"People say fate is unavoidable. Me, I say payback's a bitch, and she's made fate look bad for years with all her crap..." - Unknown
"Never look a gift horse in the mouth..." - Common proverb
Disclaimer: Ranma Nibbunoichi © Copyright Viz Media and Rumiko Takahashi, and is used without permission. I cannot reveal any other copyrights at this time, but I can confirm I don't own those either.
Author's Note: I don't think I need to tell you that this will feature a very different Ranma universe to the canon one. However, it could easily begin with something that could have happened IN canon, but we never saw, and several events are portrayed with new angles and new opinions on the original events. For now, As you read this first chapter, I ask you to think on this question…
How many of Ranma's problems were much less dangerous, or even nullified outright by some odd series of sometimes unrelated events… because Ranma is using the curse as a way to help him achieve a better outcome… and how many seemed to get worse purely since he used his own abilities, and shunned an easier solution that only needed his curse?
A GIFT CAN BE A CURSE… BUT A CURSE CAN BE A GIFT
Chapter 1: Is It Better To Be Helpful… Or A Hindrance?
Ranma was beginning to hate the remote part of China his father had decided to use as a shortcut to their way out of China. His father's guides were grossly outdated, and probably were printed when he was young, and he knew his pack had got a little heavier after they left the most recent ruined town. And he was doubting, just like the previous dozen times, the weight was totally 'training rocks'.
This area was notable for the fact it had been practically abandoned after one of the numerous bloody conflicts that China was historically known for. The result, however, was that the area was a lethal maze of churned up earth and barbed wire, with mines hidden beneath the ground. The safer areas were those where the barbed wire had been cleared, the mines disarmed and removed, while the hazardous areas were an uneven sea of brown with wooden stakes sticking out with their razor sharp payloads.
The bigger problem was that, if you wanted to take a shortcut through the uncleared spots, they were still potentially mined, and no-one was insane enough to go out and spend hours risking their life to find the unknown number of unexploded mines.
Their journey was full of choices, between shaving five minutes by doing measured leaps over the barbed wire traps, hoping to not hear a soft click, and need to move quickly, and potentially into a domino effect, which may end up with a sudden and decisive end to their journey, and taking the long and well trodden path past it all, which was easier, but slower by far due to the fact no-one wanted to invest manpower into clearing the entire area when there was enough space to walk through.
Their progress however was halted as they came across an old woman, sat on a shallow tree trunk in one of the few places that wasn't a blasted wasteland. She was looking at a particularly churned up area of the former battlefields wistfully, then a very battered picture. They'd heard of people like this, and could tell from the way she was sat what her reasons for being there were.
She had come here to lay pilgrimage to the place one of her relatives died, having got nothing but an empty box to bury. Ranma winced mentally. This would not go well.
"Excuse me..." The old woman stated as she noticed them, Ranma noticing Genma observing how unsteady and slow her gait was, even with the walking stick that also acted as a way to keep her from losing a foot, or worse, in this wretched stretch of land, "I wish to ask if either or both of you can help me..."
Ranma had got used to when his father was about to lie. It came from watching him, every day, when he was met by people who'd offered them a bed to sleep on, but their family nest egg had gone missing, or their dojo had been robbed. In the former cases, Ranma found himself with a heavier pack, and with the latter cases, the training manuals his father used were practically always in better shape than the ones he normally had.
Genma's posture shifted, and Ranma knew he was about to let loose with some of the worst lies yet.
"We are sorry, but our journey is already delayed navigating this nightmarish place..." Genma declared with false sincerity. Ranma mentally scoffed. They'd come into the killing fields ahead of Genma's unknown schedule, with him, a few hours ago, claiming they would make good time. Ranma knew he wasn't worried about his schedule. He'd noticed the woman was limping, and had immediately decided that she would be a hindrance to whatever he was planning to do when they got to the nearby Bayankala Mountains.
"Pops... We can't just leave her here..." Ranma almost growled under his breath, before he looked towards the woman, warmly asking, with real sincerity, "I noticed you looking at a picture earlier. Is this a pilgrimage for your husband, or one of your children maybe?"
"My only son. He was killed by a mine on the day he was about to come home, and..." The woman began, telling them both of her hardships. Ranma ran his hand through his hair as if he was listening and thinking about helping her. However, this was a different kind of lie to the one his father started with, since only Genma was meant to believe Ranma was going to consider not helping the woman.
Of course he was going to help her, and might even make a small pilgrimage of his own. Genma started to look round, looking at his map, muttering to himself. Stage 2 of the lie, he was about to find an issue with the route, meaning they couldn't possibly take that route.
"This is a problem… We're going to need to double back, Son..." Genma stated, looking away from the woman's pilgrimage site, "As I suspected, our route is blocked, and I can't see any safe detour here..."
Ranma mentally rolled his eyes. Genma was using one of his more predictable patterns, quite literally pushing for Ranma to leave this woman alone, let her do the pilgrimage from her tree trunk, or get herself blown up if she was that desperate, by claiming that they'd gone the wrong way. Ranma knew the map didn't show the minefields. He was making up reasons, making up excuses.
It was not how Ranma liked to see his father. The scam artist, who'd pickpocket you with one hand while loaning you back your own money when you found it missing. He'd actually seen Genma do it, and even 'finding' a lost 'precious keepsake' and handing it in for the reward.
"If we help her, I think we could use her help to get past the worst of the blockage..." Ranma pressed, before hissing, "At least one of us is willing to help..."
"Here's the route I was hoping to take..." The woman offered, on a more recent map, which showed there was a minor avalanche, and it might have caused them trouble, but Ranma noted Genma barely looked at the map. The route was similar to the one they'd originally planned, off Genma's outdated map, but they'd walked straight into the avalanche, and now he was using it to get out of the area. This was the only way that would get them to the mountain range in good time.
Ranma knew what he was planning. They'd ditch the woman, head off in a somewhat random direction, set up camp in a nearby smoothed and cleared area, just out of sight, then, when he was sure she was gone, he'd study the map again, and realise he'd 'misread' the map at the time, but, 'unfortunately', they lost their opportunity to help the woman.
Ranma no longer even wanted to consider his father's path, because he was now really seeing how much his father had no interest in honourable acts. This was the lowest he'd ever seen his father sink to, and he decided, right there, he was having none of it.
"We were planning on that route originally..." Ranma mused, able to see that, while it was a dangerous route, the hazards were a lot less plentiful than he'd worried about, "I would be happy to escort you..."
"If you get your leg blown off, I will not be the one at fault..." Genma stated, acting like he even cared, "Boy, if you want to go that route, fine… You can see where the route meets again. If I don't see you there when I arrive, you will get extra training for your slothfulness!"
"He'll be a barrel of laughs in the future… Lazy, greedy good-for-nothing..." The woman grumbled, following Ranma along the new route as Genma continued on. After he'd gone out of sight, she steered them away from the location she'd been going towards, heading towards where another tree trunk was, Ranma wondering how many of these there were, before asking "What do you know of Karma?"
"It hates me. Do you think I really want to be heading through former Red Army minefields?" Ranma asked. The woman smiled at Ranma, seeming to find entertainment in some private joke.
"If that's the case, why didn't you go with your father?" The woman pressed.
"Maybe the fact he was just spouting out a ton of lies and bullshit to get rid of you... Sorry about that. He can get like that sometimes," Ranma sighed, the woman stopping them as they arrived at the tree trunk, sitting down and looking thoughtful.
"So, tell me… Why do you think karma hates you? Well, you are going to get there before your father, since he'll need to do quite the detour..." The woman pressed again, Ranma running his hands through his hair. She had a good point. Because of all his bluster, he'd need to add at least another hour to his trip, and that was if he didn't find another path that was no longer viable.
"Every day, If I don't do my fair share training, I don't get anything to eat, and I've got to keep my eyes on my meal, since, if I'm not ready to defend it, Pops takes the lion's share of the meal anyway..." Ranma grumbled, for the woman to seem to, if anything, become more and more angered by what he was admitting.
"So, you don't work yourself to exhaustion, you don't get to even try to eat, and even then, you get barely your rightful share since you're too tired to defend yourself?" She asked, for Ranma to pause, before slowly nodding, "Kuso… Does he even allow you five minutes to do something other than some thinly veiled form of training, that's always almost always to the limits of your endurance, like have fun, do things someone your age should be doing? And don't tell me the training is fun, That's a lie... It would be if you took proper breaks, but this... No."
"I get a few hours sleep, then it's up early, training till dawn..." Ranma offered, sighing as he slumped, before trying, "Pops always said that I can't become as good as him if I sleep the night away..."
"So, he has you effectively fighting to get a decent meal, tires you out before the day's even started..." The woman stated, Ranma wincing. She was right. The small victories he got, when they happened, felt great, earned him a bit of peace and quiet, and a good meal, while Genma recovered, but he recovered faster than he would like, Genma beating him like a drum if he even got slightly relaxed and 'complacent', with Ranma suspecting he pulled his punches and faked exhaustion to keep him on his toes.
Whenever Ranma got a major break due to Genma actually hurting himself, the next training session left him beaten, bruised and sore, with Genma claiming he lost because he wasn't training enough, and doing extra drills to push past the pain, and, if Ranma had an accident himself, that body part would be the focus of the following week's training.
He'd got a broken arm once. When it finally got to the doctor, he was berated for not coming sooner since it had further fractured. All his father had said was that if he blocked better, he'd not have stressed the injury, not mentioning he'd deliberately made sure to give himself plenty of openings to get a good, hard strike in, and the only reason he brought him in was that Ranma wasn't able to fight back at all... and that was after he'd given him a good extra hour.
"Now, I'll give you that, but..." Ranma offered, "You seen what kind of stuff that they can do in movies? I'm well on the way to being that good."
The woman sighed. "Got a free tip for you. People like that, the big action heroes? Notice how they're 30, 40, that kind of age?" The woman asked, prodding her walking stick at him as he nodded, "Do you think they spend their informative years picking their way around minefields to get to a remote training area? Or train themselves to breaking point every single day?"
"No, they don't..." Ranma stated, finding that his statement didn't feel as triumphant as when he'd said it.
"Someone your age shouldn't be here. You should have a social circle, hobbies… outside martial arts if possible… and good friends who'll stick up for you when times are harsh," The woman snapped, "I doubt you even have one of those. If you're as good as someone like Bruce Lee when you're less than half his age, you've probably not had a single day to really pick up any of those things, and it shows in how much you defend what is a position that I find abhorrent… Anyway, Karma doesn't have it in for you at all..."
Ranma looked at her confused, for her to smirk at him. "From what I can see, your life is governed by a simple rule… Anything where you're successful, you get a great heap of crap dumped on you..." The woman asked, Ranma slowly nodding, "Of course, any time you fail, you also get a life lesson about how life 'isn't fair' and to try harder. That's not karma. Well, not in the way you think it is,"
"Oh, So what is it?" Ranma asked.
"You've stopped getting the good karma, the praise, the feeling of accomplishment, because every scrap you get, it's taken away by that lazy bum breaking you down again," She explained, "You're instead being used to offload your father's bad karma, while he steals your good karma. I bet you that, when you get past these minefields, something will go wrong, and you'll be the one who has to fix it, whether or not it ends up bad for you. However, I'll let you in on a little secret,"
"Oh?" Ranma stated, realising that, when he got worse training for getting 'one up' on his father, his father did steal his good mood, because it was always… always him lying in pain in the end. And if he got something bad happen to him, he had to deal with it himself, with no help from anyone.
"Your father might think he's avoided it, but Payback will be an almighty bitch to him when she finally gets to give your father his dues..." The woman stated, "Meanwhile, Fate could be your friend, and that will repay you with a great bounty..."
"We've got to get going..." Ranma stated, looking at the light levels, "I doubt it will take my father that long to get to the next place..."
"It is getting later than I expected. OK, I have some advice then… Not all things people call curses are bad, some can be really good..." The woman stated, "You'll be encountering a life changing experience soon. Your father will call it a curse, say for you to shun it, discard it, get rid of it..."
"Oh, and what should I do, instead of listen to him?" Ranma asked, confused by the roundabout way she put it.
"Accept it as the gift it can be, and it will pay you back ten-fold in benefits and good luck. However, treat it like the curse it purports to be, and you will find that you never have a moment's peace, your karma never improving," The woman began, then got up, offering, oddly, "Now, I think that this is where we part ways..."
Ranma blinked as he saw an exhausted Genma approach, personally confused as he realized he'd somehow skipped well over half the trip. Getting down from the tree trunk, he noticed it was the only one there, and the scenery had changed. He'd somehow teleported to their meeting spot. And all because he sat down with someone and discussed his life. Ranma knew, at that point, he wasn't going to keep letting Genma toss all the crap his way. And it all began in a place named...
Jusenkyo...