ALTERNATIONS Chapter 1

Ranma Arrives
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic by Paul G Harrison
#include <Standard_disclaimer.h>
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Tendou Souun looked at the postcard he had just received from China with
growing excitement. It was from his old friend Saotome Genma. They hadn't
seen each other in almost twenty years. The last time was just after the
birth of his second duaghter. Genma had told him that his wife was pregnant,
and that it was going to be a boy. He and Genma had then decided to engage
Genma's son to one of Souun's daughters. And now, according to the postcard,
Genma was bringing his son, Ranma, back to Japan.

Souun got up and went looking for his daughters. He was a little nervous
about what they would think about the betrothal. He found Kasumi in the
kitchen, and Nabiki in her room, but his youngest daughter, Akane, was
nowhere to be found.

* * * * * * *

Akane carefully placed the brick on the stand. <Why can't they just leave
me alone?> she thought, <haven't I beat them up enough to convince them I
don't want to go out with any of them? Why can't they just LEAVE ME ALONE!>

She raised her fist above her head, and brought it down on the center of the
brick. The brick crumbled into many pieces. <It's all that idiot, Kunou's
fault. If he hadn't ...> She paused to replace the broken brick with a new
one, sweeping the pieces to one side. <Why can't I meet any guys who aren't
obsessed with me? Everyone just wants me, they don't care how I feel!>
"HIIIYAAA" Akane smashed the second brick into dust. She heard someone enter
the doujou, and looked up.

Nabiki was looking at her with an exasperated expression. "You know, Akane,"
Nabiki chided, "If you keep acting like this, you'll never find a real
boyfriend. It's no wonder all the guys at school either think you're weird
or are obsessed with you."

Akane fumed, "Shut up, oneechan. How I act is nobody's business but mine.
Who cares what those idiots think. Not everyone thinks the whole world
revolves around boys like you, Nabiki-oneechan."

"Well, anyway, otousan wants to talk to us." Nabiki said with a smirk, "And
since he didn't know where you were, I came to drag you back to the house.
Let's go." With that, Nabiki turned and left the doujou. Akane stared at the
floor for a moment, controlling her anger. Getting herself under control
again, she followed her sister back to the house.

* * * * * * *

The three sisters sat at the low table. Their father sat across from them,
explaining the situation to them. "My old friend Saotome Genma is coming to
stay with us for a while" Souun said, dreading his daughters' reactions to
his next few remarks. "He is bring his son Ranma with him. For the past ten
years, they have been on nearly continuous training missions. They also train
in Musabetsu Kakuto. Many years ago, Genma and I decided that we wanted to
join our two schools, and to that end we decided to engage his son to one of
you." Souun stopped speaking and prepared for an explosion. He wasn't
disappointed.

"WHAT!" shouted Akane. "How could you do such a thing!? Arranged marriages
are a thing of the past!"

"Akane is right, otousan." said Kasumi. "We've never even met Ranma."

Nabiki interrupted, "Maybe we should wait until we do meet him. Tell us what
he's like, otousan."

"I don't know." Said Souun. "I've never met him either.

"WHAT!!" yelled Akane and Nabiki in unison.

At that moment, they were interrupted by a commotion just outside the gate.
After a bit, it came closer. As it came closer, the four inside could hear
one voice yelling, "Let go of me, oyaji. What do you think you're doing?"

At that, Souun stood up. "That must be them!" He rushed towards the front
entrance. "Saotome-kun, is that you?"

Nabiki followed him, thinking, <I hope he's cute.>

Just a few seconds later, they both came racing back into the room, followed
by a rather LARGE panda carrying what appeared to be a teenaged boy.

"Is THAT you old friend, otousan? asked Nabiki. At the sight of her father's
head shaking rapidly side to side, she yelled, "Oh, so this panda just
happened to escape from a zoo and decided to drop by for a visit while
carrying some guy!?"

While Nabiki was recovering her temper, the panda removed the person from
his shoulder, and placed him in front of Souun. He looked rather nervous,
but managed to speak. "Sorry about all of this. I'm Saotome Ranma."

Souun was ecstatic. "You've finally arrived! Oh, I'm so glad to finally meet
you!" Souun embraced Ranma. After a few second he got the feeling that
something was wrong. He released Ranma and stepped back, staring at 'his'
chest. "Uh... " he managed to get out.

Nabiki stepped aroung her father to look at what he was staring at. After
seeing his face she too glanced over at Ranma's chest. Her eyes went wide.
She walked over to Ranma, and poked 'his' chest.

Ranma said quietly, "Could you quit that, please?"

Nabiki found her voice. "Ranma isn't a boy, she's a girl!"

Souun fainted.

* * * * * * *

Souun came to slowly. He heard his daughters talking. It seemed that Kasumi
was speaking.

"Otousan must be very disappointed... " she said as she applied a cold cloth
to Souun's forehead. "Oh look, he's waking up."

Nabiki glanced over at her father. "Some iinazuke this is. Otousan, can't you
tell the difference between a boy and a girl?"

Souun replied, "When Saotome-kun told me he was going to have a son, I
assumed it would be a boy." Having said that, he began to wail.

Nabiki reached over to Ranma and squeezed her breast. "Does this look like a
boy to you, otousan? You should have made sure Ranma was a boy before you
decide to engage one of us to 'him'."

Ranma looked slightly annoyed. "I wish you would stop doing that."

"Yeah" said Akane, "he.. SHE is a guest in our home." She stood up and walked
over to Ranma. "Would you like to see the doujou? I'm Akane. Do you want to
be friends?"

Ranma smiled slightly and got up to follow Akane out of the room.

* * * * * * *

Akane showed Ranma around the doujou, talking idlely about various subjects.
<We have a lot in common. She's really nice. I'm glad she came here. I've
never felt this close to someone I'd just met.> Akane thought to herself.
<Too bad he wasn't a boy.>

She looked up at Ranma and said, "So, you studied Musabetsu Kakuto?"

Ranma glanced at her shyly, "Some... "

A smile lit up Akane's face. "Why don't we have a practice match then?"
Seeing Ranma look uncertain, she added, "Don't worry, I won't hurt you."

Ranma nodded and moved to one end of the doujou. Akane moved to the other
side and took up a defansive stance. She looked across the room at Ranma,
and noticed that she was standing alert, but in a relaxed posture with her
hands behind her. She waited for a few seconds to see if Ranma would try a
fast strike, but Ranma just stood there watching her. Akane decided that she
would have to start the match, so she slowly closed on Ranma. When she got
into range she threw her fist forward in a blow meant to impact on Ranma's
left shoulder. However, Ranma wasn't there to receive it.

Akane turned slightly to one side a faced Ranma again. She lashed out with
her right leg, but Ranma nimbly avoided to blow. She tried a few more blows,
which all missed, before realizing that Ranma hadn't tried to attack her yet,
or even to parry the blows. She just leapt out of the way. "Come on, attack
me." Akane said.

Ranma just kept dodging her blows. <How can she be doing that?> Akane
thought. <Is she reading my moves? Okay, time to try this for real.> Akane
lashed out with her fist as fast as she could. As fast as she was however,
it seemed that Ranma was faster, for her fist crashed into the bamboo wall,
cracking it.

Ranma landed behind her, and gently poke the back of Akane's head. Akane
turned to stare at Ranma with amazement. Then thy both started to laugh.
"Wow. You're really good. You're better than anyone I've ever face before. I
guess it's just as well that you aren't a boy." When she saw a look of
confusion on Ranma's face, she continued, "Well, I'd be kind of embarassed to
lose to a boy."

Ranma looked at her nervously. "Um... Akane... There's something I need to
tell you."

Akane wondered why she was nervous. "What is it?" she said, trying to sound
reassuring.

Ranma seemed to become even more uncomfortable. "Akane, I really enjoyed the
tour and our match, but, well... um... I'm really a boy."

Akane face-faulted. "HUH?"

Ranma sighed. "Let's go find oyaji. It's a long story." He headed out of the
doujou. Akane followed, unsure what to believe.

* * * * * * *

The Tendou's sat at the table with Ranma and Genma. They had both returned to
their natural forms after bathing. Genma was just finishing his explaination
of their curse. Seeing disbeleiving stares on the Tendous' faces, he picked
up Ranma and threw him outside into the pond. When he came up for air, he was
female again.

"What did you do that for, oyaji!?" she yelled. Grabbing a nearby pail she
threw a bucketful of water over Genma. The Tendou's watched in fascination
as Genma turned back into the panda that had arrived only a few hours ago.

Souun stood up and grabbed a kettle of boiling water. "So, Saotome-kun, when
you are splasshed with cold water you become a panda. And hot water changes
you back." As he said this, he poured a generous amount of boiling water on
Genma's head.

"It doesn't have to be that hot, though!" Genma yelled.

Souun ignored him and walked over to Ranma. "When you touch cold water, you
become a girl. When you touch hot water, you change back." He tried to pour
the boiling water on Ranma, but Ranma leapt aside.

"Hot, yes, but not boiling!" Ranma said.

Souun continued, "Well, your problem isn't too bad after all. This is my
oldest daughter Kasumi. She's Ninteen. And here's Nabiki. She's seventeen.
And Akane. She's sixteen. Pick the one you want and she'll be you iinazuke."

Before anyone else could say anything, Ranma siad, "Hey, don't they get any
say in this?"

Nabiki replied, "Sure we do. You want Akane."

Kasumi concurred, "Yes. Akane is the best choice."

Akane fumed, "Why would I be the best choice!?"

Ranma looked at Akane unhappily. "I thought you liked me. We got along pretty
well, I thought."

Akane realized that this was true. They had gotten along very well that
afternoon. The fact that she thought he was a girl shouldn't make any
difference. She looked at Ranma, who was pouring water from the kettle over
his head. As he changed back to a boy, she though <He is handsome. And we
have a lot in common. This might just work out. I shouldn't let a little
embarassment make me so rude.>

Akane opened her mouth and closed it again. She swallowed and said, "Yeah, I
guess we did. As long as everyone agrees that it isn't official, we can try
it and see how it works. Okay?"

Ranma looked relieved. "Okay."

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Author's Notes

As you probably noticed, this pretty much follows the first two manga stories
with only slight modifications to Ranma and Akane's personalities. If I get
enought positive response to this, I will finish the rest of the story arc,
which would take it through to just before Ryouga's intro.

After that, if positive remarks abound, I have two thoughts: continue from
there, or do each stroy arc as if Ranma and Akane change their attitudes in
each one, making this a series of alternate worlds. I'll probably do the
unless requests say otherwise.

C & C welcome. I prefer it to be sent to me directly instead of the list, as
this is my first work. Despite what the Sender line may say, mail to me should
be sent to pgh@best.com or root@pgh.vip.best.com. Thanks.

Ranma 1/2 Copyright Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan/Kitty Fuji TV etc.
Used without permission. No offence intended

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Paul G Harrison <root@pgh.vip.best.com>