Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young woman, whose entire life was devoted to the care of her Lord's castle and his wellbeing. She toiled day and night, along with the other servants, a slave to her country and master. Every day, she was responsible for preparing the Lord Hakushi's breakfast, cleaned his rooms, and fixed Lord Hakushi's bed to his specifications. The rest of her time she spent washing the floors, before helping cook his evening meal.

She was Lord Hakushi's prized servant, whom he favored more than any other slave. But Lord Hakushi was not a kindly lord, and treated all his people cruelly, taxing his subjects and imprisoning those who stood up against him. Hakushi thought of and used women as toys, playing with them for a short time before eventually growing bored, and tossing them aside to rot.

The servant girl, young and beautiful, began to fear her own time was coming. She knew well that her lord desired her; it was easy to see the lust in his eyes. It was only a matter of time before he would come for her, and her life, as sadly complacent and habitual as it had become, would never be the same. Lord Hakushi would use her, like all the others, and being a lowly slave among his conquests, her life would be less than worthless afterward.

Kiyomi sighed, sad cerulean eyes staring out of the kitchen window at the birds flying lazily above. How she longed to be like them, free of troubles, free to travel, free to love. She ran a hand through her long black hair, which shined like an obsidian stone.

There was a loud rustle and she turned, finding two guards stepping into the room. She and the other servants gaped in surprise and horror. Dragged in their arms was a young man, dressed in only his torn pants. He was beaten and whipped, bleeding from multiple cuts across his face and body, barely conscious.

The guards unceremoniously dumped him on the floor and his dirty, bloodied brown haired head landed abruptly at Kiyomi's feet.

The servant gasped and knelt at his unconscious form, hand immediately reaching to touch the man's bruised face.

"Take care of this," one of the guards said. He was tall, a giant even, towering over every woman in the kitchen easily. With great muscles and a thick black beard, his dark eyes stared through Kiyomi's. "He'll be working here as soon as he's better."

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Disclaimer: The characters of Ranma ½ belong to Rumiko Takakashi. If they belonged to me, I wouldn't be writing this I'd be swimming in my pool of cash. I wouldn't bother suing me either. I got nothing you want.

"What we call beginnings is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.
- T.S. Eliot

Suspended
A Ranma ½ Story
By Hawk

AN: Very short prologue, as it's meant to be. This story is already planned out, only this Prologue, 4 Chapters, and an Epilogue, so it's pretty short. Don't get confused by that opening, this story takes place in modern day Ranma ½ time. You'll understand as the story continues what's happening. It all comes together in the end. Again, this is short, but I hope you enjoy. Leave a comment or review if you like it, hate it, or find anything wrong grammatically.

Prologue: Beginnings and Endings

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Friday

Ranma's heart was pounding so hard, he thought for a brief moment that it might come to a sudden stop from over exertion. Though his mind was churning a mile a minute, his thoughts were a jumbled mess, and it was bad enough that story kept popping up in his head. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about that silly book. Besides that, Ranma couldn't stop berating himself, cursing his ignorance, along with Ryouga Hibiki's existence.

If that idiot hadn't shown up, none of this would have happened. At least, that's what Ranma kept telling himself, if only to make himself feel better, to scapegoat some of the blame, but he knew this was completely his fault. He would've been there and she would've been safe.

With a quick leap, Ranma flew over the heads of a middle aged couple, surprising them and accidentally knocking the sunhat from the woman's head. He didn't bother apologizing, even as she shouted in irritation, but instead kept running. His feet found walls, ledges, lamps, anything they could use to leap from, pushing himself faster, and his surroundings started to blur. Landing on the hood of a car with a loud bang, the vehicle screeched as it attempted to brake. Before it could finish, Ranma was gone, crushing the hood inward from the force of his rebound.

In that single bound, he hopped over three more lanes of traffic, ignoring the cries of surprise and honking horns. He bounced off the wall of the nearest building and up, landing on top of a traffic light. When most of the crowd realized who he was, they shook their heads; of course Ranma Saotome was causing a ruckus and running around Nerima as if the hounds of hell were chasing him. Most of the time, such things were.

This was one of those different times. That day, no one was following the pigtailed teen; he was a hurricane of chaos on his own.

As he crouched on the post, turning in every direction, he scanned the crowd of pedestrians like a desperate animal. For once, Ranma was doing the chasing, and for what he was chasing, he looked completely lost.

The driver of the newly damaged car climbed out and started shouting obscenities, shaking a fist, but Ranma simply ignored him. He had bigger things on his mind.

"Damnit, Ranma, how could you let this happen?" he growled to himself, eyes narrowing into a glare as he leapt away.

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Next Time:

Chapter 1 – Suspended

Ranma's suspended from Furinkan for misbehaving (what else is new?) and over the weekend tries to figure out what he'll do with his time off from school.

AN: Again, really short. Not much else to say. Still working on other fics, as well as revising a few of my others to make them better.