Disclaimer: You know the drill, I own nothing. Plain and simple.

Curse of the Suicide King

By: Nemarra

Chapter 1

Ranma and Mousse stood off in the football field of Furikan High School in the Nerima district of Tokyo. They had been battling for a few good minutes now; another of Mousse's attempts to win Shampoo from Ranma. Said Amazon teen stood on the sidelines with her great grandmother, Cologne, as well as Tendo Akane. Kunoji Ukyo was no where to be seen, but that was simply because she was away visiting her ailing father. She would be back as soon as he was well again. It was a regular scene on a regular day. Until the fight was halted by a stranger in a jester's outfit.

The man laughed. "Well look-y here! More kiddies to play with!" he cheered. He suddenly pulled a couple of hats somewhere out of his outfit and in the blink of an eye had them on the two boys' heads. After standing back to observe his handy work, the clown burst into laughter. They glanced at each other as they noted their audience snickering. Ranma wore a sombrero while Mousse's hair was done into a bow making him look fairly feminine. Mousse angrily rushed after the clown in a literal blind fit. Ranma took a moment to toss off the sombrero before following his rival's attack.

The jester just laughed as he easily dodged the pair. "Oooo, you kiddies are fun!" he gleefully shouted. Quicker than either could react, the clown had them both by the back of their pants. In one swift movement he lifted their underwear out from their pants until he could slip the elastic bands over their heads. The crowd seemed to find this as humorous as the joker did. He had fallen to the grown holding his gut from laughing so hard.

In a flash he was serious- or as serious as this clown seemed to get- and bounced away from his previous place narrowly avoiding Ryoga's attack. "So you're still wanting to play, are ya?" the clown teased. Clearly he had been bothering Ryoga already. The boy stood dressed in a birthday party clown outfit, complete with big red shoes, a honking nose and face paint. The costume was torn in places were Ryoga had unleashed his temper, too impatient to stop and remove it.

Seething, Ryoga chased the joker around the field. His new foot wear slowed his attack. The jester decided to increase his 'fun' by grabbing one of Mousse's discarded knives. Grinning like a fool he charged at Ryoga and the lost boy did the same to him. In seconds, the clown dodged Ryoga and made a few slashes. Ryoga stopped and looked himself over. Satisfied, he smiled up at the clown.

"Ha! You missed!" he teased. The jester's smile only grew. Just after Ryoga's shout, his shirt and pant legs fell away. There he was, left in something akin to yellow and polka dots, butt-less short shorts. The poor boy grew red from his toes to his hairline as several people began to laugh.

The joker bowed to the crowd, thoroughly enjoying the praise their laughter gave him. "Thank you, thank you!" he said. "You're too kind."

"I'm not!" Ranma's voice roared over the crowd. The clown looked just in time to be hit with a blast of water. The forced knocked him back so hard his slippers came off. All eyes turned to see Ranma and Mousse holding a fire hose aimed straight at the clown. Ranma turned the leaver and at once the water died away. The joker lay soaking wet against the fence.

The jester looked up at his opponents; somehow his makeup non-smeared. His cheery smile became wicked as the wind began to whirl. The jester jumped up to his shoeless feet as if nothing had happened. "You hear that?" he asked cupping his ear as if listening out for a distant noise. The only sound anyone could hear was the wind and the jingle of the jester's hat bells. "He comes!" he shouted suddenly. "My time here is done for he comes!" Before anyone could ask what he meant, the jester pulled a huge box from the front of his one piece costume.

"Where is he getting all these things?" Ranma wondered aloud. Even as skillful a hidden weapons master that Mousse was, he found himself just as baffled. He even put on his glasses to be sure of what he saw. Mousse had to wear baggy clothes to hide his weapons. Yet, this guy had no where to hide anything in his skin tight outfit... let alone the giant man-sized box!

The weak jester practically fell over himself as he set the box down. Correction, the joker was not weak, the box was heavy! The ground shook from the force of the box hitting the ground. Then, the box began to play eerie music. From the sidelines, Cologne could be heard ordering Shampoo to run for it. At first, Shampoo did not move out of concern for Ranma.

"He'll be fine so long as he stays a man," Cologne explained taking Shampoo's arm and making to run. Shampoo spared a glance towards Ranma before listening.

"Hey wait? Why are you running?" Akane yelled at the fleeing amazons. Certain something bad was going to happen, she shouted to her fellow students, "Everyone, get out of here." No one need be told twice. Living in Nerima with hostile martial artists had taught them to be ready to run for dear life at any given point.

The only one not running was Ranma. Mousse had taken off the moment he noticed Cologne and Shampoo running. Ryoga on the other hand was running to save Akane. "Come on," he said pulling her away from the scene.

"Ranma!" Akane shouted. Ranma's pride refused to let him just run away. He was the one that had defeated Saffron for goodness sake! This joker was nothing. Then it hit him, literally. A blast of cold water from the flower on the jester's top. When the now female Ranma looked up to glare at the jester, the clown had vanished. Ranma was sure he could hear the stranger's laughter echoing all around him. "He comes! He comes! Beware the curse of the suicide king!" the jester's voice echoed. Then it suddenly all stopped.

The music, the laughter, and even the wind. All was quiet and normal. Completely confused, Ranma glanced around the empty field. It was just him…uh…her and that strange blue and white stared box. Ranma practically jumped out of her skin when the box burst open. Hundreds of playing cards shot out of it into the air. She watched as the cards floated back down to earth. This was what everyone was so scared of? She reached out and caught one of the cards. On it was the black and white joker. Glancing around, Ranma realized all the cards were of the joker.

She scoffed at the card, "yeah, real funny guy." She ripped the card into pieces, and then observed her surroundings. "Now what was he saying about some king?" she wondered aloud. Her whole posture was tense, and ready for action.

She stood ready for what felt like several minutes. Finally sure she was not going to be attacked, Ranma lightened up. She grumbled to himself something about "old ghoul going senile' as she removed her shirt. She stopped dead from ringing it out when a dark shadow hovered over her. Quickly she turned to look up into the face of what had made such a shadow. Then, she screamed.

~Suicide King~

Just so you know, I may be Canadian, but I prefer to call 'soccar' as 'football'. Escpecially when I'm righting about characters from a country that refers to it as 'football'. Thanks for reading and see you next time.