Well, people asked me to continue this, so here you go.
By the way, I could still use one or two more prereaders for future
chapters.
Two figures walked along a dusty path in the backcountry of
China. This was not in of itself unusual, as the dusty path had been
formed by centuries of similar figures walking along it. The path was
not terribly unusual either, its main importance lying only in its
destination -- Jusenkyou, the Valley of Sorrows.
Around a bend ahead of the travelers, something happened which
definitely was unusual. The air in a certain spot seemed to shimmer for
a bit and the landscape past that spot was subtly different once the
shimmer had faded. By the time the figures rounded the bend, however,
only an experienced eye could have told that something had
happened. The man and the boy walked past the spot. Shortly after, the
shimmer reappeared. When it had again died down, the two travelers
were no longer visible.
------------------------------------------
There is another dusty path in the same area. This path leads from --
or to, depending on your orientation -- Jusenkyou, heading directly
(in this case) towards Joketsuzoku. Along this path, a shimmer
appeared. Shortly after the shimmer faded, two travelers walked
around a bend. After they passed the place where the shimmer had
occurred, the shimmer came back, restoring the world to the way it was
before.
Ranma trudged along the road, berating her father for his
stupidity. Getting him turned into a girl was bad enough, but turned
into a specific girl? Ranma hoped that she'd never meet the "donor" of
her current body and continued to rail at her father. Genma could only
hold up signs, which Ranma showed no intent of reading, so he had no
way to insult Ranma for his inability to suffer "for the Art". "And
why'd that lousy guide refuse to take us all the way? He knows this
area, we don't. It's his job, inn't it?" As the day wore on, Ranma and
her sometime father made their way towards the first of many tight
spots caused (however indirectly) by the Valley of Sorrows.
------------------------------------------
The Tendo family sat in the living room. Akane focused on working up a
good rage. How DARE her father engage her to some boy that even HE had
never met? She heard a voice yelling at the door. It sounded strangely
familiar, but she couldn't place it. Nabiki jumped up, saying, "That
must be Ranma!" She and Daddy went to the door, only to stagger back
in surprise as a panda walked into the room. The panda removed the
form that was hanging over its shoulder. Everyone stared at the
VERY familiar-looking red-and-black clad person.
"You wouldn't be..." Daddy trailed off, apparently already shocked
halfway out of his mind. The girl brushed the back of her short hair
in a nervous motion and replied, "I'm Ranma Saotome. Sorry about
this."
Akane recovered from her shock. "If you're Ranma, why are you a girl?
And why do you look like me?" Her life was already weird enough (What
normal girl got the kind of workout she did each schoolday?) without
a _female_ fiance.
Ranma shrugged. "It's a long story."
Nabiki's eyes positively gleamed. "We have time. Please, have a seat."
Akane wasn't sure if she liked the predatory glint in her eye, but
there wasn't much she could do.
Ranma sighed and sat down. "Stay here, Pops. You'll have some
explaining of your own to do, I think," she said to the panda. Then,
facing the Tendo family, she began her story. "A while ago, Pops
decided to go to China. One of the many attractions was a place called
Jusenkyo."
--------------------
Double the Fun: Chapter 1
A Game of Twins
Ranma is the property of the collective unconsciousness or of
Takahashi Rumiko, depending on whose theory you believe. In either
case, I lay no claim to the characters and situations which I am
using, nor do I lay any claim to sanity.
My thanks go out to Gary Kleppe for prereading this. It'd be much
worse without his gracious assistance.
--------------------
"So the guide finally caught up to us. As I climbed out of the pool,
he asked us why we'd come back and why I'd jump in the Akaneichuan,
which is a weird Chinese word that means Spring of Drowned Akane. He
didn't make much sense. After all, we'd never been there before, and I
didn't jump in the Akaneichuan. I _fell_ in. After a while, we managed
to convince him to make some sense, and he sent us off towards some
village in search of a cure for this." Ranma pointed at her body. "Hot
water reverses it, but only until I get hit by cold water, and I
wanted something a little more long-lasting. We didn't find anything
at the village, but that's another story. Anyway, the reason I'm a
girl right now is because of the rainstorm, and can I have some hot
water now?"
Kasumi, ever helpful, went off to the kitchen in search of a kettle,
while her family members tried to absorb the tale they'd just
heard. "Akaneichuan? Spring of Drowned Akane? You haven't died and
forgotten to tell us, Akane?" Nabiki directed this question at her
sister in a somewhat sarcastic tone of voice.
"Not to my knowledge. I haven't been to China, either." Akane's head
spun. The idea of a perfect stranger looking exactly like her was hard
enough to believe. To be told that her new identical twin was actually
a guy was insane.
Ranma jerked her head up at this. "Akane? Your name is Akane? That,
combined with your appearance, means that you drowned at Jusenkyou,
but you say you've never been there. Damn, this is confusing."
"You're telling me? A complete stranger who happens to be engaged to
one of us comes out of nowhere with a curse that turns him into ME?
What do you think I feel about this?"
"Engaged? Oh yeah, that. I forgot about that. Sorry." Ranma's face
brightened as Kasumi returned with the kettle. Ranma poured water over
her head. The others watched, fascinated, as Ranma's body changed shape.
Daddy's face brightened. "Well, then, your problem isn't so bad after
all!"
Ranma stared at him as if he'd gone crazy. "Whaddya mean, not so
terrible? I'm cursed to turn into your daughter's twin!"
"Well, we'll worry about that later, Ranma." Daddy steered him around
to face the girls. My daughter Kasumi, nineteen - and Nabiki,
seventeen - and Akane, sixteen. Pick the one you want, and she'll be
your fiancee."
"Akane seems like the wisest choice," Kasumi remarked. "That's right,"
Nabiki concurred. "After all, I can't marry someone who looks like my
own sister half the time."
Akane's mouth opened and closed several times before she managed to
say something. "What? And it's any better for me?"
Kasumi smiled gently. "You'll look so cute together when Ranma's a
girl. Haven't you ever wanted to be a twin?"
"Not really!" Akane began to wonder if Kasumi had medical reasons for
visiting Doctor Tofu. She recalled seeing at least one book of shiatsu
treatments for mental delusions at his office...
"Oh, but think about it, Akane. Since he's you so much of the time,
he'll be easy to get along with. Maybe he'll even get Kuno off your
back." Nabiki spoke with the unconcerned air of someone who knew that
she'd already won. "And heck, maybe he'll even help pay for your
clothes, since he can get use out of them too."
"I did NOT need to hear that, Nabiki." Unfortunatly, Akane couldn't
see any way out of it. She doubted that Nabiki would get her out of
THIS jam for anything approaching what she was willing to pay. "Fine,
I'll go along with it for now." Akane turned back to Ranma. "So,
you're a martial artist? How good are you?"
Ranma smirked. "Better than you, that's for sure." He didn't notice
the pained look on his father's face, but he'd probably have had
trouble interpreting panda facial expressions anyway. Fortunatly for
him, he had a few seconds to interpret the writing on said panda's
sign before it smashed into his face. "Watch your mouth, boy," it read
in Genma's trademark scrawl.
"You're the LAST person on earth that I'd take that from! Well, then,
let's even the odds." Akane jumped up and headed for the kitchen. She
returned with a glass of water. Ranma backed away, but she managed to
splash him with it anyway. "There! Now, it's just your skills against
mine." She led Ranma out to the dojo.
------------------------------------------
"Whew!" Akane commented to nobody in particular as she and Ranma sank
to the ground outside the dojo. Automatically, her mind went back to
their sparring. Despite their now-equal physical abilities, her fiance
had managed to dodge all her blows, while landing a few of her own in
carefully chosen places. "How'd you learn to fight like that, anyway?
You were going easy on me, I know it."
Ranma shrugged. "I _have_ been training with Pops for ten years, ya
know. We went all over Japan, learning from the best." She looked over
at her double. "Which explains why I held back. I know what this body
can take, after all. Besides, Pops has always said that it ain't right
for me to hit a girl."
Akane frowned. "And has he always been right?" She KNEW she had Ranma
there, after the story Ranma had told about their "training" at
Jusenkyou.
"Well, no, but I'd kinda feel uneasy about hitting you, even without
his lectures on what it is to be a 'True Martial Artist'. I really
don't like hurting anyone who doesn't deserve it, especially pretty
girls."
Akane looked at Ranma with surprise. "You--- you think I'm pretty?"
"What, you think I'm gonna insult your body while I'm wearing it?"
Ranma matched Akane's look.
"Oh, so you WOULD insult my body if you were a guy right now, is
that it? You won't hurt me physically, even in sparring, but it's
perfectly fine to hurt my emotions?" Akane's fury was echoed on her
face and in her crackling battle aura. "Make up your mind, Ranma!" She
lunged at her twin, who rapidly cartwheeled out of the way.
"Ranma, I've got the bath all ready for--" Kasumi stopped short as she
saw what was going on in the yard.
"Um, Akane? Please stop that, you're setting the grass on fire." Ranma
stood a short distance away, looking as unconcerned as possible under
the circumstances.
"Huh?" Akane's anger melted away as she noticed smoldering grass by
her feet. "I did that?"
"Yeah, your battle aura was getting pretty hot." Ranma noticed that
Akane didn't seem to understand what she was talking about. "In fact,
I'm amazed that you were able to make one; I've only seen it done a
few times. Musta been because you were so angry at me, I bet. We'll
have to work on controlling that; can't have you burning down the
house whenever you get angry." She grinned at Akane, who, only
somewhat pacified, looked daggers back at her.
"I have a better solution. You stop using my body and being a jerk and
we won't have a problem, will we?"
"Well, any time you find a cure for a Jusenkyou curse, let me know,
okay? I'm gonna go have that bath now." Ranma walked into the house,
leaving Akane's mind awhirl.