[Ranma/Xover][FanFic] The Bet - Children of Jurai 1b
GreggSharp
http://members.aol.com/greggsharp/index.html
char owned by Pioneer, R.Takahashi, etc.
WARNING:Xover with some degree of fusion.
Series involved are (in order of degree):
[Ranma][TM]. all others are implied only.
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Children Of Jurai 1b: Jurai Muyo
Ranma focussed and practiced the
sword kata he'd learned while visiting his cousin
(on his mother's side) Tenchi up at the Masaki
Shrine. Yosho was a good sensei, Ranma had to
admit. His style of teaching was completely different
from Genma's, though both were tough disciplinarians.
A wager between Yosho and Genma had
become a duel. Yosho's Masaki School Vs Genma's
Anything Goes. It had lasted a suprisingly long time,
and Ranma had been quite impressed with how many
special manuevers his old man had pulled out. That
bit with the vacuum blades had been especially cool.
Yosho had pulled out some special
manuevers too. Quite impressive. There were times
that the duel looked more like a special effects
demonstration than a martial arts duel.
Yosho had, however, won. Result: Genma
got a job. Ranma helped out at the shrine and learned
some of the codes of honor and behavior, as well as
the sword techniques of his mother's lineage. When
Yosho was satisfied, Genma and Ranma continued on.
Ranma had been seven when he had begun
learning the Masaki philosophies and techniques. He
had just turned twelve when he had left.
Ranma whirled about, catching his father
who had been trying to sneak up on him again. The
edge of Ranma's sword a few inches from the larger
man's throat. "Hey, oyaji, when you gonna teach me
some of those tricks you used against Ojii-san?"
"I regret using those, boy. I had never
thought to use them again." Genma moved the
wooden tip of Ranma's practice sword away from
his throat. "Now it is time to put away the sword,
we have SERIOUS training to begin."
-----------------------------------------------------
Ranma was shocked and surprised to
see the panda come flying out of the pool, and
his guard dropped.
As he flew towards one of the pools,
he remembered what Ojii-san Yosho had said,
and calmed himself. Neither excessive rage nor
panic served a purpose in the life of a true
warrior. The waters of the pool claimed him.
Ranma came up spluttering and
listened to the Guide going on about how a
girl had drowned in the pool, and now anyone
who fell into the pool would now be transformed
into a young girl.
Pulling open his gi, Ranma looked
down at his breasts, winced and made one of
those important life decisions. His father and
his training methods/philosophies had done
this. From now on, he would follow the path
of his mother's line, for he could not see his
grandfather pulling this kind of stunt.
"Pardon me," Ranma said, getting out
and beginning to wring out the top of his, no,
her gi. The look the girl shot her father left no
doubt that she wished that it was his neck
that being twisted. "Guide, is there a cure for
this 'terrible tragic story' or am I stuck like
this?"
"Oh, sirs, I know no cure for Jusenkyo
curse. Hot water turn you back, but cold water
now turn you into young girl. Many peoples try
find cure for Jusenkyo. Many peoples fail."
Catching sight of her father again,
Ranma began breathing exercises to calm herself.
"Anger rarely serves its wielder," was one of
Yosho's sayings. Ranma ignored the panda and
asked the Jusenkyo Guide for some hot water.
-------------------------------------------------------
"Yeah, that girl's got some serious
strength," Ranma said with a smile, his attention
completely on the two warriors duking it out
on the challenge log. The Guide had said (upon
Ranma's questioning) that as soon as the battle
was over, there would be a feast, and it didn't look
like it would take much longer.
The purple-haired girl knocked her
opponent out of the ring, then stared at Ranma.
Ranma blinked, realizing after a moment
that she wasn't staring at HIM, but at...
With a sinking feeling, Ranma turned
and saw his father eating the feast that had been
laid out near the benches. "Oh, no, oyaji?!"
The village Champion crossed over
to stand in front of Ranma, speaking in rapidfire
Mandarin.
The Guide translated. "Hey, you,
strange boy. How can you let your panda eat
my prize? I just win martial arts tournament,
big honor, you stupid male person."
"So these amazons aren't too
fond of the male gender, huh?" Ranma had
noticed that there were no men nearby. "If I
had known that, I probably wouldn't have
avoided the mist from that waterfall. Okay,
Guide, please translate that I'm very sorry
but I don't have any money to pay her for
what 'my panda' has eaten."
The Guide spoke a little in
Mandarin, then listened to the girl's
reply. "She say you wrong her, then she
make you slave. Work off debt."
"I...don't think so," Ranma
felt a headache coming on. So much for
reason. "If I challenge her, and beat her,
will that satisfy her honor, since then it
would be MY prize that the stupid panda
ate?"
The Guide translated, and
Shampoo cracked her knuckles. The
expression on her face said it all, that
she was looking forward to teaching
this upstart male a lesson in humility.
In short order, Shampoo stood
on one end of the log, twin bonbori in her
hands. Ranma held his bokken in a ready
position.
Shampoo shot across the space
between them, her maces ready to club this
impudent male into submission.
Ranma pulled his bokken back
in a feint, then lashed out with a kick that
went through Shampoo's defenses. She
dropped off the log with a startled yelp.
Ranma tried to salvage the
situation. "Tell her I'm sorry again. I...
didn't want to hit such an attractive and
capable warrior, and no doubt she was
tired from all her previous battles." It was
another thing that Yosho had taught,
that sometimes you must fight but to
try not to make more enemies out of
your opponents than you absolutely
had to.
Shampoo was getting up
from her landing, and her eyes widened
as the Guide translated. The look she
turned on Ranma was speculative. Then
she crossed over to him, and made an
entirely different sort of attack.
Ranma stood stunned as
the girl wrapped her arms around him
and her lips pressed up against his own.
Shampoo turned away from him briefly,
looking for her Great Grandmother to
see what she thought about all this.
"GROWF!" The panda
listened to the Guide's translation and
didn't like this development at all. He
grabbed the still stunned Ranma and
ran as if a demon were chasing him.
After all, if Ranma married that amazon,
then what would happen to the dream
of uniting the two Anything Goes
schools?
----------------------------------------------
Shampoo sat down with the
Guide and listened to his story. At first,
he'd thought she was giving the Kiss Of
Death, but had realized that this was the
Kiss Of Marriage instead and had told
the father.
The panda had panicked at
that point, slung the boy over one shoulder,
and run for the pass. All the time he'd been
telling the boy who had defeated her that
she had just given the Kiss Of Death and
would be coming to kill the boy who had
dared defeat her.
Yes, the Guide responded to her
questioning, they were odd as a father/son
combination. Yes, the boy did seem much
more thoughtful and honorable than his
father. No, the Guide did NOT think that the
boy intended to become Shampoo's husband
or that he'd enjoy settling down in the Amazon
Village.
Shampoo sighed and turned to
Cologne, waiting for the Elder to speak.
"<If he accepts you as his bride,
well, there's considerably more leeway that
we can give him. Eventually he must marry
you and return to the village, that is the law.
You must pursue him, and that also is the
law. As for his father, I wonder if he has
completely misunderstood this, or if he has
other plans for his son? In any case, you
should pack and go prepared to win your
husband by the rules of their culture. You
said they were Japanese?>"
The Guide nodded.
"<Then it will be there that they
will end up. I think there are one or two
speakers of that language among the village,
and so you will have a tutor along the way
just in case you do not catch up with them
before they leave China.>"
Shampoo nodded to show that
she understood.
---------------------------------------
"It is a matter of family honor,"
Genma stated emphatically. "You MUST
marry a Tendo."
"Honor, huh?" Ranma sighed.
If it was a matter of honor, then he was
stuck with it. If this turned out to be just
another of his father's idiot schemes, then
he'd bow out of it as soon as possible.
"Fine, oyaji, but let's at least get some
hot water before we go visit them. I'll
have to tell them about the curses, but
if I'm going to meet a potential iinazuke,
I'm going to do it as a guy."
"But we aren't in cursed form
now, are we?"
"How many times do we get
splashed in the normal course of the day?
Come on, oyaji, you know better than that."
--------------------------------------------
Ranma looked nervously over at
the three girls. Everything had gone fine
until he'd gotten the hot and cold water and
started explaining about the curse.
The angry girl, Akane, had gone
from angry to shocked. The interested girl
had become shocked and upset, and was
now angry. The polite one was angry as
well, but was turning that anger on Genma,
which Ranma didn't have a problem with.
Unfortunately, neither Genma
nor Soun were going to give either the
girls the option or give Ranma the option
of "none of the above."
"...so, pick the one you want.
She'll be your new fiancee." Soun was
finishing.
"Mister Tendo, this does not
appear to be a good time," Ranma was
TRYING to be reasonable. "None of
your daughters are happy with this
idea, and dooming one of your daughters
to a relationship they'll hate merely
insures that they'll come to hate and
resent you, don't you see that?"
Soun Tendo didn't hesitate
for a second. "They'll thank me for it
when the relationship works out."
"Stop stalling, boy, and
pick your bride."
"Oh, he wants Akane,"
Kasumi said with a smile. "After all,
they're the same age."
"HEY!" Akane turned to
her betrayer.
"Couldn't agree more,"
Nabiki chimed in. "After all, you
hate boys, and Ranma's half girl."
"Oh, thank you," Ranma
said quietly. He fought down the
immediate response, after all, these
three had no choice in this clumsy
arrangement either. "I just LOVE
being passed around like spoiled
goods."
This brought all three of
the Tendo daughters to stare at their
guest. The pain he'd managed to convey
in that brief response managed to reach
them.
"Mister Tendo, Father, you
do what you want. There is no honor in
forcing one of these girls to marry someone
who disgusts them." Ranma got up and
bowed slightly to Kasumi. "Thank you
for the tea. It was delicious."
"Ranma, where do you think
you're going?" Genma glared at his son
but didn't bother to get up.
"I'm going to the Masaki Shrine;
my honored grandfather had many stories
of magic and demons and spells. He may
know of something that the Jusenkyo Guide
did not." Ranma silently added that at least
he could get away from this.
The hostility level had dropped
from the three, though the youngest still looked
at him as if he were some freak. He thought that
the looks of disgust and hatred that had appeared on
their faces would remain with him for some
time. Forget this. Family honor couldn't be
served by one of these girls marrying someone
whom they were revolted by.
Ranma didn't wait for an argument,
action was more his style anyway. He shot
a look back over his shoulder and was gone
while his father was still yelling about how
his son was failing to be a man.
Kasumi colored slightly, feeling
shamed even as the two fathers fell to arguing
with each other. That had not been a proper
way to treat a guest, but the idea of her fiance
being a girl half the time was just so unsettling.
Nabiki looked down at the table. She
had seen Ranma's parting expression and known
it quite well, she wore it often enough when there
was no one to see it. Loneliness. A desire to
belong. She fidgeted slightly, wondering if she'd
possibly made a mistake.
Akane's reaction was quite different.
Relief. The boy was gone and all this engagement
nonsense could be safely dispensed with. All boys
were perverts anyway. Still, there had been a brief
toying with the idea that if she had a fiancee maybe
those idiots at school would leave her alone.
"I'll go get him," Genma finally
announced. "There is no way I'll let him get away
with this behavior. It must be my wife's father's
influence on him." Where had he found a backbone?
Akane left to get a bath. Kasumi, her
mind on other things, went to fix supper. Nabiki
decided to go back and finish her homework, after
all, school started again the next day.
-------------------------------------------
Ranma lifted the coffee can from the
trashbin and rinsed it off carefully. Using a utility
knife, she made a set of holes in the metal near
the closed end. With tinder inside the container,
it became a small cooking utensil.
"Uhm, Saotome-san," said a voice
that Ranma hadn't expected. "I..."
Ranma glanced up through the
deepening gloom. "Kasumi-chan? What are
you doing out at this time of night?"
"I...wanted to apologize for..."
Kasumi felt her cheeks burning. He'd said
"Kasumi-'chan'? She hadn't been called
that since she was much younger. She
realized that even though he was a girl
at the moment, she had little difficulty in
seeing the young man who'd entered
their home.
"You needn't. I understand
completely." Ranma turned his attention
back to tending the fire. "Pretty disgusting
to find yourself with a fiance who's a girl
as often as not, isn't it?"
Kasumi studied the ground,
nodding briefly.
"How did you find me, anyway?"
"Your father came back and
told my father. They plan on bringing you
back tonight."
"Ah. I appreciate the warning,"
Ranma said. The water was beginning to
steam, so Ranma splashed herself quickly.
Now male, he put his shirt out to dry as it kept
getting soaked today.
Kasumi's eyes bugged slightly
as she watched him move around. A few
phrases regarding muscle definition came
to her mind and her blush deepened as a
result. She was still young, and not immune
to the effect of a well-tuned male form.
Ranma didn't notice, as he had
already begun to figure out routes from the
area. "Kasumi-chan, thank you, I really
appreciate this." Ranma silently added
that it was all for their benefit anyway.
Ranma looked over again, to
see that Kasumi had abruptly vanished
back into the night. He shrugged, he
couldn't blame her for not wanting to be
around him with such a weird curse.
He had just packed everything
when the second visitor arrived. Ranma
had an odd feeling of deja vu as Nabiki
went through much the same reactions as
had Kasumi earlier. Including the reaction
to his currently shirtless condition. It
made him feel as if he had spilled something
on himself the way they stared at him.
Dismissing what he didn't
understand, Ranma found the conversation
went around the same pattern as the first,
except that Nabiki was there a little longer.
By the time Akane showed up,
Ranma was already gone.
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<clip here for splicing to 1c>