Ranma's Full Potential - Chapter 1

Ranma's Full Potential
A Ranma 1/2 crossover Fan Fiction
by Michael A. Ivins

Disclaimer: This story uses characters, locations and situations that were created by others. I don't own them and don't get paid for using them.

This story takes place post Manga for Ranma, so it is after the failed wedding. I'm not using a specific incarnation of X-Men, but sort of drawing from several.

Chapter 1
Be Careful What You Wish For

When consciousness returned to Saotome Ranma he opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling above him. He was not in the guest room of the Tendo home. It took him a moment longer to realize that he was lying on a futon on the floor of the dojo.

That seemed odd. He had been in the dojo when the world went away, but he would have assumed that the Tendos would have moved him.

He rubbed his hand over his face for a moment the froze. The hand he had attached to his arm didn't look like the same hand he had seen the last time he had been awake. He held up his other hand and saw the same difference.

Those hands seemed to lack the swollen joints and calluses he had built up over years of martial arts training. The proportions of those hands made them look like the hands of a child. Just what the hell did that woman do to me?

He levered himself up to look around. The first thing he noticed was that nearly everyone of the NWC was present. His parents, the Tendos, the Amazons, the Kuno siblings, Happosai and even Hibiki Ryoga.

When they saw him sit up they behaved in a most peculiar manner. Their eyes got wide and they moved their mouths as if trying to speak but no sound escaped them. Some of them gesticulated with their arms. He would have expected them to stand up and loom over him, but they all remained seated. They seemed to be pointing to something behind Ranma.

The boy turned his head to look and saw the woman with the odd marks on her face. Now angry, Ranma demanded to know, "You're the one from before! What did you do... to... me?" He trailed off.

His hand went to his throat. That wasn't his voice. It sounded like the voice of a little kid. What the hell was going on here?

The woman stood up and moved forward. A moment later she was kneeling at the side of the futon. She reached into her robes and pulled out a hand mirror and said, "I will explain everything, but first you need to see this."

She held up the mirror and Ranma stared at his reflection. He moved to a sitting position on the futon then brought his hands up to pat his face. The image in the mirror performed all of the same motions and he could feel his fingers touching his nose, forehead, chin and ears. It sure enough looked like the face in the mirror was really him.

"I'm a little kid again!" he complained. "Did you feed me magic mushrooms or something while I was sleeping?"

"No, I did not," the woman stated. "That is part of what I will be explaining to you."

Looking around again, he indicated the others in the room and asked, "What happened to all of them?"

A frown made a brief appearance on the woman's beautiful face before she regained her previous serene appearance. "With the exception of Miss Kasumi they were all making nuisances of themselves. They were shouting, making demands and generally making a lot of noise. I cast a spell on them that has paralyzed their legs and vocal cords. Don't worry, the effects are temporary and will wear off in about two hours. It was like the magical equivalent of a pressure point."

"Wait, you said that Kasumi was an exception?" Ranma asked.

"It's good to see you back among the conscious," Kasumi's voice spoke. "I was just trying to stay quiet and not disturb Miss Belldandy's presentation."

"Thanks Kasumi," Ranma said.

He turned back to Belldandy and said, "So, you said you had an explanation for why I'm a kid right now."

"Yes," the goddess confirmed. "I must apologize for how all of this happened. It was very irregular in the way it was handled."

"First I must introduce myself," she said with a bow. "I am Belldandy, goddess first class, category one, unlimited license. I am the goddess of the present and am one of three Norns. The others Norns are my sisters Urd, goddess of the past and my other sister Skuld, goddess of the future. Neither of them are with me today."

Feeling distinctly nervous, Ranma asked, "Uh, you aren't here to kill me or arrest me or punish me for what I did to Saffron, are you?"

Beldandy bowed her head and said, "No Ranma, you are not going to be punished for that. You have a good heart and I know that it upset you greatly that you took a life. Rest assured that you behaved correctly for the situation."

"But I killed him," Ranma protested. "What's worse is that I meant to do it."

A warm smile graced the goddess' face. "Such a gentle soul you are. Saffron was endangering the lives of innocent mortal humans. You were defending them. If you had failed to act, others could have died. I repeat, you behaved correctly."

"If you say so," Ranma finally agreed. It was clear that he wasn't completely convinced.

The goddess said, "I was sent to visit you for the purpose of granting you a Wish."

The way the visitor emphasized the word "Wish" gave Ranma a sense of foreboding. Magic wishes hardly ever turned out well. He asked, "Like Kuno's wishing sword?"

"It is the same general idea but this was a Divine wish," the young woman clarified. "One of the differences is that we are not trying to twist your words so the wish comes out different from what you desire. Indeed it must be a truly heartfelt wish."

At Ranma's confused expression, the goddess clarified, "An example of what I mean is that if you truly didn't want to make a wish, you couldn't just say you wished for a meal. If you did that I might cook you a meal and you would still have your wish available to you. I wouldn't simply grant anything you said with the words 'I wish' in front of them."

"I'm pretty sure I didn't wish to be turned into a little kid," Ranma countered.

"No, you didn't," Beldandy agreed. "What you wished for turns out to be more complicated than you might have known."

"Complicated in what way?" Being turned into a child was a clear indication of it being complicated. Ranma needed to more.

"The normal process for granting wishes would have been for me to introduce myself and explain my reason for visiting," she told him. "Then you would have time to think about your wish and possibly ask me about the types of things you could wish for."

"You said the 'normal' process," Ranma noted. "What wasn't normal about this time?"

The goddess sat down and said, "We usually route the wishes through the Goddess Relief Hotline. We would wait until you made a telephone call and that call would be routed to the first available goddess. However, we are aware that you seldom use the telephone. It could have been a long time before you made a call. It was decided to skip that step in your case."

He nodded at that. She went on, "My transport medium is mirrors and other reflective surfaces. I came into the house through the full-length mirror in the bathroom. I had just arrived at the door of the dojo and was about to knock on the door frame to get your attention when I heard you make a wish."

"Wait!" he begged. "Are you telling me that thing I said about getting a chance to reach my potential is what you took for a wish? I was just frustrated because people kept interrupting me all day while I was trying to develop a new technique. I just wanted people to leave me alone. And the potential I was talking about was my potential as a martial artist."

The brunette nodded. "That may be true, but it was expressed in the language of a wish and you said it with true feeling. True, If I hadn't been there to hear it, the wish wouldn't have amounted to anything. The decision to grant that wish was not mine but that of Kami-Sama Himself."

Ranma took a moment to digest that. Finally after full consideration he said, "Ok, I guess that makes sense. What I don't understand is what my turning into a little kid has to do with getting a chance to reach my potential."

"The wording was that you wished for a real chance to reach your full potential," the goddess pointed out. "It would seem that you have a far greater potential than you were even aware of."

Ranma just looked confused.

"Before I can properly explain that, I need to clarify some points of your family history," the goddess said. "I know that your mother told you that names of her parents were Himura Kenjiro and Naoka. She neglected to mention that Kenjiro was a research scientist and believed to be one of the smartest men in the world, almost certainly the smartest in Japan. Naoka was a medical researcher and one of the smartest women in the world."

"You said 'was,'" Ranma interrupted. "Are you saying they're dead?"

"No, not dead, just retired," Beldandy clarified. "They are still the smartest married couple in the world, however they are no longer working in their respective fields. They still do some research and your grandfather is an inventor, but their work is on a much more relaxed schedule and on less stressful subjects."

"Showing that you had inherited the intelligence of your grandparents, you were a precocious child when you were four years old," the goddess stated. "You were always into everything, asking questions and curious about everything. Your father could see that you were much smarter than he was and that your intelligence was a threat to his plans to train you to be the best martial artist of your generation."

Ranma's mother had said something about him having been a bright child. The part about that brightness being a threat to Genma's plans was something he hadn't heard before. He asked, "So what did he do?"

"Genma, I will call him that because he truly doesn't deserve to be called your father, obtained a pressure points chart," the goddess told him. "Using the information on that chart he locked away a large part of your intelligence. When he was done you were unable to get interested in anything other than martial arts. Almost the only way you could learn anything else was by treating it as a combat challenge."

Ranma looked over to Genma. Since the older Saotome was still able to use his arms and hands he could still make his signs that he normally used while in panda form. He now held up a sign that proclaimed, "She's lying." The sign was flipped and it said, "Who are you going to trust, a stranger or your father?"

Reading the sign, Ranma replied, "I think I'll trust the stranger. She has an honest face and her ki feels like Kasumi's, just way stronger. Besides that, I know your history of lying. I'm probably gonna get mad at you later about the pressure point thing, but for now I've still got answers to hear."

"Yes," agreed Beldandy. "I believe your question was why you were changed into a five year old child. It was decided that to have the best chance of reaching your full potential you needed to get back the years that Genma stole from you."

The young boy weighed that in his mind for a moment. "I'm guessing that means that I'm going to have to re-live those years. From the way you said that, I'd take it to mean that you're not just going to change me back to a teenager."

"I'm sorry, but that wasn't my decision," she told him.

From what she had said earlier that probably meant that this too was the Will of Kami-Sama. "What about my curse," he asked hopefully. "Have I been cured of that?"

"The truth of the matter is that your potential is greater if you keep the ability to change genders," Beldandy answered.

He shook his head sadly. "Somehow I just knew you'd say something like that. It's that whole 'learning to experience both sides of the coin' and all that. Likewise all of the crap about how turning into a girl will help me to understand women better than any other man alive."

He laughed mirthlessly. "I've been changing into a girl off and on for about two years now and I don't feel all that much closer to understanding women better than any other guy."

"Ah, but that wasn't the wish," chided the goddess. "You wished for a chance to reach your potential. Continuing to Change genders gives you that chance."

The boy sighed. After a moment he brightened a little and said, "Well, at least at this age the differences between my male and female forms won't be all that obvious."

Belldandy didn't comment on that, she would have more to say on it later. Instead she said, "You actually have still more potential than what I've told you about."

He frowned at that. "What else is there?" he asked.

"Have you ever heard of mutants?" asked the goddess.

"I've heard the word, but I don't know what it means," he confessed.

"The term is commonly used to refer to a person or animal that has a mutation," explained the brunette. "A mutation is any difference in their genetic material. That alteration could result in something as simple as a person looking slightly different from normal or could cause a person to have such malformations as an extra pair of limbs."

Ranma nodded. He thought he had heard of something like that in one of the classes he had slept through, but couldn't be sure. Still, he was going to act like he at least sort of understood what was being talked about.

Beldandy went on, "A small percentage of human mutants have a genetic difference that gives them an unusual ability or what normal people would refer to as a power. Such powers can be things as subtle a the ability to read minds to something blatant like shooting energy blasts through one's eyes."

When Ranma just nodded, the goddess went on, "For every one person who has an active mutation like the ones I described, there are thousands who have what is called a latent mutation. In essence they carry a mutation that it inactive and the person carrying that mutation is unaware of it. It is likely that the latent mutant would deny being anything other than a normal human."

"I was surprised by the statistics I was given," Beldandy confessed. "I was told that something like ninety percent of the human population carries some form of latent mutation. Most people who carry a latent mutation have it as nothing more than an untapped potential."

Having caught on to the theme of the presentation so far, Ranma could guess where this was going. He asked, "Does this mean that I have one of these 'latent mutations' that would give me greater potential if it became active?"

"Yes, you do," the goddess confirmed. "In fact you have more than one. Indeed you actually have one mutation that is already working. It is passive in nature, so it wouldn't show up on a scan of someone looking for active mutations."

"Wait," Ranma begged. "You said a passive mutation. What does that mean?"

"Would you agree that you are stronger than you look?" queried the young-looking woman.

"Well, I guess so." He hadn't really given the matter much thought.

She pressed on, "Normally when a person gets as strong as you they have a much bulkier physique."

Now confused, Ranma said, "I thought I was stronger because I was using ki to enhance my strength. I use it for speed as well."

"True," the goddess agreed. "But for you, prolonged use of ki to increase your strength had made a change in your muscles. Even if you were to be subjected to a pressure point attack that robbed you of your ki, you would still be stronger than a normal human of your size and build."

"Really?" He looked thoughtful.

"I emphasize that you would be stronger than a normal human," She said. "However, without your ki you would be very weak compared to how you normally are."

"Gotcha," he affirmed. "That would also mean that I'd be stronger than the average man on the street, but I'd probably still get killed in a fight with Ryoga, for instance."

"Exactly," said Beldandy. "Continued use of your ki to enhance your strength along with other training will build your muscular strength without increasing the size of your muscles. Your muscles get denser instead of larger. However, the other mutation you carry is a less physical one. You have a mutation that will give you the power of telepathy, along with levitation, and telekinesis."

Taking that in he asked, "If I can read minds, shouldn't I be hearing the thoughts of the people in this room?"

She nodded. "Yes. But, like your intelligence, if your full power were to suddenly manifest all at once, it would be a danger to your sanity. You will find that you are wearing a bracelet that you didn't have before. That bracelet is a limiter. It will allow your psychic powers to activate slowly, over a period of two months. That will give you time to learn how to shield your mind from the general noise of random thoughts in a place like Tokyo or other large city."

He looked at his wrist. Over the bracers he normally wore there was a simple metal clasp type bracelet. It was of the type where you would spread the open ends and it would spring back into place when you let it go. It was plain metal with no decorations or carvings. The bracelet appeared to be polished steel.

Beldandy went on, "The activation of your mutant power will draw attention. In fact, it already has. In America there is a man named Charles Xavier who has made it his mission in life to help humans and mutants learn to get along. His way of doing that is to train young mutants to use their powers in a manner that will not harm the normal humans of the world."

"How have I drawn this man's attention if he's all the way in America?" asked Ranma.

"He possesses a computer that is coupled to an array of sensing devices that can detect mutants with powers as well as their location and the nature of their powers," answered the goddess. "His computer, which is called Cerebro, detected you yesterday when your powers were activated. He and some of the mutants who live at his school are on their way here now."

"From America?" He considered that for a while and asked, "How are they traveling?"

"They have their own jet aircraft," answered Beldandy. "It is very fast. They should be here later today. You will want to go with them, but not right away. First you should talk to your grandparents to get some things settled. If you ask them, I feel sure they would be willing to put you onto the Himura family register. That should help to resolve many of the fiancée problems."

"Wouldn't being changed into a little kid sort of end all of the engagements?" Ranma asked.

"That depends on the girls," the goddess responded. "Some of them might be willing to wait until you grow old enough again. Of course it would mean putting all of their own dreams on hold for another ten years or longer. It would probably be better to get a final resolution to the problem."

Ranma glanced over to see his father urgently waving a sign that said, "You will marry Akane!" When he was sure the sign had been seen, Genma flipped it to show the side that said, "The houses must be joined."

Ranma didn't even dignify that with an answer.

"Ok, I'll talk to my grandparents," he said. "It sort of depends on if they would even be willing to see me. After all I am the son of the man they disapproved of so badly that they cut mom off from the family money."

"I think you'll find that they will welcome you with open arms," Belldandy replied. "They have been wanting to see their grandson for a long time. They will have to make an adjustment based on the fact that you will also be their granddaughter."

"Yeah, adjustment," Ranma echoed. "Well, if they don't accept me, I could just go ronin. If I'm gonna go live in the USA to go to the mutant school, they won't care so much about that kind of stuff as they do here."

"True," confirmed the goddess. "You should know that there is still one more potential that you need to hear about."

"What?" Ranma looked confused. "You tell me I'm really a genius in stuff outside of martial arts. I've got a mutation that lets me be extra strong without the extra big muscles and you tell me I will have psychic powers as a mutant. That's a lot. What else is there?"

"Magic," was the answer. "You have a talent for magic that you didn't know about."

"Wait." Ranma held up a hand. "Are you saying that I can do magic? I'm not just going to be a target for magic that other people will be doing to me?"

"Yes, you can," confirmed the goddess. "In fact you will have talent in several areas of magic. You have talent in wizardry, sorcery, time magic and techno magic. When you get older you will receive an invitation to attend an academy of witchcraft and wizardry."

Considering that, Ranma said, "Wow, I'm just loaded with potential, aren't I? I'd think I'd have to live a couple hundred years or more just to get to my potential in all of those areas."

"You will probably live that long," Beldandy responded. "You have sufficient control of your ki that you can extend your life just as Happosai and Elder Cologne have done."

"If I have to spend a couple centuries as a shriveled up gnome, I'm not sure I want to live that long," Ranma groused. The two old people mentioned scowled but remained unable to get up from where they sat.

"By the time you get old enough to worry about it, you will have learned magical ways of extending your life," the goddess assured him. "Such methods as those will not cause you to become a 'gnome.'"

Glancing at the others in the dojo, Ranma said, "I'm guessing you could have just carried me off to my grandparents home. Why are we still here?"

"You wished for a chance to reach your full potential without interference from these people." She indicated the people in the room with a wave. "Although there might have been advantages if you had just disappeared, your departure now will enact a small measure of punishment on them."

"Punishment?"

"Yes," affirmed the goddess of the present. "They deserve to know that you haven't been killed but that you chose to live away from them. None of them ever really cared about your wants or needs. Now you have a chance to live your own life. If you stay here you wouldn't be allowed to make your own choices."

Looking around the room, Ranma had to admit that getting away did have an appeal. After learning what Genma had done to him, it was pretty certain that he didn't want to stay around the older martial artist any longer. But what about Akane?

At one time he was convinced that he loved the violent tomboy. He had felt strongly enough about it that he had been willing to go through with the wedding. He could have gotten away easily enough at the time if he had tried. No, he had wanted to get married to Akane. In the time since then he started to think that may have been a mistake.

He made his decision. Standing up, he walked toward Akane. Since he knew she still had use of her arms, he made sure he was out of the range of her mallet. There was the chance she could throw it, but he felt sure that he could dodge it if he needed to.

Bowing, Ranma said, "Akane, I'm glad for this chance to talk to you where you can't get up to hit me and can't talk back. Back at Jusendo I fought for you and even killed a god to try and keep you among the living. At that time I was pretty sure I was in love with you. How did you thank me for that? You loudly say you don't want to be married to a pervert like me, or never will get married to me. You also say you don't trust me and never could."

"That's something that really confuses me," he went on. "Even when you say you don't want to marry me, you get angry if I'm out of your sight for more than ten minutes. You yell at me and hit me because you say that I've been 'spending time with my 'floozies.' So far you haven't actually said you hate me, but I wouldn't be surprised if you did."

"I don't understand you," he confessed. "If you don't trust me, if I'm such a pervert and you don't want to have anything to do with me then why do you care? Why should it matter to you where I go or who I spend time with?"

The black haired girl glared at Ranma with intensity that should have caused injury. Her fists were clenched so tight, the boy wouldn't have been surprised if her fingernails were piercing her palms and drawing blood.

He shook his head and said, "It's like if you were a little kid and I was an old toy that you used to play with all the time. You got tired of the toy and shoved it to the back of the toy box. But let anyone try to take it out of the toy box and you would grab it back from them and yell, 'MINE.'"

"Well, guess what," he challenged. "I'm not your toy any more. You can't marry a little kid so the engagement is off. You're free of me, that should make you happy. I'm gonna get taken off the Saotome family register and that kills the engagement even deader. Besides that, I'm leaving, so you won't have to spend any more time around this pervert."

Pausing a moment he thought about it. As a parting shot he said, "Seriously, you ought to think about seeing a shrink. All of the time you spend obsessing over perversion and who is and isn't perverted can't be healthy. You should get professional help."

Before moving to the next person he said, "Not that you're going to believe me but I'll tell you anyway. Since the wedding I've been giving Ukyo and Shampoo the cold shoulder. I hardly ever talk to either of them and when I do it is in the most formal language. I even refused to eat the food they brought me. That's right, I turned down free food. Yet you still accused me of doing perverted things with them."

He stepped over to stand in front of Nabiki. "When I first came here you treated me like crap. You used me worse than anyone in your family. I'd like to think that since the wedding fell apart we've been getting along a little better, but I still have trouble trusting you. We could have been friends but you never seemed willing to make any effort in that direction."

"Don't try to find me," he warned. "I don't even know where I'm going to end up, so trying to track me down probably won't do much good. Besides, it would probably cost you more to find me and do something about it than it would to just let me go.

With a shrug he turned to Kasumi. "Kasumi, you were the only one who treated me nice from the start. You've been like a big sister to me. I'll miss you when I'm gone. If you want to get in touch with me contact my grandparents. I'll write to you. I can't promise that I'll visit. We'll have to see what happens."

"I'll miss you too, Ranma," Kasumi said. "Having you in this house has been fun. Things have been more interesting with you here. I do think of you like a little brother and sometimes like a sister."

Rolling his eyes, Ranma said, "Did you have to say that last part?"

Kasumi chuckled slightly. "I believe Nabiki has said on occasion that you are easy to tease."

"Yeah, I guess I am," He admitted.

He stepped over to Tendo Soun and bowed. "Tendo-San I thank you for your hospitality. I'm sorry that this didn't work out with me getting married to one of your daughters, but I think it would be pretty hard with me being changed to a kid. I guess that now the schools will never be joined. I apologize for bringing disharmony to your house."

Unable to speak, the Tendo patriarch showered the floor with his tears.

The next stop was Genma. "Well Pop, I don't know that I've got anything good to say to you after hearing what you did to me. I'm gonna be smart now and with me going away I guess you wasted all of those years training me. I'm sure that really pisses you off. Well, too bad! Now I've got the chance to find out what I could have been if you hadn't messed me up. I guess I'm just lucky you didn't screw up the pressure point technique and turn me into a mental vegetable. I'm not giving you another chance."

To his mother Ranma bowed and said, "I really don't know what to think about you, Mom. You went and said that even with the curse I'm manly enough, but you still carry around the sword. Anytime I do something you don't like you start playing with the sword and say something like, 'that's not very manly.' Do you hate my curse, can you tolerate it? When you decide, contact your parents and they can contact me."

Looking at Ryoga, Ranma said, "I won't say goodbye to you because you'll probably show up wherever I go. Just remember that I'm a little kid now. I'm still strong for my size but you might actually kill me without intending to. You should be happy I won't be around to bother Akane. I do have one piece of advice and that is to tell Akane about... you know."

To Ukyo he said, "Ukyo-San, you were my friend. I suppose you felt you were trying to help me by keeping me from getting married to the mallet happy tomboy. You may even have been right. Even if you were interfering in the wedding for the right reason, you picked the wrong way to do it. For putting people in danger, including my mom, I can't forgive you. As far as I'm concerned, our friendship is over."

The chef's expression was pained. She looked like she desperately wanted to say something, but the paralysis spell prevented her.

Ranma walked over to the Amazons and said, "Well Old Ghoul, I doubt you would accept my being turned into a kid as an excuse to cancel the Kiss of Marriage. I wouldn't expect you to see it as anything more than a delay in the timing. Well, you heard what the goddess said. I'm gonna be getting a lot smarter really soon. In the battle of wits between us I'm about to get some new weapons. Oh, you still have me beat with experience, but if I get smart enough, that may not be enough of an edge."

His gaze bored into the old woman's. "I'm also a mutant. I don't have them yet, but soon I'm gonna have mind powers. You ought to ask yourself if you really want to get me in your tribe when I'm like that." To himself he thought, "That probably has her thinking, 'We must have him!'"

"Shampoo," he next said. "I don't love you. I have forgiven you for trying to kill me, but I didn't forget. Something like that makes it hard for me to ever trust you. I might have been willing to see you as a friend, but even that is hard. I will never go with you back to your village. You heard what I told Cologne. That goes for you too."

"Mousse, you're an idiot," Ranma stated. "You attack me to get Shampoo free from me and yet when I tell her I'm not interested in her, you attack me for making her sad. Get this idea straight in your head, I don't want Shampoo. As far as I'm concerned, you're welcome to her. If you want her, she's the one you should be working on, not me."

Turning to Kuno Tatewaki, he shook his head. "I don't really know what to say to you, but it's kind of nice to have you here and you not being able to talk."

Looking at the expression on the kendo champion's face he said, "I see you are confused, oh mighty Blue Thunder. You are probably wondering why this little kid is talking to you now. Well, I can tell you that the foul sorcerer you hate so much has been turned into the child you see here. It was not because of anything you did, but if it makes you happy to call it a victory for you then I won't argue the point."

Shaking his head again, he said, "I will tell you that I never had control over Tendo Akane or the Pigtailed girl. You won't believe that, of course, but it's true. I'm going to be leaving and the engagement between me and Akane is off. I'm gonna offer you some free advice - don't start up the dating challenge with Akane again. She hated it. As for the pigtailed girl, I don't know what to tell you about her other than she will be leaving too."

"And now we come to Kodachi," he said. He stood for a time, trying to think of what to say to her. Finally he said, "I don't love you, I never did. I'll also tell you what I told Akane, get professional help. Get professional help for your brother. You both need it. So does your father, for that matter."

Next he stood before the tiny figure of a bald old man in a purple gi. "Happosai. You call yourself my master and yet you never actually taught me anything. I've learned new techniques to fight you, but it was other people who taught me. You say I should respect you just because you're old? Respect needs to be earned and you haven't done anything to earn mine. Instead you treat me bad, grope my girl side and would lock me in that form if you could. You've given me more reasons to disrespect you then to respect you."

He shook his head. "I refuse to be the heir to your school. I don't want to learn the perverted techniques you perfected. Find someone else to be your heir."

Ranma finally went back to the futon and sat down. He said, "Well that felt good."

Beldandy stood up and said, "I think we should go into the house now. There things that I need to discuss with you that they don't need to hear. Kasumi, I trust your discretion, you may come with us. May I use your kitchen to make tea?"

"Oh, you don't have to do that," Kasumi responded. "I would be happy to make tea for a guest as important as yourself."

Beldandy bowed and thanked her hostess. Before they left the dojo she said, "Does anyone need to use the toilet?"

Akane raised her hand. The goddess nodded and said, "I will remove the paralysis from your legs and you may go to the toilet. However, I warn you. If I even see your mallet, I will re-establish the paralysis and you will just have to hold it until the spell wears off on its own. Is that clear?"

Wide eyed, Akane nodded vigorously. When Beldandy made a gesture Akane found herself able to move her legs. She got unsteadily to her feet and headed toward the door. While she took no physical action she directed an intense glare at Ranma as she passed him.

The goddess directed, "When you are finished, please return to the dojo and wait."

Akane's expression turned questioning. Beldandy said, "I have important things to discuss with Ranma. I would prefer if that discussion is private."

The black haired teen left and Ranma followed along with Kasumi and the goddess. Shortly Ranma and Beldandy were positioned at the dining table while Kasumi was in the kitchen making tea. After a moment Akane stopped in the door to the dining room. She looked like she wanted to say something but her vocal cords were still paralyzed and her expression changed to one of great frustration.

Akane didn't like to have a visitor ordering her around in her own home. The fact that the visitor was a goddess or at least claimed to be one didn't make it any easier. She would do as asked for now, but she swore there would be a serious talk about this, maybe with some mallet swinging.

Beldandy noticed the venomous look that Akane was directing toward Ranma. She said, "Young lady you need to get control of your temper. Goddesses can read thoughts. You were practically projecting mental images of pounding on Ranma with your mallet."

"I don't think you fully appreciate the seriousness of your situation," the goddess warned. "I suppose you will welcome hearing that part of it is Ranma's fault, since you apparently believe that everything is. The fault is that Ranma has allowed you to hit him without retaliation. It stems from his unwillingness to hit girls. You probably thought it was alright because he was never seriously hurt."

"I ask you to imagine what might happen after Ranma has left and you don't have him to vent your anger upon," Beldandy urged. "If you were to give in to your anger and use that mallet on one of your ordinary schoolmates, you could cripple or even kill one of them. Do you want to have someone's death on your conscience?"

That brought the girl up short. She had not seriously considered such an eventuality. It was fairly easy to imagine. Akane's face paled at the image. She left the house in a much more thoughtful frame of mind.

Author's Note: Here is chapter one of this story by popular demand. (O.K. so it was just Dumbledork who asked for it.) I appreciate Dumbledork's comments, but isn't there anyone else out there reading this blog? I need feedback, people! I'd like to get some idea where to concentrate my efforts on developing these stories. Which are good, which are not, and which would be better with more work?