A new Ranma 1/2 story idea, enjoy.
Immortal Wild Horse, Prologue PT. 1
Far away from any civil sites, where there is a huge thick forest. Deep within the forest lies numerous beasts roaming through the woods. A dangerous and uncharted area that no ordinary person would dare to venture into. Only the bravest and strongest men armed with weapons and strength may enter, and accept challenges from the beasts. No person alive would dare to stay in that forest for days…
…if not for a cabin in the middle of, say dangerous forest.
Though a cabin, not only wood but stones are also mixed with it, making it look durable as if someone wanted to make sure it stays still and protected. The cabin is surrounded by wooden fences, oddly they have some sort of vines around them, it may look like a lack of maintenance but on the contrary, it seems to be planted there on purpose. On the left side there is a garden in two sections, and on the right side seems to be an empty lot, looking like it's meant for combat practice. Behind the cabin, is another cabin, made of stones with metal reinforcement into it.
Inside the cabin, lays a bed as someone snores. The sunlight from the window shines on the person, waking him as he groans. He sits up, revealing himself to be a young man in his teens with black hair and a pigtail, he opens his eyes to reveal to be blue, he also has an athletic physique showing that he has years of training, plus he had a few scars on his limbs. The young man's name is Ranma Saotome.
Ranma yawns before he gets off the bed, stretching himself. He wondered out loud. "What's on the agenda for today?"
"There's morning training before breakfast, hunting for my breakfast, checking my garden, patrolling for any bandits or stronger monsters, basic training, hunting for my lunch, daily meditation, and there's also inventory on the stocks that I decided yesterday…" Ranma counts, even the inventory that he decided on doing yesterday. He shrugged. "Pretty much the same things I've been doing."
Rid of the feeling of sleepiness, Ranma began his day by going outside and entering the empty lot. He starts by doing slow katas. He does it for about five minutes until he starts to pick up the pace and do combat movements, demonstrating his martial art experiences.
After much time passed, getting to feel his body warm up and moving completely freely, Ranma ended his training. He walks towards a small tub resting in a stone pillar, he puts his hand in front as a blue magic circle appears horizontally and water comes out, filling the tub. Then Ranma splashes his face, washing off the sweat, after a moment of cleaning Ranma's eyes locked on the reflection of his face on the water.
"I still look the same." Ranma said out loud in a melancholy tone. He stares at his face and wears a melancholy expression, no matter how many times he sees it he can't help but feel the sense of reminder about the what and how it got him here now. "Sometimes, I wish I could grow a beard for a change."
Shaken off his thoughts, knowing that thinking about it won't do anything, Ranma went back inside. About 5 minutes later, Ranma comes out wearing a new set of clothes, a green tang shirt with a leather belt around the waist and dark blue pants. With new clothes on, Ranma goes through the fence to catch his breakfast.
Ranma walks through the forest for about 10 minutes or so, meanwhile, he was thinking about what he should hunt, the forest is crawling with many beasts and each one has a different taste through experiences.
"I'm pretty much sick of Killer Rabbits, that's what I've always been hunting and eating in the morning. Wish there was a new prey that pops out." Ranma groaned, for a while, he's been hunting Killer Rabbits every morning and he starts to crave something new.
Just then, Ranma hears sounds of bush rustling and snapping sticks, turning to the source, from 10 feet away, he sees a huge animal coming out of the bushes. It was a boar, but unlike regular boars, this one is huge, roughly the same size as a hippopotamus, it's crimson hide with a black underbelly, and black fur from head to back and tusks. The appearance and size of such an animal would make any person jump in fright and begin to panic, except it wasn't a normal animal but a beast and especially when they knew what they were facing. Though, Ranma was rather calm.
"What do you know; a Berserk Boar." Ranma said casually, he was not bothered by the beast suddenly popping out.
The beast, known as the Berserk Boar, angrily growled at the human before it, preparing to take him out. Anyone coming face to face with a Berserk Boar is in danger, a gamble for their lives if they do not run. Only trained and veteran warriors can defeat such a foe.
"Meh. You're pretty much like Ryoga in a way; angry in a pig form." Ranma is unaffected by the Berserk Boar's intimidated growl and nonchalantly compares the beast with Ryoga Hibiki. But one thing for sure in Ranma's mind; he found what he'll have for breakfast.
The Berserk Boar roared, charging towards the human in front, aiming to slam him. Ranma just stood his ground and raised his right hand.
POW!
A loud impact sound was ringing around, as the Berserk Boar was now in front of Ranma, with his hand and index finger pointing at the beast, but it stood there like a statue. Before long the beast went limp and fell to the ground, laying lifeless. Ranma stares at the dead Berserk Boar, he has defeated the Berserk Boar, using his index finger to jab at the beast's forehead. He used the right strength to send a shockwave that broke apart the Boar's brain.
"Another easy win." Ranma smirked, he would usually be smug but he was unaffected, like a feeling of tiredness. Putting aside, he stared down at the Boar. "Been a long time since I last ate pork, and I'm starting to crave bacon now."
Just then, he heard new rustling sounds and turned to see two rabbits coming out of the bushes. These were not ordinary rabbits as they are twice the size and bare their fangs, these were Killer Rabbits.
Ranma shows no expressions or reactions to their sudden entrance, despite looking like they're gonna chop him. "Sorry guys, but I'm having pork, so…"
Ranma turns his head to look at them… with a glare. "get lost."
The Killer Rabbits shriek, and they quickly run away in fear. Seeing them gone satisfying Ranma, he, really, is getting sick of Killer Rabbit but now he has pork.
Carrying the Berserk Boar, Ranma arrived at his cabin, once inside he dismantled the beast, separating the hide, bones and meat.
Putting a piece aside, Ranma raised his hands in front and a pale blue magic circle appeared, then an icy wind came out freezing the rest of the meat, and encasing them in ice. He planned on saving them later, for lunch and dinner, even for tomorrow.
Putting the ice-cased meats in a metal box, Ranma starts cooking his breakfast.
Slicing the meat, and frying them in the pan.
Peeling the potatoes before putting them in a wooden pot above a pot.
Breaking apart lettuce, and slicing cucumbers.
After roughly 10 minutes, Ranma finishes and has himself a plate of Thick Berserk Boar Bacons (six slices), Steamed Potatoes and a Salad Bowl beside.
"Wish I had some rice to go with." Ranma wished, he looong craves good old rice. Putting the thought aside, he put his hands together. "Itadakimasu."
After breakfast, Ranma went on with his agenda, going outside as he went to the garden. He had grown vegetables in the garden since he also needed fresh ones for balanced meals.
"Okay, let's see…" Ranma looks at the vegetables to see what state they are in. Going one by one, he looks at them, even touching them. "The lettuces are fine, so are the cabbages, the cucumbers look great, the tomatoes aren't ripe yet, eggplants still need to grow, and the potatoes are looking great." He listed all the states they are in and didn't find any problems.
"Alright, that's it for the vegetables, now onto the herbs." He goes to the second section, not only did he grow vegetables but he also tended herbs, for many uses.
Looking around the herbs, he saw they were just fine as the vegetables, he spotted something that caught his attention. "Huh, look at that, the Daisytigers are in bloom. Might as well collect them to make potions later."
Taking out scissors, he cut the herbs and put them in a basket before going inside. Once putting the herbs aside, he went out again, going back to the woods and starting his patrol.
"I hope I won't encounter bandits… I don't have enough room to store, gotta either expand or ditch some of them. Maybe recycle them as metal materials for construction." Ranma pondered, the last inventory he noticed was a larger number of weapons he had confiscated from bandits and it started to get piled up. He could use new metals for construction later, he barely found any iron ore in the forest.
Ranma continues to walk through the woods, something he does for a looong time. His patrols usually lead him to fight the beasts residing in the forest, and on rare occasions, bandits that came to the forest. Some other times, he would find something new or use what's been growing, and sometimes look for a powerful beast that could give him a challenge.
"This tree has grown a lot since I last saw it. How long was it? 30, 40?" Ranma looked at the tree, one hand on the trunk, he remembered that it used to be small.
Just then, Ranma senses something; he senses a person's Ki.
"That's a person's Ki, but… it's so small." Ranma has been keeping his Ki sense up since starting his patrol, to know who or what may come. At the moment, he's sensing a single person's Ki, on rare occasions, travellers would enter the forest and when danger arrived they would run away which led Ranma to save them, but the Ki he's sensing is rather too small for a grown person.
Ranma went ahead to the source. Usually, when a person's Ki is too small, it is a sign that they are dying. Ranma has experiences of sensing a person's Ki faded away before they died, he wouldn't care if it was a bandit. Though, the Ki does not seem to be depleting, hence Ranma's pondering.
As Ranma walks forward, he senses the Ki closed and stops as he looks at who it is. Sitting on the ground arms crossed on the legs and back on a tree was a little girl, around 3, she has messy red-orange hair and she has what appeared to be animal ears and a tail with strips, the only clothing she has is a plain ragged brown robe.
"A kid?" Ranma blinked, he would have never guessed he found a child alone in the forest and would explain why the Ki was so small.
'What's a kid doing here? Especially alone, at her age nonetheless.' He pondered, wondering why a child would be in the forest all by herself. He pays close attention to her animal characteristics and realized what she is. 'She's a beastman too, more like beastgirl. Probably of the tiger tribe, though…'
He had a hard time figuring out what kind of beastfolk the girl is. The ears and tail's fur colour indicated that of a tiger with black stripes and all, but the shape of the ears is different and the tail is much furrier, almost making him think of a wolf. Ranma puts aside those thoughts as he goes towards the child, as he approaches he crouches down to meet the little girl's level.
"Hey, kid…" Ranma called her as the little girl lifted her head to see him, with her green eyes. Gently as he could, Ranma asked the child. "What are you doing all alone out here?"
"..." The girl didn't reply.
Seeing that she didn't respond, Ranma asked another question, hoping that she was not mute. "Do you know where your parents are? Your mom, your dad."
The little girl began to wear a saddened expression, burying her face in her arms. "Mama…" She muttered under her sniffling.
Seeing this, Ranma began to ponder. 'Pretty sure no parents would let their kid in the middle of the woods for no reason, unless…'
Hoping that a worse case didn't happen, Ranma lifted himself, he turned around to either see or sense any other people, but sadly there were none. 'No other people around, not even the fadest Ki. Gotta make sure, but first…'
Ranma turns back to the sniffling girl, he has to do what he gotta.
"Hey kid," The little girl lifted her head, with teary eyes, looking at Ranma as he asked with a smile. "would you like to come to my place? It's warm and I got food."
The little girl stares at Ranma, she sees the genuineness in his smile and a fuzzy feeling begins to form in her chest as if this mister is nice and can be trusted.
The little girl nodded.
Ranma was glad, a part of him was doubting that he could convince a lost child to come to his place. He asked the little girl. "Got a name?"
The little girl tilted her head.
Seeing it, Ranma wonders if he asked in the wrong way. He put his hand on his chest. "Ranma." He then points at the kid. "You?"
Understanding what Ranma tried to ask, the little girl struggles to tell him. "Se… Sehr… Sehrah… Serrah…"
"'Serra'?" Ranma repeated the name, he did have a hard time hearing it and at the same time wondered if he had pronounced the name.
The little girl looks down for a moment before looking at him and nodding her head, which confuses Ranma.
'It's like she's having trouble remembering. Well, she does look around 2 to 3, that or might be something else.' Ranma wondered. But putting aside the thought, he reached his hand to the little girl.
"Let's go, Serra." He said with a genuine smile.
Carrying Serra in his arms, Ranma turns back and walks towards the only shelter in the forest. He walks for a while, holding on to the little beastgirl and secretly scaring off any small beasts that approach them. After some time, they arrived in front of the fences of the cabin.
"Here, we are, home sweet home." Ranma declared for Serra to look.
They enter the cabin as Serra is looking inside with curiosity. Seeing it, Ranma chuckles and jokes. "Yeah… not exactly big, meant for one guy living alone."
Gurlugurlugurlu!
A sound caught their attention, looking at where came from; Serra's belly.
"Hungry, aren' cha?" Ranma asked, with a teasing tone. Serra nodded her head.
"But first, you need to wash up." Ranma said, Serra was dirty after all.
He brought her towards a large tub at the corner, placed her down beside it, and before long extended his arms as the familiar blue magic circle appeared and poured water in the tub. The action made Serra surprised, she stared at it until Ranma stopped and the magic circle disappeared. Ranma then placed his hand on the water, before activating a red magic circle, bubbles appeared around his arm as steam began to come out of the water. Sensing the right temperature, he cancelled it and pulled back his hand. He turns to Serra who looks at him…
SPLASH!
"Wow!"
SPLASH-SPLASH!
"Hey!"
SPLASH!
"Hold still! I'm not-!"
SPLASH!
Ranma dries his hair with a towel after the splashes that Serra made, as soon as he put the little beastgirl into the tub, Serra was freaking out causing splashes as Ranma struggled to keep her still and wash her. He turns to see Serra, sitting on a chair with a towel wrapped around her, pouting with her ears folded. Ranma turns away wearing a sore expression, taking care of a child ain't easy as it seems as he thought.
After drying his hair, he went to the kitchen and pulled out the tools. He then pulled out the frozen meat from the metal box. "Still got the Berserk Boar meat, so I'll cross out lunch hunting off the list and have lunch earlier."
Since he has a hungry child, he can't afford to take too much time, he'll have to prepare fast.
Defrosting the meat and slicing. Controlling the heat temperature to grill the meat. Braising with sauce. Steaming the vegetables.
After 10 minutes, Ranma brings two plates to the table, putting one in front of Serra with the meat cut into bits.
"Here ya go, one serving of Grilled Berserk Boar with fresh vegetables from the garden. I even cut the meat into bits for you." As Ranma presents the food, Serra stares at it with a droll hanging in her mouth.
"Well, itadakimasu." Ranma grabs his fork and stabs a piece before eating it. He sees Serra, who is wolfing down using her bare hands.
"Typical little kid who has yet to know manners." Ranma chuckled with a sweatdrop. But his expression changed out of concern. 'Can't blame her, though. Not sure how long she's been here in the forest.'
As the two ate, Ranma soon realized that it was the first time he had a guest right now, he can't remember the last time he gave hospitality and the only time he did was in civilization. He thought for sure he had forgotten, it was a surprise even for him.
As soon as they are done, Ranma washes the dishes while Serra, wearing a long shirt that covers her up, turns her head at every spot, looking around. The pigtailed teen noticed it, approaching the little girl.
"Curious about my house?" Ranma asked, earning the little beastgirl's attention. He rubs the back of his neck, he knows that he needs to entertain Serra in some way, but his house is rather small and nothing to explore. "Well… there's nothing special around, except…"
Ranma and Serra were outside and right in front of the garden. Ranma hopes that showing it may fill the little girl's curiosity, kids are always curious and would often want to see things.
"See here, this is the garden I'm tending to. Using it so I can be self-sufficient." Ranma explained, but then seeing Serra tilted her head. Quickly realizing this, he translated his meaning.
"Ah, it means I grow my own vegetables so I can eat. Better than looking around the forest, I tried before and only found mushrooms." He then points at the other section where his herbs grow. "This one is where I grow the vegetables, as in the other one I grow some herbs."
They move towards the herb garden. Serra saw variants of herbs, some looking in different shapes, some having bulbs and others pretty flowers.
"I grow them so I can make some homemade potions." Earning another look and tilted head. "They're like medicines to cure anything."
Then Ranma brings her back inside, he digs through a cabinet and pulls out a small beige bag. He digs through the bag and pulls out a bottle before placing it on the table, he then pulls out another, and another, another, but then pulls out a different coloured bottle before pulling another. After a short moment, over 20 bottles are presented on the table… 20 bottles from a small bag… Ranma shows the potions to the curious Serra.
"See those, they are potions I've made. Although I'm no expert, I've only learned some of the basics and common recipes from an old friend a long time ago." Ranma said. Soon, he began to recall one of his friends who taught him but goes to reality and explains further. "So, I only made low healing potions, antidotes, potions to restore mana, and other potions against ailments."
"And right now, I got fresh ingredients to make another potion." Ranma then shows the herbs he picked today, Serra eyeing the flowers on Ranma's hand. "You like these? They're called Daisytigers, they're one of the four main ingredients for a mana restoration potion."
"Daisy… tigers." Serra repeated, adding a space when she said it.
"Yup. Daisytigers."
Ranma spends the time explaining to Serra about the potions and the herbs, as understandable as possible for a little girl. After a while, Ranma decided to show Serra another thing he has in store, as they are back outside and in front of a smaller cabin, which is actually a shack. Ranma looks at Serra's face, showing excitement, chuckling as he places his hand on the handle.
"This is where I store monster materials and weapons I took from the bandits." He said before turning the handle and opening the door, allowing them to enter.
Ranma lit up a lamp, bringing light inside as Serra's eyes widened, the shack is chuck filled with multiple items. Resting on the numerous shelves are various monster parts, hides, furs, scales, insect exoskeletons, large fangs, large claws, and large bones, in addition, there are large crystals. Also, there are barrels and boxes filled with variants of smaller fangs, claws and bones, variants of smaller crystals. Other than the monster parts, there are also various weapons, from low to high qualities, swords, spears, daggers, and many more. Serra's mouth turned to O-shape in awed, she has never seen so many new things.
Ranma chuckled seeing Serra's expression. "Yeah… I've collected a lot. I'm about to do inventory today."
"Inven… tory…?" Serra tilted in confusion.
"It means I count them. I do this once a month because I adventure around the forest where I fight monsters and sometimes bandits every day. So, that's why I do inventory, to keep up the number of materials I've collected." Ranma explained. Serra takes a few steps to take a closer look, she lays eyes on the boxes and barrels of crystals.
Ranma noticed her staring at the crystals. 'She seems interested in the magic gems. Well, girls do love shiny jewels.'
"Pretty, aren't they?" Ranma crunches down beside Serra and goes to explain. "They're called Magic Gems. They are a crystallized source of power residing within monsters… Meaning they're jewels with magic that are in the monsters."
"Magic?" Serra asked with excitement.
Seeing the expression, Ranma had an idea. Raising his hand, opening his palm, and concentrating his energy he conjured a green sphere of magical energy.
"This is magic." Ranma shows the magical orb to the smiling Serra.
'At least she's smiling.' Ranma is glad that he was able to make the lost girl smile.
Next thing that Ranma did was demonstrate his magic to her, showing off varieties of elements and the tricks he used to perform. Seeing it all made Serra smile even wider.
After a while, Ranma and Serra went back inside, the little girl fell asleep resting on the bed. The little Beastgirl was probably exhausted from being left alone and meeting Ranma. Meanwhile, Ranma looks at Serra with a puzzled expression. Ever since he found her, he'd been wondering about Serra's parents, knowing what kind of situations they may have gotten into, there is a possibility that they may never come back, but he'll have to check to confirm.
"Not sure if I should leave her here alone while I investigate." Ranma muttered, struggling to think of anything. He wanted to go and look for clues regarding Serra's parents but he couldn't bring himself to leave a little girl all alone, she may cry out of fear of loneliness. Bringing her would not be an option, the forest is full of beasts, and judging the appearance of the Berserk Boar he knew that it is that time of the year for them to migrate. He may easily handle them but a kid with him would spell nuisance.
Eyeing Serra's ears and tail, Ranma could only frown, being reminded of how Beastfolk are mistreating. He can only imagine the worst possibility that could happen to Serra's parents.
Ranma gets off the chair and walks towards the window before staring at the wilderness. "Even if they didn't survive: I don't think anyone would welcome a Beastfolk within their settlement."
"Racist prejudice bastards." He cursed with venom in his voice. He can only remember the times he saw the Beastfolk get rough from the prejudice, both vocal and physical treatments, and people freak out if they see one in their village.
But the worst part of all; slavery. The Beastfolk Enslavement business is legal, and there have been a lot of Beastfolk slaves in public given harsh tasks and terrible treatment, even worse from the sadistic aristocrats. Even if one Beastfolk is innocent, they would become slaves regardless and they would even sell children. Ranma was so disgusted by such common trade that he often asked himself why he would bother protecting humans if they'll just mistreat them.
All Ranma could ever do is curse under his breath and help them by telling the bastards off, or sometimes beating the bastards. He wasn't the only sympathizer, others saw and treated Beastfolks as equal, and one person particularly dreamed of creating equality for all… he wondered if that person's goal had ever been achieved.
Turning his attention back towards Serra, he was then reminded about the common story of Beastfolk children being orphaned because of the loss of their parents. Tightening his fists, as much as he wanted to look for them and hated to admit it…
He closed his eyes for a moment, he breathed in before out. Opening his eyes, staring back at Serra, he can't let her all alone nor won't he trust any village to take her in.
He had decided. And he knows that it won't be easy.
You probably figured out what's going on, but I'll answer with a hint; an Isekai genre.
You'll find out more in the future (just don't know when I'll work on the next one or when to update), and there'll be like a flashback arc coming around but not after the prologue.
I also have illustrations I drew on my Deviantart page, BleedingRose1994.