Released with Chapter One of Ranma Beats ½, Volume Two
DAY ONE
It was obvious to those who had the eyes for such things that the girl was a fighter. Her muscles – developed to allow strength, but not overdeveloped to restrict speed. The loose clothes – protecting her modesty, but not restricting her movement. The lightweight slippers that protected the feet, but wouldn't slow a kick. The only thing missing was the girl didn't carry herself like one would expect a warrior to. The training that would result in the girl's physique should have left the girl aware of her surroundings – aware of any of the hypothetical observers, and in a stance capable of responding instantly to any attacks.
Instead, the girl was hunched over staring mindlessly at her reflection, heedless of any danger and heedless of who might be watching. The girl muttered to herself under her breath, and her entire figure radiated despair. Despite the girl's obvious training, no observer would take her to be any kind of threat.
The girl had been staring into the river now for hours as the memories came back to her. Memories of a life of hard training, of being the best in her field. Of success, following success, following success. Of the arrogant belief in her own superiority. Of an inability to admit, or even perceive the possibility of defeat. Of her mistakes. Misunderstandings. Her colossal, gargantuan failure. And, because of it, of Death.
Her own.
Her friends.
And her… girlfriend's.
She stared, unseeing, into the water.
Her reflection stared back at her, distorted by the constantly moving water. Her face constantly shifting and warping away from what she knew it to be. She had been wrong about everything. Wrong about herself, wrong about the world… Naive. So incredibly naive. And so, the people around her had died.
All that blood. On her hands.
For hours the girl sat, staring at her reflected image as it warped and changed in front of her. Thoughts of guilt swirled through her, as she stared unseeingly at her reflection, unto evening turned into night. No longer able to see her reflection at all, the girl continued to stare at the inky blackness that swirled below her.
Eventually, exhaustion took her and she lay down, heedless of the dirt and grass that stained her already filthy garments, and fell into an exhausted sleep.
