Ranma was written by Takahashi Rumiko and published as an anime by Kitty Films - Fuji TV and Viz Communications, Inc.
Sailor Moon was published as an anime by Toei Animation and Geneon Entertainment
They own their own characters and other such trademarks, only Characters that I make are owned by me.
- Also Special thanks goes to my pre readers Urborg, J. St.C. Patrick, and Pale Wolf of fukufics dot com
Chapter 1 – Commence
"Dekiko!" Senna called out to the library.
Dekiko, who was a young girl of 16 or 17 and of an average height, came out of the library she had been in. "Yes, high priestess?" Dekiko replied, as she saw who had called her.
Senna smiled at the promptness of the young orphan, while remembering that she was brought in after her mother was killed during the last "man" war. Dekiko was very smart, but a little shy and not too social. 'Maybe they will be a good influence on each other,' she thought.
Senna looked at Dekiko and shook her head at the young girl's appearance. Her brown hair was in a simple ponytail, and she was wearing a loose fitting t-shirt and overalls combination. Her glasses looked as if they were any bigger it would be comically oversized for her brown eyes.
She then proceeded to fill the 16 year old in on some of what she needed to know. "I am going to summon a girl from Earth; we believe she is the 'Lost one'." Dekiko gasped then Senna continued, "I am going to leave the 'lost one' under your care to help soften the blow. She is going to be teleported into the shrine's lake and I want you to "find her" and bring her to see me. But do not tell her or anyone about her being the 'lost one'. I am not even certain she is the 'lost one', but we can not risk being wrong."
Dekiko asked, "Why the subterfuge, and why not just outright tell her the truth? I think it would be easier if we just told her everything from the outset."
Senna looked at her levelly, before asking, "If you were transported to Earth, and told you were a princess, would you believe it?"
Dekiko swiftly replied with a flat, "No." Dekiko looked pensive for a moment before nodding and saying, "I will help you, High Priestess."
Senna then added, "Two more thing; I want you to research any information on who she was back then, and as a reward I will supply you with a few months supply of beauty soap. However make sure she uses it first, I doubt that the lake will leave her smelling very good."
Akane frowned as she remembered recent events. She was having a hard time recently, now that Auntie… no, make that Saotome-san, showed up. At first, she seemed like such a nice person, but the more Akane knew about her, the more she disliked her. The seppuku contract was the first sign of problems, and things went down hill from there. And that was only the tip of the iceberg. What really made her mad was when more fiancées showed up. There were now three more fiancées in town. They seemed to be staying, at least for now, although it seemed more of a formality, and, despite claims to the contrary, it irked her. Especially when that guy showed up looking for his fiancée… Well, both fathers learned the error of their ways from that. Ranma still looked sick every time it came up, and the way Saotome-san fidgeted with her katana all the time.
However, the worst part was that Yuka was one of the fiancées. Akane had really felt betrayed when she found out that Yuka was one of them. She may have trusted Yuka enough to know that she would not try to get Ranma from her, but Akane's general trust was starting to slip. Genma's past was beginning to catch up with Ranma, and it didn't look like it would be good at all. As Akane thought about it, she realized that the only person that Ranma ever talked to without putting his foot in his mouth was Kasumi. And that worried her far more than everything else.
Ukyo was worried as well. More fiancées meant more competition. After mentally counting the number of fiancées who were after Ranma, either actively chasing him or not, Ukyo realized that there were thirteen, counting the guy and Yuka. She decided that the situation finally called for drastic action. However, Ukyo would need help… a lot of help. Her new friend Konatsu would be willing to do anything to help her, but for what she had in mind she would need to take measures that she normally would not take. Konatsu, who had just two and a half weeks ago been saved from his old life by Ukyo, was very grateful, and worried for her happiness. Ukyo finally decided on her course of action. She would have to align herself with Akane and Shampoo in order to get rid of these… what did Akane call them again? Ahh yes, "floozy interlopers." Ukyo knew she would have to be careful about Shampoo, however. Akane would not use cheap tricks and try to win Ranma during the alliance, but Shampoo would.
Shampoo was her usual over perky and obnoxiously bubbly self, which secretly grated on her great grandmother's nerves. 'If she is not careful, then she will lose son-in-law. She is not taking things seriously enough. If I did not know better I would think she was happy with the new obstacles.' Cologne thought, then wondered if Shampoo even wanted to return to the village. Just then, Ukyo walked inside the Nekohatten with Akane in tow, which raised Cologne's eyebrow.
"What do kitchen destroyer and spatula girl want?" Shampoo demanded angrily.
Akane, who clearly did not want to be there, said defensively, while pointing at Ukyo, "Ask her! It was her idea!"
Ukyo shook her head and said, "Chill, you two. We have a serious problem."
Cologne, guessing where this was going, suddenly spoke up. "Let's talk about this out back." She said, before she left, grinning, while the girls followed.
Upon entering the back room, Cologne spoke up again. "This is about the newcomers right?" She asked of Akane and Ukyo. After seeing Ukyo nod, Cologne smiled and continued, "So, you are here to propose a truce, right?"
Another nod came from Ukyo. "I agree that it is necessary for the time. However, I will warn you that once these other girls are gone," Cologne said intentionally ignoring the guy that had showed up a few days ago, "we will be back to where we were."
Akane spoke up "Why am I here then? I don't need anyone's help." She then made a small grunt as she turned to leave, with Shampoo right behind her, agreeing to what the 'kitchen destroyer' had said.
Cologne bopped them both on their heads as she spoke. "If you three were all Amazons, I would solve this mess by having a three way wedding. If we were on Amazon land, I would simply kill you two. However, neither is the case. Although I want Shampoo to win, this alliance is necessary; otherwise the other girls might win."
Akane then said, in her usual 'Ranma is a pervert' tone, "Let the floozies have him! I don't care what he does." She then turned to continue her previous attempt to leave.
Cologne saw this coming, and had a retort ready and waiting. "Then make an oath on your honor as a martial artist to stop your pursuit of him." Akane froze in her tracks. She grumbled and turned back around to face Cologne.
Ukyo then spoke up. "I don't think it is necessary to be friendly to each other, but we do need to work together to drive off the others. However, we should not interfere with each other or else this alliance will back fire."
Akane and Shampoo looked at each other, then looked at Ukyo and nodded.
Akane then spoke, "We will work together for now, but once those trespassing floozies are gone the truce is over."
Shampoo spoke in agreement, "Obstacles are for killing."
Ukyo replied, "No need to kill them, honey, but make them miserable enough to leave is the plan."
The four then left to plot their way of getting rid of the new rivals.
After they left, a small pig and duck peeked around the boxes they were hiding behind, and nodded to each other. 'Ranma will pay' they both thought.
To most people it would have been a nightmare; to Ranma it was still a nightmare, and it was a very, very bad day for him. Actually, this day was about three times worse than any day he could ever remember. Ranma recalled the day so far. The day had started with a real nightmare, the one with Kuno and her in female form only this time Ryoga and Mousse were in it too. That thought sent shivers up and down (currently) her spine. 'Ok, no more curry before bed,' Ranma thought to herself. She continued to reminisce about the day. She had woken up from the horrible nightmare with a start in the Koi pond; her usual wake up call for morning exercise. Just as she got out of the pond she slipped, fell down, and hit her head.
'Let's see. So far I have been up one minute, and I had a nightmare, sprained an ankle, hit my head, and now likely have a concussion.' Ranma had thought to herself. After a quick defeat of a certain panda, she walked in to find out that the water heater was out, and that the oven and stove were out as well, meaning no tea… and more importantly, no hot water. As he wondered what he could do, Akane had walked in with a steaming plate of… something. How it was hot, Ranma didn't know, but Akane had managed it somehow. Of course, Ranma just then noticed that she and Kasumi were the only people left, and Kasumi quickly left for Tofu's. After being beaten and force fed, it was off to Tofu's to have her stomach pumped. She would have avoided being near both Kasumi and Tofu simultaneously if she could, but after she saw the pot implode she decided to take the risk. After he left Tofu's, male and somewhat healthy, he got about a block away, where he got wet again. Ranma had looked for the cause, and it was a member of Nerima's Ladies' Ladle Martial Arts School.
She arrived late to school, and into after knocking Kuno skyward, she found out that she had to hold buckets in the hall. When the substitute teacher arrived and she saw a female Ranma, she refused to mark her present since Ranma is marked as 'usually male?' So Ranma waited for the next class under a tree, which was when Kuno appeared again. This time Ranma was so mad that she went for a distance record.
At lunch Ranma had decided not to eat, her reasoning being 'I do not have a bento from Kasumi, Akane cooked, and I can't trust Shampoo any more. Ukyo… well it would be good food, but Akane and Shampoo would make me suffer enough to more than make up for eating Ukyo's food.' Ranma, of course, did not know that the alliance made 3 days ago would prevent that, not to mention the fact the alliance existed. But the three found him anyway, and as usual one thing lead to another and Ranma got first a Bonbori to the head for "not trusting Amazon wife," A Spatula to the head for "Preferring Akane's poison," paralysis poison for "consorting with peasants" (yes she showed up as usual at the worst time), and finally a mallet for "hanging around 'his' floozies"
Ranma's mind finally caught up to the present as she realized that the Tendo Dojo was almost right in front of her. Ranma shrugged and opened the door to her home, while her mind again went elsewhere.
'I wonder where the other fiancées went? They weren't at school today.' Ranma thought. Just then, a thought he had been harboring but had never let himself think about popped into her head. 'Akane and the others couldn't have driven them off… could they?' Ranma wondered to herself.
As Ranma came inside the house, she was taken aback by the sight of her entire family and the Tendo family, except for Akane, sitting in one room, seemingly waiting for her. Ranma blinked once and opened her mouth to speak, but her father beat her to it.
"Oh, why am I cursed with such a dishonorable son? Ranma! How can you lead on so many women, and dare I say it, even a man too, when your fiancée lies right inside this house! I can't believe I have such a worthless son!" Genma cried to the heavens, calling everyone's attention to him.
Ranma scowled. "Now wait just a minute!" She growled at her father. However, before she could continue, Nodoka interrupted her.
"Ranma dear, your father has a point. Although it is very manly for you to have so many women, I find it bad that you are with a man too. That is far from manly." Nodoka admonished Ranma, her katana lying on the ground in front of her. Nodoka's hand was twitching, as if it wanted to reach out and grab something.
"Wait, what are you saying?" Ranma demanded. A few seconds thought yielded the answer, and Ranma exclaimed, "Wait, I'm not like that! How could you even think that?" Ranma asked of her. Her face was beginning to get red with a repressed anger that rarely ever managed to escape.
Nabiki yawned idly, and fixed Ranma with a pointed stare. "But it would explain so much, Saotome," She said with a grin on her face. She shrank back as she saw the rage in Ranma's eyes as she stared directly into Nabiki's own.
She threw her hands up resignation and muttered, "I don't need to sit here and take this." Ranma turned her head to Kasumi, and politely and calmly asked, "Do you have any hot water ready?"
Kasumi had stayed silent throughout the entire inquisition. She had wondered why her father had wanted them there, and she had her answer. Kasumi shook her head to Ranma's question. "I'm sorry Ranma. The oven and hot water heater are still out. There will be someone by a little later." Kasumi said, bowing her head in apology.
"That's alright, Kasumi. It's not your fault." Ranma said.
As she turned around to leave, she sensed a battle aura behind her. With a sigh, she made no effort to avoid the mallet that crashed into her head, covering everything in darkness. Ranma crumpled to the ground, actually glad to be unconscious. The last thing she heard was a battle cry of, "Quit flirting with my sister!"
After Ranma awoke she asked Nabiki "Is Akane in the bath?"
Nabiki replied, "No, she is in the training hall."
Ranma, thinking that answer came too quickly, went to find Kasumi. When entering the kitchen she saw Kasumi and again asked, "Is Akane was in the bath?"
Kasumi replied, "I'm sorry Ranma-chan, but I do not know"
Ranma decided to go to the bathroom and knocked. Not getting a response she decided to call out to see if anyone was in there. Not hearing anything she opened the door only to be malleted by Akane.
Akane then said, "Pervert!"
As she entered the bathroom, Ranma was wondering to herself, 'what else can go wrong today.' After she started taking off her clothing she noticed that she'd forgotten that her period started today. Her eye twitched so slightly she did not even notice.
Akane was wondering why she thought that Ranma was flirting with her sister, but then realized that her sister was the only real threat to her getting Ranma. She realized that she felt insecure about her older sister; after all she did take Tofu away from her. Her sister was the epitome of goodness, and the one person Akane feared she could not compete with.
Mousse and Ryoga showed up after Ranma's bath and, as per usual, they started a fight of Nerimanian proportions. Mousse was actually using some decent forms, and Ryoga was using some hidden weapon techniques. Due to these two factors, plus the concussion from her earlier malleting, both got hits in that really hurt.
Then, on her way to Tofu's she saw Taro, as per usual he attacked first in human form then switched to his monster form when he saw he was losing. But when Ranma launched a Shi Shi Hokodan Taro decided that if something had disrupted Ranma's confidence it would be better to be somewhere else.
When Ranma had just about reached the clinic his heart sank as he heard a voice proclaim, "Sweeto!"
Dr. Tofu looked out of his clinic just in time to see Happosai throw a few choice articles of clothing at Ranma, who was then pounded for, as the gang of girls said, "being a pervert", "being in league with the freak", and several other choice terms.
Ranma was at the breaking point, Tofu could see that much, but decided to keep quiet. After all going against Nabiki was not a financially healthy thing to do. He may have liked Ranma but Nabiki was too scary for him to do anything to help directly.
After Ranma got back to the Dojo he was, as per usual, malleted.
Kasumi then said, "Oh my, Akane, did he really deserve that?"
Akane replied, "He was probably off with his 'floozies' again"
Ranma having long ago determined this particular phrase to mean, 'He was gone longer than a blink.' Ranma really wished that she would get a thesaurus, although that word 'floozy' did describe Shampoo very well.
Then came the inevitable lectures.
"Oh, why am I cursed with such a dishonorable son? Ranma! How can you go out to be with other women, when your fiancée lies right inside this house! I can't believe I have such a worthless son!" Genma cried to the heavens, calling everyone's attention to him.
Soun wailed in the back ground, "Now the schools will never be joined."
Nodoka then spoke up, "Son it is very manly to be with many women. However it is not manly to make your fiancée mad at you. You should apologize at once."
Akane who was looking very smug at this time, listened, then felt ashamed when Ranma then said. "I'm sorry Akane, I am sorry I was even born. However, I will let Dr. Tofu know you think of him as a floozy when next I see him."
This set off a large number of alarm bells in Nodoka's head. 'Was her son really this depressed, was she not seeing something? No,' she thought. She continued thinking, 'it is just a bad day, tomorrow he will be his usual manly self' she kept her neutral face and when nobody was looking a smile appeared as she thought about all the grandchildren she would spoil that her manly son would provide.
Before any further conversation could happen the food arrived. And because this was a day Ranma would later call 'Murphy's Day', see Murphy's Law, it was from both Ucchan's and the Nekohatten.
The silence that permeated the room was defining for three seconds until Shampoo broke it with, "Aiya, what spatula girl doing here?"
Ukyo then replied, "I could ask you the same thing, sugar, but we both know the answer. We are here to save Ranma from Akane's cooking wrath,"
"Are you saying I can't cook?" Akane yelled out.
And thus started the war; yes the alliance broke up at lunch when the newcomers were driven out. By this time the hot water had been fixed and Kasumi gave Ranma some hot water to change back.
"Thanks a bunch Kasumi!" Ranma said after getting the water and changing back.
Kasumi then replied, "Oh my, it was no problem Ranma and you are welcome."
Of course this being 'Murphy's Day', Akane suddenly said, "Stop flirting with my sister!"
Ukyo then asked, "Don't you have enough fiancées Ranchan?
And Shampoo added to that, "Something bad happens to mens who cheat on Amazon wives."
Then Ukyo said, "Ranchan wants me not you, you Amazon hussy."
Akane said to that, "well she can have him, I don't want that pervert!" She remembered what Ranma had said a moment ago then puts it down as him just trying to make her look bad.
Shampoo then said as she readied her bonbori, "Arien loves me! Right, Arien?"
Ukyo readied her Combat spatula and said, "Ranchan loves me, hussy"
Kasumi then interjected, "Oh my, Ranma, if you just picked one then you would not have to worry about this anymore."
Ranma highly doubted that then replied, "I have never been allowed to make a decision before, why start now."
Akane then said, "Just pick one of us, Baka. Or we will beat the choice out of you." Then as if to prove a point, she brings out her Mallet-san.
Ukyo agreed, saying, "Akane is right, Ranchan. Who are you going to pick?" She tightened her grip on the combat spatula.
Shampoo, still holding her bonbori, says, "Arien pick shampoo, Right Arien."
His mind raced with curse words and escape plans and unfortunately all promised more pain than answering.
He asked, "Whose honor is the most important?" And thinks 'delay tactics, why answer today what you can answer tomorrow?'
However, this day's run of horrible luck could, to Ranma, only be due to the universe trying to rid Genma's bad karma by having him pay the price, probably because Genma sold him out again for rice.
Ukyo then said, "Although we each feel our own honor is most important, you should just say who you will marry, Ranchan."
Shampoo says again only this time more forcefully "Arien pick shampoo, Right Arien."
Akane said, "Pick now, Baka"
Ranma said with a little heat and a little hurt in his voice, "Why should I, none of you will care if I do. Tomorrow you will be back to this situation and nothing will change. Besides even if I choose the other two will only try to kill me. As I see it making a decision is the wrong thing to do."
Nabiki noted that Ranma must really be in 'Battle Mode' if he were being this intelligent and coherent. Nabiki may have not liked a lot of things about Ranma but she did notice in battle he was far more intelligent. And that went beyond his combat knowledge; she had heard some of the stories and had seen some of the signs for herself that what he learned in class, even though, oddly enough, he usually slept in class, was applied in his fighting.
They were mad at him for thinking so little of them, and then they hit him all at once and said simultaneously, "I never want to see you again!" Actually shampoo said, "Go to very bad place and no return!" But it meant the same thing.
Ranma sailed through the air toward the Koi pond wondering how things could possibly get worse, before everyone noticed a strange mist. As he splashed into the pond, the mist rolled over, obscuring the pond from vision. Seconds later, the mist vanished. As the girls waited anxiously for Ranma's head to pop up from the surface, they began to get worried. When he did not surface they got even more worried. A quick check of the Koi pond proved he was not there, but oddly neither were the fish. This was odd, because the fish were replaced yesterday and the pond should have been full of them.
Shampoo gasped and then said, "Aiiie ya! Shampoo think Arien really go to very bad place!" The others went wide eyed as they realized their last words to him.
Of course, Soun had begun to cry again, Genma had begun to rant about how dishonorable his ungrateful son was to have run away, and Nodoka walked away in silence.
Nodoka was in thought, 'I definitely missed something, now I may have lost my only child. What did I do wrong?' She continued thinking but was unable to come to any conclusions.
Ukyo was the next to speak, and she said, "I doubt he will return after that last hit, from what I can tell, he has nothing to return here for" Ukyo turned and left. Shampoo nodded and left as well.
Akane had the sick feeling in her stomach that she just did something very wrong. As she entered the dining area Nabiki said, as she was leaving, "You finally drove Ranma away, Akane. You should be very happy. After all no more engagement to 'a perverted boy,' right?"
It was not until late that night that the full implications as to what she had done hit her and she cried herself to sleep, insulting herself for not caring enough to try and keep Ranma instead of beating on him.
Senna smiled as she watched the events unfold. All was going according to plan. Arranging for the teleportation when Ranma hit the water was a little harder then normal since it was cold water and usually hot water is used. However, hot water was not an option, yet.
She watched the signs of the teleport appear in the lake and whispered to herself, "Welcome home, 'lost one'."
