Son Turned Daughter, Chapter 61

An unusual disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is the trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. And Son Turned Daughter was originally written back in zz2002 by fanfiction author Tangent. Please see the first two chapters of this series under his pen name. This series has been written for noncommercial use only.

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The time bug belongs to the Ah!/Oh! My Goddess universe, which Ranma ½ is now a part of in this alternative universe. And, yet, for the most part, Son Turned Daughter, still means to be mostly faithful to canon. The only real, intended difference follows from: What If.

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Chapter 61

Akane nudged, then pushed her girl friend towards the door out of the parlor. "Hide your lingerie under those clothes," she urgently whispered. Ranma s body nodded and did as it was told. But her mind was still stuck on seeing herself as a boy. Sure, it was weird to see herself as a six-year old. But to see herself as a boy? She had just recently accepted that she was a girl. Was there a way to warn the child of what would happen? Did she want to?

Out in the Kuonji hall, she was heading for where she thought the bathroom would be before she realized she could simply put on the clothes she was given right there. She stepped into and pulled up the black tights of the okomomiyaki uniform and liked how they felt as they hugged her shapely legs. Those up in place, she took the blue-and-white trimmed jacket and its belt off the hanger's hook.

She at last noticed eyes staring at her. It was a little girl's this time. Lacking modesty, she didn't immediately think she should cover her bra. "Why are you looking at me like that, Ukyo-chan?"

The six-year old said, "None of the grownups I see at the public bath are as big as you."

"Big?" As the redhead, Ranma was well aware of how short she was, even next to other women. But she knew what the comment was about. She was torn between the memories she had of being a boy who hated the shifting weights and her pride as a woman they gave her. "Your mom have big ones." A vague flashback, then, broke in on her. It was too vague to hold onto.

"But mama is fat. You are too little to be big. Do you like being heavy on top?"

Why was she asking her questions? She was still a little kid. "Actually, I'm heavier on the bottom."

"Your butt?"

"No!" And Ranma the martial artist slapped her abdomen below the tights. "Here! At the dantian - belly! The center of mass and action!" Still, even as she asserted that, it reminded her how big her butt did feel. That everything above it that wasn't her boobs was small didn't help her have a balanced mental image of her body. Her butt did seem too big.

Little Ukyo-chan turned away. "I hope I don't get big when I'm a grownup." Then she turned away and went into the parlor/restaurant. "Ranma, you jackass! You said five out of nine…"

Again, Ranma was reminded there was another Ranma. The…real Ranma? Again her mind fell into a daze

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Out in the street, the townsfolk saw a strange, old woman chasing after something that wasn't there. Of course even those who weren't a stranger to them could become odd at her age. And as more and more young people left, there were fewer people to distract from those that were. Some became odd because they didn't have somebody else to think about. "Time-bug, time bug. Come here and let me hit you!" the woman who called herself Pearl-san said, wielding her bamboo ladle and pail.

"Ah, ha! Have you!"

But, no, it hopped away! And so did time.

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Ranma was fully dress in the uniform when she heard an all too familiar voice, "Come back here, Boy! I have another cure for your cat-fear!" It was her Old Man. His martial arts gi had rips in them, as did his hands and face; his glasses hung from one ear, the string that wrapped around his other ear broken.

" "Cat-fear"?" Just hearing it sent a shudder through her.

"Ranma? Is that your dad?" Akane came out into the hall with them. Her torn gi was worse off than his, but the dotabata balm had healed her wounds into just scratches.

"I apologize, young lady!" Genma said. "I shall discipline my son! He must remember not to attack females: It goes against the Code!"

"Discipline!" Ranma cried.

"No, Ranma!" Akane put herself between her and him. "What good has it ever done you? It'll just be yet another of your fights.

"Let me 'discipline' him!" And she stepped towards him. "Step outside! I challenge you!"

"I just told you a true martial artist doesn't harm females. Especially girls."

"If you don t fight me, I'll free Happosai!"

"Th, the Master?!" It was his turn to shudder.

"Yes: The Master. The founder of the schools!" Meeting the molesting, old pervert had greatly disillusioned Akane and, at the moment, Genma Saotome seemed like the best way to express her feelings! A deserving target!

"If you don't fight her, you'll have to fight me!" the little redhead said with a tone of voice that came from ten years of being "disciplined". "Which one of us will be more humiliating? Don't I look like the weaker Girl?!"

Whether it was choosing the lesser of two humiliations or just the fear the strange fiery-haired girl that reminded him of his wife put into him, he did go back out the front door, Akane following.

Wanting to coach Akane, Ranma made to be next out the door. But as she passed the parlor door, she heard lullaby being sung.

"...Sleep, little kitten, sleep sound,

Don't be afraid or alarmed.

Your mama is here,

And she will keep you safe from harm..."

Ranma's knees gave out and her butt hit the floor. She could not take her eyes off of the scene inside. There was the little six-year old boy she used to be. He was resting comfortably in the lap of Ukyo's mama. There was some silvervines beside them. The disconnected pieces began to form into a coherent picture.

"Tha, that was the kindly, old lady who helped me get me through my nekoken training? Why didn't I remember who she was?" And why did she feel like crying?

"Where was Ucchan while this was happening? Where is she now?"

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The time bug scurried up onto Pearl-san's head, daring her to hit it.

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Akane came back into the house. She would need more of the healing balm, but she was grinning! Ranma, now on her feet, was surprised. "You won?"

"No, of course I didn't! I'm not that good, yet! But I did put up a good fight! And I learned how to be better, next time!"

"You're a real martial artist at heart, after all, aren't you?" Ranma smiled back at her friend.

"You doubted–"

"Jackass! Come back with that boy! Stop!" Jinja-san yelled.

Saotome was carrying the still sleeping little boy and heading for the open shoji doors and the yard beyond. Vwhanng! But when she hit him squarely with the flat of her battle spatula, it just propelled him to the way out faster! The martial artist had used his mid-air techniques to soften the blow.

Jinja-san ran after him, leaving Ranma and Akane alone in the house. With little Ukyo-chan, too, it turned out. She had been hiding behind the counter with the griddles on it. "That was my song," the little girl said to herself. "Maybe Mama loves the jackass."

She noticed the two strangers looking at her. She ran out from behind the counter, heading for the shoji doors, too. She stopped, though, to pick up a piece of paper, shoving it in her jacket before she left the house.

"What was so important about that paper?" Ranma wondered.

"I think it was the recipe Pearl-san gave her mom," Akane told her. "The one for a secret sauce."

"Secret Sauce?!" Ranma suddenly felt very guilty.

"Ranma? Where are you going?"

"I'm going to stop myself before I do something stupid!"

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"I have you!" Pearl-san had the fuzzy time bug in her hands. She was taking it to a cement platform in the middle of the town. That would be the best place to hit it.

But the time bug changed the timing of her steps and she stumbled. The bug escaped again!

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Ranma and Akane was outside of the town in less time than they thought it would take. "I think it was around here," Ranma said, looking around from her memory.

"What is so important?" Akane asked.

"Shh!" the redhead urged. She whispered, "Hear that?"

"I'm in Grade One, but I think I can almost read this recipe of Mama's. I'm good at reading hiragana!" Ukyo-chan proudly said to herself. She had a large earthenware urn with different ingredients around it. "What I can't read, I'll let love tell me what to do. Mama always says love is the most important ingredient."

The redhead grabbed her heart, the guilt like a dagger to it. Akane frowned. She didn't know what Ranma had done wrong, but she was certain it had been bad. She was a boy when she did it. Boys!

"What are you waiting for(!)" she whispered harshly to her.

"We have to wait until after she's gone," Ranma whispered back.

Meanwhile, Ukyo-chan was still thinking out loud. "I'll put the love mama has for me in this okonomiyaki sauce. And I guess I'll put the love she has for Ranchan in it too, for extra flavor."

Ranma turned and left as quickly but quietly as she could. Akane followed. They only went in an absolute hurry when they thought they were far enough away that they thought the little girl wouldn't hear them. And Akane felt free to ask, "What's the problem? I thought it was very important to you to stop whatever you did to her!"

"My battle sense: I've got a bad feeling something awful is happening to Ucchan's mama! I have to see if she's alright!"

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"You cannot escape, this time!" Pearl-san said and actually brought her fist, not her ladle or pail, down on the time bug.

But it wasn't a clean hit and it popped free from under it. It bounced off the town jail.

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Ranma and Akane reached the town square. There, among some motorcycles, were more than ten bodies lying on the ground. And standing in the midst of them, like victors of a battle, was the policeman, Kimura-san and his magic sword, and, by his side…Happosai? "That'll teach you, Punks! It's one thing to rob, steal and loot, but you don't hurt women! Have at least something you can honor!"

"No!" Ranma screamed, looking among the fallen. There with her battle spatula still in her hands lay Ukyo's mama. A fallen hero. She ran forward, stumbled, falling to the ground beside her, crying. And Akane was beside her friend in her grief.

Kimua-san's sword Lottery began collecting the motorcycle gang, "I'll cram them all together in our small jail until the Prefectural Police can come and haul them away. It's the least torture I can give them." He wanted to grieve, too, but had to do his duty.

"You deserved better, Old Lady. Without being there when I was train…tortured by cats, you were there to pull me back from the madness.

"Ukyo…Uc, Ucchan. This is the day your whole life changes. I'm sorry for you. So, so sorry. *choke*"

Ranma wiped her eyes and gained steel in her resolve. "I'm going to do it! I'm not going to let pop steal the okonomiyaki cart! I'll make sure Ucchan goes on my training journey! I'll stay and be her mama, if I have to! I don't know which, yet, but…." She noticed something weird running by her.

It looked like a merger of a great spider and fluffy bunny. It was the first time she had clearly seen it, but she instantly knew what to call it. "A bug!" Her raw emotions overwhelmed her: She had no choice but to lash out at it!

There! Never before in Ranma's life had she or he ever seen a clearer, crisper, more precise point to hit. And she knew just what to call that, too: "Bakusai Tenketsu!"

And then there was a blinding flash.

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As noted in Chapter 59, Genma had to have been lying when he talked about the woman that would comfort his six-year old son when he became like a cat. He said she was a neighbor. But he could not have been living with Nodoka. The mother would definitely had him commit harikari without the mercy of seppuku!

Ukyo's Secret Sauce is in S6 E16 and E17. The Sauce of Ten Years Arc is from manga Chapters 194 to 198.

This story explains how Ukyo came to love Ranma at such a young age and while only knowing him for a few weeks. It is because of the association she as a child had between him and her dear mama. Him disappearing out of her life right before she also lost her meant they were also together in her trauma. The Saotomes were unfairly alive and should be found and punished! Focusing on that allowed her to avoid the pain of her real loss. But when she caught up with them, she was reminded of the love her subconscious thought her mama had for Ranma. (Note: Her papa was tired of his wife always being better at everything than he was and was ready to leave her. If the naive Ukyo had been taken away by Genma, it would have been a cruel revenge.)

This story also puts Happosai in a somewhat better light than he is usually given. Again, for all his vast number of crimes and wrongs, he has never been shown physically harming any female. Onno-Ranma doesn't count, though, because the redhead had a strong yang-spirit even while immersed the yin-curse. Going to extremes to "teach" a student often happens with even more benevolent masters.