I don't own either Future Diary or Ranma 1/2. But you probably already guessed that.

They say the future is what you make of it. In a strange way, that's true...

A crack appeared on his face. It was a small one - barely the width and length of a pin- yet it held all the weight and significance of a neutron star. He gently rubbed it, and sighed wearily; it was the first sign of many yet to come.

"Something wrong?" said a small voice, just off to his left.

"Yes, I fear so," he said. There was no point in lying to her about this matter. She would no doubt see through it and badger him until he admitted what was happening. He leaned back, and gazed up at the machinery suspended from the ceiling. "I am dying. No, don't hold a funeral for me quite yet. I still have a little less than twenty years to go."

"But... but... but! You can't die! You just... you can't! Who will take care of things? Without you, the universe will-"

"I know, Murumu. I know far better than even you what will happen when I finally pass on. This is why I must name a successor, before this time arrives."

The small, fairy like figure dashed about, backwards and forwards - almost as if she was pacing through the sky itself. "Oh, oh gosh! This is bad! Disastrous! Hurry up and pick a successor, then!"

"It is not that simple, you know." It really wasn't. Not even remotely. He couldn't just appoint anybody to this position. For many, the power was far beyond too much to handle. The consequences of seeing it all unfold out there, to look out and see innocent (or if not actually innocent then at least decent enough and likeable) people die needless, painful deaths... And simultaneously seeing what would happen if you tried to save them. This job needed a soul of iron and a will of steel. Whoever sat in this chair had to be competent, capable of using the great power at their fingertips... their intentions mattered not. It wasn't so much a question of personality or ethics as it was dealing with the pressure. He was like Atlas, with an even heavier burden to bear. Atlas only had to carry the world in three dimensions... "If I am to select someone for this task, it must be with great care and consideration. It's not as if I can just interview them for the position."

"So... how are you going to select your replacement?"

A very fine question, and one which he already knew the answer for. Or at least, he would know the answer almost a year before his actual demise. A human with a rather sick bent would suggest the idea to him, and it was novel enough that he could go along with it. But it wasn't time for him to set up the game. Not yet. He needed more information, and he already knew how he would have to get it.

"I will set up... a game. The ultimate game for the ultimate prize," And the ultimate punishment, he mentally added. "It should be very interesting to watch it unfold... though I intend to test the mechanics of this game before implementing it properly."

"Eh? Test it? What do you mean?"

He smiled down at her. He knew too well that humans had a phrase they liked to use; God moves in mysterious ways. He did that, and for good reason. A simple human's mind could be described succinctly as being an open book. But the mind of a God? Possibilities and potentials lay out in front of you, any one of them being just as equally likely as any other you may deign to look at. A God can look down those roads, place themselves anywhere and any-when upon it, and observe. They could see the consequences of a butterfly's wing flap or a decision to turn left instead of right just as easily as a human could look through a window. Gods could taste the twists and turns of cause and effect like a fine wine, and then alter the ingredients once they were done savouring it. If a simple human could be described as an open book, then the mind of a simple God is like an Escher painting on a mobius strip. And yet, in spite of all that, the closer he got to his own death the more difficult it was to tell exactly what would transpire...

"We shall hold... a number of tests to ensure that all goes well with the course of this game. Yes, mere basic examples through which we shall observe the game unfold. From these observations, we can learn much about the shape and form of the truly ultimate game!" And it will also let the two of us have some fun in our final years together.

After thousands of years of service, he deserved that much.

Down in the streets of Furinkan, the winds of change were blowing. On this day, a series of events would begin that would forever change the lives of those that lived there. Usually, if not for the needs of a God, those winds would have been blowing a little over a month later, and would be accompanied by some light rain and a panda chasing a furious girl down the streets. Now instead of being the harbingers of the madness yet to come, the panda and the girl would be stepping directly into a game in which they could be little more than pawns.

None of this was anywhere near the mind of the young girl jogging towards her home - though if any of it were, one would be compelled to ask serious questions about the whereabouts of certain mystical items. Her thoughts dwelled on other simpler matters; tomorrow she would begin her school year, joining her elder sister Nabiki at Furinkan High School. So many questions buzzed around her head, and she knew that none of them could be so readily answered as asked. What could she expect over the course of the year? Would she make new friends? A boyfriend, perhaps? And what of the lessons? Would she be able to keep up with her homework? Pass her inevitable exams?

In short, Akane Tendo's head was filled with thoughts of the future. This would be trebly the case by the end of the day.

Fortunately for her, Kasumi - sweet, thoughtful Kasumi - had given her an outlet for her thoughts and feelings. In due course, she arrived home kicked off her shoes and hurried upstairs to make use of it. There, on her desk waiting to be used was a brand new diary. It may not have seemed like all that much, but then the best gifts never did. Thoughtfulness trumped expense nine times out of ten (though this statistic may alter depending on how shallow a person is). She sat down in her chair, flipped the diary to the very first page, grabbed a pen...

Ink spread across the page, forming into the shapes of words. In turn, those words became sentences, sentences became paragraphs, and before long the entire page was filled with text, all detailing Akane's day, as well as her thoughts and feelings about the day. It was all there, in black and white, expressed perfectly as though she had penned it herself.

In case you missed the implication of that last sentence, the pen Akane had been reaching for had not quite yet even so much as touched the page before the words appeared upon it, spreading like ripples in a pond. Almost as if by magic. Magic? Perhaps it was. Or, there may have been some other explanation. Maybe some form of invisible ink, which had gone wrong somehow? Or maybe it was all just a strange dream. A pinch to the arm disproved that theory. Or perhaps she had momentarily blacked out and written it all, forgetting that she had done so once she was done?

And then once she'd done that, had written in other details about events that hadn't happened yet. Like how Yuka wasn't able to meet up with her and Sayuri later on like they'd planned, or how Nabiki was going to tease her with high school horror stories, or -

This was insane. Definitely insane. Whether it was the circumstance or her, she couldn't quite tell yet. But something was crazy in this room.

"Akane! Phone call!"

With another worried look back when she reached the door, Akane left her room and went downstairs...

On balance, the best Nabiki could say was that at least it was a warm day. The real trouble with the last day before school started up again is that it didn't really count as a holiday. Not really. It was far too close to even consider starting something new. New books, new games, new television shows... it wasn't worth the risk of getting too interested in them, in case it took longer than the rest of today to get completed. There was nothing much else to do than prepare for tomorrow, which took all of (at most) half an hour. She was starving for entertainment, and there was none to be had.

But then again, if she couldn't find something entertaining to do she could always just make her own. Case in point, Akane was heading downstairs to take a phone call and she had an oddly worried look on her face. Perhaps her anticipation about her first day at a new school had turned to dread?

"Yuka?" Akane said, in an almost fearful tone of voice. Interesting. "Uh, no. Just... I had a feeling you would be calling." A feeling, hm? Nabiki knew her little sister well enough to spot the deepening concern inching across her face. A quick glance up, back upstairs... her room? How interesting.. Nabiki made a casual attempt to stroll upstairs, looking as nonchalant as possible - but the trouble with that was, one inevitably wound up attracting all the attention one was intending to avoid in the first place.

"Nabiki? Could you give me a hand?" Kasumi had asked in that ever so innocent-dripping-with-sugar-you-could-see-the-angelic-wings tone of voice she always did far too damned well. "Not quite what I meant," she'd replied when Nabiki gave a slow applause. Grudgingly, defeatedly, Nabiki backtracked and went on to help her elder sister with whatever task she was about to invent to keep the pair of them occupied while Akane finished her phone call.

Leaning against the door to her room, Akane stared across at the desk and inched towards it as though expecting it to wake up and attempt to bite her hand off. The book lay open, still on the page she'd randomly opened it to, almost innocently beckoning her to read it again...

Alright, so that phone call from Yuka put paid to rest the notion that it was a product of her own imagination. That meant it had to be magic of some kind. She had encountered magic before. Like the time her father had been asked to look after a cursed mask of truth - which promptly attacked Nabiki, and stuck itself to her face for a full week. This kind of thing just happened and you dealt with it and you moved on a little bit more experienced in such matters and a little bit wiser. The one thing every magical encounter she'd had up until this point had in common was the simple fact that there was always some kind of warning. Somewhere. It could be anything. Instructions attached to the side of it. A wary shopkeeper, unwilling to sell it to you. A priest that had been attending to it, or some other guardian that is supposed to protect the general public from the magical item in question(or vice versa). There was always something to ward people off. Always a rhyme or a reason for it. It was almost like a rule of the universe, or something.

Yet there she was with a diary which seemingly filled itself in. And, hah! Even seemed to fill in precise events about your own future! Automatically! No need for a pen to express your thoughts and feelings in print, your future is already written for you!

Not to put too fine a point on it, but; This. Is. Insane!

"I met Ranma's mother today. She seems nice, if a little unhinged..."

And who the hell is Ranma? Well, there was an easy enough way to figure that out. Read the book from the beginning, see what it says about-

It hadn't taken quite as long as she had felt it had, on reflection. It turned out that Kasumi had wanted help re-organising the photo albums, a task that had been put off for quite some time. And for very good reason. The whole experience had been so tedious that Nabiki was giving some very serious consideration of attempting to bottle it and sell it as a cure for insomniac elephants. Alternatively, it could be used as a power source for a time machine since it made minutes seem like hours and the seconds seemed to tick by only because they had nothing better to do and even they were bored out of their non-existent skulls.

The worst part was, when she was told about the favour there was a single fleeting moment where she had this sudden flash of insight where all the tedium struck all at the same time. Almost as though she had sent herself a message through time, warning her to turn back and run for the hills... And yet she had stayed. By her own will, she stayed to help her older sister and all because of that innocent smile. There wasn't even any insistence in her tone of voice. Just a quick"oh, would you be a dear?" and you could barely make her out after that because of all the harps being played by the cherubs following her.

But now, after half an hour of hell - she caught a yawn - she was free! Free to pester her little sister, and perhaps even find out just what had been bugging her. She raised her fist to knock on the door - always best to be polite when circling the prey - and then!

"HE DID WHAT? IDIOT! IDIOTIDIOTIDIOT!"

She counted off on her fingers... Four exclamation marks! Something must have really gotten to her just then. With a nod of her head, Nabiki made a sharp right turn, walked into her own room and closed the door with such grace that one would be forgiven for believing she was anything less than nervous. While the outburst was a curious one, it was probably for the best to obey those survival instincts kicking in right about now. Going into that room right then would have been like poking an angry bear to get it to turn around so you could throw a custard pie in its face. Sometimes, curiosity could wait..

A new day arrived and with it a new school year was dragged out of bed and dumped in front of a uniform. The students made their way towards school, none of them particularly eager to get there. The trouble was, each of them was possessed of the energy youth accumulates over an extended period of rest - and the consequence was that though they were all attempting to take their time they were moving a mite more rapidly than they were aware of. This problem would soon be rectified, as the school would no doubt sap their spirit completely by week's end; and this is some considerable time before Miss Hinako would make an appearance there. She'd only make the process that little bit more efficient.

Among these students there were those new to the school. The fresh faced and nervous first years marched on their way towards their bright future! And yet, one of their number stood out. While she was nervous, like her peers, there was a different kind of energy about her. Perhaps it was due to her natural charisma - her tendency to draw attention, whether she wished it or not. Perhaps it was the contrast between the fearful nervousness of others from her year to her angrier, slightly paranoid nervousness. Or maybe it was the way she was desperately trying to keep herself out of sight, failing miserably all the while.

Those not particularly adept or trained in stealth find that when they really need to avoid attention, every single person in the vicinity becomes unduly and unfairly fascinated by their activities. It's a quirk of human nature, relating back to our curious nature. If a person nearby does something that seems almost designed to not catch our attention, then paradoxically it almost certainly will. With that attention comes curiosity, as the audience wonders just what that person is up to, who they are hiding from and why - and the best way to satisfy that curiosity is to just keep on watching, This is where the second paradox kicks in. Because in order for these observations to continue, it would be better if the attention avoider continued their failed attempts at stealth so they don't become embarrassed by all the attention, stop what they were doing and simply walk away. The observers are thus compelled to observe without being observed as observing. And the cycle begins anew...

Akane Tendo had the grave and contrasting misfortune of being excellently trained in martial arts - though not quite as excellently as certain others she would shortly encounter - while having little to no experience in matters of keeping herself hidden from others. Akane takes to subtle like a fish takes to mountain climbing. Worse yet, as previously pointed out she has a natural tendency towards grabbing attention without exerting the slightest effort into it. If she was to play hide and seek against some strange embodiment of attention, and was able to catch a plane directly to the deepest and darkest parts of a jungle then she would find attention camped out in a tree slightly annoyed that it took her this long to get there. Thus while she was more than capable of dashing and darting between walls, postboxes, innocent passers-by and not so innocent passers-by with remarkable speed and precision, she was still botching her stealth check.

"Can't let him see me," she thought, though she was blissfully unaware that everybody around her was casting glances in her direction. "If we never meet, he doesn't bug me evermore. If he doesn't see me, he'll have no reason to try and meet me." Because that was the problem with knowing your personal future. Even if you knew key events you'd like to avoid, often the causes of those events are left a mystery. As far as Akane knew, based on her diary entry, at some point during lunch she would encounter a very strange and obsessive boy from Nabiki's class. He would proclaim love at first sight, and seemed to live in a backwards world where "no" not only meant "yes", but "hell yes". This was attention she could do without. To think of it, this was attention she wouldn't inflict on her worst enemy - not that she had one. Yet. That would come later, apparently...

But this wasn't the time to think about events quite so far into the future. She'd have to do that later on, after school. For now her mission was simple; Stay down, stay hidden, and for heaven's sake don't let yourself get seen!

As she peered around the walls of the school - just making absolutely certain that no idiots were hanging around before going in - a hand touched her shoulder. "Akane?" came a familiar voice from behind her. Her response to this was to leap around into a defensive position so fast that a student walking past them felt mildly dizzy for reasons he couldn't explain. This student then glanced back, gasped in a moment of wonder, and made to approach Akane... only to get pulled back by the former captain of the Kendo club for important club duties.

Akane hadn't seen any of that, of course. She was currently face to face with her friends Yuka and Sayuri and she was standing there in a defensive position slightly embarrassed by the overreaction to a tap on the shoulder.

"Gee, Akane," Sayuri said, "I get that you're nervous about our first day of school, but this is a little..."

"Hold on there," Yuka interrupted. "It's a guy that's got you wound up, right?"

Yeah, Akane thought. But not the way you're thinking. Equating Kuno with those thoughts, just based on the things she'd read about him? That made her pause for a moment out of fear she might throw up all over her friends if she opened her mouth. Luckily for her, the brief pause was all she needed as the first bell rang and they really did not have the time to consider continuing the conversation. The three dashed into school, not noticing they were being observed by a concerned older sister from an upper window...

Finally, mercifully, the lunchtime bell rang out over the school and the students all filed out of their classrooms to fulfil a rising hunger they'd only noticed as time began to slow down right about quarter to twelve.

Tatewaki Kuno was on a mission quite different from feeding his belly. This morning, he had the briefest chance to glimpse (in his own words) "a goddess" by the school gates. He did not have the chance to approach her, as other duties required his immediate attention. And what kind of man would he be if he allowed his heart to rule over his responsibilities? Although given her beauty, her fire, her spirit... it had been very tempting to disregard his duties, just this one time. It was too late to take back what had been, of course. What mattered was the future! And there she was, just the slightest glimpse of her ahead in the crowd, glancing around nervously while making very obvious attempts to keep herself hidden. It only made her all that more adorable! And then, she turned and seemed to notice him... and her face twisted into an emotion he couldn't quite place. It must have been love! Love at first sight! Yes, it all made sense now. She was a delicate flower, enchanted by his beautiful presence (damn his beautiful presence! How many hearts must it force him to break?). And yet, her natural shyness led her to avoid the object of her affections, as she humbly (incorrectly!) believed herself to be not good enough for him.

Drawing himself to an even straighter height, Kuno resolved to correct this misconception. The girl was not making it easy for him - she seemed somewhat adept at cutting through crowds, even if she can't quite manage to hide in one. Ah, but the pursuit merely made his heart all the fonder, and even more eager to finally catch up with her.

"Akane! Slow down!" some girl said to his beloved. Akane was her name? It fit perfectly. Akane the angel! He had to catch her before she soared away, back to heaven... After what felt like an eternity he finally pushed his way through the crowd, and heard a little more of their conversation as he approached.

"Honestly, what is with you today? Was Yuka right this morning? It's guy troubles, isn't it?"

"If that is true," he declared in his most flirtatious and charming(actually pompous and irritating) tone of voice. "Then let your troubles trouble you no longer! I am Tatewaki Kuno, and it would be my greatest pleasure if you would-"

"No. Piss off."

"Date.. with... I'm sorry, could you say that again?"

"What, is your hearing as lousy as your hair? I said 'No. Piss off'." With that, she turned back to her friends, and stormed off.

Kuno was only momentarily stunned before he realised that she was playing hard to get. He then took an action that was every little bit as bold as it was utterly moronic; He embraced Akane in his arms, and whispered in her ear "No need to play games, beloved. I am yours, now and forever."

In that moment, Akane's battle aura flared up - causing everybody in a mile radius of the pair to suddenly- and in many cases for no reason readily apparent to themselves -suddenly take a great big step away from where she was standing as though they'd just overheard that a metric ton of nuclear waste had been dropped in that very area. Kuno, being Kuno remained oblivious and thought that her shyness had simply transferred itself into a terrifying battle aura of death. He also remained completely oblivious to the lack of a connection between these two thoughts, though to be fair he was very unconscious two seconds later after Akane performed a picture perfect Harai Goshi which caused him to fly much like a dodo with a jetpack clear into the wall surrounding the school grounds. To correct any misconceptions laid by the previous sentence, "into the wall" does not mean he hit the wall and bounced off. It meant he hit the wall's surface and continued moving for just the slightest fraction of a second longer.

As Akane and her friends walked off, Kuno fell off the wall for a nice and well deserved nap on the ground. Shortly after this, the newly formed Repairing Club rejoiced in its first job. In minutes the somewhat deep indentation in the wall was fixed up, good as new, all cracks filled in. Perfect. As they began to leave, they suddenly realised that the footstool they were standing on was actually a quite unconscious boy they should probably have taken to the infirmary.

Curiously, Akane's friends didn't question her any further about her strange behaviour, which had ceased after the encounter with Kuno.

Nabiki looked at the bandage wrapped around Kuno's head with no small amount of curiosity. It had been bugging her since lunch, but she hadn't the opportunity to speak to him about it until school ended. She'd felt the battle aura, since she had done some basic training in the art so many years ago. But she wasn't skilled enough to tell anything other than whoever it was happened to be so angry that they'd probably march up to a rampaging lion in their path and end up scaring it off. It didn't take much logical thinking to realise it was either Kuno or the person that beat him up, and she was betting(internally only) on the latter.

"I guess you brought me here to find out a little more about whoever did a number on you."

"Ha! You have no romance in your soul! Assuming that you have one, of course. I was not attacked, as you seem to believe."

"So, I suppose the nurse spontaneously started bandaging your head after you randomly fell asleep in the infirmary."

Kuno glared at her, and she smiled innocently back. It would've fooled most others, but Kuno knew her better. "This is but a love tap, from a shy girl - no! Angel! A shy angel that descended from heaven and in response to my embrace -"

"Kicked your ass, knocked you out and probably stormed off to find something to bathe in. Right. So who is the unl- I mean, lucky girl?"

"I heard her friends refer to her as Akane. Oh dear, it would seem that you have some yen signs attached to your pupils. You should probably get that looked into."

"Ah, never mind that," Nabiki said while rubbing her eyes. "Uh, just to make certain... she had dark hair with a bluish tint and was wearing it in a ponytail way down her back?"

Kuno sighed, and stared at a point slightly above Nabiki's head. "That's her... my angel, oh will I ever know your full n- My goodness, you really should get that looked into soon. Those yen signs seem to be getting bigger!"

Well. Sometimes, one doesn't need to search for opportunity. Sometimes, it is dumped into your lap and gives you a great big hug..

"I may be able to find a little more, uh, detail about your angel if you'd like. Of course, research isn't exactly cheap..."

A large wad of bills materialised on the table. She pocketed the lot, and said "You appear to have developed an infatuation for my little sister," she said,

"Your sister! That is quite unbelievable! Though, I do sense some poetic justice at work here - no, make that at play. A devil being related to an angel has a strange poetry to it, don't you think?"

"Yes, quite. Ah, I may be able to get a few pictures here and there if you're interested in buying?"

"Nabiki Tendo! Is there no depth low enough for you to avoid sinking into? Selling me pictures of your own sister? How soon can you arrange this and how much?"

She took a moment to bask in the feeling. Not only was this going to be a lot of fun to watch play out from a distance, but she'd be making money hand over fist. Her future was looking bright.

As soon as school had finished, Akane had gone straight home and up to her room. Her objective of the day had been an abject failure - she hadn't avoided meeting Kuno and the idiot was almost certainly going to issue the stupid challenge in spite of her trying to -

She glared down at the diary in front of her. Something had changed, it seemed. Originally, she had politely declined Kuno's invite thought the matter resolved. Then each day after that he'd come back, and ask again just a little bit more forcefully each time... politeness only stretched so far. Originally, it would have been Thursday that Kuno would have been pounded into the dirt, and on Friday the challenge would be laid down.

Instead it was happening tomorrow. At least, according to the diary. A brief skip ahead indicated changes to some other entries, though she only noticed very minor alterations here and there... Which meant the book was updating to whatever her future was now instead of simply telling her of the future that would be. She swallowed. This was already big enough, but now? It was positively huge.

"Yes, number one... But it is a fair bit larger than you seem to realise."

She hadn't heard the door open. Which didn't seem to matter much once she noticed that the window by her desk wasn't there anymore. Slowly raising her head, and turning around, Akane suppressed the urge to scream that was aching to get its way out of her lungs. She wasn't in her room, for certain. It was some kind of dome, and though she would swear the walls were little more than ten feet away she couldn't see where they met the floor. She reasoned that the dome had to be so big, after all there was a giant sitting in an equal y large chair right there in the middle of the room! He seemed to be playing with switches or levers of some kind, which were connected to something in the ceiling... More movement caught her eye then, as she saw there were eleven shadowy figures around the room, each with a number engraved at their feet. Looking down, she saw the number one.

The impossibly huge creature spoke up then, and its voice managed to echo around the room in such a way that it felt like it originated at every point within it. "My name is Deus ex Machina, God of Time and Space..." Deus boomed as he leaned forward in what could only be described as a near malevolent grin. "And now that you're all here, it's time I explained a few things..."