A Ranma 1/2 Alternate Histories Company Presents:
Helping Myself.
By Felix Webster ( Felix Warstar )
Disclaimer: All original Ranma 1/2 Characters and Back story Copyright Rumiko Takahashi. This is written for fun and not for any profit so please don't sue as I'm a poor writer who one day hopes to write something original and become a so called professional writer. . . this is just practice.
Introduction:
- The Summoning -
Ranma Saotome looked up from his meditations and smiled at the woman and two girls as they practiced their katas. He still had troubles believing that at the age of twenty-five he'd be happily married with two adopted teenage daughters, but here he was and there they were.
Sitting back he tried to clear his mind of the past as memories always clouded his meditation. The conflict in his balance didn't seem to want to balance this day but his efforts made him miss the slight change around him.
"Ranma Saotome, we need your help," a familiar, yet still unfamiliar, female voice called from in front of him.
Snapping his eyes open he stayed in his lotus position as if it was an attack he would have already been hit. What he saw before him confused him slightly as it was a girl who might be called twelve years old in appearance. She had startlingly liquid blue eyes and black hair with reddish highlights which made her look unsettlingly like someone he knew. . . but for the life of him he couldn't think of who.
He also noted she was wearing something that even Shampoo might call indecent, " Do your parents know you're outside in that?"
"Like what?" the girl spread her arms out and looked down wondering what he was talking about. For the life of her she couldn't out what he meant. She stood wearing what looked like a strapless white one piece swimsuit that left her shoulders bare, a sky blue skirt was over top of it coming to her knees but split down the center to show off the bottom of the white suit in the front. She had a pair of sky blue fingerless long sleeve gloves and a pair of toeless ankle socks in matching colour. A thin linked golden chain was around her waist hanging slightly and her arms and ankles were covered in multiple armlets, bracelets, and anklets in both silver and gold. A dark blue velvet collar finished the outfit around her neck with a red gem set in the side that seemed to glow. The truly odd, or it should be said *more* odd, thing was the slightly glowing markings on her forehead and cheeks. "What's wrong with how Poppa dressed me?"
"Hmm, where should I start?" Ranma gave the girl a stern look. "I'm surprised my wife let you in wearing that."
"Your wife didn't have to *let me in* as we aren't in your Dojo anymore," the girl replied smile as she swept an arm out to show that the area that looked like the Dojo faded to stardust then into nothingness at about the center point of the room.
"Okay fine," Ranma shrugged as if he was an old hand at this kind of thing. "So what help do you need from me?"
"Not me exactly. . you, or I should say another you needs your help. . sorta," the girl explained nervously as she wrung her hands a bit.
"That almost made sense," Ranma gave the girl a reassuring smile. "Try it again a bit slower."
"Well, um. . . first of I should explain the fact that there is a lot of different yous out here," the girl started but still seemed to have problems.
"Yes, if the theory holds there should be a *me* for every decision I have to make in my life, each taking the other choice of actions," Ranma said calmly trying to show he did understand what she was getting at.
"Oh no! There isn't that many!" the girl exclaimed in shock. "We could never keep track of that many!"
"So how do you handle it?" Ranma smiled at the girl.
"Well. . . Poppa said that he watches over a set of threads he called strings. Each string has a certain thickness with the thickest being considered the primary. A string gains thickness the string and the actions of those in the string," the girl replied. "We also only keep the ones that someone takes interest in as the others just clutter things up."
"I see. . . so one of these strings is getting too thin because something happened?" Ranma asked seriously hopping it wasn't his own.
"Well kinda. . . My Poppa took an interest in one that was just starting and *someone* caused it to start to collapse," the girl looked very serious about this as this someone seemed to bother her. "The string will snap soon unless we fix it in some way."
"So again I ask what do you need from me?"
"The Ranma there needs a new. . Father figure as his has sorta passed on unexpectedly," the girl answered looking sad, annoyed, and perplexed about this at the same time and caused Ranma to think he saw three different faces overlapping.
"So you're going to bring him to me?" Ranma looked a little confused. "Why not use another version of Pop? Not that I'd wish his upbringing on anyone."
"Poppa thinks a Ranma raised by another Ranma would be very interesting to see," the girl smiled slightly. "And we aren't bringing him to you. . ."
"I have a family! I will not be taken away from them!" Ranma bellowed in anger and suddenly on his feet, bearing down on the odd looking girl as what she was suggesting clicked in.
"Whoa!. . . We aren't taking you. . not exactly," the girl stepped back and warded off Ranma as she truly seemed frightened of him. "We just need a Ranma like you to use as a template so we can make an extra to send to him."
Ranma watched the girl as she mumbled a few words in an old language he didn't understand but could feel through out his being and a man shaped being of white energy formed into existence beside her, "How the. . .?"
"This is the essence of a Ranma that had his string snap. We saved what we could of it but we were a bit too late so we need to reinitialize it's form and give it a memory base," the girl looked proud of the fact the being came so quickly to her call. "We chose you because you have experience raising teenagers and are a bit more mature then most of the other Ranmas at your age."
"Also because we believe he's gonna need a bit of a kick in his training soon," she continued looking worried.
"Because someone has already interfered in that string?" Ranma cocked an eyebrow at the girl.
"Yes," the girl replied unhappily. "We don't know why but Poppa has a few enemies and. . . it's very confusing as to why this string was attacked as it was supposed to be only a minor change form the primary string and as such not very important."
"Important enough to watch, important enough to interfere with," Ranma stated firmly. "So what do I have to do?"
"What? Oh, simply touch the other Ranma and I'll send you right back," the girl replied as Ranma interrupted a thought she was developing based on what he said.
"Fine," Ranma put a finger to the energy being and then faded out before seeing it turn into a duplicate of himself, clothes and items included.
"So what do we do now?" the new Ranma asked the girl calmly as if he had been there from the start.
"I have to set some of the ground rules about the younger Ranma," the girl stated seriously as she put her hands on her hips and stood slightly back to look up into the man's eyes. "One, since Ranma has just received his curse you can't try to cure him or yourself."
"I'm actually okay with my curse thank you very much," Ranma replied indignantly.
"That's another reason we chose you," the girl smiled. "Two, you have to go to the Amazon Village. . . things won't be the same as before but they still will have an impact on both of you. And three, you have to take him to the Tendos for the engagement. . . but you don't have to put a huge push for the marriage."
"I wouldn't have anyways," Ranma continued to sound indignant. "But my knowledge of what happened is going to cause problems. And how am I going to explain who I am and where I came from?"
"You won't have to, when we insert you we will alter the collective memories of those necessary," the girl said with a bigger smile. "You won't have a complete memory about events and things will change as time goes on with new events so you won't cause the kinds of problems you think you will."
"Yeah sure, I'll believe that when I see it," Ranma rolled his eyes.
"We figure that sending you in as this Ranma's older cousin, who was trained by his father as a boy, to be the best way to explain how you know the Saotome-Ryu. . . I like that name," the girl looked proud of herself for a moment.
"What name?" Ranma looked weary of the girl because she seemed proud of herself for a moment.
"Ryu. . . Dragon. It'll send a message to whoever is trying to cause problems in this string," the girl explained with a nasty grin. "Ryu Saotome. . . the son of Nodoka Saotome's departed twin sister."
"Mother didn't have a twin sister. . . in fact she didn't even have a sister, just an older brother who passed away before I was born," Ranma looked confused. "It's one of the reasons that Pop took the Saotome name instead of Mother taking his name, so the Saotome family line continued."
"And because it would be better to be a ronin instead of having his family name," the girl snickered then realized Ranma didn't find that funny.
"How do I explain the curse?. . . Or do I get recursed when I get there?" Ranma asked trying to ignore the girl's little joke.
"You. . have already been to Jusenkyo a few years prior with your other teacher. . . You were coming back to warn your Uncle and Cousin of the dangers when you heard they were going there," the girl seemed to be concentrating somewhere else at the same time as she explained the history.
"You're making this up as you go along aren't you?" Ranma asked then rolled his eyes at the girl's indignant pout. "Thought so."
"We didn't have time to plan ahead," the girl replied before continuing. "The Guide will know you as will others. . . but only the Guide and your old teacher will know about the curse already."
"Um, okay. Who is my old teacher?" Ranma asked not sure about this anymore but knowing he didn't have much choice anymore.
"An Amazon master of Hidden Weapons called Tou-Ni-Ke or Tonic," the girl smiled again.
"But. . but. . the woman I. . I mean the other Ranma married to become an Amazon sister was named Tonic! What's going on?" Ranma looked truly confused as he remembered the short marriage well, it was how he ended up with two adopted daughters.
"Amazon names tend to get reused between Villages as there is only so many for that joke. . I mean for that tradition," the girl corrected herself quickly. "But this Tonic is an agent of ours in this string as was the Tonic was the agent of the one watching the string you remember. And this explains your knowledge of the Amazon techniques."
"Except for the small fact that male Amazons aren't suppose to know most of them," Ranma countered feeling better after poking holes in one of her ideas, he didn't realize how much she was starting to bug him till then.
"Actually there is no law stopping a male from being taught the moves. . or else Cologne has a lot to explain about teaching Ryoga anything," the girl gave Ranma a sly smile showing she was still on top of things. "The male just has to find a woman willing to teach him as males aren't allowed to teach others those moves."
"Of course that means Tonic is in real trouble for teaching an outsider male those same skills. . but we aren't going to allow our agent to come to any harm over that," the girl continued with a small chuckle. "And for the record. . you aren't an agent of ours. After obeying the few rules we set forth you have free will as to what happens next, or how things happen."
"Really? Aren't you risking a lot putting another possible problem in to the string?"
"No. We trust you enough not to screw up Ranma's existence too much," the girl smiled again. "But I have to sent you now. . . If you really need any major help you can try to call on me for insight, if Poppa allows it I'll come and help."
"Great. . . but I don't know your name yet," Ranma stated as he started to fade out.
"It's Sakura," the girl smiled and waved to the nearly invisible person.
"Figures. . ." Ranma stated then totally disappeared.
- - - - -
Authors notes: First off, the older Ranma comes from another Fanfiction I'm still working on called 'Everyone grows up sometime' and I will post that one soon when I get the first few chapters finished. I'm starting to post ficts after doing a few chapters so there is a stream of things to read as I work on other projects.
I know that the *girl* is a bit over done, and the fact that she is named Sakura just adds to it, but she is suppose to be a creation of a Fanfiction writer as a sorta pet to be a go-between between him and his thread of a story, and as such she fits the concept near perfectly ( and no she is not meant as a sex toy! Perverts! ) If you haven't guessed Poppa is me, not as a self insertion but as a Kami-like way of guiding his little creation. The someone messing with the story is currently a friend who suggested Genma die as a problem for Poppa to solve in a Kami-like way. Later the someone will possibly be suggestions made in reviews, but not yet. . . I'll let you know.
This was a very random thought that demanded life that came to me while I was in writers block on both 'RTVS:Book 1 chapter 10' and 'Robin 1/2 chapter 3'. Both will be out soon as I'm half way finished each. I have a habit of writing any random thoughts out to at least one full chapter to see if I want to continue it so my longer pieces tend to get slowed down a bit.
Helping Myself.
By Felix Webster ( Felix Warstar )
Disclaimer: All original Ranma 1/2 Characters and Back story Copyright Rumiko Takahashi. This is written for fun and not for any profit so please don't sue as I'm a poor writer who one day hopes to write something original and become a so called professional writer. . . this is just practice.
Introduction:
- The Summoning -
Ranma Saotome looked up from his meditations and smiled at the woman and two girls as they practiced their katas. He still had troubles believing that at the age of twenty-five he'd be happily married with two adopted teenage daughters, but here he was and there they were.
Sitting back he tried to clear his mind of the past as memories always clouded his meditation. The conflict in his balance didn't seem to want to balance this day but his efforts made him miss the slight change around him.
"Ranma Saotome, we need your help," a familiar, yet still unfamiliar, female voice called from in front of him.
Snapping his eyes open he stayed in his lotus position as if it was an attack he would have already been hit. What he saw before him confused him slightly as it was a girl who might be called twelve years old in appearance. She had startlingly liquid blue eyes and black hair with reddish highlights which made her look unsettlingly like someone he knew. . . but for the life of him he couldn't think of who.
He also noted she was wearing something that even Shampoo might call indecent, " Do your parents know you're outside in that?"
"Like what?" the girl spread her arms out and looked down wondering what he was talking about. For the life of her she couldn't out what he meant. She stood wearing what looked like a strapless white one piece swimsuit that left her shoulders bare, a sky blue skirt was over top of it coming to her knees but split down the center to show off the bottom of the white suit in the front. She had a pair of sky blue fingerless long sleeve gloves and a pair of toeless ankle socks in matching colour. A thin linked golden chain was around her waist hanging slightly and her arms and ankles were covered in multiple armlets, bracelets, and anklets in both silver and gold. A dark blue velvet collar finished the outfit around her neck with a red gem set in the side that seemed to glow. The truly odd, or it should be said *more* odd, thing was the slightly glowing markings on her forehead and cheeks. "What's wrong with how Poppa dressed me?"
"Hmm, where should I start?" Ranma gave the girl a stern look. "I'm surprised my wife let you in wearing that."
"Your wife didn't have to *let me in* as we aren't in your Dojo anymore," the girl replied smile as she swept an arm out to show that the area that looked like the Dojo faded to stardust then into nothingness at about the center point of the room.
"Okay fine," Ranma shrugged as if he was an old hand at this kind of thing. "So what help do you need from me?"
"Not me exactly. . you, or I should say another you needs your help. . sorta," the girl explained nervously as she wrung her hands a bit.
"That almost made sense," Ranma gave the girl a reassuring smile. "Try it again a bit slower."
"Well, um. . . first of I should explain the fact that there is a lot of different yous out here," the girl started but still seemed to have problems.
"Yes, if the theory holds there should be a *me* for every decision I have to make in my life, each taking the other choice of actions," Ranma said calmly trying to show he did understand what she was getting at.
"Oh no! There isn't that many!" the girl exclaimed in shock. "We could never keep track of that many!"
"So how do you handle it?" Ranma smiled at the girl.
"Well. . . Poppa said that he watches over a set of threads he called strings. Each string has a certain thickness with the thickest being considered the primary. A string gains thickness the string and the actions of those in the string," the girl replied. "We also only keep the ones that someone takes interest in as the others just clutter things up."
"I see. . . so one of these strings is getting too thin because something happened?" Ranma asked seriously hopping it wasn't his own.
"Well kinda. . . My Poppa took an interest in one that was just starting and *someone* caused it to start to collapse," the girl looked very serious about this as this someone seemed to bother her. "The string will snap soon unless we fix it in some way."
"So again I ask what do you need from me?"
"The Ranma there needs a new. . Father figure as his has sorta passed on unexpectedly," the girl answered looking sad, annoyed, and perplexed about this at the same time and caused Ranma to think he saw three different faces overlapping.
"So you're going to bring him to me?" Ranma looked a little confused. "Why not use another version of Pop? Not that I'd wish his upbringing on anyone."
"Poppa thinks a Ranma raised by another Ranma would be very interesting to see," the girl smiled slightly. "And we aren't bringing him to you. . ."
"I have a family! I will not be taken away from them!" Ranma bellowed in anger and suddenly on his feet, bearing down on the odd looking girl as what she was suggesting clicked in.
"Whoa!. . . We aren't taking you. . not exactly," the girl stepped back and warded off Ranma as she truly seemed frightened of him. "We just need a Ranma like you to use as a template so we can make an extra to send to him."
Ranma watched the girl as she mumbled a few words in an old language he didn't understand but could feel through out his being and a man shaped being of white energy formed into existence beside her, "How the. . .?"
"This is the essence of a Ranma that had his string snap. We saved what we could of it but we were a bit too late so we need to reinitialize it's form and give it a memory base," the girl looked proud of the fact the being came so quickly to her call. "We chose you because you have experience raising teenagers and are a bit more mature then most of the other Ranmas at your age."
"Also because we believe he's gonna need a bit of a kick in his training soon," she continued looking worried.
"Because someone has already interfered in that string?" Ranma cocked an eyebrow at the girl.
"Yes," the girl replied unhappily. "We don't know why but Poppa has a few enemies and. . . it's very confusing as to why this string was attacked as it was supposed to be only a minor change form the primary string and as such not very important."
"Important enough to watch, important enough to interfere with," Ranma stated firmly. "So what do I have to do?"
"What? Oh, simply touch the other Ranma and I'll send you right back," the girl replied as Ranma interrupted a thought she was developing based on what he said.
"Fine," Ranma put a finger to the energy being and then faded out before seeing it turn into a duplicate of himself, clothes and items included.
"So what do we do now?" the new Ranma asked the girl calmly as if he had been there from the start.
"I have to set some of the ground rules about the younger Ranma," the girl stated seriously as she put her hands on her hips and stood slightly back to look up into the man's eyes. "One, since Ranma has just received his curse you can't try to cure him or yourself."
"I'm actually okay with my curse thank you very much," Ranma replied indignantly.
"That's another reason we chose you," the girl smiled. "Two, you have to go to the Amazon Village. . . things won't be the same as before but they still will have an impact on both of you. And three, you have to take him to the Tendos for the engagement. . . but you don't have to put a huge push for the marriage."
"I wouldn't have anyways," Ranma continued to sound indignant. "But my knowledge of what happened is going to cause problems. And how am I going to explain who I am and where I came from?"
"You won't have to, when we insert you we will alter the collective memories of those necessary," the girl said with a bigger smile. "You won't have a complete memory about events and things will change as time goes on with new events so you won't cause the kinds of problems you think you will."
"Yeah sure, I'll believe that when I see it," Ranma rolled his eyes.
"We figure that sending you in as this Ranma's older cousin, who was trained by his father as a boy, to be the best way to explain how you know the Saotome-Ryu. . . I like that name," the girl looked proud of herself for a moment.
"What name?" Ranma looked weary of the girl because she seemed proud of herself for a moment.
"Ryu. . . Dragon. It'll send a message to whoever is trying to cause problems in this string," the girl explained with a nasty grin. "Ryu Saotome. . . the son of Nodoka Saotome's departed twin sister."
"Mother didn't have a twin sister. . . in fact she didn't even have a sister, just an older brother who passed away before I was born," Ranma looked confused. "It's one of the reasons that Pop took the Saotome name instead of Mother taking his name, so the Saotome family line continued."
"And because it would be better to be a ronin instead of having his family name," the girl snickered then realized Ranma didn't find that funny.
"How do I explain the curse?. . . Or do I get recursed when I get there?" Ranma asked trying to ignore the girl's little joke.
"You. . have already been to Jusenkyo a few years prior with your other teacher. . . You were coming back to warn your Uncle and Cousin of the dangers when you heard they were going there," the girl seemed to be concentrating somewhere else at the same time as she explained the history.
"You're making this up as you go along aren't you?" Ranma asked then rolled his eyes at the girl's indignant pout. "Thought so."
"We didn't have time to plan ahead," the girl replied before continuing. "The Guide will know you as will others. . . but only the Guide and your old teacher will know about the curse already."
"Um, okay. Who is my old teacher?" Ranma asked not sure about this anymore but knowing he didn't have much choice anymore.
"An Amazon master of Hidden Weapons called Tou-Ni-Ke or Tonic," the girl smiled again.
"But. . but. . the woman I. . I mean the other Ranma married to become an Amazon sister was named Tonic! What's going on?" Ranma looked truly confused as he remembered the short marriage well, it was how he ended up with two adopted daughters.
"Amazon names tend to get reused between Villages as there is only so many for that joke. . I mean for that tradition," the girl corrected herself quickly. "But this Tonic is an agent of ours in this string as was the Tonic was the agent of the one watching the string you remember. And this explains your knowledge of the Amazon techniques."
"Except for the small fact that male Amazons aren't suppose to know most of them," Ranma countered feeling better after poking holes in one of her ideas, he didn't realize how much she was starting to bug him till then.
"Actually there is no law stopping a male from being taught the moves. . or else Cologne has a lot to explain about teaching Ryoga anything," the girl gave Ranma a sly smile showing she was still on top of things. "The male just has to find a woman willing to teach him as males aren't allowed to teach others those moves."
"Of course that means Tonic is in real trouble for teaching an outsider male those same skills. . but we aren't going to allow our agent to come to any harm over that," the girl continued with a small chuckle. "And for the record. . you aren't an agent of ours. After obeying the few rules we set forth you have free will as to what happens next, or how things happen."
"Really? Aren't you risking a lot putting another possible problem in to the string?"
"No. We trust you enough not to screw up Ranma's existence too much," the girl smiled again. "But I have to sent you now. . . If you really need any major help you can try to call on me for insight, if Poppa allows it I'll come and help."
"Great. . . but I don't know your name yet," Ranma stated as he started to fade out.
"It's Sakura," the girl smiled and waved to the nearly invisible person.
"Figures. . ." Ranma stated then totally disappeared.
- - - - -
Authors notes: First off, the older Ranma comes from another Fanfiction I'm still working on called 'Everyone grows up sometime' and I will post that one soon when I get the first few chapters finished. I'm starting to post ficts after doing a few chapters so there is a stream of things to read as I work on other projects.
I know that the *girl* is a bit over done, and the fact that she is named Sakura just adds to it, but she is suppose to be a creation of a Fanfiction writer as a sorta pet to be a go-between between him and his thread of a story, and as such she fits the concept near perfectly ( and no she is not meant as a sex toy! Perverts! ) If you haven't guessed Poppa is me, not as a self insertion but as a Kami-like way of guiding his little creation. The someone messing with the story is currently a friend who suggested Genma die as a problem for Poppa to solve in a Kami-like way. Later the someone will possibly be suggestions made in reviews, but not yet. . . I'll let you know.
This was a very random thought that demanded life that came to me while I was in writers block on both 'RTVS:Book 1 chapter 10' and 'Robin 1/2 chapter 3'. Both will be out soon as I'm half way finished each. I have a habit of writing any random thoughts out to at least one full chapter to see if I want to continue it so my longer pieces tend to get slowed down a bit.