By Steve Pardue

http://www.spardue.org/anime

As Usual, Rumiko Takahashi has all rights to the Ranma ½ characters.

The cool evening breeze swirled around the girl as she trudged wearily home. Her school uniform -- a pale blue skirt and jumper over a white blouse -- looked bedraggled, almost as if she had been in a fight. The faded spots where the well-worn cloth had been cleaned testified to the fact that the uniform's state was not unusual. The echoing clap of a distant explosion -- too familiar to the residents of Nerima to cause alarm -- shook the windows of the building above her. A second later another explosion sounded, this one a little closer. The girl paused at the corner in the pool of light pouring from the solitary street lamp overhead. Shifting her grip on her book bag, she brushed her hair out of her eyes and sighed.

Today had not been a good day for Akane Tendo. And as such, it was pretty much like all the other days in recent memory. Life had definitely taken a turn for the worse for the youngest daughter of the Tendo family.

She couldn't point to any one failure or disappointment that caused her depression. Like many people, she found that it was the culmination of a multitude of small events. Another failed meal, another insult from Ranma, another arrogant would-be fiancee, another martial artist who was just that much better than her. For a long time she had fought her despair, but at long last she admitted to herself that she was tired of it all.

Searching through the pocket of her book bag, she pulled out several coins and stepped up to a vending machine just outside the circle of light. Slowly she bent down and retrieved her drink, gathering herself for a second before she popped it open.

As she raised the can to her lips, she was jostled from behind, causing the drink to splash across her face and drip down her chin. Another indignity to add to today's tally.

The person who had run into her grabbed her arm, spinning her around. Akane, too exhausted to care anymore, simply stared at the man.

He was tall, and, despite being obviously Japanese, his face seemed wrong somehow. His eyes were wide and white, and his breath came in great rasping gulps as he stared into Akane's eyes with desperation.

"You-you've got to help me!" he cried as he grabbed her other arm and forced her to look up into his face. "There's a monster after me!" He twisted his head for a quick look behind him before turning back to her. "Help me hide!"

Akane nodded mutely, not quite able to muster herself to speak, barely able to muster the energy to care. Another monster loose in Nerima was only to be expected -- with the Saotomes resident in the ward, the unusual a become commonplace. Still, she should help him out, especially since it was probably her fiancee, or one of his suitors or enemies which were after the man to begin with. Ranma was just too popular for his own -- or anyone else's -- good.

The night seemed calm and peaceful still, despite the soft glow over the buildings from burning fires and the shrill sirens of the fire engines fighting them. Akane found her mind drifting, unable to focus as she led the man away from the street they had been upon and down the narrow, twisting side streets. Around them the glow from the windows above cast weird shadows which flickered, shifting from moment to moment, adding to the surreal quality of their flight.

The man seemed restless and grew more and more impatient with their pace as they fled the unnamed enemy.. Hurriedly the two rushing figures ducked into a small, narrow dead-end. Akane leaned against the back wall, absently taking a sip from the half-empty drink she had clutched during their flight. The man crouched, gasping for breath and staring nervously down the alley towards the street.

"2 cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 3 tbs. butter..." Akane mumbled under her breath. The man, still gasping for breath ignored her as she continued to repeat her recipes.

The man turned his head to Akane, looking exasperated. "Would you be quiet?"

She stared at him for a minute, slightly hurt. "I have to learn them. Have to get them right this time. He'll be watching, and they others are all so-" Sensing something above her she turned her face up. The man, curious, looked up as well.

An I-beam, twenty feet of hardened steel, slammed into the street between them, smashing through the pavement before stopping, finally, to point an accusing finger towards the sky.

Akane stared listlessly at the I-beam. Her mouth twitched once, then once again before she began to giggle. It really was the perfect end to a typical, miserable day. She could just see the tail of the man's coat as he disappeared around the corner at the mouth of the alley. Gathering what little will she had left, she pulled herself past the fallen beam and jogged down the alley after him.

As she entered the street, she heard a new voice, talking to the man. It was a strong confident voice. A voice that she fancied she used to have, before Ranma came to Nerima. 'Give it up, Geega,' it had said.

Looking down the street, Akane saw the man who had grabbed her arm standing in the middle of the street, next to a train crossing. His head was thrown back and a brilliant glow, suffused with brilliant pinpoints of light, emanated from him for a brief second before surging outward in a beam that threw Akane's surroundings into sharp relief. Down the street another explosion rocked the ward, this one close enough to cause Akane to stumble. Confused, she simply approached the man.

She noticed for a brief instant the inhuman slit in his neck which was closing even as he lowered his head, noticed the figure, sprinting down the street towards the man, silver hair streaked with some darker color floating behind it on the wind of its passage, registered hands grasping the straps of her jumper and the floating sensation as she hurtled through the air, toward the oncoming figure, and she still couldn't focus, still couldn't understand what was happening, except she knew, somehow, that this wasn't right, and the figure raised its face, a girl's face, grinning tightly, grinning cruelly, and then light, and pain, the smell of burning flesh and the sound of cracking bones.

Through it all, Akane could only think that, finally, she wouldn't have to endure another failed meal, another insult from Ranma, another would-be fiancee, or another martial artist who was just that much better than her.