Disclaimer; This fanfiction uses existing ideas, characters and or worlds, but is an independent work of art. I own nothing, hence the reason for publishing my writings here instead of in real books where I could make some money.


-Chapter Two-

A New Friend


Saotome Ranma woke with a pained groan.

He was most uncomfortable. As far as he could feel, he had fallen from a medium height onto gravel and rock, and judging from the roughness against him, he was not wearing anything. And there was something lumpy and soft under his arm. The soft lump was whimpering in pain.

With slight effort, Ranma used his arms to raise himself, finding a yellow mouse with a black tail and collar, and strangely angular ears with black tips. On each of its two cheeks was a red patch, making the whimpering mouse look like it had a blush.

"Pi ..." the tiny thing squeaked. " Chu ..."

Ranma thought it strange that a mouse could do anything but squeak and chew holes where there wasn't supposed to be any, but realised that he had hurt it, therefore, as a martial artist, it was his duty to take care of it, since it could not take care of itself.

A crackle of thunder announced the instant shower of cold rain just as the water started to fall.

Grumbling at her luck, Ranma picked the tiny mouse from the rocky ground and ran for cover, finding a cave not far from where she had woken.

Finally in shelter from what she nearly felt was the bane of her existence. Cold water.

Ranma glared at the sheets of falling water through the mouth of the cave.

It wasn't the curse that bothered her, it was the lack of control she was used to having as a martial artist. Before the curse, she had complete control over her own body, and was close to being able to slow her own heart to only a very few beats a minute. The arrival of the curse had signalled the loss of control, and she hated it.

Her stomach growled angrily, interrupting her train of thought.

There was little she could do about that, and she ignored it as she carefully hugged the mouse on her arm closer.

The growl grew louder, and sounded like it came from behind her.

… That didn't sound right.

Slowly, she turned around, hearing the growling louder than before.

Then she saw the largest bear she had ever seen, standing in a threatening position.

"Just my luck," Ranma growled. It really was … just when she got into or out of one situation, something always came along to make it worse … this was clearly not an exception to the unwritten rule.

The bear was about twice as tall as a normal bear, light brown fur with a nearly white ring on its chest. The claws on that thing looked like they could tear through a car with little trouble. And it was baring its teeth at her.

Slowly, Ranma started to back out into the rain, only shivering slightly from the cold, due to her lack of clothing. She did not want to provoke the bear more than it already had been, and she certainly didn't want to end up as a meal. About halfway to the outside, the bear charged with deadly intent.

This left Ranma with little choice, and she thrust her right hand at the stomach of the beast, unleashing one of her own secret techniques, modified from her father's.

A katana made of white light appeared in her hand, and easily drove itself through the heart of the bear with no resistance. If it were possible, Ranma could have sworn the bear looked surprised as it stopped advancing and became dead weight, in all possible meanings of the word. Letting the gathered ki-blade dissolve, Ranma watched as the bear fell to the rocky cave floor, a thick, red fluid slowly leaking down and out of it.

Resigned to make the best of things, Ranma ran out of the cave again, this time with a purpose as she held the unusually large, yellow mouse close to her chest. She needed wood to build a fire, to keep warm, and cook the meat they had, although unintentionally, gotten.

All the wood she could find was wet, but that did not matter after all that she had been through, and it was all but thrown clearly from the small wooded area into the cave.

Upon her return, Ranma piled small bits of wood into a small hole in the cave floor, and the larger pieces around it, at a small distance. It was lucky that the cave slanted, so that the rain water never entered the cave, or building a fire would be futile.

Focusing her energies, Ranma pooled some of it in her palm, and thrust the white sphere of ki into the small pile of wet wood, smiling in relief as it started to smoke and hiss at the sudden heat. Within moments, there was a merry little fire going, one that warmed her slowly, and slowly dried the surrounding wood.

Her first task completed, she set the mouse down, close enough to the fire to warm it, but close enough not to be burnt by the cracking logs.

Then she had to start her next tasks. As long as the bear was dead, it would be a shame to waste good recourses ... in a matter of seconds, thanks to the Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire technique, the bear was carved, dissected and sorted into piles of useful and useless. The entrails were of little use to Ranma, and were quickly transformed into dust and scattered at the end of a ki-sphere, as not to attract more predators with the smell.

If her estimate was right, the amount of meat that was edible was enough to feed both her and the mouse until morning. So it was placed over the fire on a few bones that were used as spits.

Then there was the important issue of clothing, which would be less of a problem with the skin and fur left over from the bear. Adapting her ki-sword to the task, she sliced the hide into strips nearly as thin as hair. The fur was used to make a form of bed in a corner of the house-sized cave.

As the strips of hide dried near the fire, Ranma got the first portion of her meal off the fire, and shook the tiny mouse awake and placing a piece in front of it.

The mouse stirred slowly.

"Pi - chu?" it asked pitifully and looked around, immediately spotting the piece of cooked meat.

Before Ranma could blink, the meat was halfway down the mouse's stomach. It pained her to see the thing being slightly stiff in its movements.

"Do you want some more?" she asked carefully and held out another piece.

" Chu?" the mouse asked, appraising her, as though waiting for a trap to be sprung.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Ranma confirmed with a smile that would melt the heart of a hardened soldier … male ones, that is …

" Chu – pi – Pichu," the creature said and carefully reached for the piece of meat. When the piece of meat was in its paws, it sniffed it questioningly and looked back up at Ranma. "Pi?"

"I haven't poisoned anything," said Ranma calmly, and to prove it, ripped a small piece of the meat off, and popped it into her mouth. "I have nothing to poison it with."

The mouse seemed to realise first now the state of undress Ranma was in.

A few hours later, as the meal was completely ingested, the two beings drifted asleep on the fluff that was collected from the fur, content and warm.

The fire lasted well into the night, and served to keep them warm in the chill of night, even with only the embers of the fire.

Early in the morning, Ranma woke to a slightly chilly wind that managed to send a gust through the opening of the cave. She was on her back, and gently hugging the fist-sized mouse to her soft chest, and it was seemingly satisfied as it nuzzled between her breasts.

While waiting for the mouse to wake, Ranma took a moment to appraise her body. While very much different from her male form, she had to admit that if she had seen a woman with her figure and face, she'd walk head-first into a lamp-post … and send it crashing into traffic. Standing at five feet ten inches, she wasn't exactly short, but not tall either. Her bust could make any baby salivate in anticipation of a huge meal, and her bust was natural as well, or as normal as her situation allowed, which is probably the reason why Akane was so angry at her all the time, as her own chest was much smaller. Her life as a martial artist had rid her of any access fat, and toned her muscles without making them notable through the delicately soft skin. She was a walking, well concealed, well formed powerhouse.

As the tiny creature on her chest stirred, she decided that it should have a name while in her care. Wracking her brain, she tried to find a suitable name for her new friend. In the end, she decided on; Zumi, short for Nezumi, to keep it simple.

"Time to wake up, Zumi," she whispered into the angular yellow ears of her only friend in this world.


The next days, Ranma spent most of her time tending to her rodent patient, and making sure that it wasn't injured beyond her ability to aid.

After the strips of leather had dried, she knotted it all together at inhuman speeds, managing to form crude shorts, and a vest with a leather string holding the front closed, if only somewhat. An additional string ran all through the vest right under her breasts, and acted as a support for the heavy bust, and was made to be done and undone, according to which gender she was. Done to support her breasts, undone when she had no breasts. There was nothing to boil water in, so heating any was out of the question until she could manage to make a pot or pan to use for that purpose.

Around noon each day, Ranma would head for the nearest stream, and return with some of the strange fish that was found there. She could have sworn that one of them had said "Magicarp" before it died. But she shrugged that off, because she knew enough about animal physique to know that very few animals were able to duplicate human speech. They tasted delectable, though, and their bones would help make decorations if she was stranded there indefinitely, some of the bones could even be used as arrowheads or senbon needles. She still had some strips of leather left, even after making some moccasin-like slippers.

In the morning, Ranma would keep her martial arts skills up. Each evening, as the two cave-dwellers were resting on a full stomach, Ranma would tell her new friend about her life. Growing tired of the constant, if not intelligent, charades she had to play with the mouse when it wanted to reply, she one day decided to teach it how to write. She had noticed many times how intelligent the creature was, and was not going to shy away from company, even if that company was a yellow mouse that constantly spouted variations of the word; Pichu, as a form of speech.

The first word Zumi learned, was; maybe. One could learn a lot from asking simple yes and no questions, but those did not always have a yes or no answer. The art of charades was Okay as long as it was restricted to nodding and shaking of ones head.


One morning, about a week or two after her arrival, Ranma did not go out to train, because her friend was shivering in the bed. Zumi looked genuinely sick and ill. Despite being a man at heart, Ranma was unable to keep maternal instincts from acting, and pulling the mouse into a hug. She could afford to sacrifice a morning of training to care for this poor creature.

To her amazement, Zumi started to glow a bright white in her grasp. Not daring to let go, Ranma started to feel the mouse shift and grow, but was unable to see the change, as she was blinded momentarily by the light. The small paws of the mouse held on to her bosom in fright, and grew as well along with the rest of Zumi.

When the light faded, Ranma blinked the irritating spots away and looked down at her friend, only to discover a different one, twice as large, with three brown stripes over its back, and a yellow tail in the shape of a lightning bolt, a gradual gradient of brown near the base. The ears were no longer angular, but long and slender, nearly like a rabbit. A patch of fur on its forehead stuck out, like it was a stubborn bang on a boy's hair. The ears still had a black tip, but now it was more near the end.

The creature looked up at her with the familiar orbs.

"Pika?" it enquired.

"Zumi? Is that you?" Ranma asked and lifted the rodent to eye-level.

" Chu!" the creature answered with a nod.

"Should I even bother asking you what this is about, right now?" she asked.

"Pi–pi–pi," Zumi stated and shook his head.

"Maybe you should take a nap," Ranma suggested, in a motherly way, and placed the mouse back on the bed. "I think I saw a rock I can use to mould a pot, yesterday. Just take your time, I know how confusing it can get to change bodies so sudden, just take your time to get used to it, okay?"

Zumi nodded weakly and nuzzled Ranma's glandula mammaria one last time before returning to the bed.


Ranma was starting to have a good day. Not only had she found a rock just the right general shape and size for a pot, but when she picked it up, there were a few pieces of gold under it. Although not knowing if it would be of any value, it still looked nice, and her upbringing with Genma had taught her to never let an opportunity like this pass. So she took the gold with her, and decided to come back later and see if there was more.

She took a seat next to the small river and summoned her ki-blade in a scoop form. It was a small matter to change the form of the blade, and with the ki-blades being sharp enough to cut through a brick of titanium if it could be left alone on it.

This made the carving of a pot much simpler, and the river would wash away the debris.

A few hours later, Ranma stood with a crudely carved pot, filled with water, in her hands. Maybe she should make fish soup that night? Or a stew! She could use one or two of the bear's bones to keep the pot over the fire, or she could erect a stand around the fire and place the pot onto it. The possibilities were flowing through her mind. But best of all, she could change back to her original gender. That held priority, so, with a pot filled with water, Ranma returned to the cave she had nearly started to call home.

"I'm back!" Ranma called as she stepped inside the cave with the pot of gold and water under her arm. She was greeted with the sight of Zumi clumsily doing a kata she had been doing these past days, and fall over as she entered. "So, you saw that, did you?"

"Pika ..." Zumi stated and modestly drew circles in the stone floor with his finger.

"Do you want to learn it properly?" asked Ranma and started gathering scattered rocks around the fire pit to form four short pillars to place the pot on while supplying air to the fire at the same time. She started the fire with a few twigs and a breath of air, using the embers to their utmost. The gold, she took out of the pot and left the water as she placed the pot over the fire. She would finally change back. Meanwhile Zumi was nearly bouncing around and nodding his head and singing the affirmative to her question. "But first," Ranma interrupted, and managed to snatch the singing mouse from the air, "you have to show me the word you were supposed to practice for today."

Zumi nodded in agreement and drew a series of lines on the ground, using his tiny finger-like claws like he was welding, sending sparks of electricity into the scratches, and making temporary scorch marks. Referring to the kanji symbols Ranma had drawn up on the wall to represent each sound.

"Pikachu?" asked Ranma as she read the kanji writing. "I asked you to write the name of your species, you are a mouse."

Zumi shook his head, making the ears flap about a bit, then pointed to himself and what he had written.

"You are a Pikachu?" Ranma asked. "Then what were you before you changed?"

The eager Pikachu started writing crudely on the stone ground "Pichu."

"Really?" Zumi nodded at the question. "Well then, since you managed to write that word without help, we can start on the basics before the water has heated up enough, and I can go out hunting."

And so they did. Ranma showed her friend the beginning kata of Anything Goes, and corrected where she saw the need to. Something about how fast Pikachu learned this made her think that he was made to fight. It was a distinct possibility. That only made it more fun for her, as she had trained to fight all her life. This was a godsend if she managed to duplicate the attack Zumi showed her. She could see good use in shocking ones opponent, literally.

It took her a while to notice, as her attention was so focused on Zumi, but the water had been boiling for minutes. She had to take the pot off the fire, stunning the young Pikachu because she didn't use anything but her bare hands, and didn't even need to cool her hands off.

"Zumi, I think there's something I forgot to mention when I told you about my life," she said and held the boiling pot of water in her bare hands, "I have a curse placed upon me, turning me into this when splashed with cold water." She waited to see if the Pikachu understood. "I return to my original body when I get splashed with warm or hot water, understand?" slowly, the electric mouse nodded. Ranma then upended the pot of boiling water over her head, and dropped it, once more a man, much to his relief. He undid the string that was meant to lift and support, as it was now getting very restricting across his larger ribcage. "This is how I really look."

"Man?" Zumi wrote carefully on the ground. The lettering was unsteady and crooked because of the relative freshness of the knowledge about them, but the meaning was clear. "Woman?"

"I'm a man, turning into a woman is my curse," Ranma explained. "You are still free to go, if you find this too weird."

Zumi answered by shaking his head and give him a hug, though finding it harder to do so now that Ranma's female attributes were no longer keeping him up as he hugged.

"Friend," Zumi wrote on the ground as soon as he let go. "Stay, train fight."

"You're getting better at that," Ranma commented idly and ruffled the fur on the Pikachu's head. "And after only a few short weeks … Children usually take nearly a year to learn this much."

The only answer he got; was a blush that coloured the Pikachu's face, and not just the red patches … A considerable achievement for someone with a thick yellow fur coat covering them.

"You just keep practicing until I get back with dinner, okay?" said Ranma cheerfully and ruffled what he had named "hair" on the Pikachu. He got a nod, and saw the mouse go into a modified horse-stance before Ranma exited the cave. "This world keeps getting weirder and weirder," he commented as he took a single senbon with him on his hunt. Who needed bows and arrows, when a needle was more than sufficient? He thought smugly.


Author's Notes: There has been a few changes, the most notable would be the change in weaponry … since I wrote this story first time 'round, I've gotten a bit more familiar with various weapons, and I'm sure most ninja fans out there would be able to see how fish bones could be made into senbon needles, and how little would be needed in the way of alterations to the bones to make them work. For those more interested in the chest references, I exchanged a word "Mammallia" with "Glandula Mammaria" … I can't remember why I used the first word, nor where I found it, but it was supposed to be a sophisticated word for breasts … the second is the latin words for Mammary Glands, according to Wikipedia. I hope the revision of this story is accepted this far.