Okay, thanks to all of those who read and reviewed my first chapter. I hope you like it so far. Here's chapter 2.

Chapter 2

Max ran through the Chinese jungle as fast as his newly acquired panda legs could carry him. He heard Ranma-chan running close behind him, screaming threats and insults all the way.

Dumb kid! He cursed me first! Wait a second…do I even know where this chase ends? Wait, how do I even know of this chase?

Ranma-chan fumed as she chased her father. That stupid old man had dragged him to this training ground without even warning him about that stupid secret! And now, he was a girl! The humiliation was just too much… he would get that old man back! Now, if only he could catch the old geezer…
Max kept thinking back to the manga. Where had he seen this chase before? It wasn't in the first part of the series, when Ranma and Genma arrived at the dojo…where had he seen it?

When was the next time they had a flashback about Jusenkyo? Wait, it was when Ryoga was telling Ranma about how he got turned into…oh, shit!

As fast as the realization hit him, he reached into nowhere in particular, and pulled out a trademark Wile E. Coyote sign- How the hell did I do that? – complete with a warning written on it.

Should be any moment now…

Then, he saw it: the cliff at the end of the forest, where another young teen was standing, looking out into the distance. The same bandanna-wearing teen with no sense of direction. The boy turned to see Max just in time, and Max raised the sign.

Ryoga was mad. Just plain MAD. He had been wandering through the wilderness of China for over a month now, and he still hadn't been able to find Ranma! That cheater had run out on their fight, and run off to China! Ryoga would get him back, that's for sure…now if he could only find the jerk…

All of a sudden, Ryoga heard something rumbling and crashing through the woods behind him. He turned to face the danger. It was a panda, and it was holding a sign:

(Look out for the one behind me!)

"What the…Hey!"

He leapt into the air to avoid the rampaging animal, then remembered the sign it was holding. He looked into the woods again.

"Get back here, Oyaji!"

He noticed the girl running out of the woods as well. He turned in mid-air to avoid the girl, and landed back on the ground, watching the two run off into the mountain range.

"Really…they nearly knocked me off the cliff! Well, at least that panda tried to warn me. Now…where could Ranma be? I have to find him!"

He strode off in the direction his senses told him to go…and fell off the cliff, towards the springs.

Max watched in bewilderment as Ryoga fell into the springs of his own accord. He really couldn't believe it. Oh, well…at least it wasn't my fault. He continued running through the mountains, trying to get away from the punk who was threatening to kill him.

The chase finally ended half an hour later, when Max darted into a nearby cave, and managed to lose the kid. After he made sure the punk was gone, he left the cave, and headed back in the direction he had come from, trying to find his way back to the springs. All the while, his mind was racing.

How the hell did this happen? Did it have something to do with how my computer was acting? I guess that was it, but it still doesn't explain why I'm…well, that manga book was nearby, but how does that even happen? He sighed in defeat of his thoughts. Fuck it, there's no real explanation for this. Guess I'll have to deal with what I've got.

He looked down at himself again, and sighed angrily. I guess that means I'll have to find some hot water….

And find it he did. He eventually made his way back to the springs, where the Guide was waiting for him.

"Oh, hello sir. Where your daughter- er, son?"

Max held up another sign, which said (Lost).

"Oh. Okay then, you must come in and bathe up, sir. It change you back to human form…er, temporarily, that is."

Max was about to follow, when another thought came to his head. He tapped the Guide on the shoulder, and held up another sign.

(What about the Spring-of-Drowned-Man?)

The Guide put his hand behind his head, and started to sweat. "Well, there problem with that right now, sir. Nannichaun is currently…how say this…dried up?"

Max's eyes went wide for a moment. Then, he just resigned to his so-called fate. So, that's why they didn't cure themselves immediately afterwards. And I thought they were just stupid…

After finally settling himself in the bath, Max felt the change occur. It was weird, but not as much as he had expected it to be. More like a small "poof!" with a small feeling of bodily change. Nothing huge.

When he looked at himself now, he didn't seem much better. Damn. You'd think a martial artist would keep in better shape…or does he just have bad metabolism? I don't know, he eats a lot…but so does his son. Well, Ranma's usually out doing random shit…oh, who cares? I'll get this body into shape myself.

As he sunk down deeper into the bath, his mind drifted to yet another place on his body. Of course. He's bald, too. He took off the bandana, and rubbed his head. How old is this guy? 42? 45? Definitely no older than 45. How the hell did he lose all his hair so fast?

He eventually got over such thoughts, and resumed relaxing. That's when he heard aggressive footsteps approaching. Soon enough, a dirt-stained gi-clad aqua-transsexual teen burst through the door to the bathing room.

"All right, oyaji! You're in deep-"

The girl stopped when she saw her father clearly.

"Hey! How did you change back?"

Max scoffed. "What, the guide didn't tell you?"

Ranma-chan looked away, and dug her foot into the ground. "Well, I think he was trying to tell me something…but I was in such a hurry to get in here that I didn't listen."

Max rolled his eyes. Moron, he thought.

"Well, anyway, how did you change back?"

"It's easy, son. Just get in."

"What, the bath?"

"The guide told me all about it. Hot water reverses the curse." In truth, the guide had not told him the whole story. But he knew already, and didn't think feigning ignorance would help.

"Sweet!" she yelled. And with that, she tore off her gi. She was about to jump in, when she stopped, and looked down at herself. Her eyes stayed on her new body for a few seconds.

Max got a bit annoyed. "Hey, what are you doing? Is having a girl's body that disturbing?" He realized how stupid his question must've sounded a second later.

"Yeah, it does! Man, I can't even describe it!" She then stepped into the bath, reverting back to his normal form.

"Ahh, that's better! I'm just glad this isn't permanent! I guess all is forgiven, pops."

Max started to sweat. "Uhh, about that."

"What?"

"Well…it kind of is permanent. In a way."

Ranma got a look in his eyes that was both angry and disturbed. "What do you mean?"

"As I was saying earlier, the guide filled me in. Cold water triggers the curses that we got. In other words, if either you or I get wet, we'll become a girl or a panda. Hot water will revert us back to our normal forms."

Ranma stood in his place, open-mouthed. "Are you serious?"

"Sorry, but that's how it is. And we can't get cured at the moment, unfortunately."

"Wait a minute, there's a cure for this curse? Where?"

Max sighed. "Use your head, boy! If there's a spring that will change someone into a girl, there's obviously one that will change someone into a man! There happens to be a spring like that outside. But, unfortunately, it's dried up at the time being."

Ranma, who had perked up at the sound of a Drowned-Man spring, drooped his head in disappointment. "When does it come back?"

"The guide said it wouldn't be back for at least six months."

"Six months?"

"Yes. And we haven't got six months to spend around here."

"Wait a minute! Are you saying we have to go back? I'm not going back home until I've gotten my curse cured!"

"Look, we don't have the time!" Max was trying to think of a way he could prolong the curses. He had plans to keep the manga storyline going as long as he could. After all, it just wouldn't be fun if they cured their curses right away! "I've got a promise to keep! We have to go back and meet up with a friend of mine! He's expecting us, and, if we don't show up, he'll think I lied to him!" He moved in closer to the teen in front of him. "Listen: we can go back to keep this appointment. We'll eventually find time to come back here and get rid of these damn curses. But, until then, we have to live with them! Understand?"

Ranma looked like he was going to clobber his father. Max noticed this, and repeated himself, using the same kind of ferocity that made the likes of Robert De Niro and Dennis Hopper famous. "I said, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!"

Ranma backed away in shock. His father had never been forceful like that, at least not recently. He could usually pound his father into doing anything he wanted. But right now, the old man looked pissed. And he wasn't about the change his mind, even if his own son was going to fight him. He sighed in defeat.

"Fine," he said, "we'll go."

Max breathed a sigh of relief, happy he didn't have to continue. "I don't like it any better than you do, boy. But I can't go back on this promise. And besides, how bad can it be? At least you remain a human when you get splashed. You have no idea how weird it feels to be in the body of an animal like this."

Ranma scoffed at his father. "Oh, you think I can live with this? Why the hell did you drag me to a place like this anyway?"

"Hey, I didn't hear you complaining before we got here! You liked the idea of going to the most dangerous place around! And besides, just because I can't read Chinese, that doesn't mean you would've taken us anywhere better. You can't read a word of it, either!"

"Yeah, whatever." Ranma leaned back in the tub, resting his head in his hands. After a few seconds, he sat up.

"Hey, why do we have to go visit this friend of yours?"

Max was about to explain, when he stopped himself. Now wasn't the time.

"I'll tell you later. For now, let's just focus on getting back to the coast. We need to find out how we can hitch a ride back home."

"We're not gonna swim back?"

"Not like this, we're not. Are you complaining?"

Ranma opened his mouth in surprise, taken aback. "No, of course not! Geez, I'm just a bit surprised."

Max sighed. He was a bit irritated with the kid in front of him, but knew he had more things to worry about. A lot lay ahead, even before they were to go back to Japan. He started memorizing everything he had read so far in the manga, and tried to figure out what they had to do. Firstly, there were the Amazons…he guessed he could just let that happen. It would make things more fun to see that Shampoo chick chasing Ranma. Plus, it would bring that Chinese restaurant by. That was never a bad thing. Then, there were a few other things he wanted to do. He wasn't going to go into Nerima poorly prepared. When he got there, nothing would get in his way.

Well, there's chapter 2. Hope you're still enjoying it. Read all you want, and review all you can. It will only make things better.

Also, I got some interesting feedback on my opinions on the characters, notably on Genma. Well, weebee (and others), let me put it this way: all those writers who write those serious stories just to bash characters (I'm not talking about you) take Ranma ½ way too seriously. People like the infamous Philip Mak, for instance, who seems to have devoted his life to proving that Ranma would never have a happy life with Akane, even though Takahashi has said that it would end that way. Several writers write as though Genma or Akane were real people. Those are the stories I can't stand. It's not fun at all when you're reading something so ridiculously serious when the comic it's based on is nothing but a screwball farce.

Besides, how angry can you get at a person who's not real? For me, trying to dislike Genma is like trying to dislike Homer Simpson (they aren't too different from each other): I'm laughing too much to care. Plus, we all know there's a much more dislikable adult in Ranma ½ than Genma (Principal Kuno, anyone?) Anyway, I could go on forever about things like this; but I won't, because I don't want to waste the time of you readers. I'm just glad that you're all reading my story. Thanks a lot for the feedback, and Happy trails.