Yesterday's Tale
A future Ranma crossover
by Chikiko (Chikiko@thekirealm.com)
Webpage: (www.thekirealm.com)


Disclaimer:

Ranma ½ and its characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi.


Yesterday's Tale Prologue

Ranma felt his head throbbing painfully and heard an odd buzzing sound in his ears. Akane had probably pounded him for something stupid again. The question now was, what had he done this time? He tried to remember what he did, but he just kept drawing a blank. He figured whatever it was, she must be really mad. He decided just to avoid her for awhile, until she lost some of her steam and he could remember what it was that had gotten him knocked out in the first place.

Ranma was happy to note, that the painful throbbing was mostly gone, but unfortunately the buzzing just kept getting louder and more insistent. As he focused on it, it seemed to get even louder. Eventually he realized that it sounded like his father's voice. Strangely enough, he thought it sounded somewhat frightened. Although he couldn't quite understand what he was saying, he could tell he was pleading with someone. Though now that he tough about it, that didn't seem all that strange after all. He tried to hear what he was saying, but it was still pretty garbled. He tried to concentrate on it more, and it almost sounded like he was saying. "Ranma! Wake up boy! Come on boy, stop acting like a girl and wake up!"

Much to Genma's surprise, he did. Ranma, who at up somewhat unexpectedly, headbutted his father and knocked himself back down to the ground. Once the world stopped spinning, Ranma groaned. "Whatcha do something so dumb for pop? Now my heads hurts even more. Thanks to you and the dumb tomboy, I'm gonna have a major headache. What did I do this time to get pounded anyway?"

Genma seemed confused for a moment. "Don't look at me boy. I don't know how any of this happened. When I woke up, not only did the both of you have high fevers, but you looked like Tarou had just used you for a punching bag. We were lucky to have been near a lake."

It was then, that Ranma realized his voice was higher than it should be. Looking down, he confirmed the status of his current sex. Female. "Ah great pop, now I'm a girl. The least you coulda done was change me back!"

"Ungrateful boy!" Genma growled. "Stop complaining. If I wasn't such a great survivalist, you'd probably be dead right now!" Then in a more serious and subdued voice he said. "It was almost as bad as the summer before you turned twelve."

Ranma quickly sobered and nodded her head. If her father thought it was even somewhat as bad as that summer, then he probably wasn't exaggerating when he said she could have died. At least not by much.

They had been in the south near Okinawa, when Ranma suddenly began to feel really sick. Thinking back on the experience, he could only compare it with two weeks of eating nothing but large portions of Akane's cooking. Needless to say, most of that summer was spent fighting the sickness and recovering.

"You were lucky this time. Neither of your fevers was quite as high as your's was back then, which was good since her fever was higher than yours. The both of you mostly just tossed and turned, you've been like that for about a day already. It almost seems as if we'd been poisoned, but Akane hasn't made any food in over a month and I haven't seen that Kuno girl in about that long either."

Ranma didn't like the sound of that. It also just dawned on him, that they weren't at the Tendo's house. "Where are we pop, and who else are you taking care of?"

"I'm not sure. Where in the woods somewhere, but where I don't know. We were here when I woke up. As I said before its lucky for you and Nabiki that there's a lake nearby."

"Nabiki! Ah great that's just what we need! Being lost in the middle of who knows where with Nabiki, that's almost as being lost with Kodachi!"

"I'm glad I have such a warm place in your heart Saotome." Came the weak reply from nabiki.

As Genma went to check on her, Ranma grimaced deeply. she knew Nabiki was going to get back at her for that. She didn't know much about what was going on, but she knew without a doubt that she wasn't going to like it.

She couldn't think of anywhere in Nerima that sounded like her father described as where they were. She wondered where they were, and how they had gotten there. She still couldn't remember much before waking up. The last things she remembered was trying to ignore the snores of the panda next to her, while she was trying to go to sleep.

Feeling quite tired of just laying down, she slowly got into sitting position. She recognized the type of camp her father had set up, it was a necessity camp. She and her father had been forced to make similar camps often during their travels when they had to sell their equipment to buy food or other important supplies. However they got here, they obviously came only with what they had taken to bed with them. All three of them where wearing their sleeping cloths, which for her meant she was wearing her t-shirt and boxers. With a frown she looked around at their makeshift camp, which was really nothing more than a small camp fire not to far from where she was. Only one think struck her odd, she just could not figure out how her father had found a kettle and pot in the middle of the woods.

"So how are you feeling?" Genma asked Nabiki.

"Like I've just been hit by a bus. What happened? Where are we?"

"You should be fine. It seems as if you and Ranma were somehow poisoned. I don't know why we're here, or even where here is."

Nabiki nodded her head. "Hmm, well hopefully there's a town nearby, so we can find out exactly where we are and find a way to get back home."

"Actually I'm pretty sure there is a town nearby. I accidentally scared off some hunters."

"Well that was smart, scare away the only poeple who might be able to help us." Nabiki said sarcastically.

"It's not my fault. I forgot I was in my panda form."

"So why didn't you write some kind of sign like you always do?"

"I did!" Genma protested. "They just ran away screaming something about a yokai. But on the good side, they dropped a few things as they were leaving like that kettle."

"I was wondering where you got kettle from pop. Is it ready? I'd like to turn back to normal."

Nabiki just shook her head. "Like father like son." She muttered to herself to quiet for them to hear. She sighed, not quite believing she was actually lost in the middle of the woods with them. Why? Why did it have to be her? She was sure Akane would have jumped at the chance to lost in the woods somewhere with Ranma and his father.

"So what's to eat pop? I'm starved."

"Not too much, there isn't much game around here either, but you can have the little that's next to the fire. You two eat up. Now that you're both up, I'm going to go look around and explore the area."

After he had left, Ranma walked to the fire and looked uncertainly at the small bowl next to the pot. "Well I guess its better nothing. Pops ain't as bad as Akane, but some of the things he makes don't exactly make you want to ask for seconds. He used to force me to eat a buncha this gruel when I was kid. He said it helped raise one's endurance. It's not one of his better tasting meals. I wouldn't take too much if I were you."

Nabiki nodded her head and took a small serving as Ranma suggested. She stared at the primitively made bowl for a second before taking a small sip of the soupy stuff. Ranma was right, the stuff wasn't very good. But since there was nothing else and she was very hungry, she continued eating. As she did, she leaned back against a tree and started to try to figure out exactly how she got tangled up in this mess. The only thing she was able to remember before waking up in wonderland with the Saotome, was getting up in the middle of the night to take some pictures of Ranma.

With a start, Nabiki sat up, nearly spilling her food on herself, and frantically began looking around. The sudden movement caught Ranma's attention, and he shot up as well looking around for what ever startled Nabiki. She sighed when she couldn't find her camera anywhere. She had gotten it as a birthday gift to herself last year. She had saved up for quite some time go get that camera and its equipment. She concluded that however she had gotten where ever she was, her camera unfortunately hadn't followed. unfortunate because she was sure she could take some amazing pictures of Ranma. Knowing Genma she was sure he was going to try and turn this into some kind of training trip for him.

Noticing the way Ranma had gotten alert when she started to look for her camera, she said. "I was just looking for my camera. You were right about the food. It taste like the stuff daddy makes when he tries to cook."

"Well considering I've spent just about my whole life having to eat pops food, I pretty much know what to expect from his cooking. He does have a couple of good meals, but he doesn't usually make them unless we're in a somewhat big city. Of course he's so lazy he rarely ever makes them even when we he can get what he needs, he'd just rather buy food. So that's why I taught myself to cook. I may not be as good as Kasumi, but at least it a lot better than the pop's food."

Nabiki just nodded and kept eating. Ranma figured she wasn't in a talking mood, so he stopped trying to make conversation. "Shoulda known better than to try an talk with her." He mumbled after having walked far enough away for her not to hear him.

They spent the next several hours to themselves. Ranma tried to practice a little while Nabiki leaned against a tree to think. When Genma finally returned, neither of them liked the look on his face. He explained to them, that he had found a village several miles away to the east. He had asked for directions to Tokyo, but no one even know what Tokyo was, mush less where it was. It was a pretty old fashioned village as well, kind of like the kind of primitive village in china the amazons had come from. He also told them of the inn he had found where he had reserved a room for them, until they could figure out what was going on and how to get home.

It was already dark when they arrived at the village, so they headed straight for the room Genma had gotten in the inn. Ranma and Genma wasted no time and quickly fell asleep. Nabiki on the other hand was having a much harder time. After she been able to ignore the loud snores coming from the Genma's side of the room, she finally managed to get some sleep. Unfortunately her peaceful sleep was disturbed by the sound of Ranma and his father fighting. She just knew it was going to be a horrible day, when looked out the window and realized the sun was just starting to rise.

After uselessly wasting an hour trying to go back to sleep, she decided to so some investigating herself. The moment she stepped outside of the room, she knew something was horribly wrong. It seemed like she was on the stage of some kind of historical production.`Everyone she saw was dressed in the style typical in the feudal age. To top it all off, everyone was starring at her strangely. One woman even had the audacity to scowl at her and call her a harlot. She was about to respond, when she heard a man near her mention the name Nobunaga. Nabiki froze mouth open ready to make a retort. She pivoted and turned to look at the man with wide eyes. Suddenly everything started to make sense. She just knew this was going to be a bad day.

She quickly made it to her room and slid the door open, very hard. The two stopped fighting the moment the saw the fury on Nabiki's face. Neither of them had ever seen her so upset before. Even on her worst day, they didn't think Akane could reproduce the pure anger that was radiating off of Nabiki. Both of them took an involuntary stop backwards, as even Soun's infamous demons head attack was no where near as intimidating. Then, in a voice that was dripping with venom, she asked. "Would either of you like to know why no one here has ever heard of Tokyo?"

Both of them nodded their heads emphatically. "Good! I'll tell you why! IT'S BECAUSE TOKYO DOESN'T EXIST YET!!! Somehow or another you got us sent back in time to the feudal age!!"