Disclaimer: I do not own any of the anime or other series which are crossed into this story. This list includes, but is not limited to, Ranma 1/2, Bleach, and Full Metal Panic, among others. This story is a joint project between myself and my friend, and is uploaded to my account due to laziness on our part to create a separate account for the project. We DO own all Original characters of this story. Should they intrigue others to the point that they wish to use one of them in a story of theirs, all we ask is that we be informed ahead of time, and proper attribution of the character be given.
Hidden Deep: The Chaos Chronicles
Volume 1: Sowing the Seeds
Chapter 1: Arrival of Chaos
Intro- and extro-ductions will be performed in bold at the beginning and end of chapters. This is due to the site's formatting, as our chosen formatting scheme is annihilated in the upload process.
Chibi-Ben walked onto the stage and looked around at his audience. He then cleared his throat and started talking, "Ehem. Welcome to this fanfic. About what has gone on before this chapter… Wait. What am I doing here? This is the first chapter! Of course nothing has gone on before. Kelvin!"
Chuckling could be heard from the side of the stage. Chibi-Ben however recovered and said, "Oh well, just a tidbit of information for all of you. Anything in "quotes" is spoken in Japanese and anything in italics is stuff thought by the characters. Also, as with just about any Ranma fanfiction, gender references are a pain. With this fanfic, in the narration, the gender used is always the one that the character is in at the moment (plus if –kun is added on after the name, the person is in guy form and if –chan is added, then the person is in girl form). When characters are speaking though, they will refer to the person according to how they perceive them. Now enjoy all of you."
Heads turned as an entourage of three teenage girls walked through the streets of Nerima, each with unique hair colors. However, what attracted the most attention to these girls was their choice of companionship.
It was not often that a black and white winged boy, a panda, a cat, a wolf, and a hawk simultaneously graced the streets of Nerima.
Among the group, a golden-haired girl pulled at her soaking wet outfit that was a few sizes too large for her figure. Her black pants sported purple trim in two vertical stripes on the sides along with a black trench coat with a red undershirt. She drew many stares though because hidden slightly by the two large packs stacked on her back was a large sword that stretched from her head to almost touching the ground. "Why didn't you do anything about that rain Karen? You could have at least tried to keep us dry."
The pale-blue haired girl, wearing a similarly soaked simple red blouse and a moderate blue skirt that reached just above her knees, shifted the two packs she was carrying a little before answering, "Because I wasn't sure about what would happen if I tried to do anything about it. I still need to learn a lot of control after all."
The golden-haired girl pouted, "You could have at least created some kind of umbrella or something. Man, now I'm all soaked. You think you'll have that charm finished anytime soon?"
The final girl, a redhead that sported the shortest height of the three, finally interjected, "Yeah, havin' that charm'd make things lots easier." She pulled up her silk red shirt as much as the straps of the two packs on her back let her and rung it out, making it immediately apparent that she did not wear a bra, much to the enjoyment of the male observers. Her outfit, like the golden-haired girl's, was a few sizes too large for her petite frame.
The girl called Karen glanced at the black and white winged boy floating above her head, whose black t-shirt and short jeans were interestingly dry, before answering "You know what my abilities are like right now. I've been messing up most of the time. Besides, what are we going to do about this fiancée thing?"
The redhead's face darkened at the change of topic, "Man, I can't believe Pops engaged me to some random girl. This'll just slow down my trainin'." With this, she glared at the panda, which held up a sign saying "If you know what's good for you you'll—" However, before the panda could turn the sign around the redhead kicked him in the head, knocking him down to the ground.
"Like heck it's what's good for me. We should head back to China to try to find out more about a cure."
The black and white winged boy flew down and landed next to the fuming redhead before making his wings disappear, "Hey, what's so bad about a fiancée? Shouldn't you be jumping at the chance to have fun with a girl?" The boy winked at the redhead.
The redhead blinked. "Huh? What do you mean Dev—" She didn't finish as the panda had snuck up behind her and used an uprooted stop sign to smack her on the head, knocking her out.
The two other girls and the boy shook their heads at the sight. Karen piped up, "Was that really necessary Mr. Saotome?"
The panda did not reply as it picked up the redhead, slung her over its shoulder, and ambled down the street. The trio just shook their heads and followed along with the rest of the animals, leaving behind people muttering about rabid animals.
Soun Tendo's hands quivered and his eyes leaked tears as he held a postcard in his hands with a picture of a panda eating bamboo on it. He carefully read from the postcard, "Bringing Ranma and some others from China, Genma." After reading it aloud, his tears fell even faster and his voice trembled out, "Oh, how I've waited for this day." He set down the postcard on the table as he got up and walked towards the kitchen of his home. He did not notice as the holographic surface of the front of the postcard changed the picture from that of a panda to that of a black-winged woman with a mischievous look on her face.
As Soun walked towards the kitchen, he carefully dried his tears. Once he felt ready, he pushed aside the high curtains at the entrance of the room and peeked his head into the kitchen. Inside, a long-haired brunette wearing a white apron in front of her brown dress hummed a cheery tune while attending to the stove. Soun caught a whiff of the delicious food that his daughter cooked and felt it a pity that he had to interrupt her. "Kasumi, I need a moment of your time."
At the sound of Soun's voice, Kasumi turned from the pot that she was stirring to face Soun. "Yes father? What do you need?"
"I need to talk to all three of you about something that has come up. Could you get Akane and Nabiki for me?"
"Sure Father."
Kasumi started turning back to the stove but Soun interrupted, "Could you get them together before you go on with making lunch? I want to tell you girls about the news first."
Kasumi turned back to look at Soun, and smiled as she said, "Okay Father."
Soun walked away from the kitchen as Kasumi put the soup on simmer. She then started putting away all of the ingredients that she had prepared as her face fell into a worried frown, I wonder what it could be that Father would postpone lunch for. He's never done that before…
After finishing with putting everything away, she ducked out of the kitchen to head up the stairs. As she passed through the living room, she noticed Soun sitting at the table looking at a postcard that she remembered bringing in earlier with the mail. She wondered whether the postcard had something to do with her father's urgent news. However, she had barely glanced at it before giving it to Soun, so she could not recall what it said. She filed away the information for later as she climbed up the stairs and walked down the hallway to a doorway with a nameplate saying "Nabiki" on it. She knocked and said, "Nabiki? It's Kasumi," before getting a quick response of "Come in." As she stepped into the room, she saw her short-haired brunette sister lying on her belly on the bed while reading a book with a popsicle in her mouth.
"What do you need sis?" Nabiki asked around the popsicle.
"Father's called a family meeting and wants to talk to all of us before lunch."
Nabiki hmmed around her popsicle then popped it out of her mouth, "I'll be down in a bit then. Any idea what it's about?" Soun rarely called for family meetings, so this news was cause for alarm.
"No. Father didn't tell me anything else other than to get you two."
This intrigued Nabiki even more. Usually her father would at least mention something about the topic before a meeting. Kasumi started to leave the room when Nabiki paused to ponder the meeting when Nabiki mentioned, "By the way, if you're looking for Akane, she said she was going out for a quick run. She should be back soon."
"Thanks Nabiki."
As Kasumi stepped out, Nabiki started sucking on her popsicle again and stretched before standing up to get some clothes more appropriate to the situation than her skimpy underclothes. As she shuffled through her dresser, she started to ponder the upcoming meeting.
A girl with long dark blue hair, tied together at the bottom by a yellow ribbon, jogged through the streets wearing a plain white gi. She turned in to the building with the sign "Tendo Dojo" out front. She continued jogging around the house until she reached a stone path to the dojo to the side. Once inside the dojo, she picked up some bricks set next to the wall and began propping them together. After she had five bricks stacked together, she breathed deeply for a second then brought her hand down in a chop as she kiyaa'd. When her hand hit the bricks, they crumbled down the middle and fell down in halves. She then picked up a towel set next to the original pile of bricks and carefully wiped her brow before sighing, "Ahh. That felt good."
The door to the dojo slid open and Kasumi walked in, "Oh, here you are Akane. Father called a family meeting just now."
Akane turned her attention to Kasumi, "Okay. I'll be right there once I clean up these bricks."
"Don't worry about it. I can clean it up later. Besides, Father's news seemed a bit urgent."
Akane's brow wrinkled a bit as she heard that, "Urgent? Wonder what that would be." Whatever it was, Akane hoped that it would not make things harder at school. She already found it to be a trying experience at times.
"By the way Akane, don't you ever get tired of breaking bricks? Wouldn't it be better to go out and enjoy some time with your friends or a boyfriend?"
Akane just stared at Kasumi, "Don't you know what my situation is like in school right now?"
"Yes. But not all boys are like that. You never know when your perfect future husband will show up."
Akane snorted, "Oh it won't be one of the boys at school that's for sure. Anyways, we should head in and see what father wants to talk to us about."
Soun watched as his three daughters walked towards the table and arranged themselves in seats across from him. As they settled down, they peered at each other and especially at him, as if trying to get some clues about the purpose of the meeting. Soun hoped that after hearing the news, the girls would be inwardly ecstatic, though he believed that he might be in for some wholehearted screams. Once he thought they were ready, he began, "I have some good news to announce. Soon, we'll have some guests that will be staying with us for a while."
Kasumi figured the reason why Soun had her wait on lunch was so that she could prepare some extra dishes for the guests. Nabiki pondered how she might extract some cash from these guests. Akane wondered what this news had to do with her.
Soun continued, bracing himself for the approaching storm, "One of them will be a fiancé of one of you."
The resounding yell of "WHAAAT!" barely budged him, but his hair ended up blown straight back.
The three girls started clamoring about the news. "How could you engage us to some boy we don't know!" Akane yelled. This was exactly the type of thing she did not want to deal with at the moment.
Kasumi however was slightly more receptive to the news, "I do hope that he's an older man. Young men are so…young. I'd much rather someone more mature." She could not decide whether to look apprehensive or hopeful, so she settled on neutral.
"Umm…well, he was born around the same time as Akane…" Soun mentally moved Kasumi down a notch in his list of preferences for the engagement.
Nabiki had a calculating look on her face, "Hmm…what's he like?" While having a fiancée might be a bother, the possibility of a rich husband would be heaven.
Soun laughed nervously while a sweat drop formed behind his head. "I don't know" he deadpanned.
"You don't know." Nabiki looked incredulously at her father as Kasumi and Akane adopted stunned looks.
"I mean I never met the boy. But don't worry. I'm sure my friend Saotome Genma made sure to raise him to be an upstanding man. I just received a letter saying that he's bringing him here from his training trip in China."
At hearing this, Nabiki's interest piqued, "Ooh, China. Seems he's well traveled." In Nabiki's mind the likelihood that she could milk a lot of money from this prospective fiancée just jumped. She seriously considered offering herself as a candidate.
Akane, rather disgruntled at this fiancée business, chose to take the news with disdain, "So what if he's gone through China. Still doesn't tell us much about him." She just knew that this fiancé would be a BOY.
"I do know however that his name is Saotome Ranma though. If whichever of you three girls marries him and carries on this dojo, then our family legacy would be secure."
This news piqued Nabiki's interest even more though it only made Akane angrier, "So you're even deciding our future?!"
However, the girls silenced when they heard some knocking at their front door along with some disgruntled shouting. At the sounds, Soun thought, A distraction! before saying, "That must be him!" He got up and started walking down the hallway to the door while unsuccessfully trying to smooth his blown-back hair. "It'll be so good to see Genma again."
With her interest in the engagement piqued, Nabiki chose to tag along behind her father while the other two girls looked at each other, shrugged, and decided to follow after a few seconds.
Kasumi did not mind the thought of marrying and carrying on the dojo, but the news that Ranma was younger than her put a damper on her interest. She had yet to meet a younger boy that did not bore her.
Akane thought crossly, How depressing, BOYS!
However, they barely got to the hallway when they saw Nabiki and Soun running back towards them.
Kasumi started to ask, "Why are you two…" when the reason for Soun and Nabiki's fright came into view.
A long sky-blue haired boy wearing a low-cut t-shirt that showed off a small portion of his chest and short jeans that were cut off slightly below his crotch area walked in preceding a giant panda with a screaming red-headed girl on its shoulder. Following behind the panda was a group consisting of a pale-blue haired girl, a golden-haired girl with a large housecat in the crook of her right arm, and a large wolf behind them with a hawk perched on its back.
The Tendos watched apprehensively as the group advanced towards them. On the panda's shoulder, the redhead pounded her fists into the hide of the panda while yelling, "Lemme down oyaji! You're scaring them spitless!"
Kasumi had to wonder at the spectacle, "Daddy… These…are your friends?"
Soun frantically shook his head.
"Oh. So the zoo decided to send a bunch of representatives. Happens ALL the time."
However, they did not get a chance to say anything more when the panda set the girl down in front of him, next to the blue-haired boy.
Soun looked back and forth between the boy and girl, temporarily ignoring the rest of the group, then pointed to the boy and tentatively asked, "You wouldn't be Ranma would you?"
Interestingly enough, the panda started shaking its head vigorously, but the boy smiled and his eyes seemed to glimmer a bit before he responded, "Yeah. I'm Ranma Saotome."
The red-haired girl started at this and said, "Now wait just a sec—" However, the girl did not get any farther as Ranma waved his hand in front of the girl's face. The girl's mouth kept on moving as if still trying to say something but no noise came out.
The pale blue-haired girl looked disapprovingly towards Ranma but as she opened her mouth, Ranma made the same motion and the girl merely opened and closed her mouth mutely. The last girl sighed but she made no motions to speak.
Ranma started turning back around but before he could, Soun caught him in a strong glomp. "Oh I've waited so long for his day! It's so good to see you!" Soun bawled as he nearly crushed the life out of Ranma. He let go though after a few seconds to look Ranma over with his tear-filled eyes. "Genma's raised you to be such a handsome man."
Ranma gasped a bit as he tried to recover from Soun's glomp of death, and after composing himself, he said, "Uh…yeah. I heard that I'm supposed to be engaged to one of your daughters, right?"
Soun nodded, and grabbed his daughters from behind him to push them towards Ranma. Akane started to protest but Soun cut her off, "Here son are my daughters. Kasumi, 19. Nabiki, 17. And Akane, 16." Soun motioned towards each girl in turn before waiting for Ranma's reaction.
Kasumi looked Ranma over with mixed feelings. She could tell that he was quite handsome, but he looked to be much too young for her tastes. She knew however that there was the possibility that he would act more mature than he looked, so she decided to reserve judgment until later. Then, she noticed how Ranma's eyes were roaming up and down her body, and he had a strange smile on his face. Oh my.
Nabiki carefully took in Ranma's figure and smiled as she liked what she saw. She still was uncertain about his financial status, but she had to admit that he was quite handsome. However, her happiness was short-lived as she noticed that she could tell that he was quite well-endowed. One look at his face confirmed her suspicions as she saw a lecherous smile as he looked her and her sisters over. She felt a chill as she just knew that he was undressing them in his head.
As Ranma's gaze moved to Akane, she glared back at him. The idea of being engaged to a boy grated on her nerves, especially a complete stranger like this Ranma who had just barged into their home. She noticed his smile and like Nabiki, felt a chill down her back. I'm DEFINITELY not getting married to this pervert.
Ranma looked each girl over appreciatively, his eyes lingering especially at their hips and breasts. He ignored the frown on Nabiki's face and Akane' glare as he decided, I'm going to have LOTS of fun with these girls. With his lecherous smile still pasted on his face, he told Soun, "I'd like to get to know your daughters better, would that be okay?"
Soun smiled at this, thinking Oh the families will be joined! He'll get to know how wonderful my daughters are! He started pushing his daughters and Ranma into the living room while saying, "Certainly! Take your time, take your time." Once Ranma and the three girls were in the room, Soun closed the door behind them. He then realized that he was still in the presence of the other three girls and the entourage of animals. He turned to them and asked them, "Ano…and who might you be?"
The red-haired girl glared towards the living room door while saying, "I'm Ranma," her voice apparently returned now.
Soun looked quizzically at the girl, "You have the same name as Genma's son?"
Ranma began to retort but the pale-blue haired girl put her hand on Ranma's shoulder and said, "Let it go Ranma. Let her have her fun. She'll likely do something a lot more than just muffle us if we interrupt her." At this comment, the red-haired girl paled and clamped her mouth shut. The pale-blue haired girl turned to Soun and said, "I'm Karen, this is Ben," she pointed to the golden-haired girl behind her, "and Ranma has already introduced herself. I'll do all of the rest of the introductions later." At the last comment, she glanced towards the living room and sighed.
Soun wondered about the exchange but decided not to bother his prospective guests about it. However, he looked worriedly at all the animals. He hoped that he would not have to worry about becoming wolf food. Considering that the travelers all appeared unharmed, he figured he was relatively safe. However, to be sure, he asked, "Ano…the animals are tame right?
Ben chuckled and petted the cat under her arm before saying, "Oh yes, they're quite tame."
Soun sweat dropped as the panda ambled over on its hind legs and patted him on the back, then went further into the house as if searching for something. The wolf walked over to the edge of the porch and settled down to lie there while the hawk on its back stretched its wings and flew outside and started circling the Tendo compound. The girl Ranma glared at the back of the panda as it walked off before turning her attention to Ben and asking, "I need ta burn off some steam. Mind sparring with me Ben?"
"Sure thing." Ben put down the cat, which scampered over to settle down next to the wolf. She then set down her pack though she left the large sword strapped to her back in place. Now that Soun could see the sword clearly with the large packs out of the way, Soun wondered just what kind of people Ranma and Genma brought along with them. With that thought, Soun realized that Genma had not come in with the guests. However, when he was about to ask the girls about him, Ben and Ranma had already walked into the garden and faced each other. He forgot about his old friend when faced with the prospect of seeing the skill level of these guests with martial arts.
"Unarmed sparring, full out, 'kay?" Ranma set down the rules for the match.
"Fine with me." Both of them relaxed into stances, waited for a few seconds, then at an unspoken signal jumped towards each other and engaged in a flurry of kicks and punches.
Soun watched in awe for a few minutes as he observed the skill and grace of the two girls. Both of the fighters showed off their speed to full effect as they jumped back and forth across the garden engaging each other at various places. Soun had to whip his head back and forth to keep following them, but he carefully watched their fighting styles. Their battle even occasionally jumped shortly into the sky whenever the two leaped and engaged in exchanges in the air. Soun realized that the two were probably well versed in each other's fighting styles as each of the two parried each other's blows before any of them could connect and attempts at grappling were also knocked aside. As a result, the two were constantly interlocked in face-to-face melee. Soun had wondered why Ben had not taken off the sword when the style had been announced as unarmed as he figured it would be cumbersome. However, it quickly became apparent as while Soun's thoughts were true, Ben used it effectively as a makeshift defense often. Something about Ranma-chan's fighting style bothered him though. Then, he remembered, "Isn't Ranma using Genma's form of Anything Goes?"
Karen replied absentmindedly as she watched the combat. "Yeah. He was trained by Genma after all."
"He?"
Karen paled and replied, "Oops, I meant she. Sorry about that. Ehehe…"
"Oh." Soun returned to watching the match. However, he filed this little incident in his head as another oddity about the new guests. He also wondered why Genma brought such a large entourage along with him.
Karen let out a breath as she felt the crisis averted. The door to the living room opened up suddenly, making her jump and make a quick about face. She watched as the three Tendo girls stumbled out of the room, all three of them sporting full-body blushes. Nabiki made a dash up the nearby stairs and disappeared out of sight. Kasumi kept on muttering "Oh my" under her breath as she made her way to the kitchen. Akane stood in front of the living room door as the boy Ranma walked out from behind her, making her start a bit. Interestingly enough, her face turned a shade redder, despite the fact that it already looked like a tomato. Karen approached the boy Ranma and asked in an exasperated tone, "What did you do this time?"
The boy grinned lasciviously towards Akane then said, "Oh nothing. Just got to know those three lovely girls better."
Karen sighed, then said, "Oh never mind. Just don't play around with them too much. I don't think they could handle it."
"Feeling lonely now that I've switched over to them?" Ranma-kun slunk up behind Karen and draped his arms over her shoulders.
Karen blinked and turned her head to look at him, barely noticing how their faces were barely an inch away, "What are you talking about? Why would I be lonely and what's this about switching?"
Boy Ranma muttered into Karen's ear, "Oh poo. You're no fun. Ah well." He took his arms away from around Karen's shoulders but not before getting a meaty grope.
Karen shook her head and thought, I wonder what that was all about. If only Devil Angel would explain things sometimes. She started to relax a bit to watch the ongoing sparring match between Ben and Ranma-onna.
Akane had watched the exchange between Karen and the boy Ranma, and her blush had continued to redden as she listened to them talk until she felt like she could fry an egg on her face in two seconds. However, something about Karen's reactions seemed a bit off, and when she looked more closely at her face, she noticed that she seemed a bit forlorn as she watched the ongoing sparring match. Deciding to get some of her question answered, she gathered her wits a bit, and reduced her face's temperature a few degrees, then approached the girl and said, "Hey. I'm Akane. You want to be friends?"
At the request, Karen turned in surprise, but smiled uncertainly as Akane came closer, "Umm…sure. Why are you offering?"
"You just looked like you needed one just then. Besides, you're going to be a guest of ours for a while right? That means that I'll have to get to know you anyways."
Karen sighed again and said, "Yeah, I guess. I hope we won't be too much of a bother."
Akane wanted to ask about the previous conversation that Karen had with Ranma-kun, but that reminded her of what had happened earlier in the living room, and she felt her face start to get dangerously red. She quickly derailed her brain from that train of thoughts, and instead assessed Karen and noticed that her body was toned as if exercised regularly. Given how her companions were sparring spectacularly nearby, Akane ventured to ask, "Do you know any martial arts?"
"Yeah. Nowhere near what those two are doing though." They both paused to watch Ben and Ranma-onna's performance for a few moments. "They'd likely cream me unless I pull a few tricks."
Akane started at that comment, "You could actually beat those two?"
Karen shook her head, "Oh no. Even one-on-one I'd probably lose badly in a straight martial arts match. I just know some techniques they don't and if I use those I can gain a temporary advantage. If I really tried I might even be able to beat one of them, but it's not worth the effort."
Akane looked relieved at that. If Karen had been as good as the two fighters, the outcome of her next request would have been apparent. "That's good. I can tell that I'm also nowhere near their level. Want to try a sparring match?"
Karen considered it for a second and decided there was nothing better to do at the moment anyways since everyone else seemed occupied, "Why not? Where should we do this? The garden is already taken." She set down her pack in front of the living room door and started to stretch a little to prepare.
Akane pointed towards the dojo, "We've got a dojo here. We could spar there."
"That would be perfect." Karen followed as Akane led the way to the dojo. "By the way, if your family has a dojo, how many students does your dad have?"
Akane stiffened a bit, "We actually don't teach classes now."
"Hmm? Why's that?"
Akane sighed, but decided to tell the story, "Father actually taught classes many years ago, when I was still very young. However, he never fully recovered when Mother died."
Karen stopped in her tracks and covered her mouth, "Oh I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring something like that up."
Akane smiled wanly, "Don't worry about it. You didn't know. Besides, I was too young to really remember my mother. Most of our family has already gotten past mother's death."
Relieved that she apparently had not unearthed a sensitive topic, Karen continued to follow Akane. They soon reached the dojo, and as Akane opened the door, she noticed the crumbled pile of bricks in the middle of the floor, "Oh, sorry about the mess. We didn't get a chance to clean it up before you arrived."
"That's fine. We should probably clean it up before we start sparring though. I can help."
"Thanks, but don't worry about it, you're a guest." Akane kneeled down and started to pick up pieces of brick.
Karen also kneeled down and told her, "We'll finish clearing it away faster if we work on it together." She started picking up some pieces of brick too. "By the way, if your father hasn't been teaching students, how did you learn your martial arts?"
"I learned most of the basics back when father was still teaching martial arts. Ever since then, I've mostly trained on my own. Every now and then I manage to get father to teach me a little, but that's not often."
"So you're mostly self-taught? What styles have you learned?"
"I've mostly learned kempo. I've watched some other fighting styles and taken a little from other styles here and there such as Tai Kwon Do. How about you? What styles are you good at?" They had moved most of the large brick pieces to the wall so Akane went to the dojo closet to pick up a broom and dustpan.
"I actually only started learning two months ago. All I've learned is Amazon Wu Shu from my teacher back in China."
Akane started as she started cleaning away the dust, "Wait, you've only been learning for two months and you could fight with those two in the garden?"
"Yeah, I learned pretty fast I guess. That's probably because my teacher is so good though. She was the best fighter in the whole of the village that we stayed at, and I think she might even be able to beat those two on her own."
Akane boggled at the thought that someone could beat the two girls when she knew from just watching that she would last less than a minute against just one of them. She finished cleaning away the dust with the thought that she would have to go full out if she were to fight someone who had been trained by such an amazing person. After setting everything to the side, she started stretching.
Karen looked down at her blouse and skirt, "Not exactly the best clothes for martial arts but I'll make do." She started stretching like Akane was across from her.
"You can change if you want into something else first."
"Nah. I can handle fighting in what I'm wearing. I'll have to change after this anyways."
The two girls took stances across from each other. Akane chose to attack first and charged towards Karen. Karen tried to dodge the punch that Akane threw but ended up blocking the blow with her right arm. She grunted as pain flared up her arm, then backed up to put some distance between her and Akane. That felt like a lot more power than she would use if this was a normal sparring match. I'll have to focus on avoiding her or else my situation might get a bit difficult. Akane again closed the distance and threw another punch. Karen barely dodged around the punch and noticed that she now had a clear shot at Akane's chest. She lashed out a fast jab with her left fist then jumped back after connecting. Akane was slightly doubled over as she shook off the pain from the blow but she recovered and smiled towards Karen thinking, As I thought, she's really skilled. Let's see if she can dodge this one though. Karen barely managed to dodge Akane's second charge but her constricting skirt caused her to trip a little, allowing Akane to bring her second fist up and catch Karen in her left shoulder as she tried to regain her balance. Karen started to fall down from the hit but she reflexively lashed out her leg, catching Akane's leg, knocking her down beside her. Karen flipped herself over on the ground to leave herself on top of Akane. She then grabbed around Akane's chest, making sure to trap Akane's arms while moving the rest of her body around to get leverage. Akane struggled against the hold using her tremendous strength and nearly broke the hold. However, Karen gritted her teeth as she ignored the pain from her bruised arms and barely managed to hold on. After trying for half a minute ineffectively against the hold, Akane said, "I give up."
Karen let go of her hold at that and slowly got up while nursing her arms. Akane scrambled up faster and helped Karen to her feet. "You're pretty skilled, especially for someone who's only been learning for two months." Akane commented.
"Luckily for me. You've got some serious strength behind your punches. My arms are going to smart for quite a while."
"Sorry about that. I was pretty sure I had to go full out if I had any chance of winning because of what you said earlier. I'm glad though that you're a girl."
Karen froze for a second when Akane said that, "Umm…why would that be?"
"Because I couldn't stand it if a boy could beat me."
Karen hoped sincerely that Akane would take that back later. However, she had another matter she had to talk about, "Ehehe… Eto… anyways, it seemed to me like you've been practicing a lot on your strength but you have problems keeping your guard up. Once I got past your punches, you were completely open for me to hit."
Akane looked a bit sheepish at that comment, "I think father's mentioned that once actually. It's not easy for me to remember to do that though when usually I don't have to worry about guarding."
Karen pondered this, "That's a pity. You'd be a much better martial artist if you were more skilled. An instructor or good sparring partner would do you wonders."
Akane smiled as this gave her the perfect opportunity to ask, "Well, you seem pretty skilled. Since you're going to be staying here, any chance you could be my sparring partner and teach me?"
Karen balked and said, "Wait me? I'm not sure that I'm good enough to teach you anything…"
"Nonsense, you were just able to beat me, so of course you have things that you could teach me. Besides, we'd mainly be sparring partners, helping each other improve instead of just one of us teaching the other."
Karen considered the proposal for a second, "That sounds good actually. It'll be nice to be able to be able to improve my skills. Just one word of warning, let's keep our sparring to a non-serious level. It'd be very bad if I lost to you in a serious match."
"Why's that?"
Karen pulled at her sweat filled clothes, "I'll explain some other time. For now, I should go take a bath and change my clothes. These are getting quite uncomfortable."
"I'll go with you. I need to do so too. Besides, you don't know where the bathroom is yet."
"Thanks Akane." Karen said as the two girls made their way out of the dojo. As they passed by the front of the living room door, they noticed that Soun was sitting across from a bald old man inside.
"Who's that?" Akane asked.
"You'll find out soon enough." Karen sighed as she thought, Going to have to tell her the truth soon. As she passed the door, she opened up the pack she had left behind earlier and pulled out a change of clothes.
Once the two girls went up the stairs, Akane indicated a nearby door before saying, "This is the bathroom. You go on ahead first while I go get my clothes."
Karen carefully took off her clothes and set them aside in a single pile next to the hamper and put her clean clothes next to them. As she walked into the bathing room she thought about the possibility of a budding friendship with Akane. Akane seems pretty nice, but I hope she won't get mad when I tell her the truth. I'd feel really bad if I was the one to ruin things. She started to move towards the tap to prepare some water when she noticed a large mirror set in the side of the wall next to it. She stepped in front of it and peered at the reflection of the buxom, blue-haired girl that stared back at her. After looking at her figure for a few moments, she pondered how used to this body she had become. In fact, over the past two months that it took to get here, she realized that it no longer felt like she was a stranger in someone else's body. Instead, she had been regularly associating this body as her own. At this thought, Karen started to feel depressed as she wondered whether she would eventually find a means to return to her original form.
However, she interrupted her train of thought as she sensed the boy Ranma teleporting into the room behind her. She sighed before saying, "What do you want Devil Angel. Already had enough fun with your charade?"
Devil Angel said, "Can't keep up this charade much longer anymore anyway. What's with the down look? Not happy with your current form still?"
Karen nodded before responding, "I was just thinking how disconcerting it is that I actually feel at home in this form now. This form isn't me…yet I feel comfortable in it."
Devil Angel slunk up behind Karen and put his arms around her when he was close enough. "Are you sure that you're comfortable in that form? It seems to me that you have yet to REALLY understand your form."
Karen started to feel distinctly uncomfortable for some reason, wondering why the room suddenly felt a couple degrees hotter. "What do you mean?"
Devil Angel purred, "Why don't I show you…"
Karen started when Devil Angel glowed with flowing black and white energy, but Devil Angel's grasp held her in place. Then, her eyes widened even further as she felt and saw Devil Angel's body melt and flow into hers. She tried to move her body as this happened but found herself frozen into place.
Once the process finished, Karen got an even bigger shock when her arms started moving of their own accord. She thought in exasperation, Oh boy, what did you do now Devil Angel…
Meanwhile, Akane walked into the changing room with her clothes in hand. As she disrobed, she pondered one of the latest additions to her life. She had long been looking for a sparring partner, but her issues at school made it difficult to find someone near her level that was willing to spar with her. Kuno did not count, as he was more of an annoyance than a help. It finally seemed that she could enjoy having a sparring partner that would challenge her skills, and there would be no worries about an overload of male hormones with Karen. In fact, Karen had seemed quite nice and understanding during their conversations earlier. She had to wonder though about what was going on with Ranma-kun as she had let him grope her. Akane decided she would ask once Karen once they were both in the furo, so she picked up a towel, walked over to the door, and opened it.
Karen on the other hand got a big surprise when she heard Devil Angel's voice respond in her head, Oh, I just took over your body for a bit. I bet you haven't done this with your body yet… With that, Devil Angel ran Karen's hands around the sides of her breasts.
What are you doing Devil Angel?
Devil Angel continued playing around with her breasts, this time carefully running her fingers over the nipples of them. How's that? Now doesn't that feel good.
Devil Angel's ministrations assaulted Karen's mind with a wave of pleasure, as she recovered, she responded, Ooooh…what are you doing though? And why did you have to take over my body…oooooh.
Devil Angel ignored Karen and continued playing around with Karen's breasts, then reached down to her crotch and started rubbing the edges of it, Seems like you're enjoying this. See? You're already wet down here. You should just enjoy the ride.
Karen felt any mental resistance she had start to fade away but she wondered just what Devil Angel was doing to make her feel this way. She tried to push aside the feelings that Devil Angel elicited to ask, This does feel good, but why did you have to take over my bod—AH! Devil Angel chose that moment to run her finger over Karen's clit.
Oh I'm just showing you how to explore. There's so much fun that you could have with this body. Devil Angel then carefully plunged a finger into Karen's vagina.
Right at that moment, the furo door slid open, revealing a naked Akane save what her small towel covered up. Akane became wide eyed as she saw Karen's figure in front of her with one hand playing over her left breast and the other with a finger plunged into her vagina. While still in Karen's body, Devil Angel smiled lecherously, then pulled out the finger and started to sensuously walk over to Akane. Akane's face turned bright red, returning to the shade that it had been at earlier, then stumbled backwards, tripped, and fell on her butt as Devil Angel continued to stalk over. Confronted with such a sight, her mouth opened and closed ineffectively as her mind shorted out. When Devil Angel was almost on top of her, the single conscious thought RUN entered her mind and before she scrambled up, dashed for the outer furo door, slammed it open, and ran away screaming, "AAAAAAAAH!!"
Look what you did now! Karen thought through the din of Devil Angel's mental laughing, all thoughts about his earlier ministrations forgotten. Devil Angel chose that point to exit Karen's body, causing her to fall backwards into the ground in surprise. He continued to laugh loudly as he teleported away. Karen glared towards where Devil Angel had been a second ago as she got up, then rushed out of the furo room, grabbed a clean set of white robes that were next to her clothes, and rushed down the stairs after Akane. She found Akane hugging Kasumi fiercely while muttering, "Ka…Ka…she…she…"
A bewildered Kasumi was trying to calm down Akane when she saw Karen approaching them. "Oh my. What was your name again?"
"Karen."
At the sound of Karen's voice, Akane hid behind Kasumi's back, her face burning the deepest red that Karen had ever seen. Akane peered at Karen for a few seconds before her mind could not take it anymore and she fainted. Kasumi yelped in surprise when she heard Akane hit the floor behind her and turned around to tend to Akane. Karen meanwhile just shook her head at the scene muttering, "Devil Angel no baka…"
Soun walked in from the living room saw Akane on the floor with an immediately apparent blush on her face, Kasumi trying to gently shake Akane to consciousness, and Karen on the side sighing. "Ano…did something happen here?"
"Trust me. You don't want to know" Karen said.
Soun filed yet another strange incident in his head, and shook his head wondering whether he would ever get all the answers for what happened that day. "Okay…anyways, could you gather all your friends to the living room? I think we should explain things to everyone. Here you go." Soun held out a kettle towards Karen.
Karen politely said, "Thank you" before taking the kettle and heading to the porch.
End Chapter 1
Chibi-Karen turned off the TV and said, "Not bad, not bad if I do say so myself for my first work. What do you think Ben?"
Chibi-Ben-chan looked over with a slight trickle of blood coming from his nose, "Yeah. It was…nice."
Chibi-Karen shook his head and said, "You're still thinking about that bathroom scene aren't you…hentai."
"Hey! It was a really interesting scene! I'm surprised that you're not drooling all over it too." Chibi-Ben-chan responded while leaning back on the couch, his nosebleed still not abated.
"Sigh…Good to know that I have a serious partner here. But aren't you happy that you're in there?"
"Yeah. Though I didn't get to do too much other than walk and spar this time," Chibi-Ben-chan griped.
"Hey. You're the one who likes to spar with Ranma. Not me. Besides, it still gives me the shivers that I had to do that to myself in this body. At least you don't have to worry about those kinds of scenes."
Chibi-Ben-chan grinned, "Yup. And you know what's even better? Devil Angel will make sure that you have plenty of those scenes."
Chibi-Karen hugged herself, "Don't remind me. I don't want to have nightmares because of this."
Chibi-Karen popped her head out from behind the stage, "Oh, you're all still here? Well, here's a section for those of you Japanese illiterate readers. After all, we can't exactly leave you wondering what all those weird Japanese phrases mean, neh?"
"So to start it off, here's the first word in the Japanese for Dummies section! 'Chibi', as you've seen even added on to my name is an additional article that means 'small'. So in other words, I'm a small version of myself. 'Oyaji' is the next word and it's a somewhat slang way of saying 'Dad', though the better English equivalent for it would be something like 'Pops'. Next is the word 'Ano' which is the Japanese way of saying 'Excuse me' when you're trying to get someone's attention. So the next time that you need to get a Japanese person's attention, just remember this word, 'Ano'. Another similar word is 'Eto' which is basically the Japanese way of saying 'umm', so I know you Japanese illiterate people will have lots of fun stuttering with this word. Now for those of you that enjoy their times soaking in the baths, now you know that the bath that you use so often is called a 'furo', you should have an easier time asking for what you love so much. Now if you're reading this fanfic and you don't know the meaning of the word 'baka', then I have to wonder whether you've ever even touched Ranma ½ before, cause it sure is one of Akane's favorite words. For those oblivious people out there, it means 'idiot'. Now for another of Akane's favorite words, 'hentai'. It means 'pervert', and you'll often hear Akane tacking it on when she describes Ranma. Now I hope you all learned a bit more Japanese from this section and make sure to tune in next time on Ranma ½! Oops, I mean Hidden Deep: The Chaos Chronicles!"
AN: A bit of backstory on this project. This project started a little over a year ago by a what-if from me to my friend Kelvin. That what-if was "What if Jusenkyou really existed and we traveled there?" One thing led to another and, through several incarnations, the story that is about to unfold came to be. It is a huge project, but due to our busy schedules we have only finished about six chapters so far. But, we are dedicated to this project, and even when we are busy we consider it a delay, not a stall. This story will be being worked on and updated for many years to come. This final version has been envisioned as if it were an anime series. This means that we have laid out the plotline with each chapter representing a single episode. In between each season there will be a "movie", a much much larger semi-standalone fic dealing with either stand-alone events between seasons, or bridging ongoing events between seasons. Each season will be uploaded as a single fic, with the previous season fic being marked as complete when it is done. While a lot of details of the story are still in flux, mostly because they havent been written, there is a distinct, concrete end point to this story already planned out, as well as distinct plans for all the major characters. All that is left for my friend and I is to find the time and inspiration to write the chapters, clean them up, and then upload for you to read. I will be working to finish editing the chapters we have done for consistency over the next week or two. I intend to upload them once a week until we run out of chapters. After that, it is up to the gods to determine when a new chapter will be finished.