S-CRY-ed Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Gray Skies ❯ Ch1 ( Chapter 1 )

-Nerima, Tokyo. Thursday, November 2nd, 1989-

 

“You've gotten in my way for the last time, Saotome!” Gosunkugi bellowed from his position in the air. Two horns were protruding from his head, and his eyes had an ethereal, almost crimson glow to them. The boy's skin had turned an indigo color, and his odd cloak billowed in the fierce winds as the teen swayed at least ten meters above Ranma and most of his cohorts. Ryouga was there, Mousse was there, and so were Akane, Cologne, and oddly enough, Nabiki and Kuno. They were in front of the Tendo Dojo on the street, and the sky was darkened with gray clouds as lightning flashed in the distance followed by savage thunder. Oddly enough, although Ranma wasn't going to complain, it had not yet begun to rain.

 

Before the floating teen there was a large, positively ancient looking tome. The pages were completely unaffected by the wind, and the boy and book were connected by an almost slimy looking red aura.

 

“For the suffering I've endured at your hands, you will perish!” The teen pointed a clawed finger at the pig-tailed teen.

 

“I hardly even know you!” Ranma griped as he dodged a lightning bolt. And it was true; Ranma hadn't seen or heard of Gosunkugi for an incredibly long time. It had been months, at the very least. “What the hell could I have done to you, you idiot?!”

 

“Heh,” Gosunkugi shook his head. “You wouldn't know of me. No one notices me.” He narrowed his eyes to slits at the world-class martial artist and glared at the boy. “It's because of jocks like you that guys like me are treated like dirt, Saotome! You and all of your stupid little friends! I'll see you destroyed yet!” The boy summoned a lightning bolt that both Ranma and Ryouga had to dodge.

 

“Why the hell bring us into this?!” complained Ryouga. “We're not Ranma's friends!”

 

“That's right, Saotome has slighted us as well!” Mousse agreed. “I refuse to be attacked for someone like him!”

 

“Shut up!” Gosunkugi sneered. The Chinese boy frowned and started running, but was almost instantly hit by a lightning bolt. The boy fell to the ground as steam rose off his unmoving body.

 

“Mousse! You idiot…” Ranma shook his head. Attracting Gosunkugi's attention had been particularly idiotic for the hidden weapons master. Who knew how much steel and iron that boy had on him? He was practically a lightning rod.

 

“That boy is possessed by a demon, Son-in-law,” Cologne called out to the pig-tailed teen from the sidelines.

 

“I can see that, you old bag!” The boy yelled as he leapt aside to dodge another lightning bolt. “He sure looks possessed to me!”

 

“You fool!” Cologne shouted as she threw her cane at him. It impacted his skull and knocked him onto the ground. “All you need to do is target the book! That is what appears to be the demon's medium!”

 

“…Oh. The book, huh?” Ranma looked up at the impressive tome. Now that he thought about it, the book itself did look particularly evil. It had that sickly red glow. He grinned and cracked his knuckles. “All right then. If I can beat the crap out of flaming chickens, I can beat the crap out of flying books,” Ranma snorted as he started running towards Gosunkugi, dodging several errant lightning bolts. The pigtailed fighter leapt up and called upon his inner energy, his Ki. A blue ball of energy formed in his left hand and he leapt up into the air. The boy came up two thirds of the way between Gosunkugi and the ground, and tossed his ki ball at the red book. “Mouko Takabisha!”

 

Ranma frowned as a black portal opened up just before his attack met its target, and swallowed up the attack. The portal vanished soon afterwards and Gosunkugi smirked. Ranma quickly covered the frown up with a confident grin as he fell back to the ground.

 

“So you can do more than throw around those little lightning bolts,” He smirked. “Heh, that only makes it more fun for me! I'd hate to be beating on a loser who could only use one attack!” The boy took up a stance.

 

“You'll regret taking me lightly Saotome,” The boy growled. He waved one of his hands in a complicated motion and another black portal opened up, although this one was many times larger. Whereas the portal from before had been at most two meters wide, this one covered the distance from the ground to the deranged possessed teen. Ranma's eyes widened as an equally huge yet familiar bluish orb of confident Ki shot at him from the portal, smashing him into the ground. The huge ball of ki didn't dissipate immediately, either; it continued to push down on the martial artist with incredible force, eliciting a pained shout from the pig-tailed martial artist. It detonated after five seconds, leaving a huge crater that went from one side of the street to another. Ranma was lying, unmoving, in his own crater, with his clothes torn up.

 

“Did he just suck up one of Saotome's attacks and make it a hell of a lot stronger then throw it back at him?” Nabiki asked from her place on the sidelines with Akane and Cologne.

 

“Evidently,” Cologne muttered. “It would seem this is more grave a situation than any of us had thought.”

 

“Yeah, you got that right,” Nabiki said, shocked. “Gosunkugi is a complete nobody. He's weaker than weak, nerdier than nerdy, and a stalker. For him to come out of nowhere and beat Ranma…”

 

“Son-in-law is not yet defeated,” the elder spat out. “And the one fighting Ranma is the Demon, spurred on by that boy's hatred for him.”

 

“Hmph, I may not want to, but it looks like Saotome won't win this one without some help,” Ryouga snorted as he uncrossed his arms and started towards the fray just as Ranma sat up.

 

“Kuno! Why don't you do something?!” Akane asked as she noticed the wannabe swordsman standing beside them.

 

“It is as Hibiki said before, I do not wish to become involved with this,” the boy snorted.

 

“This is too serious to be fooling around, you buffoon,” Cologne scowled. “There is only one thing left for us to do. I will have to seal the demon, but I cannot do that with what I have. I must return to the Nekohanten to gather the appropriate wards.” She pogoed over to Mousse and surveyed his body for an instant. “Hmph, still alive, eh?” She hefted the boy and leapt up and away. “You all try to keep that monster busy! I will return as soon as possible!”

 

“All right!” Akane nodded as she ran out to join the fight. Nabiki reached out and grabbed her sister, holding her back. “What? Nabiki! What are you doing?”

 

“Hold on, sis,” Nabiki said with a frown. “I know you pride yourself on being a martial artist, but this guy is on a whole different level! He's a monster!”

 

“So?! I can't stand back and watch as Ranma and Ryouga-kun fight that thing alone!” She said as she pointed at the fray. Ranma and Ryouga were dodging lightning bolts and all trying to get a clear shot at the possessed boy, but he was too high and neither one was willing to see how many balls of Ki he could repeat that trick with.

 

“Hold, fair Akane,” Kuno started. Both girls looked at him, though Akane was glaring. “Does the foul sorcerer truly mean so much to you that you would risk your life against the forces of hell itself to save him?”

 

“I don't know anything about any foul sorcerers…” Akane growled out. “But…Ranma… He's saved my life so many times. I want… I want to return the favor! Just sitting on the side all the time, as his damsel in distress- it's disgusting!” She forcefully pulled away from her older sister and started towards them again. Kuno shut his eyes and ran past her. The girl blinked in surprise as the boy took his bokken in his hand and leapt up in front of both Ranma and Ryouga, who were both on the ground and struggling to stand. A lightning bolt shot down from the sky as he cut up, and the bolt split into two directions as it impacted his wooden blade, just shy of the two on the ground.

 

Everyone stared slack-jawed at what the boy had just done as he landed just in front of the other two. Gosunkugi scowled at the three boys on the ground before him.

 

“You fools can not hope to stand against me!” Gosunkugi snarled out as his left fist glowed red. He threw a punch at the three, and they scattered as an orb of flames impacted the ground where they had been. The force from the ensuing explosion sent them flying, and only Kuno had been in a position to control how he landed. As he flipped in the air, he caught sight of the other two teens flying helplessly towards Nabiki. Both Tendo sisters had been knocked to their feet by the explosion, and as Kuno surveyed the destruction, he could see that many of the homes in the immediate vicinity had been affected on some level or another.

 

Both Ranma and Ryouga landed in crumpled heaps next to a dazed Nabiki.

 

“It's time to end this. I'll not let this drag on and end in some fashion unfavorable for me,” Gosunkugi said as he lifted a hand. Ranma was only mildly aware of a sudden falling sensation as a blue portal opened beneath him, Ryouga, and Nabiki. Akane turned and screamed in horror as she stood up and ran towards them, reaching the portal in time to see it close. The last thing she'd seen was a pained expression on Ranma's face as he fell further and further away from her.

 

----

 

Disclaimer: None of the series, characters, or locations mentioned in this story are owned by the author of this story unless stated otherwise.

 

 

 

GRAY SKIES

 

-Chapter 1: Lost-

 

 

----

 

Ranma groaned in utter pain as he opened his eyes and slowly took stock of the situation. He was lying face down in the dirt, and his entire body felt as if someone had decided to put some of his vital organs and limbs into a wood chipper and then insert them back into his body. He was almost certain that his heart had exploded the way it had been beating, and his entire head was one big pounding ache. The pain was such that he almost fell unconscious again, but he fought to remain awake.

 

At first glance, the ground beneath him was dusty and dirty. There was little light, and as he looked up, gritting his teeth as he fought off a fresh burst of pain, it seemed as if dusk was settling over the area. His eyes slowly focused as he sat up and he was able to take in the setting. There were rock formations in the distance, and a severe lack of healthy plant life in the immediate area. The sky was dark with rain clouds, and it was only because of the tiny sliver of light that came from the western horizon that he was able to see at all. There was absolutely no sign of civilization in any direction.

 

The most notable landmark, however, was the huge mountain range in the distance. It looked more like the result of the ground exploding upwards than a mountain to Ranma's eyes, but the size was right so he decided to label them as such. There were more rocks jutting out in other directions, but none of them were close. His eyes fell across two dark shapes in the dirt and he was able to recognize them as the lifeless forms of Nabiki and Ryouga. Their clothes were torn in various places, but it wasn't enough to render them completely worthless. What they had on their backs would have to do until they had something else.

 

And it was then that Ranma chose to try and remember what had happened leading up to that event. Gosunkugi and some weird magic book… the magic book possessing him… and then some kind of blue vortex had opened up beneath him and sucked not him and anyone in his immediate vicinity into the ground. He had seen Akane reaching for them and shouting their names as the porthole quickly closed up. As they were carried further and further away, a horrible pain had wracked their bodies. Ranma's heart was beating so fast it felt like it was going to burst out of his chest. His head had exploded in pain, and all of his nerve ends felt like they were on fire before there was a sudden sensation of crashing into something incredibly hard. The combined stress on their bodies had knocked them all out, from what he could see.

 

`Damn it…' Ranma winced as pain shot through his hands and he grimaced as he looked down at them, twitching as they were. If the torture in that vortex had continued, he could feel that they'd all have been ripped apart. `We were lucky we survived at all…' His thoughts suddenly took on a grim tone as he considered that. `If `We' survived…' He struggled to rise from his sitting position and slowly made his way over to where both Ryouga and Nabiki were lying, motionless. Just as he stood over them, the two of them groaned and started moving on their own. `They're alive…' He took the comfort for what it was, no matter how small it was.

 

“Did somebody get the license plate of the 18 wheeler that hit me?” Nabiki groaned as she sat up. “Because we're definitely suing…”

 

“Heh,” Ranma chuckled at that. It was at that point that the other two teens noticed their surroundings. “I don't think that'll help us right now.” Ryouga looked around in confusion at the world around them as Nabiki considered Ranma's words.

 

“Don't think it'll help, Saotome?” the middle Tendou sister asked, amused. “Trust me, it will…” She finally seemed to notice that they weren't in anything resembling civilization and reconsidered that. “…As soon as we get home, that is…” She slowly surveyed their surroundings as Ryouga stood up, dusting himself off.

 

“Ranma, what the hell happened?” Ryouga asked, as he looked at his self appointed rival, confusion evident on his face. Ranma noted that the lost boy had to be really addled if he was asking him for an account.

 

“That Gosunkugi somehow managed to come up with a spell book. An evil spell book, and it possessed him, or something, `cause there's no way he's that good. Then we got sucked up into that vortex. Remember?”

 

“Eh…” Ryouga grunted as he looked around, and Ranma wasn't sure whether or not to take that as a positive or a negative.

 

“And now we're somewhere that isn't my house,” Nabiki growled, calling Ranma's attention over to her. “When I get my hands on that boy…” There was a glint in her eyes that rubbed Ranma the wrong way, so he nervously looked back at the lost boy instead, glad that it was not he who would be at the receiving end of her ire.

 

“You know where we are, P-chan?” Ryouga grimaced but ignored the jibe. The fanged boy looked around and stopped as his gaze fell upon the huge rocks in the distance. His eyes lingered on them before turning to Ranma.

 

“You ever seen that before?” Ranma shook his head.

 

“I figured you'd know. A landmark that big should be commonly known, don't you think?” Nabiki turned to look at what they were talking about and found herself agreeing with them.

 

`There's no way something that large could go unnoticed.' The girl narrowed her eyes as she considered that.

 

“No idea. Never seen anything like that before.”

 

“Wow, even Ryouga's never seen this place before. That's just great,” Nabiki commented snidely as she shakingly stood up. “Some weirdo hits us with a magic whammy and now we're not even on Earth.” The three of them all shuddered as a feeling of déjà vu settled over them. Ryouga was the first to shake it off and continue.

 

“Eh, it's not so bad,” Ryouga snorted. “Happens all the time, doesn't it?”

 

“Yeah, about that, Ryouga…” Ranma started, looking at his sometimes-friend warily.

 

“You two are unreasonably calm,” Nabiki noted.

 

“It can't be any worse than anything that's happened before,” Ranma reminded her.

 

“Not to me.” the girl remarked, sighing into her hand.

 

“Oh yeah,” Ryouga looked over to her. “You're the type who usually just sits on the side, aren't you…”

 

“There could be dinosaurs here for all we know.” Nabiki said, ice creeping into her voice.

 

“Well then, in that case, I guess you're t-rex food. Ryouga and I, on the other hand, will make it just fine,” the pig-tailed martial artist continued. “Isn't that right, Ryouga?”

 

“There are no dinos,” Ryouga said as he took a few steps away, looking around. “I'd know.” Ranma and Nabiki gave pause to that but the lost boy merely continued. “Anyway, we're wasting time just standing around. I've been lost enough to know that the only time you don't spend moving, you spend sleeping. Otherwise, you die. Of starvation, dehydration, exhaustion, whichever one kills you first.”

 

“Eh… That's true,” Ranma agreed. “But we can't exactly just pick a direction and go. We could end up getting even more lost. Be just our luck to go one direction for thirty kilometers and keel over when a big city was three away in the opposite direction.”

 

“Well then what would you have us do?” Nabiki asked, finally calm enough to see the value in deferring to the martial artists' experience with traveling.

 

“We should look for signs of civilization,” Ranma suggested. “You know, a path, road. Maybe some ruins. That sort of thing.”

 

“Takes too long. We could be too far out to find something like that, and then what? We'll have wasted time looking for something that isn't there.”

 

“Well, I think my idea is better,” Ranma defended.

 

“We could end up encountering something like that if we stick to a straight line, too.” Nabiki pointed out. “So if we stick with going in a straight line, we could say, keep an eye out for something like that.”

 

“But we wouldn't actively be searching for it…” Ranma said, frowning.

 

“It doesn't matter,” Nabiki walked over to Ryouga, a physical representation of her siding with him. “I know you and your old man may have traveled a lot together, but I'm fairly certain Ryouga here has way more experience being lost,”

 

“And he has even more experience getting lost,” Ranma said, gritting his teeth.

 

“…I always find something, it just never happens to be what I'm looking for.” Ryouga insisted.

 

“Right, well,” Ranma looked around. “Whatever. Let's just go already. Sun's not wastin' time,” The sometimes girl pointed out.

 

“Which way should we go, anyway?” Nabiki asked as she looked at Ryouga. The lost boy opened his mouth to speak as thunder crackled in the distance. He shut his mouth as a sudden chill filled the air and Ranma groaned, looking up at the cloudy gray skies.

 

“Just great,” the boy sighed. “We just get here and yet…” The rain started pouring in thick, heady droplets, and he became a she. The red head groaned as Ryouga's own change was triggered and the lost boy became the wandering pig. She walked over to the pile of clothes and picked them up, dropping a small black piglet onto the ground as she did so. She snickered and picked up the disoriented animal, and shoved him in his own shirt as if it was a bag, to hold him easier.

 

“Well, worse comes to worse, we have food,” Nabiki sighed. The pig started squirming at that and Ranma rolled her eyes, tightening her hold on the little porker so that he could not run off and get lost.

 

“She's joking, Ryouga,” Ranma assured him. The pig seemed to calm down after that, and Ranma looked over at Nabiki. “So you knew about him?” The girl didn't seem to notice as she finally picked a direction and started walking against the storm. Ranma followed her just as the wind picked up, whipping their clothes and hair. Her pigtail held, but just barely, as they began their trek in what they all hoped was the right direction.

 

-

 

An open top jeep blazed through the wilds, and inside could be seen two young men. The driver wore hooded raincoat, but the other one didn't seem to mind the rain at all as it poured into the car. The young brunette was reclining in his position on the left side of the jeep, with his chair leaning back and his feet on the propped up above the dash. He wore a long-sleeved maroon shirt under a midnight blue jacket and pants lacking a right sleeve with a metal shoulder protector on his left shoulder and a fingerless glove on his right hand that was a much darker shade of blue than the rest of his clothes. He folded his hands behind his head as they sped along the wilderness, leaving muddy tracks in their wake.

 

“You're such a weenie, Kimishima,” the boy with the thick coat grit his teeth as the brunette teased him. The only visible feature on him was his face, and half of that was covered with thick goggles to help him see in the rain. He absently wiped off the accumulated water as he responded.

 

“Don't laugh at me because I don't want to catch some disease,”

 

“A little water won't hurt you,” the brunette insisted as he looked up at the thick clouds. Lightning flashed far off, and not seconds later thunder followed.

 

“Right, Kazuma. I seem to remember about a month ago when you were so sick you couldn't work for two whole weeks-“

 

“It was a viral infection,” the brunette reminded him, turning his attention to the driver for a brief moment. “Or that's what Kanami said anyway. It wasn't because I was pelted with rain,”

 

“Uh-huh.” The driver rolled his eyes as he switched on the lights. There was a thick mist all around them, and visibility had finally dropped down to the point where he needed the assistance. But the lights barely helped, and all they served to do was make the fog in front of them brighter. Kimishima mentally sighed as he slowed down so as to not crash into anything when they finally did reach their destination.

 

-

 

Ranma contorted her face as she marched on through the relentless cold rain intense winds raged against her. She leaned over further to reduce her wind resistance as she finally began to realize the scope of the storm they were facing. `We've got to get inside somewhere, or we'll freeze to death!' She stopped walking as she heard a droning noise off to the side. She looked up and saw some light in the distance moving at a high speed. Her eyes widened as she recognized the twin beams as belonging to a car.

 

“Nabiki!” She called out. The older girl did not seem to hear her at all as she continued walking. Ranma frowned and prepared to call out again when suddenly the girl in front of her fell forward. Ranma's eyes widened and she ran over to the girl, calling her name. She turned the girl over and saw that her eyes were shut, and she wasn't moving. “Damn!” She looked up and noticed the car in the distance was getting to the point where it would only start getting further away. She picked up the comatose girl and frantically bounded off towards the lights.

 

-

 

“You hear that, Kimishima?” the brunette boy asked his partner as they drove at a sedate pace. He was now clutching his shoulders and shivering under a spare coat that the driver had left under the seat.

 

“Hear what?” The driver asked, as he turned to look at his partner.

 

“Slow down!” The brunette shouted as he started looking around. He stood up in his seat as the car slowed down. Suddenly, a red haired girl landed on the front of the jeep, surprising both of them.

 

“Oh man, I never thought you guys would stop,” she said.

 

“W-what the heck was that? Who are you, falling out of the sky on us like that?! You an Alter user?” the one at the wheel said. The red head looked confused at that for a brief moment before shrugging.

 

“Look, my friend is hurt,” The girl said, and for the first time, both boys noticed that she was carrying another girl under one arm, and a bundle of clothes under the other arm. “You guys know where some shelter is or something?”

 

“Yeah, hop in,” the one with brown hair commanded as he sat back down. Ranma didn't need to be told twice and she did just that, landing in the back compartment. She set down both of her passengers and glanced ahead as the car sped off. “You lost or something? How long have you guys been out here?” Ranma glanced at the black pig and then went back to watching over the other girl.

 

“…You could say that. We've been out here for a while, since the sun went down.”

 

“That was a while ago,” The driver noted.

 

“Here,” came an insistent voice. Ranma looked up and noticed the brunette holding his coat out to her. She took it and put it over the other girl.

 

“Thanks a lot,” She said, looking up at him. He waved it off.

 

“I can take a little bit of water,” He said.

 

“I seem to remember you saying something to that effect earlier,” the driver snorted.

 

“Eh…heh heh…” the brunette scratched his head.

 

“How much longer till we get there?” The redhead asked, trying to head off their little banter.

 

“Shouldn't be long now. We're almost there, I think.” the driver said.

 

“Oi,” The brown haired one turned around and looked at her from his chair. “What're your names?”

 

“Eh? Oh, I'm Saotome Ranma, and this is Tendou Nabiki,” She said, motioning her unconscious companion.

 

“That's cool,” he nodded. “I'm Kazuma, and this is Kunihiko Kimishima.”

 

“That's swell,” the red headed girl said, not really interested.

 

“Swell?” Kazuma blinked at that, then grinned. “Heh, yea-AHH!” He shouted out as the car sped over a huge bump in the road. “Kimishima, you idiot!”

 

“Ah, sorry about that, I can't see the road very well,” the driver laughed nervously as he turned the key, turning his car off. “But we're here, so come on.” Ranma looked up as the two guys got out and saw a square shaped building covered in vines and other various forms of plant life, as well as a fairly large tree to the side. Some of the windows on the second story were quite broken, and Ranma could imagine how flooded those rooms would be if it wasn't for the wooden boards that covered them from the inside. Ranma lifted the older girl up out of the vehicle and leapt out, following the two young men into the square shaped building.

 

Once inside, Ranma was able to see that the place had the look of a health clinic. The first room was obviously a waiting room. It had a white board that was written on, and several old, dusty looking pictures hung up on the walls. There were several doors that led further into the clinic, but Ranma didn't know which one led to a place where they could care for Nabiki.

 

“Where's the doctor, anyway?” Ranma asked as she looked around frantically. “Hey! Is there someone in?!”

 

“Doctor?” Kazuma looked over at his friend in confusion as the other man took off his heavy coat, and a somewhat less heavy dark green coat underneath to reveal an orange shirt.

 

“Oh, damn…” Kimishima looked at the red-haired girl sheepishly. “Uh, My friend lives here, there isn't really a doctor here.”

 

“W-what? Then why did you take me here?” She asked, sounding more than a little pissed off.

 

“U-uh, well there's nothing like that in the lost ground,” he said defensively. “You'd have to go to the city for that, and it's way too far away. There's medical supplies and stuff here, though, so we should be able to treat her,”

 

“Kazu-kun?” The three of them looked to the side and saw a small girl poking her head out of one of the doors. “You're back!” She joined them in the room and finally noticed Ranma. “Kazu-kun, who's this?” Ranma took in the small child's appearance; the orange long sleeved shirt that was too big and had to be folded up, and the grey skirt that stopped at her knees, long orange socks and some strange looking orange and white shoes… The girl had incredibly long light-brown hair that was done up in a ponytail with a pink ribbon, and Ranma found herself wondering if it had ever been cut in the child's life.

 

“Ah, this is…err…” The brunette trailed off and Ranma frowned.

 

“I had the decency to remember your name,” the redhead said somewhat irritatedly. “Kazuma.”

 

“I remember your name,” The boy snapped. “It was uh…Ranna… Or somethin'…”

 

“Ranma,” The girl corrected. “But that's not important. My friend…” She looked down at the small child, distraught. “Is there anyone around who can help? She collapsed in the storm…”

 

“We need to warm her up,” the girl insisted, walking through the doorway that led to the stairs. “Come on,” she called to the red head. “You two guys stay down here.”

 

“Uh, okay?” Kazuma blinked and Kimishima sighed as he walked over to a cushioned bench and sat on it. The cushions were raggedy with age and quite a few tears and holes were evident in the thing, but it was good enough for him.

 

Upstairs, the two girls had laid Nabiki on a bed under a window. The window had been boarded up, and the only light source in the room was the dingy looking lightbulb that hung from the ceiling by a wire. The wall had a few holes in some places, and to Ranma, it had the general look of a place that hadn't seen maintenance in years, if not decades. The whole place had a desolate, yet rustic feeling to it.

 

“You live here alone with those two guys?” Ranma asked as the small girl walked into the room holding several towels. “Er, what are those for?”

 

“I only live with Kazu-kun, and he's usually only here at the end of the day,” the girl sighed, sounding a little miffed. “And we need to get her out of those clothes and dry her off before we can effectively help her.”

 

“Oh, right,” Ranma said dumbly as she accepted the towel. She stared at the thing blankly as those words replayed through her mind. “Uh, listen, I don't think it would be a good idea if I helped her undress,” Ranma said nervously as she turned to look at the other girl. The brown haired child was looking at her strangely, as if she did not understand what had just been said. “Uh, er… it's complicated,” Ranma blushed and the small girl shrugged.

 

“Okay,” the girl said, not really understanding why, but deciding to go along with her. “Then you can turn around while I work, how does that sound?”

 

“Ah, uh… okay,” Ranma said as she did just that. She started fidgeting nervously, as she soon became vastly aware that a girl who was actually closer to being a woman than a girl was being undressed in her vicinity. “So uh… what's your name?”

 

“Kanami Yuta,” the girl said simply as she worked. “Yours is just Ranma?”

 

“Ranma Saotome,” the girl corrected. “Her name is Nabiki Tendo, and I have another friend who might show up soon. How old are you, again?”

 

“I'm…Eight…” The girl sounded as if she wasn't sure of herself for a moment, and Ranma took note of that.

 

“Wow, and you live alone with that Kazuma guy?” Ranma whistled. “Must be rough.”

 

“Things work out for us. It's much better than before…” The girl said.

 

“Huh? Before?” Ranma turned around and her eyes widened before she snapped back to face the other direction. The Tendo girl had been almost completely nude at the moment, and was only wearing her panties, which Ranma had been quick to note were a bit less conservative than he'd have cared to know.

 

“Towels, please,” the younger girl said suddenly as Ranma hastily tried to clear her mind. Ranma complied by shutting her eyes and turning, handing the dry towels she'd been holding to the small child. As soon as they were taken she stiffly turned back around, and after a few more minutes the girl announced that she was done. “You can turn around now,” she said. Ranma did so and noted with relief that Nabiki was under a warm blanket with her head on a pillow. “Do you have any other clothes for her to wear? She will need some more when she wakes up, these are wet and the weather isn't suitable to hang anything out right now,”

 

“Oh…” Ranma looked at the torn clothes; a pair of khaki colored short-shorts and a black shirt. They were soaked and torn, as were her undergarments (Ranma blushed again upon spotting those) and would definitely not be suitable to be worn again. “I don't… I don't suppose there's anything that Kazuma guy has…” She looked over at Nabiki and then frowned. “Then again, I don't know if she could wear that…”

 

“Kazu-kun's clothes might not fit her right,” The girl said with a frown. “Her chest is too big. He wears weird stuff too.”

 

“Eheh, well yeah, I suppose it might…stretch… the fabric… Uh, anyway,” Ranma said, trying to think of something else in a hurry. “There's nothing, though?”

 

“Hmm…well there might be…” The girl had a thoughtful look on her face for a few seconds before she seemed to realize something. “I'll be right back. I know where some clothes are,” She said as she walked away. Ranma looked down at herself and noticed the various rips and tears in her own clothes, before scowling.

 

“This was my favorite shirt, too…” She suddenly remembered how they had gotten there, which was what had lead to their clothes being torn in the first place. “That's right. Now that we've found civilization, we should find out where we are and try to go back to Nerima.” The girl suddenly walked back into the room with a box bigger than herself. The top flaps had been torn off, and Ranma could see that inside were a lot of folded up clothes. She glanced at the small girl, noticing the small muscles on her arms for the first time before looking down at the box. `That's gotta weigh a lot for a little girl. She some sort of weight lifter?' Ranma looked the girl over as she set the box down next to the bed.

 

“She should be able to pick something from inside of here,” the small child said cheerfully. Ranma looked in and noticed that the clothes looked fairly old and dingy, but they weren't in too bad of a shape. She looked in and noticed a maroon T-shirt and black pants, before smirking and taking them out for herself. The pants were jeans she noticed, but that wasn't too bad. `At least I don't have to change my color scheme,' She found a pair of boxers her size easily enough, and looked down at the small child.

 

“Is there somewhere I can change? This stuff is wet and torn up,” Ranma said. “I'm surprised those guys downstairs weren't ogling me…” She muttered.

 

“Sure, there's a bathroom just over here,” the girl said as she led her out of the room and into a hallway. At one end of the hall, the end that was furthest from them, was the top of the stairs. Between their end of the hallway and it's opposite, there were two doors on Ranma's right. The third door to her immediate right was the one they had just come out of. Kanami led the way to the last door and opened it to reveal a large bathroom of the type one might find in a clinic. Ranma thanked her before she walked into the room and turned on the light as the door shut. She tried to turn the hot water on, but all she got was cold water from each side. She growled and looked down at the western style toilet with a frown.

 

“I hate doin' this as a girl,” she mumbled. After she relieved herself, she washed her hands in the cold water with some of the watered down soap from the dispenser on the wall and changed her clothes. The red shirt fit loosely and hung below her waist, which was good because it would probably also fit her male form, and the black jeans were a little longer than they should have been, which also would probably be fixed with her male form. The waist was a bit wider than she'd thought as well, but once she zipped them up and fastened the button they didn't fall past her hips. She frowned as she looked down at her hips disdainfully; although they were definitely attractive and useful to trick guys into giving her food, they had no place on her body. She sighed and looked through her old silk shirt and black pants; they were damaged beyond repair - that, she could now easily see since she was no longer wearing them.

 

-

 

“I wonder where this little guy came from,” Kimishima was holding up a small black piglet that had a bandana tied around its' neck.

 

“I think it was with Ranna,” Kazuma said absently. He was leaning against a wall with his hands folded up behind his head as he waited.

 

“Kanami knows how to cook raw pork, doesn't she?” Kimishima asked as he held the pig up. The thing immediately started squirming in his hands and leapt to the ground.

 

“Yeah, but I'm not sure if she knows how to skin a pig. She might think that one is too cute anyway,” the brunette said as he looked towards the stairs. The pig was watching both of them warily with an intelligence that Kimishima felt looked wrong on an edible creature. Seconds later, Kanami and Ranma descended from the stairs and walked out into the waiting room. Kazuma and Kimishima both looked up at the two girls who were at the end of their own conversation.

 

“…ould be just fine, it looks like she was only exhausted,” the child said as she stopped inside the room. Ranma was visibly relieved at that.

 

“That's good…”

 

“I'll watch her just in case,” the younger girl said as she went back upstairs. Ranma nodded, then looked over at the piglet and as soon as it noticed her it flew at her. She blinked as she snatched it out of the air with one arm and looked at it.

 

“Man, that is one agile pig,” Kazuma said as he rubbed his head. “Where the heck did you get it anyway? Didja steal it or something, Ramna?”

 

“Ranma,” the girl corrected with a frown. “And no, I didn't steal him. He's an old… friend. It's complicated and I won't get into it unless I have to, but anyone who hurts him has to answer to me,” she said.

 

“Damn, that means no pork tonight…” Kimishima frowned at that. “Well then, Ranma-san, would you mind telling us more about yourself?”

 

“Oh? Uh, sure, why not… I'm from Furinkan, Nerima … um, I'm the heir to the Anything Goes style of martial-arts.”

 

“Really? Wow…” Kazuma had a look of awe about him as he stared up at her. “Where's Nerima again?”

 

“Y-you don't know?” Ranma stared at him with a look of surprise about her.

 

“Never heard of it, either,” The brunette said with a thoughtful look.

 

“It sure isn't a part of the Lost Ground, or I'd know where it was,” Kimishima said as he looked up at Ranma from his position on the bench.

 

“I guess we're really lost,” Ranma frowned as she looked down at the pig. “This wouldn't happen to be your fault, would it?” The pig gave a seemingly indignant snort at that and Ranma rolled her eyes.

 

“So, you're lost here in the lost ground, eh?” Kazuma smirked at his own pun.

 

“The lost ground,” Ranma repeated, frowning. “I've never heard of that, actually.” Both Kimishima and Kazuma looked surprised at that.

 

“Never heard of it? You serious?”

 

“Err,” Ranma looked at Kazuma, who'd spoken up. “Well, I guess you could say I never really paid attention in class or anything. I used to travel a lot, but still, I've never heard of this place…”

 

“I see,” Kimishima said with a smirk. Class probably meant that she was a schoolgirl, and really good schools that girls like the one before him could afford to safely go to did not exist in the lost ground, except for in the city. And even then, the fact that she had never heard of the “Lost Ground” could only mean that she did not live on it, or was just incredibly ignorant. `We could get a reward for taking this girl home. I'm sure some city people would pay a lot for a lost child, even if she is a runaway. All I need to do is find out where this Nerima place is, and we're in business. Until then, it'd be best if she stayed where I could keep an eye on her…hmm…' He looked at Kazuma out of the corner of his eyes, and the other teen blinked as he noticed. “Kazuma, could I talk to you real fast?”

 

“Uh, sure,” Kazuma said, as they both stood up.

 

“We'll only be a minute,” Kimishima said with a smile as Ranma gave them a questioning look. The two walked over through one of the clinic doors and Ranma shrugged before going back up the stairs and down the hall to the room where Nabiki was being kept. As she entered the room, she noticed the other girl was still lying in the bed, apparently asleep, with the young child watching over her from an old metal chair. Kanami turned her head as Ranma entered the room and looked up at her.

 

“Your friend should be waking up soon, I think,” Kanami said with a smile.

 

“Ah, yeah.” Ranma grabbed another chair and sat beside the girl as she set P-chan down on the ground beside them. “You said earlier that you lived alone with Kazuma, right?” Ranma asked the younger girl as she looked down at her. At the girl's nod, she continued. “Why? Where are your parents?” She asked, confused. The girl's cheerful face faded at that and the girl turned away to look at the ground. “O-oh. Oh man, I'm sorry,” Ranma said, realizing almost immediately what it meant. “Man, that's gotta suck.”

 

“…It's been so long since I last saw them, I can hardly remember them,” Kanami said with a wistful smile. “All I can remember is an… emotion.”

 

“An emotion?” Ranma asked.

 

“I don't know how to say it. It's not something people can easily label…”

 

“I see…” Ranma said.

 

“Kazuma makes me feel the same way, although he's more like a big brother…”

 

“Oh yeah,” Ranma started. “Now that you say that, how did you run into him?”

 

“We met on a rainy day, just like this one…”

 

-

 

Kazuma grinned at his most prominent business partner as the two stood in one of the clinic's empty rooms.

 

“So all I have to do is offer to put them up,” He started. Kimishima nodded excitedly. “…while you look for a way to get them home.” Kimishima nodded excitedly again. “And once the city gets them, we'll have money growing off of trees,” He finished, with Kimishima nodding even more excitably. Kazuma's grin faded and was replaced by a skeptical look. “…It'll never work.” Kimishima's jaw dropped and he stared at his partner in confusion.

 

“What do you mean it'll never work?!” Kimishima demanded. It was a foolproof plan!

 

“I can already think of so many ways that it all goes wrong and blows up in our faces,” Kazuma said with a sigh as he walked away. “They could be alter criminals. Or even worse, we could get charged with kidnapping them, and then I'll be an alter criminal! I don't want to get involved with HOLY, Kimishima. Those guys are nothing but trouble,”

 

“Come on, Kazuma! In the first case, we'll be heroes for turning them in, and in the second one, they could convince those guys up at top that we didn't kidnap them!”

 

“Not if they don't like us they won't. And like I said, I won't get involved with HOLY, whether it's turning in criminals or becoming one myself!” Kazuma said, turning to look at his partner with a frown. “What am I supposed to do about Kanami if something happens to me? She's just a little girl. I can't just leave her alone and play around with those HOLY bastards. Not unless they throw the first punch,” Kazuma added the last part on a whim.

 

“Oh come on, Kazuma, my plans always work!”

 

“Yeah, right,” Kazuma snorted. “And my right arm is made of glass.”

 

“Just give me a week, Kazuma. A week, and then you can kick them out! But just give me that!”

 

“Kimishima…” Kazuma sighed and shook his head. “Fine. Whatever. You get seven days.”

 

“All right! You won't be disappointed, Kazuma!” The brunette rolled his eyes and walked out of the room. `Now then, all I have to do is a little investigating… Nerima, hmm. Sounds familiar, maybe it's one of the more prominent cities? Oh man, this is really gonna turn a profit, you just watch Kazuma, we'll have our pockets lined with money before the week's over!'

 

-

Upstairs, Kazuma leaned on the doorsill with his arms crossed as he saw both Kanami and Ranma were sitting up, watching the other girl sleep.

 

“Yo,” He said. Both girls turned to look at him and he waved with one hand. “Hey, Ranna,”

 

“Ranma,” Ranma said with a frown.

 

“Ranma,” Kazuma said, frowning as well, but at himself. `I'm starting to sound like Cougar…' “Uh, anyway, Ranma, I just wanted to tell you, our place is open for as long as you need to stay. My friend said he'd look into that place called Nerima for you, but I'm not sure what he'll find.”

 

“…Thanks.” Ranma smiled gratefully at the other boy, who looked away and shrugged.

 

“S'nothin'.”

 

“Kazu-kun…” Kanami looked up at her older brother figure with a smile on her face.

 

“Didn't I tell you not to…” He started with a groan.

 

“Kazu-kun, I figured you'd kick them out as soon as it stopped raining,” She said. “I'm sorry I thought so low of you. I was wrong.” Kazuma felt a vein pop somewhere and turned around further before coughing.

 

“Ahem. Ah, yeah, well… it's almost bed time, Kanami. Go get ready.” He walked away, leaving the two girls alone.

 

“Don't let us keep you up,” Ranma said tiredly. It was late, but she couldn't see anything resembling a clock in the room they were in.

 

“I'll see you in the morning then, neesan,” the girl said brightly, although Ranma could see the tiredness in her eyes.

 

“Erm, please don't call me that… just Ranma is fine…” The red-head said, slightly embarrassed. `Oh man, if we do have to end up staying here for a while, I'm gonna have to end up showin' them…'

 

“Ah, okay then. Goodnight, Ranma-chan!” The girl said, just as brightly, as she walked out of the door. Ranma's eye twitched and she chuckled to herself.

 

“Oh, the irony…” She sat in her chair and looked down at P-chan, who was, unsurprisingly, already asleep. “Oh man…”

 

----

 

Notes:

 

(1) Just so you guys know in case you don't, Ranma did not “beat the crap” out of Saffron. He won through the merit of his ass-saving luck, skill, and circumstance. “beat the crap out of” implies that he vastly overpowered him, which he definitely did not. In the prologue, that's his ego speaking.

(2) This chapter is one of three parts to the story's introduction. I'll release the next parts over the course of tomorrow. To be brief; you haven't read the whole introduction until you're done with the first three chapters.