Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and its characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz
Video, and a bunch of other people. Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi
and probably the same other people. Etc, etc. you know how this goes.
Speech " "
Thoughts ' '
Sounds
Signs [ ]
English =" "=
Chinese (" ")
------------------------------
Ranma smirked in victory as he held his arm high, feeling the winds of his tornado dying down as his hair fell back down and the grass around him was once again still. The black haired martial artist stood perfectly still for a few moments before looking skyward, searching for his opponent.
"Where the hell is he? He couldn't have gone up that far." Ranma said aloud to himself, wondering where his opponent was. The Saotome boy closed his eyes and tried to remember the clash, something seemed off.
'Hmm. I remember hitting him, and I can remember feeling the blow connect. But then there was that weird energy I felt, and then suddenly it seemed like the blast was passing through him or something...' Ranma opened his eyes and looked skyward again, seeing nothing but blue and clouds.
"Did I vaporize him?" Ranma's musing was cut short by the sound of hundreds of bowstrings becoming taunt and multiple metallic weapons clinking against their hilts.
"You there! Demon! What doest thou in Inuyasha's forest?!" Ranma turned his head and looked towards the small army of angry villagers. Half of them seemed scared out of their minds, and those that weren't visibly quaking in their boots still seemed reluctant to attack. The one that was most prominent though was the old woman that was leading them. Ranma couldn't help but stare at her, noticing the odd katana hilt she was using as an eye patch.
"Demon? Who are you callin' a demon ya old hag?" Ranma scoffed, blowing some hair out of his face as he glared at the woman. Most of the villagers took a step back at his intense stare, though the old woman barely faltered.
"Your human guise does not mask your Demonic aura. Fire!" Had Ranma been expecting them to shoot, he would have dodged a lot more arrows than he did, however he wasn't properly prepared for the assault and was reduced to a pin cushion rather quickly.
"Hey! Watch it! That hurts ya know!" Ranma growled, getting up and pulling the arrows out of his body, revealing little more than flesh damage to the frightened villagers. (1)
"Ye take a hail of arrows yet thou sayst thou are human? Such a jest. Shoot again!" She commanded as Ranma growled, watching the villagers ready more arrows.
"I don't think so. Kachu Tenshin, AMAGURIKEN!!!" Ranma shouted as he rushed towards the villagers just as the arrows flew. In an instant he was standing behind them, a quiver worth of arrows in each hand.
'Impossible! How can he be so fast? He is stronger than I anticipated...' Kaede thought as Ranma crushed the arrows in his hand to a pile of splinters before facing the villagers again.
"Are you done yet?" He asked, getting rather tired of this. He didn't want to have to hurt them, but if they tried to shoot him again he wouldn't have much of a choice. As he said this, however, he brought his aura to bear, surprising all those present, and sending some of them running for their lives.
"Ye say ye be human, yet ye command immense demon energy. Explain thyself! Be ye possessed, enchanted or a demon?" The old woman said, a little unnerved by the powerful blue aura around the strange boy. For the first time she noticed his strange clothing and immediately knew something was up. Clothing like his did not exist in this era.
'He must be from Kagome's time. But does she not come from a time without demons? And Inuyasha's presence, I can feel it on this boy...could it be?' Kaede thought as she looked at Ranma. His face certainly looked like Inuyasha's. If it weren't for the shorter black hair and the human ears she'd say he was a mirror image of him.
"What be thy name?" She asked as Ranma's aura started to fade. Ranma scoffed and shifted his weight before pointing at himself.
"I'm Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes school of Martial Arts. Who are you, ya old hag?" Ranma responded, looking at Kaede with a smirk on his face.
"I am Kaede, the priestess of this village. Thine presence is not welcome here, demon. Leave at once." She said simply before walking back towards the village. The rest of the villagers shortly followed as Ranma just stood there, shaking in annoyance.
"Hey, I ain't going nowhere! Get back here you old hag!" Ranma shouted, watching Kaede leave.
"I have no desire to deal with ye, Reincarnation of Inuyasha. Leave, or face the consequences." Kaede said, not even turning around as she continued heading towards the village.
"Reincarnation of...Wait a minute! Who the hell is Inuyasha!?"
------------------------------------------
Incarnated
Chapter 2
Unmeiai, the Fortune Teller
------------------------------------------
Ranma had an annoyed look on his face as left the village, now sporting a necklace that he couldn't take off.
"Stupid old woman, won't let me in her stupid village. Fine! I don't care! I didn't want to go to her stupid village anyway." Ranma said, struggling to remove the weird prayer beads the priestess had forced on his head with that freaky chant of hers.
---Flashback---
"Hey! Get back her old woman!" Ranma shouted as he ran after Kaede, seeing her turn around and face him as she pulled some prayer beads from her robe.
"I warned ye, demon. Now face thy punishment." She said, chanting as the prayer beads broke apart and encircled Ranma's neck. He barely noticed as he leapt at the old woman, intending to land directly in front of her as she coughed into her hand to clear her throat and look at him.
"Back, boy."(2) The prayer beads around Ranma's neck flashed and he suddenly felt himself freeze in midair and mysteriously get hurled back in the opposite direction, landing roughly on his back a few hundred feet away.
"What the hell was that? What are these things?!" Ranma wondered as he grabbed the beads around his neck and tried to take them off, only to get another back command and get hurled once more. Getting the hint, Ranma quickly stood and growled a bit before leaving, seeing no reason to get hurled again.
---------------
Ranma continued walking and struggling to remove the beads, wondering why the hell they felt like they were fused to his neck as he couldn't budge them an inch.
"Stupid old lady and her stupid beads. Come off damn you!" Ranma commanded, pumping his arms with Ki and pulling with all his strength in a futile attempt to remove them.
"Jeez, this sucks. How can anyone stand to have some magic necklace that screws them over every time someone gives a command?" Ranma muttered in annoyance, continuing on his way.
------------------
Meanwhile
Inuyasha sneezed briefly before dodging another one of Goshinki's blows. He was getting tired of jumping around like an idiot while Goshinki dodged all his attacks.
"You just thought you were tired of jumping around like an idiot while I dodge all your attacks, didn't you?" Goshinki asked as Inuyasha growled and leapt at the giant purple demon.
"I'm tired of your stupid mind reading trick! Wind Scar!!" Inuyasha shouted, slashing Tetsusaiga towards the electric disturbance that represented the wind scar only to be surprised as Goshinki moved with great speed, passing the wind scar before Inuyasha managed to slice it and catching the Tetsusaiga in his mouth.
"Ah, the famous Tetsusaiga. But right now it is nothing more than a dog's tooth." Goshinki managed to say despite having a giant falchion lodged in his gullet as he bit down on the blade. To everyone's shock and surprise the sword snapped in two with amazing ease as Inuyasha landed with little more than a handle.
"Tetsusaiga...You broke it." Inuyasha said in shocked horror when Goshinki suddenly slashed at him, tearing a rather sizable hole in his chest as he was hurled by the blow, Tetsusaiga clattering to the ground nearby and reverting to a rusted, and now broken, katana.
"Inuyasha!!!!!" Kagome shouted, fear clear on her face at seeing him go down.
"Inuyasha, your mind is empty. Is it despair from losing your precious fang or have you died on me?" Goshinki asked, humor clear in his voice. Kagome tries to run to Inuyasha's side only to get stopped by Miroku, who shortly afterward was swatted away by Goshinki.
"you will be the next to die, Kagome." Goshinki said, lumbering forward with unnecessary slowness. Unnoticed by anyone present, Inuyasha's body began to pulse as the wind changed. He stood and growled under his breath, looking at his claws with suddenly blood red eyes as they visibly became stronger and sharper.
'The pain is gone, this new power that runs through me has rid myself of it. Goshinki will die!' Oni-Inuyasha thought as he leapt at Goshinki, ripping his arm in half with the greatest of ease as blood and gore rained down on the grounds around him.
-----------------------
Ranma suddenly felt like he was struck by lightning. His entire being felt like it was being shredded as he fell to the ground in absolute agony.
"AAAARRRGGGG!!!" He screamed out in pain, thrashing around on the dirt road wildly. The soul wrenching pain mysteriously quadrupling in force as his very being felt like it was being shredded.
"You look like you are in much pain child. Having your own soul attempt to kill you must be quite the experience." Ranma looked up through one eye, the other clutched shut tightly from the pain as he looked at the old woman standing before him.
"What'd...you say...you old ghoul?" Ranma struggled to say, trying to get to his knees as the horrific pain sent him back to the ground.
"Stop trying to move, demon boy. It will only make it worse. Your counterparts power up will end soon, do not worry." The old woman said as Ranma continued to thrash. After a few more moments the pain suddenly stopped, returning to the usual annoying throb Ranma was used to.
"It's...It stopped. How'd you know that would happen?" Ranma asked as he stood, seeing he easily towered over the waist high woman.
"I see all with this eye of mine. Past, present, future, fate itself is mine to view. My name is Unmeiai the fortune teller." She said, looking up at Ranma. The boy in question repressed the urge to gasp in shock as he looked at her left eye, which was black where it should be white with 4 irises and pupils, the one in the center being a circle with a diamond shaped pupil, and the three surrounding it being triangles with circular pupils, the triangles slowly rotating around the central iris.
"Whatever, I'm out of here." Ranma said, trying to ignore the creepy eye as he headed down the road.
"I wouldn't go that way if I were you, Ranma Saotome. That pain of yours will only get worse the closer you get to your counterpart. Though at this point you have little choice, as your soul has already entered the final stages of your condition, and would not allow you to traverse back to your own time through the well." Ranma stopped and turned around, looking at the old woman in shock.
"How'd you..."
"I know all, see all. You are Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes, Son of Genma, reincarnation of Inuyasha. You're destiny is an interesting one, truly interesting. Though you're current predicament is the most interesting of all, demon boy." Unmeiai said as Ranma walked over to her and sat down in front of her, putting the two at eye level as Ranma was forced to gaze in the weird eye of hers.
"Alright fortune teller, I believe you're story about seeing destiny an' all. So spill it, how do I stop this pain?" Ranma asked as Unmeiai smirked, looking at him with her weird eye.
"You are in an interesting predicament indeed. One soul cannot exist twice in one time period. To do so is a paradox that threatens the very fabric of time. Currently, you are breaking this rule, as both you and your previous incarnation are alive and well, both having the same amount of the same soul." She said before clearing her throat and continuing.
"Normally having the same soul exist twice is an impossibility, as reincarnation does not take place until a sufficient time has passed, and all existing forms of time travel will not return them to a time where they were incarnated. However, your case is rather interesting, as your soul mate has tampered with that balance." She said as Ranma raised an eyebrow.
"My soul mate, eh?" He said, sounding unconvinced.
"Yes. Soul mates are like two halves of one whole. Where one goes, the other follows. Your soul mates soul from this era, as well as your incarnation's both left this world on the same day, being reincarnated in your time. However, your soul mate returned to the past, and while her previous vessel was long gone, yours was not. It was preserved by a powerful spell, stuck to a tree in the nearby forest." Unmeiai said, making sure Ranma was paying attention before continuing.
"This rift in time between your souls had to be rectified. Under normal circumstances, either you would find yourself in the past or your soul mate would return to the future. Unfortunately, she came across your previous vessel. Your soul needed to return to hers, but rather than bringing you to the past it took the easier rout, and reentered the preserved vessel. Inuyasha was revived and is now still alive. This caused a major problem you're your soul existed twice in a time frame where it could easily coexist thanks to present time travel methods, but no problem would occur as long as you stayed in your respective eras. But that didn't happen, did it?" The fortuneteller said, finishing in an accusative tone as she narrowed her normal eye at Ranma.
"Hey, don't blame me, alright? I don't even know how I got here." Ranma said, a little annoyed by the way she was looking at him.
"Yes, I know that. The thing is, when your soul mate journeyed back in time and caused the resurrection of your previous incarnation, she changed her destiny, and yours by association. She and your previous incarnation bonded like soul mates would, dooming you to a life without yours. Thus, destiny had you set to be with another woman. You two would not get along well and your relationship would end, causing you to split and met other people. You would continue your life going from person to person, never truly being happy until you died, and reunited with your soul mate in the next life. However, due to a magical incantation your destiny changed again. You have been split from the woman you were supposed to end up with permanently, making your destiny fall back on its original plan. Thus, fate was manipulated in such a way that the two of you would meet. This resulted in you and your previous incarnation to come into contact, bringing us to your condition and the pain you feel." The fortuneteller said as Ranma yawned a bit, being a little annoyed with the long speech.
"About time..." He muttered as Unmeiai just ignored him and continued.
"You have created a paradox by coming into contact with your previous incarnation, thus both your souls are trying to fix the paradox in the easiest way, killing its host." That got Ranma's attention real fast as he sat up and shocked in shock, quieting down as the old woman began to continue.
"Should one of you perish, then your soul would go to the spirit world and the paradox will be gone, as only one soul would remain. However, the will of both yourself and your counterpart is far stronger than the stability of your soul, meaning that you won't be able to die from this pain."
"Well that's a relief." Ranma said, visibly relaxing.
"Instead, you're soul will destroy itself, eradicating you and all your incarnations, past and future, from existence."
"WHAT?!?!?" Ranma shouted in horror, jumping to his feet and staring at the woman. That just couldn't be!
"There's got to be some way to stop this, there has to be!" He said, getting a bit hysterical.
"Unfortunately, I only know of one. Either hope your incarnation dies before your soul is destroyed, or kill yourself. At least then you will be reincarnated." Ranma collapsed to the ground at that point, feeling the pain in his soul again as he thought about his choices.
"There may be another way, though." At this Ranma sat back up and looked eagerly at the old woman, willing to do anything at that point.
"What is it? I'll do whatever it is!"
"Well, I'm not quite sure what would occur should you and your counterpart meet face to face. The closer you are to one another, the more the pain intensifies, but should contact be made, who knows what could occur. It is very likely that your souls will leave your bodies, and erratically move between you two in an attempt to normalize and possibly succeed. It is also possible that it could destroy the both of you. I'm not sure." Ranma firmed his gaze at that and nodded his head, before walking down the path.
"Where are you going?" Unmeiai asked as she saw Ranma walking away.
"I'm going to find that previous incarnation of myself and kick his ass if I have to. I ain't getting erased from existence!" Ranma shouted back, not bothering to turn around.
"The pain will only get worse when you get closer. I doubt you will be able to stand by the time to meet him." Ranma didn't really care about her warnings as he kept walking, knowing he was going the right way since the pain was slowly intensifying.
"One last thing before you go child. Do not fear the cat eye, it will be your salvation. Though if it becomes a blessing or a curse is up to you." With that, Unmeiai turned and walked away, going the opposite way Ranma was heading.
"I'll keep that in mind."
----------------------
TBC
(1) Ranma has been shot in the head with an arrow before and was barely harmed, so I assume he could handle a volley.
(2) A command given to dogs to get them to go away from you, thus it hurls Ranma. I figured if Inuyasha has one, Ranma should too.
--Ryo-Wolf----
Speech " "
Thoughts ' '
Sounds
Signs [ ]
English =" "=
Chinese (" ")
------------------------------
Ranma smirked in victory as he held his arm high, feeling the winds of his tornado dying down as his hair fell back down and the grass around him was once again still. The black haired martial artist stood perfectly still for a few moments before looking skyward, searching for his opponent.
"Where the hell is he? He couldn't have gone up that far." Ranma said aloud to himself, wondering where his opponent was. The Saotome boy closed his eyes and tried to remember the clash, something seemed off.
'Hmm. I remember hitting him, and I can remember feeling the blow connect. But then there was that weird energy I felt, and then suddenly it seemed like the blast was passing through him or something...' Ranma opened his eyes and looked skyward again, seeing nothing but blue and clouds.
"Did I vaporize him?" Ranma's musing was cut short by the sound of hundreds of bowstrings becoming taunt and multiple metallic weapons clinking against their hilts.
"You there! Demon! What doest thou in Inuyasha's forest?!" Ranma turned his head and looked towards the small army of angry villagers. Half of them seemed scared out of their minds, and those that weren't visibly quaking in their boots still seemed reluctant to attack. The one that was most prominent though was the old woman that was leading them. Ranma couldn't help but stare at her, noticing the odd katana hilt she was using as an eye patch.
"Demon? Who are you callin' a demon ya old hag?" Ranma scoffed, blowing some hair out of his face as he glared at the woman. Most of the villagers took a step back at his intense stare, though the old woman barely faltered.
"Your human guise does not mask your Demonic aura. Fire!" Had Ranma been expecting them to shoot, he would have dodged a lot more arrows than he did, however he wasn't properly prepared for the assault and was reduced to a pin cushion rather quickly.
"Hey! Watch it! That hurts ya know!" Ranma growled, getting up and pulling the arrows out of his body, revealing little more than flesh damage to the frightened villagers. (1)
"Ye take a hail of arrows yet thou sayst thou are human? Such a jest. Shoot again!" She commanded as Ranma growled, watching the villagers ready more arrows.
"I don't think so. Kachu Tenshin, AMAGURIKEN!!!" Ranma shouted as he rushed towards the villagers just as the arrows flew. In an instant he was standing behind them, a quiver worth of arrows in each hand.
'Impossible! How can he be so fast? He is stronger than I anticipated...' Kaede thought as Ranma crushed the arrows in his hand to a pile of splinters before facing the villagers again.
"Are you done yet?" He asked, getting rather tired of this. He didn't want to have to hurt them, but if they tried to shoot him again he wouldn't have much of a choice. As he said this, however, he brought his aura to bear, surprising all those present, and sending some of them running for their lives.
"Ye say ye be human, yet ye command immense demon energy. Explain thyself! Be ye possessed, enchanted or a demon?" The old woman said, a little unnerved by the powerful blue aura around the strange boy. For the first time she noticed his strange clothing and immediately knew something was up. Clothing like his did not exist in this era.
'He must be from Kagome's time. But does she not come from a time without demons? And Inuyasha's presence, I can feel it on this boy...could it be?' Kaede thought as she looked at Ranma. His face certainly looked like Inuyasha's. If it weren't for the shorter black hair and the human ears she'd say he was a mirror image of him.
"What be thy name?" She asked as Ranma's aura started to fade. Ranma scoffed and shifted his weight before pointing at himself.
"I'm Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes school of Martial Arts. Who are you, ya old hag?" Ranma responded, looking at Kaede with a smirk on his face.
"I am Kaede, the priestess of this village. Thine presence is not welcome here, demon. Leave at once." She said simply before walking back towards the village. The rest of the villagers shortly followed as Ranma just stood there, shaking in annoyance.
"Hey, I ain't going nowhere! Get back here you old hag!" Ranma shouted, watching Kaede leave.
"I have no desire to deal with ye, Reincarnation of Inuyasha. Leave, or face the consequences." Kaede said, not even turning around as she continued heading towards the village.
"Reincarnation of...Wait a minute! Who the hell is Inuyasha!?"
------------------------------------------
Incarnated
Chapter 2
Unmeiai, the Fortune Teller
------------------------------------------
Ranma had an annoyed look on his face as left the village, now sporting a necklace that he couldn't take off.
"Stupid old woman, won't let me in her stupid village. Fine! I don't care! I didn't want to go to her stupid village anyway." Ranma said, struggling to remove the weird prayer beads the priestess had forced on his head with that freaky chant of hers.
---Flashback---
"Hey! Get back her old woman!" Ranma shouted as he ran after Kaede, seeing her turn around and face him as she pulled some prayer beads from her robe.
"I warned ye, demon. Now face thy punishment." She said, chanting as the prayer beads broke apart and encircled Ranma's neck. He barely noticed as he leapt at the old woman, intending to land directly in front of her as she coughed into her hand to clear her throat and look at him.
"Back, boy."(2) The prayer beads around Ranma's neck flashed and he suddenly felt himself freeze in midair and mysteriously get hurled back in the opposite direction, landing roughly on his back a few hundred feet away.
"What the hell was that? What are these things?!" Ranma wondered as he grabbed the beads around his neck and tried to take them off, only to get another back command and get hurled once more. Getting the hint, Ranma quickly stood and growled a bit before leaving, seeing no reason to get hurled again.
---------------
Ranma continued walking and struggling to remove the beads, wondering why the hell they felt like they were fused to his neck as he couldn't budge them an inch.
"Stupid old lady and her stupid beads. Come off damn you!" Ranma commanded, pumping his arms with Ki and pulling with all his strength in a futile attempt to remove them.
"Jeez, this sucks. How can anyone stand to have some magic necklace that screws them over every time someone gives a command?" Ranma muttered in annoyance, continuing on his way.
------------------
Meanwhile
Inuyasha sneezed briefly before dodging another one of Goshinki's blows. He was getting tired of jumping around like an idiot while Goshinki dodged all his attacks.
"You just thought you were tired of jumping around like an idiot while I dodge all your attacks, didn't you?" Goshinki asked as Inuyasha growled and leapt at the giant purple demon.
"I'm tired of your stupid mind reading trick! Wind Scar!!" Inuyasha shouted, slashing Tetsusaiga towards the electric disturbance that represented the wind scar only to be surprised as Goshinki moved with great speed, passing the wind scar before Inuyasha managed to slice it and catching the Tetsusaiga in his mouth.
"Ah, the famous Tetsusaiga. But right now it is nothing more than a dog's tooth." Goshinki managed to say despite having a giant falchion lodged in his gullet as he bit down on the blade. To everyone's shock and surprise the sword snapped in two with amazing ease as Inuyasha landed with little more than a handle.
"Tetsusaiga...You broke it." Inuyasha said in shocked horror when Goshinki suddenly slashed at him, tearing a rather sizable hole in his chest as he was hurled by the blow, Tetsusaiga clattering to the ground nearby and reverting to a rusted, and now broken, katana.
"Inuyasha!!!!!" Kagome shouted, fear clear on her face at seeing him go down.
"Inuyasha, your mind is empty. Is it despair from losing your precious fang or have you died on me?" Goshinki asked, humor clear in his voice. Kagome tries to run to Inuyasha's side only to get stopped by Miroku, who shortly afterward was swatted away by Goshinki.
"you will be the next to die, Kagome." Goshinki said, lumbering forward with unnecessary slowness. Unnoticed by anyone present, Inuyasha's body began to pulse as the wind changed. He stood and growled under his breath, looking at his claws with suddenly blood red eyes as they visibly became stronger and sharper.
'The pain is gone, this new power that runs through me has rid myself of it. Goshinki will die!' Oni-Inuyasha thought as he leapt at Goshinki, ripping his arm in half with the greatest of ease as blood and gore rained down on the grounds around him.
-----------------------
Ranma suddenly felt like he was struck by lightning. His entire being felt like it was being shredded as he fell to the ground in absolute agony.
"AAAARRRGGGG!!!" He screamed out in pain, thrashing around on the dirt road wildly. The soul wrenching pain mysteriously quadrupling in force as his very being felt like it was being shredded.
"You look like you are in much pain child. Having your own soul attempt to kill you must be quite the experience." Ranma looked up through one eye, the other clutched shut tightly from the pain as he looked at the old woman standing before him.
"What'd...you say...you old ghoul?" Ranma struggled to say, trying to get to his knees as the horrific pain sent him back to the ground.
"Stop trying to move, demon boy. It will only make it worse. Your counterparts power up will end soon, do not worry." The old woman said as Ranma continued to thrash. After a few more moments the pain suddenly stopped, returning to the usual annoying throb Ranma was used to.
"It's...It stopped. How'd you know that would happen?" Ranma asked as he stood, seeing he easily towered over the waist high woman.
"I see all with this eye of mine. Past, present, future, fate itself is mine to view. My name is Unmeiai the fortune teller." She said, looking up at Ranma. The boy in question repressed the urge to gasp in shock as he looked at her left eye, which was black where it should be white with 4 irises and pupils, the one in the center being a circle with a diamond shaped pupil, and the three surrounding it being triangles with circular pupils, the triangles slowly rotating around the central iris.
"Whatever, I'm out of here." Ranma said, trying to ignore the creepy eye as he headed down the road.
"I wouldn't go that way if I were you, Ranma Saotome. That pain of yours will only get worse the closer you get to your counterpart. Though at this point you have little choice, as your soul has already entered the final stages of your condition, and would not allow you to traverse back to your own time through the well." Ranma stopped and turned around, looking at the old woman in shock.
"How'd you..."
"I know all, see all. You are Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes, Son of Genma, reincarnation of Inuyasha. You're destiny is an interesting one, truly interesting. Though you're current predicament is the most interesting of all, demon boy." Unmeiai said as Ranma walked over to her and sat down in front of her, putting the two at eye level as Ranma was forced to gaze in the weird eye of hers.
"Alright fortune teller, I believe you're story about seeing destiny an' all. So spill it, how do I stop this pain?" Ranma asked as Unmeiai smirked, looking at him with her weird eye.
"You are in an interesting predicament indeed. One soul cannot exist twice in one time period. To do so is a paradox that threatens the very fabric of time. Currently, you are breaking this rule, as both you and your previous incarnation are alive and well, both having the same amount of the same soul." She said before clearing her throat and continuing.
"Normally having the same soul exist twice is an impossibility, as reincarnation does not take place until a sufficient time has passed, and all existing forms of time travel will not return them to a time where they were incarnated. However, your case is rather interesting, as your soul mate has tampered with that balance." She said as Ranma raised an eyebrow.
"My soul mate, eh?" He said, sounding unconvinced.
"Yes. Soul mates are like two halves of one whole. Where one goes, the other follows. Your soul mates soul from this era, as well as your incarnation's both left this world on the same day, being reincarnated in your time. However, your soul mate returned to the past, and while her previous vessel was long gone, yours was not. It was preserved by a powerful spell, stuck to a tree in the nearby forest." Unmeiai said, making sure Ranma was paying attention before continuing.
"This rift in time between your souls had to be rectified. Under normal circumstances, either you would find yourself in the past or your soul mate would return to the future. Unfortunately, she came across your previous vessel. Your soul needed to return to hers, but rather than bringing you to the past it took the easier rout, and reentered the preserved vessel. Inuyasha was revived and is now still alive. This caused a major problem you're your soul existed twice in a time frame where it could easily coexist thanks to present time travel methods, but no problem would occur as long as you stayed in your respective eras. But that didn't happen, did it?" The fortuneteller said, finishing in an accusative tone as she narrowed her normal eye at Ranma.
"Hey, don't blame me, alright? I don't even know how I got here." Ranma said, a little annoyed by the way she was looking at him.
"Yes, I know that. The thing is, when your soul mate journeyed back in time and caused the resurrection of your previous incarnation, she changed her destiny, and yours by association. She and your previous incarnation bonded like soul mates would, dooming you to a life without yours. Thus, destiny had you set to be with another woman. You two would not get along well and your relationship would end, causing you to split and met other people. You would continue your life going from person to person, never truly being happy until you died, and reunited with your soul mate in the next life. However, due to a magical incantation your destiny changed again. You have been split from the woman you were supposed to end up with permanently, making your destiny fall back on its original plan. Thus, fate was manipulated in such a way that the two of you would meet. This resulted in you and your previous incarnation to come into contact, bringing us to your condition and the pain you feel." The fortuneteller said as Ranma yawned a bit, being a little annoyed with the long speech.
"About time..." He muttered as Unmeiai just ignored him and continued.
"You have created a paradox by coming into contact with your previous incarnation, thus both your souls are trying to fix the paradox in the easiest way, killing its host." That got Ranma's attention real fast as he sat up and shocked in shock, quieting down as the old woman began to continue.
"Should one of you perish, then your soul would go to the spirit world and the paradox will be gone, as only one soul would remain. However, the will of both yourself and your counterpart is far stronger than the stability of your soul, meaning that you won't be able to die from this pain."
"Well that's a relief." Ranma said, visibly relaxing.
"Instead, you're soul will destroy itself, eradicating you and all your incarnations, past and future, from existence."
"WHAT?!?!?" Ranma shouted in horror, jumping to his feet and staring at the woman. That just couldn't be!
"There's got to be some way to stop this, there has to be!" He said, getting a bit hysterical.
"Unfortunately, I only know of one. Either hope your incarnation dies before your soul is destroyed, or kill yourself. At least then you will be reincarnated." Ranma collapsed to the ground at that point, feeling the pain in his soul again as he thought about his choices.
"There may be another way, though." At this Ranma sat back up and looked eagerly at the old woman, willing to do anything at that point.
"What is it? I'll do whatever it is!"
"Well, I'm not quite sure what would occur should you and your counterpart meet face to face. The closer you are to one another, the more the pain intensifies, but should contact be made, who knows what could occur. It is very likely that your souls will leave your bodies, and erratically move between you two in an attempt to normalize and possibly succeed. It is also possible that it could destroy the both of you. I'm not sure." Ranma firmed his gaze at that and nodded his head, before walking down the path.
"Where are you going?" Unmeiai asked as she saw Ranma walking away.
"I'm going to find that previous incarnation of myself and kick his ass if I have to. I ain't getting erased from existence!" Ranma shouted back, not bothering to turn around.
"The pain will only get worse when you get closer. I doubt you will be able to stand by the time to meet him." Ranma didn't really care about her warnings as he kept walking, knowing he was going the right way since the pain was slowly intensifying.
"One last thing before you go child. Do not fear the cat eye, it will be your salvation. Though if it becomes a blessing or a curse is up to you." With that, Unmeiai turned and walked away, going the opposite way Ranma was heading.
"I'll keep that in mind."
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TBC
(1) Ranma has been shot in the head with an arrow before and was barely harmed, so I assume he could handle a volley.
(2) A command given to dogs to get them to go away from you, thus it hurls Ranma. I figured if Inuyasha has one, Ranma should too.
--Ryo-Wolf----