Due to the enormously favorable response, I decided to clean this 
story up and post it again.  I have fixed the continuity problems, all 
of which were a result of not being able to find the first episodes of 
Ranma (grumble, grumble!), but now it should read well.  Author's notes 
and plans for the future will follow the story, so even if you've 
already read this story, and don't want to read it again just to see the 
minor changes, if you have any interest in the sequel, skip down to 
these notes and check them out.



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	She was hungry again.  The immutable laws of nature were that the 
strong lived at the expense of the weak; that life was a continuous, 
bloody struggle against your competitors, your prey, the elements.   
That was survival.  She was a survivor.  She knew she was one of the 
strong, and she reveled in the power she had over her prey.  Her strong, 
graceful body glided through the dense forest.  Her stomach growled at 
her; expressing its need for attention, but she simply growled back at 
it.  Her orange coat with its jagged black stripes hid her from view as 
she stalked her would be prey.
	Her surroundings were breathtaking, but her simple animalistic mind did 
not comprehend the beauty.  A narrow valley, its steep rocky walls 
covered with the green on the dense forest, was where her quarry liked 
to hide.  There, out in the open, where it was difficult for her to 
rush.  She didn't mind.  She was much faster than the lumbering black 
and white beast anyway.  She almost didn't need to stalk the thing.  She 
knew it could be strong if cornered, but that if she could frighten it, 
it would simply run.  She could catch the beast at any time.  She only 
had to make sure and not fall in one of the many pools that covered the 
valley floor.
	Up ahead she could see the black and white markings of her prey.  
Lumbering along among the pools, chewing contentedly on the tender 
bamboo shoots that occasionally were left to grow for a few days, the 
creature had no idea that its end was near.  She was on her belly now, 
inching forward more silently than the inching of the clouds across the 
sky.  She was much closer now; the grass was beginning to offer scant 
cover for her.  Still, the lumbering beast did not detect her.  She 
tensed again, waiting for just that perfect moment.
	Then she charged.  She sprang forward with all the explosive power of 
her massive muscles.  A few quick bounds, and she was on the creatures 
back, holding it tightly with razor-like claws while her wickedly curved 
teeth bit into its neck.  In its shock, the creature lurched forward, 
dislodging her.  But she knew she had fatally wounded the creature.  She 
rolled on the ground, careful not to fall in any of the pools and rose 
to her feet.  The black and white creature tumbled into the water, and 
struggled for a few moments. To the tiger's surprise, the dying beast 
disappeared and in it's place was one of the two-legs.  That wasn't what 
she wanted, but the two leg was obviously dead, so she decided she could 
eat it instead.
	The tiger ruefully gazed at its prize, sinking in the depths.  It was 
too deep for her to 
go in and retrieve it, although, like all tigers, she was a powerful 
swimmer.  She jumped to the other side of the pool, looking at it from 
another angle.  She was feeling very frustrated with the situation, but 
it appeared that nothing could be done.  She leaped again, to back up 
and look from afar.  That's when the accident happened.  Her rear foot 
slipped, and she found herself tumbling into the pool on top of her 
prey.

	She didn't know it, but her accident was observed.  The experienced 
Guide, who had seen the curse affect countless individuals, smiled as he 
saw in which spring the panda had fallen.  He raised his eyebrow in 
surprise as the tiger fell into the same pool.  Never before had a tiger 
been cursed, at least as far as he knew.  He turned away in amusement as 
the tiger, now a naked and confused girl, climbed out of the water, wet 
and bedraggled and bounded into the jungle.




She was hungry again.  The immutable laws of nature were that the strong 
lived at the expense of the weak; that life was a continuous, bloody 
struggle against your competitors, your prey, the elements.   That was 
survival.  She was a survivor.  But she was no longer one of the strong.  
This weak new body she found herself in was barely able to perform the 
simplest tasks.  She had no claws on her hands, although her new fingers 
were extraordinarily good for grasping.  Her weak teeth would barely cut 
through meat.  At least, she was able to learn to use her front paws 
much more, and even was starting to learn a rudimentary way to walk on 
just her hind feet.
	She found a small deer this time.  Since her new body was a bit slower, 
and much less powerful than before, she had to be extra careful as she 
stalked her small prey.  She was able to creep until she was so very 
close to the deer, then she leaped explosively at it.  She had learned 
by now that her old hunting methods didn't work as well, but she had 
adapted and learned new ones.  Leaping on the deer's back, she grabbed 
its head in her paws and twisted its neck.  The deer fell quickly, its 
legs still kicking convulsively for a few minutes, and the tiger began 
her feast.  It took her much longer to eat now.  Her weak teeth had to 
work so hard to cut through the deer's hide, and her mouth was so much 
smaller than it had been.
	Finally she was done.  Like all cats, she was meticulous about her 
cleanliness.  Her smooth new tongue didn't get her nearly as clean as 
her raspy tiger tongue, but she had learned to use water to clean 
herself.  She cocked an ear, but didn't hear any sound of running water.  
Using her keen sense of smell, she was able to locate water to her 
right.  She slowly walked that way, enjoying the feeling of a full 
belly.  
	She nearly gasped in awe as she came to the water.  A spring welled up 
from the ground, spilling its contents into a narrow stream.  Steam rose 
from the water as well.  She had never seen a hot spring before, but 
this one inrigued her.  Eagerly, she stuck her hands in to clean her 
face.
	Before she knew it, she had fallen back down on her paws.  She had 
returned to her powerful tiger body!  Leaping in the air in her 
excitement, she pawed at butterflies, ran in circles and smiled to 
herself at her new found discovery.  How wonderful it was to be herself 
again!



	She was hungry again.  The immutable laws of nature were that the 
strong lived at the expense of the weak; that life was a continuous, 
bloody struggle against your competitors, your prey, the elements.   
That was survival.  She was a survivor.  It hadn't taken long for the 
rains to come, and for her to return to her weak form.  At times, when 
she tired of her new body, she would come back to the hot springs, but 
to her surprise, she was doing that less and less lately.
	Things had been happening to her, while in this new form.  She had 
never been able to think so clearly before, and new horizons opened up 
to her imagination.  So this is what it was like to be a two-leg?  
Always thinking, always aware of your place?  She realized that as a 
tiger, she had no comprehension of anything beyond the moment.  The 
longer she stayed in this two-leg body, though, the easier it became to 
remember, to solve problems.  She discovered the use of rudimentary 
tools, one day, when she threw a heavy stone at a fleeing deer.  She had 
never been happier.
	But her new-found knowledge also made it very clear to her that she was 
no longer a true tiger.  She had moved beyond that, and now understood 
so much more about the world.  She still followed tiger social norms; 
carefully watching the boundaries of her territory.  But one day she 
grew curious and wondered what other two-legs did.  She knew of a place 
where two-legs lived, and like a flash, she bounded off to discover what 
she could of her new brothers.
	Although she didn't know it, she had discovered a martial arts dojo.  
She watched in amazement as three men carefully practiced their forms.  
They were followers of kung fu, and they all seemed to have a different 
form.  She watched closely, and one of them seemed very familiar to her.  
She edged a little further out onto the limb she was hiding in to see 
better.
	Yes, it was familiar.  These men were imitating animals.  So that was 
how they made themselves stronger!  By using their intelligence and 
imitating the animals around them.  One man reminded her of a snake.  
She had no interest in learning any techniques from him!  Another man 
reminded her of the little monkeys who chattered above her in the trees.  
She almost laughed at him; his antics faithfully mimicing the little 
hairy two-legs.  But monkeys were also weak, and she wanted to learn to 
be strong.
	The final man held her attention like nothing before.  His movements 
reminded her of herself, her mother, her brothers.  Yes, this man was 
imitating a tiger.  Here was a form she could learn.  She carefully 
studied his movements, trying to see how the application of her tiger 
ways could be carried out in human form.  Some of the forms she saw as 
unnatural, and was able to improve on in her head.

	Day after day, she would come back and watch the tiger two-leg.  After 
she watched him, she would retire into the forest and practice the 
motions herself.  She was surprised to find how easily they came to her.  
She was stronger and much more agile than the man she was learning from.  
Perhaps someday she would hunt him and eat him.  The thought was bitter 
to her for some reason.  She stopped her routines and wondered why she 
would no longer feel like eating a two-leg, at least while in two-leg 
form herself.  Perhaps for the same reason she would not eat a tiger in 
tiger form.  She put the thought out of her mind and continued 
practising.
	For a moment, she had felt something as she worked out.  She was much 
more in tune with nature than other two-legs, and this closeness had 
almost sparked something within her.  Ignoring the movements of the man 
she had been studying, she closed off her mind except for this spark.  
Searching into her soul, she struggled to find the link she was looking 
for.  She knew that if she could find it, she would truly be able to 
master her mimicry of the tiger.  She knew that power was in that spark, 
if she could just find it again.
	Slowly, the sounds around her faded.  The chattering monkeys, the wild 
cries of the birds, the gentle rustle of the leaves; all of it faded to 
nothingness.  The sights were next to go; the waving green fronds, the 
dappled sunlight that managed to snake it's way down through the canopy, 
the richly textured forest floor; all faded away to grey.  She was one 
with nature, now, aware of nothing but herself.  Her own bright soul 
shone in the emptyness, but she had not come looking for that.  Like all 
creatures of the wild, she was much more in touch with her soul than men 
are anyway.  No, she came looking for the link; the power that could 
make her tiger-mimicing art perfect.  And distantly twinkling at her, 
she could sense that power.
	She knew nothing of ki, of course.  But when she saw this natural link, 
she chased after it, pounced upon it and embraced it.  A bright aura 
began to glow all around, and she felt heady with the energy flowing in 
her veins.  It was her first experience with ki, and no one had ever 
told her what could and couldn't be done.  Her first thought was that 
she could use it to change back to her tiger form at will.
	She was disappointed to discover that this was not the case.  But some 
small changes were able to be made.  Her weak teeth could grow into the 
powerful fangs of her tiger form.  Her pitiful nails could grow into the 
sharp retractable claws of a cat.  And most surprising of all, she found 
she could release the ki into a powerful blast of pure energy.  Her 
first experience with this blew up a small tree, but she was a quick 
learner, and the natural energy felt second nature to her.  In time, as 
she mastered her new techniques, she knew she was more poweful that ever 
before in either form.  She longed to challenge the tiger two-leg who 
she had learned from!



	She was hungry again.  The immutable laws of nature were that the 
strong lived at the expense of the weak; that life was a continuous, 
bloody struggle against your competitors, your prey, the elements.   
That was survival.  She was a survivor.  She was surprised to find that 
her wandering had brought her back to the place it had all began.  One 
of the things she noticed was that she had become very introspective, 
and often roamed high up in the tree tops without realizing where she 
was going.  She looked fondly at the place which had opened up this new 
world to her.  And was hit with a flash of deja vu.
	Lumbering about the springs was another huge black and white creature.  
Her pangs of hunger, unnoticed up until now, reminded her that she 
hadn't eaten in a long time.  She decided that it would be very ironic, 
and quite to her taste, to hunt the beast successfully this time.

	"Pop, you idiot!  Stay away from those stupid springs!"  Ranma still 
hadn't come to terms very well with the accident they had yesterday.  
She knew about how to temporarily reverse the curse now, but she still 
seethed with anger at her father, who had deliberately thrown her into 
one of the pools.  But despite all that had happened, she still cared 
for her father, and didn't want to see him fall in again.  Who knew what 
it would do this time!
	Pushing her bright red bangs out of her eyes, she stormed out of the 
tent to retreive Genma.  "Don't try to pretend you can't hear me, Pops!  
You can probably hear better as an animal anyway!"  Genma slowly turned 
his head to look at Ranma. _Gosh, I guess he's taking this all pretty 
hard!_ thought Ranma as she saw the dejection on the panda's face. _I 
better get him away from here before he does something _really_ stupid!_ 
She grabbed her fathers hairy arm and turned, trying to drag him along 
with her.  As she did so, she happened to look up, and what she saw made 
her gasp in astonishment.
	About a hundred feet up in the trees was a young girl.  She was no 
older than Ranma was, and just as slight.  She looked to be very strong 
and lithe, though, and she hopped down from the tree as if jumping off a 
curb.  Ranma gasped again as she realized that the girl was stark naked.  
Her fiery orange hair was neatly pulled back behind her, and her 
ice-like blue eyes burned into Ranma and Genma.  With a bestial growl, 
the girl pounced at Ranma.	
	She ducked out of way, but was surprised to see the girl recover and 
turn so swiftly in midair.  She roared in anger at him, and was bared 
her teeth.  Long poweful fangs kept Ranma at bay.  Then the girl turned 
and leaped at Genma.  Sharp claws sprung from her hands and tore into 
Genma's throat.  Ranma screamed in terror as he saw the girl poised to 
bite the panda.
	"Pop!  Do something!  She's going to kill you!"  Without thinking, 
Ranma leaped into the furry fray and grabbed the girl, trying to 
dislodge her from Genma's back.  To her surprise, the girl was even 
stronger than she was, and Ranma couldn't budge her.  She roared again 
and slashed at Ranma with her claws.
	Genma finally bucked her off, and Ranma followed up with a powerful 
kick to the girl's chin.  She flew backwards to crash among the trees, 
but retaliated quickly by slamming Ranma with a ki-blast.  Ranma quickly 
dodged out of the way and stood to face her again.
	Something seemed odd about the girl, as if she didn't want to fight 
anymore.  Ranma noticed it, and lowered his guard.  The girl still 
growled at her, but Ranma noticed that she seemed to relax a bit as 
well.  She wasn't looking for a fight, she just wanted to hunt.  "Hey, 
Pop!  Bring some hot water over here, will ya?  I've got a funny feeling 
about this girl!"
	Ranma crept up to her, still smiling and trying to speak soothingly.  
"Do you know how to speak?" she asked.  "Japanese?  Mandarin? 
Cantonese?" Ranma tried every language he knew even a smattering of, but 
the girl just looked confused.  "You certainly are a mouko, aren't you?  
A fierce little tiger!"
	The girl looked at Ranma quizzically and tried to imitate her.  "Mo- 
ko..." she said.  Her voice was surprisingly sweet and innocent 
sounding.
	"Boy, that's quite a change from your growling and roaring earlier.  
Mouko." Ranma said again.  "Mouko, why don't you come with us?  We'll 
get you something to eat, and help you figure out where you are and 
where you want to go."  The girl cocked her head at Ranma, then smiled.  
Her wary attitude vanished and she bounded enthusiastically over to 
Ranma.  Ranma put her arm around her, and led her towards the tent.
	"Come along, my little toraneko.  You sure are a wild cat!  But I think 
we'll be great friends."
_____________________________________________________________________
There it is!  I originally planned this to just be a stand-alone piece 
that I wrote in a flash of inspiration while working on my Yohko 1/2 
piece.  However, I think this idea has way too much promise, and 
everybody really wants to hear more, so I'm going to try the unthinkble 
and write both pieces at the same time.  I don't think either piece will 
suffer much as a result of this, but it probably will take longer for 
each piece to come out.  They may not be updated at the same schedule 
either, as I will write whatever I feel most inspired to work on at the 
time I sit down at the computer.  Thanks for all the comments I got on 
this (especially the nice ones :) ), and I'll try to update both fics 
before the weekend.

BTW, Toraneko will become a serial; probably a long running story based 
on the theme developed here.  It will not take place in an alternate 
universe, and I think a little explanation may be in order.  Toraneko II 
will take place quite some time after this incident.  Ranma will already 
be back at Nerima, dragging along his entourage of fiance's and such.  
Mouko, like all tigers, has a very solitary personality.  After learning 
a bit from Ranma immediately following the story you just read above, 
she went back into the jungle to live alone for a while.  Now, she has 
decided to come amongst the two-legs and see how her old friend Ranma 
lives.  This is where Toraneko II will start, hopefully, like I said, 
later this week.



Joshua Dyal
j-dyal@geocities.com
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/1958/


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