New in Town
-Chiba Hiro
(Disclaimer: A Ranma ½ and Urusei Yatsura crossover. I do not own anything of Rumiko Takahashi's and not for promotion or copy right.)
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Chapter 3: Uneasiness
Ryuunosuke stood outside in the cold and the rain, staring at the huge house/dojo in bewilderment. "So, this is where he lives? I'm surprised that it's bigger than I expected." Ryuunosuke commented, and took one last stare at the house, and was prepared to turn around. "Ah choo!" Ryuunosuke sneezed, and turned to go, but could not decide where to go next.
Suddenly, the door slid open, and a redheaded pigtailed girl seized her by the wrist and hurriedly led her inside the house. Ryuunosuke did not argue, but allowed the new girl to pull her inside. *It's as if she knows who I am.* Ryuunosuke thought.
The door shut behind them, and the redheaded girl let go of Ryuunosuke's wrist. Ryuunosuke was puzzled for a moment, and began pondering on all she had done on her first day in Nerima. First, she met a new guy, she became friends with him, she told him everything about herself, and now she was led inside a house of some strange girl whom she had not known the identity yet.
*I could've sworn that this girl...* Ryuunosuke began thinking, and thought back to the park when it started raining. She stood there, and watched the black haired pigtailed boy leave when it started raining. In the distance, she could see, he had shrunk in size and changed hair color. *Wait, I think I remember that his hair had turned fire engine red, and he had changed in stature, so if I put two and two together, maybe this is...no, I gotta keep it simple, it can't be!* Ryuunosuke thought.
"Won't anybody get suspicious? I mean, you brought a strange person like me with you to your house. Isn't that...unnatural?" Ryuunosuke asked uncertainly.
"Do you always think like that? If you keep thinking like that, then in the future no one will be willing to help you with that kind of resentment. I said it was fine. You don't have to go, besides, the rain sounds heavier out there, you might catch a cold or something." Ranma said.
"Is it safe? What about your family? What would they think?" Ryuunosuke asked.
"Who cares what they think, at least I'm being nice and letting you stay since you obviously said that you didn't have a place to go back to, right?" Ranma stated. "They'll understand, after all, lending a hand to someone in need is the honor code of the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts. Now, about that bath..." Ranma reminded her, but let the unfinished sentence spell out its meaning in front of her.
"Oh right." Ryuunosuke said, and placed her bag down and got her things with her. "Um, do you have a spare towel and some shampoo?" Ryuunosuke asked, realizing that she forgot to take the rest of her things with her.
"Sure, but follow me first." Ranma directed her.
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"Now, right way is to turn the water on hot, the other way is to turn it on cold. Got it?" Ranma instructed on how to change the bath's temperature. "I suggest using the dryer if you wanna dry your clothes, alright? If you need anything, I'll be waiting on patrol outside." Ranma said and left her to change and take a bath.
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Ryuunosuke stepped out of the bathtub to go dry up, and change. She exited the bathroom and found the familiar pigtailed boy with a tea kettle on the floor next to him, standing above a clearly steamy, wet, spot. "What happened? Why are you wet?" Ryuunosuke asked him.
"Ah, I'll explain it all later, now I gotta go change." Ranma said, and ran across the hall, leaving a dripping mass of water behind, to a room at the corner. *Hmm, that must be his room.* She thought.
A moment later, the pigtailed boy emerged from the room with a completely different set of clothes on. "Yo, come with me, I gotta introduce you to everybody." Ranma said and led the way downstairs to the living room where everyone in the family was waiting for dinner to be ready, and sat watching TV. "Wait right here until I say it's alright." He whispered to her, and entered the room, but no one noticed him.
"Um..." Ranma started, and immediately caught their attention, especially Akane's annoyed one.
"Ranma! Why are you late in coming home? We were all worried sick about you! Where in the world did you trail off to before school, and afterwards? You've been acting strangely all day today! First, you run off before school starts, then I hear you were late to class, you didn't eat lunch with us, then you tell me to go on home because you'll catch up to me later, and now you've caught up, but you're late by about three hours! What in the world is going on with you today?" Akane demanded, and everyone turned to listen to this heated lecture from Akane.
"I don't need a lecture from you, if anyone was really worried and concerned about me then they would flail their arms up and run around in circles like a bunch of happy school kids, and then they'd rush at me with hugs and all that." Ranma said coldly.
"You're missing the point Ranma. What is the reason you've been acting like this all day?" Akane asked with a heavy tone of concern in her voice.
Ranma looked from her to everyone else in the room. "Uh, well..." Ranma began, but Ryuunosuke broke the tension, and emerged from the shadows and stood beside Ranma.
"It's because of me." She admitted, and everyone stared at her with strange looks.
"Yeah, I'm really sorry that everyone got worried for me, but I wanted to make it a surprise to everyone, and this is really one of the greater days that I had ever since I arrived in Nerima." Ranma admitted.
"It's my fault as well, I went along with this plan of surprising everyone. It turns out that we didn't expect this to come out so angrily." Ryuunosuke contributed, and they hung their heads low.
Now that everyone thought about it, they look alike in every possible way, except one of them did not have
Ranma's pigtail, or fashion style.
"Ranma, who is this?" a middle-aged gentleman with long black hair and mustache spoke up from behind his newspaper.
"Tell us, boy, who is this person?" another middle-aged gentleman spoke up, but he had round glasses and a light blue bandana on his head.
"Um, my name is Ryuunosuke Fujinami." Ryuunosuke introduced herself to the family and bowed to them. "I just met Ranma today personally, but it feels like we've known each other for a lot longer than just one day. I hope it's not too harsh that I come unannounced. I mean, I'll leave if you want." Ryuunosuke humbled herself.
"Oh, don't be modest on our account. It is raining awfully hard out there, and we wouldn't want you to catch a cold because of us. Please stay if you want. We'd be happy to share space with you." A young woman with long brown hair spoke up as she entered the room with a ladle in her hand.
"Well, now that everyone introduces themselves, I guess I'll go next." Akane volunteered. "My name is Akane Tendo. It's a pleasure to meet you." Akane said with a little hint of formality in her voice. "Since no one else wants to volunteer themselves, I'll introduce them for you. This is Nabiki Tendo, my older sister, and that is Kasumi Tendo, she is my elder sister." Akane introduced them one by one.
"This is my dad, Soun Tendo." Akane introduced him to which he responded with a 'hi.' "That man over there is Ranma's dad, he's..." Akane began but the man finished for her.
"Allow me to introduce myself! I am Genma Saotome, father of Ranma, and instructor of the Saotome branch of the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts. I am pleased to make your acquaintance." Genma elaborated on his introduction, and sent a formal bow to Ryuunosuke while everyone sweat dropped.
"A little much on the intro, dad?" Ranma asked embarrassed.
"I thought it would make a change, after all this young lad is your friend, right? So it is only natural that I introduce myself this way." Genma said with a hint of arrogance in his voice.
"You arrogant bastard." Ranma cursed under his breath, and curled his hand into a fist, but before he could do anything, Ryuunosuke launched straightforward punch to the face at Genma, and broke his glasses at the same time.
"I hate this more than anything." Ryuunosuke said through clenched teeth. "This was a problem with people everywhere I go...but, I'm getting sick and tired of people labeling me with male titles!" Ryuunosuke shouted out in fury.
"What did I say wrong? Was it the intro that infuriated you, or..." Genma asked in cowardice.
"No, it's not the intro, it's what you said afterwards!" Ryuunosuke snapped.
Before she could do anything, Ranma grabbed her arm, and stopped her from going all out. "I think what she's trying to say is that she hates it when people call her a male. It's simple as that. Am I right?" Ranma said with an all knowing air of wisdom.
"Yeah." Ryuunosuke said in a defeated tone. *I shamed myself in front of Ranma's family, and after seeing that, maybe they won't accept me because of my violence problem.* Ryuunosuke thought sadly.
"Wait, did you say that Ryuunosuke is a 'she'?" Akane asked in confusion. "Because clearly Ryuunosuke looks sort of...different for a girl." Akane chose her words carefully.
"If you want proof, I'll show you." Ryuunosuke said, and went up to Akane. She took Akane's hand, and let her touch Ryuunosuke's chest.
There was a moment of silence, and afterwards, there was awkwardness. *Woah, so she's really telling the truth after all!* Akane thought.
"Um, are you done yet? 'Cause I think that should be enough for one night." Ryuunosuke said, and Akane quickly released her hand from Ryuunosuke's chest.
"Oh, sorry, my mind was somewhere else for a moment there. Ha, ha, ha, I think dinner should be ready, huh, Kasumi?" Akane quickly changed the atmosphere to which Kasumi answered cheerfully to it.
"Oh yes. I forgot to tell you that dinner was almost ready. I'll be right back." Kasumi said.
"Oh, uh, Kasumi, was it? Can I, uh, help you with that?" Ryuunosuke volunteered, but Kasumi shook her head.
"You needn't do that, after all, you're our honored guest today." Kasumi answered cheerfully.
"Oh, but, I insist on it." Ryuunosuke pressed on, and Kasumi nodded.
"Alright, you win. Follow me." Kasumi said, and Ryuunosuke followed her to the kitchen.
Ranma sat still for a moment, then looked up from his feet. "Oh, uh, Kasumi, can I help with it too?" Ranma exclaimed, and followed in after them.
Inside the kitchen, Kasumi emptied the steaming pot of its food contents onto a bowl while Ranma and Ryuunosuke got all the place settings ready.
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"Thanks for the food!" they shouted out in unison and began taking portions onto their plate. Ryuunosuke just stood by and waited for her turn to eat as well. Ranma quickly noticed this and looked down at his half-filled plate, and sighed. *Oh well.*
Ranma dumped the food off his bowl onto hers, to which she was confused as to why he did that. "Um, I can get the food myself, thank you." Ryuunosuke humbled herself, but Ranma shook his head.
"There's no need t' thank me. After all, if you went last, you wouldn't get most of the good stuff, am I right?" Ranma sounded sure, and began refilling his bowl.
Ryuunosuke began blushing, and stared at her bowl. It consisted of rice, pieces of meat and fish, plus a savory broth to go with it. She took up her chopsticks and ate like everyone else. "Wow, it really is good." Ryuunosuke sounded surprised.
"Of course, why wouldn't it be?" Ranma asked.
"Back when I still had my dad with me, he never cooked this good, and certainly never had enough to go around. When it came down to the last piece of fish or meat, we'd often fight over it, but he'd surely win through trickery. I could never get over his tricks. They say he has at least over ten thousand tricks up his sleeve, and I still believe it. It's hard to believe that this one family has enough for everyone though." Ryuunosuke said.
"Believe me, Kasumi always does this to make sure everyone has their filling of food, and there can never be too much because me and Pops here always finish it." Ranma said, and gestured to his father to which he was stuffing his face with the food.
"Wow, you and I are a lot alike you know that. I could tell that when we first met each other, I thought you came up as a self-righteous freak. Now I know that we have a lot more in common than our looks." Ryuunosuke said, and came up a little closer so no one except Ranma could hear clearly enough. "Between you and me, I think our dads are a lot alike too, I mean look at him. He's practically my dad's twin in every way."
"I suppose that means that you and I could be twins as well." Ranma said.
"Yeah, it's so weird. How tall are you? I'm just curious." Ryuunosuke asked.
"Um, five-foot-six. Why?" Ranma answered her.
"Oh really, so am I." Ryuunosuke said.
"Wait a minute, you're not the same height as me, are you?" Ranma asked.
"Let's see it then." Ryuunosuke challenged him, and they both stood up straight.
Ranma pressed a hand to the top of his head, and measured the difference in their height. "Wow, we really are the same height!" Ranma exclaimed, and everyone looked up from their bowls and saw that the two of them were measuring themselves.
"Are you two quite finished?" Akane asked, and they both nodded at the same time and sat down to eat some more.
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"Man I'm stuffed!" Ranma exclaimed as he and Ryuunosuke walked upstairs together.
"Same here, man! I haven't eaten like that in a long time!" Ryuunosuke rejoiced, and they held their stomachs. Ranma let out an enormous belch, but he did not rush to cover it up. Ryuunosuke also belched, but slightly louder and more extended.
"Wow that sounded awesome, Ryuunosuke!" Ranma praised, but Ryuunosuke shrugged her shoulders.
"It comes with constant practice." Ryuunosuke boasted, and they both started laughing together. "Anyway, where do you plan to sleep tonight?" Ryuunosuke asked.
"Well, let me check." Ranma said, and he led the way to the room he and his dad shared. "This is the room me and my Pop are staying at. It looks like it could use more people, this room used to be a guest room." Ranma said as they viewed the empty room.
"Wow, there's nothing in here. It's all empty." Ryuunosuke commented.
"I haven't even brought out the futons yet." Ranma said and set to unwrapping the futons from the closet and setting them out on the floor. Here we go, and that's how it's done." Ranma said as he laid the blankets over the futons.
"Now, let's see...where do you wanna sleep?" Ranma asked.
"I dunno. Whatever's available, I guess." Ryuunosuke said, unsure.
"You haven't got a problem with sleeping in here, right? After all, nothing's gonna happen overnight." Ranma said.
"Well, now that you know I'm a girl, don't you find it a bit weird that I'm gonna have to share a room here?" Ryuunosuke said.
"Oh, well, will it help if we're both on the same playing field, huh?" Ranma asked.
"Whadda ya mean?" Ryuunosuke asked.
"I mean, would it help if you slept with a girl better?" Ranma elaborated.
"But who'll I have to share with?" Ryuunosuke asked.
"I was kinda hoping that you wouldn't ask for something like that, but if it makes you feel any better, I'll adjust to you." Ranma said.
"By the way, what happened to that redheaded pigtailed girl? I thought she was here?" Ryuunosuke asked, and wondered about seeing Ranma's girl half.
"Oh, about that...please don't tell anyone else about this, but I know about her." Ranma said, and took out a plastic water bottle, then poured the cold liquid on himself.
Ryuunosuke stared in shock, then as the transformation occurred, Ranma shrunk in size, maybe four or five inches, and his hair changed from black to red. His chest expanded and it appeared to have grown breasts. Ranma's arms thinned out and his figure changed from his masculine self to a feminine curved form.
Ryuunosuke blinked rapidly for a few seconds, and blushed at the sight of Ranma's new transformation. "Uh, what is this? Who are you?" Ryuunosuke asked.
"I'm Ranma, the same Ranma that you know." The redhead answered.
"How did you do that?" Ryuunosuke asked.
"It's a long story." She said. "I'm sure you don't wanna hear about it this late in the night."
"The way I see it, I think we have time to hear about it." Ryuunosuke said, then folded her arms across her chest.
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A/N: Here's another chapter ready to go! Please review, or rate it. I don't care which one. For my next chapter, I plan on putting Ryoga in here so if you have any suggestions on any other Ranma ½ character you'd like to read about that has any interactions with Ryuunosuke in the next few chapters, then I'm open to suggestions. My goal is to make at least eight chapters for this story, but if it looks interesting, I may even go beyond that, but I'm shooting for at least eight, tell me what you think.