Ranma ½: Surprises

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Chapter 2
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Ranma cursed as he struggled to follow the fast form of his cousin as she ran down the street towards the large park that they had passed on the way to the Tuskino home.

Finaly he got the hang of the crutchs and was able to at least partialy keep up with her though she was quickly going to out distance him if she went past the park. She stepped into the park cautiously and he hid behind a tree and watched as she made her customary speech.

"I am the pretty sailor suited soilder, Sailor Moon, and in the name of the moon, I shall punish you!" she said as the yoma stopped it's attck on the rest of the sailor scouts to look at her with a smirk.

"Oh, so we finaly meet." a voice said from behind the yoma, who was holding onto Sailor Mars' leg as she hung upside down limply. A man with long black hair that reached down his back and ended just above his hips, stepped out of the shadows of a large tree.

"Who are you? Let her go now!" Moon said as she grabbed her scepter out of no where.

"I don't think so. My name is Ebonite and I have waited a long time to destroy you peskiy sailor scouts." the man said and released a black ball of energy at Sailor Moon, who closed her eyes and braced herself for impact. But the impact never happened. Instead, she heard a sound like thunder and opened her eyes just in time to see a bright blue ball explode, taking the black one with it.

"Who threw that?" Ebonite demanded angrliy as he looked behind the bewildered leader of the scouts at the trees at the edge of the park. In that moment of inattenchen, jupiter jumped forward and rescued Mars from the yoma's grasp. At the same time, Mercury and Venus threw their attacks at it, Mercury's freezing it and Venus' chain breaking it into cunks of dead yoma, which promptly disappered in a flash of dark light and a bit of smoke.

"I'll get you Sailors and who ever threw that energy too." Ebonite snarled and disappered as well.

"Mars! Are you all right?" Sailor Moon exclaimed as she rushed towards where Jupiter was holding the now aware senshi of fire.

"Yeah. But where were you?"

"I was running here!" moon said angrily. Before she could continue, Venus stepped forward and said quietly, "I wonder who helped us."

"Yes, I would also like to know." Ami said as she pulled out her mini computer and scanned Rei where she lay on the ground. "Well, there should be no permanent damage, but just be care full for the next few battles." Ami said as she closed the computer and made it disapper back to where ever she had pulled it from.

"Ok, doctor." Mars said with a smile as Jupiter helped her to her feet.

"Guys, tomarrow I'm brining Ranma to the arcade, as I'm sure that venus has already told you, so be nice to him and leave Luna and Artemis at home so that he doesn't freak out again." Moon said as she powered down to reguler Serena. The others follwed her example and nodded in understanding as they left to go back to their homes to get some much needed sleep.



Ranma watched the five girls seperate and head off in their own directions, and silently blended himself into the shadows before serena could she him as she passed by on her way home. Inside his mind, he was wondering what the hell he was going to do about what he had just seen. On one hand, he could tell Serena and her friends that he knew and try to help them again if he could, but on the other hand, he could keep his mouth shut and just play along with not knowing who the Sailor Scouts were.

Because he was so lost in his thoughts, and his danger sensing skills were so rusty from not using them in so long, he hadn't noticed that one of the girls hadn't left the park like the others had and was infact waiting for him to come out of hiding so that she could confront him.

He started to step out into the open after a minute of thinking about his choices and was promptly knocked flat on his back before he had completely left the shadows.

Lita stood over him as he gasped for breath for a minute, then demended in a cold vioce, "Who are you? What are you doing here and what did you see?"

"Ranma Saotome, Serena's cousin and I followed her here when I saw her leave the house." he said as he sat up and grabbed his crutches from where they had fallen when she had pushed him to the ground. He struggled back to his feet and leaned against the tree behind him for balance for a moment before he headed out of the shadows to confront his attacker.

"As to the question of what I have seen, that is none of your business. I didn't survive against hundreds of enemies to be bullied by a tomboy of a sailor scout." he snapped and Lita immeditaly punched him across the face for the insult.

"How dare you?!" Lita said as he picked himself up and turned away from her.

"I dare because I just don't care any more. I'm like this because of a tomboy that couldn't control her temper." Ranma said quietly, and while Lita was still in shock, turned away and left before she could say anything else.

She watched him leave on his crutches and felt sorry for what she had done to him after promising that she would be nice to Serena's cousin. 'I can't beleive that a girl did that to him.' she thought as she quietly headed back to her lonely apartment.



Ranma slipped back into his room through the window and found Serena standing near the bed with a stunned expression on her face. "Ranma? Where did you go? I...uh...came down to check on you and you were gone." she said as he settled back on the bed.

"Serena, you shouldn't transform in your room, like that. The light reflected off the trees and it was noticable." he said as flicked the bed side lamp on.

Serena gasped as his face was iluminated, showing where a black and blue mark was already forming. "What happened, Ranma?!" she exclaimed quietly as she sat down next to him on the bed and gently touched the mark.

"Don't worry about it." he said flatly as he set the crutchs next to the bed against the wall, now that he could see what he was doing.

Serena sighed at his answer and took out the silver crystal and sent a healing light to wash over him, healing the bruise instantly. After a moment, she sent more power at Ranma and healed a little bit of his injuries to his spine. She stopped after a minute and leaned against him, feeling slightly dizzy.

"Are you ok, Serena? What did you do?" Ranma asked as he supported her untill the dizzy spell passed.

"I healed your cheek and some of your spine injury." she said softly and he gasped.

"How? The doctors said that nothing could help me!' he whispered sharply to her as they bother heard the sound of feet heading towards his room.

"Don't tell any one about me and what I just did, ok? They can't know about me being Sailor Moon." she whispered urgently just before the door opened to revel her mother, wearing a robe and slippers.

"Serena, what are you doing down here? And what are both of you doing up? It's almost midnight." she said and Serena immditaly stood up and left, saying goodnight to them as she tucked her brooch back in her pocket before her mother could notice.

After she was gone, Irean turned back to ranma and smiled at him gentle. "You look better Ranma." she said as she gave him a kiss on his forehead.

"Yeah, I feel better. Good night Aunt Irean." he said as she left and she said good night to him too.

'I wonder what will happen if she keeps doing that to me. She seemed to be drained afterward, but I think that was why she was in here in the first place.' he thought as he turned off the light and layed back on the bed and looked out the open window.



"Serena, it's time to wake up. Don't you have to go meet your friends in about five minutes?" Ranma said as he shook his cousin's shoulder. His aunt had asked him to go wake her up since it was already five minutes to twelve and she was supposed to meet her friends at the arcade at noon.

"Just leave me alone. It's to earliy to leave. I'm not supposed to meet them untill nonn. Wake me up at eleven." she mumbled as she turned over.

Ranma sighed as he glanced at the clock. "Serena, it is noon." he said as he shook he again.

"What?!" she shrieked as she sat up and bounded out of bed.

"I'll leave you alone so that you can get dresses." Ranma said as he hurried out of the room. She imerged a few minutes later and started to rush down the hall, before she remebered Ranma and grabbed his hand and started dragging him after her.

"Hey! Hold on. I can't go that fast right now!" Ranma protested as they stopped at the front door to put on their shoes.

"Sorry, but we have to hurry!" They are going to be so mad that I'm late, exspecialy Rei. She is so selfrightouse!" Serena said as she pulled out the wheelchair and waited for him to get settled into in before taking off down the side walk.

"Slow down Serena! We're going to flip!" Ranma exclaimed as they carrened around a corner. She did slow down but not by much, and they arived at the arcade just in time to here Rei shriek, "Where is she? She's late!"

"Let me handle this." Ranma said as they entered the building. Slightly louder he said, "I'm sorry I made you so late, Serena, but this chair is so annyoing sometimes."

It worked like a charm by shutting Rei's mouth before she could say anything and attracking the other girls' attenchen.

"Serena, is this Ranma?" Mina asked as the duo approched the table they were sitting at.

"Yes, everyone, this is my cousin, Ranma. He's going to be hanging out with us today." Serena said as she parked the chair at the edge of the table and sat down next to Ami.

"It's nice to meet everyone." he said with a small smile and everyone smiled and introduced themselves. Lita was the last to introduce herself and she apologized for hitting him.

"That's ok, Akane used to smash me with her mallet over the horizon and some of the people I used to fight everyday could hit a lot harder than you did. Don't worry about it." he said as he shifted in his chair.

The girls staired at him for a moment before Serena asked quietly, "Did you put the bruise on his face?"

"Yeah. I caught him lurking in the shadows after the fight last night and I thought he was a spy for that new enemy so I kind of was mean to him and then he called me a tomboy and got me so mad that I socked him before I could stop myself." Lita said, miserably as she stared at the table top.

"I don't beleive that you did that!" Serena exclaimed but calmed when Ranma put his hand on her forearm.

"Serena, it's ok. I admit that I feel back into my old habits of provoking some one when I was startled. It's not entirely her fault." he said gently and smiled at her and then at Lita, who's sad expression disappered as she said the familar words, "He looks just like my old boyfriend."

"Lita." the others said with a sweat drops as Ranma just looked at her surprise.

Before he could ask what that was all about, screams started from outside and the girls rushed out, momentarily forgetting about Ranma, who rolled himself after them.

Just outside the arcade, a yoma, who looked like a gient blue blob, was attacking people and draining their energy. "girls, you need to transform fast!" Luna shouted as she ran up to the stunned group, not relising that Ranma was just behind the girls, not that it mattered much as all of his attenchen was fixed on the yoma.

"Girls, get away from here and change. I'll distract this thing for a while untill you guys get back." he said firmly and stood up a little shakely from his wheelchair.

Serena nodded and pulled the girls towards an alley between the stores and quickly began their transformation.




Back at the fight scene, Ranma was trying to dodge as they Yome sent pieces of it's self at him. Where ever the blobs touched, the area smoked and melted into a puddle of slag. Thanks to the healing that Serena had given him last night with her silver crystal, he was able to move easier without tripping every two seconds.

Behind him, he could faintly hear the girls yelling their transformation phrases. After a minute, the scouts appered and began their introductions.

"Hold it! Your evil ways will not go unpunished. I am the pretty sailor suited warrior, Sailor Moon and in the name of the moon, I shall punish you." Sailor Moon said as she posed on top of a brick wall with the others ranging around her.

"In the name of Mars..."

"Of Mercury..."

"Of Venus..."

"Of Jupiter..."

"We shall punishe you, too!" the rest choursed together. Jumping down to the street, they sent their attacks towards the monster, even as it sent globs of stuff flying at them. The goop melted Venus' Love Me Chain, abosrbed Jupiter's Suprem thunder, and blocked Mars' fireballs. Mercury's Auqa Illusion froze the projectials, stopping them from reaching their targets and shatering them on impact with the street.

"Way to go Mercury." Moon said as she pulled her scepter from subspace. "Moon Scepter Elimination!"

The attack blasted the yoma and after a second there was nothing left but a black smear on the road. Suddenly, a voice from the side attracked their attenchen. "Well, I see that you've defeated another of my yomas, but next time you won't be so lucky." Ebonite said just before he disappered in his smoky black flash of light.

As soon as he was gone, Ranma let out a moan of pain as he slumped to the ground. "Ranma! Are you ok?" Moon yelled as she ran over to him..

"Yeah, but I slammed my knee when I was dodging one of the attacks. I think I popped it out of the socket." he said as he layed back on his back. After taking a deep breath, he grabbed his lower leg and shoved it back into place with a sickening sounding crack.

"Ewww!!!!!!!" Moon and Venus yelled as they stared at him in shock. They had never seen some one do anything like that by themselves before and it really grossed them out.

"How did you know how to do that?" Mercury asked as she bent down to look at the knee and make sure it was set right.

"How could you do that?!" Mars said, her face green.

"It's happened occasionaly over the years and as my worthless faher never bothered to take us to a hospital if we got hurt during our training trip, I had to learn to take care of myself if I got hurt. He certainly wasn't going to." Ranma said as he sat back up.

"So what do you do now that you've set it?" Mercury asked as she pulled out her mini-computer and scaned his knee for further problems.

"I'll put some of the medican herbs on it from the supply in my backpack at the house." he said but Moon just shook her head.

"No way Ranma. If my parents found out that you got hurt in one of the attacks, they could find out about me. I'll just fix you up again, like I did last night." she said as she pulled out the crystal from her locket. Sending the healing light over him, she concentrated on healing both his knee and some more of his back.

As soon as the light stopped, Ranma lunged forward and caught his cousin as she collasped. "Serena, are you alright?" he asked as he shook her gently.

"Yeah, I'm just tired from using the crystal to heal your knee and some more of your back." she said as she detransformed.

"More of his back? What do you mean?" Jupiter said. She had been silent since Ebonite had left.

"I've been using the crsytal to heal his back so that he can walk without those braces. Besides, he can't practice the art of Anything Goes Martial Arts with a back like that." Serena said as she and Ranma climbed to their feet.

"'Anything Goes' what's that?" Lita asked as she and the others followed Serena's example and detransformed.

"It's my family's style. Onlt the Tendos and the grandmaster Hopposi practice it." Ranma said with a dark look on his face. "You know, everything is perfect except for the fact I still can fell my left foot. Thanks Serena!" he exclaimed as he gave his cousin a hug, but right in the middle of the hug, it started to pour. In a flash, he was a she and the others were staring at her in shock.

"Well, I guess you guys know now. I'll tell you all about when we get out of this rain. Oh and can one of you grab the wheel chair?" Ranma asked as she headed towards the arcade, holding Serena's hand and the others following with the chair in tow.

Once they were setted at their table, Ranma explained all about the curse and at the end, dumped he hot tea over head, instently changing into a he. Ignoring the stares from the rest of the arcade, he calmly wrung out his hair and looked at the girls surrounding him.

"Wow! I would love to be able to turn into something else!" Mine exclaimed as she stared in thin air with a dreamy expression on her face.

"No you don't. I have to wear a girls bathing suit when I go to the beach and water seems to seek me out. If you turned into a guy, you could no longer wear any skirts because if you got splashed, you would be a guy in a skirt. And if you turn into an animal, it's even worse. I know some people with animal curses and you either tear your clothes to pieces if you turn into a large animal, or if you turn into something small, like Shampoo or Moose, then you would lose your clothes becauses they were to big for you and you can't really carry them in a cat or duck form. Some times I think I'm the only one lucky enough to get a human curse." Ranma said with a sigh.

"I can see your point." Ami said as she studied him with a serious eye.

"Yeah, but I'm used to it be now. I've had it for over three years, since I was sixteen."

"You're nineteen?" Rei asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I'll be twenty in about two months. Why?" Ranma asked, curiose about the hopefull expression on the black haired girls face.

"Oh, no reason, but tell me, do you have a girlfriend?" she asked with Mina leaning forward to hear the answer too.

Ranma was silent for a moment as they waited. "Let me tell you something about something first before I answer that, ok?" he said and waited untill they nodded before continuing. "For the past three years I have had Shampoo, a Chinese amazon, trying to kill me girl side and marry my boy side because I defeated her in battle in both forms before I knew about the kiss of death and the kiss of mariage. Then there is my bestfriend Ukyo, who I found out that I was engaged to when I was five. I had thought she was a boy when we were little, so when Pop asked if I liked her or food better, I said food. I found out later when she showed up in Nerima and attacked me for abandoning her years ago, which I had no clue about. Then there is Akane. I was engaged to her before we were even born. Kodachi I was never ingaged to but she still was obsessed with my guy side while her brother Kuno was obsessed with my girl side and attacked my guy side to get me to release his 'beautiful Akane and the pigtailled girl from my evil sorcerous ways.'" Ranma said in a perfect impression of Kuno's voice and manner.

"Then there is the other dozen families that Pop engaged me to, just to fill his fat stomach. Ever since we got to Nerima, all the girls have been fighting eachother to see who got to marry me and most of the time, I ended up in the middle of it some how. The only one who didn't want to marry me was Akane. She always claimed that she didn't care about me, that I was a pervert and I could marry anyone I wanted, but when ever one of the others glomped me, it was my fault and I ended up getting to meet Mr. Mallet again and taking an express trip over the horizon."

"Why would she call you a pervert?" Lita asked.

"When we first showed up at the Tendo dojo, it was raining and I was a girl at the time. Akane offered to be friends and since I never really had a friend since we were always on the move ever since we began the training trip, I was happy to accept. But she hated guys because everymorning she had to battle most of the guys in school because they wanted to go out wither. It was because of Kuno. He declared that the only way anyone could go out with her was if they defeated her first. But, anyway. I was taking a bath, trying to work up enough nerve to go down and she walked in on me, even though I had a sign on the door say don't enter. So she walked in, thinking I was a girl, and then seeing that there was a guy in there, she calmly turned around, put on her robe, closed the door, and went screaming thiught the house where she picked up the table and was about to storm right back to the bathroom to clober me with it. I showed up and introdcued myself and pop explained everything and demonstrated my curse. Well, me and Akane got into an argument about whose fault it was about the bathroom and I said some really stupid things. In the end I ended getting smashed with table anyway."

"She sounds very violent." Ami said and Ranma nodded.

Yeah, but anyway. I put up with all this for over two years, but when I was hurt and everyone found out that I wasn't going to be able to walk without help, the Tendos broke the engagement because I couldn't carry on the dojo. The Amazons went back to China, Kuno and Kodachi who are both very crazy, said I was worthy of their time, Ukyo said it was to painful to see me like that, and Ryoga, my enemy, who was also one of my best friends came to see me and told me that I had brought it on my self because of the way I treated Akane, and I admit, it wasn't always very nice to her, but most of the time, she was the one who started the fights.

"So to answer your question, I'm not ready to go out with anyone right now." he said firmly and the girls just nodded in understanding.

Suddenly, Lita stood up and slammed her hand onto the table. "If I ever meet up with any of them, I'll kill them! How dare they treat you like that. Didn't they ever think about you? It was like you were a prize to be won!" she yelled.

"I've...put it be hind me. While I like you spirt, don't do anything against them." Ranma said but just then, the door to the Acade opened and a guy with shaggy black hair, a bandana, and a huge backpack with an umbrella strapped to the top, entered.

"Ryoga?" Ranma said as he stood up.



Sorry it's been so long since I updated this story. It will probably be just as long for the next chapter. In the mean time read my Duo'
s Pain and I'll try to hurry up with the next chapter for this. Gomen!!!!

Shinigami-chan