a lot like family sometimes.

"Usagi give that back, I haven't read that one yet." Rei demanded.

"I hope the outers show up pretty soon. This is getting old." Makoto commented as she watched the two senshi fight.

Just then the door opened and in walked three of the outer senshi.

Haruka took one look at the two fighting inners and shook her head. "Some things never change."

"Haruka papa, are Rei and Usagi ever going to get along?" Hotaru asked looking up the tall blonde woman.

"Probably not, and if they do, consider it a sign of the apocalypse."

Rei managed to hear Haruka's final comment and gave up chasing Usagi. She glared at Haruka and said in a sarcastic voice "Now that everyone's here we can start the meeting." Rei would get her manga back later.

"Not quite" Michiru spoke up.

"Setsuna doesn't count. She'll show up when or if she feels like, make some cryptic comment that will drives us nuts for the next several weeks, than leave. She already knows everything that happens anyway." Makoto stated.

"Normally you would have been right, but not this time I'm afraid." Setsuna spoke up from behind Makoto.

Makoto whirled around after having nearly jumped out of her skin and glared at Setsuna. "Stop doing that! Do you want me to die of a heart attack when I'm thirty?"

"Sorry, habit." Setsuna said. The Senshi were given a rare treat on this evening. Setsuna actually managed to look slightly sheepish. "If we could get on with the meeting?"

Rei gave one last disbelieving look Setsuna's way before beginning. "Okay. The short of it is that I've had a vision and as usual it makes almost no sense to me. The basic summary is this: Someone is coming to Tokyo or is already here. Whoever they are I don't know if they're male or female, they've appeared as both in my visions. Before you ask, it is not two separate people, it's just one person, don't ask me how I know, I just know. Whether this person is a threat or not I don't know that either, but danger does come with them. Also pain and suffering surround this person, again whether they cause it or just happen to be around them I don't know. My visions leave me with the impression that this person has been hurt extremely in some way, and that they are very dangerous because of it." Rei left it off at that and turned to Setsuna for more information.

"I'm afraid that's only as much as we know. Whoever they are they bring Chaos with them. The future will never be the same anymore. Before the time stream branched into only a small number of possibilities at each conflict, hundreds at the most. This time it's millions upon millions. This person is a fulcrum for fate." Setsuna finished.

"You mean that's it. Can't you tell us something more?" Minako asked.

"Yeah couldn't you bend the rules a little just this once? Usagi said looking very hopeful.

"I can't bend the rules because there are no rules to bend anymore." Setsuna managed to sound very wary and a small bit afraid as she said this. The senshi weren't sure if they had heard the fear in her voice or not, they all hoped that they had not. "The chaos makes it impossible to use the time gates. I literally know as much as you do this time around. The only difference was I knew this was coming." Setsuna took a deep breath. "This time we're on even footing. Rei knows as much I do. I am sorry."

Ami spoke up next "What does this person look like? We should be on the look out for them."

Rei answered "The male version has black hair is about so tall," Rei held her hand a couple of inches above her head as she stood up "very athletic build. The female version is about this high" this time Rei held her hand about level with her eyes "Her hair is red. Both have their hair done up in a short pigtail. It reaches a little past their shoulders. They wear a red Chinese style shirt and black pants. Eyes are blue and very cold. That's it." Rei finished.

"You said that danger came with this person. What sort of danger?" Michiru asked.

"I don't know that either. All I know is that the person isn't the sole cause of it. Something else is out there, I get the impression that is what hurt them but I don't know." Rei answered.

"I can confirm that there is a third party and that yes, they are very dangerous. Beyond that I just don't know." Setsuna added.

Usagi looked crestfallen at this. "You mean we have to fight again."

"It appears so." Ami answered "We should go out and patrol. The faster we can find something out the better."

"Good, we have a basic plan now let's do it. We'll separate into pairs to cover more ground." Minako said. The rest of the senshi agreed and headed out.

Back at the Tendo home Soun was finally starting to recover. He heard one of his daughters speaking.

"So you have know idea who or what did this." Nabiki was talking Soun realized.

"No, it doesn't resemble any animal marks, but it appears to be too savage to have been human." That had to be the officer talking.

"Oh look fathers awake again." Kasumi observed.

Soun sat up and looked at the officer. "Is it really Saotome? Are you sure?"

"No we're not sure. That's why we are here. We need you identify the body. We have some photos that were sent to us by the Chinese officials. If you could have a look at them it would help us greatly." The officer handed Soun the pictures.

Soun looked at the pictures, his hands shaking horribly. After looking at all of them he set them back on the table. It was hard to make out, much of the face and body had been horribly torn apart. He regretted letting his daughters stay, it was gruesome enough that they shouldn't have had to see it.. "Yes, that is... was, Genma Saotome. He was one of the greatest martial artists I knew. We survived untold hardships together. Who ever did this was no mere animal. They had have been very powerful."

"What about Ranma" Nabiki asked.

"Who is Ranma? If I may ask?" The officer inquired.

Soun looked up sharply at that. "You mean you haven't found him? Ranma is Genma's son. They were training together in China."

"No trace of a second victim was found. He may have gotten away. This is important information. Can you provide us with a description of Ranma? It would help greatly." The officer opened a clipboard and readied a pencil.

"I've never met the boy. All I can tell you is that he is probably in his late teens." Soun looked crestfallen. His friend was dead, and Ranma, the hope of uniting the two schools was missing, possibly dead as well.

"Even that much will help. If the Chinese have any information on him I'll be sure to let you know. Can you tell me if Genma had any relatives?"

"A wife. Her name was Nodoka I think. I don't know her address, sorry. If you can tell me, how long ago did this happen?"

"Nearly a week and half ago. It took us a while to find the address, there was no city mentioned, just a house number and a last name. The body was also found at least a day after the murder occurred. Again my condolences." With that the officer stood up to leave. Kasumi showed him to the door.

When she returned Nabiki spoke again. "So what now. Ranma seems to be missing, very likely dead. Genma is definitely dead. If it wasn't just a random violence we could be in danger too."

"At least none of us will have to marry the pervert now if he's dead." Akane voiced.

"Akane. That's horrible." Kasumi looked at her little sister shocked.

"Well I'd probably have to be the one to may him since I'm the only one who still practices martial arts." Akane tried not to look guilty.

"Akane a guy about our age is possibly dead, most likely very gruesomely if the pictures of Genma are indication. Now you want that to happen to somebody as bad as even Kuno."

"Oh. I guess not."

Soun got up to leave. "I'm going to go out and get some fresh air. I need to clear my head."

Nabiki watched him leave. She knew that he was going out to go get drunk. Normally she would let him have it about that habit but considering the news, she wouldn't bother him about this time.

The senshi were covering a lot of ground as they moved through the city, unfortunately Tokyo was a massive city and even a lot of ground didn't add up to much against the area they needed to cover. After two hours they were beginning to realize just how frustrating it was searching a city for a single person with only a vague description to recognize them by. People were constantly in motion, moving in and out of buildings, cars, buses, subways and alleys. Not to mention the shear volume of people located in even relatively unpopulated areas.

"This is pointless, we're never going to find something in this sea of people." Makoto said. It was true. The senshi may have had their identities clouded by magic but even that could only go so far. What really hid them from evil was the endless sea of possibilities. That was why groups like the Negaverse had setup elaborate traps to find them. Even with Usagi's unusual hairstyle, the possibilities of hero worship and fashion would have kept their enemies searching for years. Also their enemies had no way of knowing if Sailor moon changed her hairstyle out of battle.

All this searching was giving the Sailor senshi a new respect for the local police force. Makoto was seriously thinking about contacting the police. If she claimed her boyfriend was missing and his parents were out of town they could do the hunting. Unfortunately she had to dismiss it almost immediately. She didn't even know his name, or if he was even a boy. Not to mention what would happen if the cops actually found him, or her. She had merely been thinking of the person as he because Rei had described the male aspect first. She wondered if the other senshi thought of him as a he or as a she.

"Hey Mercury, do think this person is actually a boy or a girl, or maybe just some twisted version of both? Like a shape shifter or something maybe?" Makoto asked. She was curious as to what her friend thought, or even what sort of ideas her incredible mind might come up with.

"I really wouldn't know. I would prefer not to jump to conclusions. The individual might only be a very good cross dresser, perhaps aided by magic. They might also be a single person with two bodies existing at one time. They could be two places at once. Another possibility is that one of them is a past life and was reincarnated into a different body." No Makoto definitely wasn't disappointed with the possibilities that Ami could come up with.

"Hey I just had a disturbing thought. What if the red head was a senshi in the silver millennium, like Sailor Sun or Earth, but was reincarnated as a guy. Wouldn't that be disturbing?" Makoto suppressed a small giggle at that thought. It would be really funny, disturbing but funny.

"That is an interesting possibility. We'll have to talk to the Luna, Artemis or Setsuna about that." Ami replied without even a hint of humor or sarcasm.

While Jupiter stood staring slack jawed at her friend, their beepers went off.

"Hurry to the mall guys. There's a monster attack." It was Venus.

"Right away." Replied Jupiter. She hurried with all possible speed. Partly to make sure that no innocents were hurt and partly to make sure that all the fight wasn't taken out of the monster by the time she got there.

Ami only wondered to herself when the craziness would end.

Ranma had been hunting for hours and he was getting impatient. He had searched out all the areas that his prey hid in. Now he was stalking their feeding grounds. The malls, subways, theatres, dance clubs. Bars were off limits for him, he didn't have any ID. He didn't have anything that would let him live in this world of concrete and neon lights, no money, no identification, no friends, no anything. But he wasn't really living in this world right now, he was hunting in it.

It was as Ranma was moving between places and gathering that he heard what he had been waiting for. A scream came floating through the night. Low and masculine but still a scream. Ranma didn't fault the man, most people were terrified when they found out that monsters really did live in the shadows. Any one sane would run from such a noise. Only they truly foolish or reckless would run into something that would make a grown man scream like a frightened child. That was why Ranma ran head long towards it as fast as he could.

When he arrived the man was cowering in fear before three humanoid figures. To most they would be indistinguishable from a normal if very dirty human. To Ranma they were enemies and prey. They moved like stalking beasts, the type that knew instinctively what was to be eaten, what was to be ignored and that nothing was to be feared. No one could stand up to them, they were the next stage of predator, stronger than their size indicated, faster than they should have been. Though they lacked a true intelligence like humanity they still possessed an incredibly keen and cunning mind. One that could let them not only survive in places were no other predator dared to tread, but flourish. They were the sharks and tigers of this world of cities. They had no natural predators. They were not hunted and they knew it to the core of their beings.

Unfortunately for the beasts Ranma could not be likened to a natural predator. Sharks did not eat whales and tigers did not chase grown elephants. And while Ranma did not have the size to compare to the these mammoth creatures he did have the strength. It was this strength that he brought against the beasts that lurked in the alley. Before any of them knew it one was sent flying forwards to slam solidly into the alley wall. While the other two turned to see what had could possibly hurt their pack mate a voice spoke out. Not to the beasts, words were wasted on such as them but to the man cowering on the ground.

"Get up and run old man" The words were cold and without compassion. Compassion was a out of place in the small world that was the alley. Out on the street less than forty feet away it would have been natural. In the small enclosed space of the alley only hate, fear and hunger existed. The man, uncomprehending of the words spoken to him in his state of fear, none the less surged to his feet and ran towards the lights of the street. Instincts that existed down to the cellular level and had existed for as long as one life form consumed another reached deep into his being and drove him to speeds that he thought of as impossible. He would later dismiss those same speeds as a skewing of reality by his fear based adrenaline rush. He couldn't see the alley in the dark, all he could see was the light at the end of the darkness. And as he ran he never turned back, never saw the face of his rescuer, never saw the speeds and power that made his own mad run seem a crawl.

As soon as the man was out of the alley he was forgotten. The three beasts and the alley were his only concern now. While the man had been running Ranma had been moving as well. The beasts were fast and the two left standing had rounded on him with furious power and speed. Ranma had known the attacks were coming and somersaulted backwards to land feet first against the wall for a split second before launching back at a steep angle. Ranma's foot connected to the head of one of the beasts, driving it skull first into the ground. The third took a clumsy but inhumanly strong swing at the man standing on it's fellow hunter, but it hit nothing but air as Ranma continued to move. Ranma circled behind the creature as it over swung and launched a series strikes at its back, particularly it's knees. As it stumbled forward Ranma was forced to dodge as the first beast recovered from its meeting with the wall.

As Ranma dodged he lashed out with a high kick that connected with the creatures throat. A blow like that would have killed a human being, all it did to this monster was cause it to stumble backwards in pain. For Ranma it was enough as he grabbed the thing by the head and flipped over it. Using his momentum, he continued his flip forward to bring the skull of his opponent slamming down against the pavement of the alley. The force of the maneuver was enough to crack even the skull of Ranma's inhuman opponent.

Ranma sidestepped as one of the creatures struck at his back again. He turned the sidestep into a spinning kick connected with his attackers knee. The joint snapped with an audible breaking noise. Ranma would have finished it off then and there but the third beast had recovered and was bearing down on him. Ranma reacted by leaping over it and kicking it in the head as it ran under him. He landed and swept the feet out from his most recent opponent than continued the motion to bring his foot down on the creatures neck. For a second time a snapping sound was heard in the alley and another creature died. Ranma turned towards his last opponent as it stumbled and limped towards him.

Most creatures that walked the face of the earth would have retreated after seeing two of it's kind taken down so swiftly but the being Ranma faced was not most creatures. It was unable to comprehend that anything was stronger or more feared than itself. That it could lose to a being not of its kind was a thought that simply could not enter its head. So it was with this mindset, if it could be considered to have a mind, that the human like beast advanced on the lone being that had hurt it.

Ranma waited for it and once it was close enough he lashed out at its remaining knee. The creature, unable to put any weight on it's other leg, simply toppled forward as its knee was crushed. Ranma brought his foot down on the thing's neck, killing it like he had the other one.0

Ranma looked down at the bodies as they decomposed at unnaturally fast speeds. He waited just long enough to confirm that all three were dead before jumping up and using the fire escape as a spring board to the nearest roof. The night was still young and Ranma still had hunted. He would keep hunting until the sun rose above the city than like his prey he would retreat and sleep for the day.

And the next night the hunt begin again.

To be Continued

Authors notes:

1. That little action sequence was the first that I have ever written. It's meant to set the mood a little.

2. As for Sailor moon continuity, I'm not sure where this fits precisely. I'm not a real sailor moon fan I just love Ranma and Sailor Moon crossovers. That being said this should be before the starlights and sailor galaxia. I really don't know anything about that story arc and am not going to try and fake it. You'll have to inform me if I royally flub the sailor scouts angle.

3. Anyone who can offer me tips on writing dialogue would be very appreciated.

After all that, C&C is very welcome. Flames will be used to subsidize my heating costs.