Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma or Inu yasha.
Chapter 1The district of Nerima bustled quietly under its blanket of rain and dark clouds. In a city where strange happenings went by unnoticed it was a fairly normal morning. The kind of morning you might see in any other district of Japan. And it was a normal morning at the home of Soun Tendo and his three daughters.
Until Soun left his place at the table to retrieve the mail, until he received a postcard containing some of the simplest, most joyous news he had heard in many a year, and until this news was received by his daughters with various states of shock and anger. It was a normal, peaceful morning. Until a bulky panda with an unconscious redhead over his shoulder rang the bell at the gates of the Tendo compound. Things just went downhill from there.
The first thing Ranma noticed upon waking was a face full of wet panda. The second was that he no longer qualified as a he. Ranma cursed the rain while taking in the moving scenery.
It was a nice place. What'd that old fool call it? She shook her head angrily, but couldn't remember the name. They had just passed the front sign before she was conscious enough to read it, too. Whatever…it wouldn't matter anyways, if it were up to her, and Ranma would make sure that it was, they wouldn't be staying here long. She took in the modest house and the well-kept koi pond and the lingering smells of home cooked breakfast regretfully. It was a nice place.
Deciding that now was the time to take matters into her own hands, Ranma pushed herself off the panda's shoulder, fully intending to send him into next week with a single blow, when he caught the scent of two very frightened humans. The sound of their retreating footsteps mixed with that of his father's and the beating of running feet against the floor was soon joined by Ranma's own voice.
"Hey!" she called to get her father's attention. "You're scaring 'em spitless!"
As her statement went unnoticed by the panda, fleeting thoughts concerning violence and questions of her father's intelligence entered Ranma's mind, and left just as quickly when she noticed the panda had set her down in front of the two humans, and two others. One of the humans from earlier placed an intense gaze upon her, the stench of fear dissipating quickly. He was a lean man, and fairly tall, with a long face and carefully clipped mustache beneath his nose. His black hair fell loose about his shoulders and he sported a dark gi. It appeared that he was a martial artist, but Ranma could see he was out of practice. She tried not to pay attention to the three females in back of the man, concentrating on the scents of the man, her father, and the house rather than any of theirs.
A glint of recognition appeared in the man's eyes and he began to stutter emotionally. "You… you wouldn't be…." Must be Pop's friend.
" I'm Ranma Saotome," she said, pulling her flame red pigtail shyly. If she was in this body, maybe they would never even have to know her true gender and decide to give up on the idea. Ranma decided to play it up. I can fall back on the fact that I'm not human if they find out anyways. "Sorry 'bout this."
Ranma was surprised when tears sprung from the man's eyes and he embraced her, happily crying: "At last! You've come!"
After this little show of density on the part of her father's training buddy, Ranma could not keep a look that clearly questioned the intelligence of the man before her as he pulled her in, still exclaiming his happiness. She watched through half lidded eyes as the man pushed her away and held her at arms length in shock and one of the girls, the one who had run from her earlier, poked her breast firmly, coolly stating the obvious.
" 'He' is a girl."
She watched the man fall to the floor in a dead faint.
Ranma sat at Soun Tendo's bedside, along with the three females and her father. She kept her face turned firmly towards her lap, pushing three of the scents from her mind and her nose as she had done before. Tears streamed from the open eyes of the patriarch, and she tried to concentrate on the scent of salt and water, barely noting the comments made by the girls. She barely noticed their comments, that is, until the same girl began bickering with Soun and again poked one of her breasts.
"Do you see a son here?" she said, in response to a remark Ranma didn't need to hear to know it had been something akin to her not being a male. "Hmmm? Do you?"
Ranma protested to the girl's actions as she thought any other shy, demure female guest might and continued to stare at her lap, blocking scents. She was quite successful at it too, or would have been, had the female on her right not leaned over her shoulder and given her a friendly smile, breaking Ranma's concentration and giving her a deep breath of the girl's scent.
"I'm Akane. Would you like to see the shrine?"
Ranma barely heard her through her state of shock. Damn! She had been afraid of this. She flicked her head around the room, whipping her pigtail back and forth behind her, taking in the other scents. Her father, Tendo, eldest daughter, middle daughter. Human, human, human, human. Her head whipped back to Akane. Hanyou. Damn!
"Ranma? Come see the shrine," Akane said again, this time more insistently. Ranma followed her out the door, thoughts flying. The girl was a hanyou! Not only was she part demon, but she was part dog demon. Which meant she knew what she was and could probably tell she was not really a girl, although they would have found that out eventually anyway. Now, Ranma had no plan for getting back to China and finding a cure. It was then that Ranma swore, as she had many times before, that she hated her father.
"That's the dojo," Akane said, pointing to a building behind the house. "It's small because Daddy had to make room for the shrine."
Indeed, the dojo was small, as far as dojos went. Ranma decided she would investigate that later. If it had a dojo, maybe this wasn't such a bad place. She followed Akane past the dojo and to a small hill. It was probably not a natural hill, and it was certainly not very high, but there at the top of a flight of stone steps was one of the better shrines Ranma had seen in her life. It was small, like the dojo, but it was perfectly kept. While, being a hanyou, Ranma was generally not very taken with shrines, this one made him feel somewhat at peace.
"This is really… great," Ranma could have slapped herself. What was that supposed to mean?! She screamed mentally. What were you supposed to say in a situation like this? Akane, however, didn't seem to mind her awkward comment.
"Yes. Daddy is very serious about it," was all she said. In the silence that followed Ranma studied her carefully. Her hair was dark, so dark as to almost appear blue, and it was cropped short, but in a cute, girlish style. She wore a yellow gi, and while she didn't stink, Ranma could tell she had been exercising recently. Her body was that of a martial artist, and she was clearly in good shape. Ranma's eyes traveled back up to her face, where she could see that Akane was a cute girl, in her teens, and would probably grow up to be a beautiful woman. Ranma watched her nose twitch in the wind, her bottom lip turned down naturally in a pout, her eyes… were caught in Ranma's own and she realized Akane had been watching her.
"If your quite finished," Akane seethed, her anger barely held in check. "I wanted to talk to you."
"Uh… well… I guess we could," Ranma said, trying, and failing, to act casual. Akane was very angry. Ranma wasn't sure if she was the violent type, but she was probably a martial artist and it would probably be best if she weren't set off. She hadn't meant to stare….
"You don't smell like a girl," Akane said, bluntly.
"Yeah, well…" Ranma wasn't completely sure what to say. Actually, she had no idea what to say. Would Akane believe her if she told the truth? The girl in question narrowed her eyes angrily at her, and growled. Ranma wisely decided to finish the sentence. "I wouldn't want to."
"Are you saying girls smell bad?" The anger was coming off her in waves.
"AH – No! No – It's just… I'm not."
The anger faded just barely, and Akane asked in a deceptively calm voice: "Not what?"
"Not a girl, stupid!"
As Ranma flew across the sky she made two observations: One, Akane was the violent type, and two, that was probably the wrong thing to say.
A/N: This chapter is a bit longer, but it took me forever to write (Not that anyone really cares…) N.e. way I tied really hard to stay in character, and I think for the most part, I did. I don't think Akane would bash him for staring at her, and since she is part demon she will have violent tendencies, so she'll have to work harder at controlling her temper. As for Ranma, he is a bit more analytical, but his mouth still runs away with him. I will refer to Ranma as a she when he is in girl form, even though that's not how he thinks of himself. Also, Ranma's curse and why Akane is a hanyou will be explained later. R&R please! That is all.