Half of Z
Ranma ½ and Dragon Ball Z are creations of Rumiko Takahashi and Akira Toriyama respectivly, I own nothing.....pity.
Place or Time: ( ) Panda Sign: Thoughts: ' ' Speech: " "
( Earth, China, Quan Xi province, Junsendo Mountain 6 Kilometers north of Junsenkyo; 20 years before present day, Early Morning)
It was an apparently peaceful morning in the thick brush forest of Junsendo, at least as peaceful as it could be with the horrible supernatural training grounds at its feet. However, the relative peace was soon broken by an meteorite shattering the silent and cloudless morning sky....yes a meteorite is quite what it appeared to be...to the average observer, but with good enough eyesight one could recognize that the quickly descending object was far too spherical to have been shaped in the emptiness of space. Not only was its shape too perfect to have been formed by natural hands...its outer appearance had an cold yet lustrous metallic sheen.....oh yes...this object had most certainly been shaped by Human hands ..however if there had been such a Keen observer he or she would not have had any more time to observe the object as it abruptly collided with the side of the Mountain and the force of the impact shook the surrounding area.
"Hmm? Now I wonder what that could be...we've never had an earthquake here before..." the Junsenkyo guide's bemused wondering was short lived however as the more pressing matter of his breakfast getting cold took priority. If the guide had been just a bit more curious he would of seen as part of the mountain collapsed upon the object that had collided with it and the mystic water of the mountain flow into the crater which it had created upon impact....and would have heard a loud cry coming from the apparently hollow object.....a very loud cry indeed.
( Nerima District, 56 Kilometers South of West City; Present day, Early afternoon)
"Well I still say this whole thing sucks!" the appearance of an small red haired girl in the Nerima market district performing seemingly impossible acrobatic feats in the pouring rain was only as strange as the thing she was yelling at...
"Pickin' my fiancée for me..." the girl leaped into the air along with the panda and exchanged a few quick blows before landing on the ground where she had jumped from "..and without even askin' me first!?" the girl and panda jumped high into the air and grappled again but this time the redhead gained the advantage over her opponent and performed a strong mid-air kick, sending the panda smashing into the ground. "Well im going back to China so suck on that old man!" As the girl turned to walk away from the battle the beast raised a small wooden sign and struck her from behind, knocking the redhead out cold. The beast slung the young girl it had just incapacitated over its shoulder and trudged off into the rain....
(Tendo Household)
"Girls!! Come here I have a suprise for you!" Soun Tendo called to his daughters from the dining room. "What is it daddy?" Nabiki inquired. Soun looked at his eldest and middle daughters then said "Eh…lets wait for Akane shall we?"
(A few minuets later…)
"Now girls, I have just received a postcard from a very dear friend. My friend and I made a giri in our younger days studying the Arts under the same master you see. The giri was that some time down the line we would wed one of our children to the other to join our schools"
Akane choose this time to make her opinion known "What?! We don't get a say in who we marry?!"
"I have to agree with Akane father this seems awfully unfair to us…" 'Uh oh…Kasumi usally isn't this vocal….better find a way to placate them' Soun tried to find the right words to calm his offspring "Come now lets wait till we meet the lad before we pass judgment hmm?" They seemed to deflate at this statement. From the living room the doorbell is heard "Ah! That must be them now." Soun announces while the eldest daughter moves to answer the door "How depressing…boys.." the youngest daughter moaned while Nabiki just hoped he was cute. They backpedaled at the sight of an giant panda carrying a scarlet haired youth entered their vision. "Is this your friend Father?" Soun shook his head excitedly "Well giant pandas arent exactly common in Tokyo daddy…" Nabiki had a bemused expression on her face. Suddenly the red-head decided to say something "Oi Pop! Leggo your'e scarin' em' spitless!. The youth moved from the pandas grasp to settle in front of the Tendos' "You wouldn't be…." "Saotome Ranma…sorry bout this……"
(AN: The meeting and following interaction with Akane is unchanged so im gonna skip ahead)
"Girls this is my dear friend…" "Saotome Genma" the bald man interjected "…and his son." "Ranma" the pigtailed young boy stated. "Are you really that girl from before?" Nabiki asked her curiosity piqued "Where to start…" Genma attempted to grab his son by the collar but Ranma prempted his attack and kicked him into the koi pond from which emerged the panda from before. The pigtailed boy had a smug look upon his face until said soaking wet panda expelled the moisture from his fur like a dog and got the boy wet triggering his own transformation into a buxom red-head. It all started on the last leg of our training trip through China…….
(Flashback Several Weeks ago to Junsenkyo)
"Here we are sirs, this is legendary cursed training ground of Junsenkyo. Many terrible tragedy in this place, many sad stor" the guide turned to the sight of Ranma and his father sparing on top of the bamboo poles jutting from the springs. "Ahhh! Sirs what you doing?! Is very bad if fall into spring!"
Ignoring the guides warning the spar continued with Ranma quickly gaining an advantage over his father and kicking him into on of the many springs. As Ranma began to freak out over a large panda emerging from the spring he managed to catch the guide mentioning the many curses of the springs that dot the valley and became worried as his father seemed to not notice the change and continued his assault "Whoa! Hold on pop jest wait a sec*SPLASH*…" Ranma emerged from the spring sporting two new assets and missing one very important tool. After the intial shock wore off Genma too noticed something wrong with the picture but had no more time to dwell on it before his son started after him like a bat out of hell.
(Flashback over)
…and after the boy got tired the guided explained to us that the curse is triggered by hot and cold water with cold as the trigger and hot water as the cure" Genma finished explaining having reverted to human form sometime during his explanation "Oh the shame of it all….my own son!" said son silenced his wailing by kicking him into the pond once again but as he began to sit back down Kasumi noticed a brown appendage she had mistaken for a belt earlier protruding from his tailbone. "Oh my, whats that?" Her siblings and father then followed her gaze to Ranma's backside which seemed to be sporting…. "Is that a tail?!" Nabiki asked with an incredulous look on her face "Oh yea, another thing to blame pop for…almost forgot about that" said the boy. The youngest Tendo wrinkled her nose in disgust "You mean you weren't born with a tail?" said tailed boy gave her a look that said 'are you for real?' and replied "Of course not! Who the heck is born with a tail?!" By this time Genma was back at the table and began to recount how his son came into posession of said tail. "Yes it was after the boy had calmed down and the guide brought us back to his hut to explain the curse to us….
(Flashback…again)
"Do not worry sirs…just a bit of hot water and you will return to normal yes?"
Ranma-chan gave her father a sour look. "We better or im having Panda stew fer dinner tonight."
Genma began to sweat at his currently daughter's comment having been reminded of his wife at that comment. The guide turned to his to cursed guests "Oh sir could you fetch some water to boil" he asked of the older of the two visitors. Several moments later the panda returned with a pail of water and the water was boiling soon afterwards. "Gimme that I cant take being a girl one more minute!" The pigtailed girl snatched the kettle from her fathers hand…er paws and quickly poured it over her head.
"Ahhhh back to being a guy again" as the changed triggered Ranma and the the two older men noticed something a bit strange about his body. Ranma's lithe gymnast build was replaced with a rather bulky set of muscles reminiscent of a bodybuilders form, his height seemed to be a bit off…as if he gained 2 or 3 feet, and his hair while once manageable if a bit long for a boy now seemed to stick out at the oddest places seemingly defying gravity, and finally a brown appendage about 3 and a half feet was jutting from his tailbone at the base of his spine. "What the hell?! I have a Tail!!" the guide looked in Genma's direction "Oh sir you did not get this water from spring in valley did you?" the normally hairless martial artist gave a sheepish look and held up a sign Uhhhhh…..yes? his son turned to glare at him then lifted the guide up by his collar "How do I change back huh?!" a sweat drop appeared on the guides forehead at the boy's sudden aggressiveness "I not sure young sir, normally hot water would restore birth form but because the curse water WAS hot I not sure if you can…restore…birth form.." the mans voice died in his throat at the aura of rage the boy was putting off…it seemed almost visible!
"Oh father….." his son's voice strained with barely contained rage Genma did the only sensible thing…he hightailed it out of there with Ranma in hot pursuit…and thus the chase was on.
(Flashback over)
As the duo finished their tale Nabiki turned to the tailed boy with something on her mind "Did you try cutting the tail off? It doesn't look like you really need it…" the boy sighed "That was the FIRST thing I tried…but every time I trigger the curse and turn back into a guy the stupid thing grows back…its just a waste of time trying to get rid of it. The boys father began to wail once more "Oh the shame! My son cursed to be half of a man, half a monkey, and half of what he once was…oh my poor hea*URK*" Ranma silenced his fathers crocodile tears by implanting his face into the floor with his foot. "Check your math oyaji! It was your fault we ended up cursed in the first place!" When the middle daughter inquired as to WHY it was his fault he fished the brochure for the Pools of Sorrow from his fathers gi and tossed it to her. "Hmmm, this is in mandarin…you cant read mandarin can you Saotome-san?" From his place underneath Ranma's foot he held up a sign that confirmed her suspicion.
"Foolish boy! Were you not prepared to lay down your life for the sake of the art?!" Genma moved to toss Ranma out the door and into the pond but the boy lashed out his tail to anchor to a support beam and sprung towards his father with fist held high "My life yes…." only to jump to the side and use his momentem to ricochet off the wall behind his father and lash out with a viscious strike to the back of his head landing the bald man in the koi pond yet again "….but my manhood is a different story!"
After Ranma finished trouncing his father Soun moved to the boy and gave him a pat on the back noting that it felt like he was slapping reinforced concrete "Well now your problem isn't so bad…not so bad at all really." He then motioned towards the tallest of the three girls "My eldest Kasumi, she's 19" he pointed to the slightly shorter girl with a bowl haircut "My second Nabiki, she's 17" his gaze finally comes to rest on the smallest and obviously fittest of the three girls "And my youngest Akane, 16"
He turned back toward Ranma and gestured towards his daughters "Pick anyone you wish and she shall be your fiancée" He didn't know exactly what it was….but the pigtailed boy had a gut feeling that whichever girl he ended up with….his life wouldn't settle down for quit some time.
Any comments, Suggestions or Constructive Critisism is very much welcome, I cant decide which girl to pair him with so ill let the readers decide for the next chapter…ill probly do a pole on my profile so be sure to check ^.^.