Ranma just shrugged and did as he was told. It was a small golden coin about the size of a 100 yen piece. On one side was written the kanji for death, while the other one had the kanji for life. "Uh, are you gonna tell me what's this for?" he asked.
"Yes. But Before I Begin That, I Wish To Ask You Something. Ranma Saotome, Do You Believe That What You Do Matters?"
"Huh?" Ranma replied. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Okay, Let Me Approach That From a Different Angle. What If I Told You If You Were To Wake Up Tomorrow And Do Anything You Wanted, It Wouldn't Matter."
"You mean like in that Groundhog Day movie?" Ranma asked.
"Could We Get Off Those Stupid Movie References? I Know You Had To Sit Through Some American Movie Festival Yesterday Because Of A Lost Bet With One Of Your Fiancées, But It's Getting Annoying."
"Okay, okay," Ranma mumbled.
"But Yes, The Groundhog Day Reference Would Work, But It's On A Larger Scale."
"Larger scale?" Ranma questioned.
"Instead Of Every Day Gets Rewound, It's More Like Every 400,000,000,000,000,000,000 Years."
"What happens then?" the new agent of Heaven asked.
"A Slight Paradox Causes The Time Space Continuum To Collapse In On Itself And All Of Your Reality Ceases To Exist."
"Wait, you man like the end of the world? You're actually saying there's only... okay well there's still a lot more time left but there's still a day when you're just going to shut everything off?" Ranma demanded. "What the hell kind of idiot does that?"
"Actually I'm Not The One That Ends Everything, You'll Meet Her Eventually."
"Huh?" Ranma asked. He'd been doing that a lot lately. This whole savior of everything was starting to seem just a little over his head.
"Perhaps I Should Start At The End."
"Don't you mean the beginning?" Ranma corrected.
"No, The End. People Always Get So Confused When I Start At The Beginning.
Anyway, At The End Of Time There Was A Group Of Human Scientists Trying To Prevent The End Of Time. They Failed. So To Try And Save What People They Could, These Humans Along With Two Other Races Created Time Machines To Send Them Past The End Of Time To Try And Save The Remaining Members Of their Species. And So That's When They Arrived At The Beginning Of Time."
Ranma opened his mouth, and then blinked a few times at how he was supposed to phrase this question.
"Just Say Huh, I Know What You're Going To Ask."
"Huh?"
"But If They Crossed The End Of Time How Did They End Up Going Back To The Beginning, Right?" After Ranma nodded Kami-sama continued with his explanation. "Well, Think of Time As A Wheel. There Is No Beginning, Or End To It. When The Time Travelers Jumped Pass The Line Marked 'End of Time' They Ended Up At The Beginning."
"So, what was wrong with that?" Ranma asked.
"Everything.
"Before Anyone Passed Through The End, They Sent A Scout Ship Full Of Non-Living Creatures. It Was Because When That Ship Went Through That 'Line' Separating The End From The Beginning It Ran Across A...Bug I Suppose You Would Call It. This Bug/Anomaly/Magic, Whatever You Want To Call It, Ended Up Giving Life To Some Of The Things In That Ship. That Life In Turn Became the Beginning Of Life In Your Reality."
"I don't follow," Ranma mumbled. This was all way too big for him. "Are you mad about them bringing some robots to life or something?"
"It Isn't That. Don't You See? The Birth Of Life, All Of the Life EVER, Was Created Because Of A Future Event: The Death Of All Life. If One Does Not Occur Then The Other Can't. It Is An Endless Loop Of Death And Meaningless Existence Of Life."
"So why don't you just stop it then?" Ranma demanded.
"I Can Not. It IS An Actions Of A Mortal That Causes The Beginning Of Life, As Well As Its End. To Do So Would Be Interfering Directly In Mortal Affairs, And That Is Something I Have Forbidden Myself From Doing.
"You On The Other Hand..."
"WHAT?" Ranma shouted. "Wait a Minute, THIS is my assignment. Stop the destruction of the universe? How"
"This Answer I Can Not Give. The Path That Is To Be Taken Must Be Decided By One Who Must Walk It. Whether You Decide To Go Down The Road That Leads To Meaningless Life, Or Choose An Eternal Death And Non-Existence, The Choices Before You Are As Many As The Ones On The Coin In Your Hand.
"Your Assignment Is To Merely Choose Which Path The Future Will Take And Guide It Towards That Destination. You'll Find Everything You Need To Accomplish Your Goals In The Briefcase. Good Luck."
And so Ranma stood there mute as the connection was cut.
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Thu, 08 Jan 2004 02:03)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.