Quantum Destinies
A Ranma fanfic
by Steven Thesken (jurai-knight@home.com)
This idea occurred to me after I finished the science-fiction novel
�Paths to Otherwhere� by James P. Hogan. Ranma and all
associated characters are owned by Kitty and the ever-creative
Rumiko Takahashi. This is purely a work of fanfiction, so please
read and enjoy.
Notes: Thoughts will be bracketed by a * on each end. Any
speech other than Japanese will be bracketed by < and >.
Chapter 1 - A Life Unlived
The soft whirring of the overhead fan is interrupted by a loud
ringing sound. A hand emerges from beneath a light blanket. It
slowly reaches and fumbles around for the source of the noise. A
muted grumbling is heard from beneath the blanket as the hand
takes several long moments to track the sound to its source on the
table. A brief struggle is won, and silence reigns over the
bedroom once more.
A few minutes later, the door opens with a loud bang.
Slippered feet make their way into the room, and stop next to the
futon. A rather angry female voice makes itself known.
�Ranma! You are _not_ going to be late for school again!�
The figure waits to see what reaction occurs, slowly tapping one
slippered foot.
More grumbling is heard from beneath the blanket, then a
little motion. The motion becomes more and more frantic over the
next several seconds. More grumbling is heard, then a final flurry
of motion occurs. A male body emerges from the covers over the
futon. Ranma Saotome was now officially awake.
�I�m up, mother. I�m up.� His voice has the mildly sullen
tone of the typical teenage boy in the morning. The dream that he
had been having evaporated into nothing. He never could
remember his dreams.
Satisfied that her son was awake and would not be late for
school, Nodoka Saotome charges out of the room to finish
breakfast. Ranma sits on the edge of his futon, and wishes for the
thousandth time that his parents weren�t such traditionalists that
he could have a bed. His mother would be scandalized at the
thought. His father would simply agree with his mother.
Ranma gets up off the floor and walks over to his closet,
sliding open the door. He pulls his school uniform out of his
closet with a hint of distaste. Even though it was tailored to fit
quite well, he still disliked wearing the stupid thing. He put on a
clean shirt and socks from the drawer. He eyes the hated uniform
for a moment before struggling into it.
*Now I look like a proper student for the Tokyo Imperial
Academy.* His mind was full of sincere hopes that he wouldn�t
run into any trouble today. His independent study science project
was near completion. The last thing he needed was trouble from
any of his fellow students.
Breakfast was the usual affair. His father, Genma Saotome,
kept his nose buried in the newspaper, occasionally turning pages
or grumbling at some new development in the world. His mother,
Nodoka Saotome, busied herself with delivering another delicious
meal to the table before sitting down to eat.
The family eats in relative silence. Ranma gobbled down his
food as fast as he could while under his mothers watchful eye,
trying to avoid her usual morning lecture on his table manners.
Genma occasionally gulped down some food, briefly emerging
from behind the barrier of his newspaper. All in all, it was
another typical morning in the Saotome household.
Upon finishing with his breakfast, Ranma picks up his
bookbag and stuffs his personal notebook deep down inside.
Inside it are his latest calculations dutifully recorded. A large and
rather weighty tome with the name �Quantum Mechanics and
Parallel Universe Theory� joins it. The authors name on the cover
was �Dr. Genma Saotome.� He slings his bookbag up onto his
shoulder, and heads out the door after putting on his shoes. His
parents watch him as he heads down the street.
�I swear I don�t know what is with that boy lately,� grumbles
Nodoka. �All he cares about is this project of his.�
Genma grunts noncommittally. Nodoka turns to look at him.
Her look is one that Genma has come to see lately all too often.
�He wants to prove your theories correct. Do you think he
can?�
�My son will succeed. I didn�t drag him over half the world
for the last ten years, to every center of learning I could find, to
have him fail. You really shouldn�t coddle the boy, Nodoka.
You will see that I kept my promise. He will be the greatest mind
that the Empire has ever seen.� Pride fills his voice.
�We�ll see, Genma.� A small particle of doubt can be heard
in her voice.
******************************
Ranma walks along at a leisurely pace. School was not one of
his favorite places to be. It wasn�t that he did poorly at it. On the
contrary, it was too easy for him. After following his father all
over the world for so many years, learning at the feet of every
scholar and scientist the old man could coerce into teaching him,
school had been a relief. Ranma had been initially content to
attend regular classes with other students his own age. He had
quickly grown bored though, and his lack of social skills hadn�t
helped with his classmates.
He almost collides with one of the annoyances in his life when
he turns the next corner. He stumbles, dropping his bag, as a deft
footsweep causes him to lose his balance. The day was still new,
and it was already looking bad.
�Watch out, you clumsy weakling!� shouts an angry female
voice. He looks up and grimaces inwardly. Standing before him,
in her gray Imperial Security cadet uniform, was Akane Tendo.
Her older sister Nabiki, also in the gray colors of an Imperial
Security cadet save for one extra hash mark on the sleeve, stands
next to Akane with a smirk on her face.
�Ranma dear,� purrs Nabiki, �you should make more of an
effort to be aware of your surroundings.� She flashes a cold smile.
It chills Ranma to the bone. He had heard that Nabiki Tendo
already had a promising future mapped out ahead of her in the
Emperor�s Secret Police.
*This is all I need today.* Ranma keeps his face composed as
he gets back to his feet. The Thug, as he referred to Akane in the
privacy of his own thoughts, watched him stand with a frown.
Nabiki watched him with a cool look of detached interest. He
bows his head after regaining his feet.
�My sincerest apologies, ladies.� He hopes that the faint hint
of mockery he is feeling is not present in his voice. He keeps his
head down as Akane looks at him for a long moment, before
turning with an angry sniff to stomp away. Nabiki gives him
another cool smile, and her hand reaches out to caress his face.
Her hand feels warm, but he imagines that he could feel his skin
crawl at her touch.
�Be more careful in the future, Ranma dear. We both know
that Akane is one to bear grudges for the smallest of slights.� She
turns with proper military form, and hurries only slightly to catch
up with her sister. Ranma watches them walk off before taking a
slightly different route to school.
******************************
�You should learn to take it easy when it comes to Saotome,
little sister. All that anger can�t be good for you.� Nabiki walks
with an unconscious precision to her stride, her appearance that of
the perfect Imperial officer.
�Grrr. I still haven�t forgiven him for what he did at the
beginning of the year.� Akane kicks a stone through the fence and
into the drainage stream as she stomps along in a foul mood.
*Damn you, Ranma Saotome. I wish you weren�t such a
weakling.*
�As I recall it, that incident wasn�t entirely his fault.
Someone switched the signs for the locker rooms on the first day of
school.� Nabiki smiled as she recalled the look on her sisters face
that day when Ranma had walked in with some of the other new
freshman boys. It had been one of her better pranks on her little
sister. The few of Nabiki�s associates who knew of her
involvement would never tell. Nabiki chose her allies carefully.
�I still think it was just an excuse those boys cooked up
between themselves to peep.� Akane could feel her insides begin
to seethe from her remembered embarrassment. She had come out
of the showers to see a surprised bunch of boys looking at her.
The other girls from her class had been conveniently absent.
Akane had pummeled every boy to within an inch of their lives.
�You also got detention for a week for harming the star
intellect of the school.� Nabiki smirks as her sister blushes with
annoyance. Baiting her little sister was a favorite game. Even
though the Tendo family had served with distinction in Imperial
Security for almost two centuries, Nabiki just could not see Akane
as rising very far in rank due to her aggressive nature.
Akane grumbles to herself the rest of the way to school.
*This is all Ranma�s fault! He�s a boy. I keep provoking him.
Why won�t he fight me?*
******************************
Ranma finally arrived at the gate surrounding Tokyo Imperial
Academy. Built almost ninety years ago, it was a very stolid, but
dreary-looking structure. The Emperor of that time had wanted to
construct a site for serious learning, along the lines of the finest
schools of far-off lands such as Germany or Russia. The
architecture was to mirror the seriousness of the purpose it was
built for. Ranma just found it oppressive.
His morning classes were dull, even at the accelerated
program that Ranma was in. In his current class, he listens half-
heartedly as the instructor drones on about some lesser-known
aspects of the history of the Empire. *Who really cares about
some failed revolution in Britain�s old North American colonies?,*
he thinks with a bored sigh. The western region of North America
had been a colony of the Empire for over a century, after the war
with Spain. *Would the shape of the world really have changed
that much?* There had been peace in the world for the last
several decades, since it was divided up among the three
superpowers in the last war: Japan, Germany, and Russia. Ranma
could care less about history himself. Science was all that
mattered to him.
Finally, he was released into his personal study period and
headed down into the labs in the basement. Today would be the
day when he would solve the problem that had plagued him, and
he would see another world.
******************************
*Almost got it.* Ranma carefully adjusts the small soldering
iron as he sets the last chip in place on the circuit board. *There.*
The new chip snaps into place and is held solidly by a few daubs of
lead solder. He pushes the board back into place and runs the
system through final checkout. The monitor brightens into life
next to him as he sits with the keyboard in his lap.
*SELF-CHECK COMPLETE
*ALL LOGIC COMPONENTS ARE FUNCTIONING WITHIN
THE DESIGNATED PARAMETERS
*QUANTUM FLUX COIL IS FUNCTIONING WITHIN THE
DESIGNATED PARAMETERS
*NEURAL INDUCTION SENSORS ARE FUNCTIOING
WITHIN THE DESIGNATED PARAMETERS
*SYSTEM HAS 10 QUANTUM COORDINATES STORED IN
STABLE MEMORY
*SCAN FOR NEW COORDINATES: YES
*SELECT QUANTUM BAND FOR SCAN: RANDOM
*SET CYCLE INTO ACTIVE MODE: YES
*SET TIME DURATION FOR TEST: 60.00 MINUTES
*WAITING FOR SIGNAL FROM NEURAL HEADSET
Ranma sits back and contemplates the machine assembled in
front of him on the lab floor. He could hardly believe it was
finished. After two years of polishing his fathers theories, three
months of design work, and almost a month of assembling a
mishmash of prototype components, it was now done. The proof
of his father�s theories lay before him. The Quantum Neural
Resonator was finally finished.
Ranma picks up the bulky neural induction headset. All his
calculations told him it should work. Every piece of the device
had been checked and re-checked. If he was going to do it, it
might as well be now. The random search program was engaged,
but would not engage until he put the headset on. This would give
the system a comparison model to use to begin searching for a
likely quantum signature match. He could have gone with one of
the ones he had already gotten a signature match during his earlier
limited tests, but he decided the first full-powered test should be to
a set of coordinates scanned from scratch.
He takes the precaution of locking the lab door, and the recall
mode for the Resonator was already set for an hour. *That should
give me sufficient time to look around.*
He settles back onto the couch he had dragged down from one
of the storage rooms. It had been used as a prop in a number of
school plays, but it suited his purposes. The headset settles easily
onto his head, the background hum of the Resonator feeling like a
faint tickle along the inside of his skull.
*This is it. I wonder what it will feel like?*
In the background, the soft computer-generated voice began its
repetitive statement, �Searching... Searching... Searching....�
Suddenly, �Quantum signature found. Activating cycle.�
******************************
There was a brief moment of dislocation, then Ranma found
himself in another place, another life. What was unexpected was
the rush of memories from that other life filling his awareness. It
was rather distracting and even more disorienting. He was
confused a moment by his surroundings, so he didn�t realize that
someone was addressing him immediately.
�Mister Saotome! Have you fallen asleep in my class, you
delinquent? What is the answer to the question?� An annoyed-
looking eight year old girl was shouting at him.
He looks around quickly. A classroom full of students looks
back at him. The uniforms even looked similar to the ones he was
used to. To his surprise, Akane Tendo was sitting behind him and
glaring at him. She even wore her hair the same way he
remembered from home. She points to her text with a final glare.
Ranma glances down at a similar book in front of him and flips to
the same page. Luckily, it was apparently a math class.
�The answer is the cube root of seventeen, teacher,� he
answers absently.
The child teacher, Miss Hinako his new memories prompted,
looks more than somewhat surprised, to say the least.
�Th... that�s right. You are correct.� She wanders off to ask
another student about a different problem, still looking surprised.
�So you _did_ study last night after all,� a voice stage-
whispers behind him. �I thought you were too busy training
nowadays.�
�I... uh... found the time later,� Ranma whispers back.
Ranma found himself somewhat overwhelmed by the
memories of a life he had never lived, but intrigued too. This
Ranma had traveled for over ten years with his father to learn
martial arts. His life was a confusing kaleidoscope of random
memories. Brief flashes of people met, and various fighting
techniques learned filled his mind. A strong image of a valley of
pools of water filled his mind for a moment, but it was gone before
he could focus on it. *Jusenkyo?* He was engaged by his father
to marry Akane Tendo, but several other girls also claimed him.
*Engaged to marry Akane Tendo?* The very thought makes
him feel slightly ill. From this Ranma�s memories, he could tell
that Akane Tendo was as much of a thug here as the one he
remembers from home. He found himself feeling sorry for the
poor fool. He feels even more surprised when he senses feelings of
love and affection for Akane associated with the memories, but
buried deep.
*Ranma Saotome loves Akane Tendo? Ranma Saotome falls
in love with a brutish, angry girl who constantly beats him up?
This Ranma needs some serious mental help.* Ranma looked out
the window as he mused on the very strange life of his quantum
counterpart.
The bell rings while Ranma was pondering these things.
*Lunchtime.* He looked at the clock on the wall. *I have
about fifty minutes before recall occurs.* Ranma sits at his desk
for a minute before the smell of food from his bookbag finally gets
the better of him. He pulls out his lunch, and sets it on his desk as
his mind wanders. *Whatever it is smells fantastic.*
Not too surprising, most of the memories of this Ranma�s life
were rather incomplete. Apparently, immersion into another life
did not immediately provide complete access to all the memories
from that life. *I�ll have to set the timer for longer next time.
That should let me get more of a feel for my quantum
dopplegangers life.*
He feels a tap on the back of his skull.
�Are you just going to sit there and ignore me through all of
lunch?� The voice of an annoyed Akane Tendo disturbed his
upcoming enjoyment of what smelled like a delicious lunch.
Ranma sighs softly, and turns around.
�Sorry about that. I was just thinking about some things.�
He hoped if he sounded meek enough, it would defuse the
infamous Akane Tendo wrath. She softens her gaze a little, which
surprises him. His Akane had never looked at him with the
slightest amount of warmth. She saw him as a weakling, since he
didn�t spend his life learning how to break bricks with his fists like
she had.
This Akane felt different, and he had to revise his opinion of
her a little. Maybe if he didn�t do or say anything that this Ranma
normally did to make her mad, she might even smile at him.
*Where the hell did _that_ thought come from?* He blinks a
moment.
�Are you okay, Ranma?� She looks at him in mild concern.
�I�m fine, Akane.� He risks a smile, and she smiles in return.
�Nihao, Ranma!� A perky female voice speaks up behind his
head. The look on Akane�s face darkens into a scowl, and she
turns her head aside with a slight huffing sound.
Ranma turns around to see a bouncy female body to match the
perky voice. She was sitting in the window, holding a delivery
box. *Shampoo,* his new memories prompted, *proud Chinese
Amazon warrior girl.* He smiles at her, and she smiles in return.
�Ranma happy to see Shampoo?� She leaps at him in a single
bound and hugs him without dropping her delivery box. Ranma
had never been greeted by a beautiful girl like this before. It was
more than a little pleasant. He starts to return the hug, but a
quivering at the back of his skull makes him glance behind him.
Akane is glaring at him again.
�Ranma,� slowly says a furious Akane, �what do you think you
are doing?�
�I was about to give Shampoo a hug.� The words seem to just
slip out before he could think about the possible repercussions.
�What do you think about that?�
�DIE RANMA!!!� Akane picks up and throws a desk at the
couple for further emphasis of her point.
Ranma grabs Shampoo and jumps over the hurtling desk,
which sails out the window. It did so, amazingly enough, without
touching the edges of the open window. A loud crash is heard
from below a few moments later.
�Ranma save Shampoo from violent girl.� Shampoo snuggles
in his arms happily. Visions of Ranma�s heroism dance in her
head. Her voice had dropped into a purring tone.
�Ranma honey? What do you think you�re doing?� A large
metal object attempts to pry Shampoo out of his grip. Another girl
is on the end of it.
*Ukyou Kuonji,* his new memories flashed up, *okonomiyaki
chef and also engaged to Ranma.* He lets go of Shampoo, and
Ukyou pries her off of him. Ukyou moves between him and
Shampoo.
�You stay away from Ranma, you Chinese bimbo!� Ukyou
takes up an aggressive stance, her combat spatula at the ready.
�Ranma is husband of Shampoo, stupid spatula girl!�
Shampoo takes up a combat stance of her own, looking ready for
anything.
*I�ve never had women fighting over me before.* Ranma just
marvels at the novelty of the experience. Both of them look pretty
determined to fight over him. Akane just stands to one side and
glowers at all three of them.
�Please don�t fight,� he said rather louder than he intended.
All three women looked at him in surprise. Akane was so
surprised she forgot to glare at him for a moment. �I just want to
eat my lunch in peace.�
�Shampoo bring you delicious lunch.� She grabs her delivery
box off a nearby desk, and pulls out a bowl of something. She
whips it under his nose, a steaming bowl of ramen noodles. She
smirks at Ukyou.
�I�ve got your lunch right here, Ranma honey.� A small grill
appears as if from nowhere, and a blue of cooking takes place.
Faster than he would have imagined possible, Ukyou presents him
with a plate of okonomiyaki while sticking her tongue out at
Shampoo.
Ranma felt he was rapidly reaching the limits of his ability to
deal with the female of the species. The two women nearest him
alternated adoring gazes in his direction with murderous gazes at
each other. Akane just looked upset at all three of them equally.
�Umm... that�s fine. Just put it on my desk, and I�ll try to eat
it all.� He sits down and starts to eat the original lunch he brought
out. Two more full lunches are set down next to it by the two
girls. Both of them sit down at two recently-vacated desks next to
him and sigh as they watch him eat. Akane just glares in the
trio�s direction.
*I think I could get used to this.* Ranma eats with a smile.
Akane moves off to eat with some of the other girls in class, still
glaring at Ranma.
******************************
Ranma shakes his head to clear it. The clock on the wall read
an hour later than he last remembered it. *Did I fall asleep sitting
up? Oh no! I missed lunch!* He didn�t feel hungry, which was
odd. He would have to ask Akane if he missed anything
important.
He glances down at the book on his desk, and sighs when he
realizes it was his English book. What didn�t register
immediately, but did within a few moments, was that he could
make sense of it all of a sudden, and English had always been his
worst subject. *Must be from that year I spent in Britain.
Waitasec.... Britain?*
******************************
Ranma opens his eyes and smiles. The experiment had been
an incredible and unqualified success. He slips off the headset and
stretches his arms out until his spine pops lightly. Bracing one
hand against the couch, he flips off in a smooth midair somersault
and lands on his feet. He then froze for a moment.
*When did I learn how to do that?* He stares at his arm for a
long moment. *Memory transferal? Could it be both ways?*
