A New Start- Nihow Ranma!
My name is Roxanne Ritchi... I had a fairly normal, average, american teenage life- woke up, went to school, got picked on by the popular kids, rinse... and repeat the next day. The only thing that gets me through the day is waiting for a new manga chapter in the montly shonen jump, shojo beat, a new season of my favorite manga turned anime- i'm rewatching my ranma 1/2 collection until the new naruto shippuden episodes air in english, Curse you Canadian internet anime site's with your Japanese audio and French Subs!
I thought I lived a average boring life that is until senior year of highschool, alot of people didn't notice me at school or around town, if you asked a random student who I was they would go 'huh? who are you pointing to?'. Sometimes I just feel invisible, (Like Canada from Hetalia) and mope around the old lake bridge in the park feeding the ducks.
'another day of my premature career as a ghost,sigh, i bet people wouldn't even notice if i just jumped into this lake and died right now...Yea right!' CREEAK! before I could react the old wood railing of the bridge gave out,flailing my arms trying to regain my balance I fell off the bridge twords the water and on further notice a giant rock in the water. 'I was just kidding about the dieing thing, dammit this isn't going to end well'. My vision started to turn cloudy as the darkness started to set in.'I just wish I could start all over again. maybe the Ranma world with Tendo's, get engaged to Ranma and live happily ever after.'
YOUR WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED!
When Roxanne opened her eyes, she looked up into a huge face. A woman's face. She realized that she was being cradled tiredly by Mikodo Tendo in her arms. 'I'm a baby.' Realization dawned on the newly born child. 'The wish worked.'
"Such a cute baby," Roxanne's new mother said, smiling sleeply down on the bundle of joy in her arms.
But in her arms, Roxanne didn't feel so joyful. She only knew a little Japanese. Not enough to recognize what she said, but enough to know she was speaking the language. 'Damn, this sucks. I'm gonna have to learn to talk all over again. I guess I should have figured, having wished to be raised as a character in a Japanese anime.'
Roxanne's reverie was halted when she noticed somebody else approach. A tall man (well, everybody was tall to her now) with long brown hair reaching his shoulders. He was also, Roxanne noted with disgust, smoking a cigarette. What kind of OB let people smoke near the baby, even the father? The man obviously wasn't a doctor, so Roxanne had to assume the man was her new father Soun Tendo.
"What's the baby's name?" Soun asked to his tired wife.
The 'baby,' knowing a bit of Japanese, recognized the word "name." Not wanting to be stuck with some crappy new name, she did her best to gurgle out her name. "Roxanne." Man, it was hard to make any recognizable sound. She had always assumed baby's could talk, if they knew how, but it looked like it was physically hard for them to make any noise but a coo or gurgle.
"Kara?" the baby's father said. "Is she trying to say Kara?"
The mother giggled. "Of course not, dear, babies don't speak. Besides, Kara isn't a good name. How about Kodokuna?"
The father titlted his head in confusion. "Kodokuna?"
The newly named Kodokuna stopped a moment. 'Kodokuna? But isn't that...'
She was supposes to have a sibling half way through the pregnancy but the baby didn't make it, the magic that brought 'Kodokuna' to life was too much for the fragile form of a fetus 4 months along.
"You'll grow to be a beautiful girl, Kodokuna," her,new mother said. 'I guess it fits being alone most of my past life even when i was in the womb. I wonder does she...know?'
Kodokuna didn't know exactly what her mother had said, but she could guess. 'My life might not suck after all,' she realized.'Could be worse, I could be a guy. I can't wait for Ranma to come, that's when the fun begins.'
Fifthteen Years Later
Sitting by the back door, Soun smiled as he watched his youngest daughter move about the house doing chores with that strange exuberance.
For years, Kodokuna had taken over as much of the family duties to care for her sisters much like Kasumi, but she'd always seemed not altogether there. She smiled, but there was no real life behind it. She was such a quiet child growing up never crying or showing much emotion when she was a baby except for the day his beloved wife Mikodo died from her weak health.
It seemed as if she was just biding her time, waiting for something to was stranger was she would leave at odd times during the holidays and come back with odd trinkets, scrolls, books, packages written in strange languages, odd amounts of money, even soap of all things. The past year had seen a real change in the young woman, however. After the strange business with her 'emptyness', and the odd travel souvaneers Kodokuna had reinvented herself. Dr. Tofu seemed to think Kodokuna had come to some sort of catharsis concerning her mother's death.
Soun hadn't even thought Kodokuna still thought about it having been so young, but now that he'd seen her opening up it warmed his heart. When Kodokuna asked if he could help her train, Soun was sure Kodokuna was well on the road to becoming the true heir to the Tendou School of Anything Goes.
Without hesitation, Soun released a wail of tears. "Oh, Kodokuna! You make your father so proud!"
Pausing in her cleaning, Kodokuna just shrugged at the odd man and left for another room. The decibels that man could reach was annoying.'he'll be here soon and all my waiting will be over, I tryed to prepare for all the problems that will accure even made friends with Colonge on my travels, but it still might not be enough...'
Soun Tendo was literally moved to tears by the postcard he held in front of him. It featured a photo of a panda eating bamboo, and was no doubt purchased in some rural Chinese gift shop. He had already read the message fourteen times over just to make sure he wasn't seeing things. It seemed he wasn't.
"R-R-Ranma?...Coming here? Oh, how I've waited for this day!"
With a sudden cry of joy, he whipped his head in several directions, looking around the living room that he sat in. It was time to call the girls.
"Oi! Kasumi! Nabiki! Akane!Kodokuna!"
When he received no responses, he decided to go retrieve them himself. He first made his way to the kitchen, pushing aside the curtain to reveal his eldest(19)&youngest(15 1/2), daughters as they were cutting up a watermelon.
"Kasumi! Kodokuna!"
"What is it, otou-san?"
"Whats wrong?"
He then entered the room of his middle, 17-year old daughter.
"Nabiki!"
"Hmm?"
He then moved to the next room, and opened the door.
"Akane!"
He received no response.
"Where is that girl?"
A young, athletic teenage girl jogged her way through the streets. She huffed as she approached the dojo gates.
"I'm ho-o-o-ome!"
As soon as she reached the dojo, she proceeded to throw aside her jogging clothes, and slip into a gi, which had been neatly laid out and waiting for her. Her actions were continued with the placement of a stack of cinder blocks in the middle of the dojo floor.
"HYAAAHHH!"
With a single karate chop, she reduced the blocks to rubble, with pieces flying all over the dojo floor. She stood up, and wiped the sweat from her forehead, letting out a sigh of enjoyment.
"Ahh! That was nice!"
"There you go again, Akane."
The girl turned around to meet one of her older sisters approaching her.
"No wonder all the boys think you're so weird."
Akane reached down for a towel. "So, why should I care? Not everybody thinks the world revolves around boys, Kodokuna certainly doesn't so why should I?"
Nabiki turned away from her younger sister. "No? Well, than I guess this wouldn't interest you or her."
It was starting to rain as the four girls faced their father from across the table in the living room of the Tendo estate.
"Fiancé?"
"Yes" the father replied. "The son of a very good friend of mine. The sons' name is Ranma Saotome."
All of his daughters were listening with shocked looks except for Kodokuna's blank face void of any feeling, but that wasn't much of a surprise.'He's finaly here!'
He held the postcard in front of him as he cleared his throat. "If one of you four girls were to marry him, and carry on this training center…then the Tendo family legacy would be secure."
"Wait a second!"
Soun watched as one of his younger daughters stood up in front of him. "Don't we have some say in who we marry?"
Kasumi seconded the motion. "Akane's right, father. We've never even met this Ranma."
Soun lightly chuckled to himself, tapping the postcard on the table. "Oh, that's easily fixed…"
The residents of Nerima, at least those who happened to be out on the street on this rainy day, were feeling several different emotions as they watched an unusual event unfold in front of them. Some were shocked, a few were amused, and others were just downright afraid. Still, there would no doubt be mixed reactions at seeing a young, exhausted pig-tailed girl in a Chinese outfit struggling to escape from an enormous, lazy-looking Panda.
"Dammit, Pops! I'm telling you- whoa!"
She had to duck to avoid another swing. "Cut this out right now! I'm not going to this place- yikes!"
Genma had literally knocked the young aqua transsexual onto her back in the pouring rain, and stood towering over her.
"I don't care about this 'fiancé' thing! I'm going back to China, and there's not a thing-"
KLONG!
She was silenced by street sign upside his head. Genma had taken the liberty of ripping one out of the ground while the punk made his point. He jammed it back into the ground, and hoisted the teenager up over his shoulder. As he walked down the street, several pedestrians moved up to get a better look at him. He stopped, turned around to give them all a look, and they all ran screaming.
"My friend and Ranma have been on a voyage of training for the last ten years or so" Soun explained to the girls as the rain continued outside. "Recently, it seems they crossed into China, and spent quite a while there."
"Wow, China!" Nabiki said, leaning forward, and putting her elbows on the table.
Akane sulked, looking away from her family. "So they walked through China, big deal."
"Try to bee nice Akane-chan they will be guests here."Kodokuna scolded.
"Humph!"
"Say, father" the eldest daughter began to ask, "is Ranma older? Younger men bore me."
"How much of a hunk is he?" the middle daughter asked.
"Is he nice" asked the youngest.
The smile remained on Soun's face, and he let out a small laugh. After a lengthy pause, he exhaled. "I don't know."
After an even longer pause, Nabiki leaned forward, staring her father right in the eyes. "You don't know?"
"Well, you see, I've never met him."
The Tendo daughters were still sitting in dumbfounded shock and irritation at their father's little revelation. Akane herself was grumbling in anger.
That's when they heard the first sounds of their new guests.
"Dammit, you old fart! I'm not gonna tell you again, put me down!"
'Ranma! He's here~' I thought deamily
"Huh? Who could that be?" Kasumi asked, looking towards the hall.
Standing up in excitement, Nabiki made her way into the hall. "Oh boy! It must be Ranma!"
His eyes tearing up, Soun followed her. "Saotome! We've been waiting!"
They were followed shortly by Kasumi, and Kodokuna who was smiling at the thought of guests, and then by Akane, who had her head hung low in irritation. 'What a waste of time…Boys!'
They stopped in their tracks when they saw their father and sister running right back at them, looks of fear and confusion on their faces. When they looked up and saw what was coming their way, their faces donned the same looks.
As Genma walked closer to the Tendo family, Ranma struggled even harder. "Dammit, old fool! Stop already! You're scarin' em' shitless!"
Leaning in towards her father, Kasumi quietly inquired, "Daddy, are these people friends of yours?"
When Soun shook his head violently, Nabiki angrily piped up, "Oh, so this Panda just decided to visit, then! HAPPENS ALL THE TIME!"
As they continued to squabble amongst themselves, Genma sighed, and slammed Ranma onto the floor, right in front of Soun. The elder man's eyes followed the girl, staring at her as a slight blush formed on her cheeks. Leaning closer, he pointed at her.
"Y…you wouldn't be…by any chance…"
Her face growing even redder, Ranma-chan fiddled with her pigtail, looking away. "I'm…Ranma Saotome. Sorry 'bout this."
Soun appeared not to have heard the last line, because he immediately grabbed the girl by her shoulders, tears of happiness forming in his eyes. "Oh, you don't know how long I've waited for this day!" he cried, bringing the girl into a tight embrace.
That's when he felt something weird. Slowly letting go of the girl, he looked down, and saw something he desperately did not want to see: a couple of lumps that should not have been there. He slowly backed away, his jaw hanging open in horror.
As Ranma watched the older man, she felt a finger jab into her chest. Cringing in pain, she turned to yell at the culprit, only to have her breast grabbed tightly by the shorthaired girl. "Ow! Hey, you wanna quit that?"
Nabiki grimaced, and turned to face her father, who still had that look of horror on his face. "What's the deal, father? This 'fiancé' of ours is a GIRL!"
"A…another girl…" And, with that, Soun Tendo knew no more.
"Poor Daddy," the eldest daughter said as she squeezed a damp washcloth in a bowl of water next to her unconscious father, who lay on a futon in the center of the room. "He must be so disappointed."
"He's disappointed!" the middle daughter responded immediately. "What about the rest of us? Some fiancé this person turned out to be!" she said, gesturing to Ranma.
"Knock it off, you two!" Akane retorted, noticing the other girl's head drooping low. "He…she is our guest!"
"She's right Nabiki you need to be more considerate of others and respect personal space, you just can't grab at peoples chests like that." Kodokuna scolded.
Nabiki pretended not to hear them. "This is all Daddy's fault, anyway! If he had made sure of everything, we wouldn't be in this mess!"
Laying the towel on Soun's head, Kasumi looked at her sister. "You can't blame father for that. This Mr. Saotome obviously told him he had a son."
Grabbing hold of Ranma by the shoulders and pulling the girl to her side, Nabiki latched her hand onto her chest once again, squeezing rather tightly this time. "Does this look like a son to you? Huh?"
A cringe of pain appeared on the young girl's face, and as she tried to throw off her grabber. "Hey! That hurts, dammit!"
I smacking my sister's hand away, stepped in between them. "Enough, sister!" After Nabiki turned away with a pout, Akane looked down at Ranma. "Sorry about her. She's just really fed up with this thing."
"Tell me about it" the youth responded, trying to rub the pain out of her chest.
Laughing, Akane & I held out our hand. "C'mon, join us in the dojo." Surprised, Ranma looked back at us in return. "I'm Akane, and that's Kodokuna You want to be friends?"
Heaving a relieved smile, Ranma got up and followed her into the training hall.
I followed a second later a secret smile on my lips,'let's see how long friends last when she finds out she's a he.'
This is my second fic and to be honest it really gets on my nerves when people don't finish fic that have been incomplete since 2005! At least finish the fic, God!
PLEASE REVIEW ideas are also welcome
every review will help keep Ryoga from getting lost in the course of this story.