Disclaimer: I own nothing… except the idea and anyone that isn't in another person's published work. Ranma and co. belong to Viz video and Rumiko Takahashi. Dare devil is an affiliate of Marvel Comics and its creator Stan Lee.

"Speech"

Thought

[Signs]

"/Chinese/"

Dare to be Ranma

       "Stupid Uncute Tomboy!" Ranma shouted as he ran from his mallet wielding fiancé who insisted on forcing the toxic slop she called home cooking down his throat. This time he was surprised Ukyo wasn't in the brawl as Akane had attempted Ranma's favorite food, other than anything his mother or Kasumi made, Okonomiyaki. So what if he refused to eat the food she cooked, she refused to even taste the food while it was cooking! It wasn't fair!

       "Ranma no Baka!" The famous battle cry that had fell the greatest martial artist in the world did have one perk, a free birds-eye view of the great Tokyo ward of Nerima. Ranma could almost hear the imaginary stewardess' voices.

       'Welcome to air Akane, as your flight will be leaving soon please follow these basic safety procedures. First, please keep all limbs in your seat at all times during departure.' Ranma pulled his arms in as he dived through a hole in the Tendo wall. 'Secondly, Please keep your back upright and you head leaned back to avoid injury during takeoff.' Ranma spun to face Akane and his back went rigid as he leaned back in a limbo style bend to avoid another strike. 'Thank you for flying Akane Airline, you flight should take place shortly.' Ranma stood up but failed to dodge the golf swing follow-through and was once again moving through the air at a high velocity.

       As any who would witness the spectacle of a boy flying on a perfect parabolic curve would have deduced that it was not some random occurrence, either by the slight re-angling he seemed to manage in the midst of his flight or the lotus position and calm face he wore, and they would be right. Now Ranma's destination on the other hand was a new one for him, JBWR inc. the bio-hazardous waste removal company that serviced most of East Asia and the United states. The shift foreman had just finished updating the safety recognition sign, '683 days without an accident, only 47 days before the safety bonus is secured.' It was a rewarding job for Yoshiro Keniga, head of safety for the plant and storage yard areas. They had just received a shipment of over 20000 barrels of waste to dispose of, the largest order yet in the business' three years of operation.

      The Keniga stepped off the ladder and smiled at the sign, almost two straight years without incident. Wiping his forehead of sweat he looked up to see a small black dot come plummeting towards him, slowly growing into the shape of a boy dropping at close to terminal velocity.  The sight froze Keniga and he could only sit there and watch as the boy smashed into a flat of barrels toppling most and causing a few to split open, spilling the milky-white liquid over the ground as he continued into the heart of the barrels. When the workers finally got to where Ranma was they found him, his clothes in taters with holes burned through from where the chemical had splashed him, and one barrel was slowly leaking a small dribble into his eyes. They workers quickly extricated the unconscious Ranma and started applying a counteragent to the chemical to his burns and washing his eyes out with distilled water before bandaging them.

      "You know… he'll never see again" the on hand medic sighed as he pronounced it; one so young shouldn't have such a disability. He looks like a martial artist, maybe his school can help him the medic said as the EMT showed up and led the boy to the ambulance on a stretcher.

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      The world was black for Ranma as he sat up in the hospital's adjustable bed, currently his torso was raised. Is it night? Seems like I've been asleep for days... twisting his head he sought out a clock or light switch when it hit him.  The world assaulted him from all angles.

Sound pounding in his ears, painting a picture of the world around him. Twisting his head away from the majority of the noise, trying to shake the image imprinted in his mind.

      He noticed the door, or he thought it was the door, a black rectangle slowly losing shape as the lines that defined its handle and outline dissolved like a scent on the air. As if he smelled the door more than seeing it, a very unnerving concept. Right then a squeak seemed to redefine the door's handle and the shape bled into itself and he could see flashes of shoes and the lower cuffs of pant legs as the clack of steps neared him.

      "Good afternoon Mr. Doe, I'm Nagebeta-sensei. Would you mind telling me if you remember your name?" Disembodied lips and teeth spoke the words to the boy in the bed. Ranma was starting to freak out, his life had never gotten to 'floating body parts yet,' well the haunted tunnel of love was close but most of them were whole.

      "I'm Ranma Saotome of the Saotome school of Anything-Goes martial arts, and what do you mean by afternoon? Its pitch black in here." The feet seemed to fidget back and forth and a hand like print appeared in the view with a creek from the mattress. The odd black and white view of the world was starting to bug Ranma, first off there didn't seem to be any light unless there was a sound made. Second, everything faded once the sound was gone.

      "Let's finish this up before we talk about that. Do you have any friends or family in the Tokyo area?" The doctor's words cut off his thoughts as he put a hand to his face, feeling the gauze bandages over his eyes almost caused him to shout out. How could he see with his eyes blocked like that?

      "I live with my Pop and fiancé at the Tendo Dojo… Could you call Dr. Tofu from Nerima? He's my usual Doc."  He needed to talk to the man, Dr. Tofu know the most about Ki and auras, well Cologne and Happosai but he didn't want to deal with them. Laying back he waited for a response wanting to learn what he could about his new 'sight'.

      "Ok, I can do that. Now get some rest Ranma." The second he heard the door close, complete with the blackening of the doorway in his vision, he had his hand to his face ripping the bandages off. The cool air caused him to wince at the burned feeling of his temples and cheek bone area. Slowly lifting his eyelids he was shocked to find no change in his view, the burning sensation the only thing allowing him to know that he still had eyes.

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      "Hello Tendo residence, how may I help you?" Kasumi's voice answered the ringing phone, hoping that it wasn't Shampoo or Ukyo checking to see if Ranma had returned yet. She had chores to do, she didn't need to keep telling them that Ranma wasn't back yet every hour.

      "Hello, is this the residence of a Ranma Saotome?" The voice on the other line was deep and had a caring nature similar to Dr. Tofu. Thinking about the young Doctor made Kasumi flush a bit.

      "Yes it is but he isn't here right now, may I take a message?" She cheerfully asked the voice. Maybe the person will just leave a message and she could get back to cleaning the house, it would be supper soon and while she was worried about the boy who had come to be like a younger brother he knew how to take care of himself.

      "I'm sorry, no. This is Doctor Nagebeta from Tokyo General Hospital, there's been an accident and I must speak with his family, are they there?" This worried Kasumi, any accident strong enough to put Ranma into the hospital was usually some sort of challenger that would kidnap Akane. Genma was in the dining room with her father and Akane was watching Television while fuming about Ranma's disappearance for the day, imagining him over at Ucchan's or the Nekohaten playing around with his floozies.

      "Uncle Saotome!" Kasumi's voice called from the hall, a little frantic. The family crowded around the phone as Kasumi handed it to the bald martial artist. Everyone was anxious as the bald man conferred with the other end.

      "No... There must be some mistake, some way you could be wrong. YOU MUST BE WRONG!" He finished almost shouting into the receiver. His face white as a ghost from the lack of blood, his whimpers undecipherable as he sat there. "Yes, I understand..." he sounded like a man being sent to capital punishment, and to him that's what Nadoka would do.

      "Saotome! What's wrong? What happened?" Soun was worried by the reaction Genma had to the call.

      "Ranma... hospital..." was all that they could make out.

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      "Anyone have a clue why are we in the Special Disability Ward?" Nabiki asked a little puzzled at how Ranma could end up there.

      "Probably realized how much of a Baka he is." Akane muttered trying to hide her worry. Her sisters glared at her but said nothing, they being too worried for their friend's welfare. Their fathers, on the other hand, were in almost full form.

      "WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! NOW THE SCHOOLS WILL NEVER BE JOINED!" Soun Tendo bawled drenching and activating the curse of his best friend. [That ungrateful whelp!] Flip [How could he go and get ...] the panda's eyes watered and he stopped writing as they neared his room. Everyone wondering what was going on.

      *Crash!*

      *Thud!*

      *Bang!*

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      *Thud!*

      A streak of blue shot through his vision outlining everything near him in the monotone shade. Turning a bit he dropped another thing.

      *Bang!*

      Again another sound another blue flash another view of the room. This time he thought he could see an opening door and several feet flashing into and out of existence as there walked across the floor.

      He had not fully adapted to working on sound and so was staring 5 feet to the right of his guests. Reaching back he knocked over a bedpan with his foot giving an odd lumped together shape of his visitors.

      The five tried to figure out why Ranma was acting so strange. [So it's true!] Everyone, minus Ranma, turned and read the sign.

      "What's true?" Akane asked starting to get annoyed at the troublesome panda.

      "Akane?"

      "Who else would it be Baka?"

      [His eyes! Look at his eyes!] Flip [Oh the shame!] Flip [My own son!] Akane was too busy yelling at Ranma to see the sign, but Nabiki wasn't. She looked at the pig-tailed boy's face then his eyes, her gasp brought everyone's attention.

      "Oh my!" Kasumi's phrase broke through Akane and Ranma's bickering as she saw the burns around the white orbs.

      "Saotome... How many fingers am I holding up?" Nabiki's question made the boy visibly flinch. The lips that had spoken the question were already gone and re turned his head in that direction but was still a foot off his mark.

      "Uhhhh..." He tried to think of where another object was that ye could knock over for sound, anything.  "I don't know Nabiki. I can't see it..." his admission was followed by a tsking sound.

      "Don't interrupt me Nab..." Akane started but was cut off. Her sister not even acknowledging the death glare being directed at her.

      "You're blind." The simple statement sounded like damnation and he nodded with a shame that showed just how changed he was by it.

      "Yeah... I thought the doc told ya..." he scratched the back of his head in his usual nervous fashion. Why weren't they told? And where's Dr Tofu?

      "Ranma...?" it was Akane; I guess the whole blind thing finally got through the tomboy's head, thick as it was.

      "Yeah, you and your damn mallet sent me into some chemical place and I got hit with everything they had." he finally oriented properly on Akane and she could see fully the white voids that were his eyes, and the burns on the sockets. "Thanks allot you stupid tomboy..." Nabiki was the only one to note that his insult held a harder edge to it than his usual gesture. Suddenly Ranma stepped to the side and leaned back dodging Genma's sign as it passed harmlessly over Ranma's head.

      "Saotome, how did you do that?" She was the first able to speak after witnessing the display of what would be an impossible feat had she not seen it.

      "Luck?" was all that he could reply.

      "Sorry I'm la... ka-Ka-Kasumi... Fancy meeting you here..." Tofu finally arrived.

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AN:

That's it for this prologue

I wanted to write more but I need to get putting things out again or else it'll just be procrastinated longer.

As usual send your comments, flames, and anything else you want to [email protected]. Please no spam or junk.

Nuvares

This, and all my fics, can be found at my site

www.angelfire.com/anime4/nuvares/

fanfiction.net

www.fanfiction.ws/~nuvares/

And tannim's

tannim.anifics.com