[FFML] [Ranma/OMG]A New Life

Nabiki didn't know for certain what had brought her
into the dank looking shop. This sort of place was
usually the meat and drink of Gosunkugi or the Kunos.
It was a bleak looking, shadowed, dirty little antique
store. She crinkled her nose in distaste and turned
to leave. She allotted herself only a small allowance
of what she made, and that went to her mangas.
She would have continued walking if she hadn't
recognized the word Jusenkyo on one display. Nabiki
paused and continued the wedding she had just recently
helped to trash.
Certain sisters and
might-as-well-be-brothers-marriage-or-not had been
more than a little upset at that. It wasn't like she
had intended for the last barrel of Jusenkyo water on
the planet to be drunk by a passing old pervert. She
just hadn't wanted to see them pushed to early into a
marriage that would have been doomed to fail.
She glanced over the items to see if there was
anything that could possible be used to make up for
that last, inexcusable, lapse of planning on her part.
She might find Ranma's girl form to be entertaining
and profitable, but she had never intended to destroy
his hopes for a cure. In reality, she hadn't, but she
couldn't seem to shake the image that she had called
everybody to the wedding.
"Waterproof soap," she said under her breath.
"Nope, Instant Nannichuan, nada, Map to the Japanese
Nannichuan, nix, map to the Kaisufuu, nil, map to the
Chuisiton, bad idea...."
"Perhaps the lady is seeking a cure for a Jusenkyo
curse?" an skinny old man near to her said. She
blinked and glanced toward the man, wondering when he
had gotten there.
"Perhaps," Nabiki said. "What do you have to offer
besides the normal bilk stuff?"
"Well," he said. "I see you have some experience
with Jusenkyo brand products."
"Some," she said.
"I think I might have something that would interest
you," he said, gesturing for her to follow him.
Nabiki frowned and kept the door in sight as she
followed the old man back to the counter and he pulled
out a dusty box. Opening this box revealed a crystal
vial full of a bright liquid that seemed to shift
colors.
"This won't take care of all the problem," the man
said. "But the books say it will stop the changes of
a woman. You'd still attract water, however."
"It'll only work on a woman?" Nabiki said.
"This isn't your normal form?" he asked, looking up
and down her body and taking in the very feminine
clothes.
"I'm talking about my sister's fiancee," she said.
"He turns into a rather cute red-headed girl."
"Ahh," he said. "Well, the book isn't clear
exactly on how this works. It mentions about one,
maybe two days of pain after which the foreign
life-force is gone from the body."
"And if a man were to take this draft?" Nabiki
asked, she frowned at the mention of pain.
"The book either does not say," the man said. "Or
else that information was destroyed. This elixir was
not originally meant to cure Jusenkyo, that was found
on accident."
"What is it meant to do?" Nabiki asked. The old
man shrugged.
"If the book ever said, the words were destroyed,"
the man said.
"Can I see this book?" Nabiki asked. The man
presented a very old piece of parchment between to
flat pieces of wood.
"Here it is," he said. Nabiki's eye twitched.
"That is a sheet of paper," she said. "Not a
book."
"It is all that remains of the lore to go with this
elixir," he said.
"And how much is this going to cost me?" she asked.
She winced as the man named his price, but produced
the money anyway, sighing at the last chance for those
manga coming out this weekend.
Neither she, nor the old man recognized the
"decorative" marks on the old box as a written
language. Even if they could, they would never have
been able to read the words "elixir of life."

*****

"Well," Nabiki said. "Let's see what this does."
She sighed nervously as she looked into the vial.
The man had said their were two doses in it. She'd
rather not test this on herself, but there was no way
she'd let Shampoo hear about it. In less than no time
the Amazon would have taken it and used it herself.
She took a small gulp and waited for several
minutes for something to happen. Nothing, that she
could see did. She had no way of knowing that the
potion had proceeded to its secondary task having
lacked the tools necessary to accomplish its primary
task.

*****

"What's this?" Ranma asked, staring at the crystal
vial Nabiki had handed him. He didn't notice the
little blue marks under her eyes and on her forehead,
just barely becoming visible.
"This is my apology for the nannichuan," Nabiki
said. Ranma's eyebrows crinkled in confusion before
he realized what she was hinting at. Nabiki's hand
over the bottle stopped him from drinking it
immediately. "Before you do anything, listen to
everything I say."
"Okay," Ranma said carefully.
"First," Nabiki said. "I don't know that this will
work. The guy I bought from says it only works with
women, so for all I know it could lock in girl form.
Second, the cure apparently comes after a couple of
days of pain, I don't know how bad. And finally,
you'll still attract water. Understand the choice
now?"
Ranma glanced at the bottle cautiously, taking into
account all that Nabiki had said. He looked up, a
determined look on his face.
"Think about it carefully, Saotome," Nabiki said.
"If you have any doubts we can always just give the
thing to Shampoo."
"It's worth a risk," Ranma said seriously.
"Is it?" Nabiki asked. "I know you don't really
mind your girl side anymore."
"Yeah," Ranma said. "But I think Akane does." He
unstoppered the vial and looked at it cautiously.
"You should probably talk to her about this first,"
Nabiki suggested. At this moment Ranma's head got
shoved forward by a newcomer.
"RANMA!!!" Mousse shouted. "How dare you insult my
darling Shampoo with this 'bill for damages!' DIE!!!"
Nabiki normally would have said "That was my letter
actually," but at the moment she was staring at Ranma
pulling up his head and swallowing nervously, after
reflexively uppercutting Mousse through the roof.
"So much for choices," Ranma said nervously.
"Anything happening?"
"Not yet," Nabiki said, watching Ranma nervously.
For once her face clearly displayed shock.
"What is all that noise in hear!?" Akane demanded,
coming into the room to find Nabiki and Ranma looking
somewhat shell-shocked. "What's Nabiki doing in your
room Ranma?!!"
The elixir meanwhile had set into motion all the
changes to accomplish it's secondary task and had been
on the verge of extinguishing when it encountered a
way to accomplish it's primary task in the form of a
bulge of chi that represented a life force imprint
that did not belong to the drinker.
The magical liquid had no real intelligence, it was
more or less a computer it did what it was programmed
to do. It still couldn't accomplish it's task at the
moment, but there was a twist in the drinker's ki that
allowed it to proceed with its task, samples of two
life forces and the appropriate tools. All it had to
do was change the spell already there.
Ranma felt the change pass over him, starting,
paradoxically, from inside for once. Akane's anger
vanished in the face of Ranma spontaneously becoming a
girl.
"AHHHHH!!!" Ranma gasped. "It...it...it changed
me!!"
"What Ranma, what happened to you?" Akane asked,
worried now.
"At least you're not feeling any pain," Nabiki said
apologetically.
Akane shot her guilty looking sister a questioning
look. Ranma stood up looking down at herself as if it
was the first time she had seen her female body.
Though, perhaps, it was rather that she was thinking
that she'd never see her male body again.
"Akane, Nabiki," Ranma said nervously, hands moving
to her stomach. "I'm feeling funny."
As Ranma's stomach started to visibly grow,
Nabiki's rather surprised mind suddenly worked out
whatexactly those couple of days of pain were. Akane
and Ranma's eyes merely goggled in shock.
"Akane!" Nabiki gasped. She stood up and walked to
the redhead "Get Kasumi!!" Akane nodded fervantly
and rushed for the phone. "Ranma come on, before it
starts let's get downstairs."
"What's happening, Nabiki," Ranma practically
growled. "And I don't need help walking!" Nabiki
nodded silently as she continued to walk along with
the red-head.
"Nabiki, what is, oh my," Kasumi gasped as she saw
Nabiki coming down the stairs with Ranma. "What
happened?"
"A mistake with a potion," Nabiki said. "Kasumi,
call the hospital because these are going to be the
quickest three trimesters ever recorded."
"Right, of course," Kasumi said.
"Tri-mesters?!!" Akane roared from where she was
coming up behind Kasumi. "What the hell did you do
Ranma?!"
"It's not my fault!" Ranma protested.
"How can it not be your fault that you're
pregnant!" Akane demanded, hefting her mallet. Nabiki
quickly moved between Ranma and Akane.
"This isn't the time for that Akane!" Nabiki
snapped.
"Pr..." the shock distracted Ranma from his
stomach, which had stopped expanding now.
"NABI...oww!"

*****

Across town in an old temple three other sisters
felt...something. And then the sensation passed and
they brushed it aside after a moment.

*****

"Where do you think you're going!?" Ranma snapped
angrilly as Nabiki attempted to leave the operating
room.
"Gah!" Nabiki gasped in surprise. "It isn't like
you need me here!"
"It was your frigging potion that got me in this
mess!!" Ranma growled, refusing to let go of Nabiki's
arm.
"This is the father's job!" Nabiki said, nervous
about what would happen to her arm if she stayed
through the labor.
"Yeah," Ranma growled wearily. "But I'll settle
for you."
"This job gets weirder every day," one of the staff
said.
"What's with the little blue smudges on their
faces?" another asked.

*****

"It isn't fair," Akane said. "I'm the one that
should be in their with him, not her."
"Yes, Akane," Kasumi said. "But perhaps you should
have thought about that before accusing him of
sleeping with Ryouga."
"It was a panic-reaction!" Akane protested. "I
know there's something weird about this...he wasn't
pregnant this morning."
"Oh the tragedy!" Genma wailed. "My son giving
birth!"
"Oh," Nodoka sighed. "My son is so manly that he
has even impregnated himself."
Soun was merely wailing incoherently.
They all ignored the people staring at them (mostly
Nodoka) strangely.

*****

Ranma lay back in bed exhausted and depressed. For
the moment she was alone, the doctors deciding that
she needed her rest. Nabiki was receiving treatment
of her own. Apparently she had crushed Nabiki's arm.
Ranma grimaced at that thought, she hadn't wanted
to really hurt Nabiki. After all, she had been
planning on drinking it after all. She had just
planned to let loose a little of the pain on the other
girl.
Ranma was tired enough that she didn't even argue
with the nurses that insisted on calling her a girl.
They had her hooked up to an IV, apparently she was
severelly depleted of both water and nutrients. She
had been lectured about keeping up a good diet while
pregnant. If they knew the pregnancy had lasted about
three minutes before labor started, Ranma didn't want
to know what they'd do.
She glanced down at her hands and tried to imagine
what they used to look like. To her surprise, her
hands grew and shifted along with the rest of her body
to become HIS body.
Ranma blinked and recalled his female form. His
body shifted back to it.
"What the hell?" she asked quietly.
She shifted back to male form again. She felt, if
it was possible, more tired than she already had and
only barely heard someone coming into her room. The
nurse only saw the very tired teenager finally
dropping off to sleep.

*****

"She's so cute," Akane said peering into the baby's
face as they sat in the taxi the hospitals had
insisted they call for them, the rest of the family
was in another car. Then she frowned. "She's
Chinese."
Akane looked up and frowned at Ranma suspiciously.
Ranma sighed at the familiar look. It seemed at times
like Akane would never trust her.
"I'm not locked," Ranma said to distract her before
sshe could start an argument. Akane looked at her in
surprise.
"What?" Akane asked.
"I'm not locked," Ranma repeated. "I can just sort
of will it now."
"Then why are you still..."
"Akane," Nabiki said, recovering her own voice.
She spoke low so the cab driver would not hear her.
"Look at how many questions we had to answer about
this situation as it is. If Ranma suddenly popped up
as a guy..."
"Yeah, yeah," Akane said. "So why is your daughter
half-Chinese?"
"Akane," Ranma sighed wearily.
"Give the inquisition a rest," Nabiki said. "Hear,
Ranma, I'll hold Midori while you get some more sleep
okay?"
"You're arm's broken," Ranma said. "Sides...I'm
not that tired," Ranma then fell asleep still cradling
the child carefully.
"So where was Shampoo during this?" Akane asked.
Nabiki shrugged.
"I told you Akane," Nabiki said. "This has nothing
to do with Shampoo. But I'll wager a bet that that
girl is half-Chinese because whoever drowned in the
pool is half-Chinese."
"What are you doing covering for him?" Akane asked.
"And what are these marks on your faces for?"
"You just don't trust anybody, do you?" Nabiki
asked.

((OOC: Note, I'm putting out a lot of stuff for which
there is no foreseeable end of late...sorry...))

=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
"God has to have a sense of humor, it's the only explanation for sex." - my father
"I have to write a how-to paper for class, so I'm writing a paper on how to be psuedo-evil." - my brother

http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html

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