The Other Jusenkyö Spring

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Ranma. Everything else is my idea.


Part 1

"What are the chances," I said, putting away my parachute, "that it would be our three seats that fell apart first?"

Mark sat down and wiped the sweat from his brow. "I dunno, Mike. Any ideas Brandi?" He said turning to her.

She just shrugged and shook her head. "I'm just glad we're safe," she said, dropping her parachute bag on the ground and sitting on it.

I picked up my backpack from the ground, reached in, and took out the few hundred dollars I had saved up for this trip. I checked my wallet and was relieved to see that all of my money was still there too. "Well," I said, looking up, "I guess we should find some place to tell us how to get to Japan."

Mark got up. "You know how to speak Chinese? 'Cause I know we're somewhere in China."

"That's 'cause you had the window seat," Brandi piped up, a little angry.

"Hey, cool it!" I said. "The last thing we need right now is to fight, 'cause it could only get us more lost. Hopefully someone around here speaks English or Japanese; we all can understand those." I looked around. It looked rather familiar, like someplace I'd been before, except I've never been to China.

"'Three American teens stranded in China,'" Mark looked like he was displaying a newspaper headline. Brandi promptly whacked him over the head.

"We're not stranded, 'cause it's not an island." Brandi turned pink with anger, complimenting her hazel eyes and shoulder-length blue hair (dyed, mind you).

"Owokay, sheesh." Mark said back, rubbing a hand through his short black hair to rub the bump.

"Will you two please stop that?" I stopped and yelled back at them. "Seriouslywe may not be stranded, but we are lost." I turned back and kept wondering why it all seemed familiar to me. I scratched my shorter brown hair as my green eyes kept scanning the arena. Hundreds of pools sat all around, with thousands of bamboo sticks planted in them.

Mark spoke up, "It looks like one of those ancient training grounds they used to use."

It seemed to tick something in my head, but it wouldn't come out. As we walked, we came up to a high ledge: springs on one side, a drop to more springs on the other side. Although the ledge wasn't very wide, the land between the springs were even less wide.

"Come onbetter to use the ledge than go between the springs." I said, going ahead.

Unfortunately, I'm not that well-balanced. Half-way along the ledge, my foot went too far left and slipped off of the ledge. Unable to stay up, I grabbed the ledge to keep myself up. Putting up my hands to pull myself up, my backpack strap cut into my shirt. Quickly, I dropped it down to the ground below, where (fortunately) it landed against the side of the ledge.

"Need some help?" Mark and Brandi were above me, reaching down to pull me up. Somehow, either hanging on the ledge, or seeing them above me, the click I had earlier seemed to make it to my senses. I promptly panicked, realizing that although being where I thought we were had to be impossible, I had no doubt that's where we were.

Mark was confused. "What's the matter? It's just water down there."

Brandi, however, understood, and she was looking quite scared too. She mouthed, "It can't be" Unfortunately, she also loosened her grip on me.

"Brandi!" I screamed, as Mark's hands also started slipping. I tried gripping the ledge, but it was too slippery. The last thing I yelled as I fell was, "Get some hot water, Brandi!" Then I splashed.

~-~-~-~

Still underwater, I checked myself over. Compared to all the other springs, Spring of Drowned Girl was better than most. At least I was still human. I broke surface, feeling quite strange. Looking up, I saw nobody on the ledge. Hopefully that meant they were getting some hot water for me. Getting out, I sat between the spring and my bag. Grabbing a large lock of my now almost-shoulder-length hair, I saw that it was actually blond. Wringing all my hair out, I looked into the pool and saw that my usually green eyes were now a bright blue. I stood up, and knew that I was definitely a bit shorter, as my normally fitting jean shorts were hanging loose, and my grey shirt was too loose around. My feet were also a couple sizes smaller, so my shoes didn't fit either.

"Dang it!" I screamed, and noticed the definite higher pitch of my voice. Wishing I had a towel handy, I grabbed my bag and sloshed towards the entrance.

~-~-~-~

As I neared the gate, three figures approached me, each I recognized. Mark, Brandi, and the Jusenkyo guide. As they got closer, I saw that Brandi was carrying what looked like a giant tea kettle. It was steaming a bit.

"Did you have to get it in one of those?" I asked Brandi. I noticed Mark backing off a little bit; no doubt he was a bit awkward about this whole thing.

She sighed, "It was the only thing he had," gesturing at the Jusenkyö guide.

"I'm guessing you told Mark about the springs?" I asked. Mark didn't read the Ranma 1/2 series.

"Yes, now hold still," she said as she overturned the pot over me. The warm water soaked me again, but something didn't feel right.

And by the look in Brandi's eyes, that something also didn't look right. Looking down at my body, I saw...

...I was still a girl.

I promptly fainted.

~-~-~-~

I thought he had just fallen in the "Spring of Drowned Girl" Brandi said in Japanese. Groggily, I sat up in the bed I was on.

Brandi saw me awake and walked over to me. "Come onwe need you to point out which spring you landed in."

"Umm, 'kay" I said, regretting that it wasn't all just a dream.

Quickly I got up and almost tripped because I still wasn't used to my new body. Walking a little more carefully, I went straight to the pool at the botom of the ledge and pointed it out.

To my surprise, the guide almost fainted. OhhLegendary tragic story go with that spring. Call it "Original Spring" they do. Story of girl who drownedfirst to drown here at Jusenkyö. They saythey say the 'blessing' was said wrong when she drown. Cause temperatured waters to have no effect.

So, you're saying there's no 'temporary' about this? I asked.

The guide only nodded.

Great, so I'm staying a girl until we find a way to get rid of this curse. This is just not my day, I sighed. I was not liking this at all.

You speak Japanese well, no? I help you get back to Japan! the Guide said, a little too helpfully.

I looked around after the guide had left. It was just me and Brandi. "I guess Mark stayed at the Guide's house" I turned to Brandi. "You know you've gotta help me get used to this"

"Me? What did I do?"

"You loosened your grip on me. If you had held my arm tight, you two could've pulled me back up." We started walking back towards the gate.

She sighed, admitting defeat. "Alright, I'll help you. But no perverted stuff."

"That's not my style!" I protested. We argued a bit while we walked towards the Guide's house again.

****************

If you couldn't figure it out:
" " English speaking
Japanese speaking