Tacchi 1/2 - A Rose of My Heart

A Ranma 1/2 fanfiction

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 and all the characters associated with it belong to Rumiko Takahashi and Viz. I'd ask them to share, but I'm pretty sure they'd turn me down.

Author's Notes: Tacchi 1/2 is an alterverse, meaning an alternate universe of the original Ranma storyline. If you are not familiar with the original story this will make little sense to you, and is not a good example to base your knowledge of the series off of. On another note, I base most of my fic off the graphic novel (manga) version of Ranma 1/2. For those of you who only know the anime, you should be just fine. There's very little difference in the stories. As a homage to the anime, though, I WILL be including Sasuke (an anime-only character) and refer to the Saotome and Tendo style martial arts as "Anything Goes" as opposed to "Indiscriminate Grappling".

As you have probably guessed from the title, this particular Ranma fanfic does NOT center on Ranma. I thought I'd try my hand at writing a decent fic with someone a bit less used as the Jusenkyo cursed protagonist...

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Chapter One: Of Samurais and Sacred Springs

Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts

In a familiar setting, a familiar family is sitting around their dining room table, discussing events that are about to unfold and change their lives forever. It seems that their father has engaged them, or one of them at least, to be married to a boy they have never even met. The family is, of course, the Tendos: Akane, Nabiki, Kasumi and their father Soun. None of the three daughters seem overly excited by this, of course, and who could blame them?

Soon the inevitable moment came, as the family heard a loud cry of "LEGGO Y'OL FOOL!" coming from the front lawn.

The middle Tendo sister and her father ran out to the gate to find a man about her father's age carrying a kicking and screaming boy over his shoulder. The man was heavyset, with glasses and a bandanna covering the baldness of his head.

"Genma! After all these years you've come to visit me at last!"

"It's been a long time, Tendo." The man smiled. Then he set down the figure he'd been carrying up until now. "I'd like you to meet my son, Ranma."

Soun immediately enveloped the boy in a huge bear hug, practically squeezing the life out of him in the process. "At last! You've come!" Ranma's response was muffled by Soun's robe.

Nabiki grabbed her father and dragged him away from the unfortunate guest. "Daddy!" she whispered, "Is that him? Is that the boy you were going to set one of us up with?"

"Why, yes, that would be Ran-"

"Oh, thank you, Daddy!" She whispered, giving her father a peck on the cheek. Then she made her way quickly over to the boy's side, eyeing him up and down.

"Uh, hello." he watched her suspiciously.

"So! You're a martial artist, eh?" she asked, flashing a small smile.

- --

When they returned, the Tendos and their new guests gathered together in the living area. Soun lined his daughters up along one side of the table. Akane felt like some sort of farm animal being auctioned off to the highest bidder. Kasumi was disappointed that Ranma was younger than she was. Nabiki just smiled at him, leaning over with her arms crossed on the table.

"My daughter Kasumi. Nineteen. And Nabiki. Seventeen. And Akane. Sixteen. Choose the one you want. She'll be your fiancé."

Ranma scowled at his father before turning back unwillingly to the three girls in front of him. He was about to think over his decision, when he found it had already been made for him.

"Daddy!" Nabiki cooed, "I believe it would be best if I were to become the bride of this poor boy, seeing as I'm the only one in this family with ANY money sense at all, and you DO wish for your children's financial future to be secure, don't you?"

Before Ranma could give an answer, Soun was on his knees beside his daughter. "Nabiki, that's so wonderful! You would do that? Oh, you make your father so proud!"

"You're so lucky, boy," Ranma's father cried, wrapping an arm around his son's shoulder.

"Hey-!" he tried to complain, but he found Nabiki giving him a friendly grin.

"I realize it might be a bit difficult for me, but I shall do my best to cope with the situation- for the sake of the family..." she said, adding a fake sob for emphasis.

"Oh, you're so good to my boy!" Genma replied, tears welling up in his eyes.

Akane frowned. (Honestly!) she thought, (the way she plays those two like a harp...it's pathetic!)

Ranma merely sighed and turned away, trying to sort things out. This just hadn't been his day.

Several Months Ago: Mainland China

The three weary travelers looked out over the strange land before them with mixed feelings. The area around them was dotted all over by hundreds of small springs, with tall bamboo poles sprouting out of them like straws. So this was the training ground they had been seeking for several long weeks.

Upperclassmen Tatewaki Kuno shifted the weight of the pack on his shoulders before turning to the older woman next to him.

"This place is not so impressive as you made it seem, Mother. Are you sure it was worth all the trouble getting here?"

"You very strange one, no sir?" their guide replied before his mother could respond, "Is very dangerous. Nobody use now."

"OHOHOHOHOHOHO!" The earsplitting laugh had the guide immediately covering his ears and wincing in pain. "Dangerous, eh?" Kodachi Kuno laughed again, causing even her brother to glance at her in disgust. "Maybe this little venture will prove entertaining after all. Exactly what is the danger, kind sir?"

The guide continued in a somewhat shaken voice, "Is more than one hundred spring here. Each one have own tragic legend..."

"We've not the time for this peasant's ranting, dear sister. Our training awaits us!" With another one of her gut-wrenching laughs, Kodachi and her brother leapt out onto the bamboo poles. Kuno swung his bokken, using it as a balance, while his sister whipped around a gymnastics ribbon dangerously, seemingly having no trouble keeping her stability on such flimsy footing.

"Wait! Good customers! What you doing!"

They ignored him as their mother leapt out onto the poles along with them. "Keep nothing back, my children, lest all my training be without reward!"

"Do not fret yourself mother," Kodachi replied as her ribbon laced out, wrapping itself around her parent's leg and sending her sprawling with a screech into the spring below. "It could be your downfall."

"Ah! Customers! Very bad! Very bad if you fall in!" the guide chittered nervously.

"What are you babbling on about now, man?" Kuno turned on him with a disdainful look.

The guide was about to reply, when suddenly a giant panda flung itself out of the spring and landed back on the bamboo pole. It glared angrily at the Kuno girl and took on a fighting stance.

"W-what i-in the..." Kodachi stuttered.

"What on earth is that!" her brother finished for her.

The guide sighed. "Why is it no one ever listen to me about warning? I tell you springs very cursed! What Miss Customer fall into is Spring of Drowned Panda. There is tragic legend, sir, very tragic, of panda what fall in there two thousand year ago. Now whoever fall in spring take body of panda!"

"AND WHY WAS I NEVER TOLD OF THIS!" Kodachi yelled at the guide. She wasn't able to hear the guide's rebuke, however, as she was suddenly knocked off her perch by a flailing black paw. She fell quite unceremoniously into the spring she'd been standing above.

"AH! You fall into Spring of Drowned Rabbit! Is tragic story, Miss Customer, of poor little rabbit what drown there seven hundred year ago. Now whoever fall into spring take body of rabbit! Ah, poor Miss Customers!"

"What is the meaning of this!" Tatewaki was desperately trying to fend off the attacks of his newly made panda mother. "Why is it you did not warn us of this atrocity beforehand?"

"But, sir, I..."

A small, gray, furry animal suddenly came leaping out of nowhere, bounding from pole to pole quicker than the eye could follow. Then with a mighty 'thump' it threw itself at the last remaining Kuno.

The bokken-wielding boy suddenly found himself quite off balanced, and he began teetering dangerously on the pole, waving his arms frantically in order to keep himself from falling in. Then with a roar, the panda leapt at him, knocking him clear off the bamboo and into the air.

"How dare you, Motheeeeeeeeerrrrr!" Kodachi's brother cried as his body fell with a loud splash into a nearby pool.

The guide gave a gasp of shock. "No!" he cried, "Not Spring of Drowned Girl! Is very tragic legend, very tragic, of girl what drown in spring one thousand, five hundred year ago. Now whoever fall in spring take body of young girl. You see what I mean?"

Tatewaki Kuno brought himself dazedly to his feet in the waist-high water. He looked around for a moment before realizing that something didn't feel quite right. He looked down at himself, suddenly remembering his fall into the spring. He looked at his hands. They seemed somewhat smaller, but he felt human enough. Then he looked further down. His new features showed clearly under his samurai garb.

There was a moment of stunned silence.

Then she screamed.

- --

Somewhere in a nearby village, a young, purple-haired girl looked up from her training at the sound of the horrible cries from just over the mountains.

What is that sound, Great Grandmother? she asked the shriveled up old crone next to her in Chinese.

Sounds like some sort of tortured animal... the tiny woman replied. I wonder what on earth could be making such a racket...?

- --

The once-human panda bear held the guide in a death grip, his face turning a deep shade of purple. She growled at him, wanting to rip him to shreds, (or at least be able to speak so she could yell at him.) Kuno's mother had been, after some difficulty, able to drag her stunned son (daughter?) out of the spring he'd fallen in, bringing both him (her?) and her daughter out of the mess of pools and back to the guide's abode. Her son still sat in the far corner of the room, reacting to nothing even as her mother choked the guide almost to death.

"Please!" the man finally managed to gasp out, "Spring water is not permanent! Listen to me!" Reluctantly, she released her hold. The guide fell to the floor with a thump and began gasping desperately for air. The panda sat down in front of him, crossing her front legs in a very human-like gesture of impatience. Nevertheless, the man waited until he had regained his breath before he continued.

"Curse goes away when customer uses warm or hot water. Cold water calls up curse again. Stay away from cold water and curse is not permanent. Just always carry hot water if you no want to be cursed. Honorable customers are not stuck forever."

Before his mother could even move, Tatewaki ran up to the Chinese man. The small rabbit that had been sitting in her brother's (sister's?) lap up until now fell to the floor in a furry little heap. The newly cursed girl grabbed the guide by the front of his shirt. "Then get me some hot water, swine, and be quick about it!"

The guide pulled away and stood up, then walked over to his stove and began warming up a kettle of hot water for them. The room was silent for a while as everyone waited on him, (Tatewaki being the only one who could speak at the time anyway.) His foot tapped the ground repeatedly in his impatience.

The small, gray rabbit had picked herself dazedly up from the floor and now stood next to her brother, watching her tapping foot. (He should consider himself lucky,) she thought to herself, (at least he's still human.)

At last the guide came back, holding the hot water kettle. Kuno grabbed it from him, emptying its contents over his head. He saved some of it for the rabbit at his feet, dumping it over the small creature without warning.

The condition of his sister after her transformation was something he hadn't entirely expected.

He covered his eyes with one hand as he dropped the kettle. He spun around so that he was facing away from her, his face a distinct shade of pink.

Kodachi crawled over to her backpack, which sat on a chair at the table. She quickly fumbled through it before pulling out several articles of clothing and turning away so that she could change into them. (Of course, the clothes wouldn't be included in the curse, would they? I mean, that would just be too convenient,) she thought.

The guide began heating up another kettle for their mother, who had begun to growl impatiently. Kodachi was shuffling through her pack for something, and Tatewaki was standing with his arms crossed and his eyes closed, seemingly in deep meditation about who-knows-what. He did not speak until his mother was back in her own form again.

"So. We are cursed like this forever, then?"

"Unfortunate, but true, Mr. Customer. Is no cure for this curse."

"You couldn't, say, just jump into a spring of drowned man or something to reverse the effects?"

His sister let out a short chuckle (nothing close to her usual laugh, but she wasn't quite in the mood.) "Why of course not, dearest brother. Can't you see that would be all too easy?" She chuckled again.

Kuno looked at the guide, who sighed. "Miss customer is right. Once you are cursed, there is no changing it. You is welcome to try your luck at man spring, but you find it to be little use."

"How dare you bring us to such a place, mother!" Tatewaki turned as his sister began to yell at their mother. "Had you no idea what you were getting into! How could you do this to your own children!"

"How was I to know! It's not my fault the pamphlet was..."

"Was what?"

She faltered slightly under her son's gaze.

"Was what!" he asked again.

When there was no reply, Kodachi ran over to her mother's pack, pulling the pamphlet out from the side pocket. They all watched her as she scanned over it for a few seconds. Kuno noticed that her face seemed to slowly turn a dark shade of red.

"Th-this..." she finally stuttered, the hands holding the paper starting to shake, "this is in Chinese! You couldn't read a WORD of this, could you mother?"

"I could so!" she cried. "I merely... misinterpreted it."

They both glared at her. If she didn't know any better, she could have sworn their eyes went red as their battle auras flared up.

"The only consolation I can get out of this," Tatewaki replied as he allowed himself to calm down, "is that you have been cursed as well." He picked up his pack and began walking towards the door. "Come. We should leave this place and its vile enchantments."

"Wait, brother dear!" Kodachi pulled several small canisters out of her backpack, smiling evilly. "Our trip here need not be a complete waste..."

- --

Tendo Dojo: the Present

"School?" Ranma stared at his father confusedly.

"Yes, my son," his father nodded solemnly, "It's time you started to settle down here in Nerima, now that you're engaged. It's important that you get a good education so that you can support your family."

"Or so that I don't end up like you."

His father scowled. "Show some respect for your father, boy. You never would have been this well off if it weren't for me."

"I wouldn't have been HERE if it wasn't for you." With that, he stood up and began to exit the room.

He ran straight into Nabiki.

"Oh! Good morning, Ranma. It's your first day of school and all, so I thought I'd walk you to class."

"That's real nice of you, Nabiki. You should thank her, boy."

Ranma waved his father's words off without turning. Then he grabbed his fiancé's arm and began walking towards the door.

"Bye, Mr. Saotome!" Nabiki waved before being dragged along.

- End of Chapter One