The Bet- Little Orphan Kasumi?
part 1b: "Here's Kasumi, Kendo Cook!"
by greggsharp, metroanime@mindspring.com
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com
------------April 29, 1992------------------------------
 "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. That explains
such atypical behavior for a panda. Then it is likely
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.>"

 "<Excuse me, honored Elder.>" A young 
boy with his hair tied back in a long braid bowed. "<As
that is my wife that has just gone running off, I must
request permission to follow.>"

 Sash nodded, having followed her brother.
"<So, Shampoo's been beaten by a boy. This same boy
has some sort of connection to my new sister-in-law. I
feel that I must investigate.>"

 Sugar (Shu Ga) nodded seriously to the elder
but winked at her co-conspirator. "<Honored Elder, 
we really must not hold this against A-ka-ne. She is
only newly an amazon and has not been fully educated
on what it means to be an amazon.">

 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...>"

 "<Enough,>" Cologne growled. "<Razor must
follow his wife. Shampoo must follow this other girl and
determine if this is indeed a male who has defeated her.
Sash has every right to follow and protect her brother.
Nobody else is going outside the village until I say so.>"

 "<Too late, my sister Rei Ga is tracking them.>"

 Cologne glared at Shu Ga. "<Nobody ELSE leaves
until I say so.>"

 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.
----------------April 30,1992-----------------
 "I wonder where she vanished to?"
Ranma looked out into the night. They weren't
using a campfire, who knew how close that 
crazy amazon chick was.

 "I don't know, Ranma," Genma sighed.
"Best to forget about her anyway."

 "I guess," Ranma sighed and continued
to scratch behind one of the wolf's ears. "She sure was
cute though..."

 The wolf stiffened from where she was 
leaning up against Ranma. Someone thought she was 
cute? She looked up at the face smiling at her and 
felt as if her heart had skipped a few beats.

 "Y'know the offers I've gotten for that dog?" 
Genma offered for the fortieth time that day. "It doesn't serve
any useful purpose, and they eat dog around here..."

 "She," Ranma corrected. "She seems to be
pretty good at finding things, ain't she? I'm sure she
can pull her own weight, can't you girl?"

 Red made an affirmitive noise and leaned into
the scratching. That felt soooooo good. Maybe being 
some kind of big dog had its upside as well. Certainly there 
was a strange comfort in snuggling up like this.

 "Gotta be over two hundred pounds on that bitch, 
uhm... er." Genma dropped the subject. The dog in question
was showing a mouthful of very sharp teeth almost as if it
didn't care to be referred to as a bitch.

 Akane glared at the father and wondered how 
panda would taste.

 "Well...remember that time you drank from that
spring and had the Emperor's Revenge for three days?" Ranma
thought for a moment. "Dogs are supposed to have good senses
of smell, and if she drinks from a pond, we know its safe."

 "Hmmmm." Genma looked at the dog again. He didn't
realize that this was a wolf, more especially he didn't realize that
this was a young cave-wolf and one of the biggest and meanest
pack predators of its day. If he had realized that Red hadn't attained
full growth yet, he'd have increased his efforts to get Ranma to
give up the "dog."

 "Uhm..." Ranma rubbed behind Red's ears which got 
one of her rear legs twitching in response. "Well, Red here's pretty 
smart, I bet she trains really easy."

 "Make you a deal, boy, you train that bi-- dog to do
something in the next day or so, while we're moving, and I'll
let you keep her. Fail, and I'll sell her at the next farmhouse."

 Ranma looked down at Red who looked back
with liquid eyes. "Are you up to the challenge, Red?"

 Red made an affirmative noise and butted her head
up against Ranma. The streaks of ruddy fur that had resembled
dried blood seemed to be dark shadows in the moonlight. Her
eyes flashed as she glanced back towards Ranma's father.

 The wolf grinned. As a wolf she had been observing
their daily training and felt that she was learning quite a lot. When
she got a chance to turn human again, she'd practice the various
katas and that vicious looking nerve strike combo.

 From what she'd heard, they both would have objected
to her presence if she were revealed as a girl, but they tended to
ignore her presence despite that one of them had an animal curse
himself.
-------------
 Red crawled away from where the boy had
been hugging her in his sleep, and looked back at him.
This was...wrong. It was all wrong. It wasn't going as she
had intended it to go.

 Ever since Rie and Jiro, Akane had wanted there
to be someone for her the way Jiro was there for Rie. The two
lovers had been so close, so affectionate.

 Now here was a boy that thought _she_ was
cute. But she could only be close to him as his pet dog "Red."
How would he react, upon finding out that the big dog that
he'd poured his heart out to was actually a girl? He was just
as lonely in his own way as she was. Would he welcome a
confidante? Or would he hate her for the deception?

 It had been a mistake, she knew. Not telling him
sooner. She should've said something, transformed earlier,
clued them both in SOMEHOW. The time just never seemed
to be right. Now she'd slept in the same bed as him, listened
to him unburden himself to her, even been groomed by him. 

 She'd never had this much affection showered on
her before. Uncle and Auntie had never been that good with
displays of affection. Akane thought that Ranma probably 
wasn't any good with them either, but you could show your
heart to a dumb animal without your ego getting in the way.
You could tell things to your pet that you wouldn't tell another
living soul.

 She didn't count that male amazon. He didn't have 
any feelings for her. He was going to marry her because of those
stupid amazon laws. He'd never tried to get affectionate with her,
heck, he hadn't even tried to defend himself when she started 
yelling at him about letting her go.

 Akane knew she should leave. Leave now before it
was too late. Leave this boy behind and try to find some hot 
water and change back and go back to the Shrine. She took a 
couple of steps forward.

 "Red? What's up, girl?"

 The soft call behind her broke her resolve. Knowing
it was already too late, Red sadly made her way back inside 
the tent. She cursed herself for being a fool all the way.
-----------March 22, 1992--------------------
 "Ah, my husband is returning
from China!" Nodoka smiled and held up 
a postcard with a panda on one side. "At 
long last!"

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

 "I hope you won't be too 
disappointed," said Nodoka, though pleased
at the prospect of the two houses being 
joined soon. Then, with a mature woman like
Kasumi to take charge of Ranma, grandkids!

 "Oh, I'm sure he has a few...rough
edges," Kasumi shrugged. "I'll see if he has that
heart of  a samurai."

 A grumbling noise came from
Nabiki as her American boyfriend had
dumped her just last month. She was still
muttering about the dangers of guys who 
were slick and superficial.

 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 less...
boring.

 "Huff?!"

 Nabiki frowned and stepped out
into the yard. "Damn, that's a big wolf!" Nabiki
immediately recognized the animal from its shape,
though she estimated the weight as being over 
two hundred fifty pounds and being built a bit
more thickly muscled than a grey wolf.  Her gaze 
travelled up to see that 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, incidently keeping him from fleeing
as his father had done. "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.

 Nodoka started forward,
but stopped with a smile. Her son, after
all this time. And from Kasumi's reaction,
he was at least somewhat manly.

 "Uhm, sis," Nabiki managed.
"I think Mrs Saotome would like to be
reunited with her son before you get TOO
into that."
---------------------------
 "Uhm, well, like I said," Ranma
said from kneeling near the table. "I'm
Ranma. Oh, and this is my trained dog,
Red, I picked her up in China! Or she 
adopted me, I guess."

 Nabiki raised an eyebrow.
"She's a wolf, not a dog."

 Red straightened and blinked. A
wolf? That was a lot better than being a dog.
Yeah, "wolf" sounded a lot better and had a
bit more sex appeal.

 "So what have you trained her to
do?" Nabiki continued, watching the wolf.
She certainly appeared too well behaved and
intelligent to be a wild animal.

 Ranma winked at his wolf. 
"She can hunt, retrieve objects, stand guard,
sit, stay, play dead, lotsa useful things."

 Red snorted and sat down,
"accidently" wedging herself in between 
Kasumi and Ranma.

 "I see," Kasumi looked at the furry
barrier between her and Ranma. "She IS housebroken,
isn't she?"

 "Yeah."

 "Hruff!" The wolf looked embarrassed.

 "Well, Ranma, did anything else
happen on your training trip?"

 "Oh. Yeah, you could say that."
An angry look passed over Ranma's face. "I
fell into that damn spring." He followed with
an explanation of Jusenkyo and its curses,
then doused himself with cold water to prove
it.

 "Son?!" Nodoka looked in horror
at the young lady across the table from her.

 "Yes, mother. Hot water changes me
back, but this stupid curse! Cold water keeps 
finding me and changing me into..."

 "A girl," Kasumi looked a little 
shocked and repulsed at this turn of events.

 "I see," Nodoka Saotome sighed. So
much for a pleasant reunion between mother and
son. "Well, you can hardly be a man among men
then, can you?"

 "Huh?" Ranma looked up and saw his
mother unwrapping a sword.

 Kasumi straightened. The contract! "Oh,
Mrs Saotome, that's just a first impression. You don't
want to make a judgement THAT quickly do you?"

 "Kasumi?" Nodoka considered. "Does 
this mean you don't mind the curse?"

 Nabiki looked back and forth, quite aware
that SOMETHING was going on, but not entirely
sure what.

 "Well, it's a curse, right?" Kasumi twisted
a length of her hair around a finger and bit her lower
lip. This wasn't going at all as she'd planned, but if
there was anything salvageable about this boy...
"If it was a positive thing it would be a blessing.
And didn't Musashi say something about the mark
of a samurai is how well they handle adversity?"

 "I think that was Ieyasu," Nodoka considered
the child she had largely raised on her own, and the other
child that had been raised away from her. "Very well, I'll
give him a chance."

 "What's going on?" Nabiki and Ranma asked
simultaneously with a slightly laggard whine added from
Red.

 "This," Nodoka held up a piece of paper. "Your
father would return at the end of his training trip, and you 
would be a man among men, or you would both commit
seppuku and I would act as your kaishaku."

 Ranma blinked. "Seriously?"

 "I don't kid," replied Nodoka Saotome in a chill
voice.

 "Hahnnn?!" The wolf looked a little faint and was staring
at the unwrapped sword. There was an immediate impulse to grab
Ranma by the collar and run but the moment passed.

 "They still do this sort of thing in this day and age?"
asked Nabiki, wondering if she'd missed something. She hadn't
spoken a lot of Japanese while in America and knew she was 
quite rusty.

 "I'll give you a month," said Nodoka as she began to
wrap the sword up again. "A month to prove that you are truly
a man."
=========================
 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 Ranma, who being
challenged to be more mature and more
manly, and you know how he is about
challenges...

 There's Red (Akane) who's
married to Razor, at least by Chinese
Amazon law.   There's Shampoo, who 
knows that Ranma's a guy and will view 
him as being already married to her.
 
 There's Razor, who regards himself
as being married to Akane/Red. He's a quiet,
mostly browbeaten fellow with some skill as a
healer and as a weaponsmith. He doesn't regard
Akane being in the same bed as Ranma as being
at all proper, and while he'll defer to a woman...

 There's Nabiki, looking forward to
going back to America and working her way up
the ladder at the Credit Union. As a budding 
young entrepeneur in America, she actually does
own some stock, have a fair savings account,
and is used to making money legally in dozens
of ways that she can't do in Japan due to legal
or societal views. After learning that Akane is
Red, she's making some money off her sister's
secret- especially in keeping it secret from Ranma.

 There's Kasumi. She's had time to
accept the idea that the fiance is going to take
some work and polish. Sure, he's three years
younger, but he's also kind of cute? Can she
find a balance between her idea of a manly man
and his mother's standards for the same? After
all, Kasumi is the main character of this story
line, got her name there up in the title and all.
She's also kind of lonely, waving around three
feet of sharpened steel can have that kind of 
effect on those nearby.

 There's Ukyou. Nothing has changed
as far as she's concerned.

 There's Ryouga, quacking angrily at
Ranma, who suddenly finds himself locked in
battle...with a red wolf?

 There's Akane, stuck in a dilemma.
She eventually shows up in human form, but
Kasumi has already staked a claim. Nabiki 
eventually finds out about Red. Soon,
everyone but Ranma knows about Red.
Who wants to tell Ranma why rubbing noses
with his pet wolf Red causes said wolf to
start crying?

 Eventually Akane will run across
an old note and realize that Rie and Jiro vanished
in the Bayankala range, but have no idea what
the odd culture referenced was. Definitely not the
amazons. Might they still be alive?

 Miyuki Ida would be a definite return.
Crazier than Kodachi, meaner and more spiteful
than Nabiki, and more violent than even Akane
is usually portrayed, Miyuki is the sort of psycho
b*tch that would brook no competition.

 There are _some_ things that would
remain the same:
-----------------------------------
 "Charlotte!"

 Red slip-sliding across the ice in sheer
terror as she tries to escape Azusa Shiratori.
------------------------------------
 anyway, this was one of those i'd promised
to at least expand into a part a & b.

 How did i originally see this one ending?
Kasumi finds herself deciding to go ahead and enter
college. Ranma, for all the talk about carrying on the
Anything Goes school/dojo, eventually follows.

 Kasumi doesn't want to marry the doctor,
she wants to BE the doctor.

 Many plotlines remain the same. Shampoo
doesn't underestimate Kasumi, who is quite openly
interested in Ranma. Kasumi is using more the carrot
than the stick approach in correcting Ranma's behavior,
and hostility doesn't enter that equation.

 Ukyou continues to be vengeful, after all,
there is no "uncute fiancee" to change her attitude.
Akane's secret is revealed to Ranma during this timeframe,
and (as she feared) he can't overlook the deception. This
almost causes him to give up on Kasumi due to that it 
seems that everyone BUT him knew about this.

 Ranma does forgive Akane and the others
(mostly) during an adventure dealing with Akane being
captured and caged by Azusa Shiratori. Akane's just too
pitiful after being drugged and given a "poodle cut."

 Enter Kuno and the wishing sword. A slightly
more mature Ranma (having been challenged by both his
mother and his fiancee) tricks Kuno into wishing that "his
true love were free from any current insanity." Tatewaki Kuno's
greatest love being for himself, of course.

 Kuno having enough money, tries to make up for
past behavior. Besides if a trip to Jusenkyo can free Akane
from her curse, then she's got reason to view him in a better
light afterwards.

 While the group's at Jusenkyo, the Musk attack.
Ukyou attempts to attack. Ryouga attempts to attack. Lots
of people get cursed or get mixed curses as a result.
 
 Kasumi eventually befriends Shampoo and Ukyou.
Then enter Kiima. Kiima is defeated by Shampoo, then Kiima
uses the egg-slave spell on Kasumi because Kasumi defeated
Shampoo at one point. Instead of Genma being the second 
victim, it is Ukyou who gets the second egg spell.

 At Jusendo, things turn out major different. Shampoo
is turned into a doll when she tries to shut off the hot water. 
Ryouga and Akane fight Saffron. They lose but the fight is a 
lot more even  due to Akane's cursed form's berserker state
and Ryouga's use of his Ronin Strike.

 Ranma rescues Kasumi from the egg spell. Mousse 
dies trying to avenge Shampoo's death at the hands of Saffron.
Shampoo is restored in the nick of time after Kasumi and Ranma 
team up against Saffron.

 No failed wedding attempt. A wedding goes off.
Ryouga and Akane are engaged. Kiima makes a slip of the tongue
when freeing Ukyou and Ukyou is now glomping and pursuing 
Shampoo.
	
sufficiently divergent?
	
=================================

ja ne,
gregg