Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Vampire Savior: The Prophecy ❯ The Way of Three ( Prologue )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma 1/2 or any of its characters. I use their characters only to make Fan fiction. They all belong to Rumiko Takahashi.

Author's Notes: Hello, minna-san (everyone)! I'm firagabird, and this here is my first ever fanfic posted on the net. Hope that all the readers who're gonna read this story find it interesting!

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Vampire Savior: by firagabird

Prologue, The History of Humans and Vampires: How it came to be

Symbols:

"speaking"

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   Long ago, somewhere in the distant past, there lived an ancient and unique line of humans. If we were mentally superior to other species, they were physically and skillfully superior. They had the same build as their counterparts, with some variations.

   One obvious and major advantage these people had over us were their enhanced senses. Their vision was superb, allowing them to read an average book from as much a distance as one hundred feet, in the dark. Their ears were so well-developed, that they could use them instead of their eyes anytime. Their ability to sniff different odors from each other was better than even the best police dogs that we have now. Their skin was so sensitive and accurate to subtleness, they could practically tell the way the wind was blowing just by a breeze. Their tongue could taste all of the different ingredients of the food they ate, giving food poisoning a fat chance.

   Also, there was another sense they had, one that the humans also possessed, but was too faint to notice. Called the Mind's Eye, this will quickly "turn on" when there is a moving, living object nearby. This is done by reading one's 'aura' or energy pattern, and 'chi', or spiritual strength. Through practice, the people of this branch could learn to hone their senses, making them sharper and more precise, if they wanted to. Some were even rumored to have 'other' abilities, but they were only rumors... maybe.

   They had grown some extra limbs as well, giving these people an obvious, physical quality compared to us. These already superior creatures in relation to their senses had tails, which were not lost to evolution, unlike our race. They also had wings, which was given to them through a small tweak in their genetic make-up, somewhere along the line when they began to branch out, making them even more distinctly and physically special. Like their senses, they could train these extra limbs to become very useful, including the further improvement of their abilities. The tail could be used as a third, more flexible arm, which can grab objects, use it to hang from a branch or other similar objects, use it like a whip, etc. The wings, on the other hand, would allow the owner to fly, though only the very strong and relatively medium to medium-lightweight of those people could be capable of this.

   There is also a rumor that at the eighteenth birthday of one of these people, their immunity would get stronger and stronger, until it becomes so strong, they are able to avoid all types of illnesses, and fight off killer diseases and viruses. This rumor might be able to explain these peoples' extended lifespans, twice that of our own. It could also be the reason why they never seemed to age; even though they were well past a hundred, they still looked like thirty.

   There was another, slightly disturbing characteristic they had, though. Because of their better-developed characteristics and added limbs, these distinctly inhuman people needed special... feed... to keep healthy. Blood. For them to get it, they evolved slightly elongated canines that would serve as both a prick and a sort of hook, to keep from moving out of place while 'feeding'. In order to keep themselves from hurting others during this process, they debated on the right way to harvest blood from another, for when one would feed, the donor would often get injured or the process would become messy. After years of trial and error, they finally discovered the best point of blood extraction: the neck. It was also realized that only a small amount was needed, so one could be able to stop after only a few seconds and not have to worry for both the health of their willing victim and themselves.

   There was also a small side effect to feeding. After the ritualistic process, the one who did the feeding would become increasingly excited, or aroused, after only a few seconds prior to that time due to the sudden increase of blood, especially for the males. They would often masturbate or, if they had a fiancé or a husband/wife, they would feed from that person and make love shortly after.
Although these people only needed a few sips of blood to keep their body in check, it was enough to make the other line of humans fearful of them and thus giving them the name vampire or 'vampiros', a foreign word for "life-drainer".

   They would have been superior to and have already conquered men, becoming the main race of humans, if not for a certain characteristic they possessed. They were a pure-hearted line, and could never enslave others with bad intention. In other words, they had a big conscience. Their counterparts couldn't help but admire the purity and good traits of the vampires, and soon found themselves asking for a treaty. The vampires accepted the offer, and people from both sides could now freely cross and venture both racial territories whenever they wished, without any hesitation or worries. There were many humans and vampires who wanted to marry each other, and vice versa. Soon, half-breeds came from the current generation, and over only a few centuries, their number rivaled that of the vampires in the world, a majority of which dwelled in the present-day Asia.

   The three lines thrived with each other's cultures. The humans had made a technological culture, comprised of many tools to do the things that their bodies couldn't do; the vampires' culture was more primitive and focused on the beauty of nature, for they were confident with their own abilities that they didn't bother to make these tools, further including physical activity into their daily life; the half-breeds, 'kamezi' as they called themselves, were basically a hybrid- they inherited the tool making skills, cunning, and intelligence from their human genes, and were also born with the physical traits and skills of vampires as well.

   Since the kamezi did not inherit the same kind-heartedness and mercifulness of the vampires, as would have been noticeable within their actions, they had to swear an Oath: they werenever to use their abilities, those which the humans did not have, wrongfully or with bad intentions, such as bullying and/or seeking revenge against fellow humans and vampires alike, no matter the reason.

   There was even a small clan of humans that swore to themselves that they would one day rival the strength of the vampires and locked themselves up to a remote region of modern-day China, away from civilization. They only ventured to towns where rumors of strong vampires were or where vampire-involved tournaments were held, and staying in the shadows, studying their moves. They tried their best to imitate those moves, using weapons as substitutes for the limbs that they were not blessed with. There were also people from their clan who mastered the use of different herbs and spices in battle and called it magic, which was actually an advanced branch of alchemy. This group called themselves the Amazons.

   (A.N.: If you haven't been paying much attention when reading this prologue, then I suggest you do now!) There was also a prophecy, handed down from vampire generation to vampire generation, which spoke of this:
   "At a time foreseeable by no one, an unfathomable darkness will come to swallow the land. Its wickedness and sadistic use of cunning will spread to great distances and will stay hidden, like a tiger ready to bounce on its prey. In the midst of this era will come a warrior, and only He will have strength enough to counter this menace.
   "With His past scarred by His encounters of grave danger and near death, and His future overshadowed by those who wish to control it, this great hero will appear from nowhere and, from the day of His birth to that of His Coming of Age, will be forged and molded and sculpted into a samurai among samurai, vampire among vampires. His mind and heart and soul alike will bear the traits of innocence and purity, while his fate holds promise of great burden.
   "He will be of many abilities. His strength and agility will surpass all those who dare to face Him. His mastery of tactics and dexterity on the battlefield will destine even the most well-prepared of all fighters that cross His way to defeat. If He is ever to lose a battle, He will always return with even more lethality, and ultimately become the victor.
   "Even as He will inevitably be the best of warriors, He, too, will possess the subtlety and warmth similar to a lover tending to one's partner. His heart will be capable of forgiving the most loathed of enemies. If possible, He will even attempt forging an alliance. His movements can be made graceful and gentle, and He can also swallow His pride in order to comfort the one who he cares for most. He will be charming as he will be handsome, which will also grow as He grows. He will become irresistible to other women if need be, who would fall in love just by the exchange of gazes. Of course, this is to be done only for the right intentions. And sometimes, of course, things can go drastically wrong if his charm is not kept in check...
   "This greatest of beings will continue to place His honor above His own life, just as we do. Every action He takes will be lead by honor, and never will He stray from this, for He will be raised with the ideal of honor always burned into His mind, and would never commit an act that lacks this significant component."

   The prophecy also speaks of this:
   "At the time of His arrival, He will appear unlike us. One who knows of this prophecy may even pass Him by, as if He were just another, normal human. He would also pass his own kind by, not knowing who we are, or even of His lineage. This will be caused by the sole reason that everyone around Him will discern Him as "average" and "no more different than they are from each other". One of our own must go to Him and relieve Him of His cursed ignorance, for no one else can take His place, no matter how similar one is to Him."
   Of course, it was only a mere myth, a folk tale. There was no actual evidence to prove some of its origin and truth, if any. Still, the vampires believed in it, and it became part of their culture.

   Mankind seemed to reach its peak at this time, which was about three millennia, or 3,000 years, ago. And of course, when at the peak of a leap, one must come crashing down sometime, right?

   The kamezi, who were spread out only in the continents of present-day Africa and Asia, the origin point of the vampires and the only other continent they ever went to, started acting in a manner unpermissable to the Oath, and began to bully other people weaker than them or joined in brawls to show off their abilities to spectators and/or passersby. Often it was child kamezi who committed these sorts of things, and their parents would scold them for doing so. However, over the years, the kamezi's culture became more and more brutal and fiendish. Their then mild displays of violence intensified in nature; raping, stealing public property, and murder were only a few examples. They even grew as horrific and apathetic to their own morals as to assault a fellow human or vampire, suck on the struggling person's life essence, and torture and rape the still conscious victim, maybe even commit homicide. They would then somehow put manage to put the blame on others and plead innocent. These, the vampires would never even attempt think of doing.

   The kamezi were quickly becoming horrible as could be seen through their actions, thinking of themselves as gods, the strongest of the three species. They did numerous vile things to humans and vampires who were weaker than them. They got into bigger, bloodier brawls. Some even made groups called "yakuza", which would be used in the future to label modern Japanese gangs, that went from place to place and did whatever they pleased. The humans and vampires even tried to stop them on frequent occasions, hiring assassins, mercenaries, or forming bands of strong fighters but, each and every time, the kamezi would win against any opposition by killing the humans and outwitting the vampires to the point of retreat, since they were too powerful to destroy. The humans saw that only the vampires returned, failing to complete their mission, and became increasingly suspicious as they naturally were. When they were questioned by them, the vampires told the unconvinced men that the kamezi had, for whatever reason there was, forced them to retreat using their cunning. They remained skeptical through all of this, and soon enough the humans waged war with the vampires under the pretense of treason.

   The kamezi, wicked as they were, liked the idea of war. To prolong their pleasure of violence, they helped the humans defeat the vampires without either line's knowledge. When the tides of war shifted greatly to the humans' favor, they simply reasoned that their forces were better organized, while the vampires thought that they had somehow become weaker. The only people that weren't involved in the fighting were the Amazons, who were still observing and studying the way the three races fought, unable to believe the humans' and vampires' thick-headedness. They wanted to tell either one but couldn't, because of their promise not to interfere or meddle with the affairs of people other than their own. With that, the war was allowed to continue for a few more centuries, where it finally came to a stop.

   The vampires were forced to leave the territory of the humans and go to secluded regions of Asia and Africa. They were heartbroken by the fact that they had to leave their human families lest those families be executed, and were enraged at the kamezi for causing the war to turn out this way. They created an oath of their own: that they were to kill any descendents of those wicked creatures if they continued to harm the human civilization as well as there own, for in the vampires' hearts, the humans were still, and always would be, their friends. The kamezi soon found out about their oath, and decided that they, too, should hide, but from the vampires, not the humans. The things that they liked to do would have to be done in the shadows, or else the vampires would sense and kill them. They hid in the most secluded places of present-day Japan and China to avoid being detected, and the amount of conflict between kamezi and human drastically lessened as a result.

   The humans, however, made sure that their children were to avoid such a heartbreaking subject as breaking up with a vampire, so they taught them to hate vampires, and to never fall in love with one, no matter how hard it would be. They also told many horrible, made-up stories about them, furthering their ability to burn into the minds of their children, a subconscious fear and hate of vampires. As time went by, the vampire population lessened, the kamezi resided more where there were what left of the vampire line remained as if taunting them, and the humans slowly forgot that vampires were real, knowing only the stories about them; the hate long forgotten but the fear still in the subconscious part of their mind. This was how it was, 2,000 years ago.
   There were some more tweaks evolution had made on the vampires and kamezi, due to the sudden loss of connections to the humans. The kamezi had become somewhat impure. Their lifespan was cut in half, became more addicted to blood, had moments of short bursts of energy, called the 'Berserker' syndrome, started to burn under the sun, and became vulnerable to silver. There were also a few kamezi that took their own life, thinking that they had too many problems to handle.

   The vampires, on the other hand, faced a different matter. Their descendents had started to be more... human... physically, forgetting about their powers in the process. The elders of the last remaining clan started to panic, thinking that the vampire line would disappear, and that evolution would make them weak, just like the humans, when one of them had started going mad, and bit one of these human-like vampires. The people of the whole clan watched in disbelief as this person's abilities and the extra limbs started appearing on him. The elders thanked the Gods for sparing them the fate of a human and also giving them the cure for their weakness. All over the clan they started biting the all the 'infected' vampires that remained, and one by one, they all started transforming back into their rightful state, until the whole clan regained all their powers. When I say remained, I meant that some of the infected vampires ventured somewhere else other than the clan and, their abilities lost and their heritage forgotten, they settled down and mingled with the human populace. The vampire clan was then reminded of the prophecy, and it all fit into place. While one third of the clan was hunting down the kamezi, one half of them were frantically trying to look for the One, as was described in the prophecy. They were never able to find him... until now.

End of Prologue

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   I have an idea for my first chapter (this is just a prologue), but I need other people's opinion, 'cuz up 'till now, I've been working without knowing what other people want, so if anyone there has an idea and/or suggestion, tell me okay?

   Read & Review! Comments & Criticism are welcome! If there is something I should know about, please tell me, either by review or email. (Oh, by the way, this is my first time writing a fanfic, so please don't flame me! =) )