The Full Neko-Ken
Chapter 1: Enter Xian Pu
Howling Wind
Disclaimer: I'm an American child, so thusly I cannot legally own anything, so even if I had the opportunity to own Ranma and Co. I wouldn't be able to.
Genma was thrilled. Sure he was cursed, along with his son, but he now had incredible strength, endurance and his fur would cushion the blows dealt to him, but most importantly, he could now eat bamboo! Like he always said, "A martial artists life is fraught with peril." And now he would never have to buy food again except for his son.
As he thought of his son, Panda-Genma's eyes lowered to where he was lying, a few minutes later and his brain finally made sense of what he saw. 'He's gone!' he yelled, but the guide just heard "Growf!".
"Oh yes, sir, I almost forgot, change back with hot water." The guide stated, pulling a kettle out from seemingly nowhere. He dumped the contents onto the panda, the water slunk away into one of the Jusenkyo pools, steam rising from the boiling water.
"Aaaarrrrgh!" A now very wet, very irritated and slightly burned Genma yelled out. Again appearing in his dirty white Gi, too cheap to ever get it clean, and cleaning it was "a girls job". (A/N: Just wondering, in the anime whenever Genma is returned from Panda state he has his Gi on while Shampoo, Ryouga and Mousse are naked, does anyone have an explination?) Genma then decided to ask the guide about where Ranma went. He opened his mouth to speak and was met with a mouth full of cold water.
"And change back to cursed form with cold water." The guide stated as if it was a clear as night and day as he put the bucket behind him and it mysteriously disappeared. The guide then looked to the ground where Neko-Ranma once stood and decide to voice Genma's question for him. "Uh… Sir, you know where other sir is?" Again met by a irritated "Growf!"
"This very bad sir," he began while pulling another kettle from who knows where. "Why boy run off?" The boiling water was dumped on Genma, now human, and the guide was met with another scream of pain. As the guide turned to walk back to his small hut, his gaze fell upon a black blur scurrying off to the left. "Sir! Boy run off that way, he headed for Amazon village! Follow me!"
Genma grunted while hefting his and Ranma's bag onto his back and quickly turning to follow the guide. He ran off and followed Neko-Ranma for a good five miles before coming upon the Amazon village just as he approached a cloud decided to open up, and as soon as Genma was a panda and thoroughly drenched, stopped and let the sun shine through. A stone fence surrounded the village, red tiles made the roof of the fence. A small gateway, also made of stone, but with more decorative pillars held up the roof of the gateway, also covered in red tile. Inside cheering could be heard, a crowd surrounded a giant log hanging in the air.
The guide arrived five minutes after Panda-Genma, he bent over with his hands on his knees and was panting. "Welcome…. Sir… To Amazon…. Village." He said between pants. He looked through the gate and could see an Amazon warrior on one side of the log, the other side was blocked by the fence. The warrior was wearing blood red metal armor that fit exactly to her small figure. The armor was trimmed ocean blue on the edges and her under shirt and pants where also red. The blue trim of the armor was the only reason that it could be seen, as the underclothes were the exact same color. Her hair seemed to be a blue almost identical to the trimming on her armor, with a metal clip, also the same blood red color, holding her hair in a bun. She was carrying a three-prong spear, with the center blade being the biggest and longest. A simple wooden staff about five feet long gave her long reach and the prongs on the side being like swords made it so swipes would pierce skin.
"We very lucky sir!" the guide said, no longer panting. "Amazon's hold tournament today." He gestured forward and Panda-Genma trudged beside him to the gate and they pushed through the crowd to get a better view. Panda-Genma let out a shocked gasp when he saw what the warrior was facing, it was a black cat, Panda-Genma knew he had seen it sometime before, but promptly shoved that thought into the back of his mind as he began to gorge himself with food. No one seemed to notice him as they all stared upon the odd scene above them.
After much hissing and glaring, the warrior got impatient and charged forward, swinging her spear in a large horizontal arc at the cat. Neko-Ranma promptly jumped and landed on the wooden pole of the spear, becoming a blur along with the pole due to the speed it was swung at. Using his temporary invisibility to his advantage he leaped down and crashed full speed into the warriors legs. Her legs buckled and she fell into the sea of spectators, who all looked awe struck at the cat who just defeated one of their warriors.
Nearby a flap to a hut opened, out came a shriveled old lady, with gray hair longer then her small body, she was balancing on a staff twice the size of her and using it like a pogo stick. Beside her walked a young warrior, wearing a pale pink shirt with a bright red chest plate with gold trimming and designs on it. She wore brighter pink pants and her lavender hair fell too her lower back with two buns on the top.
/Well now this should be interesting.\ The old lady said in mandarin. /Xian Pu, go take care of that cat, apparently you need to beat it in order to be champion.\ 'There is something about the aura of that cat that's oddly familiar. Hmm… I will have to study it once Xian Pu defeats it.'
/Yes great grand mother Koh Lon, I will defeat this cat.\ Xian Pu replied. 'Its just a cat, now I will win the tournament for sure!' She leaped onto the log, as she approached the cat, her confidence continued to rise. She landed on the side opposite to Neko-Ranma and pulled out her bonboris (sp?), staring down the cat that dared to stand between her and her title. Then, without warning she struck, swinging one bonbori down and the other one horizontal, making little room for escape, but Neko-Ranm just rand forward and while passing, swiped at her legs. Xian Pu turned and slammed her bonbori into the log while the other one swiped above. The cat used his Ki claws to rip to shreds the bonbori in the log then ran on the side of the log, using his claws to hang on and again snuck behind Xian Pu. Neko-Ranma then leaped and ran his claws down her back, trickles of blood ran from the wound.
Xian Pu turned just in time to see Neko-Ranma jump in front of her, his ears trained behind him. 'What is that cat doing? He's not attacking me, just jumping up.' Xian Pu was thoroughly confused. Just as he jumped as high as Xian Pu's head he dropped and fell the long distance to the ground. Xian Pu jumped behind him, 'the cat was winning, and then all of the sudden just fell?' the crowd now made a circle around where the cat lay, an arrow deep in his side, an arrow that would have killed Xian Pu.
Koh Lon shoved through into the circle, examining the cat while balancing on her staff. /This cat just saved your life Xian Pu.\ She hid her surprise well. /You must take care of this cat until it is healed, you are indebted to it. I will come to your hut soon to study it.\ With that Koh Lon hopped off, using conveniently placed heads to get over the crowd. 'I know I have seen that aura before. But where?' /Hey! What is that panda doing eating the victory food? Someone capture him!\ 'That panda has the same thing with his aura. I believe I know the cause of this.'
Panda-Genma was quickly surrounded by a large amount of really ticked off warriors, spears pointing towards his throat. He quickly threw his hands up, and allowed himself to be shoved off into a damp, moldy and dusty cell. As soon as they left he quickly produced a watermelon from behind his back. 'At least I have food. I'll escape later.' He finished the melon in a couple bites and lay down to sleep.
Xian Pu was worried, the cats breathing was shallow and labored. Blood was oozing from the arrow wound; luckily the arrow did not pierce to deep and missed his lung by an inch. He would survive, but barley. She quickly proceeded to care for the cat that had saved her life. The arrow was a simple point, not barbed so she didn't have to twist it to get it out, if she did she could risk further injury to the cat. She used a quick jerk to pull it out, sickening sounds of skin and blood moving around as she did. Next she pulled out a simple stone pestle and mortar and proceeded to mix a variety of healing herbs. Once the solution was done she applied three coats of the mix onto the wound, the cat hissing in its sleep from the pain. After stitching the skin together she proceeded to bandage the cat, wrapping the cloth all the way around its chest, being careful to leave enough room for the cat to breathe.
Just as she started to wrap the wound Neko-Ranma awoke. He stared intently at the young woman who was wrapping his wound. He attempted to turn his head to look at his surroundings, and the shot of pain through his stomach quickly sent him into a state of unconsciousness.
The next time he awoke he found the same lady holding a bowl of milk towards him, he greedily drank it, having not had food or water in days. The milk was accompanied by some sardines, which were down his throat in a matter of seconds. The girl looked upon him with a smiling face, the sight burned into the back of his eyelids as he blacked out.
The next few days Neko-Ranma fell in and out of conciseness, each time he woke to find the young girl with the lavender hair smiling upon him, holding food out or stroking his head. Genma, however was left to eat bamboo and water, which he didn't in fact mind. 'At least its free!' he thought greedily to himself.
Neko-Ranma awoke the fourth day after the tournament to find no smiling face upon him. He attempted to stand, a slight jolt of pain entered his body, but he managed and began to leave the hut. Taking small steps and focusing on not using his stomach muscles to avoid pain, he looked around for the familiar figure. A strand of lavender hair attracted his attention as it moved into a large hut. He quickly stalked away towards it. A he approached the door he heard voices in a strange language.
/Xian Pu, I have come to believe that that creature is not really a cat, but is instead a different creature under the curse of Jusenkyo. The panda as well.\ The elder Koh Lon stated. /If you could go and grab the cat we could test my theory.\
As if on cue a black blur pounced onto Xian Pu, catching her off guard and knocking her over. She looked down to see the cat purring on her lap and proceeded to stroke its ears until it fell asleep upon her lap.
After making sure the cat was asleep Xian Pu picked it up off her lap and onto the bed, watching Koh Lon make her way over with some heated water. She proceeded to dump the contents onto the cat and watched as it changed into a tall young man, hair tied into a pigtail. (A/N: I'm gona have Ranma change to have clothes on. Why? Cause Genma can and I'm the author so I get to pick. )
'Strange, why would this boy act like a cat? Was he trying to infiltrate the village?' She watched as Ranma rolled over in his sleep, onto his wound and quickly woke up with a jolt of pain.
"Ahh!" he screamed, as waking up to see a shriveled old lady is not the most pleasant sight. He quickly recovered and stood up, stretching his arms a bit before a confused look came over his face. "W-where am I? I had the strangest dream where I fell into a pond and woke up a cat." Xian Pu looked down upon the cat turned boy in confusion, not understanding the strange language he spoke.
"I could ask the same of you, son-in-law." The shriveled prune that is Koh Lon stated in fluent Japanese.
"Ahhh! The mummy can talk!" Ranma shrieked, earning a hit on the head with Koh Lon's staff. Ranma rubbed his head, a large red bum protruding from where the staff had hit. "What happened? I just remember falling into that pond, then waking up here." Ranma was incredibly confused, as most people would be if they woke up in a strange bed with a beautiful young girl and a living mummy standing over them.
"You are in the Amazon village in China, that pond cursed you to become a cat whenever you come in contact with cold water, and you have been here as a cat for four days now son-in-law." Koh Lon answered all of Ranma's questions in one sentence. "You don't remember becoming a cat? Why is this?"
Ranma started shaking, "I b-become a c-cat when hit with cold water? That can't happen! This can't be happening!" He continued to rant until another smack across the head brought him out of it.
"Why do you not remember becoming a cat? All the victims of Jusenkyo remember and have full control when in cursed form. Why are you different." She said, probing his aura for any clues. She came upon a bit of cat aura separate from the curses aura. 'Why does he have cat aura… Unless…' "You weren't trained in the Neko-Ken were you?" She asked, noticing him shiver at the mention of the Neko-Ken.
Xian Pu, now thoroughly annoyed at the fact of not being able to understand any of this conversation, began to ask Koh Lon in a irritated voice/What are you talking about? Why does that cat… boy… whatever, not act like a human when he is a cat? Answer me!\ Her tone of voice was answered with the old ghouls favorite thing to do, hit people on the head.
/I shall explain later, leave us to talk.\ She commanded, pointing her staff towards the door to strengthen the command. Once Xian Pu left she turned back towards Ranma. "Ok son in law, tell me of what has happened to you during your adventures." She asked, her face curling up in a grin as he had yet to ask about the whole Son In Law thing.
So he proceeded to tell her, starting from the Neko-Ken. She was very angry at the boys father. 'The Neko-Ken was outlawed for unneeded cruelity and the psychological damage it induces. And now, whenever this boy gets splashed with cold water, he will turn into a cat. This will be a problem, I must see if I can find a way to help him.' With that thought drifting in her mind she continued to listen to the tales of his adventures.
A/N: Man these things are hard to write. Anyways, here is the first chapter. I hope you like it, I worked hard. Just to let you know, more will be explained about what mind frame Ranma enters when he is in the Neko-Ken next chapter. Thanks for the reviews, I was completely stumped on what to do.
Howling Wind
To ClanCrusher: Thanks so much for your review. I don't know anything about the Gold Diggers series and I wasn't planning to make Ranma a hybrid, sorry if the summery was misleading. Your thoughts about the Amazon village sure helped. Thanks a lot for being my first reviewer.
To Madfish: Thanks for your compliment. I am planning to make Ranma intelligent and what happens in his mind will be explained next chapter. Thanks for the idea.
To Dairokkan: Yeah, Shampoo is my favorite female character and tied to Ranma to being my favorite over all character. She is so cool and she does care a lot about Ranma, although at the start it seems to be only because of the law. She always makes things interesting with her wacky potions. Thanks for the review.
To shinji the good sharer: Thanks a lot.
To LunaRoseAF: The idea of him falling into the spring just came to me when my friend was pressuring me to write a Inuyasha romance fiction (although watching all 160 something anime episodes in a row might have helped, I know I'm obsessed). I don't think guys can write good romance on their own without it becoming sexual. Anyways, I'll work on this story more now that I know some people support it, but school starts soon –shudders-. Thanks a lot.
To rightius: That is indeed true about writing it the way I want, but I was stuck. I have no idea what Gold Digger is so I doubt I will go there and I plan to have him never fully gain control of the Neko-Ken, cause that has been done to much. He will gain a little control of course. Sorry about the grammar, I'm a freshman this year and all my grammar is self-taught. Those "Gifted schools" teach you squat. Anyways, thanks for the review.
To Campin' Carl: Heh…that wouldn't happen to be Campin' Carl from Counter Stizicks would it? So much random hilarity! Anyways, I am accepting anonymous reviews now, thanks for the advice. I attempted to fix those mistakes, but may have missed a few, as it was 1 in the morning and I was tired. As I said before Ranma will not become a cat person and it will take him a long time to gain the slightest control over the Neko-Ken. Thanks a lot.
