Keitaro's Other Side
A Love Hina/ Ranma ½ Fanfic
Pietaro Urashima
Insert essentially redundant disclaimer here.
Hello, I'm here again, with the next chapter in my own little fanfic. MY FANFIC! NOT YOURS! Ahem, sorry about that. Maltreated young child rearing its ugly head. Moving along, enjoy this second chapter.
Chapter 2: Enter Nerima
Silence filled the cursed Chinese training ground, as everyone tried furiously but in vain to understand the events that had just transpired. They all had chased after Keitaro into China, and now he was a she. Keitaro was wondering why they had come through the trees in a van instead of on foot. But then he thought, (Wait a minute, how else would they do it?).
Seta stayed quiet as to avoid being pummeled by the girls around him. Sarah was thinking with Su, wondering where they had read about this before. Kanako was sobbing with Shinobu, while Mutsumi, just smiled. Motoko was wondering if Keitaro was trying to be perverted in doing this. Kitsune was laughing quietly to herself {She found booze}. And Naru, could say nothing, or do anything short of breathe at the moment, and she was finding that quite hard.
Keitaro on the other hand, was trying desperately to either not have a nosebleed or faint. One would have him flying again, while the other would have him swimming again. He did not want either as of recently. Then he, er, she said, "Hi guys, nice to see ya! Um, would someone mind telling me WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON HERE!?!"
The crowd near the van remained silent. But the old Chinese man was still there, and he broke the silence. "Young man, you fall into Spring of Drowned Girl, and take form of young girl. There is other tragic story, of other boy who fell into this spring a while ago, and a group of people, who all fell into other springs. They are in Nerima now, and you, young man, er... woman, should go there."
"Uh, maybe we could come along Keitaro." Everyone was surprised that Naru was able to speak. "You could definitely use some help." Everyone then quietly walked into the van and sat, quietly. Their response would have either been to maim Keitaro or laugh at him. But because of the immediate situation, they realized that either would be insensitive. Motoko also noticed that Keitaro's aura was more vibrant and active at the moment, so she was signaling to everyone that normal responses would not be advisable. In short, for this rare moment, Silence was Golden, even for Su.
Mutsumi however, still smiling, hopped into the spring and took Keitaro by the hand. She dragged her to the van and put her in it. Then she hopped in and giggled.
A young boy was walking down the street, and he sneezed. "That's odd..." The young boy realized that something very unfortunate was going to happen soon, and resumed walking; things like this always happened to him.
Keitaro and the gang were flying towards Japan in search of Nerima. They were also flying in Seta's Van. Booster active, Keitaro, who was in the driver's seat, asked, "Su, where is Nerima?"
"Oh, it is... (beep beep ding) right down there." Su was smiling along with Sarah, they knew where they had heard of this before. They never thought it was real until now. Now that they did, their minds were already filled with countless new ways to cause mischief.
"Thank you, Su. Um, Naru? Why exactly did you punch me back at the house?"
"Um... I heard something wrong again."
"I figured, but why did you punch me so hard?"
"I... I really don't know. I'm sorry."
"Apology accepted."
The rest were trying too hard to not laugh to say anything, except for Kitsune, who was laughing too hard to say anything.
Nerima was a very strange town indeed. Just about everyone practices some kind of martial art, about half of them practice some incredibly obscure martial art, and the town seems to attract practitioners of martial arts never before known to man and no one would even consider practicing. There were also incredibly good restaurants made so by very good cooks who probably practiced some food based martial art. Basically anything that was weird somehow was manifested in Nerima. But the weirdest thing is the group of people who fell into the springs at the Training Ground of 1000 Accursed Springs.
These people somehow are a magnet for almost every relatively strange event in Nerima. Well, that is to be expected of a group of people who take different forms when splashed with cold water. But I digress. We shall now focus on this group of very unfortunate people.
P-Chan was walking down the street, sobbing like a pig. At the moment he was a pig, so that is to be expected. Ryoga, the soul inside the pig did not really want to become a pig at this moment. His ability to get lost and stay that way had him walk around the same block over and over again. This didn't bother him, this happened very often. What bothered him was that he failed to notice the water filled ditch on the side of the road. Or the large truck barreling towards the ditch. Or the fact that he was right next to the ditch.
So crying like a pig, Ryoga continued around the block, when he should hear, "P-CHAN!!!♥" Akane promptly picked him up and hugged him tightly. It wasn't the fact that he really liked Akane that he passed out and blood was coming down his nose, it was his location due to the hugging of said unconscious pig. Wondering whatever happened to her frequently missing pet, she walked home. She was late anyhow.
Ranma just felt cold. As in shivering, in the summer. He couldn't explain it, except for the fact that whenever he felt a chill, it was a slight hint that something bad was going to happen. In his current state, he was afraid of anyone he saw enter the vicinity of the Tendo Dojo. When he saw Akane, he screamed, "Go Away! ARRGH! ...Oh, Akane..."
"Are you still feeling cold?"
"Um, y-y-yes..."
"Oh well, I'll tell dad to be on the lookout. I hope that it helps." Nothing had before. He had frozen the hot water bottles, and the hot water they splashed on him froze on impact all the way to the bucket. No one wanted to actually touch him though. Akane wondered what in the world could be so bad that Ranma would be comparable in his semi psychic clairvoyance to Liquid Nitrogen.
CRASH!!! BOOM!!!
Maybe that was it.
The girls had jumped out before the crash. Seta and Keitaro lack the foresight to do such a thing. They also have no need to do so. They both stumbled out of the now burning van {it does that a lot, but it always comes back...}. They were bleeding down their faces from their forehead, and that may be enough to freak anyone in Nerima out. Well, maybe not anyone but Akane for some reason was. "K-K-KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"
Ranma burst through the Dojo doors. {that happens a lot, but they always come back...} Now that the omnipresent bad thing was actually here, he was confused. He saw a bunch of girls looking, a bunch of girls tending to two upright head injury victims who were menacingly looking at him and a burning van. That would explain the chills. But how this was bad, he did not know. {Poor, poor deluded soul...} "Do any of you happen to be here... (Think straight dammit! Of course they are here!) to challenge me? (Nice save.)
"Of course they are here to challenge you!" A voice came from a figure who took the time to open the door with a large gaping hole in it. "Look at them! They must be the masters of some kind of immortality art!"
Everyone had somehow learned how to ignore Genma's ignorance for that moment. He stopped talking after his ineffective entrance. Kasumi, who snapped into hostess mode, came out with a boiling hot pot of tea and a bag of cups {there were a lot of people in the yard}. She started towards the middle of the human statues, towards Kei-chan and Seta.
Naru had to pick this time to snap out of bewilderment. She saw and thought of everything that happened recently. "GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Kasumi dropped the tea on Keitaro and Seta. Ranma and Genma jumped backwards at the shout, into the Koi pond. Reactions were fried except the five cursed ones {Akane is standing there with Ryoga in her arms, Ryoga being the only one to see this all in full perspective}.
"P-panda?"
"G-g-girl?"
"B-buh-b-boy?"
"Bwee?"
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! HOT HOT HOT!!!" This was Seta. {I said five cursed ones. I didn't say how they were cursed. Seta just has bad things happen to him a lot.}
After Ranma and Genma had been doused in warm water, everyone sat outside. There wasn't nearly enough room to seat them all inside. It was also too hot inside. "So you fell into the Spring at Jusenkyo?"
"Uh, is that what it was? I thought it was a figment of my imagination. I am disappointed that I was wrong."
Naru was really confused and was outwardly showing it. "Confused, Naru-chan?" Ranma asked. He was genuinely trying to help the new people that had crashed a van in their yard. "What are you going to do now that your 'fiancé' is a hydrotranssexual?"
Naru was speechless. Keitaro was awfully calm given his predicament. Motoko was still thinking about possible perversion. Suddenly, she jumped into the air and began to slash with her sword. CLANG!!!
Nodoka stood there, holding Motoko off with her kitana. Motoko jumped back, surprised that this mere housewife could do something that quickly and with that much skill, and then wondered exactly why she jumped in the first place. Something to do with Keitaro or something. {She really didn't think it through.} "You are very skilled with your sword!"
"Thank you." Nodoka said with a smile. "We shouldn't do this."
"I agree." Motoko finally gained some sense of the effects of wanton destruction.
"Not now at least. It wouldn't be nice to further disturb this gathering. Maybe we can pick this up another time."
"I agree." Motoko still liked wanton destruction.
Naru was trying to contemplate what she would do in light of all of the things that just happened. Of course, that is hard in light of all of the things that just happened. For her, all hell just broke loose and was after her. But she knew she had to somehow help fix this mess. "I guess I'll try to help in any way that I can."
"Great. I don't really know what to do with my 'fiancées' myself. So, how are you Keitaro?" Ranma was really trying to be considerate, he did know what Keitaro was going through.
"Argh. How am I?! I am stuck as a girl! I don't want to be a girl. I'm liable to be pummeled out of existence as a girl. But I'm stuck!
"Stop with the raving. Have you even looked at yourself? You are a guy again. It's the hot water."
Keitaro looked at himself. He indeed was Keitaro, not... Kei-chan (Shudder). "Oh. Right. Thanks for that." Turning to Seta, he said, "Seta, how's the van? Can we get home?"
Seta was in agony. Not only because of the tea, but because his van was incinerated from the crash by the rocket booster. "Uh, um, I don't think we'll be leaving any time soon."
"Oh."
"Keitaro? Can I speak with you in private?" Ranma asked. "There's something we have to work out now that you're all stuck here." Ranma and Keitaro went off into the dojo and closed the door. They then put a board over the hole in the door.
All this time, a shadowy figure hidden in the darkness was watching. It jumped away, off into the darkness, with malevolent intentions.
-End Chapter Two-