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 4: Ryuunosuke and Ryoga: First Meeting
"Okay, let's hear your story now. You heard my story, now it's your turn to explain this to me." Ryuunosuke said, and folded her arms across her chest that signifies that she was not going to bed without hearing Ranma's explanation first.
"Alright...you initiated it. But don't blame me if you find it hard to believe." The redheaded girl said, and thought about where to start first. "Ahem, well, it's a long story. Well, do you remember me telling you about a curse that I obtained in China? Well, this is it. You see it all started about three years ago." Ranma began her story.
"I told you how my dad is about as stubborn and weird as yours is, so this was one of the times where his hair brained ideas caused us to go to hell and come back. I was in Junior High at the time. My dad got this idea about traveling to China and going to a secret training ground in the Qinghai Province. It was called Jusenkyo, or land of the cursed springs."
"My dad was, and still is, the cheapest person out there, so instead of buying airplane tickets, we took the most challenging way to get there, that was by way of swimming." Ranma paused to see if Ryuunosuke believed her so far, and Ryuunosuke just blinked.
"Go on." She said.
"Anyway, it took about two years to get from here to China on foot, or in this case, flippers. It was a hard course we took, and since we had the endurance of high-level athletes, we kept going. By the time we got to China's shores, we stopped by there in order to rest ourselves before we travel to Jusenkyo."
"On the way to Jusenkyo, we happened to meet a kind, old tour guide. We followed him up to the mountains of the Qinghai Province. Once we got there..." Ranma said, and everything faded to a flashback.
Flashback-
"Here sirs, we come to infamous training ground called Jusenkyo." The tour guide said, and Ranma and his father paused to take off their traveling packs and joined the tour guide.
"Would you look at that, Ranma. This is supposedly one of the greatest training grounds on Earth. Feast your eyes on the land. Don't you find it amazing?" Genma asked his son.
"Are ya just gonna stare at the landscape all day, or are we gonna get some training done?" Ranma challenged his father, and the two headed into a glaring contest.
"Well, this is the training we asked for, now let's go!" Genma shouted, and they raced off to the nearest spring.
"Follow me, boy! This training will teach you how to hone your mid-air combat skills. It is important that you don't go easy on me for my sake, Ranma. Now on to it!" Genma exclaimed and leaped up onto a bamboo pole sticking at least twelve meters from the spring.
"You don't gotta tell me twice in a row!" Ranma boasted and joined his father up on the poles and stood directly opposite of Genma, balancing on one foot to do so.
"Wait, sirs! That too dangerous! Get down or you will be cursed!" the tour guide shouted at them, but they did not appear to be listening.
"On three boy, we strike hard and fast. One...two...three!" Genma shouted and they leapt off their poles to do combat in mid-air.
Ranma dodged a few rapid punches from Genma, and followed up with a kick to the head and sent Genma into the spring below them. Ranma landed on a nearby bamboo pole and stared down at the spring where Genma had fallen into triumphantly.
"What's wrong, Pops? You done already? I ain't even warmed up yet!" Ranma boasted, and looked at the tour guide with triumph.
The tour guide ran to the spring in which the bandana clad man had landed in, and started panicking. "Oh no! That man fall in Spring of Drowned Panda! A story in which an unfortunate panda had suffered a cruel fate and drowned here over two thousand year ago! Such waste of panda!" the tour guide squealed, but Ranma did not appear to be listening to him, instead, out of the spring, a giant panda emerged from it and landed on a pole in front of Ranma.
"Woah, what the hell is that thing? Where's my Pop!" Ranma shouted, but before the tour guide could answer, the panda struck at Ranma angrily and sent Ranma into the spring on the far right.
The tour guide rushed to the spring where he landed in, and knelt beside it. A girl with bright, fire engine red hair in a pigtail rose from the spring.
"Oh, that not so bad! You land in least cursed of all, the Spring of Drowned Girl, now whoever land in this one here gain body of red haired girl! Now you girl!" the tour guide piped up and muttered something in Mandarin (Chinese).
-End of Flashback
"...And that's the whole story." Ranma said and shook her head at the memory of it.
Ryuunosuke stood and stared at the redhead in bewilderment, or utter awe. "Wow, if a spring with that kind of power were to turn me into a cute girl like that, I'd give anything for that." Ryuunosuke said.
"Well, now that you've heard my story, you're gonna think I'm some kind of pervert, or weirdo, huh?" Ranma asked, and hung her head low, but Ryuunosuke went up to her and gave her a pat on the back.
"Don't worry about it, your secret is safe with me. So, how do you change back?" Ryuunosuke asked.
"Well, whenever I come in contact with hot, or warm, water, I change back to my original form, but when it's the opposite, I change into...this." Ranma said with a heavy emphasis on the word 'this.'
Ryuunosuke yawned and stretched her arms out. "Man, I'm tired now." Ryuunosuke admitted.
"Well, why don't you come in and take this room? I mean, I don't have a problem with sleeping out in the living room or something. If that's what you want." Ranma said, and gathered her things in her hand.
"You don't have to." Ryuunosuke said, but someone else entered their conversation.
"Ryuunosuke, perhaps you should share a room in here with Ranma. After all, we don't have much spare rooms here, other than Master Happosai's room. But we all know he can get kind of angry if we were take his room out." Soun said, entering the room where the two friends were.
"If it helps things, maybe you should have Saotome here with you so no funny business happens." Soun said, and Genma entered with him.
"Yup, I'm here so you two can learn to be controlled." Genma said enthusiastically.
"But we are controlled." They said at the exact same time.
"I don't know." Genma said and pondered this in his head. "Now, maybe you two could even out the playing field." He muttered.
"Guys, I'm tired anyway, so it doesn't matter where I sleep tonight, ya know." Ryuunosuke said, putting an end to the dispute between them.
"So be it. You can stay here with Ranma, and Genma if you want." Soun said, and walked out of the room.
The lights turned off, and Ranma, Genma, and Ryuunosuke went to bed. Ranma (still in his girl form) slept close to Ryuunosuke, and Genma lay near the door and slept without his futon, because Ryuunosuke was occupying it.
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The next morning, Ranma, Akane, and Ryuunosuke walked together to school again. Ranma was not on the fence this time, but walked beside Ryuunosuke while Akane stayed at least five paces behind them, watching them.
*It's like Ranma hasn't been paying attention to me anymore. Now that Ryuunosuke is with him, they're practically together all the time. I mean, it's not that I want him to spend less time with Ryuunosuke, but something about all this just doesn't sit right with me. For starters, Ranma and Ryuunosuke shared a room together, but I didn't mind it because Ranma was in his girl form at the time and Mr. Saotome was with them, but still...it doesn't seem natural, and look at them, they're practically twins!* Akane thought fiercely, and absentmindedly punched in a pole right next her, only to have it rebound and bruise her knuckles. "Ow!"
Ranma and Ryuunosuke heard the shout from behind them, and turned around to help Akane, but she brushed them off, saying it was only a scratch and she did not want them to be worried about her. *Their friendship is more important than I am now, and it wouldn't be right to get angry at Ranma right now, and he hasn't had a true friend in a long time.* Akane thought.
About halfway to the high school, they were accompanied by Ukyo, and she was in a girl's uniform this time.
"Hi Ukyo! So, why'd you decide to change styles today? I mean, you alternate between your girl and guy clothes. That seems sorta strange. I dunno, it's your decision, ah, never mind." Ranma said, and walked past Ukyo with Ryuunosuke next to him.
"What's up with him today?" Ukyo asked, and Akane pretended not to know.
"Um, I don't know, maybe it's that time of day for him, yeah." Akane said unenthusiastically.
"You're hiding something from me, and I know that there's something wrong with him. And who's that boy Ranma's hanging closely with today?" Ukyo asked.
"Well, it's not only today, it was yesterday too." Akane blurted that out, and the last thing Ukyo heard was 'yesterday too.'
"Wait a minute! Yesterday also? Why wasn't I told of this? And here I thought that Ranma was deliberately avoiding me yesterday! I mean during lunch, he didn't even stop by my classroom and ask me if he wants to eat lunch together, which really ticks me off!" Ukyo shouted, and Akane tried to calm her down, but all she could do to respond was say 'that traitor!' over and over again. It was pointless, and Akane and Ukyo walked the rest of the way with only their own thoughts.
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Meanwhile, about a quarter of a mile away, a boy with a yellow and black striped bandana was walking in complete circles and cursing himself for a stupid map that he was reading, but the map was backwards, and he did not even realize that.
"Damn it! I can't make heads or tails out of this stupid map! I've been walking in a circle all week and so far I'm not even close to the beach!" he shouted out and people passing by gave him strange looks and hurried off, but he did not know that.
"Um, excuse me, sir? Can you tell me how far I am from the Eastern Ocean?" he asked, and the man that he apprehended from one of the crowds had told him that he was not anywhere close to the Ocean, but he was in the Nerima district of Tokyo.
"What the? I'm still in Tokyo, and I didn't realize it!" he yelled out and let go of the man and started throwing fits of rage. "Damn it all! Why must I have such a lame sense of direction?"
He started walking aimlessly, and had his hands to his head in frustration, but before he knew it, he walked up to the gates of Furinkan High. Then a voice called out to him, and it was Ranma.
"Yo, Ryoga! We haven't seen you in a while!" Ranma greeted him, and Ryoga let his arms fall to his sides as Akane, Ukyo, and Ryuunosuke approached him.
It took him a second to realize that he wandered toward Furinkan, and he did not even realize it. After realizing that, Ryoga's eyes narrowed at the sight of Ranma.
Ranma's upbeat attitude changed when Ryoga's fierce stare turned into a glare of hatred for this person. "Uh, are you okay, Ryoga?" Ranma asked innocently, but the boy threw his arms in the air and Ryoga charged at Ranma with the fierceness of a bull.
"Ranma, prepare to die!" Ryoga yelled out his trademark battle cry and wildly punched at Ranma, but Ranma leaped into the air and kicked Ryoga in the back. Ryoga stumbled forward and landed on top of Ryuunosuke. Ryuunosuke was shocked for a moment, but let that pass and pushed Ryoga off of her with a strength equal to that of Ranma's caliber.
Ryuunosuke leapt to her feet and shifted to a fighting stance. "You wanna fight, bastard? How dare you do that!" Ryuunosuke shouted and tightened her fists closer.
Ryoga got up and wobbled around, and saw stars around his head. "Uh...what the? Since when did Ranma get a haircut?" was all Ryoga could say in his dazed state, and Ryuunosuke and Ranma kicked him at the same time, Ryuunosuke kicked him in the front, while Ranma kicked him in the back.
Ryoga snapped out of it, and looked both ways, confused. "Wait, there are two of Ranma now?" Ryoga shouted out, and looked to the pigtailed martial artist to the tomboy, or boy-boy.
"I'm Ranma, jackass!" Ranma shouted out from behind him, and Ryoga looked at him strangely.
"Well, if you're Ranma, then who's this guy?" Ryoga asked, and Ryuunosuke threw into a fit of rage and punched Ryoga in the gut as hard as she could.
"I'm a girl, damn it!" Ryuunosuke shouted, and both Ryoga and Ukyo were confused.
"What?" they shouted out at the same time, and looked at each other with weird looks.
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A/N: Well, here's another edition to the story, and I hoped you guys enjoy it. Don't forget to rate and review it! Share this with a friend, or whatnot. Let me know what you think. Bye for now!