Disclaimer: Own these characters, I do not. Use them without profit, I do. Belong to their respective owners, they do! Sue me for this, you will not!
It's not a Way of Life.
A Ranma ½ / Star Wars crossover.
Genma Saotome sat with his friend Soun Tendo in front of the open sliding door that lead into the Tendo's back yard, a Go board situated between them. The Saotome patriarch placed another stone on the board and leaned back, enjoying the nice day. He relaxed and allowed his attention to drift onto his surroundings, while still keeping half an eye on the game to ensure that Soun wouldn't try to cheat his way out of the elder Saotome's attempt at forcing his opponent into a ladder.
Muffled battle cries, followed by the sound of bricks getting smashed could be heard outside, indicating that Akane was practising. From the living room, the muted murmur of a running television drifted in, telling Genma that Nabiki was watching either financial news or that silly anime show about a little boy solving murder cases she was so fond of. Kasumi was humming a slow melodious tune in the kitchen, the clicking sound of a knife hitting the cutting board adding another rhythmic element to it.
Genma breathed in deeply, the scent of blossoming flowers mixed with the delicious aroma of the food Kasumi was preparing filling his nostrils, then released a contented sigh.
This was just the life for the eldest Saotome, sitting with your friend in the evening, playing a good game of Go, while the rest of the family went about their own things. His son had beaten that troublesome Kumon boy a few days ago, ensuring that the world would never again see the two terrible schools Genma had invented, thus allowing the portly martial artist to rest peacefully once more.
"Pops, ya got a minute?"
Upon hearing that, Genma looked up, seeing his son standing in the hallway, a serious expression on his face. "What is it? Can't you see I'm busy?"
Ranma snorted. "I can see that all right. You're busy sitting on your lazy butt and trying to out-cheat Mister Tendo."
Genma didn't feel up to dealing with his son's problems just then, thus he decided to use a tried and true tactic of his. "Show me some respect, boy! I've worked hard all my life, doing my best to form you into the martial artist you are, and this is how you repay me? Oh, how you wound your poor old father!"
"Cut the crap, Pops," Ranma replied. "There's something I wanna talk to you about. Something important."
The lack of his son's usual heated response to his goading was alarming enough that Genma took a better look at his offspring.
The younger Saotome stood rigidly, arms crossed in front of his chest, every muscle tensed. His jaws were set and his eyes slightly narrowed, the blue orbs shining with worry.
Genma released a huge sigh and hung his head, one hand going up to scratch his bandanna. "All right, boy. What is it?" Really, the things he sacrificed for his son, and without ever getting any respect for it.
"Not here," said Ranma. "Let's go to our room."
"Okay, boy, what do you want?" Genma asked, once they had retreated to the room they shared at the Tendo home.
Ranma didn't respond immediately. Instead, he first locked the door, then shut the window and drew the blinds closed, permitting only a small beam of light to fall into the room.
"Now we can talk."
"What's this about, boy?" Genma asked worriedly, his son's strange behaviour making him uneasy.
Ranma sat down and gestured for his father to do the same. "I need to ask for your permission."
Genma frowned. "My permission? What would you need my permission for? Have you finally decided to marry Akane? Silly boy!" The older man exclaimed happily, a smile making its way across his face. "You know that you don't need to ask for my permission to do that!"
"Of course I haven't! Would you please be serious?" Ranma said, his temper flaring up. After taking several deep breaths to get his anger back under control, he grew serious once more. "I wanna learn how to use the Yama-Sen-Ken and practise the Umi-Sen-Ken some more."
"What are you talking about, boy? Everybody agreed to seal those techniques, they're just too dangerous. You know that," Genma replied.
"I know! And I wouldn't use them in a normal challenge fight or anything, but they're too powerful not to use when things get tough," Ranma argued. "What if some guy like Taro or Herb shows up again? Let's face it, Pops, I might be good, but I'm not the best there is. Not yet, anyway. There are a lot of guys more powerful than me. What if one of them shows up here because the old pervert pissed them off or for some other stupid reason, and they decide to kidnap Akane? It'd just be stupid to keep the Sen-Kens sealed."
Genma crossed his arms in front of his chest, considering what his son had said. After a while, he responded, "I'm afraid I still can't allow you to do that, son. You've managed to overcome any challenge so far, even Herb and Pantyhose Taro, relying only on your own skill as well as your mind. You didn't need those techniques then, and I don't see why that should be any different in the future."
Ranma made a frustrated noise, then sighed loudly. "There's another reason. I didn't want to tell you this, but I had a dream, two nights ago."
Genma's eyes widened in shock, then narrowed again. "What kind of dream?" He asked, thinking back on several incidents in the past.
His son had had unusual and prophetic teams as a little boy. They had been very useful, often sparing Genma a beating from angry villagers or telling them of places where people would welcome them into their home and provide them with food. Without those dreams, their training journey would have been a lot more difficult. Strangely, they had stopped suddenly, when Ranma was about ten years old.
"I don't remember!" Ranma exclaimed, his voice coloured heavily with frustration. "All I know is that it has to do with me and with Akane, probably with everybody else, too. Something bad, something really bad is going to happen, and I need to become stronger."
This changed things for Genma. Ranma's dreams had been a help in the past, there was no reason things would be different now. If there really was some tragedy in their future, it would only be prudent to be as prepared as possible.
Besides, it did feel good to know that his son would learn the only set of techniques Genma had created himself, thereby inheriting the only thing the Saotome patriarch could call his legacy.
"All right, boy. I'll allow it," said Genma, "but you have to promise me to use them only when your life or the life of your family is threatened."
For the first time in two days, a smile spread across Ranma's face. "I promise."
In a forest a few hours outside of the Nerima ward of Greater Tokyo, loud battle cries could be heard, followed by the staccato sounds of fists striking against wood, as well as strange wooshing noises, followed by trees falling over.
This went on for the better part of the day, until late in the evening, when the sounds stopped abruptly.
Ranma, the person responsible for those sounds, finished his training with a slow kata designed for cooling down, then went over to a blackened spot on the earth.
"Phew! I'm beat. That was a great workout." Ranma sat down on a log in front of his fireplace and towelled off his sweat. After he had sufficiently caught his breath, he set about getting a fire going.
He had finally managed to get away over the weekend for a little training trip to fully master both Sen-Ken schools.
Not surprisingly, after getting his father's permission, Mister Tendo had been the biggest obstacle for Ranma's training trip.
When Ranma had informed the Tendos of his intention to go on a training trip on his own, the Tendo patriarch had proposed that Ranma take Akane with him on this trip, but the pigtailed teen had nipped that idea right in the butt by a few choice remarks about his fiancée's cooking. Sure, he had been on the receiving end of Akane's fists for that, but it was well worth it in his opinion if it meant he'd be able to train without getting interrupted. Besides, it was just impossible to get any training done with an upset stomach.
Leaning back slightly and folding his arms behind his head, Ranma turned his gaze towards the sky and saw that it was going to be dark soon. "Might as well get started on dinner."
He grabbed a big pot, then made his way towards a small river nearby. Dunking the pot into the stream, while being careful not to get himself wet doing that, he watched as it slowly filled with water. His gaze grew distant, and his thoughts started wandering towards his training as he thought up ways to practice the more dangerous techniques of the Yama-Sen-Ken school and possible ways to refine them.
A sudden clanking sound brought the pigtailed martial artist back to the present.
"Huh, I wonder what that sound was."
He looked around for the source of the noise, but couldn't find anything. Shrugging his shoulders, he pulled the pot out of the river and heard the same clanking sound again. Looking inside the pot, he found that something purple had ended up inside it.
He carefully pulled the strange object out of the pot to get a better look at it. The thing turned out to be a fist-sized purple cube with strange markings on its sides, which Ranma couldn't make heads or tails of. They were arranged in the form weird geometrical shapes Ranma had never seen before.
After turning the cube around in his hand a few times, Ranma dismissed it as useless to him. "Kids these days," he mumbled, shaking his head. "They have no respect for nature anymore. Throwing their old toys into rivers like that."
He pocketed the strange toy, then made his way back towards his camp, where he proceeded to prepare himself dinner.
Twenty minutes later, his food was ready and only needed to simmer a little longer, and Ranma quickly got bored. Usually, he really enjoyed these quiet times, but something just wouldn't let him find any rest. He decided to have another look at the strange cube he had found and took it out of his pocket.
Turning it this way and that, he looked for anything he might have missed before, but there were still only those strange figures on its sides. He traced them with his fingertip and applied some pressure where two or more lines connected. Who knew, there might be some hidden buttons.
When nothing yielded any results, the thing still appearing as nothing more than a really weird cube, Ranma got annoyed with his find. He somehow knew that thing was more than it seemed, but he just wasn't able to figure out what it was supposed to do. His frustration growing, he suddenly had the idea of using the Breaking Point Technique on it. Since he was here to practice martial arts techniques anyway, why not try that one as well?
He focused and pushed a small amount of his ki into the tip of his right index finger; he didn't want to go over board and end up with a face full of shrapnel, after all. Slowly, he pressed his finger against the cube...
And jumped back in shock as the translucent figure of a man suddenly appeared out of it.
"What the hell!"
"Greetings, stranger," the ghostly image said.
Ranma cautiously crawled back towards it and took a closer look at the holographic projection, seeing that it was a fit, bald black man dressed in wide dark brown robes. "Who the hell are you?"
"I am the Gatekeeper. But you may call me Mace Windu if you wish."
"Err, okay," Ranma said, squinting at the ghostly man. "Uhm... Who, or what, are you?"
"As I've already told you, I am the Gatekeeper. I am the artificial intelligence programmed into this Jedi Holocron and patterned after Jedi Master Mace Windu's thoughts."
Ranma stared at the small black man blankly. "I think you've lost me," he admitted after a few moments. "What's an artificial intelligence? And a Jedi Holocron?"
The translucent black man sighed. "An artificial intelligence is just what its name implies. And a Jedi Holocron ... Well, I guess it's best I start at the beginning.
"Some time ago in a galaxy far, far away..."
AN: That's it for the prologue, hope you like what little there is of this so far. A big chunk of chapter 1 is finished already (about 5000 words) and I'll get around to posting it soon. Probably within the next few days. I've had this sitting on my hard drive for some time now, and finally decided to go ahead and post it, to see what the general response is.
Let me now if you'd like to read more of this, or if you think I should better stop now before it gets too embarrassing.
As always, C&C is very welcome.