***PROLOGUE***

     Soun Tendo stares nervously at the go board before him.  A hint of
sweat appears on his wrinkled brow as he tries to figure out the problem
before him.  He sits there and stares at the board as a rather smug
looking Genma Saotome sits right across from him, beckoning him to make
his next move.

     "What's the delay Tendo?"  Asks Genma, "Are you going to continue
to play the game or aren't you?"

     "I'm just trying to decide on where to put my piece."

     "Just admit it Tendo, I won this game."

     "Not yet you haven't!"  Replies a defiant Soun Tendo as he slams
down his black go piece.  "Take that!"

     Genma's jaw hits the ground as he realizes that Soun had found the
one place that would turn the game to his favor.  

     "Now who's in trouble?"  Asks a now rather confident Soun as he
crosses his arm in triumph.

     Genma stares worriedly at the go board.  Soun believing that the
game is as good as his, turns his attention towards the window and looks
outside.  The sun had set hours ago and the full moon was already up in
the night sky.

     Genma looks up from the board and notices that Soun has turned his
attention away from the game.  A sly smile appears on his face as a plan
forms in his head.  "Thinking about Ranma and Akane?"  Asks Genma as he
reaches for the pieces on the board.

     "Yes I am."  A concerned look comes across Soun's face.  "I'm
wondering how their date is going."

     "After all the trouble we went through to get them to go, it better
be going good.  Especially with all that money you spent on the ring
that you gave to Ranma so he could give to Akane."

     Soun nods back in response.  He closes his eyes and pictures the
ring he gave Ranma.  It was a simple gold ring with two entwined hearts
on it.  A single small diamond was set in center of both of the hearts. 
Soun smiles because it wasn't the ring itself that was expensive.  The
ring was the same exact ring that he gave to his wife when he propsed to
her.  All he did was adjust the ring to fit Akane.  The part that made
it cost him was that he was giving a piece of his wife away.  The
thought of Ranma losing it before he gave it to Akane sent shivers down
his spine.  "Maybe we should go and check on them."  
     "But father," replies Kasumi as she enters the room with a pot of
tea, "You both promised that you wouldn't spy on them if they went on
this date."  

     "Yes Kasumi, I remember."  Soun raises his empty tea cup for Kasumi
to fill.  

     Kasumi fills her father's cup and Genma's cup as well.  When she
finishes she sits down next to her father and puts the teapot down.  She
places a comforting hand on her worried father's shoulder.  

     "Don't worry father.  You know that Ranma would never allow
something to happen to Akane.  How many times has Ranma saved Akane from
being married to someone else or saved her from a fight."  Kasumi's
words seem to be working as the concerned look slowly leaves Soun's
face.  "Even though Akane and Ranma won't admit to it, they do love each
other."

     Soun places his hand onto Kasumi's.  "You're right Kasumi dear."

     "Yes father, I know."

     The three of them sit there in complete silence until the sound of
ringing phone breaks the silence.

     "I'll get it father."  Kasumi remove her hand, picks up the teapot
and then leaves to answer the ringing phone.

     Soun looks back towards a smiling Genma.  "Well Saotome, are you
going to play the game or what!"

     Genma pick up a piece and happily places it onto the board.

     Soun's eyes nearly jump out of their sockets when he looks at the
board.  "I don't remember those pieces being th......"

     The sound of shattering ceramic seems to echo throughout the house,
disturbing Genma and Soun from their game.  

     "Kasumi......"

     They rush out of the room and run down the hallway towards the
phone.  When they get there they see a pale Kasumi with a broken teapot
next to her feet as she slowly hangs the phone up.

     "Kasumi who was that?"  Asks her worried father.

     It takes Kasumi a few moments to regain her composure.  "It.....
It..... It was Dr. Tofu calling from the hospital.  Something has
happened to Akane and Ranma.  We need to go to the hospital."

     The trio quickly grab thier jackets and leave the house.  As they
leave, they fail to spot a single crow resting itself on the wall next
to the exit.  The crow cocks it's head and watches them as they scurry
off down the street.  When they disappear out of sight, the crow spreads
it's wings and takes off into the seemingly endless night.

                            ***************

     Writer's opening thoughts:  The Crow, what an excellent movie.  
By that I mean the first one, not the second one.  Don't get me wrong,
the second movie wasn't as bad as some people claim.  I admit that it's
a bit weaker than the first one but I'm not here to debated that.  I'm
here to annouce my new fanfic.  As you can probally guess by now, it's
based on the crow movie/comic series.  I put in a few scenes from both
of the movies, mainly because I lost my only copy of the crow graphic
novel.  The book was completly differnt than the movie anyways.  Enough
with the chit-chat and let me get on with the story.  
                                                                  RTJ 

     One last thing:

                           ***DISCLAIMER***

                      RANMA 1/2 IS COPYRIGHT OF:
         RUMIKO TAKAHASHI, VIZ COMMUNICATIONS, SHOGAKUKAN INC.
                       KITTY FILM & PONY CANYON

                       THE CROW IS COPYRIGHT OF:
                     JAMES O'BARR & MIRAMAX FILMS

                         ***END DISCLAIMER***

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                            ***************

     "People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their
soul to the land of the dead.  Sometimes, something so bad happens that
a terrible sadness is carried with it.  Then sometimes, just sometimes,
the crow will bring the soul back to put the wrong things right." 
Sarah, The Crow

                            ***************

                           ***CHAPTER ONE***
                          ***RESURRECTION***

     The sun rises to great Nerima as it always does.  Ukyo Kounji is
scene sweeping in front of her shop.  She's dressed in the same outfit
she always wears when she is at work.  For the last few days though,
there has been something different about her outfit.  If one looks
closely enough, you can see the black ribbon tied around her right arm.

     The chilly morning breeze picks up and ruins all the work that she
just did.  She stops sweeping and watches as the dead leaves drift
almost effortlessly across the ground.  For a few moments she just
stands there and watches on.  Suddenly she snaps her wooden broom in
half and tosses the pieces down the street.  She turns and runs teary
eyed into her shop.

     Ukyo stops long enough to turn the open sign around to close before
she runs upstairs to her room.  She throws open her bedroom door and
collapses onto her bed and breaks down even more.  An hour passes by
before she finally regains some composure.  She rolls over onto her back
and thinks back to the events of the last few weeks.  

     "Why........"

     She thinks back to that night she got the call.  She had just
finished cleaning up the shop and had gone up to her room to relax. 
Within minutes of turning on the television the phone rang and it was
Nabiki calling from the hospital.  Ukyo still remembers the terror she
felt when Nabiki told her what had happened.

     "Why........"

     She thinks back to the double funeral that they held several days
later.  Ranma and Akane were both buried next to each other in the same
cemetery that Akane's mother was.  The sheer number of people that
showed up for the funeral still held Ukyo in awe.  Now that she thinks
about it, Ranma and Akane did know allot of people.  Even though at one
point in time, everyone there was either trying to marry them or kill
them.  

     "Why........"

     She thinks back to the days aftwards.  Many people have come by to
try and comfort her.  Tsubasa help was the worst of them all.  He told
Ukyo to just forget about Ranma.  When she heard that, she sent Tsubasa
into orbit and haven't scene him since.  Just a few days ago her father
came by and told her that she could come back home since Ranma was gone. 
She told him that she wouldn't and she would only come home when she was
ready.

     "Why did you have to die......."

     Noise from the outside distracts Ukyo from her current mood.  She
sits up and finally gets off of the bed.  She walks over to the her
room's only window and opens it.  A blast of cold morning air hits her. 
Ukyo wraps her arms around herself and looks out at the people passing
by her shop.  Several people stop long enough to notice the close sign
and then continue on their way.

     (Listen girl, if you don't open the shop soon.  You will have to
move back home because a closed shop doesn't pay the bills.)  Ukyo
stands there for a moment longer before decides to head back downstairs. 


     As she leaves her room she hears another noise behind her and turns
around.  There perched on her window sill is a crow.  The crow tilts
it's head to the side and looks at Ukyo.  She looks back at the bird in
pure bewilderment.  The bird caws at her a few times.

     "Get out of hear!"  Ukyo picks up a pillow and tosses it at the
bird.

     The crow takes the hint and flies away.

     (Stupid bird.)

                              **********

     Detective Takada sighs as he tosses his jacket onto the back of his
chair.  Soon he joins his beaten jacket in the chair.  He sighs again as
he reaches into a nearby white box and pulls out a jelly donut.  The
chair lets out a mighty squeak as he leans back in it.  After finishing
off the donut he reaches grabs a thick manila folder in his In box.  He
pulls out a cigarette as he opens the folder to examine it's contents
once again.  He picks up two pictures and looks at them.  One is a
picture of a young girl with short black hair and the other is of
another young girl with her red hair done up in a ponytail.

     "Akane Tendo and Ranma Saotome, two friends out having fun when all
hell comes crashing down on them."  Detective Takada pulls his lighter
out of his pocket and lights his cigarette.  "What was going through
your minds when you two decided to take a nightly stroll through the
park."

     He puts the pictures down and picks up the hospital reports.  Ones
claims that the red head was dead before the ambulance got to the scene. 
Another states that the other girl had died at the hospital several
hours later.  Both reports state that both girls where brutally beaten
and sexually assaulted.  All money and jewelry was missing so the people
upstairs had written the report off as a mugging gone fatal.  One thing
bothered Detective Takada though, Nerima park was one of the safest
parks in all of Tokyo.  A mugging hasn't been reported in that park in
over a year.  Fellow officers say that it must be a new gang moving in
on the area.  If that was so, how come no one at the precinct has heard
anything about some new gang?

     This bothered him.

     A couple walking through the park caught the end of the event and
called the police.  From these people, the police was able to get a
description of the four men who did this.  The descriptions were 
slightly vague but Takada recognized them.  One tall bald male with a
tattoo on his forehead, one short male with a eye patch over his right
eye, one average height male with long green hair and glasses, and
another male with short black hair and a large scar going down the left
side of his face.  Just from the first description he knew who the
others were.  The tall bald man with a tattoo was Nagateru "Skull"
Katau.  His nickname was Skull because the tattoo on his forehead was
that of a skull entwined in barb wire.  The other three man were Yuzo
"Patch" Ikeguchi, Yutaka "Specks" Ootsuki and Torao "Scar" Arai.  Skull
was the brains of the group because he was bigger and stronger than the
others.  But mainly it was because Skull could form a thought in his
head, unlike the others.  

     Detective Takada takes one last drag on his cigarette before he
puts it out.  He puts all the papers back into the folder and gets up. 

     (Those four don't belong to any gang,) thinks the Detective to
himself, (What are they doing down in Nerima.  They're usually
terrorizing the west side of town.)  He shakes his head as no answers
seem to appear forthcoming.  Detective Takada grabs his jacket and puts
it on.  (Time to earn my pay.)  He leaves his office.

                              **********

     Ukyo waves goodbye to the last of her lunch rush customers.  She
picks up a large metal brush and proceeds to scrap her grill clean.  As
she scraps the grill she looks around her store and notices that it's
completely empty.  She sighs and puts away the metal brush.  She instead
moves over to the small television she keeps on the counter and decides
to see what's on.  A weather report is on and the weather lady is
talking about how the weather is starting to get colder.  The weather
lady rambles on for a few more minutes about the cold weather before
another reporter appears.  The scene changes and the reporter starts
talking about the an event that happened in the park several weeks ago.

     Ukyo immediately turns the television off.  "It's been a month now
and the media is still talking about it.  When will they stop talking
about it!"

     The door to her shop opens and in walks a lone gentlemen wearing a
beaten brown jacket.  Ukyo puts on her best false smile and greets the
gentlemen.  The man walks up to Ukyo, reaches into his pocket and pulls
out a badge.

     "I'm Detective Takada.  Are you Ukyo Kounji?"

     The false smile disappears from Ukyo's face and is replaced with a
frown.  "What do you want!  I run an honest restaurant here!"

     "Miss Kounji, I'm not here for any of those reasons."

     "Then why are you here?"

     Detective Takada takes up a stool at the counter.  "I'm here to
talk about Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo."

     Ukyo's face goes white.  

     "I take it that you knew them."

     "Yes.......  I did."

     Takada realizes that he must have struck a sensitive nerve.  "Hey,
since I'm here I might as well order a deluxe okonomiyaki.   I've heard
allot of people talk about how good they are and I haven't had lunch
yet."

     Ukyo nods back in response and begins working on his order.

     Detective Takada notices her mood has change for the better.  "So
how did you know them?"

     "I was Ranma's fiancee."  

     Detective Takada is taken back by this remark.  "Did I just hear
you say FIANCEE!?!"

     (That's right, Ranma was brought to the hospital as a girl.)  Ukyo
gives the detective a nervous smile.  "No I didn't say fiancee, I said
friend.  Ranma and Akane were both good friends on mine."  Ukyo puts the
finishing touches onto the okonomiyaki and hands it to the detective.

     Takada looks at the okonomiyaki and then back at Ukyo.  (I could
have sworn she said fiancee.  Then again, why would a girl be engaged to
another girl?)  Takada shrugs off the remark and proceeds to eat his
meal.  He finishes off his meal in a matter of minutes.

     "Wow, you must have been hungry."

     "I was.  Anyway you said you were good friends with Ranma and
Akane."  Ukyo nods her head.  "Then you would know if they had any
enemies."

     "That would be an understatement."

     "What do you mean by that?"

     "Ranma and Akane had many enemies."

     "Why would two young girls have so many enemies?"


     "Many people were in love him them and wanted to marry them.  The
funny part was that one person would love one of them and hate the other
one."

     "Why?"

     Before Ukyo can respond several customers enter the restaurant.

     "I'm sorry detective.  I would love to explain it all to you but I
have a shop to run."

     "Thank you for your time Miss Kounji."  Detective Takada reaches
into his pocket for some money.

     "Don't bother detective.  It's on the house if you promise me
something."

     "What's that Miss. Kounji."

     Ukyo looks the detective dead in the eye.  "Promise me that you'll
make those bastards pay for what they did."

     "I'll do my best."

     "Don't do your best.  Just make sure you do it!"

     Takada is taken back by the sincere look in Ukyo's eyes.  "I
promise."

                              **********

     Detective Takada exits Ukyo's Okonomiyaki shop as the cold autumm
wind picks up.  Takada pulls out a cigarette and lights it up.  He
stands there and takes several drags on his cigarette.

     (I got this funny feeling that she's hiding something from me.)

     Takada takes another drag on his cigarette before he decides to
move on.  As he prepares to leave he hears a noise behind him and turns
around.  There perched on a mailbox several meters away is a crow.

     Takada stands there, cigarette in hand, looking at the bird.  The
crow hops around on top of the mailbox and caws at him a couple of
times.

     "Now what do you want?"

     The crow lets out one mighty caw before it flies off into the sky.

     (Now what was that all about?"

                              **********

     The sun finally sets ending another day in Nerima.  Soon the moon
replaces the sun again in the cloudless sky.  Shortly, one by one, shops
start to close down for the day.  Since her customers left earlier than
normal, Ukyo decides to close down early also.  After a quick cleans up
and decides to take a nice hot bath.  


     After a nice long hot bath she retires to her room.  She enters 
her room with hair wrapped up in a towel and some leftover okonomiyaki
in hand.  She sits down in front of her mirror and turns on her radio. 
Soft music permeates throughout the room as she fixing her hair.  After
putting her hair in several different styles she finally decides to keep
it the same way she always kept it.  When she finishes she gets up and
walks over to her window and opens it.  The cold night air instantly
chills her to the bone but she decides to keep it open anyways.

     She places her arms on the ledge and peers out at the night sky. 
She looks up and marvels at how the stars shine so brightly in the sky. 
A shooting star catches her attention.  Ukyo closes her eyes and makes
a quick wish.

     (Oh shooting star, all I wish for is vengeance for my Ran-chan.)

     Ukyo finishes by saying a little prayer for Ranma and Akane.  When
she opens her eyes she spots a crow perched on the street lamp in front
of her.  The crow opens it's wings and swiftly flies off.

     Ukyo watches as the crow disappears in the night.  She turns her
attention back to where the shooting star was.

     (Please shooting star, please grant my wish.)

                              **********

     The crow glides effortlessly through the chilly night sky.  It
catches an updraft and lifts higher into the dark sky.  Many who would
look up into the sky would never see this bird because of it's dark
color.  Those who did would just shrug it off as just another bird
flying about in the sky.  This little black bird was different though. 
This little black bird was on a mission and it was looking for
something.  After a while it spots it's destination and swoops down into
a poorly lit cemetery.

     The bird lands on a tree branch and looks around the cemetery.  It
spots what it's looking for and swoops out of the tree and lands on one
of the headstones.  The crow lets out a few mighty caws and then stops. 
It stands there on the headstone as if it was waiting for something. 
Not getting a response, it then begins to peck at the headstone and lets
out a few more caws.

     Slowly the ground in front of the headstone begins to move.


     The crow notices this and begins hopping around the headstone and
lets out a few more caws.

     A hand breaks through from underneath the ground.  Soon another
hand breaks through and shortly afterwards the rest of the body breaks
through the earth.  As the figure slowly drags it's ragged form from the
hole in the ground, the crow takes flight once again.  When the figure
finally pulls itself from the hole it curls up into a ball on the nearby
grave.  The figure slowly lifts it's head and reads the name of the
grave it's laying on.  

     "Akane Tendo......"  Seeing this, the figure wraps it's arms around
the headstone and lets out a mighty wail.

     "No it can't be true!  This can't be her grave!  IT JUST CAN'T
BE!!!!!"  The ragged figure breaks down and starts crying.  After a few
minutes the figure stops crying and turns it's head to look at it's
surroundings.  The figure spots the hole it just crawled out of and the
headstone in front of it.  The figure leans in closer to read the name
carved on it.

     "Ranma Saotome....."

                         ***END CHAPTER ONE***