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[Ranma][FanFic] Ranma and Akane: A Love Story, Prologue

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Eric Hallstrom

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Nov 2, 1999, 3:00:00 AM11/2/99

Disclaimer: The playground is by Rumiko Takahashi, I'm only
swinging on the monkey bars. Remember to leave the grounds
cleaner than you found them and please don't feed the
Trolls.

This story is archived at http://www.kawaiikunee.com/slp/

Release 1.1 (Oct. 27, 1999)

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[BGM :
http://www.kawaiikunee.com/slp/mp3/Farewells.mp3]

Begin at the beginning, continue through the end, then stop.

[Images shift and flow on a darkened field. Nabiki
wears a leather jacket and fedora, there is a
small automatic pistol tucked into her waistband
as she stares keenly into the distance. A small
scar cuts across her lower jaw as she rotates
before a field of emerald green, dissolving into
mist that fades away ....]

Everyone knows _that_.

[Kasumi wears archaic full-plate armor of an alien
and slightly disturbing mode. It is lacquered
black with purple highlights, set off well by the
deep purple background. She carries a long, curved
sword in her left hand, resting its tip on the
ground as she gestures with her right. In the
shadows of the open-faced helm, her face is weary,
and perhaps a little afraid. She turns to the side
as the mist closes in and dissolves ....]

That's because the beginning is where things ... begin, and
the end is where things, er, end. So to speak. The beginning
happens first and the end follows in due time. The past
becomes the future, through the medium of the present.

[Gally, of Gunmm, turns around before a blue
background, dressed in an incongruous chef's
outfit ....]

Right?

[Kodachi, dressed in an expensive business suit,
leans forward at a desk, looking down with an
alert, focused expression at a large scroll,
covered with Chinese characters ....]

I mean, it's obvious. The Arrow of Time, cause and effect
... things like that. Causality, is what I mean here. The
idea that the past _causes_ the present, and the present
_causes_ the future. And if you tell the part of the story
where things happen before you tell the part where you
explain _why_ they happen that way, people get ...confused.
Everybody agrees that's the way it goes.

[A short girl dressed in jeans, boots and a long
leather duster stands facing directly away from
the viewer. Her face cannot be seen, because it is
pressed firmly into the neck of a very serious
looking Ryouga, who is dressed in his normal
outfit and backpack and is hugging her around the
shoulders as he looks directly out of the frame
....]

Sometimes, it even works out that way.

[Against a white background, Akane turns to the
left to face the viewer. She is wearing a white
silk shirt, a black leather vest and black velvet
pants. And mirror-shades. She is carrying an
enormous spiked mace horizontally in her hands and
her features are split in a grin that can only be
described as manic. Her long black hair streams
behind her as she continues turning, and the last
thing that can be seen as the mist closes in are
the silver butterfly hair clips halfway down the
long dark mane ....]

Sometimes, it doesn't.

[Onna-Ranma turns to the right toward the viewer
before a background that is totally black. She is
wearing armor of leather and metal, without a
helmet, and apparently from a number of periods
and styles. It's difficult to say precisely,
because many of the details are blotted out by the
blood which has splashed every part and surface.
As she turns she holds a long, straight sword
crossways across her body, extending out to her
left with both hands on the hilt. As she completes
her turn and faces the viewer head on, it can be
seen that blood is splashed wetly up her left
cheek, but her face is serene and calm. She stands
face on to the viewer for a brief moment, and then
brings the sword around in a horizontal cut across
the field of view, leaving a line of blood red in
its path. She then brings the sword over her head
into a two-handed posture, and brings it down,
leaving another blood red line ....]

Because that's only one way to look at it. And so often, in
this world, what _is_ depends on ... well ... what you're
looking at.

[The color spreads out from the two lines to cover
the whole field of view, then slowly begins
dripping down the screen, leaving an unrelieved
black behind it. As the red tide retreats, it
leaves behind it one shape that retains it carmine
hue: a rearing horse in silhouette ....]

For instance, if you look at things in the right manner,
it's obvious that the future _must_ have existed first. That
is, before there was _anything_ , there had to have been the
potential for things. The future, in other words.

[The roan stallion shifts from rearing to a trot,
chased off the black field by a swirling gust of
barely visible white wind from the left. As it
leaves the dark background it gains definition,
now looking like a real horse as it runs through
verdant fields of high grass, startling gold and
black butterflies, and chased by the wind ....]

Then, the first moment happened, and that was the first time
that there ever was a _present_.

[As the horse trots on, it passes by an immense
mountain in the background. Real and present, yet
seeming as though created in the style of Chinese
landscape portraiture ....]

And then the first moment was over. In, so to speak, the
past. And the second moment was in the present ... and so
on.

[Zooming in on the mountain, it can be seen to be
clothed in forest on its foot-hills, but bare from
two-thirds up until the very top, which is barren
rock ....]

So the future _causes_ the present, and drags the past along
behind.

[Growing from the barren rock at the top of the
mountain, its roots winding down the mountain's
face, to disappear into forested valleys, is an
enormous ash tree ....]

Right?

[Pulling back from the mountain, the roan horse
can be seen running down a hill, towards a small
stream. As he leaps across the stream, the wind
blows a shroud of fog across the whole scene ....]

Don't think about it too hard, it's Zen, and you'll get a
headache.

[As the horse canters out of the mist he passes a
cherry tree, gnarled and twisted by age and winds,
but in full bloom. As the horse shifts into a
gallop, the view locks on the tree, allowing the
horse to gallop off scene, stage right. As the
wind chases the horse off stage, it passes the
tree, and the view is again blotted out, not by
fog, but by floating cherry blossoms ....]

Sometimes, the past _pushes_. And sometimes, the future
_pulls_.

[Traversing away from the flying blossoms, the
view pans down to a clear pool of water, dark and
still. Looking down into it as the background
light dims, reflections of the moon and stars can
be dimly seen for a moment. Then they are obscured
by falling cherry blossoms, which quickly fill the
pool from edge to edge ....]

But the place where we _live_ is the present. The _now_
between the past and the future, between the beginning and
the end, that is all we ever really get.

[Again the white-tinged wind swirls, blowing the
sakura away. The viewpoint sinks into the depths,
until a single bright point of light, shining from
the depths of the pool as the ripples fade, is the
only thing to be seen ....]

Once, there was a person who wanted to be a Hero. And have
Adventures, and find True Love, and Make a Difference, and
other nice things like that.

[The single light expands, forming a perfect
circle, hanging in mid-air. A curving line snakes
across the center of the circle, forming a yin-
yang symbol. Where the central line intersects the
edges of the circle small circular icons form. On
the left Akane's face flashes briefly; on the
right, Ranma's. Then they vanish and the circle
glows brighter for a moment, expanding about
thirty percent in size, as the central line
mutates into a triangle, point upwards ....]

And a Hero's job, of course, is to _act_. To make decisions
and take actions in the Now. And to pay the price that the
Now demands.

[New icons form at the intersections of triangle
and circle. From the top and clockwise these are
block capital letters: a Tau, a Mu and an Alpha.
These mutate into hourglasses: The first with all
the sand in the top, the second with the sand
half-fallen, and the third with the sand all
below. These again vanish, and the circle glows
and expands again, as the triangle changes into a
pentagon, point again upwards ....]

Is it "be careful of getting what you wish for", or "be
careful of wishing for what you get"?

[New icons form, as before: the Chinese ideographs
chun(2), huo(1), chen(2), shui(2), and jin(1);
followed by the kanji for kokuuzou, hi, chi, mizu
and kaze; followed by the Western astrological
symbols for the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury and
Venus. These hold a moment and vanish, as the
circle glows and expands again, and the pentagon
becomes an octagon, again on its points ....]

But when your past pushes, and your future pulls, sometimes
your present can become a bit ... complex.

[This time the icons are: the Western symbols for
the planets except for Pluto, in order, with the
Moon taking Earth's place. Followed by the faces
of the Senshi, again except for Pluto. Followed by
more faces: Ranma, Akane, Ukyou, Shampoo, Kasumi,
Nabiki, Kodachi, and Sayuri. Followed by more
faces yet: Gally, OVA Ifurita, Iczer 2, Iczer 1,
Ryouko, Belldandi, Urd and Skuld ....]

And thereby hangs a tale.

[The faces halt for a moment in time, as all the
previous final symbols and lines glow for a brief
moment. Then they change one final time, into
Chinese ideographs. The other lines and figures
vanish, leaving only the ideographs glowing
against the blackness, slowly moving across the
scene to fall into place in a single line. From
left to right: chi(4), ma(3), bai(2), feng(1),
tian(1), shan(1), sheng(4) and shu(4). These are
then replaced by a Romanji title, like so:

Chima Baifeng Tianshan Chun

The viewpoint pulls back, and it can be seen that
this is a reflection in the pool previously seen.
The whitish wind swirls again, driving more Sakura
petals to cover the pool and obscure the glowing
writing. The petals drift for a moment and then
the wind swirls again, shifting their arrangement
and bringing new petals of a deeper, more reddish
hue. These land so as to form new Romanji by their
shapes. These letters say:

Book One

The wind swirls again, again rearranging the
fallen petals. Now they read:

Ranma and Akane: A Love Story

The wind swirls one last time, blowing away the
petals, and leaving the pool serene and still, and
entirely dark.]

[Fade to black. End BGM.]

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