My first draft, I'll admit, was horribly flawed and OCC. It was unusual 
seeing half of responses I received complaining about how OCC Ami was, 
and yet almost all of them encouraged me to go on.
But if there's one thing I was grateful for- it was for you guys 
knocking the sense into me about OCCness of Ami. So I went back to the 
writing board and rewrote almost the whole thing. This time should prove 
to be better than the previous version.

I'm still bit uncertain about this version, but at a friend of mine's 
insistence,
I decided to post it anyway. Hope it suits to you better than the last 
version.
<wince>


A Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon fusion,
Watering of a Horse
By Dark Alpha <AlphSailor@aol.com>

FFML Draft 1- 04/21/99
FFML Draft 2- 07/03/99
C&C greatly appreciated, public or private.


---


"Rain, rain, rain! Why does it always have to rain all the time here?!" 
Ami gritted through her teeth, holding a book above her head, but 
clutching the rest of her books to her chest. "I can't get these books 
ruined, or I'll be in big trouble!"

While she wanted to avoid getting into trouble, she wasn't prepared for 
a different kind of trouble that came in a form of a running girl with 
red hair. She barely had enough time to react before the girl literally 
slammed into her, knocking them both into a small puddle and drenching 
them both.

As upset as she already was, this only made her even angrier, especially 
when she noticed that the girl's hand was clutching at her left breast, 
and the girl was too dazed to notice it. No, it was NOT a good day for 
her. Forcing herself to remain calm, she gritted through her teeth, 
"Excuse me, but will you PLEASE get off me?!"

"Wak!" The red-haired girl quickly scrambled off Ami and began 
apologizing profusely. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that! You see-
-"

A loud growling noise interrupted the young girl's apology, causing her 
to grimace. "Oh man, not again! When will he ever give up?!" Both girls 
turned to face an enormous mammal lumbering towards them. Even normally 
composed (albeit upset) Ami was surprised. 

"A giant panda?" Ami pointed at the animal who seemed to be gesturing at 
the red-haired girl. She turned to her guest. "Um, what he is doing?"

"Nothin'. He just wants to me marry some girl." Before Ami could react 
to her answer, she turned to her once more again, "I'm REALLY sorry 
about this, but I can't stay and chat- I gotta go, bye!" With that, she 
ran off in the opposite direction of the angry panda.

Ami continued to blink in surprise as the panda gave chase, knocking few 
people and signs out of its way. Deciding that stranger things had 
happened before and that it was none of her business, she returned her 
attention to her books.

"Oh, great. They're wet!"


---------------------------------------

G3 Fanfic Studio Productions presents,
A piece of fanfiction by Dark Alpha,

A fanfiction based on premise of Ranma 1/2
Using characters of Ranma 1/2 and Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon,

Watering of a Horse

      Act One- Here's Ranma and ...

Ranma 1/2 is copyrighted by Rumiko Takasahi, and Sailor Moon is 
copyrighted by Naoko Takeuchi. I do not own either of them, and I'm only 
borrowing them.

---------------------------------------


"Who would've thought it'd be *me* who's going to be her... HIS girl?"

Ami sighed heavily as she soaked herself into the furo. "How did I get 
myself into this mess anyway? As if things weren't bad enough for me, 
I've got to deal with this one," she muttered to herself.

Only less than an hour ago she had found herself engaged to by giri to 
an apparently healthy boy whom she had never met before in her entire 
life. To her surprise, her father had made an agreement with his friend 
Genma Saotome to engage his son to one of the Tendo daughters, and to 
her extreme unpleasantness, she had been selected as the bride. "I 
thought nobody arranged marriages nowadays..."

A burst of steam rose from the furo, covering Ami...

...and she shook her head to scatter the excess water off her head as 
she tried to remove her now-soggy shoes. "A what?" She blinked as Nabiki 
explained things to her.

"Your father's calling for a family meeting. Don't bother taking a bath- 
I don't think he's going to wait for you to do that." Another shout 
echoed from inside the house and Nabiki added, "And I don't think he 
cares about your wet condition. Just change into something dry and 
hurry."

Ami nodded, still thoroughly confused by the sudden turn of events and 
quickly changed into new clothing and ten minutes later three sisters 
soon found themselves sitting in the living room, awaiting for their 
father's response. Soun was weeping happily, which struck the daughters 
as odd because he rarely was this happy, and wondered what was going to 
happen. It didn't take long for their father to declare the purpose of 
the family meeting. "My daughters, I have called you here because I have 
something important to tell you. It concerns the future of the Tendo 
family and Anything-Goes arts.

"An old friend of mine and I made an agreement, long ago, that one of 
you would be engaged to his son." Soun cleared his throat as the 
daughters blinked in surprise, "My friend has a son by the name of Ranma 
Saotome, and if one of you were to marry him and carry on Anything-Goes 
Arts, Tendo family legacy would be secure..."

There was a silence before Ami spoke first, leaning over the table with 
her hands on it, "Finacee? Wait a minute! I thought arranged marriages 
were no longer enforced in Japan?"

"Er, that's true, but that doesn't mean we can't have one. Please, my 
daughters, marry Ranma!" Soun groveled.

"Oh my, how can we do that? I mean, we haven't even met Ranma yet!" 
Kasumi furrowed her eyebrows in disappointment.

Soun chuckled, "That's easily fixed." There was a slight thunder outside 
as it slowed to a slight drizzle, and Soun pulled out a piece of paper 
from his pocket in his gi. "I received a postcard from my friend, and 
they're coming today." 

Ami reached out her hand. "Let me see that." Nabiki and Kasumi peered 
over her shoulders as she tried to read the sloppy handwriting on the 
postcard.

Hi.
Bringing Ramxx- Ranma from Chnia.
Saotome.

"That's it?" Nabiki raised her eyebrow. "According to this stamp, this 
postcard came from China."

Ami pointed out that 'China' had been misspelled.

"That's right." Soun nodded knowingly, ignoring Ami's words. "Saotomes 
train in same art as ours, and their training voyage has recently 
crossed into China."

"China... " Nabiki murmured as if in thought, while Ami raised her 
eyebrow.

"Hold on, Daddy." Ami raised her hand, " Are you're telling me that 
Ranma Saotome is a martial artist?" She was careful to keep her smile 
hidden as her father nodded excitedly. Maybe he could teach her a new 
move or two!

"Is he cute?" Nabiki pressed on. A frown reappeared on Kasumi's face, 
"How old is he?" She didn't like younger boys because they bored her. 
Then simultaneously, they asked, "Who is this guy, Ranma anyway?"

Soun chuckled before regaining his calm. "No idea."

Ami put down the postcard down, shocked. "What do you mean, 'No idea'?"

"I've never met him."

Just then there was a loud disturbance outside and a rather angry 
voice...

...and Ami jerked around in surprise, reflexively wrapping her arms 
around herself, but then relaxed as she realized it was only Kasumi 
peering into the room.

"Oh, my! I'm sorry about the noise. I dropped a box of clothes in here, 
and hit my foot (ouch). Hope I didn't interrupt you."

"That's okay, Kasumi."

"Are you okay, sister? I mean, today may have been too much for you. I 
could help you..."

Ami smiled at her sister's concern. "Thank you, but I think I'm fine. 
I'm sure I can convince Daddy to end this engagement nonsense."

The older sister raised one of her eyebrows, then nodded. "Good luck. 
You know how Daddy is." With that, she closed the door, leaving Ami to 
ponder her sister's words.

Kasumi was right, she thought. Her Daddy had been tenacious whenever it 
came to Anything-Goes School until her mother had died. It looked like 
he would not be giving up on the engagement matter easily; she had a 
long and hard task to do.

She smiled as her father's tenacity reminded herself of Ranma, then 
frowned. She began massaging her temple with her hands as she recalled 
what had happened after Ranma had appeared...

...then accepted a cup of tea. "Thanks, Kasumi!" Ami began sipping from 
it, enjoying the soothing sensation. She turned to regard her father, 
who was presently on the floor, and staring at the roof blankly, weeping 
like a sick person covered in blankets. Well, he was a sick person in a 
way, she thought.

Speaking of someone, she turned to regard the girl who had introduced 
herself as Ranma Saotome. It had turned out that _this_ was the Ranma 
Soun had arranged to marry one of his daughters to. To a _girl_! How in 
the world could he marry his daughter to a girl?

She continued to observe Ranma disapprovingly. When they had first met 
earlier this evening, things happened too fast for her to size up her 
visitor, and ended up with three ruined books she would have to pay for. 
But now, she regarded the girl carefully, who was about the same height 
and age as her, except that she was well-built and had a beautiful 
figure. More so than hers, she noted unhappily. Her visitor was wearing 
a red blouse and black drawstring pants, indicating a poor taste in 
clothing style. She also had her hair tied back into a braided pigtail, 
but what struck her as unusual was her hair color. It was bright red.

She had seen red hair before, but not this bright. Hereditary genes, 
probably. At least, that's what she assumed that was how she had 
inherited blue hair color. Hair colors like this girl and hers were rare 
in Japan, and this interested her tremendously. She wanted to inquire 
her new visitor about this, but felt it wasn't appropriate time to do 
so. Besides, she had another problem to deal with now.

Ami didn't like how things were going as she watched her family drag the 
poor girl into one of their child-like arguments. Even as Soun lamented 
about how his friend Saotome was supposed to have a son, Nabiki was 
needling her father about it, squeezing Ranma's breasts to emphasize her 
point. "Do you see a son here, hmm? Do you see one?!" 

"Um, will you please stop that?" The red-haired girl asked meekly, but 
Nabiki ignored her and continued squeezing until Ami had enough and 
slapped the hand away.

"That's enough, Nabiki! How many times do I have to tell you to be nice 
around guests!" Turning to Ranma, she apologized, "I'm sorry about my 
sister, but she sometimes 'excited' when we have visitors." With that, 
she stuck out her tongue at her sister, who pouted for a moment.

She didn't receive a reply from Ranma as the Nabiki retorted with her 
tongue of her own, so she pressed on. "Um, why don't we get out of here? 
I'm Ami, by the way. You want to be friends? This afternoon was just one 
big mistake, wasn't it?" She smiled sweetly, hoping to lift the girl's 
spirits.

"Um... sure." Ranma lifted her head meekly, then nodded. She got up and 
followed Ami out of the room, ignoring the commotion. When they walked 
out, Ranma apologized again. "I'm sorry about that meetin' earlier. I 
was trying to get away from my pops, er pet!" She laughed 
unconvincingly. She stepped outside and began jumping excitedly when she 
spotted a building. "You actually got a dojo here? It's been long time 
since I last practiced in one!"

"Yeah, why don't I show you the place?" Ranma nodded and Ami led the 
girl into the building and studied her reaction as she gazed around the 
place.

"Wow! That's quite some dojo you have here!" Ranma turned to Ami, "You 
mind if I practice here for a while?" Not bothering to wait for a reply, 
she immediately went into her katas. As she continued to practice, 
occasionally jumping around, Ami watched her with growing fascination.

Eventually, Ranma became uncomfortable under Ami's intense scrutiny and 
decided to stop for now. She didn't expect Ami clapping her hands.

"Wow, you're pretty good! I've never seen anybody do that good." She 
silently revised her opinions about Ranma, and judged her to be 
relatively decent martial artist.

Ranma chuckled nervously and raised her arm behind her head. "Well, 
yeah, you could say that. I can do better, though." 

Ranma seemed to be confident, but then again she could be blowing hot 
air. "How about if we spar for a bit?" Ami spoke suddenly. She then 
quickly berated herself for her action, that she should be helping cheer 
up Ranma's spirits, not trying her best to shoot down hers instead. But 
there was something about Ranma that wasn't quite right, but she 
couldn't put her finger on it. She also seemed to be awfully too 
confident about her skills for someone who she had been running away 
from her pet panda few hours earlier.

"What? Here?"

Ami nodded. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm a martial artist too."

"Really?"

"Yes, I am." Ami replied, slightly annoyed. So what if she had devoted 
much of her time to studying- she had devoted as much time to studying 
martial arts as well! Well, she wasn't much of exhibitionist like most 
of her classmates were, and she had preferred to practice in privacy. 
Besides, she was more noted for her devotion to studying than her skills 
in martial arts. "I'll go and change into my gi and we can begin. Stay 
here, I'll be right back!"

The girl raised one of her eyebrows, then dismissed the notion so she 
would immerse herself into the art while Ami did whatever she intended 
to do. In real life, _real_ martial artists never had enough time to 
switch into more appropriate clothing before being challenged or 
attacked. She decided to let Ami indulge in this privilege.

Five minutes later, two girls stood far apart from each other in the 
center of the dojo, gauging each other. Ami noticed that the redhead 
seemed to be uncertain about something, probably about the spar. "Hey, 
don't worry, we'll just go easy- we're just sparring after all."

Ranma remained nervous, inclining her head only slightly. "If you say 
so."

Ami nodded, but inwardly she was still confused by her friend's 
reaction. Only minutes ago, Ranma had brightened at the prospect of dojo 
and practicing martial arts. But this girl seemed almost like she was 
trying to _avoid_ sparring with her.

And she seemed to act bit tomboyish for a girl with her figure. Then 
again, Ami could have been described as one as well if others got whiff 
of what she had been practicing in the security of her home...

She shook her head to dismiss the ridiculous notion. Both were girls, 
after all.

"BEGIN!"

The instant the word left her mouth, Ami snapped into a ready pose while 
Ranma simply relaxed her body. They silently dared each other to make a 
move. Neither answered the dare.

They stared at each other for twenty minutes, neither making a move.

Ami felt her arms becoming numb. Tiring out from maintaining her raised 
arms pose for so long, Ami relaxed her arms just slightly, enough to 
lessen the fatigue. Unfortunately, it was exactly what Ranma had been 
waiting for.

Having lowered her defenses slightly, all Ami saw was a red blur. 
Realizing her mistake, she tried to bring up her arms in a basic defense 
position, her arms crossed in front of her face.

She felt a finger poking the back of her head.

She spun around, only to come face-to-face with Ranma who had a nervous 
smile on her face. There was a nervous silence between them until Ami 
broke into a nervous laugh. Ranma laughed uncomfortably as well.

When they stopped laughing few minutes later, Ami exhaled, "You know, 
that wasn't fair. I mean, you caught me by surprise." She quickly shook 
her head as she corrected herself. "No, wait, it's my fault- really. Can 
we try again? I'm sure I'm ready this time!"

Ranma simply shrugged and stepped back until they were a considerable 
distance apart. Assuming similar stance both had taken earlier, they 
stood ready. This time, Ami didn't declare the start. Instead, she took 
the initiative.

Having decided from the first duel, defense was probably useless until 
she knew how Ranma performed; she decided to go for offensive. Although 
she rarely went for offensive, preferring to remain on defensive, she 
was extremely curious about how her friend would handle her attack.

She delivered her first strike, a carefully aimed jab towards Ranma's 
abdomen, pulling her force so she wouldn't hurt Ranma too badly. She 
didn't have to worry, as Ranma dodged as if she was in a slow-motion.

For fifteen minutes, they seemed to be dancing, with Ami advancing and 
Ranma retreating or side-stepping. For every five attacks Ami made, four 
of them were dodged, and the fifth blocked. It took some time for Ranma 
to take the fight more seriously as she was forced to block more of the 
unpredictable strikes more frequently.

Ranma was beginning to feel threatened. Ami, while obviously was still a 
novice compared to her, was getting closer. She had almost _touched_ her 
with last attempt. If it wasn't for the fact that the blue-haired girl 
had employed more unpredictable moves than she had thought possible, 
coupled with increasing frequency  - yet random -  of fakes, she would 
have remained content at dodging her blows and avoiding striking her. 
She was stuck between two rocks; her reluctance to hit a girl and the 
slow but steady advance or Ami.

Ami, on the other hand, was getting frustrated. While she was able to 
force Ranma into defensive, she didn't understand why she hadn't reacted 
offensively. Ranma was obviously holding back, but why? She also felt 
irritated that she yet had to place in a blow, for some reason. She 
wanted to place in just _one_ blow. She pushed herself even harder, 
noting that Ranma was only slightly ruffled up. Her fists moved even 
faster, and were more powerful. She was no better off than she was a 
minute ago.

It was a duel of majestic proportions to two girls; a test between Ami's 
endurance and Ranma's will-power. Something had to give away. It did.

Ami cried out, "Stop!" even as she came to halt, watching the girl 
perform a clean backward somersault to place herself out of Ami's range. 
Ranma simply bowed slightly, indicating a formal praise usually reserved 
for a worthy and respectable opponent. Ami was now wholly impressed and 
awed.

Panting bit heavily, she simply raised to her full height. She executed 
a similar bow. No sooner than she had returned to her normal height than 
she gush in excitement. "You were simply amazing! I've never seen 
anybody perform as well as you did, Ranma!" Ami panted loudly, smiling 
happily. "Guess I still've got lot to learn after all."

"Of course, Pops trained me how to fight since I was six." Ranma was 
breathing bit hard, but pride was evident in her voice.

"Since six?" Ami replied incredulously, but decided to give her the 
benefit of doubt. For now. "You're pretty good. I haven't had much of 
challenge in a while..."

"Thanks." Ranma was impressed with Ami's skill. Only one other girl had 
managed to push her as far as she had, which wasn't an easy thing to do. 
Still, there was something unusual about her moves... "Hey, who taught 
ya?"

"My daddy, but he stopped teaching me when I was about seven, when--." 
Ami paused for a moment as she realized what she had been about to say. 
There was few things that nobody should share with an almost total 
stranger. "I simply stopped practicing until about four years later when 
I came across books on martial arts. I had remembered how much fun I had 
back then, so I went back to arts."

"But how'd ya get so good? I mean, I've been practicing since six, and 
you've been goin' on for only few years, yet you almost touched me! 
How'd ya do that?!"
 
Ami blinked for a moment then smiled. That had been the nicest 
compliment she had ever gotten from anybody about her martial art skill. 
"Oh, I simply checked out every book the library had on martial arts. 
You should read them, you would be surprised at what you could learn 
from reading a book." Ami winked at the girl...

...then rubbed some water out of her eyes. She needed to be more careful 
moving around her body while her head was barely above the waterline. 
But she couldn't stop fidgeting around. Seemed like that she just _had_ 
to do something. She couldn't just stay put and do nothing.

The engagement matter only increased her anxiety.

She should have known that something odd was going on when she noticed a 
bald man sitting with her father after leaving Ranma in the dojo. But 
she had simply paid him no heed, dismissing him as one of her father's 
odd friends.

If she had, she would certainly have been able to avoid an embarrassment 
that occurred hours later. Her face began to redden as she recalled what 
she had seen...

...having excused herself from the dojo, she made a beeline for her room 
to take a brief rest. She didn't want to show it in front of Ranma for 
some reason, but she felt _exhausted_! It wasn't long before she began 
chopping some 'z's.

Several hours later, Kasumi stepped out of her kitchen, the term 'her' 
being ambiguous, and faced her sister who was observing her father who 
was sitting with a bald man. Both were weeping slightly. It wasn't long 
before Nabiki popped her question.

Kasumi looked at the old men for a moment, then shrugged. "I don't know. 
Where's Ranma?"

"In the dojo. She's been practicing for hours now."

Kasumi nodded and went to the dojo just in time for Ranma to put her 
finishing moves to her katas. "Excuse me, but are you done practicing? 
You must be sweaty after your hard work! You should go and take a bath 
before you leave."

"No!" Ranma yelped, then calmed down, "I mean, I don't need one."

"You really need one. Follow me and I'll get it ready for you." Kasumi 
smiled and Ranma's shoulders sagged. Acknowledging defeat, she nodded 
and followed Kasumi. Less than ten minutes later, she found herself 
naked in bathroom, trying to cover herself up as Kasumi gently pushed 
her into the bathroom. "Don't worry, it's okay. Go and wash yourself 
off."

She stared at the steaming hot water in the furo, wondering about what 
she should do.

Meanwhile, Ami was having a pleasant dream of having finally met martial 
arts master. She would be able to learn more. She didn't really 
understand why she liked practicing martial arts; she just did. When 
combined with her insatiable desire to learn, she wanted to learn more 
about arts, and excel at them. She was determined to do the best she 
could.

The Master bowed at her. Ami returned the act, anxious. The teacher 
stepped forth to impart with her the wondrous workings of the Form. She 
was prepared for everything, but his words completely floored her.

"Will you go out with me?"

"Yes, Mas-- what?" Ami blinked. "W-What do you mean?"

"You look pretty, Ami." His words effortlessly disarmed her, and she was 
blushing furiously now. "I really would love to spend some more time 
with you."

"B-but, I-I don't think that would be a-appropriate," Ami stammered, 
embarrassed by his words. "You're a Master, and I'm only a student..."

The man, whose features remained blurry, replied, "Why should it bother 
you? You're so beautiful- I think it would be a wonderful idea if we 
would be engaged!"

Too embarrassed _and_ afraid, she stepped back, trying to manage out her 
excuses. The master ignored them, and knelt to his knee and reached out, 
"Will you marry-"

"Waaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!" Ami screamed out, bolting upright so abruptly 
that even Nabiki was caught by surprise. The sister jerked backwards so 
quickly that she stumbled backwards and smashed her butt against the 
floor.

"Jeez, Ami! You didn't have to be so vocal about that!" Nabiki groaned 
as she rubbed her sore bottom.

Ami stopped screaming and breathing heavily and turned to Nabiki with 
her wide eyes. Truth finally dawned on her and she glowered at her 
sister. "Nabiki, how could you!"

"Ain't my fault you're so easy to tease." Nabiki grinned as she got up. 
"Besides, you should learn how to loosen up. Life isn't just books and 
martial arts, you know." 

"I know, I know." Ami muttered as she got up. She could still feel her 
heart beating wildly from her dream and Nabiki's words. She tried to 
will it to slow down. "So why are you here anyway? You weren't here just 
to torture me, aren't you?"

"You were sleeping so soundly that I couldn't give up an incentive." 
Nabiki continued to tug the ends of her mouth up. "Anyway, I came by to 
let you know that bath's ready. Since you came in wet and had quite some 
work out in the dojo, you need a bath. Ranma's taking it as well, so 
you'd better hurry up!"

"Thanks," Ami continued to glare at her sister as she laughed her way 
out of her room. Thanks to her sister, she had been thoroughly 
embarrassed and humiliated. At least bath would help relax her.

Her previous embarrassment now forgotten, she hopped off her bed in 
excitement. She loved taking baths because they always made her feel 
relaxed, not to mention cleaner. It would be even better this time 
because she would have a friend to talk with while soaking in the furo.

With her bathing hygiene, Ami quickly trotted towards the bathroom. She 
frowned for a moment and put up an 'occupied' sign on the door before 
stepping inside. Shedding her clothes, she picked up her essential bath 
stuff and prepared to step inside the bathroom and talk with her newest 
friend.

Meanwhile, a boy waded around in the furo, trying to decide on how to 
solve his problem. Coming up with no solution, he sighed to himself. 
"Might as well as go out like this." They would have found out about the 
secret sooner or later anyway.

Ranma sighed as he stepped out of the hot furo, revealing his very naked 
male body, just as the door to the bathroom opened. A naked Ami stepped 
inside. 

Both of them froze, and stared at each other's bodies. Except for a 
towel held modestly over her hips, Ami was completely naked, exposing 
her body to the boy. But she could see everything the guy in the furo 
had to offer and instinctively lowered her gaze to guy's lower region. 
Few moments later, Ami realized what she was staring at and blushed 
furiously. "E-excuse m-me..." Ami croaked and snuck out of the room 
meekly and still blushing.

Having shut the door shut, Ami turned around and tried to calm her fast-
beating heart, "Oh my, I-I didn't see that, didn't I?" She slapped 
herself to snap her out of her embarrassment, "Get a hold of yourself!" 
But she could still feel warmth on her face. Too embarrassed to stay any 
longer, she quickly dressed up and left quietly, but not before she 
bumped into Nabiki in the hallway.

"Hey, hold on, Sis. What's the matter?"

"Nothing." Ami evaded, avoiding her sister's questioning look.

"I don't believe you." Nabiki frowned, "Why are you blushing like that?"

"Err..."

Just then, a boy stepped out of the bathroom, looking very embarrassed. 
Nabiki spotted him and cried out, "Hey, wait! Who are you and why were 
you in the furoo..." Her eyes widened as something clicked and she 
glanced back to Ami, who was trying her best to hide behind Nabiki's 
body and still blushing furiously. She glared at the boy, "Don't tell me 
that you--"

"I'm Ranma Saotome." The boy replied sheepishly, rubbing his neck. "I'm 
_really_ sorry about this."

Two girls blinked in shock at the unexpected statement.     

They were immediately floored by a rampaging panda who quickly grabbed 
the boy and entered the washing room. Nabiki moaned in pain...

...while Ami sighed once more again at how crazy her day had been. And 
that had been only the beginning!

She submerged herself into the furo for a moment. If she had been hoping 
that by doing this, her memories and experience of her day would wash 
out of her, she was sorely disappointed. Nothing was that easy.

The events that occurred afterwards had proven her assumptions earlier 
that day that nothing would have gotten any worse than they had...

...and by the time night came, the Tendo family had calmed down 
considerably enough allow two strangers to explain their unexpected 
appearance. Both of them had introduced themselves as Genma, the man who 
had displayed his writing skills so sloppily on the postcard they had 
received that morning, and Ranma Saotome, whom the girls doubted his 
sexual nature.

"So you're telling me that you," Nabiki pointed at Ranma, "are that girl 
we met earlier, and your father's the panda that gave me this?" Nabiki 
gestured to her bump on her head, holding a pack of ice to it.

"Er, more or less." Genma gave a nervous chuckle as Nabiki glared at 
him.

Nabiki wasn't fazed. "Okay, got any other interesting stories to tell 
us?" She replied with sarcasm evident in her voice. "I'm HOPING you 
could enlighten us somewhat..."

Ranma smiled nervously. "I didn't want this, but my stupid pops took me 
with him to this cursed training grounds where- HEY!"

Genma took advantage of Ranma's lowered defenses and picked him by his 
shirt, then heaved him bodily into a nearby koi pond. He quickly turned 
around and gestured to the pond behind her, speaking to Tendos with 
exaggerated disappointment and tears. "My son is also..."

A red-haired and buxom girl shout out of the water and landed on the 
grass, obviously angry. "Hey, why'd you do that for?!"

"...a girl." Genma finished.

Each of Tendos reacted differently. Soun shook his head in sadness, 
having heard the tale spoken to him earlier from Genma, and Kasumi 
gasped with a "Oh my." Nabiki simply boggled at the scene, and wondered 
if gods were playing tricks on her. Ami, on the other hand, had mixed 
reactions. 

One side of her was thoroughly disgusted by the fact that her friend had 
turned out to be a boy who was trying to impersonate as a girl for 
whatever twisted reasons she couldn't fathom. Her rational side 
suppressed her emotion with logic, that this person was in an actuality 
a cross-dresser of a sort, and therefore the matter of true sex was not 
so easily answered. But above all, she was immediately fascinated by the 
unexpected change, trying to evaluate how sex-change could be 
scientifically explained. Her friend's gender difference of was best, 
questionable. Subconsciously, she inched closer for a better look.

Genma complained, "Oh, I'm so disappointed in my son. My son changes 
into a girl--" He never got his chance to complete his compliant as 
Ranma blurred into front of him and kicked him hard enough to send him 
sailing into the same pond his father had dumped him into.

If the girls had been previously startled, they were absolutely shocked 
by the sight of immense panda swelling out of the pond, with several 
fish flopping off the creature's thick hide.

"And YOU turn into a panda." Ranma glared at his father.

"How? I mean, that's impossible!" Ami finally managed, gaping at the 
_size_ of the creature. If she wasn't mistaken, Genma must've gained an 
extra 200 pounds of body weight, but that was scientifically impossible.

"Jusenkyo curse."

Before anyone could interrupt, Ranma left the room leaving the family to 
face the panda. Finally, Kasumi couldn't hold back her concerns any 
longer and faced her father. "Daddy, why are you friends with them?"

Soun shook his as he heard a splash in the bathroom. "They weren't that 
way." The panda quickly followed the path Ranma had taken, and a moment 
later there was a second splashing noise, followed by an angry 
exclamation. Soun continued, "At least, not until they undertook that 
training trip in China."

Genma, who had sensed his chance for story-telling session, quickly 
reappeared in his human form, albeit still soaking, and sat facing the 
family. He began intoning his story, ignoring his son as he entered the 
room as well.

Ranma scowled at his father and sat an considerable distance from him, 
not noticing his close proximity to Ami. Ami didn't notice this...

...until now, as Ami thought back to the most recent events. She 
wondered if Ranma had been aware of this. Probably not, she mused.

Recalling the greatly-exaggerated tale by Genma about Jusenkyo, she 
chuckled slightly. If it wasn't so... tragic, it would have been a 
humorous tale.

Ami shook her head at the carelessness of Saotomes, both for ignoring 
warning given to them by the Jusenkyo Guide who had generously given 
them a tour of the place, and being arrogant. They had believed that 
nothing would happen to them. They only had been expecting of a lesson 
to learn.

Well, they had learned their lesson all right-- Genma was simply dunked 
into the Saomoniichuan, or the Spring of Drowned Panda. Ranma had fared 
slightly better, in her opinion, having fallen into Nanniichuann. Ranma 
now had a curse of a young and petite red-haired girl. With ridiculously 
large bosoms. At least she... he was still a human and his female form 
could do same activities his male form could do, with no apparent 
handicap. His father was an animal and could only communicate through 
wooden signs that seemed to appear out of no where. She would find out 
where Mr. Saotome got them from.

Ami was relieved in a way, that she at least knew how her guests had 
acquired their bizarre curses. She only had to figure out how their 
curses _really_ worked. They simply violated the laws of physics, 
including the Law of Conversion.

She vowed that she would find out the answer someday.

She briefly wondered, not for the first, and nor the last time, about 
how her father had become friends with Genma.

She sighed as she let her body sink into warm water again to soothe her 
nerves. They did nothing to prevent her from drifting her mind back to 
what was probably one of the biggest bombshell she had ever experienced 
in her entire life... 

"...so that's what happened." Genma placed down his cup.

Soun stared at his friend in shock. "Jusenkyo, the accursed training 
grounds. I always thought it was only a legend, but... what a true 
horror!!" He shuddered.

"A 'true horror...'" Ranma jerked his head up in realization and growled 
at his father. "Hey, old man- why'd you take me to a place like that 
anyway?"

Genma quickly grabbed his son in return and hurled him into the pond for 
the second time. He watched his son-turned-daughter emerge from the 
water disapprovingly. "You sound like a woman! You were prepared to give 
life for sake of training, weren't you?"

"My life, yes..." Onna-Ranma clenched her fists, then stormed out of the 
pond and tried to drench her father with a nearby pail of water. She 
missed. "But I never said anything about turnin' into a _girl_!" 

Both of them soon were involved in a fierce hands-on wrestling bout, 
which lasted for few minutes as Soun moaned at how horrible it was. 
Before the fight escalated, Ami cut in between the squabblers angrily. 
"Stop that fighting!" She quickly turned to Genma, angry. "Why did you 
do it? If you knew about how dangerous Jusenkyo was, why did you two 
train there?"

Genma tried to give her an innocent look, but she didn't buy it. Kasumi 
frowned and scolded at him, "How could you do a such dangerous thing?!" 
Nabiki chirped in her agreement.

Faced with the unexpected opposition from four angry females, he did the 
only thing he could do at the moment: he found a nearby pail of water 
and doused himself with it. As a panda, the girls would surely ignore 
him, right? Later, he would remark at how highly effective his technique 
had been and decided that he should employ it more often.

The creature blinked and grunted unconcernedly, then suddenly 
sweatdropped when a brochure slipped out of his fur and on the ground. 
Nabiki noticed it immediately and opened it, only to find out that it 
was in Chinese. "Well, that explains it, Genma couldn't read Chinese." 
Genma nodded vigorously in agreement. Onna-Ranma hit his father's head 
hard and glared at him for a moment.

"At least the pond I kicked him into was actually the spring of drowned 
_female_ panda!" Ranma collapsed into a fit of laughter as the female 
panda growled angrily. "Makes us even!"

Before Genma was angered further, a boiling water was suddenly dumped on 
him by a grinning Soun. "So hot water returns you to back to human!" He 
replied cheerfully at the result. He quickly turned his steaming kettle 
to Ranma. "And it turns you back into boy!"

Onna-Ranma quickly avoided the hot water and screamed, "_Hot_ water, not 
boiling water!"

Soun tossed aside the kettle and grinned, slapping Onna-Ranma's back, 
"Well, that solves your problem!" He quickly pushed Ranma forward to 
meet his daughters, "Meet my daughters, Kasumi, nineteen. Nabiki, 
seventeen. And Ami, sixteen."

The girls barely had a chance to reply when Soun turned to Ranma, still 
grinning, "Pick one of them and she will be your finacee."

"WHAT?!"

"Oh, he wants Ami!" Kasumi proposed, and Nabiki chirped in her agreement 
as well. "Definitely! They get along well!"

This time there was a stereo. "WHAT?!"

Ami quickly rushed in to made her protests known, with sinking feeling 
that she was doomed...

...and it had been doomed for her all right. Doomed, doomed. Well, 
perhaps she had been carrying it bit to the extreme. But it was exactly 
what she was feeling right now. Her own sisters and father had pushed 
her into an engagement with Ranma without her consent. Her father, she 
could understand. She had been irked that Nabiki was also pawning her 
off on Ranma, but she could understand her reasons, one which included 
as teasing. But her sister Kasumi's reaction caught her by surprise. She 
had been the least one she would have expected to sponsor her engagement 
with an almost total stranger...

...of which she wholeheartedly agreed. "Oh, he wants Ami!" Kasumi 
proposed. "I think it's a wonderful idea!"

Nabiki chirped in her agreement. " Definitely! They get along well!"

"No, I don't want to be engaged!" Ami protested. Her recent dream began 
haunting her psyche. Please don't let me be engaged, she prayed 
silently. I'm too young!

She felt an itching sensation somewhere on her neck.

Her sister crowded behind her, placing their hands on her shoulders to 
reassure (and to prevent her from retreating) her. Kasumi spoke 
soothingly, "Ami, you should accept this. He's a martial artist, just 
like you! You two're perfectly compatible."

"No! I mean, we're still too young!"

Nabiki countered her excuse, "You're already old enough to have a 
boyfriend." She then lowered her head to whisper into her ears, 
"Besides, I know you find mystery and excitement irresistible! I saw you 
looking at him!"

The itching sensation was getting worse for her now.

Meanwhile, Ranma was getting uncomfortable with the situation. Bad 
enough that she turned into a girl with a splash of water, but she also 
had to be forced into an engagement by his own pops! He already had made 
his protests aloud, but they fell on deaf ears. He didn't like how the 
girls were acting.

They were literally pushing Ami towards her!

She could hear their words, and decided that she was not going to like 
the result. To make things worse, Ami's words stung him for some reason.

"I don't care - I don't want to marry him! Why would I want to be 
married to a..." Ami paused as she grasped for some descriptive phrase 
then blurted out again, "To a deviant?!"

Okay, Ranma had enough. "Well, I ain't getting' married to ya!"

"Good!"

"Fine!"

Soun tried to step in and alleviate the situation. "Ami, please don't be 
troubled. I'm sure you both will be able to work out the matter and get 
along well, won't you?" He smiled reassuringly.

Ami was now scratching her neck. She tried to calm down her nerves and 
mumbled to herself, "Get a grip of yourself! This isn't the time to lose 
your brains! Calm down and think out rationally..."

She took a deep breath, then spoke. "All right, there's obviously an 
misunderstanding around here, we will just have to fix that problem..."

"Just like when you had stepped in on me while I was taking bath?" 
Nabiki raised one of her eyebrows at Ranma's remark.

"Yes! That's-- uh," Ami choked slightly. "I mean, I didn't- you, I d-
don't think that's, uh..." Ami was beginning to stumble over her words 
while trying to cover up her embarrassment.

Soun and Genma burst into laughter as they watched the quarrel, "Now, 
that's a lover's quarrel!" Genma remarked.

"They're already a perfect couple!" Soun laughed, and Ami found out that 
her brain was now blank, unable to think of any way for her to back out 
of the engagement that her own father had enforced upon her.

"Forget it! I ain't marryin' her!" Ranma spun around and was about to 
stroll out of the room when her father interrupted her.

"Where do you think you're going, boy?"

"China, of course. This is no time for finacees, and do I look like a 
'boy' to you, old man?"

Genma was flustered for a moment, but Ranma choose to ignore him. After 
all, why would she have to listen to her father who had personally made 
her life a living hell? She was about to resume walking when a thought 
popped inside her mind. She paused, turning to Ami. "You know, you 
shouldn't let what happened between us get at you. Your body's not that 
bad." Ami caught an unique expression on her face, almost as if she 
was... amused?

"Still, YOU got a pretty good look at me." At this remark, Ami blushed. 
Ranma didn't notice and shook her head. "Ah, it's no big deal. I mean, 
I've seen myself many times before, right? It's nothing new." Ranma 
pulled away one of her shirt labels, exposing a slight cleavage. "And 
I'm *built* better, to boot!" She then laughed as she turned around to 
leave.

All traces of embarrassment left her as she felt unfamiliar sensation of 
anger swelling inside her. She couldn't believe the nerve of Ranma to 
insult her femininity. A thought occurred to her, "Is he really _that_ 
insecure?" But her anger quickly suppressed that thought as she retorted 
in kind. She simply glared at Ranma and spoke coldly, "Oh I really 
wouldn't know, seeing you being proud of your _feminine_ features. One 
might say that you're determined to prove to others that you are a girl, 
despite your birth nature."

Ranma reacted as if he had just been stabbed into his chest. It was 
already bad enough for him, but Ami just had to interject her final 
opinion, "No, I don't think there's much for you to do to validate your 
claims. If I didn't know better, I would have pegged you as a hundred-
percent girl."

Ranma spasmed and collapsed to his knees in agony. Unfortunately, when 
he did so, he bumped against the wall and jarred an expensive and heavy 
family vase off its secure position on a shelf above his head. The 
descending vase landed squarely on his head, knocking him unconscious.

Genma wasn't sure about what he should be saying at this moment. "Uh, I 
don't know if he should have had that coming..."

...and having come to her sense after an extended period soaking in her 
furo, she decided that she might have been bit too hasty in dealing the 
engagement matter.

Ranma's words still stung her. She shook her head, disappointed with 
him. She had hoped that she had found someone to work and train with, to 
learn more about arts. Instead, she had an undisciplined boy with an ego 
problem to boot. And her father had expected her to _marry_ him?!

She leaned her head way back and spread out her arms in exasperation, 
"Why me?! What did I do to deserve this?"

Meanwhile, Ranma was just about to recover from the pot-induced nap. She 
saw two girls spinning around. "What're you guys doin' up there?"

A sweet voice soothed her frayed brain. "It's a bit of concussion. It'll 
pass in a minute." Sure enough, it did. Ranma blinked at Kasumi in 
surprise.

"Don't worry about Ami. She's really sweet girl. She's just slightly 
obsessive-compulsive in her nature." Kasumi explained.

Nabiki simply nodded in agreement. "Not to mention that she's crazy 
about few things..."

Ranma shook her head. "I don't care- I gotta go back and find a cure."

"Fine, but you'll need a bath. Or do you want to go back there as a 
girl?" Nabiki grinned mischievously.

"Er... right."

Ranma quickly got up and left the room with hot furo in her mind, not 
noticing Nabiki's sudden change in her demeanor. In fact, Nabiki was 
grinning madly. She knew exactly who was taking bath at this moment. 
"Sorry about this, Sis, but it's for your own good. There's more to life 
than studying!" Ranma may be just exactly what Ami needed to spice up 
her life a bit.

Blissfully unaware of Nabiki's plans, Ami sighed as she tried to will 
her frayed nerves. At least the itching sensation had stopped. She 
shouldn't have let her temper get out of control like she had against 
Ranma. Ami knew better than that, yet she couldn't understand how easily 
he had managed to make her lose her cool so quickly. For some reason, 
the aquatransexual (which had been the term she had coined to describe 
Ranma and his unique curse that seemed to defy logical explanation) had 
been creating some unusual sensations inside her; certainly, she never 
had been this excited before. It was an one-time opportunity for her to 
give her shot in analyzing Ranma and his father's curse personally. It 
was something about Ranma's arrogant pride that made her feel unease.

Still, she shouldn't have insulted Ranma like that. He didn't really 
mean to hurt her feelings like that, but it had been so insensitive of 
him... 

But then again, his father was the only person he interacted on daily 
basis, and was therefore his only role model. From what she knew about 
Genma, he was a poor father and a lousy teacher as well. Ranma had 
apparently picked some of his bad habits from him as well.

Like father, like son. If this was true, there would be lot of problems 
for her to handle in the future.

As she stepped out of the furo, she vowed to apologize to Ranma. She 
really didn't want to screw things up between both of them, the 
engagement matter notwithstanding. She mentally made a note to try and 
convince her father to end this engagement nonsense.

After drying herself off, she stepped up to the sliding door and slid it 
open, only to face a very surprised female Ranma.

For scant seconds they stared at each other, completely naked. Neither 
made an attempt at their modesty. Then Ami frowned at the pigtailed girl 
and stepped back into the bathroom and slid the door shut without a 
word. Inside, she quickly wrapped the towel she had around her body. To 
her disappointment and embarrassment, it was barely enough to cover her 
up, and did almost nothing to hide her cleavage.

Ignoring her flimsy coverage, she slid the door open once more and 
wasn't surprised to see Ranma still blinking. She stepped past him and 
was about to exit the changing room when she paused for a moment, 
turning to Ranma.

"I'm sure that you must be feeling bit unsecure, that you're trying to 
convince others that you're really a man despite being cursed with a 
female body. Peeping on other girls might be a good start for you, but I 
would disagree. Especially when I can think of better ideas to help you 
out."

Stepping out, she threw in one final comment, "And you should at least 
have some feminine modesty if you're going to be like that."

Strolling through the room, lost in her uncertainty, she bumped into 
Nabiki, who seemed to be grinning. "Hey, I heard what happened in 
there."

"Um, well it's like this--"

"Tell me, Ami- you mooned Ranma, didn't you?" Nabiki replied bluntly.

"N-no, I d-didn't!" Ami shook her head rapidly as reddish tinge glowed 
on her cheeks, both embarrassed by her sister's words, and angry at 
herself for being caught off-guard.

"Way to go, Sis!" Nabiki nudged Ami, chuckling. "You've been engaged for 
barely an hour and already you're making moves on him. I didn't know you 
had it in you."

"Nabiki!"

Meanwhile, Ranma pondered the implications of Ami's words and her 
actions. She hadn't expected Ami to react like she had. "I don't 
understand girls." She concluded to himself.


-------------------------------------------------


Notebook:

I know that no doubt the title sounds EXTREMELY corny, but I really 
couldn't come up with a suitable one. Eventually, I decided to stick to 
it, seeing that it seemed to be appropriate, somehow.
Oh, BTW- C&C greatly appreciated, public or private.

No doubt many of you're wondering where this came from. Well, Akane and 
Ami happens to be my favorite characters from their respective series 
(Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon), and I was bit surprised that among some 
Akane fans, Ami had been their favorite as well. Also, I also found out, 
to my surprise, that there was several hentai Akane/Ami images out there 
in the net, and they might have had some influence.

Taking this into account, an idea popped into my mind. What if I 
replaced Akane with Ami of Sailor Moon, and how would she react to 
having Ranma as her finacee? In this fusion, Ami is NOT Sailor Mercury, 
and will never be. This is Ranma 1/2, and Senshi do not exist.

But Ami does know some martial arts. Hmm...


Until I find something new to post, Ja ne-

Dark Alpha <AlphSailor@aol.com> formerly Sailor Alpha
Dark Alpha's G3 Fanfic Studio- Fanfics not produced monthly!
	Now at NEW server- http://www.gehirn.com/
		And UPDATED!