THEY SAID IT COULDN'T BE DONE


    Ranma leaped aside desperately and hit the ground rolling, barely
dodging the twin blasts. It was bad enough Ryoga and Mousse had decided
to team up against him - they'd apparently picked up a new ki attack as
well. He twisted nimbly as two more bolts of black energy sizzled by on
either side of him.

    "Man. I knew I shouldn't have got out of bed this morning." The worst
part was that the two idiots were keeping him from stopping Shampoo. It
looked like Akane and her family had managed to take refuge behind an
overturned table, but Shampoo was still blasting away wildly. "There
must be some kind of curse with me and weddings, is all I can figure."


                    THEY SAID IT SHOULDN'T BE DONE


    Feinting towards Shampoo, he managed to leap behind another table. If
he could just get his second wind - as he landed, his elbow hit a small
object lying on the floor. He glanced down and saw a small glass bottle,
apparently a perfume bottle. Before he could resume the fight, he was
surprised to see the side of the bottle cloud over, as the face of a
beautiful woman appeared.

    Her lips moved, and he heard a voice speaking in his head. "Ranma. Can
you hear me?"

    "... Yeah, I guess. Who the hell-?"

    "Your friends are attacking you because they've been possessed by a
demon. You can help them, Ranma, but not with the abilities you have
learned. You must call on the powers that are yours by right of birth to
defeat this demon. Will you do this?"

    Ranma was perplexed. He supposed Ryoga, Mousse, and Shampoo were his
friends, but it wasn't like this was the first time they'd ever attacked
him. And what did she mean when she mentioned his "powers"? "What the hell
are you talking about?"

    The woman smiled a little sadly. "So like your mo- your predecessor.
All will become clear to you soon. Take up the perfume bottle, hold it
aloft, and say the words that come into your mind. Take up the mantle of
your heritage, your destiny."

    Ranma blinked. This whole episode had a very surreal quality - not that
that made it different from much of the rest of his life, but still....
"I guess I got nothing to lose."

    He held up the bottle, and found himself saying, "Wedding elegant
flower!" To his astonishment, he felt himself rising into the air, as a
tingle, familiar and yet unfamiliar, swept through him. He looked down
at himself and noted, more calmly than he might have expected, that
he was now female, without the benefit of water of any kind. The more
surprising change, however, was to his clothes. Instead of the tuxedo
he'd gone to so much trouble to put on, he saw yards of white fabric,
ruffles and flounces, some sort of filmy material before his eyes - yes,
he, or rather she, was now wearing a lovely wedding dress.


                          WEDDING PEACH 1/2


    "Damn, I REALLY shouldn't have gotten out of bed this morning."


Coming one day to a mailing list near you. From the author of "My Only
Love", "What Dreams May Come", and "Elegy for a Golden Youth".

Reid Carson
rcarson@mnsinc.com