Kasumi looked down at the mail. She sifted through the envelopes, searching for
something interesting. "Oh my!" she said.

"What?"
"I said, a free trip to china," Kasumi repeated.
Ranma jumped up, and began to dance. "Never gonna be a girl again, never
gonna be a girl again," he said in a sing song voice.
I'll cure the pig! Ryoga almost said the happy words out loud. And then Akane
and I can……… Ryoga gave himself a nosebleed thinking about it.
"This is great!" Mousse cried. He glomped onto Ranma. "Shampoo, did you hear
that?"
"Why don't you…tell her that," Ranma said, kicking Mousse into the air.
"Shampoo be cat no more! Spend rest of life with Ranma!"
Genma held up a sign that said "Great!"
"Hey, Kasumi," Ranma said, "how many people can we bring?"
Kasumi checked the letter again. "It says we have our own private jet."
Many jaws dropped around the room.


A very exhausted pack of travelers arrived at Jusenkyo. Shampoo was at the
head of the pack, racing for Nyannichuan. "Shampoo!" Mousse cried, following
her. Being as nearsighted as he was, he accidentally knocked her into the pond.
He waited a few minutes, and then when she didn't come up, he did a very
stupid thing: he dove into the spring. Mousse didn't come up. "Serves him right,"
Ranma muttered.
"Oh no!" Ranma heard a familiar voice. "Very tragic story happen to those who
jump in spring."
"What are they gonna turn into?" Akane asked.
"Oh, this very special spring. Spring is portal to another world."
"WHAT???!!"
"Yes," the Jusenkyo guide said. "Spring take travelers to Universe of Four Gods."
Just then, the last of the pack arrived. "Akaaaaaaaneeeeeeeee!" Akane
squealed as Happosai glomped onto her rear. Ukyo took her spatula and
whacked the old pervert. Unfortunately, everyone fell in the spring like a line of
Dominos.
"Uh-oh," she said. "Ran-chan," she yelled, and jumped into the spring.


Ranma-chan found herself floating in a deep pond. Se crawled out, and lay on
the grass. Whoa, what a trip! She thought to herself. Universe of The Four
Gods, huh? This could be interesting. She sat up, rubbing her head. Standing
above her was a woman, dressed in Chinese clothing. Her long purple hair was
done in a bun on top of her head, the rest flowing around her shoulders.
"Hotohori-sama, I've found the intruder," she yelled.
"Whoa, wait a minute there," Ranma said. "You got this all wrong, miss. I ain't
an intruder."
The woman stared at her. "You mean you're not from Kutou?"
"What? Kutou? What's that?"
"It's not an intruder," the woman yelled. She turned to Ranma. "Sorry about
that. I'm Chou Ryuen, better known as the Suzaku Seishi Nuriko."
"Suzaku?"
"You're not from here, are you?"
"Uh, I don't think so, Miss."
Nuriko helped Ranma up. "Miss?"
"You look like a girl, so Miss."
Nuriko flared. "Whaddya mean, I look like a girl?" She looked down. "Just
reminiscing. It's hard to break old habits. See, I'm not exactly a girl."
Ranma smiled. "I'm not exactly a girl, either. By the way, my name's Ranma
Saotome, of the Saotome school of Anything-Goes Martial Arts. "
The two walked away from the pond. "So you fell in the drowned springs too,
huh?"
"Um, not exactly," Nuriko said.
Ranma took a double look at Nuriko's chest. Nothing. "Oh, so you're a cross-
dresser!"
"But you're not." Nuriko stared at Ranma's breasts. "So how can you not be a
woman?"
"It's a long story," Ranma said. "My dad took me on this training trip, and we fell
in these cursed springs. So now, cold water changes him into a panda, and I,
well, become a girl."
Nuriko's eyes had glazed over. "Oh, is that really possible? Turning into a
woman, I mean? I wish that had happened to me! Then Hotohori-sama and I
could……."
"Who's Hotohori?"
"Only the beautiful emperor of Konan."
"Konan?"
"Boy, you're definitely not from around here. Where are you from, anyway?"
"Nerima."
Nuriko had a bemused look on his face. "Nerima?"
"Yeah, in Tokyo."
"Oh! Is that, by any chance, in another world?"
"I don't think this is my world, so I guess so."
"That's wonderful. Miaka will be so happy to meet you."
"Miaka?"
"Suzaku no Miko, herself. She somehow got transported to this world."
"Do you know how she got here?"
"No, she never told us."
Ranma thought for a second. "So, where are we going?" she asked.
"Inside," Nuriko replied, a smug grin on his face
"I know that! Inside where?"
"Inside the Konan Imperial Palace. You're on the palace grounds. Miaka actually
almost drowned in that pond you were in."
"Why would she do that?"
Nuriko took a breath. "Well, when Hotohori-sama and Tama-chan found me,
they thought I was a woman. Miaka and Tama-chan were trapped under a
building, so I lifted it off of them. Miaka thanked me afterwards, but I didn't
really like that she was getting close to my Hotohori-sama, so I told her that I
had lost an earring in that pond. She went to look for it, and" Nuriko mumbled.
"kindasortafellin." Nuriko was quiet for a second. He instantly cheered up. "But
that's okay, because Tama-chan loves her, and I know she loves him. So we're
on good terms now." He paused again. "I actually stopped cross-dressing
recently, because it was easier to protect Miaka in boy's clothes. But old habits
are hard to break."
"So is Miaka inside?"
"No, right now she's in Kutou." Nuriko's face fell as he said the words. "Tama-
chan went after her, and Chichiri's there too."
They approached the entrance to Nuriko's room. "Come in; I'll get you a fresh
change of clothes. You must me freezing."
"I have some extras," Ranma said, referring to her backpack. "But they're wet
too."


A few minutes later, Ranma emerged, dressed in Nuriko's clothes. She wore a
long red tunic over loose black pants, and shoes with long laces. Nuriko wore
similar clothing, but the tunic was hot pink and the pale yellow. His purple hair
was done in a long braid flipped over his shoulder. He looks more like a guy now,
Ranma thought. "Um," she said, "can I have some hot water?"
Nuriko looked puzzled. "Okay," he said.
The two were making their way to the dining room, when Ranma heard a squeal.
"Nurikoooooooooo!" the voice cried. "We're back!"
Ranma stared as a young girl with glomped onto Nuriko. She had brown hair,
done up in two buns with red ribbons, and wore a brown school uniform with a
white shirt and a turquoise bow. Behind her were two men. The first one had
dark aqua hair tied into a loose ponytail, and wore a blue shirt with yellow details
and dark blue pants. The second had blue hair that stuck straight up, and a
strange expression on his face. He was wearing a white shirt with black pants,
and over it a blue cloak with a circled blue pattern. He had a hat slung on his
back, and beads around his neck. This is definitely a strange bunch, Ranma
thought, but not that much stranger than the weirdoes I deal with at home.
Nuriko must have noticed her staring, because he started to introduce the new
people. "Guys, this is Ranma.
"Ohayo no da," the blue haired man said. "I'm Chichiri na no da."
"Hey," the man with the ponytail said. "I'm Tamahome."
The girl smiled. "I'm Miaka Yuuki," she said cheerfully. Miaka looked as if a light
bulb had gone off in her head. "Hold still a second." She began taking off
Ranma's tunic.
Ranma watched as she inspected her body. "Um," She said. "Do you mind?"
"Miaka-chan, why don't you just ask her?"
"Oh yeah!" Everyone sweatdropped. "Are you one of the Suzaku Seishi?"
"What's that?" Everyone sweatdropped again.
"You mean you haven't heard of the Seven Seishi of Suzaku?" Tamahome looked
surprised. Ranma shook her head.
"Ranma," Chichiri said, "Are you by any chance from another world no da?"
Nuriko patted Ranma's shoulder. "I found her by the pond this evening with a
backpack. She didn't know where she was, so I offered to let her stay with us for
a bit."
Miaka perked up. "Where are you from?" she asked.
"Nerima." Ranma replied.
Miaka now looked very excited. "Nerima? As in Tokyo?"
Ranma nodded. "Yeah."
"Yay! Tamahome, she's from our world. Isn't that amazing?" Miaka said,
glomping onto Ranma.
"Uh, Miaka, how about we go eat now?" Tamahome suggested.
Miaka looked absolutely delighted. "Yeah! Let's EAT!"


Ranma sat at the dinner table. It was long, and she was sitting between Nuriko
and Miaka, who was sitting next to Tamahome. On Nuriko's other side was
another man, who Nuriko had introduced as Hotohori, "the beautiful emperor of
Konan." Chichiri was sitting across from Nuriko, on Hotohori's other side. Along
the ends of the table were many counselors and other such people.
"Miss Ranma," a handmaiden said. "Your hot water."
"Arigato," Ranma said, and stood up. She took the hot water, and emptied it
over her head. Every one stared as Ranma grew taller, curveless, and his hair
color changed to black.
Nuriko looked dumbfounded. "I wish that happened to me!" he squealed.
"Ranma, you're so lucky!"
Miaka turned to Ranma and began to feel him up, as she had done with Hotohori
in the second episode. "You're a boy now."
Ranma smiled sheepishly. "Um, yeah."
"That's so cool!" Nuriko's eyes were glazed over.
Hotohori coughed. "Back to the subject of Ranma………" After he had gotten
their attention, he continued. "We need to figure out how he has gotten here,
and what to do."
"Yeah, how DID you get here?"
"A spring," Ranma replied. "We all went on a trip to China, and we all fell in the
spring. Ukyo knocked us in." He paused for a second. "It was really all that
pervert Happosai's fault."
"You mean there are others from your world?"
"Yeah. A whole bunch of us. I think we somehow got scattered."
"How many no da?"
"Let's see……. Akane, Mousse, Shampoo, Ryoga, Ukyo, Kuno, my old man, Soun,
Kasumi, Nabiki, Happosai, the old ghoul, I think Kuno brought that ninja guy,
yeah, that's it."
Hotohori rested his chin on his hand. "The all fell in?"
Ranma nodded. "I think so. Ukyo's pretty strong."


Ranma lay on a bed in his room and stared up at the canopy. Everything he had
been told so far had baffled him. Not much did, these days, but the idea of
looking for seven people so a girl from another world could summon a god was a
little strange.
It had been a long, sleepless night. I was lucky, he thought. The others could be
hurt, or worse. Mentally, he kicked himself. Tomorrow. Tomorrow, I'm going to
go looking for them. With that thought in his head, he let himself fall asleep.
He was awoken by a high-pitched scream. Jumping out of bed and running
through the hall, he collided into Miaka. They both fell down, rubbing their
heads. Ranma was about to chew her out for crashing into him when he noticed
a small wimpering noise. Standing up, he saw Miaka bawling on the floor. Her
eyes were red, and tears streamed down her cheeks. Clutched in her hand was a
folded piece of paper. "T-T-Tamahome's gooooooooone!" She wailed. "L-Last
night, when the kutou assassin a-a-attacked, he said he wouldn't l-l-leave
meeeeeee!"
Damn, she sure whines a lot! "Are you sure?"
"Y-y-yeah."
It wasn't long before Hotohori and Nuriko came running, and Chichiri teleported
in. "Miaka! What is the matter?"
Miaka threw her arms around Hotohori and sniffled into his robe. "T-T-
Tamahome's goooooooooooooooonnnnnnne!!!!!!!!!"
Nuriko snatched the note from Miaka's fist. " 'Miaka, I've gone to Kutou as a
hostage to buy you some time to find the three remaining seishi. When all of
them are gathered, I will come back to you.' Aww, that's so romaaaaaantic!
Don't you think so, Hotohori-sama?"


A few hours later, Ranma found himself saddling a horse. Nuriko had insisted he
come along, to help Miaka search for the other seishi. He was too embarrassed
to tell Nuriko he didn't know how to ride, and Chichiri was busy hopping around
in SD screaming DAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Ranma guessed he was trying to lighten
the mood, but so far all it had done was make Hotohori and his advisors shake
their heads in dismay.
"Alright! Let's get going!" Miaka crowed, thrusting her fist into the open air. Well,
she's considerably perkier, Ranma noted, tying his backpack to the saddle.