Author's Note: Alright, I've finally reached the point of breaking down and deciding to move the 'Chibified' series from "Wild Horse Chase" into a story in its own right. Like with the "Credo Quia Impossible Est" series, some chapters have been moved around from the original order and the original chapters will remain in "Wild Horse Chase" for posterity while any new chapters will be added here.

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi and ...Honestly, I'm not sure who owns Tenchi Muyo anymore, really... each being used for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit.

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"Chibified"
'Wild Horses and Family Trees'
By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'

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"The problem with family trees is that some are nut trees." - Anon.

-o0o-

Saotome Ranma found himself wondering how this had happened, how he had ended up being dragged to a shrine in the middle of nowhere like he was...

'Oh, right,' he thought, 'Mom showed up without warning, so I didn't have time to become 'Ranko' first, Pops was out with Mr. Tendo, so I couldn't escape when she decided I needed to go with her to visit her side of the family.'

He didn't have a problem with shrines; he'd visited tons of shrines, temples, dojos and places like that with his old man during their trip. He just wasn't sure he liked the idea of family; his old man had ruined his life and his mom would probably make him kill himself when she found out about his curse, he didn't want to think about what the rest of his family might be like. He hadn't ever considered this as a possibility, he'd never thought seriously that the insanity in Nerima was just following him, but first Jusenkyo and the Amazons, then Nerima and everything there and now the current situation.

'Maybe it is me,' he thought, 'Maybe Akane's right and everything really is all my fault.'

His mom's brother-in-law was strange, he was supposed to be some kind of prince, but he kept a shrine; not that it bothered Ranma, at least since he was older and married it meant that he was one prince that wouldn't come looking for a bride that he'd end up saving Akane from for a change. His aunt, though, his mother's sister - she reminded him of Shampoo, kinda; right down to a weird hair color, he'd never seen anyone with that shade of bright cyan-blue hair before. She talked about being some kind of pirate, semi-reformed and -retired, which didn't really affect Ranma considering some of the people he had met. It was when they had asked him to go get his grandmother for lunch that things had gone crazy even by his generous standards.

The crab-shaped nameplate on the door was cute, different than the ducks that each of the Tendo sisters had on their bedroom doors, though Ranma had at first thought it was a little childish for someone so old her children had children of their own. Then he considered it a moment longer and decided that if his grandmother wanted to have a crab-shaped nameplate on her door, it was better than being an underwear thief and an old ghoul like the other two old people he knew. Ranma had opened the door and stepped through into a room that was way too big for the amount of space in the house. He took two steps forward only for the door to swing shut behind him and when he had tried to open it, it wouldn't budge. Calling out, he had started to look around the room at all the weird machines and computer-looking things while he tried to find his grandmother. After a few minutes, he had felt something behind him and before he could turn around everything went black. Which was why he now found himself in a situation that dealing with Kodachi had made him more used to than he'd like - waking up stripped to his boxers and bound to a table.

"Good morning!" A red-head that was even shorter than his cursed form chirped, "I'm Washu-chan and you must be Nodoka's little one - don't worry, I wouldn't do anything permanent to my daughter's only child."

Ranma looked around the room, the lab, down at the straps holding him to the table, then to Washu, "Uh... Granny..."

Suddenly, he felt like the time Ryoga had knocked him into a generator during one of their fights as the metal straps were electrified, shocking the pigtailed martial artist for a few seconds before the current cut off and left him laying there stunned.

"Uh-uh-uh," Washu wagged her finger at him, "We don't talk like that to the Cutest Scientist in the Universe, got it?"

A chibi-puppet version of Ranma's grandmother popped up over her left shoulder, "You're the greatest, Washu-chan!"

"And the cutest, too!" A second chibi-puppet added as it popped up over her right shoulder.

For the first time in years, Ranma's brain cell dedicated to analysing a situation and the brain cell for thinking about things not having to do with The Art met. To commemorate their encounter, they decided to have a little party in the pigtailed boy's cerebral cortex and by the time it was through, he had come to a stunning and frightening realisation that he couldn't keep himself from giving voice to...

"Oh, Kamis all," Ranma groaned in despair, "I'm the normal one in the family!"

-o0o-

Furinkan High School,
Nerima Ward,
Six weeks later...

"Now, foul sorceror, prepare to meet thy doom!" Kuno's voice cut across the schoolyard.

"Geez, Kuno," Ranma rolled his eyes, "How much are you paying the Drama Club to write these lines for you?"

"Silence, cur! I strike!" Kuno stabbed out with his bokken, only for Ranma to leap over the kendoist, twist in midair and land on his feet facing the 'True Blunder' of Furinkan.

"Really, how many times have I beat you, Kuno? Yeah, every time, that's right," Ranma reminded him, only for a chibi-puppet of his male form to pop out over his right shoulder.

"He's really not that good, is he, Ranma-kun?" the puppet asked, only to be joined by a chibi-puppet of Ranma's female form appearing over the martial artist's left shoulder and answering the question.

"It doesn't matter how good Kuno is," the female form chibi-puppet commented, "Ranma-kun's the best!"

"He's the greatest!" male chibi-Ranma agreed.

"And so manly!" female-chibi Ranma added, causing the full-sized Ranma to groan.

'Why did Mom have to talk her into adding that to them?' he groaned. Really he did like 'Chibi-ma' and 'Chibi-ko', Chibi-puppets of his male and female forms based on Washu's own Chibi-Washus, a present from the 'Greatest and Cutest Scientist in The Universe' for over ten years of missed birthdays, but sometimes they just reminded him of the simple fact that his entire family was nuts.

"I liked him better before he got those things," Nabiki muttered from the window of a second floor classroom as Chibi-ma and Chibi-ko pulled a small table and pair of microphones out of nowhere and began commentating on the latest round of Ranma versus Kuno when the kendoist turned around and attacked again.