Millennia Gone By Valandar the Red Tokyo sat alone and unremembered in the countryside. Pillars of concrete that once supported freeways, walkways, and even buildings lay toppled against each other, supported by collapsed and rusting steel beams. The glass had long ago evaporated in the conflagration that had ended the lives of countless millions. Here, Man no longer ruled; instead, Nature had taken over. Through this maze of ghosts, two figures trudged through what had once been Shinjuku. The first traveler was a man of perhaps twenty, were one to judge by appearances, wearing a homespun red tunic, black breeches, and calf-high boots. His jet black hair hung down in bands in front that covered his brilliant blue eyes, and in back was pulled back into a braid that he had draped over the heavy pack he wore. No weapons adorned his hip, nor did any armor drape over his shoulders. Behind him came a young lady, who had seen only a little over eighteen summers, with black hair that shone almost blue, and dark eyes that lit up whenever she gazed at her more stoic companion. She wore a white tunic over dark blue breeches, and she carried both a sword on her hip, and an old daikyu on her back. Her own pack was not as massive as the young man's, but still demonstrated her own prodigious strength. "Hey, Wild Horse?" she asked. "Hm?" "When we get to the next village, will you marry me?" Her voice carried a lilt in it as if she was trying to pretend the question was just a joke, but couldn't quite pull it off. "No." "Oh." Eyes cast down on the ground, she asked under her breath, "Why?" "Look, Karenna, I've told you why. I can't love anyone else, ever again. Not after... her..." The young man, Wild Horse, began watching their surroundings, not so much looking at the ruined buildings, as looking through them. "We... we're approaching an area that was known as Nerima-ku, way back then." "Nerima-ku? What did that mean on Old Japanese ?" "Horse-training grounds. I lived here for five years... before the Cataclysm." Karenna whistled. "Wow, I knew you were old... but before the cataclysm? That was, what, a thousand years ago?" "One thousand, thirty two years," he answered mechanically. He paused, as the ruins became fainter, and they reached the epicenter of the Doom of Tokyo. Standing there, his thoughts drifted back more than ten centuries. "Aishiteru, Akane..." "What?" asked the girl. "N-nothing. It was something in Old Japanese." A peal of thunder rang out overhead. "Great. Rain. And there's nowhere for several miles for cover." "Um... yeah." She started ahead of him, and waited for a moment so that he could catch up. "Did... did you have your curse back then?" "Yes." "Oh." Drip, drip, drip. Patter, patter, patter. "H... how did you.. er, how did you become, um, undying?" The rain slicked her hair down, and streamed down her face. Unconsciously, she licked her lips, and tasted the tang of the tainted water. Realizing what he had done, she spat it out almost immediately. "It was an attempt to cure my curse. I wanted to do it for her, because I really didn't care anymore. Not much, anyway." At some point in the past few minutes, Wild Horse had crossed the threshold from damp to wet, and a familiar change had taken place. Where a young man stood, now stood a young lady. She was considerably shorter, with red hair, and a figure that most women would kill for. The expression on her face had not changed, however. "Oh. How did it happen?" "The curse? Or the immortality?" countered Wild Horse. "Um... the immortality?" "Karenna, you've been following me for four years. This is the first time you've ever asked me about my past. Why?" The dark-haired girl waved her finger at him. "Oh, no. Don't you go changing the subject on me! Er, that is... I understand it's probably hard to talk about back then, but I want to know! I want to know everything about you." "Because you love me?" "..." "Sometimes I wish you didn't. Those two girders - we can stretch our cloaks between them, and get some shelter from this rain." "Then you'll tell me?" asked Karenna. "Yes, then I'll tell you." ****************** Above them, thunder rolled, and the gentle spring rain became a heavy downpour. "Well," said Wild Horse, "we got undercover just in time. Too bad we can't start a fire and dry ourselves out, but that can wait." "Um, what if you catch cold?" asked Karenna. "I can't. I can't get any disease." "Oh, yeah. Right. Um, what if I catch cold?" "You won't. Your chi is too healthy... at least, it has been since you've been training under me." The dark-haired girl thought for a moment. "Y'know, you're right! I haven't been sick since about three months after I started tagging alo... er, training under you. Wait a minute - you promised you'd tell me how you became immortal!" Wild Horse sighed. "Yes, immortal. The worst of all my curses." "Huh?" "Never mind. Anyway, I had the water curse, to become female. It was horrible. Because of a suicide pact my father had made, along with a promise to make me a 'man- among-men', I had to hide from my own mother for my first six months in Nerima. She eventually found out, and understood, but it didn't make those first six months any easier. Then, also... there was her. "We fought all the time, and I thought for the longest time that she hated me. Slowly, we started to warm up to each other... until the day I almost lost her." "To another guy?" asked Karenna. "To death." "Oh." "Look, just get your bedroll out of your pack. It's getting dark, and this rain doesn't look like it's going to let up any time soon." ****************** Two days later, the ancient young man and his teenaged companion walked into a small village. About fourteen or fifteen huts of cane and rice paper huddled around a central hut, slightly larger than the rest. Perhaps ten women, and half again as many children, wandered between the huts, going about their own business or playing impromptu games. None of the men seemed to be present, but they could perhaps be at work in the fields with the older children. "So, these are the guys who sent you the message?" asked Karenna. "Yep." "Have you ever been here before?" "No." "Oh." She watched her feet for a moment. "Um... have you ever thought of settling down with, um, someone? Just resting in a village until your family is bigger than one of those old cities?" "No." "... not even with me?" "Please, Karenna, we've been over this. I can't love anyone, ever again. All it'll bring me is pain." "So you want me to drop the subject?" "Yes. Let's go to the central hut, and see if the mayor, or hetman, or whatever the top guy's calling himself, is there." Nodding to the inhabitants, who cast them wary glances, they approached the larger hut. Opening the door, Wild Horse and Karenna saw four men engrossed in a low-voiced debate. "I tell you, I've heard of this Wild Horse. They say he saved the village forty miles up the coast when the Blackskulls attacked! And all he asks is food," said a man of thirty, dressed in muted grays. "Food, yes! All the food of the village," grumbled a portly, middle-aged man in dark blue. "They say he eats as much, no, more than his namesake!" "Now, now," interrupted the young traveler, "I don't eat that much." "Huh?" The four men stood, and bowed slightly. "Well," said a tall elderly man in dark green, "since he's here, it would seem impertinent to ask him to leave." A secret smile crossed his face. "What?" How do you know that's really him?" asked the man in blue. "Because I have met him once," answered the ancient man. "Yes, Wild Horse. I still remember when I lived back near the mountains, and you stopped those Garan-lok. Your face has been burned into my memory all these years." "Feh," said the fourth man, a sallow-faced man in his sixties. "This stripling could not be the same as the one you encountered. A grandson, perhaps, but not the same man." Karenna started to argue, but Wild Horse raised his hand. "If it pleases you to think so. But, remember, truth is subjective in this world. Now, what is the problem?" The man in gray motioned for the rest to sit, and coughed. "It's the Blackskulls. They've moved down this way, and have attacked twice last season alone. We've heard about how you train people to defend themselves, and help them against bandits, and we need your help." "How long ago was the last attack?" asked the black- haired girl. "I can agree to Wild Horse aiding us," groused the sallow-faced man, "but who is this impertinent girl?" "She's my partner, and student," said Wild Horse. "If you question her abilities or judgement, then you question my teaching. If you question my teaching, then you don't need me." He started to stand up, and leave. "Oh, Wild Horse, sit down. We both know you won't leave unless Morran there gets downright offensive, and he's too smart to do that." Glancing at the sallow-faced man, Atana continued, "At least, I hope he is." Before they could continue, however, a scream rose up outside. "Dammit, they're here already?" asked the man in gray. "It's only been two weeks since the last time!" Wild Horse shrugged as he sprang to his feet. "That's the way these people do things, completely unpredictable. Karenna, come on, we've got work to do!" Before he had fully finished the last word, he was out of the hut, sprinting in the direction of the scream, the black haired girl only half a step behind. In the distance, they could see a dust cloud, a banner of a black goat skull painted on a red background clearly visible. Wild Horse grabbed his charge's shoulder. "You start picking them off, I'm gonna round up the villagers!" Nodding, Karenna unlimbered her bow, and began to draw arrows from one tunic sleeve. "Gotcha! Sure glad you taught me those hidden weapons techniques!" With a half- breath pause, a clothyard shaft covered the two hundred yards to the cloud, and the faint sound of a scream carried back to her the news that her arrow had hit its mark. In one smooth motion, another arrow appeared, and sped on its way. Behind her, Wild Horse was grabbing women and children at random, and practically shoving them into the central hut. It was too late for any men in fields to the north, if there were any, but the children were the future of the village. Glancing back, he nodded approvingly, as many of the Blackskulls would raid no more. He turned back to his own task, and shut the door behind the last group of children. "Hey, Wild Horse," Thunk! "we don't have much time before they close! Got," Thunk! "enough time for one of your magic blasts?" Her answer was a burst of yellow energy, burying into the ground just ahead of the horde. At the close range the horde was at now, she could see several horses stumble on the crater, or rear, throwing their riders in panic. But, it wasn't enough, and the banner of the leader was in the rear. "This is gonna be a tough one," said the immortal. Minutes later, the bandits had reached the village. Karenna had dropped her bow, and drawn her sword. Shoulder- to-shoulder with the man she loved, she grinned fiercely. "I always enjoy this part!" The first horse to reach them lost its front leg to her sword, even as Wild Horse leapt over her head to catch the man on the chin with a flying kick. The immortal pushed off from the falling man directly to the nearest opponent, even as the black-haired girl snatched a man out of his saddle, and took his place. The battle raged for at least fifteen minutes, with heavy fighting the entire time. More than forty bandits would not walk away from the fight, while both Karenna and Wild Horse were bleeding from several small wounds. Soon, only a handful of bandits, including their leader, remained. The bandit leader stared at the carnage before him. "What are you?" he rasped, fear in his eyes. "We're two concerned citizens, that is all," said the ancient young man. "I'll be back... just you wait!" Motioning to the remains of his gang, he wheeled his horse around, and rode away. Soon, though, he turned back, to give one last look at the village. He reached into his sash, and withdrew something over a thousand years old. Wild Horse saw it, and, for a moment, wondered if it would even work. Then, he saw the muzzle flash, and realized that it did. Before he could take two steps, Karenna flew backwards like a rag doll, and lay still, bleeding from just below her right breast. Then, everything went red. ****************** Memories... "Shang Ti, whatever he's being tormented for, he's probably paid for!" The Ruler of the Pantheon of China looked at him, with the weight of countless eons behind it. "But, his torment cannot be stopped. It is a part of him, even more than his immortality is." "P...please... Father...," gasped the god. "G-grant him... a... boon..." The deity's gaze never wavered. "Well, child of Man? What boon would you ask of me?" Ranma thought, unable to tear his own eyes away from the majesty before him. Compared to the two in this cave, at this moment, Saffron had been little more than a sparrow before dragons. "So... I could ask that my Jusenkyou curse was cured, or somethin', right?" "If that is what you ask." Seeing the torment of a god before his own eyes, he knew what he had to do. "Nope, it ain't. A martial artist is supposed ta help the weak, or those who need it. An' he needs help more than I need a cure. An' I only know one way ta help him." "Are you certain?" asked Shang Ti. "I know what you intend to ask, and you must be warned of the consequences." "I unnerstan'. An' I know it means I'll outlive Akane, an' Ryouga, an' Ucchan, an' stuff." He took a deep breath. "But it's the only way ta stop his pain. I ask fer his immortality." Memories shift... A wedding, to the joy of two celebrating fathers... The day he found out. He held her close, relishing her presence, and the subtle echo of chi that belonged to the new life within her. Holding her like that as a hydrogen bomb, hotter than a thousand suns, evaporated them all. The pain of reforming, years later, and the hellish screams of rage and grief that filled the air for over a week. A vibrant echo of that grief rekindled just moments ago. ****************** Even years later, no one of the village would talk about what they had seen once the bandit leader had used his 'thunder wand'. But whispers followed, of a man so lost to rage, that he barely noticed when a lucky sword blow removed his head from his shoulders. Tales emerged of the horror of watching the headless corpse devastate the last living bandits. And rumors of that dancing body bending over, and placing its head back on its neck, where it joined as surely as if it had never been severed. Wild Horse slowly walked back to the North side of town, where his companion lay, surrounded by many of the female villagers. They saw him approach, and parted in shock. Ignoring them completely, he knelt by her side. "K- Karenna...I should have been faster. I shouldn't have assumed it wouldn't work.. I..." "R...Ranma?" came her weak voice. "Wha? No... it can't be!" "H...have you... seen... P-chan?" Hot tears raced down his cheeks as he recognized the voice that spoke through his partner's body. "N-no, Akane. Not for a long time." "I... s-swear, Ranma... he gets lost... almost as much... as... Ryou... ga..." Silence. There were no screams of grief, no cries of rage. Instead, he bent down, and gently, reverently, lifted her from the earth that had been her deathbed. Grim-faced, he walked away, carrying her, the streams of tears the only outward sign of emotion. ****************** Ranma knelt by a fresh grave. On the grave was only a simple stone, into which he had carved the simple name, Karenna. His tears wet the earth, and his hands smoothed the earth over the grave. "You returned to me once, and I kept you at arm's length," he whispered. "Perhaps you will return to me again. This time, I promise, I won't turn you away." Author's notes: Well, numerous people gave me some C&C on this one, and I took some of their advice. Gary Kleppe gave me the best advice, namely advice on the construction of the story. So, here it is!