Disclaimer: The playground is by Rumiko Takahashi, I'm only swinging on the monkey bars. Remember to leave the grounds cleaner than you found them and please don't feed the Trolls. *Summer Lightning* is copyrighted by Garnet Rogers and *Lock Keeper* is copyright by Stan Rogers (RIP). The mangling they have been subjected to is my fault. If you haven't encountered them before go out and buy their CDs, they sings lots better than I write, and Stan's estate could use the cash. This story is archived at http://www.kawaiikunee.com/slp/ Release 1.2 (Nov. 25, 2000) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Shadow Lurker Productions Is very proud to present An Eric Hallstrom Production Of a Takahashi Rumiko Film Chima Baifeng Tianshan Chun Book I Ranma and Akane, A Love Story ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1: The first day Part A: Arrival; Here's Ranma. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the story of a boy who was a girl, and a girl, and a boy, and a girl, and a boy, and a girl, and a girl who acts like a boy, and a boy who acts like a girl, and a woman, and a man, and another couple girls, and a cast of thousands. And a Panda, though not until much later. And butterflies, lots and lots of butterflies. It's the story of a school, and another school, and another school; of a city and a village and all the roads in between. It's a story of desperate battle and deadly opponents, and when, later, it attempts to be a story of monsters and villains who attack these schools and so on, it will instead become the story of monsters and villains who turn around and run away -- at least, those of them who get the chance. It will have true love, and desperate peril, and romantic intervals and high adventure and more martial arts action sequences than you can shake a bokken at. And just a touch of citrus, for flavor. But before it will be those stories, it will be the story of a Fight. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Some schools are known for academics and some are known for sports. Furinkan High, in the Nerima ward of Tokyo, was known for the Fight. Every school day for more than a year, the boys of the student body had either lain in wait to "win the right to date the fair and beauteous tiger Tendo Akane" (i.e. beat her up) or, if they had done that recently, had attempted to heal up for the Fight tomorrow. The girls all thought the whole thing was a ploy by Akane to keep the attention of the entire male student populace and had no sympathy for either side. The populace of the neighborhood thought it was High Theater (not much else happened in Nerima). Tendo Nabiki thought it had gone much too far, but could think of no viable way to stop something that no longer had a real reason except tradition. And Tendo Akane vanquished her opponents, and ignored the whispers, and grew ever grimmer as the days went by. And today will be no different, after all it never is at Furinkan. All the normal players are in place: here is the assembled might of Furinkan's male student body, prepared to do battle in heroic silliness for a prize they no longer remember; here are the observers waiting for a sight they've seen before, and grown bored of; and here is Akane herself grimly preparing to fight for a point of honor she can no longer care about; all just as it was yesterday and the day before. And now Akane has broken into a run at her tormentors, and now the battle is about to be joined. But now, now something ... different ... has happened. Now a voice has called out, not even very loudly. A smokey contralto with a slight edge of roughness, and power enough to crack the world. A voice that merely by its presence has controlled the situation. A voice that belongs to a shortish, athletic girl standing in the gateway to the school. She wears loose black velvet pants, three-inch black leather moccasins, a loose blue silk shirt and a brown leather airman's jacket. Her flaming scarlet hair flows down her back in a pigtail tied with an ivory ring in which gems gleam brightly in the sun. Her neck is wrapped by a flowing white silk scarf, her hands are in her jacket pockets, her head is slightly tilted to one side and she has just said "Would someone like to tell me what the _Hell_ they think they're doing?" And nothing will ever be the same again. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Takuichi Daikun was not a happy kendoist. He had striven and won in honorable combat for the privilege of leading today's charge so that the entire school could see his honorable struggle with the fair Tendo Akane. (He's the first to get beaten up today.) It was a great honor to be first, and he had looked forward to it. But now his moment in the sun had been _ruined_, upstaged by some ... barbarian _girl_ ... and his honor had been shadowed. And so it was that he did a _very_ foolish thing: he got her attention. "This is an affair of Honor _girl_, who are you to..." Somehow she had moved across the dozen yards separating them without his seeing it. Up close he noted that her eyes were an incredible blue as deep as all the worlds' oceans, that several slight lines of old scars crossed the sides of her face, that her gaze was literally _impossible_ to look away from, and that she had just tapped him on the nose. "My _name_ is Ranma. I asked you a question." From far away he heard his voice stammering some sort of explanation for the morning's action. Now that he thought about it, it did seem sort of silly. "Ah. I see. and what was your place in this ... 'honorable combat'." An even, calm voice, nigh unto serenity. "I have won the right to first contact today. It is a very great honor." He hadn't really said that had he? He hadn't meant to. "Ah. Well I certainly wouldn't wish to deprive you of your... 'honor'." The hands that broke his shoulder blades and dislocated his arms were certainly gentle he thought, though unstoppable in their power. The snap kicks that flattened his testicles and broke both of his lower legs skillfully applied and blinding in their speed. The twin open hand push that flung him a dozen yards backwards was so fast and yet so graceful as to be beyond belief. And was that an energy discharge from the point of contact? 'Why, it doesn't even hurt' he thought as he flew backwards through the air. Until five feet before hitting the wall, whereupon it hurt a _lot_. The loss of consciousness that followed after hitting the wall was probably a mercy. Ranma turned to the remaining assembled male students and bestowed upon them the calm, angelic smile of someone who is wondering how far your arm can be pulled from its socket before the flesh and ligaments separate, and whether beating you to death with it will require one subsequent blow or two. Above, Nabiki stared down in shock. Well _that_ was different. "Now I was sitting in a tavern in a country far away a couple months back," she remarked conversationally, "trying to get something to eat. And the door opened and in walked the nastiest trio of villains you ever did lay eyes on. They were dragging along a youngish girl who really didn't seem to want to be there, (what with the torn clothing and the bruises and all) and in ... speaking ... to them it developed that yeah they had kidnapped her, and yeah they had done what you think they'd done, and oh yeah just cause they could, cause no-one could stop em." She shook her head in dismay. "So I ripped the big one's heart out, and broke the second's neck and used a chair to crush the skull of the one who was running away. Because it was the right thing to do." Nabiki registered further shock. Well, that _was_ different. "Now I'm not saying that this case is exactly similar, mind you, but you do know how badly you've been insulting the other girls in the school, right?" Students.Furinkan.male.assembled quivered in terror and huddled together. "And while I _myself_ am the most gentle and reasonable of people, I understand that _other_ people aren't and if _they_," she waved her hand at the watchers above, "should decide to hold a _grudge_, well .... Things could become ... dire." The word "dire" seemed to resonate with especial doom. "Continued for a whole _year_? Why I doubt if _any_ amount of flowers would help. You'd have to escalate straight to chocolate or even jewelry even to get a chance to plead your case." Ranma shook her head sadly at the fate that no doubt awaited them. "And you still standing there." Students.Furinkan.male.assembled blanched further and scrambled en masse for the door to the fire within that seemed nonetheless much to be preferred to the merciless gaze without, only to be recalled to heel. "Oh and by the way gentlemen... if it _should_ happen that intense currying of favor _does_ grant you the no-doubt-undeserved opportunity to plead for your miserable lives... my advice to you would be to grovel, and to grovel quite abjectly." Nabiki wondered if you could overload on shock. That had been _different_. And then looked about her, and heard the all but audible grinding of the gears in the heads of the other female onlookers, and saw the slowly growing grins, and then sprinted for the door. A phone, she had to get to a phone. Ranma crossed her arms in front of her chest and shook her head sadly at the mass of boyish silliness frantically cramming itself through Furinkan's front doors, and turned to Akane, who was still standing where she had been about to knock Daikun into next week and whose mouth was still open in shock. "Aheh," she sheepishly tugged on her braid, "sorry about that. Sometimes I get carried away." Akane shook herself and closed her mouth. "No, not at all. You were _wonderful_! I'm Tendo Akane, wanna be friends?" "Sure!" Ranma's eyes lit. Akane was staggered again by their power. "If you've been going through that every day for a _year_ you _need_ a friend and it's always nice to make one the first day. I'm Bushiko Ranma." She extended her hand, pinky outstretched and Akane linked hers likewise. Talking quietly they walked in the door and up the stairs. "Tendo Akane, huh? 'Scarlet Road to Heaven', how lovely." Akane felt her cheeks heat. "Um, thanks! Um, Bushiko?" "It's a nom de guerre," Ranma explained sunnily, "long story, I'll tell you later." "The heck with _that_ story; _how_ did you do that _push_? That was _great_!" "You think so? It's not that hard: you just..." And walked happily to class, and smiled merrily upon the cringing boys therein, and did _not_ gloat. At least, not on the outside. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Next: Ranma & Akane: A Love Story Chapter 1: The First Day Part B: Encampment; Kuno Strikes Out. 'Til next chapter, Eric Hallstrom, 01/16/2001