Story - "Soul Divide" chapter 1

Soul Divide
A Ranma One Half Fan Fiction
By Michael A. Ivins

Summary: Ranma’s boy and girl sides get separated. That’s a cure so it should be happily ever after, right? Maybe not.

Ranma, his family, friends, enemies and related characters are the creation of Rumiko Takahashi. I’m just borrowing them for my own entertainment and (hopefully) that of others. I have no money so please don’t sue me.

This story takes place after the end of the Manga. The wedding has been tried and failed.

Parts of this story are LEMON (containing descriptions of sexual situations and actions, including incest). If this sort of thing offends you then stop reading

Chapter 1
Narcicisism

Ranma was in the bathroom, currently in female form. She’d had a hard workout this morning that had ended with both her and her father landing in the koi pond. She had just finished washing off and now doused herself with a bucket of cold water to rinse off the soapsuds.

Before going to the furo to enjoy a hot soak she studied her reflection in the mirror. She couldn’t explain it, even to herself, but she had been doing this a lot lately. Looking at her reflection with a male perspective, she had to admit that her girl form was really beautiful and incredibly sexy.

She didn’t know when it started, but suspected that it had been shortly after the failed wedding. Her mom, Nodoka had learned that Ranma’s father, Genma, had never given Ranma “the Talk” about men and women. She had angrily insisted that her husband fulfill his duties as a father and tell their son the facts of life. It had been quite a revelation.

Before Ranma hadn’t really understood what Akane was always yelling about when she malleted him for being a pervert. He had assumed it must be bad or she wouldn’t be hitting him. He had figured out that it had something to do with the way he acted toward his other fiancés and the way they acted toward him, but he was weak on the specifics.

In matters outside of martial Arts Genma was a basically lazy man, but when properly motivated, he could perform a duty correctly and completely. With the flash of light reflected off the Saotome family honor blade, Genma found his motivation. He got hold of some pornographic magazines with lots of photos and explained male/female interactions in great and graphic detail, if mostly emphasizing the purely physical aspects and the mechanics of the sexual acts.

Because her husband had taken the approach he did, it fell to Nodoka to explain the more emotional aspects of a sexual relationship. As may have been noted in the past, Ranma may have been naïve about such things and a bit slow on the uptake at times, but he was far from stupid. He listened and he learned.

From those conversations Ranma gained a new appreciation of Akane and his other fiancés. The youngest Tendo may have been a tomboy in her behavior, but she was really pretty in an athletic way. It was a real shame that her violent temper so badly detracted from her overall appeal. Besides that was the fact that Akane never trusted Ranma and accused him of all manner of ill deeds including perversion nearly every day. Never mind that until recently, Ranma didn’t even fully understand what the word meant. He used to think he was in love with Akane, but he was losing his conviction on that.

Then there was Shampoo. Now there was a sexy woman. The exotic color of her hair was appealing and her body was the sort of thing that men fantasized over. It was a pity that this wonderful package came with some baggage that made her much less desirable. The worst of it was something she probably couldn’t help and that was her attitude that males in general were inferior beings. She had been raised to believe that way.

Besides that Shampoo treated Ranma as a thing, a possession to be held onto. He wasn’t a person, he was a prize to be won. While she respected his skills, she was less respectful of the person wielding those skills. He could never relax in her presence, he always had to be wary. He had decided that he didn’t like Shampoo.

Ukyo was cute, just as Ranma had proclaimed her. The okonomiyaki chef was also a friend. Considering how few real friends Ranma had, he wasn’t sure he wanted to jeopardize the friendship for a chance at romance. On top of that there was still that little business of her treating him like a thing as well. He liked Ucchan, but did he love her? He didn’t think so.

Next was the “unofficial” self-declared fiancé. Kuno Kodachi was crazy, that was plainly obvious. She had seen Ranma change from male to female and back on more than one occasion, yet refused to believe the evidence of her own eyes. Her wild laughter could send chills up and down one’s spine and not in a good way. Then there was all the business with drugs, paralysis gas and the like. She decided that Kodachi scared her.

While contemplating the women in her life, she might as well look outside the fiancé brigade. Nabiki would likely be lively in bed, but she treated Ranma as a commodity even more than any of the fiancés. Even the one time she had claimed to love Ranma she was just seeing him as a way to earn some yen. While physically appealing, Nabiki’s attitude was a definite turn off.

Not sure why she was even including her in this catalog, Ranma turned her thoughts to the eldest of the Tendo women, Kasumi. Kind, sweet, gentle Kasumi was a wonderful person. For a long time Ranma had considered Kasumi to be like a big sister, but now that he looked at her with his awakened sexual awareness he could see more. He had the definite feeling that once Kasumi gave herself to any man, she would do it fully and without reservation. Still, Ranma wasn’t sure how to even approach a woman like her. It seemed almost to dishonor the girl to think of her in sexual terms.

What the hell! This was just a mental exercise. She was evaluating the women she knew as possible sexual partners for her male side. It wasn’t like she… he was ever going to act on these thoughts. In fact she had heard that sexual fantasies could be a healthy outlet.

Unbidden a new thought came to her mind. If she was going to evaluate every woman he knew regardless of whether or not it was right or even those she had no chance with then better consider all the women she knew. That would include her mom. With that weird manliness fixation of hers she would probably love being fucked by her son. She was a beautiful woman and veiled references from Genma had hinted Nodoka was really skilled or at least enthusiastic in bed. The gods would likely punish her if she even attempted something like that, but it didn’t hurt to think about it, did it?

Her eyes turned from inward thoughts back to the mirror. Here was a thought that had intruded on Ranma’s awareness more and more of late. The woman in the mirror was highly desirable. She thought that if her male and female sides were ever split into two people, she would definitely have sex with her other form.

That idea had sufficiently penetrated her thoughts that she had begun to have dreams about it. She dreamed of being in male form and having sex with her female form. She dreamed of being female and her male form fucking her. She had masturbated a lot thinking about it.

That thought alone opened up a whole new range of possibilities. Before, the very thought of having sex with another man was disgusting to a point it would make her feel physically ill. Now she found herself feeling curious as to what it would feel like to actually have a male organ pumping into her pussy. It was likely to feel better than what she could do with her fingers.

If she was going to take that thought seriously, should she consider the men she knew? By female standards Ryoga was a hunk. He was tall, handsome and well built. Detracting from that was that whole “prepare to die” thing he was always shouting. That sort of thing could put a serious crimp in any intimate relationship, purely aside from the fact that he was in a relationship with Unryu Akari.

Kuno was out for most of the same reasons as his sister. Aside from issues related to his sanity the samurai wannabe was also a pompous, obnoxious twit. He seemed to love the sound of his own voice.

Mousse? The boy was handsome but he was also an idiot. She snickered. She just had a mental image of Mousse fucking her, believing her to be Shampoo because he refused to put on his glasses. Mentally she marked his name on her list, then drew a line through it.

What about her father? Ranma couldn’t repress a shudder at the thought. The man hardly ever touched Ranma if he wasn’t hitting him. The idea of physical intimacy gave her a distinct queasy feeling. For all she knew he could be a wonderful lover, but she didn’t think she could get past the memory of all the pain the man had inflicted on him in the past.

She hadn’t really thought about Tendo Soun in this connection before. He wasn’t a strong man and cried way too much. As much as he seemed to have loved his late wife, maybe he would be tender and caring lover. Very well, she put his name on the list of possibles.

Her pals Hiroshi and Daisuke from school weren’t bad looking. It was pretty clear that both boys lusted after her female form. If offered, they would probably jump happily into bed with her. The question there was if starting a sexual relationship with either of them (or both) would ruin the friendship. She didn’t have so many friends that she could casually throw them away for a chance of physical pleasure. Oh well, this was just a mental exercise anyway. They go on the list of possibilities, but labeled “only approach if you’re desperate.”

So her list of sex partners she might be willing to try with looked mostly impossible. Kasumi and Nodoka were desirable but unattainable, while her own female form would likely protest the idea the least, the practical problem of splitting her into a separate person seemed insurmountable. The same could be said for her male form as a sex partner for her girl self.

She thought again about Akane. She (or he, anyway) was supposed to get married to the tomboy. That sort of implied that sex with her was not only possible but expected once the marriage was official. In spite of that, Ranma thought it would only work if the girl could get over the whole pervert fixation and her temper. Likely if Ranma ever tried to kiss her or touch her in any kind of sexual manner, she would pull out the mallet and start swinging. Sigh! It was frustrating to think about sometimes.

She dismissed further thoughts on the matter and got into the bath, changing back to male. There wasn’t much of anything he had to do today. The morning sparring session with his father had gone about the same as always with both combatants landing in the koi pond. It had been a good, hard workout, even if Ranma hadn’t been exerting himself to his fullest. He rarely did anymore, but was so strong that his father couldn’t tell.

Akane had gone out with her friends, Yuka and Sayuri and said she wouldn’t be back until later. Nabiki was working on some business deal. Even if she weren’t busy, the mercenary girl was rarely good company for Ranma. For once neither Genma or Soun seemed to have any plots to complicate Ranma’s life.

Nodoka and Kasumi were comparing recipes in the kitchen. That sort of collaboration often resulted in meals that were a delight to the taste buds. On a few rare occasions, the food to come out of such a meeting was bizarre, but still edible, if only just barely.

Through word of mouth Ranma had heard of a curio shop that was said to carry magical items. While the likelihood of finding a cure to his curse in such a place seemed small, it wasn’t impossible. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to take a look.

Ranma took a bus to the next ward and walked to the shop he had heard of. When he first started browsing most of what he found was junk. Some of it might be considered decorative, but not much use otherwise. Having lived on the road being used to carrying all of his belongings on his back, he tended to stay away from purely decorative items. That was a major part of why the guest room he was staying in was mostly bare with only a few photos relieve the starkness of the otherwise bare walls.

After the pigtailed martial artist had worked his way to the middle of the store he noticed that he had an odd feeling. It was like something was tickling his ki senses. He tried following those senses and they finally led him to a plastic bin about the size of shoebox. This container was positioned on top of a chest of drawers.

Some books had been stacked over the top of the bin. Ranma moved the books off to one side and looked into the bin. There he found what appeared to an assortment of costume jewelry with the larger pieces in plastic bags that had labels stapled over what would be the open end. He dug into the bagged items until he came up with the object that had been tickling his ki senses.

In shape the item was a faceted, flattened teardrop about the length of his palm. It was blue in color and appeared to be made of some kind of clear crystal. It was actually quite pretty and sparkly. The paper label stapled to the bag had words “Soul Jewel” hand written and some numbers.

Ranma took the jewel to the shopkeeper. Unlike the usual stereotype, this person was a young-looking man who wore glasses. In fact he looked more like a college student than the proprietor of an antique or curio shop.

The young man was seated on a tall stool by the counter next to a cash register and was working at something on a laptop computer. When he looked up he noticed the scrutiny Ranma was giving him and said, “I’m not the owner, my grandfather is. He’s out of town at an estate sale, looking to buy some antiques to put in the store. I promised to watch the store for him while he was away.”

The young martial artist nodded. That did make sense. He turned his eyes on the computer and the young man explained, “My grand dad had tons of information on stuff he has for sale. Most of it was hand written in notebooks or scribbled on loose scraps of paper. I’ve been working on getting that information organized and loaded into one database so he could find it without having to search for hours or even days.”

Ranma handed the bagged jewel to the man behind the counter and asked, “What can you tell me about this?”

The young man pushed his glasses up and read the label. “Soul Jewel? I think I remember cataloging this piece.” He began typing.

After a few minutes he snorted then read out loud, “The Soul Jewel is said to be a means to cure a magic ailment that would otherwise have no cure. It is said that from death the jewel will create a new life for the victim as that person’s soul takes residence in a new home.”

The martial artist took in the shopkeeper’s expression for a moment and said, “You don’t believe in magic, do you?”

The bespectacled young man shrugged. “I don’t, but that doesn’t really matter. What does matter is if the customers believe in it. For me this is just a hunk of crystal. If you believe in magic then it might be able to do something for you.” He hesitated a moment before asking, “Do… you have a ‘magic ailment?’”

It was Ranma’s turn to snort. “I have a magic curse. I guess that amounts to the same thing as an ailment. I’ve been looking for a cure for a while. What you describe sounds like it might be what I’m looking for, but then again maybe not. How much do you want for the Jewel?”

The shopkeeper looked again at the computer screen and said, “It would appear you are the first person with a magic ailment to come to this shop in a long time. The record shows my grandfather acquired the jewel 15 years ago. I’ll tell you what, I can let you have it for 1000 yen.”

Ranma looked in his wallet and winced. He should have planned better, but this little trip had been a spur of the moment sort of thing. He told the young man, “If I’m going to have enough money left for bus fare to get back home, the best I can do is 700. Would that be enough?”

The shopkeeper considered that for a while. “I guess I can accept that. It’s not like we have anyone else bidding on it.”

Money changed hands and the shopkeeper put the Jewel into a small paper bag. He also made a printout of the information he had looked up in his computer. It didn’t completely fill even a single sheet of paper. The shopkeeper folded up the sheet and tucked it in the bag with the Jewel.

Ranma thanked the man and walked out. He looked around and thought about how much money he had left. He had told the shopkeeper that he needed to keep some for bus fare. While it was true that the amount he had held back was enough for that purpose, it was also true that he could get home without riding the bus. Suiting thought to action, he leapt to the roof of the nearest building and started roof hopping back to Nerima.

At one point he stopped on one of the roofs and took the Soul Jewel out its plastic bag. He looked at it for a moment before shoving the jewel, along with the printed sheet on its history into his pocket. He descended momentarily to street level to put the empty bag into a trash can then leapt back to the roof.

Before resuming roof hopping, Ranma spared a glance at the sky. There were heavy dark clouds rolling in. The way Ranma’s luck ran, he’d be caught in a downpour and in female form by the time he got back home. He shrugged. He didn’t hate being female any more, but he still couldn’t claim that he liked it. He might not have minded as much if he didn’t have to get wet to change. He did hate being in wet clothes.

Before going back to the Tendo dojo, he figured it would be a good idea to talk to the one person who knew more about magic that anyone else he knew. He detoured a little toward the Nekohanten. Cologne might be able to tell if the Jewel was the real thing or if it was just a pretty stone with a colorful story attached.

At the zoo a few blocks distant veterinarians were attending a tiger in the zoo’s infirmary. The tiger was a big old male Bengal. He had lived a long life but it was a life that was drawing to an end. One of the veterinarians commented, “Raj doesn’t have much longer to live. I’d like to hope that his life was better in captivity than it would have been in the wild. There is no saving him and I think it might be a cruelty to try and prolong his time. If none of you object, I will give him a shot for pain so his last moments can be more pleasant.”

The other veterinarians agreed. The man gave the big cat the shot.

When Ranma landed on the sidewalk in front of the Cat Café he looked up. The clouds were closer, but not yet over his location. There was a slight rumble in the distance that suggested thunder. If it started raining before Ranma finished his business with Cologne, maybe he could wait out the storm in the restaurant.

It was in the quiet time between lunch and dinner. For a change Shampoo wasn’t there to glomp Ranma. Probably out on deliveries, he guessed. Mousse stepped forward and dropped his glasses in front of his eyes. When he recognized the “customer” coming through the door he demanded, “What do you want, Saotome? Shampoo isn’t here.”

Hearing the hostility in the duck-boy’s tone Ranma thought of telling the other (again) that he wasn’t the enemy but decided against bothering with it. It wouldn’t have done any good to explain it anyway. Instead he said, “Actually I here to see Cologne. Is she here?”

Before Mousse had the chance to answer the “thump, thump” of the Elder’s cane could be heard as she pogoed in. She exclaimed, “Greeting son-in-law, what brings you here today?”

Ranma responded, “Hey, old gh… Uh, elder Cologne. I wanted to ask your opinion on something.”

The old woman noticed the more respectful form address the boy had used. “My opinion? On what?”

The pigtailed martial artist pulled the Soul Jewel out of his pocket and handed it to the Amazon Elder. He explained, “I just bought this at a curio shop. The man who sold it to me said it’s called the Soul Jewel and the legend about it says that it can heal a magic ailment. My ki senses picked up something about it so I’m guessing that it really does have some magic. Have you ever heard of anything like this?”

The old woman looked over the printout that Ranma handed her. Thoughtfully she said, “Hmm. I do seem to remember hearing of magic jewels that could do what is claimed for this one. I can understand how you might think it could be a cure for your curse.”

She thought for a time. “I’m not sure if this will do what you are hoping. A ‘magic ailment’ is more like a curse that adversely affects the health of the victim. It makes them sick, or lame or something like that. A Jusenkyo curse may change the form of its victims, but those victims are usually healthy in both forms (if they were healthy to begin with.)”

She held up a tiny hand and said, “Give me a moment.” She gently probed the jewel with her ki. There was definitely magic there. Whether or not it would do what son-in-law wanted remained to be seen. Suddenly she felt something in the ki patterns within the jewel shift. The shift seemed minor. When nothing further happened, she shrugged then handed the jewel back to Ranma.

The elder said, “I can tell there is magic there. I can sense that it might have some effect on souls, but exactly what that effect might be, I can’t say. I’d suggest that you take this with you but put it away in a safe place. If people were to think you have a possible cure you might find curse victims trying to steal it from you.”

She continued, “I see two problems here. The first is that ‘curing a magic ailment’ might have no effect at all on Jusenkyo curses. The second is that even if this Jewel could be used to effect a cure, the information you have says nothing about how to use it. This,” She waved the paper, “Says what the Jewel is supposed to do but not how it does that or how to activate it. I think there may be something on this in one of the books I have with me. Can you wait until I’ve had time to study this more before you try anything?”

The boy shrugged. “I guess I can wait. Turning into a girl doesn’t seem like such a terrible thing to me any more. I still don’t like it and I hate wearing wet clothes from being splashed, but I can live with it.”

The Elder studied Ranma’s face for a while then said, “Good. Playing with unfamiliar magic could end up making your situation worse instead of better. It would be far better to wait until we know exactly what we’re dealing with here.”

Ranma put the Jewel and the folded computer printout back in his pocket. He said, “Thanks for looking into it, Cologne. I’ll just stash the Jewel away when I get home. I won’t tell Pops about it. I’m pretty sure he would stop listening after the words ‘possible cure.’ I’ll keep it hidden until I hear from you.”

He got up and headed to the door. Mousse stalked up to Cologne and demanded, “Are you going to let him just walk out with a cure in his pocket?”

The Elder got a tired look on her face and rapped the boy on the head with her staff. “You shouldn’t eavesdrop on private conversations. You don’t always hear the full story. I just told son-in-law to hide the Jewel away until I can study up on it. While it may be a cure, that doesn’t seem to be its intended purpose. It could end up making a Jusenkyo curse worse. As the effect may not be reversible, it would be better to not try to use this stone until we have a better idea what it can really do. There is always a danger when using magic for something it was not created to do.”

Taking in the warning, Mousse’s mood cooled. While he wanted to be free of the duck, it would be better to wait. He didn’t want to take the chance of making his situation worse, like maybe being permanently stuck in his cursed form.

Off at the zoo infirmary, Raj, the old tiger, breathed his last. The veterinarians nodded and started to discuss what would be done with the body. Likely it would be buried in a small cemetery in a part of the zoo grounds where visitors never went. There was no rush.

When Ranma got out of the restaurant he looked at the sky. It was now completely overcast and the dark clouds threatened rain. If he didn’t dawdle, Ranma might be able to get home before the rain started falling.

Before the pigtailed martial artist could move more than a few steps there came a familiar voice, shouting, “Saotome Ranma Prepare to Die!”

Ranma quickly leapt aside, just barely getting out of the way of a vicious punch. When he looked to see his attacker he found what he expected. The familiar figure in black pants and yellow shirt with black spotted yellow bandanna was holding an open umbrella in anticipation of the coming rain. Ryoga’s face was contorted with rage worse than Ranma could remember seeing for a long time.

The young aquatransexual greeted, “Hey, Bacon butt, what’s up? I haven’t seen you for more than two months. I know you don’t really need a reason to get mad at me, but what do you think I’ve done this time?”

The Lost Boy shouted, “It’s your fault! It’s always your fault! You have to die for what you’ve done!” He leapt forward to kick at Ranma. Even as he dodged Ranma recalled his line of thought from that morning in the bathroom. No, it seemed unlikely that in his girl form she’d be looking to have sex with Ryoga or even to date him.

Young Saotome dodged again. Still trying to calm his sometimes friend, he said, “If I die, who are you going to blame all your troubles on?”

A sickly green aura began to show around the Lost Boy. Ranma thought, “Uh Oh, this doesn’t look good. Something is seriously upsetting him. I really wish he would talk about stuff before going all crazy and attacking like this.”

Ranma kept dodging while still trying to get Ryoga to say what the problem was. Ryoga just kept fighting and the green aura continued to grow and intensify. Ranma started to get ready to throw a Moku Takabisha as a counter.

Finally Ryoga seemed to have reached some limit. He almost screamed, “Akari kicked me out. Perfect Shi Shi Hokodan!”

Ranma had gathered the ki to throw his attack but hesitated just a moment at hearing that Ryoga had been kicked out. He had to ask himself what Ryoga’s girlfriend kicking him out was in any Ranma’s fault.

The power of the attack threw him into the wall of the Nekohanten under the roof overhand. Strangely though, the majority of the energy from Ryoga’s attack as well as his own counter flowed toward his pocket. The ki energy from his own attack seemed also to be going to the same place.

What the hell? Ranma reached into his pocket and pulled out the Soul Jewel, which was now glowing with a nearly blinding blue light. A short distance away, Ryoga fell dazed, spent from the force of the attack he had launched. He could see Ranma holding the glowing Jewel and wondered what was going on.

Cologne rushed out of the café to see what all the noise was about. Mousse came as well, but he was careful to stay under the roof overhang in an effort to avoid turning into a duck.

Deciding that a glowing magic crystal might be hazardous to his health, Ranma held it up in his hand and started to throw it away from him. At that precise moment a bolt of lightning speared down from the clouds and struck the Soul Jewel, which was only millimeters away from Ranma’s hand.

Properly speaking, the lightning bolt should have blasted the Jewel into bits, but instead all of the energy from the bolt was absorbed into the jewel. The only physical sign of a lightning strike was the Jewel slapping back into the palm of Ranma’s hand. A blinding blue glow erupted around Ranma’s body. The elder was forced to squint her eyes and hold up a hand to shield herself from the glare.

At the zoo infirmary attendants were shocked when the body of Raj, the dead tiger, glowed a brilliantly dazzling blue then abruptly disappeared. On the table where the body had been lying there was no trace left other than the after images from the bright flash of light.

In Ranma’s perception the world disappeared in a wash of brilliant white light and searing pain. He didn’t know what it felt like to be burned to death in a fire, but imagined that the sensation of searing heat he experienced now must come close to that.

The pain seemed to last an eternity but was likely just seconds or even fractions of seconds. The featureless whiteness didn’t change. After a moment the pain began to fade and Ranma began to entertain the thought that the lightning had struck him and he was now experiencing the last moments before death. It would be his kind of luck to die in agonizing pain.

Before the last of the pain faded completely there was an odd jarring, wrenching sensation that seemed to tear at his consciousness. With that there came the most disorienting sensation of duality. It was as if his every thought and sensation was duplicated. It was like being in a big empty room with an echo where every thought repeated a fraction of a second after he thought it.

As strange as the duality felt, more alarming was the sensations of a physical body or rather lack of sensation. The pain faded completely and with it went all feeling of his body. There was no sensation of breathing, blood flowing or anything else. He could no longer feel the ground under his feet or under any other part of his body.

So that was it, he had to be dead. His spirit was leaving his body. After all of the times that Ryoga had yelled at him to prepare to die, he had finally succeeded in killing Ranma. His mind was assailed by regrets for all of things he never got a chance to do, places he would never visit. He was only a teenager. He shouldn’t die this young.

Wait a minute… Wasn’t there supposed to be a tunnel with the spirits of family and other loved ones at the end? He didn’t see any tunnel, just a sea of endless, featureless white. Where was his tunnel?

Then he became aware of a feeling of movement. Maybe he was moving toward the afterlife? So far this had some things in common with descriptions of near-death experiences but it didn’t seem to be following the script.

The next departure from the script came when there was an odd feeling of separation. That odd echo seemed to be pulling away from him. Now, instead of it being an odd aspect of himself that duality seemed to resolve itself into a complete other self, identical to himself in every particular. That shouldn’t be, there was only one Saotome Ranma… Wasn’t there?

Unbidden there came to mind a scene from a movie. Luke Skywalker was in a rude hut leaning over a bed where a shriveled up green gnome lay. (Ranma had wondered if George Lucas had ever met Happosai.) The little green man said in a hoarse whisper, “There is another…”

The sense of the other dimmed but never went completely away. That awareness was overwhelmed by something he shouldn’t be feeling if he was dead. Ranma became aware once again of the feeling of earth beneath his (or what that her?) feet. There was also the sensation of wind on bare skin, air moving in and out of lungs. There was also sound of thunder.

From Cologne and Mousse’s point of view they saw that beside the glowing shape that was Ranma, two more glowing forms had appeared. After nearly a minute the glow on all three forms began to fade. However the first form, the original Ranma, seemed to shrink. When the light finally dimmed enough to see there was revealed what appeared to be two people, one male and one female, both of them nude and both of them Ranma. Of the third form, the original form, there was only a pile of ash. On top of the pile of ash lay the Soul Jewel, its blue glow fading now.

Author’s Note: A couple of warnings I need to give readers before you look at later chapters. I’ve taken liberties with some of the characters. One of those is that I’ve written Saotome Nodoka as a horny slut who has just pretended to be the prim, proper housewife. I’ve written Genma as having an almost religious devotion to martial arts to the point where he even excludes interest in sex with women because it distracts from the Art.

If you are an Akane fan you probably won’t like this fic. I’ve written her as an uber psycho bitch. For the record let me state that I don’t hate Akane. I’ve written fics where she was a loving and supportive wife. It’s just that in this story the plot device works best if Akane is a ticking time bomb, ready to go off.