Author: Leopold Goenitz
Email: Leopold_Goenitz@hotmail.com
Author notes: Thanks for the replies people, I appreciate them and please do
keep them coming. I also wanted to tell you that while this chapter seems to go
along the original canon version, I assure you that it _will_ steer into a whole
different course...and to the repeated question whether Ranma is a Youkai or
not, the answer is...a secret. :P
Disclaimer: You know what is supposed to be here so I won't bother myself with
it...
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(Ranma 1/2 - Alternative universe multicrossover fanfic story)
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When Fates Collide
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Chapter 1 - Here's Ranma!
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It was raining again. Dark clouds hung heavily over the area of Tokyo that was
known as Nerima, the rain pouring down as if a dam had broken down somewhere in
heaven. The residents living in the district weren't disturbed by this however,
heavy rains, even abrupt ones, were very common...if not painfully frequent.
The duo walking down the streets of the southern section of this particular
district wouldn't have minded if would have been a dry day, tough. One of them
was a panda, at least currently, and another was a young man with black shoulder
length hair that was tied into a ponytail, dressed in black hakama and baggy
black Chinese robes with thick, dark red belt running around his waist. They
were both carrying large backpacks but only the boy had an umbrella, made from
simple bamboo that had been painted red.
"So like, how far is this old friend of yours?" asked the boy while glaring at
the panda.
"Not far," said the sign the animal had raised above its head and after few
seconds flipped it over with other words decorating its surface, "Only two or
three blocks from here."
"Oh, good. Because I don't wanna walk in this damn rain for the whole evening,"
the boy complained and glared at the clouds above.
"Stop complaining, it's not like you have anything to worry about anymore," said
the another sign the animal had pulled from somewhere, its eyes glaring at the
boy with small amount of bitterness.
The boy just snorted and ignored the looks he had been given. "Well at least you
can still go and look fully human for as long as you don't get hit by cold
water, I'm stuck as I am now," he thought darkly as he followed the animal's
lead.
In a short while they finally arrived to their destination, or what the boy
believed to be their stop if his father's reaction upon seeing the place was
anything to judge from. It was a large house with tall concrete fence running
around it and if the sign was telling the truth, someone was practicing an
Anything Goes Style in there.
"What's this pop? You never told me there were others practicing the same art as
we are," the boy said while pointing at the large sign that hung above the gate
doors with words, "Tendo Dojo Of Anything Goes School".
"Soun is an old friend of mine," the panda replied by flipping his sign again,
"He and I practiced under the same master."
"The one you keep moaning about in your dreams? Begging for mercy and stuff?"
snorted the boy, but then turned back to the subject he had intended. "Is this
friend of yours good at what he does and do you know if he has any students
worth my time?"
The panda seemed to be bit offended by the first remark but let it slide and
answered to the boy's question. "Soun was as good as I when we parted," flips a
sign, "So I believe his students must be as good as he was back then."
"So, in other words, not worth a dime," the boy said arrogantly and stepped
forth to open the gates. "Pop, you know as well as I know, that anyone who's as
good as you and not better, can't even hope to stand against me."
The panda glared at the boy with heated look in its eyes but didn't say anything
as it resigned itself just to follow the boy as he entered the inner grounds of
the Tendo household.
It was pretty nice place considering it was near Tokyo. It had several sakura
trees at the back and few at the sides, couple of bushes and flower batches
planted at the front. Not something you saw at every normal private home, but
then again, if the looks were anything go by, then the Tendo household was
anything but normal or usual.
The main building itself was quite large and if one went and took a look around
it, they would have seen a real life sized dojo built at the backyard. No, this
home was anything but normal.
"Hmm...I wonder what kind of people live in here," the boy muttered to himself
and let the panda pass him so that it could go and knock on the door and let the
residents know that they were there. He didn't bother to point it out to his
father that he was still in his panda form, as he had stopped caring after the
first three dozen times the fat fool had gotten himself into trouble this way.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Oooooh! That must be Ranma," exclaimed the middle Tendo daughter, Nabiki, who
had dressed into a nice dark green kimono that strangely reminded a one huge
thousand yen bill. She stood up from the rest of the family and rushed towards
the door with her father, Soun, following closely behind her.
"Saotome-san, finally!" Soun wept as he dashed after his daughter, it had over
ten years since he saw his old friend and it was already brining the good old
memories back. He was a tall, well over forty years old man, with long black
hair and trimmed moustaches.
"Oh, great...just when I was hoping that they wouldn't come," grumbled the
youngest of the Tendo family, namely Akane. She was the youngest of the three
Tendo daughters and was currently dressed in her white gi that she hadn't
bothered to go change yet. It was quite clear that she was angry about something
and that this something had everything to do with the people her older sister
and father were so anxiously waiting for.
Akane's eldest sister, Kasumi, just smiled sweetly as always from the other end
of the low table they had been sitting around when their father first announced
the little pact he and his old friend had made before anyone of them had been
even born.
But then her brooding was cut off by the terrified shriek from the door and the
sound of two people running back towards the living room. Akane jumped to her
feet and watched as Nabiki and Soun rushed from behind the hallway corner with
fearful looks on their faces.
"Oh my, what happened?" asked the eldest daughter as she stood up and went to
calm her father.
Soun didn't need to answer to that when the mass of soaking black and white fur
lumbered down the hallway. It was a panda, a very big, very fat, and very dirty
looking panda. "Oh my...."
The first thing the three daughters did was to push their father in between them
and the hulking animal, as none of them, not even Akane for the moment, believed
they were in any position in stopping it.
"Daddy, do something, don't let it just waltz in," Nabiki ordered her father
while trying to keep his stiffened body from falling to the floor. "You are a
martial artist aren't you?"
Akane seemed to be about to say something to that, but cut herself off when she
noticed that the animal was moving away from the hallway entry and that there
was a young looking man standing there now. "Who are you?"
The boy who was now at the center of the Tendo family's attention was a tall,
well built if the width of his shoulders was anything to judge from, mildly
handsome, and dressed in well concealing black Chinese robes that kept his hands
hidden inside the sleeves.
"Hi," the boy quipped almost casually and then turned to glare at the panda
before turning back to the slightly confused and terrified family. "Sorry about
this, we didn't mean to startle you or anything, and I know it's bit odd to ask
you this, but you wouldn't have any hot water nearby?"
"Why yes, wait here for a moment, I will get you some," replied the ever helpful
Kasumi that would have probably assisted even a burglar in finding their family
jewels had they had any.
The middle and the youngest Tendo daughter stared a bit after their eldest
sister but then turned to look back at the stranger and his odd pet. "Who are
you? And what are you doing here?!" Nabiki snapped and eyed at the boy warily,
she was finding her eyes locked onto his face which she was finding both
surprisingly attractive and bit strange for some reason.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself," the boy replied while scratching
his neck with embarrassed look on his face. "My name's Ranma, and when I get hot
water, I'll show you my old man. He had some business with you but I'm not quite
sure what yet," he said and turned to look at the large panda at his side.
"Y-You're Ranma, Ranma Saotome?" the Tendo patriarch asked, now surprisingly
lively again, there seemed to be some tears to be building up in his eyes too.
"Uh, yeah. What of it?" the boy said while edging away from the older man. He
was getting a strange feeling from the way Soun was looking at him and nearly
decked the man when he rushed in and took him into a bear hug.
"Waaaaaah! Finally the schools can be united!" Soun wept as he held the boy. He
had intended to pick up the boy and start dancing from joy, but had quickly
found out that he was unable to even budge the boy from his place and just
settled into hugging.
"What the...?" muttered the boy as he turned to look at the panda with a
questioning look. "Just what kind of crap have you pulled me into this time?"
The Tendo patriarch seemed to ignore this as he took place at the boy's side and
gestured at his daughters. "These are my daughters. That's Akane, she's sixteen,
and next to her is Nabiki, nineteen, and lastly Kasumi," he pointed at the
eldest daughter who was smilingly coming from out of the kitchen with small pail
of hot water in her hands, "Who is nineteen. Pick anyone you like."
"Pick? Why? Whatever for?" the boy asked dumbly as he continued to stare at the
three girls.
Akane was fuming angrily at the boy, clearly upset about something. Nabiki was
smiling like a cat that had just eaten the canary, something that made Ranma
feel very uncomfortable. And then there was Kasumi who just smiled and handed
him the water pail. "Here you go."
"Well, one of them is going to be your fiancée, son, you must choose one of
them," replied Soun who was completely oblivious to the way the boy's shoulder's
suddenly tensed.
"...Old man..." Ranma growled and gripped the pain in his hands with bit more
strength than he had intended, digging his one and a half inches long claws into
it as if it were made from paper. Then without a single warning he flung the
pail at the panda, immediately transforming it into its human form, and then
proceeded to grab his father from his gi collar before lifting him to the air.
"What the hell is he talking about, pop? Spit it out or I might start
considering skinning myself a panda rug!"
The Tendo family was mostly in shock after seeing the transformation, well
everybody except Kasumi who just blinked at the transformation and then
continued to smile cheerfully as she took her place around the table again.
"Listen boy, this is a matter of family honour," Genma stuttered as he fought to
release himself from his son's iron grip, but quickly finding it useless since
the boy had become far more stronger than he could have ever imagined. "This is
something Tendo and I agreed to almost twenty years ago, the schools must be
united through the marriage of our children!"
"Aaargh!" the boy roared in frustration, sounding surprisingly animalistic, and
immediately threw his fat father to the floor with almost enough strength to
make the floorboards to crack. "Honour this, honour that! I'm getting sick of
this old man!!" he continued and glared at his father who was trying to look
stern despite the obvious fear he had for his son. "You always use that damn
honour excuse to save your own ass, but today it ends! I'm not gona marry
someone I don't even know, just because of some stupid agreement you and old
friend made while probably being too drunk to even think straight!"
"Now look here boy..." Genma began but was promptly cut off when his son planted
a foot on his stomach.
"Shut up!" the boy shouted angrily and continued to drive his foot on the older
man's gut. "I don't even care to start counting how many times you've used me to
get off from some deal and feed that bottomless pit you call your stomach!!"
The Tendo family was just staring at the proceedings, well except Kasumi who was
starting to frown slightly disapprovingly at the boy's behaviour. It wasn't just
proper to come into someone else's home and start beating some poor man who
turned into a panda.
"Umm, daddy...are you sure these are the people you've been waiting for?" Nabiki
asked from her father after getting over the initial shock she had received from
seeing the Saotome patriarch turn back into human.
"Uh, I believe so..." Soun muttered, still slightly confused by all this, but
then seemed to snap out from it when he seemed to recognize his old friend.
"Genma? Is that truly you?!"
"Yes, ugh, now would mind helping me?!" the other man groaned from underneath
his son's foot who was still grinding him to the floor.
Luckily Soun didn't need to do anything as Ranma quickly seemed to grow bored
with what he was doing and just decided to kick his old man through the open
doorway that was standing beside them, and right into the large koi pond that
stood in the middle of the backyard.
"Ingrate!" said the sign the large panda was holding up once it resurfaced from
the pond, glaring daggers at the boy who had thrown it in there.
"Complain all you want, old man, I won't go with this idiotic agreement just
because you say so!" shouted the boy.
For a moment Genma seemed to be ready to explode, but then stopped and took
rather disturbing smile on its face as it produced another sing from behind its
back. "Your mother also agreed to this, boy."
"What? Mom..." the boy gasped and staggered back as if given a slap. "...I...she
wouldn't..." he muttered but then just stomped his foot on the floor. "Damn!!
Fine, I'll go with this, but only if they're going with it too!" the boy shouted
and gestured towards the three girls. "If they don't want this, then I believe
we can all just forget about this!"
"I'm not going to marry some stupid boy!" Akane spat angrily and almost hit her
fist on the table but was stopped by her eldest sister's calming hand.
"Oh, then what were you intending to marry, sis? A girl perhaps?" Nabiki quipped
calmly as she eyed her sister.
"Ack! No, of course not and you know it Nabiki!" Akane shouted back at her
sister with her cheeks burning completely red. "I want a man, a real man, not
some...boy!"
Nabiki smiled at this, she had been just teasing her sister, but now her
attention was fully back at their guests. The boy was obviously someone that her
eyes could get used to look at, but she wasn't quite sure if she wanted to share
her life with him just with one day's experience and she surely didn't want to
hitch her older sister with someone whom they barely knew, and so she came up
with a plan.
"Daddy, can I suggest something?" she said as she stood up and walked next to
Ranma. "Since Ranma here is so considerate as to think about our opinion too,
I'd like to propose that he spends some time with us before any one of us
decides whether to, or not to marry him."
"I..." Soun muttered and glanced at his transformed friend, or whom he believed
to be his old friend Genma, and then turned back to his daughter. "I guess
so..." Even Genma seemed to agree to this, albeit slightly reluctantly if the
frown on his fur covered face was anything to tell from.
"Is two weeks enough?" asked Nabiki as she turned around to face the boy who was
now just staring at her with what look of utter confusion.
"Um, I guess so..." the boy replied, clearly unsure what to think right now.
"...if that's what you want," he added and turned his face to look at the rest
of the Tendo daughters. Akane just huffed and turned away from him while Kasumi
just smiled and nodded approvingly towards Nabiki.
"Great, then it's a deal," Nabiki quipped. She was pretty sure she could get her
and her sisters off the hook if the boy proved to be anything but ideal fiancé,
or at least hook him up with Akane if the worst came to be. But then her
attention was turned back to Genma, who was now standing at the porch with
slightly annoyed look on his face. "And if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to hear
an explanation to why your father turns into a panda," she added and pointed at
the large animal.
"Well, it's a long story, so I suggest we all sit down," the boy sighed as he
eyed at his father and then moved towards the table before addressing the eldest
Tendo daughter, "And if you could, I think my old man would appreciate if
someone brought some more hot water to him so that he could change back into his
normal form again."
Kasumi just nodded and happily went to pick up the fallen pail before rushing
into the kitchen. Meanwhile rest were setting themselves around the table,
including Genma who had grown slightly less agitated than what he had been few
moments before.
"Well, where should I begin?" muttered the boy while crossing his arms, slipping
both of his hands into the sleeves as he did this. He turned to look at his
father and decided that perhaps the Jusenkyo was the best place to start...
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
About an hour or so later...
"...so your father turns into a panda whenever he comes into contact with cold
water and back into human when its hot, right?" asked Nabiki.
"That's about it," Ranma nodded. He had let his old man tell most of the story,
but had added a few details to whenever the fat fool had tried to skip the parts
like how they had ignored the guide, or not having even bothered to learn what
the description about Jusenkyo had really meant before going there.
"And you fell into spring too?" asked the same girl as she peered at the boy
suspiciously. "Then, what you turn into? A panda too?" She didn't like the idea
and was already considering dumping the engagement to her little sister, as she
surely had no intentions of sharing the rest of her life with someone who turned
into a panda occasionally.
"Yes, and no, I do not turn into a panda," the boy answered calmly. "If it's the
curse you wish to see, then I can inform you that its what you're looking at
right now." To elaborate his words he pulled his hands out from the sleeves and
showed the confused looking girls his rather distinctive finger nails.
Everybody except Kasumi and Genma started dumbly at the claws and gasped when
they saw them stick out even further, now curving full three and a half inches.
"Wha-What are you?" Akane asked with slight wavering in her voice, while she
might have hated Ranma for just being a boy, she was still slightly disturbed by
what she was seeing.
"I dunno," the boy said and shrugged his shoulders almost casually, "I stopped
being worrying about it too much after I realized that nobody didn't seem to
notice the differences in me as long as I didn't act strangely."
"Uh, sorry to interrupt, but if the curses are reversible with hot water, then
why haven't you turned back into human yet? There's plenty of hot water in the
kitchen you know..." Nabiki pointed out while gesturing at the now empty pail
that was sitting next to Genma.
This caused the boy to hung his head a bit. He turned to look at his father with
slightly hateful look, as if considering if he should punch him or not, but then
just turned back to the girl who had last spoken and sighed. "Well, ya' see...it
aint that simple in my case," he began and retracted his claws back into their
original size. "Hot water doesn't work with me, I don't know why and neither did
the guy who worked as a guide at the springs. I don't know what I am, I doubt
nobody does, and I don't think its something I'll be bothering myself as long as
I doesn't start sprouting a pair of antennas from my head."
"So, are there any other deformities we should know about?" the middle Tendo
daughter ventured.
"Hmm...well I guess there are the ears," Ranma replied and pulled some of the
hair up from the right side of his head to show his pointed ears that were
slightly longer than normal human's. "And then there's the eyes of course."
"Eyes?" Nabiki muttered along with her younger sister, both of them seemingly
only now taking notice of the rather odd golden tint the boy had in his irises,
and after that they noticed the silt pupils too. "They're like cat's..." Nabiki
gasped.
Ranma seemed to shudder for a short instant when the last word was said but
didn't say anything to it. "Well yeah, that's about it. It isn't so difficult to
live like this, but it's sometimes a real pain when you can't wear any socks or
shoes beside sandals thanks to these damn claws," he grumbled and showed one of
his foots that had been well hidden underneath his black hakama. There were
similar claws there on his toes and he had on his fingers, only slightly
shorter.
"Well, your problem isn't so bad," Soun smiled and patted the boy on the back.
"I'm sure you'll find a cure on your problem in time. All you need to
concentrate for the following weeks is to decide whom do you wish to marry."
The boy levelled the man with a glare but didn't say anything, as he knew it to
be futile. Then he turned his gaze towards Nabiki and frowned a bit, she was
obviously the bright one in the family and if his instincts were anything to
trust at, she would be the one whom he would be willing to bet on if he wanted
someone's help to get out from this mess with as little damage as possible.
Nabiki noticed the boy's look and nodded understandingly. "It seems that he and
I are on the same wave length," she mentally mused to herself and let a small
smile fall on her lips before she stood up. "Well, if this is settled, then I
believe we should go and get some rest. It's a school day tomorrow and at least
I need to sleep before that," she said and began to move towards the hallway,
but not before giving her family's younger guest a meaningful look.
Ranma noticed this but didn't reply in any way and just sat there, intending to
contact the middle daughter when nobody else was watching or listening. He just
hoped he hadn't misinterpreted the look, as while he might have agreed to the
deal, he really didn't wish to be engaged to anyone at this point.
Akane just fumed where she sat, she really didn't like the idea of allowing the
boy to stay at _her_ home for whole two weeks, just so that he could decide whom
he would marry. She really hoped the boy wouldn't choose her, but she knew that
all boy's were perverts and from her experience they all wanted a girl like her,
so with her logic his obvious choice would be of course her, and that wouldn't
just do.
"I'm not going to marry you," the girl stated firmly as she stood up and glared
at the boy, "So keep your perverted hands and mind to yourself." And then she
stomped out from the room and headed towards the dojo where she intended to
break some more bricks to vent out her frustration.
"Oh boy, well at least she has made up her mind about the engagement," thought
Ranma as he watched after the girl. Of course Soun and Genma seemed to take this
in completely different way and began to smile ridiculously with both of them
fanning victory sings. The boy just blinked at this but didn't say anything as
this was the point where Kasumi saw it being her cue to point out the guests to
their room.
"Come with me and I will show you to our guestroom," said the girl as she stood
up and smoothed out her light green housewife dress that seemed to be slightly
unflattering for a young woman like her who hadn't been even married yet. Ranma
just nodded and went on to follow the girl, in the process picking up his
backpack from the hallway entrance where had left it when he first came, and
then continuing to the stairs.
"And if you would like, I could prepare the furo for you if you would like,"
Kasumi added while smiling sweetly. Ranma wasn't sure, but he was starting to
get the feeling the girl was always like this and that she probably didn't have
it all pieced together inside her head.
"Uh, sure, if it isn't trouble or anything," the boy replied tentatively as he
continued to follow her.
The girl nodded happily and continued to lead the way to the medium sized room
that was in the other end of the second floor. "Here you go," she said as she
opened the door and allowed the boy to enter, "I will go and heat the water, but
it will take some time before it is ready, so if you like you can go and use the
dojo in the meantime if you wish."
Ranma just nodded and waited for the girl to close the door and leave before he
settled his backpack the floor. He frowned as he looked around him, it was a
sparse room, no furniture whatsoever, only a few cabinets that had been built
into the wall and a single window at the other end of the room that had been
built so that it would allow the sun to shine directly into the room first thing
the morning.
But as a whole, the room was more than enough on his opinion. He hadn't intended
to stay here for long and it was still better than sleeping outside with only
the sleeping bag and the hard ground under his back.
For a moment he considered going to the dojo to work up some sweat and went to
set his backpack to one of the far corners of the room, but stopped abruptly.
"What the...?" the boy muttered as he turned around. His eyes roamed around the
room wildly, as if looking for something specific, but then suddenly stopped as
the feeling he had just disappeared. "What was that?" he muttered and touched
his chest.
For a moment there had been a sudden strong pull inside his chest, as if someone
had tried to grasp his heart and take it away, but what had been even weirder
was that it hadn't felt unpleasant or even forceful. It reminded him more of a
gentle tug than anything else, but was still enough to disturb him. Ranma didn't
know enough about his new body yet, and it seemed that he was discovering new
things about it everyday, even after he had lived with it for the past two
months.
At first he thought of going to investigate if he could locate the source of the
disturbance, he had the strange feeling that it had been moving, whatever it
was, but then decided against it. It wasn't worth going after something he
didn't know and it was already getting late, not that it would have troubled him
at all. He had discovered a few weeks back that he could see in the dark almost
as clearly as during the day, only slightly differently.
But before he could think of the matter any further, he picked up a noise from
the door and for a moment expected to see his father but then realized that the
scent was wrong. "Nabiki, I believe," he said before the door was even fully
opened, and smirked when he saw the girl in question standing at the doorway
with slightly surprised look on her face. His abilities to see, hear, and smell
had grown quite sensitive during the time had spent in his new form and it was
beginning to show.
"My, good guess Saotome," she smiled and stepped into the room before closing
the door behind her back. "But I didn't come here for a social call. I guess
that if the way you behaved downstairs was anything to judge from, you're not
too happy about this arrangement and wish to get out of it without too much of a
fuzz, correct?"
Ranma merely nodded at this and crossed his hands into his sleeves again before
settling down to the floor. "I had considered talking to you, but not before I
could assure myself that there would not be any eavesdroppers," the boy said and
gestured the girl to take a seat.
"Well, this is a good time if any to talk," Nabiki replied but did not move away
from the doorway. "Do you have anything in particular in mind of how to defuse
this situation or were you waiting for me to come up with something?"
"Perhaps the later one. I was never good at plotting, but I'm willing to give
all the help you need to pull off whatever you're planning to do to get us all
off the hook," the boy replied honestly.
Nabiki smiled at this. "At least he's honest," she thought and began to move
closer, her eyes examining the boy before her.
"Ok, so you really don't want this marriage deal, right?" she asked while
keeping her eyes firmly locked on the boy's. Truth to be told, she wouldn't have
minded too much to be engaged to him if anyone had asked her right now. He
wasn't half bad looking and if he proved to have a brain on his shoulders, he
might prove himself to be an ideal fiancé despite his few deformities.
"Yeah, I don't wanna ruin any of your lives by forcing myself on you or onto one
of your sisters," the boy replied. "As who would want to live with a freak like
me for the rest of their lifetime?"
"Don't be too harsh on yourself, Saotome," Nabiki sighed and shook her head at
him. "You're far cry from unattractive if you wish to me to put it bluntly, but
I can understand where you're getting at. You don't know what you are yet and it
makes you insecure when dealing with other people and their expectations, right?"
"Um, yeah, something like that," answered the boy as he tried figure out if the
girl in front of him had just complimented him or not. "And then there's the
fact that I'm still trying to find a cure to this damn thing and that means that
I won't probably stay here for very long, whether I'll get engaged or not, to
any of you."
"I see," replied the middle Tendo as she began to think about the different
possibilities of how to clear the mess her father and his friend created. It
was, however, too early for her to decide whether he wanted to get to know the
boy or not, and she was pretty sure neither of her sisters were interested on
him, and thus she decided to take the easiest alternative, a time out. She
needed time to think before she would make any kind of decision.
"Let me think for a day or two, I'll try to come up with something by then. But
don't hold your breath, I won't make any promises," she said and winked an eye
at him.
Ranma just blinked at this but didn't say anything as she began to move away.
She didn't stop moving until she came to the door where she turned around and
looked at him straight into the eyes, as if considering something, and then just
closed the door without another word.
"Huh, what was that all about?" the boy thought in confusion as he stood up and
for a moment considered asking about it, but then decided it was just another
thing about girls he would never understand and let the mater drop.
He looked around him and realized that there was probably still plenty of time
before the furo was ready and decided to go to the dojo as he had originally
intended. And so, without any further ado, he went on and left the room in his
search for the desired area of the household.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In the meantime, there was a small three headed group of girls walking down the
darkening streets of Nerima, not too far from the Tendo home. All them were
dressed casually, plain long sleeved shirts and knee height skirts, and it was
obvious that they weren't trying to stand out in a crowd.
They had just left from one of their mutual friend's home and were having fun as
they reviewed what had happened during their stay in there. Well, everybody
except the one with the long black hair who was constantly glancing over her
shoulder, but not looking anything in particular, tough.
"Kagome-chan, is something wrong?" asked one of her friends, she had a short
brown bowl cut hair and dark blue clothes. "You've been acting bit distracted
all evening."
"It's nothing," Kagome assured with a smile that wasn't very convincing. "I'm
all right."
"We're not buying that Kagome, spit it out. You can tell your friends, now can't
you?" asked the other girl who was now trailing between the two others, her hair
was black also but liked to keep in a twin ponytails that cascaded to the middle
of her back.
"I said it's nothing," Kagome replied once more, this time bit more forcefully.
"I just had this strange feeling there was something strong...and dark somewhere
near here," she muttered to herself, but enough loud to make her friends hear it.
"Oooh, is our little Kagome-chan becoming a spiritualist?" asked one of her
friends with a mock tone. "Maybe you've been living too long near that old
shrine your grandfather has been holding up. You better be careful if you keep
this up, you'll end up being an old maid before you even turn into thirty."
"Hey, that's not funny!" shouted the black haired girl and gave chase to her two
giggling friends. "Get back here and I'll show you who's an old maid!"
"Nyah, nyah, you must catch us first!" the two other girls taunted while staying
few feet from Kagome's reach.
Soon they all forgot all about the event and let it disappear into their
memories as if it had never happened...
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Spar?" Ranma muttered dumbly while looking at the youngest Tendo daughter whom
he had caught in the middle of breaking a stack of bricks. A large pile of their
broken predecessors was lying in a large pile right next to it.
"Yes, weren't you supposed to have been training for ten years or something,"
Akane replied with slightly annoyed tone. "Dad told us that you went all the way
to China and all, don't you think you could show me what you've learned?" she
continued.
Akane was getting annoyed with the boy, or rather with the way he behaved. He
wasn't acting like any other boy she had come in contact outside her school and
it was ticking her off, and to add gasoline into the fire, it also seemed that
the boy wasn't considering her to be even worth his time.
"Naw, you'd just get hurt," the boy replied calmly as he shook his head and
began to move away. He didn't wish to fight with her since he knew that she
wasn't even close to his level, or the level where he had been when he had still
been completely human.
"What?!" the long haired girl exclaimed and rushed after the boy, intending to
knock some respect into his thick skull. "You think you're so much better than
me?"
The boy didn't say anything at first, and seemed to be just walking away, but in
reality he was well aware of Akane's position and turned around just when she
was about to hit him into the head and grabbed her wrist before she could strike
him. "No, I know I am," he replied calmly as ever and let the girl go, but
didn't move an inch from where he stood.
"Why you..." Akane growled, her hands clenching tightly at her sides with the
familiar red haze starting to build up inside her mind. "If you're so sure, then
why don't you prove it? Or are you scared that I might prove you wrong?" Her
tone was slightly smug and taunting, she was dying to beat up this up-star boy.
Ranma frowned, he had not intended to fight the girl with his previous
experience in the amazon village still deeply imprinted on his mind, but this
one was really starting to crawl under his skin. "Fine, lets see what you got,"
he said and walked past the girl and into the middle of the large tatami that
covered most of the dojo's floor.
Akane blinked at the boy's behaviour at first, not so sure anymore if she had
made the right decision, but quickly let it slide and went after the boy to take
her place on the mat. As after all, she was the best there was in Nerima, so
there was nothing for her to worry about, right?
Ranma made a small formal bow to his opponent and took his position, "We'll
start when you give the signal."
Akane nodded and gave her own curt bow to him and prepared herself. "Now!" she
shouted not too long after she had settled down, hoping to catch the boy with
surprise, he had been standing rather lazily, and thus she was rather surprised
to see him stepping away from her fast snap kick with almost casual air to him.
Then she came down with a quick follow up roundhouse kick that usually worked on
all those stupid boys at her school, but again she felt nothing but air against
her foot. "What?" she mentally gasped and watched with wide eyes at the boy who
was just standing there with a bored look on his face, his right hand being busy
digging his ear.
"Is that the best you can do?" the boy asked as he looked at the girl through
his narrowed eyes. "I don't have time for beginners, spar with my old man if you
wish to take on someone you can at least begin to start comparing yourself to."
"What?! Are you telling me I'm not good enough for you, is that it?!" the girl
screamed angrily and tried to lash at the boy with careless haymaker that missed
its target with wide margin.
"Slow, poorly coordinated, telegraphing moves, poor control over emotions..."
the boy listed while counting his fingers. Then he suddenly stopped and moved to
block the girl's next attempt to knock him down with a high kick, swiftly
snaring her ankle before she could pull it back.
"Sorry, I was wrong about you," he said calmly as he stared at the stupefied
looking girl, "You're not a beginner. You're a novice at best, if even that."
"What? How dare you?!" the girl screeched as she tried to tear her leg off from
his grip, but quickly found it to be too firm for her to escape. "Damn you! Let
go of me you jerk!!"
"Ok," the boy replied while shrugging his shoulders, promptly letting the girl
go much to her surprise and thus leaving her poorly balanced.
By the time her rear hit the floor, Akane had filled her mind with nothing but
utter humiliation, and that was what triggered her built up rage. "You stupid
perverted jerk! I'll get you for that!!" she screamed as she stood up and once
more attacked the boy whom she so confidently believed to be in the area of her
experience and skill. Unfortunately it wasn't so.
By simply leaning back Ranma had avoided the roundhouse kick that he had seen a
mile away, and then by stepping back he dodged the wide leg sweep he could have
avoided in his sleep. He knew, he had once done it. "Come on, let's stop this
before you get hurt," Ranma pleaded, but the smirk on his face worked only to
ruin his sincerity.
"Just shut up and die!" the girl cried angrily and lashed with yet another kick
that could have easily destroyed a concrete wall, but this time it met nothing
but air while her other leg was neatly swept from underneath her, promptly
sending her on her back with loud thud.
Ranma had to fight back the urge to snicker when he saw the girl's face when she
just laid there on her back with her eyes staring at the ceiling, the expression
was what could be described only as utter surprised.
"Hey, now look here. I'm sure you've probably noticed it by now, but there's now
way you can defeat me, so let's just stop it here, ok?" he said and even offered
a hand for her. But instead of accepting it she angrily swat it aside and almost
jumped on him.
"Stop dodging and fight!" the girl screamed angrily and threw another wild punch
at her opponent who almost casually swat it aside with a backhand slap to her
wrist.
"Why? I might break something," retorted the boy as he parried another punch. He
wasn't moving anymore, just standing there with lazy look on his face as he
continued to redirect her strikes as if he were swatting flies. In reality,
Ranma was pretty impressed with the strength the girl had, only that amazon girl
he had fought back in the village came to the same par as Akane.
"Damn you! Damn you!" Akane kept repeating as she tried to hammer the impudent
boy the ground. She couldn't understand what she was doing wrong, it was like
she was trying to grasp her own shadow every time she attacked.
Ranma saw that this 'spar' was not leading anywhere, and soon came down with the
decision that perhaps it would be fore the best if he gave the girl what she
needed and ended the match.
In that fracture of a second that Ranma moved, all that Akane could see was all
a blur. She never knew how he had done it, but the next thing she knew to be
happening to her, was the feeling of someone grabbing her right hand wrist and
then the tremendous pull that made her fly of her feet and get slammed to the
tatami like a puppet with its strings cut off.
Without wasting a moment, Ranma had thrown the girl face down to the mat and now
had her both arms behind her back with he himself sitting on top of them with
his both hands firmly around her wrists. "Do you yield?" he asked, not even a
hint of emotion in his voice. He was tired of playing and he didn't wish to
prolong this event any further.
"No I won't! And let go of me you pervert!!" Akane screamed from the floor as
she tried to squirm out from his grasp, but finding it quite futile in a few
moments as she realized that her both arms were quite firmly locked in place and
all that she could really do was kick her feet on the floor and act like a
complete retard.
"You lost, accept it Akane," said the boy as he increased the pressure he was
putting on the girl's back. "You wanted me to fight back and so I did, here's
the result. Are you happy now?"
"Shut up! I haven't lost yet!" the girl screamed angrily and continued to
struggle against his hold on her.
A deep frown came down on Ranma's face as he looked at the girl's back, and for
a moment he had to resist the urge to just punch her unconscious, but then
decided against it. It had begun to bother him lately that he no longer felt as
much apprehension in using violence as he had in the past, and he was getting
worried it had something to do with his new body.
"Fine, then lets do it the hard way," replied the boy and moved Akane's hands so
that he could keep them locked in place with one hand, and then proceeded to
pull off her gi belt.
"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing you pervert!?" the girl screamed
and increased her struggles when she felt the boy slip his hand underneath her
waist and pull her belt off.
Without saying anything the boy pulled up her wrists, tied the belt around them,
and then pulled each of her ankles up so that he could do the same to them, thus
resulting a one reverse-hogtied girl. "There," he said as he stood up and dusted
off his hands. "I hope you've learned your lesson."
"What? Hey, untie me damn it!" Akane screamed from her undignified position.
"Don't leave me like this you pervert!!"
"Whatever," was all that Ranma said as he casually walked away from the scene.
He made sure to close the door as he left, he didn't wish to give the girl a
cold with the way she was bound on the floor, and also to silence the row of
curses that she was throwing after him.
"She really needs to start learning how to control that temper of hers," he
thought tiredly and moved away form the dojo, intending to go and see whether
the bath was ready now.
From the second floor window, one that had a clear view to the dojo, Nabiki was
looking oddly at the boy and the curses she had been hearing for a moment.
"Hmm...I better go and check that nothing bad happened," she mused to herself
and stopped doing her evening preparations.
In the stairway she met Ranma and the boy just nodded at her and pointed his
thumb towards the dojo. "Don't worry, I didn't hurt her, just maybe her pride,
but she'll get over it. Tough, I think she'd appreciate it if you'd let her go,
I won't do it since she would just go try to bite my head off."
Nabiki looked at the boy bit oddly but then as he just moved up into the second
floor and obviously towards the furo, she too decided to move on and go and see
what he had done to her sister to make her curse so loud. On her way she met
Kasumi, who had also heard the rather improper choice of words that Akane had
used to describe Ranma.
"Oh my, I wonder what is wrong with her," the eldest Tendo daughter said with
her hand in front of her mouth and a worried look on her face.
"Don't worry sis, I'll go and check up on her," Nabiki assured and put on her
slippers that had been standing next to the entrance way that lead from the main
building to the dojo, and quickly moved towards the source of the steady stream
of cursing that her little sister was still throwing.
What she saw was more than what she could take, and in a matter of moments she
was holding her sides with loud laughter coming from her throat. "Bwahahahaaa!!"
"Damn it sis! This isn't funny! Untie me so that I can go and beat that
perverted freak!!" Akane screamed from the floor where she was still lying, her
hands and legs firmly tied behind her back.
"I doubt that's a good idea Akane, if he was able to do this to you now, what
makes you think you'd do any better on the next try?" Nabiki retorted with a
tired, if not a bit amused tone. "Really Akane, you heard what daddy said.
Ranma's father has been training him from ever since he could walk and they've
been visiting places we haven't probably even heard of, so did you really think
you were better than him?"
At first Akane was about say something, but then wisely decided shut herself up
about it and save her breath. She was positive she would get another chance with
the boy later.
Nabiki smiled and nodded at this. Then moved in to remove the simple and yet
firm knot that Ranma had made to bound her little sister the way he had. "I have
to admit that the boy does at least have a sense of humour," she thought to
herself and fought down the urge to laugh again.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In the furo...
It felt like heaven to Ranma when he fully submerged into the hot water and let
it soothe his skin and muscles. It had been ages since he last had a bath and it
was a small miracle that he hadn't started to reek too badly yet.
"Aaah, now this is something I could get used to," he mused to himself as he
relaxed his head across the small pool's edge. But then his blissful look turned
into more serious as he raised his hand up to meet his eyes, his eyes once more
focusing into the claws that he had become so familiar with in the past weeks.
They didn't bother him as much as they had in the beginning, he never wore
gloves so it wasn't much of a loss on his opinion and people did not tend to
notice them as long as he kept his hands well hidden inside his sleeves. But
that wasn't exactly the main issue, no.
What had begun to bother Ranma as a whole, not just the claws, was his current
form. He didn't know what he was now and that he the things wasn't supposed to
be the way they were, and yet he was becoming more and more comfortable with his
new form with each passing day...no, it wasn't just that. He was becoming more
than comfortable with his form; he had started to like it.
"This could become a problem," he thought to himself and turned his head a bit
to see his own reflection from the surface of the slightly rippling water he sat
in. "This isn't my body. This isn't what I was born to be. So why am I not
bothered by it anymore?" he asked himself, and after a moment of silence frowned
as he wasn't hearing any answers.
While theoretically he wouldn't have minded his current situation, better to be
comfortable with what he was if he were to spend the rest of his life it than
hate it to the end of days, but he wouldn't have been offended had he known more
about what he was. But where could he possibly find answers?
The area around the Jusenkyo had come out dry; there was nothing there. No
temples, no caves, no other magical springs, or any of the same categories. He
didn't even know what to look for.
It frustrated to him no end to constantly run into a wall and not find a way
out. To him it felt like he'd been trapped inside a giant maze that changed its
shape every time he turned around the next corner, and with the prize being
something he couldn't even recognize.
"I hate my life..." he muttered once more. "I've said that quite a lot lately,
haven't I?" the boy chuckled as he turned his gaze once more to the ceiling and
sighed.
"Oh well, it's not like things will get better on their own." He finally
concluded and decided he had enough of bathing and stood up to go and prepare
himself for the night, as if his instincts were right, things would heat up
tomorrow.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Somewhere in Tokyo, two shadowy figures passed through the night, unseen by the
pedestrians that were unaware of the passing pair of foreigners that were using
the rooftops to speed up their travelling.
The other was a small; almost troll like figure with long gnarled looking staff
and long hair that flowed behind it as it leapt from rooftop to rooftop. Behind
it came a larger figure, definitely a girl if the silhouette of her shadow was
anything to judge from.
"Great grandmother," the later whispered loudly, in Chinese, to the smaller
figure that stopped moving for a moment.
"What is it child?" asked the raspy, old voice that was barely audible.
The girl landed next to the troll like figure and knelt a bit as she spoke, "Are
you sure we will find my husband here? We have not seen a single trace of him
after he left the village." She sounded like she was starting to grow bit
desperate.
"Do not worry, my child, we will find your wayward husband in no time," assured
the old crone. "The reason why we haven't found him yet is that we had to wait
full three days for you to recover, remember?"
"Aiya! I remember, you don't need to remind me of that," the girl whined
pathetically and seemed to rub her belly for a moment. "Husband is very strong,
are you sure we can bring him back to the village?"
"Do not worry of that now, first we must find him, and then you must make him
officially your husband or this would become the first case in our three
thousand years of history where a female amazon lost a husband because she was
too busy being unconscious to give him the kiss of marriage," the old woman
continued, growing bit agitated at the end. "It would embarrass your mother
should you fail!" she continued bit hotly but then relaxed as she sighed heavily
and turned her gaze towards the heavens and made some warding signs, "Bless your
soul Xian-Fei."
"I won't fail!" the girl almost shouted and then quieted down as she noticed
that the people down the streets were beginning to look around them.
The old crone nodded approvingly, "Good, you'd better not, or I might go with my
original plan and marry you to that blind fool, Mut Zu." And with that said she
turned around and prepared to continue their journey. "Now come, we still have
some travelling to do, but I'm sure we will find son-in-law by tomorrow."
"How can you be so sure?" asked the girl as she took position beside her great
grandmother.
"Heh, the boy's aura has grown much stronger than what it had been when we first
saw him, now he is like a glowing beacon to those who can read peoples' auras,"
answered the older woman and then wordlessly jumped into the night once more.
"Aiya, wait for me!" the girl gasped and did her best to follow the older
woman's lead.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Where I am now?!" rang the familiar and angry voice of certain Ryoga Hibiki who
was, once again, terminally lost with no idea of where he was and how to get
where he wanted, where ever it was then.
"Damn it," the boy shouted angrily and stompped his foot on the road he was
standing on, causing several cracks to be formed there. "This all your fault
Ranma!!" he roared with his fist being clenched tightly towards the dark skies.
"Huh? When did the clouds come..." he muttered in confusion, but then realized
that he was about to get wet soon if he didn't act quickly. "Ack! Must get the
umbrella before its-bweeee..."
Now instead of one angry boy with strangely yellow bandana with black spots
standing in the middle of the road, there was a small angry pink little female
piglet with the very same bandana tied around its neck, a pile of clothes lying
next to it, a very large backpack and a unopened red bamboo umbrella.
"BWEEEEE!!" it squealed angrily towards the heavens, blaming whoever it was
blaming for the misfortune he had suffered.
"I'll get you for this Saotome!! You'll pay for the hell I've seen!" the little
piglet thought angrily, too busy to notice the black limousine that had stopped
right next to him or the little girl with long dark hair that was looking at it
with look of utter adoration shining from her eyes.
Only when it heard the diabolically cute voice of the girl in question, did he
have the sense to start running. "Charlotte!" the girl squealed with delight as
she gave chase to the little animal, in hopes of catching it and placing it
among its kind in her collection.
Yes, Azusa Shiratori had found yet another new cute thing that did not belong to
her but what she still wanted to own and would take as her property no matter
the cost.
"Aaaaargh! This is all your fault Ranma!!" the little piglet thought as it ran
for its life.
+++++++++++++++++++
End of chapter one
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Next chapter: "Shampoo find airen!" and "Ranma, prepare to die!!"
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Whew, I was on a row when I wrote this thing. Don't know how long it will take
me to write the next chapter but I'll be working on it as soon as I can. I've
got a job, so it's understandable if I don't have much time for writing. The
fact that I'm also one of the head members of a certain small anime otaku club
doesn't ease my burdens one bit either...
Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter and while I must admit it was trailing
pretty much behind the cannon version of Ranma1/2, but I assure you that in the
next chapter things will go into a whole different direction.
And thank you everybody for your support, I appreciate all comments and
suggestions you might have, but the later ones I'd like to have into my email
address rather on the review post tough, not that it matters much, but
still...it's a principle, not a rule. :P
This version of this chapter is the first and it may hold some great errors to
it, much due the reason that I wrote this thing mostly half asleep. So please,
if you find any, do not hesitate to report them to me. I'll try to find and fix
them on my own, but I could use some help.
Oh, and if anyone's interested being my pre-reader, do send me an email, you'll
find the address in the beginning of this chapter. I'll contact you as soon as
I can, but don't go expecting the next chapter 'too' soon...
-Goenitz
Special thanks go for Bjorn Ivar, for his opinion on the fight scene in the
prologue, I'll try to make them bit better in the future, and to Necratoid for
pointing out the few mistakes. No mistake is too small to be fixed people; I'm
trying to make as perfectly written story here as I can, so don't hesitate to
point out the errors or illogical phrases I might have made. English was never
my strong point, but as I said, I'm working on it.
Side note: I'm trying to start writing another fanfic at this one's side. It's a
NGE related and is called as the 'Through the Eyes of the Devil', where Shinji
is very much different from the original, both in appearance as in his
personality. I hope I can get it started before the next chapter of 'When Fates
Collide'...but I'm not making any promises!
Email: Leopold_Goenitz@hotmail.com
Author notes: Thanks for the replies people, I appreciate them and please do
keep them coming. I also wanted to tell you that while this chapter seems to go
along the original canon version, I assure you that it _will_ steer into a whole
different course...and to the repeated question whether Ranma is a Youkai or
not, the answer is...a secret. :P
Disclaimer: You know what is supposed to be here so I won't bother myself with
it...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(Ranma 1/2 - Alternative universe multicrossover fanfic story)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
When Fates Collide
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Chapter 1 - Here's Ranma!
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
It was raining again. Dark clouds hung heavily over the area of Tokyo that was
known as Nerima, the rain pouring down as if a dam had broken down somewhere in
heaven. The residents living in the district weren't disturbed by this however,
heavy rains, even abrupt ones, were very common...if not painfully frequent.
The duo walking down the streets of the southern section of this particular
district wouldn't have minded if would have been a dry day, tough. One of them
was a panda, at least currently, and another was a young man with black shoulder
length hair that was tied into a ponytail, dressed in black hakama and baggy
black Chinese robes with thick, dark red belt running around his waist. They
were both carrying large backpacks but only the boy had an umbrella, made from
simple bamboo that had been painted red.
"So like, how far is this old friend of yours?" asked the boy while glaring at
the panda.
"Not far," said the sign the animal had raised above its head and after few
seconds flipped it over with other words decorating its surface, "Only two or
three blocks from here."
"Oh, good. Because I don't wanna walk in this damn rain for the whole evening,"
the boy complained and glared at the clouds above.
"Stop complaining, it's not like you have anything to worry about anymore," said
the another sign the animal had pulled from somewhere, its eyes glaring at the
boy with small amount of bitterness.
The boy just snorted and ignored the looks he had been given. "Well at least you
can still go and look fully human for as long as you don't get hit by cold
water, I'm stuck as I am now," he thought darkly as he followed the animal's
lead.
In a short while they finally arrived to their destination, or what the boy
believed to be their stop if his father's reaction upon seeing the place was
anything to judge from. It was a large house with tall concrete fence running
around it and if the sign was telling the truth, someone was practicing an
Anything Goes Style in there.
"What's this pop? You never told me there were others practicing the same art as
we are," the boy said while pointing at the large sign that hung above the gate
doors with words, "Tendo Dojo Of Anything Goes School".
"Soun is an old friend of mine," the panda replied by flipping his sign again,
"He and I practiced under the same master."
"The one you keep moaning about in your dreams? Begging for mercy and stuff?"
snorted the boy, but then turned back to the subject he had intended. "Is this
friend of yours good at what he does and do you know if he has any students
worth my time?"
The panda seemed to be bit offended by the first remark but let it slide and
answered to the boy's question. "Soun was as good as I when we parted," flips a
sign, "So I believe his students must be as good as he was back then."
"So, in other words, not worth a dime," the boy said arrogantly and stepped
forth to open the gates. "Pop, you know as well as I know, that anyone who's as
good as you and not better, can't even hope to stand against me."
The panda glared at the boy with heated look in its eyes but didn't say anything
as it resigned itself just to follow the boy as he entered the inner grounds of
the Tendo household.
It was pretty nice place considering it was near Tokyo. It had several sakura
trees at the back and few at the sides, couple of bushes and flower batches
planted at the front. Not something you saw at every normal private home, but
then again, if the looks were anything go by, then the Tendo household was
anything but normal or usual.
The main building itself was quite large and if one went and took a look around
it, they would have seen a real life sized dojo built at the backyard. No, this
home was anything but normal.
"Hmm...I wonder what kind of people live in here," the boy muttered to himself
and let the panda pass him so that it could go and knock on the door and let the
residents know that they were there. He didn't bother to point it out to his
father that he was still in his panda form, as he had stopped caring after the
first three dozen times the fat fool had gotten himself into trouble this way.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Oooooh! That must be Ranma," exclaimed the middle Tendo daughter, Nabiki, who
had dressed into a nice dark green kimono that strangely reminded a one huge
thousand yen bill. She stood up from the rest of the family and rushed towards
the door with her father, Soun, following closely behind her.
"Saotome-san, finally!" Soun wept as he dashed after his daughter, it had over
ten years since he saw his old friend and it was already brining the good old
memories back. He was a tall, well over forty years old man, with long black
hair and trimmed moustaches.
"Oh, great...just when I was hoping that they wouldn't come," grumbled the
youngest of the Tendo family, namely Akane. She was the youngest of the three
Tendo daughters and was currently dressed in her white gi that she hadn't
bothered to go change yet. It was quite clear that she was angry about something
and that this something had everything to do with the people her older sister
and father were so anxiously waiting for.
Akane's eldest sister, Kasumi, just smiled sweetly as always from the other end
of the low table they had been sitting around when their father first announced
the little pact he and his old friend had made before anyone of them had been
even born.
But then her brooding was cut off by the terrified shriek from the door and the
sound of two people running back towards the living room. Akane jumped to her
feet and watched as Nabiki and Soun rushed from behind the hallway corner with
fearful looks on their faces.
"Oh my, what happened?" asked the eldest daughter as she stood up and went to
calm her father.
Soun didn't need to answer to that when the mass of soaking black and white fur
lumbered down the hallway. It was a panda, a very big, very fat, and very dirty
looking panda. "Oh my...."
The first thing the three daughters did was to push their father in between them
and the hulking animal, as none of them, not even Akane for the moment, believed
they were in any position in stopping it.
"Daddy, do something, don't let it just waltz in," Nabiki ordered her father
while trying to keep his stiffened body from falling to the floor. "You are a
martial artist aren't you?"
Akane seemed to be about to say something to that, but cut herself off when she
noticed that the animal was moving away from the hallway entry and that there
was a young looking man standing there now. "Who are you?"
The boy who was now at the center of the Tendo family's attention was a tall,
well built if the width of his shoulders was anything to judge from, mildly
handsome, and dressed in well concealing black Chinese robes that kept his hands
hidden inside the sleeves.
"Hi," the boy quipped almost casually and then turned to glare at the panda
before turning back to the slightly confused and terrified family. "Sorry about
this, we didn't mean to startle you or anything, and I know it's bit odd to ask
you this, but you wouldn't have any hot water nearby?"
"Why yes, wait here for a moment, I will get you some," replied the ever helpful
Kasumi that would have probably assisted even a burglar in finding their family
jewels had they had any.
The middle and the youngest Tendo daughter stared a bit after their eldest
sister but then turned to look back at the stranger and his odd pet. "Who are
you? And what are you doing here?!" Nabiki snapped and eyed at the boy warily,
she was finding her eyes locked onto his face which she was finding both
surprisingly attractive and bit strange for some reason.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself," the boy replied while scratching
his neck with embarrassed look on his face. "My name's Ranma, and when I get hot
water, I'll show you my old man. He had some business with you but I'm not quite
sure what yet," he said and turned to look at the large panda at his side.
"Y-You're Ranma, Ranma Saotome?" the Tendo patriarch asked, now surprisingly
lively again, there seemed to be some tears to be building up in his eyes too.
"Uh, yeah. What of it?" the boy said while edging away from the older man. He
was getting a strange feeling from the way Soun was looking at him and nearly
decked the man when he rushed in and took him into a bear hug.
"Waaaaaah! Finally the schools can be united!" Soun wept as he held the boy. He
had intended to pick up the boy and start dancing from joy, but had quickly
found out that he was unable to even budge the boy from his place and just
settled into hugging.
"What the...?" muttered the boy as he turned to look at the panda with a
questioning look. "Just what kind of crap have you pulled me into this time?"
The Tendo patriarch seemed to ignore this as he took place at the boy's side and
gestured at his daughters. "These are my daughters. That's Akane, she's sixteen,
and next to her is Nabiki, nineteen, and lastly Kasumi," he pointed at the
eldest daughter who was smilingly coming from out of the kitchen with small pail
of hot water in her hands, "Who is nineteen. Pick anyone you like."
"Pick? Why? Whatever for?" the boy asked dumbly as he continued to stare at the
three girls.
Akane was fuming angrily at the boy, clearly upset about something. Nabiki was
smiling like a cat that had just eaten the canary, something that made Ranma
feel very uncomfortable. And then there was Kasumi who just smiled and handed
him the water pail. "Here you go."
"Well, one of them is going to be your fiancée, son, you must choose one of
them," replied Soun who was completely oblivious to the way the boy's shoulder's
suddenly tensed.
"...Old man..." Ranma growled and gripped the pain in his hands with bit more
strength than he had intended, digging his one and a half inches long claws into
it as if it were made from paper. Then without a single warning he flung the
pail at the panda, immediately transforming it into its human form, and then
proceeded to grab his father from his gi collar before lifting him to the air.
"What the hell is he talking about, pop? Spit it out or I might start
considering skinning myself a panda rug!"
The Tendo family was mostly in shock after seeing the transformation, well
everybody except Kasumi who just blinked at the transformation and then
continued to smile cheerfully as she took her place around the table again.
"Listen boy, this is a matter of family honour," Genma stuttered as he fought to
release himself from his son's iron grip, but quickly finding it useless since
the boy had become far more stronger than he could have ever imagined. "This is
something Tendo and I agreed to almost twenty years ago, the schools must be
united through the marriage of our children!"
"Aaargh!" the boy roared in frustration, sounding surprisingly animalistic, and
immediately threw his fat father to the floor with almost enough strength to
make the floorboards to crack. "Honour this, honour that! I'm getting sick of
this old man!!" he continued and glared at his father who was trying to look
stern despite the obvious fear he had for his son. "You always use that damn
honour excuse to save your own ass, but today it ends! I'm not gona marry
someone I don't even know, just because of some stupid agreement you and old
friend made while probably being too drunk to even think straight!"
"Now look here boy..." Genma began but was promptly cut off when his son planted
a foot on his stomach.
"Shut up!" the boy shouted angrily and continued to drive his foot on the older
man's gut. "I don't even care to start counting how many times you've used me to
get off from some deal and feed that bottomless pit you call your stomach!!"
The Tendo family was just staring at the proceedings, well except Kasumi who was
starting to frown slightly disapprovingly at the boy's behaviour. It wasn't just
proper to come into someone else's home and start beating some poor man who
turned into a panda.
"Umm, daddy...are you sure these are the people you've been waiting for?" Nabiki
asked from her father after getting over the initial shock she had received from
seeing the Saotome patriarch turn back into human.
"Uh, I believe so..." Soun muttered, still slightly confused by all this, but
then seemed to snap out from it when he seemed to recognize his old friend.
"Genma? Is that truly you?!"
"Yes, ugh, now would mind helping me?!" the other man groaned from underneath
his son's foot who was still grinding him to the floor.
Luckily Soun didn't need to do anything as Ranma quickly seemed to grow bored
with what he was doing and just decided to kick his old man through the open
doorway that was standing beside them, and right into the large koi pond that
stood in the middle of the backyard.
"Ingrate!" said the sign the large panda was holding up once it resurfaced from
the pond, glaring daggers at the boy who had thrown it in there.
"Complain all you want, old man, I won't go with this idiotic agreement just
because you say so!" shouted the boy.
For a moment Genma seemed to be ready to explode, but then stopped and took
rather disturbing smile on its face as it produced another sing from behind its
back. "Your mother also agreed to this, boy."
"What? Mom..." the boy gasped and staggered back as if given a slap. "...I...she
wouldn't..." he muttered but then just stomped his foot on the floor. "Damn!!
Fine, I'll go with this, but only if they're going with it too!" the boy shouted
and gestured towards the three girls. "If they don't want this, then I believe
we can all just forget about this!"
"I'm not going to marry some stupid boy!" Akane spat angrily and almost hit her
fist on the table but was stopped by her eldest sister's calming hand.
"Oh, then what were you intending to marry, sis? A girl perhaps?" Nabiki quipped
calmly as she eyed her sister.
"Ack! No, of course not and you know it Nabiki!" Akane shouted back at her
sister with her cheeks burning completely red. "I want a man, a real man, not
some...boy!"
Nabiki smiled at this, she had been just teasing her sister, but now her
attention was fully back at their guests. The boy was obviously someone that her
eyes could get used to look at, but she wasn't quite sure if she wanted to share
her life with him just with one day's experience and she surely didn't want to
hitch her older sister with someone whom they barely knew, and so she came up
with a plan.
"Daddy, can I suggest something?" she said as she stood up and walked next to
Ranma. "Since Ranma here is so considerate as to think about our opinion too,
I'd like to propose that he spends some time with us before any one of us
decides whether to, or not to marry him."
"I..." Soun muttered and glanced at his transformed friend, or whom he believed
to be his old friend Genma, and then turned back to his daughter. "I guess
so..." Even Genma seemed to agree to this, albeit slightly reluctantly if the
frown on his fur covered face was anything to tell from.
"Is two weeks enough?" asked Nabiki as she turned around to face the boy who was
now just staring at her with what look of utter confusion.
"Um, I guess so..." the boy replied, clearly unsure what to think right now.
"...if that's what you want," he added and turned his face to look at the rest
of the Tendo daughters. Akane just huffed and turned away from him while Kasumi
just smiled and nodded approvingly towards Nabiki.
"Great, then it's a deal," Nabiki quipped. She was pretty sure she could get her
and her sisters off the hook if the boy proved to be anything but ideal fiancé,
or at least hook him up with Akane if the worst came to be. But then her
attention was turned back to Genma, who was now standing at the porch with
slightly annoyed look on his face. "And if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to hear
an explanation to why your father turns into a panda," she added and pointed at
the large animal.
"Well, it's a long story, so I suggest we all sit down," the boy sighed as he
eyed at his father and then moved towards the table before addressing the eldest
Tendo daughter, "And if you could, I think my old man would appreciate if
someone brought some more hot water to him so that he could change back into his
normal form again."
Kasumi just nodded and happily went to pick up the fallen pail before rushing
into the kitchen. Meanwhile rest were setting themselves around the table,
including Genma who had grown slightly less agitated than what he had been few
moments before.
"Well, where should I begin?" muttered the boy while crossing his arms, slipping
both of his hands into the sleeves as he did this. He turned to look at his
father and decided that perhaps the Jusenkyo was the best place to start...
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
About an hour or so later...
"...so your father turns into a panda whenever he comes into contact with cold
water and back into human when its hot, right?" asked Nabiki.
"That's about it," Ranma nodded. He had let his old man tell most of the story,
but had added a few details to whenever the fat fool had tried to skip the parts
like how they had ignored the guide, or not having even bothered to learn what
the description about Jusenkyo had really meant before going there.
"And you fell into spring too?" asked the same girl as she peered at the boy
suspiciously. "Then, what you turn into? A panda too?" She didn't like the idea
and was already considering dumping the engagement to her little sister, as she
surely had no intentions of sharing the rest of her life with someone who turned
into a panda occasionally.
"Yes, and no, I do not turn into a panda," the boy answered calmly. "If it's the
curse you wish to see, then I can inform you that its what you're looking at
right now." To elaborate his words he pulled his hands out from the sleeves and
showed the confused looking girls his rather distinctive finger nails.
Everybody except Kasumi and Genma started dumbly at the claws and gasped when
they saw them stick out even further, now curving full three and a half inches.
"Wha-What are you?" Akane asked with slight wavering in her voice, while she
might have hated Ranma for just being a boy, she was still slightly disturbed by
what she was seeing.
"I dunno," the boy said and shrugged his shoulders almost casually, "I stopped
being worrying about it too much after I realized that nobody didn't seem to
notice the differences in me as long as I didn't act strangely."
"Uh, sorry to interrupt, but if the curses are reversible with hot water, then
why haven't you turned back into human yet? There's plenty of hot water in the
kitchen you know..." Nabiki pointed out while gesturing at the now empty pail
that was sitting next to Genma.
This caused the boy to hung his head a bit. He turned to look at his father with
slightly hateful look, as if considering if he should punch him or not, but then
just turned back to the girl who had last spoken and sighed. "Well, ya' see...it
aint that simple in my case," he began and retracted his claws back into their
original size. "Hot water doesn't work with me, I don't know why and neither did
the guy who worked as a guide at the springs. I don't know what I am, I doubt
nobody does, and I don't think its something I'll be bothering myself as long as
I doesn't start sprouting a pair of antennas from my head."
"So, are there any other deformities we should know about?" the middle Tendo
daughter ventured.
"Hmm...well I guess there are the ears," Ranma replied and pulled some of the
hair up from the right side of his head to show his pointed ears that were
slightly longer than normal human's. "And then there's the eyes of course."
"Eyes?" Nabiki muttered along with her younger sister, both of them seemingly
only now taking notice of the rather odd golden tint the boy had in his irises,
and after that they noticed the silt pupils too. "They're like cat's..." Nabiki
gasped.
Ranma seemed to shudder for a short instant when the last word was said but
didn't say anything to it. "Well yeah, that's about it. It isn't so difficult to
live like this, but it's sometimes a real pain when you can't wear any socks or
shoes beside sandals thanks to these damn claws," he grumbled and showed one of
his foots that had been well hidden underneath his black hakama. There were
similar claws there on his toes and he had on his fingers, only slightly
shorter.
"Well, your problem isn't so bad," Soun smiled and patted the boy on the back.
"I'm sure you'll find a cure on your problem in time. All you need to
concentrate for the following weeks is to decide whom do you wish to marry."
The boy levelled the man with a glare but didn't say anything, as he knew it to
be futile. Then he turned his gaze towards Nabiki and frowned a bit, she was
obviously the bright one in the family and if his instincts were anything to
trust at, she would be the one whom he would be willing to bet on if he wanted
someone's help to get out from this mess with as little damage as possible.
Nabiki noticed the boy's look and nodded understandingly. "It seems that he and
I are on the same wave length," she mentally mused to herself and let a small
smile fall on her lips before she stood up. "Well, if this is settled, then I
believe we should go and get some rest. It's a school day tomorrow and at least
I need to sleep before that," she said and began to move towards the hallway,
but not before giving her family's younger guest a meaningful look.
Ranma noticed this but didn't reply in any way and just sat there, intending to
contact the middle daughter when nobody else was watching or listening. He just
hoped he hadn't misinterpreted the look, as while he might have agreed to the
deal, he really didn't wish to be engaged to anyone at this point.
Akane just fumed where she sat, she really didn't like the idea of allowing the
boy to stay at _her_ home for whole two weeks, just so that he could decide whom
he would marry. She really hoped the boy wouldn't choose her, but she knew that
all boy's were perverts and from her experience they all wanted a girl like her,
so with her logic his obvious choice would be of course her, and that wouldn't
just do.
"I'm not going to marry you," the girl stated firmly as she stood up and glared
at the boy, "So keep your perverted hands and mind to yourself." And then she
stomped out from the room and headed towards the dojo where she intended to
break some more bricks to vent out her frustration.
"Oh boy, well at least she has made up her mind about the engagement," thought
Ranma as he watched after the girl. Of course Soun and Genma seemed to take this
in completely different way and began to smile ridiculously with both of them
fanning victory sings. The boy just blinked at this but didn't say anything as
this was the point where Kasumi saw it being her cue to point out the guests to
their room.
"Come with me and I will show you to our guestroom," said the girl as she stood
up and smoothed out her light green housewife dress that seemed to be slightly
unflattering for a young woman like her who hadn't been even married yet. Ranma
just nodded and went on to follow the girl, in the process picking up his
backpack from the hallway entrance where had left it when he first came, and
then continuing to the stairs.
"And if you would like, I could prepare the furo for you if you would like,"
Kasumi added while smiling sweetly. Ranma wasn't sure, but he was starting to
get the feeling the girl was always like this and that she probably didn't have
it all pieced together inside her head.
"Uh, sure, if it isn't trouble or anything," the boy replied tentatively as he
continued to follow her.
The girl nodded happily and continued to lead the way to the medium sized room
that was in the other end of the second floor. "Here you go," she said as she
opened the door and allowed the boy to enter, "I will go and heat the water, but
it will take some time before it is ready, so if you like you can go and use the
dojo in the meantime if you wish."
Ranma just nodded and waited for the girl to close the door and leave before he
settled his backpack the floor. He frowned as he looked around him, it was a
sparse room, no furniture whatsoever, only a few cabinets that had been built
into the wall and a single window at the other end of the room that had been
built so that it would allow the sun to shine directly into the room first thing
the morning.
But as a whole, the room was more than enough on his opinion. He hadn't intended
to stay here for long and it was still better than sleeping outside with only
the sleeping bag and the hard ground under his back.
For a moment he considered going to the dojo to work up some sweat and went to
set his backpack to one of the far corners of the room, but stopped abruptly.
"What the...?" the boy muttered as he turned around. His eyes roamed around the
room wildly, as if looking for something specific, but then suddenly stopped as
the feeling he had just disappeared. "What was that?" he muttered and touched
his chest.
For a moment there had been a sudden strong pull inside his chest, as if someone
had tried to grasp his heart and take it away, but what had been even weirder
was that it hadn't felt unpleasant or even forceful. It reminded him more of a
gentle tug than anything else, but was still enough to disturb him. Ranma didn't
know enough about his new body yet, and it seemed that he was discovering new
things about it everyday, even after he had lived with it for the past two
months.
At first he thought of going to investigate if he could locate the source of the
disturbance, he had the strange feeling that it had been moving, whatever it
was, but then decided against it. It wasn't worth going after something he
didn't know and it was already getting late, not that it would have troubled him
at all. He had discovered a few weeks back that he could see in the dark almost
as clearly as during the day, only slightly differently.
But before he could think of the matter any further, he picked up a noise from
the door and for a moment expected to see his father but then realized that the
scent was wrong. "Nabiki, I believe," he said before the door was even fully
opened, and smirked when he saw the girl in question standing at the doorway
with slightly surprised look on her face. His abilities to see, hear, and smell
had grown quite sensitive during the time had spent in his new form and it was
beginning to show.
"My, good guess Saotome," she smiled and stepped into the room before closing
the door behind her back. "But I didn't come here for a social call. I guess
that if the way you behaved downstairs was anything to judge from, you're not
too happy about this arrangement and wish to get out of it without too much of a
fuzz, correct?"
Ranma merely nodded at this and crossed his hands into his sleeves again before
settling down to the floor. "I had considered talking to you, but not before I
could assure myself that there would not be any eavesdroppers," the boy said and
gestured the girl to take a seat.
"Well, this is a good time if any to talk," Nabiki replied but did not move away
from the doorway. "Do you have anything in particular in mind of how to defuse
this situation or were you waiting for me to come up with something?"
"Perhaps the later one. I was never good at plotting, but I'm willing to give
all the help you need to pull off whatever you're planning to do to get us all
off the hook," the boy replied honestly.
Nabiki smiled at this. "At least he's honest," she thought and began to move
closer, her eyes examining the boy before her.
"Ok, so you really don't want this marriage deal, right?" she asked while
keeping her eyes firmly locked on the boy's. Truth to be told, she wouldn't have
minded too much to be engaged to him if anyone had asked her right now. He
wasn't half bad looking and if he proved to have a brain on his shoulders, he
might prove himself to be an ideal fiancé despite his few deformities.
"Yeah, I don't wanna ruin any of your lives by forcing myself on you or onto one
of your sisters," the boy replied. "As who would want to live with a freak like
me for the rest of their lifetime?"
"Don't be too harsh on yourself, Saotome," Nabiki sighed and shook her head at
him. "You're far cry from unattractive if you wish to me to put it bluntly, but
I can understand where you're getting at. You don't know what you are yet and it
makes you insecure when dealing with other people and their expectations, right?"
"Um, yeah, something like that," answered the boy as he tried figure out if the
girl in front of him had just complimented him or not. "And then there's the
fact that I'm still trying to find a cure to this damn thing and that means that
I won't probably stay here for very long, whether I'll get engaged or not, to
any of you."
"I see," replied the middle Tendo as she began to think about the different
possibilities of how to clear the mess her father and his friend created. It
was, however, too early for her to decide whether he wanted to get to know the
boy or not, and she was pretty sure neither of her sisters were interested on
him, and thus she decided to take the easiest alternative, a time out. She
needed time to think before she would make any kind of decision.
"Let me think for a day or two, I'll try to come up with something by then. But
don't hold your breath, I won't make any promises," she said and winked an eye
at him.
Ranma just blinked at this but didn't say anything as she began to move away.
She didn't stop moving until she came to the door where she turned around and
looked at him straight into the eyes, as if considering something, and then just
closed the door without another word.
"Huh, what was that all about?" the boy thought in confusion as he stood up and
for a moment considered asking about it, but then decided it was just another
thing about girls he would never understand and let the mater drop.
He looked around him and realized that there was probably still plenty of time
before the furo was ready and decided to go to the dojo as he had originally
intended. And so, without any further ado, he went on and left the room in his
search for the desired area of the household.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In the meantime, there was a small three headed group of girls walking down the
darkening streets of Nerima, not too far from the Tendo home. All them were
dressed casually, plain long sleeved shirts and knee height skirts, and it was
obvious that they weren't trying to stand out in a crowd.
They had just left from one of their mutual friend's home and were having fun as
they reviewed what had happened during their stay in there. Well, everybody
except the one with the long black hair who was constantly glancing over her
shoulder, but not looking anything in particular, tough.
"Kagome-chan, is something wrong?" asked one of her friends, she had a short
brown bowl cut hair and dark blue clothes. "You've been acting bit distracted
all evening."
"It's nothing," Kagome assured with a smile that wasn't very convincing. "I'm
all right."
"We're not buying that Kagome, spit it out. You can tell your friends, now can't
you?" asked the other girl who was now trailing between the two others, her hair
was black also but liked to keep in a twin ponytails that cascaded to the middle
of her back.
"I said it's nothing," Kagome replied once more, this time bit more forcefully.
"I just had this strange feeling there was something strong...and dark somewhere
near here," she muttered to herself, but enough loud to make her friends hear it.
"Oooh, is our little Kagome-chan becoming a spiritualist?" asked one of her
friends with a mock tone. "Maybe you've been living too long near that old
shrine your grandfather has been holding up. You better be careful if you keep
this up, you'll end up being an old maid before you even turn into thirty."
"Hey, that's not funny!" shouted the black haired girl and gave chase to her two
giggling friends. "Get back here and I'll show you who's an old maid!"
"Nyah, nyah, you must catch us first!" the two other girls taunted while staying
few feet from Kagome's reach.
Soon they all forgot all about the event and let it disappear into their
memories as if it had never happened...
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Spar?" Ranma muttered dumbly while looking at the youngest Tendo daughter whom
he had caught in the middle of breaking a stack of bricks. A large pile of their
broken predecessors was lying in a large pile right next to it.
"Yes, weren't you supposed to have been training for ten years or something,"
Akane replied with slightly annoyed tone. "Dad told us that you went all the way
to China and all, don't you think you could show me what you've learned?" she
continued.
Akane was getting annoyed with the boy, or rather with the way he behaved. He
wasn't acting like any other boy she had come in contact outside her school and
it was ticking her off, and to add gasoline into the fire, it also seemed that
the boy wasn't considering her to be even worth his time.
"Naw, you'd just get hurt," the boy replied calmly as he shook his head and
began to move away. He didn't wish to fight with her since he knew that she
wasn't even close to his level, or the level where he had been when he had still
been completely human.
"What?!" the long haired girl exclaimed and rushed after the boy, intending to
knock some respect into his thick skull. "You think you're so much better than
me?"
The boy didn't say anything at first, and seemed to be just walking away, but in
reality he was well aware of Akane's position and turned around just when she
was about to hit him into the head and grabbed her wrist before she could strike
him. "No, I know I am," he replied calmly as ever and let the girl go, but
didn't move an inch from where he stood.
"Why you..." Akane growled, her hands clenching tightly at her sides with the
familiar red haze starting to build up inside her mind. "If you're so sure, then
why don't you prove it? Or are you scared that I might prove you wrong?" Her
tone was slightly smug and taunting, she was dying to beat up this up-star boy.
Ranma frowned, he had not intended to fight the girl with his previous
experience in the amazon village still deeply imprinted on his mind, but this
one was really starting to crawl under his skin. "Fine, lets see what you got,"
he said and walked past the girl and into the middle of the large tatami that
covered most of the dojo's floor.
Akane blinked at the boy's behaviour at first, not so sure anymore if she had
made the right decision, but quickly let it slide and went after the boy to take
her place on the mat. As after all, she was the best there was in Nerima, so
there was nothing for her to worry about, right?
Ranma made a small formal bow to his opponent and took his position, "We'll
start when you give the signal."
Akane nodded and gave her own curt bow to him and prepared herself. "Now!" she
shouted not too long after she had settled down, hoping to catch the boy with
surprise, he had been standing rather lazily, and thus she was rather surprised
to see him stepping away from her fast snap kick with almost casual air to him.
Then she came down with a quick follow up roundhouse kick that usually worked on
all those stupid boys at her school, but again she felt nothing but air against
her foot. "What?" she mentally gasped and watched with wide eyes at the boy who
was just standing there with a bored look on his face, his right hand being busy
digging his ear.
"Is that the best you can do?" the boy asked as he looked at the girl through
his narrowed eyes. "I don't have time for beginners, spar with my old man if you
wish to take on someone you can at least begin to start comparing yourself to."
"What?! Are you telling me I'm not good enough for you, is that it?!" the girl
screamed angrily and tried to lash at the boy with careless haymaker that missed
its target with wide margin.
"Slow, poorly coordinated, telegraphing moves, poor control over emotions..."
the boy listed while counting his fingers. Then he suddenly stopped and moved to
block the girl's next attempt to knock him down with a high kick, swiftly
snaring her ankle before she could pull it back.
"Sorry, I was wrong about you," he said calmly as he stared at the stupefied
looking girl, "You're not a beginner. You're a novice at best, if even that."
"What? How dare you?!" the girl screeched as she tried to tear her leg off from
his grip, but quickly found it to be too firm for her to escape. "Damn you! Let
go of me you jerk!!"
"Ok," the boy replied while shrugging his shoulders, promptly letting the girl
go much to her surprise and thus leaving her poorly balanced.
By the time her rear hit the floor, Akane had filled her mind with nothing but
utter humiliation, and that was what triggered her built up rage. "You stupid
perverted jerk! I'll get you for that!!" she screamed as she stood up and once
more attacked the boy whom she so confidently believed to be in the area of her
experience and skill. Unfortunately it wasn't so.
By simply leaning back Ranma had avoided the roundhouse kick that he had seen a
mile away, and then by stepping back he dodged the wide leg sweep he could have
avoided in his sleep. He knew, he had once done it. "Come on, let's stop this
before you get hurt," Ranma pleaded, but the smirk on his face worked only to
ruin his sincerity.
"Just shut up and die!" the girl cried angrily and lashed with yet another kick
that could have easily destroyed a concrete wall, but this time it met nothing
but air while her other leg was neatly swept from underneath her, promptly
sending her on her back with loud thud.
Ranma had to fight back the urge to snicker when he saw the girl's face when she
just laid there on her back with her eyes staring at the ceiling, the expression
was what could be described only as utter surprised.
"Hey, now look here. I'm sure you've probably noticed it by now, but there's now
way you can defeat me, so let's just stop it here, ok?" he said and even offered
a hand for her. But instead of accepting it she angrily swat it aside and almost
jumped on him.
"Stop dodging and fight!" the girl screamed angrily and threw another wild punch
at her opponent who almost casually swat it aside with a backhand slap to her
wrist.
"Why? I might break something," retorted the boy as he parried another punch. He
wasn't moving anymore, just standing there with lazy look on his face as he
continued to redirect her strikes as if he were swatting flies. In reality,
Ranma was pretty impressed with the strength the girl had, only that amazon girl
he had fought back in the village came to the same par as Akane.
"Damn you! Damn you!" Akane kept repeating as she tried to hammer the impudent
boy the ground. She couldn't understand what she was doing wrong, it was like
she was trying to grasp her own shadow every time she attacked.
Ranma saw that this 'spar' was not leading anywhere, and soon came down with the
decision that perhaps it would be fore the best if he gave the girl what she
needed and ended the match.
In that fracture of a second that Ranma moved, all that Akane could see was all
a blur. She never knew how he had done it, but the next thing she knew to be
happening to her, was the feeling of someone grabbing her right hand wrist and
then the tremendous pull that made her fly of her feet and get slammed to the
tatami like a puppet with its strings cut off.
Without wasting a moment, Ranma had thrown the girl face down to the mat and now
had her both arms behind her back with he himself sitting on top of them with
his both hands firmly around her wrists. "Do you yield?" he asked, not even a
hint of emotion in his voice. He was tired of playing and he didn't wish to
prolong this event any further.
"No I won't! And let go of me you pervert!!" Akane screamed from the floor as
she tried to squirm out from his grasp, but finding it quite futile in a few
moments as she realized that her both arms were quite firmly locked in place and
all that she could really do was kick her feet on the floor and act like a
complete retard.
"You lost, accept it Akane," said the boy as he increased the pressure he was
putting on the girl's back. "You wanted me to fight back and so I did, here's
the result. Are you happy now?"
"Shut up! I haven't lost yet!" the girl screamed angrily and continued to
struggle against his hold on her.
A deep frown came down on Ranma's face as he looked at the girl's back, and for
a moment he had to resist the urge to just punch her unconscious, but then
decided against it. It had begun to bother him lately that he no longer felt as
much apprehension in using violence as he had in the past, and he was getting
worried it had something to do with his new body.
"Fine, then lets do it the hard way," replied the boy and moved Akane's hands so
that he could keep them locked in place with one hand, and then proceeded to
pull off her gi belt.
"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing you pervert!?" the girl screamed
and increased her struggles when she felt the boy slip his hand underneath her
waist and pull her belt off.
Without saying anything the boy pulled up her wrists, tied the belt around them,
and then pulled each of her ankles up so that he could do the same to them, thus
resulting a one reverse-hogtied girl. "There," he said as he stood up and dusted
off his hands. "I hope you've learned your lesson."
"What? Hey, untie me damn it!" Akane screamed from her undignified position.
"Don't leave me like this you pervert!!"
"Whatever," was all that Ranma said as he casually walked away from the scene.
He made sure to close the door as he left, he didn't wish to give the girl a
cold with the way she was bound on the floor, and also to silence the row of
curses that she was throwing after him.
"She really needs to start learning how to control that temper of hers," he
thought tiredly and moved away form the dojo, intending to go and see whether
the bath was ready now.
From the second floor window, one that had a clear view to the dojo, Nabiki was
looking oddly at the boy and the curses she had been hearing for a moment.
"Hmm...I better go and check that nothing bad happened," she mused to herself
and stopped doing her evening preparations.
In the stairway she met Ranma and the boy just nodded at her and pointed his
thumb towards the dojo. "Don't worry, I didn't hurt her, just maybe her pride,
but she'll get over it. Tough, I think she'd appreciate it if you'd let her go,
I won't do it since she would just go try to bite my head off."
Nabiki looked at the boy bit oddly but then as he just moved up into the second
floor and obviously towards the furo, she too decided to move on and go and see
what he had done to her sister to make her curse so loud. On her way she met
Kasumi, who had also heard the rather improper choice of words that Akane had
used to describe Ranma.
"Oh my, I wonder what is wrong with her," the eldest Tendo daughter said with
her hand in front of her mouth and a worried look on her face.
"Don't worry sis, I'll go and check up on her," Nabiki assured and put on her
slippers that had been standing next to the entrance way that lead from the main
building to the dojo, and quickly moved towards the source of the steady stream
of cursing that her little sister was still throwing.
What she saw was more than what she could take, and in a matter of moments she
was holding her sides with loud laughter coming from her throat. "Bwahahahaaa!!"
"Damn it sis! This isn't funny! Untie me so that I can go and beat that
perverted freak!!" Akane screamed from the floor where she was still lying, her
hands and legs firmly tied behind her back.
"I doubt that's a good idea Akane, if he was able to do this to you now, what
makes you think you'd do any better on the next try?" Nabiki retorted with a
tired, if not a bit amused tone. "Really Akane, you heard what daddy said.
Ranma's father has been training him from ever since he could walk and they've
been visiting places we haven't probably even heard of, so did you really think
you were better than him?"
At first Akane was about say something, but then wisely decided shut herself up
about it and save her breath. She was positive she would get another chance with
the boy later.
Nabiki smiled and nodded at this. Then moved in to remove the simple and yet
firm knot that Ranma had made to bound her little sister the way he had. "I have
to admit that the boy does at least have a sense of humour," she thought to
herself and fought down the urge to laugh again.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In the furo...
It felt like heaven to Ranma when he fully submerged into the hot water and let
it soothe his skin and muscles. It had been ages since he last had a bath and it
was a small miracle that he hadn't started to reek too badly yet.
"Aaah, now this is something I could get used to," he mused to himself as he
relaxed his head across the small pool's edge. But then his blissful look turned
into more serious as he raised his hand up to meet his eyes, his eyes once more
focusing into the claws that he had become so familiar with in the past weeks.
They didn't bother him as much as they had in the beginning, he never wore
gloves so it wasn't much of a loss on his opinion and people did not tend to
notice them as long as he kept his hands well hidden inside his sleeves. But
that wasn't exactly the main issue, no.
What had begun to bother Ranma as a whole, not just the claws, was his current
form. He didn't know what he was now and that he the things wasn't supposed to
be the way they were, and yet he was becoming more and more comfortable with his
new form with each passing day...no, it wasn't just that. He was becoming more
than comfortable with his form; he had started to like it.
"This could become a problem," he thought to himself and turned his head a bit
to see his own reflection from the surface of the slightly rippling water he sat
in. "This isn't my body. This isn't what I was born to be. So why am I not
bothered by it anymore?" he asked himself, and after a moment of silence frowned
as he wasn't hearing any answers.
While theoretically he wouldn't have minded his current situation, better to be
comfortable with what he was if he were to spend the rest of his life it than
hate it to the end of days, but he wouldn't have been offended had he known more
about what he was. But where could he possibly find answers?
The area around the Jusenkyo had come out dry; there was nothing there. No
temples, no caves, no other magical springs, or any of the same categories. He
didn't even know what to look for.
It frustrated to him no end to constantly run into a wall and not find a way
out. To him it felt like he'd been trapped inside a giant maze that changed its
shape every time he turned around the next corner, and with the prize being
something he couldn't even recognize.
"I hate my life..." he muttered once more. "I've said that quite a lot lately,
haven't I?" the boy chuckled as he turned his gaze once more to the ceiling and
sighed.
"Oh well, it's not like things will get better on their own." He finally
concluded and decided he had enough of bathing and stood up to go and prepare
himself for the night, as if his instincts were right, things would heat up
tomorrow.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Somewhere in Tokyo, two shadowy figures passed through the night, unseen by the
pedestrians that were unaware of the passing pair of foreigners that were using
the rooftops to speed up their travelling.
The other was a small; almost troll like figure with long gnarled looking staff
and long hair that flowed behind it as it leapt from rooftop to rooftop. Behind
it came a larger figure, definitely a girl if the silhouette of her shadow was
anything to judge from.
"Great grandmother," the later whispered loudly, in Chinese, to the smaller
figure that stopped moving for a moment.
"What is it child?" asked the raspy, old voice that was barely audible.
The girl landed next to the troll like figure and knelt a bit as she spoke, "Are
you sure we will find my husband here? We have not seen a single trace of him
after he left the village." She sounded like she was starting to grow bit
desperate.
"Do not worry, my child, we will find your wayward husband in no time," assured
the old crone. "The reason why we haven't found him yet is that we had to wait
full three days for you to recover, remember?"
"Aiya! I remember, you don't need to remind me of that," the girl whined
pathetically and seemed to rub her belly for a moment. "Husband is very strong,
are you sure we can bring him back to the village?"
"Do not worry of that now, first we must find him, and then you must make him
officially your husband or this would become the first case in our three
thousand years of history where a female amazon lost a husband because she was
too busy being unconscious to give him the kiss of marriage," the old woman
continued, growing bit agitated at the end. "It would embarrass your mother
should you fail!" she continued bit hotly but then relaxed as she sighed heavily
and turned her gaze towards the heavens and made some warding signs, "Bless your
soul Xian-Fei."
"I won't fail!" the girl almost shouted and then quieted down as she noticed
that the people down the streets were beginning to look around them.
The old crone nodded approvingly, "Good, you'd better not, or I might go with my
original plan and marry you to that blind fool, Mut Zu." And with that said she
turned around and prepared to continue their journey. "Now come, we still have
some travelling to do, but I'm sure we will find son-in-law by tomorrow."
"How can you be so sure?" asked the girl as she took position beside her great
grandmother.
"Heh, the boy's aura has grown much stronger than what it had been when we first
saw him, now he is like a glowing beacon to those who can read peoples' auras,"
answered the older woman and then wordlessly jumped into the night once more.
"Aiya, wait for me!" the girl gasped and did her best to follow the older
woman's lead.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Where I am now?!" rang the familiar and angry voice of certain Ryoga Hibiki who
was, once again, terminally lost with no idea of where he was and how to get
where he wanted, where ever it was then.
"Damn it," the boy shouted angrily and stompped his foot on the road he was
standing on, causing several cracks to be formed there. "This all your fault
Ranma!!" he roared with his fist being clenched tightly towards the dark skies.
"Huh? When did the clouds come..." he muttered in confusion, but then realized
that he was about to get wet soon if he didn't act quickly. "Ack! Must get the
umbrella before its-bweeee..."
Now instead of one angry boy with strangely yellow bandana with black spots
standing in the middle of the road, there was a small angry pink little female
piglet with the very same bandana tied around its neck, a pile of clothes lying
next to it, a very large backpack and a unopened red bamboo umbrella.
"BWEEEEE!!" it squealed angrily towards the heavens, blaming whoever it was
blaming for the misfortune he had suffered.
"I'll get you for this Saotome!! You'll pay for the hell I've seen!" the little
piglet thought angrily, too busy to notice the black limousine that had stopped
right next to him or the little girl with long dark hair that was looking at it
with look of utter adoration shining from her eyes.
Only when it heard the diabolically cute voice of the girl in question, did he
have the sense to start running. "Charlotte!" the girl squealed with delight as
she gave chase to the little animal, in hopes of catching it and placing it
among its kind in her collection.
Yes, Azusa Shiratori had found yet another new cute thing that did not belong to
her but what she still wanted to own and would take as her property no matter
the cost.
"Aaaaargh! This is all your fault Ranma!!" the little piglet thought as it ran
for its life.
+++++++++++++++++++
End of chapter one
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Next chapter: "Shampoo find airen!" and "Ranma, prepare to die!!"
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Whew, I was on a row when I wrote this thing. Don't know how long it will take
me to write the next chapter but I'll be working on it as soon as I can. I've
got a job, so it's understandable if I don't have much time for writing. The
fact that I'm also one of the head members of a certain small anime otaku club
doesn't ease my burdens one bit either...
Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter and while I must admit it was trailing
pretty much behind the cannon version of Ranma1/2, but I assure you that in the
next chapter things will go into a whole different direction.
And thank you everybody for your support, I appreciate all comments and
suggestions you might have, but the later ones I'd like to have into my email
address rather on the review post tough, not that it matters much, but
still...it's a principle, not a rule. :P
This version of this chapter is the first and it may hold some great errors to
it, much due the reason that I wrote this thing mostly half asleep. So please,
if you find any, do not hesitate to report them to me. I'll try to find and fix
them on my own, but I could use some help.
Oh, and if anyone's interested being my pre-reader, do send me an email, you'll
find the address in the beginning of this chapter. I'll contact you as soon as
I can, but don't go expecting the next chapter 'too' soon...
-Goenitz
Special thanks go for Bjorn Ivar, for his opinion on the fight scene in the
prologue, I'll try to make them bit better in the future, and to Necratoid for
pointing out the few mistakes. No mistake is too small to be fixed people; I'm
trying to make as perfectly written story here as I can, so don't hesitate to
point out the errors or illogical phrases I might have made. English was never
my strong point, but as I said, I'm working on it.
Side note: I'm trying to start writing another fanfic at this one's side. It's a
NGE related and is called as the 'Through the Eyes of the Devil', where Shinji
is very much different from the original, both in appearance as in his
personality. I hope I can get it started before the next chapter of 'When Fates
Collide'...but I'm not making any promises!