Jusenkyo, Bayankala Mountain Range, Qinghai Province, China, 1997.

'Damn, damn, damn' thought Genma Saotome as he walked down the path to Jusenkyo. 'Half way through the training trip for the boy and I'm already running out of things to teach'. He and his son Ranma had been on the trip for six years, he wanted his son to be the best, and to retire on but he never told anyone that. He had it all planed out, ten years with his son with no distraction and nothing to make him soft, but now six years into the trip he was having trouble, he has of course expected his son to start equalling him in spars near the end of the trip (year 9/10) but something changed when he taught Ranma to sense ki last year, now he couldn't sneak up on his son, steal his food to make him stronger and their spars were coming out 50/50.

He also didn't manage to get his son to focus on the art 'he don't need no education' he thought, even beating his son up when he read anything not related to the art worked, like school work. 'And those techniques I wanted him to learn disappeared too', he had found a brilliant technique called the neko-ken, but when he went to read the details of the sacrifice, I mean training; he had found the manual gone. 'And that damnable woman keeps finding me' he growled to himself. His wife, oh how he sneered at that title, he believed women were for three things: sex, housework and making heirs. He had picked up a woman in a bar one night, a Setsuna-something or other, it didn't matter. Then a month and a half later she tracked him down and forced him to marry her because she was pregnant, he could barely remember his wedding he was so high on painkillers at the time. And now she kept finding them, every couple of weeks she would catch up, that's actually why they were in china, trying to dodge her.

'Damned man, my father there a joke. Wish I could blast him with that fire spell mum taught me. Wish mum was here, she could talk some sense into the moron' thought Ranma following his 'father'. Even at eleven he was very intelligent, actually if you were to look at his I.Q. he would rate a genius. He had learned quickly, actually within the first year, to mostly do the exact opposite of father whenever possible. He was very glad each time his mum caught up with them, she was so much better than the old man, she had common sense, was a good hand to hand fighter, an excellent bojutsu user (staff fighting), knew magic (and was very good at it) and was an excellent cook. 'Mum's also a much better teacher than dad' Ranma mused to himself.

They had reached the bottom of the hill and before them was the training ground of Jusenkyo, a large valley filled with pools of water with bamboo poles sticking out of them. Having reached the training grounds Genma threw down his pack. "Come on boy, we got training to do" he shouted moving forwards towards the poles.

"I don't know pops, this place feels weird" said Ranma, also dropping his pack and moving forwards more wearily. 'Although I can't put my finger on why, also thought it would be a little more impressive than a couple of bamboo pole in some pools of water' he thought to himself.

"Quit complaining like a little girl, boy, and get up here". Genma jumped the rest of the way to poles.

"Fine, but I'll blame you something goes wrong". Jumping up opposite his father he got ready.

In a hut not far away a rather chubby man in was waking up, he yawned as he moved into the kitchen area to heat some water for some tea, and he glanced out the window and did a double take. 'Aiyah!, customers in training ground this early in the morning'. Forgetting his thoughts of tea and breakfast he rushed back to his bed to get dressed.

Five minutes later the man was puffing his way to the two fighting on the poles, now dressed in a faded communist uniform and carrying a kettle of hot water. 'They are very good fighters' he thought as got close enough to shout. "Aiyah! Very bad to fall in spring."

Ranma, who had just got a good kick in, heard this and turned to question the guide. The kick he got in made Genma fly off the pole he was standing on and with a splash landed in a pool.

Just as the guide was about to answer Ranma, a large black and white panda jumped out the pool and struck at the stunned Ranma, who was sent flying into another pool.

"Aiyah!, Mr. Customer fall in spring of drowned panda, very tragic story about panda who drown in spring 2000 year ago" the guide shouted at Genma.

"Growfl?"

"Not to worry Mr Customer, curse reversible with water, now let's see what spring young Mr. Customer fall in"

"Yes let's see what curse my wretched husband has got my son" an emerald green haired woman said from behind the guide. She was Setsuna Meioh, princess of Pluto, Guardian of Time, Sailor Pluto and last survivor of the Silver Millennium Empire. She had married Genma, when she found out she was pregnant. Five minutes ago she was at the time gates trying to find her husband, whilst grumbling (again) about chaos generators and royal lockouts. The gates were locked from tracking members of the royal family of Pluto, so she couldn't track Ranma and Genma was the largest source of chaos she had ever had the misfortune to meet, meaning it was impossible to predict where he would be in the future and very difficult to track where he was in the present. When she eventually found him she found out he was at Jusenkyo, the largest source of naturally occurring chaos magic in the world, which meant she couldn't teleport directly to her son, instead she had to teleport two and a half miles out form her target and run.

The three of them picked their way carefully around the springs, Genma nervously watching his wife, to the spring Ranma fell in. As they neared it they saw a person with damp dark green hair pulling themselves out of the water.

"Aiyah!, young Mr Customer fall in spring of drowned girl, very tragic story of young girl who drown in spring 1500 year ago."

"Growfl! Growfl growfl grof" shouted Genma, actually he meant to say "What! My son has become a weak little girl." But no one could speak panda.

"That's it Genma, I've had enough of your foolishness." Setsuna screamed as she brought the head of her time key, which appeared magically in her hand, down on Genma's head. The following five minutes of vicious beat down left the guide and her eleven year old daughter gawping.

"Come Ranma, let's leave this fool." Setsuna said as she picked up Genma's pack.

Ranma shook her head and hurried after her mother. Leaving the guide behind, who sighed and started dragging the unconscious and injured panda to his hut.