Disclaimer - I don't own Ranma or any of the characters in this story

Chapter 1

- Somewhere in Tokyo during a rainy morning -

"Shut it old man, I'm heading back to China to find a cure to this, what ever scheme you've got worked up next can take a hike for all I care." A small red head yelled at a Panda chasing her through the streets of Tokyo. Landing a solid kick to its face that sent it tumbling down the street she stopped and gave everyone looking at her a glare, making most look away and continue on with their own business. She then turned to head back towards the mountains she'd need to cross to get to the west coast, but no sooner had she turned though than the Panda hit her over the head with a street sign knocking her out. It than picked her up along with the pack and proceeded on its way.

- Tendo Dojo, Nerima, that same morning -

Soun Tendo was going through the mail that morning, separating the checks from students and bills into one pile for his middle daughter Nabiki, martial arts tournaments into another for his youngest Akane, and general mail into other piles. While going through the stack, a postcard fell out that looked to have been sent from China given the red stamps with yellow stars. After a brief read of the postcard, he dropped all the remaining mail and headed to the kitchen.

"Nodoka-san, Their coming." He said with a wide grin to a woman who looked to be in her mid to late thirties who was in the middle of washing the breakfast dishes.

"Are...are you certain?" She asked in disbelief.

He handed her the postcard and after she read the brief message she collapsed with a smile on her face, tears of joy flowing down her face as she held the postcard to her chest.

"I'll let the girls know when I see them if I'm not in a class." He said before returning to the table to finish with the mail, smiling at the good news. It had been over a decade since he'd seen his best friend and training partner, and soon he'd get to meet his son and see what the young man was capable of.

- Tendo Dojo, late afternoon -

Nabiki rounds the corner coming down the stairs to see Mrs. Saotome had set out some tea cups and a tea pot on the table where her father and older sister were already seated. "What's going on Auntie? We haven't had a meeting like this since Kasumi got into college." She asks while taking her seat next to her sister.

"Some wonderful news, Ranma and his Father will soon be here. We received a post card this morning from them." Nodoka answers with a bright smile.

Both girls looked at the adults at the table who seemed very pleased with the situation before looking at each other. "So much for a quiet night. What do you think Sis, five to one odds that Akane pummels him on first sight?" Nabiki asks her sister.

"I'm not taking that bet, she attacks anything that's male and tries to hold a conversation with us." Kasumi responds with an annoyed tone, her sister having caused a few of her dates to end badly when just outside the gate. "Though him being on a training trip for this long, what do you think his survival odds are, three to one?"

"That sounds fair, 500 yen he has something broken sound good?" Nabiki asks, Kasumi shrugs and shakes on the bet. "Well hopefully she doesn't do any lasting harm, he's got a lot to answer for all things considered." Nabiki says with some snark.

"Girls, could you please not make bets on Akane's...behavior, you know her therapist asked you too be more supportive." Soun says admonishing his daughters.

"It's fine daddy, she won't even know about it." Nabiki says dismissively.

DING DING DING

The sudden sound of the front gates bell ringing had everyone hurrying to the entrance. When they arrived though a large Panda wearing a pack was holding an angry red head who was punching and kicking to get free from the animal's over the shoulder hold. Soun pulled his daughters behind him as he took up a fighting stance in the front, Nodoka who was behind everyone was struck by the looks of the young woman and felt frozen.

"Put me down you idiot, you're scaring them spitless!" The redhead yelled, hitting the panda over the head.

The Panda seemed to listen, and placed the girl down on the ground before lowering himself onto all fours. Soun relaxed his stance as he assessed the girl in front of him with a questioning look, while Nabiki stepped forward.

"Uhm, who are you, and why do you have a hopefully pet Panda?" She asked while giving the girl a once over that took a bit longer than Ranma thought was necessary.

"I'm Ranma Saotome, sorry about this." Ranma said with a well practiced tone and bow.

The group seemed to be taken back by this though, glancing back at Nodoka for some sort of confirmation but she was just staring at the small red head.

"Bullshit, Auntie says she had a son." Nabiki responds, pointing back to Nodoka who was still a bit shocked. Taking a step closer to Ranma, Nabiki reached out and poked Ranma's chest. "These are most definitely not something a boy has".

Ranma was a bit unnerved by the poking, and quickly stepped back from Nabiki. Suddenly the words she said about how the woman behind them "had a boy" hit his brain and he looked past the group to Nodoka in the back, her face seemed to almost mirror his girl sides look, if just older while her hair was a dark red as if it had lost its brightness with age. He was about to ask for some hot water to try and explain this mess when his shoulder was grabbed at by the Panda.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing Pops." He said back flipping away and landing in a ready stance.

The Panda held up a sign that read 'We must go, our lives depend on it!" before rushing at Ranma and attempting to grab the small girl in his state of panic.

The panic though made his movements easy to read, and Ranma dodged to the side and kicked the Panda over the wall, likely landing a few blocks away. Turning back to the house, Ranma was surprised that no one seemed to be shocked at the sight of the Panda being kicked through the air. Instead the older woman had made her way past the rest and was staring at him intensely.

"Uhm look, could I just get some hot water, it will help explain this whole stupid mess." Ranma says, walking back towards the entrance to get out of the rain.

Kasumi just nodded and went and grabbed the tea pot off the table and returned shortly, handing it to the short girl.

"Thanks." Ranma says, then upends the pot of tea over his head. "Like I was saying, I'm Ranma Saotome, sorry about this." a now deeper and male voice says.

The groups reactions to the change didn't' seem all that different from other groups Ranma had shown the change to. Soun passed out towards Kasumi who managed to catch him, Nabiki once again walked up to him, poking his chest as if to test that her eyes weren't lying. The older woman though seemed to stumble as she made her way forward though, before latching onto him as her legs gave out.

"My son, what..what has happened to you?" Nodoka manages to get out.

Nervous at the close contact, he looks at the woman's face. While he hasn't had his girl body long, it really was an uncanny resemblance to this woman. "Mom?" He asked, unsure which response he even wants to hear.

"Yes, there's no mistaking it, I can still see the little boy I had so long ago in those blue eyes." She answered, looking lovingly up at him. "Could you help me inside, I want to hear everything, especially about this...magic." she says, worry in her voice as she spoke the last word.

Seeing she still wasn't steady on her legs, he simply scoops her up and begins to follow Nabiki inside as she motions him to follow. "One of pops brilliant plans is what it was..." Ranma says with a frown on his face and a heavy dose of sarcasm.

# # #

"And so the last time I returned ta the village there was some event going on and it turned out it was some sort of race, or game of tag? I don't really know what was going on but instead of Shampoo and the others greeting us it seemed like half the village was chasing us. Well, just one was chasing pops but she'd been doing that for a while, but the ones after me seemed to be really upset about something because they kept fighting with each other too. Anyway, I was following Pops and suddenly he ran into something ahead of him, and I crashed into him and we fell off the side of the hill down into Jusenkyo."

"Only we didn't really know that it was that at the time, and figuring the amazon's were right behind us we picked ourselves up and started to jump across the ponds and their bamboo sticks. Pops though must of landed on a rotten one as he falls in, I stopped to wait for him, only for a Panda to come out acting crazy and broke my bamboo pole and I fell into another pool. Next thing I know I'm smaller and my clothes feel all wrong, once I tried to pull myself out of the pool I realized what happened and kinda freaked out." Ranma says, drinking some tea while the group around him seems to just be staring in disbelief at his story.

"Pops pulled me out and dragged me over to a small hut where a guide for the springs lived it seemed. None of the amazon's seemed to have followed us, either they knew the place or we lost them. But it gave us some time while the guide heated up some water and showed us the change wasn't permanent. Pops said it was time to make ourselves scarce until the amazons calmed down and he wanted to come back and visit a friend for some reason here in Japan. So I followed pops to the coast where we hopped on a boat and made our way here." Ranma finished telling the story of his curse and return to Japan.

His mother hadn't really let go, but was sitting next to him holding his left hand and seemed to have a smile stuck on her face. Nabiki and Kasumi weren't quite sure what to make of this story, if it wasn't for the proof of the curse they'd both think it was absolutely the dumbest thing someone had tried to tell them. Soun sat at the head of the table, listening and nodding along to the trials and hardships the young man endured.

"What I don't get though Mom is how did dad know you were here, we haven't had any mail since we left for China four years ago, or why he tried to grab me and run away." Ranma said, looking at his mother to see if she had any clue as to the strange behavior.

Nodoka's smile finally faded from her face as she became a bit solemn. "I imagine it's because your father was not planning on me being here, and that instead he and Soun would push you and the girls into an engagement to unite the two schools." Nodoka replied.

"ENGAGEMENT!?" all three of the young adults shouted. The two girls giving their father a glare that could melt glass while Ranma simply looked annoyed at yet another scheme of his fathers.

"Girls, its alright, your father agreed to cancel it given the situation at hand." Nodoka said, raising a hand to stop the girls before they started getting too deep into their torture fantasies they were going through in the heads.

"Father, you don't have any "Other" arrangements made with other families do you?" Nabiki questioned her father, setting the glare to simmer less he answer in the affirmative.

"No! None others, your mother just about killed me about this one." He quickly answered, sweat forming on his brow.

"Good, lets see that it stays that way, father." Kasumi said with a smile that could kill before drinking some of her tea.

Ranma, a shiver of fear going down his spine at the site of the two girls gulped. Not having an engagement to either one of them seemed like a true blessing now.

"As for why he ran, I believe that's due to the agreement he had with me when he wanted to go on this farcical training trip of his. You see I didn't exactly want him leaving and didn't trust him to do a good job, so I had him sign a pledge that if he didn't raise you to be a man among men," Nodoka said, playing with her hair nervously as she explained, an embarrassed blush beginning to show on her face. "you'd both commit seppuku."

Ranma began to choke on the tea he was drinking while being covered in Nabiki's tea as she choughed it out. Kasumi went to get a towel as the two recovered from their fits.

Waving a hand in front of her, Nodoka quickly added. "I tore it up a few years ago though, it was a foolish thing and there's no way you could of known what you were agreeing too dear."

"But pop doesn't know that, so he made a run for it cause I looked like a girl at the time." Ranma said, understanding the strange behavior from his dad, toweling himself off as best he could in the already wet clothes.

"Yes, that would seem how it is." Nodoka confirmed. She then paused and her hands seem to play with her tea cup, rotating it slowly as she thought about what she was going to say next.

"Ranma, do you remember much about the school you were going to before you left for China?" She asked in a gentle tone.

"Uhm, that boys junior high? Not really, there was one strong boy who fought with me a bunch, but we were kinda friends as I had to help him get to school and back, guy could get lost in a closet." Ranma answered, chuckling at the thought of that strange boy.

"Anyone else you might have spent time with?" Nodoka asked.

Ranma had to pause and think back, it had been almost four years ago. There were the various sensei's and their students in the area he was training with after school, but he didn't really remember anyone else at the school. The teachers were all forgettable, most were just happy if he stayed awake in class after he kept catching all the various erasers, chalk, and books they threw at him in his sleep.

"Not at the school, it was pretty boring and I slept through a lot of it since I was training early in the morning with pops and then into the evening with others." Ranma answered with a shrug of his shoulders.

Nodoka grimaced at this, but before she could continue the sound of people announcing their arrival home rang from the entrance. The first was a small girl, around three to four years old who bolted up the stairs followed by a voice telling her not to run. Next around the corner came two teenage girls. One was shorter than himself with long blue hair tied back with a large light blue ribbon and wearing a school uniform that consisted of a white blouse and large blue dress and simple white socks and black shoes. The other girl, who was almost as tall as him was wearing a similar dress, but her long brown hair was braided with a small red ribbon at the end to keep it secure. As the girls saw the group at the table and everyone staring at them, they both stared at the boy sitting next to Nodoka.

"Welcome home girls." Nodoka said, trying to put a smile on her face knowing what she said next wasn't going to go over well. "Ranma has returned from China." She said, turning to look at him.

The blue haired girl's battle aura flared to life upon hearing the name, she threw her school satchel down. "You, You're going to pay you jerk!" Her voice so acidic it could of melted steel.

As the girl started to march over menacingly, the other girl seemed to slump to the ground, the grip on her satchel turning her knuckles white. Her mouth was moving but words didn't seem to be coming out, just the sound of her breathing starting to sound like she was gasping.

"Sachiko!" Nodoka said in alarm as she quickly got up and moved towards the girl on the ground. Kasumi also jumped up and ran into the kitchen with a look of concern on her face.

Before Ranma could take in everything going on though he had to leap away from the table as Akane's kick sailed through where his head had been milliseconds earlier. As he landed he was already moving to dodge her next strike but was surprised at the speed and instead had to block and redirect her into the sliding doors behind him, sending the girl smashing through them and into the large back yard where he could see the path to a large building, likely the dojo he thought as he remembered the sign in front of the gate.

"What the heck, I don't even know ya you crazy chick, why are ya attacking." Ranma yelled at her as he jumped outside to hopefully keep the damage minimal.

Pulling herself up, Akane once again charged in like a bull. "Don't play innocent with me you, you, gigolo. What you did to Sachiko makes you an enemy of all women!"

With more vertical space to maneuver, Ranma jumped and leapt away from the enraged girls attacks, having given up trying to understand her or who this Sachiko was. Seeing the Koi pond though gave him an idea and on her next charge he once again blocked and redirected her towards it. What he didn't expect was the strength of the girl as she managed to shift her weight on just a poorly balanced ball of her foot and grab his pigtail, dragging him in with her.

As they both resurfaced Akane was ready to pummel the boy, only to come face to face with a short well-stacked redheaded girl. Doing a good impression of a Koi as her mouth hung open, Akane spun around looking for the black haired boy. Before she could say anything though Nodoka came outside and started towards the pond with a look on her face that made Akane begin to realize she'd screwed up.

"Akane Tendo! What have we said about this kind of behavior. Get out of the pond and wait near the door for me to get a towel before you head inside to clean up." Nodoka sternly says to the soaking young woman. "Ranma, get out of the pond too, but wait here, lets keep you two separated until we can discuss things like civilized human beings." Ranma had a strange sense of deja vu as his mother said this and he could also most see the old crone on her stick making demands.

"Uh sure mom, but I don't have anything to change into, Pop's had our pack." Ranma says, realizing he didn't have any of his stuff with him as he climbs out in the now soaked and overly baggy clothes, having to hold the pants and boxers up less gravity drag them down.

"Okay, I'll have Soun find you something." Nodoka said as she went back inside to manage the chaos. Akane standing in her spot just stared at the red head trying to wrap her head around where she came from and why people would call her the same name as the boy who had been fighting her.