Disclaimer is found at the end of the chapter
Seven Sisters
Author: mudge.t.ottergmx.de
Part 1 - Chapter 1
In a school in Nagoya a young boy was watching one of his peers running around the compound all the while swearing at the injustice of it all.
"Hey Ryouga, where you goin'?" the spectator suddenly shouted, the smirk on his face gaining force. He was well aware of the other boys little problem and simply tried to get a rise out of him. He liked sparring with the other boy, for a 12 year old he was incredibly strong and tough and was the only one in his age group who could provide him with a decent challenge.
"Urusai! I'm trying to get home. I still have makeup work to do for the classes I missed last week, while I had important business to take care of in Kyoto!" Ryouga countered heatedly. He didn't like being made fun of for his family curse, and due to his physique was able to teach any offender the error of his ways. Well, nearly any. He somehow was not able to convince his current counterpart to lay off. Seen in the light of the bread feud the had going, he was quickly reaching the limit of his patience.
"So in other words, you got lost again and somehow found yourself wandering around Tokyo. By the way, isn't makeup a bit girly for a big tough guy like you?" the boy taunted well aware of what would be coming next.
Indeed for Ryouga it seemed to be the straw, that broke the camel's back. With a yell of "Ranma, Shi-ne!" he attacked, beginning the fight with a powerful straight punch aimed at his opponents sternum. Ranma easily dodged the blow by jumping backwards, rolling off over his left shoulder and coming to his feet again in another loose defensive stance. Ryouga who had anticipated such a maneuver simply continued his charge dropping low at the last instant with an unbelievably fast leg sweep.
Ranma simply flipped over the last attack and delivered a half powered
punch to Ryouga's back, while he was upside down, taking advantage of his greater speed and flexibility. Ryouga was faster and stronger than anyone else in the area, but Ranma had to train for speed constantly since he was about five. With Genma as his father, it was always a question of either be quick or starve.
The fight, or as Ranma would have called it sparring-match continued like this for quite a while, with Ranma mostly on the defensive delivering a punch here and a kick there, just to keep his opponent interested, all the while taunting Ryouga about his inability to connect with his intended target. "Too slow!" he would shout, or "If I was about 80, this one might have grazed my right side!"
All the quips only managed to further enrage Ryouga, and as such he didn't notice , that Ranma had used his evasion tactics to lead Ryouga out through the school's gates and a good measure of the way towards his home. 'Man, this backpack has to weigh a ton! This certainly makes for an excellent training exercise though, dodging all these attacks while encumbered this much.' He didn't know why he picked up Ryouga's backpack on their way out of the school grounds, but didn't dwell on the thought much.
About a block from their destination, they were just about to cross a slightly more populated street, when not completely unexpectedly a delivery van drove by and the boys had to jump in different directions, to avoid an accident. The van unfortunately blocked Ryouga's line of sight for an instant, and he turned around confused, where his enemy had gone. He chose a random direction and with a cry of "Ranma, you coward, get back here this instant and fight me like an man!" he ran down the road.
'Oh man, Kobayashi sensei is not gonna be happy when he hears, I lost him again,' Ranma thought When his homeroom-teacher heard about his relationship with Ryouga they struck a deal, so Ranma was paid a bit of pocket money from the schools petty cash for bringing Ryouga to classes and taking him back home in the afternoon. Of course Ryouga was much too proud to let himself simply be accompanied on his commute, so Ranma had to get creative.
Of course being raised by Genma to know little else but how to fight, he quickly managed to estrange the one person, who was in a similar situation to himself and could have under different circumstances been a valuable ally and a good friend. The way things stood, he could only get Ryouga to follow him by getting into a fight with him. In terms of their friendship this only deteriorated the situation even further.
'Hey I can still see him. If I hurry I might be able to keep him from wandering off to Sapporo. Beats me how he manages to cross the sea without realizing," he thought as he ran after the other boy, he could just make out against the setting sun.
So focused was he on his target, he didn't realize that his surroundings had shifted from the urban setting he was in an instant before to a mountainous region. Where the road he had just been following was paved, he was now on a narrow gravel track.
With a shout of "Hey Ryouga, wait up!" he caught up to his schoolmate, just as the sun finally disappeared behind the horizon and he got his first good look at the place they had ended up.
Meanwhile Ryouga had stopped in his tracks, turned around and spotted Ranma. "There you are, Ranma! Now face my wrath!" he yelled. He was just about to charge again, when Ranma lifted his hand in an appeasing gesture.
"Time out, Ryouga, we can spare again later. Sorry I got you so riled up, but can you answer me one question..."
Ryouga was dumbstruck, had Ranma really just said he was sorry for something he had done? He paused in his actions and with a barely perceptible affirmative nod of his head he turned his attention to Ranma's question. "Uun..." was all he said.
"Where the heck are we!" Ranma ended his sentence.
"Hey, thats my line!" Ryouga was shaken out of his momentary stupor by this shameless act of plagiarism. "Ranma, this is your fault! If you hadn't challenged me in the schoolyard, I would have found my way home by now!"
"Yeah, whatever." Ranma simply stated. "I don't think we could have gone too far astray in the time I've been following you,"he sighed. "Maybe we are just in the mountains north of Nagoya. We probably won't make it to school tomorrow, but if we follow this track we ought to get to a village or somthin', and we can make our way back from there. With a bit of luck we can be home by tomorrow evening.
"We better setup some sort of camp for tonight. It's getting to dark to search for a way home. I know you always carry a tent in case you have 'urgent business' elsewhere. So you set that up, while i gather some firewood and see if i can hunt down something edible." - 'I'm glad I picked up his pack, when we left the compound,' Ranma thought.
Ryouga was skeptical about the being back by tomorrow evening, he had the distinct feeling, they were nowhere near Nagoya anymore, but loathe as he was to admit it, the plan about setting up camp seemed sound enough. He acknowledged Ranma's plan and without another word started to dig a fire pit with the collapsible spade from his backpack.
Ranma was in luck, from the bushes scattered around their campsite he had soon gathered enough deadwood to get a small fire started and going well into the night. In his foraging he also managed to find some berries and some wild onions. He left the mushrooms because he didn't recognize them and he had heard stories what some of those did to you. Only imagine attracting every one of those little demon creatures within a radius of five kilometers. The thought made him shudder.
A little further down the slope he spotted a small creek that fed a sizable pool and then continued on its way down the mountain. He went to take a look, and indeed could make out some fish in the water.
He quickly deposited the gathered wood, berries and onions at their campsite and returned to the pool, already taking of his slippers and gi-pants before he reached its bank. He stepped into the water and was surprised how cold it was.
Fishing with his hands was one of the first things Genma taught him -
'Because it's excellent training for hand-eye-coordination!' - 'Yeah, right! Who did all the work, and who filled his over sized stomach? Guess!' But at that moment that didn't matter. Today he wouldn't have to fend off attempts at theft of sustenance, today he wouldn't go hungry. He would probably have to share with Ryouga but getting half the fish was way more than he could expect were Genma around.
Half an hour later he had landed six trout-sized fish and with Ryouga's help had them quickly cleaned and gutted. When he came back Ryouga had already started a fire, so he only cut a few rods from the surrounding bushes, cleaned them, speared the fish and put them over the fire.
As they watched their meal, Ranma struck up a conversation. "Something is not right here. Telling by the dwarf pines growing everywhere we have to be much higher up in the mountains, than I thought we could be. Also the water in that pool was awfully cold"
"So what did you expect? It is a mountain stream after all. I just hope you are right and we can make it back by tomorrow." Ryouga countered.
The continued to talk for a few minutes until the fish were done. After their meal the sat in companionable silence and watched their fire burn low.
"Let's crash, so we can start early tomorrow," Ryouga suggested already standing up and heading towards his tent.
Ranma eyed their temporary home skeptically "You know this will be a tight fit with the both of us sharing your tent."
"What makes you think I'll let you in there?" Ryouga smirked, for once he was the one doing the harassing.
"Grrrr, but the food I gathered you accepted willingly!" came the heated retort.
"Okay, okay! But I take the right side!" Ryouga relented. With that they disappeared into their quarters.
Ranma was confused, it didn't seem to matter who took the lead, their surroundings always seemed to change much faster than they should have.
When they broke camp this morning Ranma insisted, that he lead the way and Ryouga follow him. So he took off down the mountain with Ryouga right behind him. Ryouga grumbled something about being perfectly able to find the way back home himself but followed as best as he could.
Ranma looked over his shoulder to make sure his companion was still there, but when he focused on the track he was following before again, he found that it suddenly sloped uphill, where he could have sworn that the terrain had been completely flat an moment before.
As they reached the top of another hill the were treated to a sight like they hadn't seen before. Just below them lay a valley, veils of mist drifting up from the many pools that spotted the grounds. From each of the ponds protruded a bamboo pole. An experienced martial artist would be able to balance on these thus crossing the valley by jumping from pole to pole. If he lost his balance, well he would be quite wet, cold and subject to the ridicule of any spectators. It looked like a great place for training.
In the distance across the valley the two travelers could just make out the outline of a village. If they hurried, they could just make it there by nightfall. They decided to cut straight across the valley. It would be a detour of at least an hour to circumnavigate the pools and the worst that could happen was getting wet. But judging by the overcast sky this was a distinct possibility anyway.
As they reached the valley ground, the temptation got to much for Ranma. He had been able to walk on fences for quite some time now so this exercise should not prove too difficult and was eager to show off his abilities to his rival in the martial arts. Didn't his pop always tell him to use any chance at training he came across? Besides the Saotome no Musabetsu Kakutou Ryuu was a school o aerial unarmed combat. With a cry of "Last one to reach the other side is a girlie girl!" he jumped on the nearest pole.
Ryouga wasn't in the mood to follow his example, so he made his way on the ground between the pools, and he just shouted after Ranma: "Nah, I don't care for an icy cold bath that much and besides it's embarrassing enough seeing you jump around like a kangaroo on dope!" His school of martial arts did not believe in acrobatic maneuvers. They were just a waste of energy. Instead he trained himself in strong punches and devastatingly powerful kicks combined with an incredibly high endurance.
With the other boy failing to rise to the bait Ranma soon got bored with simply jumping from one pole to another. He was confident that he could do this exercise while juggling dishes and eating the food on them at the same time. He could not get too far ahead either, he would not risk loosing Ryouga now, after they had gotten lost somewhere in the wilderness. As a consequence the simple hops were soon replaced by intricate combinations of flips and spins.
In a simple hut across the valley a man in the uniform of the people's army of china looked up from his newspaper and out of the window at his place of employment . It was a good job ... most of the time. What he currently saw made him think it was one of these days again. He really sometimes wished he hadn't retired and taken up this job which was graciously provided to him by the omniscient leaders of the Chinese people.
The sight was familiar: A boy jumping from pole to pole and another one navigating the treacherous ground between the springs. What had him surprised, was that he had no warning, that he should expect any customers today. Normally he would have been forewarned by the Phoenix-scouts patrolling the area, but this time no such thing had happened.
He tore himself from his thoughts and rushed out of his cabin. He had a job to do, time was of essence. But deep down, he knew he would be too late, the springs had a will of themselves. And he too had to be careful, lest he fall victim to the magic of Jusenkyo himself.
Shouting warnings in Chinese on top of his lungs he ran towards the boys. He already knew he would fail, as he had so many times before, but he had to try.
Ranma was in mid-flip, when he was momentarily distracted by what sounded like a agitated shout, so he didn't notice, that the pole he was about to land on was slanting towards him. As a consequence he misjudged the distance by about a meter and therefore came down in a gigantic splash.
Ryouga who had been watching could not help laughing hysterically at his rival embarrassing himself like this and so misstepped and slipped into a spring himself. When he resurfaced he felt that something was different, but try as he might he could not tell what.
Nearby a soaked Ranma also made his way out of the water all the while cursing at his own stupidity. Letting himself be distracted like this was unforgivable. 'If pop saw this I'd never live it down. He would continue his ranting for at least a month and call me a weak, useless girl.' His mood lit up as he thought about this: 'Lucky for me, he is nowhere near and what he doesn't know...'
Ryouga watched carefully as Ranma made his way over to him. What he saw didn't match his experience. 'Ranma seems to be just a tick shorter than before and his face is just a bit rounder. No this must be a trick of perspective. But his gi doesn't fit him right! That is because it's soaking wet, just look at my own clothes!' One difference he couldn't deny though and he decided to let Ranma know about it.
"Ranma, your hair looks different!"
"What are you talkin' about Ryouga? Of course it's different, it's soaking wet, and that water wasn't too clean either!"Ranmas good mood had vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
"No, you moron, " Ryouga retorted, "what I mean is it's turned fiery red all of a sudden!" He too was getting annoyed.
"What do you mean it's red?" Ranma grabbed a few strands of his own hair and looked at it. "Kuso! The pool was probably polluted with some kind of toxic waste!" In spite of his words he didn't seem very concerned about his situation and simply adjusted his gi which had apparently come loose when he took a dive into the spring.
He suddenly remembered why he was distracted when he tried to land on that pole. "Hey Ryouga, before I took my bath I heard a man shout something from back there. We better check what he wants." Indeed now that he looked he could make out a man standing at the edge of the springs and shouting some gibberish. The two boys nodded to each other before the made their way over to the man. They had just taken a few steps when a surprisingly dense bank of fog drifted into their way.
The Jusenkyo-guide couldn't believe his eyes. One moment the two customers, after noticing his presence, were heading towards him, the next there was nobody around. The first thought that came to his mind was: 'Oh no, these two customers are very unlucky! They must have fallen into another spring! They were not far away though, so it might be possible to save them before we have to tell the tragic tale of the Spring Of Two Very Unlucky Customers.'
He carefully made his way to where he had last seen the both of them and looked at all the surrounding pools. Try as he might though, he could not find anyone and there were no bodies floating in the waters either. So he returned to his lodging, to think about what had just occurred.
Back in his hut he relaxed in his favorite armchair and recapitulated. 'So these two customers just arrive here without being announced, foolishly pass through the springs and naturally fall in. One of them obviously landed in Nyanniichuan, but the other I do not recognize. Just when I was mentally preparing myself for another lengthy explanation in four languages about the curses, they simply vanish! I am sure I did not imagine things, I could see where they climbed out of the pools. I have to look up that other spring.'
He rose from his chair again and walked over to a filing cabinet. From the top drawer he retrieved a map and a small notebook. 'Yes, here it is, No. 78: Nyanniichuan, the 2500 year old spring of drowned girl.' He sighed 'Very tragic, she was only six years old at the time. Now which one did the other fall in? Somewhere near. Got it! No. 64... this would make it about as old as the amazons.'
He leafed through the small notebook until he found the correct page. 'Hmm, No.64, Spring Of Unknown One Who Appeared From Nowhere, created 3200 years ago not much is known about this pool, since no victim could ever be interviewed. Yes, I see how that would fit the current situation.'
When they could see clearly again a moment later though, there were no pools to be seen anywhere near them. Instead they were surrounded by trees. They could hear birds singing in the foliage and a creek bubbling a short ways off. Right next to them there was a well-tended gravel path.
Ryouga didn't even bat an eyelash at the crass change of scene. "Happens all the time," he calmly stated.
Ranma though was near hysterics. "I knew, I shouldn't have run after you!" He briefly considered banging his head against one of the trees in an attempt to make reality come back on-line but he realized it would be futile with Ryouga anywhere near. "This place looks kinda like a park, so there should be people somewhere near."
Ranma looked up and down the path and shrugged thinking 'One way as good as the other.' He therefore picked a direction and started walking again. "Come on Lost Boy," he shouted, "the sooner we find someone to ask directions, the sooner we can be back home."
When he did not get an immediate answer, he turned around just as the other boy stepped between two trees with intertwining branches forming something that looked like an enormous gate. The air between the trees wavered and with a small flash of light Ryouga was gone.
Ranma's jaw hung open. He could not comprehend what had just happened. He had never expected that Ryouga's getting lost would be accompanied by a lightshow. "He's done it again! No, I'm not gonna do this job nomore! They don't pay me enough for this!" This time he didn't resist the urge, casually indenting the trunk of a nearby oak.
A few minutes later he had recovered enough from the shock to try and find a way back home. Now that he had been separated from his liability he saw no further reason to stay around. He had only been walking for a few moments, when he came across a gaijin woman strolling leisurely through the park. He immediately dismissed her as a tourist and therefore did not bother to ask for directions. But the next several passersby were also gaijin and he got the strong feeling that he was not in Japan anymore. He decided to talk to the next person he met.
As chance would have it the next person seemed to be a teenage Japanese girl. With a relieved sigh he walked up to her and began: "Sumimasen..." He waited until the girl acknowledged him then continued, " sumimasen, koko wa doko desu ka?"
The girl stared at him in incomprehension for a moment, then shyly answered in English, "Sorry, I don't speak Japanese." She paused for a second and mustered the person across from her. Before her stood a young redheaded girl in a somewhat damp karate gi. From the bewildered expression she on the redhead's face she concluded that her vis-a-vis obviously didn't speak English.
So she tried to remember what her grandfather had taught her of the language. 'What has she said?' she asked herself 'Let's see... koko means here and she ended her sentence with ka, so it was a question...' she turned to the redhead again and asked "Are you lost?" silently she cursed herself 'Now this was really smart, not! I already know she only speaks Japanese.' She began anew, this time trying to recall the few sentences of Japanese she had been taught. "Gomen... Nihongo ...nai...! Demo... ojiisan...!"
When she saw the young girl nod and turn around she stopped her. "Matte! Ojiisan... nihongo! Kitte!" With wild gestures she tried to convey to the little girl that she should follow her. After all they lived only a block away and her grandfather would be easily able to break the language barrier. The redhead looked like she finally understood and nodded in agreement, so she decided introductions were in order. Hesitatingly she pointed at herself and announced: "Watashi ... Sarah Yamato"
Ranma clearly understood that even though the girl herself did only speak a few words of Japanese, her grandfather was quite proficient and she wanted him to follow her. 'Well it's my best bet to find a way home.' So he signed for the girl to lead the way. The girl took the opportunity and introduced herself as 'Se-ra Yamato' so he returned the favor with a small bow: "Saotome Ranma desu. Yoroshiku."
Sarah took off in the direction of their family's own training hall where her grandparents and from time to time her father tried to teach all interested parties the finer points of aikido and kendo. She herself had been taught some basic self defense and had just been on her way there anyway when she met this mysterious girl who called herself Ranma. 'Strange name for a girl...' she thought.
Sarah rounded another corner and was about to cross the street in front of the dojo, when she suddenly heard the squealing of tires trying desperately to come to a standstill. Caught like a deer in the headlight the only thing she could do was stare at the car skidding uncontrollably her way. She felt an impact already thinking it was all over, when she realized, she was hit from the wrong direction and much softer than she had expected, so she rolled with the fall as she had been taught and witnessed Ranma being hit by the car in her stead.
Ranma was following the shy girl and just caught sight of a traditional Japanese dojo, which he figured was to be their destination since the neighborhood they were passing through looked decidedly western in architecture, when he saw her step onto the road between them and their destination oblivious to the speeding car previously hidden from view by the hill crest along the road. He acted purely on instinct, when he tried to save her. Seeing that the girl would not be able to get out of the way in time he poured on all his speed to shove her away from the danger. He did not feel any pain as he was seized by the fender, he knew the pain would come later though. To minimize further injury he applied all his aerial martial arts skills to angle himself away. He was caught completely off-guard when something caught and he was flung back down. He hit the car again head first this time, then he knew only blackness.
Sarah watched in horror as the young girl was caught by the cars fender, hurled a bit into the air and slingshot back against the cars windshield with a sickening crunch. When the car came to a standstill the small body of the redheaded girl lay motionless on the street behind it, blood trickling from her nose and even a bit from her ears.
In the dojo's guest room Sarah lay on the bed crying her eyes out. The girl, Ranma, who she tried to help had just saved her from a terrible accident but could not avoid getting hit herself. When the paramedics arrived they were in quite a hurry to cart her off to the nearby clinic as there was more than a slight chance that she had suffered severe head trauma.
A knock on the door shook her out of her reminiscence. "Hime-chan," she heard her grandfathers voice, "there are two police officers downstairs who need to take a statement concerning your savior. Are you all right with this or shall I tell them to come back another time?"
Sarah wiped the tears from her face and slowly rose from the bed. "I'm coming down ojii. Please tell them to wait, I need to freshen up first." As soon as she heard her grandfather's steps recede Sarah opened the door and took a trip to the bathroom. She could not postpone telling the painful tale any longer, so she quickly washed her face to remove the evident tear streaks before she went down to the living room.
Sitting across from Sarah's grandfather were two SFPD officers just as was to be expected. When Sarah entered the two officers rose and began to introduce themselves. "Good evening, before we begin, let me get introductions out of the way," the tall Hispanic woman began. Motioning to the average looking man next to her she continued: "This is officer Dalton, and I am officer Mendez." The man beside her just grunted at which she shot him a glare. "Please excuse the rudeness of my partner, he is always like this. I gather you must be Sarah Yamato." At Sarah's nod the woman continued: "Well then let's take a seat and talk about what happened on the street outside this afternoon. Sarah, as you are a minor your grandfather, will be here at all time."
They had just sat down when Sarah's grandmother entered from the kitchen bearing a tablet with a pot of tea and several cups. She distributed the cups pouring everyone some tea then sat down beside Sarah comforting her.
Officer Mendez took a sip from her teacup the started to talk again. "For the protocol, since Sarah's parents have been delayed and can not be here at the present time her grandparents Mr. Satoru Yamato and Mrs. Asuka Yamato will act as her legal guardians in the meantime. " In a much less formal tone she continued, "I know this is hard for you Sarah, but could you please tell us in your own words what happened today when you were on your way here."
Sarah began to tell her tale of how she met this young redheaded girl at the park and how they decided to go and see her grandparents when officer Dalton asked another question:"Now why did you want her to follow you here?"
"Oh I forgot, from the little bit of Japanese I speak, I could just tell that she was lost. She did not seem to be proficient in speaking English either, so I thought ojii might be able to help out."
"I see," Dalton conceded monosyllabically.
Immediately officer Mendez threw in her own question, "Did you by any chance get to know the girl's name? You see she is currently listed as Jane Doe, that means nobody knows who she is."
"Well yes, we introduced ourselves as best as we could. She told me her name was Saotome Ranma. I thought this was a strange name for a girl..." Sarah trailed off as she heard her grandfather being seized by an uncontrollable coughing fit. A look to her right revealed that her grandmother also wore an expression of shock mixed with hopefulness.
Recovering from his seizure Mr. Yamato asked The Question: "Did you just say her name was Saotome? As in Saotome Genma?"
To continue or not to continue, that is the question!
Disclaimer
This is a work of bad fanfiction! Anyone reading this did so on their own risk! I am not to be held responsible for any mental or physical trauma inflicted to those people!
The Characters from Ranma ½ and "Sailor Moon" belong to their respective owners. "Ranma ½" was created by the exalted Takahashi Rumiko, "Sailor Moon" was created by Takeuchi Naoko
Small Japanese Dictionary
demo - but
doko - where
eigo - English language
furansugo - French language
gaijin - any person of non-japanese ethnicity
hime - chan-princess (endearment)
kakutou - barehanded fighting, grappling
kitte - come!
koko - here (where I stand)
koko wa doko desu ka - where am i? (polite question)kuso - rude swearword, bu?er it
matte - wait!
musabetsu - indiscriminate, anything goes
nai - infml. Negation
nihongo - Japanese Language
o-jii-san - grandfather
ryuu - school of fighting
Saotome no - of the Saotome family
sensei - teacher, also used to address a doctor
sumimasen - Excuse me...
uun - yes, hmm
urusai - Shut up! (adj. loud, annoying)
watashi - I
yoroshiku - Pleased to meet you. (lit. Please be kind to me.)Douzo yoroshiku.