= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Lone Wolf Fanfiction Studios Presents
A FanFiction Series
Created and Written
by
Jeremy Mullin
Ranma- Twin Fists of Fury
Based off the characters and situations of “Ranma 1/2,”
created and copyright Rumiko Takahashi
“Ranma- Twin Fists of Fury” is trademark and copyright
1996 Jeremy Mullin and Lone Wolf FanFicton Studios
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
EPISODE 1: A Shock to the System
“I still can’t believe that idiot!!” Akane cried out for the umpteenth
time that evening. She sat fuming at the low table in the living room, listening
to the rain as it beat down almost mercilessly, the storm seeming to reflect her
mood.
“Akane, are you still mad at Ranma?” Kasumi asked from where she
was mixing tea.
Akane, never one to be mad at Kasumi, tried to keep her cool as she
replied, “Of course I’m still mad at him! I mean, what is he thinking?! Bad
enough the jerk goes out with Shampoo the minute school lets out, but on a
night like this?! How can *anyone* be so stupid?!”
“Hey, Akane,” Nabiki called from where she was reading the paper,
“you mind keeping it down a little? It’s hard to concentrate on reading the
Classifieds with all that yelling. And besides, you’ve known Ranma for two
years now. Why should you have to ask?”
Akane just “humphed” as she turned her head and angrily sipped her
tea.
Nodoka looked over from where she was mending one of her son’s
shirts and sighed. “Akane, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t think too harshly of
Ranma about this,” she scolded as much as she could with her usual calm
demeanor. “I don’t like what he did, either, but getting mad at him won’t
really solve anything or make things any better.”
Akane sighed as she slowly calmed down a little, her anger starting to
fade. She never seemed to be able to lose her temper for very long these days
with Nodoka around, even at Ranma.
“I know, Auntie,” she replied sheepishly. “It’s just that he gets me so
mad sometimes at how stupid and gullible he can be, especially with how easily
Shampoo suckered him into another date that Instant Nanniichuan junk again.
I mean, honestly, don’t you think that makes him just a bit stupid?”
“Actually, if you ask me, I’d say it makes him kinda desperate,
Akane,” Nabiki replied, turning her head to throw Akane a grin, “what with
the Jusenkyo springs all gone and everything.”
Akane’s anger suddenly began to come back. “Oh, shut up, Nabiki!”
she snapped. “What do you know, anyway? Just hurry up and find your stupid
apartment so you can move out of here and I won’t have to put up with your
stupid mouth anymore!”
“Akane!” Nodoka was in shock at Akane’s lack of respect towards her
older sister, but was unable to say anything.
Soun, who was over by the door playing shogi with Genma, who was
in human form at his wife’s insistence, was a different matter entirely. “Akane,
I will not tolerate that kind of attitude towards your sister,” he scolded
shakingly. Trying to hold back the tears, he turned to face her and continued,
“And I definitely won’t tolerate your attitude towards Ranma. It’s only one
date, and it’s for a good cause.”
“And what ‘good cause’ may I ask is that?!” Akane shouted as she
slammed her tea cup down and angrily leaned towards her father. “I doubt it’s
any cure, because we both know that junk only works once!”
“Don’t yell at your father!” Soun shouted back, the tears now
streaming down his face. As the two began to face off, they failed to notice
Genma moving the shogi pieces around, or the sudden gasp Kasumi and
Nodoka made as they saw something in the doorway. “Besides, how do you
know it won’t work? For all we know, it could be a different type of Instant
Nanniichuan, one that’s permanent. And once Ranma’s cured, you two can
marry without any hesitat-”
That was when Akane finally lost it. “WILL YOU GET INTO YOUR
THICK HEAD!” she screamed. “THERE IS NO PERMANENT INSTANT
NANNIICHUAN!! YOU THINK SHAMPOO WOULD GIVE IT TO HIM
THAT EASILY?! AND THERE IS NO WAY THAT I’M EVER GOING TO
MARRY THAT STUPID SEX-CHANGING JERK, ESPECIALLY AFTER
THE WAY HE CHICKENED OUT A YEAR AGO!! FOR ALL I CARE,
SHAMPOO CAN JUST HAVE HIM, BUT I HOPE HE ROTS IN HELL FIR-”
“AKANE!!!” Kasumi and Nodoka yelled together, causing Akane to
cringe back a little. She realized that they must have been trying to get her
attention for awhile, otherwise they wouldn’t have yelled so loud or sounded so
hoarse.
“WHAT?!” she yelled back, still angry. But as she turned her head to
where Kasumi and Nodoka pointed to the living room doorway, the anger was
suddenly replaced by shock and a terrible feeling of regret.
A soaking wet Ranma-chan stood in the doorway, leaning against the
frame for support, her breathing coming out short and ragged. She looked like
she’d been through hell, or at least one serious fight. She appeared to be
severely burned, her body covered with blisters and black scorch marks. Even
her hair, usually a vibrant shade of red, was frizzled and slightly blackened,
and was now hanging loosely about her shoulders as her pig-tail was somehow
undone. The only thing she appeared to have on was her red Chinese shirt,
which was held closed only by a couple of its wooden ties, leaving much of it
opened. Her pants, shoes, and boxers were nowhere to be seen. Akane felt a
tightening in her throat as Ranma’s gaze met her’s, a weak, sarcastic smile
creeping across her face.
“N-nice t-to...kn-know...you...ugh...c-c-ca-care...” she weakly
muttered, trailing off as she finally lost her support and collapsed to the floor.
Before she lost consciousness, she added in a whisper, “Unc-c-cute...t-to-
tom...boy...”
Akane never felt as much pain and regret as she did now. Tears were
now streaming down her face, her lips quivering as she struggled to move, her
body refusing to obey the commands of her mind.
“Ranma...” she whispered quietly. “Oh no!!! RANMA!!!!!”
Her body was finally able to move again as she dashed across the room
to Ranma’s side, turning the smaller girl onto her back and cradling her head
in her lap. Akane was only dimly aware of the rest of her family and the elder
Saotomes scrambling towards her and Ranma, pushing and shoving at each
other as they debated on getting to close Ranma or giving him space. They did,
however, agree on one course of action that needed to be taken.
Another mad scramble began in the form of a race to the phone to call
Dr. Tofu.
* * *
A whole half-hour went by and Dr. Tofu still had not arrived yet,
causing the living room of the Tendo Dojo to become something of a mad
house. All it needed right now to make things worse was for Happosai to show
up.
Soun, Genma, and Nodoka sat close together near the futon that the
still-unconscious Ranma was now laying on. Soun, in his typical fashion, was
sobbing uncontrollably, wailing about how Ranma was going to die and would
never be able to marry his little girl. Genma and his wife sat together, Nodoka
leaning against Genma with his arm around her for support, both feeling
helpless as they were unable to do anything for their son/daughter. Nodoka,
always uncomfortable at seeing her son as a girl, had earlier wanted to splash a
little warm water on him to change him back into a male, but that had been
voted against as everyone felt that the sudden change of genders would only
aggravate Ranma’s injuries.
Nabiki sat near the trio of adults, though a bit closer to the futon by its
foot. Secretly, she was pondering in her head as to how much Kuno would pay
for the information that his “Pig-tailed Goddess” had been injured so severely,
as well as how much Kuno would try and punish Ranma for it. However,
proving that she wasn’t *completely* heartless, she kept this to herself. After
all, the last thing she wanted to do was to face a mob of upset sisters and
parents, one of the former no doubt wanting to mallet her into the floor.
Kasumi and Akane were the ones who closest to the futon. Kasumi
was using her limited medical knowledge to tend to Ranma’s injuries, applying
a special herbal solvent to her burns that would help things until Tofu arrived.
Akane continued to cradle Ranma’s head in her lap, gently stroking the
boy/girl’s cheek. Occasionally, she would replace the wet cloth covering
Ranma’s forehead, but still just as helpless to do anything.
“Ranma,” she whispered chokingly, figuring that no one could hear
her, “Ranma, please be all right. I didn’t mean to say those things, I’m sorry.
Just...Just...” She finally broke down and began to cry. “Just don’t die on me,
you jerk!”
Kasumi, who had just finished wrapping up Ranma’s injuries in
bandages and dressing her in a dry tank top and pair of boxers, came over to
Akane and began to hug her. “It’s all right, Akane,” she whispered. “Ranma
is going to be okay. His wounds aren’t that serious, and the solvent that I’ve
applied will help him until Tofu can finish the job.” Kasumi smiled as Akane
began to calm down a little and nod into her shoulder.
“Besides,” Nabiki added somewhat cheerfully, “we all know that
Ranma’s too tough to let a little something like this finish him off.” She
suddenly turned thoughtful for a minute. “Hey, that reminds me. What did
cause this anyway? This definitely does *not* look like your average ki
attack.”
“I don’t think that it was any kind of ki attack, Nabiki,” Kasumi
replied as she let go of Akane. “Judging by the way Ranma’s hair was all
frizzled, I’d have to say that he was electrocuted, somehow.” She paused to
sigh a little, hearing shocked gasps and whistles from the others. “But we’ll
only know for sure when Tofu arrives.”
“Electrocuted, huh?” Genma remarked, frowning slightly as he raised
an eyebrow. Then a big grin suddenly appeared on his face. “Well, now isn’t
that ‘shocking?’ Bwahahahaha-OOF!”
His little repartee ended as an angry Akane and Nodoka both slammed
him upside the head with both mallet and fist, respectively.
“Where is that damned doctor, anyway?!” Nodoka cried, surprising
everyone with her sudden outburst and colorful choice of words, since she never
swore unless she was really upset. “My son is dying and he’s taking forever to
get here!”
“It’s only been half an hour, Auntie. I doubt that counts as ‘forever,’
and I don’t think that Ranma is dying,” Nabiki said. With a frown, she added,
“Though you do got a point. It isn’t like Dr. Tofu to be this late, and his
clinic’s not that far from here. Usually when we call, he’s here faster than you
can say- ”
She was interrupted as the front door was suddenly slammed open and
a gasping voice called out, “Could someone give me a hand, here?!”
“Oh, Tofu’s here!” Kasumi said happily, and got up to greet him at the
door and help him with whatever he needed. She ignored Nodoka, Nabiki, and
Akane mutter, “Well, it’s about time!”
Soun’s crying changed from sad grief to joyful happiness, and he
began dancing about the room with a Rising Sun fan in each hand. “Oh, thank
my ancestors! Dr. Tofu is here! Ranma will live to marry Akane!”
Genma simply grunted in agreement, as his face was still buried into
the floor.
It wasn’t long before Kasumi returned into the living room with Dr.
Tofu behind her. It still surprised everyone that the young doctor had gotten so
used to Kasumi’s presence that his glasses no longer fogged up and he no
longer acted like a complete fool. He still, however, was a bit nervous around
her and tended to stutter a little, but other than that he was able to be the good
doctor he was even with her around. With that problem solved, Tofu had been
able to tell Kasumi how he felt about her, and the two had been dating for
several months. Soun had yet to pressure them into getting married, as he was
still concentrating on Ranma and Akane.
As Dr. Tofu entered the room, everyone was surprised to see that he
hadn’t come alone. The doctor was carrying someone across his shoulders in a
fireman’s carry. With a coat- probably one of Dr. Tofu’s- draped over the
second individual for protection from the rain, no one could really get a good
look to see who it was. All they could see of this other person was the top of
the head- which had black hair- and the black Chinese-style pants and shoes
that the person was wearing. The latter was enough to have everyone realize
that Tofu’s companion was probably male. It was also obvious that he was
unconscious.
“Sorry I took so long,” Tofu said apologetically as Kasumi went to get
another futon, “but as I was leaving I got another patient,” he flicked his head
to the individual across his shoulders, “that I found collapsed on my doorstep. I
had to tend to his injuries before I could come here.”
“It’s all right, Doctor,” Nodoka said as she bowed in greeting, Dr.
Tofu unable to do the same with his load. “Though things were getting a little
tense around here as we wondered where you were. But I am a bit curious as to
why you brought your patient with you.”
Dr. Tofu wasn’t really paying attention right at the moment, as his
attention was suddenly focused on Ranma laying on the futon. “Well I’ll be
damned,” he whispered. “And with the exact same injuries, too. If I didn’t see
it, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
Dr. Tofu looked up to see everyone looking at him strangely, but was
saved as Kasumi returned with another futon and blanket. “Ah, thank you,
Kasumi,” he said as she began laying the futon out next to Ranma’s. Turning
his attention to Genma, he asked, “Genma, could you possibly help set your son
down onto the futon? I’d definitely appreciate it.” This last part came with a
slight groan as he indicated his other patient, shifting his shoulders slightly to
begin setting him down.
Confused just as everyone else, Genma nodded, then got up and
walked over to Dr. Tofu to help as requested. Taking hold of the boy as he
lifted the coat off, he said, “I hope you don’t mind my asking, but what are you
talking about? My son is lying right there on the- Huh?!” He was cut off in
shock as the coat finally came off, fully revealing Tofu’s other patient.
The person was indeed male, and young, about seventeen or eighteen.
He was shirtless, revealing a firm, muscular build that sported some slightly
damp bandages in some spots. His black hair was long, about shoulder-length
or so, and tied back into a braided, Chinese-style pig-tail.
Everyone except Dr. Tofu was shocked at this sight, and the shock
increased as he and Genma set a bandaged and unconscious Ranma-kun onto
the futon next to the one that held a bandaged and unconscious Ranma-chan.
* * *
Kasumi covered Ranma-chan with the futon’s comforter and placed a
damp cloth on her forehead as Dr. Tofu began to wash up. It didn’t take him
long to tend to the unconscious girl’s injuries. They weren’t as severe as his
other patient’s had been, and Kasumi had already gotten the job started prior to
the doctor’s arrival. All Tofu had to do was finish the job with a few pressure
point techniques and a couple more herbal remedies.
Still, for the rest of the Tendo and Saotome clans gathered around the
low table, the wait seemed to last for an eternity. They were anxious to know
the condition of Ranma. Both Ranmas. The other Ranma, the male one Dr.
Tofu had brought with him, continued to lay unconscious on the other futon.
He was wearing fresh, clean bandages that Kasumi had put on to replace the
damp ones he’d been wearing when he arrived with Dr. Tofu. Like Ranma-
chan, he had a comforter covering him up to his chin, with a damp cloth placed
on his forehead.
“It would seem we have something of a dilemma on our hands,” Soun
said from his usual place at the head of the table. He was no longer crying or
wailing uncontrollably, but instead sat with his arms crossed and his head bent
low, serious expression on his face.
“A ‘dilemma?’” Akane echoed. She pounded her fist on the table, her
anger starting to rise again. “This is a ‘dilemma?’ Dad, we have two Ranmas!
As if one wasn’t already bad enough. This isn’t a dilemma! It’s a full-blown
catastrophe!”
“Definitely interesting, though,” Nabiki mused, already trying to think
of some way she could make a profit out this. “Hmmm, I wonder if I should
give Kuno-baby a call...”
“Nabiki!” Akane and Nodoka shouted at the same time so precisely, it
seemed to have been a single voice.
“*Ahem!*” Dr. Tofu cleared his throat to calm people down and get
their attention at the same time. Looking at Nodoka and Akane in a scolding
manner, he said, “I’d appreciate it if you two would keep it down a little. I do
have two patients who are trying to rest, you know.”
“Sorry,” Nodoka and Akane said together sheepishly.
“Doctor, how is my son?” Genma asked, looking up from he was
sitting next to Soun, also with his arms crossed and a serious expression on his
face (which, some will say, was rare for Genma!).
“Which one? The male, or the female?” Tofu replied with a grin.
Seeing the humorless looks of murder everyone was giving him, he let out a
weak chuckle. “Relax, folks, I’m kidding. Seriously though, both of them are
doing just fine. The shiatsu points and medicines that I’ve applied will help
them heal up and recover in no time.”
“Will he...uh, I mean, they suffer any ill effects, Doctor?” Nodoka
asked, her face reddening as she had to correct herself. She was still a bit
shaky at seeing her son in two places and two genders at once, but as a mother
had to treat them equally. It obviously wasn’t easy, though.
Smiling at Nodoka, Dr. Tofu replied, “I doubt there will be any serious
after effects; Ranma’s been through a lot worse, and his body heals pretty
quickly, male or female.” He frowned for a moment. “Still, I’d have to say
that it could’ve been a lot worse, considering he was struck by lightning.”
Everyone, except for Kasumi, cried out at once. “WHAT?!”
Dr. Tofu nodded as calmly as possible. “That’s right. Kasumi did tell
that Ranma had been electrocuted, didn’t she? Well, this was how. When I
found the male Ranma at the clinic, he was in a similar shape, only his burns
were a lot worse. That’s why it took me so long to- OOOF!”
“My baby!” Nodoka cried as she rushed to the side of Ranma-kun,
bowling Dr. Tofu over in the process. She picked his head up to cradle it in her
lap, not noticing the looks being thrown her way.
“Tofu, are you okay?” Kasumi asked, fearful worry in her voice for the
man she loved. She began to help him up, brushing off his clothes.
“N-No problem, K-K-Kasumi,” Tofu stuttered, but still in control and
his normal self. “Living in this neighborhood, I’m used to it.” A round of
chuckling went about at the doctor’s little joke.
“Okay, so now we know what happened to Ranma,” Soun said. “But
how does that explain why there’s suddenly two of him?”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Akane said before Tofu could answer. “Let’s
not jump to conclusions, here. How do we know that these two are really the
male and female Ranmas? For all we know, they could be those two copies of
Ranma’s two forms that were created by that magic mirror. They could’ve
come back and beaten Ranma up, then stashed him somewhere while they go
and try to take his place and cause trouble again.”
“The male Ranma could be a copy, at least,” Nabiki pointed out. “Dr.
Tofu did find him shirtless and soaking wet with cold rain water, so we know
he’s not cursed. We have yet to see about the female one, though.”
“But then how would that explain why they have the same injuries?”
Kasumi asked.
Akane and Nabiki had no answer to that one.
“Kasumi’s right, you two,” Tofu agreed. “Even if one or both of these
two were the Ranma copies- which I know for sure that they’re not, even
though the thought did pop into my head when I found the male Ranma- it
would be impossible for them to have the exact same burns and injuries, even if
they were hit at the same time. The only way for that to have happened was if
they had once shared the same physical body.”
Noticing the shocked expressions on everyone’s faces, Tofu continued,
not waiting for any response. “As for how I know that these aren’t the copies,
I’ll explain. Akane, remember when you and Ranma brought the female copy
over to the clinic for me to examine?” Akane nodded. “Well, the results of my
tests showed me that she wasn’t an exact copy of Ranma-chan, even though she
was physically identical to her. She had a few differences in her ki-levels and
shiatsu points that identified her as a copy or clone of the real Ranma-chan,
similar to what I’d see when if I examined a pair of identical twins. I never did
get to examine the male copy, but I have a feeling I would have got the same
results, since Ranma’s ki-levels and shiatsu points naturally alter a little when
he changes bodies.”
Tofu paused to catch his breath and take a sip of the tea that Kasumi
had provided. He then waved his hand over the two unconscious Ranmas.
“When I tended to the male Ranma’s injuries back at the clinic, I examined
him twice to see if he was also a clone, but found none of the abnormalities that
I found in the female copy. I did the same thing with the female Ranma just to
be sure, and got the same results.”
“But...But then,” Akane gasped in shock, “that would mean...”
Dr. Tofu nodded. “That’s right, Akane. The ki-levels and shiatsu
points are the same as those found in both Ranma-kun and Ranma-chan. No
abnormalities. This is both the real Ranma-kun and the real Ranma-chan, only
somehow now separated into two complete individual living beings.”
Shocked silence fell over the room, the only sound being the wind
blowing outside, the storm having stopped earlier. Everyone seemed to have
forgotten how to even breathe as they tried to soak in the doctor’s words.
“It can’t be...” Nodoka whispered as she stared down at her son.
“Oh my...” Kasumi breathed.
“My son...Could he have found an actual cure?” Genma wondered.
“Okay, now I’m *definitely* calling Kuno-baby,” Nabiki grinned as
she began to stand up.
“Nabiki! How can you be so selfish at a time like this?!” Soun cried as
tears began streaming down his face again.
“Doctor, how could this have happened?” Akane asked Tofu. “How
could a bolt of lightning do something like this?”
“I’m not sure if the two are connected, Akane,” the doctor replied,
rubbing his chin as a thoughtful expression began to form on his face. “But
now that you mention it, it *does* seem like too much of a coincidence. We’ll
only know for sure whenever either Ranma wakes up.”
As if on cue, a soft groan was heard. At Nodoka’s lap, Ranma-kun
began to stir, slightly turning his head left to right. His face was one of slight
pain, his eyes squinted shut and his mouth twisted into a small grimace.
“Speak of the devil,” Nabiki muttered dryly. “Hey Doc, how’d you do
that, anyway?”
“Do what?” a confused Dr. Tofu replied.
“Ranma,” Nodoka whispered softly as she began to stroke her son’s
hair. At some nudging by Soun, Genma moved over to kneel next to his wife
and son. “Easy there, Ranma. Don’t try to move,” Nodoka chided gently.
Ranma-kun, always independent and stubborn, ignored her as he
slowly sat up, the comforter and cloth falling off of him. He rubbed the back of
his head with one hand, while using the fingers of the other to rub his eyes.
“Aw, man,” he groaned, now rubbing his shoulder. “I ache all over.
Anybody get the number of that panda who hit me?”
Several giggles and chuckles came out, save from Genma, who
scowled at his son. Becoming serious again, Nodoka’s concern returned and
she placed a hand on Ranma’s shoulder. “Ranma, how do you feel? Do you
need anything?” She scowled as she heard her husband mutter something
about her coddling the boy.
Ranma-kun turned his head in Nodoka’s direction upon hearing her
voice. He slowly opened his eyes, letting them adjust to the light of the living
room. “W-Who’s there?” he asked in confusion.
Nodoka smiled. “It’s me, Ranma. It’s Mother.” Placing both hands
on his shoulders, she made an effort to get him to lay back down again.
“Please, son. Lay back down, now. You need rest after your ordeal.”
Ranma, however, refused to move. All of a sudden, his whole body
was as stiff as a board. His eyes were now completely open, and he stared in
confusion at Nodoka. From the look on his face, it seemed as if he was trying
to recognize her.
“M-Mom?” he gasped. “Are you...are you really *my* mother?”
Slightly confused, as was everyone else at Ranma’s behavior, Nodoka
slowly nodded once, twice. “Y-Yes, Ranma. I’m your mother.”
Ranma suddenly broke into a wide grin as a look of absolute joy came
across his face. He grabbed his confused mother into a tight embrace. Tofu,
the Tendos, and Genma continued to look on at the scene in utter shock and
confusion. “Aw man, I can’t believe it,” he said, practically on the verge of
tears. “It’s really you, Mom. I haven’t seen you since me and Pop left home
and-” He suddenly stopped short, pulling away from his mother a little but
still holding her. “But, how did you know where to find us? I mean, what are
you doin’ here in China?”
Several large sweat beads appeared on the backs of heads. Genma,
however, had another way of dealing with the situation.
“Quit playing games, boy!” he shouted as he whapped his son on the
head. “In case you’ve suddenly developed a Ryoga-complex, we’re in Japan,
not China! We haven’t been back to China in over a year since that inci-”
*CRASH!* Genma became one with the wall where his wife punched
him, positioned face-first upside-down. After a moment or two, he slid down to
the floor in a heap.
“Is that any way to treat your son when he’s ill?!” Nodoka angrily
shouted. She, nor did anyone else, noticed that the figure lying on the other
futon was starting to stir.
Ranma, however, was now even more confused. “J-Japan? We’re
home? But, last thing I remember, we were at that trainin’ ground in China,
and-” He was stopped short as he stared with wide eyes at his father’s
twitching form.
“Pop!” he shouted in relief. “You’re human, again! Wow, that’s
good! Not that you being a panda was much of an improvement, but it sure
beats havin’ one for a father. Man, imagine what I’d have to tell people,
otherwise.” He suddenly frowned a little, muttered, “Wait a minute, I fell into
one of those pools-”, then began to frantically check himself over, inspecting
just about every angle, front to back, running his hands over himself.
After finishing his inspection, he let out a sigh of utter relief. “Whew!
I’m still me. Guess that pool Pop threw me into was a dud.”
“Are you *sure* you’re feeling all right, Ranma?” Nabiki asked,
looking at Akane out of the corner of her eye and twirling her finger around her
ear while pointing at Ranma.
Ranma only stared at the middle Tendo sister like he would a stranger.
“Uh, who are you?” he asked. He then did a look-around to the other occupants
of the room, staring at Soun, Kasumi, Akane, and Dr. Tofu with total confusion
and unrecognition. “In fact, who are any of you?”
Before any answers or confused questions about Ranma’s behavior
could be given, Ranma-chan sat up, groaning as she rubbed her forehead.
Several surprised heads turned to her direction.
“Whoops,” Nabiki commented, mock-flinching slightly. “I knew we
forgot about something.”
Ranma-kun stared at the figure sitting on the other futon next to him,
muttering, “What the-?”
“Ugh, what the hell hit me?” Ranma-chan moaned. “Jeez, Akane,
what’d ya hit me for *this* time. Stupid, uncute tomboy. If I weren’t a guy,
I’d-” She was cut off as she noticed herself, ignoring a growling, angry Akane
being held back by Kasumi and Nodoka, or the figure sitting next to her.
“Hey, couldn’t you guys give me some hot water or something?!” she
yelled in annoyance. Noticing the tea kettle out of the corner of her eye, she
moved to reach for it. “Oh, never mind,” she growled. “I’ll do it myse- Huh?”
Again, she was cut off, this time by the sight of the boy sitting next to
her and staring at her intently. Ranma-chan and Ranma-kun looked at each
other face-to-face for a long time, while everyone else just sat and waited for
the only obvious upcoming reaction.
Looking at her wrist like she was wearing a watch- which she wasn’t-
Nabiki held up her other hand in the air and pulled each finger down as she
counted off, “Five...four...three...two...one...zero!”
“*YAAAAAHHHHHH!*” Ranma-chan screamed and fell backwards
onto her futon, her body shaking tremendously as she pointed at Ranma-kun.
Surprisingly, he hadn’t screamed in shock, but instead just stared at her with
wide eyes in a sort of calm surprise.
“What the hell is going, here?!” Ranma-chan screamed at the top of
her lungs. “Just who the hell is that, and why does he look like me?!”
“I’d ask the same thing about you, but I don’t *exactly* look like you,”
Ranma-kun replied, pointing at Ranma-chan’s body for emphasis. “And to
answer your question, I’m Ranma Saotome. And you are- ?”
Now Ranma-chan was angry. “You’re- ? Hey, pal, there’s only one
Ranma Saotome around here, and that’s me! So enough with the phony
disguise, impostor!”
“Uh, Ranma,” Akane said sheepishly, “I think there’s something you
ought to know...”
“Look, I ain’t no impostor,” Ranma-kun said to Ranma-chan, both of
them ignoring Akane. “I *am* Ranma Saotome, so don’t go around sayin’
that’s who you are.” He paused for a minute, then added with a smirk,
“Besides, you don’t exactly look like a guy, anyway.”
“Oh, really?” Ranma-chan sneered. Grabbing the tea kettle, she said
with confidence, “We’ll just have to see about that, won’t we? Check this out!”
She then went and poured the contents on her head.
“I guess I’ll have to go make some more tea,” Kasumi sighed, then got
up and went into the kitchen.
Finishing pouring the hot liquid on her head, Ranma-chan tossed the
kettle away and said confidently, “Hah! What do you have to say now,
impostor?!”
“Uh, what was that supposed to do?” Ranma-kun confusingly asked.
“Aside from get you wet, I mean.”
Ranma-chan looked at him like he was stupid, then began to realize
what he meant when she looked at herself, finding a very female body.
“AAAAHHHH!” she screamed again as she grabbed herself and felt
her breasts, discovering that she wasn’t hallucinating. “What happened?! Why
didn’t it work?! Why didn’t I change back?!”
“I’m afraid that neither of you will be changing bodies from now on,”
Dr. Tofu said with a sigh. “After all, you’re both no longer sharing the same
body, which means neither of you are now cursed. Sorry.”
“*WHAT?!?!?!?!?!* Ranma-chan screamed. Her whole body froze in
place in total shock from what she had been told.
“Ranma’s found the cure! I’m not going to turn into a panda
anymore! Hooray!” Genma began to dance around the room with Soun, who
was crying with joy.
“Yes!” Soun added. “And now, Ranma and Akane can marry without
any complications!”
“What?! What the hell are you people talking about, Pop?!” Ranma-
kun yelled. Glancing around the room, he added, “And for that matter, for the
last time, who are you people?!”
Akane had finally reached her boiling point. She reached over and
gave Ranma-kun a good slap across the face. “All right! That’s it! I have had
enough!” she yelled angrily. “Ranma, this stupid joke has gone on far enough!
Now quit being the stupid asshole you are and stop kidding around!”
“Ow! What did you do that for?” Ranma-kun yelled back as he
pressed his hand to his bruised cheek. “I never did anything to you! I’ve never
even seen you before in my whole life!”
Somewhere inside her being, Akane could feel that he was telling the
truth. Her heart suddenly felt like it had been cast into an icy bottomless pit.
“W-What?” she croaked quietly as her eyes began to tear up.
“Doctor, what’s wrong with my son?” Nodoka asked Tofu, who
watched the scene before him in fascination. “Why is he acting like this?”
“I don’t think that he is acting, Nodoka,” Tofu replied. “Just a second.
Ranma?” He reached over and tapped the boy’s shoulder.
Ranma-kun flinched for a moment at the doctor’s touch. “What?” he
said defensively, his body language showing he was preparing for a fight.
Tofu smiled and gave a slight chuckle. “Relax, Ranma. I’m a doctor.
I just want to ask you a couple of questions.”
Ranma-kun relaxed a bit, sensing the kind gentleness of the young
doctor, but remained a bit on the defensive. “O-Okay. What do you want to
know?”
“Well, for starters,” Tofu began as Kasumi came back into the room
with a couple fresh pots of tea, “do you recognize anyone in this room? Anyone
at all?”
Ranma-kun did a look around the room, taking a quick glance of the
other occupants but staring at them intently enough. He even took a glance at
the still frozen-in-place Ranma-chan. He shook his head.
“Sorry, but the only person in this room that I recognize is my old
man,” he answered despondently. Looking at his mother, he quickly added,
“And my mom, though not really. I haven’t seen her since Pop took me off on
our trainin’ trip when I was little. I’m sorry, but I don’t know any of the rest of
you.”
The reactions were various. Kasumi just blinked and whispered, “Oh
dear...”; Nabiki just cocked an eyebrow in fascination; Nodoka let out a breath
of relief, thankful to the gods that her son remembered her, if only just barely;
Akane began to tremble, staring at her fiancee in shock; Soun and Genma stood
where they were and looked at each other out of the corners of their eyes; Dr.
Tofu “Hmmm”ed in a professional manner; Ranma-chan was still frozen in
shock, but was starting to tremble a little.
“Interesting,” Tofu muttered. “All right then, could you tell me what
the last thing is that you remember?”
Ranma-kun blinked a couple of times, then frowned. “Well,” he
began, “I remember that me and the old man were in China, like I said before.
We were looking for this trainin’ ground Pop read about. Some place called
Jusenkyo, I think it was.
“Anyway, we find the place, and the guide we hired is yelling at us
about the springs being cursed or somethin’ while me and Pop are getting down
to business, jumpin’ about the poles while we were sparrin’ until I manage to
get an advantage on the old man and knock him into one of the pools.”
“And let me guess,” Nabiki interrupted, “a panda wearing your
father’s clothes jumped out at you, threw you into another spring, where you
came out as a girl, right?”
Ranma-kun blinked in surprise at her. “Hey, yeah, that’s right. Well,
except the last part. When I landed in that spring, I blacked out. I guess I
musta lost consciousness or something. And then I woke up here.” He gave
Nabiki a conspiratorial look. “But how the heck did you know about all that,
anyway?”
“Because that’s what you told us when you arrived here about two
years ago,” Soun replied.
Ranma-kun’s lower jaw seemed to drop down to about a foot shy of the
floor as his eyes bugged out of his head. “WHAT?! Y-You mean I’ve been
unconscious for two years?!”
“Not exactly,” Tofu said as he hit some shiatsu points to calm the boy
down. Before either of them could say anything else, a female scream filled the
room.
“What do mean I can’t change back into a guy?!” Ranma-chan yelled,
grabbing Dr. Tofu by the front of his gi. She then growled bitterly, “Oooo, I’m
gonna kill Shampoo for this!”
“Why would you want to kill a hair-care product for? What’d it ever
do to you?” Ranma-kun asked in confusion. He looked about at the giggles and
snickers he received. “What? Did I say somethin’ funny?”
Holding his breath to calm himself, Tofu replied, “We’ll tell you later,
Ranma. Right now, I need to talk with your, uh, twin, I suppose.” Turning to
Ranma-chan, he said to her, “Ranma, I don’t think that Shampoo is directly
involved in this, but I need you to tell me what happened on that date of yours
tonight.”
Calming down a little, Ranma-chan nodded despondently. “Okay, I
guess it can’t hurt.” She paused to clear her throat. “Well, you know how
Shampoo offered that Instant Nanniichuan stuff in exchange for a date, right?
Anyway, we go on the date, going to dinner and a movie. You know, the usual.
And this is while I’m still a guy, mind you. So, anyway, we’re out walking in
the Ginza...”
* * *
Ranma Saotome never felt so uncomfortable in his life. It wasn’t
exactly easy to narrow one’s way through the crowds of the Nerima Ginza,
especially when one had a purple-headed Chinese Amazon clinging onto their
arm with a dreamy look on her face. The way Shampoo was smiling and
sighing occasionally was making Ranma rather embarrassed. He wanted to
hurry up and get the date over with so he get his hands on the Instant
Nanniichuan Powder after he took Shampoo home and become a whole guy
again. All night he kept ignoring the rational part of his brain- nothing
unusual for Ranma- who kept saying that he was wasting his time, that the
“cure” was a one-shot piece of junk, and that Shampoo was stringing him along
again like the gullible idiot he was. He would’ve hit that part of his brain if he
could for that last part; after all, he wasn’t Mousse or Ryoga.
Besides, Ranma was desperate. He wanted to be cured, and he was
willing to do anything, go to any lengths, to become a normal guy again.
Ranma looked over at Shampoo again, wondering how she could be so
happy being with him, clinging onto his arm and resting her head on his
shoulder, when he had spent much of the date looking for trouble in the form of
either Kuno, Mousse, Ryoga, Ukyou, Kodachi, and/or, more importantly,
Akane. After all, any one of them could be following Ranma and Shampoo at
the moment, waiting for the right moment to pounce and attack. That would
ruin the date and any chance Ranma had to be cured.
Of course, the storm that was starting to brew overhead could also do
the job on its own quite nicely.
“Oh, Shampoo so happy,” Shampoo sighed dreamily, interrupting
Ranma’s train of thought. He had to smirk at how that, despite the fact she’d
lived in Japan for over a year and a half, Shampoo still couldn’t speak perfect
Japanese. He wondered if she was even taking the effort to learn.
“Um, why do you say that, Shampoo?” Ranma asked nervously,
looking for any sign that the rain was going to start.
“Get be on wonderful date with woda airen,” Shampoo replied.
“Away from Great-Grandma, and stupid Mousse, and Ugly Tomboy Pervert
Girl, and Not-nice Spatula Girl, and Psycho-crazy Gymnast Girl, and-”
“We ain’t married yet, Shampoo,” Ranma grumbled, trying hard not
to add “As if I ever *would* marry you,” and get on the Amazon’s bad side.
“And it ain’t nice to call people names, even if you don’t really like ‘em.”
“Why not?” Shampoo said slyly. “*You* do.”
Ranma winced a little, then sighed. “Yeah, yer right. I guess I ain’t
one to really talk, huh?” He paused for a moment, then looked up towards the
darkening sky. “And another thing. Why’d you pick such a lousy night to go
out on a date, anyway?”
Shampoo giggled. “Silly airen. It perfect night be out on date.”
Waving her hand up above them towards the sky, she added, “See? Moon out
and shining, pretty stars in sky, is not too warm or chilly...”
Ranma was rolling his eyes at this point, amazed at how much
Shampoo wasn’t grasping the concept. “Shampoo, it’s gonna start to storm any
minute now,” he said, interrupting her. He pointed skywards. “You see those
clouds, Shampoo? The ones covering the shiny moon and the pretty stars?
Those are rainclouds, Shampoo. That means it’ll rain soon. Which means
we’ll get wet, and I think we both know what’ll happen if we do. Right?”
Placing a finger on her chin, Shampoo blinked a couple of times as she
seemed to run this through her head. “Hmm. Good point,” she said.
Ranma smiled, thankful that she was finally able to figure it out.
“Right. So listen. We’ve done basically everything, so why don’t I take you
home, we
finish the date, you give me the powder, and everybody’s happy. Okay?”
“But airen,” Shampoo said as she suddenly stopped and let him go to
stand in front of him. “We no do everything Shampoo plan for date. Is still
one more thing to do before Shampoo give airen Instant Nanniichuan.”
Ranma ground his teeth a little bit, trying to keep from exploding
outright. Putting on his best false-happy face, he said, “Okay, I give. What
exactly is it we have to do that’s so important we have to do it tonight?”
Rather than answer him with words, Shampoo simply smiled, reached
into her purse, and pulled something that Ranma suspected was some kind of
strange drug or ancient Chinese Amazon magical item.
However, it was neither. It was a key, just a plain, simple, ordinary
key. She was holding it by its keychain, a simple brass rectangle that had a
number “434” stamped into it, the key itself just dangling in the air.
Confused, Ranma said, “Uh, Shampoo, what is that?”
Shampoo giggled. “You silly Ranma. Is key.”
“I can see that,” Ranma frowned. “What I’m asking is, what is it
for?”
“Is to hotel room Shampoo reserve for tonight,” Shampoo responded
with a sly smile on her cute face. “For big finish of date.”
Ranma stared at her blankly for a few moments, wondering what the
heck she was talking about. Then, in a sudden burst of intelligence, he figured
it out.
“W-Wait a minute,” he stammered, stepping back a little bit. “You
don’t mean...”
Shampoo nodded. “That right, airen. Shampoo want spend rest of
night making airen happy. Prove be better wife than Spatula Girl or Ugly
Tomboy. Shampoo even splurge to get best honeymoon suite.” She paused to
point to the rather tight red Chinese silk dress with gold dragon embroidery
that showed off her curves rather nicely. “Shampoo even wear something
special for airen.”
<Yeah, and I bet it’s only that dress,> Ranma thought nervously as he
made a loud gulp in his throat. As he checked to see if any bystanders were
watching them, he noticed that a grin had appeared on Shampoo’s face, one
that both evil and seductive. Before he could say anything, she said, “What you
say, airen? Date no over with, otherwise. And you no get Instant Nanniichuan
from Shampoo.” She waved the familiar packet in front of her in emphasis.
Ranma mentally kicked himself for being so stupid. He should’ve
known that Shampoo would’ve planned something like this. After all, she’d
tried to seduce him so many other times before, and now she had a real
leverage that Ranma couldn’t get out of. He needed that powder, and he *was*
willing to go to any lengths to get it. But this? Sure, he’d be cured, but he’d
also be a dead man after a few certain individuals finished beating the tar out of
him. Not to mention there was how disappointed his mother would be at his
actions. Ranma needed to get out of this situation, and fast. But he also needed
that powder. This was definitely a problem.
Suddenly, he felt his whole body tense up as he felt an all too familiar
sense of danger. He quickly jumped to the side, narrowly evading the razor-
sharp throwing blade that would’ve sliced through his Achilles’ Tendon had it
made contact. As he began to throw his head this way and that, looking for his
would-be attacker, a familiar voice spoke from behind him and Shampoo.
“Ranma Saotome.” At the mention of his name, Ranma turned to see
a familiar figure standing at a not-too-far-off distance. A figure who had long
black hair and wearing a long white Chinese robe that was tied with a red sash,
his hands hidden in the robe’s sleeves, his head was bent low to the point where
his eyes were hidden by his bangs but keeping the lower half of his face visible.
Despite the young man’s still calmness, his manner and tone of voice was that
of a fighter ready to do battle.
“I had always considered you to be a somewhat honorable sort,
Saotome,” Mousse continued, his voice starting to become a little shaky, “and
perhaps even a friend, despite our rivalry for the heart of the lovely Shampoo.
But after what I have witnessed tonight, however, I have come to realize that is
not the case.” Mousse now lifted his head to fully reveal his face, his anger,
pain, and misery all visible in his eyes. His ki began to flare up as his battle
aura surrounded his body.
“I refuse to let you seduce my beautiful Shampoo, the one whose heart
rightfully belongs to me!” he cried as he struck a battle stance. “Let this be the
final battle that determines who will have Shampoo as his bride! Prepare to
die, Ranma!!!”
“P-P-Please d-d-don’t hurt m-me!” The junior high school kid in the
red sweater and black slacks was shaking in fear at the sight of the angry
martial artist in front of him. Nearby, his girlfriend was scowling at the poor
boy, wondering what all this talk was about him seducing somebody else’s
girlfriend.
A dumbfounded Mousse blinked a few times. As usual, he wasn’t
wearing his glasses.
Ranma rolled his eyes back into his head again, watching the events
before him with some little annoyance. If there was one thing that he hated, it
was being threatened, especially if it by some guy who couldn’t barely see his
own hand a couple of inches from his face. Finally, he let out a long sigh,
experience telling him there was only one way to handle this.
“Never a dull moment,” he muttered to himself. Grinning confidently,
he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt a little more. “Hey, Mousse, I’m over here,
ya moron. And if it’s a fight you want, heh, well you *know* I’m gonna
obligee.” He cracked his knuckles, then, turning to Shampoo with an assuring
smile, he said, “Hang on a sec, Shampoo, this won’t take a- Huh?”
Ranma blinked a couple times as he found himself cut off, as he
noticed that the Amazon was no longer next to him. As he began to look
around for her, he caught something that was tossed into his hands.
It was Shampoo’s purse. Then that would mean...
“Stupid Mousse! You ruin Shampoo’s date with Ranma! I KILL!!!”
Upon hearing the battle-cry, Ranma looked up to see the Amazon
warrior beauty beating up her blind, would-be suitor, pounding on him with her
bonbori maces (which she had somehow pulled from out of nowhere) while at
the same time shouting some apparently rather colorful phrases in Chinese.
This, naturally, drew a crowd, albeit a small one, most of the bystanders having
enough common sense to move along.
Ranma smiled and laughed weakly, a big drop of sweat appearing on
his forehead. Then a thought suddenly popped into his head. He opened up
Shampoo’s purse, and, peering into the contents inside, he found what he was
looking for.
Packets of Instant Nanniichuan Powder. Several of them, one the real
deal, the rest fake. And since Shampoo obviously couldn’t hide any packets on
her person with that incredibly small and tight dress of her’s...
Opportunity suddenly began to knock rather loudly.
* * *
*WHAM!* “You pervert!!!”
Ranma-kun picked himself up from the floor, rubbing the spot on his
head where Akane had malleted him. “Ow! Jeez, what the hell did you do
that for?!”
Akane glared back at him, cracking her knuckles to ready her fist to
knock him into orbit. “You have to ask me that? *You’re* the one who was
about to sleep with that Chinese tart so you could get your precious powder!”
“Do you have some kind of memory problem or something?” Ranma
replied, angry yet remaining a somewhat shaky calm. He ignored the snicker
someone made at his “joke.” “I don’t even know what you’re talking about,
and I especially don’t know who this ‘Shampoo’ person is. In case you forgot,
I’ve been unconscious for the last two years since I was at that Jusenkyo place.”
Akane was about to make an angry retort back at him, but was stopped
short as his words sank in. She remembered the evening’s earlier events when
Ranma-kun came to, not knowing anyone beyond his parents. She looked over
to Dr. Tofu, who was tapping his head and nodding. Next to him, Ranma-chan
looked at Akane with an annoyed expression on her face while muttering,
“Moron.”
Akane suddenly looked sheepish and sank back a little. “Sorry,” she
said as her face furiously flushed with embarrassment.
Ranma-chan coughed to get everyone’s attention. “Excuse me, but
can I finish here?” she asked impatiently. “I’d like to be able to change back
into a guy this decade!”
“Sorry about that, Ranma,” Tofu chuckled. “Please, go on.”
“Thank you,” Ranma-chan sighed despondently. “And for your
information, Akane, you uncute tomboy, I did not sleep with Shampoo. I was
able to grab every packet of powder she had and take off while she was busy
beating up on Mousse.” She paused for a minute to grin somewhat
humorously. “Guess I’d better remember to send flowers to the poor guy,
huh?”
“But how did you know she only kept all her packets in her purse?”
Soun asked. “She could’ve had the real one hidden on her person.”
“In that dress she was wearin’? I don’t think so, Mr. Tendo!” She
began to laugh. “Besides, would we be havin’ this conversation if she had?”
“Well, I was about to say she could’ve hidden the real one in that hair
of her’s, but you do have a point,” Soun replied.
“Yeah, exactly,” Ranma-chan said, and continued with her story.
“Well, anyway, Shampoo did keep the real packet in her purse. I was able to
find it because the stuff has this real peculiar odor that I remember from the last
time. And I was able to smell it from inside the packet without even opening it,
believe me. Whew, talk about potent!
“So, while I could hear Shampoo yelling and beating up on poor
Mousse again...”
* * *
Ranma managed to reach the vacant lot that was a few blocks a few
minutes after he ditched Shampoo and Mousse. Leaning against the tree as he
caught his breath, packet of Instant Nanniichuan in his hand- he had ditched
the fakes after searching and finding the real one by sniffing for the powder’s
rather peculiar odor- he could hear the sounds of excessive violence and loud,
colorful Chinese even all the way where he was.
Along with a solitary roll of thunder.
Ranma began to panic. He had to hurry. While on the way to the lot,
he experienced a sudden burst of reason and intelligence and decided that
maybe he should test the powder first before letting his father use it. *If* he
decided to let the old man use it; after all, it was his fault that they went to
Jusenkyo and got cursed in the first place. Maybe he oughta let the fool be
stuck with turning into a panda off and on for the rest of his life as punishment
for all the misery and torment Ranma’s curse had brought him. Besides, it
wasn’t like he spent much of his time as a human, anyway.
Ranma began to search around the somewhat empty lot for something
that could hold water amongst the junk that people had tossed into the place. It
amazed Ranma at what people would throw away. After a couple minutes of
searching, he found something he realized he could use.
It was a large steel barrel drum, the kind that was large enough so that
someone could use it to maybe take a bath in it or something. It was a little bit
rusty, but it was intact with no holes of any kind that would cause any water to
leak out. As he picked up the drum, Ranma noticed that there was a steel pipe
or bar attached to the side. It was about several times the barrel’s size and had
been welded on by someone.
<Dang modern art sculptors,> Ranma thought to himself, and stood
the barrel up on its bottom. Thankfully, the bar attached to it stuck out into the
sky at the open end. Another roll of thunder telling him he didn’t have much
time left, Ranma found a hose with a working outdoor faucet and filled the
barrel up to about an inch or two shy of the rim. Then, taking the packet of
Instant Nanniichuan, he opened up and sprinkled about a third of the contents
into the water. He only needed that much with the barrel’s size, and besides
which, he still needed some leftover, maybe for Ryoga or Mousse if he decided
not to let Pop have it.
After waiting a few seconds for the powder to mix with the water and
take effect, Ranma removed his shirt, then splashed himself with water from
the hose to turn himself into a girl. The reason as to why he took off his shirt
was so that he could see better as to whether or not the powder worked. The
now female Ranma then got into the barrel and dunked herself completely into
the water.
Half a minute passed. Then a hand splashed its way out of the water
and grabbed onto the steel bar on the barrel, the body it was attached to pulling
its way out. After inspecting his masculine body for a few moments, Ranma let
out a cry of joy.
“Yaaaaahooooo!!! It worked!!! I’m cured!!!” Ranma held his fist
high into the air, his other hand still grasping the bar. “I can’t believe it! It
actually worked! I’m a full guy again! Good-bye, girl-type Ranma!!! Whew!”
As Ranma began to cry with joy and victory, not caring if anyone saw him, a
man, doing such a thing, it started to rain.
Less than a second later, the storm really began in the form of a bolt of
lightning that struck down into the vacant lot, connecting with a solid steel bar
that was sticking into the air.
A male scream of pain rang out into the night as the storm began to
get worse.
* * *
“Oh, so *that’s* what that was,” Nabiki said with wide eyes. “And
here I thought it just some poor cat or something. Oh well, silly me.”
Akane scowled at her sister. “You know, if you weren’t my sister...”
“Oh my,” Kasumi gasped as she listened to Ranma-chan’s story.
“Poor Ranma. Are you all right?”
“Hey, I’m fine. Takes more than a bolt of lightning to keep me
down,” Ranma-chan replied as she waved her hand. “Anyway, the next thing I
know, I feel this powerful surge of energy runnin’ through my system, and then
there was some kinda explosion and I was knocked out.” She gestured to
herself, waving her hands up then down along her body. “When I woke up, I
found myself in female form again from the rain, as well as butt naked. Lucky
for me, my shirt was laying nearby, so I put it back on and managed to make
my way back here before I blacked out again, then wake up to find *this* guy,”
she threw a thumb at Ranma-kun, “next to me sayin’ that he is me, but can’t
remember anything after Jusenkyo, and I can’t change into a guy anymore! So
will someone please tell me just what the hell is going on around here?!?!”
Ranma-kun, who was having his head inspected by Dr. Tofu to
determine the cause of his memory loss, frowned in confusion at the facts that
had been explained to him about Ranma-chan’s story. “All right, lemme see if
I got this right,” he said. “You’re telling that I fell into this spring at Jusenkyo
where some poor girl drowned, causing me to turn into this chick,” he threw a
thumb at a scowling Ranma-chan, “every time I got splashed with cold water
for the past two years?” He slammed his fist into the table. “Do you expect me
to believe such a cockamamie story like that?!”
*SPLASH!* The panda held up a sign as it leaned forward to look
Ranma-kun in the face. “You were saying?” the writing on the sign said. The
panda then smacked Ranma-chan over the head with the same sign as it was
turned around, the writing on the other side stating, “And was this about you
not wanting to let your father have the powder and be cured?!”
Ranma-kun blinked in surprise a few times at the sight of his father
having changed into a panda. “Hmm, then again, what do I know?” He then
folded his arms across his chest and let out a snort. “Okay, so you say I was
cursed. So how come I’m not changing now? And why is my cursed form
suddenly right next to me?”
“Hey, I ain’t nobody’s ‘cursed form,’ ya jerk!” Ranma-chan cried as
she punched the panda into the wall. “There’s only one Ranma Saotome on
this planet, and that’s me! If anyone’s an impostor, it’s you!”
“Oh, really?” Ranma-kun said with a smirk. “If you’re me, then prove
it. Tell me what’s the earliest memory you got.”
“Hmph! That’s easy,” Ranma-chan said confidently. “I came out of
the Nyanniichuan, discovered I’d been turned into a girl, and screamed my
head off.” Her smirk suddenly disappeared as she blinked a few times,
frowning. “Hey, wait a minute...”
“I said your *earliest* memory,” Ranma-kun said. He leaned forward
to look her straight in the face. “Whatever happened at this Jusenkyo place
sounds pretty recent to me, even if it was two years ago. I’m talkin’ about like
something from your childhood, like maybe Mom, or trainin’ with Pop, or
other things like that.”
As hard as she struggled and tried to remember, the memories of what
happened at Jusenkyo were all that Ranma-chan could try and recall as her
earliest, most accessible memories. The closest she could get to remembering
things before that, the events and happy times of her childhood, she could only
recall as when she reminisced about them after she and the old man arrived at
the Tendos, and only in that specific detail.
Finally, her will suddenly seemed to break. “I...I...I d-don’t know!”
she whimpered, and then suddenly began to cry.
Ranma-kun looked at the poor girl in front of him, everyone else doing
the same, and felt a sharp stab of guilt. As he muttered, “Way to go, bone-
head,” he barely noticed Nodoka move over to sit next to the crying Ranma-
chan, who let herself be gathered into her mother’s warm, gentle embrace.
“There, there, little one,” Nodoka whispered, stroking Ranma-chan’s
hair. “It’s all right. Mother’s here.” As she comforted the poor girl, she
allowed Dr. Tofu to run the same head inspection that he did on Ranma-kun.
“Hmm, two Ranmas, one male, one female, both with memory
problems,” Nabiki pondered, leaning her elbow on the table. “This is getting
more interesting by the minute.”
“I feel so sorry for her,” Akane added as she watched Ranma-chan,
occasionally looking at Ranma-kun out of the corner of her eye, sighing a little.
After getting a hold of herself again, she said, “But that still doesn’t explain
what happened. I mean, it just doesn’t really add up. Ranma uses the Instant
Nanniichuan, he gets struck by lightning, he gets split in two, and both of them
have trouble remembering stuff.” She paused for a moment to think about what
she just said. “Wait. Actually, that does make a little sense.”
“Not just a little, Akane. It makes complete sense,” Tofu said as he
finished his inspection of the still-crying Ranma-chan. “In fact, if my hunch is
right, that’s exactly what happened to Ranma.”
“Huh?” Everyone, even Ranma-chan, looked at Dr. Tofu in confusion.
“Here’s what I mean,” Tofu began as he straightened out his glasses a
little. “I’d been thinking about what Akane had said earlier before Ranma,
both of them, regained consciousness, about how a bolt of lightning could’ve
caused Ranma to split in two. Even before the girl Ranma explained what
happened with Shampoo, it sounded too coincidental, as I stated earlier. And
after listening to the events of what happened tonight, I was able to formulate a
theory of what happened.”
“And that is...?” Soun wondered, implying Tofu to go on.
“When the bolt of lightning hit the metal bar Ranma had been holding
onto, it naturally acted as a conduit for the lightning’s electrical charge, along
with both the barrel the bar was attached to and the water in it. And since
Ranma was already in the water soaking wet and holding onto the bar, he
naturally took the brunt of it and got electrocuted.
“Now, the way I figure it, since water, especially Jusenkyo Spring
water, even the one-shot instant kind, and electricity do not mix, the lightning’s
electrical charge somehow altered the expected effects of the powder, so that
instead of temporarily turning Ranma into a full male, it permanently caused
his normal and cursed forms to separate into two completely separate living
individuals, neither of them cursed to change bodies when splashed with hot or
cold water.”
Dr. Tofu paused to take a deep breath, then finished with, “In other
words, the male Ranma is now, for all intents and purposes, cured, and the
female Ranma is, I’m afraid, now permanently stuck in a female body.”
An eerie silence filled the room as the Tendos and Saotomes soaked
what Dr. Tofu had explained to them. No one seemed to be able to know what
to say in reaction to what had just been said. In fact, no one seemed to be able
to remember how to breathe.
Proving that nothing lasts forever, Ranma-chan broke the silence with,
“No, it can’t be true...”
Tofu just looked at her, his eyes filled with sympathy, and nodded
slowly. “I’m afraid so, Ranma. I’m sorry, but that’s the truth.”
The panda was crying, totally oblivious to the situation and feelings of
the upset girl in its wife’s arms. “I’m going to be cured at last!” the writing on
the panda’s sign said. “The boy actually did something right, for a change!”
Nodoka saw the sign, then angrily reached out with one hand, grabbed
it, and smacked the panda upside the head while still holding Ranma-chan with
her other arm. “Will you stop thinking of yourself at a time like this?!” she
scolded the cowering animal. “Our daughter’s having enough problems of her
own without you trying to make the situation worse, as usual!”
A few pairs of eyes blinked audibly at Nodoka’s words. Some lips
even mouthed the word, “Daughter?”
“Tofu?” Kasumi suddenly asked, breaking the tension a little. “I don’t
mean to imply, but how does that explain why both male and female Ranma are
having memory problems?”
“It’s not really implying, Kasumi,” Tofu said with a smile. “I was just
getting to that part. In fact, I don’t think that its any kind of memory problems
at all.”
“What do you mean, Doctor?” Akane asked, Ranma-kun nodding in
agreement.
“Well,” Tofu began, scratching his head, “you know how male Ranma
said he doesn’t remember anything prior to landing in the Jusenkyo spring his
father tossed him into?”
“Yeah, yeah. And female Ranma’s earliest memory seems to be only
when she came out of the spring,” a rather bored Nabiki said, adding in a soft
mutter, “Boy, we really have to come up with a better way to tell those two
apart.” After taking a quick munch of cookie, she said more audibly, “So
what’s your point, Doctor?”
“My point, Nabiki, is this,” Tofu replied, frowning at the middle
Tendo daughter. “Like I said, I don’t really know how it happened, but I’m
guessing the reasons behind the peculiar way both Ranmas remember things is
a sort of ‘Before and after’ effect.”
“‘Before and after?’” Ranma-kun and Akane echoed together.
Tofu nodded. “It’s only a hunch, but here’s what I mean.” He pointed
to Ranma-kun. “Think of this Ranma as the ‘Before Jusenkyo’ one, before he
fell in the Spring of Drowned Girl and came out as female Ranma,” he pointed
to Ranma-chan, “the ‘After Jusenkyo’ Ranma, if you will, who we’ve known
for the past two years or so. When Ranma’s two forms were separated and the
female Ranma given a life of her own, she took with her the memories and
experiences of the period in Ranma’s life, beginning with when she emerged
from the spring.”
“Oh, I get it!” Akane suddenly exclaimed, catching on to what Tofu
was saying. “That’s why she could only remember coming out of the spring as
her earliest memory.”
“That’s right, Akane, because she wasn’t exactly ‘born’ until that
moment,” Tofu finished. “Any memories prior to that moment are the ones
that Ranma reminisced to us when he began to live here, and in only that
specific detail in which it was told.”
“You mean to tell me,” Ranma-chan said, moving out of Nodoka’s
arms, “that not only am I permanently trapped as a girl, but I’ve also lost the
last sixteen years of my life?! Doc, you gotta do something!”
“I would if I could, Ranma, but I still don’t know how this happened,
exactly. The exact workings of Jusenkyo are still a mystery, even to some of
the more skilled experts,” Tofu said apologetically. “I’m afraid that you’re just
going to have to accept it until there’s some way to fix it, otherwise. I’m
sorry.”
Ranma-chan began to shake, tears streaming down her face again.
“N-No,” she whispered. “I can’t accept that. I *won’t* accept that!” She then
collapsed back into her mother’s arms, burying her crying face into Nodoka’s
shoulder. Nodoka herself began to comfort the poor girl again, stroking her
hair while throwing a glare at the panda, who shrunk away visibly.
“Poor Ranma,” Kasumi said with a sigh. “She’s gone through so
much already, and this may be her toughest challenge yet.”
“Could be worse,” Nabiki nodded in agreement.
“Well,” Tofu said with a small frown, “as bad as I also feel at the
moment,” he paused to suddenly break out in a wide grin, “I do feel I have to
congratulate Mr. and Mrs. Saotome, because as it looks, they’re now the proud
parents of twins, a boy and a girl!”
Ranma-kun blinked a couple times in surprise. “I...I have a...sister?”
he stammered.
“Ooo, that’s right!” Akane beamed. “When you think about it, the girl
Ranma would be Mr. and Mrs. Saotome’s daughter, and the male Ranma’s
sister!”
“Well, I had already figured that part out,” Nodoka giggled as she
looked down at the surprised, teary-eyed Ranma-chan. “After all, I did call this
girl my daughter earlier, didn’t I?” She smiled as she gave the girl a motherly
kiss on the top of her head.
“Hahaha! Congratulations, Saotome!” Soun said as he happily
slapped his shocked friend on the back. “Not only do you have a son, but now a
daughter of your own as well! All you need now is two more girls of your own
and we’ll be tied!”
“But Father, you don’t have a son,” Kasumi pointed out.
Soun blinked a couple of times, then said, “Oh yeah. Duh!”
“Besides, Soun,” Nodoka added with a giggle, “I don’t exactly think I
could handle having any more children right now. Two is enough for me, I
think.”
Ranma-kun suddenly coughed a little to get the attention of the other
occupants of the room. “Hey, listen, I don’t mean to be a party pooper or
nothin’,” he said, “but we still have one other problem.”
“Oh? And what’s that?” Kasumi asked.
“Well, for one thing,” he answered, “in case you all forgot, I’m the
guy who’s been unconscious for the last two years, as you say. Meaning I don’t
know what went on during that time, plus the fact I still don’t know who any of
you people are, save for my parents.” He then scowled as everyone began to
chuckle or giggle at his expense.
“Well, that’s no problem, boy,” Genma replied after Soun dumped
some hot water on him, turning the panda back into a man (of sorts, some
would say). “We’ll just have to fill you in on some of the gaps. Where would
you like to start?”
“Introducing me to everyone here might be nice,” Ranma-kun
sarcastically suggested. “And could someone get me a shirt or somethin’? I’m
freezing in here!” He shivered a little as a round of laughter went around the
room, Ranma-chan even joining in.
“All right then, Ranma, m’boy! Introductions it is!” Taking his son
by the shoulder, Genma turned so that they were both facing Soun. “Ranma,
this is my dearest and oldest friend, Soun Tendo. We trained in Anything-Goes
Martial Arts together under the same master when we were your age.”
“I’d hardly call that perverted freak of nature who thinks he’s the
Devil incarnate a ‘master,’” Nodoka said flatly. A sneering Ranma-chan
nodded in agreement.
Trying to ignore Nodoka’s comment and looking nervously around for
the pervert in question in case he was lurking about and had heard, Soun took
over the introductions. “Ranma, I’d like you to meet-”
“Hey, what’s Mom talkin’ about, huh?” Ranma-kun interrupted
curiously.
“Uh, ah, n-nothing! Nothing at all! Why do you ask?” Soun laughed
nervously and pathetically, then continued after he came back to himself.
“Anyway, as I was saying, these here are my daughters.” He began to wave a
hand from each one as he introduced his girls to Ranma again.
“My oldest daughter, Kasumi, age 21.”
“Hello,” Kasumi said happily with a smile as she bowed formally in
greeting, Ranma-kun doing the same.
“My middle daughter, Nabiki, age 19.”
Nabiki simply waved her hand. “Didn’t we already go through this?”
she muttered.
“And this is my youngest daughter, Akane, age 18.”
“Um, hello,” Akane said softly, her cheeks reddening a little.
“Hi,” Ranma-kun greeted back, a little confused at Akane’s
expression. “It’s, uh, nice to meet you all.”
“Ranma, Akane is your fiancee!” Soun suddenly added happily.
Ranma-kun immediately face-faulted.
Akane, however, had a more typical reaction. “WHAT?!” she shouted
angrily. “You mean you’re still going to go through with this whole
engagement nonsense?!”
“Well, why not?” Nabiki inquired, noticing Ranma-chan snickering to
herself. “I mean, after all, you and Ranma are meeting on better terms this
time, so maybe you’ll get along better.”
“Besides, Akane,” Soun added, looking sternly at his angry daughter,
“Saotome and I agreed that one of my daughters, that being you as decided,
would marry Ranma and carry on this dojo and the Anything-Goes Martial
Arts legacy. Honor demands it!”
“Oh, yeah? Well, screw honor!” Akane shouted back, ignoring the
shocked gasps she got. “I am not marrying that macho, conceited, sexist jerk!”
It was then that Ranma-kun recovered. He slowly sat up, a look of
shocked panic on his face. “F-F-Fiancee?!” he stammered.
“That’s right!” Ranma-chan giggled. She was about ready burst out
into uncontrollable laughter. “You’ve been engaged to that clumsy, uncute,
unfeminine tomboy who can’t fight or cook worth a damn for over a couple of
years, now!” Her control finally broke and she began to roll around the floor,
laughing hysterically. “Man, and here I thought that being stuck as a girl with
a male me runnin’ around would be terrible! But now I don’t have ta worry
about this whole engagement crap anymore! BWAHAHAHA!!!”
“Who asked you, anyway?!” Akane shouted angrily.
“Yeah, and besides,” Nabiki smirked. “Your dad could still get you
hitched to somebody if he’d get a free meal out of it. And we all know Kuno-
baby’s available.”
Ranma-chan stopped laughing to think about this, then just glared at
the grinning Nabiki.
Ranma-kun had been chuckling somewhat rather nervously during this
little transaction. “Uh, heh heh heh, um, er, ah,” he stammered, trying to find
the right words. Finally finding his voice, he got out, “Uh, ain’t this kinda
sudden? I mean, me and Akane just met and all, so uh...”
Akane was giving Ranma-kun the evilest eye she had ever given him
before, causing him to back down a bit. “‘Just met?’” she repeated in a low
voice. “Where did this ‘just met’ nonsense come from? We’ve known each
other for over two years now! So I know exactly what you’re-”
She was suddenly cut off as a hand fell on her shoulder, and she
turned to see Dr. Tofu now kneeling next to her. He was tapping his finger on
the side of his side repeatedly again.
Confused at first, Akane then got what the gesture meant by recalling
the doctor’s words about the problems with Ranma-kun’s memory, about it
ended at Jusenkyo when he fell in the Nyanniichuan, the last two years never
happening in his point of view. Blushing fiercely, Akane bowed her head a
little in embarrassment and muttered a quiet, “Oh yeah.”
It was then that Nodoka decided to ease the tension a little. “Look,”
she said after getting control of the floor, “things are a little hectic right now
with what has happened to Ranma this evening. And we’re all rather tired. So
before anyone says or does anything that would make the situation worse, even
accidentally, why don’t we all get a good night’s sleep, then work things out in
the morning? Okay?”
A round of nods and mutters of agreement filled the room.
“Come on, Ranma,” Kasumi said as she stood and gestured to Ranma-
kun, “I’ll show you where your room is.” Looking at Ranma-chan, she added
thoughtfully, “Hmm, I guess we’ll have to find a place for your sister to sleep,
won’t we?”
Before Ranma-chan could protest, Nodoka quickly replied, “She can
sleep with me and Genma in our room for now, Kasumi, until we can decide
where to put her later.” She looked down at her new daughter with an assuring
smile. “Is that all right with you?”
Feeling a sense of security somehow from her mother’s presence,
Ranma-chan just nodded. The two Saotome females then giggled as they heard
Genma’s moan of despair.
With that, after Dr. Tofu gathered his things, said good-night to
Kasumi, then left with the assurance that he would look into the matter of
Ranma’s split a little further, everyone went to their rooms and settled down for
the night.
* * *
Akane couldn’t sleep. For the whole time that she had gotten into bed,
she just laid there under the covers, staring at the ceiling. Her thoughts were
filled with what had transpired tonight, Ranma’s split, Ranma-kun not
knowing the last couple of years like they had never happened, and the fact
that, despite all that, they were still engaged.
Akane frowned. How could her father have kept the engagement
going for all this time, even after the wedding that had almost occurred last
year failed miserably. Since that time, her “relationship” with Ranma had only
gotten more bumpy, as they continued to argue constantly and the other suitors
stepping up their efforts to snag the object of their affection, like Kuno for
Akane or Ranma-chan, or Ukyou, Shampoo, and Kodachi for Ranma-kun.
What really got Akane’s goat, though, was how much Ranma kept denying that
he had ever said he loved her during the Mount Phoenix incident when she had
almost died in his arms. She had heard him say those words, and for the past
year she had held on to that fact in hopes that their relationship would improve
for the better, and maybe they would finally marry.
But, no matter how much she tried, Akane could never get him to
admit it that he had said it, and the arguments and fights continued. And now,
fate had really done a number on things by splitting Ranma in two, taking away
his memories of the last two years and, in the process, taking away the Ranma
she had known and gotten used to having around.
Oh, of course, that Ranma was still there. Except now he was trapped
in Ranma’s female body. And no doubt she’d use that to her advantage and
continue to deny that he/she had said those words to Akane or else make them
both look like perverts.
<Ranma, you jerk!> Akane thought bitterly. <Why’d you have to go
and do this to me, huh? Jerk, jerk, jerk! Ranma, you JERK!!!>
Suddenly, a knock came on her door. Akane sat up and frowned.
Who would be up at this time of night?
She got her answer in the form of the voice that called through her
door. “Akane? You awake?”
Ranma-kun. Figured.
Akane sat on her bed, unsure of whether or not she should answer
him. He sounded like he could use someone to talk to. And on the plus side,
he had knocked on her door, rather than try and peer through her window like
a peeping tom like he normally would. After a couple minutes of debating, she
somehow felt him begin to leave, to head back to his own room.
“Ranma, wait,” she said a little too quickly, and a little too loudly.
Hoping that she hadn’t woken anyone up, she quietly added, “Please, come in.”
Opening the door, Ranma-kun entered the room, wearing his usual
tank top and shorts that he wore to bed during warm weather. After he closed
the door behind him, he just stood where he was and leaned against the
doorframe. He looked like he didn’t know what to do or where he should go to
sit.
Smiling to herself, Akane patted a spot at the foot of her bed. “Sit
down, Ranma.” Staring at her with surprised eyes for a little bit, Ranma-kun
did as she said and sat down.
“I, uh, hope I didn’t wake you,” he said quietly, looking down at his
feet. “I...couldn’t sleep, and...well, I guess I needed someone to talk to.”
<And you came to me? Oh, Ranma...> Akane felt her heart skip a
beat as an almost unfamiliar warm feeling bloomed inside her. Past experience
taking over, she quickly got rid of it. Still, it was nice that he had wanted to
talk to her.
Akane opened her mouth to respond, but then quickly shut it as she
noticed something different about Ranma. Her eyes widened with shock.
“Your...Your hair!” she said as she pointed.
Ranma-kun blinked at her a couple of times. “Huh? What about it?”
he asked confusingly as he brought his hand up to it. It was no longer tied back
in its usual pig-tail, but was now undone with the curled and crumpled locks
hanging loosely about his shoulders.
Realizing what she was talking about, Ranma sighed and said to her,
“Oh, you mean that braid I was wearing. Well, to be honest, I didn’t really like
it that way. I’m more of a regular pony-tail kinda guy, y’know?” He arched an
eyebrow at her. “Why? Is there something wrong with it this way?”
Akane thought about what to say in response. It was a surprise to see
Ranma-kun’s hair unbraided, since the soup he had eaten in China caused it to
grow uncontrollably unless tied by the dragon’s whisker that held his pig-tail.
Apparently, when he was hit by lightning and separated, the effects of the soup
were canceled out, enabling Ranma’s hair to be unbraided and hang loose with
any ill effects.
Akane just decided to keep her mouth shut and not say anything. It’d
be probably too complicated to explain it now, anyway. “Nothing’s wrong,”
she finally replied. “I was just surprised to see your hair unbraided, that’s all.”
“Oh,” Ranma blinked. “Well, thanks for telling me, anyway. But to
be honest, I didn’t really come here to talk about my hair.”
“So what did you want to talk about?” Akane asked curiously.
Ranma shrugged. “Nothing, really. Like I said, I couldn’t sleep and I
wanted someone to talk to.” He paused to think about his response for a bit.
“No, wait. I guess there is a reason I wanted to talk to you.”
Akane sighed, feeling a certain bitterness creep into her voice. She
knew what he was talking about. “Our engagement,” she practically growled.
Ranma nodded. “It’s true, isn’t it?” he asked cautiously. “We’re
really engaged?”
“Not by choice,” Akane answered with another sigh. “Some kind of
arrangement our dads made, I think around when you were born. Of course,
Dad waited until you and your father arrived here a couple years back to tell me
and my sisters, then I got chosen by Kasumi and Nabiki to be your fiancee
because I used to hate boys so much and you turned into a girl...” She trailed
off as she clenched a fist tightly and growled.
Ranma backed away a little. “I, uh, take it you aren’t very happy
about it?” he asked.
“Hey, I forced into an engagement to some guy who changed genders
that I hardly even knew!” Akane snapped back. “Of course I wasn’t happy
about it. Plus the fact you’ve done nothing but insult and make fun of me for
the whole time we’ve known each other, plus the fact you tend to run off with
your other fiancees whenever you feel like it, like tonight, for example.”
“‘Other fiancees?’” Ranma was wide-eyed at this. “How did that
happen? Or, don’t I want to know.” Before she could say anything, he held up
a hand and shook his head. “Nah, forget it. Look, Akane, hear me out a
minute, here.” He paused to place his hands on her shoulders and stare her in
the eye, surprising her but not making her angry to want to punch him off.
“Akane,” Ranma began, “I don’t know what kind of guy I was when
you met me, but looking at my ‘sister’ kinda gives me a good idea. I guess
being cursed and everything didn’t really make me a nice guy, but that was
probably *after* whatever happened at Jusenkyo. Haven’t you ever stopped to
wonder what kind of person I was *before* all that?”
Akane blinked a couple of times, letting his words sink in, then
realized that he was right. What kind of person *had* Ranma been before he
got cursed? She had seen a few examples the whole evening after Ranma got
separated. He hadn’t acted or treated her the way she expected him to, but she
guessed that probably had something to do with the fact of what his father had
put him through when they were in China. She had a chance to get to know
Ranma a little differently, like Nabiki said, having met him on better terms.
Maybe this time, they’d get to pull it off. Correctly, even.
“You’re right, Ranma,” she finally answered, sighing happily. “I
guess I kind of jumped the gun a little. I mean, you’ve always said that I was
always so macho and unfeminine, and I do tend to get mad easy.”
“Yeah, I kinda guessed that,” Ranma said with a smile. “But I’m sure
you can be real nice when you want to be. And I think you’re a real pretty girl,
especially when you smile.”
Akane felt like she was on the verge of tears. Those were the words
she had always hoped he’d say, without taking them back later. “Oh, Ranma,
do you mean that?” she whispered as she leaned forward and hugged him
tightly.
Ranma blinked a couple of times, unsure of how to react to Akane’s
forwardness. But, eventually, he gently returned her hug. “Yeah, Akane. I do
mean that.” After a bit, he broke their embrace and stood up. Akane looked a
little sad that their hug ended. She wanted to it to last a little longer.
“We should get some sleep, Akane,” Ranma said as he smiled down at
her. “I feel better now that I’ve talked to you about all this. But, maybe we
oughta take things a little slow, y’know? You may have known me for years,
but to me, we’ve only just met. Okay?”
Akane smiled back at him, the warm feeling she had felt earlier
returning. This time, she welcomed it. “Okay, Ranma. Let’s talk about it
some more in the morning. We can get to know each other again while I help
fill you in on what’s happened during the last two years. Let me warn you
though; there’s going to be a lot of long stories, and it will get awful confusing
sometimes.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Ranma grinned, then laughed softly
with Akane. He then walked over to the door, opening it to leave, when he
turned to around to look back at Akane, who was watching him go.
“G’night, Akane,” Ranma whispered softly. “I’ll see you in the
morning. Pleasant dreams.” Then he left, closing the door behind him.
Akane sat on her bed for a little bit longer, watching after him. She
sighed happily.
“Pleasant dreams, Ranma,” she whispered, then laid back down on her
bed. She soon fell asleep, waiting for the new day.
(End of Episode 1)
* * *
Author’s Post-production Notes:
Well, here it is, folks. After revising and constantly editing it, I’ve
finally completed my first net-published fanfic. This isn’t the first fanfic that
I’ve written, mind you, but it is my first serious attempt that I’m putting on the
net. Still, go easy on me when you read it and e-mail me with your thoughts
and criticisms.
As you may have already guessed, this is an ongoing fanfiction series
(ongoing until I feel like ending it) that continues the romantic comedy martial
arts hijinks of the “Ranma 1/2” gang about one year after the end of the final
manga volume. And yeah, I know that the “double Ranma” plot idea has been
used before in fanfiction, even by Takahashi in volume 34 of the manga, but
this idea has kinda been bugging around in my melon for awhile now. So, after
coming up with a way to do it, along with the after effects that you read, I
decided to go ahead with it and see if I can do a better job. Whether or not I do
is up to you the reader, though. I just hope I did all right in writing Ranma-
kun’s character in how he might of been like before he got cursed.
Episode two of the series (in which Ukyou drops by the dojo the next
morning and everyone decides what to do with two Ranmas running around),
should be out in about maybe a month, I hope, since I’m busy with school and
it will take me awhile to write it. For the more impatient types, I should have a
series guide written up that I plan to release soon containing information on the
episodes and characters (in other words, spoilers), so if you can’t wait for a new
episode to come out, you take a gander at that. However, it’ll be a while before
I put that out as well, so sorry. (And in case you’re wondering, yes this series
does take some influence from fighting games as evidenced in the title, which
you will see as the series progresses. What can I say? I like fighting games.)
Well, I guess that’ll do until the next episode. Please e-mail me at
jdmullin@prairienet.org with your opinions, as well as corrections to any
mistakes you think I might have missed. All flames, of course, will be
accordingly read, ignored, and tossed into the vast reaches of Internet Oblivion.
I’d also appreciate it if anyone would send me some personality info on certain
“Ranma” characters such as Ryu Kumon, Asuka the White Lily, Rouge, etc, in
the event that I decide to use them in a later story. Well? Anyone?
Well, until next time, see ya all later!
Jeremy Mullin, October 24, 1996
