A Horse With No Name, by Jonakhensu and Weebee.

Disclaimer: We don't own Madoka or Ranma. Kyubey offered us a contract to gain the ownership rights, but the fine print was a killer.

Hello. Before we get started, a couple notes. First, this story contains spoilers for the PMMM anime, which should also be noted is the only continuity we're using. Nothing from Kazumi Magica or anywhere else.

Second, a note to Madoka fans who read this fic. Our usual Ranma fanbase doesn't have to read this. I've heard a lot of comparisons between this show and Evangelion. While we're not going to go into most of them, one we're absolutely sure is true is a tendency for fanfics, especially crossover or SI fanfics, to fix everything and make everything super happy with little regard to plausibility or themes. For this fic, a warning and an assurance. The ending is... going to be on about the same level of bitter-sweetness as Madoka's own. The new character will solve some problems, but cause others. Having said that, we aren't the best writers and like sticking humor in odd places, so make of that what you will.

At any rate, enough yammering. On with the show!

Chapterlog 0/1: Squirrel Contracting.

"Three days," Ranma Saotome muttered to himself, taking another random left turn onto a street he didn't recognize in a city that was… south. Honestly he'd feel a little like Ryoga right now, if not for the fact that he was losing himself deliberately. He'd been surprised when his mother and Mr. Tendo had agreed to allow him this two week training trip to clear his head and try to figure out what to do about his many engagement issues, and had been even more surprised when Akane had let him go without an offer to cook him a farewell meal or come along with him… to cook, but even with the uncharacteristically smooth departure, he hadn't managed to figure anything out.

Sometimes he wished he could just punch everyone and get it over with, but for one that wasn't how interpersonal relationships worked, unfortunately, and besides, Cologne could still beat him. Still, he'd been chasing his proverbial tail around in circles and hadn't come up with any better ideas, save maybe walking into the forest one day and just never coming out. He reached out one hand and pushed open a door, barely noticing that he'd gotten out of the sun. That was the obvious solution, of course. All of the issues surrounded him, due to his father's deals or his own stupidity.

If the engagements hadn't been made, or better yet he just didn't exist, no one would be caught up in the tangled mess. Hell, without him to drag all of the weirdos to Nerima, Akane would only have to deal with an idiot kendoist rather than a homicidal bird person or people destroying her home every second week.

He violently shoved open another door, wind blowing on his face impinging on his awareness for only a moment before his thoughts returned to their previous path. It did make sense. He'd gone on this trip to try and find a solution to the problem, and now it seemed so evident. He didn't even have to go back to put it into effect. He raised one foot, stepping onto the narrow ledge that circled the building he was standing on. He could do it… right…. now.

Once again, the wind blew in his face, snapping the black pigtail behind him out to full extension, and he opened his arms wide… only to slam face first into a solid concrete slab. The pain reverberated through his body, suddenly snapping him out of the fugue he'd been in, and he rolled sideways, reaching one hand up to clutch at his bloody nose. "What the hell?" he exclaimed, the sound muffled by his cupped hand.

"A-are you all right?" a concerned female voice asked, and he blinked, turning his head and tracking up a pair of legs, rapidly past things he'd be smacked for admitting he'd seen, to a girl who seemed a few years younger than he was, wearing a school uniform. The bright pink hair was a bit startling, but, living in Nerima, not very.

"I'm fine," he said, wincing at the pain in his nose when he tried to breathe through it. It'd definitely suck if it was broken again.

"It's amazing that you're moving after a fall like that," another girl interjected, coming up behind the first. This one was wearing a bright yellow skirt, a corset, and blonde hair in one of the most impractical styles the pigtailed martial artist had ever seen, which was saying something. "Madoka, you should call the ambulance."

"No, I'm fine, really," Ranma said, pushing himself to his feet and suppressing a wince. "Really don't know why I didn't brace for that fall, but I'll be fine."

"You're… sure?" the yellow dressed girl asked, giving him a strange look.

"Yeah, it's not a problem see?" Ranma replied, jumping in place a couple of times.

"All right, if you're sure…" the blonde replied. "Madoka, we should get going."

"Right," the pink haired one confirmed, the two walking into the building he'd just fallen off of.

"Wait, where's my…" Ranma started, feeling for the straps that had been over his shoulders. "Did I take it off before I... " He shook his head. Why HAD he jumped off of the building, exactly? He'd trained at similar heights, but doing such a thing in the middle of a city was usually a bad idea, since outside of Nerima or similar places it would get you some very strange looks.

He'd been thinking about the fiancee mess back home, and then he'd… decided it would be solved if he wasn't around. A shiver went down his spine. He'd jumped off of the building in order to try to kill himself, but that didn't make any sense. For one, it probably wouldn't solve all of the problems, especially since he'd be dead, and for another, a drop like that couldn't kill him unless he was asleep, and probably not even then, given his father's insistence on sleep-combat training.

That meant… what, there was a ghost or something throwing people off buildings? ...And those two girls had just gone in there. "Shit!" Ranma yelled, dashing towards the entrance. "Don't go in there, it's dangerous!"

Entering the atrium, he saw no sign of either of the girls, and couldn't hear any footsteps in the quiet building, though he did see his pack propped next to the doorway. "Hello?" he called, quickly swinging the pack into place. "Anyone there?" Ranma tried again, walking forward and up the staircase in the middle of the room. He listened carefully, even focussing on the danger sense that informed him of sneak attacks in hopes he might be able to pick up their presence, only to stop on a landing that lead to a second staircase, as something felt strange.

"What?" he asked, squinting at empty air. To his extra senses, it was like there was something there, but visually there was nothing. Waving his hand through the space with no effect, he concentrated a small amount of energy into his hand, and a circular portal abruptly sprang open. "Gah!" he yelped, almost falling down the stairs before steadying himself.

"This… is probably a bad idea," he muttered, squinting into the portal, but unable to see what was beyond. Well, he'd come this far and those girls were still missing. Firming his resolve, he stepped forward and through the portal, only to have the world apparently try and turn upside down. He was blinded by a veritable explosion of random color before his eyes started to make sense of things.

"Crap, did I wander into Kodachi's garden again?" he said, baffled, before hearing what sounded like gunfire from further ahead. Hurrying up the stairs towards the sound, he passed numerous mustachioed cotton balls growing out of butterflies that were passing roses around. Since they were leaving him alone, he decided to do the same as he continued towards the landing. Once he reached the landing, flying multi-eyed icecream cones, also with mustaches, charged towards him. "Okay, never mind Kodachi's garden, did I eat Akane's cooking first?"

As one of the smaller ice-cream-cone… eye… things passed him, it seemed to explode into vines that wrapped themselves around his arm. Irritably, he yanked pulling the thing along for a couple of meters before the vines tore free. He picked up speed, running through several open doors and thankful for the gunfire as there were a couple of false paths and several turns.

The ice-cream cone things kept trying to catch him, and even the butterfly puff balls tried to get in his way a few times, but rapid dodging kept him clear until one flew directly at his face. He brought up an arm to try and bat it away, but the hand seemed to pass right through it, right up until it exploded into another mass of vines and caught his arm.

Tearing free again, he frowned. These things weren't really a threat, but they were slowing him down and he was pretty sure the gunfire didn't bode well for particularly anything. "If chi helped me open this thing, then…" He muttered, concentrating and producing a small confidence fueled battle aura. When he tried to knock one of the butterfly-things away this time, it worked.

Grinning, he started moving straight forward and knocking anything that got in his way aside. It made him feel a bit like Ryoga, actually, just plowing through. Running through several open doors, he emerged into a large, domed room. He finally spotted the pink haired girl standing just past the door and looking up at the blonde, who was leaping through the air, the gunfire coming from rifles that she appeared to be summoning into existence, firing, and then dropping. "What in the…" Ranma muttered, walking up to the girl at the door.

The girl yelped like a scared puppy, turning towards him to reveal that she was holding a small animal in her arms that he hadn't seen before. It looked sort of like a ca… ca... squirrel, with unusually long ears coming out of more normally sized triangular ones and a red teardrop outline on its back.

"How did you get in here?" The voice was not the girl's, and the creature was studying him intently.

"That's a really good question," Ranma replied, studying the acrobatic gunslinger. "How is she doing that?"

"She's a magical girl, it's what she does," the sourceless voice said again. "Now, how did you get in here?"

"The door," Ranma snarked casually, noting the little animal's tail flipping in irritation. "Since when are magical girls and mind-talking animal mascots real?" He looked around. "Though this place'd make a lot more sense if it came outta a shojo manga."

"It's hard to explain, but you should really…" the pink haired girl started, before the blonde slipped up, a tendril of dark energy from the thing she was fighting wrapping around her and pulling her higher into the air.

Ranma cursed under his breath, cupping his hands and concentrating. A ball of blue energy sprang to life between his palms, but was tinged green at the edges. "Moko Takabisha!" he yelled, and the ball flew into the air, only to waver and pop out of existence seconds later.

"You're a life force user," the little animal's voice interjected. "Witches can absorb life force. You won't be very effective in here."

Ranma didn't listen, leaping up himself as the blonde girl struggled,closing his hands around the vine that held her and tugged. As he did so, however, his stomach turned, and he felt something go wrong. The aura that he'd been keeping around his hands since he'd first figured out that it worked was rapidly turning from blue to green, and as he let go of the vine as if it were on fire, wisps of black began appearing at the edges. Pulling the power back into his body, his stomach flipped again, and he completely failed to control his landing on the floor below.

"Wh… what?" he gasped, as a crushing weight seemed to descend. The little squirrel thing had warned him, he should have listened, but he always charged in without thinking, and a lot of the time got pummeled for it. Why was he such a… No! He hauled himself to his knees as the magical girl landed next to him.

"Quickly, get out of here!" she commanded.

"This thing ain't gunna beat me, no matter how much it screws with my head!" Ranma growled back. He could feel it, chi that represented the deepest depression and despair circling through his body, but it'd been artificially generated. He wasn't nearly as pathetic as Ryoga. Still, he knew what to do with depression chi. "Bet'cha can't swallow this!" he yelled, pointing his hands up into the air. "Perfect Shi Shi Hokodan!"

He honestly hadn't been sure if the depression had been deep enough, but the green power exploded from his body and slammed into the creature, lifting it into the roof. Several cracks ran through the dome, before the blast dissipated. Wait, that wasn't right, was it? It was supposed to come back… "Aw shit…" There was a flash of green and roiling black, before he was engulfed in yellow and flying through the air. When the world stopped spinning, he was laying on the ground next to the pink haired girl, and there was a mass of vines at least eight feet wide where he and the magical girl had been.

"Mami!" the pink haired girl screamed, falling to her knees beside him.

"What?" He shook his head.

"You fed a witch pure despair energy, what did you think would happen?" the squirrel-thing asked rhetorically.

"Kyubey, is Mami…" the pink haired girl started.

"I've lost all contact with her; she's most likely dead," Kyubey replied. "Madoka, with how much energy that witch got she'll be distracted dealing with it for a few minutes, but I need to make a contract with you or the witch is going to destroy us."

"A contract?" the girl, Madoka, asked. "But Mami just… I…." She curled in on herself. "I…." she stammered.

"Madoka!" Kyubey said, urgently, but the girl didn't move.

"This contract thing," Ranma started, slowly. "It would let her kill that thing?" He gestured at the mass of vines.

"Yes, if she contracts with me she can become a magical girl and save us," Kyubey replied. "But she has to-"

"Can I do it?"

The animal looked at him, askance. "They're called 'magical girls' for a reason," it said slowly. "Only females can contract."

"Right," Ranma said, reaching backwards and fumbling at a side pouch of his backpack. Producing a half-crushed small plastic bottle, he opened it and dumped it over his head, triggering his Jusenkyo curse. "Contract. Now."

For the first time the pigtailed martial artist had seen, Kyubey's mouth opened in shock. "How…" it asked, looking over the red haired girl that had replaced the male martial artist. Composing himself, he nodded. "Yes, I can contract with you, I think. You… need to make one wish. Any wish at all."

"A wish, huh?" Ranma asked, looking between the still huddling Madoka and the vines, from which she thought she could see a small trickle of blood exiting. Normally, an offer for a wish would either get the automatic 'A cure to my curse' response or her running the other way, depending on how dubious it seemed, but she was pretty sure curing the curse wouldn't be viable in this case, and she was kind of in a hurry, especially since she saw the vines begin to move.

Taking a breath, she spoke. "I wish I had the power to make sure this," she gestured at the base of the vines, "didn't happen again and that no one from Nerima would get involved."

Kyubey nodded. "The contract has been formed." His long ears plunged forward, and Ranma had to resist the urge to deflect them as they stabbed into her chest, a fiery sensation expanding out from where they contacted, before pulling back in with a sudden sense of dislocation. She fell backwards, her hands moving to her chest where something solid formed between them.

"That was different," she muttered, holding up the object that had formed, and blinking at a small, blue, egg-shaped gem in a gold setting, a curved teardrop in a ring affixed to the top.

"Hurry! Concentrate on your soul gem to transform!" Kyubey's insistent voice penetrated her study of the object. "You'll know what to do!"

Ranma didn't respond verbally, leaping to her feet and holding the gem between both hands as its blue glow increased. A flash of light later, she found her right hand grasped around a tonfa, and her left stretched forward, several of the witch's roots smashing into an invisible barrier in front of her.

"Tonfa, huh?" she asked, flipping the weapon once in her hand. Dismissing the barrier, she leapt at the vines, and the witch hiding behind them. Smashing through the vines proved easy enough, and fortunately the creature seemed incapable of growing them back nearly as fast as it had created them in the first place.

When she caught sight of the witch itself, it was obvious that it had seen better days, its body almost squished. She frowned as she leapt from one vine to the next. She couldn't hit it with an Amaguriken, that attack tended to bleed a lot of chi, but hopefully normal strikes would do. Bringing her right arm down in an overhand smash, the tonfa held outward, the wooden weapon extended, smashing the witch across its top surface.

"Geez, this thing's a regular swiss army knife, ain't it?" Ranma asked, retracting the tonfa and swinging her arm around the other way, only to extend it again, magnifying her striking force. Given the witch's weakened state, it only took a couple more strikes before it folded in on itself, vanishing, a black ball on a spindle dropping from it.

Ranma grabbed the object, unsure if it was important, before leaping clear of the vine she'd been standing on as it disintegrated, landing next to Kyubey and the still huddling Madoka. She almost wasn't surprised when the colorful landscape around them began to vanish to reveal a balcony, the red glare of sunlight filtering in.

"So what now?" she asked, uncertain. Hearing Madoka's sniffling, she knelt down in front of her. "Are you… no, that's a stupid question…" She reached out a hand tentatively and rested it on the younger girl's shoulder, surprised when the hand was suddenly grabbed tightly, and Madoka threw herself into her chest. "H-hey now, it's okay, I mean…" Ranma said, lamely.

"Mami's dead, and… and you had to contract to save me, and…" the pink haired girl babbled.

"Mami Tomoe is dead?" Ranma looked up to see a girl with long black hair, wearing a school uniform, step out of a shadowed alcove. "I didn't think she could be taken down by a witch this weak."

"Homura?" Madoka asked, looking nervously over Ranma's shoulder.

"Did you make a contract?" the black haired girl asked coldly.

"I did," Ranma replied.

"But Madoka didn't. Good." Homura tilted her head to the side slightly. "As for you, I'm sorry to hear that."

"Yeah, well punching it didn't work," Ranma replied, and then gulped. "It… got that Mami girl killed."

Homura raised an eyebrow. "You punched it?"

Ranma fidgeted. "Yeah."

"That explains a lot," Homura sighed. "It's too bad you have so little common sense."

Ranma clenched her teeth, but couldn't respond. The black haired girl had a point, after all.

"You shouldn't say that," Madoka broke in. "She tried really hard, and saved me from the witch when I couldn't do anything."

Homura didn't bother replying, turning and walking back into the darkness from which she'd come, her hair blowing in the breeze.

The area descended into an uncomfortable silence for the next few moments, until Ranma broke it. "So, um, Madoka, can I help you get home, or…"

"You should probably purify your soul gem and change back first," Kyubey said.

Ranma blinked. "Purify it?"

"Using magic taints your soul gem," Kyubey explained. "You can use grief seeds, like the one you picked up after destroying the witch, to purify it."

"Oh, uh…" Ranma patted herself down, and for the first time took note of what she was wearing. It wasn't as bad as she'd expected when she'd heard the words 'magical girl,' or seen Mami for that matter, but still wasn't great.

Her red chinese shirt had only changed slightly, the cut altered to fit her female form more closely and the ties up the front vanishing. The sleeves were slightly shorter, only going halfway down her upper arms, but her bracers had extended almost to the elbow and were a deeper red. The front and back of the shirt now fell downward into loose flaps of fabric over black slacks, with black boots reaching half way up her calves.

"At your throat," the small animal said, somehow managing to give off the impression that he thought she was an idiot without changing expression.

"Oh," Ranma muttered, feeling her throat, where there was a cloth choker attached to her shirt, the hard mass of the gem at its front.

"If you press a grief seed to it, either while transformed or in your normal form, it will purify it. If the grief seed fills, give it to me for disposal."Kyubey spoke slowly, and Ranma's eyebrow twitched.

"And how do I get outta this thing?" she asked, irritably.

"You just have to will yourself out of it," Kyubey said. "You can also change your soul gem into a ring to keep better track of it."

"Thanks… I think," Ranma said, closing her eyes. Her magical girl outfit vanished in favor of regular clothes a moment later, though something seemed a bit off. Opening her eyes again, she looked down and blinked. "Why am I wearing her school uniform shirt?" she asked, tugging at the collar.

"I have no idea," Kyubey responded, surprising Ranma, who had expected another 'obvious' answer.

"You don't know?" the redhead asked, nervously. She wasn't wearing the uniform's ridiculously short skirt, thank goodness, wearing a pair of tan slacks instead, but it was still pretty disconcerting, especially since her wallet had been in her pants' pocket.

Kyubey took up a pensive position. "It could have something to do with your wish," he offered.

"What about wishing to be able to defeat monsters would switch my clothes?" Ranma demanded.

"That isn't what you wished for," Kyubey corrected. "You wished to be able to stop any more deaths like Mami Tomoe's, and to stop people from Nerima from fighting witches, for some reason."

"Great, more crap to figure out," Ranma complained. Shrugging, she willed her soul gem into its ring form on her left middle finger. Looking at it, she saw a blue ring and teardrop mark on the fingernail. "Madoka," she said, turning to the girl who was still sitting on the floor, staring into her lap. "My offer's still open, you want help getting home?"

"No, I'll be fine," the girl said, quietly.

"You're sure?" Ranma asked.

"I'll make sure she gets home safely," Kyubey said, hopping onto the younger girl's shoulder as she turned and walked into the building.

HR.

"God damned stupid… gah!" Ranma yelled, partaking in one of Akane and Ryoga's favored activities and beating the crap out of something. Fortunately, the thing in question was a large tree and nothing terribly breakable, or at least important, but she was making an appreciable dent in the trunk. "Of course this happened, why wouldn't it? 'They're called magical girls for a reason,'" she punched the tree again, and slumped down to the base.

"So, great," she growled. "I'm locked… again, my backpack vanished into nowhere when I did the transformation thing, my wallet's got completely different I.D. in it, including a student card for Mitakihara Middle School, and I've got a grand total of 2000 yen." She had the good sense not to ask if it could get any worse, but reality didn't seem to care as a ringing sound came from one of her pants' pockets. Reaching in and pulling out a bright red cell phone with a green flower on the back, she squinted at it for a moment, finding the talk button.

"Hello?" she asked, cautiously.

"Rei? Are you all right?" a woman's voice came across the line, sounding distinctly worried. "You missed dinner and didn't call. Did anything happen?"

"Erm… who's Rei?" Ranma asked. "Is this her phone?"

"Rei, are you trying to make a joke?" the voice on the other side of the phone demanded, sounding slightly less worried and a little angry. "You know those types of jokes aren't funny."

"I don't know what you're talkin about," Ranma insisted. "I just found this phone in my pocket. I don't know who this Rei is."

"Oh no… did you lose your memory again?" the woman asked. "Where are you? I'll come pick you up."

"Look, if ya want the phone back, I can come…" Ranma started.

"Forget about the phone!" the woman yelled. "Where are you?"

"A couple kilometers south of Mitakihara city limits, but I…"

"Near the highway?" Ranma was getting tired of being interrupted.

"Look, who are you, anyways?" the redhead finally asked.

"I'm your mother," the woman said, her previous loud outburst giving way to a choked strain that the pigtailed martial artist knew well as one of her greatest enemies, a crying girl.

"Ah… look," she said, trying to figure out what to say. "I'm not this Rei person you think I am."

"You're four foot eleven inches, you've got bright red hair and blue eyes, right? Please, just wait at the side of the highway for me."

"Fine, I'll wait for you," Ranma sighed. It was unlikely that some random crazy woman could incapacitate her, anyways, and something strange had happened to give her this Rei's phone.

"Thank goodness," the woman said, and the phone went dead.

"Squirrel, what'd you do?" Ranma muttered, putting the cell phone away. Retrieving her wallet, which was not her wallet, she pulled out the student card, studying the picture of her own face, next to a set of details. "Rei Asuka, 9th grade, age 17."

"Grade 9?" she asked, frowning down at the card. "Least they got the age right."

Pulling the phone out again, she dialed a number quickly and waited for someone to pick up on the other end. "Hello?" A pleasant female voice said, after three rings.

"Kasumi," Ranma sighed in relief. "It's me, is Akane there?"

"Me?" Kasumi returned. "I'm sorry miss, but I don't recognize your voice."

The redhead's stomach clenched. "It's Ranma. Y'know, Ranma Saotome?"

"Saotome? Oh my, you don't sound very much like a boy…" there was silence for a few moments. "That was rude, I'm sorry. Is this Mr. Saotome's son?"

"Yeah…" Ranma said, as she began to head towards the road. "You… haven't met me before, have you?"

"No, I'm afraid not, though I'm sure Mr. Saotome will be happy to know you contacted us," Kasumi chirped happily. "He's been looking for you."

Ranma grunted noncommittally. "Yeah, thanks."

"Is something wrong?" Kasumi asked.

"No, nothing," Ranma replied, pressing the end call button and letting her arm fall to her side. "Damn it, squirrel." She spent the next ten minutes thinking, but nothing really leapt out at her. The squirrel had said that her wish might have had something to do with her change of clothes, and in that case it probably had something to do with the cellphone and different identification, too, though she had no idea what.

"I wish I had the power to make sure this didn't happen again and that no one from Nerima would get involved," she repeated. She was interrupted as a compact car slid to a stop on the shoulder of the highway, and a slim brown haired woman sprang out of the driver's seat.

"Rei, thank goodness you're all right," the woman said, relieved, grabbing Ranma in a hug. For her part, the martial artist froze. True, the woman was substantially older, and less extremely built than Shampoo, but a glomp was a glomp. Pushing her back slightly, the woman began inspecting her, running one hand through her hair as though checking for head injuries.

"Hey, ya mind!" Ranma snapped, batting her hands away.

"Right," the woman said, stepping back. "You… really don't recognize me?"

Ranma scratched the back of her neck. "No, sorry."

"No…" the older woman said, reaching one hand up to wipe at her eyes. "They told me they didn't know what had caused it, so it could happen again, but we were…."

"Woah, slow down a bit," Ranma interrupted. "What happened? I get there's somethin' weird going on, but I'm not entirely sure what." She was pretty sure mentioning a magical mutant squirrel and Kodachi's garden would be a bad idea, but things were strange either way.

"Do you remember anything? Do you know your name?" the woman asked, ignoring the question.

"I'm Ranma Saotome," the redhead replied. "Real sorry 'bout this."

HR.

"So… you found me wanderin' around with no idea who I was?" Ranma asked, climbing out of the car in a parking garage.

The older woman nodded. "An old couple found you. I was one of the first responders when they called an ambulance, since you were pretty out of it."

"Yeah I guess, if I didn't even remember my own name," Ranma agreed. "But that doesn't really match with what I remember of the last two years."

"Well, um," the older woman said, sounding reluctant, "what you remember involves Chinese Amazons and multiple engagements. It's… a little extraordinary."

"You think I'm nuts," Ranma said, flatly.

"I just… think maybe we should go and see your doctor tomorrow, that's all," the older woman said, attempting to be diplomatic.

"I'd be offended," Ranma replied, "But about half the time I wonder if I'm nuts too."

HR.

"Are you done?" the red haired girl asked, tapping the haft of her spear against her shoulder.

"You only need to be patient a little longer," Kyubey replied, walking at her feet. "Could you do me a favor and throw your spear at that building?"

"Whatever you say," the girl responded, sticking a new piece of pocky in her mouth and hefting the weapon. Normally she prefered keeping it in her hands, but if this would get the damned bunnycat to stop bugging her, she would do it. Pulling her arm back, she let the spear fly, and had to step aside a moment later as the tip hit empty air and deflected back towards her. "What the heck was that?" she demanded.

"Use a more powerful attack," Kyubey ordered.

"Oh, and who's gunna purify my soul gem if I do, you?" the girl snorted.

"You aren't very cooperative, Kyoko Sakura," Kyubey complained.

"I only came out here with you because you said one of the better areas has lost its guardian," the girl replied. "I helped, so tell me who and where, already. Riding the train back home' this late's not going to be fun."

"Fine," the small animal sighed. "You've earned that, I suppose. Mami Tomoe has fallen."

"W… what?" Kyoko asked. "How? She could kick some serious ass, but… that means Mitakihara's free?"

"Not entirely free," Kyubey countered. "There's one magical girl there I'm not too sure about, but she will probably leave you alone, and of course the new one Mami Tomoe died to save."

"So that's how she bought it, huh?" Kyoko tilted her head to the side a bit. "I guess I could pay a visit."

"Good," Kyubey nodded. "I'm glad I could help you."

The girl turned and began walking off, before turning back. "You coming?"

"I'll find you later," the white-furred animal responded, gazing across the roofs of the Nerima district of Tokyo.

HR.

"There's nothing wrong with her," a grey haired man in a white doctor's coat said, sitting across from a brown haired woman in a small office. "Her EEG is normal. We found evidence of old breaks in her bones that weren't there in her last X-rays, but no new injury that would explain this, just like last time."

"You found… old breaks? How old?" the woman asked.

"That's the strange thing, erm, one of the strange things," he fiddled with some papers on his desk. Several of them predate x-rays we've taken that don't show their existence, and her muscle density has increased since last time we checked, substantially."

"I thought you said it was abnormally high before?" the woman asked.

"It was," the doctor nodded. "Now, it's… impossible."

"Wonderful," the woman rubbed her forehead. "Now I'm sort of wondering if what she told me yesterday was actually true."

"What did she tell you?" the doctor asked.

"She said she remembers her name, it's Ranma Saotome, and that she's a martial artist. She… seemed to think that explained her strength and other abilities."

"I… see," the doctor nodded again. "That is… dubious."

"I'm going to track down the name, but the other details of the story seemed far fetched as well," the brown haired woman agreed.

"This… may not be a medical issue," the doctor offered. "It's happened twice and we haven't been able to find any physical signs, at least any that made sense. Rei could be suffering from some sort of psychological illness. That still doesn't explain the suddenly appearing old wounds, though, and given her other affliction changing at the same time..." He tossed up his hands. "Given this patient, it could be a magical demon for all we know."

"So… you have no idea," the woman summed up.

The doctor nodded, somewhat shamefaced. "I might suggest a second opinion from a psychiatric specialist."

"Or a priest," the woman joked.

"Or that, yes," the doctor agreed.

HR.

"So, they think I'm nuts too," Ranma summed up, as she and the woman who claimed to be her mother walked out of the hospital.

"Or possessed," she nodded. "You've always been a bit of a troublesome case, but Dr. Shinbo seemed a bit more lost than usual this time."

"I can't believe they've had records of my curse and stuff for over a year and haven't tried to carve me up or somethin' by now," Ranma replied.

"It's pretty rare for that to happen to humans," the older woman said with a sort of half smile. "The last one screamed too much."

"You... really think that's funny," Ranma said, shaking her head.

"Rei would've laughed," the older woman said, and then looked away as the two walked across a bridge over a busy street. "Took her a while to get used to my sense of humor before, though."

"So, you believe I'm not her?" Ranma asked.

"I'm not really sure what to believe," the brown haired woman sighed. "But it's easier to treat you like a different person when you obviously don't want to be treated like her."

"Geez," Ranma pulled her pigtail self-consciously, "I'm sor…" she stopped dead as her vision blurred. A black haired girl leapt into the air and then seemed to vanish, appearing ten feet away from where she'd started and turned the other direction. "Homura?" she asked, recognizing the face from the day before. Abruptly, an unusually large ice skate clad girl's foot smashed down where she'd previously been. The girl reached over with her right hand, pulling a large automatic weapon out from behind the shield on her left arm, and started firing it into the air.

When the weapon's magazine clicked on empty, Homura discarded it and teleported again, the image tilting crazily to follow her. When she came back into view, she was holding a large rocket launcher. Ranma's eyes widened as the girl aimed it right at her and pulled the trigger.

"Rei! What are you doing?!" She abruptly came back to reality, finding that she was in mid-air, and falling towards the street.

"Crap," she muttered, hitting the ground as she heard several sets of screeching tires, rolling forward into a leap that carried her clear of the road and to the sidewalk nearby.

"Rei!" an angry voice yelled from the overpass she'd just leapt from, and she saw the woman who claimed to be her mother running along it towards her. She was about to move towards her, when the reverberating sound of a clock chime struck. She looked around for the clock tower, but didn't see one. "What do you think you were doing?" the older woman asked, as she reached Ranma and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"I… saw something," the pigtailed martial artist explained. "It was… weird." She jolted as another chime struck, and this time she was pretty sure she could tell what direction it was coming from. ""Is there a clock tower around here?"

"No," the older woman snapped. "Rei, you're scaring me."

"It's nothing," Ranma said, shaking her head and doing her best to ignore the next chime.

"Nothing," the other shook her head. "You leapt into the middle of the street! From thirty feet up!"

"I've been jumpin' off stuff a lot lately," Ranma muttered.

"What?" the older woman demanded.

"Nothing," Ranma denied quickly as she heard another chime. There was no way she was going to tell someone as high strung as her supposed mother about taking a header from fifty feet up.

"Let's… just go," the older woman seemed to give up for the moment.

"So, what do we do now?" Ranma asked after a few moments of silence save the chiming sounds that only she could hear. Were they getting faster?

"I'll be making that psychologist's appointment," the woman resolved, "Other than that, I don't suppose you remember any of your school work?"

"I went to high school and… wasn't failing too bad," Ranma admitted.

"A high school in Nerima," the other countered. "I've heard stories about that place."

Ranma shrugged. "The teachers ain't that bad… except for Ms. Hinako on a sugar high, or that time Principal Kuno forced 'em all to dress in animal costumes and ambush us. Mr. Higurashi couldn't hold a piece of chalk right for a week."

The older woman twitched. "I'm.. really hoping you're just making that up, but it matches what I've heard."

"Yeah," Ranma moved one hand up to her temple. Yes, the chimes were getting faster. Fortunately they were quiet enough that she could hear other things past them, but by this point they were near constant, and it was getting… "It stopped."

Her walking companion gave her an odd look. "What stopped?"

"Hehehe, nothing, Ms. Asuka," Ranma laughed nervously. "Wanna go get some ice-cream?"

The other considered for a moment. "I haven't failed to notice your obvious subject change, but I'm hungry."

HR.

"Madoka." The pink haired girl stopped, looking back down the street to see Homura walking towards her. "I wanted to speak to you."

"H-Homura," Madoka replied. "What did you want to talk about?"

"I wanted to talk to you about what happened yesterday," the black haired girl said, walking to the edge of the sidewalk and looking over the small steel barrier at the city beyond.

"Mami…" Madoka choked, joining the other girl at the rail. Homura didn't say anything, waiting. "That boy tried to help, he didn't know what was going on…" Madoka started.

Homura blinked. "Boy?"

"Yeah," Madoka replied. "It was so strange. First he jumped off the building, but wasn't badly hurt, then he followed us into the labyrinth and helped Mami fight the witch."

"Madoka, the only people in that labyrinth were you, Mami Tomoe, Kyubey, and Miss Asuka, the girl who contracted."

"Asuka?" Madoka shook her head. "The one who contracted was the boy." She was immediately met by Homura's incredulous look, though it was difficult to see on her normally impassive face. "I know it's strange, but he turned into a girl when Kyubey explained that he could only make contracts with girls."

Homura's incredulity got deeper. "I don't want to doubt your word, Madoka, but I saw the four of you enter the labyrinth, and Asuka-san was female when she entered. The person who jumped from the top of the building was a woman, and Mami caught her with her ribbons."

"But I saw…" Madoka objected, quietly.

"You remember things differently from how Madoka and I do?" Homura turned to see Kyubey casually walking along the top of the barrier.

"So you saw a boy turn into a girl as well?" Homura asked flatly, her eyes narrowing at the white-furred creature.

"I did," he nodded. "It was fascinating; I wonder how you would shift so much mass at once without any detectable magic use?"

"What game are you trying to play, Incubator?" the black haired girl demanded.

Kyubey flicked his tail, wrapping it around his side. "No game."

"This hasn't happened before," Homura spoke mostly to herself. "Do you know what this boy's wish was?"

"I-I wasn't really able to hear it," Madoka admitted, and Homura turned her gaze to Kyubey.

"The main focus of her wish was to gain the power to fight witches," he responded.

"I see." Homura's eyes narrowed further before she turned, starting to walk away.

"Wait," Madoka interrupted. "If you were watching, why didn't you come and help Mami?"

"She shouldn't have had a problem defeating that witch, as I said," Homura answered. "I didn't want to give her the impression that I was going to work with her normally."

"Why?" Madoka demanded.

"Mami Tomoe lets her emotions dictate her actions far too much," Homura responded. "Really, this was the best outcome she could hope for."

"When you talked to me that night," Madoka asked, her voice quavering. "Was… this what you meant?"

"Yes," Homura said shortly before walking off, leaving Madoka to cry over the barrier.

HR.

"I suppose I didn't tell you how to find witches, so this is to be expected," a voice cut through Ranma's thoughts as she lay in the bed in Rei's room at Ms. Asuka's apartment, staring at the ceiling and fidgeting with her soul gem ring.

"So you finally showed up again, huh squirrel?" the pigtailed martial artist asked.

"I'm called Kyubey," the creature in question replied. "I came here to teach you how to do your job as a magical girl."

"Might as well do something," Ranma sat up. "All Ms. Asuka's got planned for me tomorrow's school."

"Humans tend to value that, don't you?" Kyubey asked.

"Some of us," Ranma replied. "Weren't you gunna teach me how to find witches?"

"Correct," Kyubey leapt down from the window ledge he'd previously been sitting on. "You should be able to find a witch using your soul gem. All we need to do is go out and walk around until it begins to glow."

"That easy, huh?" Ranma asked, sarcastically. "Any idea where we're going?"

"Mami always used to check places where human despair tends to be at its highest," the animal explained. "Places where people get into fights, commit suicide, hospitals."

"Hospitals," Ranma muttered, before shaking her head. "Definately not gunna feel guilty about killin' these things."

"Well?" Kyubey asked. "Will you go?"

"Yeah, yeah," Ranma waved her hand. "Just lemme get dressed first."

HR.

"Would you just die already?!" Ranma yelled, bringing her extended tonfa around for another strike, sending the creature, which looked vaguely like a spinning top strapped to an anemone flying into a wall. It rebounded off of it and back at her, but crashed against her invisible barrier, expending its force, though annoyingly it refused to fall to the ground, just floating in place.

"Do these things ever feel like actually obeying gravity?" the irritated redhead demanded, lowering the barrier and swinging again.

"Very rarely," Kyubey contributed from where he was standing off to one side.

"Fine, then how about this?" Ranma yelled, clenching one hand over the other around the tonfa's grip and bringing it down as hard as she could. The creature she was fighting promptly began to break apart, its labyrinth fading as well.

"Huh," Ranma blinked, looking around. "No grief seed?"

"This was just a familiar actually," Kyubey explained. "It broke away from its parent witch."

"I'm guessing something bad woulda happened if I'd let it run around?" Ranma asked.

"It would have killed humans until it gained enough power to become a witch itself," Kyubey nodded.

Ranma winced. "Okay, so kill 'em still, got it."

Kyubey nodded again. "Should we go on?" Ranma deactivated her transformation, squinting at her soul gem.

"Thought you said this thing darkens as I use power?" she asked.

"It does," Kyubey confirmed. "Though aside from your barrier, you've been mostly using muscle and your weapon."

"Yeah, I-" Ranma started, before the scene shifted. Once again, Homura was visible, running around a forest of large, vertical spikes. "Why do I keep seeing her?" Ranma mumbled, as the girl removed a grenade from behind her shield, pitching it in her direction. Seconds after this, she saw several muzzle flashes from off to one side, and her vision spun to face them.

She supposed the girl had teleported again, but apparently the source of the spikes had somehow predicted this, as one of them slammed itself through one of her legs. She fell forward, several more spikes missing her by inches, before she flickered for a fraction of a second, and there were abruptly at least six pipe bombs in mid-air. The redhead returned to the present with a jolt as the weapons went off.

"Who do you keep seeing?" Kyubey asked, curiously. Ranma only responded by scooping him into her arms and beginning to run. "Where are we going?"

"Not sure," the pigtailed martial artist responded as the first chime went off, abruptly changing direction to follow it. "Gunna find out soon, though."

HR.

"Now!" Homura spun on one heel as a voice came from behind her, catching sight of a flash of red hair, a spike stopping inches from the other girl's body.

"You," she said, simply.

"Me," the other girl replied with an irritating smirk, as several more spikes slammed against an invisible barrier that surrounded the two. "This thing's pretty mean, huh?"

"I can handle it," Homura replied, flatly.

"Not without losing a leg, you can't," the other girl shot back.

"Hmm, if you say so," Homura nodded.

The redhead blinked. "Usually I get a lot more yellin' than that. Still…" She cracked her knuckles. "I'm gunna let down the shield, get ready."

Homura just grunted, not moving. After a few seconds of this the other girl apparently decided that this was all the preparing she was going to do, and dashed forward, leaping into the air at the witch in the center of the maze, a shadowy mass of spikes with hands coming out of it.

"Why do these things have to look so damned weird?" the redhead complained, striking the witch, though it threw itself backwards with the blow, catching itself on one of the projections that came from the ground and bringing itself back around to attack. Its opponent slid out of its way, walking up the spikes on its body as though they were a ladder and backflipping off before the tonfa she held in her right hand rapidly extended outward, hitting the witch with its end.

Casually, Homura raised her right hand, a pistol appearing in it, and fired several shots past the other magical girl, sending one of the witch's familiars falling to the ground. "If all you can do is fancy acrobatics and hitting it with a stick, I doubt you can handle this witch," she called.

"You were deliberately letting me fight it alone?" the redhead asked, her expression oddly mixed. "Fine, you wanna see something impressive?" Closing her eyes for a moment, the girl's body was surrounded by a blueish aura, the soul gem at her neck shining brightly, and she exploded into motion so quickly that she was difficult for the naked eye to keep track of. There were several loud cracks in rapid succession, and the witch began to wobble in place, hit back and forth so quickly that it couldn't actually go anywhere.

In order to deliver the final blow, the girl stood on top of the witch's body and her tonfa began to glow the same color as the rest of her body, before she drove it downward, right through her opponent. "What'dya think of that?" she panted, hitting the ground in a three point landing as the labyrinth faded.

Homura didn't look impressed. "Have you looked at your soul gem?"

The redhead blinked, willing her gem to come free of its place, and then blinked harder when she caught a look at it. Its bright blue glow had almost completely faded, the inner surface covered in roiling black energy with only a few glimmers of blue remaining. "That should have been using chi," she said, confused. Her eyes widened as Homura shoved a grief seed into her field of vision.

"You should use this before it gets any worse," the other girl ordered.

The redhead shook her head. "I've already got one," she explained, returning to her normal clothing and removing the item from her pocket. Holding it against her soul gem, a black cloud seemed to flow from one to the other, but didn't quite remove all of the darkness from the gem. "Huh?" she asked, looking at the item strangely.

"The grief seed is filled to capacity," Homura explained.

"I'll take that," Kyubey chipped in, leaping to the ground between the two. The redhead shrugged, tossing the blackened object to the creature, who caught it in the teardrop shaped hole that opened on his back.

"You didn't tell her much, did you Incubator?" Homura asked.

Kyubey looked almost offended. "I told her what she needed to know."

"You and I have very different opinions on what she needs to know," the black haired girl scowled.

"I'm standin' right here, you know," the redhead said, irritably.

"Has he told you what happens when your soul gem is completely corrupted? Or what it really is?" Homura demanded.

"I've been wondering, Homura Akemi, where exactly do you get your information?" Kyubey replied. "I don't even recall contracting with you, and contracting with an Incubator is the only way to become a magical girl. Personally, I would take the word of an expert on the subject over a complete unknown quantity."

The redhead shrugged. "Experts on somethin' they're tryin' to recruit you into usually have something to hide," she admitted. "I'm Ranma Saotome," she extended a hand.

"That again," Homura frowned. "Very unusual."

"So what's this thing about soul gems and corruption?" Ranma prompted, dropping her hand after it became evident that Homura wasn't going to take it.

"If your soul gem becomes too corrupt, you'll lose your ability to perform as a magical girl," Kyubey stated.

"Because you'll become a witch, you mean," Homura interjected.

"That isn't what I said at all," the small animal objected.

"But is it true?" Ranma demanded, having been on the receiving end of that dodge from Nabiki.

Kyubey nodded. "It is true, yes."

Ranma growled. "And you didn't think telling me this was a good idea?!"

"We were slightly starved for time," Kyubey responded, reasonably. "If either you or Madoka hadn't contracted, the witch would have killed you."

"I guess you've got a point," the redhead admitted reluctantly. "Anything else you haven't told me about?"

Kyubey made a bit of a show out of thinking, putting one paw up to his chin. "Well, some humans react badly when told that their soul is housed inside of their soul gem in order to keep them safe when in combat with a witch," he offered.

"Y… you told her about that?" Homura stuttered.

"Well of course," Kyubey responded, flicking his tail around his body. "I only wish to keep my relationship with you girls going as smoothly as possible."

"Yeah, well try not to forget to mention anything that important again," Ranma demanded, looking at her soul gem in a cross of horror and curiosity.

"I'll do what I can," the white-furred creature nodded.

"You believe him?" Homura asked, angrily.

"Well, I've had people forget to mention some pretty important stuff before," Ranma replied. "Sometimes it was even unintentional. Besides, if it was me or that pink haired kid, I'd vote me."

"You did it to protect Madoka?" Homura asked.

Ranma responded with a confident smirk. "Well yeah, I'm not gunna let some school kid fight monsters if I'm around to beat 'em up instead."

"Stupid," Homura said succinctly before turning to walk away. When she was almost out of earshot, she turned back. "I thank you for keeping Madoka from contracting, though."

Ranma's shoulders slumped. "I'm never gunna understand girls," she complained. "C'mon, squirrel, and if you've got anything else to tell me, now'd be a good time."

Kyubey leapt up into the redhead's arms. "Nothing else pressing comes to mind," he responded.

"And the non-pressing stuff?" Ranma asked.

"The temperature is currently 5 degrees cooler than I'd prefer," Kyubey responded. "The wind is blowing from the south east at five point three knotts. The colour you humans call magenta is actua-"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it!" Ranma interrupted. "Let's just go."

END.

So that's the prologue and/or chapter 1 done. 8.7k words. Not our longest, but still a handful. Before commenting, it should be known that this fic is not on the Anime timeline. Well, technically everything here could be said to happen during episode 10, but still. That means at least some of our errors are intentional. Have fun figuring out which ones!

At any rate, please don't forget to read, review, yell at us for starting another fic, or tell us which characters we've bast- "Hey, what's the big idea!"

Authors: Huh? Aw crap, who let them in? Quick, anyone who, for some reason, cares about spoilers, you might want to leave now.

Disembodied head of Mami: Why'd you guys kill me off in the prologue? At least in the show I had three episodes to be cool in!

Kyoko: Nah, these guys are cool, I showed up in the prologue! No waitin' half the series for me! Now all they've gotta do is not kill me off in episode 9. You'd best not kill me off in episode 9!

Authors: Is episode 8 okay?

Kyoko: No! Never is okay, got it! If you even think of killin' me off, I'll…

Weebee: I thought you said watching Meduka Meguka: The Animation wouldn't screw up our characterizations!

Jonakhensu: Maybe, if we're lucky, we can contain them to the notes?

Mami: I hear you guys whispering over there. You'd better be planning how to bring me back, or I'll Tiro Finale you into next week!

Kyoko: Aw, big talk head girl, I'd like to see you fire a musket without arms.

Mami: I did it in the anime all the time. Two words, fucking ribbons!

Kyoko: You wanna take me on?

Mami: I'll bite your legs off!

Jonakhensu: So how do we get rid of them?

Weebee: Easy. *Snaps fingers*

Charlotte: There is the cheese!

Mami: Gah, not you again!

Kyoko: Hey, get back here! I'm talking to you bitch!

Authors: Sorry about this, folks. Hope it was at least somewhat entertaining, and see you next time.