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    Ranma sighed, sliding the door of the dojo open.  She really didn't want 
to be around when her father told Mr. Tendo about Jusenkyo.  That would 
involve a demonstration of the curses, and Ranma liked her cursed form better 
than her normal one.  Not that she liked either; it was just a matter of 
being human to the alternative.
    Stepping inside, Ranma immediately noticed the figure curled up and 
crying in a corner of the dojo.  It's back was turned to her, displaying a 
wild river of ebony hair, and huddled inside of a pale yellow blanket.  The 
figure's sobs were soft, but it hurt Ranma in a place that she wasn't too 
experienced in handling- her sympathy.  Quietly, she walked over to the 
figure and tentatively touched the side of its head.  It swiveled, revealing 
a distinctly feminine face, streaked with tears.
    "Hey," Ranma said softly.  "What's the matter?  Whatever it is, I can 
promise you that I prolly got it worse off," she continued, in an effort to 
cheer up the girl.  For some reason, as Ranma spoke, the girl hugged her 
blanket to herself more tightly.
    "Who are you?" the girl asked, distrustful.
    "Me?  I'm Ranma Saotome, of the Saotome school of Anything Goes Martial 
Arts.  Who're you?" Ranma answered.
    "I'm Akane Ten... Just Akane," the girl replied.  "I used to be a martial 
artist, but I had to give it up."
    "Give up martial arts?" Ranma asked incredulously.  "Why would you give 
up martial arts?"  Akane visibly braced herself before replying.
    "I was Changed during the Apocalypse," she said, looking away.
    "What do you mean?" Ranma asked.
    "I was Changed.  I'm too strong now; I might hurt someone," Akane said, 
her voice trembling.
    "Changed?  Apocalypse?  What are you talking about?" Ranma asked, 
bewildered.  Exasperated, Akane stood up, faced her, and threw off the 
blanket, revealing her body.  It gleamed in the faint afternoon light that 
shone through the dojo doorway.  Seeing it, Ranma gasped in surprise.
    "Now do you understand?" Akane asked, her voice thick.  This was how 
things always were; as soon as someone saw her, they hated her for what she 
represented.  Trying to keep from crying, Akane spun away.  Another potential 
friend lost.  A moment of silence passed as Akane stared at the corner, 
fighting to repress her tears.
    "Have you ever been to a place called Jusenkyo?" Ranma suddenly asked.
    "Jusenkyo?" Akane asked, surprised.  "Training ground of accursed 
springs?  No, but my fath... Mr. Tendo's mentioned it before.  Why?"
    "Then it wasn't the springs," she heard Ranma whisper to herself.  More 
loudly, she asked, "How'd you get to look like you do?
    "I told you already," Akane said, a hint of her old temper beginning to 
show.  "The Apocalypse.  Where have you been the last few weeks?"
    "Training in China," Ranma answered flatly.  "Don't get a lot of news out 
there.  Ya get even less when you're running for your life."
    "Oh," Akane said, slightly chagrined.
    "What happened?" Ranma asked, motioning for Akane to sit.  She complied, 
and Ranma followed suit.
    "It happened almost two weeks ago, now.  About one in the afternoon.  I 
was giving a speech for a school tournament.  I was doing really well, too.  
Then, all of a sudden, I start to feel funny," Akane said.
    "Kinda like something in your stomach was tryin to get out?" Ranma asked.
    "Yeah.  Why do you ask?" Akane replied.
    "I'll explain later," Ranma reassured her.
    "Oh well.  In any case, I just kept going.  This jerk had just given a 
speech that said that anyone who wanted to date me had to beat me.  I figured 
that if I won, nobody'd pay attention to him.  Well, it just kept getting 
worse, until it hurt so bad that I collapsed.  Next thing I know, I'm in this 
body, and it's a good hour later," Akane told her.  "The Apocalypse had a lot 
of other effects too.  A lot of buildings collapsed, and lots of people died."
    "How many?" Ranma asked.
    "I don't know.  They're still counting bodies.  Last I heard, though, 
they'd reached the two billion mark," Akane said.
    "By all the Gods," Ranma breathed.
    "Yeah," Akane agreed.  The two sat together quietly for a few minutes, 
thinking.  "So," Akane finally said, "Why did you ask that question?"
    "Huh?" Ranma returned.
    "You know, the one where I asked you why you wanted to know how I felt 
during the Change and you said that you'd explain later," Akane explained.  
"Well, it's later."
    "I guess so," Ranma agreed.  "Well, I guess that I was sparring with my 
Pop at Jusenkyo when the Apocalypse happened.  Hmm... two weeks ago... yeah, 
that'd be just about right.  In any case, I ended up in a spring, and my 
normal form got messed up.  In any case, I just stay in my cursed form as 
much as I can these days.  It's a damn sight easier than you'd think," Ranma 
told her.
    "Curse?" Akane asked.  "You mean that magic really exists?"
    "Oh, yeah.  I still gotta explain Jusenkyo to you," Ranma remembered.  
"Okay, it's this training field with about a hundred or so springs in it and 
a bunch of bamboo poles sticking straight out of each of the springs.  You 
fight by hopping from one pole to another, and hitting the other guy in 
midair.  If ya get knocked into a spring, you get stuck with the body of 
whatever last drowned there.  Hot water turns you back to your normal body, 
but cold water activates the curse."
    "What spring did you fall in?" Akane asked.
    "Drowned Girl," Ranma said bluntly.
    "Then..." Akane mused.
    "Yep, this is my cursed form," Ranma confirmed her unasked question.  "My 
normal form got...  uhh... what did you call it?"
    "Changed?" Akane supplied hopefully.  <Maybe she'll understand,> she 
thought hopefully.
    "Yeah, that's it," Ranma confirmed.  "Anyway, I change back to normal 
with warm water.  Well, if you can call having a big, blue hunk of metal for 
a body normal..."  This comment caused Akane to smile in a mixture of 
sympathy and amusement.
    "Can..." she started.  A part of Akane berated herself for believing 
Ranma's crazy story.  "Can you show it to me?" she finally asked, blushing.  
She looked down at her lap, somewhat embarrassed, but not quite sure why.
    "Sure," Ranma agreed after a minute.  "Lemme go get some hot water," she 
said, then left the dojo.  Akane waited alone for a few minutes, wondering if 
Ranma would come back, if the girl had just pulled her leg as a sick joke, if 
maybe, just maybe, she'd get a friend that would actually understand what the 
Change had done to her.  All in all, she worried.  Finally, Ranma reentered 
the dojo, carrying a steaming teakettle and a glass of ice water.
    "Sorry," she explained, "Your sister had this on the stove, so I had ta 
put a new one on before I left."
    "It's okay," Akane said.  "I'm sure that Kasumi won't mind.  Now show me 
your other form," she commanded.  Suddenly, she noticed that Ranma had 
figured out that she was Kasumi's sister, and therefore Soun's daughter.  She 
hadn't said anything too obvious to clue her in; Akane's estimation of the 
girl went up a notch.  Akane's musing, though, was immediately halted when 
Ranma began to disrobe.  "Umm... Ranma?  What are you doing?" she asked.
    "I gotta strip if I wanna change," Ranma explained, tossing her red silk 
shirt to the floor of the dojo.  "I get a lot bigger; my clothes'll rip if 
I'm not careful."
    "Oh," Akane said quietly.  Ranma released the tie on her black worker's 
pants, and tossed them with her shirt.  Clad only in boxers, Akane could see 
that Ranma was blushing from head to toe.  Literally. She wondered why; they 
were both girls, weren't they?  Her mental question went unanswered as Ranma 
upended the teakettle over her head.
    The most immediately noticeable thing about the change was the color 
blue.  There was lots of it.  In fact, the only parts of her (<Doesn't look 
like a her to me anymore,> Akane noted) that weren't one shade of blue or 
another were her hands, her face, and a gem that was set into her helmet.  
Further observation revealed a distinct lack of anything that might pass as 
breasts, and a distinctly more masculine facial structure.
    "You were a guy, weren't you?" Akane asked.
    "Before Jusenkyo?  Yeah," Ranma confirmed.  Her suspicions confirmed, 
Akane continued to examine Ranma's other body, mentally comparing it to her 
own.
    As for overall construction, where Akane represented a earthy, fiery 
element wither her bodily decoration, wildly long hair, and machined edges, 
Ranma was definitely trended towards water and/or air.  Though his boots were 
essentially the same as her own, Akane noticed that the lines were somewhat 
less pronounced, more rounded, and without decoration.  The only exceptions 
were twin metal discs on each of his legs.  His upper legs were done in the 
exact same fashion as her own, save that his were dark blue, rather than 
black.  His pelvic guard was rounded on all sides, and without vents.  In 
other words, it was so featureless that the eye tended to gloss over it as it 
traveled the body.  His abdomen was seemingly bare, blue skin, even showing a 
'six-pack' of abs that were most likely his internal micro fusion generator.  
Ranma's upper torso was armored with a sleek blue breastplate, with a thick 
band of light blue metal that started where each of his nipples might have 
been had he been human and wrapped around his back.  Looking carefully, Akane 
noted that each had a line near the arm area, as if they could be removed.
    His arms themselves were much like the rest of him: unremarkable.  His 
upper arms were the same dark blue as his abs and upper legs, and his lower 
arms were simply egg-shaped constructs, sheared off at one end for his arm 
and at the other for his hand.  His hands were stark white, just like hers.  
His face was hard, chiseled out of alabaster, but with a seeming mobility of 
emotion that belied this.  His helmet was blue, and came from his brow to 
cover his ears and the back of his head.  There was a lighter blue raising 
along the middle of it, and a large, beautiful ruby.  The gem was 
incorporated into the helmet so as to seem to be the logical conclusion of 
the raised area of the helmet.  A few small circles were etched into his 
helmet, but they didn't seem to be important.
    "I aint as impressive as you," he conceded, "but it's what I'm stuck 
with."
    "Looks aren't as important as function," Akane countered.
    "I guess so," Ranma agreed, his hand rubbing the backside of his helmet.
    "Hey," Akane said, remembering something.  "Do you do martial arts?"
    "Yeah.  'S why my Pop took me on the training trip," Ranma replied.
    "You want to have a little match?  I can't fight normal people, but I 
think that we should be pretty safe from one another like this," Akane 
proposed.  Ranma, hearing this, smiled.
    "That'd be great," he agreed.  "I'm ready when you are."
    "Then... let's go!" Akane cried, rushing at the blue robot.  Her first 
attack, a straightforward punch meant to test his defenses, never connected.  
Ducking agilely, Ranma spun away from the fist and its thrower.  Undaunted, 
Akane lashed out with her heavy leg, and nicked him on the shoulder.  A sharp 
rapport rang out, and Ranma faded backwards, avoiding Akane's follow-up kick.
    "You're pretty good," he said.
    "I got a lot better from the Change," she admitted, charging forward once 
again.  This time, instead of dodging, Ranma blocked her attacks and even 
launched a few of his own.  "You're pretty good yourself," she added after a 
few seconds of close combat with him.  The sound of metal crashing against 
metal rang through the dojo as the two combatants hammered at each other's 
defenses.  This went on for a short while, Akane enjoying the first true test 
of her martial skills in two weeks, and Ranma just plain enjoying the fight.

*   *   *   *   *   *

    Nabiki drummed her fingers, still waiting for Ranma to reenter the house. 
 Kasumi was off in the kitchen, getting beer for her father and some old 
friend of his that had suddenly popped up.  She didn't know the visitor, and 
wouldn't have cared if she did.  Idly, she noted the sound of clashing metal, 
but dismissed it as the sound of her sister getting ready for dinner.  
Daddy's guest, who was currently playing shogi with him, seemed considerably 
more alarmed at the sound.
    "Tendo," he asked after a short pause, "did you hear that?"
    "It's just Kasumi making dinner," Nabiki's father replied, moving a shogi 
piece.  "Don't worry about it.  Now, what was this problem with Ranma, aside 
from the fact that your 'son' turned out to be a girl?"  Nabiki took a sudden 
interest in the conversation- she could smell when something sensitive was 
about to be discussed, and her father's friend was displaying all the signs.
    "Well, Tendo, it all starts at Jusenkyo," he began.  Suddenly, the sound 
of metal clashing against metal rang out again, and the overweight man went 
silent.  It was soon followed by more sounds of a similar nature.  "Soun, I 
certainly hope that that is not your eldest daughter," he said quietly.  
Nabiki herself was beginning to wonder.  Especially so once she determined 
that the sounds were coming from the direction of the dojo.  Nodding to 
herself, she quietly got up and padded out of the room.  Silently, her father 
and his friend followed.  Kasumi, carrying a tray laden with to great mugs of 
beer, saw them leaving and decided to follow them.
    As she approached the dojo, Nabiki noted that the noise level was 
growing, as was the frequency.  Worried, she jogged the rest of the way to 
the dojo and slid the door open.  Inside, she was Akane facing off against a 
blue robot, who was obviously giving her a run for her money.
    "Akane!" she cried, worried for her sister.

*   *   *   *   *   *

    Akane was giving her all to her opponent.  Her speed augmented from the 
Change, she found that she could just barely keep up with Ranma, and she had 
greater strength, reach, and toughness than he could ever hope to.  All in 
all, she was able to hit him sometimes, and those blows were telling on him, 
but his little bee-sting hammering was finally beginning to wear on her too.
    Suddenly, she heard Nabiki call, "Akane" from the doorway of the dojo.  
Instinctually, she looked to her older sister.  Nabiki's face was a mix of 
respect, worry, and just a hint of fear.
    Akane cursed mentally as Ranma cried, "An opening!"  Helpless, she felt a 
heavy fist strike her in the gut, a heavy hit on one of the few areas in her 
armor which she had minimal protection.  Suddenly, his hand disappeared, and 
Akane found herself knowing what would come next.  Time seemed to crawl as 
she spun her head back to face Ranma, even as the whine of his plasma cannon 
built.  Just as she was able to come face-to-face with her attacker, his 
cannon fired a blast of plasma carefully calculated to end the fight without 
seriously hurting Akane.  Ranma's triumph was written clearly on his face.
    Propelled backwards by the blast, Akane grabbed frantically around, and 
latched onto Ranma's arm.  Her momentum was enough that Ranma was brought 
along for the ride as she flew backwards.  Holding his arm tightly with both 
hands, Akane pieced together a hasty, all-or-nothing plan.  As her back 
impacted the dojo floor, she allowed herself to skid, instead bunching her 
legs between herself and Ranma.  He immediately knew that she planned a 
counterattack, and squirmed wildly, trying to escape.  Unfortunately for him, 
he hadn't touched down yet, and had no leverage.
    Knowing that she was out of time, Akane shoved upwards and outwards with 
her legs, catching Ranma right in the chest.  The force of her kick propelled 
him upwards, and would easily be enough to send him across the dojo.  
However, this was not Akane's plan.  Just as Akane's legs reached the 
farthest point that she could extend them to, she fired her built-in dash 
jets.  Twin gouts of blue flame flared out, striking with more force than 
heat.  The additional jolt of propellant jerked her legs back up to her chest 
and sent Ranma through the opposite wall of the dojo.  He flew for some time, 
as Akane elated in her victory.  Suddenly, she realized where he was going to 
land.
    "Ranma!" she shouted.  "The koi pond!"  However, it was far too late for 
Ranma to adjust his flight path.  He splashed into the pond with a loud 
*whoosh*, and all was silent for a split second, as the water sloshed in the 
pond.  Then, a redheaded girl burst from the water.  Kasumi, Soun, Nabiki, 
and Soun's friend stood around the pond, only Soun's friend looking 
unsurprised.
    "Umm... hehe...," Ranma-chan stuttered, grabbing her pigtail.  Akane 
suddenly realized what Ranma had been doing earlier when he'd grabbed the 
back of his helmet..  "Sorry 'bout all this."

***Author's Notes***

    Well, this is the first chapter in my first (and prolly only) entry to A 
Second Bet.  Yes, Ranma's gotten X's body and Akane has Zero's, in case my 
descriptions weren't enough.  I plan to take this in stride with the manga 
for a little while, then to diverge, due to *ahem* other causes.  You'll find 
them out sooner or later.  In any case, send me as much C&C as you can, cuz I 
really loooooove getting mail!  Well, I'll try to have the next chapter out 
sometime soon, but no promises.  I don't write very fast, usually.


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