Chapter 1. – Right Understanding
Ranma awoke sometime later with a weird metallic taste in his mouth. Opening his eyes, he noticed couple things. First, it was bright as hell, and it hurt to keep his eyes open. Second, he was curled up into a ball. He ached all over, his head hurt, his vision was blurry, and his fingers felt raw. Ranma rolled over on to his back, turned his head to do a quick scan of his surroundings. It was still too bright for him to see, but he could tell he was outside; the stench told him that in back of the old building, close to the spot he and his dad had been using as the bathroom.
Wrinkling his nose, Ranma tried to block out the stench. He pushed himself up with his arms, till he was sitting Indian style, gritting his teeth as the world swam. The pounding in his head started in earnest. He looked down at himself and noticed he was covered in cuts, large and small. Blood soaked his gi, turning the white garment a dirty brown. He forced the soles of his feet flat on the ground and stood – or rather, he tried to stand, but his acing legs protested so much at the movement that he collapsed onto his knees. Throwing his arms forward to keep himself from falling, Ranma, crawled to the side of the building before falling over and passing out.
When he awoke, the sun had gone down. It was too dark to see much, but then again, Ranma's head wasn't swimming as much anymore. The stench was stronger now. A weak source of light radiated from the window of the building, just above where he lay. Using the side of the building for support, he forced his aching muscles to respond, and he eventually managed to stand.
Ranma pushed himself off of the building, but kept his left hand on it for support. He swallowed to work moisture into his raw throat. "Pops? Where are you, Papa?" Getting no reply, Ranma shuffled towards the light. Every once in a while he would pause, and call out to his father.
He was too short to peer over the window sill. "Papa... it's me, Ranma! Where are you Papa?" Rounding the corner of the house, he saw the back door had been ripped off its hinges and was lying in the grass a few meters away. "Pops, this isn't funny! Where are you?" He carefully stepped through the back door, avoiding the jagged pieces of wood and broken glass that lay strewn about the floor.
The inside of the house was trashed. Ranma's eyes widened as he took in the sight before him. His father's flashlight lay on the floor, beam shining towards the wall opposite Ranma. The walls were gouged with parallel sets of slash marks, inches deep. The stench that he had noticed earlier was got worse. Ranma moved to pick up the flashlight and stepped in something sticky. He pointed the light at his feet and saw shining dark puddles scattered over the floor.
A large trail of liquid receded away from the pool at Ranma's feet, towards the next room in the house. Following the path, he swept the flashlight back and forth, noticing signs of more damage – a chunk of floor missing here, a hole in the wall there, more parallel lines in the walls, the floors, the ceilings... everywhere. More of the paint adorned the walls and was splattered on the floor.
Ranma stepped through the door way and was seized by a wave of dizziness. Bracing himself on the jamb, his hand came away wet and sticky. He jerked his hand away, and hesitantly brought his hand to his face. "That's blood..." he muttered. His eyes widened as he realized that all liquid was blood. "Pops?" Ranma yelled. "Papa? Where are you? POPS? DAD?" Ranma fought down the panic rising in his stomach.
As he stepped into the other room, the damage to the house got worse. More holes, more lines in the floors and walls, and more blood. Ranma was scared. He raced through the room, sweeping his light back and forth, looking for his father. There was nothing in here save the damage and the blood. So much blood...
"DAAD!!" Ranma worked his way through the house, checking the each room he came across. He had still found no sign of his father, even though his stuff was located in the back bedroom, as far from the pit as possible. One wall of the bedroom had a very large hole knocked in it, opening into a small garden. Ranma clambered though, desperate to find his father.
At first, Ranma didn't find his father as much as he found pieces of him. When Ranma finally found his father, he immediately regretted it. He was in the back of the garden, or at least what was left of him was. Leaning up against a small tea house, Genma had survived for a while, but eventually the loss of blood and massive trauma got to him. He was covered in small cuts over most of his body. His left leg had been severed at the knee, and his right leg was shredded bone deep from the thigh down. Genma had managed to tie a tourniquet around his left leg, though. That was impressive mainly because both his arms were bloody messes. What probably killed him however was the laceration that ran from left hip across his abdomen to his right shoulder and had caused his intestines to spill to the ground.
Even with all his injuries, he had written several things in his own blood on the wall of the tea house.
'Ranma, Master the Cat. Perfect the Art. Learn everything. Take my bag. Find Tendo So...'