Prologue: Battle on Mount Horai
Somewhere in southwestern Shikoku - Saturday, February 26th 1994
The four kunoichi ran as fast as they could through the thick woods. The battle between Ryōga, Mu Se, and the two Musk bodyguards had lasted well into the night, and all of the watchers were still quite tired when the chase suddenly resumed early in the morning.
Midori barely managed to halt her group’s mad dash before they ran out into the open behind Ranma and the other now-permanently cursed martial artists riding on the black-haired girl’s shoulders. She silently signaled Harukichi, the fastest, to continue circling to the other side of the clearing. Midori flinched as Ranma narrowly dodged a huge boulder thrown by Lime, the brutish Musk warrior, and then winced in sympathy when she was partially buried under the aftermath of the boulder’s impact. Midori quickly checked the power levels of the extra battery packs they all carried; the tiny Betacam currently being wielded by Kioko was a wonder of engineering, but it had a nasty habit of running out of either power or videotape at the most inappropriate times. She sent Tsuya up into the trees with the SLR camera and its awkward telephoto lens. Satisfied with the preparations, she turned her attention back to the confrontation rapidly escalating in front of her.
The accidental destruction of the hilltop containing the Kaisufuu forced Midori to quickly change her team’s assignments. Taking the Betacam from Kioko, she sent the chestnut-haired kunoichi to observe the part of the extended conflict involving the Musk bodyguards. She quickly hand-signaled new instructions to Harukichi, trusting in the diminutive ninja’s ability to apparently be everywhere at once, before turning her own attention back to the main conflict.
Midori silently cheered when Ranma unleashed her tornado attack on the Musk warlord, though her elation didn’t last long. She’d barely had time to swap out videocassettes before Herb returned from his brief aerial trip to pummel Ranma with ki blast after ki blast. The kunoichi recorded every frantic minute as the battle quickly reached a dramatic conclusion.
“HA HA HA HA HA!!! Ranma’s been destroyed by my own Hiryū Shōten Ha!” Herb yelled out in victory. He looked up in glee at the energy vortex, and then frowned as he saw the released ki coalesce into a huge ball high up at the center of the whirlwind. Quickly gathering what little ki reserves he had remaining, he released it all at the huge ball of ki that was starting to descend towards him.
“Hitō Ryū-zan Ha!”
High up in the vortex, Ranma was about to call out the name of her own attack when the multiple ki-knives disrupted her Hiryū Kōrin Dan. The resulting explosion could be seen for miles. The immediate collapse of the surrounding mountainside was detected by seismographs up to seven hundred miles away.
Nerima
Akane stood next to the gates of the house and gazed out into the cold February skies. It had been weeks since anyone had heard from Ranma and the lengthy silence was starting to take its toll on the young girl.
“Soon. He’ll come home …” she thought. Ranma had always managed to overcome every obstacle in the past; this couldn’t be any different. So why was the cold chill of the air seeping into her heart? “Ranma …”
Akane stood outside for over an hour; her mood matching the dark storm clouds overhead. Losing track of time completely, she almost jumped out of her skin when she heard Kasumi’s voice behind her.
“Akane, please come inside before you get a chill. I’m sure that Ranma is fine and will return soon.”
She turned to look. “Yeah …” she responded without enthusiasm. She could see from her older sister’s expression that Kasumi was just as concerned over Ranma’s absence as she was.
Kasumi took Akane’s shoulder is a sisterly hug and walked her back into the house. “It is very cold; why not warm up in a hot bath?”
Akane let her sister guide her to the furo, taking a fresh robe and towels from the outer bathroom. After she heard the door slide close, she simply stood there, rooted to the spot. “Maybe … something has happened …”
The furo’s water was hot but its warmth didn’t seem to reach the ache in her heart.