He was the sixteen year-old, nearly seventeen really, adopted son of Iori Yagami, one of the world’s strongest fighters. But due to a blood transfusion, he was the older man’s genetic duplicate. And having been raised by the man since the age of six, when the man found him in a hospital, he’d grown up similarly to the way the man had done: training in martial arts and fighting to survive. True, it didn’t have to be a struggle – Iori could afford for them to live extravagantly – but possessions didn’t travel as easily as people. It was simpler to own only what you could move in the night. If you stuck to the road, you became hardened to the world.
He was tall for a Japanese youth: just a hair under six feet. And at a weight of 185 pounds, he was muscular but lean, with virtually none of that being flab. He was a hard youth growing up in a difficult and uncaring world.
As he walked, he casually held a small purple fireball in his left hand. It was the Yagami gift. Hundreds of years ago, one of his ancestors had bargained with Orochi, a war god, for power. Orochi granted the request. Since then, all members of the Yagami clan could summon purple flames. However, the price was a state of madness that clan members could enter if their tempers were very strongly aroused. It was called the Riot of the Blood, and it was just one more aspect of the clan that made them feared. Ranma was no exception: though he was no bully, the other students had always been afraid of him in schools. This was partially from his martial arts skills, partially from the flame, but mostly because of the reputation of his clan.
The flame was powerful in Ranma: he had manifested it only days after he’d left the hospital, and he’d been growing in power ever since. His power was unnatural even for a Yagami. Although he was not yet as physically strong as his father, his flames were considerably greater. At full tilt, he was a walking blast furnace, capable of putting out temperatures of many thousands of degrees. Once, he had been training by a magnificent lake. He powered up and unleashed all his fire in one massive explosion. It was as if a nuclear bomb had been detonated. When he’d awoken, the lake was gone. In its place was an empty crater. The crater wasn’t even smoking.
A noise behind Ranma distracted him from his memories. Just then a girl rushed by him. He’d been so caught up in his thoughts he hadn’t noticed that he’d gotten within two hundred yards of the school entrance. He heard people calling out to the girl, and as they did he heard the sound of punches and kicks. When he got to the gate he saw that the girl was standing at the end of a long line of downed boys, each in athletic equipment. It was clear that she had mowed them all down. Why, he didn’t know. He didn’t spare it any more thought; it wasn’t his business. Brushing his dark red bangs out of his eyes, he continued walking toward the school building. Only two people took notice of his presence: the girl who had cut down the line of boys, and a girl at a second-floor window, who had been watching the carnage.
~**~
From her vantage point at a second-story window, Nabiki Tendou watched the carnage unfold. Her sister was in rare form today, she thought, but it was to be expected, with the visitors that had shown up Saturday.
Nabiki was one of the few holders of some very valuable knowledge. In another dimension, she had made a wish that Ranma Saotome, then a houseguest, would have a different father so that his problems wouldn’t exist. When she made the wish, he vanished in front of her eyes. She vanished moments later, and found herself in another version of her home only a week before he and his father should have come to stay. She was told that Ranma indeed had a different father in this world, and that she was nearly the only person who knew about it. She would eventually meet the Ranma-counterpart, but she had to stay silent. She would keep all her memories of the time her world’s Ranma and his father stayed at her residence, but all of this had to be a secret.
So, she’d waited. And two days ago, Genma Saotome had indeed shown up, but while he called the boy he brought along Ranma, she knew that it certainly wasn’t him.
WHO WAS IT?
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(Posted Mon, 09 Feb 2004 06:50)
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