Chapter 1: Ranma the exorcist
I don't own Ranma one half or D Gray man.
Thunder struck as two shaded characters walked up a narrow street, opposite to the flow of most of the crowd. Lightning flashed again, illuminating their faces to reveal the smaller one to be a young girl of about fifteen, with silver wrist length gloves wrapping her delicate looking hands. In the middle of each gloves palm was a glowing cross made of four diamond shaped lines and around the wrists were lines of spikes the ended in visibly barbed needle points. The larger figure was a man of much girth, clothed in robes that swayed about his feet. Both of these people were wearing dark blue jackets with silver sigils over their left breasts. They then crossed onto a street with more light and the girl started up their previous conversation in earnest.
"Why did we have to come to the stupid Tendo's anyway old man? We could have been halfway to the order by now." She grumbled loud enough for the others on the street to take notice.
"Tendo is an old friend of mine my child, and we had an agreement from since before you were born, I'm going to try to fulfill that agreement." the apparent monk didn't even open his eyes when he spoke to her, somehow knowing where he was going through the closed lids.
"Oh no... Pops it better not be what I think it is. I don't care how honorable you've become, if I found out this is another of your arranged marriages I'm going to kick your ass!" an amber aura enveloped the girl as she started to crack her knuckles through her gloves.
"It is." the other said simply, and leapt back as the girl landed an axe kick where he was standing, splintering the ground and sending shrapnel everywhere. Suddenly her hands started glowing and darted out in a flurry of motion, looking like there were several hands coming out of each arm. Each palm strike she made deflected a different piece of shrapnel from a bystander towards her rapidly dodging father. When pieces of his robes started flying to reveal torn skin beneath he decided to switch tactics. He threw up his arms and behind the girl a ghostly shape rose up and solidified into the form of a panda. The animal tore a signpost from the ground and swung it to bash the girl over the head. A glow erupted from the girls back, forming into two arms that stopped the sign in mid-swing and threw it, and the animal, into the older man. The arms retracted back into her and she 'Harrumphed' and started back along the road they were walking, picking up her discarded jacket along the way. The man scrambled to get up, the animal on top of him simply fading into his body.
"I hope they'll have plenty of food there, I'm gonna be starving once I get some hot water. And you're so paying for this." She added, indicating the hole in the back of her shirt that had resulted from the fight.
"Very well, if you cannot fulfill the agreement with one of the Tendo girls I'll have to put it off until the next generation. But let us stay here awhile, we've been traveling hard and Soun's hospitality knows no limits."
(If a goose can fly east will it reach the next scene in time for it to change?)
Soun panted as he looked for an escape from his daughters combined rage. Akane had picked up the table and was swinging it about wildly, Kasumi was armed only with an eye twitch and a frozen lump of Akane's first cooking attempt, and Nabiki was adding all the damage Akane was doing right to her father's tab. 'Where is Saotome? His card said he would be here by now.'
Just as the thought was completed the doorbell rang and he gave a small thanks to the gods for saving him. He rushed to the door before his daughters could stop him. When he arrived he threw it open and leapt to hug the person on the other side. He landed on a young person just as his daughters caught up to him. "You must be Ranma! We've been waiting for you! Save me from them!" he said this all very quickly and then let go of 'Ranma' in favor of hiding behind him.
Nabiki came to a screeching halt, holding out her arms to keep her sisters from crashing into her guests. She gave the teen in front of her a once over and came to a startling realization, "Daddy, hate to break it to you, but our fiancés a girl." She said, pointing at the girl's breasts and accidentally poking one because of their proximity. Soun took a look over her shoulder and promptly fainted. The unidentified man standing in the background caught him and helped Kasumi carry him inside.
Akane grabbed Ranma's hand and led her to the dojo before Nabiki could continue groping her. When they got there she finally let go and turned to face her in a fighting stance, "You do martial arts right?" she asked with mock curiosity.
"Well not for awhile now, my father and I started doing something new awhile ago, but I'm up for a spar if that's what you want." Ranma started cracking her knuckles and then settling into a loose kempo stance.
Akane smirked and leapt at her opponent, willing to show her who's the better fighter, and almost fell on her face as the other girl dodged rapidly to the right. She quickly recovered to thrust out one of her legs in a low sweep, trying to trip her opponent before she could jump out of the way, only to fall over in shock as her leg passed right through her. She lay there looking at the ceiling, only to find the real Ranma splayed out between two support beams. She saw what was coming next, but even then was a second too late as Ranma dropped down; a fist cocked to deliver the final blow… and poked her in the forehead.
Akane looked up to where Ranma's finger was resting, and stifled, then snickered, then finally burst out laughing as Ranma hop off of her and joined in, both of them lying breathless until Kasumi came in and helped them both up. She let the compose themselves and began to speak.
"Ranma, you may use our furo if you want to get cleaned off." She saw Ranma was about to decline and raised a hand for silence, "I'll hear nothing of it, you must be filthy after all that exercise." When she gave up and left the room Kasumi turned to her younger sister, "Let's go Akane, Ranma's father has something to tell us all."
(This scene is sponsored by the letter Z; bow down to its mighty uselessness!)
Ranma stripped quickly and after an ice-cold bucket of water to rinse, dipped into the near boiling furo, shuddering as the always-painful change took place. His whole body throbbed with pain as his gloves shredded and sank into his palms, activating the rest of the innocence in his body. His whole body up to his neck looked as if he had been flayed of skin, with only his face being unscathed. Muscles were bared and his veins pulsed blue throughout. He removed himself from the furo to complete the transformation; any water trapped under his skin could be a liability when he was fighting them. He dried off and then his face slipped into a mask of intense concentration. From his feet upwards skin seemed to flow over the exposed muscle, until he looked normal again. He opened the door to reach his pack on the other side only to freeze as the bathroom door slammed open.
(A bit of explanation may be in order here. Z!)
As Akane and Kasumi sat down with the others around the recently replaced table the man began his story, "My name is Genma Saotome. My son and I have been traveling all over the earth to perfect our art, and our most recent stop was the valley of the cursed springs of jyusenkyo. These springs are home to a number of tragic tales, each of which lead to something drowning in the pools. Now whoever falls into those pools is cursed to transform into whatever drowned in it last. I fell into the spring of drowned virtuous man, and used an artifact to seal myself this way to atone for my previous sins. Ranma fell into the spring of drowned young girl, and changes into what he would be if he was born female when splashed with cold water, but changes back when hit with warm.
Everyone stood in shock of the man's obvious lie, Akane stood slowly, shaking with rage that someone was so ashamed of their own daughter that they would make up such a fabrication. She lashed out with a violent slap that rocked the air as it hit, and ran up the stairs, yelling back as she went, "Liar! Wait until Ranma finds out what you've been saying about her!" She reached the bathroom door just before the rest of her family could stop her and, after struggling with the latch for a moment, flung the door wide.
(We now return to your regularly scheduled mishap, fellow Z worshippers.)
Ranma stood in shock as Akane threw open the door, took two steps in and froze as she registered him standing there. She slowly backed out of the room and closed the door, replacing the fallen 'occupied' sign as she went. Ranma let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding and started getting dressed.
"Well that could've been worse." Ranma muttered, and the winced as a piercing scream resounded from the other side of the door, followed by a thump as Akane hit the floor. "But not by much." He sighed again and resumed getting dressed, then opened the door to be confronted by the girl's whole family standing over her prone form. They all looked up in unison and keeled over one by one, starting with Soun and finishing off with Kasumi as she uttered an "Oh my!" Ranma blurred and kept each of them from hitting the floor, then lifted Kasumi and Akane over his shoulders and walked them down the stairs, he was about to go back up when Genma's innocence lumbered downstairs with the other two. They placed them all on the couch and chairs and Genma whipped out a stick of incense and lit it, passing it under each of their noses and stifling the smoldering coal to prevent wasting the powerful herbs. For a few minutes nothing happened, but the whole family coughed and sat upright as one, looking about to get their bearings. Again they moved as one, jumping in their seats, when they saw the young man from before as well as a mostly transparent panda walk in from the kitchen with some tea.
Forgive my fathers incomplete explanation." Ranma ignored Genma's less than humble mutters about how it wasn't his fault that they didn't let him finish, "I am Ranma Saotome, traveling exorcist and recently cursed jyusenkyo victim. This is my father." Genma took over the introduction from here.
"I am Genma Saotome, jyusenkyo blessed, as I have fallen into a spring that has helped me atone for my previous deeds, and a traveling exorcist." Genma took a low bow, almost equivalent to a bow a servant would give his master.
"Puh-lease! You expect us to buy into that exorcist nonsense do you?" this was Akane, still a bit miffed that she didn't know what was going on, "You go around spouting some mumbo jumbo and then take people's hard earned money for nothing. You people make me sick."
Ranma was livid, "Oh yeah? What would a thick thighed rampaging she-devil like you know about anyway? This whole trip was a joke old man, I'm goin' back to the order and that's that." Ranma set down the tea tray and turned to head towards the door, but before he could take a step Akane hefted the table she had been wielding earlier and sent it crashing down upon his head, sending him into unconsciousness.
"He had that coming." Genma deadpanned. The others could only nod in agreement as Akane glared at the fallen man, "Come Tendo, let us talk of my travels over tea, maybe then you will understand the task that is set before us."
(No more silliness I swear, at least not for another chapter)
Well in my folly I have given you another fanfic. The first of its kind to my extensive knowledge. To make these anime sync up I'm going to put Ranma's timeline back to run with Allen's, which is in the late nineteenth century. This means that some people have electric lights, and the train is the main mode of transport. Like all of my fics I have no idea where this is going but it should be fun so let's see where it goes. Starting from now I'm conducting my usual poll to see who Ranma ends up with in a relationship, and I promise to write at least that far so as not to disappoint the reviewers.
Revision: at a reviewers request I made Akane out to be less of a hot head (if only by a bit) and I'll bump up the explanation as to why she hates exorcists to the next chapter.
Now, for some back story:
For those of you who don't know, D Gray Man is an anime about Allen Walker, a young exorcist who fights with other exorcists against Akuma, creations of the millenium earl. An Akuma starts of as a simple metal skeleton, which the millenium earl gets someone to put a soul into the Akuma (usually the soul of a lost loved one) and turns them into raging death machines. This machine then kills the loved one and uses his/her body as a skin to hide in until it can strike down a human.
Exorcists are people who use innocence, a substance that can purge out the souls of the damned Akuma and send them to eternal rest. To use a piece of innocence you have to be compatible with it, and therefore chosen to be an exorcist by it. Most innocence takes the form of a weapon when activated, but there are some specialized types.
1. parisitic type innocence: In the rare case someone is born with innocence in their body it will manifest by deforming one of their body parts and, when activated, change that part into a monstrous living weapon.
2. clothing type innocence: These are articles of clothing that have innocence in them. Usually hitting an Akuma with the artical of clothing is the basic attack with this type.
3. support type innocence: This type ranges from anything to everything, a noted example is a grandfather clock that turns back time around it. Unusually cumbersome for an anti Akuma weapon, these are often born of the wielders need to help their comrades.