________________________________
   /                                \
   |   For The Ghost Who Walks...    |
   \________________________________/

Ranma 1/2 and all characters belong to Takahashi Rumiko
The Phantom belongs to someone too...

Thanks to my pre-readers:
Ben
aevan			  http://aevan.virtualave.net
Kevin D. Hammel     http://www.fanfic.net/~khammel/
Blood Blade         http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/5920
Mike Rever

Please distribute this work unaltered and crediting the author.
dzillman@ozemail.com.au
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~dzillman/fire




"... is the son of a very dear friend of mine. If one of you should 
marry him, the future of the dojo would be assured."

"But... What sort of man is he?"

"Is he rich?"

"I hope he's not too young," Kasumi asked quietly.

"Hmm..." Soun pondered his daughter's questions. "Well, Ranma recently 
crossed into China on his way back to Japan."

Nabiki sounded impressed, but it was hard to tell if she was faking. 
"Ooh! China!"

"Humph! So he walked to China. What's so great about that?"

"Father, didn't you say that he went to China on his way back? Where 
did he go before that?"

Soun beamed at his daughters. Nabiki might look after the finances, but 
nothing got past Kasumi. As sharp as a tack and as pretty as her mother 
ever was. "Well, before that Ranma and his father went to Africa on 
something of an honourable obligation I believe. Oh, that must be them 
now."

Getting to his feet, Soun followed Nabiki as she dashed down the hall. 
Akane and Kasumi waited in the living room, but for different reasons. 
Kasumi waited because she was patient and did not want to pressure 
their guest with too many faces crowding the door. Akane waited because 
it meant she could work up a really good scowl and it would marginally 
extend the time before she met this alleged fiancee.

Voices came from the hall, and shortly a couple of people entered the 
room with an impressive assortment of pets. Even with just a moment's 
viewing, none of the Tendo daughters wanted anything to do with the boy 
in front of them that they assumed was Ranma. Short, chubby and, well, 
lets face it, fairly homely. Unless he was a lot younger than their 
father had mentioned, Ranma was also some sort of midget. Perhaps three 
foot tall, the chubby, almost naked man wore a strange bamboo hat and a 
grass skirt.

The man next to him was wearing black boots, a long cream trench coat 
and a well broken-in fedora. Darkness from the wide brim of the hat 
kept his face in shadow. Following a slight motion of his hand, the 
large dog with the variegated grey colouring sat down and panted. The 
panda on the other hand began to look around and admire the place.

"Well, Daddy, as much as I would like to help you with the engagement, 
I think Akane looks the closest in age to Ranma. She'd better be the 
fiancee."

"I agree with Nabiki, Father." Kasumi joined in. She did not want to 
force her sister into an unwanted marriage, but she suspected Akane 
would be able to get out of marrying Ranma easier than she could. She 
had always preferred tall, older men; certainly not a midget like the 
young man in front of her. Besides, he hardly even looked Japanese. 
"Akane would be a much better choice."

"What?!" Akane was aghast. Her own sisters! Traitors! "There is no 
_way_ I could possibly marry someone like that!"

The man in the trench coat tried to speak, but Akane glared at him 
strongly enough to force him to be silent. Overwhelmed with joy at the 
ease by which the engagement had been made and accepted, Soun pounced 
on the smallest person in the room and hugged them tightly, all the 
while crying about how proud he was to see his baby girl married.

"And you!" Akane levelled a finger at the man, looking like she wished 
it was a gun. "You come out here! I want to talk to you... In private!"

Taking the hand of the man, she pulled him outside, only to be followed 
by the massive dog. Stomping her way into the dojo, Akane rounded on 
the man, only to hesitate and point at the dog. "Can you get your dog 
to stay outside? I don't want some dumb animal in here, this is a place 
of learning."

The man looked up. She could see his chin, but his eyes were hidden by 
shadow still. "Not dog... Wolf..."

Akane narrowed her eyes. She might not have been the sharpest knife in 
the rack, but it did not take long for her eyes to go large as she 
recognised the truth of the statement. The dog, no... The wolf, was 
larger than any dog she had seen, and the thick fur was shaded 
perfectly for running and hiding in shadows and grass. 

Deciding to ignore the fact some stranger had just brought a wolf into 
her home, Akane pressed on. "Just what do you think you're doing 
engaging someone like that to me? Don't I get any say in who I marry?" 

Without looking at where she had gestured, the newcomer scratched the 
wolf's ruff. "Who said... You are marrying him?"

"What?! Our father said I was supposed to marry Saotome Genma's son, 
Ranma. Who else am I supposed to marry?"

"That man... He is Popo-san... My loyal advisor... Of the pygmy 
people."

Akane blinked a couple of times. "What? So where's Ranma?"

He stood. Clearly shorter than she was, he nonetheless had a large, 
strong chest, and the coat made him look larger than an average boy. "I 
was... Saotome Ranma."

"Huh? _You're_ Ranma?" This was starting to look better. She might not 
have seen his face yet, but at least he was not a midget, or pygmy or 
whatever. And it would not be too hard for anyone to be closer to 
Akane's ideal man when compared to Popo-san.

Looking down at the wolf, Ranma smiled. "Devil... Bring Popo-san..."

Turning back to Akane, the man held up his hand and showed her a large 
ring, simply engraved with a skull pattern. "I was... By ancient jungle 
law... I am now... The Phantom..."

With that, the Phantom removed his fedora and revealed the fact that 
his head was covered in a purple cowl. The eyes, which had been 
shrouded in shadow before, somehow still remained hidden beneath a 
simple black mask. 

As the trench coat slipped off, Akane realised just how much it altered 
the figure of the person in front of her. No longer hidden by the loose 
fabric, the Phantom's purple costume stood bared. Black boots, a black 
mask, and a thick black belt with an odd pouch on either side. They 
were the only highlights on the entirely purple ensemble other than the 
bulky silver ring. 

Most importantly, the Phantom's costume was skin tight. It stretched 
tightly across the Phantom's strongly muscled arms and legs, leaving no 
doubt to their power. It ran tautly across the rippling stomach, 
showing every striation. It hugged her generous breasts, leaving no 
doubt about the gender of the Phantom.

"You're a girl." Akane's IQ seemed to have dropped slightly from the 
shocks.

"In the time of... the fourteenth Phantom... There were... no male 
heirs... It is... no obstacle..."

"You're a girl..." The brunette's shell shocked mind tried to grasp the 
significance of this important fact, but it took some effort. In the 
past half hour she had gone from blissfully single, to engaged to a 
complete unknown, only to find out he was a ugly little pygmy. Then she 
found out that her fiancee was someone that seemed half decent. Now 
that fiancee turned out to be a girl... Slowly a smile of understanding 
spread across Akane's face. Girls could not marry girls. At least, they 
couldn't in Japan, she did not pretend to be an expert on African 
marriage laws. But she did suspect it would be the same there too. Most 
people were fussy about that sort of thing... Kids being an important 
part of arranged marriages and all...

Ranma was a girl... Well, well, well... That put a completely different 
slant on things. Nothing to get upset about after all. She would just 
tell her father, and the whole silly thing would be called off. "Look, 
I'm really sorry about how I acted earlier. I guess I was just a bit 
freaked out about the whole marriage thing and all."

She gave the girl in purple her best smile and blinked. "I'm Akane. 
Want to be friends?"

"Friends... That will be an... excellent start..."

"Daddy said you had been training in martial arts. Do you want to have 
a little match?"

"I would be... glad to..."

Akane took a stance in the middle of the dojo, and the Phantom stood 
opposite her, hands held loosely at her sides. After a couple of easy 
strikes that the Phantom deftly dodged, Akane upped the ante and 
seriously tried to contact. The second time she left herself just 
slightly overbalanced, and the Phantom gave a light pull on her wrist. 
Anything more, and she would have gone face first into the floor, but 
as it was she just stumbled embarrassingly.

Several more strikes, and Akane was panting while her opponent faced 
her with an expressionless, implacable face. Fighting someone better 
than her might be one thing, but the Phantom did not seem to even be 
bothered in the least by her attacks. "What's the matter?! Why don't 
you hit back?"

A voice from the side startled her, and Akane whirled to see the pygmy 
standing against the wall with Devil sitting next to him. On its 
haunches, the wolf came to almost the same height as the standing 
native. "By ancient jungle lore... Anyone struck by the mark of the 
Phantom can never remove it."

Her eyes flicked back towards her opponent just in time to see the 
aforementioned branding ring sailing straight at her face. Shocked by 
the speed of the punch, there was nothing Akane could do besides gasp, 
but the Phantom pulled her blow, halting the special strike just 
centimetres from her head. A single black gloved finger reached out 
tapped her forehead.

"Wow... You're pretty good. I'm just glad I was beaten by a girl."

"Popo-san..."

"Yes, oh Ghost Who Walks?"

"Do you have... hot water?"

As Popo turned and rummaged, Akane smiled at her new friend. "I'm just 
going to go in and speak to Daddy. I'll be back soon."

The Phantom looked like she wanted to stop her, but Akane sailed out 
blissfully thinking of a future without an arranged marriage. "Popo-
san... Do not worry... See to Hero... I shall... prepare our rooms..."

Wearing her trench coat, but not the fedora, the Phantom was laying out 
space for herself, her father and her advisor. Kasumi came in part way 
through the Phantom laying out the futons and offered a towel and some 
washing articles. "Do you need to have a bath, Ranma-kun?"

Ranma dropped her coat on the floor and took the offered bowl filled 
with soap and things. "By jungle law... All who know me... call me 
Phantom..."

Kasumi smiled again - brighter this time. Ranma - or Phantom if he 
preferred - had a rather girlish figure. She knew this would make 
things very interesting for Akane; especially if their father forced 
the agreement. After all, it was what was entered on the family 
register that mattered. For all she knew, the Saotomes might have 
registered Phantom as a boy, and not the girl she obviously was. 

"Well, you can call me Oneesan, if you want, Phantom-chan. I want you 
to feel welcome here."

Nodding, the Phantom walked past her and headed towards the showers. 
She was just out the door when Kasumi's soft voice drew her up. "They 
aren't real guns, are they?"

"In... forty-three generations... the Phantom's guns... have never 
killed..."

Worried that their guest had not directly answered, Kasumi placed a 
hand to her mouth. "Oh my. I wonder if they're safe to have around..."

A voice came from her left knee. "It is said that the Ghost Who Walks 
protects all the jungle. Only those with evil in mind need fear the 
Phantom."

Nervously, Kasumi looked down and spotted Popo smiling back at her. 
Taking a step to the side, Kasumi smiled weakly and walked away. 
Something about the pygmy unnerved her. Maybe it was the blow-pipe and 
darts he was pulling out of his bag.

*	*	*

Akane spotted the purple costume in the wash basket and smiled. She 
might not have been able to talk to her father since he was busy with 
someone whom she assumed was Phantom's father, but she could enjoy a 
relaxing bath with the Phantom. Taking off her Gi, Akane smiled at the 
name. She wondered if the Phantom would get teased about it at school. 
Perhaps it was a perfectly normal name in whatever African tribe she 
had been staying with, but if you knew as much English as Akane, you 
knew that it meant ghost or something similar. Poor girl, she would 
start to feel pretty silly at school soon enough.

Sliding open the door, Akane looked at the furo and scowled, one hand 
on her hip. "Oh, for goodness sake! Couldn't you have taken off the 
mask with the rest of your clothes?"

True enough, the Phantom was relaxing in the bath. Her hair was thick 
and black, tied back in a pony tail. While all Akane could see was the 
back of her shoulders and her face, the Phantom had turned to watch as 
Akane entered the room. Naturally enough, the mask was still in place.

Walking closer, Akane kneeled down next to the bath and squinted. The 
mask looked like a simple set of black diamonds around the Phantom's 
eyes, but up close, you began to realise that the centre of the eyes 
parts were white, and you could not see the eyes. "That's a really 
weird mask, Phantom. I can't even see your eyes behind it. How do you 
do that?"

"No-one may see the eyes of the Ghost Who Walks. By ancient jungle law, 
not even the wife of the Phantom may ever see them."

Whirling, Akane gave a short scream and curled into a ball, trying to 
cover every part of herself with a wash cloth barely large enough to 
cover her dignity. Sure enough, the little African pygmy had joined 
them, apparently with every intention of bathing with Akane and the 
Phantom.

"You little pervert! A guy can't be in here when I'm bathing!"

"No harm... was intended... In jungle... there is no modesty..."

With that, there was a sound of water, and Akane looked left to where 
the Phantom rose from the water. There was no mistaking the purple suit 
that had been in the wash basket. This... This man had to be the 
Phantom. But... But... But there was no way he could be the same person 
she had fought earlier. The girl in the dojo had bumps in all the right 
places. This boy had bumps, but they were not really suitable for a 
well raised girl like Akane to comment on.

As Popo joined the Phantom in the outer room and helped him dress, he 
spoke softy in the pygmy people's native tongue. "It is as the legends 
say for all your ancestors. All women are helpless before the Phantom. 
So it has been for forty-three generation of the Ghost Who Walks."

"Are you sure... that was what they meant... in the chronicles?"

"How can you doubt it? You have just seen the proof." 

The Phantom nodded as he buckled on his guns. True, Akane had fainted. 
And his link to the Phantom's blood line did come through his father's 
side of the family.

*	*	*

"Are you really her? That girl we met earlier."

"I am..."

Nabiki sucked on a paddle pop in a suggestive manner. Hunk in tight 
suit. Loyal servant. Seriously good looking. And she was sure she had 
heard something earlier about private wedding beaches and ruling an 
entire nation. Maybe it would not be too late to become engaged.

"But how? Why?"

Genma, a large and obese man sitting beside the purple clad Phantom, 
thought for a moment. "How can I explain? Perhaps a demonstration!" 
With that he grabbed the Phantom and hefted him outside into small Koi 
pond.

Almost as impressive as the transformation from male to female was the 
way the suit still fit. The female Phantom might be two thirds the size 
of the man, but there was no loose cloth or baggy fittings reminiscent 
of a 70's episode of Star Trek. The purple of the Phantom's traditional 
costume fit as well on her as it did on him.

"Are... Are you a boy or a girl?" Kasumi asked quietly.

"I am... A man... When the forty-second Phantom... died... I assumed 
the mantle... as a man... Due to training... in China... I am this 
way..."

"China? I though you came from Africa?" Nabiki wanted to know more 
about the supposed wealth of her potential fiance.

Popo stood up and placed a large book on the dinner table. Heavy, 
leather bound with brass fittings, it must have weighed almost as much 
as he did. At least, Nabiki thought they were brass... They looked 
awfully yellow to be brass... 

"Chronicle of the forty-third Phantom."

"After the son of the forty-second Phantom died on his sixteenth 
birthday, the great search began." Popo's voice was soft and respectful. 
He spoke surprisingly good Japanese for a man raised in a dirt-floored 
hut in the middle of one of the world's largest jungles. "A new 
descendant of the Phantom's line must be found to continue the heritage. 
Many people around the world were indebted to The Ghost Who Walks. All 
were glad to help."

Always curious, Nabiki piped up. She needed to know this, just in case 
there were some dangerous strings attached to having a fiancee like 
this. "How did he die?"

Popo looked to the Phantom for guidance, and it was she who spoke. "The 
wife of... forty-second Phantom... died during child birth... Their 
son... was very weak... On sixteenth birthday... Day he could become... 
the Phantom... the boy was... killed..."

"K-Killed? How?"

Silence filled the room. Everyone leaned forwards to hear the answer. 
"Mauled to death... By week old kittens... He was very weak..."

When Nabiki recovered, she gave the purple visitor her most incredulous 
look. "You have _got_ to be kidding."

"He was... very weak..."

Popo took more offence at the supposed slight against his hero than the 
Phantom did. Pulling himself up to his full three foot height, Popo 
pushed his paunch out a bit further and placed his hands on his hips. 
"Ancient jungle saying: Phantom's honesty greater than any mountain... 
For the Ghost Who Walks..."

"Sure, but still... Week old kittens? Are you serious?"

The Phantom gave a slight shiver. Despite being a father of three girls, 
even Soun had to admit what a pleasant site that was while the healthy 
girl wore the tight purple costume. "Cats... can be very dangerous..."

Akane butted in before her sceptical sister could continue. "Look, 
let's forget about the cats. I want to hear about why he's always 
wearing that weird costume."

Popo scowled at that and clammed up. In the jungle, people knew that 
you did not insult the Phantom. Every tree is an ear of the Ghost Who 
Walks... Ancient jungle saying.

Genma took up the story. "Well, around that time, Ranma was about seven, 
maybe eight. We got the letter from the Phantom, and I decided to help. 
According to my family's history, my great-grandfather was the third 
son of the thirty-eighth Phantom. Well, when we got to Africa, one of 
the members of the Jungle Patrol met us and took us inland.
"The Jungle Patrol was first established back in the forties, and its 
still going. Basically they help keep order and try to stop visitors 
from getting hurt. Occasionally, they also try and catch criminals, but 
they usually leave that to the Ghost Who Walks."

"You keep saying that name. What is this 'Ghost Who Walks'. There's no 
such things as ghosts."

"He is." Genma pointed at his son... or daughter. "Although mighty and 
skilled beyond normal men, the Phantom passes on his duty to one of his 
children, usually the first born son. In this way, the Phantom has 
protected the people of the jungle for hundreds of years. Never seeming 
to die. They call him the Ghost Who Walks, for even if he is killed, he 
will return again, never dieing, never aging."

"So it's all just trickery then? I guess it's not too hard to seem like 
a hero if everyone is as small as this guy." Akane gave a 'humph' and 
sat back.

"No. The pygmy people are among the most loyal supporters of the 
Phantom. His enemies are everyone who would try and hurt the jungle and 
its people. Nazis, spice traders, megalomaniac industrialists, evil 
sorcerers, pirates, slavers... All manner of people."

"Oh, come on... No-one does that sort of thing these days!"

Genma gave Akane a surprised look. "But they're just the people my son, 
the forty-third Phantom, defeated in the last year. Since I am not the 
Phantom, I have not been given access to all of the Chronicles. I don't 
know what his ancestors have faced."

Once again the Tendo's had to pick themselves up from where they had 
collapsed. Genma was too dumb to be able to lie that well, and both the 
Phantom and Popo were nodding with him. "Anyway, once we got there, the 
previous Phantom told us why he had sought us out. Well, needless to 
say, I wanted to keep teaching Ranma in the arts of Anything Goes, but 
I could hardly pass up the opportunity of having the boy trained by the 
greatest fighter in the world. Mohamed Ali? Hah! You should see the 
right hook on this boy!"

"So, we stayed there for about eight or nine years. Finally, the mantle 
of being the Ghost Who Walks was passed on to the forty-third Phantom. 
A year later, I have come here to complete the pledge I made to Tendo 
to unite the schools."

Kasumi looked slightly nervous, but she forced herself to ask. "H-How 
was the m-mantle passed on?"

"The Ghost Who Walks... was attacked... by a helicopter gunship. They 
thought... they had killed... the Phantom... But he cannot die... I 
brought them... to a swift justice..."

Going slightly green, Kasumi eyed the pair of black semi-automatic 
pistols she had noticed sitting on his belt. "S-Swift j-j-justice?..."

The Phantom nodded sternly. "The slavers... were caught, and given... 
to the Jungle Patrol... They will always wear... the mark of their 
shame..." 

Light glinted off the ring gracing the Phantom's hand. Only Popo and 
Genma truly realised what he was talking about. While jungle lore might 
state that the Phantom's mark would never fade from someone he had 
struck, it was more than just the strength of his punch. The Phantom's 
special attack was enough to render any normal man unconscious, and 
would forever leave the mark of the skull on his skin. That alone was 
enough to stop most of his enemies. For none would trust a man that the 
Phantom had so marked.

The girls heaved a sigh of relief. The thought of having Akane marrying 
a casual murderer did not sit well with any of them. However, in that, 
they were in complete agreement with their proposed fiance. In the 
entire history of the Phantom, only a single enemy of his had died at 
his hands. Chronicled along with all of the heroism, this was 
considered one of the greatest moments of shame for the Ghost Who Walks. 
It was an accident, but the Phantom protects all people. Even those who 
would seek to harm those in the jungle.

---
End Of Chapter.