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Chapter 2 is here!

Do I sound too excited to you? Hehe…

Annnnnyway, I don't own Ranma, I have never owned Ranma, and I never will own Ranma…sadly.

Ranma: Thank God!

Shut your pie hole Ranma. I do however; own the Spring of Dead Man, which was created for the purpose of this story.

Thank you

It was the strangest thing Ranma had ever felt in his life…And he'd felt some pretty odd things! Aside from the feeling of being without a body, he also felt as though his very soul was being twisted and molded into something new.

It was very unsettling. And just as quickly as it happened…it stopped.

Ranma's body fell with a flump onto a soft grassy ground. He stood up to take in his surroundings: Ranma was in a meadow filled with wild flowers, the sky was cloudless, and there was a cool breeze floating past him leisurely. He was instantly on guard.

Cautiously he moved forward a bit and called Akane's name. What happened next surprised him even more, Akane's voice answered…inside his head!

"R-Ranma?"

She sounded timid, fearful, and utterly alone. So very unlike her brazen tomboy act she put on. Ranma wished he could take whatever was making her that way and make it go away…then he realized what a sap he was being and promptly told himself to shove it.

"Where are you Akane?" he asked, peeling his eyes for any signs of his fiancée. No such luck.

"I'm not really sure…It looks like our house, but there isn't a sign of anyone anywhere. It's completely empty."

"It must have been that person…the one cackling," Ranma mused. "Strangely enough it reminded me of the old hag.*"

There was a pop.

"Who're you calling an old hag?"

Ranma jumped a foot in the air and he heard Akane squeak in surprise.

"W-who are you? What are you?" Akane asked nervously.

"I am a Kami, one who has overseen your lives. I have watched the two of you as your destinies met, intertwined, and became one."

"B-became one!" Ranma spluttered, "What do ya mean by that?!"

"I do not answer, only inform," the Kami said calmly.

"That didn't even make any since," Ranma grumbled.

The Kami ignored him.

"Your lives took a very dark turn when you met with Saffron," they continued.

Ranma's face darkened considerably at her words.

"You might very well have died on that mountain, and it worried us all. So many mistakes were made, not just by you humans, but by we the Kami's too. However we could not send you back to rectify your situation without reason. Be glad it happened through wishing children…the only other way is terribly gruesome and…just be glad. **"

There was a long and uncomfortable silence following the Kami's words.

"So when will we be arriving?" Akane finally asked tentatively, breaking the peculiar mood.

"You'll see," said the Kami with a smile in their voice.

"H-hey wait a sec-"

Another flash…and everything around them was gone.

Beep…Beep…Beep…

A hand groped the bedside table and slammed into the alarm clock. The beeping stopped and a woman rose from her bed.

"A dream?" she asked the air. She patted her short blue-black hair.

Tentatively she walked out her door and stopped outside the furo, biting her lip. If…if it hadn't been a dream, then her hair, why was it still short?

Well, she had a way to find out the truth…

"Okay, let's go," she encouraged herself, before walking into the furo.

She quickly rid herself of her clothes and stepped onto the cool tile, facing the wall length mirror. If she was in the past, then it probably wouldn't be there. She felt around her smooth torso, looking for a ridge she knew would be there. She felt her side…there! There was the scar that told the story of mount Phoenix and her transition into a doll and back again.

Shortly before the failed wedding, she'd noticed it. The scar had been in the shape of a phoenix, scaring her into speaking with Cologne to ask about what it meant. Cologne hadn't known and had spoken with the Jusenkyo Guide. He had spun a tale of great romance and tragedy (which, in retrospect she probably should have expected).

Flashback:

"Five hundred years ago, was very tragic love story," the Chinese man began. "Man and woman very much in love but forced to pretend to hate. Man fight Saffron too, just like Honored Guest. Woman go to protect man who was very sick at time, she turn into doll too. That how I know to look for Honored Female Guest."

He gave a nod in Akane's direction.

"Man fight Saffron and he almost win, but when get water for woman, he fall into 'Spring of Dead man', has tragic tale of dead man who drown there eight hundred years ago-"

"How did he- Wait never mind, I don't think I want to know," Akane said, rubbing her head.

"But woman live and have scar from transformation. Scar in shape of phoenix. However she sees her dead love and she so sad, she kill herself. Saffron think highly amusing and he pour warm water on man and he not dead anymore. But he all alone and he sad, so he let Saffron kill him. Is very tragic."

"But why is it shaped like a phoenix?" Akane asked, her brow furrowing at the story. It sounded sort of familiar.

"Is sign of rebirth and great love," the guide said. "You saved by Honored Guest, who very much in love with you. Said so himself when he thought you was dead. That why."

Akane turned pink and hid a smile.

End flashback.

'Ah, so I did say it out loud,' came a voice from Akane's mind.

She squeaked. "R-Ranma, what are you doing in my mind?"

'I dunno. Erm Akane, not ta be rude or anything, but could ya ah…cover up or something?'

Akane turned red.

"Pervert," she hissed, closing her eyes and walking to the door.

'It's not my fault,' he wailed, 'that old Kami did somethin' funny ta us. And it's not as though I could ignore it!'

Akane ran into the wall. She cursed quietly and opened her eyes, rubbing her head. Careful to not look down, Akane stepped into the changing room and quickly donned a bathrobe.

"Okay, what the heck is going on here?" Akane growled.

'That would be my doing,' came a familiar voice.

"Kami-Sama," Akane said in surprise.

'What did you do to us and how can we stop it?' Ranma growled.

'Ah, patients my children,' the gravelly voice said in a misty tone. 'It is only temporary. On the fifth day, when the two lovers are destined to meet for the first time again, the spell will break'

"L-lovers!" Akane exclaimed as quietly as she could.

'We ain't no lovers Kami,' Ranma growled.

The Kami snickered.

"Is this all a big joke to you?" Akane asked angrily.

'Well it is quite humorous and, being an immortal kami, you must get your kicks where you can get them. However, no, this is not 'all a big joke' to me. You will just have to live with this until Ranma arrives at the Tendo Dojo.'

Akane felt it was as good a time as any to ask. "Kami-Sama, I don't look any different. My hair is still short and I still have a certain scar on my torso I got really recently. Why?"

She swore that she felt Ranma blush at the mention of the scar. He gave a nervous giggle. "Oh shut up you pervert."

'While I am powerful, I can only do so much. You are indeed in your same bodies. There isn't much I can do about that.'

Akane could have sworn she felt Ranma shrug. 'That's fine with me; that just means I'm not going to deal with that hair thing. Or relearn those attacks.'

He sounded smug and she rolled her eyes. "Back onto the previous subject, I don't think I'll be able to handle having this moron ('Hey!' Ranma said reproachfully.) in my head twenty-four/seven. I'll go insane!"

'Well, being in your head ain't all sunshine and daisies either,' Ranma grumbled.

Akane wished he was here so she could hit him with her mallet. She scowled and straightened up. "Please Kami-Sama, isn't there anything you can do?"

The Kami sighed. 'I suppose,' they said.

Behind her eyes there was yet another flash of light.

'What did that do?' she heard Ranma ask. 'Besides give me a headache?'

'Now children, only purposeful thoughts and unconscious ones will be heard by the other. That is all I am willing to do.'

The Kami gave a sigh.

'I will be going now children. We will speak again.'

It was as though the line had gone dead.

"We'll just have to deal with this," she finally sighed. "Now get out of my head so I can shower. And if you think any perverted thought on that, I will know."

Her voice came out as a growl.

He gulped. 'R-right…well I'm just gonna go wake Pops now…uh…bye.'

He seemed to cut off from her and she gave a sigh of relief. Alone, finally.

She stripped off the robe and headed back into the furo.

Ranma gave a heavy sigh and stood, glancing over at his father's cursed form with distaste.

"Better go wake Pops," he grumbled, walking over to the panda rumbling with snores. "OI! Pops, wake up!" He kicked him roughly in the side.

"Growf," the panda grunted, pulling itself into a sitting position and glaring at him. They both quickly fell into fighting stances.

Ranma smirked coldly at his father. Pay back was a bitch that his father was not going to enjoy.

Oh god, he hoped Akane hadn't heard him think that.

His father came at him. Ranma fought with ease, dodging and blocking at just the right moments. Then he went for the kill.

His father was on the ground in moments.

"Haaa," he sighed. "That was so easy, it wasn' even fun. Wow Pops, you'd think I had a year of training on you or something."

He hid a snicker, making his way over to the long dead fire. Behind him, he heard his father growl.

"Oh quite yer whining, I'm making you some hot water. Least you could do is be grateful for it."

The panda was silent.

Finally, when the water was boiled (and Ranma had made sure it was extra hot), he stalked over to Genma and poured it on his head. The older man yelped as he transitioned from animal to…just above an animal. Studying him, Ranma didn't see all that much difference.

"Jeez boy, not that hot next time!"

Ranma scoffed. "Yer not really in a position to make requests old man. You got us into this fucking mess in the first place."

"For the sake of training," Genma said in false reproach. "Were you not prepared to give your life for-"

Ranma waved him off. "Yeah yeah, you hear one excuse, you hear them all. I'm not in the mood to listen to yer bull."

He rose from where he had been crouching beside his father and looked at the horizon. He had a hunch he knew where they were, and it was beginning to fill him with slight dread. "Now, yer gonna go catch our breakfast, while I scout ahead."

His father opened his mouth to complain, to which Ranma shot him a glare he'd learned from his mother. Genma shivered and snapped his mouth shut.

"And if you run off while I'm gone I'll turn you into a pretzel."

God, he grumbled, stalking off, he was beginning to sound like his father.

'You're not nearly as bad as him.'

He gave a startled jump. "Jeez Akane give a little warning next time."

Akane gave a little scoff, but her voice quickly turned serious. 'What's our game plan?'

"Game plan?"

'If you were any denser, I'd be talking to a piece of lead,' she sighed. 'I meant, we've been given a chance to fix a great deal of mistakes in our life. I wanted to know if there was a certain way you planned on going about this.'

"Can't this wait until I get there?" he moaned, his shoulders slouching. "I don' really wanna plan nothin' right now."

'We'll never get a moments peace to plan anything if we wait until you get here. Do you not remember the past year and a half?'

"Yeah, okay, I get it," he grumbled. "Well… let's start with-"

He cut himself off, a horrible shiver running across his spin. There, across the very lake he was about to step into, was Shampoo. He cursed loudly as he stumbled and tripped into the water. The change effected the now female immediately.

Her hunch had been correct, it seemed. Why, oh why did the fates allow now of all times for her to be correct?

She could only hope that she was in a time before they had reached the Amazon village, because she was coming her way.

Couldn't anything ever go smoothly for her?

~Chapter 2 end~

Well that's it for this chapter

Notes (this is so I avoid using A/Ns in the middle of the chapter):

*Old Hag as in Cologne. But I'm sure you already knew that.

**I'm referencing the other Ranma-Character-Goes-Back-in-Time-to-Fix-Things-stories I've read. Many times, their time traveling comes to be because they died or came close to dying.

So from here on out, it's pretty much going to be new stuff! Once Ran-Chan meets the Old Ghoul anyway! ^u^

Special thanks to my awesome Beta, Detective Pichu! :D

Please review!