Disclaimer; This fanfiction uses existing ideas, characters and or worlds, but is an independent work of art. I own nothing, hence the reason for publishing my writings here instead of in real books where I could make some money.
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It was a mild and calm morning in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. The sun was peeking over the horizon, and happy birds were singing and catching breakfast. The few wispy clouds that lazily drifted away from the rising sun showed no threat of bursting into tears, and the gentle breeze that wafted through the neighbourhood hardly lifted a single fallen leaf.
Mailman Nelson, a middle-aged man with a thick beard and hardly any hair, what little he had was starting to pale with age, and love-handles that made him look like he could give birth at any moment, was walking his rounds.
It was a thankless job, but someone had to do it …
Like most overweight persons, Nelson tried to keep a positive attitude to get through the discrimination people above the average weight suffered. In his case, he looked like a younger Santa Claus, so he decided to make his job easier by really getting into character … he was the everyday Santa, delivering notices to those who had not been entirely good, and postcards or small parcels to those who had not been entirely bad, and bills for everyone!
As with most U.S. postal workers walking the beat, Nelson was eternally grateful to the man who invented the Stuff-Space generator, whoever he was … since the postal service had invested in getting those for a growing number of mailmen, their jobs had become infinitely simpler, as they no longer had to lug around the heavy satchel every day, and walk back to the post office central more times if there was a lot going out to their rounds … now they could easily carry all the post they would need, and even deliver slightly larger parcels without adding weight or needing a cart to move them.
For Mailman Nelson, this was like making his character even more realistic … like the real Santa's seemingly bottomless bag of presents, his satchel now held much more than its appearances indicated, and it made the long walk and the early hours even more bearable … he was so merry that he was actually on the verge of chuckling until his belly shook like a bowlful of jelly.
As he came up along the street that was infamous for its unusual inhabitant of a woman who wore natural fur in a rather unconventional way, he saw that the property of said woman was once more a very hazardous one … or there had been some social activity that had caused this much damage.
The sight reminded him of his college days, and his days as a High School senior … the parties would last nearly all night, and the destruction left in their wake took hours, if not days, to clean up for whomever was unfortunate enough to have thrown the party … or the parents of the hosts, who had been out of town for the weekend – a very unsound decision with teens in the house. However, the destruction he was witnessing in this neighbourhood told him that it had not been made in such a festive mood as he and his fellow jock friends had been in his younger days … how that cow had ended up on the roof of the fraternity dorms, dressed in a tutu, he would never remember even if he tried …
Whatever had caused this, he was glad it was over now. It was sure to have been unpleasant to witness.
He really had to hand it to that family … they knew how to minimise the damage done to their neighbours, even if their own home was completely destroyed, as it had on at least one occasion.
He actually liked this family, as they were kind enough to offer him cookies as his Christmas bonus … it showed that they cared … But that cat-woman really freaked him out, even if she was stacked in all the right places, yet, she still fascinated him … he wasn't sure if she was a cosplay-type woman, who refused to get out of costume, or of it was all real, but had he been married, he was sure his wife would disapprove of him ogling the woman when she bent down to work in the garden on some warm mornings.
The catwoman's older sister seemed normal enough, apart from some of the nerdy magazines she subscribed to, but the younger one had the same look in her eyes that one or two of his co-workers had just before they grabbed a weapon and ran amuck.
Nelson had just opened the mailbox when six shadows passed over him, causing him to freeze as he saw the six that had landed on the front law of the Diggers house.
The biggest man was one wearing a mask over his lower face, he had on black clothes with flames along the hems, fishnet sleeves, a yellow scarf around his neck, and sticking out over his shoulders were two swords … shinobigatana, if Nelson remembered the terminology right from his fascination with ninja when he was younger. The man's hair stood nearly straight up, like he had been shocked with a great amount of electricity, and never really got it to lie down. The muscles on this man clearly intimidated Nelson, and most likely also whomever the man faced, the scar running down over his left eye also added to the intimidation factor.
The tallest woman was as bald as a cue ball, had ample assets, and was dressed in a green one-piece bathing suit, along with green stockings that ended mid-thigh without any visible means of keeping them in place. Her physique also spoke of vast strength, even if her taste in clothes left something to be desired … a part of Nelson, the part that was fascinated with the catwoman, also noted that the clothes left little to the imagination … actually, the clothes left nothing to the imagination …
The next man was not unlike the first, only he wore blue, and his arms were uncovered with the exception of the bracers attached to his forearms, and he did not have any additional decoration to his wardrobe, which also meant no scarf … his hair was also relatively more normal compared to the other ninja.
The next woman was dressed as a maid … the only thing missing would be the hair in a neat bun, and the posture of one who lives to serve. This woman was clearly more independent in thought, and the way she moved hinted to great strength, and the way she tossed her hair showed how proud she was of it.
The last man was as bald as the first woman, but he also wore a decoration on his head, resembling a metal sweatband, along with square-rimmed glasses … his taste in clothes was no better than the rest, as his "Shaft-like" coat and goatee proved. Underneath, he wore a blue tunic and pants held up with a sash of similar colour. The closed tome under his arm proved that he had no real physical strength, but would not hesitate to throw the book at someone if his other strengths were insufficient.
The last woman at least had some fashion sense, wearing a purple top and a black skirt. Of course, both articles of clothing were shorter and tighter than necessary, but they were more fashionable. Her well-kept white hair had been bobbed, making her head look like a sleek ping-pong ball that had been cleaved along the middle to make room for a face, and her lipstick and painted nails matched her top.
Deciding that trouble was brewing, mailman Nelson stuffed the mailbox with what he could find for this address in the two seconds he afforded himself, and ran for it at speeds that would impress even the world's top sprinters.
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The six employees of Lord Erwin Talon were disgruntled, a dangerous situation when the disgruntled parties were trained to deal out pain, death and dismemberment.
The group was an entire day late for their assignment.
It had not been their fault, but rather that of their employer and the mother of said person.
Peewee's mother was still carrying a grudge against team Alpha, as Peewee had called them, for the incidents from the search of the house for the missing wererat data. It didn't matter that most of those incidents were caused by Erwin, his employees were the adults, and as such his unspoken babysitters.
As a result, since Peewee had not done his "chores" for a while, she had sat them, team alpha and team beta, to work instead.
Zelda, the bald and busty woman, was convinced that the chores had been invented on the spot, just because she knew they were in a hurry. Link, Zelda's maid-clad rival, had confirmed that previously, the rich family had hired people to do the things they had been put to do, which made the six of them hate the stern woman more … and what was worse, was that mothers outrank their children, no matter what the children think, so Lord Talon was unable to impress upon her the importance of their assignment without adding to the chores.
Link and Zelda had been made to clean Erwin's room, a task his mother was not pleased with, so they had to go over it again … and again … and again. In the end, they were on their hands and knees with cotton swabs, cleaning every square inch of the room, under, behind and inside everything, only to have Peewee enter the room, filthy from some experiment, trudging it all over the room and the attached bathroom as he changed clothes, so they had to do it all over … again, this time with heavy-duty cleaning fluids just shy of being strong acids, as the muck he had brought in was on the verge of being a bio-hazard.
Having seen the Karate Kid a few times too many, Erwin's mother put Daishi, who worried about getting his blue combat uniform spotted, and Shin, who had the sense to dress for the occasion with a full white cover-all designed specifically for painters, to painting the fences, claiming it was good exorcise and training. This was the only task that was not asked to be repeated.
Ionis, the bald Shaft-look-alike mage, and Janine, the white-haired bodacious mage, were set to mow the lawn, and weed the garden and flowerbeds. It was a huge garden, and it was lined with flowerbeds, as well as a few "islands" of flowers in the middle. When they were done, they had to do it again, without magic, because they had been caught cheating. Once they were done, they had to do it again, because they had not been thorough enough … then they had to replant the entire thing, because they had apparently ripped out a few flowers and such that they were not supposed to.
The gutters and drainpipes had to be cleaned, and once more, Peewee's mother showed perfectionism that no one else ever would, in demanding that not a speck of filth remain on or in them. This task was not delegated to any one person, so every one of them were up on the roof or on ladders with scrubbing utensils, scooping utensils and muck-buckets.
The roof then had to be tarred, and the entire crew was put to work, only to have them repeat it, because Erwin's mother found some missed spots that looked suspiciously scuffed.
Grocery shopping had been the next task the women were set to do, and repeat, as each time they returned, there was either something that had been forgotten until then, or they had gotten the wrong brand or item.
Zelda had the unfortunate experience of leaning on the newly painted fence out of exhaustion, and started getting paranoid about discovering flecks of paint on herself, which resulted in countless scrubbings and cleanings. Link hardly made things better by pointing out fictitious spots that sent the bald, bodacious babe into another scrubbing frenzy.
Ionis had tried his hand at the same practical joke, but his suggested spots were in highly unlikely places, which ended in him getting a black eye behind his glasses.
"Where's the welcome party?" asked Link, having heard how quickly they had seen their target the last time, and fully expected something similar this time, just so she could prove herself superior to Zelda by defeating their target, Ranma Koki, without her help.
"You know," commented Ionis, looking around. "It looks like we missed one heck of a shindig …"
"I thought there would at least be some sort of surveillance …" said Janine, disappointed in the lack of said security.
" Voice Recognition System; Unauthorised Entry; Access Denied. "
"Did you say something, Shin?" asked Link distractedly as she scouted for any hidden werecat.
"I said nothing," Shin declared stoically. "But I believe we are surrounded."
"What makes you say that?" asked Zelda.
" Intruders on the premises; Initiate immediate countermeasures. "
With a rumble, two dozen robots rose from the ground surrounding the six minions, dirt falling from them as they moved and aimed various projectile weapons at them.
" Intruders, " monotonously started one robot with red colourings and a slightly human face. " Please vacate the premises immediately, or prepare to be forcibly ejected … you have to the count of ten to comply, or we have been programmed to utilise extreme measures … one … "
"Er, should we listen?" asked Zelda cautiously … these things had obviously been added after their last visit, which meant the Diggers women would have taken into account that they might return.
" … two … "
"This is nothing to worry about," scoffed Ionis confidently, opening his book, which then hovered in thin air before him.
" … three … "
"All I need to do is zap these things with a chain bolt of lighting, and they'll go down easily," Ionis continued.
" … four … "
"I'm not so sure," hesitated Zelda. "I'm pretty sure Gina would have thought of that …" it was grudging, but there was a slight tone of respect for the blonde scientist.
" … five … "
"If it makes you feel better, if I'm wrong, your treatment is on me, okay?" assured Ionis.
" … six … "
"All right!" exclaimed Zelda. The regeneration tanks weren't cheap, and lately, Lord Talon had started pondering the possibility of deducting the treatment from their meagre pay.
"Lightning Bolt!" yelled Ionis forcefully, directing his arms at the large metal beings.
"Aura Shield!" countered another voice from outside the tight formation of robots.
The bolt of lightning bounced off a clear shield and back at its caster, who dodged out of the way, causing it to crash harmlessly into the ground. Unfortunately, lightning is nothing but harmless in close proximity, so the group of six were lucky to only get shocked enough to stand their hair on end and experience mild jolts of pain along with temporary paralysis.
" … seven … "
"What the F#& just happened?" demanded Zelda, gritting her teeth in pain.
"I did," stated a confident, but still somewhat humble voice.
" … eight … "
Stepping into view was none other than Seance, holding his hands out and ready to cast another spell at any given moment.
" … ten … "
"WAIT!" exclaimed Link fearfully. "YOU SKIPPED NINE!"
" It was an untrue ploy, told to you in order to amuse our creator when she sees the recording of this encounter, " calmly informed the robot. It could do with a touch of personality, though … as it could simply have said; "Just kidding!"
"Now that we have a magic user out here, the odds have evened out a bit, don't you think?" asked Seance, smirking at the joke the robot had played the six.
" … nine … " the robot continued with no indication of mirth.
"Yeeehaaaw!" a battle cry sounded from the inside, and out the doors and windows, hundreds of eager peebos poured, making as quick a way to the surrounded six as possible.
" … ten … have a nice day … "
"Run away!" screamed Zelda and jumped clear of the hurtbots that surrounded them. The others soon followed her lead, and ran for their lives … er … made a tactical retreat.
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In Jade, Ranma was waking up as the sun hit his face, shining through the high window.
The first thing he noticed was that it was warm, yet he could not feel any blankets covering him. The second thing he noticed was that he was buried under comfortable weight … five different weights distributed over his arms, his sides and his stomach. The third thing he noticed was that there were four distinct heartbeats in addition to his own in the room, all within close proximity. And finally, he felt the breathing of four women, given the way they were shaped, scented and most pressing themselves against him.
Opening his eyes, Ranma saw five women on the bed with him.
The red hair on his front had to be Beebee, as it was the only woman he could not hear a heartbeat or breath from.
The small female shape on his right side, covered in fur, could only be Sheila, as he knew of no other small werecreature females that had displayed any open affection towards him.
The bucktoothed woman on his left could only be Lydia, because he knew no other women with bucked teeth, and she was in human form due to the secrecy surrounding the existence of wererats.
And on each arm, which was being held firmly in place at the hip, were the Diggers women left unspoken-for, Brianna and Gina.
How these five women came to this arrangement, Ranma didn't really want to know … all he could tell was that there were small, nearly unnoticeable marks of a scuffle on each of them, but they seemed to have worked things out.
Not wanting to risk female ire by staying put, but not wanting to wake them, Ranma concentrated, and managed to replace himself with a shadow clone, leaving him free to get dressed, and grab a bath.
Having passed a calm river on the way into town, Ranma knew where to grab that bath, so he pulled a big towel out of stuff space, and carefully slipped out of the room … carefully, because Lydia was a trained ninja, Sheila had super-sensitive hearing, and Beebee probably had sensors tuned in for threatening noise in the event of a sneak-attack.
Very few were out at this hour, with the sun just barely over the hill opposite the Arena, but those who were stared after Ranma as he passed them by, towel slung over his shoulder, and whistling a merry tune.
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Hidden on the rooftops with the help of an invisibility ring, Hanza was watching and following the battling werecat mage.
It was a mission assigned to her by G'Nolga, to find out as much about him as possible. He had tickled the dwarf's fancy, something very few had managed to do, so Hanza had to find out something, not only for her employer but for herself. She still wanted to find out how he had managed to see that she used to be a man before drinking that thrice damned potion without checking for warnings. To her knowledge, the werecat had not been present when that had happened, so there was no way for him to know about it, and if he had been there, her hood had been covering her face in shadows, making it impossible to recognise her based on appearance.
Hanza has seen how tense G'Nolga had been the previous night, and that tenseness had not been the result of a broken arm … that dwarf was tense in anticipation of another tumble with the werecat, which was the reason she had nearly threatened Hanza on her life to go gather information on him.
Her personal curiosity was currently on the reason why he had a towel over his shoulder … was he trying to make a fashion statement?
She followed him out of town, and his intentions were made clear when he approached a river … he was going to take a bath.
When Ranma started to remove his pants, Hanza's eroding male instincts wanted her to look away … having no interest in seeing what was hidden underneath. Her swelling female instincts, though a recent addition to Hanza's system, was anxious to see what was hidden as the pants were gone and the mage suit started melting away as it normally did when not needed. In the end, the male side gave up, but managed to limit the interest to looking for taunting material for their next confrontation … after all, a small werecat like that could hardly have equipment worth mentioni- wow!
Hanza couldn't help but stare, despite her male instincts yelling at her to look away and stop drooling.
A big part of her, the now dominating female part, was disappointed when the werecat stepped towards the water … it meant she wouldn't be able to see the nether-regions, which her eyes had been glued on since he took off his pants and mage suit, and turned around to neatly fold his pants.
Hanza was very surprised when instead of sinking into the water like normal people, the werecat was walking on top of the slowly running river, only sinking enough in to make the water splash against his feet with the current … ripples that were washed away quickly.
On top of the water, the werecat started dancing … or, it looked like dancing, until she noticed that his slow and graceful movements formed what looked like strikes and blocks with various limbs. His movements were so slow, she thought he had ceased moving for a moment, but he still was on the move, his arm slowly raising before him.
In the middle of a single whip-like strike with his arms, the werecat started to shimmer nearly unnoticeably, a sign that it would shift to another form, something Hanza was thankful for … if the werecat was this short in hybrid form, his human form had to be a lot smaller, which meant she wouldn't be reacting in very uncomfortable ways. She would still deny that the dampness of her outfit was from anything other than sitting astride a dew-covered branch if anyone asked.
Needless to say she nearly fell off that branch when instead of shrinking, the werecat grew into an even finer specimen of manliness, with more defined muscles, and hair, which his hybrid form suggested he had very little of.
The combat dance continued in this form, causing Hanza's heart to skip every now and again. She started wondering why he was affecting her in this manner … no man had affected her like this, and she'd seen a lot of men try to flirt with her after getting changed into a woman with no results for their efforts, and those men had several women trying to lure them upstairs in exchange for a modest sum of gold, something they were most definitely worth from Hanza's experience as a man.
It wasn't fair!
She had thought she was out of the danger-zone by now, having managed to live as a woman for over a month without feeling anything for men! Why was her resolve failing now?
Finally, after what seemed like endless torture for her, the werecat in human form slowed down even further, and stopped. Slowly, he started to sink into the water, and Hanza nearly cried in relief and disappointment … she was relieved because now there wouldn't be anything to distract her, and make her question her sexual orientation further than watching him had thus far … she was disappointed because, despite herself, she had started to get in the mood, and now would not have a visual stimulation as a source of relief.
When the werecat was in to his knees, the slight shimmer returned, alerting her to another shift, but to her surprise, the werecat did not return into hybrid form, but rather grew a nice pair of breasts, and a neatly trimmed vagina. The werecat had the ability to change gender at will!
Forgetting all about both stealth and mission, Hanza ripped off the ring and dropped out of the tree in time to see the werecat sink to her neck in water before swimming around.
"Tell me how!" Hanza screamed unintelligibly and charged in, stopping at the water's edge.
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Ranma had been aware of being followed since she left the Tavern, had known where her pursuer had been watching her from, and deliberately limited herself to Tai Chi while running through her kata. Its slow-moving pace had a habit of luring ignorant opponents into a false sense of security, believing that an art that moved that slow could not possibly be powerful enough to beat them … that was where they were wrong … the slow pace not only built patience in the practitioner, but also engrained the knowledge of how to move through slow repetition, and built strength from controlling the speed thus … in a tight spot, the style of fighting could be just as fast and impressive as any other fighting style, and unlike many other styles, it was mostly graceful. To the untrained eye, it might appear that he was learning, which was the reason for going slow, but the trained eye would notice the grace and certainty with which he moved, and not make such a hasty decision.
She knew who was watching her, because however much it had decreased, Ranma knew of no other person in this realm that was female with a slight residual of male ki in them.
It was not surprising to her in the least when the former man had jumped from a tree and demanded to know how she had changed gender so easily.
"The wind cannot tell why it blows …" recited Ranma sagely.
"WHAT?"
"Nothing," assured Ranma. "I just always wanted to say something like that … makes me sound wiser than I am …"
"Just tell me how to cure me!" demanded the woman, raising her sword in threat.
"No," replied Ranma firmly, and started the task of rubbing her limbs to scrape off sweat and dirt from the previous days, which was difficult without a cloth, but still possible. Now, if only she had some soap …
"What do you mean 'no'?" demanded the woman. "Tell me, or I'll chop you into fish-bait!"
"You are welcome to try," Ranma casually replied, focusing on scrubbing under her arms. "But you won't succeed … and even if you somehow did, whatever secrets I have will go along with me …"
This caused the woman to pause momentarily in her action of bringing the sword down.
"Tell me!" growled the woman.
"Nope," chirped Ranma and quickly ducked under water to wet her hair.
"Fine!" declared the woman. "Then I'll have no choice but to hound your every step until you accidentally let it slip!"
"It won't work …" cautioned Ranma, and decided that she had cleaned off as much as she could without a washcloth or soap. "And I doubt the others will be very pleased … but, it's your life, do as you please … er- what's your name? Starts with an 'H' …"
"Hanza," stated the woman coldly.
"Okay, Hanza, if you want to follow me around, I'd advise you one thing …"
"What?"
"Take care of business on the toilet like regular people, or at least find a bush, and don't wet yourself …"
With that, Ranma rose from the water and walked to shore, where she picked up her towel and started to dry off, making sure to be extra rough to scrape off anything she might have missed while bathing.
Hanza, looked down to realise that her outfit did indeed look like she had had an accident, and with an embarrassed squeak, she jumped into the river to clean it out … or at least camouflage it by making the darker colour consistent.
After Ranma had towelled off, she willed her mage suit back on, and changed back to male form, before putting on the neatly folded pants.
Another shift returned him to hybrid form.
"See ya!" he called out to Hanza and started to walk back to the village.
"Hey, wait for me, you bastard!" screamed Hanza once she realised what was going on.
Ranma halted immediately, and slowly turned his head to look at her over his shoulder.
"My lineage is not in question, and you have no reason to belittle my mother by implying that she couldn't control her urges," he warned Hanza in a growl. "That I am the son of a bastard is debatable, but it is not a subject I want to bring up at the moment … do I make myself clear?"
The hostile waves of power washed over Hanza and Ranma saw her visibly shake with dread.
"Y-yes …"
"Good!"
On that note, Ranma started walking back to town, towel over his shoulder. It took a moment for Hanza to recover, but when she did, she squeaked and started running after him.
Ranma was not surprised … she was as obsessed with finding a cure to her problem as he had been when he first received his curse, just like every other cursed person he knew, bar Taro who actually liked his cursed form better than his human form.
Now, how was he going to introduce this new woman to the others without them thinking he had picked up another suitor and was stringing them all along?
"Ranma, who is that?"
Ranma looked to see that he had already gotten into town, and standing before him was the five women he had shared a bed with during the night, and they had their balled-up fists on their hips or crossed under their chest, tapping at least one foot in anticipation for an answer.
Well, that took care of any pondering for scenarios, thought Ranma. At least Hanza isn't sexually interested in me …
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Author's Notes; I know this might seem like I'm trying to include Hanza in the harem, but I'm not … I am going to make Hanza more insecure about her sexual preferences, but she will not be included in Ranma's harem. As always, I am going to ask you to please write me if you spot any plot-holes, typos, grammatical errors, or words that do not fit into the context they were put in … I do not intend to reread the story an infinite number of times, so if there is anything you've noticed, please inform me of it so I can catch it while I'm going through the story with a medium-tooth comb (I will not claim to be going over it with a fine-tooth comb, because I think I have proven that things can slip past my notice). And to prove my point, I will let you all in on a little secret … I read over each chapter after writing it, before posting it, and this time I managed to add three hundred words to the content of the chapter by the time I read it through, not including this section …
Small writing tip; "Sight" and "Site". Someone's "Sight" is their ability to see … a "Sight" is something that you see, or see through in the case of projectile weapons. A "Site" is a piece of ground that is used for a particular purpose or where a particular thing happens … it can also be the same as a website.
Second writing tip; "Noisy" and "Nosy". A "Noisy" person or thing makes a lot of loud or unpleasant noise. If you describe someone as "Nosy" or "Nosey", you mean that they are interested in things which do not concern them.
Credits; The idea for Hanza discovering that Ranma can change genders came from TerraBull.
