The prologue of this fic can be found in the RAAC.





                               A Broken Casket

                                  Chapter 1





       "Look!  A hole!  A hole in the matrix!"  Ranma-chan exclaimed

loudly.  "At last, I'm free!!!"  And she ran towards the hole, and

started pulling out the rocks as hard as she could.



       Even after an hour of digging with absoultely no avail,

Ranma-chan still didn't give up.  The hole wasn't getting any larger,

but her fingernails were ripped clean from her fingers and blood

continued to ooze out of control from the open sores.



       After what seemed like an eternity of continuous digging,

she gave up and sat back down, staring at the hole.  Suddenly,

without any warning, a rock materialized and filled up the hole.



       "NNNNNOOOOO!!!!"  Ranma-chan cried, and started punching

furiously at the rock.  It didn't move an inch.  When Ranma-chan

tried to look for any cracks between them, she saw that the rock

looked exactly the same as the other ones, as if it were put there

years ago, on that fateful day.  She kept on punching and punching,

until her whole hand was bleeding and she couldn't lift up her arms

anymore.



       She sat down on the ground, curled up into the ball and cried.

Once again, she thought.  The exit ran away once again.  Why?



       Ranma-chan just sat there, staring at the rocks that were

her only company for the past decade and a half.  She didn't know

how long she sat there for, time no longer mattered to her.  Day or

night didn't matter to her.  She slept when she was tired, and

praticed the Art when she was awake.  Sometimes she talked to other

friends, usually Sakurako, but she could never figure out how they

could disappear just like that.  The chains around her arms and

legs had long been torn away, but she still couldn't move the rocks.

Sometimes, she question himself about the reason for continuing in the

Art.  As the days went on, the possibilty of never leaving her stone

prison became more and more prevalent in her mind.  Still, she held

onto the hope that she would get out.  And once she did, the Art would

be the way to her vengence.



       One day, while practicing the Art, she was suddenly blinded by

a light.  She turned away and closed her eyes, not being able stand

seeing the blindingly bright light.  Then she heard a man's voice:  "Oh

my God!  You alright miss?"



       "What?"  Ranma-chan croaked.  Could it be?  Could it finally

be?  Someone's here for her?



       "You all right?"  the man repeated.



       "Who are you?"  Ranma-chan asked.



       "I'm a member of the Japanese Association for Terraforming

Deserts.  This island is the next target for our project.  I was

passing by this cave and became curious as to why there's a large wall

in here, and that there's a hole in the wall, and started pulling out

the rocks.  They were too heavy, so I called the rest of my team over

and used the crane.  They're standing behind me right now."



       "Do you," Ranma-chan asked, hope against hope, that she

would finally be able to leave,  "have a way off this island?"



       "Of course we do!"  The man answered.  "How do you think we got

here in the first place?"



       "Well, my friends seem to come and go whenever they wanted,"

Ranma-chan replied, "they didn't even have to remove the rocks and

stuff."



       "Err..." the man asked, a hint of panic starting to take hold

in his voice, "how long have you been in there?"



       "Dunno."  Ranma-chan shrugged.  "10, 12 years maybe?"



       Without another word, the man turned around and motioned his

co-workers to run away with him, leaving a confused Ranma-chan behind.



       "Hold up!"  Ranma-chan squinted her eyes against the bright

sunlight, and gave chase to the men.  They turned their heads around

when they heard Ranma-chan's cry, and started to run even faster when

Ranma-chan started moving.



       The men were obviously more familiar to the landscape of the

island than Ranma-chan, as they left Ranma-chan behind after they

entered the dirt path of leaves.



       She gave an exasperated sigh, and kept running deeper into the

jungle of thorns that she has just reached.  The thorns pricked at her

skin as she runs, and Ranma-chan soon found herself coughing and

sneezing uncontrollably about half way through the man-made path

through the jungle.



       Ranma-chan heard screams in the far-off distance, and picked

up her pace.  She noticed that as she approached the source of the

screams, red stains became more evident on the soil beneath her.



       Finally, she arrived at a clearing where a huge creature stood

in the middle, tossing a man up into the air and down its mouth like

popcorn.  Ranma-chan started to cry out a halt, but was interrupted by

the creature sending a large, glowing ball of green at her, forcing

her to roll to a side on the ground.  Before she could get back up, the

creature jumped towards Ranma-chan with amazing speed, attempting to

stomp on her.  She once again rolled sideways onto the ground to avoid

the attack, then pushed off with her hands to spring back up to her

feet.



       That's one ugly bastard, Ranma-chan thought.  Looking up to the

creature, Ranma-chan could see that it had a noxious purple complexion,

and she almost had the impulse to move its eyes away from the offending

color.  The skin on its face was peeling off, revealing bloodied

muscles among patches of purple skin and white bones that portruded

from its sides.  It was also obvious as to who has an advantage.  The

creature stood towering over her, and she only came up to its

mid-section.



       The creature winded its arm back and thrusted it downward at

Ranma-chan with surprising speed.  Ranma-chan saw its telegraphed

movement, and jumped up onto its arm.  She ran along the creature's

arm before it could be retracted, and jumped up to deliver a kick to

the creature's face.  The creature howled in anger, and attempted to

swat Ranma-chan off its face.  She jumped away before the hit

connected, resulting in the creature hitting himself in the face.



       Ranma-chan landed on the ground and laughed at the monster.

It growled loudly, then jumped at Ranma-chan with a flying kick.

Ranma-chan allowed herself to drop on the ground, and the creature

sailed past her.  When the creature passed above her, it extended an

arm in a punch, and caught Ranma-chan unaware.  The punch was powerful

enough to create a crater on the ground, and Ranma-chan turned over to

release her stomach contents, along with traces of red mixed in

between.



       She shakily stood up, and turned around to face the monster.

The creature launched itself at her again, this time with a stomp from

high up.  She ran forward so that the stomp doesn't hit her, and jumped

up once it landed.  Ranma-chan kicked the back of its knee, causing it

to lose its balance.  Using the leg as a springboard, she jumped over

to the other leg and kicked the back of the knee as well, toppling the

giant over.



       When the creature started its fall, Ranma-chan jumped high into

the air, then landed on the fallen monster's back with her knee,

causing the titan to roar in pain.  It pushed itself back up, throwing

Ranma-chan off its back.  She landed safely on the ground with a

backflip, then immediately went into a leg sweep.  Unfortunately, she

forgot to take into account the difference in height, and her attack

was as effective as doing a leg sweep on a stone pillar.  Which was

basically what it amounted to.  Ranma-chan jumped back up, and grabbed

her leg in pain.  The abomination of nature laughed in a thunderous,

hideous voice, forcing Ranma-chan to clamp her ears shut.



       The creature chose precisely that moment to initiate an attack,

catching Ranma-chan off-guard when she was still moving her hands to

her ears.  The hit connected, and she was thrown back 30 feet, her

momentum stopped only by impacting a tree.  Ranma-chan fell down on

one knee, and started to breath deeply to try and recover.



       The behemoth didn't seem to want to let Ranma-chan rest,

however, as it started to run at Ranma-chan as soon as she hit the

tree.  It attempted to crush Ranma-chan against the tree with its leg,

but Ranma-chan pushed herself off from the ground and spun in the air

to land beside the monster.



       The creature turned and faced Ranma-chan, launching itself

towards her again, at which point Ranma-chan started running backwards.

She continued running backwards, staying just outside of the giant's

reach.  As Ranma-chan continued running backwards, the giant's swings

became increasingly erratic and widening their gap further and further.



       "Hiryu Shoten Ha!"  Ranma-chan released a tornado up into the

air, leaving a baffled monster on the ground, unaffected.  Ranma-chan

jumped into the tornado, and started gathering her ki.



       With a cry of "Hiryu Koarin Dan!", Ranma-chan came down on

the creature's head.  Ranma-chan's move ran clean through the creature,

slicing it in half, and she landed on the ground just as the two halves

landed with a loud thud, the blood flying back up and soaking

Ranma-chan.



       Breathing a sigh of relief, Ranma-chan glanced around to assess

the aftermath.  Due to the fact that they were fighting in a clearing,

there was surprisingly little property damage.  She saw several men

trying to hide behind some trees, and started walking towards them.

The men, once they saw that she was approaching them, whimpered and

began to back up.



       "It's okay," Ranma-chan said in a smooth, calming voice.  "It's

over.  It's dead."



       One of the men spoke up.  "What-what are you?"  he asked.



       "I'm a martial artist," she replied.  "It's my duty to protect

those who need protecting."



       "A-arigato,"  the man answered, even though he was backing away

as he said it.



       "Now," Ranma-chan prompted, "I believe that you have a way to

get home?"



       "H-hai,"  the man replied, and began to lead Ranma-chan.  Out

of the clearing.  His co-workers soon join them, and they began to

walk to the location of their boat.  Every so often, they would spare

a glance at Ranma-chan and her blood-soaked clothes.  Soon after, they

arrived at the beach, and Ranma-chan found herself staring at a small

cruiseship.  What caught her attention was not the cruiseship itself,

however, but the golden dragon painted on the side of the ship.



       "It's the logo for our organization," a man said dissmissively.

"The boss wanted it."



       Ranma-chan shrugged, and started moving on.  When they started

to board the boat, all the men stared at Ranma-chan's feet, which was

making red stains on the deck.  Since this was their boat, Ranma-chan

decided to comply and jumped into the water, coming back out clean, but

even more soaked.  They proceeded to go inside the boat, where

Ranma-chan asked if there was anything she could do to help, and they

declined, sending her to her quarters on the second deck.







       The ship docked on the docks of Nerima during a the night of a

thunderstorm, and Ranma-chan exited the ship alone.  Lightning went off

in the distance, illuminating the surroundings.  If anybody had been

watching, they could see the ship's deck painted red, and a dragon on

the side, staring menacingly into the distance.





Any C&C would be greatly appreciated and can be directed to

kwokinator@animefanfics.com



------------------------------------

Fanfiction Forum:  http://www.delphi.com/ranma_fanfics/start



_______________________________________________

Why pay for something you could get for free?

NetZero provides FREE Internet Access and Email

http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html