Disclaimer: I do not own the Ranma 1/2 characters. They belong to Rumiko
Takahashi. I'm just a poor college student, please don't sue me!!!!
This is my first fic, be forewarned.
Ryuujin no Seishou
By Richard Sienkewicz
Chapter 1
-Musk Citadel: Imperial Apartments - five days after the incident at Jusenkyo-
"Well, nephew, I'm sure that you have heard about the recent incident at
the Springs of Jusenkyo. The guide was kind enough to give the men I sent a full
report, and access to the area. You may be amazed at what they found...."
Emperor Cayenne chuckled lightly at his own private joke. "It seems that an old,
forgotten spring was unearthed AND destroyed all in the span of a day."
Herb narrowed his eyes and scowled at the Emperor. "So what does that have
to do with me? What's so important about the destruction of one or two pools of
sorrow that you drag me away from my training? You know as well as I do that my
parents will never sleep soundly until their deaths have been avenged!" Herb
turned on his heel and headed for the door.
Emperor Cayenne's voice took on a mocking tone. "Now, now, nephew, you
know I wouldn't call you away from your precious revenge unless it was vitally
important."
Herb turned to face his uncle once again and crossed his arms before
speaking. "Hmmmph.... So you say."
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," continued the
Emperor. "A new spring was both discovered..... and destroyed; all in one
day. What makes this paltry incident interesting is the manner of the pool's
destruction."
"What, did someone drink it all?" Snapped Herb. Why was this old fool
wasting his time?
"Foolish child! You must learn to hold your tongue, Herb, it may get you
on my bad side one of these days. Now, if you will be so kind as to keep silent
and allow me finish..."
Herb shifted nervously under Emperor Cayenne's glare before responding.
"Very well, Uncle. I shall listen for now."
Emperor Cayenne resumed his speech. "The really fascinating thing about
this pool, or should I say this 'pit', is that it and several surrounding pools
were all boiled dry by what has been reported to be a freak firestorm. My
warriors collected a number of stone fragments, which had been blown out from
the center of the destruction. Some of the fragments appeared to have pieces of
a larger carving engraved on their surface. I had them sorted and placed in some
semblance of order. What I found intrigued me, as it should you. The
reconstructed carving is over on top of my desk. "Cayenne gestured towards a
desk at the side of the room. "I believe you would find it informative, to say
the least."
Herb crossed to the desk, annoyed that he had been called away from his
training just to inspect some old broken carving. As he looked down at the
newly re-assembled rock fragments, Herb could make out an inscription in some
strange language surrounding a picture of some sort. What he found upon closer
inspection caused him to gasp in surprise.
"A dragon..."
-Somewhere over the Sea of Japan - one month later-
"....... picked up an unidentified flying object in you sector. We'd
appreciate it if you would go and investigate."
"Acknowledged, control. JSDF 38 moving to intercept."
"Careful, 38, we're not sure exactly what this thing is."
"Control, the day I'm NOT careful up here is the day that pigs fly."
BWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"What was that 38?"
"Errrr... Never mind control, just some distortion on the frequency."
"You should be moving up on the object now, 38."
"I hear you. Just a minute, I think I can see something out there. It's
not too big, but it's coming closer. What, the????? You're not going to believe
this, Control."
"Spill it, 38, we haven't got all day."
"Well, if I didn't know better, I would have said that our UFO here was a
small dragon."
"Are you sure that your Oxygen filter is still functioning, 38?"
"I'm serious here, control. That thing was scaly, and had big wings. It
sure qualifies as what I always thought a dragon should look like."
"Were you able to get any pictures of our friend here, 38?"
"Nothing too fancy, Control, but I'll be able to prove that I'm not
insane. Should I engage?"
"That depends on how good you are at hitting a target approximately ten
meters off your own tail."
"WHAT?!?!"
"You heard, 38. Whatever it is has decided to tail you. Head home, we'll
shoot it off for you, if needed."
thud
"Um, Control, I seem to have acquired a passenger."
"..."
"You there Control?"
"How firmly is it attached?"
"I don't know, Control. It just started tapping on my canopy. Do you think
I could dump it with a roll, and then fry it?"
"Affirmative, 38, let's get rid of this thing now."
"Commencing maneuver. The big lizard's falling off, Control. I'm not sure,
but I don't think it liked that."
"Just head home, 38. Maybe it won't follow you."
"I better get a few days leave for this, Control."
"Just be happy that you're not assigned to the Tokyo area, 38. That's
where all the REALLY weird ones show."
"Where in heck did it get that sign?"
"'SIGN', 38?"
"Yeah, a big wooden one."
"What does it say, 38?"
"'Could you please direct me to the nearest town?'"
"I don't believe it. You're kidding, right 38?"
"No, Control, I'm not. So, what should I do?"
"Fly it over somewhere where no one would notice it, 38. Nerima would be a
good idea. They'll never notice the difference...... Things are crazy enough
there as it is."
"Affirmative, Control. I'm on my way. Oh, Control..."
"Yes, 38?"
"When I get back, I want you to make sure that I don't remember a thing
about this flight."
"You've got it, 38. I'm not sure I want to remember what's happening
myself."
"Oh..... Another message from our friend here. 'Thanks for pointing me in
the right direction, I can take it from here.'"
"This has got to be the weirdest day of my life."
"I hear you, Control. Heading for home."
-Nerima, Japan - Later that day -
"And in other news, the JSDF has denied having any knowledge of the UFO
that was sighted today flying in from the Sea of Japan. Witnesses say that it
resembled some sort of large flying lizard."
The radio droned on in the back of the Yattai. Kaigi didn't pay too much
attention to it, but was a bit annoyed by what he heard.
[These people must be crazy. Flying lizards, indeed! Next thing they'll be
telling me that there are talking cats wandering around giving people magical
powers.]
"Excuse me, but could I please have some hot water?" Spoke a heavily
accented voice.
"Sure, just a sec."
Kaigi grabbed a cup, filled it with hot water, and turned to face the
owner of the voice who had requested the water.
"Here you AAAAAA.....HHHHH!!!!!!" The cup went flying as Kaigi threw his
hands up in alarm.
After screaming, Kaigi proceeded to follow the course of action that most
sensible people would pursue after being spoken to a large lizard with fangs and
wings: he passed out.
"I wish they wouldn't keep doing that..... Oh well."
-Tendo Dojo - Three days later-
Ranma Saotome was NOT having a good day. First Akane had malleted him on
the way to school, then Kuno had attacked him for no reason at all, and then
Miss Hinako had drained his energy twice during class; once for not bringing her
any candy that day.
[Ah well, at least it can't get much worse.]
BONK!!!!!
"Owww!"
thud
"Ranma, what are you doing lying face up in the middle of the path, you
pervert!!!"
SMASH!!
-A while later-
"Ugh..... What hit me?"
"Oh, nothing much. Just your standard challenge letter tied to a small
rock." Said a voice from behind him.
Ranma glanced at the rock that had hit him then turned to face the
speaker, a young black haired man carrying a large pack with an umbrella on top
and wearing a yellow and black bandana.
"What do you mean SMALL rock? That thing's at least half a meter in
diameter!" He exclaimed angrily. "Wait, you look familiar. Do I know you?" Ranma
narrowed his eyes..... There was just something about this guy...
"You used to...... My name's Ryouga Hibiki. I'm here to finish our
duel."
"So you're the one who threw that rock?"
Ryouga shrugged. "Errrr......... Yeah. Sorry about that. How was I to know
you would get pounded into the ground just for being knocked over?"
Ranma got up and started brushing himself off. "Well, that's Akane for
you. She seems to find everything I do to be grounds for a malleting." He
decided that this Ryouga guy couldn't be all that bad.
Ryouga looks at Ranma in surprise. "She can't really be THAT bad, can
she?"
"You don't know the half of it. A word of advice, if she ever offers you
ANYTHING she's cooked, run for your life."
"Now you've GOT to be joking. I thought you loved your food."
"Food, yes. Poison, no. Trust me on this one. Anyway, what did you say you
were here for again?"
"Ah well, you see, I'm here to wipe out an itsy-bittsy little stain on my
honor. You do remember our bread feud, right?"
"Oh, THAT. Wait a minute, you challenged me to a duel for that didn't you?
I did wait, ya know. Three whole days AFTER the appointed time."
"Errrrr........ That and the following years don't rank very highly among
my experiences. Suffice to say that when I arrived on the fourth day, I was less
than pleased to find the area deserted. I somehow came to the conclusion that
you had run out on our duel, and began hunting you down. I was obsessed, blaming
all of my misfortunes on your 'cowardice.' The more I hunted, the more things
happened to me, and the more I hated you. Fortunately, for both of us, something
happened to me a while back that....... ahhhh...... well, left me a changed man.
I no longer feel justified in blaming every single thing that has happened on
you. However, there still is the matter of our duel and I am anxious to repair
what is currently left of my honor. When would you like to settle this?"
"Ummmmmmm, now is good."
"Now?????? After the beating you took? You're either very brave, or very
foolish."
"A little of both actually........ Now why did I just say that?"
"..."
"C'mon, we can have our duel in the park. I don't want to have to pay for
repairs if we trash the dojo."
As Ranma and Ryouga head off towards a convenient park, they completely
missed both the gathering rain clouds and the ominous cloaked figure(tm) who
they bowled over on their way out of the Tendo yard.
[Bowl ME over will they? I'll teach them to respect the Musk!]
"Come Mint, we can question that Yattai owner later. Revenge awaits!"
Author's note: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know........ A couple of my plot devices are
a bit obvious at the moment (such as who fell into the spring, and who the
cloaked figure is). Any of you who know the series can guess what's about to
happen. As soon as I figure out how to do a decent fight scene I'll start
seriously working on chapter 2. I have a good deal of the plot worked out (it
shouldn't be too long, I don't want to push it), but have to fill it in a bit
more. On a side note, yes, I DO know that the characters are a bit OOC. There
are several reasons for that.... One is that it's me writing the story, and I do
not write characterization the same as other people........ No one really does.
There may be some similarities between authors, but the characters and
situations are never quite the same. Another reason is that I've decided to
change a couple of the characters. Mind you, these changes do have reasons. Some
will be discussed, others might not. For those of you who haven't guessed
already from the dialogue, I do NOT like Akane. Too bad, so sad. If that's a
major deciding factor in what fics you read, don't read mine. As for Ryouga,
you'll find out why he's changed in the next chapter. With Ranma...... well, I
guess that's more or less my take on the guy. Heh....... The way I see it, he's
mostly alright as long as you aren't directly threatening him (or his friends
fot that matter), or haven't insulted him. I also don't think he's a stupid
guy.... He just hasn't been around people all that much, and his prime example
for behavior is Genma. By that reasoning, I should be writing him as a complete
smeghead, but I won't. If I wind up deciding that he's too OOC for how I think
he should, I'll go back and rewrite. Otherwise, I'll just write the guy in a way
that I think is appropriate for my opinion on him and how I've planned for him
to act. Heh....... I guess I'm done blithering on about the characters for now.
Ja ne.
Once again, you can send C&C to richard.o.sienkewicz@lawrence.edu
Acknowledgements: see prologue....... they were written at about the same time.
This fic can be found at Bambi Star's website:
http://www.crosswinds.net/~salee/index.html