Previously on Ranmage:

Saotome Genma has done many things to ensure his legacy is continued.
Once he threw his son into a pit of cats.  Things didn't go as
planned and he got blasted by a fireball.  Several years latter, he
took him to a training ground in China.  Things didn't go as planned
and he got blasted into a spring by a ball of solid air.

Now he's heading to visit his old friend with a plan to secure the
next generation.  There's a pattern here.  You'd think he'd learn...


Silly Disclaimer:


Say what you will about Genma Saotome, there was one thing that could
be held to his credit. He was an excellent teacher of the Art. When he
wasn't doing something extremely stupid, that is.

- Kenko, 'Girl Days #14'


Chapter 1: Here's Ranma (?)


A sudden shower of rain drenched the streets of Nerima.  This was not
unusual.  However, the couple who arrived during it were.  The boy
was about sixteen, dressed in a red-silk shirt and black-silk pants
with his long hair tied back into a pony tail.  His companion was a
giant panda dressed in a white gi many sizes too small (although
where you would find a gi large enough for a panda was not the first
question most observers asked themselves).  Both were carrying
sizeable back-packs.

The sight of a giant panda, walking upright, wearing a gi and
carrying a back-pack distracted most observers from noticing that the
boy's clothes remained bone dry.

The rain clouds were starting to break up as the odd pair arrived
outside the large building.  Ranma read the sign aloud, "'Tendo's
Martial Arts, School of Indiscriminate Grappling.'  Say, I thought we
were the only family that practiced that school."  Then his eyes
dropped to the 'To defeat the owner in savage combat, use the rear
door', sign propped up against the wall.

"So what are we doing here old man?  Have we come to challenge this
Tendo guy for mastery of the school?"  He turned to find his father
doing his newly perfected, I'm-just-an-innocent-panda technique.

Genma was treating his son with extreme caution.  He hadn't done
anything to upset Ranma (recently), and the boy seemed calm enough,
yet Ranma was putting out one heck of a battle aura: the rain was
evaporating about an inch away from Ranma before it struck.

Ranma eyed his father suspiciously.  When Genma tried to look
innocent, it was guaranteed that he was anything but.  "Okay, Pop.
Spill it.  Why are we here?"  Ranma's tone indicated that there had
best be a good explanation.

[Soun is an old friend of mine], the panda-sign(tm) read.  [I just
thought we'd stop by while we're in the area.]

"I ain't buying it pop", Ranma grumbled.  "How come I've never heard
of this friend of yours?  You expect me to believe that you've just
now decided to pay him a visit?"

[Let's talk about it inside], Genma stalled.  If the boy baulked,
Genma wasn't sure if he could make him enter without unsealing the
Saotome Forbidden Techniques - something Genma was reluctant to do
for many reasons.

Two reasons: they were evil techniques and Ranma might manage to
learn them.  The second was probably more important at that moment.

Ranma frowned.  He knew his father was up to something.  Ranma could
also sense that the four people inside the house were arguing and at
least one temper was flaring.  However, Ranma had had no premonition
of danger, and no reason to believe that the hostility would be
directed towards him.

"Okay, but let's wait for the rain to stop so I can change you back.
I don't think this 'friend' of yours will be ready for a panda
barging into his house."

Genma blinked and looked down at himself.  He wouldn't have thought
of that himself, but it was true.  [Good idea!]  He still found it
amazing how easy it was to forget that he'd become a giant panda.



Soun had just finished explaining his happy news to his three
daughters, who didn't quite share his enthusiasm (a point which was
totally lost on him) when a call from the front door caught their
attention.

"We have visitors", Kasumi announced, rising to welcome her guests as
was her duty as the woman of the house.

However, this time her father and Nabiki rushed excitedly ahead of
her with eager cries of "Oooo!  It must be Ranma!" and "Saotome, my
old friend we've been waiting for you!"

Kasumi groomed her hair as she nervously waited to see if her
prospective fiancee was an older man - having already voiced her
opinion of younger men.  Akane remained seated and scowled;
definitely being the least eager about the whole situation.

"Ooooh, he's cute", Nabiki anounced as she half-dragged a confused
Ranma into the room by the arm.  An emotional Soun and Genma
followed, hugging and beating each other over the back.

"Uh, could you let go", Ranma asked Nabiki, made uncomfortable by her
predatory grasp.  He was about to slip free, when Soun pulled him
from his daughter's grasp - and into his own.

"Ranma!  It's so good of you to come at last.  Son, these are my
daughters: Kasumi aged nineteen, Nabiki aged seventeen and Akane aged
sixteen.  Pick the one you want and she's your fiancee."

"Wh...?"  Ranma's stunned gaze turned from Soun, over the girls, and
finally settled upon Genma and turned into a glare.  "FIANCEE!?"

Genma crossed his arms and posed sternly.  "Yes.  When you were born,
Tendo and I agreed that you would marry one of his daughters and
unite our Schools.  It's a matter of family honour."

"This sucks!", Ranma complained; his knuckles turning white as he
faced off against his father.  "Picking a fiancee for me, without
even asking!  When were you planning on telling me?"

"I though now would be a good time", Genma pointed out the obvious.
"Wait!  Where are you going, boy?"

"To find someplace to study my curse", Ranma replied as he stalked
out onto the porch.  "This is no time for 'fiancees'!"

Knowing that if he let Ranma slip away, his retirement plans (ie: to
sponge off of the Tendo's) would follow, Genma desparately lunged at
his son.  "Listen to me boy-"  He was slammed against the wall before
he could close the distance between them.  The strange thing was, it
looked as though Ranma had barely turned, let moved to attack.

"Stuff it, old man", Ranma growled.  "I'm out of here.  Suck on
that!"

Meanwhile, Akane had leapt from relief, that this boy was not going
to force himself on her or her sisters, to indignation that he was
ignoring them.  "Hey!  What makes you think you can just waltz
through our home and leave like that?"

"What do you care?",  Ranma asked, confussed by her reaction.  Being
able to sense emotions did not alway mean he could understand them.
"Do you *want* to marry me?"

"Oh, congradulations, Akane!", Kasumi beamed.  He would be perfect
for her.

"Oh definitely", Nabiki smirked, seeing an opportunity to make her
sister squirm before staking her claim.  "Still, if you don't want
him..."

"Wait a minute", Ranma gulped.  "That's not what I meant!"

"What?" Akane yelled simultaneously.  "Why would I want to marry this
jerk?"

"Hey!  Who are you calling a jerk?"

"Wah!"  Soun cried with joy.  "They're already a perfect couple."

"It's agreed then", Genma said hastily.  "Let's have the wedding
immediately!"

Akane reacted swiftly, by grabbing the table and flattening Genma
beneath it.  That relieved a lot of her tension.

"Now, that he had coming", Ranma observed happily.  He approved of
anyone clobbering his father on general principles.  He also knew
that it wasn't an easy feat.  "Say, you're pretty good."

Akane felt a flush of pleasure at the praise, but her temper wouldn't
be doused so easily.  "Hey!  What did I do?", Ranma demanded as she
turned on him with a glare.

"Why, you, you, you...", Akane trailed off as she tried to think of a
good reason and failed.  "We're not going to get married!", she
asserted.

"You're telling me?", Ranma agreed, then sighed.  Despite his bluff,
he wasn't prepared to just leave his father, so he had to stick
around at least until the old man was able to leave.  And since he
didn't want to have to constantly feel Akane's anger, he decided to
try something new.

"So, you want to be friends?" he asked with a shy smile and a
soothing flow of spirit magic.  His father had often tried to teach
him to use insults to anger an opponant - anger caused mistakes - but
Ranma had quickly found an easier technique using spirit magic.
Akane, however, certainly didn't need to have her temper _fanned_.

All Akane knew was that somehow the boy's smile made her feel calmer.
She rationalised that maybe it was unfair to blame him.  Besides, he
was kind of cute when he smiled.



"Ah!  He's awake!"  Kasumi's gentle voice welcomed Genma back to
painful consciousness.  "Are you okay?"

He pushed himself up and winced as he rubbed his head.  He wondered
if maybe it wasn't too late to shift the engagement to this nice girl
before that violent one drove Ranma off.

"Don't think too badly of Akane", Kasumi urged as though answering
his thoughts.  "She's really a very sweet girl; she's just a violent
maniac."

"Oh, good one, Kasumi", Nabiki muttered sarcastically, "that makes
lots of sense."

"Where's Ranma?" Genma blurted in a panic.  If the boy had made a
break for it while he was out cold - 'no, surely Ranma wouldn't do
that?'

"He and Akane are out in the training hall", Nabiki replied with a
grimace.  "Daddy said we should let them get to know each other."
She consoled herself that Akane alone with a cute boy in the dojo was
likely to lead to said cute boy needing nursing, for one reason or
another.  Now, if she could only stop Kasumi from playing Nightingale
when that time came.



Akane brushed back a lock of her long hair as she glanced shyly at
Ranma.  She didn't know how to treat a boy fr- a boy who just wanted
to be friends.  She decided to go with what she knew: Martial Arts.
"You do karate, don't you?"

"A little", Ranma admitted truthfully.  He was out of practice.

"Then let's have a little match, okay?" Akane suggested.  "Just for
fun."  She was tempted to add 'don't worry, I won't hurt you,' but he
was a boy - a cute one, but still a _boy_.  Some of her familar anger
started to return as she adopted a combat stance.

"Err, okay", Ranma said nervously.  He was torn between his ego's
need to defeat any challenger with casual seeming ease, and a need to
prove to himself that he didn't need to rely on his 'chi techniques'.
The fact that he thought that Akane was a rather cute, if a little
macho, girl decided him.  He didn't want to hurt her, so he'd hit her
instead.

Ranma prepared himself as Akane rushed forward.  Without his usual
cushion of thickened air to block, Ranma felt the full impact of
Akane's blows and made a mental note to practice dodging.  Likewise,
he realised that he'd forgotten how much it hurt to hit someone with
bare fists.  Still, he was able to hold his own and if it hurt, well,
training always did.

As the fight progressed, Ranma found himself struggling as much
against the instinct to reach for the power as he did against Akane.
Because of the way he'd learned, it was always easier for him to draw
power during combat.

Akane, used to ploughing through her opponents, grew frustrated.  She
put an increasing effort into the fight while the *boy* seemed to grow
distracted by something but still held out against her.  Not only
that, he was getting better.  It was like he was learning to
anticipate her moves or something.

'Alright', Akane decided, 'this time for real!'  She invested her
strength into a final attack, which knocked the wind out of Ranma.



Serious Disclaimer:

The characters and situations of "Ranma �" are the creation of
Takahashi Rumiko and is a trademark of Viz Communications.  This fan-
fiction is produced purely for entertainment and should not be
reproduced in any form for profit.  It may be archived or posted on a
free site, so long as this disclaimer is attached.


Graham
gj_kemp@hotmail.com
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