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Clogged Sink Press Presents:

The Crow/Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction:


                             As the Crow Flies


By Plunger

      All characters copyright of Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan Inc. and
              Viz Communications, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah...
      The Crow is copyright of James O'Barr or whoever else owns it...  
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[Story begins...]

[Chapter #5 Ressurection]

Akane sat in her room looking out at the sunset. She sighed. Without Ranma, 
life had lost all it's point. He had been buried for two weeks and she was
still not getting any more used to him not being around. Everyone morning she
got up and expected to see Ranma and his father sparring over the pond...but
that was no more. Genma had gone back to Osaka to comfort Nodoka. 

School seemed empty and pointless dispite the best efforts of her friends to 
cheer her up. They didn't seem to be able to understand that she did not want
to feel better. Mourning was right. It was HER right and she intended to make
full use of it. 

She didn't expect anyone else to understand. Only she had twice lost the 
dominant figure in her life. It had taken a long time to get over the loss 
of her mother and she knew that the pain she was feeling would be with her 
for a long time to come. She sighed, considering the events around her.

Life had returned to the state which it had been before Ranma's arrival. 
Oddly Akane found this to be boring and passionless, something she had never 
noticed before Ranma had become part of her life. She sighed, until Ranma had
moved in, she had been suffocating under her fathers obsessive protectiveness
and her sisters quirks. With Ranma, she had been able to fully express herself
and free herself of much of the tension that tore at here at times. She had
never realised just how much she relied on him.

She shook herself and sat up. There was no point wallowing in regret and self-
pity. Ranma hated those sort of weaknesses. She looked out at the setting sun,
her mind drifting back to the walk back from Ryugenzawa where Ranma had held
her hand for the first time. She smiled at the memory. As long as she could 
remember him, it would be okay...

As the orange afternoon light streamed into her room, a single tear slipped 
from her eye and ran down her cheek to her chin, where it dripped onto the 
table. Akane did not seem to notice, too intent on staring out at the sunset.

Up in the sky, a large black crow wheeled lazily on the evening breeze. It 
gave and single cry and then swept down to land on the windowsill of Akane's
room. It looked in to see Akane with her head in her hand, sobbing into her
desk. It stared at her with one beady eye for a moment and then sqwarked 
agreeably. Akane jumped and sat up, "What?!" she exclaimed, surprised.

The bird sqwarked again and hopped from foot to foot.

Akane stared at the strange bird, "What's this crow doing here?" she wondered
aloud. The bird seemed to sense the question and nodded to her, before leaping 
into the air and flying away. Akane looked out the window after it's receeding
form. "What on earth..." she muttered.

That night at dinner, Akane told her family about the crow. Only her father 
seemed to think anything of it, taking it as a bad omen and getting hysterical 
again. His already high strung state had worsened since Ranma's death, indeed
everyone seemed to have suffered emotionally from trial they had been through.

That night, Akane went to bed thinking of Ranma...and their one night 
together...as she did every night. She stared at the ceiling, listening to
the soft patter of drizzling rain on the tiles of the roof.

In the Nerima graveyard, the black crow landed on the gravestone. The bird 
looked down, appearing to read the writing carved into the marble. Apparently
satisifed it tapped on the stone with it's beak. Getting no response, it 
tapped again, more insistantly this time.  

This went on for much of the night. The bird tapping and then waiting and then
tapping again. As the night wore on the rain grew heavier and the sky darker.
Finally as the bird was tapping almost continously, a hand shot out of the
ground.

A few minutes earlier, Ranma had lain is his coffin, dead. Then he had 
suddenly found himself awake and looking up at the padded roof of the box. He
panicked for a moment, then realised that he was alive. He knew he had been 
dead. The afterlife, such as it was, had been intersting and speaking to 
Akane's mother had been educational to say the least.

Akane! It suddenly hit him why he was there. He had to protect Akane. No-one
else could. With a firm sense of resolution, he slammed his fist upwards 
through the lid of the coffin. Dirt immediately poured in on him and he was 
forced to dig the dirt from above him and move it below him. It was slow going
and his hands were bloody and raw by the time he reached the surface. 

He drove his fist upward and felt the rain on his skin. With a lunge, he leapt
up and out of the grave with a flourish. Lightening crashed around him, the
sky seemingly objecting to his presence. He looked around and saw that he was 
in the Nerima graveyard. In fact, he was quite near Akane's mother's grave. He
slowly crawled out of the ground and fell flat on his back, too exhausted to
move. 

The crow sat on the gravestone and loked at him curiously, tiliting it's head
from side to side. After a moment, it cried out and flew over to land on 
Ranma's chest.

Ranma looked up and stared right into it's eyes. Ranma's eyes widened and then
he nodded, "I understand... I know what I have to do... Yes... I know... But
can't I... Why not?! I see... Is there any way? IS THERE?! Good. When this is
over you will show me... YOU WILL! Yes... Yes... I understand. Thank you..."

Ranma collapsed again, staring up and the raging sky and falling rain. After
a while, he felt his strength returning and he was able to rise, slowly to 
his feet. He turned and staggered out of the graveyard. The crow leapt into 
the air and followed him.

Ranma stumbled down the street in a daze. He was alive again, but he didn't 
understand entirely how or why he had been ressurected. It was best not to 
question the crow's wisdom in bringing him back, and he chose not to dwell on 
it, prefering, instead he had to concentrate on the task at hand. He had to 
protect Akane from the developeres. They had killed him and he knew they would 
do worse to her and her family. Ranma gritted his teeth and stood straight. 
No-one else could protect her. There was only him.

He looked down at himself with a wry smile. Some hero he was... He was covered
in mud and wearing a battered and mud caked suit. He knew quite well that he
had to get prepared for battle quickly. Looking around, he saw he was in the 
middle of Nerima's shopping district. Quickly scanning the area, he saw what 
he was looking for. He walked over to the leathergoods shop and looked in the
window. He smiled. Perfect for a creature of night...

He stepped back and kicked the window. It shattered, setting off alarm. Ranma
walked in and, finding the alarm, crushed it into a pancake. He then strode 
into the room and began to look for the right sort of clothes. Some time 
later, he emerged wearing black leather pants, a black leather vest, a sort of
leather bandoleir and heavy leather boots. His hands were taped with black 
duct tape from the shop. He looked at himself in the mirror. He was quite the 
spectre of death, he thought wryly. It was strange, the clothes were anything 
but his style, but they felt right for this task...

Ranma turned and walked out of the shop. "Now..." he muttered, "Weapons..."

Several hours later, Ranma stood across from Toukyou's only gun dealer. "I 
can't believe I'm really doing this..." he muttered. He looked up at the crow
sitting on his shoulder and nodded, "If you say so... Yes... You're right..."
He sighed and strode across the street to the shop. He walked up to the door
and looked at it. It was a formidable metal grill monstrosity. He stared at
it for a moment and then nodded to some silent comment. He stepped back and
then drove his foot forward into the grill. It shattered and shot into the 
building with a loud crash. 

Ranma immediately walked into the shop and headed for one of the cases. He 
slammed his fist through it and grabbed a Beretta M-92D and a Desert Eagle, 
then leapt over the counter and kicked the lock off the ammunition cupboard.
He reached in and pulled out several boxes of ammo and then grabbed a bag off
the wall and began to fill it with items. From time to time, he would nod and
grab another weapon or move to another place in the room. He was so intent on 
his task, that he failed to notice the owner enter brandishing a pistol.

"FREEZE!" 

Ranma heard the sound and froze. He heard a safey click and dived on the 
floor behind a shelf. Several shots rang out as Ranma crawled away for better
cover. 

The owner moved carefully into the room, searching as he went. "Where are you,
punk?!" he shouted, "Think you can steal from me?!"

Ranma jumped up and threw the bag he was carrying at the man. It hit him 
squarely in the chest, knocking him to the floor and causing him to drop his
gun. Ranma ran over and stepped on his wrist as he tried to reach it. "Don't."
Ranm said evenly.

The gun shop owner stared up at him in fear. 

Ranma looked back at him impassively, "I don't want to hurt you..." 

The owner snorted and raised his other hand. With a flick of his wrist, 
another gun appeared in his hand and he shot Ranma with it. Ranma staggered
back in surprise. He looked down and felt the wound. It was there, but there
was little pain and he was not hampered by it. 

Meanwhile, the owner had gotten to his feet and was smiling evily at him, 
"Now, you punk, I'm gonna fix you!" He fired seven more times, emptying the
magazine into Ranma. Ranma fell flat to the floor, stunned bu the impacts.

The owner came over and laughed, "Ha! Thought you could get the better of 
me?!" He nudged Ranma with his foot. Ranma snapped up and grabbed the foot 
then slammed his elbow into the man's knee, who let out an anguished cry and 
fell to the floor. Ranma pounced on him and punched him in the face, then 
smashed his wrist with the butt of a gun. The man groaned in a pain induced 
stupor. Ranma got up and grabbed his bag of weapons. He paused long enough
to see he had been shot eight times. It didn't hurt and he felt fine, so he
moved to the door, pausing long enough to collapse the entrance behind him.

Ranma strode out of the gun shop into the driving rain. He slung the shotgun 
over his back and checked the two autopistols in his belt. He nodded, 
"Good..."he muttered, "Finally... Vengance is at hand..." Apparently satisi-
fed, he walked off down the street. 

[End part 6]
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