Chapter 1 – Junctures At Jusenkyo

"All this build-up," grumbled the heir to the Saotome School of Musabetsu Kakutou Ryuu, "and it ain't nothin' but a bunch'a dumb pools and bamboo poles." Shaking his head sadly, Genma complained

"Don't you know anything, boy? This is the legendary training ground! Some of the greatest ever practitioners of the Art have trained here." Ranma 'phfft' at that. Rolling her eyes, Ukyo added,

"I'm with Ranchan on this, Pops. I don't see anything here to justify spelunking halfway across China with almost no food and only an illegible brochure for company." Genma stiffened and began lamenting,

"Ah, I have two ungrateful children under my wing!" His tone changed as he grumbled, "Will you two never drop that? Just because we took a little detour through a cave."

"For seven miles?" Yelled Ranma.

"Underground!" added Ukyo. She sniffed in disgust as Genma howled and expressed his grief audibly to himself, and to anybody within akilometre radius. "Wonder what's so special about this place anyway?" she asked no one in particular as they made their way down the hillside, nearing the springs. She spied a figure exiting a lone hut on another hill and making its way toward them. "Say, Ranchan, do you think he might know?" she asked her fiancé, indicating the man rushing down the hillside. Ranma shrugged noncommittally.

The man was approaching fast and was waving his arms, frantically gesturing at them. Neither of the men seemed or cared to notice the near- frenzied figure.Genma deftly leapt onto one of the high poles, gripping with his bare feet. He was followed by grinningRanma. After a brief verbal spar they went at it for real, lashing out at each other in midair. Ukyo turned her attention to the portly man who was nearly upon her, mumbling something in Chinese. "Sorry, what did you say?" she asked. The man reached her and began ominously, in thickly accented Japanese,

"Oh miss, you must make sirs come down from there. This cursed springs of Jusenkyo! Very tragic tales here miss, yes. Very bad you fall in spring!" The Guide's last word was punctuated with a orotund splash. Bonelessly, Ukyo turned around in time to see a giant panda swiftly break the water's rippling surface, and nimbly land on a bamboo pole.

Mouths agape, Ranma and Ukyo stuttered in stereo, "What the hell is that?" Always ready to enlighten, the Guide proffered up a sign and began recounting a tragic series of events that led to the creation of Shanmoaniichuan. "Listen, buddy," growled Ranma, "we never heard nothin' about no cursed sp-" he was abruptly backhanded by the seemingly unfazed panda, and landed with a stentorian scream in a nearby spring.

Had it a face, Fate's would have sported a decidedly evil grin right about then.

"Ranchan!" screamed Ukyo dashing to the spring's edge, dimly aware of the Guide prattling on about another 'too too tragic story'. There was no movement. She gasped in mortal relief as Ranma broke the surface, screaming obscenities inhis soprano voice. Soprano? Ukyo blinked and her eyes looked to Ranma's chest, and the nearly open gi top, as Ranma angrily left the pool. "Ranchan?" She asked shakily.

"Yeah, Ucchan?" Ranma's hand flew to the ruby red lips the martial artist now sported as the tone of the voice registered home. Seeing Ukyo motioning, Ranma's hands moved agonisingly slowly to the soaked gi vest, and parted it at the centre. She screamed, and Ukyo continued to blink dumbly at her fiancé, now seemingly, her fiancée.

o-o-o

First and foremost, before anything else, Ranma Saotome was a martial artist. And one of the most important tenets of the art was the unwavering discipline that allowed Ranma to remove herself form her state of shock, and into a dull detachment (rather similar to shock, actually) long enough for the Guide's explanation to hit home. With morbid curiosity, she continued to stare down at her new assets. A girl. How? Why? How?

Three excellent questions, thought Fate. Let's just say that Karma is of friend of mine.

Mechanically, Ranma looked up to Ukyo. UP to Ukyo? That was different. Ukyo's mouth opened but no words escaped. Discipline. Self control. Ranma turned her head looking over heroldest friend's shoulder. For some reason, the Guide was heating up a kettle of water. Her gaze continued to wander until it settled on the morose form of a soaked and dishevelled giant panda.A pair of glasses hung precariously from one of itears. Pop. Pop, who had dragged them to this damn ground in the first place. Discipline. Self control. Pop, whose fault it was that Ranma Saotome was now a little, busty girl. Her eyes narrowed.

"Excuse me, miss customer," said the Guide looking up from his heating kettle and gaining Ukyo's attention, "You just hear something snap, no?"

"Huh?" answered the chef, coming back to herself. She looked up to see the small form of her fiancée moving very deliberately toward the fidgeting panda. Catching a glimpse of Ranma's expression, Ukyo noticed that her eyes were burning as red as her newly acquired hair. "This isn't going to be pretty."

o-o-o

"OYAJI!" murderously shrieked the redhead. She leapt for the panda, who growfed cowardly, and hopped up onto a pole, and was quickly bounding his way across the springs. "I'm gonna kill you!" screamed Ranma as she took off after him.

"Damnit," mutteredthechefleaping after their rapidly shrinking figures.

o-o-o

As bulky a man as Genma Saotome was, he did not lack for agility or dexterity. Quite the contrary. Which was why he was thankful that he was quickly able to adapt his abilities to his rather altered dynamics. This was a good thing. As much as he disliked this new black and white hide of his, he still longed to keep it attached to his person (panda?). And that look in Ranma's eyes as he approached him: that had made him shiver to the bone. 'If the boy had had a katana, there would have been no telling them apart', thought Genma with a shudder.

"Come back here, you stupid old man!" shrieked his no longer especially manly son. 'The voice's the same, too', quivered the Saotome patriarch, picking up the pace.

"Stop runnin' and I promise I'll make it quick!"

Somehow, Genma doubted that.

o-o-o

The travel-worn wanderer shifted his backpack tiredly, patting some dust from his navy shirt, as he surveyed the springs before him. "Is this...Jusenkyo?" he wondered aloud.

o-o-o

Those jerks, thought Ukyo. 'What was Ranchan thinking?' She pondered as she leapt the twenty feet to the next pole, keeping the raging redhead in sight. Running off like that...She supposed she couldn't blame him for being mad. And Pops; it was all his fault for bringing them here. As much as the idea of selling a panda hide on the black market for some much-needed cash appealed to her right then, she realised that she had to stop Ranma before he did something rash.

She observed the panda springing from the poles to a nearby outcropping of rock. Ukyo shifted direction in mid-air to compensate for the change in direction. As she neared, she spied a backpack-sporting figure, staring off into the distance. From the way Pops was moving and Ranchan's bloodthirsty cries, they hadn't noticed him. As she approached the outcropping, her mouth opened wide. What was he doing here?

o-o-o

Scowling at the unspectacular sight before him, Ryoga Hibiki mumbled to himself, "This can't be Jusenkyo. That's supposed to a really special martial arts training ground. This is just a," his martial arts viscera kicked in as instinctively leapt away, the spot where he had been standing now occupied by a semi-airborne giant panda. "A panda?" he mumbled cleverly. He gawked in amazement as it sprung away onto the bamboo poles dotted amongst the pools.

"Yaaaaah!" followed an increasingly loud cry. Ryoga curiously turned around and took a foot to the temple, as his head was used as a stepping-stone by some crazy, frenzied redhead. "Get back here!" she yelled as she pursued the escaping bamboo-muncher.

Twisting in midair, Ryoga righted himself so that he landed on the cliff's edge. His exhaled in short-lived relief, as the rock gave way beneath him, sending him plummeting towards the springs below. ...Only, he wasn't plummeting. Abruptly, with a violent jerk, he found himself yanked up onto solid ground. Coughing dust, he looked up with gratitude. His eyes widened at the sight of his rescuer's face.

"Ukyo-san!" he cried happily, rushing to embrace his saviour. He was met with a face full of spatula.

"No time for that, Sugar," chided Ukyo candidly. "We have to catch Ranchan before he kills Pops. Not that he doesn't deserve it," she added wryly. Ryoga's delirium turned instantly to rage.

"Ranma! Where is he?" growled the bandana wearing boy.

"This way, Sugar!" directed Ukyo, as she leapt onto a bamboo pole, advising him to becarefulnot to lose hisfooting. Ryoga followed, beingsure to keep Ukyo in sight.

Funny, he thought absently.That was the same direction the redhead and panda had run off in.

"Ryochan", questioned Ukyo, as they ran on a grassy area near the springs, "what are you doing here?"

"I came to save you, of course!" he replied righteously. "When you didn't show up for our date, I just knew Ranma had done something horrible to you. I, ah 'questioned', one of the guys at school, and he said you and Ranma had gone to China. I never thought he'd sink so low as to abduct you!" Exasperated and sweaty, Ukyo shouted back,

"I waited three days for you to show up, jackass!"

Ryoga chortled shakily,

"Yeah, I heard something like that from one of the guys when I arrived on the...um, fourth day. If only I had arrived sooner," he moaned, his tone turning serious, "I could have stopped that damn Ranma from kidnapping you!" He stumbled as Ukyo, without breaking stride, slammed one of her twin spatulas into his face,

"I wasn't kidnapped, you dolt! Who told you that?" Scratching the back of his head, he murmured,

"Well, I just assumed..."

"What am I gonna do with you?" Ukyo sighed peevishly, unable to suppress a grin. It fled from her face as she heard the piteous whining growf of a despairing panda nearby. "Just over this ridge," she instructed Ryoga as they both leapt.

This was a very strange sight indeed, thought Ryoga. It was perhaps one of the strangest sights he'd seen since he stumbled into Chengdu, and realized he was in China, a few months ago. It probably wasn't THE strangest sight (that was still held by the guy in the speedo who ran out of that strip club in Shanghai, and promptly transformed into a twenty five-feet tall blushing winged minotaur and flew away into the sunset), but regardless, this remained a positively peculiar sight. A short, and quite pretty girl (who he quickly realised was thecrazy chickwho had clocked himearlier) had a very large panda backed up against a sheer cliffside, and was advancing. The large cornered animal resorted to... taking up a battle stance?

A kenpo-trained panda? Shanghai had a challenger.

Ryoga got a better look at the girl as she sprang at the panda. No, she wasn't pretty. She was stunning. Her azure eyes burned with passion, and her scarlet ponytail danced in the air as she flew with all the grace of a swan, her lithe body shifting in midair, as she fluidly dodged the panda's counterstroke. As she swiftly avoided another blow, he could see that her gi jacket was almost open, revealing a pair of exquisite... Ryoga twitched as he felt the onset of a very large nosebleed; potentially dangerous if the gi top opened fully as it was threatening to do.

He shook his head clear. What was he thinking? He was being unfaithful to Ukyo-san! Ukyo, who was so nice to him in school; who didn't tease him over his lousy sense of direction. He didn't deserve her! Ukyo, who always stood up for him against other students (not that it was necessary), and even against Ranma. Ukyo, who hadn't turned him down when he had finally summoned up the courage to ask her out on a date; who not fifteen minutes ago had saved him from a dangerous fall. Ukyo, who right now was raising her spatula behind the redhead...

o-o-o

Genma wasn't fairing very well. His son was in a berserker rage, and while usually this would give Genma the advantage, he simply wasn't accustomed enough to this new body to block and dodge all of Ranma's fury induced strikes indefinitely. Panting, he growfed in pain as his son landed a kick in his soft panda belly. Doubling over, he was briefly aware of someone approaching Ranma from behind...

o-o-o

"Gotcha, old man!" cheered Ranma triumphantly, as the panda doubled over. "Now the coup de grás!" she announced as she swept her leg high for a vicious axe-kick. Dimly, she realised that she hadn't connected, as a thud reverberated through her eardrums. 'No fair', she whined internally,as she met the grass.

o-o-o

Ranma woke to the sight of a disapproving scowl from her father.

Her... father! Not the panda! Relief washed over her, no, him. He'd never been happier to see his Pop's face (not that he'd ever actually been too happy to see his Pop's face, but that was beside the point). He was a man, and not some cursed little kid. He smirked as he reached for his chest to find... Oh no.

Ukyo rolled her eyes when Ranma sat up grabbing her breasts and began to scream. "We've already been through this, Ranchan," she grumbled wearily. Genma glowered,

"Stop this whining and be a man, boy!"

"That's easy for you to say, oyaji!" bawled Ranma, looking up angrily. "You're not the one stuck as a girl!"

"But you're not stuck," explained Ukyo, trying to gain her attention.

"How'dyou get rid of your curse, anyway?" demanded Ranma, ignoring Ukyo.

"He didn't, jackass," said Ukyo sharply, finally gaining Ranma's attention. With a thumb she pointed over shoulder, and continued, "The Guide explained that thisJusenkyocurse is reversible." With startling hopeilluminating her face, Ranma turned to the Guide,

"Really?" she whispered, pleadingly.

"Is true, sir," replied the Chinese man. "Young sir only need pour hot water on self to return to old form." He presented a steaming kettle to Ranma. Grinning broadly, she said,

"What're waitin' for? Pour away. I wanna be rid of this dumb body as soon as I can!" Nodding, the guide poured the hot water over the little redhead, whose form promptly grew and shifted into the familiar guise of Ranma Saotome. Staring with wonder at his again large hands,the pigtailed boyballed a fist, punching the air with an exultant victory cry.

"You very strange one, sir," commented the Guide with raised eyebrows. "Most customer not happy with this news." The martial artist looked confused. Why would anybody be unhappy to lift their curse?

"Ah, Ranchan?" began Ukyo, biting her lip, "What he means is that hot water changes you back to normal, but cold water..." Ranma didn't like where this was going.

"Yeah?" he prompted reluctantly. In answer, someone dumped a bucket of cold water on Pops. Ranma blinked when he realised that it was Ryoga! What in the hell was he doing here, hewondered for a moment, before the furry presence before him registered. His eyes widened in aversion, and he recoiled on the cot.

"Its not temporary?" he asked pointlessly. What had he done to deserve this?

Fate and Karma shared a mutual snicker.

"Cold water? It..." In answer, the panda shook his wet fur, thoroughly drenching Ranma. He looked down at his soaked gi with a sickening foreboding, and realised that it was once againher gi.

No! There had to be a way out of this! "You!" she demanded pointing at the Guide. "There's gotta be a way to cure this, right? I, mean, for good?" The uniformed man puffed on a pipe and nodded. Her heart leapt."What is it? Where is it?" she asked joyfully. The Guide used his pipe to indicate a large map on the wall. It was of Jusenkyo.

"Sirs," he said, pointing to a crudely drawn hut on the map. "We is here,"he then pointed at a large spring not too far from the hut, "and here is Naniichuan. Very tragic story of young man who drown there fifteen hundred year ago. Oh, very terrible legend, sir. Is very cursed..." he trailed off as he realised that his audience was now minus two cursed martial artists. His eyes opened in horror. "No sirs! Very, VERY bad you fall in spring!" he exclaimed. Ryoga, who had been staring at Ukyo staring at the Saotomes' dust trail, picked up on the Guide's distress.

"What do mean?"

"Jusenkyo magic very volatile, sir!" he said frantically. "It no stable for many months sir. If sirs jump into spring so soon, curse mix, and become permanent! Ooh, terrible sir!"

"What?" Ukyo gasped. "Oh god, Ranchan!" she took off after them, Ryoga in tow.

o-o-o

Heh heh, thought Ranma, near skipping as she saw the large pool before them that the Guide had identified as the Spring of Drowned Man. One quick dip here, and her horrible experience at Jusenkyo would soon become a distant memory.

Fate smirked.

Leaping for the spring with abandon, Ranma's gleeful cry was cut off as she was intercepted at the water's edge by a wooden sign, being wielded by her father. "What d'ya do that for, old man?" she demanded groggily. She looked at the sign Pops had somehow gotten hold of,

Show some respect for your elders, boy! The sign flipped. Let your father go first. The panda made a dive for the spring, but was caught in midair bya foot and swung away by his own momentum. He landed heavily, fifteen feet away. Patting her hands together, Ranma smirked cockily at the unconscious panda and turned to the spring.

Ukyo's heart caught in her chest as Ranmareached the pool. She gulped noisily when Pops stopped him right at the edge. "Jeez, Pops, this is one time I'm thankful you can be such a greedy jerk," she mumbled to herself. She gasped as he jumped for the spring, only to be swung away by her irate fiancée. Ukyo didn't know which would be worse: some sort of weird hermaphrodite, or a Panda-Man. She was almost there when Ranma took a step into the spring. "No!" she cried, her long, braided hair sweeping behind her. She leapt and dragged the light redhead away with her, before her foot could touch the water's meniscus.

"What the!"demanded Ranma in disconcertment from beneath Ukyo, "What's the deal Ucchan? What are you doin'?"

"Ranchan, you can't go into the spring," puffed the chef, trying to keep Ranma pinned long enough to explain. She wasn't successful. Ranma was stronger than Ukyo, and apparently being a girl didn't change this. Ukyostruggled to maintain a grip on her fiancée.

"What'cha talkin' 'bout? Of course I'm goin' in! How else do you think I'm gonna get rid of this stupid body?" she said, indicating herself with her free hand.

Ryoga arrived in time to see Ukyo and the beatific redhead grappling on the ground. His eyes glazed over momentarily at the sight. Slapping his own face, he berated himself. 'Thatgirl is Ranma, you idiot! And you love Ukyo-san! Yeah, but just think of the two of the toget-. Stop that!' Ryoga roared inwardly. Wiping away a line of drool, he noted that the stunning, ravishing – that Ranma was holding Ukyo in a wristlock. Why, that vile, nubile Ranma! "I'll save you, Ukyo-san!" he promised, dashing towards the girls.

o-o-o

"Tell me you're notserious, Ucchan?" woefully moaned the redhead afterUkyo reiterated the Guide's explanation. "How long did he say I'd have to stay as...? This stupid body!" spat Ranma mournfully.

Worried that her friend was about to have a psychotic episode, the dark-haired girl reached for something... reassuring that she could use to calm the cursed girl...'Er... Puppies?'

'Perhaps something pertinant, moron,' she lambasted herself.

"I can see why you're upset, Ranchan, but why are you so mad about this?" queried Ukyo, hopefully. "Look at this in perspective. So you turn into a girl. Pops turns into an uberracoon!"

Groaning, Ranma repeated,

"'So you turn into a girl'. Well, I shouldn't bea girl! Hell, Ucchan, you see how you react when you get a gender-bending curse!" she replied hotly.

"Well, I don't think I'd react as badly as you have," shereplied honestly.Not even buuying it herself she added, "Seriously, I don't see why you're upset."

o-o-o

Fate downright belly-laughed as Ukyo turned to see Ryoga madly rushing towards them. Time slowed down, Ukyo heard Ryoga's battle cry,

"I'll save you Ukyo-san!" She felt Ranma pull away from her grip as Ryoga attempted to tackle the redhead, who adroitly jumped out of the way, to a safe distance as Ryoga ploughed past, leaving Ukyo balancing on her heels, at the pool's edge, arms flailing wildly.

Ranma stared in helpless fascination, as Ukyo waved her arms about, attempting to regain her balance. She was about to make a dash for the chef, when she noticed Ukyo almost imperceptibly regain her equilibrium, and settle at the water's edge. She gave Ranma a smile as they both sighed in relief. Ukyo began,

"Ha! For a moment there," when the earth unceremoniously gave way beneath her and she toppled backwards with a resounding splash.

Fate and Karma high-fived. Metaphorically, that is.


Author's Notes:

Yeah, you've seen it all before, I know. Just bear with it. :)

Apologies for giving Ukyo the predictable guy curse. Its a necessary evil, as this will be an essential plot device for later happenings.

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