[Ranma/SM][FanFic] Destiny's Child, Chapter 02
Fire
The characters contained within this story are owned by Takahashi
Rumiko and Takeuchi Naoko. No infringement of copyright is intended.
This work to be distributed for free, unchanged, crediting the current
author.
Thanks to my pre-readers:
Saran <sa...@first.com.my>
This is a crossover between Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon. To make the two
stories fit together the way I wanted, I needed to shuffle the dates at
which a few things occur within the main timeline of Sailor Moon. I bow
my head in shame: please forgive.
Die hard fans of Ranma may also notice a very subtle change to its
story timeline...
This story is dedicated to the letters A and K the number 8.
Visit my website at
dzil...@ozemail.com.au
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~dzillman/fire
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| Destiny's Child |
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What has gone before:
While on a training trip with his father, Ranma fell into the spring of
the drowned young girl. Unfortunately, his curse can only be changed
back with _very_ hot water, which means he spends most of the time in
his cursed form. Not only that, but since the spring was drowned young
girl, he turns into a 12 year old girl who never ages.
It is now the mid 1600s, and Ranma must deal with the fact that Akane -
his wife of the last 50 years - has just died of old age, and he still
looks like an 18 year old.
Oh, yeah. If George Lucas can get away with calling Star Wars part 4, I
can call Chapter 2 that also...
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Part IV, A New Hope
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The small girl, eyes filled with pain beyond her years descended from
the hills and walked to the coast. Wherever she went, she would seek
the best fighters and the best teachers, and learn what she could.
Medicine and fighting were the two goals in her life. With enough
knowledge she could find a cure. When she was cured, she could grow
old. One day becoming a lady, rather than a young girl. For if a girl
can be come a lady, then a lady can become an elder, and one day she
can join her family in the heavens. Ranma was not counting on any
miracle cures, she would be perfectly happy - well, almost - if only
she could age gracefully and naturally.
Every journey begins with but a single step. The journey to old age
begins with being a lady. Ranma's goal had always been to be the
greatest Martial Artist possible, and to be the manliest man possible.
Now he added that while a girl, he wanted to be a lady. She travelled
Japan for three years searching for knowledge, questing for her elusive
goal. As time passed, she came to realise that she was looking for the
end of the journey, rather than the start.
Taking a boat to China, 'Tendo Yuki' headed for Jusenkyo.
* * *
Yuki looked down on the pools of Jusenkyo and marvelled at how little
they had changed in the last five decades. All the little bamboo poles
were still there, looking as freshly cut as the day when she and her
father had arrived the first time. Walking along the edge of the pools,
she looked down into the cursed waters and wondered what spirit dwelt
within the spring.
She was leaning over the water, trying to see into the depth when she
heard a voice behind her. It was unmistakably the Guide, but he sounded
depressed and resigned. "Oh, little Miss. You no go near cursed Spring,
is very bad you fall in."
When Yuki turned and walked away from the spring, the Guide almost fell
over. People never heard what the Guide was saying until it was too
late. A dozen times the Guide had seen people come to Jusenkyo and had
tried to warn them away: each time they had ignored him. If a person
was doomed to be cursed, they would never notice the Guide's warnings
until it was too late. When she was next to the Guide, Yuki looked up
(compared to the massive figure of the Guide, Yuki's slender juvenile
frame made it quite a way to look up).
"Don't worry about me. From what you told me, there's no danger of me
ever falling into one of the springs."
"No! Little Miss, is very bad. You should not try. Go home now. Very
tragic if you fall in."
Yuki laughed. "Oh, something like the Nyanniichuan, a very tragic story
of young girl who drowned in the spring 1500 years ago?"
The Guide patted her on the back and led her into his hut. "Don't know
where you hear story of Nyanniichuan, but no risk of that. Spring of
Nyanniichuan destroyed fifty year ago. Spring dry up and vanish. No
more spring of drowned young girl any more."
Yuki sat down and gasped in astonishment. All of the healers and
priests she had spoken to over the last three years agreed on one
thing. The best chance they would have to counter the curse would be if
they had a sample of the cursed water to work with. If the spring was
gone, even that hope was dashed. Seeing his guest in such a distraught
state, the Guide took her inside, prepared tea and pressed a cup into
her hands.
Seeing the small bowl of tea, Yuki looked up at the Guide and smiled.
It's been so long, he probably doesn't recognise me. After sipping at
the tea for a moment, Yuki decided it was time for a demonstration.
Reaching past the Guide, she lifted the pot of hot water off the stove.
When she poured it over her head and shuddered in pain, the Guide gave
a short scream and stepped backwards. "No! Is not possible! Is no
Nyanniichuan! You find hot spring of drowned boy?"
Ranma looked at the Guide and he seemed to be terrified out of his
wits. "Calm down man! I've been here before, remember? You explained it
all to me: the cursed springs, hot and cold water, the spring of
drowned Jusenkyo Guide. Please, you have to remember. I need your
help."
Still breathing hard, the Guide had backed to the other side of the
room. Taking a few deep breaths, he finally managed to get himself
under control. "I new Guide, only been here six year. You too young to
have been cursed here before then. Where you get curse?"
Ranma sighed and took a sip of his tea. "I got cursed here fifty years
ago, probably just before the Nyanniichuan dried up. While I was
training with my father, he fell into the spring of the drowned panda.
I fell into the spring of the drowned young girl."
The Guide shook his head, jowls wobbling. "Is no possible. You no more
than nineteen. How you fall in spring of drowned girl?"
"Ah! There's your problem. It wasn't the spring of drowned girl. It was
the spring of drowned _young_ girl. Do you have any idea what it's like
to spend almost every minute of the last five decades as a twelve year
old girl?"
The Guide did not say a thing. He just turned his big shoulders and
faced a wall. Ranma looked enviously at his back. Sure, he wasn't in
great shape, but he was a man. Why should he be upset? Was... was he
actually crying there? Slowly the guide turned around with some moist
tracks down his cheeks and spoke softly. "I... I no understand. I fall
in spring when I seventeen year old girl. Now I spend every day as fat
old man. Once... Once I great warrior. Now I nothing more than
fisherman. I collect people who fall in spring, try keep them alive.
Never... Never get to live my life..."
When the Guide began to cry in earnest, Ranma became concerned.
Stepping around the table he placed an arm around the Guide's shoulders
and held him tight. It didn't take long before the Guide was clinging
tightly to him, crying like the woman she was on the inside. The
Guide's curse was the harshest of all the curses from Jusenkyo. If the
Guide died, someone would quickly fall into the spring and be cursed to
become the new Guide. For this reason, no-one would ever try and cure
the Guide. All his food was provided, but none would stay with him, for
to do so was to court the danger of the legendary cursed springs.
Worse still was what happened when a Guide tried to leave Jusenkyo. The
Kami that watched the springs obviously wanted a Guide, and anybody
that had been chosen and tried to leave the place was befallen by any
number of horrible fates. From surrounding villages she had heard tales
of Guides' friends catching all manner of diseases, towns burning to
the ground around them and crops failing for miles. The Guide would
never be harmed, but they would never be welcomed anywhere else in the
world.
Ranma and the Guide talked long into the night. While the Guide had
never heard of anyone ever being cured of their curse, he suspected it
was possible. The magic of the springs was powerful, but surely there
must be some limit. Although the hope was small, the Guide continually
clung to the hope that some day there would be a cure and he would be
changed back into a girl. Already the best years of her life had been
robbed away, and it seemed unlikely that would change, or she would
ever be able to get them back.
As the fire in the hut was guttering low, Ranma spoke of his life and
his goals. All he really wanted was to be able to grow old and die, to
be with his beloved wife. He realised that suicide was possible, but
that was just a coward's way of saying that they could not fight the
way life was. Ranma was going to hang on to life until it was stolen
from his grasp. He just wanted to remove the curse so that nature could
take its toll. It hurt to much to see everyone and everything you loved
grow old, wither and die while you watched through the eyes of a child.
Offering Ranma a place to stay, the two turned in for the night.
Tomorrow they would again pool their knowledge. Perhaps they may have a
clue to the cure that the other needed.
During the night it rained.
Needless to say, the roof above Ranma's head leaked slightly (and for
the first time in years). When Ranma awoke it was as a she, not a he.
Over breakfast, the Guide told Ranma of his village, the Joketsuzoku.
They were mighty Amazon warriors and would be happy to take in a girl
as talented as Ranma. Since they lived close to the springs, they were
also the most likely to be the ones which would have a cure. Ranma in
turn told the Guide of his life and love with Akane. It was three years
since she had died, but every day still started as a bleak and hopeless
look at the future: alone, and eternally missing the one woman who he
truly loved.
Eventually Ranma left for the Joketsuzoku. As she left the Guide's hut,
she promised the Guide: 'If I ever find a cure for the curse, I will
return here. You won't have to take the cure, but I promise you that I
will offer it.'
While he walked down the hill, leaving the valley which held the
springs, he wondered which was worse: being a man in a young girl's
body, or being a girl in a man's body, and knowing you were losing your
own life as time ticked by.
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End Of Chapter