Folks--

Well, here's yet another unfinished story from me, which I think brings my
total up to half a dozen or so. I keep starting things and never finishing.
What usually happens is I come up with an idea, I start writing, and then I
have no idea how to finish it. But this story, I *do* know how to finish,
and I do know what I'm gonna do with it, so please take my word for it that
this one will get done. I think :-)

Anyway. YANMS is just a working title for this, and it stands for Yet
Another Nanban Mirror Story. I'll come up with something better soon. Hope
you like it.

(slight footnote: my tribute to Douglas Adams is in here. Fans of the HHGTTG
series will recognize it instantly.)

--JSH

=====

YANMS (working title)

A Ranma 1/2 fanfiction in progress by Jonathan S. Haas

=====


A cricket came out to sunbathe on a small rock by a babbling stream. This
was one of his favorite places to go, and he chirped happily, rubbing his
legs together as he basked in the warm rays. He took in all that his tiny
mind could handle, enjoying the scents and sounds of this new spring day,
totally oblivious to the knock-down drag-out brawl going on near him.

Unnoticed went the thuds and grunts that accompanied successful blows. The
sky would occasionally flash some unusual color, accompanied by an
earthshaking thunderclap, but the cricket was undisturbed. Shouted curses
filled the air. The cricket ignored them. Such things were beneath him.

He stayed out of the fray until somewhere deep in his subconscious, a
primitive instinct flickered "danger!" In a heartbeat, he leaped away from
the rock to the edge of the stream, a fraction of a second before a human
being came crashing down, his head cracking against the rock. "Curse you,
Ranma!" the human shouted. "Have you no honor?" And he jumped up and
rejoined the battle.

The cricket, meanwhile, his little body surging with energy and panic,
waited a few moments more until he was sure it was safe to move. Then he
bounded away, looking for someplace a whole lot less noisy. As he leapt off,
he was briefly reflected in a shiny piece of glass on the stream's bank. And
not too long after he'd left, a hand reached down, picked up the glass, and
took it away.

A couple of days later, the same hand found and retrieved another fragment
of glass, and took it away to the same place. The owner of the hand sat in a
chair, and examined it. It was flat, jagged-edged, and shone like silver,
its surface smooth and polished. After carefully logging its shape in a
notebook, she got up and carried it over to a chalkboard, on which an oval
was drawn, with sharp jagged lines dividing it into several areas, some of
which were shaded and numbered. Squinting at the piece's sides, she shaded
in another region on the oval, and wrote in a number. The oval was almost
completely shaded by now, with just one small region at the edge still
untouched by chalk.

She snapped the piece down with many others, where they formed a tight
jigsaw puzzle. They fit so well, the lines between them were scarcely
visible. Carefully, she lifted the wooden frame that held them all together.
She grasped its long handle and marveled at its ancient beauty. She turned
it from side to side, letting it reflect the firelight which illuminated the
room. Then she turned it over, and spoke to her own reflection.

"Soon," she whispered. "Just one more piece, and all the searching will be
over. The Nanban Mirror will be whole once more... and I will go back and
make everything right again."

---

An autumn morning in a thick forest. The sun arose over a thick blanket of
fog, which was normal. Birds twittered and fluttered to find food, as was
normal. A small creature scampered another along the mossy floor, which was
perfectly normal.

A trans-dimensional portal appeared, which was not.

The portal was about six feet in diameter, and glowed with a blinding
bluish-white light. Tangible energy flowed from it in the form of a
gale-force wind and a loud howling noise. The creatures of the forest
chirped and shrieked and scampered away from it, but they were scarcely
audible above the din and they didn't scamper too far before they were
picked up by the wind and hurled far away.

A girl stepped out of the portal, and instantly, it began shrinking rapidly,
the light and the wind and the noise diminishing as it did so. Then with an
audible pop, it vanished entirely, leaving the girl standing in the center
of an impromptu clearing in the forest. A light rain of leaves fell,
orphaned by the wind.

She was about sixteen or so, with long, flowing chestnut hair to the center
of her back. A wide white ribbon tied it back into a fanning ponytail, with
a generous bow on her head. She wore a snappy tunic of dark blue, over black
tights. Slung across her chest was a bandolier holding about a dozen
razor-thin metal spatulas, about four inches long each. In a scabbard on her
back she carried what was surely the mother of all spatulas, five feet long
with a wide, razor-sharp edge. The beautiful weapon had been handed down to
her from her father.

Tears streaked her face, but she was smiling, and her eyes revealed her
happiness. Clenched in her left had was the ancient mirror, a few drops of
moisture on its surface. Carefully she stowed the mirror in a padded pocket.
Then she looked around herself, clenched her fists, and raised her arms and
head to the sun, closing her eyes and basking in the warm glow. Joy shone
from her sunlit face. More tears dripped from her eyes as she stood there,
enraptured, so happy it was almost painful.

Just as she was starting to recover and return to a normal posture, she felt
a sharp cracking pain on her head, and whipped around to find herself
staring into the face of a very old woman. Cologne was her name, and she
claimed to be over three hundred years old. Staring at her withered face and
shrunken form, one was inclined to believe her.

Cologne was the village elder and holder of power for an entire tribe of
Chinese Amazons, the Jokusetzuko� fierce warriors to the woman. They had a
strange and archaic code of honor which they stuck to implacably. When that
code called for murder, or forced marriage, they obeyed it, instantly and
without question. Ukyou (for that was the younger woman's name) knew
Cologne, because Cologne was in Japan to try to force her (Ukyou's) fiancee
to marry her (Cologne's) great-granddaughter. It was because of the
aforementioned code of honor, and it was all terribly complicated.

With all the ancient wisdom of the ancient tribe at her disposal, Cologne
made a powerful ally� and a formidable foe.  She'd been both to Ukyou at
various times in the past, and Ukyou didn't trust her. She was usually up to
something. She was someone to be wary of. She was someone not to trifle
with.

"Cologne!" she exclaimed, upset. "How did _you_ get here?"

Cologne's eyes narrowed. She pointed at Ukyou with the long stick (longer,
in fact, than Cologne's body) that she'd used to whack her over the head.
"So, meddler, how do you know my name?"

Ukyou blinked. Cologne was clearly angry about something, and that was very
dangerous. "Um� of course I know you� Cologne. Don't you remember me?"

Cologne's gaze grew darker. "So," she muttered to herself, "you used to know
me." Staring directly into Ukyou's eyes, she said, "Listen up, girl. I don't
know who you are or how good you are with that spatula, but you're no match
for me. I could have defeated you when I was six years old. So I'm going to
read something to you, and don't try anything funny."

Ukyou gulped. She was starting to fear for the old woman's sanity. And if
Cologne were crazy, but still in possession of her fighting skills, she was
in deep, deep trouble. She was, in fact, in danger of her life. Her throat
suddenly dried, and she nodded in fear.

Cologne took a scroll from her pocket. "This was written ten years ago," she
said. "It's part of the daily journal the Jokusetzuko have been keeping for
the last three hundred years." She cleared her throat, and began to read.

"Today just before midnight, a strange and powerful surge of energy was felt
by all. It was of a type that nobody had ever felt before, except for the
eldest of our number, Honored Cologne. She recognized it as the energy surge
produced by the Nanban mirror, an ancient treasure of our tribe. It has the
power to allow its wielder to travel in time and space. All she needs to do
is think of where and when she wants to be, and shed a tear on the mirror.
It will take care of the rest.

"It is unknown exactly when the Jokusetzuko first came into possession of
the mirror, but it was at least 1,745 years ago. That was when the mirror
was first found, wrapped in a blanket in somebody's closet. She found it and
had no idea what it was. Nobody knows how long that blanket sat in that
closet.

"The mirror was stolen from us some 300 years ago, by a lecherous miscreant
who went by the name of Happy. It has not been seen since. Although Cologne
was but a girl at the time the mirror was stolen, she knew that its use had
been strictly limited by Amazon law. Traveling through time is a dicey
business at best, and should never be attempted without very serious
thought. In her eighteen years before the mirror was stolen, Cologne saw it
used only once. The ones who went spent only thirty seconds in the past, and
were very careful not to be seen or to change anything. They went to observe
a very important event in Jokusetzuko history, and record the exact details
of what was said at a key point. 

"Despite only having experienced it once, Cologne instantly knew what it
was. The ancient tomes were consulted, and certain rituals verified that we
had witnessed an arrival, not a departure. Someone was visiting us from ten
years in the future.

"The village was in possession of an Orb of Seeing, which when crushed, can
create an image of any location anywhere on Earth, as the one nearest it
wills it. Approximately 1,300 years ago, we came into possession of five of
them, as a gift from a visiting Indian sorcerer. We used the last one now to
spy upon our guest.

Ukyou tried to interrupt here and was silenced by a stern glare from
Cologne.

"We pinpointed her somewhere near Kyoto, Japan. Cologne, the most talented
among us in the ways of artifacts, skillfully steered the image to a teenage
girl, obviously the time traveler. She was kneeling beside a bed in a
darkened house, trying to wake a younger girl of about six. From the
similarity in appearance and the correlation in age, we surmised that she
had visited her younger self, obviously to give herself information about
the future and how to change it. Although the Orb did not transmit sound,
Cologne was able to read the traveler's lips as she finally awoke herself
and started talking.

"'Listen,' she said. 'This is very, very important. You have to get out of
bed and go lie in the yatai.' (A yatai is a Japanese food cart on wheels.)"

"She then turned away from us and we could no longer see her lips, but we
could obviously tell she was trying to persuade herself. Nobody knows what
she said, but she was successful, for finally the younger girl crawled out
of bed, collected her pillow and blankets, and went to sleep in a yatai
parked outside. Apparently, the girl's father was a vendor of okonomiyaki.

"The traveller came with her, and spent the night keeping a silent vigil by
the yatai. When dawn broke, she ran and hid in the trees.

"Shortly after dawn, a fat, balding man in a white gi appeared, holding the
hand of a boy about Ukyou's younger self's age, with dark hair bound in a
short pigtail. The man had a sense of urgency about him, and he set the boy
on top of the yatai, before grabbing the handles and taking off running.
After running about six feet, he stopped, took a loaf of bread from the
yatai's stores, stuffed it in his mouth, and took off again. They quickly
disappeared into the distance.

"Only then did the traveler step out of hiding. As she looked off in the
direction they'd gone, a smile broke out on her face. She wept tears of joy,
and she caught one of them in the mirror and vanished, with a different
surge of energy than before.

"We knew that history had just been altered, but we had no way of knowing
how. In any case, the change made by the traveler seemed small enough, and
we doubted that a small event like that in Kyoto could ever affect us in
China. We would be wisest to ignore this event and live as we always had.

"But it was determined that an effort should be made to retrieve the mirror.
This change to history had not affected us. The next time we might not be so
lucky. So dangerous an item should not remain in the hands of outsiders.
This girl had evidently gotten it from Happy, and we needed to get it back.
By unanimous consent, Cologne was chosen to meet her when she returned to
her own time.

Cologne stopped, calmly put the scroll away, and looked up with a
frightening look in her eyes. "I'll be taking the mirror now."

"But I�" started Ukyou, then stopped.

Slowly, crackling flames rose from the old woman, reaching a height of
fifteen feet. The heat hit Ukyou like a hammer and knocked her off her feet,
but Cologne, standing in the very heart of the blaze, was unburned. As Ukyou
watched in horror, the flames high above the ground twisted and writhed
together, and took the shape of a dragon in flame, with evil eyes and a wide
open mouth filled with sharp teeth. It stared at her with a cruel hunger,
and a tongue of fire flickered brighter than the others in its throat.

"I'll be taking the mirror now," Cologne said calmly.

Ukyou tossed the mirror at her feet and fled for the trees. Cologne's voice
cracked like a whip, "Wait!" Crying in terror with her heart pounding, Ukyou
dove to the ground, as the roaring dragon's head sped inches above her head,
crashing into a stand of five trees, toppling them all. She desperately
threw five mini-spatulas in rapid succession at Cologne's head. The old
woman, moving her staff more rapidly than Ukyou could see, knocked all five
right back at her. One hit the sleeve by each wrist and ankle, pinning her
to the ground. The fifth sped straight for her eyes, before turning in
midair a split-second before it hit her. Ukyou moaned in fear. The old
woman's footsteps grew closer.

Cologne leaned over her prone body, her eyes glittering. Then suddenly, she
blinked and smiled. "I just wanted to talk."

Ukyou was too scared to say anything. She could barely keep from wetting
herself.

"Listen, girl, you messed with time. What's that to me? I've still had my
life. It was pretty good."

"We thought that your change couldn't possibly affect us. Obviously, we were
wrong. You knew me in your time and we've never met in mine, so you must
have changed *something*. But who cares?"

"But I'll say this. If telling your younger self to get in that cart changed
me so that I no longer know you, probably many other things have changed as
well. The world may not be as you recognized it."

"Things may be totally different. To everyone else, they'll be normal, but
to you, it'll be like a weird dream. Maybe a good dream. Maybe a nightmare.
Probably a nightmare, though� meddling with the past is seldom good. Either
way, you'll never be able to wake up."

"Have you considered what happens if the path you set that little girl on
doesn't include her getting the Nanban mirror and using it to go back and
tell herself what to do? You'll be a stranger in time, then. You came here,
but the girl you put in that cart might be a completely different person.
You could be two people."

Cologne paused. "Or you might be dead."

Another pause for dramatic effect, and she cackled, "Welcome to hell." She
almost flew away, using her staff as kind of a pole vault to travel faster
than even a running man. As she went, she called out, "That'll teach you to
tamper with forbidden secrets."

Ukyou waited for her heartbeat to return to normal, then she struggled to
free herself and retrieve her spatula. That had been a pretty scary
experience.

"So I don't know Cologne in this timeline, huh?" she mused. "Good! That
probably means that her bimbo great-granddaughter Shampoo never met my
darling Ran-chan. Serves them right!"

With that reassuring thought, and trying to ignore the sense of foreboding
she felt, Ukyou headed off into the forest, towards home.

---

Ranma Saotome was a bitter, bitter man. He wore an outfit of black, and a
face far too grim for his sixteen years. His dark eyes were at the same time
harsh and haunting. He was walking on top of a fence, his balance
unwavering, his posture stiff. When he was six years old, his father had
betrothed him to Ukyou Kuonji.

Most men who live in the shadows suffer a long, painful slide from the
light. Not Ranma Saotome. He fell in an instant, and he knew exactly when
that instant was. He thought darkly back to his father.

Ukyou, it all came back to Ukyou. They were childhood playmates. Ranma
hadn't even known she was a girl. Until one day, he found himself on the
road in Ukyou's father's yatai, his father doing the pulling. And then Ukyou
was there beside him. She told him that they were to be married. And for the
first time, Ranma was aware of his old friend's gender.

But Genma, his father, hadn't seemed happy to see her. It wasn't until years
later that Ranma would discover that Genma's promise to Ukyou's father had
been a lie. He didn't want Ranma to marry Ukyou at all. In fact, he'd
already promised Ranma to the daughter of his friend Soun Tendo. All he
wanted was the yatai as a dowry. He'd planned to leave Ukyou behind.

The plan failed. For some reason, Ukyou had stowed away in the yatai, and
now she was with them. She stayed with them for years. Ranma and Ukyou
practiced their martial arts together every day, And as the years went on,
Ukyou's sweet nature and beauty won Ranma's heart. He called her Ucchan, and
she called him Ranchan. He couldn't wait for them to be old enough to marry.

Then came the horrible, horrible day that changed his life forever. The day
when� but Ranma slammed his memory shut at this thought. He was almost home.
He had to go in to his� wife.

---

=====

This ain't over yet, folks, not by a long shot :-) I'll try to have it
finished by mid-December. In the meantime, please let me know what you think
of what I've got so far.

Copyright 1997 Jonathan S. Haas, but do whatever you want with it. Except
put your own name on it or sell it or anything stupid like that. Ranma 1/2
and characters (C) somebody else.