- SPOILER - Show Spoiler
- Basically, Ranma will be reborn into the One Piece world, growing up in Foosha village via Makino and 'Red Haired' Shanks. Ranma'll grow up interacting with Luffy, Ace and Garp, acting like an older sister to Luffy and Ace. Once reaching late teens, Ranma will go out to become a great bounty hunter to protect the world without submitting to the iron fist of the marines. I plan on having her being seperate from Luffy and Ace except for some random encounters outside of Luffy's normal story-line. This work would focus more on Ranma (and her partner, backup, crew, rival depending on what I roll with) hunting down bounty-heads who are legitimately bad people.
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- SPOILER - Show Spoiler
- Cerulean blue eyes looked unblinking at the scene set before them. On the wet, muddy earth two young women lay unmoving even as the fake rain fell down about them as if the sunlit sky was crying for those who could not. Even as these eyes looked on, their owner let out a soft sigh; observing how one of the girls cradled the other protectively in her arms.
"It wasn't supposed to happen like this..."
Hearing the intruding voice, the eyes flicked away for just an instant; enough to register the girl with sky-blue hair tied back in a long ponytail leaning on a wooden oar nearby. Silence between the pair reigned absolute, sound holding no sway in the otherworldly stillness. Then, after what felt like an eternity, it was broken once more by a soft voice, the drive and utter need of a favorable answer filling each word, "Did I make it? Is she...?"
Even without looking away towards the pink kimono clad girl, the owner of those cerulean eyes could feel the soft smile filled with sorrow directed towards her.
"You saved her..." The girl quiet answer came slowly, filled with equal amount sadness and admiration. "She'll live because of your heroism, Ranma."
Silence once again took sway as the moments passed in the stillness as the fake rain stopped falling, sunbeams flaring out and walking over the two girls below. Though her eyes could see it, she failed to hear the mob of martial artists rushing to check on the two still forms. Somehow knowing she couldn't affect anything below, the red haired young woman just floated there as the two entwined forms were separated and inspected for signs of life.
Letting out another breathless sigh, she closed his eyes, unable to bear the sight of her father cradling her lifeless body. It was too late; the sight of Genma silently screaming to the heavens, anguish stressing every fibrous muscle in his face, was burned into her mind as perfect if it were a photograph. It was small blessing that she couldn't hear anything from the world of the living, if only so she wouldn't have her father's screams of agony burned into her memories...
"It wasn't supposed to happen like this... I'm so sorry..."
Taking a deep breath to try and calm her nerves, the crimson haired martial artist turned her body away from the events happening in the lands of the living. Only once she was fully turned towards the otherworldly girl floating with her in the darkening sky did Ranma open her cerulean eyes once more.
One corner of her lips quirked up into a sardonic grin as Ranma shook her head slightly. "Doesn't matter now. All that matters is she's alive. Don't care what happens to me." To most people, the last statement would have been a pure lie, but Ranma had already made her peace by making a deal with the kami; her life for Akane's. She might have lost her life in the deal, but in the grand scheme of things; she won what mattered most to her.
"So, I'm guessing your here to take me away." Ranma bluntly stated more than asked, a wry hint of a smile on her lips.
Still holding a sad smile, having witnessed so many sacrifices in the name of love before, the girl held out a hand towards the black clad martial artist while nodding slowly. "You can call me Botan and, yes, I'm your grim reaper, Ranma Saotome."
Still sporting the wry twist of her lips, the scarlet haired girl shook her head once ruefully. "Never of expected a cute 'grim reaper' to lead me into the afterlife..."
Botan couldn't help but give a slight laugh and a hint of a true smile at that admittance. "You're not the first to admit that, but thanks." Looking up into the beams of light filtering through the cloudy sky, the reaper set the oar floating beside her before sitting back onto it. "Do you need more time?"
The question made the Saotome heir let out a breathless sigh. If she were to be honest with herself, she'd say yes, but there'd never really be enough time in the world. In the end, she glanced over her shoulder in a moment of selfishness; seeing her fiancée cradled in her rival and best friend's lap while Ryoga's yellow gi top brought her some modesty. Almost as if waiting for the moment of Ranma's observance, Akane violently coughed out a blast of water before drawing in a deep breath, shivering and curling up into a tight ball.
Running an arm across her eyes, Ranma turned away one last time, never again to see her father, friends or... love...
Taking one last deep breath to steady her nerves, the martial artist gave a quick jerky nod to the waiting reaper. "I'm ready."
With one last sad smile, Botan gently took hold of the recently deceased girls hand and guided her to sit with her on the long wooden oar. "It's time to go, now. You have someone who wants to talk with you."
oO0Oo
If the situation was any different, Ranma would have been awestruck by the fantastic geometries only possible in the lands of the dead where the physics of the living world didn't seem to exist. She just couldn't bring herself to care though, and the vast scenery of buildings, forests and other things just past by in a blurry mess in the corner of her vision. Through the entire trip, the red headed martial artist kept her eyes firmly locked on the pink kimono of her otherworldly guide.
Eventually, like life it seemed, all things come to an end, and the pair dismounted the mystical ferryman's oar to stand before a grand marble covered palace that seemed to run from horizon to horizon.
Trying to take in the entirety of it all, Ranma whispered out in awe, " It's huge..."
Giggling slightly behind a pink kimono sleeve, the light blue haired took a moment to enjoy the bit of personality shining through the funk. "It is pretty big, isn't it?"
A quick bob of the martial artist's head in the affirmative was quickly followed by the question, "Who owns this place?"
"That would be King Koenma, ruler of Reikai." Botan replied with a warm smile and a beckoning wave of her hand, the other holding the oar they arrived with. Walking into the open portal to the estate, the perky grim reaper stated, "In fact, he's the reason we're here; you have a meeting with him."
Blinking at that surprising information, Ranma quickly caught up with the other girl to incredulously ask, "What's the King of the Underworld want with me?!"
Botan just shrugged slightly, at a loss herself, "I don't know for sure and even if I did, it's for him to say, not me." Flashing a comforting smile and placing her hand on the black shirted redhead's arm, she added, "Don't worry, everything will pull through alright; I'm sure of it."
"But I'm just a martial artist; I mean, I'm a damn good one, but..." Ranma started to respond back before a loud, gravelly voice broke in.
"Your late!"
Jerking her gaze from Botan to the conversation crasher, Ranma stepped back and brought her arms in reflex. She blinked and relaxed an instant later once she realized the two meter tall blue oni wasn't yelling at her but towards Botan. Still, Ranma was kinda surprised to see a true stereotypical, one horned, tiger striped loincloth wearing oni in the palace of the Underworld's king.
Botan just stood her ground to the oni, yelling back, "How can we be late, George?! This shouldn't have happened in the first place and I got her here as fast as I could!"
Putting a hand to the large bald spot on the top of his head to rub it, the oni now identified as George glanced away from the irate reaper to the freshly reaped soul. "Look, I know, but there's a V.I.P. up there waiting too and Koenma's been in one of those moods and..." He gave the reaper a pleading look. "Just, please, hurry up. Please?"
"Fine, fine." The blue haired grim reaper replied with an annoyed air, muttering under her breath, "So much for the tour and the mood." Letting out a sigh, she waved a hand towards her charge, "Come on, Ranma. Let's get to King Koenma's office."
"Ah, okay." Ranma automatically replied, with more than a little confusion with the situation flowing through her voice.
After a quick trip through the inner workings of the palace, passing by uncountable other oni running around with stacks of paper or furiously typing away on typewriters, the pair arrived at a grand pair of gold color doors... and a familiar blue oni standing before it, tapping his fingers on his crossed arms in annoyance.
"How'd you get here before us?" Ranma asked, glancing back to the long hallway and staircase they had previously traversed to get to this point.
"I used the elevator." George succinctly replied, pointing to said device not twenty meters from their current position.
A short embarrassed laughter escaped the pink kimono clad young woman along with a short, "Oops."
Letting out a suffered sigh, George just stepped to the side and jerked a thumb over his shoulder towards the office doors. "Just hope he takes this 'Oops' better than the last one. I think he's still stuck in Section 27."
Ranma had no idea what Section 27 was but she saw the obviously fake smile plastered on Botan's face and heard the girl's forced dismissal, "I'm sure it's just fine."
Moving over to the door, she placed a hand on the handle and pulled the door open a crack. The next instant, her hair was blown straight back as a deafening voice roared, "Botan! Get in here! Now!"
"Just fine... right..." George muttered to himself as he walked away, twisting a finger in a ear to regain full hearing out of it.
"Come on, Ranma. Don't want to keep King Koenma waiting." Botan directed with obviously false cheer as he ponytail stayed in its blasted back position.
Ranma just blinked at the situation as presented before following the grim reaper guide into the office, wondering what the guy who could do that would look like.
She definitely wasn't expecting the blue clad toddler grinding his teeth on a pacifier sitting in a tall backed chair behind a huge desk filled with stacks of paper. Her questioning suspicions were proved true once Botan approached the desk with deference to say, "Hello, King Koenma."
"Don't 'Hello' me, Botan." The child looking King of the Underworld tersely replied to his subordinate, slamming his small hands on the disproportionately huge desk while standing up in his chair. "I expected you back here ages ago! You've kept a very important person waiting and, more importantly, you've kept me waiting!"
As if flipping a switch, Botan went from subservient to defiant with a crossing of her kimono clad arms, "Hey! It's not like I knew you wanted us back immediately! I also didn't know you had a V.I.P. waiting either."
A moment passed as one of Koenma's eyes twitched slightly before he took a breath, "What matters is you're here now and you've brought Ranma Saotome with you." With that being said, the young looking king bought his full attention to bare on the subject of the meeting. "And now we can get down to the business of deciding your future fate."
Blinking at that new bit of information, Ranma scratched at her cheek with a finger. "Ah, I'm honored and all, I guess, but why see to me personally? I mean, I'm pretty sure you have something better to do..."
Clasping his small hands before him on the desk, Koenma nodded in agreement while stating, "Normally, I'd agree; I do have more pressing matters to attend to." Pointing to the redhead standing before him, he then added, "Right now, though, that's not the case. The fact of the matter is, your death shouldn't have happened and that's led us to this situation."
Furrowing her brow, Ranma cocked her head slightly before asking, "What do you mean 'I shouldn't of died'? I had freaking bird-boy blasting me with fireballs and wrecking the entire mountain!"
"Yes, you did." Koenma easily agreed, while waving a hand away dismissively. "But before we get to that, I need to invite our guest to join us." Reaching to the side, the small king pressed a button on an intercom box sitting on his desk.
"Yes, King Koenma?" George's voice answered through the device.
"Please invite our guest in."
"On it, sir!"
Moments later, a side door to the office opened outward showing the blue oni who quickly stepped to the side with a bowing wave. Ranma quirked her head slightly at the woman who entered, feeling... something tickling the back of her mind, like she should know the woman but kept drawing a blank.
Seeing this, the platinum haired woman smiled coyly with a small welcoming wave of her hand, placing the other on her violet clad hip. "Hello there, Ranma. It's been a while."
Hearing that, Ranma's brow scrunched up even more as the martial artist was sure she would have remembered meeting a bombshell wearing a memorable risqué purple dress with blue triangle tattoos on her face. "Ah... sorry? Do I know you?"
The woman pouted for a moment before pounding a fist down into an open palm. "Oh! That's right, I didn't look like this back then! This should help." Saying that, she waved her hand to the side and a ghostly image appeared in the air, showing what could have been the woman's grandmother in a modest deep purple kimono. "I don't normally like to take this form, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do."
"Oh, hey! That's the old lady who helped me out with..." Ranma spouted out, figuring out where she remembered the image from before flicking her gaze back to the one who conjured it. "That was you? How..."
"Goddess Urd, Second Class, Catagory Limited at your service." Urd broke in with a grin and flourishing bow.
"I remember now, you helped me out with the Neko-ken! Thanks!" Ranma picked up where she left off, smiling her thanks out.
"No problem, kiddo. Just I've been keeping an eye on you for a long while and that was just one of the ways I could help out." The goddess replied with a grin but showing an obvious ego boost from the praise.
"Ahem." Koenma cut in with a fake cough, gaining the attention back. "Sorry to interrupt the reunion, but the matter at hand?"
"You need to learn to relax, Ko-chan." Urd cooed out with a smirk towards the child like ruler.
The blue clad administrator of the dead just slammed down a stamp on a paper placed before him and then indicated the rest of the reams of paper he had yet to get through. Ranma just glanced towards Botan who was standing silently off to the side, getting a nervous smile and a shrug from the grim reaper girl.
Letting of a short theatrical sigh, Urd shook her head, her long platinum blonde hair waving behind her. "Fine, fine. I'll get on with it." Turning back towards Ranma, she composed herself while saying, "As you've probably been told already, you shouldn't be dead right now."
"So I've been told. Just haven't let me know why, yet." Ranma responded, crossing her arms in mild irritation.
"Well, how do I explain this..." Urd mused while tapping her chin in thought, while Koenma resumed his administrative stamping in the background. "It's like this; there's a master plan, of sorts, which governs the flow of things in the universe. The thing is, it's not absolute and changes slightly over time, allowing for free will to mean something."
Seeing Ranma nod in understanding, Urd continued, cupping an elbow in hand while gesturing with her free hand. "Now, most of these changes are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. Like, 'do I have katsu-don or ramen for lunch' or 'should I walk or take my bike to school today'. They change the 'how' things happen but usually things work their way back in line of the plan without too much hassle."
"Okay, I get all that, but how does it affect me?" Ranma asked, suspecting where this was going but unsure where exactly she went 'off plan'.
"Things went off track when you didn't throw your fiancée into the fire blast." Koenma bluntly answered, pointing towards the martial artist with the stamp he was just using.
"She would'a died! Hell, she barely made it as it is!" Ranma furiously yelled back at the child king.
Picking up a different piece of paper to read from it, Koenma clinically stated, "Throwing Akane into the blaze would have allowed you to defeat Saffron with one last attack, preventing the extra four minutes of battle which happened after your decision. Additionally, she would have been saved by your next technique usage, reducing her recovery time to one day's rest instead of the current two weeks. Finally, you wouldn't be dead."
Placing the paper back down on the desk, Koenma noticed the stunned redheaded girl before him, standing there with her jaw hanging at the realization.
Urd shot the young administrator a scathing glare as she moved over to envelope the stunned girl with a comforting arm. Glancing down, she gently lifted the girl's chin till they looked eye to eye. "Blunt and uncaring... but, unfortunately, he's telling the truth, kiddo." Urd's violet eyes showed worlds of sorrow at the situation but her lips held a small comforting smile as she continued to softly say, "I know it sounds horrible, but there's a silver lining here because of your selfless sacrifice."
"You can send me back?" Ranma whispered hopefully, cerulean eyes full of pleading hope.
Instead of answering, Urd turned her gaze towards the stoic youngster king.
Shaking his head forlornly, Koenma replied in the negative, "I'm sorry, but resurrection isn't an option here. Unfortunately, we've hit our limit and can't afford another for around..." He trailed off, picking up yet another piece of parchment from his desk. "Around fifty-seven years and one hundred sixty-four days."
"So, if I can't... what happens now?" Ranma asked shoulders drooped in defeat.
Tapping another document on his desk, the blue uniformed king answered, "As it is, your karma is relatively balanced between positive and negative values, though leaning towards positive overall. Normally, with this value, you'd probably spend a few decades working for me to up your positive karma before moving on to your heaven or reincarnation into your next life."
"But, due to the current situation, I was able to pull some strings and help you out a little." Urd triumphantly stated, cutting off Koenma.
"So you can't bring me back to life, but you can help me?" Ranma brought up, her confusion showing through in voice and curl of an eyebrow.
That curbed some of Urd's enthusiasm but she nodded anyways. "Well, yes. You see, even though this wasn't supposed to turn out like this, it has. So all I can really do is offer you a choice you wouldn't normally get." Raising her free hand, she ticked off the two options by raising her fingers as she stated, "One: you pass on to be with your ancestors until such a time you decide to reincarnate anew. Two: you choose rebirth to live a new life as yourself, keeping your memories and personality mostly the same; regaining them over time through your new childhood."
"Just those two? Aren't they pretty much the same thing?" Ranma asked, honestly hoping for more than that, considering they were pretty close together as options go.
"Just those two." Urd parroted back with a nod before adding, "Just keep in mind, normal reincarnation washes away almost all the memories and personality of your last life. So, keeping what makes you 'you' into the next life is an extremely rare thing."
"Indeed, this offer is quite generous, all things considered." Koenma chimed in, with a nod, drawing Ranma's glance.
Pondering her options, which were pretty bare at the moment, the deceased Saotome heir looked between the three beings present with her in the huge executive office. It was only a few moments before the redhead nodded, her decision made. "I'll take the second option."
At hearing this, a smile grew on Urds face as she gave the smaller female a small squeeze with her arm before releasing her and stepping back. "I'm glad we could do something to help you, Ranma."
Nodding in agreement, Koenma reached over, picked up yet another stamp and slammed it down on a document before him. Pushing the paper away from himself, Urd moved over and placed her hand upon it, causing a faint glow to flash from the parchment before backing away. Koenma glanced over it one more time before nodding, rolling up the document and holding it out to the deceased martial artist.
"This is your Authorization for Rebirth." Koenma explained as Ranma accepted it from his hands.
Glancing down towards the rolled up document, Ranma said, "Thanks... What do I do now?"
"Once you're ready, just open it and activate it by pressing your thumb to the seal." Koenma efficiently explained.
Before Ranma could consider doing just that, Urd stepped forward and put her hands on the shorter female's shoulders. With a serious look in her eyes, she spoke to the young martial artist. "Just remember one thing, Ranma; you might not have been the perfect hero in this life, but no one ever is. You've got a good heart, though, when it matters. Please don't lose that, okay?"
Looking up in the goddess's violet eyes, Ranma gave a small smile before nodding. "I'll remember... and thanks, Urd."
Smiling back down at the martial artist, Urd ruffled the girl's scarlet hair, bringing a squawk of indignation as the goddess stepped back and away.
Glancing between the three beings smiling towards her, Ranma gave a nod of finality. "Okay, then. I guess it's time to do this thing." Putting actions to words, she unrolled the document to see what looked like a legal document of some kind; 'Ranma Saotome', 'rebirth' and 'immediate authorization' being prominent items. At the base of the page, her blue eyes found a large red stamp marking Koenma's seal surrounded by a circle of glowing blue runes via Urd's work.
Looking up one last time, Ranma said, "See you guys around." Pressing her right thumb to the seal set off a quick flash from the parchment. Instantly, an explosion of light flared from beneath the redheaded martial artist, a column of solid white shooting from floor to ceiling. Just as soon as it came, it faded away, leaving empty space in its wake.
"Well, I guess that's it then... I hope she's happy in her next life." Botan mused, still smiling at the overall outcome of a bad situation.
"Yeah..." Urd agreed, though something was bothering her. "Though, I just can't shake the feeling that I'm forgetting something..."
Stamping yet another form, Koenma didn't even bother to look up at the pondering goddess. "That's because you forgot to turn her male before letting her activating the rebirth program."
"Son of a bitch!"
Spoiler'd the old opening just as a historical marker of where I tried to start. All the stuff below will be new.
