Ranma 1/2: A matter of conscience. Part one: "The Day I died." ++++++++++++++++ It was a brisk morning on an autumn day. The leaves were turning, and school had started once again. Fortunately, Carrot had graduated a few years ago. To make a long story short, he crossed the street, got hit by a car, and died rather painfully in the back of an ambulance. Didn't even save a kid doing it, and the driver wasn't drinking. Kinda anti climactic isn't it? That's not what this story is about though. Best not to get into it anyway, as it would involve a lot of angsty self exploration, and quite a few really gory and descriptive scenes which would have been really cool, but the guy writing this is a lazy asshole anyway. You'll get over it, I'm sure. ++++++++++++++++++ "Where am I? What's going on?" He shielded his face from the intense light before him and frowned as he staggered to his feet. He appeared to be fully clothed and unharmed. "Wha?" His state was odd, because he distinctly remembered being tossed over the front grill of a Buick. "Where am I?" "Welcome my son," said a kindly aged voice. "Who?" he muttered as he shook his head to clear it. "I'm sure this won't be too much of a shock for you. You did see it coming after all. You're dead." He blinked. "Carrot. You have just died, and now you must prepare for your eternity." He blinked again. The old man just sighed. "You are here, to face final judgement." He swallowed and slowly turned his head to the flames that erupted behind him. "Don't be afraid unless you have reason to fear true death my boy. They must have a representative after all. It's sort of a formal occasion, so bear with it if you can." Carrot nodded slowly and looked towards the old man. He was now holding a large book in his hands and cleared his throat. "This is going to take a while, so please hold all comments and questions till the end." "Ah, it was a cold day in December when a spry young boy was born to a loving mother over twenty years ago. So begins the story of your life..." ++++++++++++++++++ "And then, when you were three, you told your mother that space aliens landed in your yard in order to avoid her 'Special Salmon Casserole'. Very naughty indeed, another mark." Carrot was growing annoyed. "Hey! You can't call that a sin! That stuff was evil!" The old man shook his head sadly as another mark was put into the thousands of others behind him. "Two wrongs do not make a right." "Why are we doing this? I lived that life remember? I don't need to hear about it all over again do I? I mean, we've still got more than twenty years to go!" "If you have strayed too far from that path, then these will be your final moments of comfort, and the only ones that you will be able to remember." Carrot froze and turned his head towards the flames. Nothing had come out yet, but they flickered menacingly. "Oooh! Such a good story! I love how you do the voices! You've got my mom dead on!" The old man grumbled under his breath and Carrot squeaked in fright as another mark magically appeared on the huge chalkboard behind the geezer. "Now, shall we continue? Ahem!" +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Carrot's palms were sweaty. The number of marks on the board was astronomical. Fortunately, there was another board beside it with marks for all the good things he did in life as well. It was smaller, a lot smaller. "This sucks," grumbled the boy as he hung his head. "Yes, dying generally does," replied the old man sourly. "However..." Carrot's head perked up slightly. "Huh?" "The number of good deeds is small in comparison of course, but it is with most people. You're not a bad sort really. The good deeds you did perform were usually quite good, intent and all. Most of your lies were small, or jokes. Carrot's eyebrow twitched. "You mean, that really counts?" "Well, not technically..." said the old man with a shrug. "What about the Ten Commandments?" asked Carrot dumbly. "I thought those were, ya know, concrete and all." The old man slapped his knee and started howling. "You mean you fell for that? Bwahahahahahaaaa!" Carrot was seriously annoyed. "Really all you had to do in life was succeed in becoming a good person. You my friend, are not bad, but you haven't really succeeded either." "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" cried Carrot in horror. The old man chuckled. "Careful, it just might." The fire behind Carrot surged higher for a moment and he froze. Fear quickly turned into annoyance. "All right. I get it, get to the point old man." "You're not the evil sort, but you're lazy, arrogant, egotistical, and down right insensitive." "You can't blame me! I was born insensitive! It's not my fault you didn't give me the capacity to sympathize with others!" "That is only partially true," replied the old man with another small shrug. "However, you're not being sent to hell. At least, not yet." Carrot let out a gasp of relief as the flames vanished from behind him. The old man smirked. "What do I have to do?" growled the man as he stood defiantly in front of the elderly gentleman. "That, is as simple as raising a child. It comes naturally." The boy's frowned deepened. "What do you mean?" The old man merely narrowed his eyes at the boy. "You will be sent into the realm of the living, where you will be tested so to speak. It is more than that though; you will be entrusted with the spirit of another. Should you fail, you both shall be damned, should you pass, you shall both pass the gates." Carrot swallowed and took a step back. "Gates?" "Yes, the gates that lead to eternal life," said the old man seriously. "Okay..." muttered Carrot uncomfortably as a silence fell between them. "Here. Take a number please," said the old man as he pointed to a long line that wasn't there before to his right. There was a small pull ticket machine hanging from a signpost on what appeared to be a road of clouds. Carrot blinked and pulled on the tape. A huge three-foot-long number slid out into his palm and he gasped. "What the?" "Have a pleasant wait." Elevator music began to play in the sky and he gasped in horror at the line before him. It stretched on and on for seemingly hundreds of miles, possibly thousands. "Aw, man. Shit." ++++++++++++++++++++ What seemed like several thousand years later, and quite possibly could have been... Carrot sighed as he looked up at the door of light in front of him. He was holding a few cards in his hand as he sat in a ring of about ten people. "This looks like it." "Just a matter of days for those who are this close," said one of the other spirits beside him. He was a large man with a full beard of black hair that fluffed out into a bushy head in which his face could almost not be seen. "Yeah," muttered Carrot as he looked at his hand. They didn't really have anything to gamble with, so it was mostly to pass the time. They told stories about each other’s lives, but that got old a while ago and didn't leave them much to talk about these days. That is, until they got this close. "I wonder what's on the other side?" muttered one of the female spirits near to him. Carrot frowned. "Dunno." "Please don't say it," muttered one of the more nervous looking spirits nearby. Carrot tried, but couldn't resist. "It could be just a way to get us to march calmly into hell without realizing it." The man shuddered and shook violently. "That seems unlikely, the line would probably be faster if that was the case," said another woman nearby. Carrot winked at her. "True. According to him, we're to be entrusted, if that old man can be..." "Trusted," said the rest of the group as they rolled their eyes. "Heh. We know each other too well," said Carrot cheerfully. "Yeah," agreed one of the females. It was an odd situation for them, they were all very different, but seemed of a similar mindset. Carrot was probably the smartest one in his group, but a few of the others were close, and a few of them were just plain dumb. Over time, such groups were formed amongst those with numbers that were close together. Some never passed, and hung around behind the door on the opposite side of the line. The clouds extended endlessly beyond it. Occasionally they would speak with the others, sometimes to dissuade them from crossing, telling them what they feared it might be. Or sometimes they would just chat, happy to hear the stories of new lives. A large majority of them merely sat around and stayed to themselves. As it was now, Carrot's number was a mere few minutes away by the group's calculations. The angel statue that stood in front of the doorway would put away its sword long enough for the one whose number appeared over the door to pass through. No one knew what would happen if someone with the wrong number tried to pass. It wasn't something the already mostly paranoid spirits was willing to risk. If you missed your number, you just hung around. It wasn't something that happened though. No one slept, no one ate, and no one drank. There wasn't much to distract yourself with besides the others, and by that point you knew everything about those around you. "Guess I'm up," said Carrot as he smirked at the group and lay down his cards. It was a royal straight flush. “Once in a lifetime hand, and I’ve had over a hundred of em.” "Bah, I had one of those a few hundred years ago," muttered one of the men as he waved his hand and dismissed the matter. The others merely nodded and went back to their game as Carrot walked up to the glowing light as the angel put it's sword back into its scabbard once again. He blinked as he looked at it as he passed. "Wonder if that is real?" He smirked to himself as he stepped into the light. His entire body tingled as he felt himself slowly drift away into nothingness. Outside the light, the group looked up for a mere moment, and not as one. One of the women pulled a cloak up around her violet hair. "Wonder if we'll meet again?" "It's possible," said the man next to her. "That would be very interesting indeed," agreed the fiery redhead a few heads away from him. She smirked confidently and chuckled. One of the men who always kept his head in a cloak merely chuckled. "Very. We'll see though." A young-looking Japanese boy merely turned his head and pushed up at glasses that weren't there with his middle finger. He nodded once and looked back down at his cards. ++++++++++++++++++++ Carrot blinked as he found himself standing in front of nothing. Everything around him was pitch black. "Huh?" He had no idea where he was, and he didn't feel any more alive than he had before. "What the hell is this? What's going on?" She froze, he didn't know how he knew that, but he did. He also had no idea what that meant. "Wha?" stammered a voice from all around him. The soft sound of tears could also be heard floating into existence from all around him. Carrot had no idea what to make of what was happening to him. He closed his eyes and frowned as he cocked his head in thought. "Okay brain, this isn't normal, even after we died this isn't normal." Naturally, his brain had nothing of real interest to add to the conversation. "Okay. Let's take stock of our situation shall we?" he said aloud. She nodded and slowly opened her eyes. Her fist was extended outward and balled into a fist. Below her was a younger screaming child with a small red mark on her face. Carrot had no idea what to say or do. He was looking at her too, but he felt somewhat detached from the situation. "Okay. It appears that you've just hit someone much smaller than you. A relation perhaps?" "Oh my god! I just hit my sister!" said her voice in a panicking tone. "The situation isn't so bad then," said Carrot with a small shrug of his shoulders. He'd pretty much figured out that he was inside someone's head. Alarms seemed to ring out all around him, well, that was the closest thing he could imagine to the situation at any rate. "Uh oh." "Mom's gonna kill me!" she thought as she ran her hands through her hair. "Wait a minute, I'm sure your mother is reasonable..." said Carrot quickly. He didn't like the direction this was going in. "I gotta get out of here!" she said as she started to turn away. "Hey! What about her?" said Carrot as he found himself moving away without really trying. "Mom won't be mad at her!" said her voice. "Nabiki Tendo!" Carrot blinked. She froze in horror. "Uh, Hi mom..." said a different voice from the one he had heard. It sounded kind of like it was coming from outside, but other than that, it was the same voice as her. "Oh shit," said Carrot as he finally seemed to realize that something big was up. "Man, you said it," replied Nabiki's young voice. Carrot found himself staring up at the towering figure above him. She lorded over them like a ten-foot tall beast that seemed ready to pounce at any moment with the wooden spoon in her hand. "This...isn't good," said Carrot lamely. "Gee you're small compared to her." "No kidding!" said the little girl's voice. It had yet to notice that it was not her own voice that was speaking to her, and Carrot thought that was somewhat odd. A moment latter, several loud sounds could be heard all around the inside of wherever he was. It wouldn't be right to call it her brain so much as her mind. He felt nothing, but he knew she was getting the living daylights beat out of her by a very angry woman. "How dare you raise your hand against your sister? Do you have any idea how badly you might have hurt her?!" "She's not that much younger!" screamed the girl's mind angrily in retort. She dared not voice it, lest she risk unleashing the wrath of the parent even more so than she already had. "Well, she's got a point, I guess," said Carrot aloud. "Who asked you?" snapped the little girl irritably. The boy paused and looked around at his surroundings a little more. Before him was what appeared to be little balls of energy. Inside each was a tiny image that played almost like a movie, but some of them strung into one another, almost like a giant line of thumb nailed pictures on a desktop. "What's this?" he muttered to himself as he approached it. It took him a moment to figure it out. They were memories, the little girl's memories. "Whoa," he muttered numbly. It was indeed an odd feeling as everything started to make sense. He narrowed his eyes and reached his hand out to touch one of the memories. Inside his mind he could see what was happening inside, it was like a movie, but more than just that. He could feel things, emotions involved, how cold it was, some of it felt a bit fuzzy, but it was mostly there. He could also feel where he could make her remember these things, if only for a moment or two. With a heavy sigh, he turned towards the outside world. It was almost like putting on a mask to turn away from what was going on inside her head and focus instead on the inside of her mind. "Well isn't this just peachy. Seems I'm Nabiki Tendo's conscience," said the boy as he snorted in half amused disgust. "Great. Just great." He had to make sure the girl was good enough to get into heaven, using only memories, a sort of sharing in her life, and the ability to hear her thoughts. He could only thing of one thing. "Man. This sucks. Of all the people I've got to save, it would be something as dumb as this." Realizing that that statement made little sense, he hung his head. "Nabiki Tendo? What are the chances? I mean, that was eons ago! I'm surprised I can still remember it at all." He seemed thoughtful for a moment. There wasn't much he could not remember from his former life, or the one afterwards, so to speak. That didn't do him much good though. "Well. How hard can it be?" he muttered as he seemed to settle in a little. He stretched his arms as he turned back towards the outside world. Once again he was inside the girl’s body, but not really being there. “Okay. From what I can figure, My job is to basically sit back and give her advice, use the right memories to manipulate her into doing the right thing, and basically make an annoyance out of myself whenever she does something I think is bad.” Carrot snorted, he didn’t really have much to do at all. He also had no real control over what happened to the girl or the choices she made in life. Quite a laid back job as far as he could tell. Then there was the other factor in the equation. He knew who she was already. Ranma ½ was a distant memory to him, but also, along with the entirety of his old life, quite clear. “Seems I’ve gotten the deal of a lifetime in more than just cards,” he said as he arched his eyebrow. This could be quite interesting indeed in ten years or so. The girl was about six from what he had seen so far. He’d noticed a reflection on a mirror that hung from one of the walls in the room. A small smile appeared on his face as he realized that this was about the age that most young children start ignoring selfish instinct in favor of more civilized behavior. He might have been off a little bit, but it was mostly correct in his estimation. “Not that they are very successful to start with for the most part,” he thought to himself with a small shrug. Some of them never got the hang of it, or simply stopped trying. That left him in an interesting position. What should he do? Sit back and play his role the way he was supposed too? “Nahhh. Hey Nabiki. I’m Carrot.” Her mother was not finished administering the beating. “Waaaaahhhh! Wha?” It didn’t take more than a moment for her momentary confusion to lapse as her mother continued to swat at her behind. “I’m supposed to help you stay out of situations like this.” The girl was too engrossed in her tears to respond. “I’m your conscience, so I guess we’re going to be hearing a lot from each other. I thought it best to have a first name relationship. After all, we’re going to be having a lot of talks.” The girl’s problem had still not been resolved. Apparently her mother was more cross than Carrot had first suspected. “Well, as you can see, being punished really sucks. So I’ll move on past the reason why not listening to me would be bad.” Nabiki thought her rear was going to explode. “At any rate, I think I’ll be taking a much more hands on approach to this than your normal conscience. Ya know, shoot the shit and all from time to time.” Nabiki’s mother, apparently satisfied that her daughter had learned her lesson, stopped swatting the child’s behind. Nabiki sniffled as she turned her rear towards the mirror and looked at it. “Bah. I’ve had worse, jeez you’re a cry b… Oh. Right.” The girl settled on the ground gently and quickly stood up, releasing a new set of squeals. “I do hope you were paying attention before, I don’t think I can remember that speech again.” The girl blinked and looked at the mirror. “Huh?” “Hello,” said Carrot cheerfully as he waved at her. Naturally the girl couldn’t see him, but that didn’t bother him much. “Hello,” replied the girl. “I’m Carrot. You want to be friends?” The little girl sniffled a large string of snot up her nose and nodded. “Ooookayyy then,” muttered Carrot a little sickly. “I can see this is going to take some work.” +++++++++++++++++ TBC… In retrospect, this almost could have gone into the 'Fanfic Ideas' bin. Heh. This is something I thought of a while ago. I’ve been sort of stuck on it at this point, not because of no ideas, but too many. I’m not sure what I want to do here. Follow the young Nabiki through her -entire life- up and till the end of Ranma ½, skip forward but not before going through a few short scenes of her youth, skip forward and use flashbacks [This one is more difficult than it sounds. The use of memories will be incorporated into this fic of course, but I’m not sure I want to use it on quite that level.] It’s been a few weeks, and no this isn’t keeping me from writing other stuff entirely. Mazoku Factor 6 is about 50% complete, I tend to write half chapters at a time. That’s probably how I was able to release so much in such a short time a while back actually. I just had more opportunity to write back then, so I usually did it two or three times a day, instead of every few days like it is now. ^_^; Tell me what ya think, about the fic and where to go from here. ^_^ And yes, I do realize that this is sort of like Insertion on some level, but what I have in mind is obviously going to be a bit different. This will end up a bit of a psychological study on my part of Nabiki Tendo. This is of course, because what will mostly be different, and thusly not glossed over, in this fic will be between her and him. Ja. ^_^