ShadowSoft Inc.
                        Presents:
                            
                   A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic
                       side-story
                            
                     Careful Destiny
                        Part One
                      "Ground Zero"
                            
                           by:
                        Todd Hill
                   AKA Shadow Stalker
                            
                        Based on:
             Be Careful What You Wish For...
                       written by:
                    Richard Beaubien
                            
       Inspired by the "Ranma 1/2" Manga and Anime
                   by Rumiko Takahashi
                            
                            
     A warm spring breeze blew through the streets of the
Nerima district shopping center.  Today, like every other
Saturday, it was full of people looking for things to
buy.  Ranma Saotome was among the crowd of shoppers,
going to pick up some green onions for Kasumi.  He was
approaching the grocer's shop when his attention suddenly
was diverted by a little junk shop at the corner.
     Letting his curiosity get the better of him, Ranma
approached the little junk store and grabbed the door
handle hesitantly.  Pushing on the handle, he entered the
store.  Melodic chimes hanging above the door rang out,
announcing a new customer.  As he walked into the store,
he was immediately assailed by a strong odor of old books
and musty furniture.  His eyes swept about the place,
inspecting the rows and corridors of items that crowded
the store.  Pictures of families from the fifties, and
some pre-World War Two clothing and other relics littered
the floor and walls in no discernible order.  Ranma
stepped over and around items and he wandered about the
store, not sure if he'd find anything to suit his fancy.
     A vendor dressed in a sparkling white leisure suit
looked up from his place behind the counter, and watched
as Ranma disappeared behind a rack of old clothes,
heading towards the back of the store.  Unseen by Ranma,
the vendor's eyes sparkled as his gaze fell on the young
martial artist.  `Yes.  This may be the one,' he thought
to himself as he walked around the counter to meet his
customer at the back of the store.
     Ranma hadn't found anything of interest, and was
beginning to tire of the place.  He turned around to
leave when his hand bumped against an old table with
catalogs and dusty music books sitting on top.
Disinterestedly, he looked through the titles of the
catalogs, noting the dates on the covers.  He turned his
attention to a stack of old manga sitting on one corner
of the table, and was busy flipping through them when
someone tapped him on the shoulder.
     "Yahhh!" Ranma yelled, startled by the quiet
approach of the vendor.  His startled jolt caused several
of the manga to spill to the floor.
     Undisturbed by his outburst, the vendor smiled, then
bowed slightly.  "Anything I can help you with, kind
sir?"
     Ranma let his heart calm down before answering.
He'd debated asking the vendor how he could've sneaked up
behind him without him knowing, but decided not to since
the vendor appeared too spacey to be an effective threat.
He scratched his head, not really sure why he was in the
store to begin with.  "Ummm... well, I was really just
looking ..."
     "... for a gift, perhaps?" the vendor completed.
"For your girlfriend?  We have plenty of those here," he
said, gesturing to the walls and aisles of junk in the
store.
     Ranma grimaced, not so sure that anyone would
appreciate a gift from this store.  "Well... not really.
To tell you the truth, I don't even know why I came
here," Ranma said distractedly.  He began eyeing the
distant doorway, seeing if he had a viable escape path
should he need it.
     Adopting a sly smile, the vendor said, "Ahh!  It
must've been a magical attraction that brought you here,
eh?"  He chuckled slightly.  "Say, you like magic young
man?"
     The mention of magic had returned Ranma's attention
to the rambling vendor in the seventies getup.  He
frowned at the guy's question.  `No, of course I don't
like magic,' he stated to himself.  After Jusenkyo, and
all of the magical ambush plans by Shampoo and Cologne,
he'd had his fill of magic.  But instead of ranting about
his life, he merely replied, "Naah.  I've never really
thought about it."
     Undeterred, the vendor continued his spiel.  "Well,
we have a few items here that are `special,'" he said,
gesturing to the glass cabinet beneath the counter.
     "Whattaya mean, *special?*" Ranma asked skeptically,
his eyes narrowing.  Anything *special* usually meant
trouble for him.
     "Well, the whole lot of items in this cabinet are
supposed to be magical," he said, waving his hands about
the display in a way that would make Vanna White proud.
     Ranma couldn't help but ask.  He didn't want to
believe the vendor's claims, but something in his mind
told him to listen.  "Really?  How can you tell?"
     The vendor shrugged.  "I can't know for sure.  I
never really thought to try them out.  But I do have a
history on a few of them."  Seeing Ranma's nod, he
continued.  "Well, this one," he indicated a parasol from
a mixed drink, "supposedly causes rain if you put it into
a Gin and Tonic while drinking it under a full moon."
Ranma shuddered at the thought of rain.  That little
gadget wouldn't give him anything but trouble.  Besides,
he didn't drink.
     Seeing Ranma shudder, the vendor continued on to the
next one, which happened to be a pair of plastic ear
plugs.  "This little gem is supposed to be man's best
friend.  Apparently, it doesn't block out all sounds.
Instead it blocks out only the nagging voice of a
girlfriend or wife.  Great for arguments."  Ranma nodded
his agreement smirking at the idea of peace and quiet.
But then feared his fate should Akane discover him using
them and find out what they were for.  Besides, Akane
tended to use her fists more than her mouth when she
argued.  He shook his head, and urged the vendor to
continue.
     "And this," he said, pointing to a rather
unremarkable brooch sitting in the middle of the display
case, "is the prize of the collection."
     Ranma snorted laughter, pointing at the dusty item.
"That old thing?  You *must* be joking."
     The vendor oiled his voice, smelling a sale.  "Ahh,
but sir, that is no ordinary brooch.  The original owner
said that every fifty years, it will grant the owner two
wishes."
     THAT got Ranma's attention.  "Wishes?  Really?  I
mean, you're kidding, right?  It can really grant
wishes!?"  Ranma looked over his shoulders suddenly, not
wanting anyone to hear what either he or the vendor were
saying.  "Yes, as I said, the previous owner said it can
grant 2 wishes."  He turned away from the display and
looked at Ranma with a downcast expression on his face,
trying hard to look disappointed.  "But you said that you
don't really believe in magic, so I guess that this
brooch wouldn't be of any interest to you."
     Ranma caught the vendor's arm before he could walk
away.  "NONO!  I mean... I *could* give it to my gir..
ahh.. a friend of mine," he said quickly.
     `Bingo!' thought the vendor as he took the item from
the shelf.  He handed it to Ranma, letting him feel it in
his hands.  Just as Ranma was getting comfortable holding
it, the vendor took it away and replaced it in the
cabinet.  "Heyy..." Ranma yelled, indignant at having the
item taken away.
     The vendor looked him square in the eye and said,
"If you want it, it'll cost you 5000 yen."
     Ranma turned over the idea in his mind, grimacing at
the cost.  5000 yen was a lot of money for an unemployed
martial arts student.  Kasumi had given him some money
for the onions, and he had some on him from a rebate he
got from Nabiki when she gave him bad information.
Totaling it up, he had about 6000 yen on him.  `I hope
Nabiki doesn't find out about this!' he thought as he
fished the wad of coins and bills from his pants pocket.
`She'd hound me endlessly if she found out about this
brooch.'  He shuddered to think of a wishing brooch in
Nabiki's hands.  "I'll take it," he said, quickly handing
the money over.
     `All too easy,' the vendor thought as he exchanged
the money for the brooch with Ranma.  Ranma took the
brooch from the vendor's hands and pocketed it quickly,
suddenly protective of the item.  "Okay, now tell me how
it works," he pressed once he made sure again that no-one
was around.
     The vendor leaned forward over the counter, propping
himself up on his elbows.  "Well, it's really simple.
Before you go to bed, make a wish and put the brooch
under your pillow.  In the morning your wish will come
true."  Ranma smiled.  `Finally!  A chance to be rid of
his curse, and walk around Nerima as a man among men.
It's so easy!' he thought to himself, triumphant.  `Heck!
If it doesn't work, I'll just give it to Akane, or
something.  I can't lose!'  Ranma turned to leave the
store when the vendor called out to him, "One word of
warning, though.  I suggest saving the second wish to
undo the first one just in case the first one doesn't
turn out the way you want."
     Ranma looked up as he opened the door, smiling.
"Yeah, sure.  I'll keep that in mind," he said as he
exited the store.
     The vendor smiled at the closed door, watching Ranma
walk down the sidewalk.  He clapped himself on the knee
in a celebratory fashion once Ranma was out of sight.
"Yes, I'm sure you will, Ranma Saotome!" he said
mirthfully, laughing deeply as if getting the punch-line
to some cosmic joke.  Then he snapped his fingers and
vanished from the store.

                          ****

     Ranma had managed to pick up the green onions for
Kasumi with what remaining money he'd had on him.  He had
to haggle with the vendor a bit before he bought the
large basket of onions, and was proud of himself for
doing it.  Nabiki was usually the one to talk pricing, so
he'd never really done it before.  So he took his success
with the grocer as a good omen that things would go well
for him.  He picked up his vegetable burden and dashed
off for the Tendo dojo.  He laid the basket of onions on
the kitchen floor next to the eldest Tendo daughter,
shouting, "HereyougoKasumi!" as he bolted for his room.
     Once upstairs, he crept into his room, making sure
that neither Akane nor Nabiki was watching.  He slid the
door closed behind him, and sat on his mat, keeping an
eye on the door at all times as he fished the arcane
object from the junk store out of his pocket.  `A chance
to be normal,' he thought, running his thumb across the
rough surface of the cheap jewelry.  `If this *really*
works, I can finally enjoy my life.'
     He smiled broadly, closing his eyes and imagining a
life free of the curse.  He gripped the brooch tightly in
his hand, holding it to his chest as he daydreamed about
what a good life he'd have if the wish were to work.
     A small voice in the back of his mind raised an
objection.  He'd been living with the curse long enough
that a part of him had grown used to being part woman.
And as much as he hated to think of it, if he kept the
curse, he would have a unique perspective on life.  But
he stopped dwelling on that, angrily shoving all thoughts
of it from his mind.  How could he even think about
keeping the damn curse?
     As far as he was concerned, his manhood and pride
were at stake.  He couldn't see far enough ahead to
appreciate the benefits that he could reap from his
unique condition, seeing instead the assault on his
masculinity that his curse represented.  `But haven't you
needed the girl's body before?' a part of him asked.
`Yeah, but I wouldn't have had half of the problems that
led up to me needing my girl body if I wasn't cursed in
the *first* place,' he shouted back at his conscience.
Sure he'd exploited the babe factor of his female body
when needed, but he'd always regretted doing it
afterward, since the idea of acting female threatened to
loosen the paranoid grip he kept on his masculinity.
     In short, Ranma was afraid that if he kept the curse
much longer, he'd start to enjoy being a girl, and would
probably start behaving like one, and finding guys
attractive, etc...
     His features contorted in agony as he imagined
himself *willingly* giggling like a girl, his hand
clinging to some guy's arm.  He violently banished the
thought from his mind.  `The sooner I'm rid of this
curse, the sooner I can return to a normal life.  I can't
handle the weird changes that seem to be happening to
me.'  He opened his eyes to gaze on the brooch once more.
`And if what that guy at the junk store told me was true,
you have the power to fix my problems,' he thought as he
turned the brooch over in his hand absently.
     He smiled lightly, tucking the brooch in what he
hoped was a secure place.  `I guess I'll find out tonight
whether or not I'm really done with this curse for good.'
He laughed through his nose as he imagined Akane's face
when he told her tomorrow that he wasn't cursed anymore.
`Maybe she'll stop acting so angry,' he added hopefully
as he stood up and walked out of his room.
     He headed back downstairs quickly, hoping that his
extended absence didn't raise any suspicions among either
his father or Nabiki.  As he reached the bottom of the
stairs, he knew that he had nothing to fear.  He noted,
as he took his customary place on the porch outside, that
his father and Mr. Tendo were playing their customary
game of Go.  Meanwhile Nabiki was lounging on the floor,
watching the TV with a passive interest, and Akane was
making her standard training noises in the dojo.  He
leaned back against the wall of the house, relaxing and
enjoying the feeling of the late afternoon sun as it
played against his skin.
     The remainder of the evening passed swiftly for
Ranma.  Eating dinner in silence, he'd managed to avoid
giving anything about the wish away to anyone at the
dinner table, and he only fought once with Akane.  `We
may finally be getting along,' he thought to himself as
he looked over at her again.
     He smiled to her as their eyes met, but as usual she
misunderstood the intention behind his friendly smile and
frowning back at him.  "What are *you* looking at?!" she
shouted defensively, tearing her gaze from him.  His
smile quickly vanished from his face, to be replaced by
the anger he usually felt whenever Akane did that.  `Then
again, maybe not,' he thought sullenly.
     Looking about the room to get his mind off of
Akane's attitude, he spotted the clock and noted how late
it was getting.  "I'm going to bed," he said softly,
standing up and quietly making his way up the stairs.
     Akane couldn't miss the downcast tone in his voice,
and realized that she had once more stepped over the line
with her knee-jerk response to her fiancee's affection.
"Ranma..." she said hesitantly, holding her hand out to
him.  He didn't seem to hear her as he continued out of
sight up the staircase.  She withdrew the hand and held
it against her pained heart, cursing herself all the
while for her misplaced anger.  Although she'd die before
ever admitting it to anyone in the room, she wanted
nothing more at the moment than to run upstairs to Ranma,
and have him hold her as she apologized for all of the
times she hurt him.
     She made two hesitant attempts to get up and go
after him, but something caused her to stop saying or
doing anything further.  Akane bigsweated as she felt
every eye in the room lock onto her, awaiting her next
move.  Stiffly she turned away from the staircase and
faced the TV again.  `I'm sorry, Ranma,' she thought to
herself sadly, pretending to watch the show.
Disappointed looks from the audience turned away from her
as she fixed her gaze on the screen.  `Someday we're
going to have to stop behaving like idiots,' she promised
herself.  She winced as she heard the door to his room
slam shut.  `Someday soon, Ranma...'

                          ****

     An hour later, Ranma sat up in his futon, no longer
pretending to be asleep.  "Finally," he said in a hushed
and slightly exasperated voice after hearing the last
bedroom door close.  It was late night at the Tendo dojo,
and the sound of the closing door signaled that the last
of the household had finally gone to bed.  He looked over
his shoulder, making sure that Genma was already asleep.
He nodded to himself, hearing the blissful snoring of his
father as he slept in his panda form.
     Now that everyone had turned in, he felt sure that
no-one would catch him trying to use the brooch.
Standing up quietly from his sleeping mat, he walked over
to where he hid the precious item.  Taking care not to
make any noise, he pulled it from its secret location and
gripped it tightly with his hands, seemingly desperate.
`I sure hope this works,' he thought as he closed his
eyes.
     Any doubts about using the wish had been swept away
the moment Akane had snapped at him.  `I can't believe
she still calls me a pervert.  Why...'  He broke off the
question, wiping the argument from his mind.  It was a
moot point as far as he was concerned.  He was very
confident that the item in his hands would solve the
problem.  `She'll finally respect me once I'm no longer
cursed,' he told himself, sure now of what he was about
to do.
     `Goodbye curse,' he thought as he pulled the brooch
to his chest.  He swept away a sudden pang of regret that
he felt at losing his female form, as he thought of the
proper words to say for his wish.  After a moment's
contemplation, the words rushed into his head and he knew
what he had to say.  In a soft voice, Ranma said, "I wish
I never became cursed with a girl's body."  His wish
complete, he placed the brooch underneath his pillow.
Yawning widely, he curled up on his futon and went to
sleep, optimistic about the morning to come.

                          ****

     Morning broke in Nerima (smash!  ^_^).  Rays of
sunlight peeked through the window and fell on the face
of a blissfully sleeping, and lightly snoring Ranma.  The
door slid open and a woman poked her head in the room.
"Ranma-chan, wake up!!!" she called out.  A small frown
due to his lack of response marred an otherwise beautiful
face.
     Ranma recognized the voice, but in his sleep-induced
torpor he wasn't quite sure who was talking to him.
Besides, he didn't know of anyone that would call him
`Ranma-chan' at the Tendo Dojo anyway.  Too tired to
think about it, he mentally shrugged his shoulders and
assumed it was his kawaikunee iinazuke taunting him.
Reluctant to give up the cozy sleep he was in, he turned
over on his bed, mumbling, "...nnn... g'way Akane..."
Soft snoring resumed shortly after that.
     A sigh could be heard in the distance, followed by
the sound of a metallic rattling, causing Ranma to twitch
occasionally.  The clanking sound grew louder, then was
suddenly replaced by a splash as a deluge of cold water
hit Ranma in the face and cascaded down his body, leaving
him very alert and shivering..  "I said GET UP!" a tart
voice shouted at him from above.  "Honestly!  If you
would at least get up on time I wouldn't have to do this
every morning."
     A very angry Ranma shot back with, "That was cold!!
Why did you do that?!  I'll get you, you ..."  His words
trailed off as he realized in complete horror who it was
he was talking to.  Nodoka Saotome.  His mother!  She
knew who he was, and he was soaking wet with cold water!
This wasn't good!
     "MOM?!?!?" he screamed, half hysterical.  His hands
were instantly a blur as he searched himself for signs of
breasts or other incriminating female parts. But to his
astonishment, he found that he was still a male.
     His face lost all expression.  `It wasn't a dream?!
I'm truly not cursed anymore?!'  Ranma jumped up, ran
past his befuddled mother to the bathroom (once he could
find it), and splashed himself repeatedly with cold
water.  After creating a small pool on the floor, and
confirming that he was no longer cursed, he ran back into
his room.  `My mother!' Ranma thought blissfully as he
moved through the door to his room.  `I don't have to
hide from her anymore!'  With that he ran to his mother
and hugged her tightly.  "Oh Mom!  I've missed you so
much!" he said, on the verge of tears.
     "Dear, you must've had a bad dream.  We were all
together for supper just last night, as usual.  Don't you
remember?" Nodoka said soothingly.  She was puzzled at
his statement, but didn't argue with the hug.  She was
only too willing to express her love for her only son.
She stroked his head gently as he broke down and cried on
her shoulder, holding onto her tightly.
     A couple of silent moments passed before he stood
back from the hug, wiping his eyes and getting himself
under control again.  He grinned widely as he remembered
his cold water experiment.  He started dancing around the
room, gleefully proclaiming, "I'm a MAN!  YES!  No more
Jusenkyo!"
     A *very* confused Nodoka watched as her son skipped
about the room doing high-fives with the wall and
cheering wildly.  Not understanding his behavior, she
walked over and grabbed hold of his arm to stop his manic
rantings.  "Of course you're a man, Ranma.  Whatever gave
you the idea that you weren't?  And what's this jusu-
whatsis thing you mentioned?"
     His mind scrambled to figure out why she'd asked
that question.  `Duh!  Of course!  She never knew about
the curse, or the training grounds of Jusenkyo.'  Waving
a hand at her, he casually replied, "Ah, it's nothin'
Mom!  Just a weird dream."
     She let it drop, although the look she gave him
clearly stated that she didn't quite believe that it was
`nothing.'  "Well, whatever Ranma.  You'd better get
dressed soon.  It's almost time for school, and you don't
want to be late again.  Breakfast will be waiting for you
downstairs, so hurry up and get ready," she said as she
walked out of his room.
     `Wow!  Looks like the brooch really worked!  I'm no
longer cursed...'  He stopped thinking and looked around,
trying to get a feel for where he was.  `But it worked in
a weird way.  This isn't the Tendo home.  In fact, I have
no idea where I am.'  He scratched his head, concern
growing over the fact that he wasn't able to recognize
*anything* that he saw.  Another concern he had was the
brooch.  `I wonder if it's here...'  Ranma looked under
his pillow, and to his satisfaction saw that it had made
the trip with him.  Taking it out from under his pillow,
he hid it in what he felt was a secure place underneath
his dresser, the whole time making sure he wasn't being
watched.
     His stomach growled, reminding him that breakfast
was awaiting him downstairs.  Not one to argue with his
appetite, he stood away from the dresser and walked over
to his closet.  Opening the closet revealed a host of
dark pants and T-shirts, along with five sets of men's
school uniforms.  Then his gaze swept past something he'd
never expect to see in his closet.
     `A leather jacket?!' he thought incredulously.
Turning the expensive biker's jacket over in his hands,
he saw English writing on the back, but couldn't read
past the "Harley-Davidson" emblem.  Grimacing at the
selection (or lack thereof, depending on one's
perspective) of clothing, he turned back to his dresser,
hoping the outcome would be better.  After rummaging
through all of his dresser drawers for a couple of
moments, he sighed in relief when he found what he wanted
to wear.  Smiling, he pulled out his customary Chinese
outfit, consisting of a red shirt and black pants.
Thankful that he wasn't going to wear that damned school
uniform that other guys had to wear, he put his clothes
on with gusto.
     Once dressed, he looked out his bedroom window.  He
was anxious to see just how much his life had changed
when a thought interrupted him.  `If I'm not at the Tendo
hall, then I wonder where Akane is?'  He dropped the
question for the moment as he heard his mother calling
him down to the breakfast table.  He shrugged his
shoulders, figuring that he'd work on that little problem
later.

                          ****

     Trying hard not to look like he was gawking, Ranma
slowly panned his gaze across the richly furnished house.
He liked the look, but thought that it was a bit much for
a family of martial artists.  `Not that I'm complaining,'
he was quick to add.  Indeed, this is the kind of house
that he'd dreamed of living in for many years.  `Pop must
be doing fairly well to be able to afford this getup,' he
thought in admiration.  He leveled his gaze on the table
again as Nodoka sat a tray of food down in front of him,
smiling warmly.  "Eat up dear.  You don't have much
time."
     `God!  This is so real!' Ranma thought, spellbound,
as he wolfed down the food Nodoka sat in front of him.
`This stuff's better than Kasumi's cooking,' Ranma noted
in-between gulps.  He slowed his eating, savoring the
taste.  He'd told his Pop several times in the past about
how much he'd enjoy getting a home cooked meal from his
Mom, and he was right.  `Not that Kasumi's cooking isn't
good, but this just tastes better to me.'  He resumed his
high-speed dining, banishing his morning hunger.
     As he ate, something else that had been nagging at
him came to mind, `I wonder why Pop didn't wake me up for
our morning practice?'  Ranma finished eating and laid
his empty bowl and chopsticks down on the tray.  "Mom?"
he yelled out towards the kitchen
     "Yes dear?" Nodoka returned.
     "Where's Pop?"
     "Out doing his morning training with Ranko before he
goes to work.  Where else would he and your sister be?"
With a puzzled look on her face, Nodoka emerged from the
kitchen and walked to the table.  With a mother's usual
concern, she knelt down and put her hand on his head.
"Are you sure you're okay, Ranma-chan?  You know, you're
acting awfully strange.  Maybe you should stay home
today."
     Ranma was too stunned to respond to Nodoka's
suggestion.  He couldn't believe that he had a sister!
He was also taken aback by the idea that his father
actually *worked* for a living.  He *blink-blinked*
several times in confusion before realizing that he'd
taken too long to answer his mother.  He shoved aside his
shock, struggling to remember what it was she'd said to
him.  "No, Mom.  That's okay.  I'll be fine," he finally
said.
     "My son, not wanting to stay home from school?  You
*must* be sick, dear," she said mirthfully.
     "MOOOOM!" Ranma said, flushing red with
embarrassment.
     "Calm down!  I was just kidding, dear," she said,
putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing lightly.
Her eyes widened in pleasant surprise as she noted the
empty bowl.  "Well, you must've been hungry today.  I
guess you enjoyed your breakfast?"
     "Yeah, it was good," Ranma replied cheerily.
     Nodoka smiled as she glanced at her son.  "Ah!  I'm
glad to see that you're wearing the outfit I gave you
last year.  I had begun to think that I'd wasted my money
on it."
     "Well..." he replied, uncomfortably.  He was going
to have to watch himself around his mother.  She had an
attention to detail similar to Nabiki's, and unless he
was careful, he'd get into a lot of trouble.  He looked
over at the wall clock and gasped.  `Dammit, I'm going to
be late!'
     Scrambling to his feet, he dashed over to the door
stand.  "Well, I'm off to school," he said as he put on
what he assumed were his shoes.
     Nodoka stood next to him to see him off, holding his
bento box in her hands.  She gave it and his books to
him, saying, "Okay dear.  Here's your lunch."  She kissed
him on the forehead as he grabbed his stuff, and then
watched the dust cloud disappear into the distance as he
ran for school.  `That's odd.  I've never seen him run on
fence-tops before,' she thought as she watched him
disappear into the distance.

                          ****

     Less than two minutes into his run for school, Ranma
had to stop.  He wasn't his normal self. During his run
from `home' he'd noticed a couple of odd things.  One, he
was unusually winded from his run, almost as if he hadn't
run in ages.  Two, he had to stick to running on the
ground, as he had fallen thrice from fence railings after
losing his balance.
     Pacing himself more carefully, he resumed running,
although he wasn't really sure where he was going.  That
was until he happened upon the familiar landmark of the
Tendo Dojo.  `Good,' he thought brightly to himself,
happy to finally see something he recognized.  `I'll be
able to walk Akane to school.  She'll really flip when
she sees...'
     His train of thought derailed at the sight of a
limousine pulling up to the front gates of the Tendo
estate.  `Huh?  A Limousine?  Ahh!  It must be for
Nabiki,' he thought, dismissing the limousine for the
moment.  Then he saw who stepped out of it.
     A very smug and austere looking Kuno stepped out and
walked to the gates, calling out, "Akane-chan, time to go
to school!"  After a couple of minutes, the gates opened
and a somewhat depressed Akane walked out.  Ranma stepped
back in complete confusion, not sure what was going on.
Akane let loose a tired sigh, replying simply, "Coming
dear."
     `Coming dear?!?'  Ranma tossed that one over in his
head for a moment.  Anger rising to the fore, he walked
over to Kuno.  "Hey!!  You fool!  Whattaya think you're
doing!?!"
     Kuno regarded Ranma as one would a household
cockroach.  "Who are you, sniveling commoner, to be
addressing the great Tatewaki Kuno in such an insolent
manner?"  Before Ranma could answer, Kuno held up his
hand to stop any response.  "Ahh, but it is not important
that I know who you are.  And for your information, I am
here to pick up my fiancee for school.  Now leave us, you
insouciant miscreant!!"
     Ranma stared open mouthed at Kuno, not believing
what he was hearing.  "Fiancee?!  How *dare* you claim
such a thing about Akane?!  She's *my* fiancee!" he
shouted.  He was absolutely livid, and  couldn't get over
Kuno's audacity.  Sure that idiot had proclaimed his lust
for Akane before, but this was going too far!  He
approached the kendoist menacingly, his hands flexing in
preparation for battle.
     Meanwhile, Akane gasped in shock.  She looked from
one man to the other in silence, trying to figure out
what was going on.  Ranma's proclamation of marriage
stunned her, and she suddenly found a bit of worry being
mixed with her heavy depression.
     "You'll take her over my dead body!!" Ranma declared
angrily, balling his hands into fists.
     "That can be arranged, simpleton," Kuno replied,
sighing as if dreading a household chore.
     "What's going on Kuno-chan?" Akane asked nervously.
She had an idea about what was going to happen, but she
wasn't sure whether to stop the two, or let this guy take
a shot at Kuno.  She turned to Kuno, awaiting a response.
     "Just get in the car, Akane," Kuno commanded
grandly.  "He's just another fool who thinks he's worthy
of your love.  But fear not, my dearest *wife*," Kuno
emphasized the word, looking right at Ranma as he said
it.  "I'll dispose of this wretch quickly.  He won't be
bothering us again."
     Akane disappeared inside the limousine, groaning in
disgust and muttering "Oh, brother!" just within earshot
of the two.
     "I'll make you suffer for this, Kuno!" he said as he
got into a fighting stance.  "No-one else on this planet
has the right to call Akane his wife, you arrogant
bastard!"
     "You may address me as Upperclassman Kuno.  You have
no right to call me by any other name," Kuno instructed
calmly.  "And as for calling someone arrogant, I would
say that you are such.  But enough!  Name calling is
beneath me, as are you.  Prepare yourself, for the
heavens are about to decry my righteous claim to the fair
Akane Tendo."  He raised his bokken, pointing it in
Ranma's direction.
     Preferring not to respond to Kuno's blathering,
Ranma twisted his hips slightly and launched into a jump
kick.
     What happened next shouldn't have.
     Ranma fully expected to connect with Kuno's face, as
what usually happened when they fought   However
something in his body didn't seem to be responding
properly, and the unsure kick was deftly blocked by the
Kendo champion.  "You really must think too highly of
yourself if you believe that such sloppy footwork will
gain you victory, knave!  That attack was pathetic!!"
     He panicked slightly.  `Kuno shouldn't have been
able to touch that kick.  What the hell's happened to me?
Was the move telegraphed or something?'  He didn't get a
chance to think any further on the subject as Kuno's
stance changed.  "Now know the true meaning of pain,
mongrel!  Shi-ne!!" he yelled, launching his attack.
Swinging outward, he slashed at Ranma with his bokken.
     Ranma barely managed to dodge the initial attack,
and noticed that he was very slow to react to the strike.
It was as if his mind knew what to do, but his body
wasn't coordinated enough to perform the moves.  And that
lack of coordination was beginning to tell as Kuno's
attacks gained in intensity.  Kuno grinned inwardly, sure
of his victory, as he yelled, "STRIKE!  STRIKE!  STRIKE!
STRIKE!  STRIKE!  STRIKE!  STRIKE!" with every thrust.
His movements increased in frequency to the point where
they were a blur.  Ranma was no longer able to combat the
force of Kuno's multiple sword strokes and was thrown
into the wall, where he lost consciousness.
     "Let us go, Akane," Kuno proclaimed as he entered
the limousine, leaving a knocked out Ranma lying in the
garbage outside the Tendo Hall.

                          ****

     Ranma's head was spinning and his body was aching.
The pain was reminiscent of the fights he'd had with
Akane.  But he didn't recall fighting her recently.  But
he chalked his confusion up to his fuzzy mind.  He
finally decided that he was dreaming.  `Yeah, that has to
be it...'
     But he dismissed that thought a moment later.  He
had to have lost a fight to someone.  How else could he
explain the pain he felt?  He knew that he hadn't seen
Ukyou, Shampoo, or even Ryouga today, so who did this to
him?  Slowly his mind became aware of an annoying smell.
Wrinkling his nose, he moved his head away from it, only
to encounter more of the same.  He brought a hand to his
face, but jerked it away quickly.  He coughed at the
terrible smell, trying not to gag.  Wherever he was, it
stunk viciously.  But his odor analysis faltered suddenly
as a sound dragged him away from his thoughts.
     He slowly opened his eyes, the bright sunlight
overwhelming his field of vision and causing a stabbing
pain to hit him in the back of the eyes.  Shielding his
eyes with a distant hand, he slowly grew accustomed to
the light, and the pain subsided.  Once he was able to
see without pain, he opened his eyes fully and turned
them in the direction of the noise.
     Looking up, his eyes met with the deep blue eyes of
a pretty, young, dark-haired girl.  She was standing over
him, snapping her fingers in front of his face, trying to
get his attention.  He blinked his eyes a couple of times
to clear away some of the blurriness still in his vision.
Looking about, he saw that he was ass high in a trash
pile.
     Directly across from the trash pile he could see the
gates of the Tendo hall. `Yup, Akane and I must've had
another argument.'  His hands found stable supports in
the garbage, and tried to sit up, only to lurch drunkenly
and stumble face-first back into the refuse.  He settled
for moving into a sitting position, although his body
protested painfully with every movement.
     "Hey bro, wake up!!  What the hell are you doing
lying in a trash heap, idiot!"  She knelt down to look at
his face.  "Geez!  If I didn't know any better, Ranma,
I'd swear you were in a fight.  In fact, you look like
shit."
     Ranma's mind cleared a little bit more.  He could
now remember snippets of what had happened, but he
couldn't get the whole picture in his mind.  He quit
considering what happened to him as the young lady's
words caught up to him.  `She's my *sister*?!  Oh,
boy...'  He looked at her closely, and to his shock saw
that she looked exactly as he did.  Whenever he was hit
with cold water that is.  `Yeah, a lifetime ago,' he
added sourly.
     It was as if he was looking into some sort of
special mirror.  The only differences between the girl
standing in front of him and `his Ranko' was that she had
dark hair, instead of red, and she was wearing the
customary Furinkan High School uniform.  And even though
it was a school uniform, it still managed to do wonders
for her figure.  And to top it all off, he saw that she
had her hair in a pig-tail.  `This day is weird!,' he
declared before standing up from the rubbish.
     "It looks like you were hit pretty hard," Ranko
commented, fingering the Ranma-shaped depression in the
wall.  "How'd this happen?"
     The question triggered his memory, as the fight
flooded back into his mind with complete clarity.  "What
the hell?!?  I lost to Kuno!!" he shouted, incredulous.
     "Ranma?!  You challenged Kuno?" she yelled back,
clapping her hand against her forehead and groaning in
disgust.  "Whatever possessed you to do something that
stupid?  Don't you realize that he's the best fighter at
Furinkan High?"
     "Yeah, and I lost!!!" he spluttered, not paying
attention to what he was saying.  `How could I have lost
to Kuno?!  That's *impossible!*'
     "Well of course you lost!  You should know better
than to challenge an expert martial artist when you don't
know any martial arts yourself," she said tartly.
     Ranma stood stock still, not wanting to believe what
his sister just told him.  "What did you say?" he asked,
hoping he heard her wrong.
     "I said ..."
     "... I don't know martial arts?" he completed
slowly.
     "Yeah, you haven't trained a day in over 10 years,"
she replied matter-of-factly.  She stood back as Ranma
stepped away from the garbage heap he was still standing
in.
     "What!?!  This can't be.  How..."  Ranma made a
sudden decision and took Ranko's hand in his.  "Come with
me, now!" he said in an eerie monotone.
     "Hey, what!?...Lemme go!" she said as she was
dragged away, forced to follow her brother to wherever he
was going.

                          ****

     He had to get away from the dojo.  His mind was
clogged with confusion and uncertainty over the morning's
events, and he didn't want to deal with Akane and Kuno
right now.  Sticking around her place would only serve to
remind him of what just happened, so he decided to deal
with them later.  Right now, he had some questions about
himself he wanted answered, and decided that talking in
the park would be better for questioning his sister.
They were a blur as he dragged his sister behind him to
the park.  Once there, he found a bench and sat down,
pulling her down with him.
     Winded and holding a hand against her chest, she
squirmed to seat herself comfortably on the bench.  She
had never seen her brother behave like this before, and
showed her confusion as she spoke.  "What's the big idea,
bro?  I mean, I don't mind missing class and all, but..."
     Ranma held up his hands to quiet her.  Looking her
straight in the eye, he plunged ahead.  "Sis, humor me
for a moment, please.  I know this question's coming out
of left field, but I need an answer..."  His look became
desperate.  "Please tell me about my life," he said,
almost pleading.
     Ranko's face broke out in the beginnings of shocked
laughter, but she managed to contain herself.  Seeing
that he wasn't kidding, her humor disappeared, and was
replaced by concern and even a little anger.  "What!?
Boy, Kuno must've hit you harder than I thought...  Just
what the hell kind of question is that, anyway?" she
asked, placing her hands on her hips.  Leaning forward a
bit, she stared at her brother.
     Ranma wrung his hands, awaiting an answer from her.
Her intense staring wasn't helping him to calm down any.
"Just tell me, please?!" he finally shouted out.
     "Well, the easy answer to that is that you don't
have a life," she finally said, smiling wickedly at him.
     Ranma's face flushed in anger, causing Ranko to push
back involuntarily.  "RANKO!  Dammit!  That's not what I
was talking about!  I want you to tell me about my past!
Why don't I know martial arts?" he yelled in
exasperation.
     "Okay, okay!" she said, holding her hands up to ward
him off.  `Christ, he's really serious about this.  I
wonder if Kuno really hurt him...'  Seeing his face turn
purple, she wiped the grin off of her face and regarded
him seriously.  "Whatever ..." she said as she sat back
on the bench, putting a finger against her lips in
apparent concentration.  "Well, here's what I remember
from the stories Mom and Pop told me.  You were Mom and
Pop's first kid.  So Pop started to train you early on so
you could carry on the Saotome School of Martial Arts.
When you were really young, he wanted to take you on a
training journey.  Mom refused to let him take you unless
you wanted to go.  When Pop asked you if you wanted to
go, you said you wanted to stay at home."
     Ranma nodded to himself.  `So that explains why I'm
not cursed, but not why I don't know martial arts.'  He
turned back to listen to his sister.
     "After that day Pop refused to train you any
further, saying that you weren't a real martial artist.
When that happened he started to train me to carry on the
Saotome school of Martial arts in place of you."  She
looked into her brother's eyes, "You were always okay
about this before.  What's happened to you, man?"
     Ranma couldn't answer.  He was too shocked to.  It
was unconscionable for him to think that his father would
abandon him simply because he wouldn't go on that damn
trip.  `My life seems to be tied to that decision.  I
think I've lost more than I've gained by getting rid of
the curse...'
     Ranko waved her hands in front of Ranma's eyes.
"Hey, you want me to continue?"
     Ranma started as he realized something.
`Waitaminute!  I can relearn Martial arts...'  Some of
his  desperation fled as he thought about this.  `As long
as I can relearn martial arts I can win Akane's heart!!
Yeah!  If that's the only problem with this world, then
it could be better than the one I came from!'  Ranma's
mind returned to the present as his eyes focused on
Ranko's snapping fingers.  Quickly, he grabbed his
sister's hands and held them close to his chest.  Looking
into her eyes, he asked, "Hey Ranko!  Do you think you
can train me?  I wanna learn martial arts."
     Ranko turned red at the question.  "Why should I
teach you anything at all?" she snapped back at him.
Ranma recoiled at the unexpected anger in her voice.
"You hate martial arts, Ranma!  Stop joking about it.
And you know I hate it when you rag on me about being a
fighter!"
     Ranma released her hands, and looked at her aghast.
"Ranko, I'd never tease you about that!"
     "Kuno must've knocked your memory outta whack when
he hit you.  Either that or you're being a smartass."
She didn't try to hide her bitter look.  But even with
the anger she felt, a part of her couldn't help but
believe him.  Ranma's sincerity was too hard to dismiss
as mere acting.
     "Ranko, I'm serious about this!  I want... no I
*need* to learn martial arts.  Please tell me you'll help
me!"  He squeezed her hands lightly, hoping to sway her.
     She glared at her brother for a moment, then
relented.  "Well, if you're really serious about this, I
can certainly try.  What's the sudden interest, Ranma?"
     "Let's just say that I have some things to work out.
I really appreciate this, Sis!," he said, standing up.
To himself he added, `Great!  Just you wait Akane!  I'll
put things back to normal and I won't have that curse to
make my life miserable!!  Then we can have the life that
we were meant to have!'
     Meanwhile Ranko looked over at her brother,
smirking.  `I'll see just how much you appreciate my
lessons after our first day's over, Ranma.'  She stopped
herself, considering something.  `Maybe Kuno managed to
knock some sense into big brother during that fight.
Ranma may finally be coming around...'

                          ****

     Once they finished talking, Ranma and Ranko decided
to haul ass to school, even though they were both
horribly late.  Ranma had originally protested Ranko's
suggestion about going to school until she said, "If Mom
finds out we cut school, she'll kill us both!"  Ranma
bowed to his sister's excellent logic and followed her to
Furinkan High.  When they arrived, Ranma groaned in
disgust.  Their teachers made them stand in the hall for
an hour due to missing their first classes.
     Once he'd arrived in his classroom, he saw that
Akane was in his class.  He'd brightened slightly when he
first saw her.  During one of the breaks he was about to
go over to her desk and talk to her, that is until he
noted that she wasn't returning his gaze.  In fact, if he
had known any better, he would've sworn that she was
deliberately ignoring him.  The shock of that was enough
to stagger him.
     He sat quietly for the remainder of class, a stony
look on his face.  `She really doesn't know who I am!' he
had thought to himself at the time.  He kept stealing
glances at her from his position, trying to record all of
the things that were different about her.  She was
sporting long hair, like she had when he first met her,
previously met her, `... whatever,' he thought
disgustedly.  The bell rang, signifying the end of the
class.  Ranma took one last, lingering look at Akane as
she stood and walked from the classroom, and felt his
heart tear when she didn't even turn his way.
     Lunch-time had been right after that, and he ate his
meal without even tasting it.  A few people had come over
to him, trying to talk, but Ranma wasn't paying attention
to anything but his churning mind.  `Man, what the hell
am I going to do now?  I have a sister who doesn't like
me.  Akane doesn't even want to talk to me.  Kuno managed
to pull a miracle out of his ass and beat me in combat.'
His eyes scanned the outside, as he noted the many
students who were wolfing down their lunches amidst the
springtime sunshine.  `None of the people here even know
me.  It's like I'm going to be starting all over again.'
     He packed his empty bento away, and reclined against
the trunk of a tree.  `I hope that Ranko'll be able to re-
train me.  Otherwise I'll have to use that other wish to
reverse this one.  There's no *way* I'm gonna live
without martial arts.'  He clenched his fists in a show
of determination.  `But at least that damned curse is
gone.'  He took some heart in that.  Ranma felt that as
long as he was able to re-learn Anything Goes, he'd be
able to deal with the rest.
     `I gotta figure out what the hell happened to Akane.
Her being engaged to Kuno was the last thing that I
would've ever expected from her.'  He shook his head in
disbelief.  `Must've been something pretty bad...'
     His mind changed tracks, as he thought of the new
sibling that he'd suddenly inherited.  `I have a sister.'
He smiled slightly.  He'd always wanted to have a brother
or sister.  `But she's pissed at me for some reason...
If I'm gonna have any peace at `home', I'll have to find
out why she's so mad at me and fix it.'  The ringing of
the clock ended the lunch period, and students scrambled
to pick up their things and head in for their next class.
     The rest of school had been the usual drag, but with
the added agony of watching Akane ignore him for the rest
of the day.  Ranma's disdain for school had apparently
not changed when he made that wish.  By the end of school
he had amassed a copious amount of chalk dust in his hair
from the erasers thrown at him for failing to pay
attention.  Somehow, though, he had managed to survive to
the end of the day.
     The final straw for Ranma came when he saw Kuno
fawning over Akane as they left the school together,
placing his arm across her shoulders as they left the
grounds and made for his limousine.  Noticeably
depressed, he heaved a sigh and started walking from the
school building when he felt a tap on his shoulder.  He
turned his head and saw his bouncy sister walking behind
him.  "Hey, you alive in there bro?" she quipped as she
advanced to walk beside him.
     Ranma forced himself to smile slightly at his cute
sister's dry wit.  Ranko's sarcastic behavior was
annoying, but it was helping him to banish the foul mood
that had swept over him during class.  Ranko took a look
at her brother and laughed out loud.  Reaching her hand
up, she brushed at the front of Ranma's head, dislodging
a minor snow-drift's worth of chalk dust from his hair.
He sneezed as some of the dust entered his nose.  "Didja
fall asleep in class again, Ranma?" she asked, chuckling
slightly and clapping her hands together to get rid of
some of the chalk dust that had clung to her.
     "Something like that," Ranma replied absently.  He
felt the depression begin to creep up on him again, and
sighed softly.  `Dammit, I hate feeling like this!' he
shouted internally.  `How can I get rid of this
depression?'  He brightened as an idea came to him.  He
turned to look at his sister.  "Umm, Sis?"
     "Yeah, what's up Ranma?" she asked as she continued
to walk.
     "You know that agreement we made in the park today?
You know, about training me?" he asked quickly.  Ranko
nodded her head.  "Well, do you think we can start
today?" he asked, a hopeful tone in his voice.  Ranko
turned to her brother.  "Yeah, I guess I can do that.
What say we get suited up after I finish my homework and
we'll work out in dad's training hall.  He should still
be out of there then."
     "Great!" Ranma replied, glad for the distraction.
`A workout may be just the thing to cure the blues,' he
thought as he followed his sister home.

                          ****

     Ranma frowned at the gi he was wearing.  He again
resisted the temptation to take it off, and stood there
with a slightly embarrassed look on his face.  His
sister's giggling wasn't helping matters any.  He eyed
her dangerously, trying to shut her up.  "You can cut
that out anytime you want, Ranko," he said angrily.
Since Ranma's `other self' had never taken to martial
arts, he didn't have a gi of his own.  But since he and
Ranko were close to the same size, she had loaned him one
of her older spares.
     He hadn't paid attention while putting it on.  It
didn't fit all that well.  The pants were a little small,
and they were a little uncomfortable around the hips.
The top was the killer, however.  It fit fine, but it
looked bad on Ranma.  After all, how macho can a guy be
wearing a pink gi with `Hello Kitty' stickers on the
back?
     Ranko was nearly hysterical, pointing at Ranma and
gasping for air in-between gales of laughter.  Ranma
growled at her, cutting through her laughter and calming
her down.  "I'm sorry, bro.  I guess I forgot that Mom
had sewn on those patches.  After all, I haven't used
that gi for awhile.  We can fix that after we get through
practicing," she commiserated.
     `Sure you forgot, Sis,' Ranma thought, allowing his
ire to dissipate slowly.  He assumed a ready stance in
the middle of the training hall.  It was a bit smaller
than Mr. Tendo's dojo, he noted, but it served its
purpose.
     After stretching for a few minutes, Ranko faced him.
"Okay, Ranma.  I'm gonna assume that you've never had any
training before."  Ranma nodded slowly.  He'd decided
during school today that he didn't want to give away
anything about his past, for the moment at least.  "That
being the case, we'll start with some basic moves," she
said, adopting a teacher's stance.  "Ranma, I'll be
honest and tell you from the beginning that I haven't
ever trained anyone before, so I'm playing it by ear."
     Ranma looked at her squarely, saying, "That's okay
Ranko.  I have faith in you."
     Ranko breathed deeply, and exhaled slowly.  "Okay
Ranma, let's start with defense.  I want you to try and
block my kick, okay?"  Ranma nodded, and Ranko launched
into a simple kick that he blocked deftly.  She eyed her
brother strangely, "Ranma, you sure you've never had
training before?"
     His eyes widened as he realized that he wouldn't be
able to hide some aspects of his training.  Scrambling to
find an excuse, he finally came up with something.  "I
guess it's from watching a lot of kung fu movies," he
suggested, smiling weakly.
     Ranko's skeptical glance didn't quite leave her
face.  "Uhh, yeah... right.  Well anyway, I'm going to
see just how much you do know.  Watch out, I'm gonna
start to pick up the speed on my kicks.  Let me know when
you want me to stop."
     Ranma nodded without saying anything further.  Ranko
resumed her attack stance again and launched a fusillade
of faster and slightly more complex kicks.  He managed to
block most of them, but the strain was becoming evident
as he struggled to keep up with his sister's pace.
     Ranko, meanwhile, was getting frustrated that all of
her kicks so far had not connected.  Granted they were
kicks that any martial artist with a year's training
could block, but her brother wasn't supposed to know
martial arts at all.  She frowned inwardly, her
frustration having mounted to the point where she decided
to up the stakes a bit.  She struck with a kick, hardly
holding anything back, and scored a direct hit to the
chest.  This time Ranma couldn't block it, and was
knocked on his butt on the mats.
     Ranko was immediately on her knees next to Ranma,
apologetic.  "Ranma, I'm sorry.  Man, I should've been
watching what I was doing."  Ranma was sucking in air,
and grasping at his ribs where Ranko had tagged him.
     He regarded her with a determined look, raising his
hands to cut off her apology.  "Hey, Sis!  It's cool.
Don't worry about it.  I should've seen it coming," he
replied calmly.  She stood back, allowing him to come to
his feet.
     "Well, you seem to have some knowledge of defense,"
Ranko observed.  She couldn't stifle the bit of anger she
felt.  `I worked my ass off for years to get where I am,
and now he comes along out of nowhere and in one day he's
already well beyond a beginning student.  He'd better've
had training elsewhere...' she thought bitterly.  She
then swept her jealous anger from her mind, and
concentrated instead on instructing her brother.  "I
think what you need to do is practice some more.  You've
got good form, but your actions are a little sloppy.  But
let me try something else on you and see how well you
respond."
     Ranma nodded and regained his ready stance on the
mats.  Ranko launched a simple punch at him, which he
easily avoided.  Seeing how ineffective the punch was,
she threw a series of faster arm and fist movements at
him.  Most of them he was able to dodge with little
effort.  But as her tempo increased, he was finding it
harder to block them.
     He swore to himself as he was tagged on the face
with an elbow.  Every strike was forcing him to push
himself harder to try to keep his sister's swift punches
at bay.  The blows he took were also helping him to get
some idea of how far out of shape his `new self' was.
But even with the problems he was having with his body,
he had to grudgingly admit that while the `other Ranma'
didn't exercise, he had at least kept a modicum of
fitness.  Judging from the way he was performing at the
moment, he figured he had three weeks, maybe two if he
pushed it, before he was fighting close to par again.
     Something else that was being drummed home to him
with every landed punch was that a girl was wiping the
floor with him.  He couldn't understand why, even though
she was his sister, he was getting such punishment from a
girl.  `Even Akane wasn't this relentless,' he thought
before taking a fist on the chest.  `But then again, I
did ask for this...'  Thinking of his training reminded
him of what his goal was; to regain his old form.  The
idea of getting back in shape energized him, helping him
to renew his defense, as he pushed himself harder and
harder.
     As he blocked her incoming fists, he couldn't help
but respect his little sister.  With all of he punishment
he'd endured this session, it was easy for him to tell
that she was one hell of a martial artist.  He found
himself smirking at that, a small level of pride working
its way through him as they continued to spar.
     Ranko noted the grin on her brother's face, and
allowed a slightly ugly grin to appear on her own.
`Ranma's definitely got potential, but he's getting cocky
if he's going to grin like he's not getting a challenge.
Well, I guess I'll have to re-educate him,' she thought
as she allowed a full strength punch to fly.  Caught
unawares in his reverie, the punch tagged Ranma square in
the chest, and down he went.
     This time Ranko held her position instead of running
to help him.  Ranma groaned as the pain stabbed at him,
causing him to clutch his hands tightly to his chest by
reflex.  Gritting his teeth, he slowly worked himself
into a sitting position on the mat, staring up at his
sister.
     "Ouch!  I guess I deserved that one, Sis.  Sorry I
wasn't paying attention there," he said with the
beginnings a smile.  `Correction,' he told himself.
`She's an *excellent* martial artist.'
     Ranko smirked and said, "That's better.  Don't
ignore your teacher, that's what we call a *bad idea.*"
She put her hand out for her brother.  He reached up and
took his sister's proffered hand, chuckling in spite of
the pain.
     Ranko regarded him as he stood upright.  "You're
doing pretty well, bro.  I wouldn't have expected you to
last half an hour against me, much less  an hour fighting
off what I've thrown at you."  Her brows furrowed.  "I
swear, you act more like a rusty martial artist than a
person who's never done Kenpo before."
     Ranma blinked at that statement, and plowed his mind
for a proper response.  "Heh, thanks for the compliment,
Sis.  I really appreciate you doing this for me."  She
frowned, not completely satisfied that Ranma was telling
her the truth, but she decided not to press the issue any
further.  She also wasn't used to her brother being this
polite and *considerate* to her.  `Could be that he's
finally grown up,' she thought.
     "Okay bro, this is what I need you to do..."  She
began rattling off a regimen of repetitive exercises that
he already knew by heart.
     Ranma sighed, glad that he was able to deflect her
suspicions.  `She's smart, I'll give her that,' he
conceded.  He crouched into an attack stance, preparing
to launch his first attack at Ranko, as she had directed
him to do.  "Whenever you're ready..."

                          ****

     Nodoka Saotome hummed to herself as she cleaned the
counter of her kitchen.  `Hmm, the kids should be home
soon,' she thought as she put the wash-towel away.  She
looked up from her admiration of the clean counter top,
hearing a muffled noise coming from outside.  Curious,
she walked to the back door of the house and stepped
outside.
     "I'll get you this time!" she heard coming from the
training hall.  She frowned, recognizing Ranma's voice as
the one shouting.  Quickly she made her way from the
house to the hall.  Bounding up the steps, she whipped
open the doors to the training hall, and gasped at what
she saw.
     Nodoka's eyes flashed as she saw Ranma and Ranko
mixing it up in the middle of the training hall.  Her son
was setting himself up to launch a jump kick at Ranko.
Not wanting to watch any further, she barged into the
training hall, intent on stopping the brawling siblings.
"What the *hell* is going on here?!" she demanded.
     Caught unawares, Ranko cringed in surprise at the
sound of her mother yelling, turning quickly to look at
her.  Her head whipped quickly back to face Ranma, in
time to see him hurtling out of control at her.
     "Oh  *shiiiiiiiitt*!!," Ranma yelled as he careened
towards his ill-prepared sister, his arms waving wildly
and his eyes wide open.
     *CRUNCH!*
     Nodoka winced as she watched her children become a
tangled mess of arms and legs.  With effort, she managed
to hide the smirk that kept threatening to appear on her
face.  It was hard not to laugh at the scene, especially
knowing that neither Ranma nor Ranko were hurt.  `Now to
find out what they were arguing about this time...'  With
a stern look on her face, she marched over to the tangled
teens.
     "How many times have I told you two not to *FIGHT?*"
Ranma and Ranko winced at the volume of the last word.
Motivated by their mother's ire, they quickly untangled
themselves and assumed standing positions next to each
other.  Both started talking at the same time.
     "Ranko wasn't ..."
     "Mom, he and I weren't..."
     Both blushed, and stared down at the floor, avoiding
Nodoka's critical gaze.  Setting her hands on her hips,
she began questioning the two.  "Alright, what started it
this time?"  She looked at Ranma.  "You didn't put her
panties down the disposal again, did you Ranma?"  He
*barely* managed to choke back a snicker after getting a
visual on that.  He reminded himself to ask Ranko about
that sometime in the future.  He shook his head `no' to
answer his mother's question, but said nothing.
     Nodoka sighed, and looked at Ranko.  "Then it
must've been you, Ranko."  She leaned closer to Ranko,
staring her in the eye.  "Okay, spill it young lady!
What did you do to him this time?"  She stood back again,
holding her hands in front of her, sighing impatiently.
"No.  I'd rather not know what it was that started it."
She regarded Ranko sternly.  "You ought to know better
than to abuse Ranma like this, young lady!  Ranma's in no
condition to defend himself from a martial artist with
your level of experience.  Even if you were only trained
by your father."
     Ranma and Ranko both winced inwardly at the barb
against their father.  However, they both held their
ground without protest, each waiting for a chance to
speak.
     Nodoka continued to rant.  "I can't believe you two!
Constantly fighting like cats and dogs."  She began
pacing in front of the two.
     Ranko raised her hand uncertainly.  "Uhh...  Mom?
..."
     Nodoka continued without even hearing her.  "Maybe I
should just break down and give each of you a sword and
let you two finish each other off for good.  Then I could
finally have some peace and quiet around here!"  She
continued pacing, wringing her hands angrily.
     Ranma raised a finger and cleared his throat.
`"Ummm...  Yo...  Mom?..." he stammered.
     Nodoka ignored him, continuing to pace and speak.
"No, I couldn't do that.  The mess would be too big to
clean up.  Besides it's hard to get blood stains out of
clothes."
     Ranma and Ranko bigsweated as they watched their
mother blather on about their fighting and wear a groove
in the floor in front of them.  Finally, having enough,
they both shouted "MOM!!" in perfect unison.
     Nodoka jumped at the shout.  "What!?" she shouted
with a heavy dose of irritation.
     Ranko took a deep breath, sighing loudly before
launching into her explanation.  "Mom, we weren't
fighting..."
     "That's what it looked like to me," she retorted.
     "I asked her to," Ranma chimed in.
     Nodoka looked at Ranma askance.  "Ranma, honey, ...
why?"
     "I felt it was time I did something new, so I asked
Ranko to show me a few moves.  *That's* what we were
doing, Mom," he answered calmly.
     Nodoka's face radiated shock.  "Ranma, I don't
believe this.  You've always shunned martial arts before,
so what's with the sudden interest?"
     Ranma didn't know how to answer the question, so he
improvised.  "I just wanted to try some new stuff.  A lot
of my friends seem to like it."  `Yeah, right...' he
added to himself.
     Nodoka's look hardened.  She could see the potential
trouble this could cause, both between he and Ranko, and
between he and her husband.  "Well, when your father
hears about this, he's likely to get very upset.  You
know how he likes to go on about honor and Kenpo and all
of that."
     Ranma sighed tiredly.  "Mom, could you please keep
this from him.  I don't want any trouble for myself or
Ranko because of this."  His look hardened as well.  "I'm
going to practice martial arts somewhere.  I'd prefer to
do it here."
     Nodoka's eyebrow swept up in response to Ranma's
veiled threat, and her respect for her son went up a
notch.  "Very well, Son, I'll stay out of this.  But
should your father find out, I won't intervene for you
either.  It'll be up to you to decide whether or not you
want to risk getting your father angry."
     Ranma nodded.  "Thanks Mom.  I promise, Ranko and
I'll be as discreet as possible.  Don't worry."
     Nodoka sighed in resignation.  "Alright, if that's
what you want, I'll abide by it."  She turned to leave
the training hall, looking over her shoulder before
stepping out.  "You two better get inside.  Genma will be
home soon."  She walked back to the house quietly.  `My
boy's growing up,' she thought with a smile.  `As I
always knew he would.'

                          ****

     The two practiced for another half hour before
answering Nodoka's call for them to come in.  Bushed,
they both cleaned up the training hall, then dragged
themselves inside the house and crawled up the stairs to
their bedrooms.
     A few minutes later, an exhausted Ranma shuffled
into the bathroom.  Bone weary from the exercise and
punishment he'd endured, he slipped out of his gi and
entered the bath.  His mind in another world, he'd
slumped down automatically on a stool and started
scrubbing away when he heard someone gasp sharply.  He
turned to see who made the noise when his eyes fell on a
beet-red and very wet Ranko.  She had managed to cover
all of the interesting parts with her hands before Ranma
could catch a glimpse of anything.
     She sat on her stool, soap cascading down her side
and back as she stared wide-eyed at her naked brother,
her mouth gaping slightly.  With an effort, she managed
to collect her wits.  "Ranma, you did see the sign on the
door, didn't you?  I mean, aren't we a little old to be
bathing together?"
     Ranma didn't answer, although his mortified look
clearly told her that he hadn't expected to find her in
here.  Covering himself by reflex, he yelled in surprise
and quickly scrambled out of the room, closing the door
behind him.  "Sorry Sis!" he yelled behind the door.
Ranko eventually resumed her scrubbing, although she
wasn't able to lose her blush for the remainder of the
night.
     After bathing alone and eating, Ranma retired to his
room.  He smacked himself on the forehead, cursing his
ignorance for relying on his old habits.  It was crystal
clear to him that he was in a different Nerima, and that
he'd have to adapt to his new environment before he
alienated everybody and wound up alone and miserable.
Plus, he had to prioritize.  First and foremost, he had
to find out how others saw him.  `I guess Ranko will be
helping me out a lot on that one.  Later on, that is.
There's no telling what she'd think of me if I told her
about the wish now.  She'd probably accuse me of making
fun of her and stop training me...'
     He also had to get the full story on Akane's
behavior, and figure out a way of fixing it before he
lost any chance of being with her.  He smiled suddenly as
he realized what else had been missing from the day.
Neither Shampoo nor Ukyou had ambushed him with either
their own version of love/lust or food today.  `It's a
good thing Mom cooks a lot, otherwise I would've had to
look for an extra meal,' he added.
     Concentrating on his sister, he flushed in
embarrassment as the event in the bathroom replayed
suddenly in his mind.  He hadn't seen anything of Ranko's
body, but he was quite sure he'd given her an
unintentional eyeful of his.  A small comfort was that
she hadn't reacted like Akane would've.
     "Akane..." Ranma whispered mournfully, his thoughts
and the incident in the bathroom suddenly forgotten.  Not
able to stop the overpowering flood of emotions that were
weighing on his heart, he let them wash through him.
More depressed than he'd ever been in his life, Ranma
turned out the light, laid down, and cried himself to
sleep.

                          ****

     The next several days passed by more smoothly than
the first, with Ranma paying more attention to the
teachers, and trying to pay less to Akane.  That was
especially hard for him to do, though, whenever he saw
Akane and Kuno together either at lunch or when arriving
at and leaving school.  Truth be told, he couldn't bear
to look at her at all.
     Although he tried to console his broken heart by
reminding himself that Akane had never known him in this
existence, her absence from his life constantly stabbed
at his heart.  He kept his depression at bay by drawing
hope from his progress with his training;  thinking that
maybe, just maybe, when he was in top form again they
would be together again.  That helped to fire his
determination, as every day he would vow that he would
make Akane his again, somehow...
     He had taken that determination and used it to fuel
his training sessions with his sister.  Each night saw
his body becoming more and more attuned to the movements
that he visualized in his mind. The physical conditioning
he underwent in his training, and at school, helped to
attune his body.  As the days had progressed, his
confidence in himself solidified, and Ranko's admiration
of her brother grew by leaps and bounds.
     On the seventh day of training, he was capable of
launching *effective* offensive moves against her.  Their
sparring had become less of an educational event and more
of an endurance test for both.  Ranko was really
appreciating the workout her brother was giving her, but
it seemed that he was pulling his punches a bit, almost
as if he didn't want to hit her at all.  After a few more
minutes of having to tolerate his behavior, Ranko held
her hand up to stop him.  "Ranma, what the hell are you
doing?"
     Ranma showed her a puzzled look.  "I'm doing what
you told me, Sis," he replied simply.
     "Not that!  Why aren't you trying to hit me?" she
demanded.  "I know you're strong Ranma, and you've
improved a lot over the past week, but you act like
you're holding back, and I want to know why."  She stood
in front of him, her arms crossed under her breasts,
awaiting an answer.
     Ranma blushed slightly and coughed into his hand.
"Well, I ummm...  You see, I can't... I can't hit girls."
Ranko gave him a dark look, and Ranma hurried to explain
himself.  "Honestly, I just don't want to hurt you, Sis."
     Ranko stood on her tiptoes so that she and Ranma
were nose-to-nose.  "Let's get one thing straight big
brother," she shouted into his face, poking him in the
chest as she said every word.  "Yeah I'm a girl, but I'm
also a martial artist, and it's a Goddamn *insult* to me
when you hold yourself back."  Ranma's eyes widened as
she said that.  He'd never considered that what he was
doing was an insult to girls.  `Did Akane feel the same
way?' he asked himself quickly.  He didn't get a chance
to think about much else as his angry sister continued.
     "How *dare* you say that I can't defend myself from
you, or any guy, simply because I'm female?  You make it
sound like I haven't ever taken martial arts seriously.
What the hell gives you the right..."  A lone tear worked
its way free from her reddened eyes, and wound its way
down her cheek.  Angrily she swiped the tear from her
face.  "Thanks a lot, Ranma," she spat viciously.
     Ranma shook his head and berated himself for his
poor choice of words.  Tentatively, he reached his hand
out to her and grabbed her gently by the arm.  "Sis,
please... don't cry.  I didn't mean to say you weren't
good.  I just..."  He faltered in his explanation, trying
to find the proper words, but not coming up with any.
"I'm sorry, Ranko.  I won't hold back anymore."  Not
sensing any resistance from her, he pulled her to him and
brought his other arm around her, holding her tenderly.
"I promise."
     Ranko sniffled a bit.  "Really?" she asked, laying
her head against his shoulder.
     Ranma smiled.  "Yeah, Ranko.  Really.  I'll even try
to beat the shit out of you if you want," he said with a
smile.
     Ranko couldn't help herself, and erupted with
laughter.  Her anger gone, she stood away from her
brother, wiping the moisture from her cheeks on the
sleeve of her gi.  "You'd better Ranma, because from now
on I'm not gonna hold back either," she said with a
smile.
     Ranma winced inwardly, convinced that the number of
bruises he was going to get that night had just doubled.
They resumed fighting, with him pouring everything he had
into his attacks and truly enjoying his training with his
sister.

                          ****

     The eleventh day marked a turning point for Ranma.
For the first time since his training had begun, he'd
fought his sister to a standstill.  The fight ended in a
draw, with both Saotome's very winded.  Ranma had pushed
himself harder than he had ever done before, and was
rewarded with complete exhaustion, and a loud kiss on the
cheek from his sister, congratulating him on his good
work.
     "You're doing very well, Ranma.  I've never seen
anyone take to martial arts like this before.  In fact,
you've done well enough that I think I'll start showing
you some of the higher level forms and special techniques
from Anything Goes tomorrow," she stated.  Her face
clearly showed how blown away she was.  It astounded her
that he could be doing so well in Anything Goes in so
little time.  She had to admit that, against her better
senses, she was starting to like her brother.  His change
in behavior seemed genuine, and since that first day of
training, he had been going out of his way to make her
feel appreciated.  After seeing the remarkable change
wrought in him in a mere two weeks, she couldn't help but
praise him.
     He blushed at the compliments, not used to hearing
it from one of his own family.  Also, his ears perked up
at Ranko's mention of special techniques.  `I guess I
should really go all out tomorrow.  If she feels that I'm
ready for special techniques, then perhaps it's time I
started trying to use them again,' he thought to himself
as he helped his sister clean the training hall.  He
smiled suddenly, thinking how surprised his sister would
be tomorrow when he finally let loose.

                          ****

     A vibrant and smiling Ranma cracked his knuckles and
adopted a fighting stance.  "You ready for me, Ranko?" he
asked lightly.
     A frazzled and flushed Ranko nodded wearily at him,
grunting her assent as she tiredly brought her hands up
into an attack stance.  Ranma nodded back to her,
signaling that she should initiate the attack.  As
quickly as she could, Ranko lunged forward, her arms
snapping up with her palm aimed right at his nose.  But
to her disgust, he was once again not there.  At her
first movement, Ranma leapt up and vaulted *over* her,
pivoting on her head with his index finger.  He then
landed behind her, crouched down and swept her legs out
from under her, all before she could even turn around.
     *Whump!*  "Ouch!" she shouted as her breath left her
body again.  She noted absently that she never impacted
with the mat that many times before in single session.
She'd stopped counting when she reached thirty-seven.
"Where the *hell* did he pick this stuff up?" she
muttered under her breath to no-one in particular.
     She looked up to see Ranma holding his hand out for
her.  She debated reaching for it, wondering if staying
on the mats for the moment wasn't the wiser course of
action.  `Geez!  Even Pop's not this good!' she lamented.
     He jumped back from her, moving into a ready stance.
He was primed for action, bouncing up and down on the
balls of his feet, and flexing his arms.  To Ranko it
looked as though his body was almost bursting at the
seams with pent-up energy.  He smiled down at the sagging
form of Ranko, motioning his hands toward himself in an
effort to try and encourage her into coming at him again.
"Come on, Sis!  Just a couple more, okay?  I have a thing
or two that I haven't tried yet."
     She was too tired to even glare at him, so she
instead waved him off with a tired movement of her hand,
concentrating instead on breathing.  "I don't think so,
Ranma.  I'm so exhausted, that I'm having trouble
standing up!"  She paused to catch her breath again..
"Though I guess I understand why you're ready to go.
After all, I was the one doing all of the chasing, and I
didn't even lay a *finger* on you!" she griped.  She sat
up a bit, leaned to her left, and picked up her towel.
Tiredly she wiped the sweat from her brow and around her
neck as she propped herself against one of the walls of
the training hall.
     "You know, it only took you two weeks to go from
being a nobody to whipping my ass soundly.  Now I know
for a fact that I'm not that good a teacher, so..."  Her
gaze bored into him.  "So I want you to tell me where you
learned all this stuff."  She continued to stare,
awaiting an answer.
     Ranma smiled enigmatically.  "You wouldn't believe
me if I told you, Sis."
     She hoped that her disappointed scowl told him that
she didn't like the answer.  But she knew that she had to
accept it.  After all, she couldn't beat the information
out of him anymore.  "Well, either you're getting better,
or I'm getting worse!" she said dejectedly.
     Ranma chuckled and sat next to his sister, putting
his arm around her shoulders.  "Hey!  Don't worry about
your skills.  You're not a bad martial artist, Sis.  In
fact, you're great!  Especially for a girl."
     Ranko turned to her brother with an angry look on
her face.  "Well thanks a lot!  Geez, why are you acting
so sexist?"
     Ranma flushed, realizing he'd just insulted her.
"Sorry, that came out the wrong way.  I meant to say that
you fight as well as a man, and I've never seen a woman
do that before, that's all..."
     Ranko nodded, somewhat satisfied with the apology.
     Still eager to show his stuff, Ranma stood up and
walked to the door of the training hall.  Releasing a
beleaguered sigh, Ranko rose to follow him.  "Hey Ranma,
wait up!" she called as she walked after him, too tired
to run.  Once she made it to the door of the training
hall, she could see Ranma placing the last in a series of
practice dummies out in the yard.
     After making sure that the last dummy was properly
in place, he walked over to her.  "I need to practice
some special moves, so I figured that I'd set these up to
practice on."
     "We could've done that, bro.  Why bring out the
dummies?"  She adopted an air of feigned disappointment.
     Ranma shook his head, laying his hands on her
shoulders.  "Not this time, Sis.  Even under the best
control, I could seriously hurt you with these moves.
It's best that I use the practice dummies now."  He held
his hand up to forestall any further comment from her.
"Just trust me on this one.  Watch and you'll see for
yourself."
     Ranko sat on the steps leading to the training hall,
reclining against one of the roof supports as she awaited
the demonstration from her brother.  He stood in front of
the first dummy, and concentrated on his attack.
Imagining that the dummy was Ryouga helped his
concentration a bit.  Bringing his hands up, he struck,
shouting, "KACHUU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!"  Ranko watched in
awe as her `weakling' brother's hands blurred into
action, landing 479 punches in under 30 seconds.  The
head of the practice dummy was so much dust when he
stopped.  `What the *hell* was *that*?' she thought in
shock, her face slack-jawed as she came to her feet and
walked towards him.
     Ranma didn't say anything, standing silent for a
second and admiring his handiwork.  He flexed his fingers
to alleviate the numbness he felt, then rubbed his hands
together to clean off some of the dust.  Although he
didn't show it at the moment, it pleased him greatly that
he was regaining his old form.  `In less than two weeks,
even!' he exulted.  Calming his breathing and clearing
his mind, he concentrated on keeping himself cool as he
walked to the next dummy, which was sitting directly in
the sunlight.  `This one's for you, Kuno!' he thought as
he began to slowly orbit the practice dummy.
     Remembering Ranko, he quickly looked over his
shoulder, shouting, "You might want to stand back a
little more."  After seeing that first move, she was
quick to agree, and regained her seat on the training
hall steps.  "That's good!" he shouted before returning
his attention to the dummy.  He increased his speed
around the dummy, his eyes mere slits as he concentrated
on keeping himself calm.  Then with a flourish he
completed the move, cupping his hands together and
thrusting them towards the dummy, shouting, "HI RYU SHO
TEN HA!"  A column of blazing chi-energy launched from
between Ranma and the practice dummy, blasting it out of
the yard.
     As the tendrils of energy vanished, a panicked Ranko
jumped up from her seat and ran towards her brother.
"Ranma, you alright?!" she yelled in concern.  She
stopped short as she noted that Ranma was untouched by
the energy, and not even *breathing hard*.  The grass
between him and the erstwhile target was flattened, and
the practice dummy was gone, but those were the only
things she could find amiss.
     He looked at her, smiling in satisfaction.  "Nothin'
to it, Sis!  Wow, what a way to work off stress!"  He
took a deep breath, very pleased with the results of his
last attack.  And even though the last attack had left
him winded, he decided to press on.  He had something
else he needed to try.  "Now I only have one more thing
to do before I quit for the day," he announced to her as
he walked away from target number two's last known
position.
     Ranko's eyes widened, "One more?  Geez, Ranma, you
mean there's more?!"  `What else could there be?' she
thought as she remained standing this time, turning to
watch as Ranma faced the final practice dummy.
     Standing in front of the doomed mannequin, he
crouched into a battle stance.  He closed his eyes,
focusing all of his attention on the target.  He stood
like that for a few minutes, doing nothing.  Ranko was
about to check on him to see if he had fallen asleep, or
something, when he moved in a lightning fast array of
hand movements, shouting, "MOUKO TAKABISHA!"  A ball of
chi-energy launched from his hands and struck the dummy
in the center of the chest area, burrowing a hole
completely through it.  Exhaustion overcame him as he
sank down to one knee, his breathing labored.  Ranko ran
over to him, and held onto him so he wouldn't fall over.
     "Thanks Sis.  I guess I overdid it a bit on that
last one," he said as he fought to a standing position
again.  He held onto her shoulders, putting as much
weight on her as he thought she could stand, as he
breathed deeply.
     Ranko was too astounded by what she'd seen to notice
her brother's burden as she supported him.  "Ranma, that
was incredible!" she shouted in amazement.  "I had no
idea you could do this kind of stuff!"  `Hell, I didn't
know *anyone* could do this sort of stuff,' she thought
as she guided him to the steps of the training room and
had him sit down.
     Once he was seated, she sat next to him and handed
him his towel.  He accepted it with a nod, and began
wiping away the sweat from his brow.  A few moments
passed by as they sat in companionable silence, allowing
each of them a chance to rest and relax.  Ranma merely
sat there, taking deep breaths and calming his racing
heart.  Ranko's curiosity became uncontainable as she sat
next to him, dwelling on what she's seen him do.
     "You know, we really need to talk," she blurted out
suddenly.  He turned his head to look in her deep blue
eyes.  "You're not the same person I knew two weeks ago,
Ranma.  I've been really patient with you since you asked
me to train you, but now I think it's high time you told
me what the hell's going on."
     He considered this for a moment, not sure what kind
of impact it would have on him if he told people about
his other, `former,' life.  He shrugged his shoulders,
deciding that he should confide in her.  He felt that she
deserved at least that much after all she'd done for him.
Plus he felt he could trust her to keep it to herself.
"Okay Ranko, I'll tell you everything.  But let's get
cleaned up first.  I'm exhausted, and could really use a
bath right now."
     "Okay, Bro.  You can go first, while I'll clean up
the training room..."  A sly grin made its way on her
face, "... unless you're too tired and need me to join
you and scrub your back for you."  She broke out into a
fit of cackling laughter at seeing Ranma blush clear to
his ears, the incident in the bathroom still very vivid
in both of their minds.
     "Ha ha," he deadpanned.  "No thanks Sis, I think I
can manage by myself," he said, wrapping his towel around
his neck and standing up.
     With that, he sprinted for the training hall doors,
ran across the yard and into the house.  She watched him
go, a newfound respect for her older brother showing on
her face as she put the last of the practice items away.
     Another figure, in a white leisure suit, watched as
well from a discreet distance.  Hovering sixty feet above
the back yard of the Saotome residence, he smiled to
himself.  He had chosen well, he felt.  Ranma's greatest
challenge was yet to happen, however, and that event
would be the one to decide Saotome's true fate.  He
snapped his fingers, and disappeared.

                          ****

     Ranko exited the bath, a towel draped loosely across
her breasts as she hurried to her bedroom.  As she walked
down the hall, a hand suddenly grabbed her by the
shoulder.  She whirled around in an attack stance,
somehow managing to keep the towel over her front as she
brought her free hand up to face her attacker.  She
deflated as she saw a smirking Ranma holding onto her
shoulder.
     "Gotcha!" he said with a smile.
     She flushed red, embarrassed at being caught
unawares.  "Get your hand offa me, pervert!" she said
with mock anger.  Ranma released his grip on her, still
smiling.  He turned to leave when she called out to him,
"Hey bro!  When are we gonna have that talk?"
     He turned back to her and said, "We'll talk in my
room, once you're dressed that is."
     Ranko's voice gained a teasing tone as she tugged at
her towel.  "What's wrong, Ranma?  You think this
outfit's a little too flimsy?"  Ranma's red face was all
she'd hoped for.  "Gotcha back!" she yelled, giggling.
She stuck her tongue out, then ran for her room before
Ranma could recover.  Flustered, he decided not to shout
a comeback to that and simply walked to his room instead,
awaiting her arrival.
     A few minutes later, she knocked on his door.  "Come
in!" he said softly as she opened the door and walked
through.
     She saw him sitting on his bed, his eyes half-closed
and his hands behind his head in a comfortable repose.
She sat next to him on his bed, watching his face for any
clue as to what he was thinking.  He appeared to be
somewhere else, if his eyes were any indication.  "So,
what's up Ranma?"
     Ranma opened his eyes fully and sat up a bit ,
facing his sister.  A warm smile slowly appeared on his
face, which was slowly mirrored by one of her own.  He'd
continued to debate the wisdom of telling her about the
wish.  But, in the end, he felt that if he couldn't tell
his own flesh and blood, he wouldn't be able to tell
anyone.  And he felt that at some point down the line
he'd have to tell this story several times.  "Well,
Ranko.  What I have to say will definitely sound strange.
But I need you to believe me, because it really
happened."
     `Great!  A cheesy sci-fi opening for his story,' she
deadpanned to herself.  "Geez, Ranma! You're making this
sound like an episode of `Unsolved Mysteries'..."  She
eyed her brother suspiciously, not sure that he was going
to tell her the truth.  "Try being serious, okay?  I
don't need you wasting my time."
     He got the point, and decided to plow ahead instead
of embroidering the truth.  `Well, here goes nothing,' he
thought as he gathered the story together in his mind.
He then launched into the story of his `other' life,
occasionally stumbling over certain details, and omitting
others he felt weren't important.  Ranko's eyes grew
larger and larger as he continued spinning his tale until
she felt she couldn't take it anymore. Her head
throbbing, she held one hand up to stop him, while the
other hand went to her head.  "Whoa, whoa, whoa, bro!
You're giving me a headache!"
     "But it's all true!" Ranma said loudly, holding his
hands out imploringly.  `She doesn't believe me!' he
thought in a panic.  `How the hell do I convince her that
I'm not lying?'  He leaned towards her a bit, bringing
his face directly in front of hers.  "I wouldn't lie
about something like this!" he hissed, his fists clenched
in frustration.
     Ranko had to admit that while the story sounded like
something out of an Anime show, it held a ring of truth
to it.  Besides, impossible as it seemed, it was the only
plausible explanation that she would accept for how he
learned all of those intricate fighting forms.  Sighing,
she decided that it was best to believe him, for now.
"It's okay bro.  If you say it's true, I believe you."
She took a few moments to run through the story again,
then decided to ask some questions.
     "Okay Ranma, lemme get this straight."  She held up
her hand to tick points off on her fingers.  "You were
granted a wish, and that wish made you what you are right
now."  Ranma nodded.  "And in your `other life' you never
had a sister?"
     He nodded again.  "I have a theory about that.  It
seems that the Saotome family was always destined to have
a daughter.  And since I was cursed in the other life, I
also acted as that daughter," he said by way of
explanation.  Seeing the skeptical look on her face, he
added, "Hey, it's just a theory!"
     "Whatever, bro," she said, dismissing that for the
moment.  "You mentioned the curse again.  You and Pop
went to this Ginseng..."
     "Jusenkyo," he corrected.
     "Yeah, whatever.  Jusenkyo.  And this place held a
bunch of cursed springs.  You both fell into the springs,
right?"  Another nod.  "Pop became a panda..." she
chuckled again at the image.  Her father, a cute fuzzy
bear playing with a tire.  Recovering quickly, she
continued, "...and you became a girl?"
     Ranma nodded slowly, "Yeah.  Cold water activated
the curses, and hot water reversed them."
     "So you weren't a girl all the time?" she pressed.
     Ranma shook his head.  "No, thank God!  I only
became a girl whenever I got hit with cold water."
     "Still, you know what it's like to be a girl,
right?" she asked, wondering what it was like to be a
magical gender-bender.
     "Yeah, I feel like I've been through it all," he
replied, sighing like a war-weary veteran.
     "What did you look like?"
     "Well to tell you the truth, I looked exactly like
you do, except I had red hair instead of black."
     That earned a stare from his sister.  "You looked
exactly like me?  How would you know what I look like?"
     "Well, there was that time in the bathroom a couple
of weeks ago.  Plus you *did* flash me with the towel
just a few minutes ago.  It was kinda hard not to notice,
Ranko."  Now it was her turn to blush deep crimson.  She
didn't think that she'd exposed herself to him.
Shuffling uncomfortably, she decided to press on.
     "So, did you ever date a guy, Ranma?"
     Ranma flushed, "Gaah!  No!  Of course not.  Yuck!"
His body went through various gyrations as he expressed
his distaste at the question.  "I only had the body of a
girl.  My mind never changed," he said, as he tried to
explain the weird curse to her.
     "Ahhh!  Now I see.  That must've been an interesting
curse to live with," she said wryly, once he completed
his explanation of the Spring of Drowned Girl.
     "More than you'll ever know.  Why did you think I
wished to be rid of the curse?"  He told her about all of
the problems he'd had to endure, some of them as a direct
result of his curse.
     "Multiple engagements?  And Kuno chasing after you?
Heh, my brother the gigolo!" she said, a fit of giggling
overcoming her.
     "Hey, cut that out Ranko!  I'm not done telling the
story yet!"
     Bringing herself under control, she quieted down and
allowed him to continue his life story.  "Anyway, Pop
made a few promises to some people both before and while
we were on that training trip.  The first one concerned
the trip itself.  Pop had to promise to make me a man
among men before Mom would allow me to go with him.  If
Pop failed, Mom would have forced both of us to commit
seppuku."  Ranko's eyes widened in horror as she got a
visual of Ranma and her dad disemboweling themselves.
Ranma continued.  "That was the last time I saw Mom for
many years."
     "Ahh, now I understand why you're so happy whenever
Mom's around.  I guess you had to hide from her after you
were cursed," Ranko replied.  Ranma nodded, a sad look on
his face.  She sighed, silently thanking God that she'd
not been dragged around on a training trip with her
father.  He sounded no different from the one her brother
had been forced to contend with in his other life.  Ranma
shook his head to clear it, and then continued.
     "Another promise was the one I already told you
about, where Pop promised to marry me to Ukyou.  And
finally, before I was born, Pop made a promise to his
lifelong friend, Soun Tendo, that should Pop have a boy
and Mr. Tendo have a girl; they would marry the kids so
they could carry on the Anything Goes School of Martial
Arts.  Well, after we went to Jusenkyo, Pop finally told
me about the arranged marriage.  Actually, he waited
until we were a block from the Tendo Dojo before he told
me."  Ranma's fists clenched at the memory.  "Anyway,
when we arrived, Pop and I found out that Mr. Tendo had
three daughters.  Kasumi, who was nineteen, Nabiki, who
was seventeen, and Akane, who was sixteen.  Akane was
chosen as the one to marry me by the other two after they
found out about my curse.
     Ranma winced involuntarily as he remembered how well
he and Akane, literally, hit it off when they first met.
`She didn't have to hit me so hard with that table...' he
thought absently.  With an effort he brought his mind
back to the present.  "Akane and I never made the
engagement official.  I mean, how could I get married to
a girl in the condition I was in?  Although, come to
think of it, she didn't seem to mind the curse that
much," he dismissed a sudden feeling of misgiving he felt
about making the wish.
     "But anyway, another reason we didn't make the
engagement official was that we argued all the time."  He
smiled wanly, adding, "I have to admit, though, that she
had begun to grow on me recently.  If only she wasn't
such a ..."  He broke off, his sorrow making it
impossible for him to complete the sentence.
     Ranko looked at her brother closely, her eyes
narrowing as she guessed at what he wasn't able to say.
"You loved her, didn't you?" she demanded.  It was a
shock to her that even after suffering through all of the
bad things that he said happened between them, he still
managed to fall in love with her.  She could tell that by
just looking at him, and she had to admire her brother
for his tolerance.
     Ranma's head snapped up, as his old defense
instincts kicked in.  "No!  That tomboy?!  That uncute
macho chick is ..."
     Ranko held her hand up, the expression on her face
telling Ranma he should stop.  "Remember who you're
talking to, bro.  I may be a girl to you..."  Ranma
flushed at the comment.  "...but I'm also a Saotome.  I
recognize that look on your face.  You don't have to lie
to me, so just admit it," Ranko admonished, wagging her
finger in a lecturing fashion.
     Ranma relaxed, deciding that denying the obvious
wouldn't help him anymore.  "Yeah, you're right, I do."
His relaxed posture changed to one of anger.  "But we
could never seem to get anywhere with all of the
interference from Ryouga, Mousse, Kuno, and other wanna-
be fiancees!" he hissed, his fists balled up.  Then his
hands fell to his sides, and his eyes lit up as he
realized something.  "But that's not the case anymore!
Shampoo, Mousse, and that old ghoul aren't here because I
never went to the village of the Amazons.  Same thing
with Ukyou!  Pop and I never met her father, so she has
no reason to be here, either.  Plus, I haven't met Ryouga
or Kodachi, yet, thank God!"
     Ranko stopped trying to follow his ranting after
`But that's' and calmly watched him go on.  Once he'd
finished, she asked, "What are you babbling about,
Ranma?"
     "Don't you see, Ranko?  I can start over with Akane,
and not have any interference.  It may actually work this
time!"  He jumped up, a big smile on his face.  Ranko
stood up from his bed and backed away from her brother,
watching him from a distance.
     "Bro, lemme get something straight here.  You're
going to chase after her?  After everything that's
happened to you?"
     "Yeah, why not?  After all, she could do worse."
`Correction, she *is* doing worse,' he thought evilly as
Akane and Kuno came to mind again.
     Ranko shook her head, not sure that she wanted to
get involved in this at all, but deciding that her
brother could be getting in over his head.  "You said
yourself that she doesn't know you, so what are you going
to do now?  I don't know who this Akane person is.  If
she's at Furinkan High, I haven't seen her."
     "Oh she's there alright.  She's in my classes,
although she acts like she doesn't even know who I am,"
he said evasively.
     "So how are you going to get her attention?"
     "Getting her attention isn't the real problem,
Ranko.  I have to get her away from that idiot, Kuno."
Ranma recalled what he saw outside of the Tendo Dojo that
day, and all of the times since at Furinkan High.  "Why
she's even hanging out with that jerk is beyond me," he
said sullenly.
     "Well, you'd better have a lot of life insurance if
you're going to go after Kuno.  The `Blue Thunder of
Furinkan High' is good.  I've never fought him myself,
but I've seen the results of his fights many times
before."
     Ranma cracked his knuckles and smirked.  "Now that I
have my fighting abilities back, Kuno's going to become
the new doormat of the high school."
     Ranko chuckled lightly and patted him on the back,
saying, "Well I wish you luck Ranma.  Just let me know if
you need any help with him."
     Ranma turned to face her.  "You know, before, I'd
always wondered what it would be like to have a brother
or a sister.  I was surprised when Mom said that we
didn't get along before."  Ranko's head turned away from
him.  "What were we like together, Sis?"
     She didn't know where to begin.  All of the little
stunts that they'd pulled on each other over time had
given way to the angry relationship that this Ranma had
wished himself into the middle of.  "A lot of petty
arguing, Ranma," she stated simply.  She blew out her
breath as she explained herself.  "You were always so
jealous of the attention Pop paid to me because of my
training.  You would get back at me by teasing me about
being too butch, or being a tomboy, or saying that
martial arts was turning me into a man..." she broke off,
hoping to contain her anger before it erupted.  She
reminded herself that this Ranma claimed that he wasn't
the same one that did those things to her so long ago.
     "I'd normally get back at you by destroying your
toys.  When we were older, I'd find some of your choice
Anime and flatten it, or find one of your manga and rip
it to shreds.  You kept on teasing me about being a man,
tearing up my underwear and leaving the pieces on the
bed, saying that a man shouldn't be wearing a bra or
panties."  Her lower lip quivered slightly; the emotions
of all those previous fights overwhelming her self-
control.  "In short Ranma, we hated each other."  She
lowered her head, tears streaming down her face as she
wept quietly.
     "I tried many times to be nice to you," she said,
cutting through her sorrow as she forced herself to go
on.  "But you were always angry with me.  Jealous, I
guess, because Pop rejected you and took me instead for
the heir to the Saotome school."  In her emotional haze,
she didn't notice as her brother inched closer to her on
the bed, his hand hovering at her back.  The look on his
face clearly showed that he was disgusted with his other
self.  He was sure that Ranko was only telling her side
of the events, but he didn't doubt that most of what she
was saying was true.
     "When we both went into high school this year, you
weren't as ugly to me as you used to be.  It was as if
you'd given up on fighting with me..."  Ranko stopped
speaking as she felt his arm go around her shoulders.
She responded to the gesture by laying her head against
his chest.
     "Sis, why didn't you just knock the hell out of me?"
he asked softly.
     She laughed derisively.  "Oh, believe me, I wanted
to.  There were a couple of times in the past where I was
so angry with you that I wanted to knock you into Lower
Earth Orbit."  She ground her teeth in frustration.  "But
Mom always managed to catch us before we came to blows,
and threatened me with `severe consequences' if I ever
knocked you around.  So I had to keep martial arts out of
our arguments."  She laughed suddenly.  "But I did enjoy
watching Mom or Pop punish you whenever they learned that
the argument was your fault.  At least then I knew you
weren't going to get away with it."
     Ranma held on to his angry sister, feeling the
tension working its way through the corded muscles of her
arms and back.  `I deserved it too, if what she said was
true.'  "Ranko, I know I didn't have anything to do with
that, but I... I'm so sorry.  I..."  He stopped for a
moment, unsure of what to say next.  Fumbling for words,
he finally managed to say, "Well, I'm glad you're here
with me now, Sis.  And you can be sure that I won't ever
do anything like that again."  He wrapped her up in a
tight hug, mussing her hair.
     Ranko returned the hug, dismissing her anger as
being misplaced.  She was certain now that this wasn't
the same person who only last month cut her bra into
small pieces for throwing away one of his manga books.
     "Hey Ranko, I was wondering," he said brightly,
changing the subject to lighten the mood.
     They disengaged from the hug, Ranma keeping an arm
around the slight shoulders of his sister.  "Yeah, what
is it?"
     "How old are you?  I mean, you look like you're the
same age I am."
     "I'm fifteen.  I was born eleven months after you
were."
     "Oh.  Well, that being the case, I should be able to
teach you some of the special moves you saw me do today.
That is, if you want me to."
     Ranko smiled evilly.  "Yeah.  I'd like that.  It'd
help me keep those hentai freshmen away from me."
     Ranma gave her a big grin and said, "Lemme know if
you ever want any help in that department.  I can be
quite persuasive."  They both laughed at that.
     Both heads turned at the sound of their mother
calling them to the dinner table.
     "Oh, by the way Ranko.  Please keep our conversation
between us.  I don't want Mom or Pop to think that I'm
crazy."
     "Ok Ranma.  I'll keep this between us.  Just make
sure that you don't slip and mention it yourself."  Ranma
nodded, then they both turned to go downstairs.

                          ****

     Flipping idly through all of the channels on the
set, Genma Saotome dropped the remote on the table
disgustedly.  Settling for the American edition of Cable
News Network, he crossed his legs and stared at the TV,
trying to guess what the anchors were saying.  A part of
his mind shouted that he'd almost kill for a nice,
friendly game of Go right about now.
     After becoming thoroughly bored with the set, he let
his mind wander.  He wasn't thinking about anything in
particular until his gaze landed at the places where
Ranma and Ranko usually sat at the table.  `Hmmm.  Those
two have been awfully quiet recently.  I wonder what
Nodoka said to them to get them to behave so well?'
     He was about to dismiss the thought when he realized
something else.  `Come to think of it, Ranma's been quite
different lately.  He's been doing better in school, and
every day for the past two weeks I've gotten home from
work to find him dead tired in front of the TV.  I swear,
if I didn't know any better, I'd say that he's been
exercising.  Or could it be something else..." he half-
suggested to himself.  He scoffed at the notion as soon
as he thought of it.  `Ranma can't stand Martial Arts.
Besides, he knows what I'd do to him if I caught him
practicing it.'
     Not sure what to think, he decided to get to the
bottom of it immediately.  He sat up and turned his head
towards the kitchen.  "Nodoka?" he called to her from the
living room.
     She popped her head into the `den' from the kitchen.
"Yes dear?"
     "Could you come here and sit by me for a moment?"
Genma asked, patting the seat next to him at the table.
     "Sure honey," she said, with a cheerful/puzzled look
on her face.  She walked from the kitchen and sat down
next to her husband.  "What's the matter?" she asked as
she adjusted her posture.
     "You haven't noticed anything... different... about
Ranma, have you dear?" he asked as carefully as he could.
     Nodoka acted as if she were actually considering the
question.  She didn't want to give Ranma's secret away,
but she didn't want to lie to her husband either.  "Well,
actually, yes I have."
     "What about him struck you as being different?" he
pressed.
     "Why are you asking me this, Genma?  Is there
something wrong?" she asked with alarm.  `Has he already
figured it out?' she worried to herself.
     Genma quickly brought his hand up to silence and
comfort his wife.  "Nonono.  Nothing like that.  I just
think that he's been behaving differently recently,
that's all.  I just wanted to know if you noticed it too.
All I want is your impression of his behavior," he said
soothingly.
     Nodoka appeared mollified by Genma's response, and
answered his question.  "Well, if anything, I'd say his
behavior has improved."
     He seemed to consider this.  "Improved, how?"
     "Well he seems to be a lot more motivated than he
used to be.  Almost as if he has a goal he's reaching
for.  Also, he seems to behave more athletically.  I
thought he hated sports and exerting himself.  Especially
martial arts."  `Oops!'  Nodoka winced internally at the
slip.  `If Genma wasn't sure before, he is now...'
     Genma's eyes flashed angrily at her mention of
martial arts.  "Martial arts?  You've seen him performing
the arts?"
     "Not really... I'm just guessing," she added weakly,
hoping that he wouldn't go ballistic.
     He stared at her blankly, wondering if that was all
she knew.  "Was there anything else you noticed, dear?"
he pressed.
     "Well..." she began, then stopped as her ears
registered a noise coming from the kitchen.  `Thank
goodness for small favors,' she thought as she stood up.
A sizzling sound had reminded her about dinner.  "Oh no!
The meal's going to burn if I don't hurry!"  And with
that she dashed back into the kitchen.
     Genma smiled to his departing wife, then frowned
deeply as she turned the corner.  `If my suspicions are
right, Ranma and I are going to have to have a
discussion...' he thought, his anger stirring inside him.
     He turned to the stairs as he heard his wife call
the children to the table.  `Yes, after dinner Ranma and
I are going to come to an understanding,' he thought
darkly, his knuckles cracking under the table.

                          ****

     The family sat down to the evening meal.  Ranma and
Ranko looked like matching bookends at their end of the
table.  Nodoka served the meal and all ate heartily, but
quietly.  During the meal, Genma kept looking at Ranma
out of the corner of his eye.  Ranma was too busy
practicing the shovel method of chopstick use to notice
the scrutiny.  Moments later the two siblings put their
bowls down on the table, having inhaled their food rather
rapidly.  Ranko stood from the table, saying, "I have
some homework to finish.  I'll be up in my room."  She
turned and walked up the stairs.  Ranma turned to follow
when Genma caught his hand.
     "Ranma, I need to talk to you about something."  He
laid his chopsticks down and stood up.  "Let's go to the
training hall, shall we?"  Ranma smiled and said, "Sure
Pop."  He turned to his mother, "Thanks for the meal Mom.
It was great!"  The two men walked outside to the
training hall, with Nodoka eyeing the departing Genma
warily.
     They entered the training hall and stood in the
middle of the room.  Genma faced away from Ranma,
apparently doing something, while Ranma looked about the
place nervously.  "So Pop, what did you... HEY!" he said
as he dodged an uppercut that had been aimed directly for
his chin.  "What the *hell's* goin' on here?" he
demanded, getting into a combat stance out of reflex.
     Genma didn't answer, but launched into a series of
complex forms from Anything Goes.  Ranma had a difficult
time avoiding what Genma was dishing out, but was able to
keep away from anything being launched at him.  After a
couple of minutes, a breathless Genma halted his assault.
"So I *WAS* right!  You've learned to fight!  Only a
*seasoned* martial artist could've avoided that!"
     "So, what's the big deal, old man?" Ranma retorted
hotly.
     Genma's face was a mask of pure rage.  "The big deal
is that you were never *supposed* to learn martial arts
in the first place, boy!  Ever since the day you refused
to go with me on that training trip, I found you unworthy
to carry on the Saotome name!  No son of mine should have
refused to join me on that training journey.  You were
weak then, and you're weak now!"
     Now Ranma's rage showed, his face turning a
brilliant red.  "Now just a Goddamned minute!  There are
a few things that you're going to have to get straight
before you start giving me that `unworthy' crap.  I can't
even believe I'm hearing this from you!"  He put his
hands to his temples, trying to calm himself.  It wasn't
having any effect, however, as fresh waves of anger kept
assailing his senses.  "You have *no* idea what I've been
through old man!" Ranma shot back, anger quickly
overtaking him.
     Genma continued to yell, undaunted by Ranma's sudden
display of backbone.  "All I know for sure is that you're
a disgrace boy!  A stain on our family name!" he shouted
in a very angry voice, pointing at his son in an
accusatory manner.  "You refused to learn the Saotome
School of Anything Goes Martial Arts when you refused to
go on that trip.  And now I see that you've gone out and
learned it from someone else!  This is a shame that our
family should *not* have to endure!"  Genma launched
another attack, trying to take Ranma down and show him
that he wasn't a martial artist.  His punches were
striking air, however, as Ranma neatly dodged everything
his father could throw at him.  And his father wasn't
merely sparring, either.
     "Pop, cut this out!  You can't hit me, so stop
trying!" Ranma shouted as he kept blocking the kicks and
punches that his father was throwing at him.  His mind
scrambled for a way to get his father to stop without
having to resort to hitting him, although a part of him
was wondering whether or not he'd be better off knocking
the old fart out.  He thought of a possible way out of
this mess, and gave it a shot.  "You're a fine one to
talk about honor, old man!  If you're so damn honorable,
then why am I not engaged to one of Soun Tendo's
daughters?"
     Nothing else would've stopped Genma the way that
question did.  Genma quit fighting and collapsed to his
knees, placed his face in his hands, and started weeping.
When Ranma approached him, Genma swiped at him with one
of his hands, shouting in almost a half-sob, "Get away
from me, boy!"  After a short time Genma's sobs ended,
and he looked up angrily at his son.  "How did you find
out about that, Ranma?  No-one was supposed to know.  Who
told you!?" he demanded.
     Ranma decided to be evasive.  He couldn't tell his
father about the wish or his `other life'.  His life now
was chaotic enough without freaking his parents out, so
he decided to do some artful storytelling.  "I learned it
from the person who trained me."
     Genma stared hard at his son.  "Oh, and who would
THAT be?"
     Ranma smiled inwardly, awaiting his father's
reaction to his answer.  "Why Pop, it was the same person
who trained you and Mr. Tendo.  Happosai, of course."
     All of the color drained from Genma's face, and he
twitched violently at the mention of his master's name.
Very quickly, he leapt up and put his hand over Ranma's
mouth.  "Shh, boy!  Don't say that name too loud.  He may
hear you."  Genma looked around suspiciously, making sure
that MegaHentai didn't make an entrance.  Ranma likewise
hoped that Happosai was still sealed in that mountain
cave that his father and Mr. Tendo had trapped him in all
those years ago.
     He then glared at his father, breaking free of his
grip and shouting, "I've made a man out of myself through
a lot of effort and a whole lot of suffering, old man.  I
deserve everything I've got because I fought *hard* for
it, and there's no way I'm going to let you devalue that
effort by calling me unworthy!  If you want to look at
the person who dishonored the family, look at yourself!"
Genma didn't speak, choosing instead to simply stare up
at his son as he continued to rant.  "Had you asked, I
would have loved to train *here* with you, instead of
going off on some damned fool idealistic crusade.
Obviously training here was good enough for Ranko, so it
should've been good enough for me!"  Ranma gestured to
himself with his open hands.  "Obviously I like martial
arts.  I've trained for awhile in it, and I know I'm
good!  So don't think that I'm gonna take any crap from
you about my skill.  Martial Arts is my life, whether you
like it or not!"
     "Ranma, I never knew.  Why didn't you tell me, boy?"
Genma asked, dumbfounded.
     Ranma searched his mind frantically for an answer.
Obviously *he* couldn't have told his father sooner.
Technically, he just got here, so he decided to guess.
"Well, if you hadn't been so dead set against me being a
martial artist, and listened to me instead of playing
injured soldier, then this wouldn't have happened."
     Genma sat still for several long minutes, his face
mirroring the war of emotions that was playing out within
him.  "I ... don't know what to say, boy.  I guess I've
been wrong about you all these years.  You have grown up
to be a man among men, as I always hoped you would,"
Genma declared, looking at his son anew, a smile slowly
forming on his face.  "You do your father, indeed the
whole family, proud."  He stood up.  "I'm sorry for
striking at you like that, son.  You and your sister are
both great successors to the Saotome School."  He
extended his hand, which Ranma slowly accepted.  The
handshake turned into a hug, as Genma pulled his son to
him.  Soon both men were pounding the hell out of each
other on the back.

                          ****

     Ranko bounded down the stairs as fast as her young
legs would carry her, yelling as she descended.  "MOM!
Pop and Ranma are fighting!"  Nodoka rounded the corner
separating the kitchen from the dining area and collided
with Ranko as she reached the bottom of the staircase.
She grabbed Ranko by the shoulders and looked at her
calmly.  "Calm down, dear.  Now tell me again what you
were saying."
     Ranko pointed to the training hall.  "Didn't you
hear them?  They're fighting!"
     Nodoka sighed before answering.  "Yes Ranko, I heard
them."
     "Why aren't you doing anything about it?!" she
shrieked.
     "Ranko.  I already told your brother that he would
have to suffer the consequences of practicing martial
arts behind his father's back.  I told him that I
wouldn't intervene, and I'm not going to," she said
sternly.  Nodoka wasn't feeling what she was saying,
however.  She was torn between honoring a promise she
made to her son, and making sure that her little boy was
alright.
     Ranko shook her head.  "Mom!  It's not Ranma that
I'm worried about."
     That got Nodoka's attention.  "What?  I don't
understand..."
     Ranko grabbed her mother's hands and took them off
of her shoulders.  "Listen, mom.  Ranma's a LOT better at
martial arts than you think he is.  I can't really
explain why he's as good as he is, but that's the case.
And if he and Pop are really fighting out there, then I
have a bad feeling that Pop could be in a lot of danger
if Ranma gets mad."
     "Now Ranko, I know you feel that you're good at
martial arts, but..." Nodoka said in a condescending
voice.
     "Mom!  Stop that!  Yes, I'm proud of the training I
gave Ranma, but what I'm trying to tell you is that he
already knew martial arts in the first place.  What I did
was no more than spar with him and teach him what tricks
I knew."
     Nodoka's eyes widened.  Ranko may have had a reason
to deceive her concerning Ranma's abilities, but she
doubted that her daughter was lying to her.  Genma might
really be in danger if Ranma was as skilled as Ranko was
hinting at.  And knowing her husband's penchant for
pissing her son off, she made a quick decision.
"Alright, let's go see what they're doing."  The two
women rushed for the back door, hoping to avert a
disaster.

                          ****

     Both Saotome men stood in silence for a few moments.
     "Pop, I gotta tell you something," Ranma finally
said, breaking the tension.
     "What is it, boy?"
     `Here goes everything.  I sure hope he takes *this*
part better than the last part about my training...'
Ranma took a deep breath before he continued.  "I'm going
to the Tendo Dojo.  I intend to keep intact the promise
you made to Mr. Tendo," Ranma proclaimed proudly.  He
turned to walk from the training hall.
     Genma held his arm out, stopping Ranma from leaving.
"Ranma, I'm afraid I can't let you do that."
     Impatience showed on Ranma's face as he turned back
to face his father.  "POP?!  Why not?  It's something
that I *want* to do," Ranma yelled.  `Why the hell is Pop
trying to stop me from going?' he asked himself
incredulously.
     "Well Ranma, I understand why you don't know this
part of the story.  It's a family secret, one that only
your mother and I know."  He sat on the mats, and urged
Ranma to do the same.  "Just hear me out boy," he said,
noting Ranma's reluctance to sit.  Ranma nodded then
slowly sat down, facing Genma.
     Genma breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly.  He
paused for awhile, then spoke.  "You see, you were right
when you said that Soun and I made that promise all those
years ago.  However, when you made that decision not to
go on that training journey with me, I broke off the
agreement with him, claiming that I had no son worthy of
marrying off.  He took offense with me for doing it, and
claimed that I had soiled the Tendo name by acting so
dishonorably as to break an agreement between friends."
     Genma sighed, hating to have to dredge up such
painful memories.  "Ever since that day he has refused to
speak to any of us.  He's even pushed me away violently
on the occasions when I came in person to try and make
amends."  Genma's look darkened as he continued.  "And if
I know Soun, he's probably already made other
arrangements to keep his family honor intact.  You're
probably too late, boy.  I'm sorry."
     Ranma's face flushed with white hot rage as parts of
the puzzle finally clicked into place.  "Kuno, of course!
*God Dammit!*  Why didn't I see it before?!  No wonder
Akane was so depressed!  Pop, I gotta get over there,
before it's too late!" Ranma bit out, clenching his fists
in frustration.  He looked to the training hall door in
desperation.  He *HAD* to get to Akane!
     Genma leaned forward and grabbed his son by the
arms, shaking him slightly.  "Ranma, didn't you just hear
me?  If he finds out you're my son, he'll probably try to
kill you!" he said, hoping to reason with him.
     "Pop, it's a risk I've gotta take.  You're gonna
have to trust me on this one," Ranma said as he wriggled
out of his father's grasp and sprinted out of the
training hall.
     Genma ran to the door of the training hall in time
to see his son effortlessly *vault* to the roof of the
house.  Unable to stop him, he decided to encourage him.
"Good luck son!" he shouted to his departing shadow,
watching him leap from rooftop to rooftop.

                          ****

     Nodoka watched in consternation as she saw Ranma
being chased by Genma out of the training hall.  `Damn!
Well at least they look okay...'  She and Ranko then
abruptly stopped running and stood in the yard, slack
jawed.  Both women craned their necks as they watched
Ranma *vault* up to the roof of the house and then sprint
out of view, jumping from rooftop to rooftop.
     "You weren't kidding about Ranma's abilities, were
you dear?" Nodoka deadpanned as she continued to stare at
where her son had just been.
     Ranko ignored the question as she closed her gaping
mouth, and turned her angry gaze on her father.  She
advanced angrily on him, clocking him on the head as she
yelled, "What did you do to Ranma?!"
     His face showed an honestly surprised look as he
regarded his daughter.  "Uhh... what Ranko?"
     "PAY ATTENTION!" she yelled, clouting him on the
head again.  "What did you do to *Ranma*?!" she yelled,
balling her hands into fists and adopting a fighting
stance.  She'd just gotten to like her brother, and she
wasn't about to let her father get away with running him
off.
     "Oh no you two!  One fight a night is quite enough,"
Nodoka commanded sternly from behind Ranko, placing a
hand on her daughter's shoulder.  The look she gave them
brooked no contradiction, causing them to subside
quickly.
     "Yes mom..."
     "Yes dear..."
     "There, that's better."  She turned to look at her
husband.  "Now, could you tell me what just happened
here, Genma?"
     Genma frowned, knowing that Nodoka wasn't going to
like what he had to say.  "Let's go inside, first.
You'll need to be sitting down when you hear this."  He
guided the two women from the training hall, closing the
doors to the hall before following them into the house.

                          ****

     Ranma jumped down from his rooftop sprinting, having
lost his way.  `Damn, I'm beginning to feel like Ryouga,'
he thought as he approached a street vendor selling
okonomiyaki from a dingy yatai.  He wasn't able to find a
street sign or any other discernible landmark, so he
decided to approach the street cook and ask him where he
was.
     "Ahh, excuse me?" Ranma asked.
     The cook finished flipping the okonomiyaki on his
griddle before turning to speak to Ranma.  "Yes sir, can
I help you?"
     Ranma had to concentrate hard on ignoring the smell
of the cooking treats.  They were calling back memories
of Ucchan, and he didn't need that sort of distraction at
the moment.  "Uhh, yeah.  I'm trying to find out what
street this is."
     The cook chuckled slightly, saying, "Well sir, I
doubt I can help you there.  I know my routes by way of
landmarks, so I don't know what street this is since I
don't pay attention to street signs."
     Crestfallen, Ranma looked for another person to talk
to on the street, but wasn't able to see anyone else
nearby.  The cook served up the completed okonomiyaki on
a plate and pushed it in Ranma's direction.  "Here you go
son, on the house."
     "Oh sir, thank you but I couldn't..." Ranma said,
smiling at the offer.
     "That's alright, son.  Take it.  I have to cook one
every once in awhile to keep the griddle properly
seasoned.  If you don't eat it, I'll have to throw it
out."
     Ranma acquiesced and accepted the offered food.  The
cook smiled as Ranma ate.  "So, what brings you out at
this time of the night, sir?"
     Ranma swallowed, then answered.  "I'm trying to get
to someone.  The damn thing is that I thought I knew the
way to her place."
     The cook cocked an eyebrow and smiled.  "Her, eh?
You meeting a girlfriend?"
     Ranma flushed, having not intended to let that slip.
"Yeah, I guess you can call her that."
     "Oh, you having problems with the young lady?" the
cook asked inquisitively.
     Ranma didn't really want to say anything more, but
he decided that he'd feel better if he discussed it with
someone.  "Well, yeah I guess.  She acts like I'm not
around, you know?"  The cook nodded his head.  "Besides,
I think she's already involved with someone else."
     Ranma took another bite of the okonomiyaki.  The
cook smiled and said, "Well, that sounds like a lot for
someone so young to be worried about.  Is this lady
friend of yours worth all of the trouble you're going
through?"
     "Yes, she is.  She has no idea what I would do for
her."  Ranma fumbled about his cobwebbed mind, trying to
find the right way to say what he felt.  "You see, it's
not my desire that I'm worried about.  I can't seem to
find the proper way to approach her."  He sighed, "And
there's her father to worry about, too.  Something tells
me that he and I aren't going to exactly hit it off."
     "Well, if you want my honest opinion sir, I feel
that anything is possible if a person's commitment is
true and his intentions are both honest and honorable.
You strike me as being that type of person, so you
shouldn't worry.  Just let things happen and react to
them, instead of anticipating every possibility.  Life's
too short for someone so young to have so much troubling
him."  He patted Ranma on the shoulder, smiling.  "You'll
see what I mean someday."
     Ranma guessed he did, and felt better for the
discussion.  He also felt a *lot* more determined and
focused.  He finished off the okonomiyaki and thanked the
cook.  "You've been a big help.  Now if only I could find
the Tendo dojo from here," he said to himself.
     The cook pointed over Ranma's shoulder and said,
"It's two blocks in that direction."
     "How?! ... " he asked, an incredulous look on his
face.
     "I pass by it every day," the cook said by way of
explanation as he began packing things up.  "And now, I
have to go to another location.  It's almost time for
shift change at the factory.  Have a good evening sir.
And good luck with the lady friend!"
     "Thanks!" Ranma shouted as he headed in the
direction indicated by the cook.  As Ranma faded out of
view, the cook smiled to himself.
     "You're almost there Saotome.  Don't blow it now,"
the cook said, snapping his fingers to reveal a white
leisure suit.  Another snap of the fingers and both he
and the yatai disappeared from the street corner.

                          ****

     Genma sat at the opposite end of the table from
Nodoka and Ranko.  Both women had slightly angered
expressions on their faces, and were growing impatient
with his stalling.  "Well, we're waiting," Nodoka finally
said.
     Genma sighed, accepting his fate.  "Well, it went
like this...  I confronted Ranma about his use of
Anything Goes.  He told me that not only did he know
Anything Goes, but he had been practicing it for quite a
while.  Naturally I was shocked, so I asked him who
taught him."
     Nodoka blanched, knowing that Genma was one of only
two people that could readily teach Ranma the style of
Anything Goes martial arts.  "Genma, it *couldn't* have
been Soun, could it?"  She could hardly believe she was
even saying it.
     Genma shook his head slowly, and leaned forward on
the table a bit.  Carefully he mouthed the word
`Happosai.'  He fell backwards from the table as Nodoka
reacted to his answer.
     Nodoka's eyes widened considerably as she read the
name from Genma's lips.  "HAPPOSAI?!!" she yelled in a
pained voice.  "How the... mmmf!"  She couldn't get
another word out of her mouth as Genma had rather quickly
crawled around the table and covered it with his hands.
     Ranko had been watching the exchange as if it were a
tennis match.  She quickly pushed herself out of her
mother's way as she yelled, then watched with a mixture
of confusion and humor as Genma tried to gag his wife
with one of his hands.  Seeing a lull in the proceedings,
she raised her hand.  "Mom, who are you talking about.
Who's this `Soun' person?  And who is Happosai?"  Ranko
already knew from Ranma who Soun was, but wasn't going to
give that away to her parents.
     Both Genma and Nodoka stared wide-eyed at Ranko.
She shrank back a bit from their intense scrutiny.
"SHHHHHH!!!!!" they both said quickly.
     "Geez folks!  All I said was `Happosai!' " Ranko
shot back with some irritation.
     "DON'T SAY THAT AGAIN!!" both parents shot back in
unison.  Nodoka calmed herself before continuing.
"Ranko, trust us when we tell you this.  That word is
*very* bad, and we don't want to hear you say it *ever*
again," she commanded sternly, staring Ranko in the eye.
     Ranko held her hands up.  "Okay okay okay.  Geez!"
     Nodoka sat back and swiveled her position to look
directly at Genma.  "Now then, you were saying, dear."
     Genma sweat nervously, realizing that he was now
within easy strangling distance of his wife.  Deciding
that not moving was infinitely safer than trying to get
away from his wife at the moment, he slumped his
shoulders in defeat and plunged ahead with his story.
"Ranma knows about the promise..."
     Nodoka thought for a moment.  "Which pro..."  Her
gaze hardened as she realized what Genma was talking
about.  "You mean that damned promise you and Soun made
before Ranma was born?!"  Genma nodded, and she rolled
her eyes in disgust.  "How did he find out about...  No,
never mind; let me guess.  That hentai, right?"
     Genma nodded.  "That's what he told me."
     "Well, now Ranma knows.  What does that have to do
with anything?" she asked dismissively.
     Genma swallowed.  "Well, that's why Ranma left..."
he began weakly.
     Nodoka slapped her hand on the table, startling both
her husband and her daughter.  "Dammit Genma, stop being
evasive and tell me what in the *hell's* going on!" she
demanded angrily.
     "Ranma said that he knew about the promise to marry
him to one of Soun's daughters..."
     "and..." Nodoka prodded.
     "And he's gone over to the Tendo dojo to talk to
Soun about it.  That's where he was going just as you two
walked out into the yard."  Nodoka's eyes flashed as she
tried to contain the combination of worry, confusion, and
anger that suddenly struck her.  Genma noted the agitated
look in her eyes and grabbed her arms, turning her to
face him eye to eye.  "Nodoka, dear.  I tried to talk
sense into him.  I even tried to stop him from leaving
the training hall, but he wouldn't hear of it.  He kept
saying that he had to get over there immediately, and
wouldn't listen to me."
     Unseen by either parent, Ranko's eyes widened.
`Damn!  I didn't think that Ranma would try to do this
*tonight!*'  Saying nothing, she resumed watching her
parents argue.
     "Well, we have no choice.  We'll have to go to
Soun's place and stop Ranma..." she stated flatly.
     "No we won't!" Genma yelled angrily, interrupting
her as he released her arms.  "Ranma has made his choice,
and it's our duty as parents to respect that choice," he
declared.
     "Genma, now is *not* the time to start prattling on
about that.  You know that Ranma's no match for Soun.
How could you just let him go over there like that?"
Nodoka spat angrily.
     Genma's expression softened.  "Nodoka, if we
*didn't* let him go, he'd never have forgiven us."
     "Well that may be the case, but at least he'd still
be alive!" she shouted back in frustration.
     "WHAT?!" Ranko shrieked.  "What do you mean, `still
alive?'  What the hell's happening to Ranma?"
     Nodoka groaned, forgetting that her daughter was
still sitting next to her.  Genma looked to his daughter,
his voice growing comforting.  "Don't worry about Ranma,
honey.  I have faith in him..."  He turned to look at his
wife.  "..and so should you," he ground out, directing
the last part of the statement to his wife.  "There's
nothing we can do to help.  All we can do is wait," he
declared finally.
     The Saotome women sighed, acknowledging Genma's
point.  "Fine we'll wait.  But Ranma'd better come back
safely."
     Genma took his upset wife in his arms, cradling her
to him.  "Don't worry dear.  He'll be just fine."  He
kissed her lightly on the forehead, and squeezed her
shoulders comfortingly.
     Ranko stood up and ran to her room, not bothering to
hide her tears.  She felt sure that Ranma knew what he
was doing, but even with that she couldn't shake the
feeling that he was in real danger.  She entered her room
and slid the door shut behind her.  Flopping down on her
bed, she gathered the pillows up in her arms and cried
into them, hoping that her brother would be okay.

                          ****

     Ranma finally arrived at the gates of the Tendo
Hall.  He looked over his shoulder, and saw that the
damaged wall from his last encounter with Kuno had been
repaired.  Twice he tried to bring his hand up to open
the gate and approach the house.  `Dammit!  I can't be
nervous now!' he thought angrily.  He steeled himself and
bravely marched through the gate and approached the
house.  Seeing lights on, he knocked at the front door
and awaited an answer.
     Kasumi opened the door and regarded Ranma with a
smile.  "Yes, may I help you?"
     Ranma decided to act like he didn't know any of
them, and merely replied.  "Yes ma'am.  I'm looking for a
Mr. Soun Tendo.  Is he here?"
     Kasumi smiled and said, "Yes he is.  He's in our
dojo.  You can wait in the den to speak with him, or go
to the dojo if you wish."  She indicated the dojo
entrance with her hand.
     Ranma smiled and said, "Thank you.  I'll talk with
him in the dojo.  You've been most helpful..."
     "Kasumi," she answered, bowing slightly.
     "Thank you, Kasumi."  He turned and walked in the
direction of the dojo, leaving Kasumi at the door.
     "My, what a nice young man," she commented as she
slid the door closed and returned to the kitchen.

                          ****

     Ranma approached the dojo.  Once at the entrance, he
concealed himself from view, and watched in amazement as
Soun went through a few katas.  `Wow!  I never knew
Akane's old man had it in him.  He's really good at
this,' Ranma thought as he watched the Kenpo instructor
go through his moves.  When Soun finished, Ranma stepped
up to the entrance of the dojo and cleared his throat.
     Soun looked up and waved for Ranma to enter the
dojo.  "Hello son.  Are you interested in taking a
course?"
     "Not really, Mr. Tendo.  I needed to see you about
something really important," Ranma said cautiously,
making sure he stayed on his guard as he walked into the
dojo.
     "Well, what can I help you with son?"  Soun asked,
folding his arms in front of his chest.
     Ranma decided to plunge on ahead, consequences be
damned.  "Well, I'm here to honor a debt to your family,
Mr. Tendo.  You see, my name is Ranma Saotome..."
     Soun's face grew severe, and his arms dropped to his
sides.  "Ranma Saotome?  Not Saotome as in Genma
Saotome?"
     "Yes sir, one and the same," Ranma replied simply.
     Soun's cold look turned to a mask of iron-hot rage.
"How DARE a Saotome disgrace my dojo with his presence?"
he spluttered, assuming an attack stance.  "Get the hell
out of here before I hurt you, boy!"
     Ranma was going to play it cool, right up to the
point where Soun used the words `Saotome' and `disgrace'
in the same sentence.  Now he was pissed, and he showed
it.  "Shelve the attitude, Mr. Tendo.  I didn't come here
to fight with you, only to talk," Ranma spat.
     "Well a fight's what you're gonna get if you don't
leave, *now!*" Soun shouted, his fists shaking in rage.
     "I have no intention of leaving until we talk, Mr.
Tendo," Ranma said coldly, resigning himself to a fight
with his former, and possibly future, father-in-law.
     Soun eyed his opponent, a sneer forming on his face.
"Well, if you're so eager to fight, I'll oblige you.
HA!"  And with that he charged at the shocked youth.
     Ranma swore to himself.  He had a lot of respect for
Mr. Tendo, and didn't like the idea of having to fight
him.  However, if it was the only way that he'd be able
to get to the bottom of this, then it was something that
he had to do.  Ranma lifted his arms up in a defensive
stance at Soun's battle cry, and the battle was joined.

                          ****

     The two combatants had fought for twenty hard
minutes, and the dojo was suffering for it.  Soun had not
been able to land any real blows on Ranma, and on
occasion missed him altogether to hit the wall or ceiling
instead.  Holes in wall panels, and cracked building
supports gave evidence of a fierce battle that, should it
continue much further, would literally bring the house
down.
     Ranma wasn't able to concentrate on the condition of
the dojo at the moment, as he was fighting harder than he
ever thought he'd have to.  Soun's prowess was
surprising, and much more advanced than what Ranma had
encountered in his `other existence.'  As he dodged punch
after punch, his ears detected a faint creaking.  Looking
up, he saw a thick section of the rafter break loose and
fall directly towards Soun's position.  Not wanting
anything to happen to Mr. Tendo, Ranma blocked a final
punch from Soun, then landed one of his own, sending him
sprawling out of harm's way.
     Then he concentrated with all of his might on the
plummeting beam.  "MOUKO TAKABISHA!" he yelled, lashing
out at the beam with a powerful burst of chi energy.  The
force of the energy burst emitted from his hands turned
the beam into sawdust, and soon it was snowing wood
flakes in the dojo.  Ranma collapsed to his knees,
gasping in the dusty air.
     Soun sat with his mouth open.  Never had he seen
someone so accomplished in Anything Goes before.  `Genma
has indeed trained his son well,' he thought, before his
anger caught up with his admiration of Ranma's prowess.
`Genma!  How dare he say that he has no son worthy to
marry one of my daughters, and then train his boy to this
level of expertise!?  This is an absolute insult!' Soun
thought as he stood, an indignant look on his face.  He
wasn't going to fight Ranma again, not after seeing what
he was capable of doing.  But that didn't mean that he
had to share the same floor space with the boy.

                          ****

     Kasumi was chopping some vegetables for the evening
meal when she thought she heard some shouting coming from
the dojo.
     Unsure, she lay her utensils down on the counter and
walked to the window and listened.  Not hearing anything,
she went up to Nabiki's room.  She knocked.  Getting no
response, she slid the door open.  Peeking her head
inside, Kasumi could see her younger sister laying on her
bed, reading and listening to her stereo with headphones.
"Nabiki!" she shouted.  Nabiki started at Kasumi's shout,
and pulled her headphones off of her head.  "Yeah, what
is it Kasumi?"
     "You didn't hear anyone shouting just a moment ago,
did you?"
     "Nope.  I've been in here, reading.  Why?  Is there
a problem?"  Nabiki looked at her older sister, not
getting anything from her body language.  It was so hard
trying to read Kasumi, that Nabiki had given up on it
long ago.
     "No, not really.  I probably imagined it, that's
all.  Don't worry about it," Kasumi said cheerily,
smiling her beautiful smile.
     Nabiki shrugged her shoulders.  "Okay, Sis.  By the
way, is Akane home yet?"
     "No, she hasn't returned from her date with Kuno
yet."
     Nabiki grimaced.  "Kasumi, do you really have to
call it a date?"
     Kasumi frowned uncharacteristically.  "I suppose
not, although that is what Kuno was calling it."
     Nabiki rolled her eyes.  "Torture's more like it."
She sighed.  "Poor little sister.  She sure looked sad
when she left."
     "Well, it *was* her choice."
     "It still stinks, Kasumi."
     "We shouldn't worry.  I have a feeling that Akane
will be alright."
     Nabiki snorted.  "Yeah, only if a miracle happens."
She then donned her earphones again and resumed her
reading of Malcolm Forbes' biography.
     Kasumi left Nabiki's room and returned to the
kitchen to finish the meal.  She tried to resume cooking,
but kept getting distracted by worrying over her youngest
sister.  Dropping her utensils to the side, she wiped her
hands on her apron and sighed.  `I hope Akane's going to
be okay.'

                          ****

     Seeing Soun turn to leave, Ranma turned to him and
said, "Mr. Tendo, wait!  We have to talk!"
     "Why should I listen to you, after all that your
family has done to me?" Soun yelled, half wailing.
     Ranma decided to call in a debt, "Because I saved
your life."  Seeing Soun's incredulous look, Ranma
nodded.  "Yup!  You would've died if I hadn't taken out
that beam, Mr. Tendo."  Ranma's look softened a bit,
"Look Mr. Tendo, all I ask is that you listen to me."
     Soun's shoulders slumped in defeat.  He'd have to
honor the boy's request, so he sat on the floor of the
dojo, and stared at Ranma with a blank expression on his
face, "Very well, go ahead."
     Ranma turned the creative engine on again, as he
pieced together a story that Soun would believe.  "Well,
you see Mr. Tendo, my father was correct in what he told
you.  At the time he broke off the engagement, I wasn't
really worthy of marrying any of your daughters and
carrying on the Anything Goes school.  However when I
grew older I trained hard and quickly, and learned the
art.  I realized that I wanted to make my family proud of
me."  Which was mostly true, although the facts were
twisted a bit.
     Soun looked at him and asked, "So when did Genma
start to train you, Ranma?"
     Ranma decided to stick with the same story he told
his dad.  "Actually, Mr. Tendo, Pop didn't train me."
     Soun's eyes widened, "Really?  Then who trained
you?"
     "Well, you see, until recently, Pop and I weren't
really getting along.  He thought me a disgrace to the
family, and refused to train me.  He trained my sister
Ranko instead.  So I turned to the only other person
skilled at Anything Goes."  Seeing Soun blanch, he
nodded, "Yup, that's right.  I got my training from
Happosa...mfff!"
     Soun jumped over to Ranma, and in an imitation of
Genma's reaction to Nodoka, whipped his hand over Ranma's
mouth.  He struggled for a bit under Soun's grasp before
relenting.  "Don't say that name around here, Ranma.  You
might draw him to the dojo," he hissed hysterically, then
released him.
     "I wouldn't worry too much about that, Mr. Tendo.  I
have a feeling that he's safely sealed away, for the
moment at least.  You shouldn't have any problems with
him."  `I hope,' Ranma added to himself.
     Soun exhaled loudly, obviously relieved.  Suddenly
he eyed Ranma, asking, "Just what all did you learn from
Hap... the master?"
     Ranma's eyes narrowed at the question.  "Well I
didn't pick up that hentai's appetite for panties and
bras, if that's your concern," he deadpanned.
     Soun sighed in relief again and stood away from
Ranma.  "Was that all you wanted to tell me, Ranma
Saotome?" he asked formally.
     Ranma sighed in relief, believing the worst was
over.  He collected his wits for the next part.  "No Mr.
Tendo, there's more.  As I've already told you, I know
about the promise that you and Pop had concerning
marrying me to one of your daughters."
     "I'm sure Genma told you this, right?" Soun asked
acidly.
     Again sticking to the story he told his father, "No
sir, I found this out from Hap... the master while
training."  Ranma stood and began pacing the floor of the
trashed dojo, kicking up sawdust with every step.  "I
will admit that I was honestly upset that a marriage had
been arranged for me without my consent.  But I was
equally shocked to learn that the agreement had been
broken.  In fact, it wasn't until this evening that I
learned of why the engagement was broken."
     Soun hung his head low, tears streaming down his
face.  "It was a great shame to my family the day your
father broke that agreement.  I had such plans for the
both of our families.  I had really looked forward to the
day when our families would be joined."
     A large bead of sweat hung from his head, as Ranma
realized that his wish had caused all of this to happen
(or not happen, depending on your perspective).  Ranma
tried to make the best of the situation.  In Soun Tendo's
words he saw a possibility to mend the rift between the
two families, and proceeded with caution.  "Mr. Tendo, my
father has regretted that day, and has wanted to
apologize to you for it on several occasions."
     Soun looked over at him, and laughed with a touch of
bitterness.  "Well, Ranma.  You see, it's not that
simple.  A simple apology just won't do.  It'll take a
lot more than that to satisfy the honor of the Tendo
family.  For example, when your father broke off the
marriage plans, I had to keep the Tendo family honor
intact.  So I scouted Nerima for many years looking for a
substitute of good ability who would be willing to marry
one of my daughters.  Only recently was I able to find
someone who took an interest in my youngest daughter,
Akane."
     "Tatewaki Kuno," Ranma ground out, his hands balling
into fists.
     "Ahh, so you've heard of him.  Well, while no formal
announcement of their engagement has been made, the
proposal was accepted by him on behalf of his family."
Soun sighed, knowing that the arrangement was of little
comfort.
     Ranma shook his head, not wanting to hear it.  "But
don't you see, Mr. Tendo, that's why I've come here!"
Ranma spread his arms out, almost pleading.  "I want to
keep the promise you and my Pop made.  I *want* to marry
one of your daughters!"
     Soun's eyes lit up, and the beginnings of a
desperate smile creased his face.  "You aren't joking
about this, are you son?"
     Ranma gave him his most solemn look, "No sir, it's
no joke.  But there is a complication."
     "Complication?" Soun asked, getting upset again.
     "Well, you see, I'm familiar with all three of your
daughters.  I've been keeping my eye on them for awhile
now.  And while I'd be very happy with Kasumi, and Nabiki
would be an ... interesting wife, it's Akane who really
interests me."  Ranma looked Soun in the eye.  "Please
Mr. Tendo!  You *have* to tell me that there's a way to
break off that arrangement between Akane and Kuno!" he
shouted, a touch of desperation creeping into his voice.
     Soun's brow creased as he registered the distaste he
felt over the agreement, replying with, "The arrangement
between the Kuno family and ours has always been on shaky
ground.  Plus, Akane isn't too happy with the arrangement
herself.  Kuno has even made it worse by boasting that
anyone who bests him in combat will win Akane from him.
That arrogant bastard..."  Looking towards the house and
his daughters, he continued.  "Ranma, if you were to
defeat Kuno, and rescue Akane from that arrangement, I
would happily consent to your engagement."
     Ranma's mind backpedaled.  `Whoa!  Why am I feeling
so resistant all of a sudden?  Isn't this what I've been
wanting since I got here?' he thought as he tried to come
up with something to say.  Finally he forced a smile on
his face, saying, "Let's take things one step at a time,
Mr. Tendo.  I like Akane, but I feel it's better if she
knows me before another engagement is sprung on her.
Besides, she might not... like ... me."  Ranma paused,
having not ever considered that before.  `What if she
doesn't like me?  It'd kill me to be chasing after her,
only to find out that I'm not wanted.'  He banished the
thought from his mind, not wanting to dwell on something
as depressing as that.
     Soun put his hand on Ranma's shoulder, watching the
emotions warring across the young man's face.  "You're
right, of course.  We'll worry about getting Kuno out of
the way first.  The rest can come later."
     "Mr. Tendo, one more thing.  Will you promise to sit
down and talk to my father if I beat Kuno?" Ranma
pressed, hoping to reunite the two families.
     Soun `hmmmed' for a bit, considering his response.
His hopes were being raised by some kid who came out of
nowhere and was promising him more than he'd ever hoped
for;  so he was still a little wary.  "Very well," he
said at length."  "I'll talk to Genma if you win...  It's
a deal."  He shook Ranma's hand hesitantly.  "We'll keep
this to ourselves for now, son.  I don't want to risk
getting my little girls upset with me."
     Ranma snorted, knowing how bad upsetting the Tendo
sisters can be.  "Yes, Mr. Tendo.  I understand."  Ranma
looked around, noticing the damage for the first time.
"Oops!  Sorry I made such a mess of the place."
     "Quite alright, Ranma.  If everything works out as
you and I have planned, the damage to the dojo would have
been well worth it."  More creaking coming from the beams
in the walls and roof caught their attention, and both
looked to the door.
     Ranma took that as his cue to leave.  "Good night,
Mr. Tendo.  I won't disappoint you."  And with that he
sprinted out of the dojo, through the gate, and headed
homeward.
     Soun watched the departing youth with a nostalgic
smile, Ranma's enthusiasm dampening down years of
bitterness and anger..  `Ahh, Genma.  You should be very
proud of your son.  I've missed you, old friend, and hope
we get the chance to regain our friendship.'  And with
that, Soun got out a broom and swept up what he could.
He and Nabiki could tally up the damage cost in the
morning, he thought absently.

                          ****

     Forty minutes later Ranma ran through the front door
of his home.  `At least I'm getting better at finding my
way around this side of town.  Geez!  Why did Pop have to
find a place so far from the Tendo Dojo?' he thought as
he removed his shoes and stepped into the living room.
"Tadaima!" he shouted triumphantly as he entered.
     Ranma staggered backwards a bit as he got hammered
by a double-barreled hug from his mother and Ranko.  He
put his arms around the women and returned the hug as
best he could.  Nodoka stood away from Ranma a bit and
put a hand up, caressing his face in a motherly fashion.
"Oh thank God my baby's safe!" she said in a half-
sighing, half-proud voice.
     Ranma smiled.  "Yeah, Mom.  I'm okay."  He put his
free arm around the shaking form of his younger sister.
"Hey Ranko, you okay?"
     Ranko looked up at her brother with eyes red from
crying.  "You had us all worried, Ranma!" she yelled, not
unkindly.  "Pop told me all about the Tendos and what you
were up against.  I... I was afraid you weren't coming
back..."  She started crying again, burying her head in
his chest and wrapping him in a crushing hug.
     Uncomfortable with his sister crying, Ranma simply
put his hand on her head, stroked her hair and held onto
her while she cried on his chest.  Nodoka's look became
reprimanding as Ranma faced her again.  "Why did you do
something as reckless as that, Ranma?  Your father told
you the risks, and yet you went ahead and did it anyway.
Why?  And how many more surprises were you planning on
springing on the family today, anyway?"
     Ranma regarded her with a no-nonsense look on his
face.  "Mom, I already explained myself to Pop concerning
the martial arts.  I am a martial artist, and I'm proud
of it.  I intend to make my mark with the Saotome name.
As for going to the Tendo Dojo, well it was something
that I had to do.  Besides, I know I can take care of
myself.  Mr. Tendo wasn't a problem once I convinced him
that fighting me was a bad thing."  Ranma winced at the
memory of the marathon fight.  "He decided to listen to
me, and we talked for awhile."
     "Well we never had to concern ourselves with you
getting into fights before," Nodoka chided.  "We were
worried, son."
     "Yeah, well I'm sorry if I worried you, but I felt
that this had gone on long enough.  Something had to be
done, so I did it," Ranma said simply.
     Genma looked at him expectantly, hope in his eyes.
"You said you talked with Soun.  What did he say, Ranma?"
     "Well Pop, he told me pretty much the same thing you
did concerning the promise you two made.  He said he was
upset that the promise had been broken, and didn't want
to see another Saotome ever again.  I told him that I was
there to try to set things right between the two
families.  At first he didn't want to believe me, and I
had a terrible time trying to convince him that I wasn't
kidding.  He didn't start taking me seriously until I
told him that I wanted to marry one of his three
daughters."
     Nodoka gasped in shock when she heard Ranma's
proclamation.  "Ranma, you didn't?!" she asked in a
shocked voice.
     Ranma would've answered, but Ranko's grip on him had
tightened.  "Ranma, you're getting *married?*  That's so
cool!"  Her face was split by a wide grin.  She released
him, which allowed him to breathe again.  "So when's the
wedding date?"
     Ranma placed a hand against his aching ribs, quickly
developing a new appreciation for his sister's strength.
"Don't get upset Mom!  No wedding date has been set.  I
haven't even *proposed* to anyone yet!"  Nodoka breathed
a *big* sigh of relief after hearing that.
     Ranko's brow furrowed as she listened to her older
brother.  "I don't get it.  You said you wanted to marry
one of Mr. Tendo's daughters, and now you're backing off?
Do you at least have any idea who it is you're interested
in?"
     Ranma smiled inwardly, grateful that his sister
wasn't spilling anything from their previous
conversation.  "Well, I know which girl it is that I
prefer.  There's a catch, of course.  Mr. Tendo had her
betrothed to Tatewaki Kuno in order to return honor to
the Tendo family."  Ranma regarded Genma, "I guess you
were right about Mr. Tendo, Pop.  He told me that if I
was going to have any chance at Akane being my fiancee,
I'd have to have to defeat Kuno in an open challenge."
     Nodoka gasped, not wanting her son to have to fight
again.  "Ranma, if you're so set on marrying one of
Soun's daughters, why go through all of the trouble of
fighting for one of them when there are two others that
are still available?  What's so special about Akane,
son?"
     Ranma considered the question.  Indeed, why was
Akane so special to him?  He couldn't give a hard and
fast answer.  But he knew, in his heart, that life
wouldn't be complete without her.  He chuckled to
himself.  `Man, this is weird!  Only a month or so ago I
would've denied everything I just thought and said.  I
guess I really do love her.'  "Mom, you're going to have
to trust me on this one.  I know a lot more about Akane
than I do Nabiki or Kasumi.  I'd feel most comfortable
being with her."
     Nodoka shelved the question she had about how he
knew the Tendo daughters, and how he had been able to
make a decision about them.  Instead, she put her hand to
her head and sighed, "Oh God...  I have to sit down."
Genma directed her to a mat where she could sit.  After
seating herself, she looked up to her son with a slightly
pleading look.  "Ranma, why did you make this sudden
decision to pursue Akane Tendo?  I mean, I'm glad you've
taken an interest in women, but don't you think you're
rushing things a bit?  Marriage is an awfully big step
for you to be taking, son."
     "Mom, I'll tell you the same thing I told Mr. Tendo.
I'm not looking for an immediate marriage to Akane.
Besides, I'm not even sure that she'll like me at all,
much less want to marry me.  In fact, that is one of the
conditions I placed on the engagement."  Seeing the
puzzled faces, he continued to explain.  "I told Mr.
Tendo that I wasn't about to force Akane into another
engagement.  She's already upset that she was pushed into
marrying Kuno.  I told him, and he agreed, that Akane and
I should date and see if we had anything in common before
anything became final.  I also told him that we shouldn't
tell Akane about our conversation for a while."
     "But you still haven't told me *why* you chose now
to do this, or why you wanted to do it at all," Nodoka
pushed.  "Genma didn't put you up to doing this, did he?"
she asked, a suspicious glint in her eyes.
     Genma spluttered indignantly, but didn't say
anything.  "Of course he didn't, Mom," Ranma said, coming
to his father's rescue.  "I'm sixteen now.  For a while
now I've been thinking that I should be doing something
more with my life than playing with my friends.  After I
was trained by Hap.."  Genma and Nodoka eyed him harshly,
"err... the master in Anything Goes, I felt that I was
ready to make a name for myself."
     Ranma's eyes widened as he looked at a clock on the
wall, realizing that he was going to have to get to bed
now if he wanted to be in shape for the challenge
tomorrow.  "Mom, Dad, thanks for waiting up for me.  I
need to get to bed now; I'm tired."  He ran upstairs to
his room, leaving a speechless family in his wake.
     "Yeah, Ranma's right.  I'd better get to bed too.
I've got school tomorrow.  G'nite Mom.  G'nite Pop,"
Ranko said, kissing each parent before bounding up the
stairs.
     After Ranko disappeared upstairs, Genma came up
behind his wife, embracing her and kissing her on the
back of the neck.  "This has certainly been a day for
surprises, hasn't it Hon?" he asked, a whimsical smile on
his face.
     Nodoka smiled and placed her hands over her
husband's.  "Yes it has, dear."  She leaned back,
pressing herself deeper into his arms.  "Genma.  How do
you think Ranma managed to find that old lech?"
     Genma scowled at the question.  "Nodoka, that's one
question I would rather never hear the answer to.  Some
things are better left unsaid.  The less we speak about
him, the better off the world will be."
     Nodoka got a sly smile on her face, thinking about
the past and some of the influence Happosai had on her
husband.  "Genma, dear.  Do you think you could show me
again that `special technique' that Happy taught you?"
     Genma could hear the quotation marks around those
words, and grinned broadly.  "Absolutely!  But we'd
better make sure the children are asleep first."  They
both laughed softly.  Nodoka turned in his arms, kissing
her husband on the lips.  "I love you, dear," she said,
kissing him again.  Genma merely tightened his hold on
his wife, happily returning the kiss.
     A few moments later they turned out the lights and
headed upstairs.

                          ****

     At that moment, somewhere in a dark, dank cave, a
sneeze was heard.  The sneeze reverberated through the
confines of the cave, causing small bits of dust and rock
to fall from the roof.  Somewhere within the cave a
shifting occurred.  A shaft of light pierced through the
oppressive darkness, emanating from the source of the
shifting.  Two eyes widened in realization.  "FREEDOM!!!"
the form screamed, as it ran towards the light.  Just shy
of the light's origin, a loud *smack* was heard as the
creature struck its head on a stalactite.  Reaching an
arm to the light, the creature managed to say one word
before it passed out.  "ppp...pantiessss..."

                          ****

     Ranma was preparing for bed when he heard a knock at
his door.  "Come in," he said brightly.  The door slid
open, and Ranko walked in, closing the door behind her.
Seeing who it was, Ranma blushed and quickly whipped his
pants in front of him, wishing he'd left his boxers on.
He'd taken them off along with his pants, not really
thinking about what he was doing.  He castigated himself
for doing it, having forgotten again that he had a
sister.  Ranko apparently saw everything, blushing deep
red from her toes to her eyes, and her mouth was gaping
open.  "Oops, sorry about that Sis.  I forgot."
     Ranko recovered quickly, smiling slightly and
allowing an embarrassed chuckle to work its way free.
"S'okay Ranma.  It's not like I haven't seen you before.
Although you look a bit different since the last time I
saw..."  Ranko quickly dropped her gaze to the floor,
stopping herself.  "Sorry, didn't realize what I was
saying."  Ranma blushed this time, realizing that his
sister didn't mind looking at him.  Changing the subject,
she said, "I just wanted to tell you that I'm worried
about you fighting Kuno tomorrow.  Are you sure you can
handle him?"
     Ranma smiled confidently.  "Yeah, Ranko.  He
shouldn't be any problem.  I feel like I've gotten my old
form back.  And when I lived in the other existence, I
beat Kuno daily."  Ranko's eyes widened when she heard
that, realizing just how *good* her brother was.  `That
is, if he's telling the truth,' she thought suddenly.
     "You're pulling my chain, Ranma.  No-one's that
good," she challenged.
     Ranma's face lost some of its cheer.  "I'm not lying
about this, Ranko!  You're just going to have to trust me
on this one."
     Ranko's stomach churned.  Lately she had been
feeling nervous whenever Ranma said `trust me.'  "I do
trust you, Ranma.  But you have to realize that this
isn't the same Nerima you were living in before.  So far
you've managed to succeed by doing things the way you've
always done them.  The problem with that is that you're
acting too confident, and I'm afraid that something's
going to happen to you if you don't watch out.  Just
because some things look the same to you doesn't mean
that they are."
     Ranma hadn't expected the lecture, from his younger
sister, no less.  But he had to hand it to her, she was
right.  He'd been doing everything so far believing that
he was the only one who had really changed.  Indeed, if
he wasn't careful, then Ranko's worrying would be
justified.  He walked to her, and put a hand on her
shoulder, which was kind of hard to do while holding a
pair of pants in front of him.  "You're right, Ranko.  I
should've realized that when I saw Mr. Tendo tonight.  He
wasn't the same man I knew from before."  He smiled.
"What would I do without you?" he asked rhetorically,
wrapping his arms around her.
     Ranko returned the hug, saying "I'm just worried
about you, that's all.  Don't forget, you're the only
brother I have."  He laughed at that.  Ranko suddenly
felt something pressing against her stomach, and
realizing what it was, turned red again.  "RANMA!  Put
some clothes on, for chrissakes!" she yelled, turning
away from him, blushing scarlet.
     Ranma's eyes bugged out.  "Shit!" he yelled,
realizing that he had pulled his pants away from himself
when he'd hugged her.  While her back was turned he
quickly put them on.  `I'm gonna have to get used to
having a girl around all the time,' he thought wearily to
himself, embarrassment plain on his face.  "Sorry about
that Sis.  Looks like I'm gonna have to learn some new
habits," Ranma said sheepishly, scratching the back of
his head in total embarrassment.
     Ranko turned back around, and sighed, relieved that
Ranma wasn't `showing off' again.  Although she couldn't
help but admire how `outstanding' her brother was.  She
blushed deeply, and tried to force those particular
thoughts of him from her mind.  "Did you normally expose
yourself like that in front of the Tendos?" she asked,
trying to keep herself from staring at him.
     Ranma blushed deeper than he ever had before in his
entire life.  Ranko took one look at his face and doubled
over in laughter, her whole body shaking.  Ranma stood
there in his pants, an indignant look on his face.
"First of all, I never thought I looked that bad.
Secondly; Akane, Nabiki, and especially Kasumi, hardly
ever came into my room at the Tendo place.  So I never
had to worry about `exposing myself.'  Besides, I was a
girl half the time I was there.  It wasn't a big deal for
a girl to see another girl ..."  Ranma broke off his
explanation, as it was only adding fuel to Ranko's
laughter.  "I give up..." he finally said, disgusted.
     Ranko sank to her knees, unable to remain standing
while she laughed.  Ranma sat on his bed, crossing his
arms and tapping his foot impatiently as he waited for
her to calm down.  A couple of minutes later, her
laughter subsided.  Wiping tears from her face, she
crawled on her knees over to Ranma.  "I'm sorry, I just
got all of these mental pictures and ..."  She broke out
again, but managed to subdue it quickly.  "Life's
definitely going to be fun with you around, Ranma."
     "Yeah yeah...," Ranma replied, rolling his eyes.
Ranko hooked an arm around his neck, kissed him on the
cheek, and mussed his hair with her other hand.
     "Good night, Ranma.  And good luck tomorrow.  I'll
be keeping my eye on you," she said coyly, sticking her
tongue out at him.  She stood and headed towards the
door.
     Ranma held his hand to his face where Ranko had
kissed him.  `Uhh... yeah...  Thanks Sis," he said to her
departing figure.  As the door closed, he asked aloud to
no-one in particular, "Do all brothers and sisters act
this crazy?"  He remembered Kodachi and Kuno, and
shuddered.  `Thank God Ranko's not like her...  Ugh!'
     He shook his head to banish the thought of Kodachi.
Taking his pants off, he put on some shorts and a T-
shirt, turned off the light and went to sleep.

                          ****


Author's notes:

     Well, here I go again.  ^_^  (those of you who've
read "The Prince and the Lecher" will understand that
remark...)  I was simply minding my own business, and
reading the first two sections of the story "Be Careful
What you Wish For" by Richard Beaubien.  After completing
that, I re-read part one, and said to myself "What if
*this* happened instead of *that.*"  Well I shouldn't
have done that, because here I am clattering away at my
IBM keyboard like a man possessed.  Two days have seen me
crank out 21 pages in Word for Windows, and I've still
got a lot of ideas floating around in the old bean.
     Some people may wonder about the content (boy *that*
was obtuse!).  Well, as of this writing:

(1/30/96):
     I've only gotten the groundwork laid down for this
unintentional project.  Ranma has made his wish, and has
awakened to a strange version of his previous existence.
As the writer, I made a couple of decisions as to how the
wish affected him:
     Ranma's wish caused his environment to change.
Lives were re-written and locations changed to
accommodate his wish.  This means that he did NOT jump to
an alternate universe/dimension/plane of thought/etc.
Therefore his means of escape from that existence are
reduced to one, which is the second wish.  The wish is
supposed to be very powerful, and the intention behind
the character of the vendor was that he was to be very
VERY selective in who gets the wishing brooch, almost as
a guardian or keeper of the artifact.
     Another effect of the wish was that Ranma's mind was
supposed to have been altered so that he wasn't so damned
infuriating and quick to fire off his mouth.  A higher
level of maturity was something I was trying to add into
Ranma's character for this story, to help make his living
in this dimension more sane.  I'm debating, however, the
merit of continuing to do so, as the humorous content of
the story is obviously diminished when I do that.  I may
have him mellow out once he hits stable ground in this
existence.
     The second wish:  I'm really against him using that
second wish for right now.  He's got a lot of potential
in this existence considering that about 85 to 90% of his
antagonists and <for the moment  ^_^ > extra fiancee's
aren't around to punish him.  I'm hoping for a more solid
and romantic `second chance' between Ranma and Akane.
Although I will also admit that a love triangle is
inevitable.  In fact, the gears are already turning
<muahahahaha!>.
     Incidentally, should Ranma have to use the second
wish to return himself to his cursed state (and hence
everything around him revert to normal), he will retain
full knowledge of everything that had occurred during the
first wish.  If I write it past that point, I would have
a fertile bed to plant new ideas for that existence as
well.

(2/3/96):

     Based on all of the excellent suggestions from the
readers on the Fanfic ML,  I have *slightly* (yeah,
right!) expanded on the training footage between Ranma
and Ranko.  Expanding the fight between Kuno and Ranma is
my next big project.  I also corrected some small errors
in the story that were pointed out in e-mail.

(2/8/96):

     Well, since my last posting, something good has
happened to me.  After over three months of unemployment
courtesy of AT&T, I now have a job!  <insert applause and
self-patting-back noises here>   I am working as a
Systems Admin. for Newberry College.  That being the
case, my work on "Careful Destiny" has been lacking in
volume.  But fear not, dearest reader, for I have not
been idle.  In this iteration:
     *  Intrigue inserted (well, I hope it's intriguing
^_^;;  )
     *  Fixed some more errors pointed out by my valued
readers
     *  Typed this section up at the end of the Fanfic
     *  Split the document into two sections to make it
easier to send across the net.  I have a 14.4 connection,
and big chunk posts are a pain to download.

(2/16/96):

     Well, Wing/Nagisa get the heads up award for this
corrected version.  `They' agreed to help me with
smoothing out the content of the story, and boy did they
find some stuff.  I retooled a fair portion of the story
in accordance with their suggestions (the addition of
Nodoka to Ranma's and Ranko's first day of workout being
the biggest part of the update to part one).
     Also, I added the part about Genma explaining to
Nodoka and Ranko what Ranma was doing.  Furthermore, I
added a small blurb to explain why none of the Tendo
girls had walked in on the fight between Soun and Ranma,
or had otherwise been drawn to it.
     Even though I've polished the scenes and dialogue, I
still think it needs some smoothing out in places, but I
can't really decide where.  Another corrected version may
be coming out as a result.
     I've decided to keep running tracks of my upgrades
to each part of the story by establishing time-stamped
author's notes for each part.  I hope it helps to clear
up any questions you, the reader, might have about the
content.

(2/22/96):

     And I thought I was finished...  I have say that the
ML's got some eagle-eyed people subscribed to it.  Three
people e-mailed me to point out various and sundry
grammar, continuity, and character-relation problems.  I
believe that this should be the final revision for part
one.  I'd like to thank the following for their
suggestions:
     Harold Ancell - He gave me a lot of information on
areas that had glaring inconsistencies (problems that I
didn't see until they were pointed out to me).  The
biggest change was to return Ranma's second practice
attack on his 12th day of training to HI RYU SHO TEN HA.
I'd had a lot of people questioning why I had changed it
from that to SHI SHI HOUKODAN.  I had changed it because
I couldn't think of a way to anger a dummy so it'd get
hot.  But I changed it back anyway.
     Robin Page and Trisha L. Sebastian (AKA Foxtrot the
Furryous - English Teacher in Waiting ^_^) - Both pointed
out grammar problems that I had managed to overlook after
my multitude of read-throughs.  And I look forward to
future `correction collaborations' from both of them.
     David Bateson - He pointed out that Ranko's attitude
towards her brother was too sweet in part one for a girl
who very much disliked her brother.  I changed her to
make her more surly towards Ranma during the initial
stage of Part One (although not too much of a change.
She may dislike Ranma, but she's not out for blood).
     All in all, it feels very solid now.  Any more
suggestions will be accepted, although I think we've just
about done all we can to this part.  ^_^
     And I have finally added a title to this part.  (I
never title the sections until I feel they're complete.)
Part One - "Ground Zero"  (Other title suggestions
welcomed)

(4/4/96):

     Began an update of certain sections of the story.  I
was trying to pay particular attention to the details of
the sparring between Ranko and Ranma, and their
discussion as Ranma told her everything he felt was
important.  I finally included a scene that I'd been
meaning to add since the first beta release of part one,
with Ranko telling Ranma about some of the fighting that
went on between the two in the `past.'  I also expanded
other scenes in general, trying to make them more
palatable.
     I feel that I'm now ninety percent done on this one.
I'm not sure what kind of C&C I'll get, but it'll sure be
appreciated.  Reader's participation is what has helped
to make this story flourish.  I thank you all for your
work, especially the editor's continuum.  They've
suffered through excess postings of my story, and can
probably recite the dialogue by heart.  ^_^;;
     I now jump to part two, to see what corrective
measures I can work out in that one.  Hopefully that one
won't take me ten days like this one did... (today is
4/14/96)

(4/17/96):

     I didn't get too many e-mails about problems with
part one of the story.  Zeitgeist and Fox-chan get the
heads up thanks for pointing out grammar errors in the
story and sending them to me.  I corrected all the
grammar stuff, but am holding off on a couple of the
content-based suggestions, as they were rather
subjective.
     Thanks for the continued support folks!

(5/24/97)

     Many thanks go to Dave Eddy for the wonderful work
he's done on further polishing this work.  That, along
with some minor corrections that I've also included, have
helped to make this part come even closer to completion.
I hope this is the last iteration for part one.


Acknowledgments:
     I'd like to thank Richard Beaubien first and
foremost for granting me the permission to write this
side-story based on his.  Prior to writing this thing,
he's never even heard of me.  I understand that he's
continuing the mother-story from which this one is based.
All I have to say is, "Go for it man!"  ^_^  It's been a
real treat writing this thing and playing around in his
dimension (so to speak).  It wouldn't have been possible
without his work as the base.  So to him, I say Domo
Arigato Gozaimashita!  <author bows deeply, *CLUNK*  hits
head on keyboard>
     Bert Van Vliet.  You're the one who gave me the
writing bug <bzzzzz...  *smack*>.  Prior to picking up my
first BubbleGum Zone printout, I was clueless as to the
ways of writing Fanfic.  What a difference a year makes.
You're a good friend, and I thank you for the support.
Hail SkyKnight!  ^_^
     Izzy-chan, for the idea about the bathroom scene
between Ranma and Ranko following their first day of
training.
     Thank You <yes you, the one staring at the monitor>
for tolerating my unusual style of writing.  I'll get
better, I promise  ^_^


And now for my .sig!

Later,
Shadow Stalker
(Protoculture Addict)
(Moderator: The Robotech Echo)


sysop@newberry.edu

Or try the web address for Careful Destiny:

http://www.newberry.edu/sstalker/rancar.htm