Multiplicity

A Ranma fanfic by Mike Breslau

Disclaimer: You know the drill: better folks than I own the characters that appear in this scribbling.


Kasumi awoke at 5:30 as usual so she could begin making breakfast. She heard a tapping on her window pane. A quick glance showed Ranma hovering outside her window and signalling that he wanted to be invited in. Kasumi made a welcoming gesture and Ranma phazed through the glass and alit on her floor.

"There's a man in my bedroom! How improper," declared the eldest Tendo daughter in a mock-scandalized voice.

Ranma quietly morphed to his female form. "There, now it's not improper."

Kasumi smiled impishly at her visitor. "Yesterday I invited you to spend the night with me, and you declined as a proper gentleman should. I'm glad you refused, but I have mixed feelings about it."

Ranko looked blank, waiting for her to continue.

Kasumi looked wistful. "If you had accepted, I would have enjoyed it very much - I'm sure you'd be a great lover - but I would have fallen completely in love with you. Since you declined, I'm a now grown woman with fond memories of a fabulous first date, and I'll always be grateful for that." Kasumi paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. "I believe you'll make a fine husband for some other woman some day, but I don't think I'm the best candidate to be your wife. Our temperaments are too different. You're practically a god and I'm not nearly up to your level. You lead such an interesting life; I don't think I could stand it for long." Kasumi smiled sweetly, yet with longing, at Ranko.

Ranko was relieved and flustered. "I had prepared such a pretty speech,and you took the words right out of my mouth. I wasn't trying to make you fall in love with me last night; I just wanted to have a good time and for us to get to know each other better. I guess I like to show off - I hadn't thought about the effect it might have on you." Ranko looked hopeful. "Can we still be friends, Kas-chan?"

"I'm sure we can be best friends, Ranma" Kasumi answered.

Ranko answered, "I'd like that." She thought to herself, "what a good match Kasumi and Tofu would make. They think so much alike."


That same morning Ukyo came downstairs to find Ranma waiting patiently for her in her restaurant. "Ranchan! What a nice surprise," she exclaimed happily, and threw her arms around Ranma in a big hug.

Ranma tensed a bit and backed off slightly, then he returned the hug.

Ukyo murmured, "You know, if I wasn't on the rag I would have jumped your bones last night."

"Ucchan, we have to talk," said Ranma seriously.

"Uh oh," thought Ukyo, "that sounds like a major letdown is coming up."She released Ranma and backed away. "What's the matter, Sugar?"

"Ucchan, I've always considered you my best friend," began Ranma.

"Oh dear - that's the start of the classic 'breaking up' speech," Ukyo thought. Her eyes began to tear up. "What's the matter, Ranchan? After last night I thought we were an item."

Ranma took a deep breath and pleaded, "Hear me out, please. I aint good with words, and I aint good with feelings, so this may take a while. Ucchan, you haven't lost me - you're one of my favorite people - it's just too soon for me to make a commitment. Y'see, I hafta find myself before I can find a mate."

"Find yourself? You seemed to be doing just fine last night."

"Ucchan, I'm nearly nineteen. Thanks to the crazy way I was raised, I'm the best martial artist in the world. It's all I wanted to be; rather, it's all I was forced to want to be. But I feel sorta empty inside. I never had a normal childhood - few friends, little schoolin', no sense of belonging, no home, no family except Pop. I need to catch up on all that stuff that everybody else takes for granted. Then I need to figure out who I am and find my place in the world. Only then is it possible for me to choose a mate. I'm not rejecting you, I'm just delaying hooking up."

"That's a lot of catching up to do. How long do you think it will take?"

Ranma scratched behind his pigtail. "My goal is to finish on or before my twentieth birthday. That's a little over a year away."

"Do you think you can do all that in only a year?"

Ranma smiled bashfully. "Well, I'm a fast learner, and besides I can learn four times quicker than anyone else."

"Four times?" Ukyo remembered something important. "Oh, that's right. You have four bodies..." She shook her head. "Ranchan, you sure take a lot of getting used to."

"Yeah. Sometimes I have trouble getting used to myself..." They both chuckled.

"Ranchan, where do I stand with you? Do I have a chance?"

Ranma understood what she was asking. "You have at least as good a chance of landing me as anyone else, and better than most. You and I have three things in common: martial arts, food - you love to cook it and I love to eat it - and gender confusion. Even if I marry someone else, I can still marry you. I can have four wives in monogamous marriages at the same time! But remember what we discussed last night - your dreams and my dreams. Do you think you could be happy leading the kind of exciting life I've led?Do you think I could be happy for long as a waitress or a cook?"

Ukyo realized what he was driving at. Their dreams were really incompatible. She turned up her cute. "What if I got kidnapped every week by some weird martial artist or a prince from some obscure magical kingdom? Would that satisfy you?"

Ranma laughed, then continued, "About last night. I'd heard that on a first date dinner out and a movie was customary. I couldn't afford that 'cause I have no money, so I improvised. I guess I like to show off, I wanted you to see what I can do now, and I'm afraid I overdid it. I'm going to make our next date more normal, more subdued, if that's all right with you."

Ukyo brightened. "If we have more dates, you can make them as normal as you want to, Ranchan. Why do you have no money?"

"Pop never had any - he was allergic to working - so he developed terrific scrounging and survival skills. I learned those on our training trip. Recently, I can make whatever I need out of my ki, so I don't need I'm gonna figure out how to get some, even if it means having a job. I wanna buy those movie tickets honestly."

"Gambatte (good luck/try your best), Ranchan."


When Nabiki came downstairs that same morning she did a double-take. There was Ranma sitting at the table and earnestly studying the help wanted section of the newspaper.

"Well, that's something I thought I'd never see - a Saotome looking for a job!" Nabiki wanted to figure out what was going on - her curiosity was insatiable - but she had to leave for school.

Ranma carefully evaluated every opportunity offered in the paper, but none of them seemed quite right. He was either overqualified or unqualified for every existing job. He threw down the paper in disgust. "It looks like I'll have to make my own job." He began to scan the entire newspaper again with an open mind.


Jiro Hayashi sat behind his oaken desk, going through the paperwork piled high on its top. The smell of diesel fuel and the noise of heavy machinery came through the grimy window of his office. Suddenly, there was a collective exclamation of surprise from outside his small office building.

His assistant Daisuke burst into Hayashi's office, evidently excited. " , there's a young man here who wants to speak with you. I really think you ought to see him."

Hayashi looked up in annoyance. "What's so special about this guy that you have to interrupt me?"

"He just picked up a bulldozer with one hand! I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself," replied the assistant excitedly.

Hayashi raised an eyebrow. "Very well, show him in."

A young man wearing a red shirt and black pants came into the noticed his startling blue eyes, so unusual in a Japanese, and his confident manner. "Good morning, Hayashi-san. I'm Ranma Saotome," said the young man.

"Did you really just pick up a bulldozer?" Hayashi asked.

"Your men were being obstinate, I had to persuade them," explained Ranma.

"I'm a busy man, Saotome, what do you want?"

Ranma answered calmly, "I'm thinking of going into the building removal business. I may be able to save you time and money."

That got Hayashi's interest. "Go on, please."

"Do you have a building where you'd rather have a hole in the ground? Or a big rock that you wished wasn't there? I think I can help you."

Hayashi was skeptical. "I have my own demolition crew. It's true that they've fallen behind a little - too much work to do and not enough you have an explosives permit, a safety consultant, insurance, a fleet of trucks for hauling away the debris? It's not an easy field to break into."

Ranma shrugged, unimpressed. "No explosives, no noise, no debris, no odor, no safety hazard. All I do is make stuff disappear, quietly, quickly, and efficiently. Are you interested?"

"I don't believe in magic," said Hayashi dismissively.

"I didn't either, until I had it forced on me. Look, I'm a martial artist...from Nerima. Ever hear of the Nerima Wrecking Crew?"

Hayashi chuckled. "Yes, I certainly have. My company has done quite a bit of repair and renovation work there thanks to the NWC."

Ranma smiled. "I've had a lot of practice breaking things, but recently I've improved my techniques quite a bit. Now I'm trying to find a constructive use for my talents. I was wondering if you'd like a demonstration?"

Hayashi leaned back and considered. If this guy could deliver what he had offered, it could save his construction firm time and money. "Okay, you're on. I've an abandoned apartment building on the other side of town. Let me drive you over there. We can exchange ideas, and you can give me an estimate after you've inspected the building."

"Sounds good." Ranma was pleased - this looked as though it might be easy.

They got into Hayashi's pickup truck and discussed details on the way over.

Ranma asked, "Do you want me to remove just the building or the building and its foundation? Do you want me to leave a hole in the ground, and if so, how big?"

Hayashi was impressed with Ranma's confidence. The young man was obviously inexperienced with construction and demolition, but he asked good questions. "Remove the foundation and leave a hole slightly larger than the existing foundation. You can let the walls slope outwards a little from bottom to top to reduce the chances of a cave-in. If you can do that I could start new construction much sooner than originally planned."

After driving for 40 minutes Hayashi stopped in front of a four-story building with boarded-up windows. They got out of the truck and Ranma walked around the building, inspecting quickly but carefully.

"There are salvageable materials in there - copper wiring and pipes, structural iron and stuff. Do your people recycle that sort of thing?"asked Ranma.

"I think they recycle the copper and iron; I'm not sure of the details..."

Ranma made up his mind. "How much would it cost your company to demolish the building and clear away the debris "

Mr. Hayashi gave him an estimate.

Ranma whistled. "I'll do it for half that much, and if I'm not done in an hour, then you don't have to pay me anything."

Hayashi was stunned. "You're going to do it here and now? And finish in less than an hour?"

"Well yes, if you're prepared to pay my fee when I finish."

Hayashi got on his cell phone and called his assistant. "Daisuke, bring me my checkbook. This looks like it's going to be interesting."

Ranma said, "You're welcome to watch from the outside, but don't come in until I'm done. Start your stopwatch, I'm beginning now." He walked up to the building and phazed through the wall.

Mr. Hayashi gaped. This 'demonstration' was already interesting. He waited. There were no sounds, and there was no sign of anything happening. Hayashi walked around the building but could not tell what was happening inside. After ten minutes the door of the building opened, and a pile of shiny copper tubing floated out and settled to the ground on one side. The tubes had been straightened and cut into three-meter lengths. Five minutes later a pile of copper wires floated out and stacked themselves alongside the tubing. The wires were stripped of insulation, straightened, and cut into three-meter lengths for easy handling.

Hayashi caught a glimpse of the interior of the building when the door opened to let the wires out. All the interior walls and floors had been removed, leaving only the structural iron framework. It looked like Ranma would beat his self-imposed deadline.

The door opened again, and a large pile of I-beams settled down next to the pipes and wires. This time sunlight could be seen inside the now-hollow building - the roof had been removed.

Hayashi's assistant drove up and noticed the piles of metal. "What the heck?"

As Mr. Hayashi tried to explain, an eight-foot square section of the upper exterior wall quietly vanished. Two seconds later another section of wall disappeared, and then another. Soon only an empty basement remained of the structure. There was no sign of Ranma. A minute later the foundation dematerialized leaving only a hole in the ground.

Ranma appeared and asked, "So, how long did I take?"

Hayashi recovered his composure and checked his watch. "Forty-eight minutes. Daisuke, my checkbook, please."

Daisuke was still in a state of shock. "He took down the whole building in 48 minutes? That's incredible!"

Hayashi wrote out a check for the agreed-upon amount. "Mr. Saotome, you have certainly earned this. But, I need some paperwork for the bean-counters. I can't just write a check like this on my own say-so. Can you give me some form of contract, and some sort of bill so I can document the legitimate business purpose of this expense?"

Ranma was still learning the ropes. "That sounds reasonable. Can you give me until tomorrow for that? I'm not up on those legalities, and I want to research recycling these metals..."

"No problem," replied Hayashi. "Can you give me a phone number or some way of contacting you in case I need your services again?"

Ranma gave him the Tendo's number. "If I'm not there, ask for Nabiki. She'll know how to reach me."


Kodachi appeared during lunchtime at Furinkan. For a change, she was not wearing her customary black leotard, but was dressed in the proper girl's uniform for St. Hebreke School for Girls.

Kodachi approached Akane and announced clearly, "I wish to apologize for my unseemly behavior in the past. I don't know what came over me, but I hope it will not happen again." There was no sign of madness or affectation in her voice.

Akane and the other girls were speechless. After a moment Akane replied,"I guess we can forgive you..."

Kodachi bowed. "Thank you, Akane." She left to hunt up the other girls that she had wronged and repeated the apology before returning to her own school.

"I wonder what brought that on," mused Akane, "Not that I'm complaining or anything."


Nabiki came home and found Ranma sitting at the table with his nose buried in a book. "Did you find anything, Ranma-kun?" she asked.

Ranma put down the book and grinned at her - Nabiki's own shark-like smile. "I did indeed, Nabs. Now it seems I need a sharp financial advisor. See this?" He held out Hayashi's check for her to examine.

Nabiki took one look and had to sit down quickly. "One million yen!" she exclaimed. "You earned one million yen in a morning, starting from scratch! That's incredible..."

"You know how much I know about handling money, Nabiki. I'll pay you half of this if you'll manage it for me and explain what you're doing and why so that I can learn. I need to know about taxes, bank accounts, credit cards, and all that stuff."

"I can see you're a poor businessman. Paying me half so I can manage the other half is excessive."

Ranma took a deep breath. "All right. You can start today and keep going until you feel you've earned your money, and then you can ask me for more. Begin by deducting what you think I owe the Tendos."

Nabiki recovered her composure. "That's more than fair, Ranma. How did you earn this much so quickly?"

"There aren't any jobs out there that I could be happy in, so I had to invent my own. I thought, 'what am I good at?' and I answered, 'breaking things' so I went into the demolition business. I took down a four-story building in an hour. This sum is half what it would have cost to do it conventionally, so Hayashi and I are both getting a good deal."

"You've been broke for as long as I've known you, and now this? No wonder you need a financial advisor! What are you going to do with this money, Ranma-kun?"

Ranma smiled again - this time in a friendly manner. "Well for starters, I'd like to take you out to dinner and a movie tonight."

Nabiki was shocked. "You're asking me out on a date?"

"Why yes. Think you can handle it?"


Ranma had converted a great deal of building mass into compact ki, but it was more ki than he could comfortably handle. He needed to get rid of it fairly soon. Ranma looked up metal refiners and metal recyclers in the phone book and placed several calls. Now he was flying invisibly towards the outfit that dealt in copper with the tubes and wiring he had salvaged from the building following closely behind him.

Ranma landed in front of the small office labeled "Receiving" and looked around. Piles of non-ferrous metals were scattered about the yard. Machinery he didn't recognize was common. Furnaces were evidently in a larger building across the yard. He dropped his cloak and entered the office.

"Hello, young man, What can I do for you?" said the clerk behind the desk.

"I called earlier about several hundred pounds of copper scrap..."

The clerk's eyebrows rose. "I remember. You look a little young to be dealing in so much metal. Do you work for one of my regular suppliers?"

Ranma answered, "I'm an independent operator, I guess. Mr. Hayashi contracted with me to remove an abandoned building, and I'd like to unload this scrap."

"Ah, Hayashi-san," murmured the clerk in recognition, "Where is this scrap now?"

"Just outside." Ranma pointed over his shoulder. The copper wouldn't fit in the small office, and it didn't belong there anyway.

The clerk followed Ranma out of the office and gasped when he saw a substantial amount of tubing and wire hanging unsupported three feet above the ground. "What the heck?" He walked around the copper to inspect it."What's holding it up?"

Ranma put his hand behind his pigtail. "Would you believe an invisible forklift?"

The clerk regained his composure. "If you say so. This is a little long for my bins. Could you cut it in half?"

"No problem." Ranma waved his arm in a vertical chopping motion and the copper scrap parted into two equal halves. "Invisible band saw," explained Ranma. The clerk had to recover his jaw from the ground.

The scrap was weighed and moved into two of the available bins during the next 20 minutes. The clerk prepared to write out a check but was interrupted by a gesture from Ranma.

"If you had your choice, how much more copper could you hold and what form would you like it in?" asked Ranma.

"You have more?" asked the clerk. Ranma nodded. The clerk continued,"Well, if I had my choice it would be most convenient cast into ingots about this big." He waved his hands to indicate the desired dimensions.

Ranma grinned and lead the clerk back to the weigh scale, which was now piled high with two tons of shiny bright copper ingots of the indicated size.

The clerk recovered from his astonishment. "I get it - you're a martial artist from Nerima. Hayashi-san warned me you might be coming over. These bars are not scrap - you made them just for me..." He wouldn't have been more surprised if Santa Claus has paid him a visit out-of-season.

Ranma chuckled. "Invisible foundry. It's been a pleasure doing business with you."

"Yeah, sure," muttered the clerk. "My boss wouldn't believe this if I didn't have all this copper for evidence..."

In a few minutes Ranma was headed for the factory that processed scrap iron. He was able to unload all his excess ki there - they were used to dealing with larger and heavier pieces. His business there was similar to his encounter with the non-ferrous metal recycler.


Ranma was paying another evening visit to Dr. Tofu. He asked, "You're sweet on Kasumi, aintcha, Doc?" Tofu nodded slowly, while fighting to keep his composure. Ranma continued, "An' you never told her?"

"I couldn't," whispered Tofu softly, "I go to pieces when I even think about her. That's why I had to leave Nerima..."

"It's a pity things worked out this way. Kasumi would be better matched with you than with me. Sure, I can show her a 'magical' good time, but our lives are too different. She needs someone more 'normal' than this 'wild horse.'" Ranma paused. "If I can teach you to stay in control, would you woo her?"

"In a heartbeat! But how can you help me, Ranma? Do you have mind-control magic?"

Ranma laughed. "No, and it's a good thing. I get in trouble enough with the ki techniques I've already mastered. I was thinkin' of 'desensitization,' sorta like this." His body began to morph into a form closely resembling Kasumi's - but with auburn hair and a few years older in appearance.

"Ka...Ka...Ka..." muttered Tofu as his eyeglasses began to fog up.

"It's me, Ranma," said the woman with Kasumi's voice, "Ya don't go nuts with Ranma, do ya doc?"

The doctor pulled himself together and took a good look at his was clearly an impostor. That's what Ranma meant by'"desensitization." While trying to remain calm, Tofu carefully answered,"well, I usually don't go nuts with Ranma."

"There's two things I can try, Sensei," said "Kasumi," "If every time I come over I look a little more like the real Kasumi, eventually you'll be able to keep control."

"That might work," said Tofu, who was clearly nervous at the prospect."What's your other plan?"

Ranma grinned. "It's sorta like playing telephone. I can shape one of my bodies to look like you and send that one to visit her while I shape another body into her image and visit you. The 'Kasumi' body would say and do everything the real Kasumi does, and my 'Tofu' body would repeat everything you say or do to her."

Tofu briefly entertained thoughts of John Alden wooing Priscilla, but this sounded more like 3D video teleconferencing. "To keep it honest you would have to tell her that you're Ranma speaking for me...It might work. Why are you doing this? It must be hard on you"

"You showed me that I'd made a serious mistake by going overboard and showing off. Now I've hurt three people who I like, and I have to do whatever I can to fix it."

"You have a good heart, Ranma," concluded Tofu.


Author's Notes

How else could a person with Ranma's skill-set be gainfully employed? Beats me.