Blessed with a Curse
Prologue - A Chance Meeting
Ranma and Akane were rushing off to school one day when a stranger leaning against a nearby telephone poll caught Ranma's attention. He didn't know what had compelled him to stop and stare but he had all the same.
"Ranma!" Akane came running back. "We're going to be late!"
The stranger looked up at Ranma, "Ranma? Are you… Ranma Saotome?"
"Huh? Yeah. How did you know?" Ranma asked. The stranger was a girl. She was about his age and fairly well built. She had shimmering blond hair and bright blue eyes. Her hair was mostly kept back in a ponytail but careless bangs swept windblown across her face.
"Are you Ranma Saotome, the man with the Jusenkyo curse of the young girl?" she asked more specifically.
"Yeah, that's me. But how did you know?" he asked again.
"I was… told by the guide. When I came out of a spring, he was mortified. He started shouting things like, 'I need to pay more attention or there will be many many more cases like the Saotomes'. He said something about you being visitors from Japan and so I've been searching all of Japan for you for five months now."
"Hmph. So that fool still remembers us huh? Well, it's the least he could do after not telling us about the curse."
"We're going to be late!" Akane insisted. "And who is this girl?"
"Forgive me," she said. "I am Neko Kusanagi."
"Neko? Like cat?" Akane blinked.
"Yes indeed. Well, you said you were going to be late for school. I wouldn't want to slow you down. Please, go on. I'll see you again sometime soon," Neko jumped back onto the stone wall behind her and then ran off.
"Strange girl…" Ranma mumbled to himself. "Though at least she's not an uncute tomboy."
For this, Ranma was promptly punched.
"Ok, yeah, I deserved that," he grunted, holding his stomach in pain.
"She said she fell in a spring, didn't she? I wonder what curse she has," Akane mused.
"We'll ask her when she shows up again but for right now let's get to school," Ranma started running off toward the distant Furinkin High School again. "There's something strange about that girl. Something that just isn't right," he thought to himself.