Well, I'm getting tired, so I'm going to go home and go to bed.

But I did happen to complete some more.

(You know free time is fun...I might even be able to write a chapter of 
story a day!  ^_-)

Hitomi

***

	It was now night at the Tendo home, the only place in the world 
that taught the secrets of the art of Indiscriminate Grappling, and a 
place where a rather unusual conversation was now taking place.
	They were seated for supper, the three Tendo girls on one side of 
the table opposite a man in his forties wearing a white gi and a young 
man with dark black hair wearing a Chinese outfit that consisted of a 
dark red top and pants.  The girls looked nervously over at the pair, 
unsure what to make of them or the statement that the young man was named 
Ranma.  It was impossible that this was the same girl with the guardian 
Panda.
	Of course, supper had started a little bit late.
	It had taken a while, because Akane had to calm down and finish 
her bath and everyone had eaten while the explanations, at least the 
basic ones were held over dinner.  Kasumi, Nabiki, and Akane had been 
stunned silent over the whole thing, with Akane looking as though she had 
been deeply betrayed.  For most of the meal there were uncomfortable 
silences, and disbelieving stares at the young man sitting across the 
table from them.
	Ranma, for his part, was absolutely embarrassed, keeping to 
himself, and trying to avoid the accusatory glare that Akane kept 
throwing his way.  He already felt guilty enough and now, the only friend 
he had made in years, in fact the only friend he had, was angry at him.  
He couldn't really blame her however, she had good reason, thanks to his 
secret which had made an embarrassing situation earlier in the day that 
much worse.
	After supper, they left the table and sat facing one another 
again, Soun acting as an intermediary between his daughters and his 
friend.  "I'll explain it once again.  This is my old friend and training 
partner..."
	Genma took over, "Saotome Genma.  And this is my son..."
	Ranma then took over from him, "Saotome Ranma."


An Alternate History of Ranma 1/2:

Chapter Two:

Will the real Ranma please...

A fan fiction based on Takahashi Rumiko's Manga series, Ranma 1/2

Saotome Ranma, Saotome Genma, Saotome Nodoka, Tendo Akane, Tendo Soun, 
Tendo Kasumi, Tendo Nabiki, Kuonji Ukyou, Hibiki Ryouga, P-chan, Shampoo, 
Moose, Kuno Tatewaki, Kuno Kodachi, and Hinako Sensei are copyright 
1987,1996 by Takahashi Rumiko.

Publishing rights:

Japan:              Shogakukan Inc. Tokyo
Hong Kong:          Jademan (Holdings) Ltd.
North America:      Viz Inc.

By Ichinohei Hitomi

	Akane was having none of it, she was extremely embarrassed, very 
angry and was feeling very betrayed.  How, could the girl she had spent 
the afternoon with, the girl who she had shared thing with, things that 
she wouldn't have told a boy do this to her.  How could Ranma turn out to 
be a boy!
	Ranma for his part was staring at Akane, not knowing what to say 
or what to do.  She was rather cute, wearing that pink night gown, but 
they way she was staring at him, the way she had reacted, he knew that 
she felt like he was the scum of the earth.
	Nabiki started into the question, not being as angry as Akane, 
but a little more level headed.  She was still incensed at having been 
fooled twice in one day.  First by thinking the girl who had shown up 
earlier was a boy, when she wasn't and now by this boy claiming to be 
that same girl.  "What is this all about?"
	Kasumi had the same questions in her head, but for different 
reasons.  She could see from the look in Ranma's eyes that he wasn't 
interested in her, and could also see that there was already some sort of 
connection between him and Akane.  Also from the looks of things, Nabiki 
would not have anything to do with him if she could help it.  More likely 
her sister would be waiting for some chance to get vengeance for what she 
would consider a huge betrayal of honour.  "Are you really her?" she 
questioned, trying to think of what could be done, "Are you really that 
same girl?"
	Genma had been contemplating how to answer that question all 
night.  While his usual habit was to avoid, prevaricate, and generally 
rewrite situations to his own advantage, in this case he felt it 
necessary to tell the truth.  But he still had a problem with 
believability.  "Hhhhmmmmm....Where should I begin?"  He stated as he put 
a finger to his forehead.
	He suddenly said "I know!", quickly turned and grabbed Ranma 
tossing him towards the fish pond.
	Soun had watched this dispassionately, knowing what would happen 
and knowing that there was nothing to be done for it.  His daughters had 
to know the full situation, and that meant that they had to see a 
dramatic demonstration.  If only the fickleness of the Kami could be 
understood.
	Ranma was only concerned about the fact that he was headed face 
first into a pond of cold water.  "Hey!"
	He never got the chance to say anything more as he splashed into 
the surface of the water and sank out of site.  The courtyard was silent 
for a few moments before it's peace was broken once again.  Out of the 
fountain, came the Ranma the girls had first been introduced to.  An 
extremely angry Ranma who had water coming down in a stream from her hair 
which was now highlighted with a red tinge.  "What the HELL do you think 
you're doing?!"
	Akane stared, unable to say anything, unable to do anything.
	Nabiki looked at the girl with a question in her eyes.  Maybe 
there was something that could be done.  Not marriage, she wasn't a 
lesbian, but perhaps..."mmm?"
	Kasumi looked on, her eyes going a bit wide as she stated the 
obvious, her mind wondering how she could begin to resolve the situation 
and keep everyone happy.  "Now he's a girl!"
	Genma could hardly keep in his feelings, his shame at what had 
happened to his son.  Standing up and walking to the edge of the pond, he 
looked on, tears streaming from his eyes as he thought of the curse which 
had changed their lives, "That this should happen to my own son.  It's so 
humiliating, so very humiliating!"
	Of course, he shouldn't have said that with a wet Ranma around.
	Ranma had climbed out of the pool obviously very, very angry and 
very, very wet.  As far as she was concerned, the reason that she was now 
a girl, in fact the only reason that she became a girl in the first place 
was because of her father.  Her idiotic, unthinking, stupid, father.  Not 
saying a word, Ranma went behind her father and kicked him deep into the 
middle of the pond.
	The three girls looked on, quite shocked, as Genma also 
disappeared beneath the water, somehow suspecting what would happen, but 
hoping that it wouldn't.
	Ranma waited at the edge of the pond until the giant Panda, which 
everyone had earlier assumed was her guardian rose out of the water, the 
pants having fallen off and the top having split open.  "Who are _you_ to 
talk?" she questioned, her face a mask of grim rage at what was going on.
	Kasumi was the only one of the girls who could see past the 
obvious shock of the shape changing abilities of their guests.  She had 
to think, start to make plans and formulate possible ways to keep peace 
in the house.  If there was anything that she would not allow, it was the 
peace of her home to be disrupted, or at least make it seem as though it 
wasn't disrupted.  To do that, she had to have some information.  
"Father?  Why are you friends with them?"
	Soun for his part was nervous as to how to answer that question.  
No doubt it was a good one, and there was also no doubt that his daughter 
was correct in a way, but Genma was more than a friend to Soun.  To him, 
Genma was more like his brother given all the trial they had faced 
together, including one which made everything else pale in comparison.  
"They were not like this before daughter.  Not before they went to China, 
and undertook a terrifying training exercise in a place that has been 
shrouded in mystery.
	Kasumi shook her head.  Everyone she knew seemed to do martial 
arts of some type or another, and they all had this fascination with 
finding out all sorts of obscure information, sometimes to their own 
detriment.  "Well, we should let them change back, especially if they are 
going to tell us what happened."
	Soun smiled slightly as he nodded, "You are correct about that."

***

	Genma kneeled in front of the Tendo's knowing that he would have 
to explain his actions to a far more critical audience than he had 
expected.  His voice began the tale, a strong voice, one not filled with 
a lot of emotion, and one not filled with pride, "It all began two 
fateful weeks ago when we were training in China.  We came across a 
legend describing a training ground for martial artists known as Jusenkyo."
	"At the time, we didn't know exactly what we were getting into, 
so we hired a guide, a man who had left himself in the days of Mao and 
went to the training ground, and to find out what could be learned there."

***

	The guide, an old man with a bald head hiked up the hidden trail 
leading to the forbidden training grounds.  He was wearing a brown 'Mao' 
outfit that had been popular with the Chinese during the 'Cultural 
Revolution' in which China had either killed, jailed, or exiled their 
best doctors and scientist, knowing that their dictatorship would never 
survive if the people had an education.
	He had lived in this area all of his life, the remoteness meaning 
that he and others could escape the eyes of Beijing.  Here and there, 
hidden in the mountains, were the legendary 'wise men'.  People who had 
hidden themselves and their books, documents, and papers during the great 
scrounge.
	He himself was one, being not only the guide, but the caregiver 
of Jusenkyo.  Looking back, he noted the two.  Like others who had come 
here before them, they were martial artist.  People who had come to the 
accursed area in search of knowledge or power.  Power which was hidden 
away and could never truly be released without dire consequences, and 
others had learned.
	As they rounded the bend, he turned to his clients and pointed 
out to the various bamboo poles stuck in what seemed to be hundreds of 
pools that littered the floor of the valley.  "Here sir.  This is the 
legendary training ground known as Jusenkyo."
	Genma looked out at all of the pools, seeing nothing that special 
as had been advertised by that hard to find guide book.  His face 
hardened, they had made the journey here barefoot as usual in order to 
train, and train they were, no mater the state of the training area.  
"Are you prepared, Ranma?"
	Ranma looked on, not really impressed by the area, and seeing 
only the small bits of ground, the bamboo poles of varying length ranging 
from about five feet to twenty feet in height.  Not really something to 
be worried about when the Saotome School of Indiscriminate Grappling 
based most of it's moves on leaping and aerial abilities.  "This place 
isn't so great."
	They took off their backpacks and placed them aside as the guide 
looked out at the pools, contemplating all that was there.  "You are very 
strange one, true sir?  This place very dangerous to use.  No one use now."
	The guide spread his hands out, showing the entire valley, a 
valley that he knew much more about than he wanted to know.  "Is more 
than one hundred springs here and each one have it own legend that very 
tragic."
	At that moment, Genma had gotten tired of listening to the old 
man.  Although he might know the legends, and that would be useful, it 
was obvious that this place was not dangerous.  The bamboo poles were 
fresh, just striped not too long ago or they would have rotted from the 
water and cracked in the winter.  He leapt up towards a pole that was 
approximately ten feet above the ground.  "Ranma, follow me."
	Ranma lost no time in following his father, and tightening his 
belt in mid air.  They each landed upon one of the longer poles that were 
situated in the pools, some only having one, others having as many as ten 
depending on the pools size.  Ranma was calm, watchful and waiting, 
wondering what his father had in mind in bringing him to this place.  
Other than practicing good balance and judgment, there would be nothing 
really new here for him to learn.
	The guide grew scared as he saw what the two were doing.  It was 
unheard of for a visitor to these training ground not to listen to the 
tales of the pools before deciding weather or not to attempt to cross the 
valley on top of the poles, each trying to prevent the other from getting 
to the other side.  There was much danger here, danger the two artist, 
the two idiots would soon find out about if they did this.  "Aaahhhh!  
Sir, what you doing?"
	He wished the travelers had been able to speak Mandarin as he was 
only able to speak a little of the Japanese language. 
	Genma landed in a crane stance, his face immediately going into 
battle mode, hiding his feelings and his abilities.  In this case, both 
were going to advertise their movements to the other, their was no help 
for that, but what they could do, and what they would do was minimize 
their patterns once airborne.  "I will not go easy on you, my son."
	Ranma had landed in the beetle pincers position.  It was not 
really designed for one footed combat, but it was easy to hold and also a 
classical defense towards the Crane attack.  Using the 'pincer' he could 
easily use the strength of the crane against the attacker.  "That's how I 
want it father.  I wouldn't have it any other way."
	The guide now was trying desperately to get the attention of the 
two guest as they started for each other.  They were not even going to 
try to get to the other side of the pools, they were going to fight above 
them!  Such foolishness!  He had to try one last time.  "Please sir!  
Very bad if you fall in spring!"
	He was too late.
	The two of them had leapt towards one another, Genma changing his 
basic crane stance in mid-air to that of the hawk, hoping to throw the 
boy off.  He went in at a low trajectory, going for speed, not stealth.
	Instead of doing the expected, which would have been to change 
his stance, Ranma leapt more up than forward, waiting for the attack that 
he knew his father would use.
	Genma shouted out what he was going to do, and switched his 
attack in mid-flight to a frontal side kick with his legs.
	Ranma twisted his body, using his center of gravity as the 
rotational point to point the pincers to the ground, taking advantage of 
his father by using his foreleg as a solid surface.  He pushed up and 
flipped around, his father unintentionally allowing him to stay in the 
air much longer, and using that, then kicked Genma in the back straight 
down into a pool.  Ranma landed back on the same pole he had started 
from, while Genma had landed, face first, in the water.  "Gotcha!"

***

Ichinohei Hitomi
Hitomi@terminal.autobahn.mb.ca
http://terminal.autobahn.mb.ca/~hitomi
"The beginings of wisdom is the ability to always ask questions."