Disclaimer: Honest to god, this is NOT a Ranma-bashing fic.  Read the 
forthcoming chapters, and you'll see. ;p  Oh, and I'm Blade, just for 
those who don't recognize the address. ;p


     From his vantage point on the rooftop, the figure watched as the 
red-haired girl chased the old man down the street.  The old man, who 
was so short as to be ridiculous-looking, was waving around a small 
white object.  The figure's sharp eyes focused on the object: a 
cylindrical, gilt-edged scroll.  He smiled.  It was almost time...
     "Give that back, you old freak!" cried the redhead angrily.
     "Not a chance, sweetcakes!" replied the old man.  "With this, I can 
have all the panties I've ever wanted!"  The girl growled inarticulately 
and made a lunge for him, but the old man simply whapped her on the head 
with a pipe without even looking, which improbably sent her flying back 
to land on the street, momentarily stunned.  The old man turned with a 
leer and stuck his tongue out at her...but his eyes bulged out a moment 
later as he was caught with a powerful kick from behind and sent flying.  
The girl blinked and looked at the figure, who was casually examining 
the scroll the old man had been holding a moment before.  He was a 
handsome, somewhat
effeminate-looking young man with a lean, powerful build, clad in baggy 
white asian-style pants and a blue scaled vest and bracers.  Two long 
tendrils of hair curled below his ears, which had earrings, and he 
appeared to be using a pair of pantyhose as a sash.
     "P-p-pantyhose!"  cried the girl.  Without changing expression, the 
young man flicked a rock off the ground with his toe and batted it at 
her, forcing her to roll to the side.
     "Nice to see you again, fem-boy," smiled Pantyhose Tarou, as Ranma 
rose to her feet.
     "That's a matter of opinion..." growled the boy-turned girl.  She 
rushed forward and made a swipe at him, but with an evil chuckle Tarou 
backpeddled out of range.  "Give that back!"
     "Oh, I couldn't do that," he sneered.  "Something this 
valuable...you'd probably waste it."
     "How'd you find out about it anyway?"
     "That's for me to know and you to find out, fem-boy.  I have my 
ways..."  Tarou chuckled evilly again.  Actually, it had only been by 
pure chance he had heard from a peddler a story about the odd travelling 
group that he had recognized as Ranma Saotome and his friends, but Tarou 
was enjoying the upper hand immensely, and felt no need to mention this.  
He noted with great satisfaction that his sneering reply had angered 
Ranma even more, and she was now tensing
herself for another attack.  He shifted back into a more defensive 
position, awaiting the rush, when...
     "Just one second!"
     Both almost-combatants turned to see a growling Happousai.  The old 
man was in a combat stance, and was surrounded by a glowing red aura.  
Enmity forgotten-or seemingly so-in the face of this common threat, 
Tarou and Ranma drew closer together as they faced the old lech.
     "Pantyhose, how DARE you attack your godfather so!"  
     Tarou felt a surge of anger at the old man's words.  Many people on 
the street had stopped-from a respectful distance-to watch the fight, 
but now Tarou felt their eyes on him alone; incredulous, laughing... 
"Don't call me that!" he snarled, clenching his fists.
     Ignoring Tarou's anger, Happousai directed his wrathful gaze to the 
girl.  "And you, Ranma, how dare -you- try to steal my scroll!"
     "YOUR scroll!?" retorted Ranma.  "Who fought that stupid monster to 
get it, huh?"  But Happousai cared as little for his pupil's rage as he 
did for his godson's.  After all, there were panties on the line.
     "Now," the old lech roared, "both of you will PAY!!!"  He reared 
back, as best as his diminutive height would allow, aura hissing like a 
snake.  Surging forward, he snapped out his palms and released a huge 
bolt of energy at his two adversaries.  Ranma tensed to leap away...but 
then Tarou almost casually reached out, grabbed the back of Ranma's 
shirt and yanked her in front of him, allowing her to take the brunt of 
the blast.  After a moment, he let his unconscious "shield"
drop to the ground in a heap, and looked down with a satisfied smirk.
     "And _that_ was for betraying me to that psychopath Rouge, 
fem-boy," he sneered.
     "PANTYHOSE..." growled Happousai, the reverberating tones of his 
voice telling Tarou even before he looked that his battle aura was 
growing into giant mode.  The Chinese boy's anger once more flared, but 
he forced it down and remained outwardly calm as he turned towards the 
old lech once more.
     "Pantyhose?" he echoed mockingly.  "Sure."  Reaching into a secret 
pocket in his vest, he whipped out a pair and tossed it in the air.  The 
angry red aura instantly disappeared as the perverted old man made a 
lunge for the undergarment...which gave Tarou the perfect opportunity he 
needed to plant a kick under his chin, sending him flying into the 
stratosphere with his new goodie.  The old man already forgotten, Tarou 
started to unravel the scroll when a slight noise
alerted his senses.  Glancing over, he sighed as he watched Ranma 
clamber painfully to her feet. "You again?" he said in some annoyance. 
"You're worse than a cockroach, fem-boy.  At least when you step on 
them, they stay dead."
     "Shut up, you jerk!" Ranma snarled.  She took a slightly unsteady 
step forward.  "Give me back that scroll before I have to hurt you." 
Tarou chuckled again, with genuine amusement.
     "You?  Hurt me?  You'd be lucky to do that in full health, and 
right now you can barely stand on your own two feet."  Ranma's 
expression became, if possible, even more enraged, as Tarou had known it 
would.  The best way to get Ranma to do anything, after all, was to 
point out that the hermaphrodite had no chance at it.  
     Somewhat surprisingly, however, she didn't attack immediately.  
Instead, she retorted, "What are you gonna do with that scroll anyway? 
Change your name?  What a waste."  
     "Sort of like you curing your curse, eh, fem-boy?" Tarou shot back.  
"Of course, if you'd had any brains in the first place you would have 
had that cured long ago, before your stupidity got Jyusenkyou destroyed.  
And, of course, there's also the fact you've had your piddly little 
curse for...what?  Two years?...while I've had mine my entire life."  He 
turned his attention back to the scroll, making as if to unroll it.  
Seeing this, Ranma threw caution to the winds and ran forward, hoping to 
get the scroll away.  
     Tarou, of course, had been expecting exactly this reaction, and as 
the girl rushed in he snapped into a defensive stance.  Once, twice, 
three times he blocked her strikes with his free arm, and then as she 
came in for a final blow he slipped to the slide, letting her own 
momentum carry her past him, and adding a backhand for good measure.  
"Getting a little slow, fem-boy!" he taunted as Ranma skidded to a halt.  
     With a growl, she spun around and launched a powerful haymaker, 
forgetting in her rage that as a girl she had considerably less reach. 
This was the mistake Tarou had been waiting for.  With exaggerated 
casualness he stepped towards the attack and smashed a foreknuckle into 
Ranma's face, not even blinking at the fist prematurely stopped only a 
few inches from his own head.  
     "Like I told you, fem-boy..." Pulling his arm back, he launched a 
fresh series of foreknuckles, most of which landed on his dazed 
adversary, and finished with a deadly duo-knuckle strike to the throat 
that sent the ostensible girl to her knees, gasping for air.  It was
doubtful whether she even noticed the kick coming, but she certainly 
felt it, flying back to collide heavily with the wall.  Before she even 
had time to slump, Tarou was there, flicking a palm thrust
which she clumsily blocked, then using the diversion to reach out, grab 
her face, and ram her head into the wall with terrific force.  Ranma's 
eyes glazed over and she fell, dazed.  Tarou smirked down at her.  
"...it's not a good idea to attack people when you're already half dead.  
Well, ta ta.  I'd like to say it's been nice knowing you, but it hasn't.  
At least it'll be nice to have -never- known you."
     Quickly, he walked a few steps away, determined to get this over 
with before the stubborn imbecile could try to continue the fight.  
Unravelling the scroll, he studied the archaic characters with a smile.  
No wonder fem-boy hadn't used the scroll yet.  It was rather ancient 
Mandarin, and he no doubt had needed someone to correctly translate it 
for him.  Tarou, whose nearly lifelong travels had made him fluent in 
most of the languages of East Asia, had no such difficulties.  Still, he 
carefully read the short inscription, sounding out each syllable in his 
mind to ensure there would be no mistakes.  
     Finally he was satisfied, and he read the chant aloud, pronouncing 
each word clearly and distinctly.  The characters burned even as he did 
so, disappearing from the scroll in tiny wisps of
smoke.  As he finished, Tarou spared one moment to look triumphantly at 
his most hated enemy, who was slowly rising to her feet.  "Nobody saved 
you this time, fem-boy," he sneered.  "After all the times you've gotten 
in my way, how appropriate that you should deliver a solution to this 
problem even better than the one I had in mind before."  
     Then he turned his attention back to the scroll.  It was blank, 
seemingly innocuous, but Tarou knew it was simply waiting for the words, 
the words that during the last few days he had dreamed of uttering...how 
ironic, that this instrument of sheer, unparalleled power would succeed 
where his various plots and schemes had failed.  But then, he knew 
better than most that occasionally crude power was the most effective 
solution... Ranma was up now, and Tarou knew he didn't have any more 
time to waste.  Taking a deep breath, he said calmly, "Very well, 
scroll.  Heed my words.  My wish...my wish is that Happousai had never 
named me!"        
     In response, the scroll started to glow.  At first a soft glow, it 
soon strengthened and expanded, so that within the space of a few 
heartbeats it was nearly blinding.  However, Tarou could not pull his 
eyes away, even as the light grew until it seemed that it consumed the 
entire world, and perhaps even beyond.  Faintly, he could hear Ranma 
shout, though whether it was words or simply a cry of rage he could not 
make out.  But all this meant nothing to him.  Only one thing ran 
through his brain: exultation.  He had finally done it.  He had beaten 
all the odds.  And he didn't even have to worry about building a new 
life for himself, because now he would have had an ordinary, happy one, 
the life his name had denied him.  He would have friends, relatives, a 
home...he would see his mother again...this time, things would work out 
right.  Pantyhose Tarou smiled, as everything went black...


	C&A Productions Presents

	A New Work of Ranma Fanfiction


     	The Ties That Bind


     	Written By Chris McNeil

       	Original Concept Provided by Robert Morrison




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