I have heard it said that Ranma and Tenjou Tenge are a good fit. While it is true that they are both basically fighting stories, Ranma is a semi romantic comedy while the other is more of a dark drama.
In Tenjou Tenge there is an undertone of plotting and manipulation that leaves the main characters as little more then pawns to the ambitions of their families. Unfortunately trying to change this would undo the plot.
Instead let us see what darkness is obscured by the humor in Ranma.
Disclaimer - Nope don't own either of these series but hope to show respect for the characters and stories.
Chapter 1 - What is Hidden
"Clearly the wedding can not proceed under these conditions." The tendo patriarch says with a sigh as he prepares to light a cigarette. "As is proper, lingering relationships should be settled before a couple can be married. We can all see that you have plenty of those."
The dark gi clad man takes a long drag before finishing, blowing out the smoke with his last words. "So we have arranged for the wedding to be delayed, until you can sort out your affairs."
"Pay attention! All this mostly applies to you Ranma." The dark blue haired girl snots out to her finance.
Sweat dropping the named boy turns to face her, and try not to roll his eyes at his pandafied father playing with a ball. "It was just as much your fault, Akane."
"Both of you have much to consider in this." Ranma's mother says quietly. Pointedly looking away from where her husband is lying on the floor. "I do however agree that any considerations of marriage should be postponed until other relationships are adequately resolved." Ranma nods to Nodoka as solemnly as he can, Akane only sniffs earning a quickly masked glare from the woman.
Akane marches up to her room and slams the door. Ranma stretches the kinks out of his shoulders as he stands, and makes his way back out the open shoji doors to continue working on cleanup in the dojo. Nodoka sighs and places the Saotome family blade against the wall and heads outside to assist Kasumi with hanging the laundry.
"Saotome old friend." Soun says after another drag on his cigarette. "I don't know about you, but I could definitely use a drink. Unfortunately all the household supply was destroyed along with the wedding feast" The panda quickly rolls to its feet and heads to the kitchen.
Moments later a large man wearing a dingy white gi and equally worn bandana on his balding head returns to the room. "I agree fully Tendo." The two men proceed to leave the house and the ward in search of leaving their troubles behind. Unknown to them a pair of angry brown eyes follow them on their journey.
Hours later the pair only vaguely realized they had somehow made it to Shinjuku ward as they stumbled onto the platform in Iidabashi station to try and get home. Their follower decided now was the time to strike while neither man was thinking straight.
"So Jackass." The brown haired young woman snarled as she pushed the tipsy Genma. "You are postponing Ran-chan and Akane's wedding until other relationships can be resolved. How exactly do you plan to resolve my claim?"
As he stumbled back, Genma was distracted from attempting to answer as he bumped into a dark skinned kogal holding a tray of takoyaki. The man turned to the young woman to make an attempt at apologizing only to find her face hidden by her long blond hair studying the stain the food had left on her sweater.
As He tried to stammer out something intelligible the woman looked up only long enough to slap him, sending him backwards again, before she stalked away. Attempting to turn with the blow Genma stumbled over his own feet and fell bodily on top of Ukyo.
The girl's shriek of indignation was almost drown out by the sound of the train pulling into the station. Ukyo saw only red as she kicked Genma off of her and off the platform into the path of the oncoming train. Her shriek turned to screams, from herself and others on the platform, as the world really was colored red.
"I am sorry for your loss Saotome-san."A dark suited detective said sadly to Nodoka inside a non-descript office barely large enough for his desk and two chairs. "I thank you for being willing to come down here so quickly at this late hour."
"It is my duty to my son and husband." Wiping her eyes, she bows her head. "Your certain that Kuonji-san did this detective Sato?" The newly widowed woman asks quietly. "She seemed such a sweet girl."
"Unfortunately the argument and the result was observed by almost everyone on the platform." The older man coughed into his hand. "Given the situation, it will likely be ruled an accident."
"But that does not absolve her of guilt." Nodoka finished quietly.
"That is the case." He agreed sadly.
"If you will excuse me Sato-san." The kimono lady said with a bow. "I must leave to consider how I will break this news to my son and his fiancee." With a small wince, at the thought she finishes. "Will you be able to make sure Tendo-san makes it home safely after he wakes up? I fear that the shock along with his apparent state was too much for him."
"We will have no difficulty with that Saotome-san." The man agrees as Nodoka bows and makes her way from his small office.
"Now if only we did not find this report that the girl had caused the man harm in the past, and threatened the son as well." The detective said sadly.
Hours later Nodoka sat in front of a camp fire wearing a sleeveless blouse and lose pants. Her skin a pale red from scrubbing the areas that had been hidden by her kimono. "It is a pity Ukyo-chan, you never had the subtlety to survive in my world." The woman says with a chuckle as she tosses a long skewer into the fire where the wood quickly burns away, along with a blond wig and tacky sweater, to reveal the red glowing needle hidden within.
Taking a folder from a backpack she tosses sheets of reports, with a chinese phoenix letterhead, onto the fire until it flares brightly. Once all the pages are gone she stares into the fire with a grin until only ash remains.
Still smiling she takes out a cell phone and calmly dials a number. "Kon bon wa Takayanagi-dono."
Nodoka grins at whatever is said by the other party. "Oh yes I would be very pleased to rejoin my clan and return to working at the hospital." The woman nods as her grin broadens. "I believe if you can have the amazons removed from the country there should be nothing to prevent Ranma from attending Todo."
She chuckles as she hangs up the phone. "Ah Mutsuomi-kun watching you betray your father was a wonderful start."
The next morning the nearly comatose acting Soun is helped home by the police and Nodoka gathers all of his daughters and Ranma in the common room. "Children I must inform you of terrible news." She starts slowly. "Last night Genma was killed accidentally as the result of an altercation with miss Kuonji. I fear Soun witnessed this, but the police are unsure how much he will or does remember of the event."
This announcement creates quite a bit off shock in the small group, which the maternal figure waits patiently for it to die down. "I know this is a shock to us all. I am afraid with the condition that our family home is left in, I have no choice but to return to my family and sell the property in order to pay off the debts that Genma left behind. This of course includes funds to help with psychological counseling for your father, and recent damages to the dojo." The woman carefully hides her smirk at the middle daughter's greedy look.
She turns to her son and continues quietly. "Given the current climate, I think it is best you come with me and attend a school closer to where we will live."
"I understand." The young man nods, and quietly turns to go upstairs to the room he had shared with his father.
The trip passed for the young man almost as a blur. Even when his mother lead him into a room with a western style bed and told him to see about putting away his things he hardly noticed. Simply tossing his large pack into the closet he laid down on the bed and simply closed his eyes.
Coming awake Ranma blinked at the strange room and sighed. "So I guess it was not a dream." The room was simply appointed with a closet, bookcases, bed, and a desk with rolling chair. It was not a large room, perhaps three meters by three meters, but it seemed barren and empty at the moment.
The smell of his mother cooking dinner was a small consolation to him, but the growling of his stomach soon pulled him from the room to find his mother in the modest two bedroom apartment`s kitchen. "How are you feeling Ranma?"
"Numb." The young man looks up at his mother and sighs. "You never said what we were going to do, but I guess we have a place to live and food."
"I will be going to work at the hospital my family operates Ranma-kun." Nodoka says mildly.
"Hospital? as a nurse or somethin'?" Ranma says in surprise.
"No my family practices a mixture of acupuncture and shiatsu. I mastered it in my teens before I married your father, and have been invited to put my skills to use again."
"So you know medicine like Tofu-sensei? Why didn' ya use it before." He asks with his eyes wide in surprise.
"No the techniques the Kuzunoha family practices are ones Tofu-san would likely sell his soul to learn, but my family guards them jealously." Nodoka says with a smile. "Other then teaching my older brother's daughter several years ago I was not allowed to continue practicing once I left the clan."
"So could ya teach me?" Ranma asks quietly.
"Only if you are willing to leave your father's clan behind." Nodoka says solemnly, she easily keeps the grin off her face at his eager, and enthusiastic, agreement. "Once we are able to get you officially entered into the clan, I can spend the time until the new term starts teaching you. I hope that will make up for having to probably restart your second year?"
The mother`s grin at her child's eagerness to learn was beautiful.
The winter passed with Nodoka teaching Ranma her family's techniques and teaching Ranma better social skills. To her child's horror this included learning skills she would need to know to fit into society better.
"What happened to wanting me to be manly?" Ranma asked with more then a trace of annoyance as she and her mother walked to a shrine for the new years festival wearing matching yukatas.
Nodoka's first response was to giggle. "I had my reasons for being with your father Ranma, but when I first invited him to go out on a date with me it was the only complimentary thing I could think of to say about him." She sighed as she shrugged her shoulders. "From that point on he believed manliness was something I felt was a requirement. The only thing I have ever desired from, or for, you Ranma is that you be happy. Having better social skills in both forms will help with that."
The older woman gently hugged her daughters shoulders. "I know you don't like it very much, but even with my family's help we have been unable to locate anything likely enough to cure your curse that I would risk your life on it."
"What about the cask of Naniichuan at the wedding?" The girl looks up with questioning sky blue eyes at her mother`s dark blue.
"Please forgive me Ranma, but I was the one who told Happosai it was the ceremonial sake to get rid of it." Nodoka says with a frown. "The call Soun received seemed too suspicious to me, I called in some favors and found out it was sent by the friends you made at mount phoenix. Somehow I doubt they would want to thank you."
"You don't plan to make me go to school as a girl do you?" Ranma asks suspiciously.
"Would that make you happy?" Nodoka asks with comically feigned surprise. "No Ranma I don't. I have been able to get a supply of longer lasting waterproof soap for you to use. That should keep you safe from the average splash during the day, but swimming you will still have to do as a girl." Nodoka grins at her child wickedly. "Now after we say our prayers for the new year how about I teach you some better techniques to get free food from the vendors at the festival."
This last Nodoka punctuates by gently tugging on her top to distract a man walking by them and send him stumbling into a pole erected to hold lantern in the air. The resulting crash causes both women to start giggling.
Several months later Ranma found himself tugging at the tight collar of his school uniform, his mother insisted he wear it to the opening ceremony. At least he was happy the school seemed interested in the martial arts. leaving the ceremony he sighed in relief as he discovered he was not the only one unbuttoning his coat while walking down the path lined with sakura trees between the large enclosed arena and the school buildings.
"Now to see if any of the clubs sound interesting." He started whistling happily as he started looking through the list of clubs in the orientation folder he had been given.
By the time he reached the school, he had stopped whistling. By the time he reached his second year classroom he had already dropped the folder into his new school bag and sat down depressed at his desk. "Not a single club listed that goes for mixed martial arts."
"You don't like practicing a single style?" A young man with brown hair and eyes said from a nearby desk.
"I have practiced several styles." Ranma replied with a shrug. "Seems to be a trade off in how flexible you can be by sticking entirely to one."
"Well the club I am in does not go for just one style." The other student offers. "Maybe you should check it out this afternoon."
"Maybe I will." The pigtailed martial artist replies with a grin. "I am Kuzunoha Ranma. Care to tell me yours and the name of the club?"
"Ah, yah I am Takayanagi Masataka." The young man says with a bow. "It would be really good if you liked the Juken Club, we could use more members."
notes:
As always, I work off the assumption that somewhere around 18 months passed during the course of the manga. Meaning realistically if Ranma arrived in late spring at the Tendo Dojo the wedding would have been in the late fall or winter.
If you desire to read the rant I had thought up to go along with this story feel free to check out my blog. In the mean time, I would love to hear your thoughts, and check out the poll on my profile.