Karma's Retribution.

Chapter 1: New Face, Leaving Nerima.

(A/n: Again, this is ANOTHER Ranma 1/2 SI fanfic with crossovers involved. Considering that it's usually inspired by the empathy Ranma gets (even though he's an anime character) and sends in an original character in order to clean the mess up. I may be going the stereotypical route, but it's going to be like the Dichotomy of Namikaze Naruto.

And I write to satisfy myself, NOT to please others.)

----

Another day, another routine gone wrong.

Those were the thoughts of one Ranma Saotome as he sat on top of the roof of the Tendo Dojo. Basically, he had experienced another day of the hell that is his life.

For those who don't know, Ranma is basically a chaos magnet, and he has fiancees that want to marry him, rivals that want to kill him, a lazy-ass father and his drinking buddy with the demon head trying to get them together, a pervert who tries to grope Ranma's female form, an old lady adamant to get him to join her tribe, and to top it all off, the one he's living with mallets him towards LEO.

That's just the surface of his problems. Basically, this whole mess started when his father, Genma Saotome (who's a leading candidate in the Worst Fathers of the Millennium, with Gendo Ikari taking second place), took him on a training trip to be a 'man among men.' On the way, Genma had made Ranma steal, eat faster, and get engaged to thousands of women, but the most traumatizing ones involve starved cats while Ranma was tied to fish sausage (the infamous Neko-Ken), and the Pools of Junsenkyo, where he took an accidental dip in the Spring of Drowned Girl courtesy of Panda-Baka.

That happened two years ago. The rivals he were up against were Tatewaki Kuno, the Blue Thunder, Ryoga, Mousse, and Pantyhose Taro and the fiancees were Anake Tendo, Shampoo, Ukyo, and (the self-proclaimed one) Kodachi Kuno. The last enemy he was up against, however, happened to be Saffron, the Phoenix God, and in order to stop him, he had to take the path of the warrior and kill him. The next few months involved a failed wedding…no, a disaster that was forseen, but ignored by the Nerima Wrecking Crew.

After the abuse that he went through, outside Ranma was calm, but he was getting sick and tired of being a scapegoat by his old man, Akane, Nabiki, Ryoga, and everyone else that wanted to kill him.

It's not that Ranma wouldn't kill anyone. Oh, no, killing was just too good for them, in my opinion. Underneath the dumb jock exterior was a genius that could match Nabiki in a game of chess…okay, not Nabiki, but somewhere along the caliber of a mastermind. In truth, he had kept his stress within, and it started to develop a mind of its own.

…Alright. I'm lying about that. Truth is, he kept in contact with his Mother and told her EVERYTHING that happened during the training trip (out of Nabiki's eyes, since the furthest out of Nerima happened to be the Nekohanten), had saved up enough money to pay back Nabiki's "debt," and tried to find loopholes in the contracts Genma had made for Akane and Ukyo AND looked up a book on how to break both the Kiss of Marrige and Kiss of Death. Unfortunately, he couldn't find enough peace and quiet in order to do so since said Ice Queen had eyes in Nerima.

If anything, Ranma thought, I wish that there was some way to get out of this whole mess.

Unknown to him, a shooting star had passed.

It's said that a butterfly in Texas could create a tornado in Kansas. This tornado, however, had spawned from the butterfly known as Ranma Saotome, the walking Chaos Theory.

And it all began with a phone call…

----

Somewhere in America, a young man was basically looking over the city he lived in from an apartment suite's roof. One would ask him why he would sit on top of a building that's around fifteen stories high and three blocks wide, but his response would be, "Because I like the view."

He was around twenty years old and was wearing what looked like a punk's outfit with regular glasses. His left arm is bandaged, but not much to be constricted, his hair happened to be unruly and worn, and his eyes were the darkest shade of blue-green one could ever see.

"Mr. Fragale," he heard a female say. He looked to see his assistant walk up towards the roof.

"What is it?" he asked her. "I thought the business plans weren't due until next Friday."

"You have a call from Japan, sir."

This is new, he thought. "Who's the caller, Seto Kaiba? Because I had already agreed to help fund his amusement park in America, and any other plans I have are on hiatus."

"It's from one named Nodoka Saotome."

That got his attention. "You're kidding, right?" She shook her head. "Well, what does Aunty Nodoka want?"

"It concerns her son, Ranma. Apparently, he's been running into hell ever since the training trip with, and I quote 'the man who ruined my son's image'."

Dear God in heaven, I hope she isn't going to do what I think she's doing! "Is she going to go with the contract?"

"She never mentioned a contract. What are you talking about?"

"Is she still on the phone?" His assistant nodded. Without warning, he had raced towards the phone. "Don't tell me you're actually going through with it!"

"You mean the contract I thought up to keep Genma in line?" she replied on the phone. "And hello to you too, nephew."

He had never thought of THAT. "Sorry. You nearly gave me a heart attack. Anyways, what's the problem, Aunty? I want to hear the full story."

After listening to it, a sudden anger had rushed through his body. He wanted Genma to suffer in the most horrible way possible.

"I'll be there, busy schedule be damned, Auntie. If anything, divorce him as soon as possible. I don't want anything to do with him anymore. And I'll help Ranma out, as well."

"Thank you. I'm quite surprised that you're willing to risk your business for him."

"You forget, family is what I treasure the most. I'll see you when I get there." At that, he hung up the phone. "Miss Portman, I'll be going on a leave of absence for an indefinite amount of time. Apparently, some family matters came up, and a few loose ends need to be tied."

"Shall I get the plane ready?"

"I might as well. But we're not landing in Nerima directly. If anything, if a rich relative of Ranma showed up overnight, there would be questions aplenty. Instead, make sure that you leave as soon as I get out of the airport."

"Understood, sir."

Needless to say, he was pissed.

Look out, Nerima, he thought. Karma has found you in the worst…way…possible.

----

The next day, Ranma walked back to the Tendo Dojo.

"I'm home," he said.

"And where were you, Ranma," Akane yelled. "Hanging out with another one of your floozies?"

"Yes, Ranma," Nabiki said. "Where were you? The Nekohanten is too far north for you to meet Shampoo."

I don't know whether to thank you or hurt you, Nabs, he thought. "Ran into Ryoga again. If anything, he's worse for the wear."

Akane said nothing, but Nabiki was eyeing him suspiciously. He's too far south in order to run into him. Then again, he's getting better at deception.

"We need to talk, Nabiki," Ranma said.

"What," Akane said, "Shampoo's not good enough for you? Now you want to hang all over my sister?"

Nabiki had glared at her. "Very well, Saotome. Follow me."

After heading towards Nabiki's room, Ranma took a seat.

"Now," Nabiki said, "what is it you want to talk to me about? Akane's starting to run out of reasons to argue with you by now, and your excuses…they may get better, but you still make a couple odd movements."

Ranma sighed. He knew he would be in hot water with her sometime. "I've been trying to find a way out of this, Nabs," he said. "Have been since the wedding incident you set up. If anything, it proved something that's been present since day one: No one, save Kasumi and Dr. Tofu, had actually cared for me."

"Still, why hide it from my eyes?"

"You remember when I saved the Science Fair's CEO?" She nodded. "Well, he had challenged me to find a way to make a steamboat, and after I saved a guy's junkyard, I borrowed a few parts from him and built it using my ki energy to make the necessary parts. With that, he gave me access to the Science Club and traced your hidden cameras and contacts. Apparently, you overlooked the outskirts of Southern Nerima."

"That answers that question. Why tell me this now?"

"Two reasons: One, I've already transferred some of my money into your account, and it's basically how much I owed you, and two, I'm leaving Nerima."

Either he's bluffing or there's an increase in funds I missed, she thought. "I can understand why you're leaving, but I thought you were poor."

"Think about it, Nabs. All my life I've been playing dumb, but instead, I was trying to find a way to get out of all the arrangements without dishonoring myself to the point where I'll be lost in an abyss of darkness. In secrecy, I might be able to best you in chess. As for the money, there's a little extra involved that would give me the alternatives in order to get out of the engagements."

Sure enough, Nabiki checked her funds and noticed an increase. She turned to him and said, "With this amount, you could probably buy a condo somewhere in America. How come no one was informed?"

"Isn't it obvious? Genma would just complain that he has a weak and girly son relying on equations to fight, Akane would mallet me, and you WOULDN'T want to think about the worse things that will happen, especially when the old pervert was involved."

Ranma had a point, but there was one thing left out. "There's something missing, Saotome. I didn't get the answer I was looking for."

"I've been keeping in contact with my mother, Nabs. I told her everything that happened, and she's basically calling a distant relative to help me out with the rival problems and help me start anew. If anything, I can't exactly remember his name, but he's related to Mom, not Pops, and he's a multi-billionaire who takes no mercy on those who abuse family."

"You had me at 'multi-billionaire,'" Nabiki said. "And he's basically out for blood?"

"Unfortunately, but he doesn't kill. Instead, he's a master in Torture and messing with the mind. However, I can't let you and Kasumi get involved in his warpath."

Nabiki was confused. "Why me and Kasumi? I thought you liked Akane."

"That was part of the mask, Nabs. You're basically trying to keep your family stable and Kasumi's like a sister to me. Doctor Tofu has nothing to do with the torture, but I think he'll spark a Civil War with Cologne's tribe."

"I see where you're going with this," Nabiki said, shivering. "But I need the name of this guy."

"His name is Andrew of Trian Gaming Industries. I don't know the last name, but the Company has been known to supply funding to various companies in Japan."

Using the search engine, she had found what she was looking for. "Looks like it's more than just that, Saotome. Not only does it supply games, but also toys and card games, one in particular being Duel Monsters. Other than that, he's made his mark with Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Capcom, Namco, Square Enix, Shonen Jump, Konami, the Itoshiki Family, Kaibacorp, Industrial Illusions…the list goes on. Apparently, like Kaibacorp, it didn't originally supply this. And the guy's around MY age! It's not as young as Seto Kaiba when HE started, but this guy looks like he's still in college."

Ranma was gaping. "And most of them are gaming corporations?" Nabiki nodded. "Wow. You think he's a martial artist?"

"Hard to say. The file itself is hard to crack, considering the security system is like Fort Knox."

"That's why you have to keep this a secret, Nabs. If Genma finds word of this, he'll probably try to use some kind of half-brained idea to bilk him out of his money."

"Saotome, for once, I won't charge you."

She meant it this time. If a guy with that much power over the gaming and manga industries as well as good lawyers at hand, not even she would blab this out to Genma.

----

In the outskirts of Nerima, Andrew was walking towards the Tendo Dojo.

Let's see… he thought. It's basically somewhere around here, next to the lady that throws out water to the cursed, for some odd reason. However, I'm going to need a definite direction in order to find him.

Five…four…three…two…one.

"RANMA NO BAKA!"

We have liftoff.

Good enough. Without warning, Andrew had used the foilage to follow the trail from LEO and catch him before he hit the koi pond.

"Thanks for the help," Ranma said.

"No problem," Andrew replied, putting him down. "Now, what just happened?"

"Oh, the usual. Akane beat me out of the house with her mallet and I almost landed in the koi pond again."

Okay, I think Nodoka isn't exaggerating here. "And how long has this been happening?"

"Two years, give or take a few months. Why, are you new here?"

"Close. I was kind of sent here by your mother in order to take care of some business."

Now I know that face was familiar. I only saw it a couple minutes ago. "I'm assuming you're Andrew, right?"

Andrew nodded. "Name's Andrew, alright. Sorry for the inconvenience."

To be continued…