[Ranma][Fanfic] Early Warning
KaraOhki
A Ranma 1/2-Early Edition fanfiction by June
"KaraOhki" Geraci.
kara...@snet.net
September 22, 2002
Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi
Early Edition belongs to Tristar
This story was written for entertainment purposes
only and may not be used commercially.
____________________________
This story was written for today's FFIRC one hour
challenge.
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"Good morning, Chicago! It's going to be another
beautiful day--"
The radio broadcast was cut off very abruptly when
a fist came down on the snooze button. "Beautiful
day. Yeah, right. It'll be beautiful until I get
the paper."
Gary dragged himself out of bed, shuffled to his
apartment door, and opened it. As expected, the
damned cat was there, sitting next to the paper.
It took a moment for his sleep-fogged brain to
register that something was different. Instead of
a neatly folded paper sitting there, this one was
rolled up and fastened with a rubber band.
The cat meowed, and Gary leaned down to get the
paper. "Yeah, yeah, I'm hurrying, okay?" He
pulled the rubber band off, and the paper unrolled
in his hand. Gary stared at it, rubbed his eyes,
and stared again. "What the hell am I supposed to
do with this?"
The cat didn't reply.
Gary took another look. The paper was still in
Japanese, or Chinese, or Korean, or...whatever it
was, it certainly wasn't something he could read.
A low growl from the cat pulled Gary's attention
away from what was in his hand, and he looked
down. The cat's back was arched, every hair on
its body was standing on end, and it began to hiss
and spit angrily at the little black pig that was
coming down the hallway. Then it pounced.
"Hey, cut it out!" Gary tried to use the
newspaper to separate the combatants, and got
clawed as payment for his efforts. The paper
fell, and was trampled by the two animals. In the
process, it got tangled in the bandanna the pig
wore. Gary grabbed the cat, got clawed again, and
the pig took the opportunity to vanish.
As soon as the pig was gone the cat became
completely calm, and rested quietly in Gary's
arms. He looked at his damaged hand, put the cat
down, and backed into his apartment. "I seem to
have the day off, don't I?"
"Meow," replied the cat.
*****
Ryoga ran into the wall at the back of the alley,
bounced off, and fell over. His heart was
pounding, and he tried to steady his breathing.
That had to be one of the most vicious cats he'd
ever encountered.
He got to his feet and rubbed his side against the
bricks of the alley wall, trying to dislodge
whatever was stuck in his bandanna. Once he
succeeded, he stopped to take a look at it.
[A newspaper...maybe it'll tell me where I am.]
Ryoga nudged the paper open, and did a double
take. He was certain that he was somewhere in the
U.S., but the paper was in Japanese. Then his
eyes became the size of saucers. He was looking
at a copy of the Nerima Gazette, and the headline
horrified him to his very soul.
"Nerima High School Student Killed Saving
Toddler."
Ryoga collapsed onto his stomach and continued
reading. According to the article, a truck ran
down Ranma Saotome when he dashed in front of it
trying to save the life of a two-year-old girl who
had wandered away from her mother. He had managed
to throw the child clear before being struck
himself.
Dead. Ranma was dead. The implications of that
struck Ryoga hard. He would never get the revenge
he sought. Akane was free.
He shook his head, trying to clear it. Ranma was
dead. His friend. His enemy. His rival. Ryoga
didn't know whether to rejoice, or break down
weeping. There was only one thing he knew for
certain, which was that he had to get home. Ryoga
got to his feet and started to walk away, when
something else on the paper caught his attention.
The date.
No matter how many times Ryoga got lost, got
transformed, and found himself in strange places,
there was one thing he never lost track of. The
date. There was something very wrong with the
paper in front of him. It held tomorrow's date.
[Nah, that's not possible,] he thought. Then he
thought again. If a man could turn into a pig,
why couldn't a newspaper arrive a day early? It
was a warning. If he could find his way home, he
could prevent this. Ryoga picked the paper up in
his mouth, and started out of the alley. Halfway
down, he discovered his pack. This was no
surprise, since it always showed up whenever he
needed it. He shoved the paper into the pack,
grabbed it by a strap, and began to pull. Now he
needed hot water.
The scent of coffee reached him before he left the
alley. Although Ryoga couldn't read the sign that
said "Starbucks," he knew a coffee shop when he
saw one. He quietly waited by the door until a
patron walked out with a cup of steaming coffee,
tripped him, and ran like hell until he could find
a place to put his clothes back on.
*****
Tokyo! He was in Tokyo! Ryoga had absolutely no
idea how he'd arrived there, but the Tokyo Tower
was right in front of him. Now he needed
directions to Nerima. A pretty girl walked by,
and Ryoga worked up the nerve to approach her.
"Excuse me," he began.
"Bonjour!" replied the girl.
"Oh damn!" Ryoga cried. "FRANCE!!" He had to get
home! He absolutely had to. "No you don't,
Saotome!" he screamed. "Nobody's gonna kill you
but ME!!!" Then he dissolved into hysterical
laughter.
The area around him became quite clear as everyone
fled from the ranting maniac.
*****
"Are you sure you forgot it?" Ranma jumped down
from the wall and looked over Akane's shoulder as
she rummaged through her book bag, looking for her
English homework.
"I think I left it in my desk. I guess I've got
to go back."
"Nah, let me. Meet you at the house." Ranma was
gone before Akane could thank him.
Ranma ran back to Furinkan High at top speed. He
wanted to see if he could get Akane's homework and
get back to her before she got to the house. It
was training, he told himself. There was no way
he wanted to walk with his fiancee. He found the
homework assignment, shoved it into his backpack,
and jumped out the classroom window. There was
nothing like taking a shortcut.
He ran back even faster, and had Akane in sight
when a scream made him whirl. A tiny little girl
had pulled away from her mother's grasp, and was
running directly in front of a truck.
"MY BABY!"
*****
The agonized scream made Akane turn around. She
saw the child, the truck, and her fiance. He flew
into the street, grabbed the child, and threw her
into her mother's arms.
Then time stood still as Akane saw Ranma lose his
balance and fall backward, directly into the path
of the truck.
Akane wanted to close her eyes. She couldn't bear
to see what was about to happen, but she could not
look away. Then a brown blur bounced onto the
pavement where Ranma lay, and bounced away.
Akane blinked. Ranma was no longer there. The
last thing she saw before she fainted was the
truck barreling through the intersection, smoke
pouring from its locked brakes.
*****
"C'mon, Akane, wake up!" Ranma gently shook the
girl in his arms, and her eyelids fluttered.
"You're not dead?" she whispered.
"Nope!" he said cheerfully. He pointed one hand
at Ryoga, who was sitting there looking quite
embarrassed. "Ryoga saved me."
Akane pulled out of Ranma's arms and hugged Ryoga.
"Thank you!"
Ranma tried to tell himself that he wasn't
jealous. It didn't work. Akane eventually pulled
away and Ranma helped her to her feet, retaining
hold of her hand. Then he took another look at
Ryoga. His clothes were torn and stained, his
hair was a mess, and he looked exhausted. "What
happened to you?"
"I've, um, had a tough day." Ryoga looked at his
feet, and was about to say something else when a
crowd of people, including the little girl's
mother surrounded him, calling him a hero. It was
some time before he could get back to Ranma.
"Look, could I talk to you? Alone?"
Ranma looked surprised. "Sure. Let's get Akane
home first."
*****
It was some time before Ryoga got to talk to
Ranma, because Kasumi took one look at him and
insisted that he take a bath and change his
clothes. "You look like the truck did hit you!"
were her words. Eventually, he and Ranma sat down
in the dojo.
"Thanks, buddy," said Ranma. "You were there at
just the right time."
"There's more to it than that," replied Ryoga.
"Look at this." He handed Ranma the paper.
"What?" said Ranma. I don't see nothin' strange
here."
"But, but!" Ryoga grabbed the paper back. The
article about Ranma's death was gone. Then he
understood. He had prevented it from happening,
so it had vanished from the paper. When Ryoga
related the story, Ranma refused to believe him.
"You got tomorrow's paper today? Yeah, sure! Did
you get knocked in the head or something?"
Ranma woke up with a severe headache and a black
eye about an hour later. Ryoga was gone.
*****
"Would you pass the soy sauce, please?"
"Of course, Akane." Kasumi picked up the bottle
and passed it to Akane. The family's breakfast
had been calm and quiet, except when Nabiki had
teased Ranma about his black eye.
"Ranma, where are you?" The voice came from the
yard, and Ranma looked outside. Ryoga was facing
the pond, yelling at the top of his lungs.
"This way, pig-boy."
Ryoga whirled around. "Ranma, you've got to get
me to the station! Hurry!" He ran into the
house, grabbed Ranma by the pigtail, and pulled
him to his feet.
"What the hell are you talking about?" demanded
Ranma, as he freed himself. "Are you tryin' to
pull my hair out?"
Ryoga waved a paper in Ranma's face. "It happened
again! Look! Look!" Ranma snatched the paper
from Ryoga. It was the Nerima Gazette, dated the
following day. Across the front of the paper was
plastered a headline that made Ranma's blood run
cold: "Train Derails, Kills 100 Commuters."
"Is this for real?"
"It was real yesterday, Ranma. I can't find the
station myself. You've gotta help me."
"Then let's go."
As the two young men vanished around the corner, a
small cat on top of the dojo roof purred happily.
___________________________
My thanks to Gary Kleppe and Fido for reading this
over and suggesting revisions, and to my brother
Tom for giving me the idea in the first place.
Your comments are welcome! kara...@snet.net
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http://karaohki.anifics.com
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You could turn this way,
I'm also lonely
this autumn evening
Basho