Happi’s Redemption
A Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction
By Michael A. Ivins
Ranma along with all of his friends, enemies and acquaintances are the property of Takahashi Rumiko. I’m just borrowing them for my own amusement and hopefully that of my readers. Sailor Moon and the Senshi aren’t mine either. Please don’t sue me.
This story takes place after the end of the manga.
Chapter 14
More Magic
On her way back toward the hotel from Ukyo's restaurant, Noriko decided to head for the park where she and Ranma had sparred before. If he had finished his business in Juuban, it was still early enough in the day that the boy was likely to want to get in some training.
When she got there, Noriko found that she had guessed right. The odd thing that she noticed was that Ranma was in girl form. While she wondered why that was, she didn’t stop the session to ask about it. Instead, she jumped into the training session and it turned from solo training to sparring.
As they sparred, the martial arts grand master thought about how good Ranma really was. When she was Happosai, she would have resisted giving the boy the credit he was due. Now she knew she would sign his teaching certificate after the work was done to get the Grand Mastership of Tendo Noriko recognized.
After about an hour of sparring, they stopped. It was getting on toward dinner time and they needed to get back to the hotel. Before they left the park Noriko asked, “How did things go at the bookstore?”
Ranma answered, “She had most of the books I was looking for. Two of the ones on the list she didn’t have and she suggested that I look for them on the Internet. She said that by doing that I could probably get those two books as fast as she could.”
The blonde nodded. “Did you ask her about getting your curse trigger changed?”
The redhead grinned and held up an index finger. She instructed, “Watch this.” With not a drop of water of any temperature, her body changed from female to male.
The former man’s eyebrows went up in surprise. She asked, “She changed your trigger already? That was fast.”
Nodding vigorously, Ranma agreed, “Yeah! It turns out that the spell she used is one she created herself. She didn’t need to look it up other than to get an ingredients list of stuff she needed to do the spell. Besides the ability to change at will I got a sort of mental timer that tells me how much time I have left before I’m at risk of changing randomly when my mind wanders.”
Impressed, Noriko smiled, saying, “That sounds useful.”
“That’s not all,” the excited young man continued. “She’s going to teach me a spell that will let me change clothes when I change form. It’s a short range teleportation spell that swaps the clothes I’m wearing for an outfit I have in stuff space. No more getting caught as a guy in girl’s clothing. Besides that I'll finally be able to wear clothes that fit.”
“She’s going to teach you the spell?” The blonde wasn’t too sure about that. “Do you have any magic talent?”
“Yep, turns out I do,” confirmed the grinning pigtailed martial artist. “When she was casting the spell I was able to see the magic. Watanabe-san said I have a natural magic talent and that I actually used her magic to create that timer myself. She also said it should be easy for me to learn the clothing swap spell and other stuff as well. I can learn magic healing. She said I have the potential to be a white mage.”
The older girl got a warm smile on her face. “I’m impressed. If you can combine white magecraft with being a medical doctor you will have a potent combination.”
“Oh, I should tell you about what else happened when I was in Juuban,” the young man said.
Puzzled, Noriko asked, “You did something besides going to the bookstore?”
Ranma nodded. “Before I got to the store I heard explosions and went to see what was making the noise. It turns out the Sailor Senshi were fighting some kind of rock monsters. Since I haven't gotten the toughening in male form, I had to use Iron Skin to use the Breaking Point, but I took out two of the three monsters and the Senshi took out the last one. The Senshi I met there were what they called the Inners.”
He laughed. “My luck was running about like it usually does. While I was getting the Inner Senshi to write their autographs in my notebook (for Akane) three of the Outers showed up right when a small rain shower changed me into a girl.”
The blonde laughed, “Let me guess, when they saw you change they thought you were a monster and attacked you.”
“Yep,” agreed the pigtailed boy. “They had me hopping pretty good trying to dodge their attacks. Well… dodging all but one. That one hurt. I kept trying to tell them I wasn’t their enemy but they wouldn’t listen, especially Sailor Uranus. I was at the point where I was just about to throw a Moku Takabisha at them when Sailor Pluto showed up and yelled at the Outers to stop attacking me.”
Noriko frowned, “Pluto stopped the fight? I met her about 80 years ago. She didn’t seem like the type that would break up a fight like you described. I’d have thought she would have let it run just to see how well you did against her teammates.”
Ranma shrugged. “I don’t know about that. She was really respectful to me. She even brought a thermos of hot water to change me back. On top of that she brought some clothes to replace the ones that got wrecked in the fight with the rock monsters. It's like she knew in advance that the fight would take place.”
The older girl’s eyes went wide as she contemplated that. “That seems out of character for Sailor Pluto. Most of the time she acts aloof and all-knowing because she has a source of information from the future. “
The pigtailed boy made a helpless gesture with his hands. “Hey that was how she was. She said I was an ally and they shouldn't be attacking me."
He paused then added, "Watanabe-san said this shirt had a scent of magic to it.”
Noriko reached out and rubbed the hem of the shirt’s short sleeve between thumb and forefinger. After a moment she let go of the sleeve and said, “Well the sorceress was right about the scent of magic. But there is something else here. You know that people leave ki traces on the clothes they wear, right?”
“Sure, that’s how you could get ki from the women’s underwear you used to steal,” Ranma answered.
“Right,” agreed Noriko, her expression thoughtful. “The odd thing is that the ki trace on this shirt is yours. It’s almost like Pluto got this shirt from you in the future.”
The teen martial artist said in a thoughtful tone, “Maybe I’ll work with the Senshi in the future. Maybe that’s why she seemed to know stuff about me.” He shook his head and decided that it was something to be considered in greater detail later.
After a pause, he started to laugh. “Even while I was getting autographs from the Senshi to give to Akane, I’m sure I was close to getting asked for my autograph. One of the Inners and one of the Outers are martial arts otaku and were almost as excited about meeting me as Akane would have been meeting them.”
“That’s fortunate,” commented Noriko. “Well, if you have to go back to Juuban for lessons on that clothing swap spell, then I guess there is a chance that you will meet with the Senshi again. That area does seem to be where they are seen most often.”
At that moment Ranma’s stomach let out a fierce growl. “Uh… could we continue this conversation in the restaurant at the hotel? I sort of missed lunch.”
“Oh, you poor, poor man,” Noriko joked. “At least I had okonomiyaki for lunch.”
As they started walking toward the hotel, Ranma commented, “When we get to the restaurant, you’ll have to tell me how that went.”
Before they got back to the hotel, Ranma changed back to a girl. She said, “I want to be able to spend most of the day tomorrow as a guy. I’m also going to sleep as a girl.”
When they were in a booth in the restaurant Ranma asked between bites, “How did it go with Ucchan?”
Noriko’s expression became thoughtful. “I guess I could say it went better than I expected. I sort of expected to get bashed with a giant spatula and tossed out the door. She did do some yelling, but at least she listened.”
At the thought of Ukyo using her battle spatula on Noriko Ranma felt a brief rush of anger. He didn’t like the idea of his oldest friend beating up on his newest one. He dismissed the feelings to concentrate on what Noriko was saying.
The blonde said, “I left her the restaurant supplies catalog. I told her she should pick out whichever yattai she wanted and I’d buy it for her. If she doesn’t pick one then I’ll buy the one that comes as close to the original as you can remember it. I’ll have that one delivered to her at the Ucchan’s. That ends the honor agreement for you two to marry and any future arrangement for such things are strictly between you and her with no need for parents to be involved.”
A look of concern on her face, Ranma asked, “You did tell her that I still want her as a friend, didn’t you?”
The older girl smiled warmly. “I told her.” Her expression sobered. “I have heard of many occasions where romance ruined a friendship. I honestly hope that this is not one of those.”
The redhead shook her head. “I wonder if this would have been simpler if Ucchan had really been a guy like I thought she was when we were kids.”
Noriko studied the condiment containers on the table for a moment. “I don’t know what to tell you about that. It might have been better, but then he might have fallen for your girl side and you’d have the same problem. With ‘what ifs’ it’s really hard to say. The only thing anyone can say with certainty is that things would have worked out different.”
The blonde seemed to brighten. “Before I left I told her something that should plant a seed of thought in her mind.”
“What did you tell her?” Ranma wanted to know.
The former man chuckled. “I pointed out to her that Konatsu is in love with her. Maybe that will help her get over you.”
“She didn’t know that?” Ranma found it a little hard to believe.
“Apparently not,” agreed Noriko.
The redhead shook her head. “I know I’m not always the most sensitive person, but even I could see that.”
The red haired girl remembered she had something more to tell about her visit to Juuban. “Watanabe-San said she would have to do some research into Ms. Hinako’s condition. She didn’t know what to do about it.”
With a sigh the blonde said, “Well, it was a bit of a long shot but it was worth asking. Who knows, maybe she will find something. Maybe you’ll find something in your medical or magical studies.”
She paused as another thought occurred to her and asked, “Have you thought what to do about Kuno?”
Ranma frowned. “I’m not sure if anything can be done about him. He seems to always find ways to deny anything that doesn’t match what he sees as the truth. I’ve changed right in front of him and he just says ‘Saotome is a foul sorcerer who has used magic to appear to change.’ He’s right about the magic but he thinks that the transformation is really a substitution. Any more demonstrations of me changing would do no good. He believes my two forms are separate people.”
Still frowning, she shook her head. “I have thought of just going up to him as the ‘pigtailed girl’ and telling him I hate him and to just stay away from me, but I doubt that would work.”
Noriko nodded. “I can figure that one out. He would just say that the ‘foul sorcerer Saotome had enchanted his 'pigtailed goddess' so you couldn’t express your true feelings.’ Was that about what you had in mind?”
Her expression sour, Ranma nodded. “I’m starting to think the only way I’m going to get him off my back is to get a restraining order. You know, one of those ‘don’t get any closer than a dozen meters’ or something like that. I doubt that would stop him from harassing me, but at least I could get have him arrested if he violated the order.”
The blonde sighed. “I hope it doesn’t come to that. You might just have to live with it until you can go to University. If you’re going to medical school, I doubt that he will be going to the same college.”
The redhead hung her head. “I’m just getting tired of fighting him. When I first met him there was at least some challenge, but I’ve advanced faster than he has. He’s no challenge at all anymore. If things keep going the way they have I could end up hurting him badly. When I want to be a healer, I’d feel really bad about that.”
“I had a thought,” Noriko said. “If Kuno won’t accept the truth, maybe you need to stop telling the truth.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know you don’t like lying,” Noriko began. “I was just thinking that some kind of deception might be needed. Maybe we could work out a lie that Kuno could accept.”
“What did you have in mind,” asked the redhead.
The plan was beginning to evolve in Noriko’s mind. She said, “Maybe you could do the Ranko/Ranma dodge. The difference would be you’d tell Kuno that Ranko is your twin sister.”
Ranma nodded. “Even if I don't like lying, it might be worth a try. Before I try to think too much about that I need to settle things with the Amazons. After them I need to confront the Tendos and my parents. Depending on how that turns out, I may end up leaving Nerima or even Japan completely. If that happens, then none of the rest of it matters.”
Noriko nodded. “You have a point. I was thinking that we would go to Nekohanten in the afternoon to catch them between lunch and dinner rushes. Depending on how long it takes there we could plan on going to the Tendo dojo in the evening. On the Kuno problem, I'll keep thinking about it. Maybe I can come up with a way to make him accept the truth.”
She let out a sigh. “I have the hotel room booked through tomorrow night. If things don’t go well with the Tendos and your parents, we can come back and stay here tomorrow night. We should take our stuff with us. If things do work out, we’ll spend the night at the Tendo place and I can return the keys to the hotel the next day.”
Ranma shook her head. “If things don’t work out with the Tendos and my parents, I guess I’ll be going back to China. Lo Shen said the village there would welcome me. My problem with that is that I’m not sure if that’s what I want. I do want to be a doctor, but I don’t know if I want to do it in a place like the village. Well I guess I’ll think about it on Monday.”
When she got up from the table she said, “Before we head up to the room I want go to the library. I’m going to use one of their public computers to send Po Shen an email. I want to let her know we got here safely and that we’re getting ready to confront Cologne and her group.”
The blonde chuckled at that. “That should be good. Lo Shen can call the Joketsuzoku and let them know that we were practically right under their noses for three whole weeks. I think that will give them their opportunity to ‘tweak the noses’ of their sister tribe.”
Ranma grinned. “That’s what I was thinking.”
She got up and headed out, Noriko went up to the room to study some scrolls. If things didn’t work out for Ranma with the Tendos, she wasn’t going to stay there. She would likely have to call a mover to clear out her stuff as there was a lot in the way of books, scrolls and the like. Some of the stuff she had accumulated could be disposed of now that she was female.
The next morning at the Nekohanten everyone was bustling around getting the restaurant ready for lunch. While passing by the office, Shampoo could hear the sound of a phone ringing. She looked in and found the sound was coming from what looked like a cell phone with an unusually large antenna. She picked up the phone and said, “This is the Nekohanten. How I help you?”
A familiar voice spoke in Mandarin from the phone, “Shan Pu? This is Elder Soap. Go get Kho Lon. I need to talk to her.”
The purple haired girl set the phone on the desk. Elder Soap was a grumpy old woman even worse than her Great Grandmother. She went to the door of the office and in Mandarin she called out, “Great Grandmother, Elder Soap is calling on the phone for you.”
The Elder came in bouncing on her staff. The young warrior was frequently amazed at how fast one of those elders could move in that manner. The girl was irritated when she was ordered, “Get back to work and close the door behind you.”
When the door was closed the old woman said, “Soap? Kho Lon here. Do you have some news of Saotome and the old thief?”
“News? You could say that.” The younger of the Elders sounded seriously annoyed. “Just a short while ago I got a call from elder Lo Shen of our sister tribe.”
Cologne had a sinking feeling. “What did she tell you?”
The elder in China said, “It would seem that we were premature in congratulating ourselves over denying the old thief his goal.”
The older of the elders suppressed the urge to groan. “Do we know what his goal was?”
“Oh yes.” The younger elder said, “From what Lo Shen told me, the old man’s goal was exactly what he told you it was. He wanted to get some Nyaniichuan water. The problem with our approach to the problem was that we were protecting the wrong places. It seems that eighteen years ago, when he was in the area, the old man collected some of the cursed water and hid bottles of it in caves around the area here.”
She continued, “One of our patrols, led by Ei Linah, had them, but young Saotome put up a battle aura so strong that the warriors didn’t think they could beat her. They let the pair pass. We set patrols to try and intercept them when they passed through on the way back but they evaded all of our efforts.”
Cologne asked, “Did Lo Shen say what the old thief wanted with the water?”
“Listen to this,” directed Soap. “That little gnome of a man who has been a thorn in our sides for so long is now a pretty blond haired girl. I’m told she looks to be about 19 years old. For her new body, she had taken the name Tendo Noriko. She’s normal sized.”
The older of the Elders sighed. “I would guess Lo Shen only called because young Son-in-Law and the new girl had already left the village.”
“Oh, more than that,” Soap said. “They’re already back in Japan, well out of our reach. While they were here in China they were staying at Lo Shen’s house.”
Cologne sighed again. “I’m guessing that Lo Shen is having a good laugh about this right now.”
“You can be sure of that,” replied the elder in China. “If you were thinking to start searching for them, maybe at the home of the Tendos, don’t bother. Young Saotome told them that he and the Tendo girl plan to visit you after lunch today. I gather they want to have a chat about Shan Pu’s pursuit of the boy.”
The Elder in Tokyo rubbed her forehead with her fingers. “I’m beginning to think that this venture is becoming more costly than the possible return. My great granddaughter may be infatuated with the boy, but I'm pretty sure the methods she used to approach to him have ruined any chance she might have had with him. I will admit that we mishandled the boy from the start.”
“Yes,” agreed the younger of the elders. “We badly misjudged the boy.”
Cologne said, “I will try to salvage something out of this if I can. However, I suspect that we may have to just give up on him. That will probably mean moving back to the village because I can’t imagine that Shan Pu will want to give up if the boy is still anywhere close by.”
“I begin to question whether your great granddaughter is a suitable candidate for leadership,” the younger of the Elders commented. “She is letting her heart rule when she should be listening to her head instead.”
The Matriarch said, “I can agree that she needs to do a lot of growing up before she is ready to be a leader. That, of course, is assuming that she lives long enough to gain the needed maturity. I worry that her impetuousness may someday lead her into making a fatal error.”
“That would be a waste.” Soap said, “Even if she’s not ready for leadership, Shan Pu is still an excellent warrior.”
“Indeed.” Cologne said, “I may not always show it, but I’m quite fond of the child and even proud. I’m not happy for what leaving without her airen will do to her but I don’t see much choice. I’m still curious to hear what arguments they will offer. After all, it wouldn’t do to give in too easily.”
“Ha!” Elder Soap felt real amusement for the first time in a while. “True. I don’t hold much hope for the situation, but it would be best to salvage what you can (if anything.)”
They hung up.
That same morning Ranma called the Spell Book to ask if she could get her first lesson on the clothing spell in the morning. Although Ms. Watanabe grumbled about the timing, she was willing.
Ranma went with two girl outfits and one spare outfit of male clothing in her stuff space. She reasoned that before she could combine a sex change with a clothing change she should practice just swapping outfits. She was wearing one of her boy outfits on the chance she didn’t master the technique right away.
Noriko went along. When they got to the store the store owner looked over the pretty blonde girl. “Happi is that really you?”
The girl’s eyes went wide. “Aomori, is that you?”
In unison they both said, “You look so different.”
The blonde laughed and said, “Please call me Noriko now. For all intents and purposes, Happosai is dead.”
The other woman nodded. “The same can be said for Aomori. You should call me Atchica now.”
The blonde chuckled and said, “Since you look older than I do now, you can call me ‘Nori-Chan’ if you like.”
Ms. Watanabe smiled. “As you wish, Nori-Chan. When Ranma told me about her traveling companion I thought it had to be you. I’ll have to confess, this," she waved her hand up and down in the new girl's direction, "seems a little extreme.”
Noriko smiled back. “Actually this is what I’ve been trying to achieve all along.”
The older sorceress took a step back. “What?”
The young woman looked like she was enjoying dropping bombshells on her old friend. “You see I was born female and changed to male by a spell when I was a baby. I’ve been trying to get back to being female for 290 some years.”
The sorceress stepped forward and gave Noriko a light slap to the back of her head. “You know you might have achieved that goal sooner if you had asked for help.”
A look of shock came to the blonde woman’s face. “Are you saying you knew a way to break the curse that was on me?”
“Well, no,” the sorceress admitted. “But if you had asked, I could have worked on it. I bet I could have found something.”
Noriko shook her head. “It’s more complicated than you think. If you had just broken the spell, I’d have turned into an old, and very quickly dead, woman. It had to be something like Nyaniichuan that would make me young as well as female.”
With a shrug Ms. Watanabe said, “Well, what’s done is done. You’ve finally did what you were trying to do.”
Ranma had to give her input. “She almost didn’t. In her old body he wasn’t able to absorb ki anymore. I was able to transfer some of mine but his body was resisting it. In another week that resistance would have gotten so strong that there would have been nothing I could do to keep him alive.”
The blonde stepped over to the redhead and took her hands. She looked into the shorter girl’s eyes and told her, “I know. I don’t know if I will ever be able to adequately thank you for saving my life. It is my hope that by helping you achieve your goals, I may at least partially repay you.” She leaned over and kissed the younger girl on the forehead.
The shorter girl blushed. Part of her wanted to shout “What did you do that for?” Even in her embarrassment, though she found that she liked the emotions the kiss had evoked. After a moment she said, “That’s Ok. You know, ‘A martial artist must protect the weak’ and all that.”
Noriko wasn’t fooled. She saw the look in Ranma’s eyes. She didn’t let anything show on her face but inside she was jumping up and down, shouting, “Yes! I have a chance!”
“Ahem!” The two girls stepped apart and looked over at Ms. Watanabe.
The sorceress said, “Sorry to intrude on your moment, but we do have a lesson that Ranma needs to take. Before we go back to the workshop I want to show you something in my office.”
As they followed her, the older woman explained, “Ranma, that room you described where you have the switch to change between your male and female bodies is what we call a ‘metaphor’ in the magic trade. In truth it is something that you created in your own mind to make your changing easier. The fact that you have the control for the transformation and the timer for your curse is why I called it your control room.”
She opened a door and ushered them in. The room was a trifle small and normally there wouldn't have been any place for guests to sit but the sorceress had brought in a couple of stools. On the desk there was a fairly up-to-date computer. She pointed to the screen and said, “What I have on here right now is a fantasy game. I don’t know how well acquainted you are with computer games, but in this type of game the character that represents you is capable of carrying more than a real human being can lift.”
She pointed to an item on the screen. “In the game it is simply called the inventory but you could compare it to your ‘stuff space.’ The character can use the inventory to carry things like weapons, armor, food, magic items and other things. What I’m suggesting is that you play around with this for a little while to sort of get a feel for it. When you have done that you should be able to put something similar in your metaphor of a control room. I think that would greatly help with the use of the clothing swap spell.”
Ranma began moving the mouse pointer around the screen. At some points she stopped and asked questions before clicking anything. Ms. Watanabe pointed out, “In your metaphor you could touch the screen instead of using the mouse or just will it. I think it would be faster if you just will it.”
After playing with the game for a while she felt she had a good feel for it. She nodded then closed her eyes and brought up the mental image of the control room. Then she exerted her mental control so that the pedestal with the switch was transformed into a desk. The switch remained but now it was mounted on the desktop next to a computer monitor screen. Then she exerted her will and brought up an inventory of the contents of her stuff space.
She allowed herself to feel a sense of satisfaction when it worked. She saw her clothes, her notebook, a pen and some other stuff displayed just like it was in the computer game. For the moment this was all she had. She still didn’t know what to do with it. She did note that she could move things around the screen in her mind by using her will. She could arrange the individual clothing items into outfits or do a mix and match.
When she opened her eyes she said, “Ok, I’ve got the inventory working on the contents of my stuff space. I’ve even noticed a couple things I didn’t remember having there.”
“That’s good,” encouraged the sorceress. “From now on by using this method you should always be aware of every item in your stuff space and be able to access it instantly. For the moment that is all you have but you did that very quickly. I begin to think that the spell I used to give you control of your transformations also awakened your own magic.”
Awakened her magic? That sounded good. She remembered the feeling she had during the casting of the spell to change the curse trigger. There wasn’t just the sight of the lights, there were feelings too. She tried to tune into those feeling the same way she did with her ki senses. Yes! There was definitely something there.
Ms. Watanabe was watching. She said, “I see you’ve started to feel the manna, the magical energy that is all around us. It is stronger in some things than others but you can draw on it from the general environment. Everyone draws a minimal amount all the time without being aware of it. The designs I draw on the floor and the chanting are focusing devices. They allow the manna to be formed into the proper shapes and into the energy types that will be most effective to accomplish your purpose. Your will is the primary tool to accomplish these things.”
The sorceress said, "Before you try doing that, lets go to the workshop where we can all sit in comfortable chairs." At that urging they got up and left the office, walking down the hall to the door that the older woman unlocked with her key. Shortly they were seated at the worktable and settled comfortably.
When she felt ready, Ranma closed her eyes and tried to focus her will on drawing in the energy. When she did that there was a sense of indefinable something flowing into her body. The sorceress said, “Yes, you’re doing it. Don’t draw too fast or you could injure yourself.”
After a moment the older woman said, “Good, you have enough. Concentrate on the manna being a shade of light blue with a feeling of silky smoothness.” A moment later she told the redhead, “Now will the manna to form a coating on your skin all over.”
She watched with a critical eye. After a moment she said, “Good! Now you need to look into your inventory and select an outfit. Charge it and the clothes you are wearing with more of the mana then give the command. You choose the word to use.”
In the redhead’s mind she selected an outfit of a Chinese pantsuit in light blue, complete with shoes and undergarments. In the metaphor of the control room the selected outfit was highlighted on the screen as well the current outfit of pants and red silk shirt with boxers and tank top. When she felt the items were charged as they should be, she mentally thrust the word, “switch” at the screen.
There was a sensation like a wind that impossibly seemed to blow on her from all directions at the same time. When she opened her eyes she looked down and found herself dressed in the pale blue pantsuit. Underneath she was wearing panties and a bra. She took a deep breath because she felt like she had expended a fair amount of energy on the switch.
“Amazing!” Ms. Watanabe was really impressed. “Child... Ranma, you are a magical prodigy. I’ve never seen anyone get it on the first try before.”
Ranma was still trying to get used to the idea she had magically swapped out her clothing for the outfit in stuff space. She did register what was said and asked, “Prodigy means I'm really smart, right?”
The graying shopkeeper nodded. “That’s right dear, very smart. Tell me do you learn martial arts techniques quickly?”
The redhead nodded. “Yeah. Mostly I can learn a technique just by seeing it once or twice. If I don’t get it perfect the first time I try it, I’ll adjust and get it right on the second try. By the fourth time I do it I can usually improve the technique or create variations.”
“I see,” the sorceress said.
Ranma elaborated, “There’s this guy I know named Ryoga. He was taught how to throw a ki blast using ki based on depression. It’s called Shi Shi Hokodan. It’s a pretty powerful attack. After seeing it, I figured out how to do it myself. The problem was that I couldn’t make a strong attack of it because I wasn’t depressed enough.”
“What did you do?”
She shrugged. “I created a variation that used ki based on confidence. I have a lot of confidence so my attack was even stronger than Ryoga’s depression-based one. I called my version Moku Takabisha.”
She frowned a moment. “Since then I’ve found out that using ki based on emotions can be risky. When you use it, the emotion is reinforced. If Ryoga ends up using his depression attack too much he could get so depressed that he might kill himself. With my attack I could get overconfident, underestimate opponents and make mistakes. I’ve since learned to use a version of my attack that uses pure ki with no emotional base. It’s harder to learn, but worth it.”
Ms. Watanabe nodded with a smile. “That explains it. If you were such a quick study in just one area such as martial arts it could have been an idiot-savant kind of talent.”
“Hey!” Ranma protested being called an idiot-anything.
The sorceress continued. “Because you have shown yourself capable of learning quickly in more than one area, that more likely means you are a genuine genius. How are you at school?”
The redhead replied, “Well, before I used to get bored in class all the time and fell asleep. Since the wedding didn’t work I’ve been paying attention and doing much better.”
The older woman gave the young one an appraising look. “By ‘much better’ do you mean soaking up knowledge like a sponge? Learning new concepts in subjects like math and science as if you already knew them and were just being reminded when the subject comes up in class?”
A quizzical look on her face, Ranma considered that. “I guess so.”
The sorceress smiled. “I think you will do well as a white mage and as a doctor. I see a lot of potential.”
Her tone turned more businesslike. “Well, you’ve learned the technique. As in most things the first time is the hardest. What you will need to do now is to practice it – a lot. Right now the technique takes more effort than if you just got the alternate clothing out of stuff space and changed clothes the old fashioned way. After you have done it enough times you won’t need any great concentration to do it. In fact the time will come that this will be the easier way for you to change clothes.”
Easier? Ranma felt skeptical about that. She may have learned the technique easily, but the effort required to execute it was considerable. It would have been easier and quicker to pull the clothes out of stuff space and use chestnut fist speed to take off the old clothes and put on the new. She kept that opinion to herself. Instead she resolved to practice when she had free time.
She closed her eyes and used the technique to change back to her male clothing. After doing that she changed to male form. After adjusting the clothing to his taller form the boy said, “That was interesting. I think I’m going to need a lot of practice if I’m going to get to where I can do the clothing change at the same time as the sex change.”
Ms. Watanabe nodded. “Keep working at it. Even though you learned this technique in one lesson, I’d still like you to keep coming back. There are some other useful techniques I’d like to teach you along with general magic practice. You definitely have the aptitude.”
She paused in thought. “I’m going to put together a selection of books on magic that will give you a good grounding in the subject. They should teach you what you need so you can do magic without blowing yourself up.”
“Blowing myself up?” That didn’t sound too good.
The sorceress nodded with a grin. “Now that you know how to draw manna and do some limited manipulation, you need to be careful. You may feel the urge to experiment, but you should fight that urge. Magic is something that you can do a lot of harm either to yourself or to people around you if you don’t know what you’re doing.”
When Ranma looked unconvinced she explained, “If it had taken you a month to learn the clothing swap I wouldn’t worry. Since you learned the technique in one session it shows you have the power and talent to do magic now. With the level of power and talent you display it is urgent that you learn the basic disciplines as soon as possible.”
She paused as a thought occurred to her. She asked, “You know how you like to improve or modify martial arts techniques?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t try that with magic!” She warned, “When you know more about it, you can experiment. With martial arts you know the 'rules,' for lack of a better term. You know the kinds of moves that can work and you know what your body is capable of. You should also have an idea of what your opponent can take. At this time you lack that kind of knowledge of magic."
She continued, "For now stick to the technique as you just learned it, no changes or deviations. Until you know what things are dangerous, until you know what not to do, you can’t play around. Playing around with the clothing swap could destroy the clothes instead of exchange them or it could kill you.”
“I get the point.” The pigtailed boy was getting annoyed. It was true he could be reckless at times, but he could be cautious when the situation called for it. “This is like trying to drive a car when all you know how to do is start the engine, right? (That’s pretty much all I know about driving.)”
The sorceress sat back in her chair with her eyes wide. “That’s actually not a bad comparison. With a car you could figure out some things, but if you try to drive without learning how, you end up crashing and either hurting or killing yourself and maybe others as well. For this comparison you should substitute a truck loaded with dangerous cargo, something that might blow up if you make a mistake.”
“Right,” Ranma confirmed. “For now limit my magic just to what I already learned. No experiments.”
“Good.” The older woman said, “Plan on coming here tomorrow, preferably in the evening. Plan on a one hour session.”
Ranma turned to Noriko and said, “It’s getting close to lunch time. Did you want to go to the Nekohanten and eat there before we have our talk with them or get something before we go there?”
Noriko thought about it for a moment. “While they do make excellent ramen I think we should eat elsewhere. It would help to avoid any hostilities during our meal. Even the chance of getting the food for free doesn’t make up for the attitude of the staff.”
The pigtailed boy nodded. “Yeah, you’ve got a point.” Even if Shampoo were likely to give them food for free and extra portions as well, eating elsewhere would avoid getting glomped. Hopefully it would also avoid getting knives and chains thrown at him by Mousse.
It was for that reason that they went to a teriyaki place a few blocks from the bookstore. The food was good but not exceptional. A plus was the fact that it was reasonably priced and plentiful.
Author's Note: Well, that's another chapter. I have things happening in my life right now that might prevent me posting chapters to multiple stories at the same time. I have less time to work on my writing. I'm still going to try to post at least one chapter per week if I can. I may alternate the stories that I post for.
Well, Ranma has learned how to magically change clothing, but needs to practice. The Amazons have been informed of how they were fooled. Ranma and Noriko are at least thinking about how to deal with Kuno. In the next chapter they will talk to Kho Lon and try to settle the matter with Shan Pu. Stay tuned.
A Place for me to post fan fiction that I write and occasional articles and other thoughts.
Ranma-Kun & Ranma-Chan
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Happi's Redemption chapter 13
Happi’s Redemption
A Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction
By Michael A. Ivins
Ranma along with all of his friends, enemies and acquaintances are the property of Takahashi Rumiko. I’m just borrowing them for my own amusement and hopefully that of my readers. Sailor Moon and the Senshi aren’t mine either. Please don’t sue me.
This story takes place after the end of the manga.
Chapter 13
Ranma Has Magic
The sorceress checked her list and looked over the pattern she had drawn on the floor. When she was sure everything was ready she held out the staff in her hands and began a low voiced chant. As she chanted Ranma looked down at the design. As the ceremony continued his gaze kept moving around. Ms. Watanabe didn’t let herself be distracted but did have the stray thought that the boy shouldn’t be able to see any of the forces working on him.
When she spoke the last word of the last incantation she gave a satisfied nod. She called out to Ranma, “You should be able to change at will now. Try it out.”
The martial artist nodded and for the first time changed into a girl without water. Then she changed back. He frowned and said, “Hmm.”
The sorceress motioned to him and said, “You can come out of there now. Don’t worry about the lines, we’re done with them. We have a girl that comes in during the evenings who will clean it up.
When Ranma was seated in a comfortable chair, Ms. Watanabe noted, “You were looking around a lot when I was doing the spell. Why is that?”
The boy frowned and said, “I was checking out the light show.”
“Light show?” Now she was intrigued. “Ranma, most people wouldn’t see anything. The ‘light show’ you are referring to was mana, pure magical energy.”
“Huh?” Ranma had to think about that. “You’re saying I can see magic?”
Watanabe-San directed, “Describe the experience to me as best as you can.”
Still frowning, he said, “Ok. I didn’t notice anything until you closed the gaps in the design. Then the lines started to glow. It was pretty dim at first but got brighter. When you started to chant the lines brightened to be about the same as a florescent light tube.”
The sorceress nodded. What he had described was exactly the same as how it had appeared to her. She asked, “What next?”
He said, “New glowing lines branched off from the lines on the floor but these went up, straight up. When they were around the level of top of my head they curved in and met right over my head. It looked kind of like a cage and had me worried for a moment. Then I figured that it was just made of light and I should be able to pass through it if I had to.”
Considering further, “I’m not sure how I would know this, but I had the feeling that if I touched the lines of light they would feel warm. Anyway, after a few seconds the lines got wider until they met, making a kind of dome-topped tube around me. The light the tube was made of was still showing all the colors.”
“Then something odd happened,” he noted. “To my sides the surface of the tube began to bulge out until on my right it was like a statue of my girl form and on my right like a statue of my male form. They were hollow and it was like looking at the inside of a hollow statue.”
“Then the tube I was in started to turn. After it was moving pretty fast, it started to shrink. It shrank until it finally touched me. It was when it touched that I could feel the warmth and the tingling like I was changing forms. As the tube shrank and moved inside my body it was like I was pulled inside of my mind.”
“After a while I found myself in a room in front of the two statues again. This time they were complete statues instead of just the front parts. They looked like they were made of glass or some kind of plastic that was partly clear but sort of frosty so you could see light through it.”
“Translucent,” said the sorceress.
“What?”
She explained, “You need to expand your vocabulary. The word for something that light can shine through but you can’t see through is translucent. If it was perfectly clear it would be transparent.”
“Oh,” he responded. “Ok, the statues were looked like they were made of some translucent material. In between them was a tall box-like thing, sort of like they put stuff on in museums.”
She supplied, “That’s a pedestal.”
“Right,” he agreed. “On the pedestal there was a switch that looked like a lever. It had a long handle and looked like it was designed to move like this.” He moved his hand to illustrate. The switch was over to the side where the male statue was and the statue was glowing with a soft white light. On the wall behind the statues I could see something that I just knew was a countdown timer.”
Oh, that was interesting. Ms. Watanabe asked, “Do you know what the timer was for?”
He nodded. “It was showing the ‘free’ time I had left before I was at risk of a random sex-change when my mind wanders.”
She inclined her head a moment in thought. “That sounds like it would be useful.”
After a moment to consider she said, “Part of what you describe is how the spell would look to me if I was inside it. Part of that is not in the spell as I designed it. Most people have no sense of magic at all. Some magic folks call them ‘muggles’ but I prefer the term 'mundane'.”
The boy confessed, “I’ve never heard the word ‘muggle’ before.”
She shrugged. “It’s sort of a made up word to separate people who can do magic from those who can’t. The word ‘mundane’ is a real word that mostly means ‘dull and ordinary.’ There are people who can see magic but not use it. That makes them not magical but not fully mundane. However, you can use magic.”
“What do you mean I can use magic? How could I do that?” He was confused.
She elaborated, “That ‘control room’ in your mind wasn’t part of the spell. You took control of the magic and set that up yourself. Normally I’d say taking control of a spell in progress would be a dangerous thing, but at the time you did that the actual business of the spell was done. You took control of the residual magical energy and added a little bit.”
He brightened. “Does that mean I can learn that clothing swap spell?”
Ms. Watanabe smiled, “It does indeed. From what I’ve learned today, I’d say you have the potential to be a powerful white mage. White magic is very strong in the healing arts.”
The pigtailed boy grinned. “Since I want to be a doctor, that’s really handy.”
The sorceress laughed. “Yes, that works out well.”
He frowned. “I’m guessing that before we can we can start the lessons on the clothing swap, I need to have an outfit in stuff space.”
With a chuckle, the older woman confirmed, “That would help.”
Ms. Watanabe stood up and said, “Well that seems to be about all we can accomplish for now. Let’s get you those books you wanted and then you can go home. Remember to come back tomorrow with a change of clothes in your stuff space. It might be a good idea to have more than one outfit. If you learn the spell as quickly as I think, you might want to practice by switching between a variety of outfits.”
After they left the workshop, the shopkeeper went to another room and from this one she got a stack of five books. The more ‘main stream’ books came from the shop area at the front of the store.
After he got outside and had leapt to the top of a building, Ranma checked his mental timer and noted that there wasn’t much time left before he was at risk of changing to female without willing. He mentally flipped the switch so the handle went over to the female side and felt the tingle of change.
Ranma looked down at herself. To be able to change without water wasn’t as nice as not changing at all, but she’d take what she could get. Hopefully this meant she was no longer a water magnet. That would stop water accidents, but it wouldn’t stop the idiots at school from throwing buckets of water, water balloons and shooting water guns. She hoped it wouldn’t take too long for them to learn that she couldn’t be changed with water any more.
She resisted the urge to go to Ucchan’s to find out how Noriko’s conversation with the chef had gone. It would probably best to let the girl calm down after being told that Ranma thought of her as nothing more than a friend. No, she would go back to the hotel for now, maybe with a stop in the park to work on some katas.
A little earlier in the day Noriko leapt down to the sidewalk a short way from Ucchan’s Okonomiyaki. She paused to look around and thought to herself that the people in Nerima were perhaps too inured to the odd and unusual. None of the passersby seemed to take notice of her beyond the attention they would normally pay to any girl of her beauty.
The blonde girl walked the rest of the way and pushed through the door of the restaurant. A chime announced her entrance. It was early enough in the afternoon that the tail end of the lunch rush was still being served. There were still quite a number people in the place.
After waiting for a while a pretty waitress in a kimono came up to Noriko and led her to a table. The blonde said, “I’ll have a squid and shrimp Okonomiyaki and some tea, Jasmine tea if you have it. I realize you’re busy right now, but could you ask Ms. Kuonji to come talk to me when she has a free moment?”
The waitress glanced toward the kitchen. “Well, the lunch rush doesn’t usually last much later. I would guess she would be available in about a half an hour. In the mean time you may enjoy your meal.”
Noriko said, “Thank you Mr. Kenzan.”
Konatsu took a probing look at the pretty blonde girl. This customer knew his name and knew that he was a boy. He didn’t remember ever seeing this girl before, yet she seemed to know that he was a man in spite of the very effective disguise he wore. On top of that the girl knew Konatsu’s family name.
The young kunoichi turned in the order and told Ukyo, “The woman at table seven asks to talk to you when you have some time free.”
“Sure thing, Sugar,” the chef answered. Then she stopped and looked at her waitress. “Something’s bothering you, Ko-chan. What’s up?”
The Ninja frowned and looked back toward where the blonde was sitting. "That woman knew my family name. She called me MR. Kenzan. Besides that, even though I could swear I’ve never seen her before, there is something oddly familiar about her.”
The chef shrugged. “Then I guess I’d better talk to her.” She poured the batter for the order.
A little later Noriko was savoring her meal. Ukyo really did make one of the best okonomiyaki in Japan. From her time as Happosai, she knew of a place in Tomobiki that had a good reputation. She would have to go check them out again now that her taste buds were renewed.
It turned out to be a little longer than Konatsu had predicted before Ukyo was free to come talk to her. The chef walked up to the table and said, “Hello, I’m Kuonji Ukyo. My waitress said you wished to talk to me.”
Noriko bowed her head. “Yes, thank you. I know you’re a busy woman. I should preface what I came say by telling you that you and I have met before, but I’ve changed a lot since then.”
The chef was confused. She said, “Well, I’m sure I don’t remember meeting you before. Although I get a feeling of something familiar about you. Maybe like someone I saw a picture of or maybe saw on TV.”
The blonde smiled and said, “Trust me, we have met before. Although to be honest, it feels like it was another lifetime. I’ve come to talk to you about Saotome Ranma.”
“Ranchan?” The chef exclaimed. “Is he back?”
The blonde nodded. “Yes, he is back. He is taking care of some business in another part of town. I’m here to take care of some more business on his behalf.”
The Chef looked angry. “Business? What kind of business. Are you another fiancé?”
“No, I’m not.” She added in thought, “At least not formally. I would like to change that.”
“Then what are you to my Ranchan?” The chef demanded.
The blonde maintained what to Ukyo, seemed an irritating calm. She said, “What do you know of the reason why Ranma left?”
Why wouldn’t this infuriating woman just answer a direct question? “All the Tendos said he went to help out a sick friend.”
Noriko took a sip of her tea, then asked, “Do you who the friend was?”
Ukyo shook her head. “I don’t know. There was some silly rumor that Happosai was dying and Ranchan was taking him to China for Jusenkyo girl curse water to save him.”
The former man smiled a little. “Yes, that does seem silly, doesn’t it? The only problem is that the rumor is true.”
“What?” The brunette wasn’t sure she could trust what she was hearing. “What do you know about it?”
The blonde took another sip of her tea and said, “The full story is rather long. The short version is that Happosai was actually born a girl, but her father wanted a boy so he got a witch to change the child into a boy at the age of one month. In addition to the spell that changed the child’s sex was a curse that turned him into that little gnomelike creature you are familiar with when he hit puberty. He’s been looking for a way to fix that for a long time.”
She continued, “Recently Happosai lost the ability to absorb the female ki that he got from fondling women and touching their underwear. Ranma was able to do a ki transfer when in girl form and keep the old man alive. They did go to China to get some girl water. They used it and turned the shriveled up old gnome of a man into a pretty blonde haired girl.”
“Blonde?” The chef looked confused. “Wait a minute! Are you saying you’re Happosai?”
Noriko grinned. “I know. It seems unbelievable, doesn’t it? I was Happosai, but I don’t want to use that name anymore. I’m calling myself Tendo Noriko as a tribute to an old friend who died a long time ago.”
Ukyo shook her head. “No, I don’t believe it! That shriveled up old prune of a man couldn’t turn into a girl like you. It’s impossible!”
The blonde reached over and patted the brunette on the shoulder in what looked like it was intended to be a comforting manner. She said, “Calm down. Now if you need proof…” She dropped something onto the tabletop that looked like a long bandage that had been loosely coiled. The former man said, “You always were something of a challenge wearing those bindings instead of a regular bra.”
Ukyo suddenly became away that a feeling of compression that she was used to was missing. She put her hands over her breasts and felt them now unfettered, but still covered by her shirt. She knew of only one person who could do what had just been done.
The brunette fixed her customer with a glare. “Ok, so you are… or at least were Happosai. I don’t know anyone else who can do that.”
Noriko chuckled. “Actually I taught Ranma how that trick works. I explained to him that the original technique was developed so a martial artist could steal weapons and armor from an opponent, making them more vulnerable to punches and kicks. Stealing underwear makes good practice, though.”
Ukyo’s glare intensified and she dropped her hands back to the tabletop. She said, “You’re getting off the subject. What did you want to tell me about Ranchan?”
The former man said, “Ranma and I were stuck in China for a few weeks while we waited for Nabiki to make up a new passport for me that goes with my new face and gender. We had time to talk a lot and the subject of the fiancés naturally came up. After he got over his initial distrust for me, he opened up and told me things.”
The brunette held up a hand to cut off any further pronouncements. “If Ranchan wants to go ahead and get married or if he wants to break things off, he should come here to tell me himself.”
Noriko looked down at the teacup on the table and laughed. “A problem that Ranma has is that sometimes he is too kind hearted. It is the same problem that has caused the whole fiancé mess to drag on as long as it has.”
Now puzzled Ukyo asked, “How is having a kind heart a problem?”
“Think about it,” the blonde challenged. “Ranma could have told Shampoo to get lost a long time ago if he wasn’t afraid he would hurt her feelings.”
The girl had a point, thought Ukyo. A feeling of dread seized on her. What did this girl want to tell her that Ranma couldn’t say for fear of hurting her feelings?
Finally nerving herself to it, Ukyo asked, “What do you want to tell me that Ranchan can’t bring himself to tell me in person?”
Swirling the remnant of her tea around in the bottom of the cup, Noriko tried to think of a way to phrase it in a way that wouldn’t do more harm than needed. “Ranma does love you… as a friend, maybe as much as a sister.”
“No!”
The blonde waited but nothing more seemed to be coming after the one word protest. She went on, “Ranma has fond memories of the time you fought over okonomiyaki when you were kids. He thought of you as a pal, a buddy, one of the guys. Even he admits he was pretty clueless back then. When you came to school and he found out you were a girl he adjusted his thinking enough to recognize that as a girl you were pretty cute.”
The former man paused to see if her audience was going to say anything. She seemed to be smiling over the comment on cuteness. “The problem is that, while in his mind he accepts the idea that you are a girl, it hasn’t reached his heart. There he still sees you as a buddy and can’t accept the idea of romance with you.”
A scowl settled on to the brunette’s face. “No! Ranchan loves me and I love him. We’re going to get married and live together for the rest of our lives.”
Noriko shook her head. Ukyo seemed to have something of a blind spot in this area. The blonde asked, “In this dream of a married life do you picture Ranma working with you in a restaurant like this one? Do picture him as being the man to your wife? Where does his curse fit into this picture?”
“Of course we’d run a restaurant,” the chef protested. “We’d cook okonomiyaki and study martial arts. We’d teach both to our children.”
The former man nodded. “It seems like a pleasant enough future you have planned, at least for you. Have you ever asked Ranma if spending the rest of his life working in a restaurant is what he wants to do with his future?”
“Of course,” She insisted. “He’d love it.”
Noriko thought about it for a moment before saying, “Then it would seem that you don’t know Ranma as well as you think you do. When we were in China, waiting for my papers, Ranma helped out at a local medical clinic. He discovered that he loves helping people and he would like to become a doctor.”
“A doctor!” Ukyo couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “What about martial arts? I can’t believe that Ranchan would abandon the Art to become a doctor.”
The older woman shook her head. “No, Ranma doesn’t want to give up the Art completely. He would continue martial arts as a hobby, like Dr. Tofu does.”
“A hobby!” She shook her head in disbelief. “How could he switch from it being the whole focus of his life just like that? And you are okay with this? You’re the Grand Master of his School. You’d be losing him as an heir. What about that?”
The blonde shrugged. “I’m young again. The issue of an heir isn’t so urgent any more. If Ranma doesn’t want to be the heir, then maybe one of his children will want to. Or maybe I can find someone else. I have time to work on it.”
Before Ukyo could come up with another question, Noriko pressed on, “If being a doctor is what will make Ranma happy, then that is what I want too. I don’t care about whether he makes the Art a hobby or if he gave it up completely.”
Something finally penetrated Ukyo’s consciousness. There was a certain look on Noriko’s face when she spoke about Ranma. She had a tone to her voice that said things that the words spoken didn’t. The look in her eyes spoke volumes when the chef was able to notice.
Such a thing shouldn’t be possible. This woman was once reputed to be the most perverted man in Japan. She had been a selfish man who didn’t care for anything but his own pleasures and the continuation of his martial arts school. Could Ukyo be reading it wrong?
“You love him, don’t you?” The chef was afraid of the answer she would get.
The other woman shook her head. “I couldn’t believe either it when I first realized it. It first started right after I changed into a woman. I wasn’t strong enough to leap from tree to tree, so Ranma had to carry me. I found myself liking being held in his arms. Then when I dreamed about him kissing me I realized that I was attracted to him physically. I thought it was just the hormones from my body being female for the first time in centuries. Then I realized that I was attracted to her as well as him.”
The chef’s mouth was opening and closing in a good imitation of a fish.
Noriko went on, “At the house we were staying at, our hostess put is in separate beds in the same bedroom. We talked a lot and it was in those conversations that I discovered that what I felt for Ranma was more than just the attraction of a woman for an attractive man or even another attractive woman. I love him.”
She was lost in contemplation. “I love his kind heart, his loyalty and his courage. I love the way he wants to help others. I love the way he rubs the back of his neck when he’s embarrassed and the way he scratches the base of his pigtail when he’s confused…”
“OKAY! I get it!” The brunette shouted, drawing the attention of several members of the thinning crowd of patrons in the restaurant. Ukyo had the grace to look embarrassed at making a scene.
In a quieter tone, the chef said, “I get it. You love him. You want to take him away from me.” The last was in a tone of sullen resentment.
Noriko shook her head. “I’m sorry if I gave you that impression. Yes, I do love him. However, unlike some other people I could name, I care more about his happiness than my own. I could put it down to the unusual combination of an old mind in a young body. I can feel the urges that teenage hormones can give, but I can think about them with a mature perspective.”
“What’s your point, old hag?” Ukyo demanded.
The blonde frowned at the “hag” reference. The brunette was upset, so Noriko decided to let it go. “Well, if it would make Ranma happy, I’d like nothing better than to be by his side as he goes through medical school. I’d support him and encourage him. I’d even be the mother of his children if that’s what he wants. And believe me when I say that seemed like such a foreign concept to me when it first crossed my mind. Now I find it growing on me.”
She held up a hand to forestall the argument Ukyo looked ready to begin. “Please notice I said ‘If it would make Ranma happy.’ If I thought he’d be happier married to you I would bend every effort toward getting the two of you together. I'm not going to do that because I don’t believe that what you want is best for him. Your vision of the future would stifle his spirit. He’d become unhappy. It might not happen right away but eventually there would be arguments and you would end up unhappy as well. I would predict that you would end up getting divorced.”
The former man felt ready to sum up. “I think you need to give some careful and (for a change) unselfish thought to this matter. What do you think would be best for Ranma? Personally, I see two possible courses. One of those would be for you to step back and content yourself with just being a friend. Continue on with your life and support Ranma as much as you can as a friend. If you still insist you must marry him then you should consider giving up your dream to help him follow his. If you do otherwise you risk losing him as both a friend as well as a future husband.”
She stood up. “Take some time and think about it carefully. Ranma will be by next week to ask what you have decided. By the way, I haven’t told Ranma how I feel about him. I will wait to see if he comes to see it for himself and hopefully finds he has similar feelings. I care enough about his feelings that I am not going to add to the pressure on him.”
“Pressure?”
At that Noriko sat back down. “Don’t you believe Ranma is under pressure? How about, ‘Ranma must marry Akane. The schools must be joined.’” She didn’t exactly match the voice of Tendo Soun but got the tone, and mannerisms perfect.
She went on in an imitation of Genma, “Why have I been cursed with such an ungrateful, disgraceful son?” In a perfect copy of Nodoka’s voice she said, “Insulting your fiancé is not very manly, Son.”
She went on, “Wo Di Airen! Ranma go on date with Shampoo?” In an imitation of Cologne’s voice, “You will marry Shampoo, Son-in-Law.” She next did Kodachi, “Oh, my darling Ranma-Sama.” Then again, “Ranma No Hentai!” Pantomiming the swinging of a mallet, she said, “Wham!”
She shook her head again. “Let us not forget the rivals.” She did a good imitation of Kuno, “Fear not, fair one, I shall free my pigtailed goddess from the enslavement of the vile sorcerer Saotome.” As Ryoga she said, “Saotome Ranma, prepare to die!” Then as Mousse, “How dare you try to take my Shampoo away from me.”
“I’ve saved one of the best for last,” Noriko said. In a perfect copy of Ukyo, the blonde said, “You have to marry me, Ranchan. I’m the cute fiancé.”
Once again Noriko stood. She said, “Do you want to continue being part of the problem or are you willing to take a try at being part of the solution? Think about it and try to have an answer for Ranma when he comes by next week. Oh, by the way, the okonomiyaki was excellent. Thank you.”
Before Noriko could walk to the door out of the building Ukyo tried one final sally. “What about my Pop’s yattai? Genma accepted the dowry! Ranchan has to marry me. He’s honor bound!”
The blonde stepped back to the table as she reached into stuff space and a moment later something thumped onto the table in front of Ukyo. The chef looked to see what appeared to be a thick magazine with pictures of restaurant equipment on the cover.
“Thank you for reminding me. What you see there is a catalog from a company that makes and sells restaurant equipment. From page 110 to 125, among the ovens and deep fat fryers, they carry yattai. The selections range from a small unit for a street corner vendor that is suitable for heating up prepackaged foods up to a mobile restaurant you’d need a truck to tow around.”
She continued, “When Genma took your father’s yattai I was trapped in a cave so I have no idea where the original cart may be or if it would still be useable if it could be found. Since I have no way to give you back the old yattai, I would be willing to buy you a replacement. Ranma promised that he would pay me back for it after he starts getting paying patients. If you don’t pick one, I have another copy of the catalog. I’ll pick out the cart that is closest to what Ranma remembers of the old one and buy that. I can have it delivered here in no more than three weeks.”
The chef was doing her fish imitation again. Noriko rolled her eyes, “With the replacement of the yattai, the dowry is returned and the marriage agreement is rendered null and void. That puts the possible marriage on the basis it should be, whether or not the boy and girl both want it. I’ve already told you Ranma’s thoughts on the subject.”
The blonde glanced over to see Konatsu bussing a table on the far side of the restaurant. She turned back to Ukyo and said, “I know you think it is unfair that you love someone who doesn’t love you back. Before you start thinking of the injustice of that, look at your waitress.”
Now looking confused, Ukyo demanded, “What’s Konatsu have to do with it?”
“Why do you think the boy keeps working for you?” She asked. “It certainly isn’t because of the high pay and great benefits. You pay him what would almost amount to slave wages and include food and a storeroom to sleep in. No, he stays because he is desperately in love with you.”
“You’re imagining things,” insisted the chef.
“Am I?” The former man shook her head. “That boy aids you in your pursuit of Ranma because he cares more about your happiness than his own. You’ve allowed yourself to become so involved with your obsession over Ranma that you’ve turned a blind eye to any other possible romances.”
She studied the chef’s face for a moment. “You do tend to throw yourself into things with obsession and passion. Spending ten years studying martial arts and cooking on the chance of meeting up with Ranma to gain revenge shows that. The fact that you were able to give up that obsession to refocus on a new one of getting married to Ranma, shows that you can change. Maybe you should open your eyes to the possibilities around you and see what has been waiting right in front of you.”
With a grin and in a slightly mischievous tone, Noriko said, “I tend to think that the girl who dresses as a boy and a boy who dresses as a girl might make a good couple. It would probably be a better couple than a girl who dresses as a boy with a boy who actually changes into a girl. Think about Ranma’s girl form and ask yourself if you would enjoy intimate relations with another girl.”
This time Noriko didn’t pause as she walked out of the restaurant.
After she leapt to the roof of a building across the street she paused to look at the front of the building that housed the restaurant. That actually went better than she had expected. She had half expected Ukyo to go into a fit of screaming and order her out of the place or possibly to assault her with a battle spatula.
In some of their conversations back at Lo Shen’s house, Ranma had commented to Noriko that Ukyo was likely the sanest, most level-headed of the fiancés. Her own assessment was that being less crazy than the rest didn’t mean you were sane.
Thinking about her comment on pressure, Noriko had to be honest and include herself as Happosai in the pressure that Ranma had been under. She hoped that she was no longer contributing to that. She was doing all she could to relieve the pressure now.
It had been a surprise when the chef turned out to perceptive enough to recognize Noriko’s own feelings. She just had to hope that the younger girl was also perceptive enough to see the total sincerity that Noriko used to express what she hoped for Ranma’s future.
As she leapt from roof to roof, Noriko contemplated what she was going to say to the Amazons the following day. It seemed likely that Shampoo was a lost cause. There was little chance the girl would be swayed by argument. The person to work on was Cologne. If Cologne ordered it, Shampoo would back off. She wouldn’t like it, but she would obey.
Author's Note: Ranma now has greater control over his curse. He is hoping that this will translate into greater control of his life. It turns out that Ranma has magic that he never suspected before. Ukyo has been told of Ranma's true feelings and of his hopes for the future. Will she accept it? Does she really have a choice? Stay tuned to find out how this develops.
A Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction
By Michael A. Ivins
Ranma along with all of his friends, enemies and acquaintances are the property of Takahashi Rumiko. I’m just borrowing them for my own amusement and hopefully that of my readers. Sailor Moon and the Senshi aren’t mine either. Please don’t sue me.
This story takes place after the end of the manga.
Chapter 13
Ranma Has Magic
The sorceress checked her list and looked over the pattern she had drawn on the floor. When she was sure everything was ready she held out the staff in her hands and began a low voiced chant. As she chanted Ranma looked down at the design. As the ceremony continued his gaze kept moving around. Ms. Watanabe didn’t let herself be distracted but did have the stray thought that the boy shouldn’t be able to see any of the forces working on him.
When she spoke the last word of the last incantation she gave a satisfied nod. She called out to Ranma, “You should be able to change at will now. Try it out.”
The martial artist nodded and for the first time changed into a girl without water. Then she changed back. He frowned and said, “Hmm.”
The sorceress motioned to him and said, “You can come out of there now. Don’t worry about the lines, we’re done with them. We have a girl that comes in during the evenings who will clean it up.
When Ranma was seated in a comfortable chair, Ms. Watanabe noted, “You were looking around a lot when I was doing the spell. Why is that?”
The boy frowned and said, “I was checking out the light show.”
“Light show?” Now she was intrigued. “Ranma, most people wouldn’t see anything. The ‘light show’ you are referring to was mana, pure magical energy.”
“Huh?” Ranma had to think about that. “You’re saying I can see magic?”
Watanabe-San directed, “Describe the experience to me as best as you can.”
Still frowning, he said, “Ok. I didn’t notice anything until you closed the gaps in the design. Then the lines started to glow. It was pretty dim at first but got brighter. When you started to chant the lines brightened to be about the same as a florescent light tube.”
The sorceress nodded. What he had described was exactly the same as how it had appeared to her. She asked, “What next?”
He said, “New glowing lines branched off from the lines on the floor but these went up, straight up. When they were around the level of top of my head they curved in and met right over my head. It looked kind of like a cage and had me worried for a moment. Then I figured that it was just made of light and I should be able to pass through it if I had to.”
Considering further, “I’m not sure how I would know this, but I had the feeling that if I touched the lines of light they would feel warm. Anyway, after a few seconds the lines got wider until they met, making a kind of dome-topped tube around me. The light the tube was made of was still showing all the colors.”
“Then something odd happened,” he noted. “To my sides the surface of the tube began to bulge out until on my right it was like a statue of my girl form and on my right like a statue of my male form. They were hollow and it was like looking at the inside of a hollow statue.”
“Then the tube I was in started to turn. After it was moving pretty fast, it started to shrink. It shrank until it finally touched me. It was when it touched that I could feel the warmth and the tingling like I was changing forms. As the tube shrank and moved inside my body it was like I was pulled inside of my mind.”
“After a while I found myself in a room in front of the two statues again. This time they were complete statues instead of just the front parts. They looked like they were made of glass or some kind of plastic that was partly clear but sort of frosty so you could see light through it.”
“Translucent,” said the sorceress.
“What?”
She explained, “You need to expand your vocabulary. The word for something that light can shine through but you can’t see through is translucent. If it was perfectly clear it would be transparent.”
“Oh,” he responded. “Ok, the statues were looked like they were made of some translucent material. In between them was a tall box-like thing, sort of like they put stuff on in museums.”
She supplied, “That’s a pedestal.”
“Right,” he agreed. “On the pedestal there was a switch that looked like a lever. It had a long handle and looked like it was designed to move like this.” He moved his hand to illustrate. The switch was over to the side where the male statue was and the statue was glowing with a soft white light. On the wall behind the statues I could see something that I just knew was a countdown timer.”
Oh, that was interesting. Ms. Watanabe asked, “Do you know what the timer was for?”
He nodded. “It was showing the ‘free’ time I had left before I was at risk of a random sex-change when my mind wanders.”
She inclined her head a moment in thought. “That sounds like it would be useful.”
After a moment to consider she said, “Part of what you describe is how the spell would look to me if I was inside it. Part of that is not in the spell as I designed it. Most people have no sense of magic at all. Some magic folks call them ‘muggles’ but I prefer the term 'mundane'.”
The boy confessed, “I’ve never heard the word ‘muggle’ before.”
She shrugged. “It’s sort of a made up word to separate people who can do magic from those who can’t. The word ‘mundane’ is a real word that mostly means ‘dull and ordinary.’ There are people who can see magic but not use it. That makes them not magical but not fully mundane. However, you can use magic.”
“What do you mean I can use magic? How could I do that?” He was confused.
She elaborated, “That ‘control room’ in your mind wasn’t part of the spell. You took control of the magic and set that up yourself. Normally I’d say taking control of a spell in progress would be a dangerous thing, but at the time you did that the actual business of the spell was done. You took control of the residual magical energy and added a little bit.”
He brightened. “Does that mean I can learn that clothing swap spell?”
Ms. Watanabe smiled, “It does indeed. From what I’ve learned today, I’d say you have the potential to be a powerful white mage. White magic is very strong in the healing arts.”
The pigtailed boy grinned. “Since I want to be a doctor, that’s really handy.”
The sorceress laughed. “Yes, that works out well.”
He frowned. “I’m guessing that before we can we can start the lessons on the clothing swap, I need to have an outfit in stuff space.”
With a chuckle, the older woman confirmed, “That would help.”
Ms. Watanabe stood up and said, “Well that seems to be about all we can accomplish for now. Let’s get you those books you wanted and then you can go home. Remember to come back tomorrow with a change of clothes in your stuff space. It might be a good idea to have more than one outfit. If you learn the spell as quickly as I think, you might want to practice by switching between a variety of outfits.”
After they left the workshop, the shopkeeper went to another room and from this one she got a stack of five books. The more ‘main stream’ books came from the shop area at the front of the store.
After he got outside and had leapt to the top of a building, Ranma checked his mental timer and noted that there wasn’t much time left before he was at risk of changing to female without willing. He mentally flipped the switch so the handle went over to the female side and felt the tingle of change.
Ranma looked down at herself. To be able to change without water wasn’t as nice as not changing at all, but she’d take what she could get. Hopefully this meant she was no longer a water magnet. That would stop water accidents, but it wouldn’t stop the idiots at school from throwing buckets of water, water balloons and shooting water guns. She hoped it wouldn’t take too long for them to learn that she couldn’t be changed with water any more.
She resisted the urge to go to Ucchan’s to find out how Noriko’s conversation with the chef had gone. It would probably best to let the girl calm down after being told that Ranma thought of her as nothing more than a friend. No, she would go back to the hotel for now, maybe with a stop in the park to work on some katas.
A little earlier in the day Noriko leapt down to the sidewalk a short way from Ucchan’s Okonomiyaki. She paused to look around and thought to herself that the people in Nerima were perhaps too inured to the odd and unusual. None of the passersby seemed to take notice of her beyond the attention they would normally pay to any girl of her beauty.
The blonde girl walked the rest of the way and pushed through the door of the restaurant. A chime announced her entrance. It was early enough in the afternoon that the tail end of the lunch rush was still being served. There were still quite a number people in the place.
After waiting for a while a pretty waitress in a kimono came up to Noriko and led her to a table. The blonde said, “I’ll have a squid and shrimp Okonomiyaki and some tea, Jasmine tea if you have it. I realize you’re busy right now, but could you ask Ms. Kuonji to come talk to me when she has a free moment?”
The waitress glanced toward the kitchen. “Well, the lunch rush doesn’t usually last much later. I would guess she would be available in about a half an hour. In the mean time you may enjoy your meal.”
Noriko said, “Thank you Mr. Kenzan.”
Konatsu took a probing look at the pretty blonde girl. This customer knew his name and knew that he was a boy. He didn’t remember ever seeing this girl before, yet she seemed to know that he was a man in spite of the very effective disguise he wore. On top of that the girl knew Konatsu’s family name.
The young kunoichi turned in the order and told Ukyo, “The woman at table seven asks to talk to you when you have some time free.”
“Sure thing, Sugar,” the chef answered. Then she stopped and looked at her waitress. “Something’s bothering you, Ko-chan. What’s up?”
The Ninja frowned and looked back toward where the blonde was sitting. "That woman knew my family name. She called me MR. Kenzan. Besides that, even though I could swear I’ve never seen her before, there is something oddly familiar about her.”
The chef shrugged. “Then I guess I’d better talk to her.” She poured the batter for the order.
A little later Noriko was savoring her meal. Ukyo really did make one of the best okonomiyaki in Japan. From her time as Happosai, she knew of a place in Tomobiki that had a good reputation. She would have to go check them out again now that her taste buds were renewed.
It turned out to be a little longer than Konatsu had predicted before Ukyo was free to come talk to her. The chef walked up to the table and said, “Hello, I’m Kuonji Ukyo. My waitress said you wished to talk to me.”
Noriko bowed her head. “Yes, thank you. I know you’re a busy woman. I should preface what I came say by telling you that you and I have met before, but I’ve changed a lot since then.”
The chef was confused. She said, “Well, I’m sure I don’t remember meeting you before. Although I get a feeling of something familiar about you. Maybe like someone I saw a picture of or maybe saw on TV.”
The blonde smiled and said, “Trust me, we have met before. Although to be honest, it feels like it was another lifetime. I’ve come to talk to you about Saotome Ranma.”
“Ranchan?” The chef exclaimed. “Is he back?”
The blonde nodded. “Yes, he is back. He is taking care of some business in another part of town. I’m here to take care of some more business on his behalf.”
The Chef looked angry. “Business? What kind of business. Are you another fiancé?”
“No, I’m not.” She added in thought, “At least not formally. I would like to change that.”
“Then what are you to my Ranchan?” The chef demanded.
The blonde maintained what to Ukyo, seemed an irritating calm. She said, “What do you know of the reason why Ranma left?”
Why wouldn’t this infuriating woman just answer a direct question? “All the Tendos said he went to help out a sick friend.”
Noriko took a sip of her tea, then asked, “Do you who the friend was?”
Ukyo shook her head. “I don’t know. There was some silly rumor that Happosai was dying and Ranchan was taking him to China for Jusenkyo girl curse water to save him.”
The former man smiled a little. “Yes, that does seem silly, doesn’t it? The only problem is that the rumor is true.”
“What?” The brunette wasn’t sure she could trust what she was hearing. “What do you know about it?”
The blonde took another sip of her tea and said, “The full story is rather long. The short version is that Happosai was actually born a girl, but her father wanted a boy so he got a witch to change the child into a boy at the age of one month. In addition to the spell that changed the child’s sex was a curse that turned him into that little gnomelike creature you are familiar with when he hit puberty. He’s been looking for a way to fix that for a long time.”
She continued, “Recently Happosai lost the ability to absorb the female ki that he got from fondling women and touching their underwear. Ranma was able to do a ki transfer when in girl form and keep the old man alive. They did go to China to get some girl water. They used it and turned the shriveled up old gnome of a man into a pretty blonde haired girl.”
“Blonde?” The chef looked confused. “Wait a minute! Are you saying you’re Happosai?”
Noriko grinned. “I know. It seems unbelievable, doesn’t it? I was Happosai, but I don’t want to use that name anymore. I’m calling myself Tendo Noriko as a tribute to an old friend who died a long time ago.”
Ukyo shook her head. “No, I don’t believe it! That shriveled up old prune of a man couldn’t turn into a girl like you. It’s impossible!”
The blonde reached over and patted the brunette on the shoulder in what looked like it was intended to be a comforting manner. She said, “Calm down. Now if you need proof…” She dropped something onto the tabletop that looked like a long bandage that had been loosely coiled. The former man said, “You always were something of a challenge wearing those bindings instead of a regular bra.”
Ukyo suddenly became away that a feeling of compression that she was used to was missing. She put her hands over her breasts and felt them now unfettered, but still covered by her shirt. She knew of only one person who could do what had just been done.
The brunette fixed her customer with a glare. “Ok, so you are… or at least were Happosai. I don’t know anyone else who can do that.”
Noriko chuckled. “Actually I taught Ranma how that trick works. I explained to him that the original technique was developed so a martial artist could steal weapons and armor from an opponent, making them more vulnerable to punches and kicks. Stealing underwear makes good practice, though.”
Ukyo’s glare intensified and she dropped her hands back to the tabletop. She said, “You’re getting off the subject. What did you want to tell me about Ranchan?”
The former man said, “Ranma and I were stuck in China for a few weeks while we waited for Nabiki to make up a new passport for me that goes with my new face and gender. We had time to talk a lot and the subject of the fiancés naturally came up. After he got over his initial distrust for me, he opened up and told me things.”
The brunette held up a hand to cut off any further pronouncements. “If Ranchan wants to go ahead and get married or if he wants to break things off, he should come here to tell me himself.”
Noriko looked down at the teacup on the table and laughed. “A problem that Ranma has is that sometimes he is too kind hearted. It is the same problem that has caused the whole fiancé mess to drag on as long as it has.”
Now puzzled Ukyo asked, “How is having a kind heart a problem?”
“Think about it,” the blonde challenged. “Ranma could have told Shampoo to get lost a long time ago if he wasn’t afraid he would hurt her feelings.”
The girl had a point, thought Ukyo. A feeling of dread seized on her. What did this girl want to tell her that Ranma couldn’t say for fear of hurting her feelings?
Finally nerving herself to it, Ukyo asked, “What do you want to tell me that Ranchan can’t bring himself to tell me in person?”
Swirling the remnant of her tea around in the bottom of the cup, Noriko tried to think of a way to phrase it in a way that wouldn’t do more harm than needed. “Ranma does love you… as a friend, maybe as much as a sister.”
“No!”
The blonde waited but nothing more seemed to be coming after the one word protest. She went on, “Ranma has fond memories of the time you fought over okonomiyaki when you were kids. He thought of you as a pal, a buddy, one of the guys. Even he admits he was pretty clueless back then. When you came to school and he found out you were a girl he adjusted his thinking enough to recognize that as a girl you were pretty cute.”
The former man paused to see if her audience was going to say anything. She seemed to be smiling over the comment on cuteness. “The problem is that, while in his mind he accepts the idea that you are a girl, it hasn’t reached his heart. There he still sees you as a buddy and can’t accept the idea of romance with you.”
A scowl settled on to the brunette’s face. “No! Ranchan loves me and I love him. We’re going to get married and live together for the rest of our lives.”
Noriko shook her head. Ukyo seemed to have something of a blind spot in this area. The blonde asked, “In this dream of a married life do you picture Ranma working with you in a restaurant like this one? Do picture him as being the man to your wife? Where does his curse fit into this picture?”
“Of course we’d run a restaurant,” the chef protested. “We’d cook okonomiyaki and study martial arts. We’d teach both to our children.”
The former man nodded. “It seems like a pleasant enough future you have planned, at least for you. Have you ever asked Ranma if spending the rest of his life working in a restaurant is what he wants to do with his future?”
“Of course,” She insisted. “He’d love it.”
Noriko thought about it for a moment before saying, “Then it would seem that you don’t know Ranma as well as you think you do. When we were in China, waiting for my papers, Ranma helped out at a local medical clinic. He discovered that he loves helping people and he would like to become a doctor.”
“A doctor!” Ukyo couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “What about martial arts? I can’t believe that Ranchan would abandon the Art to become a doctor.”
The older woman shook her head. “No, Ranma doesn’t want to give up the Art completely. He would continue martial arts as a hobby, like Dr. Tofu does.”
“A hobby!” She shook her head in disbelief. “How could he switch from it being the whole focus of his life just like that? And you are okay with this? You’re the Grand Master of his School. You’d be losing him as an heir. What about that?”
The blonde shrugged. “I’m young again. The issue of an heir isn’t so urgent any more. If Ranma doesn’t want to be the heir, then maybe one of his children will want to. Or maybe I can find someone else. I have time to work on it.”
Before Ukyo could come up with another question, Noriko pressed on, “If being a doctor is what will make Ranma happy, then that is what I want too. I don’t care about whether he makes the Art a hobby or if he gave it up completely.”
Something finally penetrated Ukyo’s consciousness. There was a certain look on Noriko’s face when she spoke about Ranma. She had a tone to her voice that said things that the words spoken didn’t. The look in her eyes spoke volumes when the chef was able to notice.
Such a thing shouldn’t be possible. This woman was once reputed to be the most perverted man in Japan. She had been a selfish man who didn’t care for anything but his own pleasures and the continuation of his martial arts school. Could Ukyo be reading it wrong?
“You love him, don’t you?” The chef was afraid of the answer she would get.
The other woman shook her head. “I couldn’t believe either it when I first realized it. It first started right after I changed into a woman. I wasn’t strong enough to leap from tree to tree, so Ranma had to carry me. I found myself liking being held in his arms. Then when I dreamed about him kissing me I realized that I was attracted to him physically. I thought it was just the hormones from my body being female for the first time in centuries. Then I realized that I was attracted to her as well as him.”
The chef’s mouth was opening and closing in a good imitation of a fish.
Noriko went on, “At the house we were staying at, our hostess put is in separate beds in the same bedroom. We talked a lot and it was in those conversations that I discovered that what I felt for Ranma was more than just the attraction of a woman for an attractive man or even another attractive woman. I love him.”
She was lost in contemplation. “I love his kind heart, his loyalty and his courage. I love the way he wants to help others. I love the way he rubs the back of his neck when he’s embarrassed and the way he scratches the base of his pigtail when he’s confused…”
“OKAY! I get it!” The brunette shouted, drawing the attention of several members of the thinning crowd of patrons in the restaurant. Ukyo had the grace to look embarrassed at making a scene.
In a quieter tone, the chef said, “I get it. You love him. You want to take him away from me.” The last was in a tone of sullen resentment.
Noriko shook her head. “I’m sorry if I gave you that impression. Yes, I do love him. However, unlike some other people I could name, I care more about his happiness than my own. I could put it down to the unusual combination of an old mind in a young body. I can feel the urges that teenage hormones can give, but I can think about them with a mature perspective.”
“What’s your point, old hag?” Ukyo demanded.
The blonde frowned at the “hag” reference. The brunette was upset, so Noriko decided to let it go. “Well, if it would make Ranma happy, I’d like nothing better than to be by his side as he goes through medical school. I’d support him and encourage him. I’d even be the mother of his children if that’s what he wants. And believe me when I say that seemed like such a foreign concept to me when it first crossed my mind. Now I find it growing on me.”
She held up a hand to forestall the argument Ukyo looked ready to begin. “Please notice I said ‘If it would make Ranma happy.’ If I thought he’d be happier married to you I would bend every effort toward getting the two of you together. I'm not going to do that because I don’t believe that what you want is best for him. Your vision of the future would stifle his spirit. He’d become unhappy. It might not happen right away but eventually there would be arguments and you would end up unhappy as well. I would predict that you would end up getting divorced.”
The former man felt ready to sum up. “I think you need to give some careful and (for a change) unselfish thought to this matter. What do you think would be best for Ranma? Personally, I see two possible courses. One of those would be for you to step back and content yourself with just being a friend. Continue on with your life and support Ranma as much as you can as a friend. If you still insist you must marry him then you should consider giving up your dream to help him follow his. If you do otherwise you risk losing him as both a friend as well as a future husband.”
She stood up. “Take some time and think about it carefully. Ranma will be by next week to ask what you have decided. By the way, I haven’t told Ranma how I feel about him. I will wait to see if he comes to see it for himself and hopefully finds he has similar feelings. I care enough about his feelings that I am not going to add to the pressure on him.”
“Pressure?”
At that Noriko sat back down. “Don’t you believe Ranma is under pressure? How about, ‘Ranma must marry Akane. The schools must be joined.’” She didn’t exactly match the voice of Tendo Soun but got the tone, and mannerisms perfect.
She went on in an imitation of Genma, “Why have I been cursed with such an ungrateful, disgraceful son?” In a perfect copy of Nodoka’s voice she said, “Insulting your fiancé is not very manly, Son.”
She went on, “Wo Di Airen! Ranma go on date with Shampoo?” In an imitation of Cologne’s voice, “You will marry Shampoo, Son-in-Law.” She next did Kodachi, “Oh, my darling Ranma-Sama.” Then again, “Ranma No Hentai!” Pantomiming the swinging of a mallet, she said, “Wham!”
She shook her head again. “Let us not forget the rivals.” She did a good imitation of Kuno, “Fear not, fair one, I shall free my pigtailed goddess from the enslavement of the vile sorcerer Saotome.” As Ryoga she said, “Saotome Ranma, prepare to die!” Then as Mousse, “How dare you try to take my Shampoo away from me.”
“I’ve saved one of the best for last,” Noriko said. In a perfect copy of Ukyo, the blonde said, “You have to marry me, Ranchan. I’m the cute fiancé.”
Once again Noriko stood. She said, “Do you want to continue being part of the problem or are you willing to take a try at being part of the solution? Think about it and try to have an answer for Ranma when he comes by next week. Oh, by the way, the okonomiyaki was excellent. Thank you.”
Before Noriko could walk to the door out of the building Ukyo tried one final sally. “What about my Pop’s yattai? Genma accepted the dowry! Ranchan has to marry me. He’s honor bound!”
The blonde stepped back to the table as she reached into stuff space and a moment later something thumped onto the table in front of Ukyo. The chef looked to see what appeared to be a thick magazine with pictures of restaurant equipment on the cover.
“Thank you for reminding me. What you see there is a catalog from a company that makes and sells restaurant equipment. From page 110 to 125, among the ovens and deep fat fryers, they carry yattai. The selections range from a small unit for a street corner vendor that is suitable for heating up prepackaged foods up to a mobile restaurant you’d need a truck to tow around.”
She continued, “When Genma took your father’s yattai I was trapped in a cave so I have no idea where the original cart may be or if it would still be useable if it could be found. Since I have no way to give you back the old yattai, I would be willing to buy you a replacement. Ranma promised that he would pay me back for it after he starts getting paying patients. If you don’t pick one, I have another copy of the catalog. I’ll pick out the cart that is closest to what Ranma remembers of the old one and buy that. I can have it delivered here in no more than three weeks.”
The chef was doing her fish imitation again. Noriko rolled her eyes, “With the replacement of the yattai, the dowry is returned and the marriage agreement is rendered null and void. That puts the possible marriage on the basis it should be, whether or not the boy and girl both want it. I’ve already told you Ranma’s thoughts on the subject.”
The blonde glanced over to see Konatsu bussing a table on the far side of the restaurant. She turned back to Ukyo and said, “I know you think it is unfair that you love someone who doesn’t love you back. Before you start thinking of the injustice of that, look at your waitress.”
Now looking confused, Ukyo demanded, “What’s Konatsu have to do with it?”
“Why do you think the boy keeps working for you?” She asked. “It certainly isn’t because of the high pay and great benefits. You pay him what would almost amount to slave wages and include food and a storeroom to sleep in. No, he stays because he is desperately in love with you.”
“You’re imagining things,” insisted the chef.
“Am I?” The former man shook her head. “That boy aids you in your pursuit of Ranma because he cares more about your happiness than his own. You’ve allowed yourself to become so involved with your obsession over Ranma that you’ve turned a blind eye to any other possible romances.”
She studied the chef’s face for a moment. “You do tend to throw yourself into things with obsession and passion. Spending ten years studying martial arts and cooking on the chance of meeting up with Ranma to gain revenge shows that. The fact that you were able to give up that obsession to refocus on a new one of getting married to Ranma, shows that you can change. Maybe you should open your eyes to the possibilities around you and see what has been waiting right in front of you.”
With a grin and in a slightly mischievous tone, Noriko said, “I tend to think that the girl who dresses as a boy and a boy who dresses as a girl might make a good couple. It would probably be a better couple than a girl who dresses as a boy with a boy who actually changes into a girl. Think about Ranma’s girl form and ask yourself if you would enjoy intimate relations with another girl.”
This time Noriko didn’t pause as she walked out of the restaurant.
After she leapt to the roof of a building across the street she paused to look at the front of the building that housed the restaurant. That actually went better than she had expected. She had half expected Ukyo to go into a fit of screaming and order her out of the place or possibly to assault her with a battle spatula.
In some of their conversations back at Lo Shen’s house, Ranma had commented to Noriko that Ukyo was likely the sanest, most level-headed of the fiancés. Her own assessment was that being less crazy than the rest didn’t mean you were sane.
Thinking about her comment on pressure, Noriko had to be honest and include herself as Happosai in the pressure that Ranma had been under. She hoped that she was no longer contributing to that. She was doing all she could to relieve the pressure now.
It had been a surprise when the chef turned out to perceptive enough to recognize Noriko’s own feelings. She just had to hope that the younger girl was also perceptive enough to see the total sincerity that Noriko used to express what she hoped for Ranma’s future.
As she leapt from roof to roof, Noriko contemplated what she was going to say to the Amazons the following day. It seemed likely that Shampoo was a lost cause. There was little chance the girl would be swayed by argument. The person to work on was Cologne. If Cologne ordered it, Shampoo would back off. She wouldn’t like it, but she would obey.
Author's Note: Ranma now has greater control over his curse. He is hoping that this will translate into greater control of his life. It turns out that Ranma has magic that he never suspected before. Ukyo has been told of Ranma's true feelings and of his hopes for the future. Will she accept it? Does she really have a choice? Stay tuned to find out how this develops.
Happi's Redemption chapter 12
Happi’s Redemption
A Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction
By Michael A. Ivins
Ranma along with all of his friends, enemies and acquaintances are the property of Takahashi Rumiko. I’m just borrowing them for my own amusement and hopefully that of my readers. Sailor Moon and the Senshi aren’t mine either. Please don’t sue me.
This story takes place after the end of the manga
Chapter 12
Meeting the Senshi
The next morning right after breakfast, Ranma headed over to Juuban. He roof hopped to save on train fare and for the exercise. When he was about a kilometer from the store he was distracted by the sound of explosions and crashing.
Since he had time to spare, he detoured in the direction of the disturbance. He finally came to a stop on the roof of a five story building and looked down on the scene of battle in the street.
The scene was one of total chaos. The first things that one noticed were the monsters. Giants, there were three of them each about 3 meters tall. They looked like they were assembled from a random assortment of boulders, rocks and pebbles into a roughly man-like shape with huge barrel chests and short arms and legs. Their heads were just round rocks with no faces. Ranma had to wonder how they could see to fight without eyes. They seemed to manage. They had no toes on their feet, making them look like big, clumsy shoes. On their hands they did have short, stubby fingers.
Fighting against them were girls dressed in what looked like cheerleader outfits complete with short skirts. The uniforms included what looked like a sailor flap on the back. That one feature made Ranma think that these must be the Sailor Senshi he had heard about. Akane was a fan of theirs and always followed all of the news stories about their battles.
The girls didn’t seem to be doing too well. They were throwing some kind of energy attacks at the creatures. One was using lightning, another fire, the one with the orange skirt seemed to be throwing attacks composed of glowing hearts. The one with the blue hair was attacking with what looked like freezing water. He couldn’t tell for sure what it was the blonde with the odangos and long ponytails was using other than it seemed like some kind of energy attack.
What he could tell was that the attacks that the girls were using didn’t seem to do more than slow the rock monsters down. Their actions had occupied the monsters and allowed the civilians to escape. There were police in the area but they didn’t appear to be well enough armed to handle the problem either. Likely for foes of this type it would take some kind of explosive rockets instead of just bullets. For the present all the police could do was to keep the gawkers out of the battle zone.
Hmm. The Breaking Point technique wasn’t supposed to work on living creatures. He wondered if that would also apply to magically animated stone. Well, only one way to find out.
He leapt from his spot on the roof at an angle that would get him to one of the monsters. He was aiming at the chest. He used the Iron Skin technique to harden his index finger on his right hand to the consistency of a steel rod. His ki senses had found the needed weak point.
Fractions of a second later his finger stabbed into the chest of the stone monster and he called out, “Bukusai Tenketsu.” As the monster’s chest exploded, Ranma bounded away to avoid the worst of the shrapnel. When Ranma landed he looked back at the creature. The upper portion of its torso was rubble. This is when it became apparent that the creatures really were assembled from random stones. Whatever magic had held the rocks in the manlike shape lost its grip and the rest of the creature fell apart.
The blonde with the long ponytails demanded, “Who are you?”
Ranma just shook his head and yelled back, “We can talk after these guys are taken care of.”
Conceding the wisdom of that, the girls went back to their attacks. When one of the rock monsters turned away from Ranma to face the girls, he leapt at its back. Unfortunately the one remaining monster was watching its companion’s back. A stone hand came swinging into view and slapped Ranma away. The boy’s flight was stopped when he slammed into the concrete wall of a building, leaving a Ranma-shaped indentation. While flying backward, Ranma was able to invoke Iron Skin over his whole body. Even with that protection it still hurt. "Ite." Ranma proclaimed.
Pushing himself out of the indentation, Ranma shook his head to clear the cobwebs and commented, “Damn, that thing hits harder than Ryoga.”
Apparently the monsters thought pigtailed boy was permanently removed from the battle because they were concentrating their attacks on the girls. Ranma snorted, “Ignore me, will you?” He launched himself forward again and this time reached the back of one of the monsters. With another well placed Breaking Point, the second monster exploded like the first.
After landing back on the ground near to where the girls were, Ranma yelled to be heard, “Ladies would you like to take the last one?”
The pony-tailed blonde called out, “All together!” With that instruction all of the girls struck with their attacks at the same time. That appeared to be too much for the monster and it too exploded under the combined attack.
As soon as the rock monster’s remains fell, all of the girls turned toward Ranma. Sailor Moon asked, “How did you survive being slammed into the wall like that?”
“Oh, that,” he said offhandedly. “There’s this martial arts ki manipulation technique called Iron Skin. You channel your ki into your skin to make it as tough as armor. Even using that technique I’m still going to be feeling that one later. I’m already channeling ki to heal myself.”
With a confused expression on her face, Sailor Venus asked, “What’s ki?”
Sailor Mercury was scanning with her computer and had the holographic visor over her eyes. She said, “It is pure life energy. This man has tons of it. It’s a good thing he wasn’t around here when Beryl’s youma were stealing energy. He’d be a prime target for them with all the energy he’s got.”
The blonde with the pony tails stepped forward and bowed, saying, “I’m Sailor Moon and we are the beautiful sailor suited defenders of love and justice known as the Sailor Senshi.”
The pigtailed boy stood there blinking. They really called themselves that? He thought it was just some silly name made up by the newspapers to describe them. He shook himself out of his introspection and said, “Wow, it’s great to meet you. My fiancé is one of your biggest fans.”
He looked over the girls and pointed at the other blonde. “So you would be Sailor Venus, right? I’ve played your video game – lots of fun. The one with the fire attacks must be Sailor Mars, the one with the computer is Sailor Mercury and the tall one would have to be Jupiter.”
Sailor Moon smiled. “That’s right.”
Before she could ask his name he said, “But aren’t there more of you?”
Moon nodded and said, “You mean the Outers. They got the emergency alert. They are probably on their way right now.”
“Wow, cool!” He pulled a notebook out of stuff space. This was the same notebook he had used to take notes when he had been at the library the previous day. “My fiancé would be really impressed if I could get your autographs.”
While the Senshi normally didn’t give autographs, they didn’t think it was too much to do to thank the man who had just helped them fight some really tough monsters. Moon took the notebook and Ranma told her, “Say ‘To my biggest fan, Akane.”
The pony-tailed blonde nodded and started to write. While she was doing that Jupiter asked, “What was that attack you used on the rock monsters?”
He explained, “It’s called the Breaking Point. One uses ki senses to find the weakest point in a rock and pour ki into it. It causes the rock to explode. Since the attack doesn’t work on living creatures I guess I was lucky that those things were magically animated stone and not really living.”
“Yeah, lucky…” Jupiter sounded confused.
Just then three more women jumped down from a nearby rooftop. One was a tall blonde with short hair, the second a pretty woman with aqua colored hair and the third was a younger looking girl with dark purple hair. The young one looked about the same age as Ranma’s girl form. The youngest was carrying a really formidable looking pole-arm.
The short haired blonde said, “Sorry we’re late. Who’s this guy?”
At that moment Ranma’s curse made an agreement with the local storm gods. The result was a sudden burst of rain that seemed to fall only on one person. The now wet redhead muttered, “The kami must hate me.”
Sailor Uranus shouted, “Everybody get back! It’s a youma in disguise. World Shaking!”
Sailor Moon had been handing Ranma’s notebook to Sailor Mars. She said, “Uranus, wait!”
Before her words could register, Neptune called out her attack, “Deep Submerge.”
After taking the full brunt of the World Shaking, Ranma rather shakily dodged the Deep Submerge attack. She shouted, “Damit, stop attacking me! I’m on your side!”
“Like I’m going to believe you!” The Senshi of Uranus launched another attack.
Ranma was starting to get pissed off. While dodging she muttered, “That damned uncute, macho tomboy better appreciate what I had to go through to get their autographs.”
While this was going on Mercury was trying to get the attention of the Outers to tell to tell them the girl had no dark energy and wasn’t a threat.
Another attack grazed Ranma and she looked down at herself. She was getting a bit battered but her clothing was a tattered mass of rags that barely covered her enough to protect her modesty. Damn it! She had liked those clothes.
“Damn it! If you want a fight, I’ll give you one.” A glowing ball of blue energy began to form and she shouted, “Moku…”
Before she could launch her attack a new voice fairly screamed, “STOP! Uranus, Neptune, stand down!” In view of the intervention, Ranma let the energy of her attack dissipate.
The new person to join the group was a strikingly beautiful tall woman with green hair. The skirt of her fuku was black.
Uranus protested, “But she…”
The green haired woman glared. “I said STAND DOWN! I won’t have you attacking an ally.”
At that all of the Senshi responded, “Ally?”
The newcomer walked over to Ranma and produced a thermos seemingly from nowhere. As she handed the thermos to the redhead she said, “I apologize for my teammates’ zeal. They sometimes err on the side of caution.”
Ranma opened the thermos and poured some hot water to turn male again. While doing it he was muttering, “Damn crazy, trigger happy magic girls.”
The Senshi of Time’s manner was oddly respectful. “Are you injured, Saotome-San?”
Handing the thermos back to the green haired woman, he shrugged, “I’ve taken worse. A little ki channeling and I should be good as new. Uh… how do you know my name?”
She said, “I am the Senshi of Time.” She said it as if that explained everything.
Ranma digested that then ventured, “So you had knowledge from the future that we’d meet?”
She nodded. “That’s right.”
He scowled. “If you knew this was going to happen couldn’t you have got here before she attacked me?”
The green haired woman bowed her head. “I’m sorry. I tried to get here faster but I had to pick up the thermos and some other things.”
Again from nowhere she produced a couple of folded garments. She handed them to the startled young man. He looked at the tattered garments he was wearing and the clothing now in his hands. “You really did know this was going to happen.”
With Chestnut Fist speed he changed into the new garments. He found they were an excellent fit. The pants were black and had an elastic waistband. That would allow the pants to stay up if he got changed to female before he could get another outfit. The shirt was what he’d heard referred to as a “scrub shirt” such as doctors wore when on duty in a hospital. It was a light green in color and stitched on the front in dark blue was a caduceus, the symbol of a doctor.
He looked at the stitching on the shirt and said, “I haven’t earned the right to wear this symbol.”
The woman in the black-skirted fuku patted his shoulder, “Don’t worry, you will.”
The Senshi of Time turned from Ranma and said, “You finish signing that notebook. I know Saotome-San’s fiancé will treasure it.”
Not having noted the name before, Uranus and Jupiter now stepped forward. The blonde said, “Did she say Saotome, as in Saotome Ranma from Nerima?”
The pigtailed boy had learned to be cautious when people asked about his name in that way. For all he knew this might be another fiancé. Still, he wasn’t going to lie. “Uh…Yeah, that’s me.”
“Oh, wow! I’m so sorry I attacked you,” the blonde said. Her earlier hostility seemed completely gone now. “Still, I should have expected Saotome Ranma to be able to take my attack and keep going. You’re like one of my biggest heroes. You’re famous. It’s like you’re the greatest martial artist in Japan.”
Sailor Jupiter similarly gushed, “I’ve heard of you too. Your exploits are amazing. The way you fought that flying monster was great.”
“Uh… Thanks.” He guessed the monster she was talking about was Pantyhose Taro.
By the time the notebook was signed by the last of the Senshi, Ranma was beginning to wonder if the two martial arts otaku were going to ask for his autograph in return.
Finally he took back the notebook and stashed it in stuff space. He said, “Well it’s been… interesting meeting you. I’m willing to overlook the attack as a misunderstanding.” He turned and leapt to the roof of a nearby building and proceeded to roof hop toward the bookstore.
Usagi stalked over to Pluto and demanded, “What’s the deal? I can understand Uranus and Jupiter acting like that around a famous martial artist, but why were you acting so respectful to him? Did your future self tell you something about him?”
Setsuna nodded. “Yes, she did. In fact a future version of Saotome-San was with her at the time. He may be a martial artist now, but he will soon begin the formal study of medicine. He has already started to study it informally.”
Sailor Moon nodded. “Okay, he’s going to be a doctor, I get that. Why would he be with your future self?”
The Senshi of Time rolled her eyes. “He’s not just any doctor, he’s our doctor (or will be.) During his studies he will gain enormous medical knowledge but even greater healing powers both ki base and magical. He will save the lives of each of each of us many times over. If that’s not enough for you, he is the reincarnation of Queen Serenity’s doctor from the Silver Millennium. In that lifetime he delivered Princess Serenity (you.) He will be the doctor who delivers Chibi Usa.”
“Oh” The Moon Princess wasn’t sure how to react to that. Finally she commented, “But he’s still just a kid.”
The Senshi of Pluto smiled at that. “So he is. And so are you too. The thing about kids is that they don’t stay that way forever. You have grown up a lot since you took on the responsibilities of Sailor Moon. The life that Saotome Ranma has lived has given him experiences that most people two or three times his age haven’t accumulated.”
The Moon Princess glanced in the direction the young man had gone. “Then I wish we’d had more time to talk to him. You make him sound like an interesting person. What I don't understand is why magical girls with healing powers would even need a doctor.”
Pluto seemed amused as she explained, "Putting it in common terms you could think of healing power such as Saturn's as your basic first aid kit. When he completes his education and refines his healing powers, Saotome-San's healing power would be more like a fully equipped research hospital."
"He's going to get that good?"
The Guardian of the Gates of Time nodded and said, “Don’t worry. You’ll meet him again.” Before Usagi had a chance to ask any more questions, Setsuna disappeared, teleported away.
A kilometer away Ranma landed in the street in front of a store with a sign that said, “The Spell Book,” in stylized Romanji. Below that was the picture of a huge open book with burning candles to the left and right.
When he pushed open the door, a bell rang. A young woman standing behind a cash register near the door straightened up and looked like she was ready to step forward to tend to the new customer.
A voice called out, “I’ll take this one, Akemi.”
From the direction of the voice there came a woman who appeared to be in her 50’s. She had very erect posture and had hair that was more gray than brown. She wore glasses with half-moon lenses that rested nearly at the end of her nose. The eyes revealed were brown and bore an inquisitive expression.
The woman said, “How may I help you, young man?”
From stuff space Ranma pulled out a list. From the pages of book titles that Dr. Rinse had given him he had copied the titles that she said would likely have to come from a store specializing in books on the occult. He handed the list to the lady he assumed to be the owner of the store.
The older woman looked over the paper. “Quite a list. I see ‘Rivers of Light, Rivers of Life’ by Nakasone, ‘Medicinal Plants of Asia’ by Howard Swan, ‘Healing Powers’ by Xeltraphon. You are looking for books on ki healing, herbal medicine and magic healing? It would appear that someone wishes to become a somewhat unconventional doctor.”
Ranma nodded. “I recently helped out in a medical clinic for a couple weeks. In addition to some more modern medical books, those were recommended to me by a Dr. Rin Se.”
The book store owner considered that name. “This doctor friend of yours wouldn’t happen to be a Chinese Amazon, would she?”
The pigtailed martial artist nodded. “She lives in village in Qinghai province.”
The bookstore owner looked over the list again. “I see. I know some people in that part of the world. We have most of these books. Two of them I’ll have to order. Two of them are out of print and might be difficult to obtain. You might try looking them up on the Internet. That way you would likely be able to get them as fast as I could.”
She took a pencil and checked those titles then handed the list back to Ranma. “If you will forgive me for being nosey, I can detect the presence of magic on you. Some of it is recent and some has been with you for a while.”
The black haired boy raised an eyebrow. After considering for a moment he said, “The recent magic came from a misunderstanding with the Sailor Senshi about a kilometer from here. They mistook me for an enemy and tried to hit me with some of their magic attacks.”
The graying storekeeper’s eyebrows went up. She asked, “Did they hit you?”
“Just once,” Ranma reported. “The rest of them I dodged. They apologized when they realized I was one of the good guys.”
“I should think so too,” She said. “You don’t seem too badly injured.”
“Nah, I’m pretty tough,” he replied. “It sort of wrecked my clothes though. They were nice enough to give me something else to wear.”
She nodded sagely. “That would account for the scent of magic on your clothing.”
He frowned, looking confused. “Magic has a smell?”
“To an experienced magic user it does,” She explained.
“Ah! I see,” he responded. “I did have a reason to come visit you here besides the books. Since I needed the books anyway I thought I would ask about them too. You know, ‘two birds with one stone,’ and that kind of thing.”
“I suspected as much.” The woman smiled.
He said, “The Matriarch of the Amazon tribe in that same village where the doctor lives said I should look up a sorceress who lives in Juuban. She didn’t have an address but a friend of mine looked you up from your name. The Matriarch’s name is Lo Shen.”
“Oh, my!” The older woman exclaimed. “I haven’t heard from little Lo Shen for a very long time.”
“’Little’ Lo Shen?” That didn't seem like a name that should be applied to a woman who was more than a century old.
The shopkeeper laughed. “I’m older than I look. I’ve known Lo Shen since she was a little girl.”
She glanced over to the woman behind the cash register and said, “Akemi, mind the store for a while. It turns out that this is a special customer. I’m going to take him back to the workshop.”
The younger woman nodded and waved. The shopkeeper headed toward the back of the store, instructing, “Follow me.”
As they threaded their way between bookcases Ranma asked, “Don’t you want to know what Lo Shen sent me to you for?”
“No,” answered the old woman. “I like to figure this sort of thing out myself when it’s a magic problem.”
Ranma shrugged. If that was how she wanted to play it.
They finally got to the back of the shop space and went out a door into a hallway. They went down the hall to the end, passing some other doors on the way. The woman pulled a chain from around her neck to reveal a key that hung from it. She used that key to unlock the door at the end of the hall.
The room was spacious and in the middle was a table about the size of a dining table for eight people. The chairs were comfortable overstuffed ones rather than the usual ones you’d see as part of a dinette set. Along one wall there was an odd piece of built-in furniture. It was a sort of cabinet with dozens of drawers.
The sorceress waved toward the table and said, “Have a seat.” She moved along the wall until she seemed to find the drawer she was looking for. She pulled the drawer open and withdrew what looked like a piece of costume jewelry. It was a gem about the size of the end of Ranma’s thumb.
The woman handed the jewel to Ranma and said, “Here, hold this.”
The martial artist took the gem in his hand. The moment it touched the palm of his hand, the jewel began to glow with a bright blue light. Seeing that that, the sorceress said, “Aha! Jusenkyo, just as I thought.”
Ranma rolled his eyes. “All you had to do was ask me.”
She pointed out, “If you had told me there is the chance you could have lied or been mistaken about the nature of the magic that was worked on you. This way I’m sure.”
The boy shrugged. Apparently she had her own way of doing things.
From the same drawer she pulled a round leather case. The leather looked old and weathered. From the case the old woman pulled a lens. She held this up and peered at Ranma through the glass. She seemed to be studying the teen carefully.
After a while she finally said, “Spring of Drowned Young Girl. From what I can see here your cursed form is a really cute redhead of about 13 years in age. To tell the truth I’ve never heard of a girl coming out of that spring that wasn’t at least cute and a few that grew into absolutely gorgeous women.”
Ranma frowned. “I can’t say I’m thrilled about that.”
The sorceress looked amused. “If you have to change into woman wouldn’t you prefer to change into a pretty one?”
He gave her a level look. “If I turned into a plain or ugly girl I wouldn’t have to put up with so many perverted boys trying to date me.”
She nodded. “Since you’re a boy inside, I can understand how you wouldn’t find that a pleasant experience.”
The boy shook his head emphatically.
The sorceress frowned. “Other than getting books, what did you hope to get out of this visit to my shop?”
He leaned back in his chair. “Lo Shen told me that she knew of a sorceress who could do magic that would let someone with the girl curse change the trigger from water to will power.”
The woman nodded. “Yes I do know such magic. Did Lo Shen tell you some of the limitations and conditions?”
Ranma’s expression was serious now. “Yes. I need to pick times to be a girl and I need to spend half or more of my time in girl form or I could find myself changing without willing it any time my mind wanders. At least by changing the trigger I get rid of the whole water magnet thing.”
Ms. Watanabe nodded with evident satisfaction. “A very succinct summation, I must say. I noticed that your girl form looks to be about 13 while your boy form looks 16. If you want your female form to catch up to your male form you would need to spend extra time as a girl. Products like the waterproof soap won’t work when water is no longer your trigger.”
The boy nodded. “I guess that’s why Lo Shen said I should keep this.” He pulled the locking ring from under his shirt.
The sorceress studied the ring for a moment. “Oh, a Joketsuzoku locking ring. It's been a while since I've seen one of those. That would work. While you wear it, the ring would keep you female regardless of whether your trigger is water or will power.”
Ranma looked thoughtful. “This goes beyond my original reason for coming here, but I wanted to ask. Is there some way that my clothes can change when I do?”
The sorceress frowned as she considered. Finally she said, “There is a way, but to do it you would need to learn the magic yourself. There is no talisman, charm or other magical object that can do it, at least not that I have access to. In effect it is a short-range teleport. I could see that you already have one of the requirements. You know the Hidden Weapons technique, right?”
The young man grinned. “It’s such a useful technique.”
She nodded. “It lets you carry more than you could hold in your arms. You can also carry more weight in your subspace pocket than your muscles will support. I’ll bet physicists would love to study the phenomenon.”
She paused. "The magic I have in mind would let you exchange an outfit you are wearing with one you are carrying in your hidden pocket.”
Ranma interjected, “I call it stuff space.”
The sorceress perked up at that. “Oh, right! You call it that because you keep stuff in it. I like it. Once you master the spell, you could change clothes anytime you will the sex change. The one advantage I could see is that you wouldn’t have to wear clothing that was too large for your female body.”
“Is it hard to learn?”
Ms. Watanabe shrugged. “That depends on the student. It’s easy for some, hard for others. I suspect that if you’ve already mastered the Hidden Weapons technique you should learn the clothing swap without too much trouble.”
He nodded. “I’d like to try. How much will I owe you for that?”
She shook her head. “The store out front is what I do to pay the bills. For the magic, all I ask is that you pay for the materials that I use.” She pulled a piece of paper out of a drawer and jotted a few things down with a pencil. When she was done she took a calculator and added up the figures. She showed Ranma the total.
It wasn’t bad. He had feared that it would be terribly expensive. He said, “That isn’t bad. I wanted to mention something else.” He described Ms. Hinako’s condition.
The sorceress frowned. “The spell to change your trigger I could perform in a few minutes. I have all the materials on hand and I know the spell. For the clothing swap you would need to come here for lessons. I’d estimate an hour a day, probably no less than one to two weeks. If you haven’t learned it in two months you should probably give up.”
With some further thought, she said, “For the lady with the ki problem, I don’t know. I’ll have to research it. How did she get that way?”
Ranma gave a condensed version of the story. The sorceress asked, “What was the name of the man who taught her this technique?”
“Happosai.”
Ms. Watanabe frowned. “I haven’t seen Happi in a long time. Did he ever find the magic he was looking for?
The pigtailed boy nodded. “Yes he did, but it was almost too late. He nearly died and I had to feed him ki to keep him alive. ‘He’ is now a gorgeous 19 year old blonde girl.”
The sorceress laughed. "I know he told me he was born a girl, but since I never saw him that way, I have a hard time imagining it.”
The young martial artist nodded. “I had a hard time accepting it at first. Being a girl has made such a difference in her behavior. From talking to her I can tell she remembers being the old pervert, she just doesn’t want to be like that anymore. He used to be a royal pain in the butt. Now she’s a friend and I’m glad to have her as one.”
The older woman listened to the tone the boy used. She was sure that what the boy felt for the transformed former ancient pervert was more than just friendship. She was equally sure that the boy wasn’t aware of the exact nature of what it was he was feeling.
They would certainly make an odd couple, the sex changing boy and the girl who used to be a man. She had to wonder what the girl felt about the boy. If the boy was going to be coming in for lessons on how to do the clothing swap spell, Ms. Watanabe would monitor how things went. It would be nice to talk to this Noriko.
Ms. Watanabe began to pull things out of drawers and line them up on the table. After she had things laid out she grabbed a notebook from a shelf. The book looked like a business journal. She explained, “I created this spell myself. I need to check to make sure I’ve got all the ingredients.”
She checked the assembled materials on the table against the list in the book. She gave a satisfied nod. From the table she picked up a piece of chalk and took it over to a clear section of floor. There she moved a few items out of the way and started to draw a design. At times she would change colors of chalk. She explained that the chalk was enchanted.
After the multicolored design was completed, the sorceress began placing talismans in spots that had been left blank. When she completed positioning those she put an amulet on a chain over her head. She pointed and said, “I left a path through the design. Follow the path to the center.”
Looking very nervous, the boy did as bid and soon was standing in the center of the pattern. The sorceress took more chalk and filled the gaps in the design. When she finished that she placed the chalks back on the table and picked up a sort of staff that had a carving that looked like a ram’s head on one end and a woman’s head on the other.
“Are you ready?” Ms. Watanabe asked?
Still looking apprehensive, Ranma replied, “Would it make any difference if I said no?”
She laughed. “No difference. We’re committed now. You have to stay where you are and not smudge any of the lines, it could create problems. I should mention that this design is more elaborate than is really needed to do the job. Over time I added safeguards so now there’s no chance of this going wrong.”
He nodded. “Forgive me if I feel nervous. All the magic I’ve experienced has never been good for me.”
She recommended, “Relax. All you should feel is a tingle, the same as you do when you change forms.”
Author's Note: I couldn't have Ranma visit Juuban and not have an encounter with the Senshi. This is not a fukufic and Ranma won't become a Senshi as part of it. I hope I adequately explained why the Senshi might need a doctor. The Senshi will not play a major part in this story.
Ranma's not sure if he's ready to have his curse trigger changed even if it is something he wanted. To see how that goes for him, check out the next chapter when I post it.
A Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction
By Michael A. Ivins
Ranma along with all of his friends, enemies and acquaintances are the property of Takahashi Rumiko. I’m just borrowing them for my own amusement and hopefully that of my readers. Sailor Moon and the Senshi aren’t mine either. Please don’t sue me.
This story takes place after the end of the manga
Chapter 12
Meeting the Senshi
The next morning right after breakfast, Ranma headed over to Juuban. He roof hopped to save on train fare and for the exercise. When he was about a kilometer from the store he was distracted by the sound of explosions and crashing.
Since he had time to spare, he detoured in the direction of the disturbance. He finally came to a stop on the roof of a five story building and looked down on the scene of battle in the street.
The scene was one of total chaos. The first things that one noticed were the monsters. Giants, there were three of them each about 3 meters tall. They looked like they were assembled from a random assortment of boulders, rocks and pebbles into a roughly man-like shape with huge barrel chests and short arms and legs. Their heads were just round rocks with no faces. Ranma had to wonder how they could see to fight without eyes. They seemed to manage. They had no toes on their feet, making them look like big, clumsy shoes. On their hands they did have short, stubby fingers.
Fighting against them were girls dressed in what looked like cheerleader outfits complete with short skirts. The uniforms included what looked like a sailor flap on the back. That one feature made Ranma think that these must be the Sailor Senshi he had heard about. Akane was a fan of theirs and always followed all of the news stories about their battles.
The girls didn’t seem to be doing too well. They were throwing some kind of energy attacks at the creatures. One was using lightning, another fire, the one with the orange skirt seemed to be throwing attacks composed of glowing hearts. The one with the blue hair was attacking with what looked like freezing water. He couldn’t tell for sure what it was the blonde with the odangos and long ponytails was using other than it seemed like some kind of energy attack.
What he could tell was that the attacks that the girls were using didn’t seem to do more than slow the rock monsters down. Their actions had occupied the monsters and allowed the civilians to escape. There were police in the area but they didn’t appear to be well enough armed to handle the problem either. Likely for foes of this type it would take some kind of explosive rockets instead of just bullets. For the present all the police could do was to keep the gawkers out of the battle zone.
Hmm. The Breaking Point technique wasn’t supposed to work on living creatures. He wondered if that would also apply to magically animated stone. Well, only one way to find out.
He leapt from his spot on the roof at an angle that would get him to one of the monsters. He was aiming at the chest. He used the Iron Skin technique to harden his index finger on his right hand to the consistency of a steel rod. His ki senses had found the needed weak point.
Fractions of a second later his finger stabbed into the chest of the stone monster and he called out, “Bukusai Tenketsu.” As the monster’s chest exploded, Ranma bounded away to avoid the worst of the shrapnel. When Ranma landed he looked back at the creature. The upper portion of its torso was rubble. This is when it became apparent that the creatures really were assembled from random stones. Whatever magic had held the rocks in the manlike shape lost its grip and the rest of the creature fell apart.
The blonde with the long ponytails demanded, “Who are you?”
Ranma just shook his head and yelled back, “We can talk after these guys are taken care of.”
Conceding the wisdom of that, the girls went back to their attacks. When one of the rock monsters turned away from Ranma to face the girls, he leapt at its back. Unfortunately the one remaining monster was watching its companion’s back. A stone hand came swinging into view and slapped Ranma away. The boy’s flight was stopped when he slammed into the concrete wall of a building, leaving a Ranma-shaped indentation. While flying backward, Ranma was able to invoke Iron Skin over his whole body. Even with that protection it still hurt. "Ite." Ranma proclaimed.
Pushing himself out of the indentation, Ranma shook his head to clear the cobwebs and commented, “Damn, that thing hits harder than Ryoga.”
Apparently the monsters thought pigtailed boy was permanently removed from the battle because they were concentrating their attacks on the girls. Ranma snorted, “Ignore me, will you?” He launched himself forward again and this time reached the back of one of the monsters. With another well placed Breaking Point, the second monster exploded like the first.
After landing back on the ground near to where the girls were, Ranma yelled to be heard, “Ladies would you like to take the last one?”
The pony-tailed blonde called out, “All together!” With that instruction all of the girls struck with their attacks at the same time. That appeared to be too much for the monster and it too exploded under the combined attack.
As soon as the rock monster’s remains fell, all of the girls turned toward Ranma. Sailor Moon asked, “How did you survive being slammed into the wall like that?”
“Oh, that,” he said offhandedly. “There’s this martial arts ki manipulation technique called Iron Skin. You channel your ki into your skin to make it as tough as armor. Even using that technique I’m still going to be feeling that one later. I’m already channeling ki to heal myself.”
With a confused expression on her face, Sailor Venus asked, “What’s ki?”
Sailor Mercury was scanning with her computer and had the holographic visor over her eyes. She said, “It is pure life energy. This man has tons of it. It’s a good thing he wasn’t around here when Beryl’s youma were stealing energy. He’d be a prime target for them with all the energy he’s got.”
The blonde with the pony tails stepped forward and bowed, saying, “I’m Sailor Moon and we are the beautiful sailor suited defenders of love and justice known as the Sailor Senshi.”
The pigtailed boy stood there blinking. They really called themselves that? He thought it was just some silly name made up by the newspapers to describe them. He shook himself out of his introspection and said, “Wow, it’s great to meet you. My fiancé is one of your biggest fans.”
He looked over the girls and pointed at the other blonde. “So you would be Sailor Venus, right? I’ve played your video game – lots of fun. The one with the fire attacks must be Sailor Mars, the one with the computer is Sailor Mercury and the tall one would have to be Jupiter.”
Sailor Moon smiled. “That’s right.”
Before she could ask his name he said, “But aren’t there more of you?”
Moon nodded and said, “You mean the Outers. They got the emergency alert. They are probably on their way right now.”
“Wow, cool!” He pulled a notebook out of stuff space. This was the same notebook he had used to take notes when he had been at the library the previous day. “My fiancé would be really impressed if I could get your autographs.”
While the Senshi normally didn’t give autographs, they didn’t think it was too much to do to thank the man who had just helped them fight some really tough monsters. Moon took the notebook and Ranma told her, “Say ‘To my biggest fan, Akane.”
The pony-tailed blonde nodded and started to write. While she was doing that Jupiter asked, “What was that attack you used on the rock monsters?”
He explained, “It’s called the Breaking Point. One uses ki senses to find the weakest point in a rock and pour ki into it. It causes the rock to explode. Since the attack doesn’t work on living creatures I guess I was lucky that those things were magically animated stone and not really living.”
“Yeah, lucky…” Jupiter sounded confused.
Just then three more women jumped down from a nearby rooftop. One was a tall blonde with short hair, the second a pretty woman with aqua colored hair and the third was a younger looking girl with dark purple hair. The young one looked about the same age as Ranma’s girl form. The youngest was carrying a really formidable looking pole-arm.
The short haired blonde said, “Sorry we’re late. Who’s this guy?”
At that moment Ranma’s curse made an agreement with the local storm gods. The result was a sudden burst of rain that seemed to fall only on one person. The now wet redhead muttered, “The kami must hate me.”
Sailor Uranus shouted, “Everybody get back! It’s a youma in disguise. World Shaking!”
Sailor Moon had been handing Ranma’s notebook to Sailor Mars. She said, “Uranus, wait!”
Before her words could register, Neptune called out her attack, “Deep Submerge.”
After taking the full brunt of the World Shaking, Ranma rather shakily dodged the Deep Submerge attack. She shouted, “Damit, stop attacking me! I’m on your side!”
“Like I’m going to believe you!” The Senshi of Uranus launched another attack.
Ranma was starting to get pissed off. While dodging she muttered, “That damned uncute, macho tomboy better appreciate what I had to go through to get their autographs.”
While this was going on Mercury was trying to get the attention of the Outers to tell to tell them the girl had no dark energy and wasn’t a threat.
Another attack grazed Ranma and she looked down at herself. She was getting a bit battered but her clothing was a tattered mass of rags that barely covered her enough to protect her modesty. Damn it! She had liked those clothes.
“Damn it! If you want a fight, I’ll give you one.” A glowing ball of blue energy began to form and she shouted, “Moku…”
Before she could launch her attack a new voice fairly screamed, “STOP! Uranus, Neptune, stand down!” In view of the intervention, Ranma let the energy of her attack dissipate.
The new person to join the group was a strikingly beautiful tall woman with green hair. The skirt of her fuku was black.
Uranus protested, “But she…”
The green haired woman glared. “I said STAND DOWN! I won’t have you attacking an ally.”
At that all of the Senshi responded, “Ally?”
The newcomer walked over to Ranma and produced a thermos seemingly from nowhere. As she handed the thermos to the redhead she said, “I apologize for my teammates’ zeal. They sometimes err on the side of caution.”
Ranma opened the thermos and poured some hot water to turn male again. While doing it he was muttering, “Damn crazy, trigger happy magic girls.”
The Senshi of Time’s manner was oddly respectful. “Are you injured, Saotome-San?”
Handing the thermos back to the green haired woman, he shrugged, “I’ve taken worse. A little ki channeling and I should be good as new. Uh… how do you know my name?”
She said, “I am the Senshi of Time.” She said it as if that explained everything.
Ranma digested that then ventured, “So you had knowledge from the future that we’d meet?”
She nodded. “That’s right.”
He scowled. “If you knew this was going to happen couldn’t you have got here before she attacked me?”
The green haired woman bowed her head. “I’m sorry. I tried to get here faster but I had to pick up the thermos and some other things.”
Again from nowhere she produced a couple of folded garments. She handed them to the startled young man. He looked at the tattered garments he was wearing and the clothing now in his hands. “You really did know this was going to happen.”
With Chestnut Fist speed he changed into the new garments. He found they were an excellent fit. The pants were black and had an elastic waistband. That would allow the pants to stay up if he got changed to female before he could get another outfit. The shirt was what he’d heard referred to as a “scrub shirt” such as doctors wore when on duty in a hospital. It was a light green in color and stitched on the front in dark blue was a caduceus, the symbol of a doctor.
He looked at the stitching on the shirt and said, “I haven’t earned the right to wear this symbol.”
The woman in the black-skirted fuku patted his shoulder, “Don’t worry, you will.”
The Senshi of Time turned from Ranma and said, “You finish signing that notebook. I know Saotome-San’s fiancé will treasure it.”
Not having noted the name before, Uranus and Jupiter now stepped forward. The blonde said, “Did she say Saotome, as in Saotome Ranma from Nerima?”
The pigtailed boy had learned to be cautious when people asked about his name in that way. For all he knew this might be another fiancé. Still, he wasn’t going to lie. “Uh…Yeah, that’s me.”
“Oh, wow! I’m so sorry I attacked you,” the blonde said. Her earlier hostility seemed completely gone now. “Still, I should have expected Saotome Ranma to be able to take my attack and keep going. You’re like one of my biggest heroes. You’re famous. It’s like you’re the greatest martial artist in Japan.”
Sailor Jupiter similarly gushed, “I’ve heard of you too. Your exploits are amazing. The way you fought that flying monster was great.”
“Uh… Thanks.” He guessed the monster she was talking about was Pantyhose Taro.
By the time the notebook was signed by the last of the Senshi, Ranma was beginning to wonder if the two martial arts otaku were going to ask for his autograph in return.
Finally he took back the notebook and stashed it in stuff space. He said, “Well it’s been… interesting meeting you. I’m willing to overlook the attack as a misunderstanding.” He turned and leapt to the roof of a nearby building and proceeded to roof hop toward the bookstore.
Usagi stalked over to Pluto and demanded, “What’s the deal? I can understand Uranus and Jupiter acting like that around a famous martial artist, but why were you acting so respectful to him? Did your future self tell you something about him?”
Setsuna nodded. “Yes, she did. In fact a future version of Saotome-San was with her at the time. He may be a martial artist now, but he will soon begin the formal study of medicine. He has already started to study it informally.”
Sailor Moon nodded. “Okay, he’s going to be a doctor, I get that. Why would he be with your future self?”
The Senshi of Time rolled her eyes. “He’s not just any doctor, he’s our doctor (or will be.) During his studies he will gain enormous medical knowledge but even greater healing powers both ki base and magical. He will save the lives of each of each of us many times over. If that’s not enough for you, he is the reincarnation of Queen Serenity’s doctor from the Silver Millennium. In that lifetime he delivered Princess Serenity (you.) He will be the doctor who delivers Chibi Usa.”
“Oh” The Moon Princess wasn’t sure how to react to that. Finally she commented, “But he’s still just a kid.”
The Senshi of Pluto smiled at that. “So he is. And so are you too. The thing about kids is that they don’t stay that way forever. You have grown up a lot since you took on the responsibilities of Sailor Moon. The life that Saotome Ranma has lived has given him experiences that most people two or three times his age haven’t accumulated.”
The Moon Princess glanced in the direction the young man had gone. “Then I wish we’d had more time to talk to him. You make him sound like an interesting person. What I don't understand is why magical girls with healing powers would even need a doctor.”
Pluto seemed amused as she explained, "Putting it in common terms you could think of healing power such as Saturn's as your basic first aid kit. When he completes his education and refines his healing powers, Saotome-San's healing power would be more like a fully equipped research hospital."
"He's going to get that good?"
The Guardian of the Gates of Time nodded and said, “Don’t worry. You’ll meet him again.” Before Usagi had a chance to ask any more questions, Setsuna disappeared, teleported away.
A kilometer away Ranma landed in the street in front of a store with a sign that said, “The Spell Book,” in stylized Romanji. Below that was the picture of a huge open book with burning candles to the left and right.
When he pushed open the door, a bell rang. A young woman standing behind a cash register near the door straightened up and looked like she was ready to step forward to tend to the new customer.
A voice called out, “I’ll take this one, Akemi.”
From the direction of the voice there came a woman who appeared to be in her 50’s. She had very erect posture and had hair that was more gray than brown. She wore glasses with half-moon lenses that rested nearly at the end of her nose. The eyes revealed were brown and bore an inquisitive expression.
The woman said, “How may I help you, young man?”
From stuff space Ranma pulled out a list. From the pages of book titles that Dr. Rinse had given him he had copied the titles that she said would likely have to come from a store specializing in books on the occult. He handed the list to the lady he assumed to be the owner of the store.
The older woman looked over the paper. “Quite a list. I see ‘Rivers of Light, Rivers of Life’ by Nakasone, ‘Medicinal Plants of Asia’ by Howard Swan, ‘Healing Powers’ by Xeltraphon. You are looking for books on ki healing, herbal medicine and magic healing? It would appear that someone wishes to become a somewhat unconventional doctor.”
Ranma nodded. “I recently helped out in a medical clinic for a couple weeks. In addition to some more modern medical books, those were recommended to me by a Dr. Rin Se.”
The book store owner considered that name. “This doctor friend of yours wouldn’t happen to be a Chinese Amazon, would she?”
The pigtailed martial artist nodded. “She lives in village in Qinghai province.”
The bookstore owner looked over the list again. “I see. I know some people in that part of the world. We have most of these books. Two of them I’ll have to order. Two of them are out of print and might be difficult to obtain. You might try looking them up on the Internet. That way you would likely be able to get them as fast as I could.”
She took a pencil and checked those titles then handed the list back to Ranma. “If you will forgive me for being nosey, I can detect the presence of magic on you. Some of it is recent and some has been with you for a while.”
The black haired boy raised an eyebrow. After considering for a moment he said, “The recent magic came from a misunderstanding with the Sailor Senshi about a kilometer from here. They mistook me for an enemy and tried to hit me with some of their magic attacks.”
The graying storekeeper’s eyebrows went up. She asked, “Did they hit you?”
“Just once,” Ranma reported. “The rest of them I dodged. They apologized when they realized I was one of the good guys.”
“I should think so too,” She said. “You don’t seem too badly injured.”
“Nah, I’m pretty tough,” he replied. “It sort of wrecked my clothes though. They were nice enough to give me something else to wear.”
She nodded sagely. “That would account for the scent of magic on your clothing.”
He frowned, looking confused. “Magic has a smell?”
“To an experienced magic user it does,” She explained.
“Ah! I see,” he responded. “I did have a reason to come visit you here besides the books. Since I needed the books anyway I thought I would ask about them too. You know, ‘two birds with one stone,’ and that kind of thing.”
“I suspected as much.” The woman smiled.
He said, “The Matriarch of the Amazon tribe in that same village where the doctor lives said I should look up a sorceress who lives in Juuban. She didn’t have an address but a friend of mine looked you up from your name. The Matriarch’s name is Lo Shen.”
“Oh, my!” The older woman exclaimed. “I haven’t heard from little Lo Shen for a very long time.”
“’Little’ Lo Shen?” That didn't seem like a name that should be applied to a woman who was more than a century old.
The shopkeeper laughed. “I’m older than I look. I’ve known Lo Shen since she was a little girl.”
She glanced over to the woman behind the cash register and said, “Akemi, mind the store for a while. It turns out that this is a special customer. I’m going to take him back to the workshop.”
The younger woman nodded and waved. The shopkeeper headed toward the back of the store, instructing, “Follow me.”
As they threaded their way between bookcases Ranma asked, “Don’t you want to know what Lo Shen sent me to you for?”
“No,” answered the old woman. “I like to figure this sort of thing out myself when it’s a magic problem.”
Ranma shrugged. If that was how she wanted to play it.
They finally got to the back of the shop space and went out a door into a hallway. They went down the hall to the end, passing some other doors on the way. The woman pulled a chain from around her neck to reveal a key that hung from it. She used that key to unlock the door at the end of the hall.
The room was spacious and in the middle was a table about the size of a dining table for eight people. The chairs were comfortable overstuffed ones rather than the usual ones you’d see as part of a dinette set. Along one wall there was an odd piece of built-in furniture. It was a sort of cabinet with dozens of drawers.
The sorceress waved toward the table and said, “Have a seat.” She moved along the wall until she seemed to find the drawer she was looking for. She pulled the drawer open and withdrew what looked like a piece of costume jewelry. It was a gem about the size of the end of Ranma’s thumb.
The woman handed the jewel to Ranma and said, “Here, hold this.”
The martial artist took the gem in his hand. The moment it touched the palm of his hand, the jewel began to glow with a bright blue light. Seeing that that, the sorceress said, “Aha! Jusenkyo, just as I thought.”
Ranma rolled his eyes. “All you had to do was ask me.”
She pointed out, “If you had told me there is the chance you could have lied or been mistaken about the nature of the magic that was worked on you. This way I’m sure.”
The boy shrugged. Apparently she had her own way of doing things.
From the same drawer she pulled a round leather case. The leather looked old and weathered. From the case the old woman pulled a lens. She held this up and peered at Ranma through the glass. She seemed to be studying the teen carefully.
After a while she finally said, “Spring of Drowned Young Girl. From what I can see here your cursed form is a really cute redhead of about 13 years in age. To tell the truth I’ve never heard of a girl coming out of that spring that wasn’t at least cute and a few that grew into absolutely gorgeous women.”
Ranma frowned. “I can’t say I’m thrilled about that.”
The sorceress looked amused. “If you have to change into woman wouldn’t you prefer to change into a pretty one?”
He gave her a level look. “If I turned into a plain or ugly girl I wouldn’t have to put up with so many perverted boys trying to date me.”
She nodded. “Since you’re a boy inside, I can understand how you wouldn’t find that a pleasant experience.”
The boy shook his head emphatically.
The sorceress frowned. “Other than getting books, what did you hope to get out of this visit to my shop?”
He leaned back in his chair. “Lo Shen told me that she knew of a sorceress who could do magic that would let someone with the girl curse change the trigger from water to will power.”
The woman nodded. “Yes I do know such magic. Did Lo Shen tell you some of the limitations and conditions?”
Ranma’s expression was serious now. “Yes. I need to pick times to be a girl and I need to spend half or more of my time in girl form or I could find myself changing without willing it any time my mind wanders. At least by changing the trigger I get rid of the whole water magnet thing.”
Ms. Watanabe nodded with evident satisfaction. “A very succinct summation, I must say. I noticed that your girl form looks to be about 13 while your boy form looks 16. If you want your female form to catch up to your male form you would need to spend extra time as a girl. Products like the waterproof soap won’t work when water is no longer your trigger.”
The boy nodded. “I guess that’s why Lo Shen said I should keep this.” He pulled the locking ring from under his shirt.
The sorceress studied the ring for a moment. “Oh, a Joketsuzoku locking ring. It's been a while since I've seen one of those. That would work. While you wear it, the ring would keep you female regardless of whether your trigger is water or will power.”
Ranma looked thoughtful. “This goes beyond my original reason for coming here, but I wanted to ask. Is there some way that my clothes can change when I do?”
The sorceress frowned as she considered. Finally she said, “There is a way, but to do it you would need to learn the magic yourself. There is no talisman, charm or other magical object that can do it, at least not that I have access to. In effect it is a short-range teleport. I could see that you already have one of the requirements. You know the Hidden Weapons technique, right?”
The young man grinned. “It’s such a useful technique.”
She nodded. “It lets you carry more than you could hold in your arms. You can also carry more weight in your subspace pocket than your muscles will support. I’ll bet physicists would love to study the phenomenon.”
She paused. "The magic I have in mind would let you exchange an outfit you are wearing with one you are carrying in your hidden pocket.”
Ranma interjected, “I call it stuff space.”
The sorceress perked up at that. “Oh, right! You call it that because you keep stuff in it. I like it. Once you master the spell, you could change clothes anytime you will the sex change. The one advantage I could see is that you wouldn’t have to wear clothing that was too large for your female body.”
“Is it hard to learn?”
Ms. Watanabe shrugged. “That depends on the student. It’s easy for some, hard for others. I suspect that if you’ve already mastered the Hidden Weapons technique you should learn the clothing swap without too much trouble.”
He nodded. “I’d like to try. How much will I owe you for that?”
She shook her head. “The store out front is what I do to pay the bills. For the magic, all I ask is that you pay for the materials that I use.” She pulled a piece of paper out of a drawer and jotted a few things down with a pencil. When she was done she took a calculator and added up the figures. She showed Ranma the total.
It wasn’t bad. He had feared that it would be terribly expensive. He said, “That isn’t bad. I wanted to mention something else.” He described Ms. Hinako’s condition.
The sorceress frowned. “The spell to change your trigger I could perform in a few minutes. I have all the materials on hand and I know the spell. For the clothing swap you would need to come here for lessons. I’d estimate an hour a day, probably no less than one to two weeks. If you haven’t learned it in two months you should probably give up.”
With some further thought, she said, “For the lady with the ki problem, I don’t know. I’ll have to research it. How did she get that way?”
Ranma gave a condensed version of the story. The sorceress asked, “What was the name of the man who taught her this technique?”
“Happosai.”
Ms. Watanabe frowned. “I haven’t seen Happi in a long time. Did he ever find the magic he was looking for?
The pigtailed boy nodded. “Yes he did, but it was almost too late. He nearly died and I had to feed him ki to keep him alive. ‘He’ is now a gorgeous 19 year old blonde girl.”
The sorceress laughed. "I know he told me he was born a girl, but since I never saw him that way, I have a hard time imagining it.”
The young martial artist nodded. “I had a hard time accepting it at first. Being a girl has made such a difference in her behavior. From talking to her I can tell she remembers being the old pervert, she just doesn’t want to be like that anymore. He used to be a royal pain in the butt. Now she’s a friend and I’m glad to have her as one.”
The older woman listened to the tone the boy used. She was sure that what the boy felt for the transformed former ancient pervert was more than just friendship. She was equally sure that the boy wasn’t aware of the exact nature of what it was he was feeling.
They would certainly make an odd couple, the sex changing boy and the girl who used to be a man. She had to wonder what the girl felt about the boy. If the boy was going to be coming in for lessons on how to do the clothing swap spell, Ms. Watanabe would monitor how things went. It would be nice to talk to this Noriko.
Ms. Watanabe began to pull things out of drawers and line them up on the table. After she had things laid out she grabbed a notebook from a shelf. The book looked like a business journal. She explained, “I created this spell myself. I need to check to make sure I’ve got all the ingredients.”
She checked the assembled materials on the table against the list in the book. She gave a satisfied nod. From the table she picked up a piece of chalk and took it over to a clear section of floor. There she moved a few items out of the way and started to draw a design. At times she would change colors of chalk. She explained that the chalk was enchanted.
After the multicolored design was completed, the sorceress began placing talismans in spots that had been left blank. When she completed positioning those she put an amulet on a chain over her head. She pointed and said, “I left a path through the design. Follow the path to the center.”
Looking very nervous, the boy did as bid and soon was standing in the center of the pattern. The sorceress took more chalk and filled the gaps in the design. When she finished that she placed the chalks back on the table and picked up a sort of staff that had a carving that looked like a ram’s head on one end and a woman’s head on the other.
“Are you ready?” Ms. Watanabe asked?
Still looking apprehensive, Ranma replied, “Would it make any difference if I said no?”
She laughed. “No difference. We’re committed now. You have to stay where you are and not smudge any of the lines, it could create problems. I should mention that this design is more elaborate than is really needed to do the job. Over time I added safeguards so now there’s no chance of this going wrong.”
He nodded. “Forgive me if I feel nervous. All the magic I’ve experienced has never been good for me.”
She recommended, “Relax. All you should feel is a tingle, the same as you do when you change forms.”
Author's Note: I couldn't have Ranma visit Juuban and not have an encounter with the Senshi. This is not a fukufic and Ranma won't become a Senshi as part of it. I hope I adequately explained why the Senshi might need a doctor. The Senshi will not play a major part in this story.
Ranma's not sure if he's ready to have his curse trigger changed even if it is something he wanted. To see how that goes for him, check out the next chapter when I post it.
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