Disclaimer: [Cue recording: "Disclaimer" by The Offspring] " " Speech < > Thought Suikohalf Gold Prologue By Raiu Kusanagi * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Ranma landed on the sidewalk and looked around, silently congratulating himself when he didn't see anyone that appeared to be looking for him. The girls wouldn't think to look here for him. After all, it was just too simple for him to double back. Now that he was back where the chase had started, Ranma allowed himself to relax a bit. However, as he was turning to head back to the dojo, something caught his eye, making him stop and turn toward it. Walking over to the item, Ranma could see that it was a pendant made from a cord tied around a small, dark purple gem. After grabbing the item, Ranma hopped up onto a roof so no one would see him and try to take the pendant. As Ranma slid the pendant over his head and allowed it to hang loosely around his neck, he was unaware of a sort of vague pseudo-intelligence similar to an extremely primitive A.I. was awakened. * * * * As a True Rune, the Soul Eater had the ability to gauge its new host's approximate potential to determine how much of its power its host could wield. In a manner slightly similar to a well-known ring in another universe, the Soul Eater could grant extraordinary powers to its hosts. Some would be able to bond with it to a higher degree than others. Not even its last host, the McDohl boy, had had the potential this young man did, even though McDohl had been able to tap into greater powers in the short four years he possessed the Rune than Ted, its host before McDohl, had in three hundred years. *This* young man, though, could possibly tap into and master the Rune's full range of powers. Deciding – if its limited intelligence could be said to make decisions – to see if this host could achieve the potential it saw in him, the Rune fused itself to him. * * * * Ranma stumbled and almost fell in mid-step when he felt a searing knife of agony stab into the center of his forehead. A moment later, he did collapse on the roof, only to begin writhing in pain as his body felt like it was being torn apart. Unknown to him, the pain in his forehead had been the Rune etching itself into his skin and mixing its power with his ki, while the rest was caused by the Rune rebuilding his body, undoing the years of malnutrition and brain damage inflicted on him by Genma. After a few minutes, the pain faded, leaving Ranma lying on the roof, trying to catch his breath. The teen slowly forced himself to his feet and nearly stumbled again as his sense of balance was somewhat off. "What the heck?" Ranma muttered, looking down at himself to see why his clothes were tighter than before. The martial artist immediately noticed that he was taller than before, accounting for his altered sense of balance and tighter clothes. What it didn't account for was why his ki reserves seemed larger or what the strange power partially hidden beneath his ki was. Taking a moment to adjust to his new sense of balance – hey, he had to have gotten something out of all the body-switching he'd been doing thanks to his curse – Ranma shook his head and decided to head for a clothing store. Whatever the hell had caused it, the growth spurt had left his current wardrobe virtually useless, as almost all of his outfits were now several sizes too small. Once in the clothing store, Ranma picked out a few somewhat bland outfits consisting of black short-sleeved shirts (his usual silk Chinese shirts would probably have been too expensive if the store carried them), black pants similar to his usual ones, only without the ties around the ankles, and, of course, new boxers. Thankfully, his shoes had been a bit big on him before his growth spurt so now they fit almost perfectly. After he'd paid for the clothes using some of the small amount of money he'd managed to hide from Nabiki and his father, the pig-tailed martial artist left the store and quickly located a spot on a nearby roof where he could change his clothes and remain hidden. "Ah... much better..." Ranma sighed in relief once he'd changed into one of his new outfits, though he'd misjudged the shirt size a bit. It was tight enough to nearly be a second skin, but stretchy enough that it wasn't a hindrance. "Those boxers were starting to get a bit too tight for comfort. Too bad my silk shirts don't stretch. I wouldn't have had to get any new ones, then." With that, Ranma stuffed his old clothes into one of the shopping bags he'd gotten and took off, heading for the dojo. Several minutes later, Ranma landed on the roof of the Tendo home and crept over to his window, then sighed in relief when he found that it was unlocked. Sliding the window open, the teen slipped into his room, shutting the window behind him, and began putting his clothes away, only to freeze when he heard someone start to open the door. Kasumi entered the room and looked around for a moment. The room was completely empty, exactly the way she'd left it when she cleaned earlier that day. The young woman walked over to Ranma's rolled up futon and placed a postcard on top of it. Once the eldest Tendo daughter left the room, Ranma breathed a sigh of relief from where he was gripping the ceiling above the door. The teen silently dropped to the floor, cradling the shopping bags holding his new clothes. He set the bags down, then stepped over to his futon, picked up the postcard, and quickly read the message on it. "Heh." Ranma snorted. "P-chan actually thinks he's in Hokkaido. Three days? I give 'im a week." The raven-haired young man stared at the postcard a moment longer before smirking and dropping it back on the futon. With that thought in mind, Ranma pulled out the few clothes he'd put away, then stuffed his new wardrobe into his backpack along with the things he'd kept from his days living on the road. An errant thought passed through his mind, causing Ranma to smirk and turn toward Genma's pack. "Payback's hell, ain't it, pops?" Ranma whispered as he began rummaging through his father's belongings. A few minutes later, Ranma had finished his search. In the end, he took a couple thousand yen and an old martial arts scroll. "Pathetic, old man..." Ranma sighed in disgust before briefly scanning the scroll. "Hmm... some kind of meditation technique. Might be useful." Ranma tossed the money and scroll into separate side pockets on his pack, grabbed his school notebook, and scribbled a quick note in it. After tearing out the page with the note on it, Ranma set the page on his rolled up futon and tossed the notebook and pencil back into his pack. A few moments later, Ranma was out of the house and heading toward the edge of Nerima. * * * * That evening, Nabiki was volunteered to go up and see what was wrong with Ranma. Deciding not to knock, the middle Tendo daughter simply opened the door and barged into the room. The emptiness of the room merely caused her to quirk an eyebrow until she caught sight of the note and postcard on top of Ranma's futon. "'Gone on training trip. Don't follow. – Ranma.'" Nabiki read, smirking. "Well, Saotome, you're going to have some explaining to do when you get back. Too bad this is Ryoga you're going to be meeting, not to mention the usual lot being too small; otherwise I'd have an audience waiting for you two." Still smirking, Nabiki left the room to deliver the news. Her version of it, naturally. * * * * Ranma dropped his pack to the ground beside him and scanned the clearing he'd chosen to train in. It was about thirty feet in diameter with a stream running straight through the middle of it and surrounded on all sides by tall trees. "Well, better get started." On that note, Ranma instantly launched himself into a high-speed kata, wanting to finish adjusting to his new sense of balance as quickly as possible while trying to figure out what had happened to him. So deep in thought was he, it wasn't until part way through his fifth kata that Ranma noticed something was... off. The teen came to a stop and looked down at himself. On seeing that nothing had changed since he began his first kata, Ranma started going back over his last kata in his mind. In doing so, Ranma realized that some of his strikes had been changed into claw swipes, like those a cat might use. "Okay..." Ranma hesitantly began. "That was weird. Hmmm... might actually be useful, just to change it up a bit. But why was I doing it? ...Eh, worry about that later." After a few moments, Ranma went back to his katas, this time consciously integrating the claw swipes into them. Oddly enough, those strikes seemed almost natural to Ranma. Several hours later, when he felt he was comfortable enough with his new body in action, the teen decided to take some time and just think about things. Ranma silently mused as he sat down next to his pack, "Think I'll start on the techniques I know already..." Hours later... "Well that was pointless..." Ranma snorted in disgust. "All that work and not a damn thing to show for it." Just then, Ranma's stomach growled. "Heh. Dinner time!" It wasn't until Ranma nearly tripped over his pack that he realized how dark it was. Sighing wearily, Ranma began scrounging for small branches and various other pieces of wood. In only a few minutes, Ranma had a fairly good- sized fire going a couple feet from his pack. Shortly after that, the teen had a small kettle of water hanging suspended over the fire. "Guess this'll have to do for tonight," Ranma grumbled, gazing down at the jumbo-size Cup Ramen in his hand. It wasn't long before the water was hot enough to use. After pouring the heated water into the cup and waiting for the noodles to soften up enough, Ranma eagerly dug into the meal. "Not much, but it was good," Ranma commented as he tossed the cup on the ground. With dinner out of the way, the raven-haired young man quickly set up his tent & bedroll and put out the fire, then crawled into his bedroll and went to sleep. As he slept, Ranma dreamt of a strange symbol. It consisted of a dark orange silhouette of a cloaked figure holding a scythe that angled up to the right with the curved blade arcing back over its head. * * * * Thanks to having a full, peaceful night's sleep, Ranma awoke fairly early on his own. The teen quickly got up and changed into a new outfit, then started on his morning katas, once again using the claw swipes. After nearly an hour of nonstop exercise, Ranma decided to move on. "Time to check out that scroll now." Ranma pulled the scroll out of his pack and unrolled it, examining the text on it. His eyes almost immediately widened to the size of plates. "Holy shit! How the hell did pops get the scroll for a technique like this?!" Ranma exclaimed, then smirked. "But I know there's no way he could have learned these techniques. With the way his mind works, it would have been physically impossible for him." Before Ranma could begin trying to learn what was on the scroll, a strange impulse drew his gaze toward the stream as he set the scroll on the ground. Following the impulse, Ranma walked over and crouched by the stream. Looking down at his reflection, Ranma was stunned by his new face. Before, his face had been somewhat round with traces of baby fat still showing. Now, the face staring back up at him was narrow and chiseled, though still obviously his own, with absolutely no fat in it, whatsoever. A pair of hard blue eyes met his gaze. The teen raised one hand to his forehead and pulled his bangs out of the way, revealing the symbol he'd dreamed of last night tattooed in the center of his forehead. "What the...?" Ranma muttered, less than a second before a veritable flood of knowledge assaulted his mind. The teen fell backwards as if he lost his balance, landing on his butt and simply sat there, stunned, for several minutes. "So that's what that new power I felt was. The energy of the Soul Eater Rune. But that still doesn't explain what the hell happened to me." Another flood of knowledge almost knocked Ranma on his back. Now Ranma knew exactly how he had been changed when the Rune fused itself to his forehead. "I was brain-damaged?!" Ranma snarled. "Just one more thing to pay back pops for." Once more the teen crouched by the stream and peered down at his reflection, pulling his bangs back to once more reveal the Rune. "So... what are you powers? And what's with this empty, hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach?" This time, the flood of knowledge was much smaller, but its impact on Ranma was no less potent. Once again, Ranma fell backwards. "The power over life and death? I... I'm immortal? So, does that mean I can't die or be killed... or just that I'll never age again?" When the answer came, Ranma was slightly relieved. "I can still die... That... that's somewhat relieving." The teen sat there for several minutes before smirking. Shortly after, a snicker escaped Ranma's throat, quickly followed by chuckling. The chuckling rapidly evolved into full-blown, gut-busting laughter, which persisted for nearly half an hour before Ranma gradually came to a stop and fell back, laying down next to the stream. "Only me!" Ranma stated. "Only I could have had this happen to me! *sigh* Sometimes, I don't know why I even bother..." Ranma allowed his thoughts to wander aimlessly for a while after that. When he finally came back to himself, the martial artist glanced up at the sun and saw that it was after noon. "Damn... guess I better get to work on that scroll..." * * * * Nine days later Ranma watched impassively as a pillar of translucent, sickly green energy erupted from the ground not ten feet in front of him. The young immortal calmly sidestepped the falling debris caused by the explosion and waited for the dust to fade. Once the slight breeze passing by blew enough of the dust away, Ranma saw Ryoga standing in the crater, his back to the other teen. "Hey, Ryoga. 'Bout time you got here." Ryoga turned toward the source of the voice and blinked in surprise. "Ranma? Is that you?" "Yup. Went through a bunch of changes recently. I've also been doing a lot of thinking over the past week or so." "And why should I care about that?" Ryoga growled. "Because I want you to have this," Ranma replied, tossing a scroll to the Lost Boy. "What's this?" "A set of martial arts techniques. Take a look. I think you'll like what you see." Glancing at Ranma suspiciously, Ryoga unrolled the scroll and began reading. A minute later, Ryoga looked up and stared levelly at Ranma. "Are these what I think they are?" "I don't know what you're thinking, so I'll just tell you what they are. The first one is a technique that allows you to actually see and feel ambient ki as easily as you see and feel that scroll you're holding. The second one teaches you how to manipulate, absorb, and merge ambient ki with your own ki. The third technique is a method of using your ki to basically give yourself eyes in the back of your head. Finally, the fourth one is a ki blast. Basically –" "I know what a ki blast is, Saotome." Ryoga cut his rival off, rolling up the scroll. "And that's exactly what I thought they were. I already know the last one." "Oh? Ah, that was the blast you used when you got here, right?" "Yeah. Hey – why are you giving me this, anyway?" Ranma's answer was to sigh wearily and lean back against the wall just behind him. "It's simple, really... you're the closest thing to a friend I have." Ranma sighed again as he pushed off the wall and started walking out of the lot. "Keep the scroll. All I ask in return is that you don't follow me." "Hey! What about our duel?!" "You win by forfeit," Ranma replied over his shoulder, just before turning a corner around the building next to the lot. Ryoga ran over to where he last saw Ranma and looked around, not seeing Ranma anywhere. "RANMA, YOU COWARD!" Ryoga roared. Ranma silently replied as he took off running across the rooftops heading out of Nerima fast enough to be all but invisible, his body wreathed in bleach white flames. * * * * TBC... * * * * Author's Notes: Hopefully this Ranma/Suikoden/Gold Digger x-over wasn't all that bad (the GD characters will be introduced next chapter). I know I should be working on my other fics... but this just popped into my head after I wrote Episode 12028 on the Anime Addventure (http://addventure.bast-enterprises.de/) and it just wouldn't *go* *away*! Please send me C&C. Any flames I receive will be deleted, followed by me flaming and heckling the flamer (and all his/her fics if he/she has written any) mercilessly. If you can't give me a good reason why you're insulting my work, be prepared to receive hell from me for it.