The sign on the wall of the compound read "Tendo school of Anything Goes
Martial Arts" in neat, hand-written kanji. It was currently slick with
water from the sudden cloudburst that occurred minutes before. The three
figures stood, two covered in waterproof capes that clearly weren't
waterproof enough. The third was covered only in white and black fur. The
late afternoon sun made rays through the broken clouds.
The redheaded girl (1) looked mad as she said to the panda, "I still don't believe this pop. Not only didn't you tell us there was another 'Anything Goes school', but you set up an arranged marriage and forget that too. I musta bounced you on your head one time too many." The panda starts to take up a stance, "Groowf!"
The blond girl steps in to stop the incipient brawl. "That's what we're here to sort out. For all we know they may have forgotten all about it. But whatever, we got to find out. I don't want to face mum without all the info on this. We're in deep enough already, lil bro."
The red head grins ruefully and grabs her pigtail, squeezing some of the water out. "I hear that. But what if it's the real thing? I don't want to marry a girl I don't even know." She leans up against the other sign. "To defeat owner in savage combat use back door."
"Then we'll find a way to fix it. I've talked us out of worse scrapes. Besides I think it's sort of exciting there being other 'Anything Goes' kempo style artists. Maybe we'll find new sparring partners."
The redhead nods but makes an untranslatable sound indicative of disbelief that things will turn out that well. They ignore the frantic growls and pantomiming of the panda that was telling them it was a matter of family honour. Ranma [you were expecting maybe Hikaru Shidou?] turns on him and says, "Cool it pop. This time we sort out the mess. C'mon Deru."
They troop up to the door and Ranma pushes the door bell. (2)
Meanwhile in the front room of the Tendo home. [.they miss their cue.]
"What sort of guy is this Ranma?" asked Kasumi.
Soun Tendo, every inch the patriarch, coughs and replied replies. "No idea."(3)
"No idea?" Nabiki leans forward, sarcasm dripping off her tone.
"I've never met him." Soun looks nervous. [3.2.1. ]
Akane, still in a royal snit from earlier, gets in another verbal broadside. "I still don't believe this dad. Not only didn't you tell us there was another 'Anything Goes school', but you set up an arranged marriage and forget that too? You don't even know what this Ranma looks like!"
Nabiki returns to her place at the table and sips her drink.. "You never know Akane, he's a martial artist, you might like him."
"No way, if he's not like those immature idiots at school then he'll be some egotistical jerk with no manners, and probably a pervert to boot."
Soun Tendo tried hard to hold back his tears. "I'm sure my old friend Genma will have trained him to be a fine man! According to the postcard they should be arriving in Tokyo today."
With the sort of co-incidence that only happens in a story, the door bell rang.
"Ohh, it must be Ranma!" cried Nabiki in a bubbly tone, as she got up and raced to the door, playing the overexcited school girl to the hilt. She was closely followed by Soun. "Saotome my friend! we've been waiting." Nabiki opened the door to a face full of panda as Genma lunged forward to get the jump on explanations, forgetting, of course that pandas can't talk.
Nabiki and Soun raced back into the front room, pursued by panda. "Quit it, you're scaring them" came a voice from behind Genma. A foot hooked around the back most leg of the panda from behind, dropping him face first on the floor, and revealing the blond girl. She said in a different voice to the first, "Sorry. Didn't mean to trouble you." and proceeded to leg lock the panda, drag it away and dump it out on the veranda. The panda looked up imploringly at Soun as this happened, unable to get leverage to break free.
"Daddy, is this your friend?" asked Kasumi, showing more emotion than she does for the entire rest of the series.
Soun frantically shook his head.
"Oh so a panda just decided to visit. That happens all the time." Nabiki also yelled.
The original voice said from the hallway, "Ano. Hello." Standing at the door was Ranma, one hand behind her head.
"You wouldn't be." asked Soun, pointing at the girl..
".Ranma Saotome. Sorry about this."
Soun immediately jumped forward, and grabbed Ranmas shoulders. "At last, You've come!" Nabiki back in full schoolgirl squeal mode went "Ohhh! He's cute."
Soun hugged Ranma. "It's so good of ." He doesn't notice Ranma wincing. He does notice that his hug is clearly more pneumatic than he expected. As he released Ranma and moves back, Nabiki came forward and, one finger extended prodded Ranma's. front. [Insert poit poit sound effect].
"Please don't do that." asked Ranma, looking embarrassed.
Akane now looked more sympathetic. "Nabiki, stop that! She's our guest."
Nabiki turned to her father. "'He' is a girl." Soun, of course, reacted in the mature and rational manner befitting the patriarch of the Tendo clan; he fainted.
As Kasumi took care of their unconscious father and Nabiki berated him, Akane took their guest away from the scene.
"I'm Akane Tendo. I think father was expecting a boy, Saotome-san. I apologise for our reactions."
"Well. It's O.K. I'm sorry we scared you. That shouldn't of happened." The red haired girl bobbed her head forward, pigtail flicking round one shoulder. Akane finally got a good look at Ranma, the standard version in an oversized Chinese patterned red shirt.
"Hey, you want to be friends?" Akane asked, holding out her hand.
Ranma took it. "I'd like that. I haven't had many friends recently. Call me Ranma." They both smiled.
"Then I'm Akane. Dad said you studied kempo. Was that right?"
"Some." Ranma replied, not wanting to seem overbearing to her new friend.
"Do you want a little match?"
Meanwhile, outside a Panda is being dressed down. ".you made a very bad first impression there, dad. Now let us handle this. Maybe we can clear up things. I don't like to threaten, but if you don't let us do this, between us we'll make sure you don't get hot water, and get mum to put you on bamboo shoots and boiled rice for months!" the blond girl stated, not angrily, but with a sort of finality. Then she says. "Hello. I'm sorry you had to hear that." She turned to face Nabiki, who was standing beside the screen door. She had tired of brow beating Soun and gone to check on their other guest..
"How did you do that?" she asks, genuinely surprised for the first time in a long time.
The girl grins. "Practice, lots of practice." She holds out her hand. "I'm Deru Saotome, pleased to meet you." Nabiki looked over the girl, an inch taller than she did; blond hair tied back, Caucasian skin tone and features. She wore a canvas jacket and trousers that had clearly seen a lot of wear, with additional pockets stitched in. A plain off white t-shirt was visible underneath. The clothes all looked slightly loose and were damp from the recent downpour.
Nabiki took it. "Nabiki Tendo. Why did you call that panda 'dad', Satome- san? For that matter, you don't look very Japanese, though your speech is excellent."
"Call me Deru. It's a long story and one that needs demonstrating before you believe it. May we go back inside?"
Nabiki stepped back inside and with an air of a hostess greeting an important guest said, "Please do." At the same time she thought 'Whatever's going on it looks to be interesting, and possibly profitable.'
They enter just as Ranma answers "Well, I'd like to."
"Like to what?" asks Deru. She spots Soun on a tatami. "And what happened?"
Ranma replies, "Akane invited me to go spar with her. As for Akane's father."
Akane continued. "I'm afraid he took the fact that Ranma's a girl rather hard. He's been very excited about this engagement thing."
Deru sighed. "Oh dear. I think we'd better do some explaining first, without interference from our parents."
Kasumi looked up from mopping Souns brow. "I was about to serve tea. Would you like some?"
Ranma beat Deru to the punch fractionally. "Yes please." Deru continued. "Could we have some hot water separately, as well?"
[Read the manga. Don't you think that Kasumi's and Nabiki's actions for the first few pages are stunningly OOC for how they act the rest of the series? Nabiki, boy crazy. Kasumi less than ultra mellow, and actually commenting about boys. If anyone wrote a fan fic like that they'd be flamed into a server breakdown.]
The scene a few moments later had the five of them sitting around the table, Ranma and Deru kneeling on one side, Akane, Nabiki and Kasumi, on the other. Kasumi has introduced herself to them both. They were looking a bit nervous. "" Deru muttered in English. "" Ranma replied. Deru takes a deep breath. "We can explain this to your parents later, but you're the ones this affects directly." He looks around. "When will your mother be back?"
Kasumi cleared her throat, "Ahh, Deru-san. Our mother passed away some years ago."
Deru immediately looked thunderstruck. "I'm very sorry. I just assumed."
Ranma looked apologetic. "I'm sorry for your loss." he said formally.
"It is alright. You couldn't know." replied Kasumi.
Deru recovered some poise, "This is hard to believe, but I am actually a male. So is Ranma." She picks up the hot water.
This statement breaks the sudden tension. Nabiki smirked, Akane outright giggled and even Kasumi smiled.
Deru sighed. "O.K, watch." She poured some of the water on her forearm. "Yow!" he said putting it down sharply and blowing on the red skin. Of course while this happened the sisters attentions were fixed on other things. Deru grew by a couple of inches and her hair darkened to a deep brown. Finally of course she became a he. The t-shirt now fitted, of course, and showed he did exercise. He continued in a tenor voice. "It doesn't need to be quite that hot. I should have said." He keeps on cooling his skin.
The three were frozen for a moment. Then Kasumi said slowly. "Oh my! That is most remarkable. Where did Deru go?"
"It's still me. The original me. Bro, your turn." Ranma poured some water in his saucer and blew on it before repeating Deru's actions. He changed as well, to his true form. Nabiki's eyes had turned calculating and Akane seemed annoyed.
Ranma took over. "It's a curse, magic. Whenever we get hit with cold water we turn into girls, hot water changes us back. Courtesy of our idiot father. At least he got his own curse, so he knows what we're going through."
Nabiki said slowly. "So that panda outside."
Deru replied. "Bingo. Different curse. He turns into a panda. You see what I meant."
Kasumi has regained most of her poise. "How did this happen?" she asks Ranma.
"We're both martial artists. We were on a training trip with pop and visited some 'legendary training grounds' in China. It was about two months ago that we got to the cursed springs of Jyusenkyo. Pop found out about it in this booklet, not that he would let us see the thing.
"I didn't think it looked that scary. It was just this valley with a whole load of small pools in it, and lots of bamboo poles sticking up. Pop was all up for getting started straight away, so we jumped up on the poles and started sparring. There was this guide who was trying to tell us not to, but we didn't listen." He smacks his hand into his fist. "We should have listened!"
Deru takes over. "The guide grabbed me by the arm and stopped me going after them. He said something like. 'Honoured customer, what they doing! Is very bad if they fall in. Each pool have curse. Change person who fall in. Each pool have own most tragic legend.'" Deru said this in sing song broken Japanese.
"Of course I didn't believe it, then Ranma does a high takedown on dad and drops him into a pool. The guide exclaims 'Oh no, honoured customer fall in Shonmaoniichuan! Is pool where panda drown 2000 years ago. Now whoever fall in pool, take on body of panda!' Sure enough out of the spring jumps this panda, which takes up a stance on one of the poles. I think we both were stunned for a second." He looks to Ranma.
"I hadn't heard the guide, so I was even more surprised. I don't think pop had noticed the change. When he came for me I reacted, but I'd lost my centre, and against someone as good as pop that's not smart. He managed to knock me off my pole and towards another pool. Then Deru comes out of nowhere and knocks me off towards the verge."
"Then how did you both end up cursed?" Nabiki asks, looking as if she's mentally taking every thing down for future reference.
Deru spoke first. "Well, I didn't know what spring it was, but I wasn't going to let anyone else fall in. I shrugged off the guide and went straight for the pools. I saw Ranma falling and jumped to intercept him. Unfortunately, I slipped on some wet grass and didn't get a full power jump. I still managed to intercept him, but I ended up wrong footed and dropping head first towards the spring with no time to react. I hit the water, and don't remember anything until I woke up in the guides hut, the way you saw me earlier today." He sighed. Ranma took over.
"I landed on the edge as he hit the water. It was no more than a couple of feet deep there. He smacked his head then just lay there, floating face down. Fortunately we Saotomes have very thick skulls. Of course I jumped in and dragged him out. Well, I say him, but of course he'd changed. For a second I couldn't work out what had happened. I thought this girl had tried to stop me from getting hurt, and got injured herself. It was lucky that she'd only been in the water for seconds. She was unconscious but breathing. In fact, that was when I noticed I'd changed.
"I knelt by her head to put my head down and listen for her breath, and something was stopping me from getting right down. I felt off balance as well. So when I tried to move whatever it was away I found. well you know." He blushes. "I gotta say, I freaked. It's just as well Deru didn't need care, because I was not in a state to give it. Then of course the guide comes along with the panda and gives his potted explanation. We'd fallen in Nyanniichuan, the spring of the drowned girl. We carried Deru to the guides cabin. The guide told us hot water would fix us. It's just as well, because I was fuming." Deru looked slightly nervous at that, and cut in.
"We spent the next month trying to get back to Japan. We saved what little money we had left. We walked wherever possible, took tatami class on the ferry back, anything we could do. We ended up as girls three quarters of the time because we'd suddenly become cold water magnets. Some of the situations we ended up in. Anyway, there you have it. our own 'most tragic legend.'"
The three Tendo girls were silent for a minute. Kasumi spoke first. "Is there no cure?"
Both guys replied at once. Then Ranma took over. "The guide told us of a spring of the drowned man, Nanniichuan. Some of that should return us to normal. But while we were there it was flooded and mixing with some other springs. We weren't going to risk that. He reckoned that it wouldn't clear till next summer. We left some of our money, and promised more, for him to send us a barrel full when it clears. We've also got the phone number. But until next year, we're stuck as girls." He sounded disgusted.
Akane started to say something, but Nabiki came in. "That still doesn't explain you, Deru. Why do you look so." she struggled for a word. ".western?"
Deru looks down for a second, then straight at her. "I was adopted when I was 4. I have almost no memories of my biological parents. They named me Andrew.Andrew" He pronounces it An-de-ru, first time, then An-droo. "Of course it got shortened to Deru. I was brought up alongside Ranma, and I am his brother, irrespective of my looks." He said this with a forceful tone, as if he expected someone to dispute him.
When nobody did, Deru looks relieved. He eases back and breathes out. "Now to the matter we came here for, this engagement between Ranma and one of you. Ranma and I discussed this and would like."
Soun suddenly jumps in, having recovered and been listening in the background. ". to go ahead immediately with the arrangements, I understand. Since hot water reverses the curse, the problem isn't so bad after all." He turns to Ranma and carries on without giving anyone a chance to interrupt. "You've met my three daughters. Kasumi is 19, Nabiki is 17 and Akane is 16." He gestures to each in turn. "Pick the one you want. She'll be your fiancée."
Ranma is left wordless for a minute. Into this dead space jumps Akane, who's been heating up, as she finds out the girl she befriended is actually a boy. "Are you insane dad! You still expect one of us to marry this freak!"
Nabiki said more lightly. "Well, Akane, you did say you didn't like the boys at school. Well, he's not from our school and he's a girl half the time."
Ranma cringed, then looked angry. He shouted back at Akane. "And who would want to marry you anyway? Some friend you turn out to be." He jumped up.
Akane rose too, furious. "You're a pervert! All the time you were pretending to be a girl, pretending to be friendly, so you could spar with me in the dojo and grope me!"
Ranma looked even madder. "You were the one who offered to spar. Maybe you wanted to grope me as a girl!"
Soun laughs. "You see, you're already a perfect couple." Nabiki mutters, "Yeah, but a couple of what?"
Akane declaims her deathless line. "He's a couple by himself!"
Ranma jumps up. "Let's go Deru. I'll be outside with dad, getting ready to go."
Soun rose up in front of him, demon headed. "It is a matter of family honour. Your father and I made a most solemn promise, the day you were born, to wed you to one of my daughters!" A loud string of bangs interrupted him.
Everyone turned back to the table. Deru was standing there with a string of firecrackers that he'd whipped from one of his many pockets. "Will everyone calm down!" he said, not in a loud voice, but one that penetrated. "I was about to say, we wanted to cancel the existing engagement. With things as they currently are, we didn't want to drag anyone in to our problems. Right Ranma?"
"Yeah. That's right." Ranma said still fuming.
"We weren't even aware another school existed, let alone of this engagement, until 2 days ago. We came here to get acquainted, possibly find friends who shared our interests, new sparring partners even, not force through some ridiculous drunken promise neither our mother nor we knew about! We got that much from dad."
He turned to Soun. "It was when you were celebrating Ranma's birth. You were both drinking and thought it would be a good idea to unite the schools?"
Soun suddenly looked a lot less fearsome. "Well, yes. It was a glorious moment."
Ranma interrupted. "And I thought pop was hopeless! You were going to marry one of your daughters to someone you'd never met simply to make good on the promise? Unbelievable!"
Akane now looked a little stunned at Ranma turning round and defending her point of view. 'Maybe I misjudged him.'
Deru turned to the two elder sisters. "Do you wish to carry through this agreement? There was no omiai, no formal proposal, the whole thing is a farce!"
[Omiai - In an arranged marriage there is usually a formal meeting where the two participants get acquainted before the marriage is agreed.]
Kasumi shook her head. "We were also informed of the engagement a few days ago. I would prefer not to go through with it. No offence to you Saotome- san." she said to Ranma.
"An arranged marriage is so old fashioned." Nabiki stated. "I didn't think dad would be so serious about it. I'm in favour of breaking it."
Deru turned to Akane, and said coolly. "Tendo-san. You've already made your position clear." He turns back to Soun. "I am sorry Tendo-san," his different intonation shows respect this time, "it is the consensus of the principles in this engagement that it be cancelled. Surely you would not want to go against all your daughters wishes."
"But our families honours, the dojo." Soun Tendo looked at his three daughters and saw no acceptance there. His momentary backbone vanished, and he slumped. "Very. well." He started to tear up. Ranma turned to him. With difficulty he said, "I'm. sorry. Tendo-san. Pop's outside. We can take him some hot water and you can see him again, while we get ready to leave." He leads the somewhat stunned father out onto the veranda, carrying the hot water jug.
1) Onna-Ranma's hair is black, not red, in the manga. However everybody's used it for the same reason I am, to make Ranma's girl form identifiable. Likewise Onna-Deru is a blond. There is evidence to suggest that some curses do personalise, the best being that spring of drowned man would restore Ranma rather than turning him into some other boy. There's also Herb, who fell in and turned into a female version of himself, not a Ranma duplicate.
2) Names for shapeshifters. I have tried to make the sex/species obvious from context so no Ranma-chan, or onna-Ranma (except in this explanation. oops!)
3) Names in general. Yes, I am putting personal names first, family last. And yes, I know it should be the other way round.
The redheaded girl (1) looked mad as she said to the panda, "I still don't believe this pop. Not only didn't you tell us there was another 'Anything Goes school', but you set up an arranged marriage and forget that too. I musta bounced you on your head one time too many." The panda starts to take up a stance, "Groowf!"
The blond girl steps in to stop the incipient brawl. "That's what we're here to sort out. For all we know they may have forgotten all about it. But whatever, we got to find out. I don't want to face mum without all the info on this. We're in deep enough already, lil bro."
The red head grins ruefully and grabs her pigtail, squeezing some of the water out. "I hear that. But what if it's the real thing? I don't want to marry a girl I don't even know." She leans up against the other sign. "To defeat owner in savage combat use back door."
"Then we'll find a way to fix it. I've talked us out of worse scrapes. Besides I think it's sort of exciting there being other 'Anything Goes' kempo style artists. Maybe we'll find new sparring partners."
The redhead nods but makes an untranslatable sound indicative of disbelief that things will turn out that well. They ignore the frantic growls and pantomiming of the panda that was telling them it was a matter of family honour. Ranma [you were expecting maybe Hikaru Shidou?] turns on him and says, "Cool it pop. This time we sort out the mess. C'mon Deru."
They troop up to the door and Ranma pushes the door bell. (2)
Meanwhile in the front room of the Tendo home. [.they miss their cue.]
"What sort of guy is this Ranma?" asked Kasumi.
Soun Tendo, every inch the patriarch, coughs and replied replies. "No idea."(3)
"No idea?" Nabiki leans forward, sarcasm dripping off her tone.
"I've never met him." Soun looks nervous. [3.2.1. ]
Akane, still in a royal snit from earlier, gets in another verbal broadside. "I still don't believe this dad. Not only didn't you tell us there was another 'Anything Goes school', but you set up an arranged marriage and forget that too? You don't even know what this Ranma looks like!"
Nabiki returns to her place at the table and sips her drink.. "You never know Akane, he's a martial artist, you might like him."
"No way, if he's not like those immature idiots at school then he'll be some egotistical jerk with no manners, and probably a pervert to boot."
Soun Tendo tried hard to hold back his tears. "I'm sure my old friend Genma will have trained him to be a fine man! According to the postcard they should be arriving in Tokyo today."
With the sort of co-incidence that only happens in a story, the door bell rang.
"Ohh, it must be Ranma!" cried Nabiki in a bubbly tone, as she got up and raced to the door, playing the overexcited school girl to the hilt. She was closely followed by Soun. "Saotome my friend! we've been waiting." Nabiki opened the door to a face full of panda as Genma lunged forward to get the jump on explanations, forgetting, of course that pandas can't talk.
Nabiki and Soun raced back into the front room, pursued by panda. "Quit it, you're scaring them" came a voice from behind Genma. A foot hooked around the back most leg of the panda from behind, dropping him face first on the floor, and revealing the blond girl. She said in a different voice to the first, "Sorry. Didn't mean to trouble you." and proceeded to leg lock the panda, drag it away and dump it out on the veranda. The panda looked up imploringly at Soun as this happened, unable to get leverage to break free.
"Daddy, is this your friend?" asked Kasumi, showing more emotion than she does for the entire rest of the series.
Soun frantically shook his head.
"Oh so a panda just decided to visit. That happens all the time." Nabiki also yelled.
The original voice said from the hallway, "Ano. Hello." Standing at the door was Ranma, one hand behind her head.
"You wouldn't be." asked Soun, pointing at the girl..
".Ranma Saotome. Sorry about this."
Soun immediately jumped forward, and grabbed Ranmas shoulders. "At last, You've come!" Nabiki back in full schoolgirl squeal mode went "Ohhh! He's cute."
Soun hugged Ranma. "It's so good of ." He doesn't notice Ranma wincing. He does notice that his hug is clearly more pneumatic than he expected. As he released Ranma and moves back, Nabiki came forward and, one finger extended prodded Ranma's. front. [Insert poit poit sound effect].
"Please don't do that." asked Ranma, looking embarrassed.
Akane now looked more sympathetic. "Nabiki, stop that! She's our guest."
Nabiki turned to her father. "'He' is a girl." Soun, of course, reacted in the mature and rational manner befitting the patriarch of the Tendo clan; he fainted.
As Kasumi took care of their unconscious father and Nabiki berated him, Akane took their guest away from the scene.
"I'm Akane Tendo. I think father was expecting a boy, Saotome-san. I apologise for our reactions."
"Well. It's O.K. I'm sorry we scared you. That shouldn't of happened." The red haired girl bobbed her head forward, pigtail flicking round one shoulder. Akane finally got a good look at Ranma, the standard version in an oversized Chinese patterned red shirt.
"Hey, you want to be friends?" Akane asked, holding out her hand.
Ranma took it. "I'd like that. I haven't had many friends recently. Call me Ranma." They both smiled.
"Then I'm Akane. Dad said you studied kempo. Was that right?"
"Some." Ranma replied, not wanting to seem overbearing to her new friend.
"Do you want a little match?"
Meanwhile, outside a Panda is being dressed down. ".you made a very bad first impression there, dad. Now let us handle this. Maybe we can clear up things. I don't like to threaten, but if you don't let us do this, between us we'll make sure you don't get hot water, and get mum to put you on bamboo shoots and boiled rice for months!" the blond girl stated, not angrily, but with a sort of finality. Then she says. "Hello. I'm sorry you had to hear that." She turned to face Nabiki, who was standing beside the screen door. She had tired of brow beating Soun and gone to check on their other guest..
"How did you do that?" she asks, genuinely surprised for the first time in a long time.
The girl grins. "Practice, lots of practice." She holds out her hand. "I'm Deru Saotome, pleased to meet you." Nabiki looked over the girl, an inch taller than she did; blond hair tied back, Caucasian skin tone and features. She wore a canvas jacket and trousers that had clearly seen a lot of wear, with additional pockets stitched in. A plain off white t-shirt was visible underneath. The clothes all looked slightly loose and were damp from the recent downpour.
Nabiki took it. "Nabiki Tendo. Why did you call that panda 'dad', Satome- san? For that matter, you don't look very Japanese, though your speech is excellent."
"Call me Deru. It's a long story and one that needs demonstrating before you believe it. May we go back inside?"
Nabiki stepped back inside and with an air of a hostess greeting an important guest said, "Please do." At the same time she thought 'Whatever's going on it looks to be interesting, and possibly profitable.'
They enter just as Ranma answers "Well, I'd like to."
"Like to what?" asks Deru. She spots Soun on a tatami. "And what happened?"
Ranma replies, "Akane invited me to go spar with her. As for Akane's father."
Akane continued. "I'm afraid he took the fact that Ranma's a girl rather hard. He's been very excited about this engagement thing."
Deru sighed. "Oh dear. I think we'd better do some explaining first, without interference from our parents."
Kasumi looked up from mopping Souns brow. "I was about to serve tea. Would you like some?"
Ranma beat Deru to the punch fractionally. "Yes please." Deru continued. "Could we have some hot water separately, as well?"
[Read the manga. Don't you think that Kasumi's and Nabiki's actions for the first few pages are stunningly OOC for how they act the rest of the series? Nabiki, boy crazy. Kasumi less than ultra mellow, and actually commenting about boys. If anyone wrote a fan fic like that they'd be flamed into a server breakdown.]
The scene a few moments later had the five of them sitting around the table, Ranma and Deru kneeling on one side, Akane, Nabiki and Kasumi, on the other. Kasumi has introduced herself to them both. They were looking a bit nervous. "" Deru muttered in English. "" Ranma replied. Deru takes a deep breath. "We can explain this to your parents later, but you're the ones this affects directly." He looks around. "When will your mother be back?"
Kasumi cleared her throat, "Ahh, Deru-san. Our mother passed away some years ago."
Deru immediately looked thunderstruck. "I'm very sorry. I just assumed."
Ranma looked apologetic. "I'm sorry for your loss." he said formally.
"It is alright. You couldn't know." replied Kasumi.
Deru recovered some poise, "This is hard to believe, but I am actually a male. So is Ranma." She picks up the hot water.
This statement breaks the sudden tension. Nabiki smirked, Akane outright giggled and even Kasumi smiled.
Deru sighed. "O.K, watch." She poured some of the water on her forearm. "Yow!" he said putting it down sharply and blowing on the red skin. Of course while this happened the sisters attentions were fixed on other things. Deru grew by a couple of inches and her hair darkened to a deep brown. Finally of course she became a he. The t-shirt now fitted, of course, and showed he did exercise. He continued in a tenor voice. "It doesn't need to be quite that hot. I should have said." He keeps on cooling his skin.
The three were frozen for a moment. Then Kasumi said slowly. "Oh my! That is most remarkable. Where did Deru go?"
"It's still me. The original me. Bro, your turn." Ranma poured some water in his saucer and blew on it before repeating Deru's actions. He changed as well, to his true form. Nabiki's eyes had turned calculating and Akane seemed annoyed.
Ranma took over. "It's a curse, magic. Whenever we get hit with cold water we turn into girls, hot water changes us back. Courtesy of our idiot father. At least he got his own curse, so he knows what we're going through."
Nabiki said slowly. "So that panda outside."
Deru replied. "Bingo. Different curse. He turns into a panda. You see what I meant."
Kasumi has regained most of her poise. "How did this happen?" she asks Ranma.
"We're both martial artists. We were on a training trip with pop and visited some 'legendary training grounds' in China. It was about two months ago that we got to the cursed springs of Jyusenkyo. Pop found out about it in this booklet, not that he would let us see the thing.
"I didn't think it looked that scary. It was just this valley with a whole load of small pools in it, and lots of bamboo poles sticking up. Pop was all up for getting started straight away, so we jumped up on the poles and started sparring. There was this guide who was trying to tell us not to, but we didn't listen." He smacks his hand into his fist. "We should have listened!"
Deru takes over. "The guide grabbed me by the arm and stopped me going after them. He said something like. 'Honoured customer, what they doing! Is very bad if they fall in. Each pool have curse. Change person who fall in. Each pool have own most tragic legend.'" Deru said this in sing song broken Japanese.
"Of course I didn't believe it, then Ranma does a high takedown on dad and drops him into a pool. The guide exclaims 'Oh no, honoured customer fall in Shonmaoniichuan! Is pool where panda drown 2000 years ago. Now whoever fall in pool, take on body of panda!' Sure enough out of the spring jumps this panda, which takes up a stance on one of the poles. I think we both were stunned for a second." He looks to Ranma.
"I hadn't heard the guide, so I was even more surprised. I don't think pop had noticed the change. When he came for me I reacted, but I'd lost my centre, and against someone as good as pop that's not smart. He managed to knock me off my pole and towards another pool. Then Deru comes out of nowhere and knocks me off towards the verge."
"Then how did you both end up cursed?" Nabiki asks, looking as if she's mentally taking every thing down for future reference.
Deru spoke first. "Well, I didn't know what spring it was, but I wasn't going to let anyone else fall in. I shrugged off the guide and went straight for the pools. I saw Ranma falling and jumped to intercept him. Unfortunately, I slipped on some wet grass and didn't get a full power jump. I still managed to intercept him, but I ended up wrong footed and dropping head first towards the spring with no time to react. I hit the water, and don't remember anything until I woke up in the guides hut, the way you saw me earlier today." He sighed. Ranma took over.
"I landed on the edge as he hit the water. It was no more than a couple of feet deep there. He smacked his head then just lay there, floating face down. Fortunately we Saotomes have very thick skulls. Of course I jumped in and dragged him out. Well, I say him, but of course he'd changed. For a second I couldn't work out what had happened. I thought this girl had tried to stop me from getting hurt, and got injured herself. It was lucky that she'd only been in the water for seconds. She was unconscious but breathing. In fact, that was when I noticed I'd changed.
"I knelt by her head to put my head down and listen for her breath, and something was stopping me from getting right down. I felt off balance as well. So when I tried to move whatever it was away I found. well you know." He blushes. "I gotta say, I freaked. It's just as well Deru didn't need care, because I was not in a state to give it. Then of course the guide comes along with the panda and gives his potted explanation. We'd fallen in Nyanniichuan, the spring of the drowned girl. We carried Deru to the guides cabin. The guide told us hot water would fix us. It's just as well, because I was fuming." Deru looked slightly nervous at that, and cut in.
"We spent the next month trying to get back to Japan. We saved what little money we had left. We walked wherever possible, took tatami class on the ferry back, anything we could do. We ended up as girls three quarters of the time because we'd suddenly become cold water magnets. Some of the situations we ended up in. Anyway, there you have it. our own 'most tragic legend.'"
The three Tendo girls were silent for a minute. Kasumi spoke first. "Is there no cure?"
Both guys replied at once. Then Ranma took over. "The guide told us of a spring of the drowned man, Nanniichuan. Some of that should return us to normal. But while we were there it was flooded and mixing with some other springs. We weren't going to risk that. He reckoned that it wouldn't clear till next summer. We left some of our money, and promised more, for him to send us a barrel full when it clears. We've also got the phone number. But until next year, we're stuck as girls." He sounded disgusted.
Akane started to say something, but Nabiki came in. "That still doesn't explain you, Deru. Why do you look so." she struggled for a word. ".western?"
Deru looks down for a second, then straight at her. "I was adopted when I was 4. I have almost no memories of my biological parents. They named me Andrew.Andrew" He pronounces it An-de-ru, first time, then An-droo. "Of course it got shortened to Deru. I was brought up alongside Ranma, and I am his brother, irrespective of my looks." He said this with a forceful tone, as if he expected someone to dispute him.
When nobody did, Deru looks relieved. He eases back and breathes out. "Now to the matter we came here for, this engagement between Ranma and one of you. Ranma and I discussed this and would like."
Soun suddenly jumps in, having recovered and been listening in the background. ". to go ahead immediately with the arrangements, I understand. Since hot water reverses the curse, the problem isn't so bad after all." He turns to Ranma and carries on without giving anyone a chance to interrupt. "You've met my three daughters. Kasumi is 19, Nabiki is 17 and Akane is 16." He gestures to each in turn. "Pick the one you want. She'll be your fiancée."
Ranma is left wordless for a minute. Into this dead space jumps Akane, who's been heating up, as she finds out the girl she befriended is actually a boy. "Are you insane dad! You still expect one of us to marry this freak!"
Nabiki said more lightly. "Well, Akane, you did say you didn't like the boys at school. Well, he's not from our school and he's a girl half the time."
Ranma cringed, then looked angry. He shouted back at Akane. "And who would want to marry you anyway? Some friend you turn out to be." He jumped up.
Akane rose too, furious. "You're a pervert! All the time you were pretending to be a girl, pretending to be friendly, so you could spar with me in the dojo and grope me!"
Ranma looked even madder. "You were the one who offered to spar. Maybe you wanted to grope me as a girl!"
Soun laughs. "You see, you're already a perfect couple." Nabiki mutters, "Yeah, but a couple of what?"
Akane declaims her deathless line. "He's a couple by himself!"
Ranma jumps up. "Let's go Deru. I'll be outside with dad, getting ready to go."
Soun rose up in front of him, demon headed. "It is a matter of family honour. Your father and I made a most solemn promise, the day you were born, to wed you to one of my daughters!" A loud string of bangs interrupted him.
Everyone turned back to the table. Deru was standing there with a string of firecrackers that he'd whipped from one of his many pockets. "Will everyone calm down!" he said, not in a loud voice, but one that penetrated. "I was about to say, we wanted to cancel the existing engagement. With things as they currently are, we didn't want to drag anyone in to our problems. Right Ranma?"
"Yeah. That's right." Ranma said still fuming.
"We weren't even aware another school existed, let alone of this engagement, until 2 days ago. We came here to get acquainted, possibly find friends who shared our interests, new sparring partners even, not force through some ridiculous drunken promise neither our mother nor we knew about! We got that much from dad."
He turned to Soun. "It was when you were celebrating Ranma's birth. You were both drinking and thought it would be a good idea to unite the schools?"
Soun suddenly looked a lot less fearsome. "Well, yes. It was a glorious moment."
Ranma interrupted. "And I thought pop was hopeless! You were going to marry one of your daughters to someone you'd never met simply to make good on the promise? Unbelievable!"
Akane now looked a little stunned at Ranma turning round and defending her point of view. 'Maybe I misjudged him.'
Deru turned to the two elder sisters. "Do you wish to carry through this agreement? There was no omiai, no formal proposal, the whole thing is a farce!"
[Omiai - In an arranged marriage there is usually a formal meeting where the two participants get acquainted before the marriage is agreed.]
Kasumi shook her head. "We were also informed of the engagement a few days ago. I would prefer not to go through with it. No offence to you Saotome- san." she said to Ranma.
"An arranged marriage is so old fashioned." Nabiki stated. "I didn't think dad would be so serious about it. I'm in favour of breaking it."
Deru turned to Akane, and said coolly. "Tendo-san. You've already made your position clear." He turns back to Soun. "I am sorry Tendo-san," his different intonation shows respect this time, "it is the consensus of the principles in this engagement that it be cancelled. Surely you would not want to go against all your daughters wishes."
"But our families honours, the dojo." Soun Tendo looked at his three daughters and saw no acceptance there. His momentary backbone vanished, and he slumped. "Very. well." He started to tear up. Ranma turned to him. With difficulty he said, "I'm. sorry. Tendo-san. Pop's outside. We can take him some hot water and you can see him again, while we get ready to leave." He leads the somewhat stunned father out onto the veranda, carrying the hot water jug.
1) Onna-Ranma's hair is black, not red, in the manga. However everybody's used it for the same reason I am, to make Ranma's girl form identifiable. Likewise Onna-Deru is a blond. There is evidence to suggest that some curses do personalise, the best being that spring of drowned man would restore Ranma rather than turning him into some other boy. There's also Herb, who fell in and turned into a female version of himself, not a Ranma duplicate.
2) Names for shapeshifters. I have tried to make the sex/species obvious from context so no Ranma-chan, or onna-Ranma (except in this explanation. oops!)
3) Names in general. Yes, I am putting personal names first, family last. And yes, I know it should be the other way round.
