Disclaimer: This is a test of the emergency Ranma Broadcasting system. In the event of a real emergency, real Ranma would have been broadcast, and not just a stupid fanfic.
Salvation
denotes a language other than japanese. Figure out which language from context.
[] denotes Panda signs
Chapter 1: Arrivals and Revelations
It was raining. It had rained almost every day for the past three weeks. Genma wondered if this was part of the curse as he walked along in his recently-acquired panda form. It certainly didn't seem to be doing Ranma any good. He could almost feel the waves of depression rolling off of him. He turned around and glance behind him. Ranma, in his female body, was walking along, head bowed, looking soaked and utterly miserable.
It was beginning to worry Genma; the only thing that seemed to bring Ranma out of his depression was when his anger at Genma was roused. In fact, when such would happen, Genma feared for his life; his son barely retained enough control to keep from killing his father.
It was for this reason that Genma had decided it was time to end the training trip, and, therefore, had sent a postcard to an old friend. They were in the outskirts of Nerima ward, and he figured it was time to tell Ranma what the plan was. He turned around and waited for Ranma to catch up.
Ranma could tell Genma was planning something. He had been able to tell for as long as he could remember. He hoped that it had something to do with curing the damned curses. But, if it did, they probably wouldn't be in the area around Tokyo. And for some reason, he was picturing sake, a long-haired man with a mustache, and... a ring? So shocked was he by this horrific mental picture that he didn't notice that the panda had stopped, and walked right into him.
Immediately, the panda held up a sign. [All right, boy, there's a reason we're here.] Ranma's eyes narrowed. "What are you planning, old man?" The panda gulped and began to sweat. He could feel Ranma's anger building. He turned the sign around. [A long time ago, my friend Soun and I agreed to unite the two schools of anything-goes martial arts.] Ranma's eyes narrowed even further in response. "And?" he asked, dangerously. Quickly another sign was held up [youhavetomarryoneofhisdaughtersforthesakeoffamilyhonor!] Ranma blinked. "One more time, pops. With seperate words this time." The panda examined the sign a moment, scratching its head with the other paw. Then it shrugged, and held up the wooden sign again, turned around once more. [You have to marry one of his daughters, for the sake of family honor.]
Inwardly, Ranma breathed a sigh of relief. His father wasn't going to try to get him married to a man. Wait. "Hey! What's the big idea, pops? Picking who I'm supposed to marry, like that. No way." He stalked past the panda, and continued, "I'm not gonna have any part of this." He then ducked under the paw that swept out, and then started to run.
Meanwhile, three girls had been gathered around a table by their father, a long-haired, mustachioed man, to inform them that one of them would be meeting her fiancee today.
Ranma ducked several more attacks, and then came out of the undergrowth onto a street. He dodged yet another attack, by leaping forward, and followed up with a kick in midair. "Cut it out, old man!" He dropped back into a fighting stance, as the panda picked itself back up. People were now watching, but Ranma didn't really care. More attacks were exchanged, before Ranma said, "Dammit, pops, I gotta get rid of this curse. This isn't any time for marriage." The panda growfed, and attacked once more, and as he parried the blows, he continued, "I still say this whole thing sucks. Picking my fiancee for me without even asking!" this last as his father was thrown into the pavement. "I'm going back to china, old man, suck on that." he continued, picking up his pack from where it had fallen, and stalking off. Suddenly, he got a picture of a stop sign. "Huh?" he began, just before the panda connected with the uprooted sign it was swinging. The sign bent around Ranma's head, but successfully knocked him out. The panda grabbed the boy-turned-girl, slung him over one shoulder, grabbed the pack, and continued towards his destination.
Ranma woke up shortly before they arrived at the Tendo dojo. His displeasure at being carried outweighing his depression, for the moment, he struggled to get free, but was unable to do so before arriving at a gate. As they passed through, Ranma realized he wouldn't be able to get free in time, and slumped back over his father's shoulder. Genma paused a moment, and then knocked.
"oh, that must be Ranma!" Nabiki cried, jumping up alongside Soun, who was calling out "Saotome, old friend, we've been waiting!". They ran to answer the door, only to come back even faster, trailed by what, on first glance, appeared to be a rather large panda. Second glance wasn't much of an improvement, merely revealing the prescence of a redhead slung over its shoulder, and a couple of large backpacks. Kasumi elected to take cover behind Soun, whereas Nabiki chose Akane, although the tense posture of each revealed that they wouldn't be much help. Before they could take any further actions, however, the redhead managed to get a grip around the bear's neck. Shifting her weight, she brought a backfist down on the panda's head, eliciting a "growf" of protest. "Leggo, y'old fool, you're scarin' 'em." she said. With a nasty glare, it picked her up off its shoulder, and set her on the ground in between itself and the Tendos.
Soun Tendo recovered from his shock enough to stammer out, "y-you w-w-wo-wouldn't b-be...?" In reply, Ranma nodded, his head downcast. "I'm Ranma Saotome. Sorry 'bout this." he said. In a moment, he found himself under a unnerving stare from one of the girls in front of him, one that reminded him of his time in a certain pit full of cats. He shuddered unconsciously, just as he was enveloped in a hug. "At last! You've come! It's so good of you to come!" Soun cried, as he embraced the not-presently-male boy. Peering intently over her father's shoulder, Nabiki said, "Ooooo! he's cute!", continuing with the stare which creeped him out so. Suddenly, Soun froze, and then pulled Ranma away from him. Akane and Kasumi remained quiet, throughout this. Something didn't seem right, but neither could tell quite what. Nabiki leaned in closer for a look, and her eyes narrowed. " 'He' is a girl.", she said, poking Ranma's copious chest. "Could you please stop that?" Ranma asked after the third poke. Then, Soun fainted.
A few minutes later, he awoke to find his family, and their guests kneeling around him. "Oh, poor daddy," Kasumi commented, "He's so dissapointed." "HE's dissapointed? Some fiancee THIS is!" Nabiki replied. A large, black and white panda could feel almost palpable waves of depression rolling off Ranma, and was slowly scooting away from his son, just in case. He wasn't sure what Ranma might do, but he didn't think it would be good. For the first time in over half a decade, however, he wasn't alone in picking up these signals from Ranma. Although she didn't sense it in the same way that Genma did, Akane noticed the slump of the other girl's shoulders, and the way she flinched at each comment. She decided to speak up. "Stop it, you two! He...she... is our guest!"
However, she went unheard, as Nabiki continued, "This is all your fault, daddy! You should have made sure!" Soun defended himself by saying "Well, he said he had a son!!", but to no avail, as Nabiki squeezed one of Ranma's breasts, and said, "Do you see a son here? Hmmm? Do you?" Quietly, Ranma replied, "ummm... I really wish you'd stop that." 'that's the second time she's done that. And she did seem to be staring intently at me when we arrived. Maybe she likes girls 'that way'? ', Ranma considered briefly. Once more Akane decided to intervene. Tapping Ranma on the shoulder, she said, "Hey, join me in the dojo? I'm Akane, you want to be friends?" For the first time since the girl and panda had arrived, the girl smiled at her, and she felt an almost palpable sense of gratitude. However, not being able to figure out why she had felt the girl's gratitude so strongly, Akane dismissed it as her imagination, as they walked out to the dojo.
"You practice Kempo, right?" she asked the visitor. "Umm, a little." came the reply. "Then, let's have a little match, okay? Just for fun. I won't hurt you." Ranma gave her an odd look, and replied, "if you say so." Akane dropped into a fighting stance, and then led off with a punch, from which Ranma merely swayed backwards. She followed it with a reverse punch, which Ranma sidestepped with ease. Stepping to the right, she did a side kick, but her opponent jumped over it. As she landed, Akane threw a couple punches, which once more the other girl leaned out of the way of, and did so again in response to the follow-up kick.
Akane was puzzled; she'd never had someone simply dodge all her attacks so easily. "What's the matter? Swing at me!" she yelled. A couple more attacks yielded no more results. 'Is she reading my moves?' Akane wondered, 'Okay, this time FOR REAL!' she thought, throwing a full speed punch, which collided with, and broke, the boards which made up the wall of the dojo. Then, she felt a tap on the back of her head. She turned, to see a smiling Ranma with one finger extended. Ranma chuckled nervously, and Akane joined her a moment later.
"You're... pretty good." Akane admitted. "I'm just glad you're a girl." In response to this, Ranma instantly, and visibly, sunk back into her earlier depression. "What? I'd just really hate to lose to a boy." She continued, only to notice that, if anything, the depression was made worse by that comment. "What is it?" She asked. "I AM a guy." Ranma replied, looking her in the eye. Akane raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? You look like a girl to me." Ranma shook her head. "I know, I'm a girl at the moment. This is gonna take a bit of explainin'. Ummm... could you get some hot water?" Thoroughly confused, Akane nodded her assent, and left to get some hot water.
Around that time, Soun, and a man about his age, in a white gi, with glasses and a bandanna, were sitting by the shogi doors. "Hey, sis, who's that old guy?" Nabiki asked, as she stopped by the kitchen. "I don't know." replied Kasumi. Realizing that she didn't have some of the vegetables for the salad she was planning, Kasumi decided to go to the store, and hope things were explained later.
A few minutes later, Akane returned, with a steaming kettle, two cups, and a strainer for making tea. She handed the shorter girl the kettle and a cup, and sat down. "All right," Ranma said, "if I tell you the story first, you won't believe me, so I'll just show you first, okay?" Having no idea what the redhead was talking about, Akane nodded her assent. Ranma poured a bit of the water from the kettle out on her own head, and, in an instant, was replaced by a much taller, but similar looking young man, the exception being his black hair. Akane took a cue from her father, and promptly fainted.
Shortly, she awoke, muttered, "what a weird dream.", and opened her eyes. The first thing she noticed was that she was in the dojo, and that someone was kneeling over her. Then she noticed it was the girl-turned-boy that had caused her to faint. Her eyes widened. "It wasn't a dream!" She exclaimed, and then, embarrassed, covered her mouth with her hands, as he shook his head. "No dream. Maybe a nightmare, but certainly not yours." he replied. She sat up, and peered intently at him. "But... but... how? You were a girl... a-and now you're a g-guy! That's impossible!" she stuttered. "Nah. Obviously not." he said, shrugging, and then continued, "I told'ja I'd tell the story after I showed you that I'm tellin' tha' truth. So, pops an' I were on this trainin' trip for a while now, an' we swam over ta china a few months ago, so I could study Wing Chun kung fu, an' some other styles. Well, while we were there, pops decided that we'd go to this trainin' ground he'd heard of, called Jusenkyo..." Akane sat quietly, listening to the story of how she...he... got cursed. After he finished, she sat quietly for a moment, and then asked, "So, you're really a guy?" He nodded emphatically. She sat for a moment longer, thinking. 'I got beaten... by a boy...' she realized. She stood up, opened the door, stepped outside, closed the door, screamed, and ran inside. A moment later, the door of the dojo slid open once more, and Ranma leaned out. "Are all the people here crazy or something?" He wondered.
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Author's Notes: Oy. Took me a while to finish a chapter of ANY of my stories, and here it is. I've been really busy, and not in a writing mood when I did have time, and this may continue. I don't know yet. Especially since, although loosely based on the manga, I have only a few ideas about where this story is going. Hopefully, though, I'll have more up, soon, and, although some basic events will resemble the way things happen in the manga, it won't be as close to plaigarism as parts of this chapter. I suppose that, just this once, I can skip asking for reviews, since it's so close to the original manga. Oy. So, uh... review the previous chapter! And my other stories. And stay tuned for the next chapter, hopefully coming sometime this weekend!
Salvation
denotes a language other than japanese. Figure out which language from context.
[] denotes Panda signs
Chapter 1: Arrivals and Revelations
It was raining. It had rained almost every day for the past three weeks. Genma wondered if this was part of the curse as he walked along in his recently-acquired panda form. It certainly didn't seem to be doing Ranma any good. He could almost feel the waves of depression rolling off of him. He turned around and glance behind him. Ranma, in his female body, was walking along, head bowed, looking soaked and utterly miserable.
It was beginning to worry Genma; the only thing that seemed to bring Ranma out of his depression was when his anger at Genma was roused. In fact, when such would happen, Genma feared for his life; his son barely retained enough control to keep from killing his father.
It was for this reason that Genma had decided it was time to end the training trip, and, therefore, had sent a postcard to an old friend. They were in the outskirts of Nerima ward, and he figured it was time to tell Ranma what the plan was. He turned around and waited for Ranma to catch up.
Ranma could tell Genma was planning something. He had been able to tell for as long as he could remember. He hoped that it had something to do with curing the damned curses. But, if it did, they probably wouldn't be in the area around Tokyo. And for some reason, he was picturing sake, a long-haired man with a mustache, and... a ring? So shocked was he by this horrific mental picture that he didn't notice that the panda had stopped, and walked right into him.
Immediately, the panda held up a sign. [All right, boy, there's a reason we're here.] Ranma's eyes narrowed. "What are you planning, old man?" The panda gulped and began to sweat. He could feel Ranma's anger building. He turned the sign around. [A long time ago, my friend Soun and I agreed to unite the two schools of anything-goes martial arts.] Ranma's eyes narrowed even further in response. "And?" he asked, dangerously. Quickly another sign was held up [youhavetomarryoneofhisdaughtersforthesakeoffamilyhonor!] Ranma blinked. "One more time, pops. With seperate words this time." The panda examined the sign a moment, scratching its head with the other paw. Then it shrugged, and held up the wooden sign again, turned around once more. [You have to marry one of his daughters, for the sake of family honor.]
Inwardly, Ranma breathed a sigh of relief. His father wasn't going to try to get him married to a man. Wait. "Hey! What's the big idea, pops? Picking who I'm supposed to marry, like that. No way." He stalked past the panda, and continued, "I'm not gonna have any part of this." He then ducked under the paw that swept out, and then started to run.
Meanwhile, three girls had been gathered around a table by their father, a long-haired, mustachioed man, to inform them that one of them would be meeting her fiancee today.
Ranma ducked several more attacks, and then came out of the undergrowth onto a street. He dodged yet another attack, by leaping forward, and followed up with a kick in midair. "Cut it out, old man!" He dropped back into a fighting stance, as the panda picked itself back up. People were now watching, but Ranma didn't really care. More attacks were exchanged, before Ranma said, "Dammit, pops, I gotta get rid of this curse. This isn't any time for marriage." The panda growfed, and attacked once more, and as he parried the blows, he continued, "I still say this whole thing sucks. Picking my fiancee for me without even asking!" this last as his father was thrown into the pavement. "I'm going back to china, old man, suck on that." he continued, picking up his pack from where it had fallen, and stalking off. Suddenly, he got a picture of a stop sign. "Huh?" he began, just before the panda connected with the uprooted sign it was swinging. The sign bent around Ranma's head, but successfully knocked him out. The panda grabbed the boy-turned-girl, slung him over one shoulder, grabbed the pack, and continued towards his destination.
Ranma woke up shortly before they arrived at the Tendo dojo. His displeasure at being carried outweighing his depression, for the moment, he struggled to get free, but was unable to do so before arriving at a gate. As they passed through, Ranma realized he wouldn't be able to get free in time, and slumped back over his father's shoulder. Genma paused a moment, and then knocked.
"oh, that must be Ranma!" Nabiki cried, jumping up alongside Soun, who was calling out "Saotome, old friend, we've been waiting!". They ran to answer the door, only to come back even faster, trailed by what, on first glance, appeared to be a rather large panda. Second glance wasn't much of an improvement, merely revealing the prescence of a redhead slung over its shoulder, and a couple of large backpacks. Kasumi elected to take cover behind Soun, whereas Nabiki chose Akane, although the tense posture of each revealed that they wouldn't be much help. Before they could take any further actions, however, the redhead managed to get a grip around the bear's neck. Shifting her weight, she brought a backfist down on the panda's head, eliciting a "growf" of protest. "Leggo, y'old fool, you're scarin' 'em." she said. With a nasty glare, it picked her up off its shoulder, and set her on the ground in between itself and the Tendos.
Soun Tendo recovered from his shock enough to stammer out, "y-you w-w-wo-wouldn't b-be...?" In reply, Ranma nodded, his head downcast. "I'm Ranma Saotome. Sorry 'bout this." he said. In a moment, he found himself under a unnerving stare from one of the girls in front of him, one that reminded him of his time in a certain pit full of cats. He shuddered unconsciously, just as he was enveloped in a hug. "At last! You've come! It's so good of you to come!" Soun cried, as he embraced the not-presently-male boy. Peering intently over her father's shoulder, Nabiki said, "Ooooo! he's cute!", continuing with the stare which creeped him out so. Suddenly, Soun froze, and then pulled Ranma away from him. Akane and Kasumi remained quiet, throughout this. Something didn't seem right, but neither could tell quite what. Nabiki leaned in closer for a look, and her eyes narrowed. " 'He' is a girl.", she said, poking Ranma's copious chest. "Could you please stop that?" Ranma asked after the third poke. Then, Soun fainted.
A few minutes later, he awoke to find his family, and their guests kneeling around him. "Oh, poor daddy," Kasumi commented, "He's so dissapointed." "HE's dissapointed? Some fiancee THIS is!" Nabiki replied. A large, black and white panda could feel almost palpable waves of depression rolling off Ranma, and was slowly scooting away from his son, just in case. He wasn't sure what Ranma might do, but he didn't think it would be good. For the first time in over half a decade, however, he wasn't alone in picking up these signals from Ranma. Although she didn't sense it in the same way that Genma did, Akane noticed the slump of the other girl's shoulders, and the way she flinched at each comment. She decided to speak up. "Stop it, you two! He...she... is our guest!"
However, she went unheard, as Nabiki continued, "This is all your fault, daddy! You should have made sure!" Soun defended himself by saying "Well, he said he had a son!!", but to no avail, as Nabiki squeezed one of Ranma's breasts, and said, "Do you see a son here? Hmmm? Do you?" Quietly, Ranma replied, "ummm... I really wish you'd stop that." 'that's the second time she's done that. And she did seem to be staring intently at me when we arrived. Maybe she likes girls 'that way'? ', Ranma considered briefly. Once more Akane decided to intervene. Tapping Ranma on the shoulder, she said, "Hey, join me in the dojo? I'm Akane, you want to be friends?" For the first time since the girl and panda had arrived, the girl smiled at her, and she felt an almost palpable sense of gratitude. However, not being able to figure out why she had felt the girl's gratitude so strongly, Akane dismissed it as her imagination, as they walked out to the dojo.
"You practice Kempo, right?" she asked the visitor. "Umm, a little." came the reply. "Then, let's have a little match, okay? Just for fun. I won't hurt you." Ranma gave her an odd look, and replied, "if you say so." Akane dropped into a fighting stance, and then led off with a punch, from which Ranma merely swayed backwards. She followed it with a reverse punch, which Ranma sidestepped with ease. Stepping to the right, she did a side kick, but her opponent jumped over it. As she landed, Akane threw a couple punches, which once more the other girl leaned out of the way of, and did so again in response to the follow-up kick.
Akane was puzzled; she'd never had someone simply dodge all her attacks so easily. "What's the matter? Swing at me!" she yelled. A couple more attacks yielded no more results. 'Is she reading my moves?' Akane wondered, 'Okay, this time FOR REAL!' she thought, throwing a full speed punch, which collided with, and broke, the boards which made up the wall of the dojo. Then, she felt a tap on the back of her head. She turned, to see a smiling Ranma with one finger extended. Ranma chuckled nervously, and Akane joined her a moment later.
"You're... pretty good." Akane admitted. "I'm just glad you're a girl." In response to this, Ranma instantly, and visibly, sunk back into her earlier depression. "What? I'd just really hate to lose to a boy." She continued, only to notice that, if anything, the depression was made worse by that comment. "What is it?" She asked. "I AM a guy." Ranma replied, looking her in the eye. Akane raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? You look like a girl to me." Ranma shook her head. "I know, I'm a girl at the moment. This is gonna take a bit of explainin'. Ummm... could you get some hot water?" Thoroughly confused, Akane nodded her assent, and left to get some hot water.
Around that time, Soun, and a man about his age, in a white gi, with glasses and a bandanna, were sitting by the shogi doors. "Hey, sis, who's that old guy?" Nabiki asked, as she stopped by the kitchen. "I don't know." replied Kasumi. Realizing that she didn't have some of the vegetables for the salad she was planning, Kasumi decided to go to the store, and hope things were explained later.
A few minutes later, Akane returned, with a steaming kettle, two cups, and a strainer for making tea. She handed the shorter girl the kettle and a cup, and sat down. "All right," Ranma said, "if I tell you the story first, you won't believe me, so I'll just show you first, okay?" Having no idea what the redhead was talking about, Akane nodded her assent. Ranma poured a bit of the water from the kettle out on her own head, and, in an instant, was replaced by a much taller, but similar looking young man, the exception being his black hair. Akane took a cue from her father, and promptly fainted.
Shortly, she awoke, muttered, "what a weird dream.", and opened her eyes. The first thing she noticed was that she was in the dojo, and that someone was kneeling over her. Then she noticed it was the girl-turned-boy that had caused her to faint. Her eyes widened. "It wasn't a dream!" She exclaimed, and then, embarrassed, covered her mouth with her hands, as he shook his head. "No dream. Maybe a nightmare, but certainly not yours." he replied. She sat up, and peered intently at him. "But... but... how? You were a girl... a-and now you're a g-guy! That's impossible!" she stuttered. "Nah. Obviously not." he said, shrugging, and then continued, "I told'ja I'd tell the story after I showed you that I'm tellin' tha' truth. So, pops an' I were on this trainin' trip for a while now, an' we swam over ta china a few months ago, so I could study Wing Chun kung fu, an' some other styles. Well, while we were there, pops decided that we'd go to this trainin' ground he'd heard of, called Jusenkyo..." Akane sat quietly, listening to the story of how she...he... got cursed. After he finished, she sat quietly for a moment, and then asked, "So, you're really a guy?" He nodded emphatically. She sat for a moment longer, thinking. 'I got beaten... by a boy...' she realized. She stood up, opened the door, stepped outside, closed the door, screamed, and ran inside. A moment later, the door of the dojo slid open once more, and Ranma leaned out. "Are all the people here crazy or something?" He wondered.
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Author's Notes: Oy. Took me a while to finish a chapter of ANY of my stories, and here it is. I've been really busy, and not in a writing mood when I did have time, and this may continue. I don't know yet. Especially since, although loosely based on the manga, I have only a few ideas about where this story is going. Hopefully, though, I'll have more up, soon, and, although some basic events will resemble the way things happen in the manga, it won't be as close to plaigarism as parts of this chapter. I suppose that, just this once, I can skip asking for reviews, since it's so close to the original manga. Oy. So, uh... review the previous chapter! And my other stories. And stay tuned for the next chapter, hopefully coming sometime this weekend!