Chapter 01: The Ronin and the Thieves

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Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or Yu Yu Hakusho.

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A lone red haired girl trudged through the streets as she searched for a meal. She had been stricken from her family register nearly a year ago, and she had wandered across the greater Tokyo area until she had wandered into the Sarayashiki district. She had soon learned that the district had a high concentration of spirits and lower level demons preying on the general populace. The girl may have been homeless and her morals may have shifted from what they once were, but she would still protect the innocents from these monsters. It helped her keep her mind off of her unwanted situation.

This girl was Ranma, formerly of the Saotome clan, and nearly everyone she had met in her life caused her some sort of pain or strife. Her family abandoned her, her friends betrayed her, and she had lost everything. They took everything from her, her name, her home, even her birth form. With only two people from her former life being forgiven for anything they had done to her, Ranma had over a year to plot her revenge.

Ranma slipped through the local market place, quickly making her way through, swiping just enough to eat without arousing the sellers' suspicions about their missing products.

As she made her way through town, memories came forward unbidden.

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In the months following the failed wedding attempt things had gotten very bad around Nerima. After what was called the 'calm before the storm', everyone got more aggressive. The parents tried to force him and Akane into two more wedding attempts, Ukyo, Shampoo, and Kodachi began attacking each other and Akane even more viciously than before. This led to Kodachi and Akane being hospitalized being the weakest of the girls. The Nekohaten and Ucchan's had been nearly destroyed during one of the many attacks on both of the girls that lived at their respective restaurants. The boys, on the other hand, got even worse. Their attacks put innocents in the hospital, and even injured Ranma pretty badly at one point. Then the boys managed to kill him, in a way.

They had Kuno corner him in the schoolyard. The students, who would have once stayed to watch, fled when Kuno came dressed in full Samurai regalia and waving live steel. As he pinned Ranma to the wall, blade at his throat, Ryoga and Mousse appeared with two bottles of labeled water. Mousse grinned maniacally as he poured his bottle of hot water over Ranma's head. That's when the well-known change came over him, turning him into his girl form. Ryoga then tossed his bottle at her, and the somewhat familiar tingle of her curse being locked came over her.

"It took us a long time just to get water we needed," Ryoga had said as he watched Ranma slide down the wall, free of Kuno's blade when the kendoist backed up, "Cologne already had the water from the Chiisuiton from when Herb was bargaining for information. The water from the Nyannichuan, it was harder to get."

"But once we got it, all we needed to do was boil it." Mousse smirked, a mad glint in his eyes.

As Ranma realized what they were saying, Ryoga turned to walk away, "She's all yours Kuno. Have fun with your bride."

Those words haunted her to this day, but what happened next was why she had never before given in to her darker instincts and desires. Kuno ended up paralyzed from mid-spine down, Ryoga managed to get away with only several broken bones and a few deep lacerations, and Mousse lost the use of both eyes when Ranma slashed them with Kuno's broken sword and completely tore his right arm off.

Cologne barely got to the scene in time to stop the red-haired girl from outright murdering the boys, though the Elderly Amazonian gasped when she placed her hand on Ranma's arm. As Ranma tried to vocalize her question, Cologne shook her head. Ranma would never be fully male again. Her best chance would be to jump into Nannichuan and hope that the combined curses resulted in being more male than female.

As Ranma collapsed, the authorities and paramedics pulled up to the scene, though no one noticed a brown haired girl running away from the school. When Ranma looked back, it seemed like Nabiki had decided to cut her off from everything. When Ranma returned to the Dojo after a few hours with the local police, the parents confronted her. She had acted dishonorably in the 'fight', maiming and permanently disfiguring her opponents, she had nearly committed murder and would of if she hadn't been stopped, and the worst offense to the parents, she had become a weak and unmanly girl for the rest of her life.

While Soun, Genma, and Nodoka yelled and made demands of the girl, Nabiki was watching the conflict with a smirk and Akane was watching in growing anger. Kasumi was nowhere to be seen, as she was quietly packing away Ranma's belongings as well as her own. She knew neither of them would remain at the Dojo after tonight.

After Soun and Nodoka had verbally declared 'Ranma Saotome' and 'Ranko Tendo' were to be ronin and never welcomed back to the Dojo or the Saotome home, a crazed grin spread across Ranma's face as her pupils slowly shifted into narrow cat-like slits. As night fell, a blur escaped from the compound, Dojo completely wrecked, a broken blade driven into the shattered sign by the front gate, and several bodies lying around the destroyed dining room. No one dead, but everyone that had remained was injured. Kasumi had left before the fighting had even started.

Ranma had done something that she never truly done in her life. She ran. Ranma ran hard and fast, not stopping or pausing in her haste. She soon came to her bridge, the one spot no one would bother her at. There she cried. She cried for the first time in years, never even noticing that Kasumi had left her pack nearby, unable to bring herself to intrude after her family's actions. She cried so hard that she wore herself out and fell asleep.

As she slept, a small man watched from across the canal, hidden by the shadows. As an eye in the center of his forehead gleamed, he grinned, "Interesting, I'll keep a close eye on her."

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Back in the Present

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Ranma lowered a half-eaten rice ball that she had snatched from a witless boy who had tried to smooth talk her. The local truancy officers had been making real pests of themselves every time they saw her, and she wanted to get back to her 'home' before they found her. Coming to an abandoned office building near an apartment complex, she quickly slipped inside to hide from prying eyes. After all, she knew that she was being watched recently, she just didn't know by what or who.

Two of the beings watching her were the late punk, Yusuke Urameshi, and the Underworld Guide, Botan. They had originally come across the disowned girl when Yusuke had gone to his own wake and watched her pay her respects after accidentally interrupting the procession when she was trying to find somewhere to sleep. He had remembered her after Koenma had described the ordeal he had to go through so he could live again and he thought that she would be the perfect place to start his good deeds. Boy was he wrong.

The two had watched the small redhead demolish a small gang of boys that had been after Kuwabara during his deal with the science teacher Akashi then turn around and swipe their wallets without him ever looking up from his text book. Yusuke thought they deserved it because they had knocked some food out of her hands and trampled it into the ground. Even after watching the girl for a while, he knew her love for food was more than a result from living on the streets, and he had enjoyed the show when she beat on the boys.

Yusuke felt torn, on one hand he pitied her due to the fact she was obviously homeless, but her attitude was dark and rather morbid. The few times he had gotten close enough to hear her threaten someone let him know she was not above maiming idiots that bothered her.

As Yusuke floated in the sky watching the building the red-haired girl had claimed as hers, Botan was flipping through a case file that she had received from one of the other Ferry Girls. Even Yusuke could see the disgust on her face as she read on.

"Oh dear, I believe that Koenma has found her file at last. And it's not good," The blue haired reaper said as she closed the rather thick file.

"Well from what I've seen, she's homeless, probably on the runnin' from her past. Yet she seems to draw in fights and trouble like I did before this ordeal of yours." Yusuke glanced down from the roof towards the building that the girl was in, scratching his head in thought.

"That's partially correct Yusuke. Her name was Ranma Saotome, it's just Ranma now. She had a curse that changed her body depending on the temperature of the water. Hot water gave her a boy's body and cold a girl's. This ability was taken away from her by her so called friends, two are now crippled and the third disappeared without a trace. It also looks like she was banished from her family because she attacked the boys responsible, among other reasons." Botan sniffed in disgust, not liking what she had read.

"Jeez, being a girl that turns into a boy must have been rough. She was probably treated like a freak by any other girls."

"Wrong Yusuke, Ranma was originally a boy before the curse, and is now stuck as a girl for the rest of her life."

"That's even worse! I can't even to begin to imagine what it's like to have your …stuff ripped away at the splash of so water. How much longer until this egg hatches?" Yusuke asked, pulling the egg in question out of his pocket.

"Anxious aren't we?" Botan seemed puzzled at her charge's change in attitude after hearing about the homeless martial artist staying in the abandoned building below them.

"Because no one deserves what happened to her. I want to try and talk her into coming over, though I might need Keiko to help convince my mom. Then again, mom will probably try to help too much and adopt her…" Yusuke started rambling to himself as Koenma appeared next to Botan.

"Koenma sir, do you know why Yusuke suddenly became interested in Ranma after he found out about her past?" Botan looked at the child ruler for answers.

"His mother came from a similar situation, used by her so called friends, leading to a loss of family honor and banishment that Yusuke was only found out about it six months before his accident. When he found out, he found his grandparent's house and gave them a visit. Imagine their surprise as the son of their disowned daughter kicks down their front door and attacked his grandfather. When asked why he attacking them, all he said was that they were too wrapped up in the past. Midway through his tirade, Atsuko came through the front door and told him to go home. Realizing that the boy who had attacked them was their grandson, and their daughter had to stop him from killing them, they tried to beg forgiveness. Atsuko laughed at them and said that she didn't know who they were and apologized for Yusuke's attack. The two of them committed seppuku a week later to redeem their honor for abandoning their eldest child." Koenma huffed, crossing his arms. The three of them drifted away from the building, continuing their conversation as three more appeared in the roof across from it.

"This is the girl you've been watching Hiei? Her soul doesn't really feel like a human's," The largest of the trio stated as he look through the window at the girl.

"It seems to be a strange case of a failed possession." the third man said, though he was physically only a little younger than the girl they were watching.

"She seems to be similar to you, Kurama." Hiei said, "Test her Kurama, if she's strong enough, I'll offer her a chance to help us get the fourth treasure as well as our own original prizes."

"Wait, there's another treasure?" the large man asked

"Yes Gouki, and her personality that makes her the best one to use it. It's a journal, one that when something is written in it, it becomes an absolute law that cannot be rewritten. She'll be the one to keep the Spirit World in check so we can get away."

"It can also act as a last resort counter to the treasures we will take. You've been planning this for a while."

"Yes I have, for a very long time." Hiei said as he blurred away. Gouki chuckled as he leapt to the ground before walking away as well. Kurama turned to leave when Ranma turned, looking out of the slits of a boarded up window, locking eyes with him. Smiling, he too vanished. She knew he was coming for her. The only thing was she didn't know when he would come after her. The hunt was on, and his prey was just as dangerous as he was.

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Author's Note: Will Hiei's plan work? Has Ranma changed enough for it to work? What darkness does this young and betrayed martial artist harbor within her soul? Find out next chapter!

And for those who are wondering, this is one of my older stories that I have finally got around to reposting, more chapters to come!