Endless Chaos

Beginning.

Disclaimer: Has any one else noticed that most of my stories start with someone 
flying through the air? Finishing, Wild Times, and now this one. Isn't it weird? 
Anyway. I don't own the titles or the characters from either Sandman or Ranma. 
I'm just moving them in ways that were never before anticipated. Enjoy.


Have you ever really noticed how everything seems, I don't know, related? Like 
it's connected in some sorta grand cosmic plan?  

I haven't. Nope. No greater purpose. No ultimate goal. Just a whole lota stuff 
that, if it's gonna suck and absolutely has to happen, happens to me.

But I have noticed one thing in my time. Everything might not be connected, and 
there might not be some sorta 'grand cosmic plan', but there is a definite 
pattern that I'm beginning to feel. Like what you might ask? Well, here's a 
little example, just an example of course, for you to think about.

Wake up midair and moving fast towards an open window. Landing in a pond.  
Fighting with a stupid panda that just won't let you be. Running from that 
hideous freakish monstrosity that your fiancé has decided to name something 
really stupid (At least I hope that she named it. That's the only sane reason I 
can see for her calling it 'Breakfast'). Getting molested. Walking to school.  
Getting attacked by a Chinese girl claiming to be your wife. Getting malletted.  
Trying to stay awake at school to avoid getting your life force drained out of 
you. Talking to your oldest childhood friend and having an okonomayaki for 
lunch. Getting malletted. Walking home. Getting attacked by a psycho in a 
leotard with a ribbon. And getting malletted.

Repeat 365 days per year, and see if the pattern doesn't start to get a little 
old.  And since this is only a small example, I left out all of the challenges 
and death-threats that I might use as another example.  

Pattern's suck.

Anyway, if you take a second to think about how things always seem to happen in 
a pattern, the specifics of life stop really mattering. It doesn't really matter 
if you pay attention to what's going on around you. All you have to do is 
respond to the pattern and you can get through easily enough. And that's the 
reason that when I found myself flying through the air after being, surprisingly 
enough, malletted, it didn't really bother me too much. I just kind of yawned 
and waited till I hit. I've done this a thousand times before, and I'll probably 
end up doing it a thousand times more. One more doesn't really matter.  

Getting ready for my naturally perfect three point landing that I was about to 
perform, I took a quick look at the ground to prepare myself. Well, this is 
unusual. This is the first time it looked like I was going to land at the train 
yard. Right between that big box car labeled 'Nails' and the one labeled 
'Caution: High Explosives'. Well, the novelty of the situation at least makes it 
a bit interesting I suppose. Another quick glance and I catch sight of what 
looks like a giant mob of women following an insane basketball. Oh, wait, that's 
not a basketball. That's Happosai. As I prepare for my landing I catch sight of 
an expertly thrown broom flying through the air and walloping the old pervert 
right on the noggin'. I grin when I see that the chick with the arm is none 
other than Ms. Hinako. He must have really pissed her off if she had forgotten 
all about her draining abilities. Running near my teacher is Shampoo and Ucchan, 
both brandishing their weapons purposefully.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice something. Turning back in time to see 
Happosai finish falling over from the force of the broom. Just in time to see 
him accidentally let slip a swarm of his Happo-bombs. Just in time to see see 
one of the bombs head towards a nearby water tower. Just in time to see the 
others land right on the box cars labeled with the 'Caution' and 'Nails'. Looks 
like the fuse is gonna run out right about when I'm about to land....

"Uh-oh," I manage to get out before everything goes a terrifying white around 
me....

****

I blink twice, and take stock of where I am. I am standing next to what appears 
to be a giant blackened crater in what appears to be the remains of a train 
yard. I blink twice more. Alright, that seems to agree with what I remember from 
just second ago. I look down at myself slowly, afraid of what kind of injuries 
I've taken. There's no way anyone, even me, could have gotten out of that 
without a scratch. Since I don't seem to be in any pain that can only mean the 
damage is pretty extensive.

I blink-blink again. Nothing. I came out of that without a scratch.

"Wow," I say aloud. "That was intense."

"I'll say," a voice behind me agrees in a cheery and amused tone. I yelp like a 
little girl...I mean I start in surprise and turn around. My jaw drops at who I 
see behind me.

"Please tell me you're another fiancé," is the first thing that comes out of my 
mouth before I can get control of it again. When the woman behind me blinks and 
then blushes, I slap my hand over my mouth and try to hide my embarrassment. I 
couldn't help it though. The first thing that comes to my mind when I see the 
woman is, 'man, she's hot'. She has a beautiful face framed with a long tousle 
of black hair. Her body is slim and attractive, complemented by the jeans and 
spaghetti string top (both pieces of clothes in black). But it's more than that.  
She has this smile that is so heartfelt, so understanding, so warm...It's like 
she can see right through me, see all the bad and dirty parts inside of me, and 
she just doesn't care. The only other smile that even comes close to it is 
Kasumi's, and hers is kind of vacant on the best of occasions.

"No, not quite, Ranma," the lady manages to respond after a second to cover her 
blush and flash another one of those soul shaking smiles. I suddenly got this 
sudden suspicion that I've seen her before, and the suspicion is reinforced when 
she knows my name.

"Have we met?" I ask in a befuddled tone.  

"Just once. Don't feel bad if you don't remember, it was a long time ago."  

I nod my understanding. "Wow. Give me a second and I'll see if it comes back to 
me."

Here the lady hesitates for a second. "If you want to see something that'll 
help, I have something you need to look at." She beckons me over a bit, and I 
follow obediently.  As I step up a small crest, I notice something I hadn't seen 
earlier. The woman's wearing some kind of jewelry. A big silvery looking cross 
thingy with a loop on the top strung through a chain. I know I've seen that 
before, and even as I crest the hill and look down, the memory hits my like a 
hammer.

The one time she met me before. Eighteen years earlier. The day of my birth.  
And there, below me I see what the woman had wanted me to look at. There below 
me, stretched out in a really gross looking red smear is...

Me.

"Now I remember you," I say. Yup. Definitely makes since. "You're Death." I give 
my mangled corpse another look. "Man, that is not a pretty sight."

"Don't feel to bad, Ranma," Death says understandingly. "I've seen worse."

"So. Strange though. I always figured that it would be that tomboy's cooking 
that does me in. Or maybe some rival or something. This...This is just some kind 
of freak accident. Could have happened to anyone." It's a little odd, taking my 
death so easily, but there's really not much I can do about it, now is there? I 
look over at Death and see her giving me skeptical look. "Alright. Not exactly 
anyone, but you get the picture," I relent.

"Any regrets, Ranma?" Death asks. It's strange. It doesn't sound cold or tacky 
at all. You'd figure that someone who spends every minute of their existence 
doing this kind of thing would get bored, or just stop caring. But this woman in 
front of me...It sounds like she cares. I mean really cares about me and how I 
feel about dying.

"Nah. I had a good run," I tell her confidently. "So. What now?"

"Now you take my hands, Ranma, and you get to find out." Death held out her 
hands to me, and her eyes sparkled with her good natured cheer. I grin in 
return, and reach out my hands.

And as I reach out to receive my new place in the future, I notice that the 
water from the cooling tower is falling down in a light drizzle, and despite 
that I'm still a boy. Well, that's not much of a cure. I also notice that the 
water is spread a good ways around. I notice the way that the crowd of women 
chasing Happosai is pretty much soaked. Hey, wait a second, wasn't Shampoo in 
that crowd?

It's right about than that I notice, standing right behind beautiful Death, a 
medium sized, lavender and white, bearing a belled collar....

"CAATTT!!!" I shriek, and my last rational thought before I run really, really 
fast, is the final startled blink-blink that Death manages to get off before I'm 
gone.

***

Panting, wheezing, choking, and silently yelling at myself, I finally draw to a 
halt. I know I really shouldn't be scared. I mean, it's just a cat. They barely 
come up to my shins. I doubt one of their claws could even penetrate my skin. I 
could punt 'em all the way to Australia. There's no logical reason to be scared 
of cats, but here I am...

Wait a second. Wasn't I doing something before I got interrupted? Where's Death? 
For that matter...

I take a quick stock of my surroundings. Large, gothic buildings with carved 
gargoyles made out of what appears to be bone, and held together with what 
appears to be skin. Big and numerous crypts, spread all about the roads. Tall, 
pale, and gaunt people wearing old and decaying clothes, all of which are eyeing 
me critically.

One of them comes up to me. "Pardon, sit, but what business brings you to the 
Necropolis Litharge?"

I sweat drop quietly. I think I may be in trouble.