A.N I'm getting confused as to what pronouns to use with Ranma when. (Laughs) so from now on, I'll be referring to Ranma with the pronoun appropriate to his/her current gender.
Ranma was very comfortable sleeping, but something was digging at the edge of his awareness. He could hear the clanking of pots and pans.
"Hmmm, smells good sis." Someone said in a bleary voice.
Someone was mentioning food? Might be another trick. Ranma thought. He had woken enough that he was in the present state between actual wakefulness but not quite asleep.
"Thank you Nabiki. Here is your coffee. Breakfast will be ready in a little bit." Someone with a soft voice said.
"Mmm, thanks."
There was a slight pause in the conversation. Ranma could hear more sounds of cooking, and now that he noticed it, he could smell it too. That threw the theory that it was the Amazon trying to trick him awake again. Then again, he didn't think that the Matriarch was around from the sound of things.
"So have you found who our little friend belongs to? You are always so good at finding things out."
"Hm? Oh, the fox. No, sorry sis, no luck so far. None of the Zoo's around Tokyo report any missing foxes, and all the private owners I've checked into either aren't missing any either or are lying. If it belongs to someone that wanted it, they would have come forward by now."
"That's a pity. I would have to have to turn her over to animal control."
The conversation they were having was scratching something at the back of Ranma's mind. Something about cursed springs. Ranma couldn't really remember what, and it was just too comfortable to wakeup enough to think of it.
"Better be careful big sis, your mask is slipping." Nabiki said with a bit of humor in her voice. "I can tell you want to keep it. And you know what? I think you should. Having a pet would do you some good, and you deserve it. The paperwork shouldn't be to hard to come by."
The sounds of cooking stopped and he could hear the one with the soft voice turn to Nabiki.
"Oh but I don't know if I can Nabiki, what she's not house trained? What if she doesn't want to stay?"
"That's a feeble argument and you know it. You were always good with animals, so I don't imagine you'll have many problems. I'll look into the paperwork later today. Thanks for the coffee sis, got to catch the furo before kane gets back. Later sis." Nabiki called as she walked away.
After a short pause, the one with the soft voice started cooking again, and smells of food started to assault Ranma. He had never smelt anything that good before. Coming to an impasse, Ranma's half-asleep mind had to decide between finding out if he could get some of that food or to continue sleeping, which was surprisingly comfortable. Feeling that more sleep, while comfortable, wouldn't do him much good without some food to burn, Ranma decided to wake the rest of the way up and see if he could snag some food.
Opening his eyes, Ranma's system received a shock. He had shrunken! He was in a giant room, with giant countertops, with an honest-to-Kami giant cooking food a couple dozing feet away. This was defiantly not right. Woah, Woah, Woah! O.k. lets see here… One: I'm in giant room, check. Two; There is a giant in an apron cooking something over there with a giant knife, check. Three; I'm resting in a Giant basket covered in a blanket? C-check. Four; I … sigh … paws, check. Lets see… ranma took a moment to examine himself… err make that herself. Yep, still got three tails, but it feels completely different then before. I think I need to get some things clear with myself. At least until I can figure out how to fix this, I am a were-panther. That means, according Bastet-sama I can change into a human, an half-panther, and a full panther… the Amazon elder showed me how I think. Candles, right. Three lit must be full form, and two would be half, so one would be human? Easy enough. I also turn into a, Kitsune, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the girl part. Bastet-sama said something about magic, too. So if I can change from a half-panther to a full panther, then that probably means that I can change from a half-three-tailed-fox to a full-three-tailed-fox… or something… so that's probably what happened. But I'm still a girl in this form Dangit! Gotta be some way to fix that. So if I have a half and full fox form, maybe I have a human-Kitsune form?
"Oh my! Your awake." The giant-err person cooking said, interrupting Ranma's train of thought. Gotta remember that I'm smaller now. Looking up Ranma could see a pair of concerned eyes watching him from a cute face. Long brown hair flowed off her shoulders. She wore a cooking apron that said in English "Kiss the Cook" over a simple dress. Ranma didn't know how he could read English.
"Would you like something to eat? You've been asleep for days." The apron-clad one asked. At the mention of food, she had Ranma's full attention. She giggled at Ranma who was rapidly nodding his head. "You're a cute little thing. I wonder why anyone would want to get rid of you." Superstitiously glancing over her shoulder and out the doorway, the girl grabbed some scraps from the counter and put them on a plate. "Don't tell anyone that I'm feeding you kitchen scraps. It's supposed to be a bad habit." Ranma could smell them from where he was, and it was all she could do to keep herself from leaping at the plate as the girl brought it down to her.
"Oh my, you were hungry, weren't you?" the girl said as the fox voraciously dug into the food. Ranma would have answered, but was in too much of a state of bliss from the food. Quickly finishing the plate, Ranma licked it clean. Seeing that the fox had polished off all the food she had giver her, the girl giggled and gave the fox some more. Ranma managed to stop eating long enough to give a "Merp!" of thanks. Kasumi giggled again. "You're welcome for the food little one." She wached the fox finish off the second plate, which admittedly didn't take to long. "Well-now, we just cant keep on calling you 'Fox,' can we? Oh my, I haven't introduced myself yet, My name is Kasumi." Kasumi said.
Ranma, without thinking, tried to say 'my name is Ranma. Thanks again for the food.' What came out was a high-pitched, rough sounding, and perfectly understandable "My name is Ranma. Thanks again for the food."
Kasumi promptly gave a squeak of surprise and fell on her butt and stared at Ranma. Ranma, every bit as surprised as Kasumi, stared right back.
The tableau was interrupted before anything else could happen by someone with long hair and a sweaty gi walking by the doorway and seeing Kasumi on the ground. "Kasumi, are you alright?" the girl asked as she came over to Kasumi.
"N-no, Akane, I'm fine. I just slipped." Kasumi said as Akane helped her to her feat. "I'm fine, really." She said, giving Ranma a quick glance.
"Well, if you're sure…" Akane said, and seeing Kasumi's dismissive gesture, continued. "I'm going to be in the dojo if you need anything."
"Thank-you Akane, I'm fine." Kasumi said. She could see the doubt in her sister's face, but thankfully Akane let it drop and left.
As soon as Akane left, Kasumi spun, gave Ranma a weird look, and then stormed over to a cupboard. Throwing the door open, she started to rummage around inside.
Ranma meanwhile, was trying to figure out how she had spoken while being a normal fox… well maybe a not so normal fox. Right, the Kitsune thing. So I can understand different languages and speak as a fox? Whatever, I'm not gonna think about it. Seeing the kind one who had fed her rummaging around in a cupboard, Ranma could feel the stress radiating off her. It felt really unnatural to her, and she felt a strong compulsion to try and make it better. Ranma hoped that she wasn't the cause, but thought it probably was. It's not every day someone has a fox talk to them.
Getting up and making her way next to Kasumi, Ranma was at a loss as to what to do in this situation. Kasumi was digging deeper and deeper into the cupboard, and didn't seem to be coming any closer to finding what she was looking for.
"What'cha looking for?" Ranma asked, curious.
"My pills…" Kasumi mumbled from halfway inside the cupboard
"What Pills?" Ranma said.
"The one I took when I was a child." Kasumi replied, sounding a little bit more stressed. Ranma couldn't tell if it was because of the conversation, or that Kasumi didn't seem to be finding the Pills.
"Why were you taking pills as a kid?" Ranma asked, growing concerned. He could feel how nice the person next to him was, and couldn't detect anything wrong. People with mental illnesses or other things wrong with them always felt a little bit off, even if it was a normal sickness, but Kasumi felt completely natural. Ranma couldn't imagine why she would need any pills, especially ones from her childhood.
Kasumi suddenly pulled herself out of the cupboard. "Because I would talk to animals when I was little." She said to the fox, with a hint of panic. Why couldn't the little thing be quiet?
"Well, I don't see what's so wrong with that." Ranma said, confused.
"Because they would answer back!" Kasumi said.
Ranma's reply was cut off as a man with long hair and a mustache poked his head around the corner. "Kasumi, is everything alright in here?" The man said
Spinning around with a smile plastered on her face, Kasumi said, "Yes father, everything is fine. Breakfast is almost ready." Kasumi paused, and took a quick glance at Ranma. "Actually father, I forgot to get something at the market. I must go and get it right away before they sell out! I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to serve yourself this morning." So saying Kasumi stormed out of the kitchen before her father could reply. Ranma gave chase.
He caught up with her as she was leaving the front gates. "Hey, Wait!" She called. Kasumi continued to walk, ignoring Ranma. "I really don't see what the problem with talking with animals is anyways." Ranma said to himself, but Kasumi heard.
She suddenly came to a stop and looked around. Seeing that no one was around to see her arguing with a fox she turned to said fox. "Because I'm not really talking with you! This conversation is just a figment of my imagination. Its not real!" she said with a sniffle in her voice.
"Well, I think that we really are talking-"Ranma would have said more but was interrupted by a stressed Kasumi.
"Hah, I know that I'm imagining all this! Just like I'm imagining you having three tails! No one else sees three!" Kasumi said.
"Well as a matter of fact, I DO have three tails. And you are talking with me. I think it's something ta do with me, and not you though. I dun know why no one else sees my tails." Ranma said.
"Right, I can see three tails, but no one else can, you can talk, or I can speak with animals or something, and I'm not crazy. Next you'll be telling me that I'm some sort of magical girl and you're my guide!" Kasumi said.
"Err, well, no. I don't think I'm going to turn you into a magical girl or anything. Come-on give me a break. I'm trying to help and, I'm new to this whole Kitsune thing." Ranma said.
"Hah! I know for a fact that Kitsune are not real!" So saying Kasumi spun and strode into the street.
Kasumi didn't see the truck barreling down the road, but Ranma did. "Hey watch out! There's a truck coming!" Ranma tried to warn her.
Kasumi did the worst thing possible. She stopped in the middle of the road and plugged her ears. Ranma panicked. The truck wouldn't be able to stop in time, and Kasumi wasn't going to move on her own. He was to small to pick her up. Heck, he was to small even to make her budge an inch. There was nothing he could do! This nice girl who saved him and fed him and gave him a nice place to sleep was going to get killed and it would be all his fault!
Ranma didn't know what to do. The only thing Ranma knew was that if she didn't do something, he would never be able to live it down. Without thinking Ranma took a leap out into the street and reached with his spirit for a solution. Suddenly, while she was in the air, Ranma shifted. She was back in his Kitsune form. Not one to look a gift-horse in the mouth, or waste time, Ranma landed, scooped Kasumi up, and jumped just in time to get missed by the truck.
Landing on a nearby roof, Ranma set a wide eyed Kasumi down gently. Ranma stepped back nervously grabbed one of her tails and started to kneed it. Kasumi could only stare at the figure out of fairy tail standing before her.
Slowly she reached out and touched Ranma, touching her. A small serene smile appeared on Kasumi's face. "You are real." Kasumi said, and then fainted.
