Chapter 1: Finding Her Footing
The young red haired girl sat terrified as the Jusenkyo Guide spoke in rapid Mandarin to the various elders of the Joketsuzoku village. Her father had been taken to another room in chains, but the freshly cursed 12 year old seemed to be presenting the ancient women with a dilemma. She'd eaten the champion's meal the same as her father, but something was apparently different in her case.
At long last, one of the women, the most shrivelled of the council, hopped over to Ranma's side.
"I am Elder Cologne, and I have good news child: the council has agreed that you will not be punished for your hunger. It is a parent's duty to feed their child. You hold no blame in your father's failure of parenting," the ancient woman said in soft Japanese.
Ranma nodded. The red haired child had no idea what to say. Was 'sorry' or 'thank you' more appropriate?
"We will find out the location and stability of any other family you might have and place you under their custody," Cologne continued. "As much as we might be interested in a young girl with the spunk I see in your eyes, you deserve to be with reliable members of your own family."
Ranma found herself blushing at that. "T-thank you for... um, everything, but... I'm not... I'm not really a girl."
Ranma didn't want to think about how much it hurt to say that. She just hoped she hadn't been obvious about it.
The guide stepped over and nodded. "Young guest fell in Nyannichuan. Father fell in Shonmaonichuan, but hogged the umbrella during the rain shower we had this morning to stay human."
The ancient woman smiled in a way that gave Ranma the impression she was in on some joke, before turning to the cursed redhead. "Would you want to be a girl, child?"
Ranma felt her heart race the way it had when she'd first found out why her hair was suddenly red. "Who wouldn't? You get to have ice cream, and wear cute yukata, and you can grow your hair as long as you like without anyone saying anything about it, and you're allowed to love flowers, and... and... it's just so amazin'. Pop's was always telling me how things I wanted to do were only for girls."
Cologne let out a rasping and otherworldly chuckle. "Well, with your new 'curse' you might find that it won't be nearly as hard to make a reality as it used to be. I promise you, we will ensure whatever family we leave you with will be willing to help you with that. And none outside of this chamber will know of any information to the contrary as long as you are staying with us."
Ranma stared at the ancient woman with wonder in her heart. "I don't know how I can make it up to ya."
Once more Cologne smiled. "I think you might be able to help my great granddaughter get some peace and quiet, which seems like thanks enough."
Ranma had been led to a pleasant home not far from the elders' lodge. It was old fashioned, like most things here, but the presence of a television and collection of VHS tapes tucked away in a corner of the main room drew Ranma's eye. Apparently some amenities of the modern world made it out here. The family seemed nice, a fairly young mother and father, as well as a boy about Ranma's age with long black hair and thick glasses (like his mother).
That part made Ranma a bit nervous as Cologne explained some of Ranma's situation in Mandarin. Ranma really wasn't sure another boy her age wouldn't just pick up on her boyishness right away. It wasn't like she looked all that different in girl mode, apart from the hair.
"So, you're really from Japan?" the bespectacled boy asked Ranma, leaning in a little too close for comfort. (Apparently Cologne's explanation had ended while Ranma was busy worrying.)
"Y-yeah?" the redhead stammered.
"Wow, a real Japanese girl, staying with my family. This is so cool! I bet you know all the anime-"
"Mousse! Give space," the boy's mother chided in accented Japanese. "She is guest!"
The lad shrunk into himself a bit and muttered what sounded like an apology in Mandarin.
"Now, introductions," the mother said in a formal tone. "I am Gel, this my husband, Comb. And son, Mousse."
"It's good to meet you. I'm Ranma. Saotome Ranma."
"Wow, such a cute name!" Mousse said, smiling while keeping to a slightly more reasonable distance this time. "I get to meet a Japanese girl, and she's got 'otome' in her name!"
Ranma felt herself blushing. Getting called 'cute' in any way, especially by a boy her age, was very nice. "I, um... I do have to confess I haven't seen that many cartoons, but I'd like to watch the ones you've got."
The redhead missed the smiles from Mousse's parents. She'd only realise later how thrilled they were to have anyone else be the target of Mousse's discussions about anime.
What she did know at the time was that Mousse had a remarkably good selection of anime for living in the rural western portions of the People's Republic of China, and she had to wonder how he'd gotten his hands on so much. A lot of it was mecha anime, but that was no surprise. There was just so much of it out there, and Ranma knew almost all the others boys back home seemed to love it... Wait, no. Not other boys. Just boys.
If other people were going to think of her as a girl, then she should let herself do the same.
"Can we start with the Ghibli?" Ranma asked, as Mousse fiddled about to make sure everything was plugged in.
"Oh, sure!" Mousse replied, as happy as ever.
The pair had ended up marathoning a good chunk of the way into Touch when Ranma's ability to follow things got blurry. Suddenly she realised she'd been dozing off, and had been passed out on Mousse's shoulder. Glancing up nervously, worried the boy would be upset to have another boy sleeping on his shoulder and shot up into a sitting position.
"S-sorry," she apologized nervously, worried he was going to yell at her.
Instead she saw the bespectacled boy was blushing. She was deeply confused for a moment, until she remembered the curse.
"The elder did say you'd been travelling a lot... but don't worry, I didn't mind. Though, we do probably have to go and rewatch a couple episodes," Mousse replied, still blushing, but also smiling from ear to ear.
Apparently Ranma was making a good impression for herself, and... she kind of liked the response she was getting.
The next day, Mousse had taken Ranma on a tour of the village. It had been quite nice, until a girl with bright blue hair approached them. Suddenly Mousse was ignoring Ranma as he began to talk to the new girl in panicked sounding Mandarin.
Ranma didn't know what she disliked more, Mousse ignoring her, or the other girl's apparent complete disinterest. After Mousse talked enough to start to run out of breath, the blue haired girl finally gave him a reply. It was something short, but it left Mousse blushing furiously before he shouted something and grabbed the girl's hand.
She responded by punching him square in the jaw, breaking his hold. There was more arguing before a full brawl broke out. The girl was amazingly effective, managing to pin Mousse after only a few moments, getting what sounded like a yelp of surrender from him soon after. She stood up, gave him a quick kick, and then marched off as Ranma stood in shock (and some anger).
"What was all that about?" Ranma asked, as she bent over to help Mousse up. "Why did you two fight?"
Mousse looked at Ranma a moment, blushed anew, and then began to study the ground. "Eh, fighting is normal for us... As for what she said, well, she, uh... she said that my mother told her about us watching shows all evening yesterday and... uh... she said we make... actually, it's not important," Mousse mumbled.
"We make a what?" Ranma asked, feeling her heart race as she leaned in close. (Some rational part of her brain was insisting she barely knew Mousse, and shouldn't rush into things, but most of her was so fixated on how he called her cute, saw her as a girl, and that he was pretty handsome.)
"Uh... a cute... a cute couple," Mousse replied, blushing to his ears. "Shampoo can be such a tease."
Ranma smiled. No one had said she and a boy looked like a couple since... since someone. The name was on the tip of her memory, but... it would have to wait.
"Well, let's see what happens," Ranma said, still smiling away.
"Wait, you'd really go out with-with me?" Mousse asked.
"Maybe. We only just met, but you're quite nice," Ranma replied.
Mousse glanced over to where Shampoo had wandered off, and whispered something in Mandarin to himself before turning back to Ranma and smiling. "Well, let's finish our tour, why don't we?"
"Don't you want your scrapes looked after?" Ranma asked.
Mousse shrugged. "I have a high pain tolerance. My shifu says that's my best skill."
Ranma nodded slowly, but didn't object. She was fairly used to having her own wounds go untreated, though that was usually her father's refusal than her choice. Maybe there was actually something to her complaints about it being girly...
The rest of the village was much like the first half. Or at least it was until they reached the tailor's. Apparently the elders had ordered up some clothing for Ranma. Two outfits were the normal tangzhuang style clothing both boys and girls in the village wore, but a more formal skirted dress had been included. Just holding that last one made Ranma's heart race. Her dad would be furious if he caught her in that...
"Can I try it on?" Ranma asked the tailor.
The woman nodded and said something to Mousse.
"There is a change area behind that curtain," Mousse translated.
"Thanks!" Ranma said, hurrying over.
The dress proved quite simple to slip on, but, looking at herself in the mirror, she felt like it was really a girl looking back at her. A little nervous, Ranma slid the curtain open to show Mousse and the tailor.
Mousse's blush was all the answer Ranma needed.
Two weeks had passed, and Ranma had started picking up some very basic Mandarin terms. More important to her, she'd been spending almost every day with Mousse. It turned out that he was quite the martial artist too, and the pair had been showing off techniques to one another. (She was better than he was, but he seemed to respect her for that, where she was sure any boy back home would feel challenged.)
Ranma was also pretty sure she had a crush. And it was wonderfully obvious that Mousse returned her feelings.
Right now, though, she was being summoned to the Elder's lodge.
Walking into the large room, she was surprised to find only Cologne present, the old woman humming to herself as she went over some papers of some sort.
"You father has informed us that your mother is alive and well," Cologne stated, turning to Ranma with a gentle smile. "I will be travelling with you, to make sure she's willing to accept you as her daughter."
"M-my mom's alive?" Ranma asked. "I... pops never wanted ta talk about her. I thought something had happened."
"It would seem not," Cologne replied. "Pack your things and say your farewells tonight, we're leaving early tomorrow morning."
"I... can I say bye ta pops?" Ranma asked.
Cologne nodded. "I don't see why not. Our prison system is based on rehabilitation, not punishment. Seeing his daughter happy might just help him come to his senses on good parenting."
The 'prison' proved to be a rather nice little building with a large central courtyard filled with a garden. The only hint it was anything but a pleasant small home was the lack of external windows.
Genma sat dejected in one of the four rooms of the home, ignoring Ranma as she and Cologne entered.
"I, uh, I'm going to be headin' off ta see mom," Ranma said, hoping her father would look her way. "I hope you'll be comin' home soon too."
After an awkward moment of silence, Genma began to chuckle to himself. "I've heard about how you're living as a girl now. I might have failed you on your future as a man, but I can hope you mother will help you see sense."
"Why's my future gotta be as a man?" Ranma asked, trying not to get too angry with her father. "With this curse it's plenty easy ta make my future be one as a woman, ya know!"
"A man is a man. Despite the curse, I'm no panda, and you're no girl. You just need to accept that to be happy, boy," Genma grumbled, still not looking Ranma's way.
"Let us leave him, child," Cologne said, placing a calming hand upon Ranma's shoulder. "It will probably be some time before he properly understands matters."
Ranma nodded. She felt such confused emotions towards her father right now. She knew she loved him, but a part of her wanted to hate him for not seeing how happy this was making her. Time apart would hopefully help her work out her emotions.
"You're leaving?" Mousse asked, his voice filled with panic as the pair stood on a lonely hill near the edge of town.
Ranma found it a bit hard to meet the boy's eyes. "Well... I haven't seen my mum since I was little. How can I say no to seeing her again?"
Mousse sighed. "I guess."
"I'll send you a letter as soon as I can," Ranma replied. "We can be pen pals, until one of us can come visit the other."
"Pen pals, yeah... great," Mousse muttered.
Ranma stepped a little closer and put a hand up on Mousse's shoulder. "Hey, I'll be able ta send you any anime VHS you want, that ain't half bad, is i—"
The ending of Ranma's offer was cut off as Mousse pulled her in and quickly kissed her.
"I... I want you here more than whatever you could send," the blushing boy said.
Ranma's brain short circuited a bit. Her first kiss... and they were so young. She hadn't realised Mousse was that serious about things. Was the crush really love? Should she stay?
But she wanted to see her mother too.
Finally, she realised Mousse was waiting for a response.
"I, uh... I don't... can't... this ain't a decision I wanna have to make," Ranma said, sliding back into the more masculine speech she'd grown up using.
"If you decide to stay in Japan, then I'll go too. How's that?" Mousse offered.
Ranma nodded. "S-sure."
The trip back to Japan had been quite the adventure, enough to distract Ranma from how flustered she was about the events of the evening before.
A truck took her and Cologne to Golmud, a long and winding drive through the dry mountains of Western China. When they arrived in the city, it was dark, and the pair spent the night in a dingy hotel quite similar to the ones she'd often stayed in with her father.
The next morning they got a flight to Beijing, and then it was on to Tokyo.
Ranma knew enough about travel to know that the passport used for her was almost certainly fake, and that that was quite illegal, so kept as quiet as she could whenever they were close to security and customs.
Once out of Narita and safely in Tokyo, Ranma found herself able to breath once again. Somehow they'd made it. (Ranma was glad she didn't have enough stuff to need any checked baggage and had been able to make a beeline out to the taxi area after security.)
Climbing into the back of the cab, Ranma marvelled at how she'd made it back to Japan in under 48 hours. Just getting to China had taken close to that long on the way out (her father chastising her for not being the faster swimmer the whole time).
Add to that that she was about to see her mother for the first time in... well, she wasn't sure how many years. But it had been at least half her life.
Watching Tokyo zip by, Ranma tried to remember her mother, but had only the vaguest of emotions. And... someone crying. She couldn't remember if it was her, her mother, or someone else.
The taxi came to a stop, and Ranma got out once Cologne had paid. They walked up to the house that matched the address Genma had given, and Cologne rapped on the door.
A few moments later the door opened, revealing a woman dressed in a kimono with her hair up and... to Ranma she seemed incredibly beautiful.
"He-hello? How can I help you?" the woman asked, glancing at Cologne before her eyes fell on Ranma and she stared a while.
"Are you Saotome Nodoka, mother of Saotome Ranma?" Cologne asked.
"I... I am, yes? Is... did something happen?" Nodoka asked, turning back to Cologne and panic sliding into her voice.
"Well, it seems your husband was not the most fit at raising a child, so we're returning the girl to you," Cologne explained.
"Girl? I beg your pardon? Ranma's a boy?" Nodoka asked, though her eyes drifted over to Ranma as she spoke, and recognition sparkled in her eyes. "I... Ranma?"
Ranma nodded, at a loss for words.
Suddenly her mother was hugging her. She felt her mother start to sob, and the emotion overwhelmed her, and Ranma began to cry as well.
"What... what happened to you hair?" Nodoka asked, backing off just a little.
"Magic," Ranma replied with a grin.
"Magic?" Nodoka asked, turn to Cologne.
"She fell into the Nyannichuan. It changes the physical form of whoever falls in to that of a girl," Cologne explained.
"It... you've been trapped as a girl now, Ranma?" Nodoka asked. "Oh, you poor thing."
"No, it's not permanent," Ranma replied. "Pretty easy to turn into a boy again, but... I don't want to."
"You... don't want to?" Nodoka asked, looking back and forth between Cologne and Ranma again.
"Your daughter has always been a girl. Jusenkyo has just made it easier for her to be herself," Cologne replied. "Are you willing to respect her?"
Nodoka paused, seemingly at a loss for words.
Worry fluttered into Ranma's heart, and, judging by the softening in Nodoka's eyes, the worry had been clear on her face.
"Well, Genma's not here, so I have no reason not to," Nodoka replied.
"Why does your husband's location matter?" Cologne asked.
"He... he wrote up a contract before leaving, promising that when he and Ranma returned, Ranma would be a man among men or else they... they would both," Nodoka seemed unable to finish her sentence, only looking at Ranma and crying.
"Does this contract matter more than your child's happiness?" Cologne asked.
"It's a matter of honour... that has to matter more than anything, doesn't it?," Nodoka replied a bit of desperation in her voice, as if she hoped Cologne could reassure her it didn't. Then she turned back to her daughter, cupping Ranma's cheek in her hand. "But, that doesn't matter. Genma's not here, and so the contract's irrelevant."
Cologne eyed Nodoka suspiciously, but nodded. "Well, would it be okay if I were to stay here for a few days? It was a bit of a trip here from Qinghai, and I'm not as young as I used to be."
"Qinghai? That... all the way in China? You travelled all that way to return Ranma? Of course. You can stay as long as you like then," Nodoka replied.