A not so normal beginning:

Onna-Ranma turned her head back to Akane and arched her back slightly, "Besides, I've seen myself plenty of times. And I'm better built to boot!"

She started towards her pack, intent on leaving for China to find a cure when the dining table came down heavily on her head, swung by a blue glowing Akane.

"Now that he had coming." Genma said sagely.

Kasumi looked down to check on the poor boy turned girl, "Oh My! Quick Nabiki, call 119! She's not breathing!"

Soon the peaceful evening of Nerima was broken by the sounds of ambulance sirens.

Chapter One: Not Even Death do us Part

Akane sat in her room silently staring at her hands. Hands that had killed. She still couldn't believe what had happened. Kasumi had gently turned Ranma over to began mouth to mouth but the way Ranma's head lolled at an odd angle told them it was too late.

Nabiki had convinced the cops it had happened during martial arts practice and they had filed the whole thing as death by training accident. Genma, still in shock, had been led to the nearest bar by Soun to drown their sorrows at the schools not uniting.

Akane continued to stare at her hands. In a moment of anger she had taken a life. Even though she had hit other people harder, especially Kuno at school, no one had ever been seriously hurt. Kasumi had tried to comfort her earlier, telling Akane it was just a freak accident that could have happened to anyone.

Akane knew the truth however. It was her temper that had killed him. No one deserved to die just for making a rude comment. And it hadn't even been that rude. Deep down she knew he hadn't even meant the offhand comment. It was just the kind of thing she might have said herself in a prideful moment.

She Should have known better. She could crush bricks with her bare hands. She could just as easily break someone's arm or leg... or neck.

She broke down in tears of guilt sorrow and remorse. Clutching her pillow tightly she cried until exhaustion claimed her conciousness.

Ranma shot straight up in a panic from her prone position on the floor.

"She didn't have to hit me so hard." She muttered as she rubbed the back of her head. Looking around she wondered where everyone else was. The dining room was empty. There was also a dark shadowy tint to everything as if the color and light were somehow muted.

Sitting down Ranma pondered her situation, "Must have hit me harder than I thought."

"That would be the understatement of the year." A feminine voice said from the doorway.

Ranma turned in surprise to look at the woman leaning on the doorframe. She was about the same height as her guy side but just as skinny as the girl side. She was only moderately endowed and had a pale whitish cast to her skin. Her eyes and lips had black makeup on them and she was wearing black leather pants with a fishnet top over a black sports bra. Her hair was black and done up in a punk style and she had a silver Ankh pendant around her neck. All in all she looked very goth, yet very cute.

"You a friend of the Tendos?" Ranma asked finding her voice.

"No, not really. Actually I'm here to see you Ranma."

Ranma gulped nervously, "Pops didn't engage me to you or run out on a bill or somthin' did he?"

The lady laughed gently. To Ranma it sounded unearthly beautiful. She found herself not really minding if this lady was her new fiance.

The lady became serious and kind of sad at the same time, "No Ranma, I'm afraid I'm here for another reason. You see, you died when that table hit you and I have come to take care of you. I am death."

Ranma frowned for a moment in deep thought then started looking around, "Ha ha, very funny. One of the Tendos put you up to this didn't they? Is this supposed to scare me off? Look, I don't want to get married any more then they do. I just want to go back to China and cure my curse."

Death shook her head. The strong willed ones always gave her trouble. Not that she really minded, it broke up the monotony and she did enjoy the job for the most part. As death she met so many interesting people. She'd studied Ranma's file and had been pretty impressed with how his life had been up til now and except for one small problem she'd escort him over to the other side and be done with it, just like so many others.

"Look Ranma, I'm not sure what would convince you that you're dead but you need to accept it before we can discuss a problem that has popped up. There's no real hurry though so maybe if we wander around you'll get the idea."

Ranma stood up and looked Death in the eye. She was sure this was some childish prank by Akane. That or this lady was seriously nuts. Either was better than the alternative. Ranma shuddered as if someone had walked across her grave and felt like hitting herself for thinking of it in those terms.

"Let me get some hot water to change back first." She said moving towards the kitchen.

Death shook her head, "Sorry, that won't work anymore."

Ranma smirked, "Right, cause I'm dead huh?"

"Now you're getting the idea." The endless responded.

"Sorry if I don't believe you. 'scuse me." She brushed past and into the kitchen. There was the brief sound of running water then a scream as if a martial artist had been wrapped in fish sausages and tossed into a pit of starving cats.

Ranma was hyperventilating when Death entered the kitchen which she thought was funny considering Ranma no longer needed to breathe.

"I'm Stuck! I can't change back! What did you do to me?!" Ranma screamed.

"Calm down Ranma. You can't change with water anymore because you're no longer cursed. You're dead remember?"

Ranma was now in full panic mode, "I'll be like this forever?! I'm a man! I don't want to be a girl! Girls are weak and emotional!"

Death rubbed her temples with her hands. She could feel a migrane coming on from the stress of the situation, which was saying a lot considering she was the personification for a state of being. She wondered if her brother Dream ever had this much trouble.

"Ranma," She began, "Form is immaterial and irrelevent in the afterlife. Here it's who you are and not what you look like that's important."

"Easy for you to say. You haven't spent the last ten years of your life training to be a man among men!" Ranma said starting to calm down after the intial shock.

Death actually had to agree with Ranma's reasoning, although spending time as a girl would probably do the boy a world of good. Now however was not the time.

"All right Ranma, try this. Picture yourself as a guy in your head and concentrate on the image."

Ranma nodded and closed her eyes. A second later she shifted forms into her male body.

"There, now maybe we can go discuss..." She trailed off.

Ranma wasn't listening. He was dancing around singing, "Never gonna be a girl again." over and over.

Death sighed. This whole thing was taking too much effort, and she hadn't even gotten to the real reason she was here.

"RANMA!" She screamed. He flinched and turned to look at the end of all things given life. "Really, we don't have time for this."

Ranma turned serious, "Look lady, I appreciate whatever ya did to my curse but there's no way I'm dead. If I was, I'd be lyin' somewhere in a coffin of cremated in a jar right? How can I be dead if I'm up walkin' around?"

Frustrated, Death blew a lock of hair out of her face and grabbed Ranma by the hand, "Fine, come on."

She led him outside and into the dojo.

It became apparent where Genma and the Tendos had disappeared to when they entered the dojo. Against the far wall there was a blown up picture of Ranma (Courtesy of Nabiki). On a table surrounded by flowers was a small urn. Genma was sitting sieza in front of the urn. The blank look on his face showed he was still in shock. Soun was crying as was his usual mode of operation. Nabiki and Kasumi both looked sad. Akane however, looked sick. She'd been crying herself to sleep the past couple of nights and hardly ate anymore. Her hair was disheveled and it looked like she hadn't even left her room since the incident.

Ranma took all this in with a smirk, "Man, this is the most anyone's ever gone to for a practical joke on me before. Well, it's over, I'm right here everyone!"

He walked in and up to the makeshift altar, "Oh I see, everyone pretends to ignore me until I start to panic and think I'm really dead then, Surprise! Haha, real funny. C'mon, jokes over Pops" Ranma reached for his father's shoulder only to have his hand pass right through.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Ranma screamed.

Death stood near the back and felt like crying, sometimes these were the hardest cases. So the job had some drawbacks, Sometimes even steeling yourself against emotional attachment didn't help. Death felt as if she had a personal stake in Ranma's well being.

Ranma was slowly descending into a full panic. He tried yelling and screaming. Punches went right through Genma. Finally he did something he never would have before his death, he cried. Sinking to his knees in despair he sobbed uncontrolably, shrinking into his girl form.

Death went over to console the boy, usually a soul's feelings were muted by their demise. She attributed Ranma's reaction to him having had so much life in him that even muted, his emotions would be overwhelming. She reached for her and was surprised when Ranma grabbed her and held on like a drowning man. Death kneeled down and Ranma settled into her embrace, rocking Ranma back and forth gently as she cried.

Finally calming Ranma realized the dojo was empty. The funeral was over. She looked up at the woman holding her.

"It's true?"

Death nodded.

"So now what?" She said as she got up and wiped her eyes, "You taking me to hell? I sure aint good enough to get into heaven. Maybe reincarnation... Never been very religious though."

Death shook her head sadly, "I'm afraid there is something else you must do before you can move on. I'll tell you a secret though," she leaned in conspiratorily, "You go where you feel you deserve to be in your heart."

Ranma seemed thoughtful at that revelation before he remembered what else she had said, "What do you mean something else to do?"

Death sighed and sat down in one of the chairs from the funeral, "Your destiny was interrupted by your death. Normally that's not a big deal. My eldest brother would say something about destiny interferring with destiny or some such. The problem here is that your destiny was tightly intertwined with another's. You cannot move on until destiny is fulfilled."

"So who's destiny am I supposed to help?"

"Akane."

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