Subject: [FFML] [Fanfic][Ranma] Mirror, mirror. Part 2.
From: Michael Ricketts
Date: 4/17/1999, 2:11 AM
To: "ffml@fanfic.com" <ffml@fanfic.com>

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Insert Standard Copyright Disclaimer.
< The characters used in this work of Fiction are not owned by
  me.

 Ranma 1/2 and all associated characters, trademarks and
 situations are owned by Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Kitty, Fuji
 and Viz - Used here without permission. >

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[Ranma 1/2]:     Mirror, Mirror.

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Chapter 2: Ranko's secret.

     Akane looked on in horror. She'd just killed her new friend.
But how had she done it? After all she'd done nothing, had she?
These thoughts ran through her mind as she grabbed Ranko's head out
of the water in the furo.
     The inner door slid open to reveal Nabiki. "Sis? What
hap..." She stared for a second at Ranko as she lay in the water.
Kami-sama! What an amazing body! I wish I looked half that good.
"Sis?"
     Akane's eyes started to tear. "Nabiki!� she began
hysterically, �I did something to Ranko and she just fell down in
the water and I think she's drowned!" She trailed off into
unintelligible sobs.
     "Akane! I thought you only hit the boys." Watching Ranko's
chest moving up and down and as Akane shook her head swiftly in the
negative and shakily denied that she'd hit Ranko, Nabiki
continued, "In any case, she's not dead. Look, she's still
breathing. See? She's just unconscious." With a smile on her face
-- sorry, make that a silly grin on her face. Hmmm, this could be
interesting.
     "Well, lets get her out of there." Reaching down, she
grabbed one of the red head's arms and with Akane's help, proceeded
to pull her out.

     As Genma stepped back into the room that he'd left a minute
ago, (what, you think characters never need to conveniently go to
the bathroom?) he noticed that a futon was now spread out on the
floor. With Ranko lying on it, and the three Tendou sisters grouped
to the sides, it looked like a sick bed for a terminal patient. He
also noticed that the Go board had been overturned in the rush.
Sighing, he realised that at least there would be more chance for
games now.
     Kasumi looked faintly worried and was carefully drying Ranko's
brow.
     Nabiki looked inquisitive and seemed to have just finished
putting Ranko's shirt back on.
     Akane looked guilty and was glancing everywhere except at
the red headed girl in front of her. She was, however, holding
her hand, and seemed to be wishing her to health.
     "Well?" Genma took on his look of intense 'parentability',
(don't think mother duck; think mother goat attempting to pass
itself off as mother duck and failing - miserably.) "What
happened to make my s... daughter pass out like that?"
     Akane's face instantly took on an even guiltier look as she started

babbling out what had happened in the bathroom. As Genma sorted
through the apologies and self-recriminations, he eventually
found out that Ranko had passed out after Akane had entered the
bath.
     "Ahhh," Genma nodded. "So, what you're saying is that Ranko
saw you in the bath and then passed out?"
     Akane thought about it for a second. "You know that actually
sounds..." A bluish glow surrounded her body. "...quite..." Her
brows rammed together and downwards into a frown that could crack
mirrors. "...PERVERTED."
     Genma flinched away from Akane's gaze. "Uhh well, actually..."
He scratched the back of his head, "Akane, it's not like that at
all. You see uhhh," What to tell them, what to tell them, "Ranko,
she's... she's... ummm... afraid of nudity." Yes that's it; there're
all sorts of weird fears. "She's one of the few people that suffer
from the ailment."
     "But she sees her own body on a daily basis." Nabiki cut in,
her eyes narrowing in suspicion, "How does that work? While we're
at it, what's the medical name for it?"
     "Uhh well... it's only other people and then only other female
people." Genma sweatdropped and tried desperately to think of a
good name. "Femfleshipobia." Nabiki facefaulted.
     The door slid open behind him and Ranma stepped into the room.

     "Pop, tell them the truth." The voice came from both the red
head on the floor and the black haired boy in the doorframe.
"Now, or I will."
     Genma coughed. "Very well then." He took a tragic look and
slumped his shoulders in defeat. "My daughter... my daughter...
is... gay. I'm sorry Ranko, please forgive your old man." he
burst into tears. Ranma and Ranko facefaulted, which wasn't a
mean feat, considering that one of the two participants was lying
on the floor already.
     "What exactly do you mean when you say gay?" Akane asked
brightly. "You mean of course happy, don't you?" Her smile seemed
strained somehow.
     Nabiki shook her head, "No sis, I'm sure that given what
happened in the bathroom, he means gay as in
I-like-the-same-sex-people-as-lovers type gay. Also known as,"
she bent towards her sister and whispered in her ear "a lesbian."
At least that explains a few things.
     "So when she looked at me in the bath she was thinking about
touching..." Akane trailed off, blushing red. "YOU PERVERT!" She
picked up the still facefaulted Ranko and booted her into orbit.
     Ranma groaned as he sat up from his fault. "Ow, why'd she do
that?" He asked of no one in particular, watching Ranko fly into
low earth orbit. "And no, Ranko ain't a lesbian. She's a part of
me." Then closed his eyes and took on a look of concentration. He
should have found out what effect his statement would cause
before stopping to do anything, because he missed the chance to
stop the table.
     Akane casually picked the dining table up and beat him over
the head with it. "I don't know what you're talking about, but it
doesn't sound any better." She then grated, �I�m taking a bath. For
some reason, I feel dirty.� And left the room.

     "Owwww. Why did she do that? I was only telling the truth."
Ranko spat out as she rose swiftly past the highest buildings.
Sighing, she prepared for landing as she reached the top of her
flight. "I guess I should have told her earlier." Damn. Sighing
as she landed, she swiftly bounded off back towards the Tendou
dojo.

     Kasumi was shaking Ranma's shoulders gently. "Ranma? Ranma are
you okay?" She was starting to get worried. Surely Akane hadn't
hit him that hard. She looked over at Nabiki, who shrugged, and
wondered briefly if the Saotomes would sue.
     "Please, stop. I'm nearly there." Ranma spoke quickly, as
though he had something else on his mind. It was so sudden that
Kasumi almost fell over backwards in shock. What did he mean
'nearly there'?

     Ranko's mouth closed softly as she continued making her way
towards the Tendou residence. Being a Saotome and a martial
artist at that, she thought nothing of the fact that the leaps
she was making were far longer than any had the right to be. She
was a little worried, however, about the distance between her and
the ground.
      She had to get back quickly, before anyone else tried
"waking" Ranma, any break in her concentration could mean a painful
slip. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem; walking would
have put this worry to rest. However, she had no idea where she was
in relation to the Tendou dojo, other than the direction of her
flight.
     "Why'd she hafta hit me so far?" All I did was tell the truth.


Kasumi heard Ranma ask the question. "Don't think too badly of
Akane. She's really a very sweet girl, when she's not being a
violent maniac."
     "Way to confuse him sis." Nabiki cut in. "I'm not sure he's
even listening."
     "Oh I am." The outer door slid open to reveal a sweating
Ranko. "I'm just not sure I want to be." She strode over to Ranma's
side and took his hand. Ranma's eyes flicked open. "Anyway,"
they both continued; intonation and words matching exactly, "I have
to find a cure, it was nice meeting you both." They bowed in
unison and strode towards the door.
     "Boy! You dishonour our name! You are duty bound to marry
one of the daughters of Soun Tendou! Does family honour mean so
little to you?"
     "You want to lecture me on honour?" both of them broke out a
short synchronised sarcastic laugh as their eyes flashed in
anger. "You, who sold me for food, more than once?" Ranma paused as
Genma paled slightly. Where had that come from? "... I have to
find a cure."
     "Cure? Cure for what?" Soun looked on, wondering why Genma had
developed a massive sweatdrop and Ranma and Ranko face faulted.
     "Yer kidding, right?" Both of the Saotome teens asked. "I have
the same type of curse as Pop, only mine's been altered a bit. I
would have thought Pop had told you all this?" They both glared
at the ball of fur in the corner of the room, playing with a
beach ball, while holding a sign saying 'Just a cute cuddly
panda.'
     "My first and only attempt to cure the curse of the
Nyannichuan ended with me this way." Ranma and Ranko gestured at
themselves. "One soul sharing two bodies. At least I stay in 'one'
form, but this is just as big a pain." Ranko let go of Ranma's
hand. They both lifted their hands and proceeded to do exactly
the same thing at the same time, just making motions of some
basic strikes and blocks.
     "It's difficult to get both bodies doing something different."
Ranko's face took on a gleam of perspiration as her hands tried to
do something else. They quite obviously were jumping back to
what Ranma was doing more often than not. "You know that thing
where you try to pat your head with one hand while rubbing your
stomach with the other? Same sort of thing, only about a million
times harder." They sighed, then stopped and once more resumed
the handhold. "The only time I really got it right was in a battle.
Straight after the 'cure'. Never been able to do it since..." They
trailed off, their eyes taking on an almost feverish gleam. "I
need to find out why it's not working consciously. I need to be
able to do it when I want to. Need to be able to do it! I
need..."
     Ranma and Ranko paused and looked around, Soun was wailing
about how the families would never be joined. Genma had somehow
exited the room that Kasumi was now cleaning. Nabiki was going over
a book with figures in it. "Is anyone listening?" They growled
out.
     A sign flew in from outside, hitting Ranma in the stomach
and causing both to gasp for breath. "Heard it too many times
already, Boy" was written on it.
     "Oh my, I'm sorry, was that important?" Kasumi and Nabiki
looked up.
     "Sorry Ranma, I tune out ranting, has to do with one of my
classmates"
     "Whaaaaaaaaa! Our families will never be joined!"
     Ranma's and Ranko's shoulders drooped. "Yes, well, anyway, I
fell in the Nyannichuan, spring-of-drowned-girl and got cursed to
change into a girl whenever splashed with cold water. Then Pop,
me and another victim found out that at this village we might
find a cure..."

Ranma paused as they approached the Amazon village, listening
carefully. They'd already passed what seemed like most of the
sentries, but you could never be too careful. Ryouga stumbled
into his back, causing them both to fall over into a noisy heap,
which in turn caused the guide to have a panic attack and start
babbling softly about death sentences and crazy foreigners.
     "Watch where you're going Pig-boy!" Ranma whispered harshly,
swatting him on the back of the head.
     "Don't stop suddenly Ranma!" Ryouga whispered back, punching
him in the gut.
     Ranma's intake of air was cut short as a voice yelled out in
Mandarin "<Who's there? Come out now or I'll come in after you>"
Ranma turned blue as he tried not to gasp for air. The guide turned
red and grasped his chest. Oh great, we passed all of the guards
just to run into someone out for a walk. Just perfect.
     Genma picked up a tire and splashed himself with water.
     Throwing a glare at his father that was partially ruined by
the fact that his face was still blue, Ranma jumped silently up the
nearest tree, dragging the guide with him. Ryouga was nowhere to
be seen.
     "<That's it! I'm coming in for you!>" The Amazon, now shown to
be a busty woman holding a quarter staff, entered the trees.
     Looking at the panda, which had suddenly realised that it
was all alone, her eyes grew wide and she squealed "<Oh... how...
cuuuuuuuuuuuuute!>" Which came out sounding, to the panda, like a
barbarous war cry if ever it had heard one. Running up to it, she
threw her arms around it and made to carry it home.
     Genma had other ideas.
     Quickly flashing signs that said "Saotome special
technique." and "Sign of the panda's displeasure" he quickly
smacked her across the head with it, causing her to fall
unconscious to the ground.
     When she woke up several hours later, Po Xion Shiratori
would try to swear off collecting cute things for the rest of her
life. Of course, this promise would last until that afternoon
when she would again see that kawaii li'l stick that the
Matriarch used for transportation.
     Ranma bounced down to land on the ground gasping. After a good
breath of air he said quietly "Good one Pop. Hit a girl why
don'cha."
     "HEY!" The sign showed, "She started it!"
     The guide, who had just regained his normal colour, managed to
weakly ask where the other "customer" was.
     "Ryouga?" Ranma called quietly, "Where are you?"
     When no-one answered, Ranma cursed and spat, "Ah, he's
probably lost again, le..."

"Um..." Nabiki interrupted, "how could he get lost?"
     Ranko and Ranma turned and tried to explain. "He has a
terrible sense of direction. It once took him 4 days to reach an
empty lot, 500 yards from his house, in a straight line, down a
straight street, that lead right to it." They sighed, "He was the
one that inquired about the cure anyway, so if he hadn't been
there, who knows what would have happened." They looked at
themselves, wondering just what would have happened. "Anyway..."

     "Ah, he's probably lost again, let's just get on with it,
shall we?" Ranma gestured to the house in front of them, "Where
abouts is the strong room? Is it that the one?" he whispered. The
guide shook his head.
     "No sirs, is in the middle of village." Shaking his head,
the guide considered what a bad idea this was. Perhaps if they were
caught he could convince the Amazons that it had been against
his will?
     "Come, I show you." The guide led them, very, very carefully
through the houses, towards the centre of the village.
     Pock, pock, pock, pock...
     A slight sound, like a stick being pushed into the ground
repeatedly, caused Ranma to start slightly. The guide froze,
motioning for them to find themselves a hiding place, quick.
     Cologne paused as she bounced towards the houses on the
outer rim of the village. She could feel something was wrong, it
was in the air. Did it have anything to do with that red head two
days ago? Shampoo was still out looking for her.
     To the guide it appeared gruesome death was bouncing along
on her scythe. All the Matriarch had to do was turn to the right
and they'd die. She couldn't possibly miss the bulges in the
shadows. Composing in his mind the best position to beg in, the
guide nearly fell out of the eave he was hiding in when across
the other side of the village came "Curse you Ranma! Where am I
now" Followed by the sound of a wall or two falling in.
     Cologne immediately bounced off to the left, following the
sound to its source.
     "Good old Ryouga. Just when we need him." Ranma whispered
triumphantly. The guide started to breathe again and pulled them
towards the strong room. The door was unguarded, after all, who
would be stupid enough to steal from the Amazons? Pulling them
inside the room and swiftly closing the door, they began to look
through the scrolls.
     "Curse you Ranma, where am I now!" Ryouga paused, the trees
were all different now, no Ranmas, guides or Genmas here either!
Where had these walls come... from...? Ryouga suddenly realised
that he was surrounded by a group of angry women, some in states of
undress that left little to the imagination.
     "Um..." He trailed off. Twiddling his thumbs while a line of
blood snaked down his lip, he asked somewhat hesitantly
"Joketsuzoku Amazons?" As one they nodded. "Oh... Uh... Bye!"
Ryouga suddenly decided that he should catch up on recent events;
he'd better find a newsagent and buy the local paper, in
Australia preferably. Cologne, who had just bounced up, sighed. Why
were the males today so much more timid than in her day? Even
two hundred years ago, they'd been better than this.
     Ranma was looking through the scroll for anything that
looked like what the guide said was the symbol for curse. "How
about this one?" Ranma handed over the scroll.
     "No, sir," the guide said, "this scroll for laying curse to
make man feel has PMS. Is ancient Amazonian remedy for male who
think they better than woman because that." Ranma turned slightly
green and continued looking.
     Scroll after scroll was passed to the guide, who shook his
head mournfully at each one. He was beginning to think that
they'd have to leave and come back the next night. None of the
scrolls so far had contained the cure and the customers looked like
they wouldn't accept that it wasn't there until they'd gone
through all of them.
     Genma grunted a low growl. Looking at the scroll in his paws
he could see clearly the symbols for curse and Jusenkyo. Had he
found it? Attracting the attention of the guide by waving a sign
around saying, "I've found it" he paused as his son turned on him.
     "You found it?" Ranma's eyes flashed with his triumphant
whisper. He would be willing to pay any price; that was a forgone
conclusion.
     The panda nodded as it gestured at the scroll in it's paws.
The guide nodded reluctantly when asked if that was what it
actually said. He looked frantic. "Sirs we should be getting out of
here. Very bad if Amazons catch us in here."

"'No kidding infidels! Prepare to die for invading our most holy of
all holy places!' The Amazonian warrior stood 7, no 10 feet
tall, muscles rippling like well defined steel, holding a
broadsword in each hand, with a belt of skulls around her waist and
a necklace of ears around her neck. I however, stood tall and
bravely fought her off, incurring several nearly fatal wounds,
but allowing my son and the guide to esc..." Ranma dropped
Ranko's hand and kicked Genma into Low earth orbit.

"<What you doing here?>"
     The high pitched voice caused the trio to spin around and take
up three different stances; Ranma one of readiness, the guide
one of begging and Genma the panda stance, which is to say he found
a piece of bamboo and started gnawing on it while lying on his
back.
     Ranma relaxed slightly as he saw who had challenged them. A
small girl, probably not yet six years of age stood in the doorway,
holding a small wooden mace in one hand and a very harsh doll in
the other. Motioning for the guide to translate, he said "We are
travellers from a distant land and we are looking for ways to
cure a horrible curse. It has been said that this village is the
pinnacle of knowledge for such things. We are here to find this
cure."
     The girl waited patiently for the guide to finish, nodding
occasionally. "<Oh, you here to steal stuff!>" As the guide
translated her words Ranma facefaulted.
     "Well, um... yeah," Ranma scratched the back of his head, "I
guess you could say that."
     "<If you fast, you might make it past the edge of the village,
'cos everybody chasin' someone else.>"
     That sparked motion, a frantic search and gathering of
ingredients. Rounding up everything except one of them was easy.
The search for that last piece was going nowhere, when the girl
spoke up again, having sat down on a handy space on the floor.
     "<Hurry, I wanna see if you last longer than the last one
did.>" the girl had a weird look on her face, the type that was
usually reserved for small boys when saying things like "If you can
get to the door before we do, you can go free."
     "<Hour was pathetic!>" She smiled, revealing perfectly dimpled
cheeks.
     "<The Customers look for a...>" the guide sweated as he looked
at the scroll once more, "<Phoenix Mirror, they need it to make
the cure work.>"
     "<Wow! Major tribe treasure, you go for crucifixion and
boiling alive too? Cool! They kept over there.>" She pointed to one
side, where a flimsy, see through veil stood in front of a
shallow, door sized cavity in the wall.
     Ranma, who had been following the general gist of the talk
strode across and pulled the veil away, saying "There ain't nothing
h..." He trailed off, behind the veil was another room.
According to the laws of physics it couldn't be there, as it wasn't
there on the outside, but magic never paid much attention to
physics. He looked inside, neatly arranged were artifacts of all
sizes, shapes and colours, including at least ten mirrors, some
covered, some not.
     Groaning, Genma spun a sign that read "Now how do we find
the right one?".
     With no sign of hesitation, Ranma grabbed one of the covered
mirrors and said, "Let's go." The panda held up a sign, "How do you
know that is the right mirror, Son?" Ranma showed him the
mirror, which had a frame carved with thousands of
representations of the bird in question. It also had "Phoenix
Mirror" written on the front of the covering in Mandarin,
Cantonese, Japanese, English and several others including a weird
language whose symbols kept changing as they looked at them.
"Just a hunch."

"Getting out of the village was far easier than getting into it,
I think Ryouga was still leading most of them on a nice little wild
goose chase. You know I wonder what happened to them... Ryouga gets
lost faster than most guys breathe... I wonder, 'cos most would
give up after a few hours of trying, but Amazons? A select few
would probably be able to follow him forever." Ranma and Ranko
stared into space for a second, before continuing.

Meanwhile...
     Washington, Japanese consulate: "What do you mean you got lost
in China and ended up here?" ... (Aside, in English) "[Find me
everything you can on this 'Ranma Saotome', if this is his fault, I
don't even wanna think about what he could do if he got his
hands on a nuke.]"
     Washington, Chinese consulate: "<Look, I really don't care
if you three are Amazons, the five riot police officers that
fired the tranquillisers are not available for group marriage.>"
... "<One of them is a woman for Christ's sake!>" ... "<NO! YOU CAN
NOT KILL HER!>"

Ranma was busy clearing a space on the open ground, a fire
burning to the side gave the shadowy impression that a weird,
size changing troll was wandering around rooting for food. After he
finished, a nice circular patch of dirt about the size of a
small room, was visible through the leaf litter. Ranma grabbed
the guide and following his translation of the instructions in
the scroll, laid out the herbs and powders in a basic pentagram
formation. Curiously, even though there was a stiff wind, the
ingredients refused to be moved by it, staying right where they
were placed.
     Aligning the top of the pentagram with magnetic north, Ranma
placed the Mirror at the base of the pentagram. "No SIR! Not
place Mirror there! That make curse your permanent form." Ranma
quickly snatched the mirror back up, looking sick.
     "What's so great about this mirror anyway?" Ranma made to take
off the covering.
     "No Sir, not uncover mirror yet! Scroll says will only work if
mirror not uncovered for a day." Making sure Ranma had ceased
his attempt at uncovering the mirror, he continued. "Scroll say
mirror is mirror of re-birth. When uncovered in ceremony, the
person cured if he see his true form, permanently cursed if see
cursed form, as mirror causes soul to be re-born in form seen."
Ranma nodded. "Putting mirror at different points on pentagram
causes different images. Top one is cure, bottom two is curse,
middle two is 50 50."
     Ranma quickly placed the mirror at the top of the pentagram,
turned to the guide and impatiently asked, "Is that the right
position?" The guide nodded. "Any thin' else we have to do? Or
can we start?" He glanced nervously into the shadows, dawn was
still a few hours off and hopefully this would be over before
anyone found them.
     The guide nodded, all of the elements were in place and all
that was left to do was start the ceremony itself. Looking at the
scroll, the guide said, "I tell you what happen in this ceremony,
then we go for it." Pausing, probably more for dramatic effect than
anything else, the guide continued after gauging that Ranma was
just about ready to explode. "You just sit in middle of
pentagram, concentrating on mirror, I light herbs and powders,
start from the top and go clockwise. As last pile is lit,
covering will fall off and you look into mirror. Scroll say now you
will be "re-born" as whatever in there. Okay?"
     Ranma took a deep breath and nodded. Stepping carefully over
the outline of the pentagram, he sat down facing the mirror. The
guide took a breath, muttered once more about "Crazy Japanese." and
lit a match.
     It blew out.
     Cursing, he stepped closer to the pentagram and lit another
match. This one, as he pushed it quickly closer to the first pile
of ingredients, stayed lit. In fact, as it drew nearer the wind got
stronger, only now it had stopped affecting the fire on the end of
the wood, the match was no longer burning downward at all,
seemingly content to stay as it was permanently.
     The first pile, a small pinch of power, which should have
flared and then disappeared, burnt to nothingness in seconds,
instead flared and stayed flared, as though whatever was burning
was being constantly replenished. The smoke produced by it curled
up, unaffected as the other things needed for the ceremony by the
wind and wrapped its way around Ranma.
     This trend continued around the pentagram, small piles of
powder, leaves, twigs and other flammables kept burning. None of
them burnt away while their smoke, some coloured, but most just
normal grey, swirled around Ranma's stationary form.
     Inside the smoke Ranma concentrated on the mirror, which
wasn't hard, because as more piles were lit and more smoke gathered
around him, he found that the only clear patch that he could see
was the mirror; no smoke obscured his vision of it at all. He saw
out of the corner of his eye the fuzzy outline of the guide reach
the last few piles, then become just another smudge in the smoke.
What would happen now? The last few piles wouldn't take that long
to light.
     Genma looked on, content to let his son be the first to be
cured, if only for the fact that if something went wrong, well it
wouldn't happen to him. The boy had now been completely absorbed by
the sphere of smoke. It shouldn't be long now. He watched as the
guide lit the last pile of ingredients, which flared into a
brilliant red smoke and twirled up around the sphere, appearing
to shoot it full of blood.
     The cover fell off the mirror, falling to one side where the
guide caught it nervously in both hands.
     Ranma stared as a burst of light blinded him, then quickly
resolved into two images. His curse and his natural form,
standing side by side. He had time to think "What the... ?"
before the pain began.
     Genma stared in horror when the bubble of smoke exploded
into flame as the mirror lit up. He was forced to watch as it
contracted to the size of a basket ball a second afterwards;
smaller than could possibly hold a human being, all the while
screaming in his son's voice. Then it expanded again, screaming
in a voice that, up until a week or so ago, had belonged to a
girl dead for 1500 years. It shrunk again, this time smaller than
the first time, to the size of a bowling ball before expanding
and changing timbre again. This time, however, Genma caught the
underlying sound of his son's female form screaming as well.
     The mirror stood where Ranma had placed it, pouring liquid
light into the sphere. The light was a tight beam focused on the
ball of flame, which changed size as the sphere did and was so
intense was that none could look at it.
     After five more expansions and contractions the voice coming
out of the fire had both timbre, intermingled as one. When the last
contraction had ended at the size of a ball bearing, Genma and the
guide had both started to worry about would happen when it was
'too' small.
     Then it happened, the sphere shrinking so small that they
couldn't see it and winking out, leaving sudden silence and a
focused cone of light that seemed to end in midair.
     "What... what... happened to him?" Genma's shaky voice
stuttered out. The guide's reply was cut off as two babies began to
grow out of nothingness in mid air, filling in with only the light
from the mirror, clasped in each others arms and hanging on for
dear life. The guide and Genma looked on as these babies rapidly
grew in stature, changing and maturing visibly in under a minute.
One male, the other female, they continued to develop until it
was obvious that the bodies of light were Ranma and his cursed form
respectively.
     As Ranma reached the age that he had been at the start of
the ceremony the mirror went abruptly dead, staying where it was
standing, but emitting no more light. The bodies, dimming, becoming
more than light, slowly came to rest on the ground. There was no
sign of the pentagram, ingredients or the smoke formed by the
burning of these ingredients.
     Genma turned on the guide. "What the hell is going on?!" The
guide motioned him over to where he was examining the mirror.
     "Oh Sir! Terrible tragedy, look, mirror cracked!" he showed
Genma the unnaturally straight vertical crack, running from the
middle of the top to the middle of the bottom of the mirror.
"That must be why ceremony no work 100%"

"... and that is how this," Ranma and Ranko gestured at
themselves in disgust, "happened."
     "... See Tendou? I didn't lie. He has no curse, just an
added facet of himself that has sprung into being." Genma clapped
his old friend on the back, all the while chuckling to himself.
     "Yes Saotome, you are right, it is no curse! Merely an
unexplored asset! Why think of the time that could saved when
they both help around the house!" Both laughed madly to
themselves as they contemplated the happily married bliss that
would no doubt spring between the lucky tw... er... three.
     Ranma watched apprehensively as Soun Tendou approached them.
"Ranma! Your problem is nothing terrible after all, in fact it is a
beneficial gift upon the one that you choose." Ranma looked
slightly confused.
     "The one I choose?" Ranko dodged slightly as Soun tried to pat
her on the back, settling for Ranma instead, who had slightly
glazed as he concentrated on moving as Ranko.
     "Why in marriage of course! My three daughters! Kasumi;
Nineteen." Kasumi shifted her hair about self-consciously.
     "Nabiki; Seventeen." Nabiki looked at them with a interest,
why they interested her, however, was not apparent.
     "And of course, Akane; Sixteen. Pick the one you want and she's
your fiancee!" Soun, while looking completely serious, probably
overlooked the fact that he sounded like a stock salesman.
     Nabiki looked at Kasumi. Kasumi looked at Nabiki. The
silence was deafening.
     "Oh he wants Akane!" Kasumi stated.
     "Yep, definitely Akane." Nabiki followed with.
     "WHAT!!??" The yell came from outside of the door; obviously
someone had been listening in. The door flew open, slamming against
the end of the runners with a force that nearly splintered it
apart. Akane charged into the room. "You MUST be joking! Why
would I be..."
     Nabiki interrupted. "Well, you hate boys, don't you?"
     Kasumi nodded and stepped forward, giving her
this-is-for-the-best smile. "Yes, so you're in luck. He's also a
girl. You can have the best of both worlds if you want..."
     Akane broke down into incoherent spluttering. "But... but...
but... NO! There is absolutely no way I am marrying that...
those... PERVERTS!"
     Ranma and Ranko stamped their right feet, leaning forward
looking belligerent. "Hang on a second! Whadaya mean pervert! You
came in on me!"
     "Yeah, but you're the one that the perverted thoughts came
from when you looked at my body! And you never put up the sign! I
bet it was all a plan to get me naked!" Akane clenched her fists.
Yeah that must be it. He... no wait... she? ... They? THEY must
have decided that THEY could take advantage of her. HA! Saw through
that plan straight away.
     Genma and Soun were busily slapping themselves on their backs,
telling each other what a perfect couple the two children would
make and laughing in satisfaction. Akane quickly butted in "They're
a couple all by themselves!" Turning back around she continued "If
you ever..." then stopped as she realised that she was talking
to the open front porch door.
     "Good bye!" Ranma and Ranko called back into the house. "I
have to get back to China! OH, before I go!" Ranko let Ranma's hand
drop and headed back onto the porch. "It's no big deal for me to
see a naked girl, after all," she posed, pushing her chest forward,
"I've seen myself plenty of times, right?" Turning her back, Ranko
walked off, "And I'm better built to boot!"
     This time she expected the table.
     Dodging to one side as it swung down and poking her tongue out
as she jumped over the pond she yelled "Biiiiiiiii! What's the
matter, can't handle the truth?"
     In retaliation, Akane first flattened Ranma, who hadn't moved
(except to twitch occasionally) from where Ranko had left him,
and _then_ Ranko as she stumbled from the sudden influx of pain.

Later, as Ranko and Ranma, sporting various bandages and huge
bruises, some of which appeared to be in the shape of a hand, sat
together outside, Genma leaned over and imparted his brand of
fatherly wisdom. "She's got spunk. That just makes a fiancee
cuter."  Nodding sagely, he almost missed their muttered reply,
"Cute is definitely not the word."
     Inside, around the table, another conversation was taking
place. "Ranko is a boy you know, she can't judge those sort of
things. Okay?" Nabiki leaned in forward. "No!" Akane snapped
back, "Okay is not the word!"
     Akane then proceeded to deliberately cut one of the heads
off the paper cut outs that she'd made. All of them seemed to
have suffered some horrible fate; there were those that had limbs
torn off, those that had been burnt, those that had been bent at
weird angles and, if one looked at the plant in the corner, those
that had been buried. The surprising thing was that they all bore a
striking resemblance to either Ranma or Ranko.

*************************************

[Authors Rant.]

Well there you go, Part 2 done... (Woweeee! Lookit all the errors Ma!)

Part 3 is planned out, anyone out there that's hanging out for it,
should start to look for it in a few more weeks...

Whispy thoughts abound for the other 7 parts, however, most of the main
plot points are filled in...

Po xion will probably be back, around the time that Shampoo and Cologne
show up... (What's she gonna do tho'? *grin*)

The timeline for the story will be within the first few days / week that
Ranma is at the Tendou's, so that means that Shamps, Ryouga and Cologne
will all show up earlier than in the canon... (After all, Shamps will
have no trouble following the 'red headed bitch' this time - she can't
change into anything else to 'get away'.)

I've seen two reactions to Akane kicking Ranko in the second scene, One
that says "OOC : she wouldn't kick Ranko as she's not a preverted boy;
she's a perverted _girl_" and the second that laughs, accepts it and
goes on with the story... Having only read the first 13 manga (English)
the only place that I can think to turn to is when Akane meets Tsubusa.
When they're convinced that he's a she Akane tries to shake his hand off
hers (pg 92 Viz graphic novel #9) To me she looks fairly annoyed and
thats just with a hand hold (when you consider what happens in the
alternate ending to chapter 1 -Brrr-)... Anyway I think it's IC, but
only you can decide for yourself... First person to show me an 'Akane
meets perverted girl' scene (where all these questions can be answered)
in the manga gets a special badge. *holds up a 'Mirror, mirror - The
movie' Badge* One of a kind, never be used...

And finally, thanks to the pre-readers for this chapter...

Cherry Tiger,
Chris Rowley,
H-Packrat,
Nathan Baxter,
Sigurd,
The Eternal Lost Lurker

Without whom I would have sent this out with even more errors than are
still within *grin* ...

(If your name isn't on this list, and you did pre-read, it's 'cos you
haven't gotten back to me...)

Hey, If you've read all this way, especially if you've read chapter 1
and the prologue as well, why not send me something telling me how much
you loath this fic...

All C&C appreciated (love those games of Command and Conquer *grin*),
MSTs encouraged (well at least not discouraged), and flames... well...
I'm a student, I need something to keep me warm.

Later,
  Mike.