Greetings again from CloudDancer1014. I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter, because here is chapter two!
For the record, I am a college student. That means that I am poorer than dirt. I OWN NOTHING!
I also appreciate the reviews that were dropped in on this. Thank you all. I hope that I manage to live up to your expectations. Also, any flames will be used to reheat food and warm up my dorm room in the fall and winter.
For those who don't know what either series is, look at the bottom of this chapter to see summaries of both series, as well as a viewpoint of where this story takes place in each timeline.
As a final pre-chapter note, Haibara may be seen as OOC here. However, Ranma is in need of comfort, and Haibara knows a bit about how he/she must feel at the moment. Give me a break, and I promise to keep DC's source of cynicism intact.
And now, on with the show!
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As the rain poured heavily on his roof, one Doctor Agasa was enjoying a night out with the son of an old friend who had recently passed on. They had both gone to school together in the old days, but whereas Agasa had enjoyed working with physics and mechanics, his old friend stuck with medical science, with a side hobby of acupuncture to keep with the family traditions.
However, that didn't stop him from coming down with cancer and dying from it. His son had rushed to his father's side after temporarily closing down his practice, and had stayed with him to the very end. The funeral was earlier that day, and having ran into each other, both men had decided to go out and discuss the dearly departed figure.
Both men were enjoying some tea and talking about their different practices when the door slammed open in the other room. Both men jumped and ran to see three children, two of them holding the third up by the arms, as she seemed to be unconcious.
As the man watched, the blond girl on the right looked up and yelled "Doctor Agasa, we need your help. It's the BO!"
Doctor Agasa, the white haired friend of his father jerked into action, grabbing the unconscious red headed child, and rushing her into a bedroom. Following his actions, the young man followed, as the two children realized that they were not alone.
Haibara had frozen, and was considering trying to cover when Conan stopped her. "Don't worry; he looks like a doctor, maybe an acupuncture professional.
" . . . And you know this how?"
Conan smirked at his companion. "The man has a stethoscope in hanging out of his pocket, and the marks on his hand tell me that he's handled a lot of needles. I think we can trust him with at least checking her over."
The two children walked in the room and watched as the man looked over the mysterious girl. He was tall and slim, with a slightly muscular build. He had black hair and a handsome face, and kind, open eyes. They watched as the doctor checked the girl's pulse and temperature, then checked for any head wounds. Then it got weird.
As the man ran his hand over the girl's skull, he frowned, and said "The child seems to have been hit over the head with something metallic. It wasn't hard enough to break or crack the skull, but there does seem to be an unusual amount of ki focused here."
The doctor then ran his hands over the girl's arms and body, keeping a professional look on his face, which slowly turned to a combination of shock and contained fury. "Her arm seems to have been jerked out of its socket, and she has several broken and cracked ribs. Her ki reserves are amazing though! If I didn't know better . . . no, it couldn't be . . . those mushrooms were destroyed when Ranma and Ryouga . . .
Doctor Agase and the two children looked at each other, as the fourth member of the conscious party continued to mutter to himself. Then Conan looked up at him. "Excuse me Ojii-san, but what are you talking about? What is this 'ki' stuff? I think I heard Ran-nee-chan say something about that, but . . ."
The man jumped and turned around. "Oh, sorry, forgot you were there for a moment." He then smiled at them. The mushrooms are unimportant right now, but ki is what some people refer to as the life force that runs through everything. Some martial artists can use it to do great things with it."
The young boy's eyes widened and he nodded his head in understanding. "That's it! An old friend of Ran's sensei told her about some of that, but when I asked, nobody could give me a straight answer."
The man smiled and was about to say more, when the young girl in bed started to stir. Everyone in the room quickly gathered around the bed as the child began to awake . . .
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Ranma floated in darkness. As he hovered above nothing, images of people and events from his life appeared in front of his eyes. First, he saw his father, a great fat bald man. Ranma recalled some of the things he did on the training trip: how his father would steal his food and offer no comfort, and how most of the time they spent together involved running from town to town when things got too hot.
He saw Jusenkyo, and how things changed forever. Before, he couldn't care less about what his father did; afterall, he was his pops, right? However, after Jusenkyo, Ranma got a good look at some of the stuff his father had done to him, especially the multiple engagements. Truthfully, the only reason Ranma hadn't spoken to his mother about disowning the man was because he was still the master of the Saotome style of Anything Goes, and Ranma couldn't risk his martial arts.
A picture of the Tendo family appeared, and Ranma almost smiled. Sure, Soun was a lazy ass, and didn't do much more than support his father's escapades, but his daughters were certainly something to smile about.
Kasumi was like a mother to him, even when he finally met his own mother. She was kind and understanding, and had an endless supply of patience. She was always willing to lend an ear when Ranma had to talk to someone. Honestly, Ranma knew that he would have lost it long ago if it wasn't for her.
Nabiki, on the other hand, was more like his older sister, albeit a rather nosy one. Sure she sold pictures of his girl form, and sold information to his fiances and rivals, but she was also the only thing keeping the dojo afloat and in one piece. Ranma scowled for a moment. The girl had to sell her soul and her childhood at an early age, just to keep a roof over her sisters' head and food in Kasumi's kitchen. To be honest, over half the pictures Nabiki took of her were allowed (and the other half usually featured 'Ranko' taken off her shirt to wring it dry).
Akane though . . . Ranma sighed. Their relationship was complicated. Ever since the failed wedding attempt that had left him bruised and greatly depressed, Akane had seemed . . . nicer. Maybe it was because she had noticed how close he came to using Ryouga's Shi Shi Hokudan after the cask of Spring of Drowned Man water was lost. Maybe she realized that not everything was his fault (especially since he couldn't have done anything to the wedding in his situation).
Or maybe it was the fact that, a few days after the wedding, she saw a certain lost boy get splashed with water on the way from school. Nabiki was walking with her, and offered a pro bono defense for Ranma, telling Akane how Ryouga trapped him in a promise before using it against him.
Mind you, Akane still wasn't completely happy with Ranma, but she forgave him due to the fact that Ranma could not break any promise that he himself made . . . stupid panda!
P-chan had yet to appear in Nerima since then, but Ranma had managed to get her to promise not to get the pig fixed. Sure, Ryouga had used the curse to get close to Akane, but you can't fault a small animal for trying to find some comfort.
Now a heavy dose of Akane's mallet-sama, on the other hand . . . I mean, if it was good enough for the panda and the human water fountain . . .
Since then, Akane and Ranma had an unspoken truce. Ranma would still put his foot in his mouth, but he also tried to take Akane's martial arts training a bit more seriously now, as he had realized that he couldn't be able to protect her forever. Akane, on the other hand, took the welts and buises (Ranma would only strike at her with light finger thrusts, which still caused minor damage) with a grim determination, and had made an effort to try to curve her temper.
Pity he couldn't get her to stop cooking . . .
Ukyo had stopped becoming a major problem, but he still had to deal with her honor. He was still honor bound to marry her, and he had no idea how to get out of that. Well, that wasn't necessarily true. He had one idea, but he had a feeling that his mother wouldn't really go for it . . .
The amazons, on the other hand, were getting annoying. He would have denied the amazons tie to him if it wasn't for the old ghoul. She had told him about what happened to girls who didn't succeed in bringing their husbands back . . . he didn't really like Shampoo, but he didn't want her to die either!
His mother wasn't helping things either. She kept urging him to marry one and take the other two girls as mistresses. As if he didn't have enough women problems already . . . honestly, finding out about that seppuku pledge almost made him want to disown his father immediately . . .
Suddenly the images stopped coming, and a dim light appeared in the distance. As Ranma shaded her eyes, it began to get brighter . . .
Ranma suddenly felt himself returning to consciousness; suddenly, his body felt sore, and his ribs started to remind him that they were still in pain. His head ached, and he realized that he was actually a she at the moment. She opened her eyes, and squinted at the dim light in the room.
She was in a bed, in an unknown room. She glanced up to see a familiar face . . .
"Doctor Tofu?"
Time stood still in the room for Conan and Ai, as they stared at what seemed to be the end of their game. Then, the glasses wearing doctor blinked twice, and sighed. "So what happened this time, Ranma-kun?
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"So let me get this straight" Doctor Agasa muttered, "Ranma here is actually a seventeen year old boy with a water based curse that causes him to change genders depending on the water's temperature. His father has something similar except that he changes into a panda with cold water, and he has been engaged to several women; including a Chinese Amazon . . . are you aware of how INSANE that sounds?"
Doctor Tofu shrugged. Due to the amount of chaos usually caused in these situations, he had stopped to relay the odd situations that surround the young Saotome as well as to give the young girl a chance to dry off and clean up. "Yeah, I do. Unfortunately, Nerima isn't known for its sanity. In fact, there was a situation similar to this a couple of months before I left, involving age changing magic mushrooms."
As the Agasa and the other two children were staring at Doctor Ono Tofu, Ranma stepped out of the bedroom in dry clothes, all supplied by Conan. "Um, actually Doc, it wasn't the mushrooms this time."
Tofu smiled at the shrunken martial artist. "I figured that out when I noticed that something happened to your ki." At Ranma's worried look, he waved his hands in a comforting jester. "Everyone's ki patterns are unique in their own way, and it doesn't usually change throughout one's lifetime; however, your ki has been altered to the point where even I couldn't recognize it. Also, your ki pathways have become narrower than normal, which is probably due to your age change; therefore, you won't be able to use ki beyond a certain density."
As Ranma nodded, a thoughtful look placed upon his face, Haibara cleared her throat and asked "So, Ranma-chan," said person flinched noticeably, but didn't say anything, "if these 'mushrooms' didn't have anything to do with your situation, what happened?"
Ranma-chan scowled and looked away. "I was knocked over this way when the fiancés got into a fight and I tried to break it up. When I landed, I tried to leave when I found some guy being threatened by a thug. I was about to stop him when someone managed to sneak up on me and hit me over the head. Next thing I know, I'm being fed some vial that tastes like Akane's cooking. I felt it do something to my insides, so I tried to find my way out. I . . . I think I blacked out somewhere after that.
The young boy-turned-girl looked back around to see the two children whispering at each other worriedly, while Doctor Tofu looked rather perplexed. Then Conan looked over at the redhead. "Can you tell us what these people looked like, or maybe anything that they may have said?"
Ranma scrunched her face up into a thoughtful look, and replied "I didn't get to see the second person, but the one threatening the other guy was kinda stocky, with a black suit and a hat. As for what they said . . . it's foggy, but I think I they were talking about drinking . . . "At the young boy's incredulous look, she added "They said something about alcoholic drinks . . . I remember something about vodka and . . . and . . . "
"Gin?" Haibara supplied. At the other girls nod, she sighed. "They were using code names. Vodka was the one you saw, while Gin is tall, skinny and blonde. They work for a shadowy organization that specializes in illegal trafficking, blackmail, and assassination."
". . . and a young girl like yourself would know this how?" Doctor Tofu inquired.
Conan smirked. "Well, let's just say that these 'magic mushrooms' aren't exactly that hard to believe in after everything we've been through."
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". . . So, you two are actually seventeen year olds who have been shrunk to the age of seven due to some unnatural fluke with a deadly poison, and are trying to break up this organization while using a washed up detective as your cover . . . and you don't believe our story?" Doctor Tofu queried.
"Shrinking we can understand, but gender changes and martial artists who can break through walls with only a finger thrust?" groused the other doctor.
Haibara and Conan glanced at each other, and the blond said "Well, the gender change isn't that far a stretch." When Doctor Agasa looked at her, she raised her hands in defense. "We did see something of the sort happen when we found him . . . her."
Nobody noticed when Ranma got up and entered the restroom, so it was a shock to all when they heard her shriek. Conan jumped to attention and ran out of the room, while Doctor Tofu looked where the sound came from, and paled. "Oh shit . . . "
"What do you mean 'oh shit'?" Doctor Agasa snapped at his companion.
Doctor Tofu sighed as Conan gently led the shaking, teary eyed redhead back into the room. "Not only has Ranma gotten in over his head in a mess like this, his curse is locked." He then bent down on one knee and folded the small girl into a hug, as she struggled to keep the tears back.
When Ranma-chan had calmed down, he released her, and the girl stepped back. "Thanks, Doc. I needed that." The girl then gave a bitter laugh. "Considering all the shit I've had to deal with in the past two years, I really should be used to this."
"Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to get better, either." As the two Nerimians glanced at Haibara, she continued. "The Black Organization is still looking for Kudo and I, which is why we're acting as children. If they find out that Saotome Ranma is still alive, they're going to come back around and try again, and when they find out what the potion did to you, they'll come for us as well."
"You mean . . ." Ranma swallowed, "you mean I won't be able to go back to Nerima? Why not? We're all martial artists, we can . . . "
Conan interrupted. "Even if all the stuff you've told us about martial artists in Nerima is true, I doubt they'll be able to avoid sniper bullets from several hundred yards away. And if they find you, they are just as likely to go after the people around you as well."
The redhead paled. She had a feeling that Happosai and Cologne might be able to handle something like that, but the others . . . images of Ukyo, his mother, and the Tendos dead flashed through her head, and the battle with Saffron followed. The person she lo . . . liked the most had almost died then . . . if something were to happen to her, or her sisters, or . . .
"Then . . . then what can I do . . . "
"You can stay here with me and Doctor Agasa." Haibara supplied. At the doctor's look, she gave him a look back. "She can't go home, and she has no one else who she can stay with. Besides, we have plenty of room here."
"But I only have two beds here!"
"Then she can sleep with me in my bed, and we can get her one later."
"Wha . . . wait a sec, I can't do that!" Ranma screeched.
The blond girl gave her a look. "Why not?"
"But . . . you're a girl! It wouldn't be right . . . "
Haibara walked over to Ranma and wrapped an arm around her. "You're a girl too, so there's no problem!" When Ranma scowled at her, she sighed, "Look, I know you consider yourself a boy in either form, but you're going to be stuck like this until we can figure out how to cure ourselves. Besides, my bed is more than big enough for both of us to sleep together." She then grinned, "Besides, it's not like we'd be able to do anything perverted like this. So what do you say?"
Both Ranma and Conan blushed a bit, but after a few moments the redhead started to mutter, "Are you sure it's OK? I mean . . . this is all happening so fast and . . ." She then abruptly pulled away and twirled around. "Why are you being so nice to a freak like me anyways?"
Haibara rolled her eyes and smirked. "Oh please, you're looking at a high school detective and a scientist who have been de-aged. You don't come off as that much of a freak compared to us. Besides," her smirk softened into a smile, "I kind of know how you feel."
At Ranma's look she continued. "The Black Organization put me to work for them at an early age. I didn't like the job, but I really had no choice. But even then, I had my sister. She stayed with me when I was at my lowest, and when they forced me to work on poisons, she stuck by me. She even gave her life trying to get me out of there. They took the only bit of stability I had, and when they did, I tried to kill myself with a poison I was testing. The same poison you used on yourself . . . "
As Ranma turned around to look at her, she noticed that Conan and Agase were giving her a weird look. "Can't a girl emphasize with someone without being stared at like she's gone insane?" she snapped at them, and they quickly looked away, sweatdropping as they did so.
She then turned back to Ranma. "Look, you aren't alone. We'll find away to permanently return to our old ages, and until then, you can stay here with me and Doctor Agase while we figure things out, OK?" She held out her hand.
Ranma stared at the hand, and then she hesitantly took it and returned the grasp. "Thanks, Ai-san." She then frowned as a thought occurred to her. "But . . . what about the Tendos and Pop? If I don't come home soon, they'll come looking for me!"
"If you want, we can swing by and check on them. We can tell them that you accidentally stumbled upon my investigation, and you have to stay undercover to help us." Conan tossed in.
Tofu gave the child detective a confused look. "What investigation?"
Conan gave the man a nervous laugh. "I told Ran and Inspector Megure that I'm on an undercover case right now. They just don't know where." He then gave Ranma a calculating look. "In fact, we could probably deliver a note in person."
"But I thought you said I couldn't go home?"
"YOU can't, but if you were to go under a cover . . . "
Haibara started walking around Ranma, trying to look at the confused girl at all angles. "You don't usually wear feminine outfits, do you?" When Ranma shook his head, she nodded. "What about the pigtail: how often do you let it down?"
"Not often. Sometimes I leave in tied when I go to bed."
Haibara nodded, and continued with her inspection. "You know, with a dress, and a different hairstyle, we could fix it so that no one would recognize you."
"But I'm a guy! I'm not supposed to wear dresses!"
"And that's why! But we'll have to work on a cover ID . . . a back-story, and maybe even a cover personality to keep you from being found out . . ."
As Haibara lapsed into silence, Conan looked over and then smirked. "I might have an idea about that."
"What is it?"
The boy walked over and started whispering in her ear. As the boy did so, a crafty smirk snaked across the girls lips that reminded Ranma of Nabiki.
As the rain poured down on the house that night, Ranma realized that he might just be in bigger trouble that he thought . . .
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SUMMARIES:
Ranma ½: Saotome Ranma has been taken by his father Genma on a ten year training trip for their martial arts school. Their last stop is the cursed springs of Jusenkyo, where Ranma falls into the Spring of Drowned Girl, while Genma falls into Spring of Drowned Panda. For Ranma, who has been trained to be a man among men, this is a horrible turn of events. Their return to Japan is heralded by Genma taking him to the Tendo dojo in Nerima, where he meets the Tendo sisters: Kasumi the house maker, Nabiki the wannabe Yakuza thug (she has to do some dubious things to keep the dojo afloat), and Akane the resident martial artist. Their father, Soun, broke down after their mother's death a few years back, and has yet to teach another class since, which explains why Nabiki is on the borderlines of being a crook, and Akane isn't anywhere near where she should be, much less where Ranma is.
After a rocky start, Ranma and Akane is engaged, and it is found that, due to pervert problems at school involving the local rich idiot (Kuno Tatewaki), Akane has an aversion to perverted males. This improves slightly, but not permanently enough to halt Xian Pu (Shampoo), a Chinese Amazon who is hunting Ranma-chan, from giving Ranma-kun the kiss of marriage. It is also discovered that Genma sold Ranma off at a drop of a hat in their training trip, resulting in at least one more fiancé in Kuonji Ukyo, an Okonomiyaki chef. More chaos comes in the form of Kuno Kodachi (Kuno's sister), Mousse (blind suitor of Xian Pu), Ku Lon (Chinese Amazon elder and Shampoo's great grandmother; aka Cologne), Happosai (perverted old master of both the Tendos and Saotomes' martial arts school), and Saotome Nodoka (Ranma's mom, who carries a katana and a seppuku pledge that Genma made, promising that Ranma will be a man among men, or else).
The manga contains a mass amount of martial arts mayhem, as well as some typical slapstick humor and fanservice. Ranma ends up locked several times, and several failed cures are discovered and lost. In the end, an event occurs where Akane is caught in the middle of a battle between Ranma and Saffron (a phoenix man, thought to be some kind of demi-god). In order to save her life, Ranma is forced to tear him apart, causing Saffron to be turned into a baby (phoenix rebirth). Afterwards, the parents organize a hasty marriage for Ranma and Akane, which is interrupted rivals and fiancés alike.
There are several other important characters, which will be pointed out as they come, but this is as bare bones as I can go for this.
Detective Conan/ Case Closed: High school detective Kudo Shinichi, after interrupting a shakedown done by the Black Organization, is poisoned and turned into a kid again. He finds an ally in Doctor Agasa Hiroshi, an inventor friend of his, and he becomes Edogawa Conan. He moves in with his potential girlfriend Mouri Ran, and her drunkard father of a washed up detective, Mouri Kogoro. In order to fight the Black Organization, he must make Kogoro into a great detective. He succeeds . . . to a point. He also makes a small detective club out of other kids his apparent age: Yoshida Ayumi, Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko, and Kojima Genta. They are the detective boys, and they also attract local attention.
The heat picks up when Miyano Shiho enters. She is the sister of a previous acquaintance of Conan and the Mouris (a bank robber who tried to raise money to save her sister from the Black Organization; she was killed by them for her efforts). She was also the inventor of Conan's poison. When her sister died, she tried to kill herself, but when she shrunk, she took it as a chance to get out and try and bring them down. In the meantime, she becomes Ai Haibara, and works to develop a cure from scratch. She finds a temporary fix, but it only works when someone is sick. Conan uses it several times.
Other important characters will be introduced as they arrive. Also, Conan attracts mysteries like Ranma attracts fights (which won't be occurring as frequently-the fights, not the mysteries; they'll be appearing often when the fic gets rolling).
Want more info? Go look these up on Wikipedia.
Author's Notes: Error and grammar complaints are welcome; so are flames, but they will be used for other things. I've always seen Haibara as someone who is more than likely to give the cure to Shinichi, and then stay a kid to regain her youth. Besides, Ranma/Akane works here.
COMING UP: Ran and Sonoko enter Nerima, dragging along three small children, the fallout in Nerima is revealed, Ranma's new identity is tested, and Ran and Akane become friends. Expect chaos, and plenty of it!
