I've decided to borrow from Lord Raa's habit of publishing parts of the chapters as I work on them, so this will be my new Ranma fic's WiP prologue thread. :lol: Yes, I am becoming an evil fiend like him. Or maybe I was all along, and you never knew it.
Anyway, without further ado... here's what I have so far of my fic's prologue!
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(A/N: Well... normally, I wouldn't work on the Ranma universe. It tends to be overdone, and while it is one of the series with the most potential for crossovers, I generally feel uncomfortable writing for this fanndom, which is why I never published anything for it.
That is, until today. Blame the evil plot bunnies. They gnawed at my shins until I caved in and decided to get to work on this idea they quietly planted in my mind. Evil creatures, those plot bunnies, I tell ya.
Anyway, this is a mild crossover between Ranma 1/2 and several other series, with Ranma 1/2 being the main focus. Most series will only have a cursory mention, cameos here and there, but some will have an active role. Which ones, you ask? Hehehe, not telling. That'd spoil the surprise. I can tell you, however, that you'll likely see cameos from several obscure series such as Ghost Sweeper Mikami, Compiler and Kukla... and if you never heard of those series, don't be surprised. They ARE obscure, not to mention two of them are in manga form only.
Warning: this is NOT a RxA fic, so if that's your thing, don't bother harassing me with requests to make it RxA. Also, there'll be an OC who will grow pretty close to Ranma, although she (yes, another fine lady) will cause more problems than she'll fix due to how she acts. So you have been warned.
Now, on with the fic!)
DISCLAIMER:
Ranma 1/2 and all its characters are property of Takahashi Rumiko, and I don't claim ownership of them, though I sure as hell would LIKE to. The character of the Dragonmaiden Rachel Feobane is my personal creation, as are the Dragon God-Empress Serina Feobane, the Dragon Nation, the Dragonian race, their language and any other original characters and locations that may pop up in the future. Any and all guest characters are copyright of their own creators.
CONTRIBUTORS:
Many thanks to:
SimmyC, from The FanFiction Forum, for hints and tips;
Lord Raa, also from The FanFiction Forum, for clarifications on timelines and other plot points;
Everyone else from The FanFiction Forum, for general help and proofreading. I couldn't do this without your help, guys!
And thanks to you, dear reader!
(ôThisö is speech. Italics are thought. 1234567890 indicates a scene/perspective change. Underlined locations in italics are a location change.)
1234567890
Prologue: A Maiden From A Faraway Land
There are times when the simplest choice has vast, life-changing consequences. Something as simple as choosing stop and enjoy the scenery instead of pressing on...
...or choosing to go further north instead of turning back.
One such choice was made by one Genma Saotome, accompanied by his five-years old son, Ranma. The result of that choice would forever change young Ranma's life...
Japan, ten years ago
"Papa, where are we? It's cold here," little Ranma asked his bespectacled parent. Genma grunted, refusing to admit he had no clue where exactly in Hokkaido they were at the moment.
Ranma had a point. It had gotten extremely cold, even by Hokkaido winter standards, and for as far as he could see around himself, there were nothing but rocks, snow and more rocks. Even Genma could feel the cold, and he decided that they urgently needed to find a cave to stop in before the wind picked up and froze them to death.
Scanning the landscape around him, Genma spotted a small cave on the side of a hill to his left. A cursory glance ascertained that it was large enough to house them, their equipment and a small fire to keep them warm.
Genma decided that it would be best to spend the night there, safe from the freezing cold. Then, they could retrace their steps back to civilization the next day. He briefly considered starting the specialized training he had read about in his book of forbidden arts, but decided against it, mainly because there were no cats around, and also because the thought of staying in this cold place for however long it took Ranma to learn the Neko-ken was not an appealing thought.
"Come on, boy. We'll camp in that cave over here," he said. Ranma nodded and followed him to the opening in the rocky wall.
As they entered the cave, Genma caught a strange aura lingering in the air. It felt much like a human's, but there was an odd inhuman quality to it. Scanning the ground, he noticed the remains of a campfire. So there's someone in the vicinity, he thought as he noticed the coals were still warm.
After he and Ranma set their bags down and made sure no dangerous creatures lurked in the back of the cave, Genma went out to gather somewhat dry wood to ignite a fire, warning Ranma to not leave the safety of the cave. Due to the copious amounts of snow in the area, finding wood that would actually catch fire instead of producing a cloud of smoke took longer than expected.
As Genma returned to the cave with two armfuls of more or less dry twigs, he blinked. A small amount of smoke was coming out of the cave, along with the telltale reddish glow of a small fire. The portly martial artist set the firewood down and cautiously approached the cave, just in case whoever was inside had hostile intentions and had taken Ranma hostage. Hopefully the boy has enough common sense to not trust the first stranger with dubious intentions that comes along, he thought - which, given his own questionable morality, would have sounded somewhat ironic to anyone who actually knew him.
The bespectacled man slowly crept closer to the poening, and prepared to dash in, grab Ranma and the packs and run for it, when a strange-sounding, nearly growling voice came out of the cave.
"Come in, human. I have no ill will towards you."
Genma blinked. He was sure he had repressed his chi perfectly, yet whoever was inside the cave - a male, by the sound of his voice - had detected him with no trouble whatsoever. After a brief debating, greed and curiosity won over cowardice - anyone who could detect him so casually while he was hiding had to be a martial artist of a very high level, and perhaps he could... persuade... them to share some of their Arts with him and Ranma.
Entering the cave, he noticed Ranma sitting besides a newly built fire, and two figures - one big and apparently male, the other small and childlike, possibly female - sitting next to him. Then he got a good look at the two newcomers, and suddenly began to reconsider the wisdom in accepting the voice's invitation.
The girl, who looked to be about a couple years older than Ranma, was a pretty little thing: long chestnut hair flowing over her shoulders, bright, penetrating green eyes and a pale, almost doll-like skin. She wore a white gi and red hakama, almost as if she were a Shinto priestess, and her lithe frame was covered by a beautiful fur coat, a copy of which Genma noticed on Ranma's shoulders. However, her decidedly inhuman nature was given away by her snake-like eyes, the small patch of scales covering what little of her neck he could see and, moe importantly, the dragon-like horns protruding from the sides of her head, slightly above her small, pointed ears.
The girl's companion, which Genma assumed was the one who had been addressing him, was however far more sinister. He had arms, legs, a head and eyes. That is as far as his likeness to a human went. The creature was covered in hard-looking bronze scales, with the chest area being a lighter color than the rest, and a menacing dragonlike head with wicked-looking fangs topped his impressive, muscular frame, with only a blue loincloth, leather bracers and iron leggings as clothes covering his body. A long, broad tail and a pair of leathery wings protruding from his back completed the unexpected guest's draconic appearance.
Genma swallowed loudly as both newcomers looked him over, feeling a lump in his throat. The dragonlike creature looked strong enough to grind him into dust without even breaking a sweat, and if those wings actually worked, he very much doubted he'd be able to outrun him. As he tried to come up with a safe way to flee, he briefly considered just leaving Ranma behind. He could always hide from Nodoka, and living off his son's skills would be very hard if he was too dead to do so.
Before he could make his mind up one way or the other, the little girl spoke up.
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More to come soon. Feel free to comment. Patience, grasshoppers!
Anyway, without further ado... here's what I have so far of my fic's prologue!
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
(A/N: Well... normally, I wouldn't work on the Ranma universe. It tends to be overdone, and while it is one of the series with the most potential for crossovers, I generally feel uncomfortable writing for this fanndom, which is why I never published anything for it.
That is, until today. Blame the evil plot bunnies. They gnawed at my shins until I caved in and decided to get to work on this idea they quietly planted in my mind. Evil creatures, those plot bunnies, I tell ya.
Anyway, this is a mild crossover between Ranma 1/2 and several other series, with Ranma 1/2 being the main focus. Most series will only have a cursory mention, cameos here and there, but some will have an active role. Which ones, you ask? Hehehe, not telling. That'd spoil the surprise. I can tell you, however, that you'll likely see cameos from several obscure series such as Ghost Sweeper Mikami, Compiler and Kukla... and if you never heard of those series, don't be surprised. They ARE obscure, not to mention two of them are in manga form only.
Warning: this is NOT a RxA fic, so if that's your thing, don't bother harassing me with requests to make it RxA. Also, there'll be an OC who will grow pretty close to Ranma, although she (yes, another fine lady) will cause more problems than she'll fix due to how she acts. So you have been warned.
Now, on with the fic!)
DISCLAIMER:
Ranma 1/2 and all its characters are property of Takahashi Rumiko, and I don't claim ownership of them, though I sure as hell would LIKE to. The character of the Dragonmaiden Rachel Feobane is my personal creation, as are the Dragon God-Empress Serina Feobane, the Dragon Nation, the Dragonian race, their language and any other original characters and locations that may pop up in the future. Any and all guest characters are copyright of their own creators.
CONTRIBUTORS:
Many thanks to:
SimmyC, from The FanFiction Forum, for hints and tips;
Lord Raa, also from The FanFiction Forum, for clarifications on timelines and other plot points;
Everyone else from The FanFiction Forum, for general help and proofreading. I couldn't do this without your help, guys!
And thanks to you, dear reader!
(ôThisö is speech. Italics are thought. 1234567890 indicates a scene/perspective change. Underlined locations in italics are a location change.)
1234567890
Prologue: A Maiden From A Faraway Land
There are times when the simplest choice has vast, life-changing consequences. Something as simple as choosing stop and enjoy the scenery instead of pressing on...
...or choosing to go further north instead of turning back.
One such choice was made by one Genma Saotome, accompanied by his five-years old son, Ranma. The result of that choice would forever change young Ranma's life...
Japan, ten years ago
"Papa, where are we? It's cold here," little Ranma asked his bespectacled parent. Genma grunted, refusing to admit he had no clue where exactly in Hokkaido they were at the moment.
Ranma had a point. It had gotten extremely cold, even by Hokkaido winter standards, and for as far as he could see around himself, there were nothing but rocks, snow and more rocks. Even Genma could feel the cold, and he decided that they urgently needed to find a cave to stop in before the wind picked up and froze them to death.
Scanning the landscape around him, Genma spotted a small cave on the side of a hill to his left. A cursory glance ascertained that it was large enough to house them, their equipment and a small fire to keep them warm.
Genma decided that it would be best to spend the night there, safe from the freezing cold. Then, they could retrace their steps back to civilization the next day. He briefly considered starting the specialized training he had read about in his book of forbidden arts, but decided against it, mainly because there were no cats around, and also because the thought of staying in this cold place for however long it took Ranma to learn the Neko-ken was not an appealing thought.
"Come on, boy. We'll camp in that cave over here," he said. Ranma nodded and followed him to the opening in the rocky wall.
As they entered the cave, Genma caught a strange aura lingering in the air. It felt much like a human's, but there was an odd inhuman quality to it. Scanning the ground, he noticed the remains of a campfire. So there's someone in the vicinity, he thought as he noticed the coals were still warm.
After he and Ranma set their bags down and made sure no dangerous creatures lurked in the back of the cave, Genma went out to gather somewhat dry wood to ignite a fire, warning Ranma to not leave the safety of the cave. Due to the copious amounts of snow in the area, finding wood that would actually catch fire instead of producing a cloud of smoke took longer than expected.
As Genma returned to the cave with two armfuls of more or less dry twigs, he blinked. A small amount of smoke was coming out of the cave, along with the telltale reddish glow of a small fire. The portly martial artist set the firewood down and cautiously approached the cave, just in case whoever was inside had hostile intentions and had taken Ranma hostage. Hopefully the boy has enough common sense to not trust the first stranger with dubious intentions that comes along, he thought - which, given his own questionable morality, would have sounded somewhat ironic to anyone who actually knew him.
The bespectacled man slowly crept closer to the poening, and prepared to dash in, grab Ranma and the packs and run for it, when a strange-sounding, nearly growling voice came out of the cave.
"Come in, human. I have no ill will towards you."
Genma blinked. He was sure he had repressed his chi perfectly, yet whoever was inside the cave - a male, by the sound of his voice - had detected him with no trouble whatsoever. After a brief debating, greed and curiosity won over cowardice - anyone who could detect him so casually while he was hiding had to be a martial artist of a very high level, and perhaps he could... persuade... them to share some of their Arts with him and Ranma.
Entering the cave, he noticed Ranma sitting besides a newly built fire, and two figures - one big and apparently male, the other small and childlike, possibly female - sitting next to him. Then he got a good look at the two newcomers, and suddenly began to reconsider the wisdom in accepting the voice's invitation.
The girl, who looked to be about a couple years older than Ranma, was a pretty little thing: long chestnut hair flowing over her shoulders, bright, penetrating green eyes and a pale, almost doll-like skin. She wore a white gi and red hakama, almost as if she were a Shinto priestess, and her lithe frame was covered by a beautiful fur coat, a copy of which Genma noticed on Ranma's shoulders. However, her decidedly inhuman nature was given away by her snake-like eyes, the small patch of scales covering what little of her neck he could see and, moe importantly, the dragon-like horns protruding from the sides of her head, slightly above her small, pointed ears.
The girl's companion, which Genma assumed was the one who had been addressing him, was however far more sinister. He had arms, legs, a head and eyes. That is as far as his likeness to a human went. The creature was covered in hard-looking bronze scales, with the chest area being a lighter color than the rest, and a menacing dragonlike head with wicked-looking fangs topped his impressive, muscular frame, with only a blue loincloth, leather bracers and iron leggings as clothes covering his body. A long, broad tail and a pair of leathery wings protruding from his back completed the unexpected guest's draconic appearance.
Genma swallowed loudly as both newcomers looked him over, feeling a lump in his throat. The dragonlike creature looked strong enough to grind him into dust without even breaking a sweat, and if those wings actually worked, he very much doubted he'd be able to outrun him. As he tried to come up with a safe way to flee, he briefly considered just leaving Ranma behind. He could always hide from Nodoka, and living off his son's skills would be very hard if he was too dead to do so.
Before he could make his mind up one way or the other, the little girl spoke up.
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More to come soon. Feel free to comment. Patience, grasshoppers!
~