Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ A Conversation ❯ One-Shot

He hates this part. The waiting. The leader of the army that is to save all of humanity from the alien threat, and he has to wait before he can lead his troops. Just wait in a transportation device from the main ship to touchdown on the planet below. To him, this always took forever. Yes, Ranma Saotomae isn't a patient man.

 

“In a hurry, I take it?”

 

The drop just got longer. If it's the one thing he hates, is when a voice he doesn't know tries to start a conversation before a major battle. He knows they're all scared, but it looses the focus, the heat of battle is lost because this one kid lets it known that he's scared. He takes one look, and is relieved that it's not one of his men, but somebody that he's been waiting for. It was a young man, dressed in a black shirt with a giant yin-yang symbol, with matching shoes and pants, and an open buttoned shirt over that one, and, sure enough, hair that matches the ensemble.

 

“About time you showed up.” The martial artist said, causing a look of surprise from the other man.

 

“You know who I am, and yet you don't run?”

 

“The all black look gave it away. I've been expecting you for quite sometime.”

 

“Usually, men in your situation beg for me to spare them for they have a wife and kid to come home to.”

 

“Nabiki knew this day would come, and if my daughter is anything like her parents, she'll get through this.” Ranma then breathed out a sigh to relax. “I just didn't expect Death to look like us humans.”

 

“This is what you get every time you expect a skeleton in a cloak and scythe to show up.” Death said as he crossed his arms and had a look of frustration. “I still can't believe that centuries after somebody drew that, humans still believe it's me. `Oooooooo, the last thing you'll see while your on your way up or down is a giant skeleton with a farming tool, how comforting.'” He said in a mock tone. “The only thing true about that is I have a scythe, but I only use it to cut a hole and travel to other dimensions or when I'm mad.” He then turned to Ranma and continued. “Did you know that there's a Ranma in every dimension?” Ranma shook his head. “Yeah, there's one where you're with a bunch of girls in really short fukus fighting monsters, there's another where you were born a girl and fell into the spring of drowned boy, and there's even one where you're in love with Akane.”

 

This caused Ranma to look shocked and angry. “Her?! That nut job?!”

 

“Hey, on that world, the both of you love each other, but the two of you are too stubborn to admit it, and it usually ends up with you getting malleted to LEO.”

 

“Glad I'm not that guy.”

 

“Technically, you are, but that's a different Ranma.”

 

“Can we just get on with it?” Ranma said with impatiens in his voice. “When am I gonna bite it? In the battle, on the med lab table, when?”

 

Death then just gave a cocky type smile. “I don't know.”

 

“What do you mean you don't know?!” Ranma said in frustration. Here's this guy that he's been waiting for just yakking away, and doesn't know when he's gonna die. “You're death!”

 

“And you have free will!” Death retorted. “Ever since God and Satan gave you humans free will…”

 

“The Devil did too?”

 

“Yeah. He's actually a nice guy, I just wish he got rid of that white zoot suit of his. Anyway, thanks to free will, I only know when somebody's time is up right after a war, a push down a flight of stairs, or a heart attack. I can't just point at a random person and say '90 years,' '30 days,' or `6 minutes.'”

 

“Then why are you here?” Ranma angrily asked.

 

“Maybe I'm here to find out why you want to go out to get your self killed every time. Last mission you were on almost left you dead. You have a family back on that ship, and you were offered a promotion to command the troupes up there, and yet you want to be down here.”

 

“I'm not comfortable with a desk job.” Ranma said.

 

“Oh please.” Death scoffed. “I think the real reason is you're not comfortable with the idea of not fighting. After all, it's how you were brought up before your dad left ya. To be a fighter, to be the best you can, and the minute you take a desk job, you know your skills will drop because it might be months or years until you see combat again.”

 

“And how do you know this?”

 

“Ah, then maybe I'm not really death. Maybe you finally snapped and I'm a manifestation of your deranged mind trying to yell `TURN BACK! YOU HAVE A WIFE AND KID SO TURN BACK!' Kinda like the Hobgoblin story arc of Ultimate Spider-Man.”

 

“Hobgoblin?”

 

“Long story short, Harry Osborn listened to a manifestation of his tormented mind and turned into a monster.”

 

“That proves you're not from my mind then.”

 

“How so?” Death asked with a cocky smile.

 

“Never read an issue.”

 

“Maybe. Or maybe you heard of it from somebody else.”

 

“Oh really? Then why is the drop taking longer?”

 

“It's easy to do when you live outside of time and space.”

 

“My point exactly.”

 

“Ok, so I'm not a product of your deranged mind, but at your rate Saotomae, but you have to admit, the fact that I am here now asking you why you're fighting is a bad omen.”

 

“Not to me. To me, you're just another bleeding heart wanting its troupes to come home.”

 

“And what's wrong with that? You think I like hauling members of your team or others to their final resting place? HA! I'd love to loose this job, but I do NOT want this job on anybody else!”

 

“Then why don't you just quit?”

 

“Boy, I heard you were dense, but dang.” Death replied, to which Ranma gave an angry glare. “Anyways, too many people live, things happen, like starvation due to feeding an over populated planet. Too many people die, and POOF, there goes the world. I keep the universe in balance, but it's tough to do when you humans, or any other species for that matter, go to war.”

 

“Then why not wipe us all out in the next war? That'd make your job easier.”

 

“You don't listen, do you? I CAN'T! I keep BALANCE in the universe. Besides, it won't be me that'll end Earth's existence.”

 

“What do you mean by that?” Ranma asked curiously.

 

“Oh please, you know what I mean. The more wars you humans fight the closure and closure you bring yourselves to ending your own lives. It wouldn't surprise me if in just two short wars you wind up dooming yourselves to extinction. You think I'M gonna be the one that's responsible for Armageddon? HA! You're the one's that made the guns, you're the ones that made the tanks, and you're the ones that made the bombs. Oh my friend, YOU'RE gonna bring Armageddon to yourselves.”

 

“Well then, if we're destined to do that…”

 

“You really don't listen, do you? You do NOT have destinies. It's all free will. I told God to have the guy that wrote the Bible to put it in bold print, but noooooooooooo, she had to…”

 

“She?” Ranma asked with a puzzled look.

 

“You honestly think a guy had enough patients to make the world in 7 days and cause apes to evolve over thousands of years into humans?”

 

“Good point.”

 

“Anyway, the point is that with each and every single little war, you create bigger and better weapons. All its gonna take is just that one battle until you decide to create something that will obliterate ALL your enemies and everybody else while you're at it. It may happen now; it may happen when your daughter is your age, with her son or daughter, or later. I know it will, just not when.”

 

“A little paranoid, aren't ya?”

 

“That's what many said when they made the A-Bomb and talked about its power.” Death remarked. “Now take a look. The destruction of Hiroshima caused Japan to surrender, but the tests of the other bombs the US had or were inspired by the A-Bomb that places, like Bikini Atoll, were un-inhabitable for a long time. They still are in fact. But the bomb wasn't enough, nooooooooooo. With this war came the need to make new weapons, bigger ships that sent people like you not only out to the stars, but to actually live amongst them for a long time. With all this, what makes you think that the decedents of those that made Japan go kaboom aren't making a weapon that'll make a whole planet do just that?”

 

“We could actually use…” Ranma started to say, but was interrupted.

 

“AH-HA! See? This brings back to one of my original points.” Death said. “If you were originally happy to see this war come to an end, you would have been appalled at my warning, yet you find no problems in blowing up a home planet or two of the bad guys, even though it's full of people that aren't even involved in this war. Truth be told Ranma Saotomae, you WANT to fight, you WANT this war, you DON'T want peace.”

 

“BULLSHIT!” Ranma said angrily. “I'm doing this for the human race! For my friends! And especially my family!”

 

“Who's bullshitting who kid? You said you were doing this for your family, so I'm assuming you want nothing bad to happen to them?”

 

“Damn right I don't! Why else am I here?! WHY ON EARTH WOULD I SUBJECT MY SELF TO WAR?!”

 

“IF YOU WERE SO CONCERNED FOR THEIR WELL BEING, WHY DIDN'T YOU TAKE A JOB THAT WOULD LEAVE YOU BEHIND A DESK OR ON THE SHIP WITH YOUR WIFE AND DAUGHTER?!” Death replied with the same anger. “Being a fighter is in your blood. You need the combat. Anything less and you not only feel less like a man, but you won't feel alive. So, in your infinite wisdom, so you can combine both domestic and your lifestyles, you have your wife AND daughter be on the same ship that's fighting right now, and I mean that in every sarcastic sense of the word.”

 

“Why are you giving me this speech? Nabiki came with…”

 

“That she did, but YOU dragged her into this Saotomae. You and she had a talk and SHE actually wanted you to be stationed at home, where you would be alive and with your family, but then YOU came up with the compromise to take the both of them with you on your next mission.”

 

“BULL! She was with me before…”

 

“And whose idea was that? She may have been a willing participant in your army's operations in the past to the point where she stood toe to toe with the president to keep it going, but being a parent kinda humbles you a bit. The only reason she agreed to take your daughter with the both of you is because she didn't want her out of her mom's sight for a long time. She may have the face of `Do or die,' but the back of her mind is screaming `Get out of here! You're a mother, you're a wife! Take your husband and daughter and get out of here!' And you know what? So is yours.”

 

“What?!”

 

“That part of your mind always wondering if you're gonna be around to see the both of them again, that's what I'm talking about. You suggested to bring her so that you can have that part of your mind relax after each battle. Which brings me to the other reason you brought her.”

 

“The OTHER reason?”

 

“You don't want her to be anything like you, do you? You figure if she sees war at a very early age, she'll realize something that was too late for you. It's horrible, it's not fun, and it's worse than anything you can imagine. If she sees all of that, she might have the life you never had, she might not fight in the next war or the war after that, who knows, she might even be a crusader for peace.” Ranma then had a look of shock at this self revelation. Until now, he didn't even know the true reason why he did all of this, but this specter, who's supposed to take lives, laid it all out and it shocked his very soul that he was right.

 

“I just want her to have a better life.”

 

“Everybody I meet, if I take them or not, always does for their kids.” He then looked out the window. “Looks like my time delay spell's about to come to an end. You're gonna land soon. I'll tell your wife and daughter you said hi.” He then got up and was about to walk away when Ranma pointed his weapon at him.

 

“You take them from me and I'll…”

 

“Relax; if they're anything like you, they're not going to die so easily. I probably won't even see them until they die of old age and even then, like I bet you will, they're gonna fight tooth and nail. I'm just going to do it for a friendly gesture.”

 

“Oh. Thank you.”

 

“No problem.” Death was about to leave, but Ranma had one more question.

 

“This war… are we…”

 

“Can't tell ya who's going to win. Free will and all.”

 

“Oh.” Ranma said. “Can you tell my family one more thing?”

 

“What?”

 

“I'm coming home.” Ranma said with pride.

 

“Not a problem. Ja mata Ranma Saotomae.” Death said with a smile as he just simply walked out of the ship.

 

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You can find all of the Ranma/X-Com stories by Ar-kaos here…

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/u/694514/