Summary: Nerima, three years early. Ranma and Genma Saotome arrive from
China, and are staying at the house of Soun Tendo, a friend of Genma. The
Tendo daughters have mixed reactions to the additions of their household:
Kasumi is adamantly against the move, Nabiki is entirely for it (with some
intent of arm-twisting and a sly kiss from the unassuming youngster) and
Akane has no comment.
Genma has revealed that he has incurred a curse from the last leg of the
training trip, at the Training Ground of the Cursed Springs of Jusenkyo -
one that transforms him into a panda when he is splashed with cold water,
reversed by splashing him with hot water. Akane has taken quite a shine to
him, dubbing him "Mr. Panda".
Nabiki peeped on Ranma late that night to discover that Ranma is, in fact,
female.
The next day, Ranma trains with Genma, only to get beat up. The feat is
repeated later that morning by Kasumi, using her martial-arts rhythmic
gymnastics skills.
-----
Chime.
Kasumi sat pondering her shallow wooden ladle, a hand on the cover of the
rice cooker by her side.
Soun sat quietly pondering over the go board, while a panda that got caught
in the early morning shower sat back, enjoying the cool after-breeze.
Nabiki walked in from her morning toilette. She watched the scene for a
moment before scooting to the side of her older sister. "Hey, Kasumi."
"Hunh?" She languidly turned her head up and to the side.
Nabiki's background irritation rose by a notch. "If I were you, I wouldn't
lose sleep over it."
"What?" Kasumi said, a little too loudly.
Nabiki cringed overtly, and Kasumi responded with the proper amount of
contrition. The younger Tendo smiled, then sat down to the side. "Look,
sis, there's something - "
"Good morning!" Akane hopped into the room, sliding the door behind her.
She sat right next to Nabiki and flashed a close-eyed smile.
Before they could even look back incredulously, Akane bound back to her feet
and started edging toward the two players.
"Is that - ?" Kasumi looked with thin lips and nodded.
Nabiki wondered whether or not to warn the intended victim, but she had
other things to do, and so turned and went out the door. Kasumi turned from
her to their younger sibling, who had by now mere inches to tread.
Soun was the first to react. "Why, hello, A-"
But it was already too late, as the pre-teen bounded right onto the back of
the unwary panda. "I said, 'GOOD MORNING!'" With a smile, it slid off Mr.
Saotome's back, while the latter had slumped back, clutching his ears and
growfing in pain. "I have a gift for you..." She revealed the object she
had been hiding.
Soun held it, because the intended recipient was still rolling over, and
gave it a critical look. "That's nice, dear... and it's a...?"
He turned to see the teary-eyed look that Akane had on. "It's his flea
collar!" She took it back with some ferocity, and pointed to the large flat
wooden duck. "It says so, right here. Kasumi-oneechan said that he needed
one of those..."
Indeed, upon some inspection, it did say "Mr. Panda", subtitled "Beware of
Panda, Nasty Fleas", although it seemed that both were handwritten by a
criminal maintaining anonymity.
Soun's sweatdrop was on the back of his head, so Akane did not see it, even
though her father leaned forward to pat her. "That, that's nice, dear. I'm
sure he appreciates it." A small kick to the panda told him to stop
howling, sit up and graciously take the give, which he would later do.
Kasumi watched all this, and sighed.
-----
A door slid open.
The morning sun lit the room from the periphery but most of the guest
bedroom lay in shadow, except for a faint sliver fallen from the doorway
that illuminated the upper portion of a futon that lay in the middle of the
room. The bulk within was bunched up and unmoving.
>From the doorway, Nabiki told it. "It's time to eat."
When it had not made any move, she took a step, then another, into the
room. "You know..." she started, when she could whisper, "sooner or later,
you'll have to tell someone... it's gonna be harder and harder to hide."
The bulk lay unmoving.
When Nabiki was almost upon it, she bent down, then, in a moment of
self-consciousness, bent to the head of the futon. "You see... I know."
The window slid open. Nabiki blinked as the morning sun flooded the room in
light.
"What do you know?"
She could barely make out the young boy that was walking from the window.
"I... I..."
She blinked, then suddenly Ranma was looking into her face, his own
unreadable. "What am I trying to hide, Nabiki?"
She blinked, once more, then took the sheets off.
"These souvenirs you got from China!"
Indeed, there were two moderate sized knapsacks, which, when Nabiki upended
them, revealed to have assorted gift items from China, which included
postcards, stamp sets, travelers' packs of oolong tea, fine-toothed combs,
and one fine silk cheongsam.
"What?!" In a moment, Ranma was in the far corner, rummaging through a
large backpack. "Yuck! I was going to bring the old man's dirty laundry?!"
Fishing through the fine livery, Nabiki looked up at Ranma, who was throwing
large-sized gis into the middle of the room. "What were you planning to do,
anyway? Run away and put up shop?"
In a flash, the cheongsam was is Ranma's hands. Nabiki flexed her fists
experimentally. "Not really." He stepped, sat, and folded the silken
fabric carefully.
Nabiki stared at her hands one more time. She stared at the other youngster
- his cheek was flushed, or was it?
"Ow!" Ranma flinched as Nabiki brushed fingertips against the bruise on his
cheek. He tried to cover his mouth, but most of the bruise was on that
area, so he yelped a little more incoherently and a lot more loudly.
He stopped. Nabiki held his hand in hers, and gave him a stern look.
She rose, and Ranma had not choice but to follow.
-----
Ranma had been quiet for the last few minutes, despite the fact that Nabiki
had led him down the stairs and, much to his surpise, out the front door and
the gate, without her allowing him to change from his slippers to his
outdoor soft-soles. He was quiet because the last time he made a peep,
Nabiki covered his mouth with her hand, and that was painful enough to be
embarrassingly pointless.
The last turn they took, Nabiki let go of his hand and entered a building.
At the corner of the wall, the post proudly proclaimed the premises to be
that of a chiropractor and a moxibustionist, which, again surprisingly, he
knew to be a healer that burned small squares of soft, downy moxa in the
skin. (Unfortunately for him, the only part of the dictionary his father
had brought, which was the only thing he could read on the days that they
would be stowed away on the back of a wagon dragged by some beast of
burden. He couldn't decide if it was a dzho, an ibex or a yak. It
definitely was not a moose, though.)
He stayed where he was, not willing to turn to go back, not because he
hadn't been paying attention, but because if Nabiki caught him, she might
cup his mouth with a hand or, Kami forbid, her lips. He had already heard
her voice, apparently in conversation with a deeper male voice.
"- inside?" the deeper voice was saying.
"My... err, friend," Nabiki was using the word with some lack of contentment
with its use, "well, my friend has problems. More than the bruises and the
beatings."
"Beatings, hmm?" A slight pause. "Well, that's what martial arts is all
about, isn't it, Nabiki?"
Nabiki was nodding as they passed the doorway.
The man stood next to her in a relaxed manner. He was wearing what
obviously were training garb, but he did not take any effort to make him
aware of his aura. In fact, Ranma suspected that the man was hiding it,
like he was doing behind his spectacles.
That was all he noticed until the spectacles were right in front of him.
"Eep!"
"Hmmmm..." The man straightened to peer at Ranma clutching onto the top of
the wall. He tilted his head back and... smiled.
-----
"So... you must be Nabiki's friend, eh?"
Ranma sat on the edge of the examining table, and said, "I wouldn't exactly
call her that." He tried not to say it too loud, but hoped that it carried
over into the reception area, where Nabiki was sipping on some relaxing
tea. He could smell it from there.
The doctor sat down on the other cot, across from him and peered at him
critically. He took a hand that was leaning on a knee, surprising Ranma
with its strength and the fact that he didn't even have time to lose his
balance.
The doctor stared at the palm, then turned it over and looked at that.
"Hmmmm..."
"Doctor?"
"Hmmmmmm?"
"What am I doing here?"
"I've been trying to find that out myself." He licked his lips, and pulled
back, pushing his glasses along the bridge of his nose, in a familiar
motion. "Aside from the bruises, and that is a nasty one on your mouth
there, there is absolutely nothing wrong with you." He clapped Ranma on the
back. "You are a perfectly healthy young man."
"WHAT?!" Nabiki was in the room in a flash. "Doctor Tofu, you can't be - !"
"Hmmmm?"
She gawked, pointing to Ranma. "She can't, I mean, Ranma is," she pointed
at the doctor, "you can't, well, you are, and - but," she pointed at Ranma,
"she, he," pointed at Tofu, "you - "
"Nabiki," Dr. Tofu said softly, "is there something wrong?"
Nabiki gaped at the two of them, then shook her head. "No, I think I'll
just be on my way home..." She stepped on out the door again.
At that, the doctor turned back to Ranma. "I'll just get you a compress for
that bruise. Funny that Nabiki didn't wait up for you."
Ranma shrugged.
-----
"But, he, she, Ranma..." Nabiki shook her head, walking without really
noticing where she was going.
-----
Somewhere in the east, the rain was falling.
"Noooooooooo!" The scream died, first growing tinny, screeching at in
constricting throat, until it was all muffled by increasingly heavy clothing.
-----
Age Don't Matter
an alternate history Ranma 1/2 story
by Nikholas "Switch" F. Toledo
I know that Ranma 1/2 is not mine. It belongs to Rumiko Takahashi,
Shogakukan, Kitty Film and Viz Communication. Luckily, it also belongs to
all of us. The little people rule!
Next: I don't know what's wrong with you, but I'm definitely going to sort
it out.
As per usual, C&C is welcome, and anyone willing to be a pre-reader or a
continuity consultant will be given the load as soon as they want it.
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Vector, Switch, Yebah, Rain Man, goo, Pervert, Scruples, Hollie, NomaD,
Blitz, Gee, Datzo, Jewel, elf, Radler, Pinball, Mayhem, Chaos, Father,
Attar, Llewe and Katana @ http://nikholas-f-toledo-zu.webjump.com/ NEW!
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