Disclaimer: I don't own Sakura Taisen 5/ Sakura Wars So Long my Love, or Ranma ½. If I did I would be a much happier person..
Author's notes: Oh God, Gamer Geek is gonna give me so much crap for this but you know what! I don't care! Yes I realize it's been months since I've updated Hunter High School, but I've decided to start something completely different! I'm so evil! All I need's a goatee. But seriously, life has been busy, what with school and having to do a project for The Odyssey, but, I digress. I started this one a couple weeks ago, and if I didn't finish it, I would've exploded.
This story is my first crossover that, no matter how it leaves off, should be expected to be a one shot until I decide to continue it, and find time to do so. It's a crossover of the manga/anime series, Ranma ½, and the fifth installment in the Sakura Taisen series (or Sakura Wars as it's called in the U.S.). For those of you who don't know what Sakura Wars is, in a nutshell, it's a videogame about advanced steam technology in the 1920-1930's, which allow a bunch of theater workers/ military agents, to drive giant robots to fight evil demons rampaging through random parts of the world. For more, look it up, I'm not going to explain it here so Google it or something. As for Ranma ½, I think it's well known enough that I shouldn't need to explain it, but Google it, or watch it if you really wanna know.
In the Ranma universe, this is taking place post cannon.
In the Sakura Taisen universe, this takes place during the fifth game, after all the characters have had their own chapters, but before the finale begins, with Nobunaga dropping Azuchi Castle in the middle of New York.
The time and reality difference will be explained in the story.
As per tradition, if you made it through that, you get cookies!
Sakura Wars: The Stranger from Nerima
Ranma tiptoed quietly through the Tendo residence up to Happosai's bed room door. For his plan to work he would need to be swift and precise. This would be difficult to pull off, but he could do it. He was Ranma Saotome after all!
The pigtailed martial artist reached into the pocket of his blue pants and pulled out his weapon of choice. Of anything he could have chosen for his arsenal, of all of the lethal weapons he could have chosen for this task, only one would get him to his target, past the current master of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. A pair of panties. Akane's panties to be more precise. It had been quite embarrassing to ask for his fiancé's under garments, even after telling her his plan, and not to mention painful when she whacked him with the Tendo's ridiculously sturdy table. In the end however, after a great deal of blushing and witty (or not so witty) banter, he had acquired his weapon.
From his other pocket he pulled out a can of soda, which he had bought just a few moments ago from the vending machine not too far down the street. Shaking it up, he wrapped Akane's panties around the can, and took a deep breath.
"Showtime." He whispered to himself with a cocky grin on his face. Yanking the sliding door aside, he shouted, "Hey Old Freak! Get a load of these!" He held up the can with the panties wrapped around it. Happosai's eyes snapped open instantaneously, and with a hearty "Hotcha!" he lunged for the can.
With Amaguriken speed, Ranma opened the can and tossed it like a football, letting the spray carry it farther. The perverted master of course jumped after it.
At that particular moment, a certain bandanna clad boy with a pack and umbrella wandered around the streets, deep in thought of defeating his eternal rival, and how he must leave his beloved, who sees him as only her pet, despite his having no idea where the heck he was now. As Ryoga Hibiki walked on, he could have sworn that from over head he heard the faint expression, "How sweet it is!" Shrugging, the lost boy took another step, only to be sprayed in the face by a rain of cola, causing him to trip and fall into the river next to him. As the cursed pig watched his things float to the bottom of the river… again, he squealed loudly. This of course, would, in human language, translate to, "This is all your fault Saotome!" The current carried him once more towards the Tendo Dojo, and the rest as we all know, is history.
Meanwhile, Ranma quickly ransacked Happosai's things, hoping to find the treasure he was looking for. He didn't have much time before the old freak got back. Eventually he found what he was looking for. Six shards of a mirror, and the handle that should house them.
Carefully placing everything else where he originally found it, he snuck out and ran towards the kitchen. No one would even consider entering it at the moment, not even Happosai, since Ranma had set up such conditions by having Akane make the nights meal. It had been a hefty price to pay, but now he had what he needed. He took a roll of scotch tape from a drawer, and got to work.
In a few minutes, he had reassembled Cologne's magic mirror. Sure this scenario hadn't worked well when he'd dreamed about it just a few weeks prior, but this time, he wouldn't try to stop himself from falling into the cursed spring in Jusenkyo. Instead, he would just go there himself, find the spring of drowned boy, jump in, and be cured… Unless it turned him into a hermaphrodite, but really, what were the odds of that happening?
Taking an onion, he rubbed it in his eye saying, "I want to go to Jusenkyo." A tear rolled down his cheek, hitting the mirror. The mirror began to glow, as a bright flash of light engulfed Ranma, then it disappeared. Ranma was gone. No one was there however, to see six shards of glass drop onto the ground, except for an old woman, who had arrived to late to stop her 'future son in law' from making an enormous mistake.
Cologne sighed inwardly. Was that boy really so ignorant that he'd think an ancient artifact, holding three thousand years of ancient Chinese Amazon history, could be fixed with only a few strips of scotch tape?
As the last customer left the Little Lip Theater, Lieutenant Shinjiro Taiga sighed contently, having completed another successful day of business. He reminded himself to compliment everyone on a job well done in their performance of Shakespeare's, A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Feeling he could use a drink, he walked over to the juice bar. "Hey Cherry." He said with his usual calm smile on his face. "Can I get a glass of water? Tonight was a little busier than usual."
Cherry grinned seductively. "Sure thing Tiger." She replied, using her acquired nickname for the Japanese boy. "It's on the house."
As he waited for his refreshment, Shinjiro observed the blue and white waitresses outfit Cherry always wore on the job. Although it was her 'uniform', it perfectly complimented her feminine figure.
It was at this moment that Anri approached. Seeing Shinjiro sitting at the bar, watching Cherry bent over the faucet, her skirt flipping up (probably on purpose), she let her reflexes kick in. "Pervert!" She yelled at Shinjiro, nearly knocking him off his seat. "It figures you'd do something like this!"
Cherry turned around placing the glass of water on the counter in front of Shinjiro. Chuckling she taunted, "Geez Anri, You really need to learn to talk to boys!"
Before things got worse, Shinjiro attempted to change the subject. "So how did sales go tonight Anri?" If this didn't work, he was gonna be in for an ear full.
To his transparent delight, Anri lit up like a Christmas tree almost instantly. "Amazing! We sold more tonight than we have the last two nights put together! The audience really liked Rosita as Puck, and Photos of Cheiron as Titania sold just as well!"
As he listened to Anri's summary of the night's sales, Shinjiro sipped from his glass. "The others did do a great job tonight, in fact I was just about to go congratulate them. You guys wanna come?"
Anri shook her head. "Sorry but I still need to clean up the stand for the night."
"Same thing for me," Cherry called over from the sink, putting down a wet wash rag and reaching over to grab Shinjiro's glass. "But if you ever want me for a date, you know where to find me, Tiger." The blonde then winked towards the blushing usher.
"Cherry!" Anri yelled. At this point, Shinjiro made the wise decision to leave before he got dragged into the newest argument. As he walked to the left of the auditorium doors, he approached the green room, where all of the theater's star actresses would be after the performance.
As he opened the door, he saw the usual sights. Rosita was spinning on her heel happily wearing her green poncho and her guns pointed in the air as usual, her pet ferret Nicollo perched upon her head. Gemini in her usual cowgirl outfit conversed with Diana, who wore her usual white doctor's coat. Subaru in his/her purple outfit, talked with the lawyer Cheiron, who was wearing her usual black suit.
Everyone turned and smiled upon his entrance, but Rosita was the first to speak. "Shins! Did you like my performance?" The girl spoke with a noticeable Spanish accent.
Shinjiro smiled. "Everyone did a great job tonight." The comment was directed to everyone. Shinjiro announced his opinion on the performance, smiling brightly when talking about something that went great, and showing a look of understanding when critiquing one part or another.
As he finished, Gemini exclaimed, "Alrighty! We'll fix it up, just you wait and see Shiny!"
Subaru simply opened up her fan in front of her face. "Subaru will reflect upon these things." she said, talking from the third person as usual.
Diana smiled brightly, her eyes twinkling behind her glasses. "I'm sure that we can use Shin's critique to make our show even better!"
Cheiron crossed her arms with a grin on her face. "Yeah, thanks for the feedback kid."
Rosita began spinning once more. "Yay! We'll make the show better just for Shins, right Nicollo?"
The small ferret squeaked in agreement "Kyu!"
Ranma was confused. He had woken up in what seemed to be a small forest. Unless there was some forest next to his destination, he was pretty sure this wasn't Jusenkyo. Add that to some other misfortunes, such as the mirror being missing, and this obviously wasn't a good situation for the young heir of the Saotome School of anything goes martial arts.
Well, first things first, he thought. Where the heck am I? It occurred to Ranma that this might be how a certain umbrella toting martial artist felt all the time. "Well it won't do me any good to stay here." The pigtailed boy thought aloud. "I guess I'll just wander around until I find someone I can ask for directions." After about sixty seconds of walking in one direction, he found a pathway with a few people on it. Jackpot! Although strangely they didn't look too Chinese.
"Excuse me." Ranma said to a nearby couple. "Where is this?" The two looked at him peculiarly and looked at each other. It was then that to Ranma's dismay, that he not only knew how the lost boy felt, but he also felt like his father. "Dang it! I don't speak a word of Chinese!"
It was at this point, that Ranma's frustration was cut short by the appearance of a trio of large black and grey robots.
The alarm in the theater went off quickly and suddenly, but everyone knew what to do. Shinjiro and the other members of the New York Combat Revue ran towards the command center. After zip lining down to the changing area and arriving in the command center, everything was prepared. Ratchet and Commander Sunnyside sat at the ends of the table, whilst the six members of the combat revue sat three to an end of the table. Each of the Combat Revue members wore a uniform with a different color, alternating with white. Shinjiro being red, Cheiron black, Rosita green, Diana light blue, Subaru purple, and Gemini Orange. Cherry and Anri stood by the door in their black rainbow division outfits, whilst Ratchet wore her usual blue suit. Sunnyside, in his stainless white suit then began the briefing.
"Well Shinster," he began with a smile. "This one doesn't look too big. A few minutes ago, about a dozen enemies appeared in central park and began attacking anybody out on a late night walk. You do know what to do don't you, Lieutenant Taiga?" Sunnyside ended with a small grin.
Shinjiro stood up and saluted. "Yes Sir!" He then turned to the combat Revue, who had assembled at the door already. "New York Combat Revue, move out!"
"Yes Sir!" The members of the revue cried in unison.
As the members of the revue boarded the STARs, Ratchet, Sunnyside, and The Rainbow Division members prepared to launch the Ahab, the Star Divisions battle ship air craft. As Anri Set up the conversion of the theater to catapult mode, Cherry prepared the Ahab for launch. When all Was Ready Cherry yelled out, "Go!" As did the giant pair of lips that served as the theatre's neon signal. The Ahab, having the STARs loaded onto it, was then fired out of the catapult, and began its flight towards Central Park.
Ranma watched in confusion as the giant robots swung around hammers, fired lasers, or threw bombs. Now, not only was he unsure of where he was, but also of when he was! Looking at everything going on around him, one thing was pretty obvious. He wasn't in Kansas anymore, metaphorically speaking. There was one more thing however, that was very clear here. These robots were obviously the bad guys, and these people were obviously in danger. If he didn't do something quick, they might not make it. The obvious conclusion. It was time to show these giant robots just how good the heir to the Saotome School of anything goes martial arts was! Right after he helped the people escape. Ranma sighed inwardly. If they weren't in so much danger I'd show off to 'em a bit. He thought.
He ran over to a few people telling them to follow him, then mentally slapped himself after remembering he didn't speak their language. Ranma tried to remember everything that he had learned about communication.
Ranma my boy, when all else fails, you should always consider running away your best bet.
No not that.
Ranma my boy, sometimes, in order to accomplish greater goals, you must resort to questionable methods.
No way.
Ranma my boy, you can't ever buy perfection, that's why we're stealing our lunches today.
Was there anything his father taught him that wasn't completely useless? Why was he even thinking about that in the first place? He'd just as soon ask Ryoga for directions than-
Wait… Ryoga! Whenever Ryoga was stuck in his pig form, he couldn't talk, so how did he communicate? With motions and facial expressions, although only God knows how he makes facial expressions as a pig.
Tapping someone's shoulder and getting their attention, Ranma motioned for that person to look at the other people, then motioned towards the small forest he had come from not five minutes ago. The man stared blankly for a minute, then suddenly his eyes went wide and his mouth formed an O. Nodding, he turned and shouted. "Everybody! This way to safety!" Although most listened, many still ran in whatever direction they felt like was safe. These ones Ranma ran to and pointed in the right direction. After this process went on for about three minutes everyone had gotten into the trees, where the robots would have a hard time following. The next few moments was everybody being ushered deep into the forest, with Ranma of course, staying behind.
Finally some action! Ranma was about to run for the nearest robot, when he suddenly heard a group of people shout in unison.
"New York Combat Revue! Let's do it!"
Did he just hear New York? Wasn't that in America? Crap.
As she watched the Star Division land from the Ahab, Ratchet observed the situation. "hmmm, that's unusual." She commented.
"And what might that be?" Commander Sunnyside asked, in a very mysterious Sunnyside like manner.
"The civilians are already evacuated into the closest safe spot, in this case the trees, where the enemy is to big to follow them." Ratchet pointed out. "Normally we need to at least escort some citizens away before a battle, but in this case, they've already gone to a location where they'll be safe from the battle."
Sunnyside smiled playfully. "Well it seems we have someone on the ground with a little common sense."
Ratchet nodded. "Maybe. It doesn't seem like it will bring up any problems later, so we shouldn't need to worry about it too much."
The Commander grinned. "You mean, you, don't need to worry about it to much."
Ratchet raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Sunnyside shrugged. "Just saying that you're the one who pointed it out, that's all."
Ratchet rolled her eyes. "I'm calling Lieutenant Taiga now."
"Lieutenant Taiga, can you hear me?" Ratchet's voice rang through the speakers in Shinjiro's STAR.
"Coming in loud and clear." Shinjiro responded.
"Good." Ratchet then began pointing out objectives. The first was the most obvious. Defeat the enemy. That would be simple enough. Since there were 12 enemy robots, and six of them, this would be easy. Shinjiro was more than confident in his team's ability, and was sure that they could easily take on two enemy robots at a time. All of the other objectives were just fine trim details. They were to prevent as much collateral damage as possible, and attempt to help any stragglers among the civilians. The last one was stated only by regulation, since it was obvious everyone had already gotten away.
"Alright Star Division!" Shinjiro said at the end of the briefing. "Eliminate the enemy with minimal casualties! Prevent any unnecessary collateral damage, and protect any straggling civilians!"
Each of the members of Star division members then cried out in unison, "Yes Captain!"
The attack then began. Subaru was the first to strike. She rocketed over to a group of hammer carrying robots that were attempting to clear the trees to get to the civilians. She decided to take them both out at once.
"Lunatic Bloom!" Her STAR swung its fans to the side, creating a tornado in front of it, and catching the two robots in front of her in its vortex. Needless to say, both of the enemies were defeated.
Gemini was the next to attack, bringing out her sword upon one of the napalm tossing robots several times. Upon the end of her assault, the robot fell, disintegrating into a cloud of purple and black smoke. She didn't notice the gun carrying robot behind her ready itself to attack. Before her would be assailant could attack however, they were struck by several bubbles of blue energy. Gemini, now noticing the dissolving robot behind her, turned to her would be savior. "Thanks Diana!"
Diana nodded her STAR in response. "Your welcome Gemini."
In the meantime, Rosita stood stationary, two cannon robots on either side of her. As the two robots brought up their cannons, Rosita yelled "Draw!" pulling out her two pistols and firing rapidly in both directions. Her two enemies, now full of bullet holes, fell to the ground, vanishing into smoke.
Cheiron had, at the same time, lured four of the enemies into surrounding her. Before they could attack however, Cheiron took the upper hand. "Verdict Chain!" Performing her special attack, she took out all of the enemies.
This left the last two to Shinjiro. Turning to the first, he shouted "Tiger Fang!" Bringing down his two blades like a sideways jaw upon his enemy, cutting them into three pieces easily.
At that same time, the other robot prepared to bring down its hammer upon Shinjiro as he recovered from the recoil of his attack.
"Shiny! Look out!" Gemini attempted to warn the young lieutenant of the incoming attack. It was too late however.
Shinjiro saw from his peripheral vision, the enemy preparing to bring its hammer down on him, but cursed, knowing that he was to slow to turn around to block the attack, and couldn't move fast enough out of the Tiger Fang position to avoid the attack.
As Shinjiro braced himself for an attack, he heard a shout from behind him. "Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!"
Ranma watched with undisguised interest as he saw the six multicolored robots fight against the twelve other robots. What he found most interesting was the purple robots tornado like attack, which reminded him of the Hiryu Shotan Ha minus the spiral. Then there was the blue robot flinging its energy around, kind of like his own chi blast technique the mouko takashiba, and yielding amazing results. After that there was the glowing chain that the black robot had used to annihilate four robots at once. Then the particularly powerful sword attack that the red one had used to cut another robot into pieces like a hot knife through butter. At this point, he saw that that very same robot was in danger of being hit, with a giant mallet no less.
Adrenaline and reflex took over, as Ranma ran about a hundred feet in the span of two seconds. Jumping and clinging onto the front of the hammer wielding robot, Ranma brought his fist up, and yelled his signature technique. "Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!" With ridiculous speed only a master of the chestnut fist could achieve, he rapidly punched a single point on the robot. After about three hundred punches, or two and a half seconds worth of punishment, Ranma's fist penetrated the steel body of the armored titan. Sinking his arm in up to the shoulder, he took a handful of everything he could grab, wires circuits, whatever he could feel, then with all of his strength, yanked it out. What he pulled out was a long segment of cable and wire, which upon disconnecting from the inner workings, dissolved into a dark mist. The robot was followed suit, thus ending the battle.
Ranma rubbed his fist which was nearly glowing red. Geez if I knew it would hurt that much to whack a chunk of steel a couple hundred times, I would've just taken it out with a chi blast, or maybe just let the guy take the hammer in the first place!
From the Ahab, Ratchet looked down on the newest addition to the fight. Not only was this one able to take down a demon robot without a STAR, he managed to pull it off with his bare hands! Even Gemini's sister Geminine needed her sword to take down something like that.
Bringing up the Rainbow Division on her radio, she said, "Cherry, Anri, did you see that?"
"Yeah! We even got it on a recording!" Cherry responded enthusiastically as usual. "And look at these pneuma readings. These numbers are just as high as Diana's, if not, even higher!"
"Hey Cherry, look at this." Anri said sounding a little confused.
"Yeah, what is it?" Cherry looked over onto Anri's screen. "It's the recording we just made. So?"
"So watch what happens when I play it in slow motion." Anri made a few adjustments to the screen to display one second as twenty seconds.
"Does it really have to be that slow?" Cherry asked.
"Just watch." Anri said as she pressed play.
On the other end of the radio, Ratchet heard Cherry gasp. "What is it Cherry, is something wrong?"
"No, but this guy," Cherry began. "We just slowed down the recording by a factor of twenty, and the number of punches he threw was ridiculous!"
"How many was it?" Ratchet wasn't sure the number of punches was too important, but she was curious enough. She reached in front of her and took a sip of her coffee from a thermos.
"At the rate it's going right now," Cherry started. "If he kept this up for about two seconds, which he did, he'd easily throw around three to four hundred punches in that time frame alone!"
Ratchet did a spit take with her coffee. Sunnyside laughed accordingly, only to get the now empty but still heavy thermos thrown at his skull. His assistant Mr. Wong put his hand to his forehead, and sighed.
Cheiron was the first to get out of her STAR and see who the stranger was. "Hey!" She yelled towards the pigtailed boy. "Who the heck are you, and how did you do that!" As she ran up to him, she got a better view of his cloths, a red sleeveless kung fu shirt, and a blue pair of pants. "Hey, I asked you what your name is!" She was getting angry at the boys not answering her. The boy then started mumbling something.
The rest of Star Division began arriving at this time, everyone wanting to know the answer to the same question Cheiron was asking.
Ranma was now stuck in another mess, that being, the foreign language barrier. It had begun with the woman in black coming up to him and saying something, although he had no idea what it was, and then she seemed to get angry for his not answering, but who could blame him? Next came the little girl in green who seemed a little too happy and was spinning rapidly trying to pounce on him occasionally, only to be stopped and scolded by the woman in black.
After that came a woman in blue, who seemed to try to be brainstorming ways to overcome the language barrier. Next was a red headed girl in orange who seemed to join the girl in blue in trying to think of ideas to overcome the language barrier.
When all hope seemed lost, A voice finally said something to him in Japanese. "You're Japanese right?" Ranma nearly cried as he turned around to see a young Japanese man stepping out of the red and white robot.
"Finally, someone who I can understand!" Ranma cried for all to hear, silencing everyone, although the only one who understood him was Shinjiro.
Shinjiro sighed, relived that he wouldn't need to try to do anything to drastic to figure out who he was. "I'm Lieutenant Shinjiro Taiga. And these are the members of my squad, Star Division. Cheiron Archer, Rosita Aeries, Diana Caprice, Gemini Sunrise, and Subaru Kujo. Subaru is our other Japanese member." No sooner had he said her name, Subaru had joined the group, departing from her STAR. "So who're you?"
Ranma nodded. "My name is Ranma Saotome. I'm the current heir to the Saotome school of anything goes martial arts. By the way what year is it?"
Shinjiro blinked. That was an odd question to ask. "It's 1929. Why wouldn't you know that?"
Ranma sighed. Apparently he had missed his mark by more than he thought.
A short trip to the Little Lip Theatre, and one story telling later, left the Revue's meeting room with two Japanese men, one grumbling with his face in his hands, the other looking utterly confused, a Japanese woman, who looked more than a little skeptical, and nine other people of various dissensions looking at their would be translator anxiously.
Cheiron was the first to speak up. "So who is this guy, and how did he punch a hole into a giant robot?" she said, asking the question on everybody's mind.
Shinjiro gave Subaru a pleading look for assistance. A simple shake of the head showed that she didn't want to take on any part of the highly unusual explanation. Shinjiro sighed, and began his translated tale.
"So this guy is Ranma Saotome," he began. "He's a martial artist from the Nerima district in Tokyo. Apparently he spent the majority of his life, starting from when he could walk, on a decade long training trip with his father. The issue here though is- and here's where things start to get a little weird- when they were nearing the end of their trip while in China, they came to the valley of the cursed springs. Jusenkyo."
"What's so cursed about it?" Ratchet asked.
Shinjiro started scratching the back of his head. "Well, Jusenkyo is basically a large clearing between mountains littered with hundreds of small springs with bamboo shoots sticking out of each spring. For this reason, the springs are also referred to as the cursed training ground, since several martial artists would travel there to hone their skills by balancing on the poles while fighting. Put simply, you'd balance on the poles, and if you fell you'd get soaked."
"That still doesn't explain why it's cursed." Cheiron interrupted.
"I'm getting there." Shinjiro calmed her down and continued. "It seems the true terror of Jusenkyo, is with its history. In the past several thousand years, creatures of every kind have fallen into the springs and drowned. This combined with a great deal of magical energy coursing through the valley, creates the curse of the springs."
Sunnyside blinked in surprise, as did everyone else. "Magic?" he stated. "I've seen pneuma in action before, but never anything that I would classify as magic."
"Let's just let him finish." Ratchet said, trying to prevent the inevitable debate on the existence of magic before it began. Amazingly she succeeded.
"Right." Shinjiro picked up where he had left off. "Each of these springs contains its own individual curse. When someone falls into one, they take on the shape of the creature that drowned in that particular spring."
The previous pact was then immediately revoked, as every member of the Revue, excluding Mr. Sunnyside, Mr. Wong, and the two who already knew the story shouted, "WHAT!" After a good several minutes of shushing and yelling from Ratchet, the room finally quieted down.
"So this young man fell into one of the cursed springs?" Diana asked, still somewhat skeptical.
"Yes." Shinjiro nodded.
"But he's still obviously human." Cheiron pointed out.
"Well not all curses are animals." Shinjiro stated. "He said that there were a good number of springs were humans had fallen in and drowned, more onto that, he also says that the curse isn't active all of the time."
"A curse that turns on and off?" Rosita questioned and was answered by a nod from Shinjiro.
"How's that work Shiny?" Gemini asked.
"Water temperature." Shinjiro answered simply, only to receive blank stares. Regardless, he continued. "When a victim falls in a spring, they can deactivate the curse by dousing themselves with warm water. But from that point forwards, any time they're splashed with cold water, they revert back to their cursed form."
"So in short, if we splashed cold water in him he'll turn into… what's he supposed to turn into?" Anri asked, noticing the lack of that single piece of information.
"He said he wanted me to keep that a secret." Shinjiro answered looking down.
Before anyone could scold the young lieutenant, the door to the meeting room opened to reveal Subaru. After performing their group double take, they mostly came to the conclusion that they had been so focused on Shinjiro's story, that they hadn't noticed Subaru leave the room. Upon revealing a cup of water, everyone understood what she planned on doing. There was however one bit of protest.
"No way, uh-uh, I'm not doing that." Ranma said to Subaru, turning the conversation to Japanese.
"As things are, no one's going to believe you unless you show some proof." Subaru pointed out.
A disappointed look passed over the Japanese youths face. He took the glass of water and stood at the front of the room where everyone could see. Taking a deep breath, he raised the container over his head, and poured out its contents.
Arguably, there were some upsides to being a boy cursed to turn into a girl. First and foremost, was the perk of receiving discounts and free food whenever you went out to the shopping district, just for being cute. Then there's being able to manipulate psychotic enemies into doing the dumbest and most embarrassing things. However, maybe the most fun, was the look on anyone's face, as they see the attractive, black haired young man, instantly replaced by a gorgeous red headed young girl, with a rather large pair of 'assets'. Just add water. The reactions truly were amusing, and would be much more enjoyable if the following situations weren't so awkward.
Sunnyside's eyes almost swelled out of his glasses, and Ratchet nearly fell out of her chair. Rosita, who had been in the middle of a spin, fell over instantly, while Cheiron and Anri both let out a short shriek. Cherry's eyes also went wide, as his transformation earned a "Tarnation!" from Gemini, and a "Holy Crap." From Shinjiro. Subaru hid her surprise well, while Diana raised her palm to her mouth saying, "Oh my!" In a manner that reminded Ranma much of Kasumi.
As per reflex, Ranma turned her head to the side and looked down. "I'm Ranma Saotome," she said. "Sorry about this."
Shinjiro was dumbstruck. Yes, he had known what their new companion claimed would happen with cold water, but he had never believed it was true!
"What spring did he fall into?" Ratchet asked again slowly with I shocked expression.
"Nyanniichuan." Shinjiro said with a similarly shocked expression on his face. "The spring of drowned girl."
The statement caused an uproar among the majority of the current female populace, this excluding Ranma, Subaru, and Ratchet. Of all of the comments that were shouted though, for some reason, it was Anri's that made a shiver crawl up Ranma's spine, although he couldn't understand it, he knew just from the similar expression on her face to that of her tomboy fiancé that it was something along the lines of a pervert, and to Ranma's dismay, a similar expression was adorned on Cheiron's face as well.
"This is unacceptable!" the dark haired lawyer shouted. "He should be taken to court on perversion of the first degree!" Shinjiro was not a fan of calming down Cheiron's fits of law, nor was he well versed in successfully defending someone, or himself for that matter, against heavy accusations of perversion, regardless of weather it was true or not. To his relief however someone else had beaten him to the punch.
"What charges do you plan on suing him for, looking at himself?" Subaru questioned smoothly, having regained what little of her composure she had lost.
"Subaru's right Cheiron." Diana added on. "We've only just met him, so we shouldn't jump to conclusions." She said with a serene smile, although she left out that she would've jumped to Cheiron's aid, had Subaru's remark not gotten her thinking straight.
"Well what's a gender bendin' martial artist doin' in the Big Apple?" Gemini asked.
"He said he was going to use a Chinese Artifact to travel to Jusenkyo and cure himself by jumping into Nanniichuan, the spring of drowned boy." Shinjiro said.
"So why is he in New York and not China?" Rosita asked, more focused than ever since Ranma's transformation.
Shinjiro sighed. "The story was a little sketchy here. He claims that the magical artifact was already broken, but he fixed it with scotch tape."
Sunnyside propped his head onto his fist, which used his chairs armrest for support. "I'm no expert on magic," he said, "but I doubt you could fix a 'magical artifact', with a few strips of tape."
"That's what I thought to." Shinjiro agreed. "If he really was trying to use an 'out of order magical item', we could assume that some sort of magical short out brought him to the opposite end of the Earth as his target, if we all held an open mind that is." He finished with a hopeful laugh.
As the group got together in a huddle and began discussing, Shinjiro had a thought. "Wait a minute, Why am I not in the group discussion!"
Sunnyside looked up. "Because you're the translator of course Shinler!"
Shinjiro frowned at Sunnyside's newest nickname for him. Turning to Ranma he said, "Their debating on weather or not they believe you. If they do, we can probably try to get you back to Japan."
Ranma looked down disappointedly. "Sorry, but that won't work."
Shinjiro arched an eyebrow. "Why not?" he asked.
"The artifact I mentioned, involves travel through space, and time" Ranma mentioned sullenly. "I'm more than fifty years before I should be, not only that, but I'm not even sure I'm in the same world anymore."
Shinjiro was taken aback by the first statement. A time traveler? That only happened in Sci-fi novels right? But then there was the second remark. "A different World?" he questioned.
Ranma looked back up. "To be honest, I'm not a history wiz, but I'm pretty sure a lot of the technology you're using didn't exist in the early twentieth century where I'm from. In fact, from what I've actually paid attention to in class, I'm pretty sure that those star things aren't even considered possible for us in the later parts of the century."
Shinjiro gawked. "So is it like an alternate future or something?" he asked hesitantly.
"Maybe." Ranma said, a thoughtful look on her face.
Ratchet then announced, "We've come to an agreement." Signaling the end of the debate.
"Well before anything's official, you should probably know something else." Shinjiro said with an embarrassed smile on his face. Everyone listened intently as Shinjiro explained Ranma's claim to be a time traveler from an alternate reality where technology would not advance like it had now until much later in the century. Not to mention how the Stars would never be considered possible by her world.
"So what do you think about it now?" Shinjiro asked with a hand on the back of his head.
Ratchet sighed. "To be honest, it's about as believable as a gender bending martial artist from Japan teleporting to New York by accident."
"I guess we've got nothing better to go off of." Cheiron said, with a tired moan.
"Well who knows?" Gemini began enthusiastically, "Maybe she, er he, can help as out in the show!"
"I think that's a great idea." Diana agreed. "Perhaps we can give our guest a duet with the lovely Peppermint." She joked.
"Let's not get any ideas." Shinjiro said quickly.
"Subaru thinks it's a great idea." Subaru spoke from the third person.
Shinjiro frowned slightly. "Subaru not you too."
"It's settled then!" Sunnyside announced. "Our guest will live with Shinjiro and on the condition of a performance here and there, we won't make him pay rent. How's that sound?"
Ratchet put her hand on her forehead. "I can't help but think that this is somehow going to come back and slap us in the face." She whispered, although was thoroughly ignored.
"Do you hear that Nicolo!" Rosita said to her pet ferret. "We have a new friend! Splash on cold water then he's a she, and splash on hot water and she's a he!" She spoke rhythmically as she spun with Nicolo on her head.
The little ferret in turn squeaked, "Kyu!"