Hey everybody!
This is apparently the third time I have started this monster over. I now have great respect for any author that dares undertake a story this large for a rewrite.
It is like writing a whole new story!
I don't know which story is going to receive my attention now. I love 'Guiding the Fallen Angels' and I have people that love it right along side me, but this story has been with me longer. It's deeper in my heart.
My brain works without me and if my muse decides to work with that world then so be it. I am going to try and balance the attention between them. I am going to update GTFA soon. Don't worry.
I really like the concept that this story will bring to the table. I have yet to read a story that takes the same turn this one will- so be prepared to hate me!
Ranma ½ is not mine- enjoy!
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Chapter 1
Hitomi's War
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The callous winds of autumn blew hatefully across the lands of Japan. Brown leaves flitted through the streets as parents ushered their children into warm loving houses.
Charcoal clouds promising rain, storms, and fear rolled softly into the city of Nerima. Shadows grew and concealed the landscape from the light.
Bad omens hung in the electrified air. The sun was dead and the moon was hiding behind its celestial cover.
In the center of the imminently chaotic weather is the hospital of Nerima. A place for the ill and the dying and that night long ago was no exception.
Cradled in the arms of her husband a mother let the strings on her body go. It had become too difficult to hold on and far too futile.
Dumb shocked and hurt the husband refused to leave her side when the doctor's came.
His love was gone.
His hope was dead.
Blood red blotches and dried tears marred his features. His hand was entwined with hers and he had felt her body grow cold.
He felt her death.
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In the waiting room of the hospital a child, the oldest of three, sat in a chair facing away from her siblings and towards the doors where their father had gone. She hadn't had a word spoken to her in hours.
Unlike the rest of her family she was not ignorant to the situation. She was there when her mother collapsed. She was there when her mother shook. She was there when they moved her into ICU.
Before the first nurse looked to her with pity she knew her mother was gone.
Another child sat against the wall next to her little sister. She was exhausted and although she fought it fiercely, she couldn't help but let her eyes close.
Her last thought before she drifted to sleep was how she hoped mother wouldn't be angry with her for not watching over Akane properly.
The last child, a toddler, ripped gaily through the magazines and was quite uncaring about the resulting mess.
'How much longer will it be? Mommy's been in that room forever! I hope she gets up and takes me for ice cream! I want some chocolate ice cream with chocolate coatings and chocolate sprinkles and chocolate chunks and chocolate syrup and...' the toddler began to drool pleasantly while she envisioned a perfect chocolate world.
Her golden eyes sparkled with the happiest of thoughts.
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However on this night the path for one is rewritten. The stray soul heard its call and followed as a moth would a flame.
Like ice on fire, this soul slammed back into creation.
She was reborn...
"Excuse me, are you Hitomi Tendo?"
...and slightly pissed.
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The youngest daughter of the Tendo Clan grew bored and uneasy. Too young to fully understand the feeling growing inside her she assumed her mood was the fault of her sisters. 'They are so boring!'
Looking at her present family warily, the child known as Akane used all of her training to reach the hallways of the hospital undetected.
Once out of sight and danger the toddler ambled down the corridors with a clumsily quick pace.
She was unsure of her destination but something pulled her along.
Something warm and familiar...
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Nothing felt right.
Her children were not by her side and her husband's presence couldn't be felt.
'I can't see anything. What's wrong with my eyes?' Hitomi blinked excess water away and continued to stare into the blinding lights around her. 'Where the hell am I now?'
She could barely see her hands in front of her and the lack of light made things rather difficult.
A frustrated sound escaped her lips.
"Ah, so you are Hitomi. How are you?" The fuzzy creature in front of her was nothing more than a pale unrecognizable figure in the dark. Her eyes were failing to adjust.
Hitomi steadily grew angrier as the moments passed. 'What is going on...?"
"If you are curious as to how you got here, you were battling a disease and you lost." The voice tickled with familiarity. It sounded as if she had heard it all her life.
"So... I am dead. So you must be my ancestor." Her voice was harder to maintain than it used to be. Her vision cleared part of the haze. The man was becoming easier to see.
"Yes." White robes adorned him and billowed in the cherry tree scented breeze. She still couldn't make out much about her setting. However, she could feel cool blades of grass under her feet.
Hitomi found herself in the rare situation where there were lots of questions, but no way to ask. "So," she hesitated, "this is the resting place of my ancestors?" The man had long white hair that moved in synch with his robe in the wind. Curious blue streaks aligned themselves root to tip.
The blue caught her eye. It was the exact hue of her hair.
"No." He seemed to pause merely to confuse her. "Our resting place is waiting for us," he smiled, "all of us, Hitomi. But we won't be returning there for a long time."
The statement left her feeling cold. "So where does that put us?"
His golden eyes twinkled with the midnight sky. "We are taking care of some unfinished business."
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Not long after the nurses came and wheeled out the stiff body of Hitomi Tendo.
Soun became spellbound with the day's progression. Denial coursed through his veins even as his wife was escorted down the hall.
He had to be dreaming...
Any minute now he would awake to her honey brown eyes next to him in bed.
Any minute now he would get to see her teach Kasumi how to cook.
Any minute now he would watch as she taught Nabiki the principals of interest and loan.
Any minute now Akane would cry and there she would be. To kiss it and make it all better.
Any minute now...
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"Do you know why we are here, and not in our rightful resting place?" The man with the gold eyes inquired.
Hitomi deeply breathed in the air around her. It was like nothing she had ever tasted. It lifted her and strengthened her. Even in this body that felt alien to her she could still count on nature to help her.
They were in the middle of a grassy plain, and the greenery took her breath away. Cherry trees scattered themselves around the landscape and ponds of beautiful blue water twinkled under the billions of stars that blanketed the night sky and her and her speaker with light.
"We are part of a war. Our family has direct divine blood from thousands of years ago. Once a battle was fought, one so grand that it spanned everything," he made a grand gesture with his arms, "all dimensions, all realities, all lives were involved in its presence."
"Our heritage pulls us to the surface. That war never ended. You were born to take part in it, but you died to lead it."
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Kasumi wandered through the hospital looking for her sisters. Marks of worry tainted her young and yet beautiful face. Her fist gripped the bottom of her apron as she bit her nails. Her chocolate eyes scanned the halls anxiously.
Nabiki's stubby body appeared from around the corner and fell into step next to her. "Have you found sissy yet?"
Her face was a perfect picture of trepidation. Even at Nabiki's young age Kasumi knew that she would hold herself responsible if anything bad happened to Akane.
"Sister..." Nabiki's high-pitched voice echoed the vacant hallway softly. "When is mother going to wake up?"
Kasumi could do nothing but stare at the floor, but before she could open her mouth to reply, a horrible scream filled the corridor.
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This chapter was SO FRICKING LARGE on my rough draft! I mean seven thousand words! So this bad boy is going to get broken up.
I am having to completely rewrite it... :(
Anywho I need to go to bed now... it is seven am.
Nighty night!
- Lady Mokodane