[fanfic][Ranma] My Past, My Future, chapter one.

     Dark clouds covered the sky, blotting out the light from
the moon and the stars.  The only light to be seen was the
lightning that flashed across the sky,  accompanied by thunder
louder than a dragon's roar.  An unearthly wind blew, echoing
the screams of pain that the people of this land had undergone
for a thousand years.

     A flash of lightning appeared again, lighting the deserted
landscape, a mountain valley with hundreds of springs in it. 
Had anybody been watching, they would have seen two figures
silhouetted against the brief`flash of lightning.  One was a
twelve-foot tall creature that was some bizarre combination of a
wolf and a crocodile.  Grey-streaked black fur ran along its
back, while its underbelly, tail, and clawed arms and legs were
covered in yellow-green scales.  Drool ran from its mouth, and
its three glowing red eyes were fixed upon the other figure.

     The other figure was a mere human girl, apparently fifteen
or sixteen. Her red hair was tied in a ponytail and she wore an
ornately embroidered shirt and pants, which were now torn and
dirty from fighting.  She would have been wearing armor once,
but now all that remained of it were the plates on her left
elbow and right lower leg.  Her body was coated in sweat as she
turned, sword in hand, to face the demon.

     The two launched themselves at each other, demonic claws
clashing against the young girl's sword.  Both fell to the
ground, and lay there.  After what seemed an eternity, the girl
rose to her feet, blood freely flowing from a gash on her left
side that reached from her shoulder to her knee.

     Then, some kind of dark, ghostly vapor arose from the
demon's corpse.  The girl stood, unable to move as the vapor
flowed into her body.  Then, she fell over, her body siezed by
convulsions.  Rising to her knees, she crawled towards the
nearest spring.

     {Masaka!}.  The voice came from inside her mind.  {How can
a human spirit be this strong?  How can it resist my control?} 
She edged closer to the spring.  {Why do you refuse to obey my
orders?}  Fighting off her wounds and the demon's commands, with
the last of her strength, the girl threw herself into the
spring. Swallowing, she felt the water enter her lungs.

     {You have plagued this world for a millenium, demon.}  the
girl thought.  {I will give up my life a thousand times over to
ensure that you never do so again.}  As the spring's water's
washed her spirit away from her body, her final thought echoed
in her mind:  "Never again."

*********************************** 

My Past, My Future 

A Ranma 1/2 fanfic by Andrew Dynon.      

***********************************

PRESENT DAY

	Ranma strolled along the top of the fence on his way home from
school.  Today had been a fairly peaceful day - Kuno had only
twice tried to reclaim the pigtailed girl from him, Akane hadn't
hit him *too* many times, Ryoga was nowhere to be found, and
Ukyo and Shampoo were taking a break from vying for his
affections ... for the moment.  He wondered how long it would
last.  Jumping down as he reached the end of the fence, he
continued walking, enjoying the warmth of the sun that was
shining.

	"I said, get out of my face!" Ranma's thoughts were interrupted
when his keen hearing picked up a teenaged girl's yell from
around a street corner about a hundred meters ahead of him.

	"Heh, is a pretty thing like you gonna hurt us?" The voice
sounded like the leader of a juvenile gang.  Sounds of a scuffle
broke out, and Ranma sprinted towards the street corner.  As he
rounded the corner, the noise from the fight ceased, and Ranma
abruptly stopped.

	The entire gang lay, beaten, on the footpath.  Standing over
the cowed forms of the couple that were beginning to get up was
a girl, about fifteen or sixteen years old, with short, straight
red hair, wearing a blue-and-white tracksuit and baseball cap. 
She looked up at Ranma and smiled.

	Ranma felt a wave of confusion rush through his body. {What's
this?} he thought {a new martial artist shows up, and doesn't
immediately attack me for one reason or another?} he began
sweating slightly. {Uh oh. Maybe she's another of my fiancees.}
"Uh, hi." he said nervously. "My name's Saotome Ranma."

	"Yoroshiku*!" the girl replied. "Boku wa Saotome Kaede!"

* Yoroshiku = Pleased to meet you

	Ranma's jaw dropped to the ground. "SAOTOME???"

*	*	*	*	*

FUTURE # 1

	In the orange glow of sunset, the silhouettes of ancient trees
cast dark shadows across the forest floor.  The trees were
gigantic guardians, silently warning interlopers not to proceed
into their domain.  But nevertheless, there was one who did.

	He was a man in his mid-thirties, strongly built, with
ponytailed black hair, and a scar on his right cheek.  His
clothing consisted of a black chinese shirt and light grey
pants.  He stopped for a moment, a tear appearing to almost, but
not quite, form in his eye, and, as he briefly spoke quietly to
himself, his voice was warm yet firm.

	"I'm here with you again now, my love.  As always.  As I've
promised."

	Arrows suddenly flew at him, but he plucked them out of the air
with ease.  Casually dropping them on the ground, he turned to
face the five young women who had fired them. rolling underneath
another volley, he kicked one in the stomach, and grabbed the
arm of another, throwing her into the third.  The two remaining
drew swords and charged at him.  Ranma grabbed and twisted the
arm of the first, ducked, and swept his foot, tripping the
other.  He hooked his elbow around the first one's neck, and
placed his foot on the other's back.  One of the others rose to
her knees.

	"Welcome to Niichieju, Saotome Ranma."

	Ranma was nonplussed. "Yeah, whatever.  I hope the village has
some better fighters than you five.  I didn't even break a
sweat."

 	The five amazons escorted him along the dirt path that led
towards the village.  As he came into view of the	first huts,
something else also caught his eye - a large, catlike figure,
sitting in one of the trees.  The figure jumped down from the
tree, and its full form could be seen - a girl with cat ears and
tail, and white fur covering her body.  She had lavender-colored
hair which was cut close to her head and eventually merged with
her body fur, and the only thing she wore wsa a harness with two
curved swords in it.  She rushed to Ranma and hugged him.

	"Daddy! You're home! Yokatta!"

	"Yes, Shabon, I'm home.  I promised you I'd always be here at
this time of year."

	Another figure, with long purple hair, rushed toward Ranma and
buried his head in her breasts. "Ai ren! Shampoo so glad you
back from travelling! Ah, wo ai ni, wo ai ni!" As Ranma's wife
had matured, she had grown from being merely cute to truly
beautiful - a perfect figure, waist-length, straight, dark
purple hair... Ranma embraced her and they kissed.  	Unseen,
another figure watched from the trees - a great, shadowy bird
with four serrated horns on its head.  If its face could have
shown emotions, it would have been grinning with dark
anticipation.

*	*	*	*	*

PRESENT DAY

	"So, Kaede-san... you're related to me?" Ranma asked curiously.

	"You could say that." Kaede replied, smiling. "I was just
heading to the Tendo dojo, but what do you say we get something
to eat first?"

	A mallet suddenly crashed down on Ranma's head. "RANMA! How
DARE you get yourself yet ANOTHER fiancee!" Akane yelled. "Your
flirting with Shampoo and Ukyo is bad enough, but..."

	"Geez, Akane, get a clue!  She's a relative of mine, okay?"

	"Yeah, why don't you think before you just go and hit someone?"
Kaede yelled at Akane.

	Akane turned and walked away. "I guess being an obnoxious jerk
runs in the family."

	Kaede laughed to herself.  "Now, where were we?  Oh, yeah,we
were talking about getting something to eat!"

*

	"Well, I guess we could stop off at Ucchan's on the way back to
the dojo."

	"Ranchan! Come in!" Ukyo exclaimed joyfully as Ranma arrived at
the door of Ucchan's okinomiyaki shop.  Her face fell as she
caught sight of Kaede.  "Ano, Ranchan, who's this girl?"

	"I'm a relative of Ranma's." Kaede replied.  "I'll be staying
at the Tendo household for some time." she noticed Ranma's
expression. "Did I forget to tell you that?"

	"I shoulda guessed."

*	*	*	*	*

FUTURE #1

 	Shabon lay awake on her bed - something was wrong, she could
feel it in her bones.  Siliently getting up, careful not to wake
her father and mother, she crept outside into the moonless
night, searching for whatever it was that caused her nervousness.

	Her feline eyes picked up a form camoflaged against the dark
night, making the hair on her back stand on end.

	"Ah, how nice to meet you, my feline friend.  Yours will be an
excellent body." the thing's eerie voice commented.

	Shabon hissed and charged at the demon, clawing at it, but the
demon turned into smoke which her claw-strokes passed harmlessly
through.  Then, the smoke surrounded her body, clinging to her,
entering her bloodstream.  The cat-girl collapsed onto the
ground.  She lay there for a few seconds, and then stood up and
opened her eyes.  Eyes which were now glazed over.

*	*	*	*	*

THE PRESENT

	"Ara! Saotome-san, Ranma's back, and one of his relatives is
with him!" Kasumi cried out, cheerful as always.

	Genma held up a sign [I didn't know guests were coming]. 
Nabiki sighed.  "Ranma, you do realise that we're going to have
a hard time budgeting for another freeloader, don't you? Perhaps
you'd better pay her expenses."

	"Daijobu! I'll only be here a few weeks, and I've brought money
with me." Kaede smiled. "I was forewarned." she said under her
breath. "Anyway, Ranma-kun, do you wanna practice with me in the
dojo?"

	"You're a girl! Why not spar with Akane?"

	"She's YOUR 'relative', Ranma!" Akane yelled. "YOU can damn
well spar with her!"

	"Sheesh, okay, Akane, I'll do it!"

*

	Ranma dodged and blocked Kaede's punches and kicks. {I guess
it's lucky that Akane didn't spar with her, Kaede's far better
than she is} He jumped to avoid a foot sweep, and had to
backflip as his opponent's leg circled around and up. {In fact,
at the moment she seems better than Shampoo or Ukyo, and I get
the feeling that she's not using her full strength}

	"Come on! Attack me back!" Kaede yelled.

	"I don't attack girls!"

	Ranma blocked a roundhouse kick to the left side of his head,
but Kaede swung her left leg around and connected with his
sshoulder, knocking him over.

	"Don't worry about hurting me! There's nobody I can't beat!"

	"Hey, that's my line! Okay, you're on!"

	The two charged each other, and Kaede punched.  Ranma grabbed
her by the arm, and flipped her over his shoulder, sending her,
airborne, out of the window and into the pond.  Ranma rushed
out, concerned, then stopped.

	Getting out of the pond was a black-haired, teenaged boy.

* END CHAPTER ONE *