Multiplicity

A Ranma fanfic by Mike Breslau

Disclaimer: You know the drill: better folks than I own the characters that appear in this scribbling.

The next morning male and female Ranma paid a visit to Nodoka. After some polite chitchat, male Ranma got right to the point. "Mom, I know you've always wanted to have a girl. Can you accept that I'm both your son and your daughter now?"

Nodoka initially didn't know how to respond. Tradition wouldn't be any guide here - surely no other Japanese parent had ever faced this situation before. She probed her heart and tentatively answered, "Yes, I guess I can." She looked at Ranko and continued wistfully, "But I wanted to raise a little girl, and you're a young woman now..."

Ranko grinned mischievously and shrank as she regressed to a much younger form, her clothing adjusting to her new age. "Is four years old young enough, or do you want me still younger?" she asked in a cute,high-pitched voice.

Nodoka slowly recovered her chin from the floor. "How? I mean why? What are you up to?"

Ranma answered, "I realized that I have a boy aspect, a girl aspect, and even a cat aspect in my mind now. I'm comfortable with my boy side, even though it still needs work..."

Ranko continued, "but I really don't know much about being a girl. And if I'm gonna be a girl, I want to be the best girl that I can be. I hope you can teach me all the things you would teach your daughter..."

Nodoka embraced chibi-Ranko and hugged her. "Yes! I'm certainly willing to try, dear, it's like a dream come true..."

"Can't breathe, Mom," complained chibi-Ranko.

Ranma continued, "Two points to remember, Mom. I want to get to know you as a mother, and not merely as a discipline enforcer. After a decade with pop, it would sure be nice to have a mom for balance. Second, I will listen to everything you say, but I won't necessarily completely obey if it feels wrong for me. I've gotta be my kind of guy, and I'm gonna be my kind of girl too."

Elsewhere, Nightmare had pulled itself entirely into the void between the universes. You or I would go mad were we to visit this place even briefly, because there is neither time nor distance there - everything that happens at all occurs in the same moment and in the same place. There can be no cause and effect in the primal void. Nightmare encountered a thousand other instances of itself, each in transit from one universe to fact that there were a finite number of instances implied that its reign was not eternal - it was due to be stopped sooner or later. This didn't bother Nightmare at all, because it had very little mind - all it had was survival instincts and hunger. Genma is much like Nightmare in some ways.

Nightmare opened its senses. There! Shining brightly with life and highly refined ki was a universe it had yet to visit - our own universe. Too bad for us...

While Ranma was visiting his mother he was also paying a visit to the Nekohanten. Shampoo brightened up on seeing him, but she held her place and did not glomp him. Cologne nodded approvingly at her great granddaughter; her lessons on comportment were paying off.

"What do we owe the honor of your visit, Ranma?" Cologne asked politely.

"Elder, This one will be paying an extended visit to China, specifically to an area in the Bayankala mountains that's near your village. Your advice is good - most of my bodies will remain in Japan. I am here to offer you a free ride home if you want it."

"Aiyah!" interjected Shampoo, her eyes sparkling, "Husband coming home..."

Ranma's expression was firm, but caring. "Even when I visit your village, I will not be bound by your laws and traditions. The world has changed, and the Amazons have not yet adapted. Xian Pu, I care for you, and I will even father your children, but I will not be an Amazon husband while men are second-class citizens."

"We cannot force him, great-granddaughter," said Cologne with a sigh, "Let us see if what he is offering us is acceptable." Turning to Ranma, she asked, "Just how long is an 'extended visit' likely to last?"

"Long enough for me to learn your language. Long enough for me to tutor some of your warriors. That should be at least two years, perhaps longer."

Cologne raised an eyebrow. "And long enough for you to learn some of our secret techniques, hmm?"

"If freely offered, perhaps. That is not important to me."

Cologne wondered if the Amazons had any techniques that Ranma could want. Perhaps this time his self-confidence was justified. "When are you leaving, and how will we get there?" she asked.

"I'm leaving in two weeks, flying under my own power and bypassing customs and immigration. Between Mou Tse and me we can get all your luggage into stuff-space. I have a limited passenger-carrying capacity, but a duck, a cat, and a diminutive elder should be manageable without strain, if you agree to go that way."

Cologne almost bristled at the "diminutive elder" reference, but on consideration she had to concede that it was both accurate and polite. "We won't be able to sell the restaurant in only two weeks, but we should be able to complete any other preparations."

"Let Nabiki handle it - she can do a better job than you can, and she owes me a favor..."

Ku Lon looked thoughtful for a moment, then she nodded. "Okay, I accept." Switching to Mandarin she continued, "Xian Pu, Mu Tse, we have much planning to do."

"Aiyah!"

Kasumi relaxed in Ranma's super strong arms as he flew with her towards 's new establishment. During their flight Ranma was coaching her on how to pretend to be him - how to talk, what to ask, and what he already knew from earlier visits to the good doctor. "It's okay if you slip once or twice and use feminine speech - I'm learning how to act like a real girl after all. Remember, he only has to think you're me for five minutes or more. After that his defenses will be down and you can talk to the real Tofu Ono without his silliness getting in the way."

Kasumi didn't know what to think of Dr. Tofu. On one hand, he was one of the few - very few - men who seemed to be attracted to her; on the other hand, his behavior hardly qualified as 'mature', and she wanted a mate who acted mature. Some would consider a respected doctor to be a good catch, and he was good-looking. Ranma had offered her a chance to see the real doctor behind the silliness, and Kasumi had eagerly accepted. She didn't realize that a crash course in 'how to be Ranma' was part of the package.

Ranma landed in front of Tofu's door and then faded from sight, leaving a portion of his aura perceptible to those who knew how to look. He hoped that Tofu wouldn't notice that Kasumi was not the source of the nebulous aura. Kasumi knocked on the door.

Tofu opened the door and then hesitated when he saw his visitor. Suppressing his nervousness, he said, "Do come in, Ranma. That's a very good impersonation, you had me going for a minute there."

Kasumi smiled and answered, "Why thank you, doc."

"You've even got her voice down perfectly. You never cease to amaze me, Ranma."

Kasumi tried not to look around as she entered - after all she was supposed to be Ranma, and he had seen it all already. They exchanged pleasantries for a minute, and then as she had been coached to do Kasumi asked, "Sensei, how did you learn to be a man?"

The good doctor was flustered for a moment. "You continue to ask the darndest questions..." He paused to gather his thoughts. "None of us ever went to manhood school or took a class in that subject. I learned in the usual way - observing my peers behavior and getting funny looks if I ever did anything unmasculine. And of course, there was the occasional instruction from my father or my mother. Why do you ask?"

"Well, doc, I've learned how to be a martial artist, but I've never really learned how to be man. Now I have to learn how to be a woman too, and it's complicated."

Tofu nodded. "Yes that would be a challenge. I suspect that it's more complicated to become a woman than it is to become a man - more things to deal with, more rules to follow, and then there are the lechers to deal with. Ranma, have you had your first period yet?"

'Ranma' shuddered. "Yes, and it was quite... disturbing. Guys have it easier - they don't hafta deal with that stuff."

"A young woman has to learn to deal with her monthly cycles, or else she'll go mad. Men are never forced to come to terms with menstruation, so they tend to avoid thinking about it and so remain slightly uncomfortable about the subject for their entire lives. On the other hand, guys have to deal with nocturnal emissions and shaving..." His danger sense was sending him the gentlest of alarms. Tofu stopped, sat back, and activated his ki senses. Something was not as it seemed. He tentatively asked, "Kasumi, where is Ranma?"

Ranma morphed his body into a duplicate of Kasumi's form, then he dropped his cloak. "I didn't think we could fool ya for very long, doc."

Tofu gripped the arms of his chair to steady himself, but his glasses did not fog up, and he retained control. He looked from one Kasumi to the other, then spoke to the newer one. "Your therapy seems to have worked, Ranma, I'm keeping control."

The real Kasumi clasped her hands and answered, "I'm so glad it worked,Sensei."

Ranma said, "I see you don't need me any more tonight. I'll be back in an hour to take her home. 'Till then, have fun, you two." She phazed through the door and flew away.

Dusk was falling over the Sea of Japan. That mysterious moment when there isn't enough light for daytime vision but your night vision isn't fully on-line yet. The sun is teasing the horizon, but the stars are still hiding their glory. This is the dangerous time when vision is unreliable and hallucinations abound.

Thus, it was understandable when a Korean fisherman couldn't believe his eyes - he couldn't really have seen a man carrying a cage in each hand flying fast and low over the waves with an old troll riding piggy-back atop him. That was impossible; he must have been mistaken. Besides, anything moving that fast would have made a sound, and this object was completely silent. The fisherman shook his head and resumed working on the balky engine of his boat.

When you fly from east to west the local time becomes earlier and earlier. Thus, Ranma and his companions had left the Nerima area after nightfall, crossed the sea at dusk, crossed over North Korea late in the day, and finally arrived between Beijing and Yinchuan in central China just in time for dinner. Ranma seized the opportunity to take a break from flying, and also to refill his stomach.

Ranma could have flown directly to the Bayankala area in four hours or less, but he had to navigate without instruments, allow for the comfort of his passengers, avoid making sonic booms, dodge the radar of the suspicious Russians, the paranoid North Koreans, and the touchy Chinese, all the while remaining invisible to eyesight. He had enough ki and enough energy for the task, but nearly five hours of concentration had tired his mind. Even superb martial artists need to take a break every now and then.

Mousse and Shampoo were out of their cages and restored to human form. They were taking the opportunity to stretch their legs and explore the little clearing where they were temporarily camped. Cologne sat quietly, contemplating what she had learned on this leg of their journey. She could not dictate to Ranma any more than she could control the sun or the stars- he was no longer a man, he was a force of nature. Ranma was quietly preparing a meal for four on a little stove that had not existed an hour ago.

Shampoo was in a subdued mood, rare for the bubbly Amazon. Ranma had been too busy to mask his aura during the flight, giving his passengers some sense of just how powerful he had become. She was not, and would never be, his equal. Shampoo could roof-hop with the best of them, but she could not fly across her village, much less a quarter of the way around the world. If she could marry Ranma, they would be as mismatched and incompatible as a frog and an elephant - it would never work. She brightened - on the other hand, he had offered to father at least some of her children.

Mousse was also in a thoughtful mood. Since Ranma had restored his vision to normal, Mousse literally saw the world in a new light. It was just not possible to have Ranma for an enemy or a rival (unless you were suicidal), but Ranma was more than willing to be his friend. Further, Ranma would never marry Shampoo - that left the way open for Mousse to wed her if he were willing to raise some of Ranma's get as his own children. Food for thought, indeed.

Of course Ranma was untroubled as he prepared a mismatched collection of food and drink. Hot cocoa, green tea, ham and cheese omelet, onigiri, miso soup, ratatouille, garlic nan, hassenpfeffer, veggie burgers - what was wrong with that? Tasty, nutritious, and abundant - that's the way he liked his food.

After they had all finished eating - Ranma had eaten as much as the other three combined - Cologne breached a subject that had bothered all the Amazons. "Ranma, if you wouldn't mind telling us, why did you feel it necessary to become this overwhelmingly powerful?"

Ranma grinned ruefully as he made the remainder of their meal vanish."Originally, I wanted to have a chance at living my own life. You three, and everyone else I knew, kept telling me what to do and how to live. Even if I'd wanted to, I couldn't have satisfied all of you. I said as much before I left on my training trip. But, after my trip, Nabiki pointed out something more important than my original motivation."

Cologne raised an eyebrow Spock-like.

Ranma continued in a low voice, "You all know about my original ten-year training trip with Genma. His methods were so extreme, so hazardous, that there's no way I could have survived them all intact unless something -gods perhaps - were watching out for me and protecting me. The only reason a divinity would have for protecting a kid like me would be that I was destined for some important task - some challenge - that no one else, god or mortal, could do. Knowing who and what I am, that task certainly involves a fight against extremely powerful opponents. Therefore, I have to be the very best that I can be - I don't want to disappoint the gods."

"Better you than me," muttered Cologne respectfully. The younger Amazons looked ashen and said nothing.

Shampoo cautiously spoke up. "There is an even worse possibility - suppose you were being groomed by demons, not gods, for their own purposes? Anyone else raised as you were would be filled with anger and resentment - ideal for demonic uses. Ranma, be sure to hold onto your good and forgiving nature - I don't want to see you fighting the gods themselves."

Ranma knew that Xian Pu was not as dumb as she appeared to be when speaking Japanese. He stood up. "Well, let's go meet my destiny. Back in your cages, you two." In a few minutes they were flying very fast, very low, westwards over China.

The Bayankala Mountains form a divide between China's Yellow River (to the north) and the Yangtze River (to the south). Generally speaking, it is a high and rugged area, frequently windy, but has a certain natural charm nevertheless. To his sorrow, Ranma was all too familiar with parts of this mountainous area, namely the Amazon village and the cursed valley of Jusenkyo. He had intended to settle down and build a home halfway between these two places - far enough to be out-of-the-way, yet near enough to be easily reached when needed.

The travelers were a few minutes away from their destination when Cologne 'felt a large disturbance in the Force'. "Did you feel that, Ranma?"

Ranma nodded. "Yeah. Don't know what it is, but I don't like the feel of it." His flight path veered a little to the right so as to bring them closer to the disturbance. "Wouldn't ya know it, it's over Jusenkyo, of all places!"

Ranma approached cautiously while carefully cloaked. What he saw was a hole in the sky - it hurt his eyes to try to focus on it too closely - with a dark mist pouring out of it. The mist was composed of particles of every dark shade of color imaginable, but the eye blended these tiny bits together and registered only "dark brown smoke." There was something very disturbing about the mist.

Ranma probed the smoke as best he could while cloaked. "It's made out of ki, but ki that's gone bad somehow - sorta like milk that has spoiled." He landed at what he hoped was a safe distance away and restored Shampoo and Mousse to their human forms.

"This is most ominous," declared Cologne, "anything that stuff touches dies instantly." She didn't bother to say, "we must stop it somehow."

"Aiyah!"

Ranma prepared a large ki blast. "Mouko Takabisha!" He couldn't miss a target that large. The mist seemed to grow larger and denser where his attack struck. It began to move in the direction that the blast had come from.

"It eats ki!" exclaimed Cologned, awed.

"I suppose the first thing we should do is plug that hole so no more smoke comes out," observed Ranma.

"How to you plug a hole in the sky?" asked Mousse.

"Fill it up with duck tape...or a big ball of skyline...or a goddam big cork."

Mousse glared at Ranma. This was no time for levity. "Where are we going to get a big cork? And how big does it have to be?"

"Dunno," replied Ranma, "Lets find out." He picked up a boulder the size of a small car and began smoothing out its shape with his bare hands.

Mousse boggled while Shampoo beamed.

"I sure hope this works," said Ranma as he tossed the now-spherical rock at the hole. At first, it looked like the 'cork' would miss the hole, but due to the geometrical distortion of space itself the boulder was attracted towards its target. As it approached the boulder seemed to be too large to fit in the hole, but then it started to elongate into a cigar-like shape. When it struck the hole it appeared to observers as if the hole itself was stretching to accommodate it, and the rock was sucked through with a squooshing sound - and then the boulder vanished. It reminded Cologne of watching a child being born, only in reverse.

"Hurts my eyes," complained Mousse.

"Maybe a bigger cork?" Ranma wondered. He picked up a bigger rock and started altering it. First, he transformed it into a football-shaped mass of solid tool steel, then added an outer layer of stiff foam rubber, and finally a layer of rubber cement (for all the good that would do). He threw the 'cork' directly at the hole in the sky - without success. The newest cork lasted only half a minute longer than the first one had. It looked as if the 'cork' idea would not work. The deadly mist continued to pour out of the hole in the sky.

"It's coming this way," warned Shampoo. Her danger sense was going off.

A nearby portion of the dark mass was indeed moving directly towards Ranma. It was approaching at the speed of a brisk walk, slowly but inexorably, ignoring all obstacles and distractions.

"It must have sensed my use of ki," Ranma realized. "It's as hard to stop as Genma is when he catches sight of a plate of food. Time to call in reinforcements."

All over Japan Ranma's bodies made apologies for his sudden departure, then they vanished, converting their mass into ki. The extra ki arrived almost immediately in China, where Ranma converted it back into flesh.

Shampoo did a quick head count was astonished. "Five Ranmas? I thought you had only four bodies."

"I've been practicing," admitted one of the Ranmas. The new arrivals spread out to surround the smoky mass on four sides while the original Ranma remained heavily cloaked near the Amazons to protect them. The mist was confused - it was being pulled in four directions at once. It hesitated, then began to extend tendrils towards each of the nearby Ranmas.

The four Ranmas assembled moderate-sized 'corks' and threw them in unison at the hole in the sky. This attempt to plug the hole lasted almost five minutes. Perhaps throwing hundreds or thousands of objects would work, but he didn't have time to try it - the dark smoke was approaching his positions.

The four Ranmas began to move clockwise around the dark mass. The four groping tendrils followed their targets sluggishly, giving the smoke a compound spiral form when viewed from above.

"Ranma, be careful," advised Cologne, "Don't use the Hiryuu Shouten Ha unless you have no other choice."

Ranma was confused. "Why not?"

Cologne explained, "We don't know whether it will be weakened by being diluted. If not, then spreading it out will have the same effect as letting it grow, only faster."

Ranma was annoyed. There went another of his most powerful moves. He couldn't touch it or hit it, he couldn't use ki against it..."Time to get creative." Two of his bodies on opposite sides of the smoke began to assemble dense clouds resembling thunderheads. In a minute intense bolts of lightning began to flow from cloud to cloud, passing right through the body of the mist. At the same time another of his bodies began tossing flaming briquettes into the smoke and the fourth threw chunks of dry ice.

The dark smoke ignored these attacks.

"Well that's not working," observed Ranma. His confidence was beginning to falter. He threw a barrage of vacuum blades, which aren't made of ki, at the stuff from four sides. The blades had no effect - you can't cut smoke with a knife.

"If not a knife, than perhaps a sword," thought Ranma. "Mousse, can you lend me a sword, please?"

It didn't take long for the master of hidden weapons to produce a sword from his sleeve. "Do you think this will do any good?" he asked.

"It's only for practice," said Ranma with a grin. He fabricated a bamboo shaft nearly four meters long and fastened the sword to its end to form an oversize spear. The bamboo was lightweight yet reasonably rigid.

"What good will that do?" asked Shampoo. Cologne only looked on with interest.

"It's only for practice," repeated Ranma. He picked up the spear and began waving it about, then throwing it here and there to get a feel for using the improvised weapon. He added a little weight to improve its balance. Satisfied, he unfastened the sword and returned it to Mousse.

Ranma reached into his stuff-space and pulled out a suitcase-sized piece of nothingness - an empty volume of space that somehow didn't seem to be empty enough. He reached into this new volume of space and pulled out the silver cylinder that contained the demonic sword. The Amazons realized what Ranma had been practicing. Opening the ward-encrusted cylinder, Ranma used his ki to cause the sword to float out and attach itself to the now-empty end of the bamboo pole. He picked up this new weapon gingerly. He could hold the end of the pole without the demon sucking his soul. So far, so good.

Ranma tossed the spear to one of his other bodies. He picked up the weapon and practiced using it for a minute, then he cautiously poked the sword end into the dark smoke. The blade flared a sickly yellow-green and began to consume the nearby mist. Success!

"I didn't think that would work," observed Cologne, "The demonic sword feasts on living souls and that brown stuff isn't alive - it has no soul..."

"When everything sensible that you try fails, there is no choice but to try something silly," said Ranma. "Sometimes it works."

Now Ranma was in a quandary. On one hand, nothing else affected the smoke; on the other hand, more smoke was pouring out of the hole in the sky faster than the demon was consuming it. He waved the sword faster and faster, trying to increase the rate at which it fed. This helped, but not enough. If he had a dozen of these cursed swords, then he might have a chance.

"Well, here goes nothin'." Ranma muttered. He rose into the air and approached the hole as closely as he could while staying out of the dark mist. He tried to poke the sword into the hole, but it was beyond his reach. He flew back down to the ground near where he had been. Ranma quickly produced a long length of rope and tied one end through a new hole in the bamboo handle. "I wonder if Captain Ahab felt like this," he mused as he tossed the spear-turned-harpoon directly into the hole in the it didn't work, at least he should be able to get the spear back.

Ranma's aim was true - as expected. What happened next was not the demon-possessed sword entered the hole in the sky there was a bright yellow-green flash, a sound like a distant explosion, and then the hole in the sky irised closed and vanished. Ranma hauled his rope back - the spear was no longer attached to the end of the rope. Oddly, the end of the rope had melted and stretched to a fine point before resolidifying. Ranma scratched his head - the rope was made of hemp fiber, which doesn't melt at any temperature. "Weird!"

Shampoo summarized their situation. "Is good that no smoke coming from hole. Is bad that we lost only effective weapon."

Cologne added, "The smoke that's already here is slowly growing as it consumes more ki from the environment. What can we do?"

Shampoo, ever bubbly, responded, "No worry. Ranma never loses."

Mousse observed, "I've been watching that stuff, and it has never gone near any of the Pools of Sorrow. Could it be harmed by water?"

"One way to find out," muttered Ranma. Four of his bodies rose into the air and began to fabricate storm clouds above the dark mist. Soon, it was raining heavily - with no effect at all on the deadly smoke. "Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time." His bodies returned to the ground feeling frustrated.

Cologne pondered aloud, "What does the demon-inhabited sword have in common with the Pools of Sorrow?"

"Magic!" chorused the others.

"I hate magic," mumbled Ranma, "it causes me all kinds of trouble." He thought long and hard with all five of his brains. "Oh well, let's try it." He reached out with his ki and scooped up some water from a particular pool and then tossed the water into the edge of the dark cloud. A moment later a confused octopus fell onto the ground and soon died -octopi do not survive long on dry land.

Ranma was in a quandary. It seemed that Jusenkyo magic was the only tool he had with which to combat the smoke. On the other hand, he would require a lot of magic - more than he could command, perhaps. It would have to be carefully confined and controlled. It would be disastrous if any magic escaped. What to do? He pondered. The safest and surest method he could think of was also the most difficult to implement. Ranma had a chance of making it work, but there was no assurance that he would survive...With a shock, he realized that the gods themselves couldn't do what he was planning to do - even with telepathy, they couldn't coordinate and synchronize as well as Ranma's multiple bodies could. Clearly, this was the battle he had been groomed for all his life - a battle only he could win.

"Okay, you two, get back into your cages," commanded Ranma, "I'm moving you all to your village."

Shampoo protested, "Amazons never run from danger..."

Cologne shushed her. "Ranma is planning to use Jusenkyo magic. You will obey unless you want to be permanently turned into something weird."

"Got it in one," thought Ranma. He explained, "I'm not happy about this situation. If I don't beat the smoke monster then everyone on Earth will die sooner or later. If I do what I need to do, it might cause my own death."

Shampoo and Mousse reluctantly assumed their cursed forms and entered their cages. Soon, Ranma was flying everyone back to their home town.

After the cursed Amazons resumed their human forms again, Mousse asked,"are you going to stay here with us while you fight the smoke?"

Ranma shook his head. "What I need to do requires six bodies - that will be hard enough. I can't manage seven yet, if ever." He flew back to Jusenkyo.

Ranma created a sixth body and then englobed the dark mist - one body in each of the cardinal directions, one hovering over the top of the mist, and the last one floating a foot above one of the cursed pools underneath the smoke. All his bodies remained in motion and avoided contact with the mist. He spent twenty minutes getting attuned with the magic of the pools and mentally rehearsing what he needed to do.

Finally ready, he gathered all the magic of the pools and shaped it to do what needed to be done. When it was as good as he could manage he gathered his ki into guiding and restraining forms. He converted nearby rocks into ki and shaped it into an energy barrier to confine the effects of the magic. It wasn't quite enough, so he also converted his six bodies into ki to reinforce his working, hoping that he could survive briefly without a physical body. Finally he released the magic to do its was a bright actinic flash...

No sign of the deadly smoke remained. Two hundred confused pandas fell down from the sky, many landing in the water of the no-longer-cursed pools. It would require water hotter than boiling to restore them to their original mist form, so they were effectively locked into their new shapes.

It seems Nightmare now had something else in common with Genma.

Even as far away as they were, the Amazons had felt the magic and the ki explode. When they were sure that the fight was over they hurried back to Jusenkyo to see what was going on. They found dozens of dazed and confused pandas, a large area of blackened and lifeless vegetation, and over one hundred pure and uncursed pools.

There was no sign of Ranma Saotome anywhere.

Author's Notes

The demonic sword is now in the void between the universes, eating up all the instances of Nightmare. The world is a better place now, and the sword cannot return to our world.

All Ranma's life experiences have now come together in a meaningful pattern. He has been guided and shaped into becoming the only weapon that could defeat Nightmare.

What, if anything, can he do for an encore?

To be concluded...