char owned by others. treatment by metroanime@mindspring.com
 Spells R Us: Japanese Chronicles 3/3: A Fistful of Akanes
Spells R Us is a fanfic device used on various transformation sites.
Rumiko Takahashi owns the various Ranma 1/2 characters.
         various food & commercial projects appearing here are tm
their various companies.
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-----
 What has come before: Akane went into the Spells R Us
store, thinking that she might be able to find a cure for Ranma's
curse and then use that to get him to show some backbone and
dump Shampoo and Ukyou instead of leading them on all the time.
                   After finding nothing, she took a bite of a Kit-Kat bar,
then was distracted and never finished it. The resulting transformation
changed her into a cat, but because the spell wasn't complete she
remembered her past. It turned out she was the only one who did after
Reality rewrote itself in typical Spells R Us manner. (Other than the mage.)
 Coming back, she tried a single bite of a "Big Hunk"
bar- again rewriting her personal reality so that she was the big and
dependable older brother of a younger Kasumi and Nabiki. Now
Akane returns to the Spells R Us store, determined to at least regain
her feminity if not find a way to restore herself closer to the canon.
 Oh, and the mage (in his usual malicious manner) hid the
Ranma 1/2 tapes he had so that the OAV "An Akane To Remember"
was IN the store but not visible.
===========================================
 Akira frowned, realizing that he had to do something. The way
things were were getting entirely too comfortable. It was beginning to feel
"right" to be this tall and muscular fellow with the gleaming smile. Time
for
Akane to return, but how?

 Looking around in desperation, Akira felt more of Akane
beginning to slip away and made a choice.

 The wizard merely smirked, looking past the transformed
former sixteen year old Japanese girl. A sign displayed where almost
everyone would ignore it, reading "Only Three Per Customer."

 Besides, after he was done here, he could move to Juuban.
=============================
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ENDING! Yes, this was my attempt to give Akane
equal play after "A Little Sense" did the same for Ranma. So choose the
ending that you, the reader, like. (Original, Crispy, Extra Crispy, BBQ, or
Honey-Roasted.)

Option One: How this was originally planned.

 Akira/Akane thought deeply about this, noting only idly
the growing impatience of the wizard behind the counter.

 In both the "World Without Akane" and his current
reality, there were people who could be said to be reasonably
happier. People like Nabiki who actually had outside interests
beyond making money now. People like Ranma who were being
challenged to grow up and act in a responsible manner as
opposed to merely being confronted.

 Akira smiled, straightened, and nodded to the suddenly
startled wizard. And left the shop without touching anything.
Being a huge guy pursued by Kodachi and Shampoo was strange,
but if her family was happier...
---------------
 Akane shook her head and went into a coughing fit.

 "Well done, my daughter."

 "All right, sis!"

 Akane looked up, seeing Cologne and Nabiki. Things
began to filter back into her mind. The petition to end Shampoo's
pursuit of Ranma within the Laws of the Amazons. Akane
petitioning Cologne to become an Amazon blood-sister of Shampoo.
The three Trials or Ordeals that had to be overcome.

 Nabiki was present because this had come out of Akane
paying her older sister  to find a way to solve the problem
with the Amazons.

 There had been the Trial Of War where Akane had to fight
a conjured evil twin of herself, one that had every nasty impulse and
habit. The towering rage of her opponent had given the other an advantage at
first, but Akane had (with effort) kept her calm and had won at the end.
Facing THAT had given her some uncomfortable insight into how
she acted on occasion.

 The Trial Of Skill where Akane had learned the Breaking
Point. Akane had a sneaking suspicion that Cologne had enjoyed
swinging those boulders into her repeatedly. Two weeks, and she
still hurt in a few places.

 The Trial Of The Heart.

 "Did I win? I couldn't remember. It was like it was last year
right after Ukyou came..."

 Cologne smirked, oddly enough echoing Nabiki. "If you
had remembered it was a Trial, then it wouldn't have been a true Trial.
You would have chosen based on that knowledge instead of choosing
truly. You sacrificed your own happiness and existence for the good of
your family - your own tribe.

 "Welcome to the Amazon Tribe, daughter. Shampoo is
not happy, but will come around. The Kiss of Marriage and the Kiss
Of Death are hereby voided as there is now an Amazon with prior
claim to Ranma Saotome." Cologne left then, to leave the two sisters
to talk and to prepare the feast that marked the new induction of an
Amazon. The Tribe would be stronger for having Akane in it. Though
she would have preferred giving Shampoo what she wanted, Cologne
would settle for this.

 Akane nodded absently noting the reference. As Cologne
was Matriarch, all Amazons could be said to be her daughters. It was
interesting to have a "mother" of sorts again. The thought of calling
Cologne "grandmother" was kind of creepy though.

 "So, sis, how did it go? Cologne didn't give any details. What
did you see, what did you experience?"

 Akane looked at her sister with new eyes, having seen
things that remained with her now and wondering how much of
what she had seen had been her own mind filling in the blanks.
She looked at her arm and realized that a cut there had been put on
Akira by Kodachi's ribbon. "Nabiki, do you remember when you
tried doing your own manga back in Junior High? I think I need to
talk to you..."
*********************************
ending # 2 by Nicholas Leifker:

His hands hovered over the candy bars for a moment.  It was tempting,
the 'Whoppers' especially so.  After all, with those, he'd never have to
worry about insults concerning her figure.  'Peppermint Patties' and the
Girl Scout 'Thin Mints' were also appealing, as they tended to point
toward more feminine results.

Unfortunately, he couldn't go that route - not yet.  If there was one
thing he'd learned about magic from his time with Ranma, it was that it
didn't want to let go.  He would be changed, one way or another; it was
just up to him as to how.  The Akane Tendo who walked out of the store
would be different from the Akane Tendo who first came in.

So.  How did he want to change?  He crossed his arms; he knew there
wasn't much time left.  Already he was beginning to forget.  He had to
decide - immediately.

The answer came on him in an instant.  He smiled, grabbed the item, and
placed it on the counter.

                                   -----------------------
Akane Tendo hummed a soft tune as she walked down the street.  She was
back; no, she was better than back.  She would have leapt up onto the
fence, if she hadn't been wearing a skirt.

For the first time in her life, she felt truly alive.  Her life felt...
expanded, like all she had seen before was merely the surface.  Every
little secret was hers for the taking; the world was a far more
understanding place than she was used to.  Her life, in short, was hers
again and then some.

The yowl of a furious cat got her attention, and she turned toward the
source.  A bunch of ragamuffin kids were torturing a cat; Shampoo by the
look of it.  She ran over to them, and pushed them away.

"Beat it, kids!  Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

The kids, as are wont to in the face of authority, ran.  One gave her
the raspberry; she ignored it.  Shampoo was her major concern; she had
to make sure she was all right.

She frowned, though, when she got a look at Shampoo's face.  There was a
bandage covering her head, as though she had been hurt before.  She
peeled off the bandage - it was loose from her struggles - and gasped.

Beneath was a shining crescent moon.

Shampoo-neko blinked, then focused her eyes on her - a stare that seemed
to pass through her.  "Akane, we need talk.  Now."
*********************************
ending suggested by Rick Robinson: (even though it went in
   a completely different direction than either of us intended. It is,
however, a fairly typical Spells R Us style of ending.)

 The door jangled and in walked Ranma and
his fiancee.

 "So you were serious, Akira?" Nabiki frowned
slightly, trying to picture her older brother as a younger
sister and failing.

 "You make fun of me turnin' into a girl all
the time, and you are one." Ranma shook his head. "That's
just too ....uhm."

 "I think you're looking for 'ironic'," supplied
Nabiki after a moment. "Well, whether you're sister or
brother, you're family."

 Akira shrugged after a moment. "Yeah, but
this is somethin' I gotta do myself. I have to figure out
a way that I'm as close to me as possible without screwing
everything else up."

 "Do you do wishes?" Ranma asked the man
across the counter.

 "Yes, but it wouldn't cure her of the
transformation directly."

 "How about indirectly?" Ranma was familiar
with the tactic. If the opponent had an iron defense,
you found a way around it.

 Everyone blinked at Ranma coming up with
an idea. Nabiki recovered slightly faster, reasoning
correctly that hanging around with her, he had been
challenged to show more intelligence.

 "Well, as long as it didn't involve a direct
paradox, like never having visited the store." The wizard
allowed, getting fascinated despite himself. He placed
an object like a solid soap bubble out on the counter.
"Twenty thousand yen."

 Ranma pulled out his recent winnings
and laid them on the counter. He restrained himself
from immediately wishing that he was cured of his
curse. It was difficult, though, very difficult.

 "So how should I word this to make
it indirectly change me back?"

 "How about if ya wish that the cure
for yer condition was there in yer hand. That way
the wish is actin' on the cure and not on yer curse."

 There was a brief moment after which
everyone (except Ranma) slowly picked themselves
up from their mass facefault. Nabiki smiled proudly
at her iinazuke and said in a low voice that "he CAN
be taught."

 The wizard shook his head and just
reminded himself that it was the unexpected that
kept him in this business.

 Ranma managed to look slightly insulted
at Nabiki's observation.

  Holding the soap bubble in his hands,
Akira opened his mouth and considered. "I wish that
everything was back to normal."

 The wizard began to laugh, hearing defeat
being snatched from the jaws of victory.
------------------------------
 Akane stretched as she got off the couch,
time to help mother fix breakfast. It was good that
things had gotten back to normal.

 The sounds of Kasumi getting ready for
a day at the office reached Akane, and that was
Nabiki almost sleepwalking with her toothbrush
sticking out of her mouth.

 Her father was, of course, off to work
already. Like all normal Japanese fathers, he worked
from before dawn until long after sundown.

 That weirdness that her father had tried
to inflict on the family had almost been forgotten.
A sad expression flickered over Akane's face at the
memory. An arranged marriage to some weird old
buddy's son had been decidedly strange.

 Still, Akane's mother had put a stop to
THAT soon enough. Then made some discrete
inquiries and found the boy's mother through the
simple exercise of finding out the woman's name
and then calling information.

 Such a weird family. On finding out the
boy was cursed to turn into a girl, the mother had demanded
that father and son commit seppuku. How terribly old
fashioned.

  It had taken weeks to get the bloodstains
out of the dojo.

 But now everything was back to normal,
and Akane could try to meet Tate-chan later. He didn't
seem to notice anyone as normal and boring as her,
but Akane had her hopes.
***********************
ending #4 suggested by Skysabre

 Akira picked up the "Debbie Does Dallas" videotape
and considered it. Would this turn him into a gaijin? Akira put
the video back on the shelf, as remaining a member of his family
was an important consideration.

 "Gojira" was likewise passed over, though this version
of the familiar story seemed to look rather more like an oversized
iguana. "Alien" was probably about gaijin, and was turned down
for the same reason as the "Dallas" video. "Better off dead" didn't
sound appealing at all.

 Finally he saw it. One of his favorite movies. A Disney
version of the old story.

 Akira put his hand on the copy of "Beauty & The Beast"
and cast another glance around the store. Other than the "princess"
costume, nothing else really seemed to pull at him.

 Maybe he could get Ranma to watch it with him. That
sounded like a winner.
------------------------
 The wizard checked around eight that evening and
smiled at the results. Naturally, it had gone quite well by his own
standards, if not by any of the principals in this little play.

 Ranma, of course, had become the Beauty. A demure
and well built young woman. Akira, of course, was the Beast.

 He just loved a twisted ending.
**********************************
ending #5: suggested by Connie Decker

 Akira wondered what to do and how to do it.
Being a nineteen year old boy was rather unnerving for a formerly
sixteen year old girl named Akane.

 Akira's gaze alighted on the Girl Scout cookies. This
might work. There were actually three kinds here. "Thin Mints"
sounded good, after all he wouldn't have to watch his weight.
The second kind contained coconut, which he had gotten rather
sick of after the Principal had donated nearly a ton of the stuff
to the school cafeteria. They were putting it in almost everything.

                Akira was unfamiliar with the name of this last kind of
cookie. Opening the box, he tried one. After all it wouldn't take
effect until after it was paid for, right?
------------------------
 Alysse steadied herself against the kitchen cupboard
and realized that the Spells R Us wizard must have done something,
but what?

 Losing herself in the familiar task of preparing lunches,
Alysse (short for Alyssande) realized that she had taken a nibble
out of a Girl Scout cookie called a "Scandinavian" but that this
probably hadn't had much of an effect.

 She examined herself, looking for anything that might
have changed. No, she was still eleven years old, and of Scandinavian
descent. She was still the adopted daughter of Soun Tendo, adopted
due to an old debt of honor that Soun had owed her parents.

 Alysse caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, of her
long blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. Things that marked her as
being an outsider here in Japan, though she was sufficiently
charismatic that she had some popularity anyway.

 She had become accepted by her new family, though,
and that was of primary importance.

 Alysse could see Ranma and big sister Nabiki beating
the stuffings out of Ranma's father. Kasumi was studying, now in
her second year of college. Alysse was glad that she had been
able to take over Kasumi's duties so that the older girl could go
ahead and pursue her dreams.

 Yes, Alysse decided with a nod, she must have
gotten it right.
**************************
if you want to add an ending, or an idea for one, send it to
metroanime@mindspring.com
this will be sent to the RAAC by 3/18 and that will be the final
edition.
thank you

gregg