A small black-haired girl skulked through the back woods of China, drenched and soaking.
"Stupid old man," Ranma muttered ringing out "her" gi. "Just had ta come ta this place." She sat down on a rock and grumbled as she slipped the gi back over her body. "Ya'd think he'd have known well enough ta research why they were called cursed springs."
She hunched over, not crying, most definitely not crying. Her voice was catching because she was angry at the old man, she was not crying like some weak little girl.
The sound of a crash from the springs caught her attention and she was up and running, a look of rage on her face. That had to be the old man!
"Give up little fox!" the demon roared, laughing. "You cannot beat us, no matter what shape you take."
The demon was a form of empty black and white in the approximate shape of something human, but it had no true form. All about the scene similar demons crowded in on a red-haired woman carrying a katana. Early! They had come early, before she could find eleven others to fill all the posts of the circle. No matter how adaptable she was, they were right. Alone she couldn't take them all.
She panted and considered her options, and found herself only one. Destroy at least one of them and the invasion would be delayed. Perhaps long enough for another circle to start and finish this time. "Come on then!" she shouted, growing taller, voice roaring to match the demons as she burst into a fierce, cutting wind. "Let us see how many of you are destroyed before I die!"
"I knew you'd come back here old man!!" Ranma shouted as she burst into the clearing. "Now get ready to..." She stopped as she saw that the noise had not come from her father as she had assumed, but a young man, maybe two years older than her. A young man that was currently gripping the guide by the throat.
"Stay out of this girl," the young man said, smirking confidently. "This isn't your fight."
"Hey, who you calling girl?!" Ranma demanded.
"Oh, I suppose you had a dunk in the pools then," the man said.
"Yeah, whatever," Ranma snapped striding forward. "Now put the guy down and get out of here before I tear ya ta pieces."
"If you interfere with me," the man said. "Hn, you won't like it."
"Put your money wear your mouth is pal," Ranma retorted.
"If you insist," the young man said, letting go of the Jusenkyo guide. "We'll finish this after I have my fun with this fresh meat." He cracked his knuckles.
Neither warriors paid attention to their chi senses noting the fierce battle taking place in the spirit world.
The fox paused in one of her true forms, a small, red fox that looked much the worse for the wear. As her enemies searched about for her, surprised at the sudden "disappearance" of their quarry, she caught her breath. Then she returned to the astral combat, bursting into the fury of a volcano's inferno this time.
Ranma staggered backward, shaking her head. She couldn't seem to get around this guy's defenses at all. Maybe if she were still a guy she could have given him a run for his money, but as a girl. As a girl she was getting her ass handed to her. Still, a martial artist's duty was to protect, and that's what she was doing. She gritted her teeth and arranged herself to attack one last time, still wondering just why the jerk was wearing pantyhose.
She was focusing on one demon, or so she hoped, they looked relatively the same, and she thought he was weakening.
The fiery body she had taken had given way to a rocky behemoth with which she smashed into her target. Even in that form it was easy to see her wounds and fading strength. She was going to die soon, she just had to take one of them with her.
The demons and spirit barely concerned themselves with the mortal battle taking place adjacent to there own.
"Give up, little girl," the young man taunted, finally breathing heavily himself. "Your good, but you just got that body, and you haven't trained in it. There's no way you can beat me."
"I don't lose, jerk," Ranma spat, standing up despite the pain that seemed to be coming from everywhere.
"Do you want me to kill you?" the young man asked.
"Don't think I won't do it."
"I ain't letting you rob that guy," Ranma insisted.
"What concern of yours is that?" the man asked.
"Martial artist's duty, pantyhose-freak," Ranma snapped. The young man's smirking, superior expression vanished.
"Oh...now you will die," he promised coolly.
The form she had saved for last, empowered by the water magic of the region, a standing whirlpool of water, was now in play. And she was dying yes, but she could feel her opponent's desparation as well. He would die with her, and it would be another hundred years before they could invade.
Then the demon noticed what was happening in the mortal world, and acted.
Ah shit, Ranma thought to herself as she felt her arm snap. She gritted her teeth and kicked upward into her attackers groin. That'll hurt.
Still, whatever she had said, she had pissed off the young man finally, and he had charged in blindly. As the bandit doubled over in pain and released her from the hold he had been trying to place around her, she followed up the strike. Leaping into the air and coming down into an ax kick that drove the jerk into the ground.
Just for good measure, and to be sure he wouldn't get up, Ranma took a book from a soccer player he had met once and smashed the young man's head.
"That should keep him unconscious a while," Ranma gasped. "I told you, Ranma Saotome doesn't..." A dark miasma surrounded her opponent suddenly. "...lose?"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" the young man laughed loudly as he snapped awake, standing up in front of Ranma as if nothing Ranma had done had hurt him. "My thanks mortal, for weakening this vessel enough for me to take him."
"What are you talking about?" Ranma asked nervously, getting into the best stance she could. She wasn't chi blind, and though her senses weren't masterfully attuned yet, she recognized a demon when she saw one. She hadn't seen one quite like this before though.
"In thanks I will just kill you," the young man said. Suddenly he was growing into something huge and bestial. Ranma could only stare momentarily before the creature slammed an arm forward throwing Ranma back through the trees.
The minotaur like beast flexed its muscles inquisitively after watching the little mortal girl's flight. There had been so many other things he would like to have done with her, including use her as a host for one of his comrades. Still, a promise was a promise.
Such pleasant powers this mortal has. Though when his spirit recovers their may be trouble. Perhaps a deal is in order, he smiled and started to take flight for the East.
The plan would be delayed, until he could find hosts or bodies for his other comrades and have them all on the same plane of existence. But it would not be as long delayed as the fox had obviously hoped.
The fox had reacted with surprise when her target simply vanished from the spirit realm. She barely caught sight of it's dark soul appearing in the mortal realm before her other enemies started tearing into her, catching her in her distraction.
The laughed at the small, bleeding fox as she shrank down into her hybrid form, dying and incapcitated.
"We shall meet our comrade in the mortal realm soon," they laughed. "And then this whole universe shall be for the likes of us. Have fun in your last moments fox."
They faded away, letting the fox crawl off, hoping to find someway to live. Surely they had defeated her well enough that she wouldn't be a problem. And with her gone, no other Earth spirit knew of their coming, they were assured of victory.
Ranma was dying, she could feel her life leaking away. And what was worse was that she would die as a girl. Still, she took comfort in the fact that it had taken a demon to beat her, after she had already fought as well.
Well, she wouldn't let death beat her easily, either. She would shut down a number of her systems and gear her body toward healing and, failing that, maintenance. Maybe she could hold on long enough for somebody to find her and help her. Maybe.
As she faded away her vision started to blur and she could see something crawling toward her, but certainly that was just her imagination. Ranma shut her eyes as everything started turning to black.
The fox hesitated as she reached the girl, or boy rather she could see both forms. The mortal's spirit was hanging on tenaciously with the sort of determination only that race of heros and villains could attain.
Still, she was going to die. The fox thought she could hold on another hour, maybe two, but nobody would find her in time to help her. The other mortal in the area was out cold from some attacker as well. She didn't have much time to do this, so she had to make her decision quickly. The time of mortals and spirits mixing was long past, but if she took this route it would begin again. For this mortal would have to find eleven more mortals to impart a shard of hengeyokai life force to. Twelve mortals, twelve animal spirits, to fight the twelve demons seeking to break their universe.
It had to be done. She would die, but first she would merge her life force into this mortal and impart as much of her knowledge as she could before her soul left for the heavens. And the first mortal hengeyokai in three hundred years would be born.
Ranma sat bolt upright as something seemed to be flow into her. She arched her back, mouth open silently in shock and surprise before screaming in outright terror.
She'd just seen a man possessed, was that what was happening to her now? Was something going to turn her into a hell-bent monster? The terror subsided as images and things began to slam into her head. Images of demons and the end of worlds, her own and the kami plane. Snippets of secrets known by a master shape-shifter. Most important of all, the urge, the need, the awareness that there needed to be eleven others, and how to recruit them.
Then it was over as something seemed to pass on, a desparate and sad spirit fading into the ether. Fading away with one message.
"Stop them before its too late," the woman called out.
"What the hell?" Ranma asked as she tried to sort out what she'd learned.
"There you are boy!" a voice shouted just before hot water was thrown over him. "What are you doing just..."
"Hey!!" Ranma shouted. "What did you do that for?"
"You didn't change back!!" Genma blanched, what was he going to tell Nodoka. "And why is your hair red now."
"Change back?" Ranma snorted. "What do you mean change back...how come you're not a panda?"
"But, but," Genma blubbered, trying to get across the idea that hot water was supposed to change Ranma back.
"Never mind, Pop," Ranma snapped. "I figure it out later. Now we gotta do some heavy training, because I just nearly got myself killed trying to take on this jerk who has the gall to get himself possessed by a demon just after a knocked his ass to the ground."
"But, but, but," Genma continued. Ranma frowned, apparently she wasn't going to get any sense out of her pop until she changed back into a guy.
"Of all the," Ranma muttered. "It's my girl body, I gotta train." She shook her head as she willed the change, not thinking about exactly how she knew to do that. It was natural that was all.
Genma stared as his red-haired daughter became a red-haired son.
"Now, pop," Ranma said. "I'm serious, gotta do a lot of training, cause there's some fights coming up that are gonna get messy. Pop?"
But Genma had fainted.
"Ahh, now what am I going to..." Ranma paused and considered what had just happened. "Errr...how did I do that?"