The match between Goku and Uub was in full swing and Goku was actually using the match to help Uub improve, anything for a better fight, that's Goku's motto. As the fight escalated up to a Z-Senshi level match Goku taunted him more in order to anger the younger man. Goku wanted to unlock the boy's true potential, Goku's power had grown and grown until he had no more rivals that could match him. But the boy had the power of Buu so if he could unlock that he would finally be able to have a worthwhile match.

Meanwhile up in the stands Ifurita and Master Roshi sat and watched the action as it went back and forth. Ifurita was dressed in a pretty blue sundress with a matching hat while Roshi was in his Jackie Chung disguise for some reason known only to him.

Roshi had commented on how much potential Uub had and how well Goku was doing in his task to unleash it. It was then that things started to get weird; after Goku realized that Uub didn't know how to fly he just stopped the fight and floated there while talking to his family.

Then just before he could have landed in front of Goten and Chi-Chi, an irate Ranma stopped him with a roar of "Stop! Don't you dare land." It was so loud Roshi could hear it over the great distance that separated them.

It was when Ranma shifted into his female form that Roshi realized that things might have been worse than he feared as he whispered in shock, "Akane-chan?"

Ifurita looked at him confused, "why is Ranma in his female form," she asked knowing that he didn't like to be like that.

Roshi sighed and said, "Ranma doesn't like to talk about it, but he had amnesia for a number of years after he arrived in me and Krillan's universe."

"I knew about that, but that doesn't explain why he's acting so strangely," Ifurita replied.

The aged master sighed before he explained that because of that and what happened when they tried to get his memory back Ranma developed something that was a akin to multiple personality disorder.

"That's when we had that problem with his Kuruijini personality, but it wasn't just him it was also Akane, Ranma's female personality, and Ranma himself wrapped up in that whole debacle. It was only later through a long, drawn out process he finally had those personalities folded back inside of himself," Roshi said.

Ifurita took all this in while they cautiously watched 'Son Akane' a.k.a. girl-type Ranma berate this version of Goku. Her tirade made Goku float back away from her, with every step forward she took. Whatever she had said she didn't want him to lose by landing outside the ring for some reason know only to her.

"I was afraid that that year we just spent without our memories had a more serious impact on Ranma than us. If Akane-chan is surfacing..." Roshi trailed off nervously "Well at least it isn't his Kuruijini personality making an appearance."

"Should we do something?" Ifurita asked similarly nervous, as she was concerned for the well being of her friend.

"No," he said after he thought for a moment on that subject. "Let's see if Krillan can do something to diffuse this before we open the can of worms us showing up would cause."

"Okay," Ifurita said with trepidation and worry evident in her voice.

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Only Human

By: Verse12

Verse12 at Hotmail dot Com

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Disclaimer:

I do not own these characters nor do I claim too, this is a simple fan based homage. Their creators and the companies they work for and with own the characters and all that pertains to them. (I.E. Rumiko Takahashi, Viz, Shougakukan, Pioneer LDC, Hiroki Hayashi, Ryoe Tsukimura, Akira Toriyama, DC Comics) This is just fans of the shows expressing their love for it for fun, no profit is involved or expected thank you.

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Chapter Eleven

A Ranma & Ifurita's Excellent Adventure Special

Or

Boiling Point

(A.N. unless it states otherwise in this chapter, Akane will refer to Ranma's female personality.)

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Krillan was freaked out and wasn't sure what to do, he was like that when it involved irate females, even if they were born male. Ranma had been fine and then BAM Akane was back.

He was stunned at this turn of events and didn't do anything at first, he just watched as Akane forced Goku back with her very presence. It was obvious to all that Goku was as confused as could be and just wanted to avoid this obviously crazy person.

"Listen lady, er . . . mister? Uhm? Whatever. I don't really understand, what's your problem?" the messy headed Sayia-jin said in a confused way while he scratched the back of his head.

"MY PROBLEM!" she roared, "My problem, Son Goku, is you right now. First, you plan on just quitting a tournament in the middle and now your heading off for some fool reason. I raised you better than this young man!"

This statement threw everyone for a loop and they didn't know what to say to that ludicrous comment but before anymore could be said Krillan stepped up to his friend and tentatively called out, "Akane?"

She spun around at his call, an angry expression on her face that made him jump back and gulp in fear like the Krillan of old, "And who are you to speak so familiarly with me?"

"Uhm," he said lamely as he looked around nervously cause he realized that there was no way to do this without spilling the beans. He gulped and responded "It's me...Krillan." He ignored the gasps and frowns of those around him that looked so much like his friends and he concentrated on helping Ranma, or Akane, or whoever he was right now.

He saw that she wasn't sure that he was who he said he was and he realized that it was his changed features that confused her. "Yeah, its me. Like the nose?" he said trying to lighten the mood.

Even more confused she nodded and smiled half-heartedly while she ignored Goku's questions for the moment. "Yes, it does look good on you, but when did..." she trailed off as she looked around more confused than ever wondering how she had gotten to where she was and what was going on.

"Where are we?" she muttered, "What's going...on?" she trailed off and grabbed her head before she collapsed to her knees.

"AAARRRGGGHHH!!!" she cried out and fell backwards shifting back to male in mid fall.

Krillan was at his side in an instant and when he regained consciousness he asked tentatively, "Ranma?"

Ranma panted heavily and whispered, "Yeah, its me, Krillan. She came back didn't she?" he questioned with a worried frown. At Krillan's nod Ranma muttered a melancholy sounding curse and stood up on his own.

Ranma looked around and glowered at all the suddenly intense faces of the Z-Senshi around them before he turned back to Goku who had landed on the damaged ring during Akane's tirade. "I'll make a deal with you sport. You stay in the tournament and win, we'll answer your questions but if I win . . . You have to stay to be more responsible to your obligations."

Goku's face turned fierce, as it always does when he is faced with a challenge, and he looked deep into Ranma's eyes before he nodded, "Okay."

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Back up in the stands Master Roshi and Ifurita heaved a collective sigh of relief at the end of the tense moment. And as Ranma stumbled back into the waiting room obviously ignoring any questions directed at him the old perverted martial arts master said, "I wonder if that was just an aberration or something . . . more serious."

"I don't know," Ifurita said with a sigh. "For one thing we don't know enough of what the Emerald Eye (1) did to us when it sent us away from the Legion (2)." She quickly began to count off several still unanswered questions regarding what the eye did. "First," she said while she held up one finger, "Why it sent us where it did the way it did?"

"Second, why did all the medical exams I had on 'White Base' show me to be a human and why, once we got our memories back, did all of our innate abilities and my own unique nature come back as well. Also why did all of our things and equipment just appear before us?"

"Third, well actually fifth, that was a three-part question, but no matter," she said with a shake of her head. "Why did it go to all that trouble to get us out of the way and not kill us? Not only not kill us but gave us back all of our equipment as well? And why did it take away all the repairs and improvements Brainiac 5 (3) made on my systems?(4)"

Muten Roshi just shook his head and commented, "Who's to say what that crazy thing was thinking? I'm convinced though that Vi (5) was fighting its corruption but she just wasn't entirely successful."

The El-Hazardian native just sighed and replied, "You may be right about that, but my real point is that we don't know what else it may have done to us. Could Ranma's problem be part of something else the Emerald Eye did?"

"You could be right," Roshi sighed and nodded grimly.

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Krillan and Ranma sat on the floor away from the others with their backs against the far wall. They talked about what had happened, and Ranma explained how he felt. How he was upset with this Goku when he saw him leaving just like his Goku did.

"All I saw was Gohan and Bulma crushed by him not being there," Ranma said. "And I just... seemed to fade away."

"What happens if I loose it again Krillan? What do I do if I hurt someone and we don't have any Dragonballs to fix it?"

"I don't know Ranma," Krillan said at a loss as for what to say.

"I'm just worried I'm going to come unraveled, man," Ranma said worriedly to his friend. "It's just that after more than a decade of being... okay..."

"Do you feel like you did back then?" Krillan asked his distraught buddy.

"I... I don't know," Ranma thought with some trepidation. "Actually thinking about it you may be on to something, it doesn't feel like it did back then, in the old days I could feel us all roiling about in my head together. But now... now it still feels like I'm whole."

"Well then maybe this was just a, one time thing, yah know?" Krillan offered helpfully, "Maybe it was just brought about by all we've been through lately. And this thing with this universe's Goku from trying to leave his family just like ours did, made your Akane personality pop to the surface somehow. You of all people know how protective of him she was," the shorter man said trying to sooth his taller friend.

After a few minutes of silence Ranma nodded and said that he may be right. "But you know what one of the hardest things about this is?" Ranma asked. "Just being confronted with her again," Ranma sighed and continued letting out his tension. "I got over that a long time ago... I got over her a long time ago. You know reintegrating all of my parts was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do and now . . ." Ranma trailed off.

"I'm sorry man," is all Krillan could say in commiseration as he gave Ranma a comforting pat on the back.

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Meanwhile, over on the other side of the room, the assembled Z-Senshi were arguing over what to do. It took all of their efforts to keep Chi-Chi from going over there and giving Ranma a piece of her mind for butting in on things that didn't concern him.

Videl simply sat beside Gohan while she held little Pan-chan in her lap and leaned against her husband as she waited to see what would happen next.

Goten had gotten up and was arguing loudly with everyone that they should just take them both out since they were obviously enemies (he was a little upset over his loss and the merciless teasing he received from Trunks and Vegeta)

Vegeta of course agreed with Goten. However, Trunks said they should find out more about them before making a decision on what to do, and that they shouldn't go off half-cocked.

In the end though, Goku overruled them when he said he gave his word to finish the Budokai and when he won he believed they would keep their word. Plus he made the point that if Kilroy was in fact Krillan somehow he may have had a reason for hiding, kind of like what future Trunks did when he withheld who he was when he first showed up. He ended the discussion when he said, "Lets just play this out and see what's up, okay guys?"

Most of them agreed that in matters relating to both tactics and trusting people Goku knew what he was talking about, in those matters if in none others.

Vegeta was the only remaining dissenter and he didn't seem to really care that much, in fact his comments seemed to be more perfunctory than anything else.

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It was going to take a little while to repair the ring so the fighters were allowed to rest during that time. A fact that Ranma took advantage of, he wasn't that physically hurt but his emotions were running wild. So he spent the rest of the forty-five minute break relaxing and gathering his mental strength. He had no thought that his next opponent, Kiraano would be a problem, but he knew that the one after him, who would more than likely be the big pink alien monster known as Mr. Buu could be a BIG problem. Unless he was handled just right, that is.

When the call for the next fighters came Ranma was in control of himself once more and hopped up and strode out to the quickly restored arena. Kiraano made some disparaging remarks about how he was going to make this quick so he could try and take on Hercule's greatest student Mr. Buu.

Ranma on the other hand simply smirked and replied, "We'll see pretty boy, we'll see."

At the call to begin Ranma simply stood there with his hands behind his back while he rocked back and forth on his heals. He looked totally off guard; of course we know that this has always been a favored façade of his.

The pretty boy fighter Kiraano smiled broadly at the thought of an easy victory and he dashed forward and threw a hard right cross at Ranma's face. Only Ranma wasn't there anymore and before Kiraano's momentum could make him fall forward Ranma simply grabbed him by his out stretched arm and threw him almost negligently with one hand. Kiraano flew over the ring and landed outside the ring with a

Dull thud.

Ranma was quickly declared the winner and he strode cockily back to the waiting room with his hands in his pockets while whistling a jaunty tune. The Z-Senshi opened a path as they watched him warily and wondered what was really going on. Many had bad memories of what happened the last time they competed in the Budokai, back just before Buu first showed up.

Ranma went up to his friend Krillan and clapped him on the shoulder and said, "Good luck. Remember to do your best. I hope you have a strategy for that pink marshmallow over there because he's so strong it's almost scary."

"I'm gonna do my best and we'll just have to see," Krillan replied with a nervous chuckle. "I'll tell you what; I'm going to go out fighting that's for sure."

Ranma laughed heartily at his friends never say die attitude and gave him a friendly shove toward the door as they called him and Mr. Buu to the Ring.

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The match didn't last long, to his credit Krillan did his best, he powered up and attacked Mr. Buu with everything he had. But it didn't do anything; Buu didn't even stop eating the cake in his hands. He just took all the punches and kicks that Krillan threw and bounced back.

He didn't even seem to notice his opponent that is until Krillan tried his buzz saw mini disk technique. And while they didn't do much more than go through the big pink monstrosity and they left no noticeable mark they did destroy his cake. And as everyone who has seen him can say, YOU DON'T MESS WITH MR. BUU'S SWEETS.

Luckily he stopped before he killed the shorter man but Krillan was hurting something fierce. Goten and Vegeta smirked and made rude comments about the man they knew as Kilroy but when Ranma pulled out a pouch and gave his friend a Senzu bean they took notice. The others in the waiting room and the ones in the luxury box also took note of it and the ones who hadn't heard his comment about being Krillan were wondering what was up. In fact none of those in the luxury box knew what was going on, except for a couple of Nameks with great hearing.

Ranma and Krillan still just ignored all the questions and demands for answers. All they would say was that if they both lost the tournament then they would tell them what they knew but only then.

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The rest of the second round went by quickly, Vegeta beat Trunks in a brutal fight in which the outcome was never in doubt. While Goku advanced automatically due to the structure of the tournament and what bracket he was in.

The Third Round was structured like this,

Ranma vs. Mr. Buu

And

Goku vs. Vegeta

Their was a twenty minute break between rounds and during this time Ranma ran off to get something that he believed would enable him to beat Mr. Buu.

So when the call to the ring happened Ranma almost lost by forfeit as he was running late. But luckily he showed up just in time, he ran up to the ring while he held on to two big brown paper bags. He apologized for being late and went over and placed the bags on the ground outside of the ring. Before he climbed into the ring he took a big chocolate cake out of one of the bags and set it on top of the now empty bag that he had laid out flat on the grass.

The other bag he set next to the ring and, with a smirk, he hopped onto the hard concrete surface of the ring.

Ranma walked up to Buu and shook his hand and said that he hoped that they had a good match. This confused Buu as he watched his opponent walk back over to his own starting position by the edge of the ring, but he grinned and thought in his simple way that it was nice to meet someone nice at these things. Of course his eyes kept being drawn to the big cake sitting behind his opponent and his tongue kept licking his lips.

Goku though, was frowning, as he looked at the ring, Goten and Trunks were laughing and joking, to them it was all over and Buu had won. Goku and Vegeta though were both frowning from opposite sides of the door, while Goku's new student Uub simply stood beside him, confused by all the weird events he had witnessed.

When the match was signaled to begin Buu didn't even hear it his total attention being on that delectable looking cake. "Do you want some of my cake?" Ranma asked after a moment with a sly smile, he still didn't have the best poker face.

"OH?" the bottomless stomach known as Mr. Buu asked and looked back to his opponent with an eager smile that split his face.

"Sure go and help yourself, this can wait a second, I don't mind. In fact since I know you want it so bad you can have the whole thing," the former Neriman said with a grin.

Buu of course grinned broadly and thought about how nice his new friend was but before he could act on his new gift Goku realized what was going on and yelled out to him. "Buu it's a trick, don't fall for it. He just wants you to go outside the ring so he can win."

Buu heard this and frowned, "You try trick Buu? You not nice." Buu then grinned slyly and said, "You not smart, Buu no need to land to get cake."

Suddenly Buu's arms grew out and stretched all the way past Ranma over to the cake, which he promptly picked up and drew back to his waiting mouth, into which it disappeared with much slurping and munching.

Ranma muttered a quiet curse and mumbled, "On to plan B then."

Ranma turned to the chocolate smeared Buu and grinned, "HEY FAT BOY!"

"Huh?" Buu looked up with a frown, while all the Z-Senshi gulped. Whatever the new guy's plan was he was walking the razor's edge with this one.

"You make fun of Buu?" The pink blob said with a hint of malice appearing in its super sweet voice.

"Yeah 'I make fun of Buu,'" Ranma said with a mocking tone, "you stupid, no good, piece of fat lard. Your nothing but a big marshmallow and only half as smart," Ranma yelled out with a cocky grin as if he was in control the whole time.

"Uhm, does he have a death wish or something?" Goten gulped from his position with the others.

Buu just yelled an unintelligible roar as steam whistled out of his head before he rushed for Ranma. Now if Ranma had not been expecting this, and not had it timed out in his head to the millisecond, he would not have been fast enough to do this. But what he did was, as Buu rushed for him in a rage, Ranma ducked to the side while he stuck out his leg, which caused Buu to trip with perfect timing.

And since Ranma was standing near the edge... Buu flew forward and landed face first onto the grass. Ranma realized he only had a second before Buu would be on him no matter what the rules said so he grabbed the second bag that was hidden next to the stage and pulled out another cake.

So when Buu rushed toward him in a rage he barely had time to hold up the cake and if there was one thing that could ALWAYS get through to Buu it was sweets. So there was Ranma, flinching back with his eyes squeezed shut and hoping he didn't make a Genma sized miscalculation when he realized that the cake was gone and he was still alive.

He peaked out and saw Buu going to town on the large confection, Ranma sighed in relief and said, "Sorry about that Buu. I wasn't talking to you... I was... uh... talking to that fat guy in the stands behind you. You very smart and quiet slim if I do say so."

Buu looked up at his opponent with a doubting expression and licked off all of the chocolate from around his mouth with an abnormally long tongue.

Ranma realized that this wouldn't be enough so he pulled out the big guns when he said, "And to prove it to you I would like to give you this gift certificate for the bakery on 7th street."

Ranma stood there holding out the little bit of paper and he realized Buu may not have known what a gift certificate was, "It's a coupon for free cake," he said by way of explanation.

"WAHH! FREE CAKE!!!" the jolly giant said in joy as he grabbed Ranma into a big hug. "You friend, you come with Buu for cake?"

"Uhm... if I can, sure buddy, sorry about the misunderstanding you know."

Then in his chirp like voice Buu started to sing to himself about cake as he skipped off to the bakery, not realizing or caring anymore that he just lost the match.

As Ranma walked past the dumb struck Sayia-jin he commented, as if talking only to himself, "Raw strength isn't everything. If you know your opponent, then you're already half way to beating him."

"Arrogant little puke," Vegeta roared, not caring a lick for Ranma's attitude. It took Goten, Trunks, and Gohan to hold him back. And even then he didn't stop, it was only when Goku reminded him that they were up next that he relented, mollified by the thought of another chance to best Kakkarot at last.

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The fight between Goku and Vegeta started out slowly, then grew bigger and bigger. The two powerhouses held back enough so that no one in the stands would be hurt, but even when they were high up in the air their blows shook the stadium.

The ironic thing was that most of the spectators still believed that this was all a trick like Hercule always said. They further thought that it was a shame that the Budokai had so obviously sold out when they had to resort to cheap special effects.

The bout between Goku and Vegeta lasted for almost an hour without either gaining the upper hand. They both felt constrained, limiting the level at which they fought but they both knew that if they went any higher they would never hear the end of it from their respective wives.

It finally ended when Goku got a blow in that stunned Vegeta enough that he couldn't stop himself in time to avoid hitting the ground outside of town.

Thus Goku won his semi-final match and would go up against Ranma in the finals.

To be continued:

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Footnotes:

(1) – The Emerald Eye of Ekron is a floating glass eye with a green iris. It is an artifact of emense power and capable of virtually anything. It is limited in the fact that it needs a human host to help guide its action, because it's sentience is not fully capable of complete indapendence. Oh and it is completely evil and corrupts its host, usually a woman who takes on the title of Emerald Empress. It is from the DC Comics title 'The Legion of Super Heroes.'

(2) – The afformentioned Legion of Super Heroes.

(3) – Brainiac 5 or Brainy to his friends is one of the greatest geniuses of any reality. I'm talking Washu level smart. Only she has a lot more experience given that he was only a 16 or so at the time they met him.

(4) – Braniac 5 not only repaired Ifurita's system's he upgraded them. But all of the repairs and Improvements were undone by the Emerald Eye.

(5) - Vi, is short for 'Shrinking Violet,' the code name for Salu Digby of the Legion who was taken over by the Emerald Eye.

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Endnotes:

I am sooooooooo sorry everyone, I have had this done for about six months. I just couldn't finish the editing of this, but I have and I think it turned out well. As always let me know what you thought. If you had any problems with anything please let me know, thank you once again.

Also a special thanks to my pre-readers Skunktrain and Taurock for all of their good ideas and work.

By my original plans this was only the half way mark of chapter 11. And this was going to end this story arc. But when I looked back on my notes I felt some points were kinda weak and I decided to build up some points and well I felt I should just split it into two chapters. The next chapter will finish this story arc and have them headed for Nerima at long last. I'm looking forward to that.

Also to answer some questions in the reviews, -

Mystery person – the reason Ranma didn't want Goku to land outside the ring was that Goku would have technically lost the match against Uub. Now why that was so important to Ranma/Akane... well you'll just have to watch and see.

Guy – I hope you see now why Ranma acted the way he did at the end chapter 10. And as for his altered DBZ universe, don't worry he will go back at some point. Actually that is my plan for the sequel to this fic I plan on calling it "Still Human" this fic will go through Ranma's return to Nerima and dealing with all the things I have planned for him there (you have no idea the things I have in mind. We're just getting to the good stuff now.)

His return will pick up around the time of the Budokai that Goku got too return to for one day. But as you'll see things in that timeline will be waaayyyy different.

Anyway that's a ways away, I have a lot of ground to cover before I get there. But I think you'll like what I have planned. Wait till you see 'Interlude Five: Dark Murmurings' that will be after chapter twelve.

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When I first started writing this I added this little update on what I had done around that time. Sad to say I haven't done much since this time, but I hope that will all change soon.

I finally did an update on one of my first fics "Love Found?" I also cleaned up all of the earlier chapters in that story.

I also posted a Ranma. Sailormoon, Robotech/Macross story called "Past & Future" that I think has a lot of potential.

I added another chapter to this fic's Prequel "Big Sister."

And I posted a few new parts to my Stargate Sg-1 fic "Beneath the Surface of the Mind."

Next on the list is a new chapter of "Secret Truths" I've had some good ideas on that one recently. Or maybe another part to "Past & Future"

I also want to revise some of the earlier chapters of this fic and "Secret Truths" for grammar and spelling I think I have improved a bit since I wrote those chapters.

But you guys let me know what you think I should do next, okay? If I get enough responses for a certain story it may give me the spark I need.

Thank you all for every thing and please review, I would especially like it if some one would review the latest chapter of "Love Found?" I didn't get any reviews for that one and that's a first for me. It kind of bummed me out.

Thanks again,

Later.

Signed: Verse12