[Ranma][Alt][draft] Ranmage.02


Disclaimer:


The characters and situations of "Ranma �" are the creation of
Takahashi Rumiko and is published by 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.


Previously on Ranmage.


Ranma met the Tendos and proposed to Akane - at least, that's what
everyone else seemed to hear.  Genma felt Akane's wrath, and decided
that Kasumi would make a better daughter-in-law after all.  Akane
took the boy out the training hall and proceeded to beat him up.  Why
was Ranma smiling?


Chapter 2: Ranma's Secret.


Ranma couldn't believe that he'd been beaten by a girl; or that he'd
be happy about it.  He was simply pleased that it had been a close
fight - he hadn't needed to use magic to keep up; he just needed a
little more training.  Now that the fight was over though...

"Are you okay?", Akane asked in concern.

"Heh!", Ranma grinned.  "No problem.  Just give me a moment to get my
breath back."  He closed his eyes and reached inside himself with his
talent.  Meditative healing, his father had called it, but Ranma now
knew that he was using earth magic.

"Boy, that was pitiful", Genma announced from the doorway.  "How
could you let yourself be defeated so easily - and by a *girl*.  Oh
the shame!  How humiliating.  My own son."

"Sheesh!  Lighten up pop; we were just sparring."  Then Ranma
snickered.  "Besides, who are *you* to talk?"

Genma winced at the reference, but it only served to increase his
determination.  Having a son who could regularly defeat him with
embarrassing ease was one thing, having a daughter-in-law who could
do so would be intolerable.  "Boy, since you obviously can't get
along with this violent tomboy, perhaps we should shift the
engagement to one of her sisters."

"Hey, who are you calling a 'tomboy'?", Akane demanded angrily.

"Pop, drop the engagement idea already!", Ranma growled beside her.

Genma's eyes darted between the pair of former combatants united
against him.  Observing the build up of Akane's battle aura, and
worse, recognising Ranma's battle stance, Genma backed down, "well,
perhaps you are getting along at that.  The engagement stands."  He
couldn't understand why his placation didn't have the desired effect.

He turned to employ the Saotome Ultimate Technique, but was far too
slow.  Ranma thrust his palm towards his father.  Akane recognised
the move from earlier, but this time she felt something of its
effect; a breeze which swirled around Ranma.  However, Genma
experienced the full force of Ranma's attack in the form of an almost
solid blast of wind.

Any questions Akane might have asked about the technique were knocked
out of her mind by the sight of what happened next; there was a fish
pond in the yard and naturally that was where Genma landed.

"H-...he's a ... panda?", Akane sputtered and demanded to know
"what's going on?"

"So much for keeping it a secret,"  Ranma sighed.  "Oh well, you were
bound to find out sooner or later.  May as well just get it over with
now.  Let's go inside so I can tell everybody at once."



"What's this about?"  Nabiki demanded suspiciously.

"Daddy", Kasumi asked nervously, "is this panda really your friend?"
She wasn't even comfortable when challengers showing up with trained
animals, and that sort of thing happened all the time.  This was
something else entirely.  "Why are you friends with him?"

"He... wasn't like this before", Soun defended himself.

Akane simply demanded an explanation from Ranma with a glare.

"This is my father, Genma Saotome", Ranma said.  "Two weeks ago we
travelled to a training ground in China called Jusenkyo; the
'legendary training ground of the cursed springs.'  Pop, ah, 'fell'
into the spring of the drowned panda.  Now he becomes a panda when
splash with cold water and regains human form when doused with hot
water."  Ranma demonstrated with the aid of a steaming kettle.

"Yeowch!", Genma yelled.  "Not so *hot*, boy!"

"...but only until next time", Ranma continued and employed the other
half of his demonstration - a bucket of cold water.

"So", Soun bemoaned, "the legendary ground of the cursed springs.
It's true horror has always been shrouded in mystery, but now..."

"Feh", Ranma sighed.  "You have no idea of the 'true horror'."

"Ranma", Akane asked quietly, "do you...?"

"Yeah", he nodded sadly.  "It's rather embarassing."  Ranma rubbed
the back of his head nervously as he braced himself to demonstrate.
His father took advantage of the moment to toss him at the pond.

"Hey!"  Ranma yelled as he touched down momentarily with his hands,
pushed himself back into the air, somersaulted and landed on the far
side of the pond.  "What the heck do you think you're doing old man?"

"How did he...?", Akane asked, not quite believing what she'd just
seen; even after witnessing Genma's transformation.  "That's
impossible."

"For a true master of martial arts", Soun disagreed sagely, "it's
possible to find a fast hold on even a single twig floating on the
water."

"But Ranma's *not* a master!", Akane protested; although she recalled
the strange technique he'd twice used on his father, he couldn't be
*that* good.

'Opps!', Ranma thought fast.  "What're you talking 'bout?  I didn't
even touch the water."  It was technically true; he'd sprung off of a
layer of hardened air just above the surface.  "If I had, this would
have happened."  Grimacing against the necessity, Ranma splashed
himself.

The curse, which was normally barely perceptable, flared into
activity.  The transformation itself was oddly comfortable; Genma
hardly ever seemed to even notice his changes.  However, to Ranma's
magical sensitivity, activating it was like setting off fireworks
inside his head.  Well, maybe not quite as painful, but just as
disorientating.

"Now he's a girl!", Kasumi exclaimed in shock.

"Mm?" Nabiki agreed at a loss for words.

"Oh what a tragedy!", Soun wailed.

Akane turned on Genma.  "What was the idea of taking him to a place
like that?"

"What ever made you do something so dangerous?", Kasumi growled at
the panda.  "You just went too far, Mr. Saotome."

"Yeah", Nabiki observed wryly.  "Even for martial arts training."

Genma felt betrayed.  How could those sweet girls turn on him like
that?  They made it sound like it was all his fault.  Well, he had
his defense ready.

"It's a Chinese guide book," Kasumi exclaimed.

"Hmm... 'Training grounds only a total idiot would use'", Nabiki
read.

"Since when could you read Chinese?", Kasumi asked.

"I can't, of course", Nabiki replied.  "However, there's a Japanese
translation at the back."

[There is!?] Genma signed in startlement.

"No wonder", Kasumi nodded in sudden understanding and turned to
Genma, grasping his fur.  "You *are* an idiot, aren't you?"

"Correct", Ranma cried as he affectionately pummelled his father on
the head.

"We'll it's not so terrible is it?"  Akane asked sweetly.  "I mean,
if we just pour hot water on you, you'll turn back, right?"

"You're right!"  Soun exclaimed happily.  "No sweat, son!  You're
problem isn't so bad after all.  You can still marry Akane!"

"Daddy!", the offended girl wailed.

"What-ever", Ranma rolled his eyes reached for the missing kettle.
"Hey!  Don't hog the hot water, old man!"

"You sound like a woman!", Genma complained.  "Stop whining.  It's
not like you need it, after all."

"You jerk!" Akane pounded Genma unconcious with the table once again.
"That's just mean!  Honestly!  Some people."

Ranma just stared, not used to having someone stand up for him, even
if it wasn't exactly necessary.

"Ranma, why don't you just take a bath", Kasumi suggested.  "Besides,
you must be all sweaty from your work out."



Ranma soaked in the steaming furo and thought over his dilema.

Engagement or not, it looked like he was going to be staying at the
Tendo's for a while.  He wasn't quite ready to abandon his father,
and Genma was too hefty for Ranma to carry him and their equipment
over any distance even using air magic.

The Tendos were bound to ask about his supposed chi techniques sooner
or later.  He'd already carelessly reacted to his father from reflex
and used them in front of Akane several times.  Besides, it was
unlikely that he could stop his father from bragging to his old
friend about how well his 'training' had turned out.

'What am I going to tell them?' he wondered.  Should he continue the
lie now that he knew the truth, or admit that he used magic?  'What
to do?'

Ranma reluctantly pulled himself out of the warm water.  With a touch
of water magic, the water simply flowed off of his skin leaving it
dry.  At least there were uses for his talents besides martial arts -
things he hadn't thought of doing until Jusenkyo.

Tying his hair back with his ribbon, he stepped into the changing
room, slipped into his clothes then walked towards the spare room
Kasumi had said he would share with his father.

"Ranma, wait up!" Akane called as he passed, a touch of anger heating
her voice.

Turning towards the angry girl's room, Ranma cooled her emotions with
a touch of spirit magic and a smile.  He almost always used a word or
gesture to help focus his mind when casting magic, and for his newest
'technique' a smile seemed to suffice.  "Sure, Akane.  What's up?"

'He sure is cute when he does that,' Akane thought as once again her
anger simply evaporated at the sight of Ranma's smile.  She almost
forgot the reason she had been upset in the first place - "Oh, right.
Why were you holding back during our match?"

Ranma sighed.  "Believe me, I wasn't holding back."

"Liar," she accused.  "Your father says that you hold back a lot when
fighting a girl, and I saw the move you used on him.  Couldn't you
take me seriously?  I'm a martial artist too you know."

'Great.  Pop's been talking already.'  Ranma rubbed the back of his
head.  "Oh that.  Yeah, I know a few special techniques that give me
an edge, but we were just sparing for fun weren't we?"

"I guess so," Akane admitted.  "So, what was that move, anyway?  Your
father just kept babbling about chi and air pressure."

"Heh, heh.  Yeah, well it's, like, er, a secret technique."  'Yeah,
that's it; she'll buy that.'  "So, ya see, I can't tell ya, can I?
It's a special move of the Saotome Family School.  Sorry 'bout that."
He backed away before she could ask more questions.

'Alright,' she thought as she watched him disappear into his room.
'secret techniques!'  Akane's interest was sparked.  If there was one
thing Akane was interested in, it was martial arts.  She was able to
beat Ranma in a straight fight, so she figured she could learn his
techniques, if she could only figure a way to get him to teach her
his family secret...

She narrowed her eyes as a thought occured to her, and discarded it.
She wasn't about to marry into the family just to learn a few moves.

Still, he was a nice enough boy, not like those jerks at school, and
he did have a really cute smile.  Akane really liked his smile, it
made her feel warm and fuzzy.  She could get addicted to a smile like
that.


Coming soon, Ranmage 3: Blue Thunder


C&C welcomed.
Thanks to all who've responded so far.

Graham KEMP
gj_kemp@hotmail.com
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