Early Warning
Early Warning
A Ranma 1/2-Early Edition fanfiction by June "KaraOhki" Geraci.
September 22, 2002
Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi
Early Edition belongs to Tristar
This story was written for entertainment purposes only and may not be used commercially.
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This story was written for today's FFIRC one hour challenge.
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"Good morning, Chicago! It's going to be another beautiful day--"
The radio broadcast was cut off very abruptly when a fist came down on the snooze button. "Beautiful day. Yeah, right. It'll be beautiful until I get the paper."
Gary dragged himself out of bed, shuffled to his apartment door, and opened it. As expected, the damned cat was there, sitting next to the paper. It took a moment for his sleep-fogged brain to register that something was different. Instead of a neatly folded paper sitting there, this one was rolled up and fastened with a rubber band.
The cat meowed, and Gary leaned down to get the paper. "Yeah, yeah, I'm hurrying, okay?" He pulled the rubber band off, and the paper unrolled in his hand. Gary stared at it, rubbed his eyes, and stared again. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this?"
The cat didn't reply.
Gary took another look. The paper was still in Japanese, or Chinese, or Korean, or�whatever it was, it certainly wasn't something he could read.
A low growl from the cat pulled Gary's attention away from what was in his hand, and he looked down. The cat's back was arched, every hair on its body was standing on end, and it began to hiss and spit angrily at the little black pig that was coming down the hallway. Then it pounced.
"Hey, cut it out!" Gary tried to use the newspaper to separate the combatants, and got clawed as payment for his efforts. The paper fell, and was trampled by the two animals. In the process, it got tangled in the bandanna the pig wore. Gary grabbed the cat, got clawed again, and the pig took the opportunity to vanish.
As soon as the pig was gone the cat became completely calm, and rested quietly in Gary's arms. He looked at his damaged hand, put the cat down, and backed into his apartment. "I seem to have the day off, don't I?"
"Meow," replied the cat.
*****
Ryoga ran into the wall at the back of the alley, bounced off, and fell over. His heart was pounding, and he tried to steady his breathing. That had to be one of the most vicious cats he'd ever encountered.
He got to his feet and rubbed his side against the bricks of the alley wall, trying to dislodge whatever was stuck in his bandanna. Once he succeeded, he stopped to take a look at it.
[A newspaper�maybe it'll tell me where I am.] Ryoga nudged the paper open, and did a double take. He was certain that he was somewhere in the U.S., but the paper was in Japanese. Then his eyes became the size of saucers. He was looking at a copy of the Nerima Gazette, and the headline horrified him to his very soul.
"Nerima High School Student Killed Saving Toddler."
Ryoga collapsed onto his stomach and continued reading. According to the article, a truck ran down Ranma Saotome when he dashed in front of it trying to save the life of a two-year-old girl who had wandered away from her mother. He had managed to throw the child clear before being struck himself.
Dead. Ranma was dead. The implications of that struck Ryoga hard. He would never get the revenge he sought. Akane was free.
He shook his head, trying to clear it. Ranma was dead. His friend. His enemy. His rival. Ryoga didn't know whether to rejoice, or break down weeping. There was only one thing he knew for certain, which was that he had to get home. Ryoga got to his feet and started to walk away, when something else on the paper caught his attention. The date.
No matter how many times Ryoga got lost, got transformed, and found himself in strange places, there was one thing he never lost track of. The date. There was something very wrong with the paper in front of him. It held tomorrow's date.
[Nah, that's not possible,] he thought. Then he thought again. If a man could turn into a pig, why couldn't a newspaper arrive a day early? It was a warning. If he could find his way home, he could prevent this. Ryoga picked the paper up in his mouth, and started out of the alley. Halfway down, he discovered his pack. This was no surprise, since it always showed up whenever he needed it. He shoved the paper into the pack, grabbed it by a strap, and began to pull. Now he needed hot water.
The scent of coffee reached him before he left the alley. Although Ryoga couldn't read the sign that said "Starbucks," he knew a coffee shop when he saw one. He quietly waited by the door until a patron walked out with a cup of steaming coffee, tripped him, and ran like hell until he could find a place to put his clothes back on.
*****
Tokyo! He was in Tokyo! Ryoga had absolutely no idea how he'd arrived there, but the Tokyo Tower was right in front of him. Now he needed directions to Nerima. A pretty girl walked by, and Ryoga worked up the nerve to approach her. "Excuse me," he began.
"Bonjour!" replied the girl.
"Oh damn!" Ryoga cried. "FRANCE!!" He had to get home! He absolutely had to. "No you don't, Saotome!" he screamed. "Nobody's gonna kill you but ME!!!" Then he dissolved into hysterical laughter.
The area around him became quite clear as everyone fled from the ranting maniac.
*****
"Are you sure you forgot it?" Ranma jumped down from the wall and looked over Akane's shoulder as she rummaged through her book bag, looking for her English homework.
"I think I left it in my desk. I guess I've got to go back."
"Nah, let me. Meet you at the house." Ranma was gone before Akane could thank him.
Ranma ran back to Furinkan High at top speed. He wanted to see if he could get Akane's homework and get back to her before she got to the house. It was training, he told himself. There was no way he wanted to walk with his fiancee. He found the homework assignment, shoved it into his backpack, and jumped out the classroom window. There was nothing like taking a shortcut.
He ran back even faster, and had Akane in sight when a scream made him whirl. A tiny little girl had pulled away from her mother's grasp, and was running directly in front of a truck.
"MY BABY!"
*****
The agonized scream made Akane turn around. She saw the child, the truck, and her fiance. He flew into the street, grabbed the child, and threw her into her mother's arms.
Then time stood still as Akane saw Ranma lose his balance and fall backward, directly into the path of the truck.
Akane wanted to close her eyes. She couldn't bear to see what was about to happen, but she could not look away. Then a brown blur bounced onto the pavement where Ranma lay, and bounced away.
Akane blinked. Ranma was no longer there. The last thing she saw before she fainted was the truck barreling through the intersection, smoke pouring from its locked brakes.
*****
"C'mon, Akane, wake up!" Ranma gently shook the girl in his arms, and her eyelids fluttered.
"You're not dead?" she whispered.
"Nope!" he said cheerfully. He pointed one hand at Ryoga, who was sitting there looking quite embarrassed. "Ryoga saved me."
Akane pulled out of Ranma's arms and hugged Ryoga. "Thank you!"
Ranma tried to tell himself that he wasn't jealous. It didn't work. Akane eventually pulled away and Ranma helped her to her feet, retaining hold of her hand. Then he took another look at Ryoga. His clothes were torn and stained, his hair was a mess, and he looked exhausted. "What happened to you?"
"I've, um, had a tough day." Ryoga looked at his feet, and was about to say something else when a crowd of people, including the little girl's mother surrounded him, calling him a hero. It was some time before he could get back to Ranma.
"Look, could I talk to you? Alone?"
Ranma looked surprised. "Sure. Let's get Akane home first."
*****
It was some time before Ryoga got to talk to Ranma, because Kasumi took one look at him and insisted that he take a bath and change his clothes. "You look like the truck did hit you!" were her words. Eventually, he and Ranma sat down in the dojo.
"Thanks, buddy," said Ranma. "You were there at just the right time."
"There's more to it than that," replied Ryoga. "Look at this." He handed Ranma the paper.
"What?" said Ranma. I don't see nothin' strange here."
"But, but!" Ryoga grabbed the paper back. The article about Ranma's death was gone. Then he understood. He had prevented it from happening, so it had vanished from the paper. When Ryoga related the story, Ranma refused to believe him.
"You got tomorrow's paper today? Yeah, sure! Did you get knocked in the head or something?"
Ranma woke up with a severe headache and a black eye about an hour later. Ryoga was gone.
*****
"Would you pass the soy sauce, please?"
"Of course, Akane." Kasumi picked up the bottle and passed it to Akane. The family's breakfast had been calm and quiet, except when Nabiki had teased Ranma about his black eye.
"Ranma, where are you?" The voice came from the yard, and Ranma looked outside. Ryoga was facing the pond, yelling at the top of his lungs.
"This way, pig-boy."
Ryoga whirled around. "Ranma, you've got to get me to the station! Hurry!" He ran into the house, grabbed Ranma by the pigtail, and pulled him to his feet.
"What the hell are you talking about?" demanded Ranma, as he freed himself. "Are you tryin' to pull my hair out?"
Ryoga waved a paper in Ranma's face. "It happened again! Look! Look!" Ranma snatched the paper from Ryoga. It was the Nerima Gazette, dated the following day. Across the front of the paper was plastered a headline that made Ranma's blood run cold: "Train Derails, Kills 100 Commuters."
"Is this for real?"
"It was real yesterday, Ranma. I can't find the station myself. You've gotta help me."
"Then let's go."
As the two young men vanished around the corner, a small cat on top of the dojo roof purred happily.
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My thanks to Gary Kleppe and Fido for reading this over and suggesting revisions, and to my brother Tom for giving me the idea in the first place.