Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and it's characters are the product and property of rumiko takahashi and viz video.
A Bengal Tale
By Michael Fetter
"This be the legendary training grounds of Jusenkyo. But very dangerous. Should not be used again for there is-" The guide was continuing his warning but the two martial artists were no longer paying attention. They moved further down the valley until they were at the edge of the nearest spring. From here they could see a field of springs with poles sticking out of them.
"It's just a balance training ground. What's so legendary about this?" Asked the young girl wearing a yellow gi. Her long black hair was set into a long braid, bouncing at her lower back. She had the hardened features of someone who had spent many years training and living on the road. It had cut away much of the baby fat and left behind a lean, muscular, and attractive young woman.
The older man at her side was studying the training grounds, but shrugged. "I have no idea. I remember the name from somewhere, but I can't recall where. Oh well, if we fall we just get a little wet." Akane nodded at her father's observation. He was in his mid forties, heavy mustache, and long black hair set in a ponytail. Soun had decided to take his daughter on training trips now that he didn't have to worry about his other daughters in Japan. Akane had expressed an interest in the Art and she was the only fit heir to the Tendo School of Anything Goes martial arts. He had gotten the idea to begin training her from his old friend Genma.
Genma was somewhere out in the world with his son on a ten-year training trip. His son, Ranma, is the heir to the Saotome-Ryuu School of Anything Goes martial arts and as such, Genma felt it necessary to take the boy away from his mother and have him become the greatest martial artist in the world. Soun applauded Genma's steadfastness to the Art, but with Nodoka, Genma's wife, at his home, he began to wonder if such a long trip was wise. Soun didn't want his daughter to grow up without a normal education so he kept his training trips to no longer than a few months at the most. He had taken Akane on at least two each year since she was ten-years-old.
Making a few quick stretches, Akane checked her position on the field. "You ready, dad?"
Soun nodded and they jumped onto the poles. The Chinese guide had moved off some time ago, saying there were some other people waiting for him at the lodge. Soun thanked the man and offered him a tip for the service. Now standing on top of the poles, Akane and Soun began to size each other up as they assumed their fighting stances. With a smile, Soun began the fight, leaping into the air to deliver a flying side kick.
Akane wondered briefly if her father had understood the Chinese guide at all. The man had seemed to be rather nervous about something when they were shown the way to the training grounds. She brushed the thoughts aside as her father got within distance of her own attack. Akane leapt high into the air and came down on top of her father with a reverse punch to the stomach. Soun was not to be taken down so easily, though. While his training had made Akane into one of the best martial artists in Nerima, she still had much to learn.
Soun rolled his body backwards a little so his sidekick turned into a front kick to Akane's side. He heard her grunt as he continued the flip and landed lightly on the next pole. "Nice try Akane, but keep up your guard a little more."
Akane nodded and initiated the next attack. The aerial combat continued for some minutes as the two exchanged blows and neither falling into the water below. Their grace and ease of style would have been awe inspiring if it weren't dwarfed by the skill of another set of fighters a little further off in the training grounds.
"Nice try pops, but you gotta move faster than that if you want to hit me." A young man with a pigtail was bouncing about on the poles like he was on level ground. His father, a fat but surprisingly maneuverable man was attacking him with a flurry of kicks and punches.
"Stop your bouncing and fight me, boy!" Genma roared at his son.
Ranma took another small leap backwards to land on the next pole and steady himself for the attack. "Alright, but be ready for your bath!" He charged into his father's attack, breaking through the defenses and getting in a good number of punches on the exchange. Genma seemed a bit upset as he landed on another pole, but smiled as he saw something Ranma had not.
Ranma saw the smile and was a bit confused by the change in attitude. His father rarely smiled unless he had some sneaky way of beating him. Ranma prepared himself for anything. As his father came in, Ranma was surprised to see the man left his chest wide open for attack. Taking the opportunity, he jumped straight up to throw a sidekick into his father's gut.
As Ranma jumped, Genma smiled just a little more and tightened his abdominals. The kick was delivered and with no forward momentum, Ranma could only bounce backwards off his father's stomach.
Ranma took a quick look around and saw a pole just within reach. He turned his gaze back to his father and moved into position to land on the pole. Ranma felt the bamboo beneath his feet and was about to jump back into the air when he was suddenly pressed down from behind. "What the hell?!"
Akane felt something behind her as she tried to land on the next pole. Her father had just gotten in a good kick to her stomach and she knew she had misjudged the distance. Without another pole close by, she would sail over her intended target and wind up in the water. When she felt herself land on something bigger than the pole and moving, she freaked out. Akane looked down and realized she was sitting on someone who had landed on the pole before her. That someone also happened to be a boy. So Akane responded in the most rational and logical way she could. "EEEK!!! PERVERT!!!"
Ranma heard the strange sound followed by a painful blow to his head. He was falling and he wasn't alone. The girl that had landed on him was still screaming, but this time it was because of the fall. Ranma had some very honorable notions engrained within his mind. They were mainly outdated, but they served him fine. At the moment, one of the notions was telling him to protect women. Ranma spun about so he was facing the screaming girl and gathered her in his arms. Hopefully the spring isn't too deep.
Akane felt two strong arms encircle her legs and lower back. She knew it must be the pervert trying to cop a feel and she was in no mood for hentai boys touching her, ever. A mallet appeared in her hand as she screamed at the boy.
The landing was better than Ranma thought it would be. The girl in his arms struggled a little bit, but the spring wasn't too deep and he was able to keep her dry when they landed. He let out a deep breath and smiled at the girl. "You okay?"
Hammer in hand, she was about to knock this pervert boy into LEO. Then he spoke to her, or rather she spoke to her. Akane opened her eyes and saw a smiling redhead, holding her above the spring. She was sure there had been a boy holding her a moment ago. The arms suddenly felt smaller, but they were just as strong. "W-What happened to the boy?"
Ranma blinked a few times than looked around the area. "Was there another boy around here. I just see our dads." Ranma frowned. "That is your dad isn't it?" Akane nodded as she looked where the redhead was pointing.
"Yeah, but . . . I thought you were a boy."
Ranma was a little more miffed. "You blind or something? I am a boy!"
Akane quirked an eyebrow as she watched the redheaded girl carry her out of the spring. She was set down once they were out of the water. Akane leaned over to examine the girl's chest and poke her left breast. "Boy, huh?"
Ranma jumped at the sudden strange sensation as the girl he had saved poked him in the chest. He looked down and ripped up his gi top and saw . . .
"Any other tales you want to tell-" Akane was cut off by the high-pitched scream from the redhead, who promptly feinted soon after.
Akane frowned. "Well, at least she waited until we were out of the water before feinting."
It was two hours later before Ranma began to stir. Akane had taken him to the guide's hut to make sure he was alright. Genma told her that Ranma was a boy, which was a hard concept to swallow considering Ranma's newly found curse. Arriving at the guide's hut, he explained the cursed springs to the group of martial artists and demonstrated by pouring hot water over Ranma's head. The boy remained unconscious, but the change occurred nonetheless. While Akane had been upset that a boy was helping her and holding her as they collided, she also felt a bit guilty.
Genma and Soun were outside the hut talking about their adventures and the future of the schools. Akane hadn't been paying attention and opted to take care of Ranma until he woke up. Alone in the hut with a boy, Akane became restless. She wanted to apologize for what had happened, but couldn't sit still in his presence. Rising from the chair she had set by his bed, Akane decided to make some tea.
"Oh, man." Ranma sat up slowly, holding his head with his hands. "What a messed up dream I had."
"Hi." Akane tried to put on a cheery face, but she looked more guilty than ever. "How are you feeling?"
Ranma looked around his surroundings. He didn't remember stopping in a place like this with his father, but then his father wasn't here. "Who are you?" Ranma asked Akane. She held out a cup of tea for him to drink before sitting on the stool and fumbling with her own cup.
"My name is Akane, Tendo Akane." Ranma smiled and accepted the tea she offered.
Swinging his legs over the bed, Ranma sat up and extended his hand. "I'm Saotome Ranma."
"I know."
Ranma frowned when he noticed the girls depressed attitude. "Something wrong?"
"What!?" Akane sat straight up, nervous beads of sweat rolling down her face. "I . . . uh, you and . . . I didn't . . . and . . ."
"You remind me of someone." Ranma said after sipping at the tea. He blanched inwardly as he swallowed the bitter drink. Boy, he thought, I didn't know you could screw up tea. Maybe it's a Chinese tea that's supposed to taste this way. Whatever, it was, Ranma did his best to be polite and finish the cup and refuse another.
"W-Who?"
Ranma thought about it a moment, but . . . "I'm not sure. It's just that-" He was suddenly hit with inspiration, "-you were that girl I saved from falling into the water!" Akane dropped her head into her hands and sobbed a bit. "What's the matter? Did you get hurt in the fall?"
Akane shook her head as she sobbed. Why couldn't Ranma be a jerk so she wouldn't have to feel so bad about the accident? He was being polite and he didn't remember what . . .
"You were also in my dream. That was a weird one. I never had dreams like that. Seeing you here, I can't help but think about it. I fell into the water with you in my arms and you called me a girl. When I looked down you were poking me in the chest and it wasn't my chest. It was a girl's. Weird, huh?" Ranma had hoped his silly dream would make the girl laugh or at least stop crying. He hated seeing girls cry. But she just cried a little harder. "Oh, man. Tell me what's wrong. A pretty girl like you shouldn't be cryin'."
Akane slumped even lower in her chair when Ranma said 'pretty girl'. After seeing the curse, she thought Ranma had become a much prettier girl than her self.
Ranma was starting to get very nervous. This was the same girl he had seen in his dream. She was obviously upset about something and on closer inspection, he realized they were in the Chinese guide's hut. That meant they were still in Jusenkyo and he and Genma had sparred and . . .
Akane was shocked to see Ranma suddenly jump to his feet and run over to a mirror. She knew what he was looking for, but they had used warm water to change Ranma back to normal. She had considered not telling Ranma about the curse, but how far could he go without getting splashed with cold water? With a heavy heart, Akane stood up and walked over to the pigtailed boy. "I think you're looking for this." Akane upended the now cold glass of tea onto Ranma's head. The change was instantaneous.
Ranma didn't feint this time. He simply looked into the mirror with horrified fascination. "W-What d-did you d-do to me?" His now female hands stroked at the female face in the mirror as if it would rub off.
"Me!?" Akane exploded behind him. "It was your own fault for landing on the pole I was going to land on!"
Ranma blinked a few times, recalling the event. Her face contorted into anger and lashed out at Akane, swinging her arm in an arc in front of the other girl's face and bringing it down on the table, snapping it in two. "Is this how you thank me after I saved you from falling?!"
"If you weren't such a macho jerk you wouldn't have caught me!!" Akane would later ponder this statement and wonder if it was an insult or not.
"Who are you callin a jerk, you uncute TOMBOY!!" Ranma-chan turned red from anger.
While the uncute tomboy remark was completely uncalled for, Akane was about to say something she would not soon forget. "You are acting like such a GIRL!!!!!" Again, she wasn't sure if this was a bad thing, but . . .
Ranma roared in her high-pitched voice and punched Akane straight in the face, knocking her through the flimsy walls of the hut and skidding across the dirt outside.
Genma and Soun were outside talking with the Chinese guide when Akane was hurtled across the ground and came to a stop at their feet. Quickly they took a defensive stance around the fallen girl to fight off whatever monster could do this to an innocent girl. Then they saw it.
Ranma-chan stepped through the hole she had made in the wall, her body surging with power. "I am not a GIRL!!!"
"R-Ran-Ranma??" Genma stuttered. They had been on many training trips together, but this was the first time he had ever seen his son/daughter surrounded in flames that didn't burn his/her skin.
Soun was about to stand up against the fiery-haired girl he now knew to be Ranma, but Akane grabbed him by the shoulder. He spun on his foot to see his daughter with a large purple bruise across her cheek. She was blazing with anger as she set her father to one side and took up a fighting stance.
"You even punch like a girl!" She literally spat at the redhead. Ranma screamed again in anger and charged her tormentor, relishing the feel of the girl's soft flesh crumpling beneath her fist.
Akane rolled to the ground once again after Ranma's attack. The cursed boy was just too damned fast for her to keep up. With that aura surrounding her body, Akane swore she was punching even harder. She continued to fight back anyway; she was not a quitter. At that moment Ranma ducked under her retaliatory punch and came up with a front kick that connected under her jaw.
Things continued to go down hill for Akane. She would have to finish this soon or Ranma was going to beat her to a pulp. In the background, Akane could see Ranma's father and her own sneaking up on the enraged redhead. As angry and frustrated as Ranma was, she may not notice the surprise attack until it was too late.
They leapt at the same time, Genma going low as Soun jumped high, and they grappled Ranma to the ground. When they came to a stop against a tree, Akane could see Genma tightly wrapped about the girl's legs and Soun was pinning her arms to her sides.
"Let go of me!" Ranma thrashed about ineffectually until she could concentrate on her situation a little better. Soun's grip was too strong for her weaker frame and she could move her arms only so much. With her father pinning her legs down there was nothing she could do to continue the fight. After ten minutes of thrashing she settled down. Her breathing steadied, she slumped boneless to the ground, her will to continue sapped of all its energy. All she wanted to do now was curl up into a tiny ball and hide from the world. "Get away from me." Ranma whispered while fighting back the tears. Tears were unmanly.
"Now what was that all about young lady?!" Soun demanded.
Ranma didn't answer except to give the old man a hard stare.
"Oh, right. Sorry." Finding his anger once again, Soun tried again. "Why were you attacking my daughter, Ranma?"
Still, Ranma did not speak. Holding her legs in her arms, she buried her head in her knees. Ranma wasn't going to cry because crying was for girls and she wasn't a girl. She didn't care what her body looked like; she was not a girl.
Genma hadn't spoken yet, only regarding his 'son' with quiet unease. When he discovered his son was cursed with the body of a girl when doused with cold water, he was ashamed and humiliated to call Ranma his son. After dropping to the ground to get the information about what had happened from the guide, Genma saw Soun and remembered the promise they had made so many years ago. If he could make Soun keep the engagement promise then Ranma could still prove his manliness. "Get up boy before you start really acting like a girl." His voice grumbled.
Ranma peeked over his knees at Genma, looking almost pathetic, but the sadness was squashed almost immediately by a greater emotion, anger. Snarling at her father, Ranma lashed out, taking the Saotome patriarch by surprise with a right hook to the temple. "Stupid old man! Why'd you have to bring me here?!" Ranma shouted, uncurling her body and standing up into an offensive stance.
"Get over it boy!" Genma snarled as he picked himself off the ground. "You must be ready to sacrifice anything for the Art."
"I have sacrificed everything for the Art, you stupid old man! Look at me!" Ranma swept her arms over her body. "I'm not even a man anymore! So don't tell me to get over it!" She tried to punctuate her words by assaulting the elder Saotome. Genma was no slouch when it come to fighting and he could keep up with Ranma in terms of speed, but this new form of Ranma's was even faster. She ended up tossing Genma over her shoulder and against a nearby tree where he slid to the ground.
The Tendos stood their ground, unsure as to what they should do. Ranma's curse had been a warning to them of what could've happened if things had been different.
"It's not that bad, Ranma." Soun tried to calm the angry girl down again. "You can turn back into a boy."
Ranma blinked at the Tendo patriarch. "I can?"
Soun nodded and invited Ranma to follow him back to the hut with a sweep of his arm. A great weight seemed to have been lifted off of Ranma's shoulders as she smiled appreciatively at the older man and followed him.
Akane was still bruised and angry, however, reluctant to capture the cursed boy's attention again. Nursing her wounds, she gave Genma a glance to make sure he was all right and walked after her father. She found them sitting across each other at the broken table. Ranma's head was still hung, in shame this time, Akane guessed. Her father seemed to have forgotten the matter entirely and was smiling at the girl.
The teapot set over a fire started to steam and Soun grabbed it. "The curse is activated by water. Cold turns you into your cursed form while hot water," here he dumped the contents of the teapot over Ranma's head, the transformation occurring as he did so. "turns you back." He concluded.
Ranma stood up and looked at himself in the mirror with some apprehension. He almost sighed in relief when Akane walked in. With his body back to normal, the fight he had with Akane seemed rather foolish. He watched her step into the hut and scowl at him. She took a seat by her father and sat down, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Is Saotome-san still outside, Akane?" Soun asked.
Akane nodded.
"Well, I should go check on him. The Saotomes will be joining us on our trip back to Japan." Soun stepped out of the hut, leaving Ranma and Akane alone again.
They looked at each other for a while, each waiting for the other to speak. The easy conversation Ranma was having with her before seemed years in the past. As Akane glowered at him, Ranma could only hold her gaze for a moment before he had to turn away.
"Well?!"
Ranma jumped at her sudden snap. "W-What?"
"Aren't you going to apologize?!"
"For what?"
What was with this jerk? Obviously it was his own fault for falling into the spring and then he starts a fight for no reason. What a . . . "JERK!" Akane crossed the distance between them in a second, giving Ranma a good look at her bruise as she suspended him in the air with one hand.
Natural instinct would have told him to fight back, but Ranma was already feeling bad about fighting a girl. Seeing the wound only made him more ashamed. He was raised to never hit a girl. "I'm sorry." He mumbled weakly.
"Yeah . . . well." Akane set him down, the punch no longer hurt and he just wasn't worth it. "Just don't do it again."
The Tendos and Saotome's left early the next day. Soun had planned on the trip lasting several weeks, but with the development of Ranma's curse and a promise to keep, they packed up their supplies and started to head out.
Akane was still plenty mad at Ranma and a little more upset with herself. Imagine! Her being beaten by some boy! She was the best martial artist in Nerima and this jerk just tossed her about like a doll! Oh, she was going to get even with Ranma after she got a little more training. Not that she needed it, but it was good to be prepared. He might cheat!
Akane snapped her head away from a guilty Ranma-chan who was trying to apologize by keeping her company. All she knew was martial arts and that only seemed to irritate Akane more. Sighing a deep breath, Ranma-chan continued the walk in silence. This was going to be a long trip.
The two young martial artists were walking along the ridge of a cliff overlooking the cursed training grounds. Before leaving, they had asked the guide if there was some way to remove the curse. The guide suggested stopping by the Amazon village. If anyone knew, they would, the guide commented.
"RANMA!!! PREPARE TO DIE!!!"
Ranma-chan was woken out of her musings as she heard the cry of a familiar looking man launching himself at them. She didn't quite recognize him, but the attacker had large canines, yellow shirt, and a bandanna around his head. Hmm . . . he looks pretty strong. This could be a good fight, Ranma-chan thought as she dropped her pack to face off with the boy.
Akane had an entirely different reaction as she saw the boy who had screamed out his threat. Good, Ranma needs the stuffing beaten out of him for what he did to me, the jerk! She was a little more startled when she realized the attacker was not aiming for Ranma but herself. Why the hell is he attacking me! Akane tried to back up, a look of fear in her eyes. The new boy looked very angry.
The new boy was quickly knocked to one side as he came within a foot of hitting Akane in the head with his foot. He landed on his side, but sprung back to his feet after rolling out of the fall. "How dare you interfere with a man's fight GIRL!" He snapped at the redhead.
Ranma said nothing, but the sudden flare of ki energy let the travelers know exactly how she felt. Akane took a step back, a little uneasy to be around a mad Ranma after the last time. Ranma was very sensitive about his gender now that he had this curse; Akane made huge side notes in her mind to never use 'girl' as an insult for him.
This wasn't going to be pretty.
Taking slow meaningful steps to the boy now brandishing a red bamboo umbrella. Every moment that passed, her blue aura seemed to flicker a little more brightly until she stood before the fanged boy like a fallen star. "I!!!" Ranma-chan raised her left hand in a cocked position.
The boy gulped and lost some of his nerve as he watched the enraged redhead take a step closer.
"AM NOT!!!" Her hand descended to swiftly for the boy to raise a decent block and was bounced of the ground by the force in Ranma-chan's fist. "A GIRL!!!"
Akane looked up in surprise as she watched the fanged boy turn into a speck in the morning sky. Blinking the sun out of her eyes, she turned back to Ranma-chan who was still holding her foot in the final kicking position, breathing heavily. Not that she couldn't do it herself, but that was still quite a feat of strength so a small exclamation slipped out. "Wow."
"Well done my boy!" Soun slapped Ranma-chan on the back. "Such selfless and caring acts will make the two of you-"
"What the heck are you talking about!?" Ranma-chan growled at Soun. "I did that cause the jerk thought I was the tomboy over there." He pointed at a slowly steaming Akane. "Not like some sexless, uncute, macho, chick like her coulda defended herself or nothin' anyways!"
Now a couple of things were starting to bother Ranma. Specifically, she had been cursed to turn into a girl and she was said girl at the moment. Secondly, a boy had already come by and confused her with a real, however uncute, girl. Lastly, she had been hit by the sexless, uncute, tomboy with a large mallet she hadn't noticed Akane carrying earlier.
On a side note, Ranma did find the wind whipping around his body to be somewhat relaxing as he fell to his doom from a five hundred-foot cliff.
The mallet dropped to her side as Akane realized what she had just done. A feeling of fascinated horror swept across her mind as she watched Ranma-chan, sailing through sky. "Ohmygod!" Her pack fell to the ground as she crept closer to the edge and watched Ranma's descent until she heard a loud splash . . . Splash?
Indeed, after some checking, Akane saw that Ranma-chan had landed in one of the cursed springs. Maybe he's still alive. Akane's spirits dampened just a little bit more as a new thought came along to crush that hope and then incinerate the remains. He's going to kill me after I gave him another curse!
The three remaining travelers scurried down the slightly banked side of the cliff, rushing to Ranma-chan's aid. They couldn't see what happened to the redhead after she fell into the water and so far she hadn't resurfaced. Akane was the first to make it to the edge of the cursed spring since she left her pack on top of the cliff. She could barely make out a reddish color at the bottom of the spring, but it wasn't coming any closer to the surface.
Afraid that Ranma-chan must be stuck to the bottom somehow, Akane tightened her belt and dove in. Yet another stupid thing she would realize later, but at the moment Akane was only thinking of saving Ranma's life.
The two fathers gasped as they saw Akane dive below the water. Soun instantly began to shed tears like a water sprinkler. "My little girl is going to be cursed now!"
Genma was not used to such displays of emotion so he tried to put the incident into a better light. "But she did it to save Ranma! They must already be in love!"
Soun stopped, blinked a few times, smiled like a hippie given a two pounds of weed, and began to cry again. "My little girl is falling in love!" He weeped cheerfully.
Genma bigsweated and decided from now on he would just ignore his friends emotional outbursts. Now, he had to check on his son and Akane. Someone had to supervise after all.
The surface of the water burst outwards as a hand clenched the side of the pool. Well, hand being a loose term. It looked more like a paw. A paw, Genma and Soun noticed, with very sharp looking claws. Gulping, the two men took a step back to prepare themselves for whatever might be coming out.
With a growl of effort, a large Bengal tiger pulled itself out of the pool, a smaller and shivering Bengal tiger in its teeth. Akane hadn't thought about why it was so difficult to grab Ranma with her hands; she was just thankful she could pull him/her out of the pool with her teeth. Akane never thought her teeth were so strong; will wonders never cease?!
"A-A-Akane?!" Soun gasped. The larger tiger was wearing his little girl's gi, part of it anyway, and had a lot of black stripes running along its body. The smaller tiger, shivering on the ground, had fewer stripes and the orange fur was bordering more on the color red like Ranma-chan's hair.
Akane looked up to her wide-eyed father and tried to ask for help with the shivering Ranma, but all that came out was a series of low growls. As if the world had suddenly turned on its lights, Akane looked down at her body, then at Ranma's, then back to herself, realized what it must have been like for Ranma the first time, and feinted onto the ground.
Genma blinked a few times and smacked himself on the head to make sure he was seeing straight. He saw Soun wasn't doing much better. "This . . . This is bad."
End Chapter One
* * *
And we have a winner for biggest understatement of the year! I had originally intended for Akane to be the only cursed tiger individual, but then inspiration struck for getting Ranma cursed a second time. It has everything to do with the fact that he was a girl when Ranma fell into the Spring of Drowned Bengal Tiger.
Sure, I could've had Ranma pull him/her/itself out and shake its body free of excess water and get Akane wet that way, but I realized, Ranma hates cats. Turning into a tiger would be very bad for him. Interesting, ne?
As always, you can find more of my stories at www.geocities.com/jehtek/
Or email me at jehtek@hotmail.com
Ja ne!