The Bet- Little Orphan Kasumi?
part 1a: "Here's Kasumi, Kendo Cook!"
by greggsharp, metroanime@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/metroanime/main.html
-------------------------------------
	"Hmmph." Grey, reluctant incubus
employed by the Rival Relief Office, looked over
at one of the deities. "Little changes snowballing,eh?
Some interesting developments, particularly where
the changes occurred early on. 'The present is
the fruit of the seeds of the past,' to quote someone
famous."

	"So, go earlier," Toltiir sped the view
backwards along the timeline.

	"What was this particular Alternate
anyway? I don't want to invalidate a happy ending."

	"Don't worry," the black cat said
without turning his eyes from the scrying pool. 
"Ranma loses the battle with Saffron, Shampoo 
remains Kiima's slave, Genma remains Shampoo's
slave, Ranma dies fighting Saffron, Akane dies
as a doll, Jusenkyo's destroyed, Ryouga and 
Mousse and the Jusenkyo Guide are killed for
being on the losing side of a battle. Even
Plum is killed... Soun dies wasting to death in
his bed within a year. Nabiki and Kasumi 
finally get into a nasty argument and both
part ways, Nabiki dies in a car accident three
years later, Dr Tofu never gets over his 
problem with Kasumi, and accidently hits
a 'Hokuto No Ken' shiatsu spot on her 
during one of his episodes."

	"Oh my." Grey blinked. "Well,
then I won't feel that guilty about inserting
a change right here."

	"Soun's making a decision? Oh,
whether to use a rental car while visiting  
his wife in the hospital or to walk and use
the train system..."

	Grey shrugged. "Now, let's see
if I can generate a happier ending than this
timeline originally had. I hope so."
-------------------------------------
	Nodoka had been called to the hospital
to visit a sick friend when the news came in.
Soun Tendo, her friend's husband, had been
driving home when he went into one of his
episodes of emotional overload. The resulting
wreck had claimed his life.

	Which brought Kimiko's dying
request to Nodoka. Soun had relatives in
the United States who would take Nabiki
in. Akane would go to her grandparents
house in Nara, where she would be raised
as a shrine maiden.

	Nodoka would have taken all
three in, if she could. Relatives felt that
the burden fell on family. As an old and
dear friend, Kimiko had made a personal
request to Nodoka to take in Kasumi at
least. That she could do.

	Nodoka sighed. Her house
had seemed so terribly empty since 
Genma had taken her son off on that
training trip. Having someone else
around gave her a sort of guilty joy.

	All this passed through
Nodoka's mind as she watched the
plane leave. Akane had already been
picked up and was headed off to her
new life in a Shinto shrine.

	Kasumi and Nodoka saw 
the plane take off, and in a little over
a day Nabiki would be at her new home
though a stranger in a strange land.

	"Come, Kasumi. It's time
to go home." Nodoka held out her
hand to the child.

	"Yes, auntie," said the 
little girl as she turned from the window.
She'd see her sisters again. Auntie had
promised.
-----------------------------------
	A fourteen year old girl on
a stage moved through a series of intricate
manuevers, a graceful dance with a long
glittering metal blade wielded as naturally
as if it were an extension of self.

	Kasumi let out a breath as she
eased into the final stance of the sword
kata. The faint click of the sword's tsubo
hitting the wooden sheath echoed in
the auditorium.

	The silence was broken as the
applause began. The judges held off their
judgement until they'd sampled the meal.

	"Saotome/Tendo School Of
Martial Arts Special Cooking Technique:
Sliced Thin, Piled High," Kasumi said as
she bowed to the judges, then again to
the audience.

	The other cooks were somewhat
flabbergasted, as they should be. Sandwiches
were such crude fare, hardly worthy of being
in a Cook-off. Still, these events had become
a LOT more popular with Kasumi combining
martial arts and cooking techniques.

	And who really wanted to argue
with someone who could do THAT sort of
manuever?

	Kasumi turned her attention back
to the side-dish. Salad. She selected a razor
sharp tanto for this manuever.
--------------------------------
	A twelve year old girl, having
outgrown lemonade stands and Girl Scout
cookies, was doing what came as natural
to her as walking. She was earning money.

	She was one of the few girls
in the neighborhood with a paper route,
but it was Money. Therefore it caught 
her interest and kept her attention.

	Nabiki smirked at the thought.
I am Nabiki, hear me roar. All you bulls
and bears, watch out, there's a new
predator in town.

	"G'day, Nabiki," one of 
Nabiki's customers tipped his hat
as she zipped past his apartment,
bicycle practically flying over the
cracked pavement.

	She liked him. None of this
"Nabs" or "'Biki" or ridiculous other
petnames that some adults seemed
fated to stick her with. Even those
were preferred to the "Nancy" her
English teacher insisted on.

	The last paper in her route
slapped into the door. Her tires left
black trails as she slid into a turn,
then began the trip home. Time enough
for breakfast, a last run on the calculus
homework, and a little work on her
Junior Achievement project, then on
to school.

	Nabiki was busy. Nabiki was
making money. Nabiki was mostly happy.
-----------------
	An eleven year old girl in 
the typical garb of a Shinto priestess
finished sweeping the step she was on
and looked up at the hundreds of other
steps she had to sweep clear.

	Akane made a sound deep
in the back of her throat. Life sucked.
She had to do chores. She had to do
homework. She had to suffer unfairly
in life.

	Everyone at school thought
she was crude and graceless. They called
her a tomboy. No matter how many times
she beat them up, they always called her
names like that.

	Akane heard a sigh behind her
and saw her grandfather looking at her
with a sad expression.

	"Akane, I've told you before,
start at the top, and sweep down."

	"This is stupid." Akane threw
the broom down. "We should get a leaf
blower or something! And the stupid 
leaves will just fall down on it tomorrow
anyway. I hate this!"

	"Akane, do you know why
there are all these rituals? Because each
of them is to teach us something as we
perform them..."

	"I don't wanna be a shrine
maiden! I wanna be a pro wrestler!"

	"You'll be a shrine maiden."
Her grandpa used that no-nonsense,
you better not argue with me tone of 
voice. "Or not. What you or I want is
inconsequential."

	"Then I'll stop sweeping
the steps."Akane smiled then realized
what her grandpa was holding. "Uh
oh."

	Grandpa was holding up
a pack of cigarettes. Grandpa didn't
smoke. Grandma didn't smoke. Neither
felt it was Akane's place to smoke.

	Akane was busted, and
she knew it. 
----------------------------	
	Grey looked at the scrying pool
with some satisfaction. "You see, it's going
quite well. Well, Akane's in a sort of personal
hell. Look at how happy Nabiki is, though!
Kasumi's not doing too bad, either, and 
Ranma's mother is doing a lot better with
someone around."

	Toltiir shook his head. "It gets
worse. Observe."
----------------------------
	Kasumi watched the lights of
the city from the rooftop. She heard her
"Auntie" slowly climb up the ladder 
after her but remained silent and 
contemplative.

	"Kasumi, this is an odd way
to spend your eighteenth birthday."

	"Auntie Saotome, why?"

	"Why what, dear?"

	"Why am I alone? I win
cooking contests. Bluebird's undefeated
women's kendo champion. Yet, I am
alone, with no suitors. No..."

	"Ah," Nodoka nodded.
"Well, there is a solution to that."

	"Hmph." Kasumi rested
her chin on her hand and stared out
at the night. "I seem to intimidate 
the local men. Where is one with 
the heart of a samurai, to face 
mine own."

	"You must've run into
that Kuno gentleman again. Did he
challenge you again?"

	"Of course. He wanted
me to 'return to a woman's rightful
place' and put away my sword. It
was a fairly even match...for the 
first few minutes." 

	Nodoka hesitated for
just a moment. "Kasumi, there is
something you should know. My
husband told me of it after your
father's death. I think that brought
home his own mortality, and he
wanted to tell me of this in case
something happened to him."

	"Yes, Auntie?" Kasumi
wasn't even looking, so sunk in her
funk that she was actually being 
impolite.

	"There is an old agreement
between the Tendos and the Saotomes,
that my son Ranma would marry a Tendo."

	There was a brief silence while
this information penetrated Kasumi's mood.
Then came the sound of someone sliding 
and falling off the roof.

	Nodoka hurried down, to find
that Kasumi was physically uninjured, but
in shock.

	"I...engaged? Marry? But I.
Is he cute?" Kasumi's mouth clicked shut.
Of course, Auntie Saotome didn't know
what Ranma looked like. "How? I..."

	Nodoka smiled at Kasumi
in the glow from the porchlight. "I
have come to know you over these
past years, Kasumi, and it would give
me great pleasure if I could call you
my daughter in truth."

	Kasumi felt tears spring
up but controlled them. "Auntie, won't
he be rather...uncultured? If Uncle
Genma has been dragging him all
across Japan on this sort of training
mission, then what manner of man
is he? Will he know anything other
than how to fight?"

	"He will be a man among
men, or he'll commit seppuku. Or at
least, that was the deal I cut with 
Genma." Nodoka winced at her own
pun. "As for the rest, if his father
can take him on a ten year journey
to learn martial arts, surely his wife
merits the same chances?"

	Kasumi considered that.
"I can hope, then, can't I?" Kasumi
smiled, a brief image of herself being
swept off her feet by a handsome
samurai...
----------------------------
	Nabiki Tendo, now at
sixteen years of age, looked at her
family of the past few years and
vowed she would return. This was
stupid, going back to Japan to
attend the last year of school there
as a transfer student.

	Still, it would be nice to
see her sisters again. Vague memories
of her sister Kasumi in an apron that
was far too large for her, and Akane
in her little gi...

	Well, big sis was eighteen
now, so she'd have someone who 
could drive her to the mall, maybe buy
beer for her. That would be cool.

	She hoped there were some
decent boys there. Not that Derek
wasn't ok. She'd just prefer running
into someone who thought more with
the head that was above the shoulders.

	She started planning, she
still had another month. She had to
get all of her investments into safe
areas. Savings accounts and the like
where they would nicely accrue 
interest and not require that she 
be around to manage the money.

	Her job at the Credit
Union had been going so well
too. She had a feeling things would
not be nearly so easy in Japan.
-------------------
	Akane, a fifteen year
old girl, had gone from being
mainly miserable to completely
miserable. Following Uncle Genma
and that stuck-up boy, she had
to admit, was not one of her 
better ideas.

	Still, she'd stick with
them, learn some martial arts,
and THEN go back to the Shrine.
Best to get far away from the 
Shrine first, as she did not want
to go back before she was ready.

	She blinked. They'd
just walked out into the ocean
and were getting ready to swim?
Akane glanced over at the rental
boats. No way she was going to
swim! She'd return the boat, 
eventually...
-----------------------------
	Grey held his head in
his hands. "Oh no. She doesn't..."

	"Yup."
-----------------------------
	"<You stranger girl, what you 
do here?>"

	Akane glared at the woman.
who had just addressed her. "Why can't
anyone around here speak Japanese?"

	"Because you in China." A
woman carrying twin shortswords looked
over Akane as if trying to decide if she
would taste like chicken.

	"Look," Akane noted how
many of the women had drawn weapons.
"I'm just lost. I was chasing Ranma and
his father around for knocking me into
some damn pool..."

	"Well, if that true, then come 
this way..."

	<"What are you doing, Sash?
Taking her to the Challenge Log?">

	<"Well, you know my brother
Razor? I'll get him to challenge her. If she
loses, he finally gets a wife, then I can
have his room when he moves out! If
she wins, then we let her escape so we
can track her down and at least get some
time out of this damn village.">

	<"Sash? When did you get
so clever?">

	<"I've been watching American
TV. Very educational. 'Gilligan's Island.'
I feel that trapped here we share the same
basic problem. Except, of course, that there
are no Elders on the island.">

	<"Ah. So which one are you?"> 

	<"Mary Ann,"> said Sash. <"Because
I spend so damn much time helping my brother
farm. Another reason I want him to find a wife.">
---------------------------------
	"Run, that girl's about to give you the
Kiss of Death!" Akane ran past Ranma and his
father, heading for the Village Gate, as there was
currently nobody guarding it in all the confusion.
Escape beckoned after a really crazy day.

	"What?" Ranma managed before the
Jusenkyo Guide grabbed him and started running,
leaving a startled Shampoo wondering why new
village girl interrupting her First Death Challenge.

	"<Shampoo, they are escaping.>" Cologne
said, before a thought occurred to her. "<Wait. If
these are the two the new bride spoke of earlier...
they have been Jusenkyo cursed as well. Then 
the girl that defeated you is actually a Nyannichuan
cursed boy.>"

	"<She's a boy? Then giving her the Kiss
Of Death would be wrong. Heh. If I marry him, then
that'll at least get Mousse off my back. Plus I'll have
a strong husband.>"

	"<Shampoo was beaten by an outsider boy
who's still in the learning-to-cope-with-a-new-body
stage of a Jusenkyo curse?>" Sash blinked and 
elbowed Shu Ga. "<Do you know what that means?>"

	Sugar (Shu Ga) winked and said in a stage
whisper. "<Why that means he must be a really strong
fighter, right? AND if he's that strong, then he must 
face really tough opponents on a regular basis!">

	Ginger clapped her hands and picked up on
the plan. <"That means..."> She was sure to pitch her
voice loud enough to carry over the entire assembly.

	Showing the cute little fangs that were a
result of her having a grandfather who had been a
Jusenkyo-cursed wolf, Lupine finished the thought.
"<THAT means strong potential husbands!>"

	"<AFTER THEM!>" Two dozen teenage
amazons proclaimed as they went into weapon poses.
Thunder crackled in the distance.

	Razor shrugged. He would follow. After all
he had to follow his wife, Akane. He just wished he
knew who had put the grease on his side of the 
Challenge Log.
-------------------------------
	Grey blinked. "It's not my fault." He
turned to a set of disgusted looking onlookers.
"It's not my fault, dammit."

	Toltiir, elder god of mischief and chaos,
merely grinned. It may not have been his intention,
but Grey was an incubus now and that nature 
tended to "flavor" any endeavor he turned his hand
to. It was one of those Laws of Nature...

	Especially when Toltiir was around.
------------------------------
	"Ah, my husband is returning
from China!" Nodoka smiled. "At last!"

	"Really?" Kasumi went into 
cute pose #3, eyes sparkling and with
her hands to one side of her face. "Ah,
I finally get to meet my new fiancee!"

	A grumbling noise came from
Nabiki as her American boyfriend had
dumped her after the first month she had
been here. She was still planning on a 
cruel, nasty, vindictive revenge upon the
honorless wretch, preferably something
that involved silverfish, jabanero peppers,
and lots of duct tape. Even better, with
slashing his credit line to zero and her own
bank account fattening considerably.

	As for Japanese boys, they
just seemed so...bland and unappetizing.
Nabiki wanted something a little different.

	"Squeeal? Squeal!"

	"Oh look, a vermin!" Nabiki
looked at the little black piglet that had 
shown up. At the gate was a boy and 
an older man? "I'm sorry, you are?"

	The boy sighed. "I'm Ranma
Saotome...HEY LET GO!"

	The older man had noticed
his wife coming out and she was carrying
the sword. He made a quick mathematical
equation. (Ranma+Curse=girl=not man=
dead Genma.) "Well, you'veseenyour
mothernow,gottagobye." Genma was
abruptly gone, still holding a scrap of
cloth that was a piece of his son's shirt.

	"RANMA!" Kasumi glomped
the boy. "Auntie Saotome, he IS cute!
I'll take him."

	Nabiki smirked. "I'd say 
wrap up the purchase, but you've got
that handled already, eh, sis?"

	"Huh? What?" Something
about the hug was causing Ranma
considerable confusion. Of course,
that his father still hadn't told him
about the arranged marriage didn't
help any.
=========================
where could i go from here?
well, there's Ranma's curse, though
Kasumi (wanting to marry Ranma) 
and Nabiki (wanting her sister to
have a decent relationship) will
also try to convince Nodoka that
Ranma can still be a man, even 
when he's not.
There's P-chan (Akane) who's
married to Razor, at least by Chinese
Amazon law. There's two dozen
teenage amazons (a sailor on shore
leave kind of thing) chasing after
Ranma hoping that he'll lead them
to strong potential husbands. There's
Shampoo, who knows that Ranma's
a guy and will view him as being 
already married to her. There's Ryouga
who did NOT fall into "Spring Of
Drowned Piglet" since Akane was the
one who got knocked into it, Ryouga
fell in a completely different pool.
There's Razor, who regards himself
as being married to Akane/P-chan.
There's Cologne, who is following this
crowd to run damage control...

sufficiently divergent?
	hey, has anybody tried this?
Akane gets splashed by Tarou, who has
the "Spring Of Drowned Twins" water.
She splits into the "Saint Akane" (the 
compassionate, forgiving, gentle, sweet
girl depicted in all the C&C from the Akane
lovers) and the "Psycho Bitch Akane" as
depicted in the anime and numerous fanfics.
Saint Akane (straight, honest, loving, cute,
intelligent) likes Ranma. PB Akane (lesbian,
hates boys, jumps to conclusions, violent)
loathes Ranma.
How does the rest of the family handle 
having two Akanes? For that matter, how
about the rest of Nerima?