NPC ID Designate: Ranma

by Turbanator

Ranma .hackG.U. Ranma is introduced to the game by his friends, and promptly wins a custom character! This attracts the attention of all PKers in The World, including that of TriEdge...

NPC ID Designate: Ran-ma

Chapter 1

Another victim was sent into a coma, the legendary Player Killer had struck again. Tri-Edge has consumed one more person to add to the growing list of Unreturners.

The World decided that this was enough.

Nerima
Present Day

Ranma and Akane were running towards Furinkan High, happy in the thought of the postponed wedding. Not even the dousing of the martial artist could dampen their moods.

"So Akane, what're you gonna do for lunch?" Ranma asked idly as she wrung out some excess water from her top.

"Not much..." She frowned. "I just remembered that I forgot my bento... We left too quickly today..."

Ranma smiled. "Well, we were tired after all that mess in the dojo..." He grinned and held out his own packed food that Kasumi packed. "Would you like to share it with me?"

Akane nodded warmly, her expression growing kinder. "Thanks, I'd love that..."

"'kay then, We'll meet on the roof, I don't want to see Kuno and Ukyo just yet. I'll ask Nabiki to do something to distract them." She mumbled something under her breath about new lingerie photos.

Akane giggled as they approach the entrance.

"Ah, my two angels have come for me!" Kuno declared, his bokken tucked into the sash around his waist, and he opened his arms wide to accept them.

Said angels didn't look particularly happy, even as they ran at full speed. Ranma cut back with a quick retort. "Since we're your angels, here's your ticket to the heavens!"

Both of them uppercutted the deluded samurai into the sky, his hands forming warding gestures. Dusting their fists off, they both strolled casually into the school.

During first break

"Hey Ranma..." His two part time friends, part time perverts sat down on some nearby chairs. "How're things going between you and Akane?"

Ranma was still in female form, and folded her arms beneath her breasts. "None of your business..."

Daisuke pulled back slightly, arms up. "Woah, I'm not prying mate, relax..."

Ranma let out a sigh, and leaned forwards, resting her head on her palms. "Sorry guys, I'm just tired... We had to clean up the dojo afterwards..."

Hiroshi nodded. "Yeah, I can imagine... Sorry things didn't work out..."

Ranma gave a grateful smile to the both of them. "Thanks..." She looked around to make sure that no one was listening in too closely. "Can you two keep a secret?"

The glanced at each other briefly and nodded in unison.

Ranma stared levelled at both of them. "Don't share this with anyone; otherwise I will make you pay..." The cold look gave them the chills, and any tiny voice of rebellion instantly died away within them. Moving in close, Ranma whispered to both of them, and their eyes widened.

"Are you serious?!" Hiroshi gasped, a little too loudly.

"Shhh!" Ranma put a finger to her lips, then nodded lightly. "Yeah, I've thought about it for a while now..."

Daisuke scratched his chin. "Sounds like a good plan..." He leaned back into the chair. "Anyway, we won't get in your way, you deserve it at least."

Ranma blew a puff upwards, flicking her red hair away. "Yeah, I'm madly stressed though... Dunno how to relax and get these things done..."

"Relax huh...?" Hiroshi mused. "Well, now that you say that... What do you know about video games Ranma?"

"Not much... Those're the things that people play in the arcade, yeah?"

"That's right... And they can help you relax..."

Ranma waved him off. "Sounds great, but I ain't got money for that kinda thing."

Daisuke jumped in. "Well, you can also get a console and play games at home..."

The redhead gave him a withering stare. "And how much do they cost? I told you I have no money to spend..."

"How about this then?" Hiroshi grinned. "Daisuke and I play in this game together, it's like a world where we can meet up and kill monsters. You get cool weapons too!"

Ranma scoffed. "Yeah, who do you think you're talking to? I do that nearly every week!"

They both sweatdropped. "I guess you're right... But the thing is there's a competition running this week, to allow new people to receive some new powers, a new class entirely! It ends today also."

"Powers, classes?" Ranma was confused, and Daisuke chose to explain.

"There are several types of people who you can play, warriors, mages, healers, that kind of thing. Powers are the things that come with each one. Warriors get more power when they're angry, mages can make fireballs and ice spears, and healers can resurrect people."

"Yeah, so?" Ranma shrugged and went back to staring out of the window.

"Well, no one knows what this new class will be; almost all of them have been created, so everyone wants to be the one to get it."

Ranma scratched his head. "I don't see the reason, but it's like a trophy right? To say that you're good enough to get it?"

Hiroshi shook his head. "Not just good enough, the best." He bore his eyes into the girl's pair. "Don't you want to be the best?"

Ranma smirked. "I'm already there, sorry to disappoint."

Daisuke was desperate grabbed her arm. "Please! You're the only person we can think of who'd be interested in this!"

Ranma elbowed him lightly, as his hands accidentally brushed her breast. "Gees, don't be such a whiner. I'll do it..." She looked at both of them. "I don't get it, what do you both get out of this?"

They grinned. "We get limited edition weapons and armour, if we recommend a friend to the game..."

"So... I just go to your house and play it there, right?"

"Yeah, Daisuke can't join you, as it's only an area for new people at Level One. We can watch how you play though… There are some easy monsters there, so no one is sure what you have to do."

Ranma cracked her knuckles. "Guess killing all those monsters is the only way out, huh?" She grinned. "What's the game called?"

Hiroshi and Daisuke smiled proudly.

"The World."

Lunchtime
Furinkan Rooftop

Akane licked her lips. "Thanks for the food Ranma; I don't think I could've gone any more without eating something."

Ranma smiled, and forced his protesting stomach to quiet down. He could easily get more food elsewhere. He stood up and dusted the loose crumbs off his top. Holding a hand down to Akane he helped her up.

"Well, I couldn't have my uncute fiancée get hungry just 'cause I wanted to leave early, could I?"

She frowned a little, then brightened, laughing slightly. "I guess not." She tapped him lightly on the forehead with the back of her fist. "But don't keep calling me uncute..."

She looked away, and moved to the railings of the school. The wind was stronger here, and picked up, making her long skirt flutter upwards. She looked over the vista of Nerima, and winced as the wind pushed something into her eye. Rubbing her eyes tenderly, tear globules grew at the edges of her eyelids as the irritation grew.

Someone warm came up behind her and turned her to face him. "Here, let me look..."

Her left eye was clenched tightly, but Ranma managed to coax it open. Blinking constantly, Ranma saw what was causing the problem and blew hard, and plucked the offending object in midair.

"There, you got some eyelash in there..." He was still holding her up with his right hand, heating up her cold face. The both reddened and turned away from each other.

"We... We should go inside..." Akane ventured.

"Yeah, I guess you're right..." He looked over his shoulder and saw Akane walk slowly up to him. At that moment, he knew what was right in his heart.

As she just passed in front of him, Ranma reached out and caught her left hand. Curious, she looked back to see him looking at her, a way that she saw so rarely in the time they were together.

"Akane... I... I just want you to know..." He became lost for words, as she blushed again.

"R-Ranma..."

Clenching his eyelids, his resolve from earlier evaporating, he pulled her in and gave her a close hug, enveloping her with his strong arms. Akane, too stunned to move, was unable to respond immediately. Conflicting emotions inside her threatened to ruin the moment, smashing him into the ground for being a pervert, too forward, for embarrassing her, and the other half of her wanted to return the hug.

Closing her eyes, allowing his body heat to mingle with hers, she drew her arms up and around the back of his neck, and squeezed.

"Sorry Akane... I'm not too good with words..." He whispered huskily into her ear.

Akane nodded. "I'm not much better... My actions are worse!" Tears began to build up again.

"I almost lost you..." He held her closer. "I'll never let anyone hurt you again..."

She pulled back her head, her eyes glistening. "The same goes for me too, you know... Where would I be without my saviour?" She rested her head against his chest and stayed there.

A few minutes later the sounds of children going back into the school echoed up to the roof. "I think we should get back to our lesson..." Akane began.

"Y-Yeah..." Ranma didn't particularly want to go. Releasing her he held her hand and walked her to the door, letting go once they were inside.

As Akane waved goodbye to rejoin her friends, he looked back outside, his face determined. "Soon... I can say it..."

4pm
Furinkan High

Akane was putting away her shoes as Ranma jogged out, pausing at the locker room. "Sorry Akane, I'm going off to Hiroshi's place to play some game of his... Could you tell Kasumi to leave my food for later, I don't know how long I'll be..."

She saw Ukyo stroll out, not having noticed the two of them. Arching an eyebrow, but choosing to believe him, she nodded. "I'll tell her, don't be home too late!"

Ranma brightened and smiled, waving. "Thanks, see you later!"

She watched him run straight by Ukyo, who only just saw him and began to strike up a conversation. He ignored her and met up with Hiroshi and Daisuke at the entrance gate. Akane smiled and held her hands over her heart.

With a spring in her step, she left the school in high spirits.

35 minutes later
Hiroshi's House

"I told you, there isn't a class like that!" Hiroshi massaged his temples to suppress the growing headache.

"But what's the point in a game that doesn't use martial arts?!" Ranma was getting infuriated. She was still mad at Daisuke for 'accidentally' spilling their water on him.

"The classes are just like this, you can't make your own one... The closest you want is the Tribal Grappler."

Ranma frowned. "Well... It's not the same, but I guess I can go for it..." She put the headset on and picked up the awkward controllers. "Okay... I got the class, now what?"

Daisuke sighed. "Pick your body type and race..."

The watched Ranma click the button one after another, and saw her shudder. "C-c-c-cats?!"

"Actually, they're from Lei Tribe, just pick another one." Hiroshi calmly spoke.

"What the hell is with this? I'll just pick a human boy..." Selecting that option, Ranma grit her teeth. "Right, now it's asking me to change some stuff..."

"You can customise your character, hairstyle, clothes -"

"I don't care!" Picking 'Okay', Ranma moved onto the next window. "Good, now I need a name."

"If you want you can do some research and pick some mythological one..." Hiroshi paused at hearing the noise of a successful character creation. "What did you type?"

"Well, Ranma of course..." She angled her head at them, even though she couldn't see through the headset.

They both groaned loudly. "Never mind... Let's watch how you do..." They plugged in their own headsets into the console and watched the game through Ranma's eyes.

"Okay... It says that I need to pick someone who nominated me... I'll put your names in..." Ranma smiled. "Finally, I'm in!"

The World
Special Competition Stage

They watched as Ranma appeared in several concentric circles, before they vanished, leaving him in an arctic area. Ranma looked like an average boy, no older than fifteen, with plain looking clothes, a brown pair of trousers and a beige sleeveless top. The character looked around the region.

"Wow... This looks real good... It's like I'm really here..." Ranma walked forwards. "Not bad, so where do I go from here?"

Daisuke's voice came through in her headset. "Just try walking about, some monsters should appear."

"Will I meet anyone else around here?"

"Nah…" Hiroshi answered. "You're in an 'instance', so you are the only player in this level. The others are the same, playing alone. That mountain looks impressive. Try to get there."

Ranma shrugged in-game and saw through the bright sun that a gleaming white mountain stood ahead of them.

"'kay then..." Not even three steps had been taken before two monsters spawned up, the definition of 'grunt' obvious by their pig-like image. Hiroshi could be heard snorting.

"Those are the basic level monsters, just hit them a few times and they'll die..."

Raising her eyebrow, Ranma ran forward and pounding the right hand monster several times, and smirked when it exploded into many blocky pixels. She made short work of the next one.

Sighing with disappointment, she walked on. "That was too easy... And boring, they don't even try to taunt you or anything. Not like P-chan at all…"

Daisuke agreed slightly. "Yeah, but it gets more interesting at the higher levels."

The next few battles went the same way, Ranma beating them all within a few attacks. They were halfway to the mountain. She was getting frustrated. "Argh! I can't do any of my moves! This is getting on my nerves! Punch, kick, jump, this is too easy!"

Hiroshi and Daisuke were quiet as the wind picked up, the blizzard knocking some hit points off Ranma. "Hey! What can I do about this?!"

"I... I don't know..." Their experience with weather was quite small, they only knew that falling from high heights and lava were deadly. But snow?

"Dammit..."

Outside the game, Ranma was leaking out her ki unconsciously to keep her warm, though her physical body wasn't going through the same thing. Somehow, this response affected the game character, the body glowing slightly blue, and the hit points stopped decreasing.

"Wow! What did you do?!" Hiroshi was fascinated. "I've never seen anything like that!"

"I dunno..." Ranma walked on and faced a single monster. "Hmm, this is a new one..."

Daisuke didn't sound happy. "This one has a hard shell... Your physical attacks won't hurt it, only an elemental power will be effective against it."

"You mean stuff like fire and ice, huh?"

"Yeah... Fire looks to be the best because of the environment... Do you have anything in your inventory or spells?"

Ranma brought it up thanks to her earlier tuition. "Nah, just a potion..."

"I doubt you can beat this one then..."

"Hell no!" Ranma got into a stance. "I'm not leaving after having got this far!"

Sure enough, he began to slice, punch and kick away at the monster, however the hit points weren't affected at all. After a specific time, the monster roared and piled into Ranma with a haymaker.

"Ouch..." Ranma frowned at seeing her HP points go down by a quarter. "I can't take many more of those hits."

"Use the potion Ranma!"

"Yeah, yeah..." The blue circular light ascended around him, and his strength was restored. "Fine, I'm not strong enough, but I have speed."

Running around the turtle like creature, he furrowed his brow. "I'm not fast enough, this game is too slow..." Reaching the back portion, Ranma struck again, but only managed to damage it a tiny bit. "Grr..."

Again in real life, the battle ki leaked out.

Ranma's fists began glowing. "Take this you crusty ghoul..."

Plunging his fist into the shell, the HP lowered by a third, and the thing screeched in pain, and swiped at him, knocking Ranma back.

"Guess that hurt him!" Ranma was flashing red. "Though I'm just alive..."

Staring down the turtle, he ran in, and uppercutted beneath the chin. It flew in the air momentarily and landed on its back, flailing uselessly, unable to right itself.

"Ranma!" Hiroshi shouted. "Attack its weak point for massive damage!"

"You didn't have to tell me that." Smirking, Ranma jumped and, with both fists glowing red from energy, struck deep and hard in the centre of the stomach.

Growling its last, the monster faded away, leaving behind a potion to regenerate health. "Good, I need that..." Ranma used it immediately. "Right, let's try running..."

45 minutes later

The mouth of the cave beckoned, and Hiroshi and Daisuke pulled off their headsets for a moment and slapped Ranma on the back. "Well done mate... I've never seen anyone do what you do... Not even Haseo."

"Haseo?" Ranma was still engrossed in the game. "Who's he?"

They put their headsets back on. "Nothing you have to worry about here."

Daisuke voiced up briefly. "But what about that… other guy?"

"Nah... We're just at this level, it's not important enough..."

"Guys, I'm going into the cave okay?"

"Alright... We're watching..."

Ranma strolled in and looked at two staircases, one going up, the other down. "Hmm... Well, going down means that anything could be down there... But If I go up, I know that there's not much land out there..." Ranma went left and started upstairs.

The darkened passage lit up flaming torches as Ranma walked by, and he went on until he reached a large chamber, with a sole pillar of light, from the very top of the mountain, beaming down onto an altar, where a glowing statue stood, but otherwise chained down.

"Wow... This looks creepy..." Ranma commented, and his voice echoed in the room. "What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know..." Daisuke said. "Walk around for a bit, see if there's anything near the walls..."

However, after fruitless searching they returned to their starting position and stared at the altar. "Well, I guess it's time to look at her then..."

"Her?" Hiroshi asked.

"Yeah, the statue..." Ranma had stopped in front and peered curiously, seeing some words written on the altar. "Let's see..."

Winter came at last

And Her will remade The World –

Yet, She remains lost

Daisuke's voice piped in. "What does that mean?"

Ranma looked over the statue again; peering at the young girl's sleeping face. "It's a haiku... And I think it's talking about her..." Ranma pointed at the figure. "You ever remember reading about her in the manual or something?"

"Not really..." Hiroshi replied. "But there were rumours of someone who lived inside The World... But that was long ago..."

Ranma peered closely. "Any ideas on what I'm supposed to do?"

"Nope, never seen anything like this before... Read the haiku again..." Hiroshi asked.

Doing so, Ranma stood there, tapping his chin. "Hmm... Well, if it's talking about her, then she destroyed The World, and rebuilt it..." He stared up at her face. "Well, I guess the last line is the key."

"What do you mean?" Daisuke queried.

"It sounded sad... Like she didn't want to be here." He glanced at the numerous chains. "I'll release her..."

He grabbed one chain and tugged, but found it unmoving and steadfast. "I see... Full strength then." Making his fist glow red, he punched the chain several times and the links began to weaken. Gritting his teeth, he started pulling them apart with his bare fingers, and broke the first one. "Great, one done."

Moving on to the subsequent one, he found it harder to move, as if the strength compensated accordingly. After half an hour he was on the final chain, and no matter what, he couldn't crack it.

"Damn, why won't this one budge?!" Irritated beyond belief, Ranma starting smashing his fists and feet on the marble flooring where the chains were buried, but only succeeded in making a few cracks appear.

Meanwhile, in real life, Ranma's ki had grown to full battle readiness, to the same levels as when he fought his toughest opponents.

His character now had a flaming aura around himself, and after gripping the chain tightly, he held one hand against it, palm facing forwards. "Take this! Moko Takabisha!"

While not as impressive as the real life version, and small but condensed ball of energy had collected there, and started burning away at the metal. Soon it grew red and began to steam.

"Now!"

The energy had grown huge, and the chains flew away, the links severed forever.

Lowering his arms Ranma watched as the last chain fell to the ground. Soon, a series of explosions began to reverberate around the arena as the individual links burst. Jumping back to the statue, Ranma faced the entrance, having heard a repetitive pattern of footsteps.

However, from behind him a bright white light filled the room. Turning back sharply, Ranma no longer saw the statue, only a formless white mass, two ghostly arms cupped his cheeks, and two glowing green eyes stared into his own. In real life, Ranma could've sworn that he felt that same touch on her skin.

"Thank you..." She whispered, and promptly let him go floating up further, until she sped out through the hole in the ceiling.

"Good job Ranma, you saved the girl again..." Daisuke commented wryly.

"Yeah..." Ranma cracked his neck. "But something's not happy about that..."

The rumbling increased, and the land began to flicker. A large hand appeared around the edge of the doorway.

Then The World changed.

Meanwhile
Real World

Hiroshi and Daisuke threw off their headsets, the sudden rush of sound and light giving them headaches.

"Yo Ranma! What the hell happened?!"

They grabbed her shoulder, but Ranma wasn't moving. Instead she had sweat beading beneath the headset, and gritting her teeth tightly.

"Hey Ranma, snap out of it!"

"No!"

Her hands were furiously working around the controls, tapping away many buttons and combinations. Hiroshi tried once more to release Ranma from the game, but he was rudely elbowed away, and they chose not to try again.

Ten minutes later, Ranma slumped her head, dejected. The twosome tentatively put on their headsets.

The World

They saw the grey body of Ranma lying on the ground of the chamber. The monster was nowhere to be seen. Hiroshi probed tentatively with his hand and tapped her consolingly on the shoulder.

"Hey Ranma, sorry about that, but it does happen... What did you fight anyway?"

Ranma spoke, but the body didn't move. "I... I don't know, we started fighting; my punches weren't doing much damage, not even those powerful ones... Then the World changed... Some weird green grid... and then I was somewhere else. I couldn't do anything and he beat me badly..."

The game began to speak.

"Warning! This Area is scheduled for deletion, please find your nearest Chaos Gate and leave to a Town. Remaining in this Area might affect your character. Warning! This Area is -"

"Ranma, you need to revive yourself and get out of there!" The new body resurrected and Ranma started running.

"Man, do I have to go back to the same place?!"

He reached the outside and ploughed through the blizzard. No monsters spawned leaving him clear. The sky started to crack, portions showing the building blocks of the red and black grid. Parts of the snow and ground began to sparkle and vanish in midair. Ranma had to jump over a bit of dead space just to get away from the deletion.

"Gees, they really want to get rid of this bit fast..." He muttered.

"There! Up ahead!" Daisuke shouted, the spiralling Gate glowing ahead. "Transport yourself to a Town quick!"

Ten seconds later, Ranma reached the stage and turned back briefly, looking at the disappearing world. Smiling briefly, he pressed a button and vanished between several blue and gold rings.

Real World

Ranma sighed and pulled off the headset, staring at the dual screens.

"What's wrong?" Hiroshi asked. "You made it out..."

"Yeah... That's not it though..." She looked up at Daisuke, as he just came in with a warm jug of water. "Thanks..." Ranma poured it over herself, once the electrical goods were away, and the heat promptly turned her back into a male. "It was just... I lost to that thing..." He clenched his fist. "I hate losing... I don't even know if I'll get another try at him again..."

Hiroshi and Daisuke were quiet. "Well... I guess I can see where you were coming from..." Daisuke muttered. "But we never saw the monster; we don't even know what kind of abilities it had..." He looked confidently at Ranma. "I'm sure you would be able to beat him if you saw it again."

Ranma grinned. "Yeah, that'd be good." He looked innocently at the two. "So, how did I do? I never played games before, was it okay for a first timer?"

For the next few minutes, Ranma received many compliments and accolades over his unique style of playing, and how the character received special powerups that few people had.

"W-Wow... I really did all that?"

"Yeah!" Hiroshi exclaimed. "When you were fighting that last one, we saw you glowing like you were fighting for real! It was amazing."

"We'll just have to wait until the competition winner is announced." Daisuke noted. "It'll be posted on the BBS tomorrow."

Ranma stood up and thanked them both for a fun time and left the home trotting away at a reasonable pace, still mulling over that boss.

"Man... It was kinda hard, and I swear that he did things that weren't normal..." He laughed them off. "Well, it doesn't matter now. I wonder what Kasumi has made for dinner?"

Ranma sped up as he begun roof hopping.

Meanwhile
CC Corp

A strange power surge was generated as the competition ended, scrambling a few records and altering data, following the influx of information from one person. The new identity was created and formed, the winning prize ready to be delivered.

The winner had been decided.

---
Author's Notes

Well, one of my numerous ideas has come to life, a Ranma, .hack//G.U. crossover. This will involve the main characters from both series, so try to get acquainted with G.U. or Roots. I have no idea how long this one will go on for, but it will get going in the next chapter.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed it.

- J