Nerima Life By Adam Winship Part 2-The Curse "Ranma no baka" *SMASH* "Ha, ya missed you kawaiikune tomboy." *Shatter* "What in the name of--" Adam said hearing the sounds of Ranma's and Akane's fighting. "I can't believe that I can hear them in my own house." "RANMA" "Uh, Akane..." "NO" "...you think we could talk about..." "BAKA" "...this?" ** "Guess not." *CRASH* "Good morning, Ranma. You are going to replace that wall and fence you just went through, right?" Adam asked sipping his coffee and watching as Ranma slowly gets up onto his feet. "Sorry 'bout the wall man, I'll get Nabiki to help you with it." Ranma said, as he sat down on a chair across from me. "So, what'd ya do now?" "ME? I didn't do nothin'." Ranma said a little to quickly. "Yah, right." "Ok, Akane came down stairs and asked how she looked and I told her she looked like a tomboy." Ranma said shrugging his shoulders. "Nice, and what was yesterday's reason for your trip to Tokyo Tower? Oh ya, you bashed her cooking. You know you should keep your mouth shut, then you wouldn't have to spend half your time at Dr. Tofu's." Adam told Ranma as he finished his coffee. "Hey, you can't blame me for her cooking, I was telling her the truth." Ranma protested. "Hey, I don't blame you." Adam said remembering the beef that was chasing Ranma in the dojo's yard. "But there are times you should keep your opinions to yourself, that way you don't have to worry about that mallet of hers." "Ya, ya, what ever, just forget it. Hey, you wanna go to the movies?" Ranma asked as he stood up from the chair he was sitting on. "Ya, sure, just let me get my hat and wallet. Hey, after the movie ya wanna stop by the Ucchan?" Adam asked as he stood and got his hat and wallet off a coffee table in the next room. "Sure." Ranma said as the two walked out the door. * * * * * Adam and Ranma were walking down the street when-- *SPLASH* "Well, that was pleasant." Adam-chan commented sarcastically. "No kidding, this always hap--" The last part of what Ranma-chan was going to say was cut off by the ringing, then crashing, of a bicycle. "Airen." *GLOMP* "Help!" Adam-chan squeaked out as a purple-haired thing glomped onto her. "What do you want Shampoo?" Ranma-chan asked as she threw the bike off of herself. Now, Shampoo is not dumb, she's actually quite intelligent, her only problem is that she is a bit slow on the rebound. This is the reason why Shampoo let go of Adam-chan and just stood there, staring dumbfoundly at the identical looking girls. "Who is that?" Adam-chan asked pointing at the shocked girl. "Her name is Shampoo, one of my fiancés." Ranma-chan answered watching Shampoo's face as her brain slowly started to fire again. "One of your fiancés? How many do you have?" "Um, let's see now, there's Akane, Shampoo, Ukyou, and Kodachi thinks that she is my fiancé, of course those are the ones I know about. My father hasn't told me how many fiancés I actually have, then again I don't think I want to know." Ranma-chan said counting the number of fiancés on her fingers. "You have four fiancés! Why didn't you mention that Ukyou was your fiancé when we where at her restaurant yesterday?" Adam-chan asked, remembering the cheerful okonomiyaki chef. "Because she wasn't hanging all over me and I didn't want her to start." Ranma-chan answered. Finally Shampoo came out of her trance. "Aiyah, you both Ranma?" "No, he's Ranma and I'm Adam." Adam-chan answered, pointing to Ranma-chan then herself. "Oh, you fall in Spring-Of-Drowned-Girl too, right?" Shampoo asked, pointing at Adam-chan. "Hai, I did." Adam-chan answered uncertainly. "But you look like Airen, Shampoo confused." "Big Coincidence." Adam-chan answered quickly. "That's right." Ranma-chan piped up. "Uh Shampoo, me an' Adam have to go now 'cause we have something important right now. We'll talk to you later." With that Ranma-chan picked Adam-chan up and jumped across roofs towards Dr. Tofu's office. * * * * * "You know you didn't need to carry me here." Adam said grumpily as Ranma and him emerged from Dr. Tofu's. "Oh, you can jump across roofs then?" "Well, no..." Adam admitted sheepishly. "Aw forget it, let's go to that movie." "Uh, I think we missed the movie, because of our detour." Ranma stopped, looked at Adam who showed him the time then swore. "Aw, damn it, and I wanted to see the movie. All well, we can still go over to the Ucchan." "Alright then, let's go." * * * * * "How the hell did you avoid that water?" Adam-chan asked grumpily as she drained water from her clothes. "I didn't need to avoid the water, you blocked it from hitting me." Ranma answered grinning as they stopped out front of the Ucchan. "Um, do you think it's wise for me to go in there considering that Ukyou doesn't know about me being cursed?" Adam-chan asked staring ominously at the door. "Hey, this the closest place to get hot water, unless you like being a girl." Ranma said, a smile tugging at his mouth. "Hey, it isn't that bad being a girl." Adam-chan shot back, then adding, "As long as I can change back to a guy at anytime, but I do prefer being a guy. Let's go in so I can get some water." With that the two walked into the Ucchan. * * * * * Ukyou looked up as Ranma-chan walked in and nearly fainted as Ranma followed. "W-what the hell is going on?" Ukyou asked as the two sat down at the counter across from her, not knowing that Ranma-chan was Adam-chan and not Ranma-chan. "Um, do you have any hot water Ucchan?" Ranma asked, looking over at Adam-chan. "Uh, yeah just a minute." Ukyou said slowly, as she picked up a kettle, the water in it still hot from her making tea. "Here you go." Ukyou said, understanding slowly dawning. "Thanks." Adam-chan said as she took the kettle and proceeded to dump it on herself. Ukyou had sort of expected that the girl-Ranma was cursed but what she saw still shocked her. The girl grew to be 6'3, became male, her or rather his red hair seemed to retreat under his hat, while turning dark brown. Ukyou said the first thing that came to mind which was, "..." "Guess you'd like an explanation, huh Ucchan." Ranma said, looking at Ukyou's shocked expression. "That would be nice, Sugar." Ukyou said breaking out of her shocked state. "Well you see, my name is Adam, and I fell in the same spring that Ranma here fell in." Adam explained as Ukyou started to make some okonomiyaki. "So why do you look exactly like Ranma's girl-form." Ukyou asked as the food cooked. "Actually, that is a coincidence." Adam answered as Ukyou served the okonomiyaki to Ranma, Adam and herself. "So what is the story behind your curse." Ukyou asked as she began eating her serving, laughing at the way Ranma was wolfing down his food. "Yeah how did you get cursed?" Ranma asked, stopping long enough to ask. "Well, ya see, it went sort of like this..." *********** *FLASHBACK* *********** 2 years ago "...take him for a trip to China." Adam's mother said skeptically to Adam's father. "Yes Adam and I hardly ever see each other and I wanted to take him on a trip." Adam's father said, sitting across a table from Adam's mother. "Well, I don't think it a good idea." Adam's mother said hesitantly. "It's only for a week." "Well, if Adam agrees, I'll let you take him along." Adam's mother finally relented. "Well, what do you say Adam?" Adam's father asked as he turned to Adam who was across the room sitting on a couch and watching TV. "A free trip to China, hell yeah I'm gonna go." Adam said not turning from the TV. "Well, it's settled then." Adam's father said proudly. "We can leave in three days." "Not so fast, I have just one word of warning. If Adam doesn't come back the way he leaves, then I'm gonna cut off a vital part of your anatomy." Adam's mother said, the look in her eyes showing that she meant it. One week later... The man said in Chinese. "Pardon me, but we don't speak much Chinese." Adam's father said. "Ah, forgive me. I, Jusenkyou Guide, welcome to accursed springs of Jusenkyou." The guide said in broken English. (Yes the guide has a root knowledge of a lot of languages because he had to learn them in Jusenkyou guide school. How else would he know all of the tragic legends.) "Nice place, let's look around." Adam commented as he walked around. He stopped in front of a bamboo pole with a small sign attached with writing in Chinese. "Hey son, what are you looking at?" Adam's father asked as he came up beside him; the guide looking a little nervous about being so close to the water. "Nothing, ya withered old man." Adam said teasingly. "Please sirs, be careful around springs, if fall in then you will be curs-" The guides last part of the sentence died away as Adam's father pushes Adam into the water because of the withered old man joke. "Ahhhh" *SPLASH* "Why you..." A now female Adam said as she jumped out of the spring and then pushed her father towards a spring on the left. That's when Adam realized that something was wrong. He was a great deal shorter then he remembered, his reach was shorter and his hands were slender like a... Adam looked down at his, now her, chest and let out a high pitched scream. "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Looking over at her father Adam-chan saw her father fall in, then, disappear. "Oh dear, your father fall into Spring-Of-Drowned-Ant, very tragic tale about a-" "Spring of drowned ant? Then he, he's dead, isn't he?" Adam- chan said horrified at the thought. "I'm very sorry sir." The guide said hanging his head. "M-my father i-is d-de-dead." Adam-chan said, her face draining completely of blood as she went into shock, forgetting about her own little problem. The guide took a hold of Adam-chan's arm and led her back to his hut. * * * * * "So I'm stuck being a girl then?" Adam-chan asked. After coming to terms with her father's death, she realized that while didn't like her father, the trip had helped her to respect him. "Oh no you turn back to boy with hot water, but cold water turn you into girl." The guide said as he took some hot water from a pot that he was heating and threw it onto Adam-chan. "Ow, that's hot! Hey, I'm a guy again." Adam said, feeling his chest to make sure. "Just remember, cold water turn you back to a girl; such is the way of curse." The guide said matter-of-factly. *************** *END FLASHBACK* *************** "I'm sorry about your father." Ukyou said as Ranma nodded agreeing. "Hey, don't worry about it. In a way, he was lucky. As soon as mom found out, she was going to kill him but he was already dead. She just laughed about him being cursed to become an ant." Adam said shaking his head at the memories. "Uh, we had better get going. It's almost time for dinner." Ranma said, looking at the clock on the wall. "Do you think that I could actually come over for dinner this time?" Adam asked, looking at Ranma with amusement twinkling in his eyes. "Huh, oh sure, I don't think that Akane will be cooking tonight." Ranma answered. "What are you two talking about?" Ukyou asked watching the exchange. "Well, you see, Adam was invited over to the dojo for dinner and to meet everybody, but Akane decided to cook for our guest." Ranma explained. "Yes, and I had seen Ranma running away from what looked like a clump of burnt beef that wanted to eat him, so I agreed to go someplace else to eat and hold off meeting everyone." Adam finished. "Ah, I understand Sugar. Well, seeya later." Ukyou said as they walked out the door. Well there ya go. Sorry 'bout the wait but the dreaded thing called life reared its ugly head. Part three should be out in a couple of days (famous last words) and I'm not too happy 'bout the Shampoo scene but there's still a running gag there that I can use. I think that part four or five will have Adam start going to school but lets wait and see. Also I can't wait for Kodachi see Adam-chan, oh the ideas, the ideas. Well that's all for now... -Shadowstryker http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Temple/4829 If I could, I'd make a suggestion Without sounding preachy Or begging the question Melt with your minds Melt with each other Don't be surrounded Don't be so alone -So Alone, Offspring, Smash