Introduction

This story starts out as a darker, more dramatic retelling of Ranma ½.

Ranma is abused by his father all of his young life after receiving the curse that turns him into a girl after being splashed with cold water. Luckily, he meets a girl that helps him stand up for himself, but she is unaware that Ranma is originally a boy.

This version is OOC (Akane x Ranma) with soft lemony yuri fluffiness.

This fanfic is rated M for possible nudity and adult situations.

Standard Disclaimer...

I don't own Ranma. This is a fan fiction which is a creative and non-commercial effort which parodies the original work.

Chapter 1 - Accursed Life

In the mists of Mount Quajing in the deepest China, Saotome Genma stood on a rarely traveled road. He slid a rolled parchment from his gi and held it to the mottled light that shone between the leaves of the forest canopy. Unfortunately, the words were all but meaningless to him as they were in Chinese. He looked up at the trees and mountains, hoping for a landmark that could lead him to the right location, but did not see one. He muttered a curse and shoved the document back into his pocket. His 13 year old son Ranma stood by somewhat patiently. The boy felt his stomach rumble. He reached out and pushed gently on his father's gi then asked in his rough Japanese dialect, "When are we gonna be there, pops? I'm starvin'."

Genma patted his boy on the shoulder and sternly replied, "Being hungry is part of the training." He adjusted his pack and turned to the mountain.

Ranma pursed his lips in rebellion; that was always the old man's excuse. The fact that Genma was overweight didn't escape his notice, either. He supposed the old man had some food stashed away somewhere to keep him so chubby. He wasn't about to starve, so he snuck his hand into his father's pack. He felt a roll with his fingertips. He quickly grabbed it and stuffed it into his face. His dad whipped around and Ranma looked innocently at him with bread stuck to the inside of his mouth.

Eventually the mountain pass opened up to a highly vegetative valley plateau. There were hundreds of pools with bamboo poles poking out of them.

Ranma looked at his dad curiously and asked, "Is this it?"

Genma shrugged.

"You were starin' at that brochure like you knew what it said!"

"So I did." His father replied, grinning.

Ranma smacked his father on the arm then looked down at the valley. There was a little shack near the edge of where the pools started. He pointed down there, "Let's go ask for directions."

"I'll race you!" Genma said. He pushed Ranma to the ground and started running.

Ranma clenched his hands and exclaimed, "No fair! I wasn't ready!" He ran as fast as he could to catch up. Eventually the two of them made it to the shack. A Chinese man sat in front of it, on a rock. He adjusted his hat with a Mao symbol to have a good look at Ranma and Genma. His face showed a little surprise.

Genma approached him and asked, "Is this the legendary training ground Jusenkyo?"

The man nodded and said, "You sirs looking for guide to springs, yes?"

Genma and Ranma both nodded.

"I give tour for five hundred Yuan. Good deal, yes?" The guide asked.

Genma pulled his pockets out and found some Chinese currency. He looked at the symbols on the money trying to figure out the value. He gave up and shrugged as he handed the lot to the guide.

The guide looked at his palm. There was at least 5,000 Yuan there. He thought these two guys must be very stupid. He shrugged to himself and pocketed the money.

"We start tour now," he said. He led the two martial artists down a clay path. When they arrived, there were several cold pools of water with bamboo poles poking out. said, "Here sirs is legendary training ground of accursed spring."

A slight mist rolled over the still dark waters.

"Are you ready, boy?" Genma asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be, pops." Ranma replied, cracking his knuckles. "This place ain't so impressive."

The guide waved his arms in warning at the two. "You very strange one, no, sir? This place very dangerous. Nobody use now. Is more than 100 spring here. Each one have own tragic legend!"

"Ranma, follow me!" Genma yelled. He leaped up on top of one of the poles jutting out of one of the pools and beckoned Ranma to follow. Ranma obliged by jumping 8 or 9 feet onto a nearby pole.

"Ah! Sir, what you doing?" The guide yelled with panic.

"I won't go easy on you." Genma yelled, ignoring the guide. He held his arms out and lifted a knee to start the fight in a crane stance.

"Bring it on, old man!" Ranma replied. He felt a little wobbly on the bamboo and it dug into his foot.

The two leaped at each other at nearly the same time. After an aerial flurry of punches, both of them settled on opposite bamboo poles. This caused the guide to yell with panic in his voice, "Please sirs! Very bad if you fall in spring!"

Genma jumped and lunged towards Ranma, but Ranma anticipated his move and did a flip in the air just above his father. He kicked off of his father's body in mid-air and had just enough force to propel his father downward right into one of the springs; this ended with a big splash. Ranma gracefully landed on one of the poles and giggled mirthfully. He waited a few seconds, but no sound came from the water.

Ranma squeaked in his teenage falsetto, "Pop? What's up? Give up already?"

Suddenly an enormous panda leaped out of the pool and landed on a pole. The young teen's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

The guide yelled loudly, "That spring of drowned panda. There is tragic legend, very tragic, of panda who drown there two thousand year ago."

The panda in question was wearing Genma's clothing and began swiping at Ranma with his claws. Ranma was trying to dodge while the guide was talking to him. "Wait a second, " Ranma said, jumping over a panda claw, "You never said anything about..." The panda landed a downward strike on Ranma in mid-air, sending him into one of the pools below.

The guide shrieked, "Ohhh no! Spring of drowned girl!"

Ranma sunk beneath the waters. The guide explained, "There is tragic legend, very tragic, of young girl who drown in spring one thousand five hundred year ago. Now whoever fall in that spring take body of young girl! See what I mean?"

A stream of bubbles began to rise in the water, followed by a splash. Sitting in the water, in place of Ranma, there was a young teenage girl with flame red hair in a pigtail. She looked down her gi and saw the small but noticable change in her chest and was shocked. She waded to the shore and crawled up it. She coughed up a little water and sat down, stunned. She didn't know what was worse…nearly drowning or the fact that her whole life as a boy flashed before her eyes. She screamed, "This isn't happening!" She cupped her mouth suddenly with shock. Her voice was higher pitched and softer.

The guide said with a sigh, "I try warn you, but you no listen. Come back to shack. I help." He wandered off.

Ranma couldn't stop looking at herself and crying. Genma jumped down from one of the poles and landed on the ground next to her. She noticed him and cried, "This is all your fault! I can't believe this!"

Genma was amazed at his transformation. He held his paws incredulously to his own face and tried to speak but could only make a growling noise.

Ranma buried her face in her hands in anguish. Warm tears ran down her porcelain face, "What am I going to do?"

Genma growled in an attempt to answer her. Ranma's cobalt eyes shone seriously at him. "We're going to have to explain this to mom. There is .." she looked down at herself with a sigh, "no way at all I can keep this a secret."

Genma felt a panic coming. All of his plans for his future were fading away; his humanity and his heir, all gone…maybe for the rest of his life. He ran towards the woods. Ranma gave chase. She cried, "Don't leave me here! Pops!"

Meanwhile, further down the road, Hibiki Ryoga leaned on his umbrella; he was tired. He did his level best to catch up to Ranma after losing him in what he thought was Tokyo. He had been looking for the boy all over China, occasionally getting lost for days. It was by chance he saw Ranma and his father on the road a day before. He gave chase, but they disappeared into the bamboo and mist. He was soon hopelessly lost.

But now he was lost yet again and hungry. It had been a long journey and he had all but given up hope of finding his hated rival. He stood a few feet back from a rocky precipice overlooking pools of water and looked around. There was a rustling close by in the tall marsh grass.

He set his pack down and moved to investigate.

Just then, a panda exploded out of a bamboo thicket with a shower of splinters. It ran into Ryoga so hard, it knocked him upward in the air. Just as he started to fall, a red-haired girl wearing a gi lept over him and kicked him accidentally before he even hit the ground, sending him careening over a ledge. He screamed as he flew directly into one of the cursed pools. He was stunned by the impact and was struggling to get air when a strange tingling sensation came over him. He had the good sense to try to get out of the water, so he squealed and fumbled around with his little black legs. 'Wait, black legs?' he thought. He managed to get onto dry ground and then looked at the oversized world and realized to his horror that he had shrunk and become something else.

Meanwhile, Genma had managed to run in a full circle around Jusenkyo. He came down the mountainside and stopped when he spotted a little black pig by one of the springs. He snatched it up with his panda claw and looked at it. 'Dinner time!' he thought. He carried it to the shack where the guide lived.

"Ah, sir. You find very nice pig!" The guide said. "Let's right now cook it. Very nice." He grabbed a butcher knife and started to sharpen it on a stone. He smiled and said, "In ground of accursed springs, we have the 'spring of drowned black pig. Here's a very sad story of a baby black pig who drown there one thousand two hundred year ago."

Genma put a big kettle of water on top of a grate above the fireplace. Then he lit a fire and blew on it with a pipe to get it burning hot. Soon it was crackling and the water began to boil.

The guide continued talking to Genma while grabbing the piglet and holding it above the hot water. He looked at it closely and said, "Maybe there poor person who fall in spring of drowned black pig." He dropped the pig into the water and laughed, "Ha! Funny joke, yes?"

The pig changed instantly into a boy and was completely naked save for his bandana. He danced around in the pot and screamed, "OW! Hot hot hot!"

"Oh look!" The guide said in surprise, "It is a poor person! Now we cannot eat!"

The very naked Ryoga jumped out of the pot. He grabbed a plate and covered himself for modesty and ran out of the shack in complete humiliation.

Ranma came into the shack, breathing heavily and gasping. She barely could speak between breaths, "Did you see…my father…" She saw Genma right in front of her and said to him, "Why did you run away?" Just then she realized that he couldn't talk while in panda form. She came inside and sat down on a rickety wooden chair by the fire. She was tired and freaked out.

The guide took some of the hot water from the kettle with a ladle and raised it up. He said encouragingly, "You sirs will fix with this."

"Is it a cure?" Ranma asked hopefully.

The guide just poured the hot water on the panda. Genma transformed back into himself. He felt his body and said, "I'm normal again."

Ranma yelled excitedly, "Don't forget me!"

The guide poured water on her and she turned back to normal. He said, "Hot water change to normal, but cold water bring out curse again. This very bad, sirs."

"This is permanent?" Ranma said, feeling despair creeping in, "This is horrible!"

The guide nodded and said, "Too too tragic."

Genma didn't hide his disappointment. He clenched his fist and tears rolled down his eyes, "For the sake of the school of Anything Goes Martial Arts, we must find a cure. The very idea of my son becoming a girl makes me sick."

Ranma scowled and hit Genma over the head with the kettle. She yelled angrily, "What about you? This is all your fault! You brought me here."

Genma put his hand on his son's shoulder and squeezed it in a painful grip. He growled, "You agreed to this trip. You said you'd give your life for the Art."

"I never said I'd give up my manhood!"

"It's clear you've already lost it."

Ranma felt like he'd been stabbed. He needed his father; it killed him inside to think that his father would hate him for something he had no control over. His heart sunk deeply and a tidal wave of hopelessness washed over him, making his knees weak. He pouted involuntarily and walked out of the shack before tears would fall, slamming the door behind him.

He walked down the trail, rubbing his bruised shoulder. He thought back to what his father said. It wasn't surprising, but it didn't make him feel any better. His father hated women and anyone that acted even a little effeminate. Now he was cursed to become the very thing his father hated, probably for the rest of his life. He asked the darkening sky, "What did I ever do to deserve this?" There was no answer, except the sound of leaves blowing in the wind and a smell of humidity. He cursed the changing weather under his breath and ran back to the shack as fast as he could.

Ranma ran inside, looking pale and slammed the door behind him. Thunder rolled in the distance behind him followed by the sound of rain.

To his surprise, he saw his father flipping back and forth with his curse using hot and cold water and grew jealous. He pointed at him in outrage and accused, "You like being a panda."

The panda grabbed a pen and a sign and wrote, "Yes."

Ranma shook his head in disbelief and said, "I can't handle this, pops. I want to go home."

Genma poured a little hot water on his head. When he back to his human form, he said, "No, not yet. Your curse There's something you should know."

"What?" Ranma asked with suspicion in his eyes.

"I've been writing an old friend of mine, a fellow practitioner of the same school of martial arts. He runs the Tendo training hall in Nerima ward of Tokyo. He told me that since we last talked, he and his wife had three daughters before she passed on. He would like an heir; someone who could keep alive the teachings of both schools."

Ranma looked at him, confused; his father had never had any friends. More often, he was known for stealing and conning people to get what he wanted, not making friends. He said, "Ok…"

Genma stated, "You were supposed to be that heir. Well, at least if you weren't cursed to become a weak panty-wetting little girl." He shook his head then looked at Ranma with disgust.

Ranma felt a lump in his throat as anger boiled inside him. He asked with hurt in his voice, "Why are you being like this? I don't want to get married. Why can't we go home?"

"We aren't going anywhere until we find a cure, and you will be married if I say you will. You are to stay away from cold water from now on, or you'll be punished."

Ranma couldn't believe how cold and insensitive his father was acting. He croaked, "Ok. I'll try, pops."