As time flows the multiverse branches in every direction with new worlds with new pasts due to the actions of the present are born. Any act, be it the destruction of a solar system to simply deciding to wake up a few minutes later can have a staggering, or equally likely an inconsequential, effect on the world. Take for example if you will a truly strange occurrence of the future causing the past that brought it to be. Truly anything is a possibility.
Typhoon Trio
Prolog. Time Trippin
By Jester of Doom
Disclaimer: everything belongs to the people who own it. Sadly, for me at least, I don't own Ranma or Trigun. Lawsuits are pointless I have no money and make no money from this.
"Are you prepared Ranma?" Genma Saotome of the Saotome Anything Goes School of martial arts asked his son looking out at the pools that stretched out in front of him, bamboo poles rising from the waters of every pool. This was the last stop on their ten year training journey that had started when he was only six to make the boy a man among men. He looked at his son disgusted at the futility of it all, the boy wouldn't even steal anymore like he had done when he was young. As a child he had shown so much promise. Now all he was good for was an heir to provide him with an early retirement.
"This place ain't so impressive pop." Ranma replied looking over the pools in front of him. Sure it was good training to fight on bamboo poles but he didn't see why he had to be dragged around china just to find this place.
"You very strange one, no, sir? This place very dangerous," said their guide, a short fat man who had trouble speaking Japanese, while indicating the springs. "Nobody use now. Is more than one hundred spring here and everyone have own tragic legend."
"Ranma, follow me" said the fat, bald martial artist to his son jumping onto a pole sticking out of a nearby pool. His son followed him landing on a nearby pole facing his father despite the guide's protests. Not that anyone ever listened to the guide though.
"I wont go easy on you boy!" yelled the father preparing to attack.
"That's how I want it old man!" retorted his son just before they both leapt at each other, still ignoring the guide telling them they were doing something very stupid.
Genma's first attack was a flying kick which ranma easily avoided. Doing a handspring from his father outstretched leg ranma flipped behind the fat man and delivered a hard kick to the back of his head. Genma fell forward into a pool due to the attack and didn't resurface. "Pop what's up? We done already?" then the water exploded up as a white and black form and landed on a nearby pole. A panda? In an Anything Goes stance? And on a bamboo pole no less!
"That is 'spring of drown panda'!" yelled the guide to a very confused ranma "There is a very tragic legend of a panda who drown there two thousand year ago. Now whoever fall in spring take body of panda!"
"Wait a second!" yelled ranma as he jumped from pole to pole to avoid the now attacking panda. "You never said anything about…" ranma started to protest but was cut short as his father turned panda spiked him into a nearby pool.
"Not 'spring of drowned girl'!" yelled the guide. "There is a VERY tragic legend of young girl who drown in spring one thousand five hundred year ago! Now whoever fall in spring take body of young girl!" said the guide to the panda who was looking into the spring for his son.
They waited for a few moments but the bubbles stopped coming to the surface and there was no sign of ranma. The panda thought of diving in to save his drowning son... err, daughter but if the guide was telling the truth he would rather not risk it. To lose ones life was one thing, but to lose ones manhood was something Genma was unwilling to do! Besides if he brought the boy back and he changed into a girl his mother would kill them both. If he came up they would think of a way to get out of seppuku, if he didn't then his problems would end there. Besides a friend like Soun Tendo would let him live in early retirement at his dojo if he had a son to engage to one of Tendo's daughters or not, wouldn't he?
He waited at the pool for hours as the guide brought back a kettle of hot water and explained his curse to him. Then he left knowing that by then his son must have passed on. For a moment it actually looked like he had a tear in his eye, most likely over his loss of a meal ticket. Then he was off to a village the guide had told him about full of warriors, perhaps he could steal something to pay one to take Ranma's place and marry a Tendo. As he walked it started raining.
-----
Time passed, as time often does, undisturbed in its flow. People aged, children were born and then their children were born, repeating hundreds of times. Much of it was uneventful yet much held great importance, such as what had disturbed the past so long ago and would happen only in the far future. A man who would have worked hard on the creation of a device known simple as a plant never came to be. A man who would have been the distant ancestor of people Ranma would have changed the lives of if he had been there. But more importantly a man who would have designed an effective safety system to prevent an overloading plant from manifesting a large number of things normally deemed impossible, such as reaching out for aid from great warriors of the past.
-----
Ranma woke not sure of where he was or why he was there, in truth he knew almost nothing anymore but at the moment it didn't matter. In the sky over the wreckage he was standing in it seemed as though half the stars in the sky had decided to fall as one. Hundreds of fiery comets fell from the sky for the next few minutes completely banishing all thoughts from Ranma's mind. When the hail of stars settled to the ground he still stood in awe for several more minutes.
When he remembered his surprise at being here and was once again aware that he had no idea as to where here was. The ground around him was burnt and strewn with twisted and melted metal. To his right a good distance off was a wall of metal plates and beams covered in scorch marks and containing several holes that looked like they had been caused by a horribly strong fire, many holes were though sections up to three meters thick. The wall curved over him like half of an arch. High up the inner side there was what looked like the remains of a giant light bulb that had burst in its socket. How what looked like glass could have survived better than the metal around it he couldn't fathom but there was a lot about this he didn't understand.
The more distant surroundings didn't help him ether, all he could see was desert. About the only thing that had really helped him was the sky. The five moons seemed wrong, he wasn't sure why but he knew this was not where he should have been.
He hadn't moved much since he had awoken; only rotated on the spot to see his surroundings. As soon as he tried to move to investigate further he lost his balance and fell over. Soon he realized his problem and a scream of horror sliced through cold the night air. He wasn't positive of why but he knew that he was not a girl before and that something was horribly wrong, but he knew with every fiber of his being that he was supposed to be a man among men. It took awhile for him to settle down but in this place he had all the time in the world. He tried to sort out what had happened to him but he knew nothing. He knew he was called ranma but not sure by whom, knew what was honorable and what was wrong but from where it came he couldn't tell, and the fact he found his body punching and kicking at insubstantial enemies but not being out of his control the moment he thought of trying to relax and clear his head meant something important, but for the life of him he didn't know why.
Not knowing what to do, or even what most of the options were he set of to where he had seen the stars fall hoping to see it again.
-----
Ranma never did see the stars stream down from space again. He had spent years searching and had come across numerous small cities with more of the arches but these with undestroyed bulbs cradled beneath them. Everywhere he went he came across things he didn't know he knew, simply seeing many things would immediately have him knowing what they were a good deal of the time. One thing he had been searching for he had found however. With a simple hot bath he had reclaimed his manhood. However it was lost again in an instant of contact with cold water.
During his years of travel he was amazed to learn that food was totally optional, he would feel hunger when he didn't eat but never real pain from it, of course he hadn't known it was amazing until he found out others needed to eat. On his first trip to find the stars he for some reason he didn't understand he half expected himself to be claimed by death along the way but it never came for him so he just assumed he had been wrong. Sleep too was optional, though he had not tested this for long like he had with food because unlike food his dreams were always available to him. His search was only halted when he found a link to his forgotten past or a tug from his moral code. So far the moral code had caused most of the stops, his only memories as of yet were of objects he had seen and how to speak. Well those memories and he was learning how to fight again, but it was a form of the art he created without instruction and by feeling his movements as he relaxed and preformed katas he did without knowing how.
Fights had slowly been becoming more frequent of occurrences everywhere he had traveled. The first time he had found people everything was quiet while he stayed around but the next colony had seen a fight during his stay. He for some reason was generally the one attacked for some reason he couldn't understand, and when he wasn't his morals always made him get involved. Quickly he had learned by the reactions of his body how to fight, to date he had not been beaten, but despite the young age of the colonies he had found, already guns were becoming popular among the citizens, and ranma was not as good as he had been. A two armed opponents of decent skill he could take or even a single good marksman but even in battles like that he had been forced into he was lucky to come out with only minor injuries.
He had managed to stay in shape due to the regular fights and all of his traveling. The only really noticeable change to him was he had aged during his travels, though that had been early on, he hadn't changed in the last few years other than his hair and nails growing. Currently he was physically somewhere in his early twenties. He had grown around three inches but he couldn't be sure of the real amount because he didn't know how big he was when he first arrived. He also looked somewhat stronger, having lost the look of someone who only ate rice, and only a little of that, for years. His female side had only grown about an inch taller and had lost her baby fat. She had become a beautiful example of womanhood.
Ranma-chan, as he today was because of the lack of access to hot water, just happened to encounter two of he large problems at once at that point in time. Five men all with common six-shooters were bothering a girl who appeared to be scared witless by the confrontation.
Ignoring all sense of self preservation he had picked up in his travels he tiredly listened to a voice from his past telling him to 'protect the weak' and complied. He walked between the two parties and took a stance and put on a mask that promised pain, which was really a futile attempt on the cute face of Ranma-chan. The five men simply looked surprised for a moment and then smiled at this new girl joining them as well, she certainly didn't look like a threat to any of them.
As the leader of the little group was about to step up to "introduce" himself to ranma and consequently be stuck speaking in a soprano voice for a week straight there was a loud crash as a man fell out of am ally way and into a group of garbage-cans. Ranma quickly assessed the tall blond man to be drunk as a skunk. ranma decided to ignore the man and finish with his current problem, if he was lucky he could take the first three down before the other two drew their guns. Just as ranma was about to give the man a kick any children he was lucky enough to have would be bruised from the blond drunk was suddenly hugging the leader of the group. "H...he...*hic*...hey buddy *hic* do yash got enythin ta drink *hic*?" he asked in a slurred voice.
The leader pushed the man off of him and each of the men drew their gun to scare off the drunk who was ruining their fun, meanwhile the blond mans hands moved almost too fast for anyone to see, however ranma caught the motion. Five bullets had been thrown and now were backwards in each of the revolvers chambers for the next bullet up, the way they were placed none of the guns would even let the hammers retract let alone fire; now the five didn't stand a chance. Ranma quickly dispatched the men with a speed that most take a lifetime of training to achieve. The drunk had a look of surprise on his face at that turn of events and the girl ranma had helped seemed shocked right up until she noticed she was standing next to someone who had easily beaten five people who could have killed her stammered a quick thank you and took off down the street like a rocket. Its tough not knowing what other people are talking about, it's unbelievable worse when you don't understand yourself.
"That was very impressive." Said the man who had formerly seemed drunk. "Perhaps you would care to talk about it over a drink?" he asked trying to sound romantic but already knowing she would decline, never hurt to ask though, as they say 'there is always a first time'.
Ranma-chan, having other thoughts on her mind like how the man had moved so fast and how he had even tricked her, totally missed the way he made his offer or he would have been left crying on the ground an octave or two higher than usual, after all if someone treated Ranma-chan like a girl currently he felt there was a certain justice in making them wish they were a girl. After all his moral code had been a bit damaged, and he had been subject to more lecherous acts than he could count. "Huh, yea drink, sure, whatever."
The man looked like he would burst from happiness. Finally a girl had accepted to go out with him, and a cute one at that! If one cared to look you could actually see stars in his eyes at that point. He happily led Ranma-chan to the nearest saloon; almost in too happy to see where he was going.
Soon after sitting at the bar and receiving their beers both were finally ready to talk, Vash had partly come down from his joy induced delusions and ranma had a basic idea of the most important things she should ask. Lately ranma had been much more careful about talking to strangers, especially if she knew they were good fighters or marksmen. "You show amazing skill in the fighting arts Ms. …?"
"Just call me Ranma. And that wasn't hard they were mostly too surprised to even fight back. Besides with the speed you moved at to disable there guns you must know something about fighting hand to hand too." ranma replied trying to gauge the danger of the man before asking anything that might stir up trouble.
"What? You mean you saw that?" the man asked surprised, and reasonable so as most humans shouldn't have been able to follow it. "That is very impressive Ranma; however I tend not to fight people unless violence is completely unavoidable, hurting others is never something I enjoy."
"If that's true you should learn to fight hand to hand. Using fists is much more effective to just knock someone out in a fight than a bullet is. Besides if you can punch as fast as you can throw than you could have taken all five of those thugs out before they unholstered their guns."
She had a point, one he had realized before as well, but all that he had learned so far of hand to hand was from all the fist fights that occurred in bars. As of yet other serious fighters were hard to find, most just favored using guns. "Yes but hand to hand fighting has been left unfavorable compared to shootouts and fighting styles are mainly just brawling. Your style seems advanced compared to most. Did you learn it from a sensei around here that I could find?"
"No, I've just known it since I can remember. I have no idea who my sensei was. Does that mean that you are a gunman?"
"Only when I have to be, perhaps you could teach me a little about how to fight?" he had thought it might be pressing his luck to ask her, but both a way to fight that wont kill as easily and a chance to be around a beautiful girl was too good of a chance to pass up.
Ranma thought about it for a minute. He didn't seem like he would use hand to hand to kill, he had after all tried to protect the weak and even then tried to end it with no bloodshed. Also he had a skill ranma was beginning to think he would need, being armed was necessary for long range combat and was a good deterrent to some thugs. "Sure, but how about a fair trade off. You teach me marksmanship and I'll show you how to fight."
The man got a look in his eyes that made ranma think it might have been a bad idea after all. "Of course, it should most definitely be a fair trade. I would never expect a beautiful lady such as yourself to spend your time teaching me for nothing in return." He was very surprised by the effect the simple statement had made. Ranma was now glowering at him like she was going to seriously injure him and every mussel in her body seemed to be tensed, and he could swear he heard a low growl coming from her.
In a low voice that absolutely dripped with the threat of death ranma responded "Unless you want to be hospitalized I suggest you never, ever call me a beautiful lady again!"
The man was stunned. Not only had she reacted like he was the most lecherous man on the planet but it was simply because he called her beautiful? Even stranger every other girl had simply slapped him when they were angry but she was threatening sever bodily harm. Worst though is he was sure she could hurt him if she tried, then he might have to fight back. Ranma he decided was one girl he would not go after, she seemed like she must have had some issues with men. "Alright ranma I swear I'll never call you beautiful again. Why don't you just pretend that didn't even happen" he said trying to give her a reassuring smile.
Ranma calmed down, he was still pissed but knew he did look like a girl so it was an honest mistake, that's the only reason the blond man was still standing. Unfortunately he couldn't just show people he was really a guy right after meeting his girl side, generally it was to the result of them calling him a monster and trying to kill him, and simply saying he was a guy usually made them think he was crazy. He tried to get his mind off thoughts of violence and back to the subject of their deal. "I'll forget it this time so we can get back to the subject of training each other. Are you staying here in town or passing through?"
"I have been traveling but have no real destination at the moment, so it doesn't matter to me if we stay or travel, or where we go."
"Well I have finished in this town and was going to head to New Chicago. We could train along the way. I was planning on leaving tomorrow is that alright with you?"
"That's fine with me, I don't think I've been to New Chicago anyway, should I meet you here after breakfast so we can leave?"
"That's fine with me. By the way I don't think I ever told you ever told me your name."
"Oh, sorry about that, my name is Vash. I'll see you tomorrow!"
Ranma paid for his drink and left the bar. He found a nearby inn at which he paid for a room for a night with money he had taken from people trying to rob him. Ironically robbers were a good income generator for Ranma; his last few years of travel had been fully funded by thieves.
TO BE CONTINUED…
AN: well I hope ya like it this was my 2nd idea for a fic. Send any C&C to Jester_of_doom@hotmail.com. I hope you all like the idea cuz it took me forever to figure out how I could mix Ranma and Trigun in a divergence. And if anyone wants to complain that the future cant make the past which brought it about in the first place I say there are way too many possibilities of how time flows, one which would explain this is time may loop and everything that is a possibility, even if its utterly improbable, has a chance to exist than who is to say time didn't start its first loop at a point of existence after the change had already come into being, therefore when it reached the overload it changed the past so the next loop was already changed.
Typhoon Trio
Prolog. Time Trippin
By Jester of Doom
Disclaimer: everything belongs to the people who own it. Sadly, for me at least, I don't own Ranma or Trigun. Lawsuits are pointless I have no money and make no money from this.
"Are you prepared Ranma?" Genma Saotome of the Saotome Anything Goes School of martial arts asked his son looking out at the pools that stretched out in front of him, bamboo poles rising from the waters of every pool. This was the last stop on their ten year training journey that had started when he was only six to make the boy a man among men. He looked at his son disgusted at the futility of it all, the boy wouldn't even steal anymore like he had done when he was young. As a child he had shown so much promise. Now all he was good for was an heir to provide him with an early retirement.
"This place ain't so impressive pop." Ranma replied looking over the pools in front of him. Sure it was good training to fight on bamboo poles but he didn't see why he had to be dragged around china just to find this place.
"You very strange one, no, sir? This place very dangerous," said their guide, a short fat man who had trouble speaking Japanese, while indicating the springs. "Nobody use now. Is more than one hundred spring here and everyone have own tragic legend."
"Ranma, follow me" said the fat, bald martial artist to his son jumping onto a pole sticking out of a nearby pool. His son followed him landing on a nearby pole facing his father despite the guide's protests. Not that anyone ever listened to the guide though.
"I wont go easy on you boy!" yelled the father preparing to attack.
"That's how I want it old man!" retorted his son just before they both leapt at each other, still ignoring the guide telling them they were doing something very stupid.
Genma's first attack was a flying kick which ranma easily avoided. Doing a handspring from his father outstretched leg ranma flipped behind the fat man and delivered a hard kick to the back of his head. Genma fell forward into a pool due to the attack and didn't resurface. "Pop what's up? We done already?" then the water exploded up as a white and black form and landed on a nearby pole. A panda? In an Anything Goes stance? And on a bamboo pole no less!
"That is 'spring of drown panda'!" yelled the guide to a very confused ranma "There is a very tragic legend of a panda who drown there two thousand year ago. Now whoever fall in spring take body of panda!"
"Wait a second!" yelled ranma as he jumped from pole to pole to avoid the now attacking panda. "You never said anything about…" ranma started to protest but was cut short as his father turned panda spiked him into a nearby pool.
"Not 'spring of drowned girl'!" yelled the guide. "There is a VERY tragic legend of young girl who drown in spring one thousand five hundred year ago! Now whoever fall in spring take body of young girl!" said the guide to the panda who was looking into the spring for his son.
They waited for a few moments but the bubbles stopped coming to the surface and there was no sign of ranma. The panda thought of diving in to save his drowning son... err, daughter but if the guide was telling the truth he would rather not risk it. To lose ones life was one thing, but to lose ones manhood was something Genma was unwilling to do! Besides if he brought the boy back and he changed into a girl his mother would kill them both. If he came up they would think of a way to get out of seppuku, if he didn't then his problems would end there. Besides a friend like Soun Tendo would let him live in early retirement at his dojo if he had a son to engage to one of Tendo's daughters or not, wouldn't he?
He waited at the pool for hours as the guide brought back a kettle of hot water and explained his curse to him. Then he left knowing that by then his son must have passed on. For a moment it actually looked like he had a tear in his eye, most likely over his loss of a meal ticket. Then he was off to a village the guide had told him about full of warriors, perhaps he could steal something to pay one to take Ranma's place and marry a Tendo. As he walked it started raining.
-----
Time passed, as time often does, undisturbed in its flow. People aged, children were born and then their children were born, repeating hundreds of times. Much of it was uneventful yet much held great importance, such as what had disturbed the past so long ago and would happen only in the far future. A man who would have worked hard on the creation of a device known simple as a plant never came to be. A man who would have been the distant ancestor of people Ranma would have changed the lives of if he had been there. But more importantly a man who would have designed an effective safety system to prevent an overloading plant from manifesting a large number of things normally deemed impossible, such as reaching out for aid from great warriors of the past.
-----
Ranma woke not sure of where he was or why he was there, in truth he knew almost nothing anymore but at the moment it didn't matter. In the sky over the wreckage he was standing in it seemed as though half the stars in the sky had decided to fall as one. Hundreds of fiery comets fell from the sky for the next few minutes completely banishing all thoughts from Ranma's mind. When the hail of stars settled to the ground he still stood in awe for several more minutes.
When he remembered his surprise at being here and was once again aware that he had no idea as to where here was. The ground around him was burnt and strewn with twisted and melted metal. To his right a good distance off was a wall of metal plates and beams covered in scorch marks and containing several holes that looked like they had been caused by a horribly strong fire, many holes were though sections up to three meters thick. The wall curved over him like half of an arch. High up the inner side there was what looked like the remains of a giant light bulb that had burst in its socket. How what looked like glass could have survived better than the metal around it he couldn't fathom but there was a lot about this he didn't understand.
The more distant surroundings didn't help him ether, all he could see was desert. About the only thing that had really helped him was the sky. The five moons seemed wrong, he wasn't sure why but he knew this was not where he should have been.
He hadn't moved much since he had awoken; only rotated on the spot to see his surroundings. As soon as he tried to move to investigate further he lost his balance and fell over. Soon he realized his problem and a scream of horror sliced through cold the night air. He wasn't positive of why but he knew that he was not a girl before and that something was horribly wrong, but he knew with every fiber of his being that he was supposed to be a man among men. It took awhile for him to settle down but in this place he had all the time in the world. He tried to sort out what had happened to him but he knew nothing. He knew he was called ranma but not sure by whom, knew what was honorable and what was wrong but from where it came he couldn't tell, and the fact he found his body punching and kicking at insubstantial enemies but not being out of his control the moment he thought of trying to relax and clear his head meant something important, but for the life of him he didn't know why.
Not knowing what to do, or even what most of the options were he set of to where he had seen the stars fall hoping to see it again.
-----
Ranma never did see the stars stream down from space again. He had spent years searching and had come across numerous small cities with more of the arches but these with undestroyed bulbs cradled beneath them. Everywhere he went he came across things he didn't know he knew, simply seeing many things would immediately have him knowing what they were a good deal of the time. One thing he had been searching for he had found however. With a simple hot bath he had reclaimed his manhood. However it was lost again in an instant of contact with cold water.
During his years of travel he was amazed to learn that food was totally optional, he would feel hunger when he didn't eat but never real pain from it, of course he hadn't known it was amazing until he found out others needed to eat. On his first trip to find the stars he for some reason he didn't understand he half expected himself to be claimed by death along the way but it never came for him so he just assumed he had been wrong. Sleep too was optional, though he had not tested this for long like he had with food because unlike food his dreams were always available to him. His search was only halted when he found a link to his forgotten past or a tug from his moral code. So far the moral code had caused most of the stops, his only memories as of yet were of objects he had seen and how to speak. Well those memories and he was learning how to fight again, but it was a form of the art he created without instruction and by feeling his movements as he relaxed and preformed katas he did without knowing how.
Fights had slowly been becoming more frequent of occurrences everywhere he had traveled. The first time he had found people everything was quiet while he stayed around but the next colony had seen a fight during his stay. He for some reason was generally the one attacked for some reason he couldn't understand, and when he wasn't his morals always made him get involved. Quickly he had learned by the reactions of his body how to fight, to date he had not been beaten, but despite the young age of the colonies he had found, already guns were becoming popular among the citizens, and ranma was not as good as he had been. A two armed opponents of decent skill he could take or even a single good marksman but even in battles like that he had been forced into he was lucky to come out with only minor injuries.
He had managed to stay in shape due to the regular fights and all of his traveling. The only really noticeable change to him was he had aged during his travels, though that had been early on, he hadn't changed in the last few years other than his hair and nails growing. Currently he was physically somewhere in his early twenties. He had grown around three inches but he couldn't be sure of the real amount because he didn't know how big he was when he first arrived. He also looked somewhat stronger, having lost the look of someone who only ate rice, and only a little of that, for years. His female side had only grown about an inch taller and had lost her baby fat. She had become a beautiful example of womanhood.
Ranma-chan, as he today was because of the lack of access to hot water, just happened to encounter two of he large problems at once at that point in time. Five men all with common six-shooters were bothering a girl who appeared to be scared witless by the confrontation.
Ignoring all sense of self preservation he had picked up in his travels he tiredly listened to a voice from his past telling him to 'protect the weak' and complied. He walked between the two parties and took a stance and put on a mask that promised pain, which was really a futile attempt on the cute face of Ranma-chan. The five men simply looked surprised for a moment and then smiled at this new girl joining them as well, she certainly didn't look like a threat to any of them.
As the leader of the little group was about to step up to "introduce" himself to ranma and consequently be stuck speaking in a soprano voice for a week straight there was a loud crash as a man fell out of am ally way and into a group of garbage-cans. Ranma quickly assessed the tall blond man to be drunk as a skunk. ranma decided to ignore the man and finish with his current problem, if he was lucky he could take the first three down before the other two drew their guns. Just as ranma was about to give the man a kick any children he was lucky enough to have would be bruised from the blond drunk was suddenly hugging the leader of the group. "H...he...*hic*...hey buddy *hic* do yash got enythin ta drink *hic*?" he asked in a slurred voice.
The leader pushed the man off of him and each of the men drew their gun to scare off the drunk who was ruining their fun, meanwhile the blond mans hands moved almost too fast for anyone to see, however ranma caught the motion. Five bullets had been thrown and now were backwards in each of the revolvers chambers for the next bullet up, the way they were placed none of the guns would even let the hammers retract let alone fire; now the five didn't stand a chance. Ranma quickly dispatched the men with a speed that most take a lifetime of training to achieve. The drunk had a look of surprise on his face at that turn of events and the girl ranma had helped seemed shocked right up until she noticed she was standing next to someone who had easily beaten five people who could have killed her stammered a quick thank you and took off down the street like a rocket. Its tough not knowing what other people are talking about, it's unbelievable worse when you don't understand yourself.
"That was very impressive." Said the man who had formerly seemed drunk. "Perhaps you would care to talk about it over a drink?" he asked trying to sound romantic but already knowing she would decline, never hurt to ask though, as they say 'there is always a first time'.
Ranma-chan, having other thoughts on her mind like how the man had moved so fast and how he had even tricked her, totally missed the way he made his offer or he would have been left crying on the ground an octave or two higher than usual, after all if someone treated Ranma-chan like a girl currently he felt there was a certain justice in making them wish they were a girl. After all his moral code had been a bit damaged, and he had been subject to more lecherous acts than he could count. "Huh, yea drink, sure, whatever."
The man looked like he would burst from happiness. Finally a girl had accepted to go out with him, and a cute one at that! If one cared to look you could actually see stars in his eyes at that point. He happily led Ranma-chan to the nearest saloon; almost in too happy to see where he was going.
Soon after sitting at the bar and receiving their beers both were finally ready to talk, Vash had partly come down from his joy induced delusions and ranma had a basic idea of the most important things she should ask. Lately ranma had been much more careful about talking to strangers, especially if she knew they were good fighters or marksmen. "You show amazing skill in the fighting arts Ms. …?"
"Just call me Ranma. And that wasn't hard they were mostly too surprised to even fight back. Besides with the speed you moved at to disable there guns you must know something about fighting hand to hand too." ranma replied trying to gauge the danger of the man before asking anything that might stir up trouble.
"What? You mean you saw that?" the man asked surprised, and reasonable so as most humans shouldn't have been able to follow it. "That is very impressive Ranma; however I tend not to fight people unless violence is completely unavoidable, hurting others is never something I enjoy."
"If that's true you should learn to fight hand to hand. Using fists is much more effective to just knock someone out in a fight than a bullet is. Besides if you can punch as fast as you can throw than you could have taken all five of those thugs out before they unholstered their guns."
She had a point, one he had realized before as well, but all that he had learned so far of hand to hand was from all the fist fights that occurred in bars. As of yet other serious fighters were hard to find, most just favored using guns. "Yes but hand to hand fighting has been left unfavorable compared to shootouts and fighting styles are mainly just brawling. Your style seems advanced compared to most. Did you learn it from a sensei around here that I could find?"
"No, I've just known it since I can remember. I have no idea who my sensei was. Does that mean that you are a gunman?"
"Only when I have to be, perhaps you could teach me a little about how to fight?" he had thought it might be pressing his luck to ask her, but both a way to fight that wont kill as easily and a chance to be around a beautiful girl was too good of a chance to pass up.
Ranma thought about it for a minute. He didn't seem like he would use hand to hand to kill, he had after all tried to protect the weak and even then tried to end it with no bloodshed. Also he had a skill ranma was beginning to think he would need, being armed was necessary for long range combat and was a good deterrent to some thugs. "Sure, but how about a fair trade off. You teach me marksmanship and I'll show you how to fight."
The man got a look in his eyes that made ranma think it might have been a bad idea after all. "Of course, it should most definitely be a fair trade. I would never expect a beautiful lady such as yourself to spend your time teaching me for nothing in return." He was very surprised by the effect the simple statement had made. Ranma was now glowering at him like she was going to seriously injure him and every mussel in her body seemed to be tensed, and he could swear he heard a low growl coming from her.
In a low voice that absolutely dripped with the threat of death ranma responded "Unless you want to be hospitalized I suggest you never, ever call me a beautiful lady again!"
The man was stunned. Not only had she reacted like he was the most lecherous man on the planet but it was simply because he called her beautiful? Even stranger every other girl had simply slapped him when they were angry but she was threatening sever bodily harm. Worst though is he was sure she could hurt him if she tried, then he might have to fight back. Ranma he decided was one girl he would not go after, she seemed like she must have had some issues with men. "Alright ranma I swear I'll never call you beautiful again. Why don't you just pretend that didn't even happen" he said trying to give her a reassuring smile.
Ranma calmed down, he was still pissed but knew he did look like a girl so it was an honest mistake, that's the only reason the blond man was still standing. Unfortunately he couldn't just show people he was really a guy right after meeting his girl side, generally it was to the result of them calling him a monster and trying to kill him, and simply saying he was a guy usually made them think he was crazy. He tried to get his mind off thoughts of violence and back to the subject of their deal. "I'll forget it this time so we can get back to the subject of training each other. Are you staying here in town or passing through?"
"I have been traveling but have no real destination at the moment, so it doesn't matter to me if we stay or travel, or where we go."
"Well I have finished in this town and was going to head to New Chicago. We could train along the way. I was planning on leaving tomorrow is that alright with you?"
"That's fine with me, I don't think I've been to New Chicago anyway, should I meet you here after breakfast so we can leave?"
"That's fine with me. By the way I don't think I ever told you ever told me your name."
"Oh, sorry about that, my name is Vash. I'll see you tomorrow!"
Ranma paid for his drink and left the bar. He found a nearby inn at which he paid for a room for a night with money he had taken from people trying to rob him. Ironically robbers were a good income generator for Ranma; his last few years of travel had been fully funded by thieves.
TO BE CONTINUED…
AN: well I hope ya like it this was my 2nd idea for a fic. Send any C&C to Jester_of_doom@hotmail.com. I hope you all like the idea cuz it took me forever to figure out how I could mix Ranma and Trigun in a divergence. And if anyone wants to complain that the future cant make the past which brought it about in the first place I say there are way too many possibilities of how time flows, one which would explain this is time may loop and everything that is a possibility, even if its utterly improbable, has a chance to exist than who is to say time didn't start its first loop at a point of existence after the change had already come into being, therefore when it reached the overload it changed the past so the next loop was already changed.
