Title- ?

Author- DrkPhnx

E-Mail- dark(underscore)phoneix(at)hotmail(dot)com. Stupid FF(dot)Net...jeeze.

Disclaimer- I almost literally own nothing, not to mention any series that may appear within this story. Please don't sue me!

Rating- PG-13

Pairing- None as of now

Spoilers- Through the end of Ranma 1/2. Not too sure about Bleach, as I've only seen the anime and the manga is so far ahead of it. Through the Soul Society arc at the very least.

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Prologue

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Ranma Saotome, age 17, student and self-proclaimed master of Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu, was going to be late for school. Again. Had he been the type to actually care about his education, Ranma could have been concerned about the academic consequences of excessive tardiness. As things stood, however, he was just an ignorant and cocky martial artist with little care for the vagaries of modern life and the commonly accepted belief that there was something wrong with being an uneducated lout. That suited the teenager just fine. Training with the perverted Old Freak, serious training, was worth whatever punishment his teacher's chose to mete out.

Unfortunately for the young man, a frustrated new math teacher not yet numbed into apathy by the antics that seemed to constantly surround Furinkan and a handful of its most notable students, had done the unthinkable. She'd called Ranma's mother. If ever there was proof that it had been a mistake to update his student records once the estrangement between Nodoka Saotome, her good for nothing, lying, thieving, cowardly husband, and her oh so manly yet strangely aquatransexual son, this was it.

So...Ranma ran for his life. Well, not really anything so dramatic. His mother's katana no longer hung over his head like a maternal Sword of Damacles, but she'd been "disappointed" in him! The pride Ranma felt for his martial prowess and the many victories it had allowed him over enemies no one in their right mind would confront, much less expect to overcome, was so great that he could actually harness the feeling into a growing arsenal of ki-based special attacks. This feeling paled in comparison, though, when compared to what a little motherly approval could invoke.

Was it any wonder that a few softly spoken words and a look of stern reprimand had turned the powerful young man into squirming jelly? Bouncing on his heels and doing his best to count the individual grains of wood in the floor beneath him, anything to avoid meeting Nodoka's gaze, Ranma had nodded sullenly as she'd reprimanded him for his recent bout of tardiness. Then she'd started in on him about his lackluster grades. This was followed by thoroughly reminding him that his attitude towards his teachers was unacceptable. Already feeling like the fiend Kuno so often claimed him to be, Ranma made the mistake of glancing up just once, only to find that his mother's eyes had gone misty with a haze of unshed tears. Was it possible to be lower than pond scum, Ranma had wondered to himself?

In the aftermath, not only had Ranma promised to be on time from then on, but he also obligated himself to study and attempt to bring his grades up to passing. Now here he was, a day later and he was going to break the promise already! Damn Happosai, the perverted bastard, for being such an engrossing instructor when not blinded by lust.

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It was only a few moments after Ranma realized he was going to be late, if only by a minute or two, that he felt the hungry/empty sensation he'd come to associate with Ryoga Hibiki's near-perpetual state of depression. According to Happosai, this sort of long-range perception was just another step in the growtht of his danger sense. They'd worked on improving the rudimentary ki detection ability off and on over the past couple months. Whether the investment in time was worth it had not yet been proven. Ranma was uncertain if he'd rather know far ahead of time that an enemy was coming for him, time that he could prepare himself for battle, or get that split second's warning he'd grown accustommed to, when the adrenaline and excitement surged most strongly.

Ranma steeled himself for a confrontation, hoping that Pig-Boy could at the very least wait until after school let out to challenge him again under the guise of attempted murder. He'd have crossed his fingers for luck, but felt that was only inviting some vindictive kami to further complicate his life.

With speed so far beyond human that he momentarily seemed to blur out of existance at times and leaps that bypassed a handful of Nerimian buildings in a single bound, Ranma very nearly reached his destinated, despite having left the Tendo home not much more than a minute earlier. He was impressed with himself. That wasn't very surprising, though, as Ranma was almost always impressed with himself for one reason or another.

Ranma needn't to have rushed, as was evident as he rounded a corner and and made ready to dash through the gates of Furinkan High School. He heard a scream and barely avoided being struck by the flailing body of a human projectile. Kuno hadn't convinced the male population of the school to attack Akane again, had he? That could certainly explain the crowd he found milling about in the courtyard. Akane wasn't much of a martial artist, truth be told, but she was quite magnificent when it came to unleashing her anger on those less powerful and more perverted than herself. Such a display was certain to be entertaining enough for an audience.

No...that most definitely was not the problem, Ranma decided before he could even leap to Akane's assistance. The decision wasn't difficult to make with the appearance of some sort of snake monster exploding into the air amid an audience wide gasp peppered with more than a few screams. Oddly, from what Ranma could tell, no one actually looked up as the creature, now revealed to be at least ten meters long and over a meter thick reached its zenith and arrowed its massive body towards an as of yet unseen target below.

With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, Ranma pushed through the back tier of the crowd, those far enough back to not even really know what was going on, flying snake monster aside, and leaped over the rest. Relief exploded through Ranma's chest and shot through his body as he saw Akane nowhere in sight. Maybe the stupid tomboy was in school already and out of harm's way. Yeah, and maybe non-Jusenkyo cursed pigs would fly.

Expecting Ryoga due to his earlier detection, even though the sensation caused by his presence didn't feel very close, Ranma was surprised to see Kuno doing battle with the mosnter as he landed. The delusional swordsman wasn't in the greatest shape, to say the least. Hakama torn and bloody, left arm hanging useless, either broken or dislocated, the kendoist raised his bokken overhead to ward off the incoming monster. Ki wreathed the wooden weapon like blue flame, lending it strength and lethality far beyond what one could expect of such a practice weapon.

Unwilling to let the older boy be crushed, no matter how much of a pain in the ass he could be, Ranma tossed the most powerful ki blast he could summon on such short notice. It was aimed at the creature's descending head with the hope of diverting its trajectory. Doubtful that it would be effective against that much mass, Ranma followed up with another, and another.

The first struck with the precision Ranma had come to expect, hammering into the multi-horned bone-like growth that covered the majority of his target's head. Much of the energy was deflected, but the resulting explosion also tossed Kuno several meters away from the landing zone. Ranma smirked as the monster struck the ground with far less grace than it had expected, writhing in in pain from the damage done by the attack. He didn't even care that the pain induced convulsions of its serpentine body had allowed the second and third blasts to sail by harmlessly.

Rushing to fill the combatant void left by Kuno's forced departure, no need to give it time to take its pain and anger out on helpless students, Ranma stepped forward, picking his way around the numerous holes he assumed the creature had made traveling through the earth and concrete of the courtyard. Only moments passed before his adversary brought itself under control, swinging its massive bulk around to face the bringer of its doom. Ugh, Ranma mentally grumbled at the thought, even proximity to Kuno is bad for my mental health.

Malevolence like Ranma had never encountered stared back at him through glowing red eyes, along with a great deal more intelligence than he'd expected from such a beast.

"Foolisssh human!" hissed the monster. What in hell was this thing anyway? A demon? "I will devour your pathetic sssoul!"

Not one to be thwarted by the threats of an overgrown worm, Ranma retorted, "Bring it on, snake breath. I ain't some pushover like Kuno!" A slight effort of will ignited his battle aura, surrounding Ranma in a golden radiance.

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Caught up in what was sure to be a memorable fight, if only because he had never fought a giant talking snake demon before, Ranma missed the mixture of excited and fearful conversations from the students behind him. They had backed further away after his arrival, due to survival instincts taught to avoid Ranma's fights if at all possible, so maybe he just wasn't within earshot.

"What the hell is going on?"

"Okay, seriously, am I going crazy?"

"Did you see that fireball? It hit something in mid-air!"

"Wow, I guess Kuno wasn't having a drug-induced seizure afterall."

"Now it's invisible monsters. Jeeze, what else are we going to run across before we graduate from this hell hole?"

Further back, away from the curious students, a figure rested against the inner wall of the Furinkan premises.

"There you are, Akane!" Sayuri exclaimed with relief as she and Yuka finally found their missing friend. "We've been so worried!"

Sayuri knelt down to give the girl a once over, checking for any obvious injuries.

Yuka's scream pierced the air, followed a moment later by a considerably more shrill Sayuri. They were the first to notice the glazed eyes weren't merely glassy, but unblinking as well, that no breath passed her lips as her chest no longer rose and fell.

"Oh, Kami-sama, Akane!!!"

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"Oh, Kami-sama, Akane!!!"

The screams, followed by that dread exclamation, roared in Ranma's ears, snapping his head around. He paled, his battle aura guttering out like a wind blown flame with no fuel.

Before he could rush off, the demon chuckled, a hideous hissing sound that made Ranma's stiffened spine crawl uncomfortably.

"Akane, eh? A pity I missssed the little girl'sss name. Mmmm, Akane. Knowing its name makesss the food tasste ssso much sssweeter." A tri-forked tongue that must have been three meters long slipped from the mouth-like cavity in the demon's bone mask, making a gross parody of licking nonexistant lips. "Even ssso, what a deliciousss sssnack her sssoul made!"

There was an explosion then. Centered on Ranma, the swirling mass of angry red ki grew into a vortex reaching higher thank the Furinkan clock tower and blew broken concrete and great chunks of disturbed earth into his rapidly retreating fellow students.

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Author's Notes: Howdy, folks. Long time no see, eh? Some of you may be familiar with fics I've written in the past or you may not. It's been a few years. I'd like to thank everyone who continued to send me reviews for my stories throughout my absence from the fandom and apologize for not replying to them. I'm a lazy bastard and I've been in a weirdly apathetic state of mind for a while. I'm not sure if the writer's block is finally gone or not, it's been around so long I'm kinda surprised I even wrote this, but I'll try to keep working on it and maybe even get back to work on some of my other stories. Only time will tell. Btw, when did FF(dot)net become such a pain in the ass to post to?

As for this story, it's a crossover of sorts, but I haven't decided how heavily to involve the characters and events from Bleach, if I will at all. One thing that has always been a central element in my stories is my severe dislike of Akane. I don't regret it, but I'm going to try a different route with this one, killing her off but while Ranma still cares greatly for her. This way I hope to avoid pointless and all to easy Akane bashing along the way. Please read and review! I'm so badly out of practice writing I'm sure I need all the help I can get.

I can't even come up with a decent name for this fic. :(

Anyone got any suggestions?