This is the first Ranma fic I ever wrote. . .all two parts of it. I have a
vauge idea of where I'm headed with it, I just sorta lost interest so I don't
know when, if ever, I'll continue it. And right off the bat, just to head off
complaints later on, Lee is not as good a Martial Artist as it might seem.
She's just got the personality of a pit bull when it comes to fighting. In
other words, she will get her butt kicked if I ever continue it.
C&C appreciated.
Thinking about posting the one and only Lemon I've ever written,
--Komodo
***********************
Ranma 1/2: The Stranger
Prologue
God, Nabiki Tendo decided as she studied the Tendo family finances, had a
sense of humor. That, or the Tendo family was cursed. A frown crossed her
face and she reached once more for the small sheet that told her that hosting
families were needed to host exchange students. She looked up as a giant
panda, a towel draped over its arm and a toothbrush in its mouth walked by.
The Tendo household had guests with some issues to work out.
"What do you think about a hosting an exchange student Mr. Saotome?" The
panda shrugged and grunted before continuing on its way.
Big issues.
Sighing, Nabiki gathered closed the account book and went to go find her
father.
-#-#-
Soun Tendo was a tall man, with a mustache and harried, nervous eyes. He had
a tendency to break down over anything stressful. While this may seem strange
for a Martial Artist, Soun had recently lost his wife and as close as they
were, it had shaken him up badly.
But he was also a shrewd man and he could see the value of the solutions his
middle daughter had given him to fix the family's strained finances. Step
one, more classes in the Dojo, led by their house guest, Soun's friend Gemma
and for the kids, classes led by his son Ranma. Step two, host an exchange
student. Step three, figure out a way to keep their hot water bill down.
Nabiki was still working on that one.
Soun looked the book over, and then nodded. Nabiki grinned and went to find
the phone.
-#-#-
Chapter 1
It was evening when the stranger arrived in Nerima. The rain, cold and wet,
poured out of the sky as he walked past the stores still open. Inside,
shopkeepers stood and waited, hoping for some last minute customers. The
stranger paused as a little man, a bag full of women's underwear slung over
his shoulder, ran past, chased by a horde of women screaming in outrage.
"Strange." Was all the stranger said then continued on his way.
-#-#-
Kasumi Tendo peered through the crack in the doorway.
"Yes?"
"I apologize for bothering you Ma'am." Said the shadow in heavily accented
Japanese. "I am looking for the Anything Goes Tendo School of Martial Arts. I
seem to be lost."
"This is the Anything Goes Tendo School Of Martial Arts." Kasumi said,
opening the door a little more. "How may I help you?"
"My name is Lee Orobas, I believe you've been expecting me."
-#-#-
"We were led to believe that the exchange student would be a girl." Lee
looked up at the man at the head of the table, the chopsticks halfway to his
mouth.
"You are." He said, setting the bowl down and reaching for the kettle of hot
water in the middle of the table.
"Wait." Said the girl across from him, a brown haired girl with an almost
predatory, yet catlike air about her. "Let me guess. You were in China, at a
place called the Jusenkyo Springs. You fell into the one known as the Spring
of the Drowned Boy. Since then, being doused with cold water turns you into a
guy while hot water changes you back."
"Well, yes." Lee said, setting the kettle back down. "But How-" The girl, who
had been introduced Nabiki, simply smiled and then, in one lightning move,
picked up her water glass and splashed the young man in chinese clothes who
sat opposite her and two seats down.
"Hey!" Exclaimed the redhead female who was suddenly sitting where the boy
had been a moment ago. "What was that for?"
"Believe me." Nabiki said, refilling her glass and taking a sip as she looked
at Lee over the rim. "We're quite familiar with the Jusenkyo curse." Lee
blinked once. Then nodded.
"I suppose you would be."
-#-#-
"...and that's the short version." Nabiki said, looking at Lee. In her girl
form, Lee was quite attractive. Though well built, her body was on the more
muscular side and perhaps a tad more. . .top heavy then Ranma was. The two
girls were seated in the furo, enjoying the hot steam and Nabiki had just
finished giving a brief history lesson of the past few years since the
Saotomes had come to stay. Though she had either glossed over some of the
stranger details and/or eliminated them from her tale. As she told it. Gemma
had made some mistakes on the training trip and as a result, Ranma had some
extra fiancees.
Lee had assured Nabiki that she could handle them. After all, once she proved
that she wasn't in the race for Ranma, they would leave her alone.
That was her first mistake.
-#-#-
There are few things in life that prepares one for watching a girl argue with
a giant panda. Even less to prepare one for watching said panda use the
Martial Arts. It was morning, three days later, and Lee was receiving a crash
course in the Tendo household morning ritual.
Morning chaos would have been a more apt description.
For her first day, Lee wore one of Ranma's long sleeved chinese shirts and
the pants prescribed by Furikan's dress code. Waiting in the foyer, the
hiking boots she had been wearing when she arrived. Ducking her head to avoid
the flying dinner plates, Lee finished the last of the scrambled eggs.
"Is it always like this?" Nabiki smiled.
"Nah. You should see them when their really mad at each other."
-#-#-
As Lee, Akane, and Ranma approached the school, a tall young man, a wooden
Kendo sword in his hand, moved to block their path.
"Exchange Student, I, upperclassman Tatsuwake Kuno, A.K.A. the Blue Thunder
of Furikan high, do bid you welcome to this place of learning." Kneeling, he
took her hand and kissed it. Lee's response was probably the last thing
anyone expected to hear.
"Hey Ranma? What's with the Shakespearean bozo?" The question was spoken in a
mixture of Japanese and English. Ranma didn't really speak much English, but
Akane did.
"Lee!"
"What?" She looked back at the still kneeling Kuno. "Well he is one. A simple
'hello how do you do I'm Tatsuwake Kuno' would do nicely." She yanked her
hand away and glared at him. "Baka." With that, she walked around him and
continued on her way.
"No one spurns the Blue Thunder of Furikan High!" Screaming in rage, Kuno
charged. Lee kept walking. At the last possible moment before he reached her,
she turned to her right, spinning on the ball of one foot and slamming her
book bag into the back of his head. Kuno, propelled by his own momentum, and
knocked off balance by the blow to his head, fell forward and hit the ground,
bouncing as he did. The sword clattered across the flagstones. A hush fell
over the yard as Lee walked to the sword and picked it up. "Nice." Then she
turned and walked away, the sword over her shoulder.
That was her second mistake.
-#-#-
While no one could call Kuno clever, he did have his moments. Like now. Hangin
g up the phone, he picked up another wooden sword and began to practice. He
had outdone himself this time. After all, if there was anything that could
set his sister off it was telling her that another fiancee to Ranma had
arrived, and was living in the Tendo house.
-#-#-
At lunch, Lee was brushing up on her Japanese when a swirl of black rose
petals floated down and landed on the book, accompanied by maniacal laughter.
"Attack of a thousand clubs!" A voice shouted. Lee threw herself backwards as
at least two dozen gymnastic clubs hammered where she had just been, tearing
up her book.
"Hey! That was a loaner!" Lee shouted, looking around for her attacker. Again
the laughter.
"Gaijin fool!" Came the voice again. "You are nothing! Abandon your quest for
Ranma Saotome's hand or pay the consequence!"
"Let me guess." Lee said, stretching out her senses. "Ukyo?"
"Hardly!" The voice said behind her. Lee spun to see a teenager in a
gymnastics leotard, a gymnastics ribbon in each hand. "I am Kodachi, the Black
Rose and the only bride for Ranma Saotome!" Lee blinked. Nabiki had not
mentioned a Kodachi.
"I'm not interested in him!" Lee protested, confused.
"Lies! Why else would you be at the Tendo Dojo?"
"Maybe because I'm an exchange student and they're my host family?" Kodachi's
brow furrowed as she sorted that statement out.
"Then I shall make sure you don't try to take him!" She shouted, cracking the
ribbon like a whip. Lee ducked. Whips and the like she understood. Crouching
low, she jumped, snatching one of the ribbons from Kodachi's hand.
Lee's greatest gift was that she was an incredibly fast learner to the point
where in some cases, she could learn a move simply by seeing it once. She
also possessed a very analytical mind. A mind that was telling her two
things. One; this Kodachi person obviously believed that she was one of
Ranma's fiancee's and was out to remove competition. Two; assuming she
survived this Kodachi person, she was going to have to have a nice long talk
with a certain member of the Tendo family.
If she survived.
Gritting her teeth, Lee set herself and attacked.
-#-#-
"Ow." Lee winced as Kasumi laid the ice pack on her eye.
"Sorry." She said. "Does it hurt that much?" Lee mumbled something that might
have been a reply.
"Not too bad." Nabiki said. "Ranma doesn't usually manage to bruise Kodachi
like you did."
"I might have been able to do more if you had mentioned her!" Lee snapped,
sitting up and glaring at the middle Tendo daughter. Nabiki shrugged and Lee
lay back down, muttering something under her breath.
-#-#-
The restraunt was known as Uuchans, a small bisnuess run by a young chinese
girl who's name was Ukyo.
Today, Ukyo was cleaning the counter, humming a tune to herself when the bell
jingled. She looked up to see a black haired girl enter. An American, she
realized a moment later.
"Welcome to Uchann's." She said in her best English. "What can I get you?"
"I'm looking for someone named Ukyo." The American said, crossing the room
and taking a seat on one of the stools.
"That's me." Ukyo replied cheerfully. The American stuck out her hand.
"The name is Lee, and I think we need to talk."
-#-#-
"...And that's the whole story." Lee said, taking another sip of the tea.
"I'm not interested in Ranma, I came for an education, not to get involved in
his love life."
"I see." Ukyo said. "But why come to me?" Lee was silent for a moment.
"The truth?" Ukyo nodded. "From what everyone tells me, you're Ranma's best
friend and the most rational. I figured you'd be the most likely one to let
me tell the whole story before trying to take my head off." Ukyo nodded.
"So in other words, you were afraid." She teased. Lee managed a smile and
flicked a scrap of bread at her.
"No, I've faced worse. Its just that Kodachi is just plain irrational, and I
don't understand this Shampoo's code of honor." She sipped the tea. "I'm new
here, I don't understand half of what's going on here and its weirding me
out."
"I know." Ukyo said. "I felt the same way when I first got here." She brushed
bread crumbs off of her shirt. "Apparently, Nerima is a nexus for strange
things. This whole district was full of a lot of sorcerer wannabes and stuff
like that 'bout forty or fifty years ago."
"So I really shouldn't be surprised?"
"Nope." Ukyo shook her head. "Do what I do, go along with it, it'll save your
sanity. More tea?"
-#-#-
Lee yawned as she exited Uuchans and headed back towards the Tendo dojo. If
she hadn't made a friend today, she at least hadn't made an enemy. Ukyo had
been kind enough to fill in a lot of the gaps. Apparently, the only ones who
really had any kind of claim to Ranma was her and Akane, since they were the
only one who had been formally engaged to him. Shampoo was following her
tribal laws, and Kodachi was just plain nuts.
Of course, Ukyo was probably biased.
For a moment, Lee considered trying to mediate between the four of them and
decided against it. That sort of thing only happened in bad fan fiction.
Give it time, her grandmother had always said. Give love a little time and it
will straighten things out.
Lee yawned again as she paused to look at the setting sun. Well, she did have
a whole year. Plenty of time. Rubbing the back of her neck, she made a face
as she remembered the homework waiting for her back at the Tendos.
"This was your idea Lee m'girl." She said to herself. "The sooner you drag
your ass back, the sooner you'll be done with it." Grimacing, Lee turned and
started back on her way to the dojo when a shadow caught her eye. Turning,
Lee saw a bike coming down at her from the rooftops.
Reflexively, she threw herself out of the way and rolled to her feet as the
bike, an older model hit the street and braked to a stop. The rider was a
cute chinese girl who had two metal poles, each with a heavy steel sphere
attached to the end on her back, sword at her waist, and murder in her purple
eyes.
"And you would be Shampoo?" The chinese girl nodded. "Great. You're the only
one for Ranma, I admit defeat, you win. Excuse me." With that, Lee turned and
began to walk away.
Only to stop short as a sword flashed past her eyes and buried itself almost
up to the hilt in the wooden frame of a doorway.
"Shampoo not believe stupid american girl. Shampoo want proof."
Lee stood there, the sword vibrating slightly.
Exhaustion, aches from the fight with Kodachi, Schoolwork, and too much tea
warred in her head. Shampoo was looking for a fight, Lee didn't want a fight.
Shampoo wouldn't let her go without a fight.
"American girl afraid?"
That tore it. Gritting her teeth, Lee stripped off her jacket and thrust it
at a startled passerby before grabbing a bucket of soapy water and dumping it
over her head.
Then he assumed a fighting stance and crooked his finger. "Let's get this
over with."