Author's Rant:

This fanfiction was completely inspired by one of my favorite little anime series, Midori no Hibi, also known as Midori Days. In all honesty, I wanted to write a fanfic about Seiji-kun becoming Midori's right hand (it was the opposite during the anime/manga). But not many people knew about Midori no Hibi when it came out three years ago, much less now, so the chances of someone reading it (and more importantly, reviewing it) were practically nil. So as I was about to sadly file the idea away as just another ill conceived fanfic idea… it hit me. Hard. Like upside the face with a sledgehammer. What if Ranma became Akane's right hand, or vice versa?! Either way, the idea was awesome. Quite possibly even be better than the original idea, considering all the chaos that goes on in the Ranmaverse.

Disclaimer:

Since I'm still saving up funds to buy the title rights for myself, Ranma½ is unfortunately… not mine. The original story was created by Takahashi-samma, and title rights belong to Viz Video, Shogakukkan, and some others, I think.

RANMA NO HIBI

Saotome Ranma, master martial artist, heir to the Saotome School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts, and possessor of inhuman strength and skill, was sulking in his room. It was turning out to be a fairly common past time for the pigtailed martial artist as of late.

Things with his fiancée (well… the most important one, anyway) were going down hill. Recently they had been fighting more and more, and Ranma was convinced that anytime now Akane would get so angry at him that she would forever swear off the engagement. He tried to fix things, of course. He had taken her out for a date earlier that evening. She was quite surprised and maybe even a little bit happy that he had asked her out, and had quickly agreed. They had decided on going to see a movie, eating out at a moderately expensive restaurant, and then ending the evening with a quiet, nighttime stroll through the park. Everything was going great until they had gotten to the park. While they were walking along one of the paths, Ranma was suddenly glomped by his would be Amazonian bride, Shampoo. The Saotome heir had quickly tried (and failed) to pry her off, but not quick enough to prevent Akane's hair-trigger temper. And to make matters worse, as Akane's rage continued to boil to critical mass, Ukyou had shown up at that moment and began fighting over him with Shampoo. You'd think that was bad enough, but fate and circumstance were not quite finished yet. In the space of just a few seconds, Kodachi the Black Rose had flew in out of nowhere, threw paralysis dust into his face, and then fled away with an immobilized Ranma in her arms.

It had taken half an hour for the paralysis effect to wear off, and then another hour of running around the neighborhood rooftops to get away from the crazy gymnast. By the time Ranma had gotten home, his clothes were ruined and he was in his female form. Without even bothering to greet everyone as she had come in, Ranma had immediately raced to Akane's room and stuck her head in the doorway to apologize for ruining the date, only to receive a swift punch in the face that had sent her flying through a wall. After that, she had sadly taken a bath in the furo and then gotten ready for bed.

He heaved a heavy sigh and stared up at the ceiling of his room. "Stupid tomboy… it aint like I ever ask for all this stuff. I'd gladly get rid of Ukyou, Shampoo, and Kodachi if I knew how! Heck, it aint like I ever told any of 'em that I liked them or nothin." He rolled onto his side and tried to ignore the snores of his panda father as sleep slowly overtook him. "Just once… I wish she could know what it's like… bein in my shoes…"

"Oh really?"

CHAPTER ONE: THE RIGHT HAND FIANCEE
Ranma woke up unusually early. "Aww man… I slept like a rock…" According to what his still half asleep senses were telling him, it was before dawn, though he didn't know how much earlier it was. The snores of his father meant that he had time to get away before he was victim of another bucket of cold water in the face. Deciding to go ahead and get ready for school, he yawned and stretched his whole body, throwing his arms out wide. As he stretched, out of the corner of his eye he noticed something strange attached to his right hand. He turned his head to get a better look and almost fainted at what he saw, but still had the decency to let his jaw hit the floor at the sight.

The tiny figure of a sleeping Tendo Akane sticking out of his pajama sleeve.

"W-what the hell…" were all the words he could muster at the situation at hand (no pun intended). He turned on a nearby lamp to see properly and stared in wonder at the end of his sleeve. How the hell did he acquire a mini tomboy for a right hand? Ranma wiggled his arm and blinked hard, hoping it was just his imagination. After several moments, he was forced to admit that no, he was indeed not hallucinating.

His actions managed to wake up his mini fiancée, however. She yawned and rubbed the sleep away from her eyes before peering around the room. "Where am I?" She then noticed Ranma close by and furrowed her brow in confusion. "Ranma?" As more of her senses were slowly awakened, it dawned on her just what her new situation was. She had a pretty normal reaction.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

Ranma winced in pain as her scream lanced through his skull. His fiancée stopped screaming only after she ran out of breath and then after a few moments oh heavy breathing, glared at him. Somehow, he just knew she blamed him for this whole mess.

"Okay Ranma, why am I attached to your arm? What did you do this time?"

Ranma glared right back at his mini fiancée. "How the heck should I know? I didn't do nothin! I just woke up and found out I had a tomboy for a right hand!" Geez, where did she get off, blaming him for this? That was just like her, jumping to conclusions all the time. He was about to voice those thoughts when the sleeve on his arm dropped a little, revealing the completely nude upper torso of Akane. They both started at her tiny chest in shock for a few seconds.

"YOU HENTAI!!!" Akane roared and gave her fiancée a vicious uppercut, sending him sprawling onto his back.

Ranma slowly sat up, rubbing his chin with his remaining hand and scowled at her. "Dammit Akane! It aint like I knew you were naked or nothin! You didn't have to hit me!" It lacked the usual power behind the fist of an angry Akane, but it still hurt like hell.

Akane pulled up the pajama sleeve to cover herself and scowled right back at him. "You still saw me, you pervert! What kind of hentai gets off to seeing his own hand?"

"You stupid tomboy! Why the heck would I be happy to see you, huh? You're built like a brick. Besides, my girl form's got a better figure anyway, and-"

"RANMA NO BAKA!!!" Ranma's comeback suddenly ground to a screeching halt as a tiny fist once again sent him sprawling. Had someone told him yesterday that he'd be up at the crack of dawn getting beat up by his own hand, he would've laughed in their face.

Before either of them could continue the argument, Ranma's father in panda form slammed a sign of "BE QUIET!!!" into him, sending them out the window to land in the koi pond in the back yard. The panda then snuggled back into his futon and grumpily pulled his blanket over himself. The nerve of that boy, causing a big racket at this time of the morning. He'd have to teach his son how to behave properly.

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Ranma wore a scowl as he sat in the furo, washing himself with his left hand, facing away from his right arm with a threat that he tuned his head under pain of death. He wondered just what sort of deity he had pissed of this time to land him with this mess. "Well, what are we gonna to tell everyone at breakfast?" It's not like this was something that wouldn't be noticeable.

Akane washed herself with a tiny fragment of soap. "The truth, stupid. What else would we tell them?" Though she had to admit, this was easily the strangest thing that had ever happened to them so far, and that was saying a lot. She pondered on just how her family would react to this new change. She hoped her dad didn't die of a heart attack, but she wasn't very optimistic.

Ranma was afraid of that. He was pretty sure that he'd be crucified for this one. Well, maybe they'd be merciful and his death would be quick and painless. As he washed himself, he thought about that many ways his execution could be carried out until an idea occurred to him. It was a long shot, but what did he have to lose? "Hey, maybe if we brought you to your body, we could get you back to normal."

Akane stopped washing herself and thought about that. "Well, it's worth a try I guess. But I doubt it's something that easy." It never was. Whenever something magical happened to them, it always required quite a bit of trouble to get things back to normal. Akane was starting to wonder if that's just how magic worked in general.

After they finished heir bath and Ranma dressed himself, they made their way into Akane's room. Lying peacefully in her bed was the body of Tendo Akane. She seemed to be in a deep sleep, the expression on her face unreadable. To Ranma, she looked for all the world like a sleeping angel. He could practically see the halo over her head. Mini Akane looked at Ranma and noticed that he was starring at her body and suddenly became very self conscious, and even blushed a little. What the heck was he looking at? Not that she cared that the hentai liked looking at her or anything; she just didn't want him staring at her. "Hey, you'd better not be thinking any perverted thoughts about me!"

Ranma snapped out of it and frowned as he crossed the room over to Akane's sleeping form. "Whatever, just get back in there already. I aint goin around with a talkin hand for the rest of my life." He looked away and stuck his right arm towards his fiancée's body.

Mini Akane impacted her chest and turned to glare at Ranma. "Hey, watch where you're touching, you jerk!" She turned back to her body and stared at it, not sure what to do. Maybe if she concentrated really hard or wished to be back to normal, it might work. She placed her tiny hands upon her normal self and closed her eyes, concentrating with all her might to get back into her body. Several minutes passed by with no change. Eventually Akane gave up and sighed in defeat. "It's not working."

Ranma groaned. Dammit, now he had no choice but to show up to breakfast engaged to his right hand. "I was afraid of that. Maybe you gotta speak some magic words or somethin. We'll go ask Cologne about it."

Just then, Kasumi's voice called out from downstairs. "Akane-chan! Ranma-kun! Come downstairs, or your breakfast will get cold!" Akane and Ranma shared a look of impending doom, and Ranma mournfully headed downstairs to where the Tendos and his father were waiting for them at the table. Ranma hid Akane behind his back. He'd ease them into it gradually instead of just blurting it out to them.

Kasumi noticed that Ranma had arrived and smiled at him. "Ranma-kun, would you go fetch Akane-chan please? She hasn't arrived to breakfast yet."

"Um… actually, Akane's-"

Ranma's reply was cut off by Nabiki. "You two didn't have a fight again already, did you? You have that look you always get when you realize you're in big trouble."

"Well, it's like this…"

Ranma was again cut off, this time by his father. "Look boy, just go get here already! I'm hungry!"

That was the last straw. The pigtailed boy lost his patience, and shouted "AKANE'S RIGHT HERE!!!"

Nabiki raised a brow at that. "And how do figure that, Saotome? Did she suddenly become invisible? No wait… you're hiding her in your pocket."

Ranma scowled and held up his right arm, and the Tendo girl attached to it, wearing a scrap of cloth around her body. She laughed nervously and waved at her family. "Uh… good morning everyone. Sorry about this…" Silence filled the room as everyone stared at Mini Akane. Several jaws hit the floor at the same time.

No one spoke for several moments until Kasumi hesitantly stepped over towards her little sister and her fiancée. "Ranma…"

"Yes, Kasumi?"

The older girl clasped her hands together and smiled delightedly. "I didn't know you were in the puppet club at school. I was the club president when I used to attend Furinken High, though I have to admit that is a very nice puppet of Akane-chan. She seems so lifelike!" The floor suddenly shook as several people face faulted at the same time.

Ranma laughed nervously. "Um… Kasumi, this isn't a puppet. This really is Akane."

Kasumi didn't respond at first, and just when Ranma was about to ask if she had heard him, she leaned forward to inspect her miniaturized sister. "A-akane-chan?"

Akane smiled at her sister, hoping she wouldn't become to upset. "Yeah, it's really me, sis. Akane."

Kasumi blinked slowly several time before saying anything. "Oh, my." And then she finally fainted. Ranma caught her with his left arm and gently set her down at her seat.

The second Ranma had released the older girl; he was roughly grabbed by the collar of his shirt and hoisted into the air. He looked down into the snarling face of Soun Tendo and fought hard not to faint as well. The look in Soun's eyes promised extremely violent murder in his near future. The older man shook him like a rag doll, screaming into his face. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY LITTLE GIRL?!!!"

Akane flailed helplessly as Ranma's body was shaken by her father. She yelled out to him to get him to calm down before she died of whiplash. "Dad! Cut it out! Ranma didn't do this!" Apparently her words had some effect, as her father eventually stopped and put the boy down. Ranma wasted no further time in explaining what had happened so far.

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It had been several minutes since Ranma and Akane had finished explaining what had happened to them. The Tendos and Saotomes had started eating breakfast after Kasumi had gone to fetch Akane a miniature plate with matching sized portions of food and chopsticks. (No one wanted to ask where she had gotten them from) After she had recovered from her faint, she had gone back to normal, only commenting on how cute Akane looked while miniaturized. Soun was currently bawling his eyes out, but that was pretty normal for him, all things considered. Nabiki had left briefly to check up on Akane's body to see for herself. Genma had realized that while missing one hand, Ranma was unable to properly fend him off from his food, but when the man had tried to steal some, Akane had stabbed his hand with her tiny chopsticks.

"Yeah, it's all true. The Akane upstairs appears to be in a coma." Nabiki commented as she rejoined the Tendos and Saotomes at breakfast. The news only served to make Soun cry even louder. Everyone decided to ignore him.

When breakfast was finished, Kasumi glanced at the clock on the wall and gasped. "Oh, my! It's past time for you all to leave school."

Soun, who had suddenly stopped crying and now looked as if nothing had happened, nodded in agreement with his oldest daughter. "That's right. You all should get going. You'll be late for school."

Ranma gawked at the two of them. They we're actually serious, were they? "You gotta be jokin! Me and Akane can't go to school lookin like this!" He was strange enough with his Jusenkyou curse. People finding out about this was the last thing he needed.

Soun's demon head appeared in all it's fury and he repeated his words ominously. "That's right. You all should get going. You'll be late for school."

Ranma leaped to his feet. Well, he supposed there were worse fates than people finding out about this. (like saying no to Soun right now) As he walked towards the front door, he gazed at his fiancée. "Aww, man. How the heck are we supposed to hide this?"

Akane sighed. She didn't like the thought of going to school any more than Ranma did. What were her friends going to say when they saw her like this? She'd never live it down, even after they found out a way to fix things back to normal.

Nabiki smirked at the two of them as she stood next to the front door. "It looks like you two are in a bind. I guess it's time for big sister Nabiki to save the day again. What am I ever going to do with you two, huh?" The middle Tendo sister crossed her arms across her chest and shook her head slowly.

Akane scowled at her sister. She knew Nabiki expected payment for her help, but it's not like they had any sort of choice at the moment. Not if either of them wanted to keep any shred of dignity at school. "Okay, Nabiki. How much this time?"

Nabiki looked genuinely hurt. Did they truly think that all she cared about was money? Yeah, of course money was important. Very important. But so was her little sister. "It was going to be for free, but I suppose if you insist on paying me then… how about you two try to get along more often? It's not like you really have a choice at the moment anyway."

Both Akane and Ranma blinked at this. Nabiki didn't help people for practically nothing everyday. In fact, this might be the first time she ever did. They both nodded vigorously before Nabiki came to her senses and charged them for every last yen they had, and then some, which they would have gladly paid for her help at this point.

Nabiki produced a roll of cloth bandage and smiled at Akane. "It's simple. Ranma had just broken his hand recently, and he'll be wearing a bandage. No one will inspect it too much out of fear of causing further damage, so you'll be safe from discovery." She started wrapping the bandage around Akane's body. "Now hold still, little sis…"

TO BE CONTINUED
Well, that's Chapter 1 so far. What'd you think? This whole fanfic was just spur of the moment, so if it wasn't too good, my apologies. But if you DID think this was good. Then you'll definitely want to check out Midori no Hibi aka Midori Days. I'll put a link to a place where you can read the manga for free as my homepage, if you're interested. Oh, and my main fanfiction, A Fighting Chance, is still alive. I'll post the new chapter… sometime. I know what'll go on during the chapter and all, I just need to get around to typing it all out. Well, goodbye for now. I'll leave you with a clip from Chapter 2.

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Neither spoke a word as Ryouga and Ranma started at the bandaged hand for a minute and then at each other. Finally, Ryouga started to speak, though he sounded very unsure of himself for even asking his question. "Ranma… did your hand just… sneeze?"

Ranma nodded, accepting that their cover was blown. Ryouga wasn't the brightest of people, but even he knew that a sneezing hand was strange, even for Neriman standards. "Yeah. She did."

"She?" Ryouga looked even more confused now. When he had decided to beat Saotome once and for all, he hadn't planned on female sneezing hands. "Since when did you refer to your hand as a female?"

The pigtailed boy sighed. "Ryouga, you know how I'm keeping a secret for you? Well, it's time for you to return the favor."

The lost boy relaxed and crossed his arms across his chest. He didn't like to be reminded that he owed something to Ranma, but from what Ranma had just said, that dept was about to be repaid. "Okay, Saotome. What's going on?"

Ranma started to unwrap the bandage around his hand. "You'd better not tell anyone about this…" After a minute he had completely removed the cloth bandage and held up his arm for Ryouga to see.

Mini Akane waved cheerfully at the lost boy. "Hello, Ryouga-kun! I haven't seen you in awhile. Where have you been?" She stopped smiling when she noticed the blank look on the lost boy's face. "Ryouga-kun?"

"A-Akane-san?" Ryouga managed to say, before falling unconscious.