Ranma 1/2 meets The King of Fighters:
                              Orochi's Curse
                    by Deuce (deuce@classicgaming.com)

Welcome to the beginning of what will probably be a very strange and silly
kind of story.  Well, there's no "probably," really... it's going to be a
very strange and silly kind of story.  Everyone's heard of Ranma 1/2.  Not
everyone is familiar with The King of Fighters, however.  It is a series
of fighting games created by SNK for the Neo*Geo platform.  It's filled
with a large set of very interesting characters, all of whom are developed
far beyond the scale of the games themselves.

I saw extreme potential in this merging, and hopefully, so will you once
you begin reading.  Now, if you are NOT familiar with the game and its
characters, the best course of action, obviously, is to play the games. :)
However, I realize this isn't always possible.  So, I've found a few
resources which should help fill you in.

The KOF General Info FAQ: Storyline, small character profiles
   http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/9673/KOFINFO.TXT

Chika's King of Fighters Zone: Detailed character descs, pictures
   http://members.aol.com/iorin/chika/index.html

The two of these should fill you in plenty... any further questions, please
feel free to email me and ask.
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                                 Prologue

Ranma stretched as he stepped out of the furo, glad for the upcoming
weekend. At last, a day where he didn't have to worry about school. That
meant he only had... oh, about two hundred other pressing matters about
which to worry. Still, from the smell emanating from the kitchen, it seemed
that Akane's cooking wasn't one of them.

Thank heaven for small favors.

"Oh, good morning, Ranma," said Kasumi cheerfully as he walked in. She was
was poking at a sizzling pan of some kind of stirfry. Whatever it was, it
smelled absolutely delicious. It made Ranma's mouth water almost instantly.

"Ohayou," he said. "What's cooking? Smells great!"

"Just a little surprise," she said, smiling. "It'll be ready in a little
while."

He pondered this for a moment, then figured he could just let it drop.
Culinary surprises from Kasumi and culinary surprises from Akane were two
different things entirely. He shrugged.

"By the way, where's Akane?" asked Ranma.

"I think she's watching television...," replied Kasumi as she sprinkled a
pinch of salt into the intoxicating mix.

"Okay, thanks!" he said, and walked off.

Surely enough, there was Akane. She seemed transfixed by what was on the
television, so she didn't notice him walk in. Some rather happy, bouncy
music was coming from the speaker, with a rather happy, bouncy woman
singing along to it. She was dressed in a semi-revealing outfit, with a
short skirt and leotards, and the overall look was somewhat frilly.

The girl also had purple hair, noted Ranma with interest. He looked a
little closer to make sure it WASN'T Shampoo. It wasn't. He didn't actually
figure it was, but one could never be sure. He called attention to himself
with a simple "ahem."

Akane blinked and looked up at him curiously. "Oh, good morning."

"Morning," said Ranma. "Whatcha watching?"

She gave him an incredulous look. "You don't recognize her?"

He shook his head. "I don't keep up with idol singers."

"It's Athena!" said Akane, somewhat indignantly.

"Isn't she Greek?"

"Wrong Athena, baka. Asamiya Athena, she's a great singer!"

Ranma smirked, and kept silent a moment, to listen to the girl singing.
"That's debatable."

Akane glared at him. "Are you in here for a reason, or did you just want to
insult my taste in music?!"

Ranma's smirk did not fade. "I was just going to ask you if you wanted to
spar," he said. "But I'd hate to interrupt your oh-so- important leisure
time activities." He gave a lazy two-fingered wave and turned, walking off
toward the dojo.

Akane hurled the remote control at the back of his head. *bonk* He picked
up his pace and ran, rather than walked, to the dojo, to practice and
hopefully avoid getting Akane mad at him. Again.

He couldn't shake the feeling that it was going to be a LONG day.

***

In the Nekohanten restaurant, a trio of Chinese folk sat, eating breakfast.
This in and of itself was not an unusual event. But the three people were
unique, each in a... well, unique way.

Seated on one side of the booth was an elderly fellow, with an unruly mop
of white hair, which had a propensity for concealing his eyes from view.
Across from him sat a boy, clad in a blue vest with a white t-shirt and
similarly colored shorts. Next to him sat a pretty young girl, with long,
flowing purple hair. She stood out the most, simply because she was wearing
sunglasses and a fedora hat.

"I hate this disguise," she said.

"Well, it was either this or an entourage, Athena-chan," said the ancient
man. "And I know you hate that even worse." She sighed and nodded
resignedly, ready to simply get out of here and back to her hotel room.
Room service. That's what she needed.

"But Chin-sensei, why are you dragging us to some ratty old dojo in the
middle of Tokyo?" protested the young Chinese boy.

"Because, Sie," said the (very) old man sitting across from him, "I have a
very old debt to collect on. And since we're here, I figured now would be
the perfect time."

"Why do WE have to come along though?" asked Athena.

Chin Gentsai sighed. Children could be such a handful. "That is because I
am your legal guardian. No further arguments, or I'll make certain that
your training is especially harsh for the next month!"

Both students immediately shut up at this. "Hai, sensei," they said through
pursed lips. They both had the distinct feeling that this was going to be a
long day.

***

In another restaurant, another young man was speaking to another young
female. The female in question was not, much to his chagrin, the man's date
or companion. He was accompanied by two of his friends, both of whom looked
mildly annoyed by his behavior. But this had never stopped him before.

He was rather taken by the attractive young lady, who appeared to be the
chef, waitress, and quite possibly the proprietor of the establishment at
which he and his companions were dining.

She was rather annoyed, albeit flattered, by the young man's come-ons. It
wasn't that he was unattractive. He was actually a fairly handsome sort,
but he was... well, weird. His blond hair was spiked straight up, and his
black sleeveless t-shirt fit his slender frame a little too tightly,
followed suit by his jeans. It made for a very odd overall appearance.

He had introduced himself immediately as Nikaido Benimaru, and continued by
trying to get the young woman into a date. She had politely refused, but he
was rather persistent. He'd managed to get her name out of her, nothing
more.

"Ukyou?" he said. "What a lovely name."

She smirked at him, very tempted to pull her oversized spatula from the
wall and bean him in the head to try and knock some sense into him. But she
decided to try to dissuade him by telling him that she was engaged, which
was true.

"Engaged?" asked Benimaru. "Such a shame, for a lovely flower of womanhood
such as yourself to be engaged at such a tender age."

"I'll have you know," said Ukyou in annoyance, "that I'm quite happy to be
engaged, sugar. Now are you going to order or not?"

"Benimaru-kun, give it a rest," said a handsome young Japanese boy, about
eighteen years of age. He wore a white headband to hold his hair out of his
eyes, and his jacket held a very ornate and distinctive design of a blazing
sun on its back.

"Oh come on, Kyo!" said Benimaru. "There's nothing wrong with being
friendly."

Kyo swatted Beni on the back of the head and said, "He'll have the special,
miss." He smiled apologetically at the young woman. "Sorry to keep you from
your other customers."

She smiled back. This "Kyo" fellow was quite handsome. And less forward
than Benimaru, too. "One special... how about you, sir?" she asked,
regaining a bit of her usual workaday cheerfulness.

"Same for me," said Kyo. He nudged their other companion, a very large,
muscular man. "How about you, Daimon?"

The big man grunted noncommittally. "The special sounds good to me."

Ukyou smiled cheerfully and set to work. "Three specials, coming right up.
Will these be on separate tickets?"

Kyo patted Benimaru on the shoulder. "No, I think Beni-kun here will be
footing the bill."

Benimaru was evidently not expecting this. "Hey, why should I have to pay
for you guys?!"

"Consider it a favor for stopping you before the nice lady did something
you'd regret," said Kyo with a chuckle. Daimon laughed.

Benimaru sighed as the cute chef giggled at him. He had the feeling this
was going to be a LONG day.

***

Finally! thought Ryouga. At last, the Tendo Dojo was in sight once more. It
had only taken him... a few weeks to get back from wherever he was. He
remembered a lot of sand. Yeah, there was a beach... but there was also a
railroad track, and a harbor, and a big stadium, and... these couldn't have
all been in the same place, could they? Oh well, no matter.

He was back at the dojo, that was the important part. And after only...
well, not very long by his standards. Amazingly enough, he was here for
different reasons than usual. He stood next to the koi pond, looking around
the yard for his old rival. Maybe he was in the dojo....

"Ranma!" he called out. "You around?"

Suddenly, Ryouga was confronted with Ranma's face very close to his.
Upside-down, no less. As it happened, Ranma was hanging by his feet from
the tree. "You rang?" he said with a grin.

Ryouga cried out in shock, and rang Ranma's bell with a good solid hit.
Ranma fell to the ground in a heap.

"Ow! Dammit, Ryouga, what'd you do that for?"

Ryouga clutched at a piece of paper in his hand. "Don't sneak up on me like
that, you jerk!"

With uncanny resilience, Ranma sprung to his feet and peered at the paper.
"Whatcha got there?"

"Actually, it's a flyer for a martial arts tournament," said Ryouga,
holding it out for Ranma to take it.

Ranma read the flyer over quickly. "The King of Fighters? Never heard of
it," he said, and handed it back.

"You don't keep up with much outside of Nerima, do you?" said Ryouga with a
chuckle.

Ranma made a sour face. "And you have trouble keeping up with anything IN
Nerima."

Ryouga was not going to be goaded into a fight. Not today. Well, not yet.
"You're not even a LITTLE interested?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"That's hard to believe."

Ranma shrugged. "I doubt any of the fighters there would be good enough to
give me a challenge. What's the point?"

"Sounds to me like you're not up to the challenge." Ryouga grinned. Ranma's
buttons were so easy to press it was almost sad. Almost.

"Yeah, RIGHT, pig-boy," said Ranma angrily. "Fine, I'll sign up just to
prove you wrong. And when I win, I'll make you eat your words!" Hook and
line so far....

"There is a catch," said Ryouga.

"What, going to try and make me leave Nerima if I lose?"

Ryouga shook his head. "Nothing like that, you idiot," he said. "The
tournament is teams-only."

"Teams?"

"Yeah. Teams of three," explained Ryouga. "Two people face off, one is
eliminated, another from that team comes in, one is eliminated, and so on.
If either team loses all three of its members, they lose the match."

Ranma hmmed thoughtfully. "Sounds kind of screwy. So are you asking me to
join your team?"

Ryouga shrugged. "That was the plan. What do you say?"

"Why me?" asked Ranma skeptically.

"Because outside of maybe Herb, you're the best fighter I know, and I want
to win this," said the lost boy. This was true, and besides, a little
ego-stroking would probably help his chances.

"Hey, I BEAT Herb, didn't I?" said Ranma triumphantly.

"That was a fluke."

"It was NOT!"

"I also seem to recall Pantyhose Tarou and Saffron both giving you quite a
lot of trouble," Ryouga remarked with a chuckle.

Ranma growled. "So are you here to recruit me or just piss me off?" He had
very little patience for Ryouga, at least not in situations like this one.

"Recruit, of course," said Ryouga calmly. "I can always piss you off
later." An infuriating grin spread over his face. At that moment, Ranma
would have liked nothing more than to hit it.

Ranma sighed resignedly. Getting into a fight now would screw up his
chances to make pig-boy eat his words. "So," he muttered, "who else would
be on our team?"

Ryouga shrugged. "That I hadn't decided yet... I was thinking that maybe
you would have an idea."

Ranma grinned, gears turning almost audibly in his head. "I can think of a
few people that might be worth checking out."

"So does that mean you'll sign up?" asked Ryouga hopefully.

"Sure," said Ranma. "Who knows, it could be fun." He held out his hand.
"Partners?"

Ryouga took the proffered hand and smiled. "Partners."

                                    ***
                              TO BE CONTINUED

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Keep going!  Chapter 1 is right around the corner!

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      Systems of Choice: Neo*Geo, TurboGrafx-16 and PlayStation
The Ninja Gaiden Home Page: http://www.classicgaming.com/ninjagaiden/
            My Fanfiction: http://www.scsn.net/users/deuce/
       "How beautiful is death.  Death and his brother, sleep."
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