Altered Fiction

Summary: Don't you just hate it when you have a friend, a brother or even a fiancee, who secretly alter your story behind your back when you aren't around? Well, this is one of those moments.

I found this little piece while I was looking through my old archives of unfinished fanfictions. But since it is one of those little stories that I have actually manage to finish. I decide to publish this. Enjoy this humble work of mine.

The evening in the Tendo Residence was quiet for a change. There weren't any crazy fiancées, who came unannounced looking for Ranma. Nor was the old freak around looking for trouble. Much to everyone's relief, Happosai was carried off to China by a boy, who could morph into a giant bull with wings when splashed with cold water. Genma was downstairs playing shogi with Mr. Tendo. Kasumi was in the kitchen washing and drying the remaining dinner plates. And Nabiki was in the bathroom brushing her teeth. For once, Ranma could sit down quietly in his own bedroom, concentrating on finishing his homework. Unfortunately for the black-haired pigtailed boy, he wasn't making much progress. Frustrated, he gave up trying to tackle the questions on his own and decided to head toward Akane's room to ask the tomboy for help… Again…

With his pen and paper on his hand, the sixteen-year-old boy knocked on Akane's bedroom door. However, there was no answer. He knocked again, expecting the usual 'Come in' ring by Akane. Still, the door remained closed.

Nabiki walked by. Both her hands were folded behind her head. Ranma stopped her. "Hey, Nabiki," he said. "Do you know where Akane is?"

"She's at Yari's place," the middle Tendo answered. "Practising her dance. Remember?"

"Oh, yeah… I forgot…"

Nabiki shrugged. Ignoring the teenage boy, she continued down the hall and headed toward her bedroom. Ranma stood at where he was for a moment, frowning. Darn it, he thought. He needed to finish his homework by tonight. It was due by tomorrow morning. And knowing Akane, that tomboy wouldn't be home till late. And Ranma definitely wasn't in the mood to stay up till late at night waiting for her. It would give a wrong impression to his Dad and Mr. Tendo, who had the tendency to jump into conclusions too quickly. And that was the last thing the pigtailed boy needed. He could ask Nabiki... But that girl had the habit to charge him whenever he approached her for help. Nope. Sides, he was out of money. He stared at Akane's door. Maybe… Akane might have finished hers? The sixteen-year-old martial artist looked around. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. No one. Deciding that there was no one around to spy on him, Ranma reached to the doorknob and he crept quietly into Akane's bedroom, thinking that he could just 'borrow' Akane's notebook for a while and return it to its rightful place once he was done with it and before anyone else knew that he had snuck into the tomboy's bedroom without permission.

He went over to Akane's study table and searched throughout the drawers, looking for a particular red book. When he found none, he gave up trying. Guess he would just have to shoot some random numbers to his homework now, a last resort kind of method whenever he was stuck with several Mathematic questions. He turned to leave. When he spun, his hand accidentally knocked onto a mouse. The wired device dropped and it dangled to and fro at the edge of Akane's study table. The screen on Akane's desktop next to him suddenly flicked on and the usual tone whenever its browser was switched on jingled. Shakily, Ranma took the mouse and put it back on the pad beside the keyboard. As he did that, he noticed some bold texts on the desktop screen in front of him. It showed:

Title: Lee and Jing

Author: Akane Tendo

His eyes continued to scroll through the screen.

Once, there was a robust boy, Jiabao, who was engaged to the youngest daughter of a rich merchant, Jing. He and Jing had a rocky relationship as they were pressured by both of their families to get married quickly. This was further complicated by the involvement of multiple fiancées that Jiabao was accidentally hitched with, no thanks to his useless no-good Dad.

Ranma suddenly felt a slight tint of Déjà vu all of a sudden. He continued reading.

And then, there was a young boy, Lee, who was secretly in love with Jing. He was so in love with her that he was even willing to do anything for her, even if it meant sacrificing his own life for the sake of keeping Jing happy. Night after night, he thought of her. He wrote letters, which were never sent, confessing his undying love for her. He kept a picture of her wherever he went. Yet, he was too shy to open up his feelings to her.

Ranma had a sudden urge to hurl. He quickly tore his eyes off the screen before he could vomit at the overwhelming level of mushiness after reading the first paragraph of Akane's story. Who would have thought it? Akane. Clumsy, uncute, tomboyish Akane. A big fan of romance? Worse, it was a direct hit bull's-eye description of a certain Hibiki boy, which the pigtailed boy had learned to hate and tolerate. Was it really a mere coincidence that Akane wrote all that or that the tomboy wasn't as dense as Ranma thought she was? He continued to stare at the screen. There was more…

He often thought just how beautiful she was. How Jing smiled. How she was so loving and compassionate to those around her. How she was talented in everything she did. She was a great cook. She was graceful and had a voice like a nightingale. He was mesmerised by her presence. Whenever they spent the time together, Lee felt happy and contented, even though he knew deep down that she only treated him as a friend.

Ranma wore a bored expression. He skimmed through the next several paragraphs, which described Lee's feelings for Jing in an insane level of details, and jumped straight to the point where he thought the story might start picking up.

One day, Jing received a letter of challenge from Wenrou, a girl from a nearby village and a master in ninjitsu, who prided herself in both stealth and strategy, for Jing's family dojo. The place of meeting was in an ancient temple on a hill near Jing's home, where samurais from older times used to go to train, meditate and fight. The arranged time was six in the morning, the hour just before the cock crows to signal the arrival of dawn. On the day of the challenge, the entire village came and gathered around the hill to witness the much anticipated fight. With their eyes locked, Jing and Wenrou fought.

Ranma's interest perked up a little. Finally, he thought, some actual fight scenes. He read on.

Jing lost.

Ranma facepalmed.

Jing prided herself in her kung fu skills. Hence, it was a huge blow to her when she lost. Therefore, she approached Lee to be her mentor to hone her fighting capability. They decided to leave the village and train themselves up in the mountains. Jing swore to herself, that she would come back one day, defeat Wenrou and reclaim her damaged reputation.

Immediately, Ranma knew where the story was exactly heading. Girl and boy trained in mountain. Some stuffs happened. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Girl and boy grew closer. Boy confessed his feelings to girl. Girl kissed boy.

The sixteen-year-old pigtailed boy was not a fan of the romance genre. But he had seen enough of this kind of stuffs on television to know what was going to happen. He decided to jump straight to the ending. Predictably, Jing decided to end her engagement with her former fiancee. Although her parents were furious, the girl didn't care. She fought Wenrou and won. Months later, she and Lee got married. Overall, the story was, to Ranma, cheesy, boring and predictable. His fingers brushed against his chin. Hmm, the gender-changing martial artist thought, maybe… he could help Akane spice the story up a bit? With a wide mischievous grin, he put his pen and paper down, stretched his hands and started altering the fiction, not before he saved a copy of the original version in another hard drive. He couldn't wait to see Akane's reaction to this.

One week later

Akane smiled happily to herself. She switched on her computer and waited for her 'Windows' browser to turn up. Her study chair with wheels swayed to and fro. Her mind was squealing. She couldn't wait to see the responses to her story, a small piece of work, which she had put her efforts in for a couple of weeks and had it published on her blog only a couple of days ago. She had told her friends about it, wanting them to read it. What were their comments going to be like? Was the story good or bad? Did they like it? Was there anything she could improve on?

It was a known fact amongst her classmates that Akane was a fan of the romance genre, despite her brief hatred toward boys when she was plagued by hentais in Furinkan, before Ranma's arrival. Hence, the blue-haired girl decided to try her hands on writing.

Before she did anything, she had thought about her own life. How she was cursed to be engaged to the worst possible jerk in the history of Nerima. How she was constantly taunted by the boy on her cooking, her clumsiness and her 'uncute' factor. Despite all that, she still held some feelings for Ranma... Then, she thought about Ryoga, who she thought was a lot more mature, sensitive, nicer and polite, and how she wished that Ranma could be more like the Hibiki boy. Hence, she had her male protagonist modelled after the fanged martial artist as an ideal mate for her female protagonist. She just hoped that Ryoga didn't mind…

Akane's desktop jingled. Immediately, the youngest Tendo moved her hand to her mouse and she clicked on the 'Internet Explorer' icon at her desktop screen. The screen displayed her personal blog. She clicked on the 'comments' section. After a while, to Akane's surprise, the comments she received from her friends and general readers were different from what she had anticipated.

Anonymous said:

How did you come up with this ridiculous story?

Spatulagirl said:

I didn't expect that you were going to use the Jusenkyo curse in your story. After reading this, I'm just glad that Ranma-Honey is cursed into a girl and not a pig. BTW, you still owe me 500 yen from the Extra Squid Special Okinomiyaki I cooked for you.

XxLonelyGirlfromFurinkanxX said:

That Lee is a pervert! Sleeping with Jing in his 'pig' form… Lol. Funny story.

Blacklighting said:

OMG, I can't believe how dense Jing can be. Doesn't she realize that Lee is her pet pig?

Pet pig? What the hell was Daisuke talking about? Immediately, Akane clicked on the 'back' button and reread her story. Her eyes widened.

Once, there was a handsome boy, Jiabao, who was engaged to the worst possible behemoth, Jing. He and Jing were forced into a stupid engagement, which they never had a voice on, by their parents. This was further complicated by the involvement of more unwanted fiancées that Jiabao was accidentally hitched with, no thanks to his useless no-good greedy abusive manipulative egoistical bastard, he called 'Dad'.

And then, there was a young boy, Lee, who was secretly in love with Jing. He was so stupid to be in love with her that he was even willing to do anything for her, even if it meant sacrificing his own worthless life for the sake of keeping Jing ignorantly happy. Night after night, he thought of her, which showed what a big pervert he was. He wrote cheesy letters, which he kept to himself, confessing his perversion of her. He kept a naked image of her in his mind wherever he went. Yet, he was too spineless to open up his perversion to her.

He often thought just how uncute she was. How Jing scowled. How she was so violent and aggressive to those around her. How she was talented in messing up everything she did. She was a terrible cook. She was clumsy and had a voice like a crow. Yet, he still loved her. Whenever they spent the time together, Lee felt naively happy and contented to be with Jing, for he didn't know that she was only treating him as a friend as she was engaged to another man...

Did I also mention? He was cursed to turn into a black piglet whenever he was splashed with cold water. Hot water changed him back. But of course, Jing didn't know that.

A cold battle aura surged through her body. There was only one person she knew who would dare to pull this sort of stunt. "Ranma…." Akane growled. Her hand clenched onto her mouse until it broke. Her face resembled a she-devil. "RANMA, YOU'RE SO DEAD!"

Several blocks down from the Tendo residence, in Uchan's, Ranma was almost tearing in laughter. His hands clutched tightly onto his stomach. He continued to read through the feedback section in Akane's blog through Ukyo's laptop. He laughed some more, banging his palm onto the counter as he sat comfortably on a chair. Ukyo stood behind the grills with a mini spatula in her hand. The aroma of her okinomiyakis filled her entire restaurant. She rolled her eyes.

"Ranma," she said. "That's cruel. Even Akane doesn't deserve that."

But her comment only made the gender-changing boy laughed even harder.