RANMA NIBUN NO USUGURAMI
PART I

WARNING: Despite what you may believe, the characters that appear in 
this work are not my own. So no phoning the lawyers. (Besides what can 
they sue me for?)

Chapter 1

"There's no way out of this one. You're trapped."

Genma was glad he was in panda form for his Go matches. He knew that if 
he dared to remain a man he would end up vocalising every one of Tendo's 
mistakes. If he did that, he wouldn't be able to use the mistakes to his 
advantage anymore.

His lifelong friend, and fellow martial artist, was constantly repeating 
one of those mistakes. He had recognised it: While surrounding a small 
group of his stones, Tendo had missed a chance to save a larger group 
from being surrounded.

Uttering an obscure growl, Genma placed his stone, completing the 
barrier.

"Wait just a minute," Tendo said. "Are you sure that's a legal move?"
<<Ah, Tendo. You're being a sore loser again.>>

It didn't matter to him. Lifting up his handy sign, he scrawled YES 
across it in as large a print as possible. Seeing the look spreading 
across Tendo's face, it made up for all the times he had lost trying to 
play shogi against his friend.

Just as his friend was reaching under his dark hair feigning 
concentration, he noticed the door to the dining room open and someone 
stepping out. Becoming fully alert, Tendo whirled his head around to 
meet the person's gaze and gave a call.

"Kasumi. Can you bring out some tea, please?"

Kasumi, the oldest of Tendo's three daughters, had just begun to mop the 
floor when she heard her father's request. "More tea, Father? All 
right."

Leaving the mop and water by the door, she went back to the kitchen to 
start another pot.

Genma was wondering where he had space for it all. In this day alone the 
man had asked for rice crackers, pork buns, fish sausage, and a full pot 
of tea already. How much could one man *stall*?

"Can you add some mint this time? Thank you." The smile that had been 
moving across his face immediately disappeared as met up with the 
panda's gaze. "What? What's wrong, Saotome?"

Trying to make his arms look as crossed as possible in his present form, 
he gave Tendo a you-know-what look. After a sufficient glare he rose 
from his sitting position and walked over to the bucket Kasumi had left 
trying to fill her father's latest order. Testing it first to see if it 
was hot enough, he proceeded to pour the water on his head.
The event of the water's effect of transformation was a familiar, yet 
never quite pleasing, sensation. Even after all this time he was never 
ready for it. He could feel every change.

His ears were descending on his head. His snout was receding. His arms 
were becoming thinner and lengthier as were his legs. His claws were 
growing more joints as they changed back into fingers. He even felt his 
skeleton warping back into that of a human's under his skin. Finally his 
fur diminished to near nothingness leaving his head bald.
With the transformation complete in it's instant, he cursed to himself. 
Although there was never any physical pain associated with his change, 
he always had to push pain on himself. A pain that he had conjured up 
ever since the waters of Jusenkyo had cursed him. The mere thought of 
his body going through such a change triggered the sensation, a 
combination of grief with shame.

Walking back over to the board, he wondered if his son, Ranma, ever had 
similar thoughts. All he ever had to worry about was changing into a 
panda. Ranma's curse was the infinitely more terrifying experience of 
having to change into a girl. Such a curse must bring about innumerable 
humiliating changes. Changes that could even damage the indomitable will 
of his eighteen-year old successor.

He cursed again. How dare he believe that he was better off than his son 
was? Ranma was just as cursed as he and until they could find a 
permanent cure--

Suddenly, he heard a crash.

"What was that?" Tendo asked. Genma was equally as confused, at least, 
until a scream punctuated the event. Tendo slumped down. "Never mind."

Some distance away, Genma could hear a double set of footfalls. One was 
more pronounced than the other. The level of the sound was increasing 
rapidly. He recognised it as two people running. Between that and the 
scream he knew that once again his son and his hopeful daughter-in-law, 
Akane, were fighting again.

"Even after all this time." he fixed the position of his glasses. "Even 
after all this time they find energy to continue fighting."

Tendo agreed. "If only they would accept their positions, they could use 
that energy in planning for the future."

Their contemplation was broken by the streaking form of Ranma running 
past them. He had only made it as far as the other wall of the dining 
room when he halted by a very loud "STOP!" Turning around on his left 
foot, Ranma planted his right foot on the deck where the men were just 
playing. Looking over his shoulders, Genma recognised the stance Ranma 
positioned himself in. He had shifted his weight onto his right foot 
making sure that he could bolt to the backyard in case she started 
throwing things.

<<Foolish boy. Always running away.>>

?                    ?

"Ah, c'mon Akane." Ranma knew it was a standard excuse opening but he 
was at a loss for something more eloquent.

That crazy girl was always blaming him for something and half of the 
times, it wasn't even his fault. Ever since that day, two years ago, 
when their fathers engaged them, he had spent most of his time battling: 
if it wasn't someone from his past, it was this dark-haired tomboy.

"Don't even try to weasel your way out of this one Ranma. I want to know 
why your stupid excuse for a body was in my *room!*" He winced as she 
accented the last word of her sentence; that was the only way he could 
tell her whether or not he was paying attention.

He always wondered if her anger shut down her ability to comprehend. So 
far he hadn't seen any evidence against it. "I told you. I was helping 
Nabiki find a book. A damn manga. Nothing else."

"You could run your lips from here to China for all I care. You're not 
getting away with this!" she screamed.

"You can even ask her yourself," he defended. "It's her copy of 
One-Pound Gospel."

Then she gave that look that said she wasn't going to listen to anymore, 
that nothing on earth was going to stop her.

While he readied himself to avoid a lunging attack, Mr. Tendo used the 
last moment of time to block her. <<Okay, almost nothing.>>

Grasping her shoulders, Mr. Tendo pulled her up to a normal standing 
position. Pop followed suit and hung onto Ranma. Bringing their 
respective children together, yet still out of kicking range, they tried 
once again to explain.

"Both of you have to learn to co-operate," Mr. Tendo started. "How does 
either of you expect to carry on the practices of Anything-Goes Martial 
Arts if neither of you is willing to accept the other?"

Of course. The older martial artist *had* to switch from saviour to 
torturer. "It's always the same speech," he said as convinced now as he 
was the last time he heard it: not at all. "It didn't work then and it 
won't work now. Akane's too stubborn for that."

"I'm stubborn?" she seethed. "Have you ever listened to yourself?"

"Then explain why you're standing there, ready to beat the shit out of 
me!" Ranma forced himself out of Pop's grasp.

"Because you were sneaking in my room you pervert!"

"I wasn't sneaking nowhere! I was looking for Nabiki's book! You can go 
and ask her yourself!" he repeated.

"And give you the satisfaction? Never!"

"There! You see? You're hopeless! Absolutely hopeless!"

"At least *I'm* not a bisexual's dream come true!"

Seeing that the argument was never going to be resolved, Ranma was again 
grateful Mr. Tendo had to step in. "That is enough you two. Be quiet. 
Ranma, you will apologise to Akane."

"What?" He couldn't believe this. She was going to win.

"Quiet. Akane, you are going to apologise to Ranma."

"What?" She reeled for a moment. "Wild horses couldn't drag an apology 
out of me."

"Enough," he continued. "Then, after you have done that, you will 
apologise to us for creating such a disturbance. Right Saotome?" Tendo 
turned to look at where Pop was supposed to be, but he wasn't there.

"What? Oh, right Tendo." Ranma glanced over to the new direction his 
father's voice was coming from. He had been rearranging the pieces on 
the game board again.

He snapped back up quickly. "Tendo's right kids. You have to work 
together."

"You didn't hear a single thing I said, did you Saotome?"

Ranma could see flames dancing from Mr. Tendo.

"Now, Tendo. We're...we're trying to help the kids. Re-remember?" Pop 
was beginning to sweat.

<<My father.>> Ranma rolled his eyes. <<The grinning idiot.>> "See ya' 
Akane."

"Hey. Where do you think you're going?" she shot out with mock 
consideration.

"Anywhere you're not." He felt he had enough for the day. Already 
planning what to do for the rest of the day, he started toward the back 
wall subconsciously calculating the force he would have to exert in 
order to jump it.

Akane could be so damned pigheaded at times. Not that he was any better 
at admitting to his mistakes, but she's supposed to act like a girl. 
Girls do not run around with a mallet like some kind of demented 
samurai. He wondered exactly how he could find the strength to stay in 
this house.

"Because I have to make up for what happened last year," he said to the 
fish jumping in the backyard pond.

As he calmly strode past the pond, keeping his gaze locked on the single 
fish flipping its tail, he thought again about the power water had over 
him. It was such a simple substance. Before the day Fate had stacked the 
chips against him, he thought of water as something to drink when you 
were thirsty, something to wash yourself when you were dirty. During the 
first few switches he had despised water and what it did to him. Now, he 
was almost back to indifference; he learned that it was no use trying to 
control something that is uncontrollable.

He wondered if the situation with Akane was any different. He had met 
her when he was only sixteen. At sixteen, he didn't want to meet 
anybody. He had just come back from a two-year training mission and--the 
Jusenkyo incident notwithstanding--it was the most exhilarating 
experience he ever had. Two years with just him against nature, using 
all his martial arts experience just to survive. It was the only way to 
truly live, Pop had told him his entire life. And then he comes to the 
dojo and he's supposed to forget all that? Be forced to marry someone he 
had never seen before?

For six months he told himself that it was a mistake to stay, that he 
should have up and left at the first possible chance. But staying with 
Akane was the best mistake he ever made. It was difficult at first--all 
right, it was a nightmare--but for some unseen reason it worked out and 
they had been happier together than ever before...

He felt tears threaten to well up and suppressed them. They had been so 
happy together and then he had fucked it up, royally. Now, it was worse 
than before. The fights were becoming so trivial and it hurt him every 
time he got into another one. But what other option was there? He 
couldn't leave; the thought of leaving was more painful than staying. 
And every hurt just drove the knife deeper into his heart, destroying a 
tiny piece of him in the process.

Taking one final look over his left shoulder at the pond as he passed 
it, he wondered whether it was better to accept his condition and get on 
with the rest of his life or consider himself a dead man. Out of the 
corner of his eye he saw something that was bent on convincing him of 
the latter.

A mop struck him on the back of his head and he gave a shrieking cry. 
The force of the blow caused him to spin once and double over. The mop 
flew over and landed in front of him. He performed a lazy somersault and 
his feet landed on the wet mop. Through the pain and disorientation, he 
shifted his weight to the left. His feet, however, slipped in the other 
direction and he fell into the fishpond.

?                    ?

Ranma managed to flicker into consciousness for a while. She knew that 
she was pulled out of the pond by Pop, though she couldn't make out a 
word that he was saying. She only recognised that he was making noise. 
Cursing Akane for trying to kill her, she found it more difficult to 
keep her vision from clouding.

She tried to hold on as long as she could, but blacked out anyway.

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