Resident Ranma

Chapter 2 – "Signs of Life"

Disclaimer)- Why do I even bother? No one ever pays attention to these things, I mean it's not like I try to make them funny or anything. All right let's get this over with, the characters and story concepts belong to other people. The situations they're currently in came directly from my twisted mind.

Authors notes:- as of Monday last week I have a new hard-drive, hardly important I know. What makes it noteworthy is why. Last Monday my nine month old Western Digital harddrive died in a spectacular fashion. At first I thought it was just a fan, turns out the disc inside actually came loose, that means I lost all my work, some hundred plus thousand words of stories, ideas and research. Not to mention eight to nine hundred fanfics and over two hundred gigabytes of downloads. But the distressing part has been the loss of work on updates for my stories, this is the first time I've been motivated to write since, and you can thank Calamity Queen of Cordite for that. So here I continue to write, as I only lost a hard-drive and not my mind, well not recently anyway. You know what'd pick me up even more? Reviews, yes that's right just a few short words to tell me how this chapter makes you feel and I'll feel much better I'm sure.

Ranma stood on the roof of the Tendo residence watching as distant fires spread and consumed the city, they'd all felt the first stirrings of the disease as it swept the city. Hours after the first victims turned the wave of death had been overwhelming and from there Tokyo went rapidly to hell. He shuddered as he remembered the first zombie he'd seen, it, he couldn't call the poor creature a girl had stumbled down the street, its eyes pools of white as the virus took hold of her and destroyed her body, though at that stage it'd looked like a normal teenager except for those eyes. It had known he was there, like it had ki senses or something, or maybe as Khu Lon had postulated a more primitive sense of smell, for that was the sort of mentality that remained to the victims of the T-virus. Then there'd been a veritable flood of shambling zombies, they couldn't reach him inside the safety of the walls but he could sense the hunger that caused them to beat against the buildings wall trying to find a way inside.

The rest of the survivors they'd managed to rescue from the surrounding homes watched the wall, hoping against hope that the overwhelming numbers of zombies wouldn't break down the garden wall.

"Khu Lon! We've gotta do something." Ranma dropped from the eaves as he addressed the Amazon elder.

"You always have to state the obvious don't you sonny boy? What would you suggest, there are nearly twenty thousand soulless monsters on the other side of that wall."

"Yeah, I know. That's not what I meant. Didn't you notice how many people survived around the dojo and your restaurant? Why?" He tried to keep the ice out of his voice, this wasn't the time to object to stupid things like what she called him.

"You know that's a very good question," she looked thoughtfully at the people who were scattered across the crowded grounds of the dojo, there were nearly a hundred and fifty of them not including the pregnant women and the children who were inside the dojo and house. "So what's different here than out there?"

Nabiki sat looking at the wall, she shuddered at a particularly loud groan of hunger, she'd been about to leave the dojo for school when Ranma had grabbed her and dragged her back inside. The way she figured it if he hadn't that could be her on the other side of the wall trying to breach the last bastion of civilization in Nerima, the shivering started again as shock began to overtake her at the closeness of the disaster this time. The problem was there was no way to shut her mind down, not like other people could. A long time ago she'd discovered a trick whereby her mind could continue to function as if she were awake even when she was exhausted and fast asleep. It had given her an edge in the competitive world of high school finance that few others could hope to compete with. Such as now, her mind wouldn't let go of the question even as fear drove her closer to the edge of reason. 'Why? Why? What's different here? What allows us to survive here? Why?' Then she found a corner piece of the puzzle, 'Martial arts! No that can't be it, there's not enough difference, but it's close, what else.' She struggled deeper inside the problem like a terrier hunting its masters prey. 'Not just martial artists, these are the best, the strongest fastest, most powerful martial artists. What do they all have in common? Power? No that's not it either, maybe….ki? Is that it? No it can't be, there's too much ki around here, it shouldn't effect so much of Nerima if it was ki, but it feels right. Well it's better than nothing, let's see what the others think.' Nabiki raised her sunken eyes to regard those around her. Khu Lon was looking even more harried than she did after the Jhusendo incident, the report the elders of the village had sent her had been hair raising even with the positive turn of events.

"Khu Lon?' Nabiki's voice came out tired and scratchy, last night had been terrible, she'd dreamed the entire night about the undead breaking in and her not being able to defend herself as they ate her alive. It'd been so real she woke screaming as she felt the teeth sink into her flesh, so real that she didn't think she'd ever sleep again.

"Yes child?" Khu Lon looked at the haggard expression on the girls face, she'd aged overnight and seemed much older than she had yesterday, but then horror such as this would weaken anyone.

"Could it be your ki levels?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know… It just seems to me that everyone within a certain range of you guys survived. The only thing you have that could defeat the virus that makes any sense is ki. I mean you're all martial artists, but you can't punch a virus out, and there are lots of martial artists in Nerima as a whole, so it can't be that." Nabiki felt a little better, before she'd voiced her suspicion she'd felt helpless, but if she were correct there were possibly others out there who'd survived. How long that would hold true she didn't know, but if they acted quickly they might salvage something. The smoke billowed across the sky as the wind blew towards the distant mountains, turning what should have been early afternoon into a twilight world of shadows. Khu Lon's eyes sharpened as they re-examined the young woman she'd dismissed as a coward.

"What a bright child you are. That sounds almost plausible, no I take that back, not just plausible but likely. What does it mean though."

"Maybe there are others like you out there, protecting people just like you are." The look of hope in her eyes pierced the elders' heart in a way that hadn't happened in a long time, not from an outsider anyway.

"I don't know, but I know how to find out. Ranma!"

"You called Old Gh….Elder Khu Lon?" Ranma stopped what he'd been about to call her before he said something else stupid, what with the number of undead out there it'd only start a panic inside the walls if he called her what he usually did.

"Nabiki raised a possibility that ki is the only thing shielding us here. If that's the case then we have an advantage. Keep this to yourself for the moment, but there's the possibility we're not alone in surviving this, think, do you know any other ki practitioners?"

"Yeah, there's Tofu, Ryoga, Copy c-ca-cat Ken. Several of the shrines in the area use ki to ward off demons. They've been around in some cases for hundreds of years building ki. I can also name at least…let me think…there's…and then…sixty, no sixty one Koryu within twenty miles of here that I know for a fact use ki."

"Would Reiki masters have enough ki?"

"Dunno Na-chan, maybe…Could be worth looking into…but we'd have to be quick, and sure. So what's the plan, tell me you've got one Elder?"

"I've never been in a situation like this before son-in-law, but we're not dealing with anything intelligent. These are mindless creatures, primitive in their needs. Give me a moment…"

"We ain't got a moment…We've gotta do something'!" Ranma clenched his fists releasing little popping sounds as the tendons tightened convulsively.

"You think I don't know that! We can't afford to lose anyone to hasty action here, anything we do had to be balanced against the survival of those already here. If we make one mistake now, we may not get another chance!"

"I'm sorry.. I was outta line…" Ranma watched his feet as they drew lines in the dirt of the yard.

"That's alright Ranma," the youth in question looked up startled at the use of his name for the first time in six or more months, "We're all under a great deal of stress. I want nothing more than to run out there and save everyone I find, but sometimes in war you don't get what you want."

"War?"

"Yes of course it's war, the atrocity of using the ultimate weapon has been committed and now we have to survive the fall-out. What ever we do we have to weigh against the lives of nearly two hundred people. We need information more than anything, we need to know likely sites for survivors, we need to know what provisions we have on hand and how long they'll last. But most of all I want to know how we kill these undead things."

"Well Nabiki here's good at information, if she can't find it I don't know who can. Put Kasumi on the provisions, she'll know what she's got here, and figure out what we need. Dunno about the zombies though, what do ya suggest?"

"What about your parents?" The Amazon elder cast a critical eye over the youths surrounding her looking for direction from her.

"Who Pops and Soun? They crawled into a barrel last night and got smashed out of their skulls. Pops made the mistake of getting up this morning with a hangover, he groaned as he entered the kitchen while looking like death warmed over and mum tried to remove the zombies head. If we weren't in such a bad position I think I woulda' laughed myself sick. He really did look like he'd been dead for a week. I don't think either of them will be up for much today and maybe tomorrow."

"We'll see about that sonny, I have something that'll sober them up very quickly, and it's not pleasant at all." The grim expression on her face lightened for a moment as she exposed perfect teeth in a feral grin. "Any objections?" Nabiki and Ranma shook their heads emphatically as they thought about their fathers dereliction in this time of need.

"Nah, do your worst, whatever they get at this stage is fine by me. As long as they're able to work afterwards."

"Oh I think I can assure you of that much at least. Next thing I need is a list of all the ki adepts inside the walls here."

"You ain't goin senile on us are ya Khu Lon?" THOK, Khu Lon withdrew her cane from the top of Ranma's head as she regarded him with displeasure.

"Insolent pup, if you weren't so necessary I'd teach you better manners. The reason I asked, before you so rudely interrupted was that we need to discuss them in tactical terms. I mean Happosai, yourself and I are easily the strongest ki users here, while your father and Soun Tendo are probably the weakest. I've seen Akane's aura and have to admit it's impressive,"

"Yeah maybe, but she ain't got control of it, Pops and Soun might be weaker in terms of power, but when it comes to control I'd trust them more. As long as there ain't no alcohol around. Only way Akane can use her aura is in battle and then she's gotta be furious for it to manifest."

"Alright I see your point, that gives us eight ki users with Mu Tse and Xian Pu. Any suggestions on how to progress?"

"Well whoever goes out there's gotta be able to maintain a strong aura, an if we're gonna rescue people they've gotta be able to extend the protection outwards. So that means me, you and Happosai. Don't mean to be offensive but if either of you go out there anyone you try to rescue is gonna attack ya thinking you're like them." THOK, Ranma tried to duck the cane this time but knowing it was coming didn't help, the elder was just too damn quick.

"Rudely put, but I see your point. I think there's another thing that may help. Both Xian Pu and Mu Tse are quite adept at using their ki in battle, I think they'll do well in aiding you."

"You're probably right," Ranma continues to rub the knot on top of his head, "Guess we'll have to find out sooner or later. One good thing, if we're wrong whoever goes out there is gonna lose their abilities along with their life. I don't even wanna think about one of them things with the skills of a martial artist."

"So it's settled then, once we have some likely spots to check we send you out in different directions to find any signs of life."

Authors notes:- don't forget to review please, I really hope you enjoyed this chapter short though it may be. I'm trying a new approach on this story, seeing if keeping the size to two or three thousand words gets things updated quicker