Waters Under Earth

A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic by Alan Harnum 
-harnums@thekeep.org
-harnums@hotmail.com (old/backup)

All Ranma characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi, first
published by Shogakukan in Japan and brought over to North
America by Viz Communications.

Waters Under Earth at Transpacific Fanfiction:  
http://www.humbug.org.au/~wendigo/transp.html
http://users.ev1.net/~adina/shrines2/fanfics.html

Vignette Four : The Annals of the World

     When does the end begin I ask myself sometimes times like
now staring down upon the village down below down the slope of 
the mountain and the answer of course is always that the end
began at the beginning be it the end of man or city or world or
all everything at all it began at the beginning for me it began
at my beginning but I just only saw it when she did what she did
to me the girl reminds me of her all of them remind me of her but
the girl especially I am going to break her I am going to break
them all they think they know hate they think they know pain they
know nothing not Yoko and her dead or any of them they think they
know the master they know nothing when does the end begin it 
began at the beginning with the birth of light for birth 
necessitates death the purpose of life is to die my purpose is 
to die but I will not die until they die until it dies until 
everything dies they think they will be given a world to rule 
they know nothing nothing at all the fools they know nothing for 
the world is light and light will be consumed by dark and 
everything everything is going to die and then I will be happy.  

**********

     When did the end begin?
     
     Perhaps it began under Ryugenzawa, when the one who was both
destroyer and giver of life shed the false form and stood 
revealed as a truer truth than before.

     Perhaps it began under Jusendo, when the bound and broken
one opened her eyes and spoke in defiance of her bonds.  

     Perhaps it began in Chenmo Shan, when the Lady twisted the 
threads and took two lives before their time in return for two 
lives that should have ended that night.

     Perhaps even earlier, sixteen years ago, with the thin cry
of a child.  Or over four thousand years ago, with the thin cry 
of another child, a forbidden birth.

     Perhaps even further back than that...
     
**********

     Pan Qu stood on the mountaintop and stared down across the
endless expanse of the waters.  No land, as far as the eye could
see, except for where he stood, and even the top of the highest
mountain in Pengrai stood only a scant dozen feet above the
surging ocean that seemed to have entirely engulfed the world.

     "It is finished?" he asked wearily.
     
     "Yes," said the eldest sister.  She stood behind him.  He
could not see her face.  He did not want too.

     "What will be done now?"
     
     There was silence from those who stood behind him for a 
time.  He thought of forests, fields, cities.  All buried now,
all swept away.  The waters would wear them down until nothing
remained, no trace.

     "We shall start again," the middle sister said.  "This time,
it shall be done right."

     "Better," the youngest corrected softly.  "Only better.  
That is all that we may hope for."

     "You will start everything again?" Pan Qu asked, 
disbelieving.  "How long shall that take?"

     "So long were we to tell you, you would not believe us," the
eldest said.  "So long as you measure time that I do not think 
you could comprehend it."

     Pan Qu nodded mutely.  He realized he was weeping, had been
for some time.  

     "Why do you weep, child?" the middle inquired.
     
     "The world is dead," he answered.  
     
     "No," said the youngest.  "Not dead.  Only sleeping.  It 
will sleep for a long, long time once the waters recede.  It will
sleep until it is healed, and then we will start anew."

     "My people shall not live again."
     
     "They shall not," the eldest agreed.  "Not as they were.  
But we have given you your own place, where his evil cannot touch
you."

     "And he has given them theirs, has he not?" 
     
     "He has," the middle replied.  "It was his due, and not
beyond his power."
     
     "There will be gateways," the youngest explained.  "Points
of weakness.  For one reason, and one reason only, must your
people go through, and that is to oppose her and those who turned
with her.  The balance must be kept intact."

     "I understand."  He turned, eyes closed, and bowed his head.
"It shall be as you ask, mistresses."

     "It is well."  The three of them spoke the words together.
Their fingers touched his brow once, and he felt them depart.  He
opened his eyes to find he stood alone on the mountaintop.

     Pan Qu looked one last time upon the dead, flooded world,
and then opened the door in the stone and stepped through out of
the desolation of the endless ocean, and into the place that had 
been prepared for him and his people.

     Perhaps there...
     
     Perhaps even further back than that... 
     
     For who, truly, is old enough to say?