Ranko Saotome, the Substitute Vasto Lorde

Introduction to the Story: This opening arc follows the Ranma ½ main cast to many of the people in Bleach's cast. This short prologue takes place 3 to 4 years before the beginning of both Ranma ½ and Bleach. I hope you like this story. I wanted to create a great tribute to two of my all time favorite anime and manga, embracing almost all the characters from both in one shonen epic I hope people will enjoy.

Teaser Picture for Ranko Saotome, the Substitute Vasto Lorde.

Deviantart: "Ranma: Substitute Espada"

Here is an awesome teaser picture done by the wonderful artist DesingAHV, although if you don't want any spoilers for the story, you might want to wait to look at it until you've finished reading.

Disclaimer: All characters of Ranma ½ and Bleach belong to their respective creators, Rumiko Takahashi and Tite Kubo.

Prologue

It was just after school in 6th grade at his all boys grade school in the Karakura district. Ranma Saotome was walking home from school thinking about lunch time.

Ranma thought to himself. "Hmm, that idiot Ryoga is never going to catch me during bread time. He's way to slow. Still, he still seems to be pretty strong and pretty stubborn. When trying to get to the last bread, he'd push through the other students like they were nothing at all. Heh, brute force won't beat me though."

While walking home, he saw someone familiar sitting near the in-town river. He wasn't exactly hard to miss. He had orange-spiky hair. He seemed to be staring off into space for some reason. Ranma decided to go over and talk to him.

"Hey, you're Ichigo Kurosaki, from a year behind me, right?"

The kid was startled and looked at Ranma. Ranma got a good look at him. He had a fairly friendly face but he had lines across his eyebrow that made him look somewhat older then Ranma, even though Ranma was a year older than him.

"Oh..hey, you're the fast kid at school…Ranma, right?" Ichigo said in a somewhat distracted voice.

"Yep that's me. Hey why are hanging here acting all depressed?"

Ichigo's eyes lowered and said "I..I come here every so often. This… is the place where my mom died."

Ranma was taken off guard in surprise. He wasn't prepared for that kind of answer. He always considered himself a fairly happy-go-lucky guy when it came to most things.

"Uh, sorry about that Ichigo, I didn't know." Ranma said slowly. Ichigo said quickly and sullenly "It's okay." Ichigo thought absentmindedly, "This Ranma guy uses pretty informal Japanese. Then again, I've been talking similar for a while now, especially around Tatsuki."

Ranma suddenly had a little idea. "Hey Ichigo, how about a short martial arts bout?"

"Huh?"

"You practice karate and judo right? I want to see how good you are. But I warn you, I won't lose."

Slowly, Ichigo's eyes grew incredibly intense. "All right, let's go."

Ichigo and Ranma fought for 5 minutes straight. It was easy to see Ranma was the better fighter of the two, and was a lot stronger to boot, but every time Ranma knocked Ichigo down he'd simply come back up just as strong. But after a while, Ichigo ran out of energy.

"Geez Ichigo, you're a really stubborn guy, and a pretty good fighter to boot. Why don't I train you a little bit every day after school for a little bit?"

Ichigo paused after hearing this and responded "What's your purpose for getting stronger Ranma?"

Ranma thought for a second and said "I don't really have a reason for getting stronger, other than to get stronger than anybody else. However, my dad says that it's a duty of a martial artist to protect the weak and innocent, and that's always a good reason I think."

Ichigo thought "To protect the innocent, like my friends, my family, and anyone who can't defend themselves. That seems like a good reason for getting stronger."

"Alright Ranma, I like that idea. What's your style called anyway?"

Ranma said, "Anything Goes Martial Arts."

"Huh. Weird name."

For the next two months, each day after school, Ranma and Ichigo would roughhouse and spar with each other in an open lot. He taught Ichigo to apply a great deal of balance and timing to his fighting, toughened his body, and taught him to use the environment, the enemy's abilities, and make it work to his advantage, many of the basic elements of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Ichigo and Ranma would often share stories, Ichigo talking about his family and Tatsuki mostly, while Ranma talked about some of the crazy stuff that his father, Genma Saotome, had been teaching him.

Over the next martial arts lessons with Ichigo, Tatsuki Arisawa was shocked at the improvement that Ichigo was developing. The kid she used to defeat easy was now fighting with a whole lot more skill and speed.

One day, during the judo session of the martial arts class, Ichigo actually managed to beat Tatsuki. She came close to winning at first, but Ichigo's speed and reflexes and muscles eventually caught up with her and she lost.

Tatsuki couldn't believe it. She knew that Ichigo had gone through some really tough times, but to think that the former cry baby could defeat her…

"Ichigo, who taught you to fight like that?"

Ichigo was confused by Tatsuki's sudden interest "Huh? Oh, some older kid from my school. He's kind of got a pretty boy face and wears a black pigtail. His name is Ranma Saotome."

"What's that style he taught you?" Tatsuki pressed forward.

"Well.. I think he called it the Anything Goes Martial Arts style…that or Martial Arts of Indiscriminate Grappling."

After practice, Tatsuki asked her dad, Takashi Arisawa, who was also a martial artist, what exactly was the anything goes style of martial arts.

He responded, "Well Tatsuki, anything goes style is a style invented in Brazil, although I've heard there are a few variations of the style in Japan as well. Its original name is Vale Tudo, which literally means for anything goes. It incorporates a combination of many styles of martial arts, wrestling, kickboxing and other fighting styles to defeat the opponent."

Tatsuki thought about it and came to a decision to find this guy and see how good he was, and how powerful this style was.

The next day, she decided to go near Ichigo's all boys school, Karakura Middle School for Boys, right after her school was over, and see if she could find this 'Ranma'. Sure enough, after the bell rang, she spotted a nice looking boy with black hair. She decided to try and follow him around for a few blocks, but Ranma detected her presence.

"You can come stop trying to follow me, whoever you are."

Tatsuki, realizing her cover was blown, stepped out from behind a telephone pole and immediately issued her challenge "Your Ranma right? The guy who taught Ichigo, correct? Let's fight!"

"Wha?" Ranma said, wierded out by the sudden challenge.

Tatsuki immediately attacked Ranma with her best karate moves. Ranma was impressed at the speed and ferocity that the girl was fighting with. She was obviously a natural born martial arts warrior, and took martial arts very seriously. While still low in the strength department, she was a lot more skilled then that Ryoga guy.

Ranma usually didn't like to fight women normally, but he considered it all right 'cause this girl had a very tomboyish battle aura, and probably wouldn't want any guy to hold back just because she was a girl. After a few minutes of dodging her surprisingly swift blows, Ranma saw an opening and kicked her several times in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her and sending her into the ground.

Ranma leaned forward and looked at the girl. Tatsuki glared back with one of the fiercest stares he'd ever seen, like an angry dragon whose only instincts were to fight. Ranma muttered out loud, "Jeez your strong, so you must be Tatsuki. Ichi talked quite a bit about you during our spars. Your skill and talent is superb, but you've still got a ways to go. Anyway, see you later."

As Ranma was about to walk away, Tatsuki yelled "Wait!"

Ranma turned around. Tatsuki got up and said "One day, when I'm strong enough to learn your style, you have to teach me, so we can have a second match!" Tatsuki knew this guy was strong, she knew he had probably been fighting most of his life. But she definitely wasn't going to take this loss lying down. She was too interested in the fighting style and its practitioner. She had to become the greatest fighter, the champion if she could, in the style of Vale Tudo, and show she was just as good Ichigo, the boy she respected the most, and Ranma, his teacher.

Ranma was a little unnerved by this girl's intensity, but answered "Alright, but me and my dad move around a lot so it might be a while before we are able to fight again. See ya."

True enough, Ranma and his dad moved about a week later, saying his goodbyes to Ichigo after mentioning that he got stood up by a fellow fighter who challenged him. Tatsuki found out from Ichigo that they were moving all the way to China for a training journey. After hearing this, Tatsuki and Ichigo decided to take the lessons they got from Ranma and forget about seeking him out, at least for now. Tatsuki continued to pursue her dream and continued to perfect her martial arts in official competitions, while Ichigo continued to perfect his style on the streets.