Hello all!
 
While working on "The Trial," "A Reel Man" and "The Trip" for "The 
High Cost of Loving" I took time out for a Video Girl AI and DNA2 
marathon. The following is an idea that popped into my mind and I 
have to get rid of it to finish THCOL. Let me know what you think of 
this.

The setup for this series is a Ranma 1/2 and Video Girl Ai fusion. 
The characters of Ranma will take the place of the VGAi characters 
and inherit their personalities. The list goes like this:

Saotome Ranma   = Moteuchi Youta
Tendou Akane    = Amano Ai
Hibiki Ryouga   = Niimai Takashi
Kuonji Ukyou    = Hayakawa Moemi
Shampoo/Shanpuu = Nizaki Nobuko
Tendou Soun     = Gokuraku Manager
Kunou Tatewaki  = Himself
?????           = Rolex

The song at the end of the story is the same song that played in the 
corresponding scene in episode one of Video Girl Ai. 

============================================

Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction & Video Girl AI
"Video Girl Akane" Chapter One
by Suds-kun (Shaun Schillinger)

============================================
Ranma 1/2 characters are created by and copyright Rumiko Takahashi.
Published by Shogakukan Inc. and VIZ Comm.
Video Girl AI characters are created by Masakazu Katsura
Published by Jump Comics and Jump Video.
Used without permission.
Intended for the sole non-profit use of fans.
============================================

Ranma walked through the aisles of the video store in awe. He had 
never seen a video store like this Gokuraku before. He looked at the 
membership card that the owner had given him. Any time he needed a 
video the store would be there for him. It seemed like a dream, but 
the occasional pinch proved that wrong. The old man said to pick out 
a video girl that he liked and he could watch the tape for a month 
for free. It didn't matter to Ranma how or why this was happening, 
but he wasn't going to let this opportunity slip by.

Different categories and styles separated the aisles. One was 
homemaking another was finance. He turned down the aisle that was 
marked martial artists. There were about twenty tapes to choose 
from. While looking them over, one caught his attention. A smile. 
Her smile was beautiful. He could just sit and stare at that smile 
for the month and be happy.

Ranma set the tape on the counter. "I'll take this one."

"Very good choice, sir. You'll be pleased with her."

"If her personality is like that smile, I'll be more than pleased." 
Ranma took the tape and headed for the door. He paused and then 
turned around. "I was wondering, you know my name but I don't know 
yours. What's your name?"

The man smiled in response. "You can call me Soun. Don't forget the 
instructions I gave you when you first came in. The tape only runs 
for a month and will then disappear."

Ranma waved as he walked out the door. "I won't forget!"

===

Ranma sat down in front of the television as he opened the video 
cassette case. He had heard about these types of videos from the 
guys at school. The brother of one of them had rented a video girl 
tape in college. All of the guys guessed at what was on the tape, 
but no one had actually seen it themselves. Now, he was going to see 
it himself. With a shaky finger he pushed the play button and 
waited. The screen went blue and then the picture of the girl from 
the cassette's label appeared.

"Hello! I'm pleased to meet you. My name is Tendo Akane. What's 
yours?"

Ranma didn't respond. The girl on the screen was beautiful and 
smiling, a smile that seemed to hypnotize him.

The girl on the screen giggled. "This is your first time with a 
video girl, right? I understand. It's a little bit of a surprise to 
see a talking video." She looked at Ranma and tilted her head. "As a 
video girl, I'm here to help and comfort you. Only a few people meet 
the qualifications to be able to rent a video girl tape." She paused 
and looked right at Ranma.

"Hey!"

"Huh? What?" He said as he came back to reality.

"Hi! My name is Tendo Akane, what's yours?"

"Oh, uhm, I'm Saotome Ranma. Pleased to meet you."

"I'm pleased to meet you, Ranma-kun. Did you have anything you want 
to talk about?"

"Well, yeah. You see, my life has been pretty complicated since I 
returned from a training trip to China a few months ago. Now I'm by 
myself and I've got two girls and one guy chasing me."

"Two girls and a guy? How did that.... AHHHH!"

Ranma scrambled away from the TV and looked at the electricity 
sparking to it from the VCR. "What's happening?" He shouted. Akane-
chan looked to be in pain. What could he do? Before he could think 
of anything else, Akane-chan started to come out of the television. 
In stunned silence he watched the crackling energy from the VCR 
envelope the TV and Akane-chan. After a few seconds she was floating 
outside the TV and over him. Without warning she dropped from the 
air on top of him.

"Akane-chan! Are you all right?"

She didn't move or respond. She seemed to be breathing, but how 
could a girl come out of the TV like that? With a grunt he carefully 
laid her on the floor next to him. That was a stupid question to 
ask, especially by someone like himself. He looked her over to make 
sure she wasn't hurt. When he reached her face her eyelids began to 
flutter.

"Ranma-kun?"

"Yes, Akane-chan?"

"RANMA NO BAKA!" Akane sat up and punched Ranma across the room. She 
then stood up and stalked toward him. "You played my video on a 
broken VCR! I thought I was going to DIE!" Akane grabbed him by the 
throat and started to throttle him.

"Hey, urk, aren't, ulg, you, ulk, comfort, glk"

"What? Oh, I'm sorry." She let go of Ranma and he slid to the floor. 
"I don't know what came over me. Video girls don't get mad and 
attack the people they're supposed to comfort." Akane helped the 
weakened Ranma over to a chair. "Ranma-kun, do you think you'll be 
alright?"

Ranma nodded. "I was interested in a video girl that knew martial 
arts, but I didn't expect her to try and kill me."

"Hmph. Serves you right, renting an adult video and I bet you're no 
older than I am."

Ranma rubbed the back of his head and blushed. "Well, I'm sixteen. 
How old are you?"

"Same age as you." Akane took Ranma's hand in hers and smiled. "I'm 
sorry, Ranma-kun. I didn't mean to get angry with you. If a guy 
really needs a video girl to comfort him, I come out of the tape to 
help comfort him. That's you, Ranma-kun." Akane noticed that Ranma 
had a glassy look in his eyes and he was staring at her face. 
Obviously, he hadn't paid attention to what she had said.

She reached over and gave Ranma a quick rap on the head. "Wake up, 
baka! I'm trying to comfort you!"

Ranma shook his head to get his senses back. He could tell that 
Akane-chan was genuinely interested in him and his problems. "Well, 
my first problem is that I'm cursed."

Akane punched him in the arm.  "Don't say something like that. Just 
because some bad things have happened to you, doesn't mean you are 
cursed."

Ranma sighed as he stood up and went into the kitchen. He returned 
with a pitcher of water and a kettle. "When I'm splashed with cold 
water," Ranma poured the pitcher of water on his head, "I turn into 
a girl." He winced at her reaction. Her eyes had grown wide and then 
she slid off the chair and landed on the floor with a 'thump'.

"When you said that you were 'cursed,' I thought you meant...." 
Akane's words trailed off as she returned to her seat. "Your hair 
even changed from black to red." A look of concern crossed her face. 
"How long does this last?"

"My pop took me on a training trip to China. There was this training 
ground called Jusenkyou that had hundreds of springs with bamboo 
poles in them. A guide at the grounds tried to tell us that the 
springs were cursed, but we didn't listen. I fell in a spring of 
'drowned girl.' Pop fell into a spring of 'drowned Panda'." Ranma 
picked up the kettle and poured it on his head. "Hot water returns 
me to normal." He looked up and into Akane's eyes.

"Oh Ranma-kun, I'm so sorry."

He had never before seen a look of anguish like what he saw in her 
eyes. She was truly sorry for his curse. He didn't know how to react 
as she came toward him, took his hands in hers and kneeled in front 
of him.

"Ranma-kun, there's more, isn't there?"

Ranma tried to pull his hands out of hers, but she held on tight. 
Tears started to well up in his eyes and he shook his head to keep 
them back. He closed his eyes and reminded himself that men don't 
cry. Akane-chan pulled him down to his knees and then hugged him.


"I'm a video girl, Ranma-kun. I can tell that this isn't why you 
need me. What else is bothering you?" Akane-chan let go of the hug 
and stayed in place on the floor.

Ranma wiped at his eyes and pulled his legs into a lotus position 
across from Akane-chan. "Well, I have two friends who claim to be 
engaged to me and there's this guy who's chasing my girl half."

"Friends? Are they all guys?" Akane-chan leaned forward as if she 
didn't want to miss any juicy details.

Ranma shook his head. "No. The only guy is this Kunou Tatewaki. He's 
my sempai and says that he's in love with the 'pig-tailed goddess.' 
I've tried to explain the curse to him, but he thinks I'm a sorcerer 
and I have his 'pig-tailed goddess' under a spell. So, I beat him up 
whenever he attacks me or makes a pass at my girl side."

Akane-chan sighed in relief at his explanation. "Oh, what about the 
other two girls?"

"The first is Kuonji Ukyou. She was my friend when I was six years 
old, but at the time I thought she was a guy. My dad took me on 
training trips to teach me martial arts. On one of these trips pop 
and I met her and her father. She worked with her father making 
okonomiyakis from a yatai cart. We had a game where she would try to 
stop me from taking an okonomiyaki that she had made. I always beat 
her and got a free okonomiyaki. Well, one day pop and I left. Pop 
was pulling the Kuonji's yatai and Uc-chan was chasing after us."

"Uc-chan?"

"Yeah, that's what I call her. She calls me Ran-chan. You know, 
nicknames from when we were kids."

"Oh."

Ranma noticed that Akane-chan's face seemed to falter but she 
recovered quickly. "After we left Uc-chan and her father, I remember 
dad returned the yattai Uc-chan's father and we headed home. Uc-chan 
showed up in school a couple weeks ago wanting revenge on me. She 
was dressed as a guy and challenged me to a duel. During the fight I 
discovered that she was a girl. It was then that she told me why pop 
took their yattai when we were six. Pop and Uc-chan's father had 
arranged for us to be married with the yattai as a dowry. Pop 
changed his mind and returned the yattai. Uc-chan said she renounced 
her life as a woman and started living as a man. All because of me."

Ranma paused and then sighed. "I happened to mention that she was 
cute and that I couldn't understand why a guy wouldn't be interested 
in her. Well, that made her happy and she said that she forgave me. 
Now she says that the original marriage agreement is still valid, 
even though pop returned the yattai. I don't want to hurt her 
feelings, so I haven't told her that I don't agree about the 
marriage arrangement."

Akane-chan shifted her legs, as she seemed deep in thought. "You 
said that there was another girl, what's her name?"

A small smile appeared on Ranma before he responded. "She's from 
China and her name is Shanpuu. I met her a couple days after pop and 
I was cursed. The guide led us to her village in search of food. 
They were having what looked like a festival and there was this big 
table covered with all sorts of food. Pop and I were about to start 
eating when the guide tried to stop us. After that cursed spring 
incident, I stopped pop and we listened to the guide. The food was 
the first place prize for a competition. You see, the village was an 
amazon village and the women were fighting for all of that food. 
Shanpuu was the winner and I asked the guide to ask her if she would 
share the food with pop and I. She said that she would if I defeated 
her. I was about to say yes when the guide told me about one of the 
Amazon laws. If an outsider woman defeats an Amazon woman, then the 
Amazon woman gives the outsider the kiss of death. The Amazon then 
kills the other woman after giving her a head start to run away. If 
an outsider man defeats an Amazon woman, then the man has to marry 
the Amazon."

"So you fought her and won, right?" Akane-chan smiled as if she 
answering the questions to a game.

"Not exactly. I had the guide explain that I was a guy and was 
cursed at Jusenkyou. They gave us some hot water so that pop and I 
could change back, to prove our story. That was when Shanpuu's 
great-grandmother appeared. She told Shanpuu to share some of the 
food with us and that we should leave when we were done eating. 
While we were eating, the guide translated for us as we ate and 
talked. Shanpuu is the same age as myself and was real friendly. Pop 
and I thanked her and her great-grandmother for the food and hoped 
that we could be friends and then we left. We had gotten about a 
kilometer down the road when Shanpuu appeared."

"The guide told us that she wanted to spar with me, to see if I was 
worthy of her friendship. I asked the guide if this would cause 
problems. He said it wouldn't if we only sparred and didn't fight. 
You probably have already guessed what happened. Shanpuu's great-
grandmother talked her into tricking me into a fight. The sparring 
match grew into an all out fight on her part. I was just trying to 
keep from defeating her. She got tired and made a mistake and I 
accidentally knocked her out."

Ranma sighed again. "Shanpuu's great-grandmother said that I was to 
marry Shanpuu. The guide told us that right before he grabbed us and 
told us to run. We ran all the way back to Japan. That was two 
months ago. Shanpuu and her great-grandmother showed up a couple 
weeks ago and tried to get me to marry Shanpuu. I told them I didn't 
want to get married yet, not before I'm eighteen. They both agreed 
and said they'll wait."

Akane-chan's mouth was open and just stared at Ranma. Ranma waved 
his hand in front of her face to get her attention. She blushed and 
looked away in embarrassment. "Ranma-kun. You really have an 
interesting life. So, is Shanpuu back in China?"

Ranma shook his head. "No, her great-grandmother opened a ramen shop 
and they are living there. Also, Uc-chan is running an okonomiyaki 
shop by herself. That's were she lives."

"They both cook? Well, all video girls are created with the 
abilities of a professional chef. Let me cook you a home made meal!" 
Akane-chan jumped up and ran into the kitchen.

Ranma smiled to himself as he watched her put on an apron and begin 
her preparations. She started to sing as she worked which relaxed 
Ranma. If only this could last for more than just one month, he 
wished. Before he knew it, Akane-chan had prepared a meal that 
smelled wonderful. He waited in anticipation as she set the table 
and placed the dishes of food before him.

"Here you are, Ranma-kun!" Akane-chan waved her hand over the food 
and then handed him some chopsticks. "I'm sure you've never eaten 
food like this!"

Ranma picked up a piece of food and popped it into his mouth. His 
eyes started to water and he fought back the urge to throw up. With 
a great effort he swallowed and then turned pale, after he turned 
red, blue and green.

"What do you think?" Akane asked with a bit of worry on her face.

"This, this is food?" Ranma shouted in between gasps for air.

"Baka! How dare you insult my food? I'm as good as a gourmet chef! 
Let me try that!"

Ranma tried to stop Akane-chan, but failed.

After the piece of food touched Akane-chan's tongue, her eyes grew 
large. Unlike Ranma, she gave in to the urge to throw up.

"This stuff is awful! I'll cook it again!" Before Akane-chan could 
pick up the dishes, Ranma grabbed one and started eating. With great 
effort he ate all of the food on of the plate.

"See? It's o.k." Ranma then grabbed the kettle of tea and started 
drinking from the spout.

Akane-chan sat next to him and held her face in her hands with her 
elbows on her knees. "I found one of your nice parts, Ranma-kun."

Ranma looked at her smile and the pain in his stomach disappeared. 
"You know, Akane-chan, this is the first home made meal since my 
mother died." As he said that, the memories of what happened one 
month ago came back with the force of a bullet train. The pain in 
his heart burst to the surface as he began to cry.

Akane-chan reached over and took one of his hands. He took her hand 
in both of his and held on to her as if his life depended on it. 
"Tell me what happened, Ranma-kun."

Ranma took a few deep breaths and concentrated on regaining control. 
Slowly he started to tell her the story.

"Pop and I came home from the training trip to China two months ago. 
But for some reason he didn't want me to tell mother about our 
curses. One month ago today, I found out why. While eating supper, 
pop knocked over a glass of water on me and I changed into a girl. 
Mother started to freak and started yelling something about pop not 
keeping his promise. She went to the wall where the family sword was 
mounted, took it and held the blade in front of pop. It was then 
that I found out about pop's promise to mother. Mother agreed to let 
me go on training trips with pop if he promised to make me a manly 
man. If not, he would commit seppuku. Since I now turn into a girl, 
she said that he failed."

"She ignored his explanation of the curses or anything else that he 
said. She kept on saying it was a matter of honor. The entire time I 
just stood there in shock. Before I knew what was happening, pop 
looked at me and said that he was sorry. He took the tanto blade 
from its spot on the wall and used it on his stomach. Mother acted 
as his second and cut off his head. She then took a second tanto 
from the wall and cut her throat. I'm trained in martial arts and I 
stood and watched my parents die. It was then that I broke down and 
cried. A stupid, emotional girl crying over her dead parents."

Akane-chan moved behind Ranma and hugged him. "I'm so sorry, Ranma-
kun. This is why I'm here, it's o.k. to cry Ranma."

"An uncle set up this apartment for me. He sold the house and placed 
the money in a special bank account. A trust, I think. I get money 
every month to live on and pay the rent. But now I'm alone, nobody 
wants me. Unless you count Uc-chan and Shanpuu, they look at me as 
if I'm some prize."

Ranma started to relax. The hug from Akane-chan felt good, after a 
few minutes he noticed the time. "It's getting late, Akane-chan. Let 
me show you the extra room where you can stay."

Akane-chan gave a quick squeeze and let go of the hug. Ranma led her 
to a room. "You can use this room for the next month. My room is 
across the hall from yours. We'll need to get you some clothes 
tomorrow, after school."

Akane-chan walked into the room and then turned around. "Will you be 
o.k., Ranma-kun?"

"Hai. You helped me quite a bit by being here. Arigatoo, Akane-
chan." Ranma bowed and then headed to his room.

Ranma climbed into his bed and laid on his side. The day had been 
eventful. A girl from an adult video tape, who can't cook, is now 
living with him. The idea just seems fantastic. If only his parents 
could appear as easily as Akane-chan did, everything could go back 
to the way is used to be. But Ranma understood that this wish would 
never happen. He was alone, his parents and their family had left 
him. As he thought this his sobs masked the sound of is door 
opening.

Akane-chan walked up to the bed and climbed in. "Ranma-kun, my 
purpose is to comfort you. I'll stay here with you all night if you 
need me to. I don't want you to feel lonely anymore."

Ranma didn't respond. His thoughts were of his parents and how he 
wished that they were alive. "Mother. Father." He whispered as tears 
fell from his eyes.

Akane-chan turned onto her side behind Ranma and placed a hand on 
his shoulder. "I'm here, Ranma," she whispered, "you're not alone."

Ranma began to relax as a song quietly played on the radio.

Even though you were in a place so near,
I cannot find a place this cold anywhere else.
Every time I call your name, you recede further away.
Groping in the dark night when no one is beside me,
I'm searching for you.
I want to stop our time together as it is.
I want to keep your heart.
Our appearance, which the mirror doesn't reflect,
my trembling fingertips try to confirm if it's real,
but they don't reach you.
If I were a kid who didn't know anything,
I could get through it without losing anything.
When we pass each other, I lower my eyes.
I stop being a coward, stretch out my hands,
and wrap them around you.

"Message" by Naoko Iimura and Miwako Yamaguchi

============================================

--
suds-kun (Shaun Schillinger)
suds1964@tir.com
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/8222/
"THIS time, we didn't forget the graaavy!" Cat & Mouse to Dog