Prologue: Ry... Ryouga?
"Ranma Saotome! Prepare to die!"The aforementioned pig-tailed martial artist sighed and leapt off the fence, which was quickly demolished by a lightening fast attack. All Ranma saw was a yellow-colored, human-shaped blur and the fence being reduced to splinters. He blinked in surprise even as he assumed a defensive posture; Ryouga sure had gotten fast.
Waitaminute.
That wasn't Ryouga's voice. But the challenge was the lost boy's usual battle cry; even though it was shared by several others, none ever managed it in the same maniacal-depressive tone (maniacal, yes; depressive, usually not). And Ranma was positive that it had been an umbrella that had destroyed the wooden fence. How many people, really, fought with umbrellas?
All this ran through his head as he tracked the blur that had attacked him. It stopped, finally, against a building with a deep overhang that cast the figure in shadow. And a very familiar bamboo umbrella was open, hiding most of the person from view.
"Ryouga?" he blinked again, as the person he assumed to be Ryouga didn't move. Or speak for that matter, other than a growling sound.
"Ryouga?" he repeated, starting to get annoyed. The growling only got louder. Ranma noticed with a start that the sound was somewhat high pitched. And filled with fury and frustration, although that was more expected.
This lack of action confused Ranma. Ryouga - it had to be the aquatranspig - was not the sort of person to cut off an attack. Ranma prepared to attack, anything to cut off the stalemate, when with a resigned yell Ryouga did something that made him freeze.
Lifted the umbrella. And... stepped out into the sunlight, revealing...
A rather pretty, if disheveled and dirty, young girl with short pink hair held back by a yellow bandanna and dressed in matching clothing that hung very baggily on her frame. Her face twisted up as she looked at Ranma into an expression of... something. Ranma never did see what the expression was becoming, because the girl was simultaneously flipping the umbrella onto the huge pack she carried - or trying to at least. She collapsed unconscious before finishing the motion.At this point Ranma was seriously confused.
"Ry... Ryouga?"
***
~Mordain