Dreams of Destiny
Chapter 1
"She's dead," Ranma said numbly, the words resounding over and over again in his mind. If his mother was dead, then he had no one left. He was all alone in the world. Unless he could find her that is, but he doubted that he would find her now. Not after he had looked for her all for so long. But, what else did he have to do with the rest of his life? Steeling himself, he pushed the grief that had stormed the walls of his resolve at the news of his mother's death back down and took control of himself. Ranma rose to his feet and bowed to Dr. Mizuno. "Thank you for telling me, ma'am. I appreciate it. Now if you'll excuse me, I should be on my way. I don't want to be a bother."
Ranma only managed a step before he was stopped by Dr. Mizuno's hand on his arm. He turned back to look at her. "Where are you going?" she asked.
"Since my mother is no longer here, I have no reason to be here," Ranma said coolly. He was very proud of himself for his control at that moment, but he could sense that it was slipping. If he didn't leave soon, he would wind up breaking down in front of complete strangers. He wouldn't do that again. Ever.
"Ranma, you don't have to go," Dr. Mizuno said, looking into his anguished eyes. "Your mother was my sister, Ranma, and that means you're family. You'll always be welcome here."
Ranma gazed into her eyes, disbelieving her acceptance. "Why are you so accepting," he asked, his voice starting to crack. "Why would you want a freak like me in your house?"
"You're not a freak, Ranma," Dr. Mizuno replied. "You're just a young man who's lost both his parents in a short period of time."
"That's right, you don't know yet," Ranma said, pulling his arm free of his aunt's grip and reaching for the now cooled tea that had been sitting on the table and upending it over his head. "Now you can see what a freak I am," Ranma whispered hoarsely as a tear flowed unwittingly down his face.
* * *
Mieko Mizuno had seen many things in her life. Her sister had been married to a martial artist who had been able to do things that defied scientific explanation (even if he was an absolute moron and a waste of flesh in general) and he had been the student of a shriveled gnome who had been known to break certain laws of physics on an hourly basis. Hell, she'd been living in Juuban long enough for the constant demon attacks to seem commonplace. But this one made her wonder if she'd finally gone over the deep end.
Ranma, her long missing nephew, finally coming back into her life after a ten year absence bearing news of his father's death, she could accept. Her tall, broad shouldered, handsome nephew turning into a buxom, and very well-endowed redhead pushed the limits of even her comprehension. Her mind, seeking a strategic retreat where it could correlate this new phenomenon, shut itself down, leaving the body to follow as she slumped to the couch in a faint.
* * *
Ami Mizuno was no stranger to the unusual either. Unknown to her mother, Ami had been fighting evil as the Sailor Suited Soldier for Love and Justice, Sailor Mercury, for the past year. She'd seen all kinds of monsters and demons and just plain nasty, evil people. But she'd never seen a boy – a very handsome boy, whom her mother had just revealed as her long-lost cousin - –turn into a girl with the application of a cold liquid.
Ami's mind was hardwired a little differently than her mother's. Instead of going into overload at this odd occurrence, she started trying to analyze the facts and the first thing to be done was to see if this was real and not some kind of weird illusion.
"Could you please not do that," Ranma asked, his voice having shifted up an octave with his sex change. Ami looked down and saw that her hand was squeezing one of his breasts, as her body was already acting out her decision to figure this out.
"I'm sorry," Ami said, blushing furiously. That definitely felt like a real breast, so that means the shape change is real, but how? And where does all the extra mass go? He's at least six inches shorter than he was and I'm sure he probably weighs at least 20 kilos less. Isn't that supposed to be impossible.
"'salright," Ranma mumbled, blushing a little himself. That had felt somewhat pleasurable, which wasn't something he was used to associating with his cursed form. "I'm kinda used to it. No one believes they're real the first time and they always try and poke 'em or something like that to make sure."
"So, Ranma. How, umm … How did this happen," Ami asked, a little hesitantly.
"It's all Oyaji's fault," Ranma replied, looking down trying to fight off the wave of pain that telling this dug up. "We went to this place in China called Jusenkyo. Was supposed to be some kinda Martial Arts training ground. Called the Valley of the Cursed Springs. It's called that for good reason, as I had good cause to find out." Ranma sat back down heavily and rested his chin on his hands, angling it down low enough that his scarlet bangs shadowed his eyes.
"So this is Genma's fault," Dr Mizuno said, sitting up abruptly from where she had slumped over in her chair. Somehow that doesn't surprise me, she thought as she moved over to the couch and put a supporting arm around Ranma. "Tell me what happened."
"'Kay," Ranma replied, a little startled at the unaccustomed gesture of support, but unwilling to move away from the comfort it offered. "We got to the valley and there were a bunch of springs covering one end of it. They had bamboo poles sticking up out of them, meant to be stood on by fighters while they fought in mid-air. Loser falls in the pool sort of thing. This pudgy guy started jabbering at us about how dangerous the place was, that we shouldn't be here, but Oyaji didn't listen. He just yelled for me to follow and jumped up on one of the poles. We started fighting and I knocked Oyaji into one of the pools. He stayed down for a long time and then a huge panda jumped out of the pool and attacked me. It surprised the hell outta me, but I managed to send it flying into another pool, but then the pole I was standing on cracked and sent me tumbling in the pool after the panda. I landed on top of it and forced it down into the water. When I broke the surface, I could tell something was wrong. I looked down and saw these," Ranma gestured to his prominent chest.
"The guy who tried to warn us off, who happened to be the guide and caretaker of the valley, came up and told me that I had fallen in the Nyannichiuan or Spring of Drowned Girl. It was a very tragic story of a girl drowning there fifteen hundred years ago. He looked down in the pool beneath me and started jabbering in Chinese again, and when I looked, there was Oyaji at the bottom of the pool and he wasn't moving. I dived down and managed to drag him to the surface, but it was too late. He had already drowned. The guide said that he had fallen in the Spring of Drowned Panda, but that when he had drowned in the pool below me, he had regained his original form. These curses don't last after you die. He showed me how to change back to normal using hot water and warned me about the fact that I'll attract cold water like crazy from now on to activate the curse. Then he helped me to take care of Oyaji's … body …"
Despite Ranma's resolution to not break down, the memory of cremating his father's remains was something that made him lose control. Tears started leaking down his face as he told the story and he broke down in sobs as he came to the end. Dr. Mizuno tightened her arm around Ranma's shoulder and pulled him towards her, letting Ranma cry into her shoulder, while she enveloped the child in a hug.
Ami sat there quietly trying to figure out exactly when she had stepped into the twilight zone as her cousin cried his heart out into her mother's shoulder. Springs that could cause some kind of sex change was a little odd even for Ami's jaded mind. It doesn't matter how impossible it sounds, Ami thought. All that matter is that he's family and he needs us. Ami got up and moved over next to Ranma, sat down on the other side of him from her mother and encircled both Ranma and her mother in a hug.
"It's alright, Ranma," Ami whispered as she rested her head against the boy-turned-girl's back. "It wasn't your fault. No one blames you for anything. We're your family and we love you."
Dr. Mizuno smiled as her daughter said that. Ami had always been very shy and their family had been the just the two of them for years. There was something about Ranma, though, that drew you in and made you care for him immediately. Some kind of innate charisma, mixed with terrible grief that made your heart ache in sympathy.
As Ranma's sobs gave way to hoarse breathing, Dr. Mizuno pushed him back far enough to allow her to look into his eyes and said, "Ranma, you are going to stay here. With both your parents dead, I am your only living adult relative and as soon as we file your father's death certificate, I'll be your guardian. I want you to be here with us. I know you've never really had much of a family life with all the traveling around you did, but that's going to change. You will stay here with us and you'll go to school and get an education."
Ranma just stared at his aunt with wide eyes. He couldn't believe that she was willing to accept him after he had shown her his curse. Despite his best efforts, Ranma could feel a warmth trickle down his face. Rubbing his hand across his cheeks, he brushed the offending tears away. Dr Mizuno saw how strongly her affirmation of support was affecting Ranma and pulled him into a hug, cradling his head against her shoulder.
At this unfamiliar gesture of maternal affection, the dams broke and sixteen years worth of unshed tears broke free as Ranma began to sob uncontrollably into his aunt's shoulder, feeling for the first time in his life what it might have been like to have a mother.
Chapter 1
"She's dead," Ranma said numbly, the words resounding over and over again in his mind. If his mother was dead, then he had no one left. He was all alone in the world. Unless he could find her that is, but he doubted that he would find her now. Not after he had looked for her all for so long. But, what else did he have to do with the rest of his life? Steeling himself, he pushed the grief that had stormed the walls of his resolve at the news of his mother's death back down and took control of himself. Ranma rose to his feet and bowed to Dr. Mizuno. "Thank you for telling me, ma'am. I appreciate it. Now if you'll excuse me, I should be on my way. I don't want to be a bother."
Ranma only managed a step before he was stopped by Dr. Mizuno's hand on his arm. He turned back to look at her. "Where are you going?" she asked.
"Since my mother is no longer here, I have no reason to be here," Ranma said coolly. He was very proud of himself for his control at that moment, but he could sense that it was slipping. If he didn't leave soon, he would wind up breaking down in front of complete strangers. He wouldn't do that again. Ever.
"Ranma, you don't have to go," Dr. Mizuno said, looking into his anguished eyes. "Your mother was my sister, Ranma, and that means you're family. You'll always be welcome here."
Ranma gazed into her eyes, disbelieving her acceptance. "Why are you so accepting," he asked, his voice starting to crack. "Why would you want a freak like me in your house?"
"You're not a freak, Ranma," Dr. Mizuno replied. "You're just a young man who's lost both his parents in a short period of time."
"That's right, you don't know yet," Ranma said, pulling his arm free of his aunt's grip and reaching for the now cooled tea that had been sitting on the table and upending it over his head. "Now you can see what a freak I am," Ranma whispered hoarsely as a tear flowed unwittingly down his face.
* * *
Mieko Mizuno had seen many things in her life. Her sister had been married to a martial artist who had been able to do things that defied scientific explanation (even if he was an absolute moron and a waste of flesh in general) and he had been the student of a shriveled gnome who had been known to break certain laws of physics on an hourly basis. Hell, she'd been living in Juuban long enough for the constant demon attacks to seem commonplace. But this one made her wonder if she'd finally gone over the deep end.
Ranma, her long missing nephew, finally coming back into her life after a ten year absence bearing news of his father's death, she could accept. Her tall, broad shouldered, handsome nephew turning into a buxom, and very well-endowed redhead pushed the limits of even her comprehension. Her mind, seeking a strategic retreat where it could correlate this new phenomenon, shut itself down, leaving the body to follow as she slumped to the couch in a faint.
* * *
Ami Mizuno was no stranger to the unusual either. Unknown to her mother, Ami had been fighting evil as the Sailor Suited Soldier for Love and Justice, Sailor Mercury, for the past year. She'd seen all kinds of monsters and demons and just plain nasty, evil people. But she'd never seen a boy – a very handsome boy, whom her mother had just revealed as her long-lost cousin - –turn into a girl with the application of a cold liquid.
Ami's mind was hardwired a little differently than her mother's. Instead of going into overload at this odd occurrence, she started trying to analyze the facts and the first thing to be done was to see if this was real and not some kind of weird illusion.
"Could you please not do that," Ranma asked, his voice having shifted up an octave with his sex change. Ami looked down and saw that her hand was squeezing one of his breasts, as her body was already acting out her decision to figure this out.
"I'm sorry," Ami said, blushing furiously. That definitely felt like a real breast, so that means the shape change is real, but how? And where does all the extra mass go? He's at least six inches shorter than he was and I'm sure he probably weighs at least 20 kilos less. Isn't that supposed to be impossible.
"'salright," Ranma mumbled, blushing a little himself. That had felt somewhat pleasurable, which wasn't something he was used to associating with his cursed form. "I'm kinda used to it. No one believes they're real the first time and they always try and poke 'em or something like that to make sure."
"So, Ranma. How, umm … How did this happen," Ami asked, a little hesitantly.
"It's all Oyaji's fault," Ranma replied, looking down trying to fight off the wave of pain that telling this dug up. "We went to this place in China called Jusenkyo. Was supposed to be some kinda Martial Arts training ground. Called the Valley of the Cursed Springs. It's called that for good reason, as I had good cause to find out." Ranma sat back down heavily and rested his chin on his hands, angling it down low enough that his scarlet bangs shadowed his eyes.
"So this is Genma's fault," Dr Mizuno said, sitting up abruptly from where she had slumped over in her chair. Somehow that doesn't surprise me, she thought as she moved over to the couch and put a supporting arm around Ranma. "Tell me what happened."
"'Kay," Ranma replied, a little startled at the unaccustomed gesture of support, but unwilling to move away from the comfort it offered. "We got to the valley and there were a bunch of springs covering one end of it. They had bamboo poles sticking up out of them, meant to be stood on by fighters while they fought in mid-air. Loser falls in the pool sort of thing. This pudgy guy started jabbering at us about how dangerous the place was, that we shouldn't be here, but Oyaji didn't listen. He just yelled for me to follow and jumped up on one of the poles. We started fighting and I knocked Oyaji into one of the pools. He stayed down for a long time and then a huge panda jumped out of the pool and attacked me. It surprised the hell outta me, but I managed to send it flying into another pool, but then the pole I was standing on cracked and sent me tumbling in the pool after the panda. I landed on top of it and forced it down into the water. When I broke the surface, I could tell something was wrong. I looked down and saw these," Ranma gestured to his prominent chest.
"The guy who tried to warn us off, who happened to be the guide and caretaker of the valley, came up and told me that I had fallen in the Nyannichiuan or Spring of Drowned Girl. It was a very tragic story of a girl drowning there fifteen hundred years ago. He looked down in the pool beneath me and started jabbering in Chinese again, and when I looked, there was Oyaji at the bottom of the pool and he wasn't moving. I dived down and managed to drag him to the surface, but it was too late. He had already drowned. The guide said that he had fallen in the Spring of Drowned Panda, but that when he had drowned in the pool below me, he had regained his original form. These curses don't last after you die. He showed me how to change back to normal using hot water and warned me about the fact that I'll attract cold water like crazy from now on to activate the curse. Then he helped me to take care of Oyaji's … body …"
Despite Ranma's resolution to not break down, the memory of cremating his father's remains was something that made him lose control. Tears started leaking down his face as he told the story and he broke down in sobs as he came to the end. Dr. Mizuno tightened her arm around Ranma's shoulder and pulled him towards her, letting Ranma cry into her shoulder, while she enveloped the child in a hug.
Ami sat there quietly trying to figure out exactly when she had stepped into the twilight zone as her cousin cried his heart out into her mother's shoulder. Springs that could cause some kind of sex change was a little odd even for Ami's jaded mind. It doesn't matter how impossible it sounds, Ami thought. All that matter is that he's family and he needs us. Ami got up and moved over next to Ranma, sat down on the other side of him from her mother and encircled both Ranma and her mother in a hug.
"It's alright, Ranma," Ami whispered as she rested her head against the boy-turned-girl's back. "It wasn't your fault. No one blames you for anything. We're your family and we love you."
Dr. Mizuno smiled as her daughter said that. Ami had always been very shy and their family had been the just the two of them for years. There was something about Ranma, though, that drew you in and made you care for him immediately. Some kind of innate charisma, mixed with terrible grief that made your heart ache in sympathy.
As Ranma's sobs gave way to hoarse breathing, Dr. Mizuno pushed him back far enough to allow her to look into his eyes and said, "Ranma, you are going to stay here. With both your parents dead, I am your only living adult relative and as soon as we file your father's death certificate, I'll be your guardian. I want you to be here with us. I know you've never really had much of a family life with all the traveling around you did, but that's going to change. You will stay here with us and you'll go to school and get an education."
Ranma just stared at his aunt with wide eyes. He couldn't believe that she was willing to accept him after he had shown her his curse. Despite his best efforts, Ranma could feel a warmth trickle down his face. Rubbing his hand across his cheeks, he brushed the offending tears away. Dr Mizuno saw how strongly her affirmation of support was affecting Ranma and pulled him into a hug, cradling his head against her shoulder.
At this unfamiliar gesture of maternal affection, the dams broke and sixteen years worth of unshed tears broke free as Ranma began to sob uncontrollably into his aunt's shoulder, feeling for the first time in his life what it might have been like to have a mother.