I'm posting this on the FFML for a friend who isn't a member. Comments can be posted on the FFML I'll just forward them to him, but any private comments about this fanfic should be sent to
SSJSeinenTrunks@aol.com
Here's Part 1:
Ranma 1/2: Warrior's Dreams
Chapter 1: Arrival
Concept by Chris Purdy and Phu Lam
Written by Chris Purdy
Ranma 1/2 is property of Rumiko Takahashi
Street Fighter and Darkstalkers are property of Capcom
Note: This part of the story, and all subsequent parts take place during
the original Ranma series, and during Street Fighter Alpha. For the purpose
of the story, the Japanese names for the characters will be used.
********************
Tendo Soun cried with joy as he read the postcard. Since he and
Saotome had been young men, training under Master Happosai, they had agreed to
unite their two schools of Anything-Goes Martial Arts. He read the postcard
once more:
"Tendo,
I'm bringing Ranma to your house
to honor the engagement. We'll
be there in a week."
It seemed strange that Genma hadn't signed the postcard, but Soun
dismissed it as excitement about the impending engagement. He gathered
his daughters in the living room to make the happy announcement. Kasumi was
preparing dinner, Akane was practicing her katas, and Nabiki...he was
afraid to ask, but since she brought in large amounts of money, he kept his
mouth shut.
"Girls, I have an important announcement. We're going to be visited
by my old friend, Genma Saotome and his son Ranma."
Kasumi smiled pleasantly. "Oh, my! Company! I'll have to get the
guest room ready!"
Akane lacked her older sister's extreme optimism, however. "Why are
they coming here?"
Soun re-examined the postcard. It didn't have a return address,
indicating that they weren't staying anywhere. One of the few good things
they had learned from Master Happosai was that one's training goes much
better when he doesn't stay in one place. However, since he had married,
Soun had reluctantly decided to forget about the art. He wondered how
Genma had convinced Nodoka to agree to this. Nodoka was a sweet woman, but
stubborn as a bull. "They've been training all over the world. America,
China, England..."
Nabiki grinned. "Wow, so many amazing places!" Already, her mental
cash registers were revving up. Since Mr. Saotome and his son had been out of
the country for a long time, she could exploit them for a -lot- of money.
Since
they could travel around the world this must mean that they're rich!
Kasumi stopped her preparations long enough to ask, "So, Father, what's
Ranma-kun like?"
"I don't know, I've never met him."
The three girls facefaulted.
********************
Ranma was a bit surprised at Ryu's announcement. They were just up
and leaving their campsite to go to some dojo. He didn't ask why, trusting in
Ryu-san's reasoning, but his curiosity was getting the better of him.
"Why are we going to this Tendo place, Ryu-san?"
Ryu sighed. He had hoped that he wouldn't have to explain about the
arranged marriage to Ranma, who had shown little to no interest in girls
yet. Then again, wandering the world, searching for good fights and strong
warriors didn't lend itself to dating. "This is probably going to bother
you, but you've been engaged to one of the Tendo daughters."
Ranma blinked. "Why would that bother me?"
"Because arranged marriages are rather inconvenient, due to the
fact that neither party knows one another."
Ranma contemplated this bit of information for a second. "What do you
know about the Tendos, anyway?"
"Nothing, I'm afraid. By the way, let's not mention this to the girls.
It'll be better if they don't know."
"Oh well, a true fighter can adapt to any situation!"
As soon as the words had gotten off Ranma's lips, it started raining.
Ryu couldn't help but smile as Ranma, now female, looked up at the black
clouds.
"Can you adapt to that?"
"Funny, it didn't look like rain..."
********************
Everyone was gathered around the table, waiting for the arrival of the
Saotomes. Well, everyone except Akane. She had opted to practice more,
rather than greet the Saotomes personally. The postcard had designated
today as the day of Genma and Ranma's arrival. At that, there was a knock at
the door.
Kasumi stood up, smiling. "I'll get it."
As she opened the door, the Tendos were greeted by the sight of a
young, red-headed girl in Chinese clothing, a white headband, and a black
belt,
standing next to an older man, apparently in his mid-twenties, wearing a
white gi. Soun rushed up to meet the pair. He looked questioningly at
Ryu.
"Are you..."
"Yes, I am."
Soun suddenly grasped the bewildered martial artist in a friendly bear
hug. "It's Ranma-kun! Such a strong young man would make a fine heir to the
Anything-Goes Tendo-ryuu martial arts."
Ryu sweatdropped. "Um, excuse me..."
Soun put Ryu down and got a good look at him, then he shifted his gaze to
Ranma-chan. "Huh? Saotome didn't say he had a daughter too...oh well, the
more the merrier! You can stay here too, dear!"
"Um, excuse me..."
"So, where's your father? I haven't seen him in ages!"
"Um, excuse me..."
Thankfully for the overwhelmed Ryu, Kasumi politely interrupted.
"Father, this isn't Ranma. He's too old."
"Huh?"
Ryu put his hand behind his head and smiled. "Your daughter's right,
sir. I'm not Ranma-kun."
Then, Ranma-chan spoke up. "Actually, -I'm- Ranma.
Soun passed out.
********************
As he recovered, Soun saw Kasumi and Nabiki sitting around the table
with the fake-Ranma and a young man, dressed in the same clothing as the girl.
"Um, who're you?"
Ryu put down his cup of tea and took a deep breath. "Allow me to
explain. Eight years ago, I met the Saotomes while I was studying
Shotokan-ryuu Karate. After hearing about the horrible travesties he had
committed upon his son, I challenged the elder to a fight. After I won, I
took Ranma-kun on as a student and surrogate son, promising to honor the
engagement you and he had."
Soun was very surprised. Travesties? Genma didn't seem to be that
harsh of a father. He had probably just trained Ranma in a manner similar to
what Master Happosai had put them through. "And who's this young fellow?"
"I'm Saotome Ranma. Sorry about this."
"But you were a girl a minute ago."
Ryu took another sip of tea before continuing. "You see..."
********************
-China, one year ago-
The Joketsuzoku tournament had ended, Ranma having crushed all
challengers.It had seemed a little strange that there were only male
competitors, since most of the other tournaments he'd been in were co-ed. He
was about to leave, when a withered old woman, standing on a walking stick,
appeared in front of him. "How about one more fight, young
warrior? My great-granddaughter fancies herself quite the fighter, and wants
to challenge you."
Ranma smiled. "Why not?"
"First, though, let's go somewhere else, where you can have more room to
fight..."
A few minutes later, the group had moved to a large plain, filled with
springs and tall bamboo poles. Ranma's opponent, an attractive girl with
purple had introduced herself as Xian-pu.
********************
"Wait," Nabiki interrupted. "Did you say 'Shampoo'?"
"Actually, Xian-pu. But to an English-speaking person, the pronunciation
is closest to the word 'shampoo'."
"Sheesh. How ridiculous can you get?"
********************
The fight had been a standstill for about five minutes, the two
fighters wearing each other out. Suddenly, with an amazing burst of speed,
Shampoo
kicked Ranma in the jaw, sending him spiraling into one of the nearby
springs. To everyone's surprise, he emerged a second later, albeit
female.
Focusing only on the fight, Ranma failed to notice his (her) change,
lunging at his opponent, assaulting her with a quick flurry of blows. Seeing
Shampoo was stunned, Ranma gathered a fair amount of ki into her cupped palms,
thrusting forward just as her opponent recovered.
"Hado-KEN!"
The powerful blast slammed into Shampoo's gut, rocketing her backwards
into a nearby cliff wall. The nearby spectators gasped in surprise as
Shampoo pulled herself out of the body-shaped crater in the wall and
struggled to her feet.
"Enough, child," the old woman said suddenly. "He's beaten you."
Then, unnoticed by anyone, the old woman winked at Shampoo. Barely standing,
the defeated Amazon walked over to Ranma-chan, grasped the sides of her head,
and planted a deep kiss on the boy-turned-girl's lips.
Ranma-chan balked at her opponent's sudden action. "Um...I...what?"
The withered Amazon spoke up. "You've defeated her, boy. Tribal law
states that she must either marry or kill you."
Ryu, remembering Ranma's impending engagement to the Tendo daughter,
grabbed his student/son by the collar and ran.
********************
"You -ran-?!"
Ryu looked a little embarrassed. "Well, I didn't expect such a law.
Later, it turned out that the tournament was a sham, designed to get a strong
male for Shampoo to marry."
Nabiki muttered, "Talk about underhanded..."
At that moment Akane walked in. "What's all the commotion about?"
She turned and saw Ranma, quietly drinking his tea. "Are you this Ranma?"
He nodded.
Something seems different about this one, Akane thought to herself. He
had an air of calm and serenity, barely masking his fighting spirit.
However, his physical appearance was somewhat wiry and not too muscular. She
could probably take him out in a minute or two.
"Well, if you're a martial artist, how about a sparring match? I hear
that
you've spent a while training."
Ranma quickly shot a questioning look to Ryu, who briefly nodded.
"All right. I take it you don't want me to hold back."
Akane got a little mad. Men! Always thinking she was weak. "Of
course not!"
"Alright..."
With that, the two teens departed for the dojo. Soun noticed the
empty silence and quickly entered into a new topic of discussion. "So, is the
engagement still on?"
Ryu looked up. "Have you decided which daughter it'll be?"
"Yes, it's Akane, the one who just left. She's the only one with any
interest in the art, and she's Ranma-kun's age, too.
"Alright, but let's give her some time to get used to him. If you force
it upon her, she'll just get angry. After they start liking each other,
everything will fall into place."
"SHORYUKEN!"
All eyes turned to the dojo, as Akane's prone body flew through the
thin wall and onto the table, breaking the teacups. Ranma looked through the
new hole in the wall.
"Oops, sorry. She said to go all-out."
********************
Akane woke up on her bed with a bandage on her head. The last thing
she remembered was Ranma launching into a rising uppercut attack that seemed
too cheesy to be for real. However, the attack had left her floored (or
rather, walled). She had a screaming headache and wanted some ice for her
head.
Suddenly, something in her brain clicked. She rushed to her bookshelf,
pulling out an old copy of Karate Monthly Magazine. She flipped through
the pages until she saw the article. It bore a large picture of Ranma's
"father" performing that same uppercut, this time on a massive Thai kickboxer.
However, her interest was the background, where she saw a young boy,
wearing a red Chinese shirt and black pants. Then, she noticed the headline:
"WORLD CHAMPION STREET FIGHTER"
"NO WAY!"
********************
That's Chapter One. In number 2, Ranma goes to school!
The Akane Stormtroopers! Kuno! And more chaos!
SSJSeinenTrunks@aol.com
Completed: 5:46 PM, 4/16/00