Ranma ˝ Young Times 'Day 1: Challenges, Battles & Duels' A fanfiction based on Ranma ˝ By Kris Thompson This is a work of fiction based on Rumiko Takahashi's 'Ranma Nibun no Ichi' a.k.a. Ranma ˝ and was created for the author's personal enjoyment. ____________________________ "Kaori! Time to get up!" came Akane’s voice from the hallway. A form moaned in protest from a rumpled set of sheets and a girl about sixteen sat up, ran a hand through her short black hair and pulled her self out of her bed and trudged downstairs. "My, Ka, you look well this morning." Kaori’s younger sister by one year, Fu, commented. Kaori’s blue eyes glared over at her solemn sister. Fu was already dressed in her school uniform in the colours of yellow and maroon, her long black hair brushed, her brown eyes slightly shining behind her thin rimmed glasses. Many would have thought Fu a depressed child, but she wasn’t. Fu was merely a quiet child, always thinking, never saying much. What she did say was to Kaori, their parents or her closest friends. "Thank you, Fu." Kaori said to her sister sarcastically. "I hadn’t noticed." Fu held onto her eyes for a moment longer and went back to the book in her hand. That was Fu for you: always had her nose in a book. Their father was sitting at the table. "How are you today, Kaori?" Ranma asked. Kaori turned to her father. "Fine." "And you, Fu?" "I am fine as well, father." Fu replied without looking up from her book. "Here," Akane entered the room. "Breakfast is served." She gave them each a plate and sat down. Kaori dug in while Fu ate hers in small bites. "Kaori, dear," her mother smiled. "Your eating habits are as bad as your father's were." "Hey!" Ranma glared at Akane. Her mother laughed at his reaction. "Oh, come on, mom. I’m not that bad." Kaori said in her defense. "This is true: she is much worse, mother." Fu said. Kaori glared at her again. Akane looked up at the clock on the wall. "You two had better hurry up or you’ll be late for school." "Thanks mom! Breakfast was great!" and with that, Kaori was up the stairs and back down, dressed in her uniform exactly like Fu. "Come on, Fu or we’re gonna be late!" Kaori grabbed Fu’s arm and pulled her out the door. Akane sighed. "Remember those days?" Ranma asked. "Yes, I do. Kaori is more like you every day." Akane said, gathering the dishes up and headed for the kitchen. "Well, she’s more of a tomboy, like you." Ranma commented with a smile. Akane smiled and stuck out her tongue. "You’d better hurry up or you’re going to be late for your first class." Ranma looked at the clock. "Thanks, honey." and he got up and headed for the dojo. ____________________________ "Hey, Fu. Have you heard about this new girl coming to our school?" Kaori asked her sister as they walked towards Furinkan High School, the same one that their parents had both attended. "Yes. I believe her name is Isabelle. From what I hear, she’s quiet the athletic achiever." Fu replied. "Athletic achiever? How?" Kaori asked. "Well, Isabelle was the captain of her ballet team, captain of the martial arts team, captain of dance, and head swimmer for the schools swim team." Kaori gave her a puzzled look. "Swim team?" "Synchronized swimming." Fu said. "So? That’s not so impressive." Kaori said, running a hand through her hair. "She was also the star of the school’s track team and gymnastics. From what I hear, she is also quiet the skater." Fu finished. "Track! No way! I’m ten times better than her!" Kaori wasn’t going to let some ballet swimming girl take away her track stardom. It was her one true love, besides her martial arts. "Maybe you can make it into a competition or something." Fu suggested. "Hmph." Kaori said as they reached the entrance of the school. "Kaori, my love!" Kaori turned to see the brown haired, blue eyed boy known by everyone as Ikari Kuno, self titled as ‘The Wind of Rage’, the eldest son of the school’s principal, Tatewaki Kuno. He had somehow imagined that Kaori had fallen in love with him, which she certainly had not. He rushed towards her. "A kiss, my love?" WHAM! Kaori removed her fist from the boy’s face. "Ikari, if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times, I’m NOT your love! Now leave me alone!" She started to walk past when he grabbed her ankle. "By my goddess of love, do not leave me here." Ikari said to Kaori. Kaori proceeded to pound his head in with her school bag while Fu stood by and watched with indifference. A figure slipped up to her and stood by her. Only when he coughed, did Fu look up. "Good morning, Fu. How are you?" The boy asked, his brown hair resembling Ikari’s while his brown eyes gleamed. Fu looked at him for a moment longer before she took her glasses from her face, wiped them off and returned them and spoke. "You do know that your brother is being beaten to a near death state by my sister, correct Machio?" Machio looked at the fight and smiled. "Not while you are standing here in all your glory this morning, Fu." Fu glared at him and whipped out her mallet and whammed Machio into the ground with one easy stroke and by the time she turned back, Kaori was finishing pounding Ikari into the ground, whamming the mallet into him a few last time for luck. A cutesy voice made them both turn. "Are you Kaori Saotome?" asked a figure standing on the fence. Kaori turned to look at the figure. "Who wants to know?" "Kaori, I’m going on in so I won’t be late." Fu said and walked off, book in hand. The figure jumped and somersaulted in the air and landed perfectly. She looked about the same age as Kaori, her light brown hair cut a little past her shoulders, her bangs fluffed and a huge pink bow peeked out from behind her bangs. Her green eyes glimmered evilly. "My name is Isabelle Shiratori." Kaori recognized the name. Her parents had both went up against a girl named Azusa Shiratori when they were her age. ‘This girl must be Azusa’s daughter,’ Kaori thought. "So? What do you want?" "I’ve just come to tell you that your title as captain of the track team is mine, Saotome, so you might as well give up now instead of later, when I beat you." "What?!" Kaori couldn’t believe this girl. She was the daughter of Ranma Saotome, the best martial artist in Japan, not to say the world. She had to be kidding. "Do you know who’s daughter I am?" Isabelle smirked. "Of course I know who’s daughter you are. Ranma Saotome’s eldest. And I think that I can beat the best, Kaori. Or should I say, the worst?" She laughed. "Is that a challenge!" Kaori yelled. "Why of course! Kaori Saotome, I challenge you your title as track team captain in three days! Of course, you’re perfectly allowed to forfeit, to save yourself some embarrassment." Now Kaori was enraged. "Saotomes never forfeit! And we never lose!" Isabelle smirked again. "We’ll see about that." and she ran into the school just as the bell rang. Fu sat in her first class. She already was working on her work when the bell rang. "Dammit!!!" Fu turned her attention to the window where she saw her sister standing in front of the fallen Ikari, obviously late for school. That girl she had been talking to must have made her late. Fu shook her head. "Ka’s got to learn to prioritize." she muttered to herself. ____________________________ It was midmorning when Hachi Kuno stopped outside the gates of Furinkan High School. She looked at the address again and sighed. She couldn’t believe her mother was making her come here. At St. Heberke, she’d been the star of the gymnastics team, like her mother, Kodachi. But her mother had said that she would be fine here at Furinkan High School, under her Uncle Tatewaki’s watchful eye. ‘Ugh,’ she thought with distaste ‘to have to see Machio and Ikari, my two stupid cousins, day in and day out will be maddening.’ Then an evil gleam flashed in Hachi’s eyes. ‘Perhaps not, if I play my cards right.’ Hachi flipped her long black hair over her shoulder, she marched into Furinkan High School. ____________________________ "You wouldn’t have believed it, Fu," Kaori said as she chomped down on some rice at lunch. "She actually *challenged* me! ME!" "Maybe this Isabelle Shiratori believes she can beat you. Maybe she can." Fu said in her matter-of-fact voice. Kaori stared at her. "Are you *serious*?! You can’t be! You’re my sister after all!" "I’m just saying that there *is* a chance, Ka. Nothing more than that." Fu told her. Kaori sat back against the tree but looked up when a shadow fell over her. A girl in a similar outfit stood in front of here, her long black hair almost to her waist and her cold violet eyes looked down on Kaori. "Um… can I help you?" "Yes. I was wondering if I could sit with you." the girl asked. "Yeah, sure." Kaori told her. "My name’s Kaori Saotome." The girl’s eyes went wide. "Saotome? Are you a descendant of Ranma Saotome?" she asked in a melodramatic voice. Kaori raised an eyebrow. "Yeeeesss… he’s my father." The girl stepped back a moment, as if to compose herself then smiled. "I am Hachi Kuno, the Black Rosette, the daughter of Kodachi Kuno, therefore making you and I enemies." Kaori sighed. "I should have known that today was my day for enemies." she muttered to herself then stood, facing Hachi. "Okay, now what do *you* want?" "I, Hachi Kuno, challenge you, Kaori Saotome, to a duel!" Hachi roared. "What?! You can’t be serious!" Kaori yelled. "Why, certainly. I am a Kuno afterall." Kaori sighed in frustration. "Okay, so what do you want to fight me in? I’m booked until this Friday." "Then Friday it is! I, myself, practice Martial Arts Gymnastics. I assume that since you are a child of Ranma Saotome, that you are well practiced in the Arts?" "I am." Kaori glared at Hachi. "And Friday it is. In the gym." ____________________________ Author's Notes How did I get the idea for this? Basically, I wanted to see if the children of the Ranma-verse would hold grudges against their parents enemies, only to take it out on their enemies children. The answer is 'yes'! Actually, I had a fanfiction series before quiet similar to this one, only a bazillion times worse. There are some minor changes between the two series, but, oh well. Forming the characters was pretty neat. In the old series, Mousse and Shampoo's daughter was named Perfume and she acted very much like Fu in this series and she didn't speak in broken Japanese. Instead of Kodachi having twin girls as she did in the last series like this, she just has Hachi. Personally, I don't really think Nermia could handle *two* Kodachi children. And like the old fic, this one still has two of Kuno's sons. Hey!, *somebody's* gotta cause the Saotome girls some mental anguish. You might ask what is up with Fu. Neither of her parents are quiet and solemn. For this fic, I kinda used Fu's old fiction counterpart, Sumiko, along with Perfume to create her. In the old fic, Sumiko is pretty much the same as Fu; smart, quiet and only fights when she sees the need to. It's also my weird idea of putting the characters of Nabiki, Kasumi and Akane into one person; Nabiki with the coolness, Kasumi for the quiet and somewhat scholarly type, and Akane for the fighting and the hammers. ^_^ Some of the new characters are Hiroshi and Isabelle. In the old fic, a child of Azusa never even appeared. I thought it might be interesting to see how a child of Azusa and a child of Akane would react. Just like old times, I'm sure. I think that there was a character similar to Hiroshi in the old fic, but I'm not sure. It was a lame attempt at a fanfiction and I tried to forget it ever existed. Some characters that haven't even appeared in this fiction at all are Masashiro Saotome, the son of Ranma Saotome and pretty much his complete equal and heir. Along with him are the aforementioned Kuno Twins, Hachi and some other name (rhymed with 'Hachi' anyways). Well, I'm sure you're tired of reading all this, if you've even bothered. Well, you know the routine; any questions, comments or anything like that, send it to my email at the bottom of the page. Thanks! Signin' off! -Krissy cartoonpaperclips@email.com www.geocities.com/kuroi_hoshi