Another World
Chapter 1
"You're such a tomboy!"
That was the wrong thing for Ranma Saotome to say to an enraged girl who was holding a very sharp cutting knife.
The fight had been over him eating what Akane Tendo had cooked for dinner. She had been in the kitchen for hours cooking because her two older sister were gone for the day. Kasumi had left to go to Tokyo to visit old friends and Nabiki had to go out for the day to run her business of selling information. She had just developed pictures of girl Ranma, boy Ranma, and Akane to sell to variouse people, and had been eager to get the profits as soon as possible.
Even Akane and Ranma's fathers were gone for the evening on some excuse that they needed to celebrate something or other. Ranma, however knew that was just a conveniant excuse to escape Akane's toxic cooking.
But Ranma couldn't get away as easily because Soun and Genma had insisted that Akane could not be left at home alone.
Akane had been working very hard, trying to get things just right, and judging from the various bangs and clangs and swearing coming from the kitchen, Ranma had been sure that things were not going very well. She had come out of the kitchen with some rice for them, and even though it had smelled alright, he had refused to eat it. Last time he had tried to eat some of her cooking, he had wound up with food poisioning, even though he had been exposed to some leathal food before and had an iron clad stomach.
He had refused to touch the food. Mistake one.
He had suddgested that they went to Uu-chan's or the Cat Cafe. Mistake two.
He had insulted her cooking with out even trying it. Mistake three.
He had insulted her. Mistake four. And four was by most the worst in her eyes.
She threw the sharp knife she had brought out to cut the western style steaks she had made at him. "You jerk!"
Ranma wasn't looking at her. He was stareing at the huge lightning bolt that had struck the tree at that percise moment. The knife flew from her hand and lodged in Ranma's unprotected back, but Akane didn't see this as she had already stalked out the door to the dojo to break some concreat bricks to releve some of her anger.
Ranma felt the knife slip between his lower ribs, right next to his spine. He gasped in pain and collasped to the floor. His entire back was a mass of red hot pain, so much that he could barely move. he tried to reach around to pull the knife out but he couldn't. Gasping in pain, he tried to yell for Akane, but all that came out was a faint, haorse croak that barely reached his own ears. He felt the blood pooling around him on the floor just before he blacked out.
Ukyo had decidied to bring some food over for her Ran-chan because she knew that tonight Akane was supposed to cook something and everyone knew just how bad her cooking was. "I can belive how fast this storm came up." she muttered as she tossed the now soggy food into a trash can that she passed. "I can't realy give my Ran-chan this. So I'll just invite him back to the restarunt." She said happily as she entered the gate.
As soon as she set foot into the yard, a huge bolt of lightning hit the tree in the yard, blowing off a large branch but doing relitivly little damage. Looking at the house to see if any one was going to come out and check on the damage, she saw the furious Akane stalk to the dojo, ignoring the storm that raged around her.
'If Akane is that angry, that must mean the Ran-chan is in the house. I think I'll go surprise him.' she thought as she walked up to the porch and shook the rain as best she could out of her hair and clothes. Slideing open the door, she slipped in and started to look around but the storm had knocked had knocked out the power so she never saw the body laying next to the window, and she tripped over it.
"Ow." she groaned as she started to push herself up but stoped when she felt something warm and slippery on her hands. Just then a bolt of lightning lit up the room illuminating Ranma and the spreading pool of red that seeped from around the knife sticking out of his back.
"Oh my God, RANMA!" she screamed in horror.
Just then two things happened. The lights came back on and Kasumi and Nabiki came into the house.
"Oh my, what happened?" Kasumi asked as she hurried over to them. Nabiki followed fast behind her sister.She had heard Ukyo's scream and was worried about Ranma. She had never heard her sound that scared before.
"I was bringing some food for Ranma...got wet and I threw it out and...big lightning bolt hit tree outside...Akane mad again. Came in to look for Ran-chan but lights out and triped over him. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!"
Relising that she wasn't going to get anything else out of the chief for now, Kasumi turned toher sister and started snapping out orders in a calm voice as if this was an everyday thing. "Nabiki, get me some clean water and a bunch of rags, then call Dr. Tofu and tell him to meet us at the hosputal. But before you call him make sure you call for an ambulance first. Then after you finish that, please take Ukyo into the other room and get her cleaned up. She has had a trearible shock and the blood needs to be washed off of her."
"Ok sis." Nabiki said and snapped into action. in a matter of moments, Kasumi had gentily removed the knife and with the folded rags in the shape of a thick pad that she pressed firmly against the wound to stem the flow of blood that never seemed to end. She aintained the pressure untill the paramedics arrived and took over. They had him stable and in the ambulance and on the way to the hospital before Nabiki and Ukyo were back from getting her cleaned up.
"Uyko, you said that Akane was angry again when you got here?" Kasumi asked as she sat down with the other on the couch in the other room, away from the blood that was still on the floor.
"Yes. I saw her storming out to the dojo like she was going to tear it down with her bare hands." Ukyo said as calmly as she could, then asked in a soft voice, "Do you think she did this?"
Normaly, she would have just assumed that it was Akane's fault but this had shaken he up so much that she could hardly function. Kasumi was aware of this and said in her most soothing voice, "We don't know but for now, why don't you go upstairs to my room and lay down for a little while and then we will all go to the hospital, ok?"
"Ok." Ukyo said softly and Kasumi motioned for Nabiki to take her upstairs. She was back down a minute later only to find Kasumi missing. On a hunch she slipped outside and up to the wall next to the doorway where she could hear everything that was going on in the dojo. Her hunch was proven correct when she heard the sharp sound of flesh hitting flesh.
Inside the dojo, Akane was stareing in shock at her oldest sister. She had been cleaning up all of the broken bricks, feeling much better, when she had heard her sister come in.
"Hi, Kasumi. How was your meeting with your friends?" she said as she put away the broom and dust pan.
"Akane, did you happen to toss a knife earlier?"
"Um...yeah. Why Kas..." she was interupted by Kasumi's hand as it struck her in the face.
"I am very disappointed in you, Akane." Kasumi said as she lowered her hand. "Ranma was just taken to the hospital. He had a seriouse back wound, from a knife, one of our sharpest knives." With that, she turned and left her stunned sister alone in the center of the dojo with a bright red hand print on her left cheek.
"Nabiki, you know you realy shouldn't spy on people like that." Kasumi said as she paused out side of the entrance way. "Please help me with the clean up. I want to get to the hospital as soon as possible." With that said, she continued on into the house with Nabiki right behind her.
Akane had listened to Kasumi address Nabiki in shock. This was not her regualr addittude. She had never struck anyone in her life, had always been the perfect daughter and housekeeper and cook and everything else.
'I have to go see him and make sure that he's alright.' Akane thought to herself but just as fast, another thought poped into her head. 'Why? He deserved it. he wouldn't eat what you made for him and this time it came out perfect, too.'
Still aurguing with her self, she wandered out of the dojo and sat down by the koi pond, dispite the rain that continued to pour down.
"There, that should do it." Kasumi said as she finished cleaning up the last of the blood. "Nabiki, will you go get Ukyo will I finish putting this stuff away? The taxi should be here in a minute."
Nabiki nodded and hurried up the stairs, desterbed.
Watching Kasumi calmly clean up a pool of blood would upset most people. In Kasumi's room, she found Ukyo huddled on the bed, stareing out the window.
"Is he going to be ok?" the chief asked softly.
Hearing this whispered question, Nabiki felt sorry for the girl and for once her hard, money making personality wasn't the one in control. Nabiki had been like this since she had arrived home to see Ranma hurt so bad. Normaly she would start thinking about how much his hospital stay would cost and what she could do to get more money but this was a side no one had seen of Nabiki since she was twelve, including herself.
Wrapping her in a hug, Nabiki whispered reasuracnes in her ear. After a minute, she pulled her to her feet and led her out. "We're going to go see him right now." She said as they reached to bottom of the stairs.
"Are you two ready?" Kasumi asked as she put on her jacket and took a large umbreila from the closet.
"Yes." Ukyo said and the three left the house and hurried to the waiting taxi.
Akane watched them leave in the taxi, still sitting next to the koi pond. The arguing voice in her head was at last quiet and she was starting to get really worried. Sure he had been hurt pretty bad before but she had never done something like this before to him. She had always just smashed him with her trusty mallet.
"God, please help me and Ranma. I didn't mean to hurt him. I was just so angry at him. The food came out perfect this time, I tried it to be sure." she prayed.
"But he always makes me so mad. He wouldn't even try it. He just assumed it was bad. But please help him, Lord."
She continued to pray next to the koi pond, not knowing someone else was answering her prayers at that very moment.
The doctors had taken care of Ranma quickly when he was brought in. They had said that the knife had missed anything important and had lodged in the muscles just an inch from his spine. Now he has in a hospital room hooked up to IVs that dripped antibiodics and blood into his sytem. He had lost a lot of blood but the doctors had finaly stopped it in the emergancy room.
'Maybe I should call the house and make sure the others don't worry.' he thought as he reached for the phone on the bedside table. 'Pops and Mr. Tendo might be home by now and wondering where I am. I may not know how I got to the hospital but if it was one of them, they would be here.'
Dailing the number, he had a funny feeling that something was going to happen and he wasn't sure what.
"Hi. You have reached the Goddess Help Hotline. Please stay where you are and a goddess with be there shortly to help." A pleasent voice on the other line said pleasently and Ranma started in surprise.
'I must have dailed the wrong number by mistake.' he thought as he hung up.
"Ranma." a soft voice said from the direction of the open bathroom door in his room. Turning his head, he saw the mirror shining and then a woman dressed in flowing robes with strange markings on her face.
"..."
"My name is Belladonday, Goddess first class. Ranma, you may have one wish. Anything you desire, to be granted if my superiors approve." the stange woman said as she landed lightly on the ground.
"You have to be kiding me."
"No I'm not. You may have any wish."
'I guess I could wish that I was somewhere else. A place that I was needed but that would mean I belive her story. Sure she came out of the mirror but that Prince could do the same thing with oneof his illusions.' Ranma thought as he stared at the woman. She appered to be around his age.
Suddenly, she started to glow and a beam of light shot from the symbol on her forehead. "Your wish has been approved." she said with a smile as she opened her eyes.
"Wh.. what? What wish?!" Ranma demanded.
"Your wish that you could be somwhere that needed you. Come. We must get going." she said as she approched and disconnected the IVs. Picking him up, she flew back through the mirror.
Just as they disappered, a nurse came into the room leading Kasumi, Nabiki, and Ukyo.
"This is the patiant's room." she said as she pushed open the door. "He'll be fine. the doctor said that the knife had missed..." the nurse stopped as she relised that the young man was missing. Rushing to the phone, she grabbed it and dialed the front desk. "Ranma Saotome is gone!"
Kasumi, Nabiki, and Ukyo stood to the side as the doctors, nurses, and police combed the room and the hospital from the missing martial artist. There were even more police checking the city.
"Where is he? Where did he go?" Ukyo asked as she sat down in a chair in the waiting room.
"I don't know." Kasumi said as she gave her a motherly hug.
"Don't worry, we'll keep looking for him." Nabiki said in a firm voice. "No matter what, we will find him."
A mirror in another demsion of earth suddenly started to glow. It was a large mirroe that hung in the bedroom of Bulma Briefs. She was currently on the phone talking to Chichi Son with her back to the mirror. Just as the glow caught her attenchen, Ranma fell through and landed in a heap.
But Ranma was slightly diffrent then when left with the goddess. For one thing, Ranma was wearing a blue body suit the covered everything from the neck down with white boot and gloves. There was also armor on his chest and a brown furry tail wrapped around his waist. He was also unconcence.
But Bulma noticed none of this. She was stareing instead at the head of the girl sticking out of the mirror.
"Take care of him. He can help this world much more than his own." the woman smiled then her head disappered back into the mirror.
Bulma heard Chichi calling her name from the phone and finaly was able to overcome her shock enough to put the phone to her ear. "Chichi, you wont belive this, but there's a man on my bedroom floor and he came out of my mirror with this woman, well only her head stuck out from the mirror, but she told me to take care of him because he can help this world better than his own." Bulma said numbly.
"What?! Are yopu feeling ok, Bulma? People don't just come out of your bedroom mirror." Chichi said worriedly.
"I know but that's what happened. Right now he's like sleeping or something." Bulma said as she approched the still figure. "Oh my God, he looks like a saiyon!"
"What? A saiyon? are you sure?" Chichi asked from the phone in her house. She was currently in the kitchen cooking. Gohan was studying at the table and Gokou was rumaging in the fridge for a snack, but the conversation suddenly grabbed bothof their attenchens.
"Saiyon?" they both asked at the same time, and Chichi waved at them to be quiet.
"Armor? And a tail? That sounds like when Vegita and the other saiyons came to Earth." Chichi said and then answered Bulma's question. "Sure, I'll send Gokou over right away. Call me when everything is staightened out. Bye."
As she hung up, she turned to the two males. Gokou, will you get over to Bulma's house right away? There seems to be a saiyon in her bedroom and it's not Vegita."
"Why would Vegita be in her bedroom?" Gokou and Gohan both wanted to know.
"He wouldn't be but he's the only other saiyon on earth right?"
Releassation spead across both of their faces and they nodded in understanding, then Gokou placed his hand on Gohan's shoulder and they both disappered.
"Gokou, get back here! Gohan needs to study!" Chichi yelled after them.
Goku and Gohan appered next to Bulma as she was leaning over the figure.
"Hi Bulma. Is this the guy?" Gukou asked as he helped Bluma up.
"Yeah. He fell out of the mirror." Seeing the weird looks she was getting she quickly explained what had happened and what the woman had said. By the time she was finished, Ranma was starting to wake up.
Groaning, he sat up and rubbed his head. "Man, what hit me?" he mumbled as he opened his eyes and looked around. He jumped to his feet in surprise seeing a woman with blue hair, a man wearing an orange gi with a navy blue shirt underneath it, and a young boy wearing a purplish black Gi with a red belt and matching arm bands.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked wary as he slid into a combat stance.
"I could ask you the same thing considering some strange woman brought you into my bedrrom through my mirror." the woman said with her arms crossed over her chest. "As it is, even though it's obviouse that you are a saiyon, I want to know how you survived Planet Vegita's destruction."
"Oh, I get it, this is a dream from the painkillers the doctors gave me." Ranma said as he relaxed his stance.
"Why would doctors give you painkillers?" Gohan asked.
"Well, one of my fiancees threw a knife at my back while I was distracted and it sliced through some muscles but noting seriuse."
Your fiancee did that?!" Gokou said, astonished.
"Yeah. it was really strange though because usually she onlu punts my over the horizon with her mallot." Ranma said then paused for a second to study the familar looking people infront of him.
"Hey, your Gokou, arent you? And Gohan and Bulma. Wow, this realy is a strange dream if I'm dreaming about Dragonball Z." Ranma said as he rubbed the back of his head.
Suddenly Bulma stepped forward and slapped him in the face. "Hey, what did you do that for?!" Ranma shouted.
"If this was a dream, that would have woke you up, wouldn't it and besides, a dream doesn't hurt you." Bulma said calmly. "Now, how about you tell us how you know us, and what exactly is Dragonball Z? I know what a dragonball is."
"But this has to be a dream because Dragonball Z is a show I watch on tv. I was just watching one of the older ones today when Gokou explains about his telaportation techniec, which is just after the episode when Trunks explains about the androids who are going to destroy the world and Gokou and everyone dies except Gohan, who gets killed later anyway." Ranma said and watched as the three people in front of him almost faint in shock.
"You mean that from where you come from there is a show that is all about us?!" Gokou shrieked.
"Yeah, but like I said, this has to be a dream. I guess that weird lady with the stange markens on her face saying she was going to grant me a wish was just a dream too." Ranma said mainly to himself but Bulma answered him anyway.
"Did she have long ash blond hair up in a ponytail and green eyes?"
"Yeah."
"Then she wasn't a dream because she told me to take care of you because you would be more help in this world than your own." Bulma said firmly.
"...Well I guess I can accept that with all the other crazy things that have happened to me during my life with pops." Ranma said then finaly notice what he was wearing. "Wow, this is just like Vegita's outfit."
"Yeah, you even have a tail." Gohan said pointing to the furry appendage that was wrapped around his waist.
"I don't have a tail. Only saiyons have tails but I'm human." Ranma said calmly as he looked to where Gohan was pointing. His calm only lasted for a second after he saw the tail. "What the hell?! I'm a human, not a saiyon! This is just great and I thought being cursed was bad but this is even..." he trailed off for a second before pinning Bulma with an intense stare. "Can I have a cup of cold water?"
"Um, sure." Bulma said as she left for a second then came back with a glass of water from the kitchen.
Silantly handing it to him, she, and the others, watched in surprise as he promptly dumped it over his head. What was even more surprising was the fact that Ranma was replaced with a short red head girl.
"Man, I was hoping that goddess could've taken away my curse." the girl sighed as she handed the glass she was holding back to Bulma.
"Who are you and what happened to that guy who was here?" Bulma asked shakely.
"Oh, I'm Ranma Soatome. Sorry about this."
Chapter 1
"You're such a tomboy!"
That was the wrong thing for Ranma Saotome to say to an enraged girl who was holding a very sharp cutting knife.
The fight had been over him eating what Akane Tendo had cooked for dinner. She had been in the kitchen for hours cooking because her two older sister were gone for the day. Kasumi had left to go to Tokyo to visit old friends and Nabiki had to go out for the day to run her business of selling information. She had just developed pictures of girl Ranma, boy Ranma, and Akane to sell to variouse people, and had been eager to get the profits as soon as possible.
Even Akane and Ranma's fathers were gone for the evening on some excuse that they needed to celebrate something or other. Ranma, however knew that was just a conveniant excuse to escape Akane's toxic cooking.
But Ranma couldn't get away as easily because Soun and Genma had insisted that Akane could not be left at home alone.
Akane had been working very hard, trying to get things just right, and judging from the various bangs and clangs and swearing coming from the kitchen, Ranma had been sure that things were not going very well. She had come out of the kitchen with some rice for them, and even though it had smelled alright, he had refused to eat it. Last time he had tried to eat some of her cooking, he had wound up with food poisioning, even though he had been exposed to some leathal food before and had an iron clad stomach.
He had refused to touch the food. Mistake one.
He had suddgested that they went to Uu-chan's or the Cat Cafe. Mistake two.
He had insulted her cooking with out even trying it. Mistake three.
He had insulted her. Mistake four. And four was by most the worst in her eyes.
She threw the sharp knife she had brought out to cut the western style steaks she had made at him. "You jerk!"
Ranma wasn't looking at her. He was stareing at the huge lightning bolt that had struck the tree at that percise moment. The knife flew from her hand and lodged in Ranma's unprotected back, but Akane didn't see this as she had already stalked out the door to the dojo to break some concreat bricks to releve some of her anger.
Ranma felt the knife slip between his lower ribs, right next to his spine. He gasped in pain and collasped to the floor. His entire back was a mass of red hot pain, so much that he could barely move. he tried to reach around to pull the knife out but he couldn't. Gasping in pain, he tried to yell for Akane, but all that came out was a faint, haorse croak that barely reached his own ears. He felt the blood pooling around him on the floor just before he blacked out.
Ukyo had decidied to bring some food over for her Ran-chan because she knew that tonight Akane was supposed to cook something and everyone knew just how bad her cooking was. "I can belive how fast this storm came up." she muttered as she tossed the now soggy food into a trash can that she passed. "I can't realy give my Ran-chan this. So I'll just invite him back to the restarunt." She said happily as she entered the gate.
As soon as she set foot into the yard, a huge bolt of lightning hit the tree in the yard, blowing off a large branch but doing relitivly little damage. Looking at the house to see if any one was going to come out and check on the damage, she saw the furious Akane stalk to the dojo, ignoring the storm that raged around her.
'If Akane is that angry, that must mean the Ran-chan is in the house. I think I'll go surprise him.' she thought as she walked up to the porch and shook the rain as best she could out of her hair and clothes. Slideing open the door, she slipped in and started to look around but the storm had knocked had knocked out the power so she never saw the body laying next to the window, and she tripped over it.
"Ow." she groaned as she started to push herself up but stoped when she felt something warm and slippery on her hands. Just then a bolt of lightning lit up the room illuminating Ranma and the spreading pool of red that seeped from around the knife sticking out of his back.
"Oh my God, RANMA!" she screamed in horror.
Just then two things happened. The lights came back on and Kasumi and Nabiki came into the house.
"Oh my, what happened?" Kasumi asked as she hurried over to them. Nabiki followed fast behind her sister.She had heard Ukyo's scream and was worried about Ranma. She had never heard her sound that scared before.
"I was bringing some food for Ranma...got wet and I threw it out and...big lightning bolt hit tree outside...Akane mad again. Came in to look for Ran-chan but lights out and triped over him. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!"
Relising that she wasn't going to get anything else out of the chief for now, Kasumi turned toher sister and started snapping out orders in a calm voice as if this was an everyday thing. "Nabiki, get me some clean water and a bunch of rags, then call Dr. Tofu and tell him to meet us at the hosputal. But before you call him make sure you call for an ambulance first. Then after you finish that, please take Ukyo into the other room and get her cleaned up. She has had a trearible shock and the blood needs to be washed off of her."
"Ok sis." Nabiki said and snapped into action. in a matter of moments, Kasumi had gentily removed the knife and with the folded rags in the shape of a thick pad that she pressed firmly against the wound to stem the flow of blood that never seemed to end. She aintained the pressure untill the paramedics arrived and took over. They had him stable and in the ambulance and on the way to the hospital before Nabiki and Ukyo were back from getting her cleaned up.
"Uyko, you said that Akane was angry again when you got here?" Kasumi asked as she sat down with the other on the couch in the other room, away from the blood that was still on the floor.
"Yes. I saw her storming out to the dojo like she was going to tear it down with her bare hands." Ukyo said as calmly as she could, then asked in a soft voice, "Do you think she did this?"
Normaly, she would have just assumed that it was Akane's fault but this had shaken he up so much that she could hardly function. Kasumi was aware of this and said in her most soothing voice, "We don't know but for now, why don't you go upstairs to my room and lay down for a little while and then we will all go to the hospital, ok?"
"Ok." Ukyo said softly and Kasumi motioned for Nabiki to take her upstairs. She was back down a minute later only to find Kasumi missing. On a hunch she slipped outside and up to the wall next to the doorway where she could hear everything that was going on in the dojo. Her hunch was proven correct when she heard the sharp sound of flesh hitting flesh.
Inside the dojo, Akane was stareing in shock at her oldest sister. She had been cleaning up all of the broken bricks, feeling much better, when she had heard her sister come in.
"Hi, Kasumi. How was your meeting with your friends?" she said as she put away the broom and dust pan.
"Akane, did you happen to toss a knife earlier?"
"Um...yeah. Why Kas..." she was interupted by Kasumi's hand as it struck her in the face.
"I am very disappointed in you, Akane." Kasumi said as she lowered her hand. "Ranma was just taken to the hospital. He had a seriouse back wound, from a knife, one of our sharpest knives." With that, she turned and left her stunned sister alone in the center of the dojo with a bright red hand print on her left cheek.
"Nabiki, you know you realy shouldn't spy on people like that." Kasumi said as she paused out side of the entrance way. "Please help me with the clean up. I want to get to the hospital as soon as possible." With that said, she continued on into the house with Nabiki right behind her.
Akane had listened to Kasumi address Nabiki in shock. This was not her regualr addittude. She had never struck anyone in her life, had always been the perfect daughter and housekeeper and cook and everything else.
'I have to go see him and make sure that he's alright.' Akane thought to herself but just as fast, another thought poped into her head. 'Why? He deserved it. he wouldn't eat what you made for him and this time it came out perfect, too.'
Still aurguing with her self, she wandered out of the dojo and sat down by the koi pond, dispite the rain that continued to pour down.
"There, that should do it." Kasumi said as she finished cleaning up the last of the blood. "Nabiki, will you go get Ukyo will I finish putting this stuff away? The taxi should be here in a minute."
Nabiki nodded and hurried up the stairs, desterbed.
Watching Kasumi calmly clean up a pool of blood would upset most people. In Kasumi's room, she found Ukyo huddled on the bed, stareing out the window.
"Is he going to be ok?" the chief asked softly.
Hearing this whispered question, Nabiki felt sorry for the girl and for once her hard, money making personality wasn't the one in control. Nabiki had been like this since she had arrived home to see Ranma hurt so bad. Normaly she would start thinking about how much his hospital stay would cost and what she could do to get more money but this was a side no one had seen of Nabiki since she was twelve, including herself.
Wrapping her in a hug, Nabiki whispered reasuracnes in her ear. After a minute, she pulled her to her feet and led her out. "We're going to go see him right now." She said as they reached to bottom of the stairs.
"Are you two ready?" Kasumi asked as she put on her jacket and took a large umbreila from the closet.
"Yes." Ukyo said and the three left the house and hurried to the waiting taxi.
Akane watched them leave in the taxi, still sitting next to the koi pond. The arguing voice in her head was at last quiet and she was starting to get really worried. Sure he had been hurt pretty bad before but she had never done something like this before to him. She had always just smashed him with her trusty mallet.
"God, please help me and Ranma. I didn't mean to hurt him. I was just so angry at him. The food came out perfect this time, I tried it to be sure." she prayed.
"But he always makes me so mad. He wouldn't even try it. He just assumed it was bad. But please help him, Lord."
She continued to pray next to the koi pond, not knowing someone else was answering her prayers at that very moment.
The doctors had taken care of Ranma quickly when he was brought in. They had said that the knife had missed anything important and had lodged in the muscles just an inch from his spine. Now he has in a hospital room hooked up to IVs that dripped antibiodics and blood into his sytem. He had lost a lot of blood but the doctors had finaly stopped it in the emergancy room.
'Maybe I should call the house and make sure the others don't worry.' he thought as he reached for the phone on the bedside table. 'Pops and Mr. Tendo might be home by now and wondering where I am. I may not know how I got to the hospital but if it was one of them, they would be here.'
Dailing the number, he had a funny feeling that something was going to happen and he wasn't sure what.
"Hi. You have reached the Goddess Help Hotline. Please stay where you are and a goddess with be there shortly to help." A pleasent voice on the other line said pleasently and Ranma started in surprise.
'I must have dailed the wrong number by mistake.' he thought as he hung up.
"Ranma." a soft voice said from the direction of the open bathroom door in his room. Turning his head, he saw the mirror shining and then a woman dressed in flowing robes with strange markings on her face.
"..."
"My name is Belladonday, Goddess first class. Ranma, you may have one wish. Anything you desire, to be granted if my superiors approve." the stange woman said as she landed lightly on the ground.
"You have to be kiding me."
"No I'm not. You may have any wish."
'I guess I could wish that I was somewhere else. A place that I was needed but that would mean I belive her story. Sure she came out of the mirror but that Prince could do the same thing with oneof his illusions.' Ranma thought as he stared at the woman. She appered to be around his age.
Suddenly, she started to glow and a beam of light shot from the symbol on her forehead. "Your wish has been approved." she said with a smile as she opened her eyes.
"Wh.. what? What wish?!" Ranma demanded.
"Your wish that you could be somwhere that needed you. Come. We must get going." she said as she approched and disconnected the IVs. Picking him up, she flew back through the mirror.
Just as they disappered, a nurse came into the room leading Kasumi, Nabiki, and Ukyo.
"This is the patiant's room." she said as she pushed open the door. "He'll be fine. the doctor said that the knife had missed..." the nurse stopped as she relised that the young man was missing. Rushing to the phone, she grabbed it and dialed the front desk. "Ranma Saotome is gone!"
Kasumi, Nabiki, and Ukyo stood to the side as the doctors, nurses, and police combed the room and the hospital from the missing martial artist. There were even more police checking the city.
"Where is he? Where did he go?" Ukyo asked as she sat down in a chair in the waiting room.
"I don't know." Kasumi said as she gave her a motherly hug.
"Don't worry, we'll keep looking for him." Nabiki said in a firm voice. "No matter what, we will find him."
A mirror in another demsion of earth suddenly started to glow. It was a large mirroe that hung in the bedroom of Bulma Briefs. She was currently on the phone talking to Chichi Son with her back to the mirror. Just as the glow caught her attenchen, Ranma fell through and landed in a heap.
But Ranma was slightly diffrent then when left with the goddess. For one thing, Ranma was wearing a blue body suit the covered everything from the neck down with white boot and gloves. There was also armor on his chest and a brown furry tail wrapped around his waist. He was also unconcence.
But Bulma noticed none of this. She was stareing instead at the head of the girl sticking out of the mirror.
"Take care of him. He can help this world much more than his own." the woman smiled then her head disappered back into the mirror.
Bulma heard Chichi calling her name from the phone and finaly was able to overcome her shock enough to put the phone to her ear. "Chichi, you wont belive this, but there's a man on my bedroom floor and he came out of my mirror with this woman, well only her head stuck out from the mirror, but she told me to take care of him because he can help this world better than his own." Bulma said numbly.
"What?! Are yopu feeling ok, Bulma? People don't just come out of your bedroom mirror." Chichi said worriedly.
"I know but that's what happened. Right now he's like sleeping or something." Bulma said as she approched the still figure. "Oh my God, he looks like a saiyon!"
"What? A saiyon? are you sure?" Chichi asked from the phone in her house. She was currently in the kitchen cooking. Gohan was studying at the table and Gokou was rumaging in the fridge for a snack, but the conversation suddenly grabbed bothof their attenchens.
"Saiyon?" they both asked at the same time, and Chichi waved at them to be quiet.
"Armor? And a tail? That sounds like when Vegita and the other saiyons came to Earth." Chichi said and then answered Bulma's question. "Sure, I'll send Gokou over right away. Call me when everything is staightened out. Bye."
As she hung up, she turned to the two males. Gokou, will you get over to Bulma's house right away? There seems to be a saiyon in her bedroom and it's not Vegita."
"Why would Vegita be in her bedroom?" Gokou and Gohan both wanted to know.
"He wouldn't be but he's the only other saiyon on earth right?"
Releassation spead across both of their faces and they nodded in understanding, then Gokou placed his hand on Gohan's shoulder and they both disappered.
"Gokou, get back here! Gohan needs to study!" Chichi yelled after them.
Goku and Gohan appered next to Bulma as she was leaning over the figure.
"Hi Bulma. Is this the guy?" Gukou asked as he helped Bluma up.
"Yeah. He fell out of the mirror." Seeing the weird looks she was getting she quickly explained what had happened and what the woman had said. By the time she was finished, Ranma was starting to wake up.
Groaning, he sat up and rubbed his head. "Man, what hit me?" he mumbled as he opened his eyes and looked around. He jumped to his feet in surprise seeing a woman with blue hair, a man wearing an orange gi with a navy blue shirt underneath it, and a young boy wearing a purplish black Gi with a red belt and matching arm bands.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked wary as he slid into a combat stance.
"I could ask you the same thing considering some strange woman brought you into my bedrrom through my mirror." the woman said with her arms crossed over her chest. "As it is, even though it's obviouse that you are a saiyon, I want to know how you survived Planet Vegita's destruction."
"Oh, I get it, this is a dream from the painkillers the doctors gave me." Ranma said as he relaxed his stance.
"Why would doctors give you painkillers?" Gohan asked.
"Well, one of my fiancees threw a knife at my back while I was distracted and it sliced through some muscles but noting seriuse."
Your fiancee did that?!" Gokou said, astonished.
"Yeah. it was really strange though because usually she onlu punts my over the horizon with her mallot." Ranma said then paused for a second to study the familar looking people infront of him.
"Hey, your Gokou, arent you? And Gohan and Bulma. Wow, this realy is a strange dream if I'm dreaming about Dragonball Z." Ranma said as he rubbed the back of his head.
Suddenly Bulma stepped forward and slapped him in the face. "Hey, what did you do that for?!" Ranma shouted.
"If this was a dream, that would have woke you up, wouldn't it and besides, a dream doesn't hurt you." Bulma said calmly. "Now, how about you tell us how you know us, and what exactly is Dragonball Z? I know what a dragonball is."
"But this has to be a dream because Dragonball Z is a show I watch on tv. I was just watching one of the older ones today when Gokou explains about his telaportation techniec, which is just after the episode when Trunks explains about the androids who are going to destroy the world and Gokou and everyone dies except Gohan, who gets killed later anyway." Ranma said and watched as the three people in front of him almost faint in shock.
"You mean that from where you come from there is a show that is all about us?!" Gokou shrieked.
"Yeah, but like I said, this has to be a dream. I guess that weird lady with the stange markens on her face saying she was going to grant me a wish was just a dream too." Ranma said mainly to himself but Bulma answered him anyway.
"Did she have long ash blond hair up in a ponytail and green eyes?"
"Yeah."
"Then she wasn't a dream because she told me to take care of you because you would be more help in this world than your own." Bulma said firmly.
"...Well I guess I can accept that with all the other crazy things that have happened to me during my life with pops." Ranma said then finaly notice what he was wearing. "Wow, this is just like Vegita's outfit."
"Yeah, you even have a tail." Gohan said pointing to the furry appendage that was wrapped around his waist.
"I don't have a tail. Only saiyons have tails but I'm human." Ranma said calmly as he looked to where Gohan was pointing. His calm only lasted for a second after he saw the tail. "What the hell?! I'm a human, not a saiyon! This is just great and I thought being cursed was bad but this is even..." he trailed off for a second before pinning Bulma with an intense stare. "Can I have a cup of cold water?"
"Um, sure." Bulma said as she left for a second then came back with a glass of water from the kitchen.
Silantly handing it to him, she, and the others, watched in surprise as he promptly dumped it over his head. What was even more surprising was the fact that Ranma was replaced with a short red head girl.
"Man, I was hoping that goddess could've taken away my curse." the girl sighed as she handed the glass she was holding back to Bulma.
"Who are you and what happened to that guy who was here?" Bulma asked shakely.
"Oh, I'm Ranma Soatome. Sorry about this."