Author's Notes: This is a 'sort of' AU. If you don't know what that means, I'll explain. It means that everything is the same, but some of the characters may have different histories or backgrounds. They may be doing different jobs, or may be doing something unexpected during the gaps in the Anime series.
That's all, enjoy this Spirited Away/Ranma crossover!
Spiriting Away: Chapter 1
Ranma sighed, leaping off the roof of her current home. She had left the Tendo Dojo a few months ago, after being trapped in his female form. Fortunately, she had gotten used to it, and hadn't been as unable to cope as most thought she would be.
A sigh escaped her lips as she landed quietly on the grass. As she looked around, she could see the sun setting over the nearby park. She had chosen her house for its vantage point, and the beautiful scenery surrounding it.
A grimace crossed her face, as she thought about her 'cure'. She had been given the chance to cure herself, but she hadn't trusted the offer. Of all the times for paranoia to set in, it had to occur right before a true cure appeared. She had lost her chance, and had found herself trapped in her cursed form.
Blinking back a few tears, Ranma walked into her house, and went to the furo to bathe.
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Outside the house, a pair of eyes slowly emerged from the surrounding forest. It lifted its hand back, and snapped it forward, embedding a note into the house's door. The figure smiled, then jumped back into the forest, and faded from sight.
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Ranma started, and grabbed her clothes before jumping out the window. She looked around for the cause of her distraction, and saw the note. Cautiously picking it up, she read it to herself.
To Ranma Saotome,
We are in need of your skills as a martial artist. We are willing to allow you another chance at a cure, but only if you help us found a bathhouse.
If you are to accept this proposition, please follow the forest path to the abandoned tunnel. Follow the tunnel trail from there.
Sincerely,
Miss Y.
'A forest trail? There's no such thing here...' Ranma looked up, and stared. "What the hell!?" A well-worn, dirt trail was leading away from the back of her house. "A chance at a cure? I've got nothing to lose, I suppose..." Ranma looked at the house, before nodding to herself, and pulling a cell-phone out of a subspace pocket.
"Hello? Is anyone there? Oh well. To all Tendos, I'm leaving on a trip to find a cure. Please understand that I don't know if I'll ever return. I will try my hardest. I will try extremely hard if I find a cure, because if I do, I can return to your home with the possibility of upholding the marriage. I hope you don't hate me forever or anything, so, all I'm asking for is your forgiveness. Thank you. I-I'll miss you, Akane..." Ranma looked up, as she cut off the connection to the Tendo's answering machine, and walked into the forest, to her hopeful cure.
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Ranma emerged into a bright field, the sun shining in her face. She gave a small smile, before taking the step out of the tunnel, and walking down the trail. She followed it through an under-construction town, and went all the way up to a large, half-finished building.
"You must be Ranma! Come here!" An old, shrunken figure with more wrinkles than Cologne, stepped into Ranma's view. It smiled, before asking, "So you accepted?"
Ranma nodded, then stared as a piece of paper and a pen appeared from thin air.
"Sign there, and I'll set you to work."
Ranma read the contract, which stated the following:
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For every year you work here, a day will pass in the outer world (Ranma didn't understand what it meant by 'outer world', but she understood that the Tendos were part of the 'outer world'.)
To work here, you will have your hair turned brown with an illusionary spell. (Ranma didn't mind this at all.)
Your appearance will be permanently changed by the years, and will become more mature.
You will work here for twenty-five years, under this contract, and will be working as a bathhouse attendant. A female attendant, of course.
If you agree to these terms, please sign this page.
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Ranma blinked, before signing her name. The paper shot away from her, and she heard the old looking figure laugh, as it said, "Your name is now mine, and you will be known as Rin, now. Understand?"
Ranma nodded, then heard the figure say, "I am Yubaba, the mistress of this bathhouse. Rin, go and help clean up inside. Your speed and strength have been restrained to normal levels by my spell, so don't over exert yourself." Yubaba nodded toward Ranma, then turned and walked away.
Ranma blinked, then walked toward the bathhouse, to live out her twenty-five years of service.
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The Tendo family was gathered around their phone. Soun was bawling, and Kasumi was quietly dabbing at her eyes. Akane had tears trickling down her face, and even Nabiki looked downcast.
"We didn't let him know that we all loved him, did we?" Nabiki asked quietly. "We never gave him enough reason not to risk his life again..."
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Tendo life had gone on, but a sad blanket seemed to be muffling everything. Ranma's last words were the closest Akane had ever consciously heard to an 'I love you.' Everything had become forced routine, and only 24 days had passed. The whole family had worked the visiting of Ranma's house into their everyday schedule, and Mr. Tendo had bought a car to get them there faster. Yesterday, she had heard news of a new family moving into the neighboring house. The family hadn't arrived, and the Tendos couldn't greet them. Akane looked up at the setting sun, and recalled how the last few weeks had degraded into two things:
Daily routine... and crying.
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Rin flopped onto her mattress. She looked out over the calm ocean, and gave a sad-looking smile. She couldn't really remember her life on the other side anymore, and all she knew was that she had been working at the bathhouse for nearly twenty-five years. Another few weeks, and she would hit her twenty-fifth 'birthday'. She couldn't really remember her birthday, so she called the day she started work at the bathhouse her birthday. Sighing, she slipped into bed hoping not to disturb her new acquaintance, a small human child who went by 'Sen'.
As she slipped into the blissful land of sleep, she was sure she heard crying.
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Rin felt like sobbing, as she saw Sen, no, Chihiro, leave the town. She looked up and forced her tears back, as she walked to comfort Haku, Yubaba's apprentice in the magical arts. She knew that Haku and Chihiro had fallen in love, and she knew that he would be taking the event worse than her.
As she walked toward Haku, she thought back to how the day had gone. It was her 'birthday', and she couldn't have asked for a better gift than giving Haku his freedom and freeing Chihiro from Yubaba's hands.
Before she could reach Haku, a small hand pulled her aside. "Rin, Yubaba is requesting your presence." Rin nodded to the Yuna, and walked through the maze of the Aburaya. She walked through the doors to Yubaba's office, and bowed as she entered.
"You asked for me?" She said, grimacing inside. She despised Yubaba immensely, especially because of her harsh methods of treating new workers.
"Yes, I did. Your working contract is finished. I will now give you control over a certain curse you've had since you were sixteen." Yubaba started to mutter under her breath, and to her amazement, Rin found that she could understand the spell.
"Vegi rolcont ot het neo hatt steusreq ti."
'Give control to the one that requests it? That's a spell? How did I know this? I know I've heard Haku and Yubaba's lessons, but for me to just learn it like this? Weird...'
"Don't be surprised if you understand what I've said. You used to be able to almost instantly pick up any technique that had to do with fighting. You look confused. Let me remove those memory blocks." Yubaba gave an evil grin, and Rin took a step back, sliding into a stance she was sure she didn't know.
She reeled back as eighteen years of memories flooded into her mind. They were all faded memories, and she knew that she had been a girl for twenty-five years, but to know that she had been a male for the first fifteen years, then a gender-changer for the next three years, was a shock.
"You're free to go now, Ranma. Your curse is changeable with simple will power. Will it to happen, and it will. Your physical blocks are removed as well. Oh, your hair is red again, too." Yubaba gave Ranma a genuine smile (very rare), and pushed her out of the room.
Ranma blinked, before stumbling her way down the corridors and out of the bathhouse. The crowd that was still at the front of the building became silent, as one by one, they noticed a red-headed beauty walking away from the bathhouse.
Haku blinked a good bit, then asked, "Who are you?"
The woman in question raised her head, and the crowd gasped. "What? You don't recognize me? My hair color shouldn't make you forget that I'm Rin, should it?"
"Wha? H-how? Rin?" Haku stared, wondering what had happened.
"I'm free to go, now. I served my full contract. I learned my name is Ranma... I've had an illusion on my hair removed, a few memory blocks removed, a power block removed, and been given a cure to a curse. I'm going home..."
"You're a human?!" A worker yelled out, questioningly.
"Yes, I am. But, I'm one of the original workers of the bathhouse, and I've lived here so long, and eaten so much here, that I'm part spirit now." Ranma gave the crowd a small smile, and said, "I may as well see if my muscles still work..."
The crowd blinked collectively, as Ranma blurred, and shot off faster than Haku could move. In fact, only Haku could tell that she hadn't completely done a transport spell. He smiled as he watched Ranma walk over the hill by the tunnel, and smiled wider as he realized that he could leave the bathhouse soon, and would have not one, but two friends in the human world.
He quickly ran up to Yubaba's office to cancel his apprenticeship so he could leave the spirit world.
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The Tendo family members all cast a sad look at Ranma's house, before stepping into the car. They drove about forty feet before something impacted with the front of the car, stopping it completely. The something had red hair.
"Ranma!?" Akane yelled. She jumped out of the car, as the red-headed person pushed off the car, and stood up. "Ranma? Is that you?"
Ranma looked up, shaking her head to clear it. "A-Aka... Akane, right? And that's Nabiki, then Kasumi, and finally your father, Soun!"
Akane stared at the red-headed figure in front of her. The female looked much too old to be Ranma, she decided. "Who're you?"
Ranma was shocked by Akane's question. "You don't recognize me?" Akane shook her head. Ranma sighed, and concentrated on shifting to her male form. When she heard Akane gasp, she looked at herself and found that she was now, indeed, a he. "I found a cure, Akane, but I can't marry you anymore."
"That's really you, Ranma? ...Why can't you marry me?"
"Yes, it's me, and I can't marry you for two reasons. First," here, Ranma paused to shift back to female form before continuing, "I'm a female, and I have been a female for the last twenty-six years. One year before now, and twenty-five years for the twenty-five days you waited. So, that leads to the second problem, which is that of my age. I'm forty-three years old. You're eighteen. I'm a bit too old for you, Akane." Ranma gave her an apologetic smile then asked, "Would you all like to come to my house for some tea? I'm afraid it's going to be messy, as I haven't been around for almost a month...''
The Tendos all nodded their assent, wondering at Ranma's maturity, before driving back to Ranma's house.
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Chihiro walked out of her house, wondering where her neighbor was. She had seen a family drive up three times in the last hour, ringing the doorbell to her neighbor's house. As she looked around, she noticed that the car was going back again, and this time a woman was jogging alongside it, talking to the passengers.
'She looks familiar', Chihiro thought, squinting her eyes. She blinked as the woman stopped and looked at her, before smiling and rushing towards her.
"Sen! I mean... Chihiro! What are you doing here? Did you just move in?"
"R-Rin? Is that you?"
"Aaaaaaaawww... No one recognizes me with my natural red hair. That's a saddening fact... Anyway, how are you doing? Still a klutz?"
"Uh, Rin, it's only been a few hours since I left..."
"Oh yeah! That's right... sorry. Anyway, I'm Ranma now. I got my old name back. And I've got some good news for you." Ranma smiled slightly before whispering, "Haku is going to be out of the spirit world soon! Hehehehehe..."
"Really!? Already? Thanks, Rin! Er... Ranma!" Chihiro laughed in joy, and gave Ranma a very big hug.
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Akane stared as Ranma played with Chihiro, and sighed as she realized that everything Ranma had said was true. It couldn't work out between them anymore. Akane sighed as she pulled out a cell phone and told Konatsu and Cologne the news. Obviously she couldn't tell Shampoo or Ukyou, because they'd overreact to hearing Ranma's name.
When she finished the calls, she walked into Ranma's house (Ranma had unlocked it) and sat down to wait with her family.
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"I gotta go now, klutz. C'ya around!" Ranma smiled as Chihiro made a face. She turned and walked into her house to talk to the Tendos about 'old times'.
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Authors Notes: I don't know if I'll continue this. Comments would be nice!
If I do continue this, it will probably take a while, because I'm still working on my other story, 'Smarter?', at the moment. So, I'll update another chapter if I decide to continue, but only to say, "I'm going to continue."
This is probably going to be the longest chapter out of all the chapters in the story.
Also, it will take a majority wanting of my continuation of this story for me to continue. Please C&C or R&R!
Thanks!
-Ayanami Rei