[Ranma/XOver][FanFic] Martial Artists and Mayhem, parts 1-2
Luke Thrythlind Green
In the border city of Nerima in the kingdom of Tokyo, the head of
a small monastery read the scroll the herald had just delivered to
him.
> Bringing Ranma from Qinghai.
>
> Saotome.
The man began openly weeping as he reread the small message over
again.
"R-Ranma? Coming here?" the mustachioed man said indisbelief.
"Oh, how I've waited for this day!!"
"Excuse me, Master Tendo," the herald, a skinny young man by the
name of Gosunkugi, cleared his throat and held out his hand waiting
for the tip, trying to ignore the sight of a grown man crying.
The little man was still glancing about trying to catch sight of
the Soun's youngest daughter. He thus failed to notice when Soun
Tendo, not realizing the herald was still there, slammed the door
closed. Resulting in Gosunkugi lying flat on his back.
"Kasumi!! Nabiki! Akane!" Soun rushed through thesmall grounds
of the monastary. Kasumi was the easiest to find, the young priestess
of Belldandy was in the kitchen preparing supper. "Kasumi!"
"Yes, daddy?" Then Soun was off looking for his other
daughters. He stopped at the entrance to hismiddle daughter's room.
"Nabiki!" The diviner, priestess of Xellos, and Soun didn't want
to know what else she might be, turned to look at him where she was
lounging on herbed and reading some book of hers.
"Mmm?"
"Akane!! Where is that girl?"Meanwhile a long haired girl in a
loose trainingoutfit, an unassuming symbol of Ryoko bouncing with her
stride. She tramped in through the open gate, incidentally trampling
Gosunkugi who was trying to stand up finally.
"She touched me," the poor abused herald said cheerfully.The
girl was instantly into the dojo part of the complex and trading out
her running clothes with a martial training gi. In the next moment
she shattered the brick she had just set in front of her.
"Ahhhh! That was nice," Akane sighed in relaxation.
"That's Akane for you," a dry feminine voice said behind her.
Akane turned to see her sister striding toward her. "Obliterating
poor defenseless bricks, I'm certain that will help you oh so much in
obtaining a husband."
"What does that matter to me? Not everybody thinks the world
revolves around men, Nabiki.""Oh, that's right, you serve the goddess
of mindless violence." Akane's eye twitched.
"That's Rage," the younger girl said tightly, eyes twitching at
her sister's normal jibe..
"Whichever," Nabiki said with a smirk, shrugging as she strode
out of the dojo. It was only a few minutes later when Akane's voice
was heard throughout the monastary and a little beyond the walls.
"FIANCEE!!?"
"Yes, the son of a very good friend of mine," their father
explained. "The son's name is Ranma Saotome. If one of you three
girls were to marry him, and carryon this monastary, then the Tendo
family legacy would be secure."
"Wait a minute!" Akane shouted angrily. "Don't WE have some say
in who we marry?"
"Akane's right, Daddy. We've never even met Ranma. And we're
all priestesses. What if one of our..." Kasumi paused. "What if
Belldandy objects to him."Nabiki ignored her older sister and
continued to drink her tea.
"Hey!" Akane snapped.
"That's easily fixed."
*******
Elsewhere, on the edge of Nerima, the commoners watched in
confusion, and a little worry, as what looked like a giant white and
black bear chased a redheaded girl through the street. Suddenly the
bear swiped at the littler girl who easily leaped over theattack.
"Hey! Stop that!"
"Umm, is that a bear?" somebody asked. "It's a panda, I seen
one of em back when I was a soldier." The panda took a fighting
stance and thetowns people looked on in confusion. Still, this was
Nerima, on the border of Tokyo. The weirdest place of a weird
kingdom.
"Your move, old man," the redhead said. The panda launched an
attack forward which the girl easily dodged. "I still say this whole
thing is stupid!" The girl caught the panda's paw and flipped the
beast over her head. "Picking my fiancee for me, withouteven asking!"
The redhead stood over the panda a few seconds glowering and
huffing.
"Did you even bother telling them what they're getting into?"
she demanded. "I'm going back to looking for Mom, I'll bet she
doesn't know about this, does she?" The girl hefted a large pack,
seemingly much too large for her, and started walking off. She didn't
notice when the large panda stood up, uprooted a small tree and turned
to whack her on the head.
The panda picked up the redhead and slung her over his
shoulders. He sighed, knowing there was no way to convince her to
switch now. Maybe he should have waited to tell Ranma about the
engagement until they had met everyone. Then Ranma wouldn't
obstinately be staying female. Well, this called for an appropriate
story to give Soun. Then the panda noted all the people staring at
him.
"Growf! Growf!" the small crowd backed away quickly from the
roaring panda and decided to find something else to do. Though one or
two went for their homes and a silver weapon or two they had stashed
away. The panda shuffled away grumbling something about busybodies.
*******
Ranma and his father have been on a voyage of training," Soun
continued to explain. "Recently they passed through Qinghai."
"Wow! Qinghai!" Nabiki was mentally rubbing her palms together.
There were some places in Qinghai that she was interested in finding,
and with the proper guide, fiancee or in-law, it would be much easier.
"What's so great about Qinghai?" Akane asked.
"Is he cute?" Nabiki cooed.
"How old is he? Younger men bore me," Kasumi declared serenely.
"What kind of guy is this Ranma?" Kasumi and Nabiki choursed.
Soun laughed for a moment and then spilled his guts.
"No idea."
"'No idea'?" Nabiki repeated, and considered dipping into her
prepared spells.
"I've never met him." The three girls stared at him.
"Leggo y'ol fool!" a voice rang out. Kasumi half stood while
everyone turned towards the sounds from the front of the compound.
"We have visitors," the eldest Tendo declared.
"Oooo! It must be Ranma!" Nabiki shouted rushing to meet the
new fiancee.
"Saotome, my friend!" Soun shouted, moving just behind his
middle daughter. "We've been waiting!"
~Oh, I hope he's older!~ Kasumi thought, adjusting her hair.
~How depressing, men!~ Akane hmphed, staring at the ground.
Kasumi and Akane's slow progress to the front stopped as Nabiki and
their father came barrelling back around the corner followed by a
giant bear carrying a struggling person.
"Hey, yo!" the panda's burden shouted. "You're scaring 'em
spitless!"
"Daddy," Kasumi said nervously. "This...is your friend?" The
older man shook his head furiously.
"Oh. So this...PANDA just decided to visit!" Nabiki shouted.
"Happens all the time!"
The panda set down its package, who stared up at the shocked
older man with a rather blank expression.
"You...wouldn't be..." Soun said pointing.
"Ranma Saotome," Ranma shrugged, nodding. "Sorry 'bout the old
man."
"At last!" Soun shouted. "You've come!"
"Oooo! He's cute!" Nabiki sighed, almost feminine in fact.
"Its so good of you to come so---!" The redhead's pigtail
actually stood up as Soun embraced her. Then Soun cut off and stared
out into space before shoving the smaller person away from him and
taking a closer look at Ranma, who now had a glazed look in her eyes.
"Hmm?" Nabiki glanced forward and noticed the shape of the
visitor's chest, before poking at something that didn't belong an a
man of any age.
"Umm," Ranma started to say. "Could you..." Nabiki gave one
last squeeze to be completely sure, and turned towards her family as
Ranma's eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted.
"'He' is a girl," Nabiki indicated irritably, only to watch her
father join their visitor in unconsciousness.
*******
Soun woke up to the sound of his daughters talking.
"Oh. Poor daddy," Kasumi sighed as she wrang out some damp
cloths. "He's so disappointed."
"HE'S disappointed!" Nabiki shouted, ruination of a good plan
always seemed to bring out the worst in the middle Tendo. "Some
fiance this is!" Not that Xellos wouldn't accept it, or that she
wouldn't have fun, but there were other considerations. It would
certainly place her out of the contention for any sort of inheritance.
Blood heirs were important, and, without a shapechanging spell, two
women would never have one.
"Hey, what if he...she wakes up?" Akane insisted. "She is out
guest!"
"This is all your fault, Daddy!" Nabiki shouted. "You should
have made sure!"
"Well, he said he had a SON!!" Soun exlaimed from where he was
lying down.
"Do you see a son here?" Nabiki demanded grabbing their fainted
guest and propping her where Soun could see the redhead. Then she
patted down the offending pieces of anatomy, not caring that the
redhead snapped awake.
"Ooo, que-wha-huh?" the redhead spoke, almost. Then she glanced
at Nabiki. ~I think I found dinner.~ She thought irritably.
"Hmm? Do you?"
"Hey, could you," Ranma's face started turning red again.
"Please stop that?" Akane turned to look at the scene in alarm and
glared at Nabiki, who irritably released the redhead. The long-haired
girl softly shook the redhead, who appeared to be quickly on her way
to another faint.
~Wow, she must be really sensitive,~ Akane thought. "Hey. Join
me in the dojo?"
"Huh?" Ranma blinked once and shook her head clear.
"I'm Akane," she said smilingly. "You want to be friends?"
~Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea,~ Ranma thought, smiling a
little. He hadn't had a friend for a long time. She was kind of cute
too, and the redhead was almost regretting showing up a girl.
"You practice unarmed styles?" Akane asked.
"A little." Ranma admitted.
"Then let's have a little match okay?" Akane suggested, she
noticed her guest looking a little nervous. "Just for fun. Don't
worry. I won't hurt you."
"If you say so," Ranma said quietly.
Akane watched curiously as her opponent stayed out of stance,
and then shrugged before lashing out with fist. The smaller girl
easily jumped over it, and Akane shifted her motion to lash out with a
kick at the airborne girl. Surprisingly, the redhead managed to hold
aloft, and even rise a little in altitude, to stay over the kick.
~Hey she's good,~ Ranma noted.
After Ranma landed, Akane lashed out with another fist-kick
combination.
"What's wrong?" Akane demanded. "Swing at me!" She lashed out
again and Ranma dodged. ~Why...why am I missing her? Is she reading
my...~ Akane's eyes narrowed. ~...mind.~
~Uh, oh,~ Ranma swallowed and laughed nervously as bad
limmericks started floating through Akane's surface thoughts.
Ranma relaxed as Akane's eyes narrowed and felt a spike of
magic. Akane may have caught on to her little trick, but she was
still looking to make a point. Akane lashed out again as Ranma leaped
up and over her. A section of the stone wall that had been behind
Ranma shattered to dust as Ranma landed behind her, and lightly tapped
her on the back of the head.
~She did that without magic,~ Akane turned to look at the
smaller girl in surprise. The little girl laughed good-naturedly, and
soon Akane was joining her.
"You're pretty good," Akane said. "I'm just glad you're a
girl."
~Hmm,~ Ranma turned to look at Akane. ~She doesn't feel like
she swings that way.~
"Its just..." Akane paused. "I'd really hate to lose to a boy!"
Ranma glanced at where Akane had pulverized some of the wall.
~I might be safer as a girl after all,~ Ranma decided as Akane
left the dojo.
Ranma cracked her knuckles and looked about to make sure no one
was watching and reached out to the hole in the wall. A dark aura
surrounded the redhead's hand as guttural and harsh words whispered
out, as the spell faded away the wall was revealed to be whole again.
"Oh, I didn't know you spoke the Abyssal tongue," a soft voice
said behind her. Ranma winced as she turned to face Kasumi and smiled
in embarrasment. "I thought most arcane magic used Draconic, though."
"It's a family thing," Ranma said, embarrased. Kasumi was about
to push the issue, when Ranma was saved by the grabby girl from
before.
"Hey, Kasumi, who's that old guy with Daddy?" Ranma said
nothing, obviously the old man had found some hot water somehow.
"Got me," Kasumi said before turning back to Ranma, who was
staring wickedly at Nabiki. The middle Tendo arched an eyebrow and
shrugged, not noticing the look Ranma was giving her, before leaving.
"Try not to be too angry with Nabiki, she's a diviner and priestess of
Xellos. She doesn't take being surprised well."
"She works for Unc..." Ranma snapped his mouth shut. ~Well, I
wasn't going to do anything permanent...~
"Hmm?" Kasumi asked. "Ranma, don't you think you should take a
bath?" Ranma lifted and arm and sniffed, realizing that it had been
several days since she'd had the chance. "After all you must be all
sweaty from your workout."
"Okay," Ranma agreed. ~It might give me a chance to figure this
out anyway.~
"We even have our own hotspring," Kasumi said encouragingly.
"Really," Ranma said happily. A hot bath without having to cast
a spell was too much to turn down. She was off like a rocket.
The redhead settled into the hot water, sighing as she relished
the hot water.
"This is heaven," Ranma said as she considered the problem.
Namely his father. "He's sure to come up with some crackpot story to
explain me and get the engagement on." Ranma considered that
irritably and her thoughts drifted to the long-haired girl he had
sparred against. Unnoticed to the young being, certain bits of
anatomy changed as her, now his mind wandered.
"Akane!" Nabiki called out. "Bath's ready!"
"Thanks." Akane said smiling.
~Well, I can always just be her friend,~ Ranma thought to
himself. Unbeknowest to the young half-demon, another person was
making ready to join him. ~That should be enough of a soak.~ The
door flipped open, revealing a naked Akane staring at him in shock.
That wasn't right, Ranma knew he had left the sign out. He suddenly
was very aware of certain reactions going on and looked down.
Due to his heritage Ranma was, as Akane put it, very sensitive
and reactive. Sometimes it was too much for his human blood, and he'd
faint from sensory overload like earlier. Also, despite his mother's
occaisional influence, he was rather shy when it came to anything past
the flirting necessary to trick a meal...err...pervert to temporarily
part with some life force. As he realized what was going on, Ranma's
mind froze and he stood and watched as Akane left the room. A few
seconds later there was a loud scream followed by a string of curses
and running feet.
"Uh, uh, uh, uh," Ranma stuttered. "How do I explain this.
Damn it, Mom told me never to let me mind wander too much! Umm, so
how do I explain the gender switching." He ruffled his hair and
remembered something he had almost not noticed earlier, a certain holy
symbol. "Akane's one Auntie Ryoko's priestesses." Ranma hastily went
back to coming up with an explanation as thoughts of being mangled or
char-broiled ran through his head.
"Hi, my mother is a succubus that had an accident with a helm of
opposite alignment, and I inherited the dual gender. Nope, can't say
that. Think, think," Ranma paused and stared at the hot water spring.
"Stupid hot bath, distracted...THAT'S IT!!!...hot water...I could say
I have a curse like the old man's!!~
"There's a pervert in the bathroom!" he heard Akane shout.
Ranma winced and quickly got dressed in his light travelling outfit
before leaving the hot spring and heading for the sound. "Because I'm
afraid!"
"Who are you?" Nabiki asked him as he came around to see Akane
wielding a huge rock. Ranma almost blanched.
~Gee, where does Auntie find them?~ Ranma asked himself. "I'm
Ranma Saotome. Sorry 'bout this." He noted his father looking at him
oddly and gave subtle "play along, I'll explain later" gesture. Genma
nodded, but neither noticed Nabiki arching an eyebrow.
************************************************************************
Ranma's Secret
"What are you up to, boy?" Genma asked as he pulled Ranma aside.
"I was all set to tell them that you were your sister when you pull
this."
"Oh, yeah, that worked real well with Ryouga," Ranma shot back.
"I got this covered." Genma twitched, a reaction not unlike Ranma had
when his father said something similar. "I'll just say its like your
curse." There was something nagging Ranma about this "solution" but
he couldn't figure it out. He glanced back at the Tendo's and noted
Nabiki staring at them.
"So you think you can catch every time you get splashed with
water?" Genma asked quietly, also watching the Tendos waiting for
them.
"How hard can it be to fix a trigger spell?" Ranma asked.
"So I guess that means your a man for now," Genma asked
cautiously.
"Yeaah," Ranma said slowly, that nagging feeling was back.
"What about it?"
"Nothing, let's just explain everything to the Tendos," Genma
said quickly. Ranma started to push the issue when his father walked
past him into the living room and took a seat. He cautiously
followed, staring at Genma's back suspiciously.
"Are you ready, Saotome?" Soun asked from where he was sitting.
Genma nodded as Ranma sat down next to him. "I'll explain it then.
This is my dear old friend..."
"...Genma Saotome," the older man in the handkerchief said.
"And this is my son..."
"...Ranma." Ranma noticed Akane glaring at him, chewing on a
finger nail and clenching her other fist. Suddenly the nagging
feeling came clear. He was a boy, that had just beaten Akane,
virtually humiliated her in fact, and then "peeked" on her. Ranma
glanced at her and swallowed nervously. The youngest Tendo was not
happy.
"What's this all about?" Nabiki demanded, looking from Ranma to
Genma.
"Are you really her," Kasumi asked. "That same girl!"
"Hmm," Genma put his index finger to his forehead and closed his
eyes. "Where should I begin? I know..." Genma quickly turned to his
son and tossed the surprised young man back into the courtyard.
"HYAA!!" ~Well, Ranma, you wanted to be Jusenkyo cursed.~
"HEY!" Ranma called out as he sailed through the air towards a
small koi pond. He was so surprised by the action, that he almost
forgot about his plan. The airborne half-demon growled quietly as he
landed in the pool. And came out a spluttering redhead. "What the
hell are you doing?!"
The three Tendo girls stared in shock.
"Now he's a girl," Kasumi said, surprised.
"Ohhh. My own son, so humiliating, so humiliating," Genma said,
weeping. Ranma twitched.
~Gee, great acting Pops,~ Ranma thought as she kicked the older
man into the water and the giant panda returned. "Who are you to talk
about humiliating!"
"Daddy, why are you friends with them?" Kasumi asked quietly, so
as not to offend the guests.
"They weren't like this before!" Soun said, his old friend had
told him about the panda curse and was about to explain Ranma when the
noise started. Soun figured it out soon enough, however, and this
demonstration proved his guess. "Not before they went to
Qinghai...and undertook that terrifying training exercise."
*******
"Here, Sir. Is legendary 'Training Ground of Accursed
Springs.'" the speaker was a beardless dwarf, obviously an exile, in a
civil servant's garb. Ranma looked over the training ground and
twitched as he looked over all the springs. Everywhere he looked,
magic was rising out of the springs as thick as steam.
He corrected that thought. There was when the Masaaki pantheon
came to visit his mother, but that magic wasn't as hostile. Up until
the Goddess of Nobility and Auntie Ryoko got into a fight anyway.
Then everybody, including their mutual husband, took cover and waited
for the two to either kiss and make up or collapse from exhaustion.
Ranma never caught the end of the fight, they moved on to another
plane of existence after the first thirty minutes.
"Are you prepared, Ranma?"
"Hey, Pop, I don't think this is a good idea," Ranma said.
"Are you going to let a few pools of water deter you from your
proper duty as a martial artist?" Genma demanded. Ranma looked out
over the pools again and turned back to Genma. "Are you a man or
aren't...you?" Genma's voice dropped as he turned to see his daughter
standing there.
"Guy or girl, I ain't getting close to that stuff," the girl
said. She stuck out her tongue as she gave the older man a red eye.
"How you do that?" the dwarf asked curiously. "You fall in
spring before?"
"Nah, just a spell," Ranma said hastily. What did she care if
this guy saw her switch, it wasn't like they were going to be around
for long. "What the springs change you into stuff?"
"Oh yes," the dwarf nodded. "This place very dangerous. Nobody
use now. Is more than one hundred spring here, and every one have own
tragic legend."
"Enough of this nonsense," Genma declared, striding forward.
"There's nothing here but a bunch of poles stuck in some springs.
Don't you think that I would know if there really were a curse on this
place?" Genma asked as he made ready to jump into a pool to prove his
point.
"Pop! Don't!" Ranma shouted blurring forward in an attempt to
keep her father from the magic emanating from the pools.
The redhead was an inch too slow and had to leap back to avoid
getting splashed by the water herself. She could already feel the
magic reaching out to grab her. The tendrils of magic burned against
her inborn spell resistance.
"Pop?" Ranma asked as she recovered her balance. Those wisps of
rising magic, suddenly seemed much more than just the aura of a strong
curse. They were part of it, trying to grab more victims. Suddenly
the water surface erupted, and the magic of the area started whirling
viciously again, as a giant panda leaped out of the pool and growling
in irritation.
"That is 'Spring of Drowned Panda'!" the dwarf yelled. "There
is tragic legend, very tragic, of panda who drown there two thousand
years ago! Now whoever fall in that spring take body of panda!"
Ranma leaped away from the spray of water again, as the guide backed a
safe distance away from the pools. This time the pull of the magic on
the redhead was much stronger.
"No way, I ain't going in there!" Ranma shouted as she felt her
weak resistance giving in to the pull of the pools. The redhead
desperately abandoned her human disguise. Instead of falling into the
more actively magical pools as the seemed to plan, the redhead
sprouted great batwings and pulled herself away from the cursed pools.
She didn't land until more than a stone's throw away from the pools.
"AH!! You is demon you is!" the dwarf shouted as the winged
girl landed and stared hard at the pools. Ranma reached beautiful
sharp nailed hands out to pull up her gi top as her wings retreated
and she took her completely human form again. The guide tried to run
only to find the demon girl, in human form appearing in front of him.
"Oh please, Master Dwarf...Sir," the girl said, batting her
eyelashes cutely. "I'm only half demon, and I really need your help
getting my father out of this mess he's leaped into. You aren't
afraid of a cute little thing like me are you?" The redhead added the
last on a cute plaintive plea with a hint of tears.
"Certainly, can help demon stupid father as much as can," the
guide said nervously.
"Wai!! Thank you, sir!" the redhead cheered cutely. Then she
turned to the panda and shouted, "Pop, get away from there before you
fall in another spring!" The panda irritably complied, shaking off
the remaining water and grumbling every step of the way.
*******
"...And I wasn't really paying attention after the change,"
Genma explained. "And I just had to take out my shock on something.
So while Ranma was chatting with the guide about something, I attacked
and tossed him in the 'Spring of Drowned Girl'."
The Tendos and Saotomes sat in silence in the wake of the tale.
"The legendary training ground of accursed springs," Soun said
dramatically. "Its true horror has always been shrouded in mystery,
but now..."
~I could have been turned into a panda,~ Ranma thought. ~Or a
full human, or even...brrrr~ The pigtailed martial-artist shivered a
little. "Whaddya mean 'true' horror?"
"Yo, old man," Ranma grabbed his father by the gi. ~Make me
look like an idiot, huh?~ "What's the idea of dragging me to a place
like that, anyway?"
"Heeyah!" Genma shouted as he tossed his son back into the pond.
~Damn, he's lucky I don't stoop to snacking on him,~ Ranma
muttered as he, and then she, landed in the pool again.
"You sound like a woman!" Genma shouted. "Were you not prepared
to give your life for the sake of your training?"
"My life, yes," Ranma said slowly. "My species is another
matter!" The redhead splashed his father as she shouted. He didn't
notice Akane twitch angrily, still aware of the various possibilities
of what could have happened. The panda and redhead started rapidly
exchanging attacks, reducing to growling and punches. ~Hmm, if you
were half the man mom is sometimes, you'd stop those stupid comments,
jerk!~
"Oh, what a tragedy!" Soun shouted, weeping a river of tears.
"Stop that!" Kasumi shouted angrily, and Ranma was impressed as
the magic in the priestess's command washed over him and his father.
Immediately the impromptu battle ended.
"You just went too far, Master Saotome!" Kasumi said, gripping
the panda's arm.
"Yeah," Nabiki agreed, flatly. "Even for training." She was a
lot calmer though, something didn't add up in the story, and she was
trying to figure it out. Besides Ranma didn't seem quite as mad about
the situation as she should have been.
"What EVER made you do something so dangerous?" Kasumi demanded
loudly, the look in her face promising all the divine retribution a
priestess of Belldandy could call down. Depsite known as a generally
nice group of people, it was generally agreed that actually getting a
Verdandi angry was about as intelligent as jumping into a volcano.
The panda hastily dropped a scroll to the ground, and the two
elder Tendos were immediately distracted.
"Its a map in Sylvan," Kasumi said.
"Something about 'training grounds,'" Nabiki added. She took a
moment to cast a language spell and continued reading. Ranma noted
the priestess arching an eyebrow and glancing Ranma's way.
"No wonder," Kasumi said. "You can't read Sylvan, can you?!"
Kasumi whirled to accuse the panda. The panda produced a small flag
virtually shouting "correct!" to the world. Suddenly Soun appeared
with a tea kettle and poured it over his friend.
"So," the other monk said. "When doused with hot water, you
return to human form."
"Well, it needn't be quite that hot," Genma protested irritably.
Soun ignored him and turned to the small redhead.
"When doused with cold water you become a girl," Soun said
indicating Ranma, then tried to pour the same boiling water on her.
"But hot water turns you back into a boy!"
"Hot water! Not boiling!" Ranma shouted. ~If I have to switch
one more time, I think I might scream.~
"No sweat," Soun declared, a slightly mad look in his eyes as he
clapped his hand on the small girl's shoulder. "Your problem isn't so
terrible after all!"
"Huh?" Ranma asked. ~Does he know how irritating this going
back and forth every few minutes is?~
"My daughter Kasumi. Nineteen. And Nabiki. Seventeen. And
Akane. Sixteen," Soun declared, listing off his daughters. "Pick the
one you want, she's your fiancee."
~I forgot about that,~ Ranma moaned quietly.
"Oh, he wants Akane!" Kasumi declared in a rare moment of panic.
"Eh?" Akane continued to sit in shock.
"Oh, definitely," Nabiki agreed quickly, for once, her mind had
been locked in a state of shock. There was something about this she
wasn't seeing yet, best to follow Kasumi's lead and shuffle Ranma
towards the youngest of them. If later evidence proved her fears to
be ungrounded, well, the agreement was that Ranma would wed a Tendo.
It never specified which one.
"You must be joking!" Akane shouted, better aware how to deal
with confronting Nabiki than she was confronting Kasumi. "Why would I
be..."
"Well," Nabiki said slowly, as if touching on a delicate
subject. "You hate men, don't you?"
"So you're in luck!" Kasumi said, grabbing a hold of that
thread. "He's half-girl!"
"Me?" Akane said, insulted. "Marry that pervert?! Never!"
"Whaddya mean pervert?!" Ranma demanded.
"You saw me naked, pervert!" Akane reminded him.
"Hold it! You walked in on me!" Ranma retorted.
"Its different when a woman sees a man!" Akane answered, not
sounding very logical.
"They're already a perfect couple!" Soun declared.
"We're not a couple," Akane snapped at the old men. "We're
fighting! As for you..." Ranma was already leaving when she turned to
face him.
"Ah forget it!" Ranma snapped.
"Where are you going, boy?" Genma asked narrowly.
"You know where!" Ranma snapped back. "This ain't no time to be
getting married."
"By the way," Ranma turned toward Akane, venting frustration at
the sudden loss of his new friend. "You took a pretty good look at
me, too. Besides, it ain't like you got anything I don't got, and
better besides." It was true, she was just built that way, all the
better for survival. Ranma turned her back on the growling priestess
and crossed her hands behind her head. Then the table flattened him
to the ground.
"Now that he had coming," Genma said sagely. Kasumi and Nabiki
looked on in frustration. Kasumi pouring tea onto the ground where a
cup used to sit, and Nabiki spilled onto the ground.
******
Ranma crawled into consciousness, blinking her eyes open. Then
snapped her head from the pillow underneath it.
"Ah!" Kasumi declared. "She's awake!"
"Oooo," Ranma sighed, gripping his head.
"Are you okay, we healed as much as possible," Kasumi continued.
"But you seemed to be resisting it. Please don't think too badly of
Akane. She's really a very sweet girl. She's just a violent maniac."
"He should have guessed that from the goddess she follows,"
Nabiki hmphed.
*******
~Why that...that...that,~ Akane growled as she prepared for her
delayed bath. ~Make a fool of me, eh?~ She recalled the "and better
besides." comment, not to mention earlier when the jerk had implied
women were a different species. ~That...that...man!~
*******
"Owwww!" Ranma moaned irritably. ~It still smarts, Auntie at
least has a sense of humor.~ The redhead walked into the changing
room outside the hotspring and began to disrobe.
~Friends she says, so much for friends when she found out I can
be a man! No way she'd like me as I really am!~ She started for the
door to the hot spring when it suddenly slid open revealing a
surprised Akane.
Akane suddenly started growling low as Ranma cringed, grabbing a
towel to cover herself.
"Uh. Uh. Uh oh," Ranma whimpered.
"Why you..you...you..." Akane stammered angrily. Then the Tendo
monastery rang with the sound of a slap.
*******
"So she's got spunk," Ranma's father told his again male child.
"That just makes a fiancee cuter."
"But you were both girls, right?!" Nabiki was saying in the next
room. "That makes it okay!"
"Okay/Cute is not the word," two voices said together.
"I'm going to go stretch my," Ranma paused. "Legs." He stood
up and started walking for the outerwall. Nabiki heard and narrowed
her eyes in curiousity.
*******
The last thug dropped to the ground in a drained heap, as Ranma
released him. The little redhead sighed as she relished the drained
energies of the accumulated thugs. It was always so much easier to
get a meal as a woman.
"Don't try any extrenuous activity for a few days," she told the
crumpled thugs sweetly. The half-demon stretched her wings out and
yawned, revealing a pair of sharpened canines. "That tasted good."
"Well," a new voice added. "Aren't we full of surprises."
Nabiki stepped out of hiding as her family's guest took flight into
the sky. She glanced at the four bodies, normally masked, sprawled
across the alley. She kicked at one of them and, upon recieving no
response, reached down to check his pulse.
"Still alive," she said and picked up one of the thugs by the
hair. The young thug, his fox mask up over his head, stared off into
space with a goofy grin on his face.
"What a kiss," he muttered before Nabiki let his head fall back
to the ground.
"How pathetic," Nabiki sighed and looked up into the sky.
"Interesting...person."