Ranma's Full Potential Chapter 2

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.

Chapter 2
Departing

It was now afternoon in Japan on the day after Ranma's Wish had been granted. Ororo Monroe had piloted the blackbird to a landing in a vacant lot a few blocks away from the Tendo dojo. Though they didn't know it, this lot was a common location for martial arts challenges. Ranma had used this site on many occasions.

They were now making their way along the sidewalk with Logan pushing Professor Xavier's wheelchair. Before long they approached a gate and saw the sign that proclaimed the Tendo School of Indiscriminate Grappling. They also noticed that what they took to be a little girl with red hair in a ponytail to her waist was seated on the curb next to a backpack that looked bigger than she was. She was wearing blue shorts and a yellow T-shirt and a dark blue windbreaker. On her feet were dark sneakers.

While Xavier could communicate with people in other languages by virtue of his telepathy, it was deemed better to let Logan do the talking. Since he had lived in Japan before, he was completely fluent in the language.

The short, muscular Canadian walked up to the girl and said, "Excuse me, please. We are looking for Saotome Ranma. We were led to believe that he lives in that house behind you."

The child gave the man a measuring look. This guy was a fighter, she decided. He carried himself well. His moves spoke of a style that emphasized strength and not much in the way of defense. What was up with the guy's hair though? It seemed to come to points on both sides of the man's head like an animal's ears or maybe horns.

She stood up and announced, "If you are looking for Saotome Ranma, then you've found him, I mean her."

Logan looked confused as he turned to the man in the wheelchair and said, "The kid says she's the one we're looking for."

His expression mirroring that of the Canadian mutant, the bald man in the chair said, "The trace from Cerebro gave me the name and location of the new mutant but it led me to believe that the person we were coming to find was a teenaged male."

Turning back to child, Logan told her, "Look, little girl, I think you're confused. We're looking for a teenage boy. Maybe he's your brother or something."

The professor suggested, "Perhaps we could go inside to talk about it."

Nodding, Logan reached toward the gate to open it, but stopped when they heard the sound of raised voices from inside. The little girl made an emphatic negative gesture and said, "Trust me, friend, you do not want to go in there right now!"

"What's going on, kid?" the short man queried.

"The people in there were not happy about me leaving and they are having a major argument about it," the girl explained. "It's gotten to a point where they weren't so much arguing with me as they were arguing about me, so I snuck out to wait for you. I mean, the guy in the wheelchair is Xavier sensei, right?"

When Logan relayed this to the others, telepathic mutant asked, "How did you know we were coming?"

The girl sighed and said, "Damn, my English sucks. I wish I had paid better attention in English class. Well, I'm supposed to be getting smarter soon, so maybe I'll learn it fast. Anyway, the lady who activated my X gene told me to expect you."

Not waiting for the professor, Logan demanded, "How do you know about X genes?"

More shouts could be heard from the house and the little girl begged, "Hey, could we maybe go to where you parked your plane please? I'd sort of like to be out of sight from the house when they notice I'm gone."

After Logan relayed what the girl was saying, the professor shrugged and said, "Since she seems to know so much, let's go back to the plane. If she isn't the person we're looking for we can still come back to this house." He didn't add that he could, if needed, erase the girl's memory of their visit.

The girl picked up her pack and put it on, adjusting the straps a bit. Logan frowned as he looked at the size of the pack the girl was carrying. It looked much too big for a girl that size and it was obviously tightly filled with whatever its contents were.

A short walk later and they arrived at the vacant lot. When she perceived that this was their destination, the girl said, "I guess the plane must be invisible. This must have been the closest place to the dojo where you could land, but it might not have been the best choice. This vacant lot is used for a lot of martial arts battles. Some of the fighters can throw ki blasts (like me) and your plane could have gotten damaged. You're just lucky there weren't any duels going on today."

"Ki blasts?" Logan echoed. He knew some high end martial artist like Iron Fist so he was knew what the girl was talking about. "It takes years to learn to throw ki blasts. How could a little kid like you do that?"

"Yeah, I need to explain that," the girl told them.

From her pocket Ororo pulled a small device and pressed a button. There was a metallic sound and a ramp seemed to open from nothingness. This revealed a door into a dimly lit space.

"It was invisible!" the little girl enthused. "That is so COOL!" She ran up the ramp. The rest looked at each other and then shrugged and followed the child.

A short while later they were gathered in the cockpit. The child seemed annoyed that her legs didn't reach the deck from the seat she was in.

Logan prompted, "You were going to explain."

"Right," she agreed. "First I have to ask, do you believe in magic?"

"Yeah, kid," Logan agreed. "I can't say I'm comfortable with it, but I've had magic used on me a few times and I've met some magic users. Can you use magic?"

"Me, no," the girl answered. "At least not yet. I've been told I'll learn. My next question is if you believe in gods and goddesses."

Looking at the others, Logan shrugged, "Well, I have met Thor, the Norse god of thunder. He's a member of the Avengers."

"Norse?" The girl thought about that. "That's great! If you ever happen to meet up with him again ask him about the Norns. I met one of them. Her name is Belldandy, goddess of the present."

"You met a goddess?" Logan queried.

"She said she came to grant me a Wish," The girl stated. "The problem was that I never really got a chance to think about what I wanted to wish for. Right as the goddess got to the door of the dojo I was practicing in I said that I wished for a chance to reach my full potential without all the crazy people in my life interfering."

"Potential?"

"Yeah," confirmed the girl. "Part of that was changing me from an 18 year old into a five year old."

"So you're telling us that you're really Ranma Saotome?" the mutant code named Wolverine asked.

"Yep," the girl agreed. She proceeded to tell the story of the Wish.

"Well, that sounds like a lot of potential, kid," observed Logan after hearing the story.

The professor said, "I can sense that she is telling the truth or at least that she believes it to be the truth."

Logan nodded and passed that along to Ranma. "Well that explains how a teenager came to be turned into a five year old kid. The next question is why you're a girl."

"Oh, right, I didn't mention that," the girl grimaced. "Well that goes back a little farther." She told them of Jusenkyo and some of the craziness of her life in Nerima.

Now the Canadian Mutant had to ask for clarification again. "Ok, I get that you can change sexes, but why are you a girl right now?"

She tapped a ring on her right ring finger and said, "This ring locks me as a girl. If I take off the ring the curse unlocks."

"As for the reason for doing that, well that takes a little longer to explain," Ranma told them. "Belldandy told me that the way my Pop raised me was an effort to turn me into some kind of hyper-masculine, macho, jerk, playboy, pervert. Both he and my mom seemed to think I should sleep around and get as many girls pregnant as possible. How my father ever expected me to do when he never even gave me 'the Talk' is a mystery to me."

That produced frowns with her listeners. She went on, "Bell said that because of that upbringing, I should get raised as a normal girl this time to balance out all of the stupid macho crap my Pop taught me. Well, at least as normal as a psychic mutant super genius girl who is also a world class martial artist can be anyway."

Logan arched an eyebrow and said, "Humph, got much of an ego there kid?"

Ranma shrugged and said, "Well, for the martial arts I can at least claim to be one of the best for my age and I mean my real age, not what I look like right now. If you were to ask around Nerima, they would tell you Saotome Ranma is the one to beat. As for the rest, a goddess told me I'd have those abilities. And that was leaving out the bit she told me that I'd be a witch when I get older."

"A witch?" Logan queried.

"That's what she told me," Ranma affirmed. She thought for a moment and said, "If it isn't rude to ask, what's your mutant power? I know that Xavier sensei is a mind reader but only because Belldandy told me."

The Canadian mutant pointed with a thumb to the dark skinned woman with the white hair and said, "That's Ororo Monroe. Her power is control of the weather. She hasn't said much because she doesn't speak Japanese. I'm Logan and my power is fast healing and animal-like senses such as smell."

The little girl frowned at that. "Fast healing? I'm not questioning that, but I've been reading your aura. I could swear you have metal bones. I thought that might be your mutant power."

Logan grimaced slightly. "No kid, that's not my power. It was the healing factor that let me survive the process that covered my bones in that metal. Anyone who didn't have my healing factor would have been killed by the surgery."

Noting the grimace, Ranma apologized, "Hey, sorry if that brings up painful memories."

"Nah, it's Ok, I'm used to it," responded the man. "Besides I can do this." He held out a clenched fist and Ranma watched as shiny metal blades slid out from between the knuckles on the back of the mutant's hand.

The little girl studied the claws for a moment then reached out to touch the tip of one of the blades. She pulled her hand back abruptly and looked at the dot of blood on the tip of her finger.

"Whoa, those are very sharp," she commented. "With blades like that, isn't there a danger that you could cut yourself sometimes?"

"Yeah, sometimes, after I first got the metal blades" agreed Logan. "I've had them long enough that I don't cut myself anymore. Even when I did, I heal fast, so it wasn't a problem."

She nodded absently and said, "I heal fast too, but that's more because of ki control than any power. It took long, hard years of training to get that ki control."

"You mentioned throwing ki blasts," the older mutant stated. "Is that true?"

The red haired girl looked thoughtful. Finally she said, "Ok, I'll show you. Keep in mind that I'm doing this just as a demonstration and not as an attack."

She held out her hand and they all watched as a pinpoint of light came into being floating over it. That pinpoint expanded until it was a glowing sphere the size of a softball of white.

Adopting an lecturing tone, the little girl stated, "The light you see is my ki, or life energy. I started out with about twice the amount of ki that a normal person needs to live with. From that point I did special exercises and went through meditation techniques that increased my total reserve of this energy to many times what a normal person has."

As she let the ball of light dissolve she continued, "The basic life energy runs through the body in channels like blood flows through veins. One of the differences is that those flows can't be detected by normal medical instruments. An acupuncturist uses his needles to stimulate important ki pathways and junctures as treatment for all kinds of problems when people get sick or injured. This can also be done through acupressure, also known as pressure points."

Still in the lecturing tone she said, "The ball that I showed you only had enough energy in it to let glow in visible light. If I had put more energy into it I could have projected it away from me to use as a weapon. Depending on how I will the energy to be, it could strike like the blow of a fist or it could explode and cause damage to anything it touches."

"Throwing ki blasts like I showed you is one of the most extreme uses of a person's own life energy," she explained. "The more common use is for a martial artist to enhance the strength and speed of their movements. In fact many of the best martial arts masters first start using ki without knowing they're doing it. The clue is when a martial artist begins performing feats that should be impossible for a person just using normal human muscles and nerves."

"The real trick is learning to take conscious control of that energy," the girl told them. "With the right kind of training and discipline people can control their ki the same way some people can consciously control their heartbeat and body temperature."

After hearing the translation, Ororo laughed and said, "You don't sound like a small child."

"I was quoting some of the stuff my sensei's told me," the little girl said with a shrug.

She looked over to Logan again and said, "Could I see those claws again?"

When he extended them, she looked at them carefully then tapped a finger on the side of one. After a moment she said, "I thought so. That's adamantium."

"How did you know that?" demanded Logan.

She pulled back the sleeve of her wind breaker and they could all see that strapped to her forearm there was a leather holster. In that holster there was what looked like a metal rod with a sort of knob on the end. The knob was just a slightly wider cylinder of the same shiny metal. She tapped it with a finger and said, "The outer shell of this is made of adamantium too."

Frowning, Logan asked, "How can you tell the difference between admantium and say, steel for instance?"

"Huh?" She stopped to think about it. "Well, steel would get rusty and you couldn't have it inside your body. But as to how I know the difference, I guess different metals react differently to ki and I can see, or at least sense that."

"What is that metal bar anyway and why are you wearing it on your arm like that?" the Canadian mutant asked.

"Oh this was a gift from Belldandy-Sama," Ranma answered. "This is a magic wand."

Magic wand? Logan thought about that for a moment. "I thought magic wands were made out of wood."

"Usually," Ranma conceded. "This one was specially made for me by Hephaestus, the smith of the gods. It has a thin outer shell of adamantium and an inner shell of vibranium. Now most wands used by wizards and witches have a magical element included with them like a dragon scale or a phoenix feather. This one has three hairs, one from each of the Norn goddesses. Those hairs were freely given and are each of them is in a special channel in between the inner and outer shells."

She gently ran her finger along the surface of the wand. "There's other things that have been done to this to make it even stronger than a normal wooden wand. All of the inner surfaces are covered in runes and other magical symbols. Those will help channel even more magical power than a simple wooden stick."

Confused, Logan asked, "Adamantium is indestructible. How do you engrave symbols onto a surface of that metal?"

"Oh, it's not that hard," Ranma answered. "The adamantium starts out as a liquid. You pour it into a mold that has tiny raised designs on it. After you harden the liquid you use a weak acid to dissolve the mold and the inside surface of the metal has symbols that look like they were engraved. The same thing works for the vibranium."

"The usual wand is a skinny, flexible stick, while this is a lot fatter and completely rigid," Ranma went on. "That's because the core of this is a chunk of molecular circuitry along with a power source. Where the core comes from was left kind of vague. I think it's either alien technology or some kind of tech from the future, I'm not sure which."

The professor asked, "What does the device in the wand do?"

After hearing the translation, Ranma said, "It's sort of like those tri-corder things in Star Trek. It's a multi-spectrum scanner and detector as well as a computer to interpret the scanned information and format it into easily readable form. It can also be a general purpose computer too."

(AN: When Ranma answers a question from someone other than Logan, assume that Logan translates both from and into Japanese.)

"How do you use a computer with no display screen?" asked Ororo.

"Like this," Ranma said. At a mental command a hologram was projected from the wand to display over the girl's wrist. She said, "This is the scanner mode."

The holographic screen faded out then another screen came into being, floating in the air. There also appeared a keyboard that appeared to be made of light that floated in front of the little girl. She said, "Right now I don't really know all of what the computer can do. I know there is a word processing program loaded in along with a spread sheet and a personal finance tracker with checkbook. There's tons of other software loaded, but it will take me a little while to fully explore all it can do."

The professor nodded and said, "That is truly amazing. I would advise you not to use this computer when you are in the presence of ordinary people. It might be difficult to explain where you got such a device and I'm sure people in authority would probably take it away from you in an effort to understand its workings."

"Yeah, I kind of figured that out," said the little girl.

She paused a moment before saying, "Since you are going to be teaching me how to use my mental powers, I guess I should tell you I've got another mutation. I don't think your computer had detected it because it is what Bell-sama called a passive mutation."

"Oh, what is the passive mutation?" the professor.

She thought about it for a moment before asking, "Logan-San, please pick me up?"

With a slightly bemused expression, he shrugged and stepped up to the little girl. He put his hands on her waist and lifted her up. He grunted and commented, "You're heavy for your size."

After he set her down, she said, "I'm about half again as heavy as a kid my size would normally be. My goddess friend said that when I develop strength beyond a certain point, my muscles stop getting bigger and start getting heavier... denser?"

Poking a fingertip gently into a well developed shoulder muscle, the Canadian mutant agreed, "Definitely denser. So basically your saying this 'passive mutation' of yours is that you're stronger than you look?"

"No, that's not the mutation itself," Ranma clarified. "When I use ki to push my body to perform feats normally impossible to most people, my muscles are pushed to become stronger. If I had never done the work, I would never have gotten the denser muscles."

Taking in the explanation, Logan nodded. "I get it. The mutation didn't give you the denser muscles, but lets you develop them, right?"

"Yep," the girl confirmed. "If I keep working out, I should keep getting stronger without looking like a body builder. If I'm gonna stay as a girl, I guess I should make an effort to keep a girlish figure, well, when I'm old enough to have a figure. I keep forgetting I'm not a teenager right now."

"Ranma, I hope you will not be offended by this," Xavier said. "While I can see the mental image of yourself you hold, it will still be hard to imagine you that way. After all we have only seen you with the body of a small child. I hope it will not bother you if we sometimes treat you as the child you appear to be."

"Nah, I'm not offended," she answered. "I've been told that having the body of a little kid will have me acting childish at times, in spite of the greater experience I have."

"You present something of a problem for me," Xavier said. "The Xavier school for gifted youngsters is a boarding school, but none of the students staying there is as young as you now appear to be. That is mainly because mutant powers usually start to manifest at puberty or later. It is only in rare instances that they activate earlier."

He thought about it and said, "Besides that, there is the fact that we would need parental consent for you to live at my school. From what you have told me of your parents and the plans they have made regarding you, it would seem unlikely that they would be willing to give permission for you to attend my school."

He shook his head. "If you were still 18 that is the legal age of consent in the United States, at least in the state where my school is located. If you still looked that age and decided to come live at our school, we would have no trouble accommodating you."

Ranma considered that. She said, "Maybe my grandparents would have some ideas on that. They are Himura Kenjiro and Naoka."

Xavier frowned and said, "I know those names. Isn't Naoka a medical researcher?"

"Yes, and grandpa is a research scientist," Ranma affirmed. "At least they were. I understand they're both retired now. They have been informed we would be coming so you can land on the front lawn of the estate."

The three visiting mutants exchanged looks. Ranma had the feeling there was some sort of telepathic conversation going on as well. After a moment Logan asked, "Where do your grandparents live?"

* * *

At a country estate outside the city of Okayama a large, comfortable house was located. There were a few outbuildings but nothing terribly fancy. Everything looked to be of very solid construction and sturdy materials.

On the covered porch two people sat in comfortable chairs. One was a man in his early sixties, his mostly gray hair had streaks of dark. The woman next to him was of similar age although the years seemed to sit more lightly with her than the man. The mixture of gray and red hair gave her a distinctly pink haired appearance.

Both people looked fit. In truth they had both been working in their garden not long before and were now taking a break. The man looked at an expensive wristwatch and commented, "It's almost time. From what Miss Belldandy said, they should be arriving soon."

"To finally get to meet Ranma..." The woman said. "I know we didn't approve of Nodoka's choice in husband, but she could have contacted us after Ranma got back to Japan."

"Well, from what the nice young lady told us, it would seem we were justified in our attitude toward Genma," Himura Kenjiro said. "I'd like to hope that Nodoka can see the truth of the matter now."

Naoka shook her head sadly. "I know what you mean, but No-Chan can be ever so stubborn about such things. I think our opposition made her dig in her heals and stay with Genma when she might have taken a more careful look at him otherwise."

"You could be right about that," conceded the man.

Before the conversation could proceed any further a sudden wind seemed to spring up out of nowhere. The pink haired woman said, "I guess that must be our guests arriving."

Kenjiro looked at the place where all of the wind was coming from and said, "Impressive stealth technology. I wonder..."

His wife interrupted, "No! You will not try to duplicate it! You have gotten out of that kind of work. We're retired now."

He sighed. "I know, you're right, dear. It's just that I can't help being curious."

She lightly caressed his face and said, "I know."

At that moment the wind cut off and a short while later the ramp appeared out of empty air. Shortly three adult figures and one child came down the ramp, one of the figures in a wheelchair. As the visitors came up to the porch the older man who was their host stood up.

Kenjiro bowed and said, "You should know that this area is not visible from any of the other houses in the area. You could drop your stealth field and not have to worry about your plane being observed." He spoke in barely accented English.

The bald man in the wheelchair replied, "While I trust you, we don't have just local observers to be concerned about. Even if there is no one on the ground to see the plane, there are still surveillance satellites in orbit."

"Ah." Kenjiro glanced at the sky, while trying to estimate the location of the nearest satellite, and nodded. "You do have a point."

He and his wife stepped down from the porch and went forward to greet the visitors. Naoka bowed to each of the adult visitors in turn. However, when she got to the child, her face lit up in a big smile. "Is this... Ranma?" she asked.

The little girl kicked a toe into the grass and nervously tugged at her ponytail. Feeling unsure of the reception she was likely to get, Ranma said, "Uh... hi Grandma. Yeah, it's me, Ranma."

The next thing she knew, Ranma was lifted up in an Amazon-grade glomp. Her grandmother gushed, "Oh my, Ranma-Chan, you are so CUTE!"

Over her grandmother's shoulder Ranma directed a look that clearly said, "Help me," to her grandfather. He just grinned and had to restrain himself from laughing out loud. The visitors all smiled at the display of unbridled affection being lavished on the age-regressed martial artist.

Naoka was babbling somewhat incoherently, and Ranma finally had enough. She begged, "Grandma, please put me down. You're gonna squish me."

The older woman eased up on the force of her embrace but held onto the little girl. She looked into the small face in front of her and said, "You look exactly like Nodoka did at your age. And I see you have the family hair color."

"Well, only when I'm a girl," Ranma noted.

"Ah yes, I had forgotten about that magic curse," Naoka said. "You were born a boy. Why are you a girl right now?"

"Could we go inside and talk about it?" the little girl begged. "If I took the time to explain it while you're holding me, you're gonna get pretty tired."

"Good point," the older woman acknowledged. She set Ranma down and commented, "My goodness, you are a heavy little thing. Do you have extra strength to go with those dense muscles?"

"Yep," Ranma responded. "We can talk more about it inside."

"Ah yes, where are my manners?" the lady said. "All of you are invited to come into my home. When I was informed that we would be having guests I called the catering company in town and they brought out some food."

They followed their hosts into the dining room. This was a western style room with a higher table and chairs positioned around it. On the large table there were plastic trays covered with clear plastic. On those trays could be seen several different varieties of sandwiches. There were also potato and corn chips along with cans of soda pop.

Ranma looked over the table and asked, "Sandwiches, Grandma?"

Hearing the question, Naoka said, "You're probably wondering why we're not serving some kind of traditional Japanese food. Well, it's not because our guests are coming from America. Jiro and I are not what you could call traditional. Nor am I at all domestic by any stretch of the imagination."

"You must remember that I was a medical researcher up until I retired," the older woman explained. "I got used to eating in restaurants or getting take-out. If I prepared anything at home it was usually using the microwave to heat up various frozen foods."

Kenjiro said, "Because of a mutual dislike for cooking, we've made arrangements with two local restaurants. On alternating weeks they will cook up a week's worth of meals, portion it out and freeze it. They then deliver the frozen meals to us. On occasions when we are expecting guests, we get the catering company to deliver something like what you see here."

Naoka nodded. She continued, "I don't do housework. We have a maid service that comes in to clean once a week. For any dishes that get dirty from the restaurant food, I have a dishwashing machine."

The pink haired woman looked thoughtful. "Ranma, I understand Nodoka is a good cook."

"Yeah, she's great," was the little girl's answer.

"She didn't learn it from me," informed the older woman. "It was my sister that taught Nodoka what she now refers to as 'the womanly arts.' There were times that I thought she might be ashamed of me that I wasn't more 'womanly' than I am."

Shaking her head in amazement, Ranma said, "Wow, that's weird. Mom is so traditional that it's hard to understand how she could be that way when you guys are not like that at all. I bet you two would be a lot more fun to hang out with."

"Thanks, Ranma-Chan," Naoka said. "I think you would be fun to hang out with too. As for your mother I think she took it on herself to learn traditional Japanese ways as a means of rebellion. I think she saw it as a way to feel morally superior to us."

Turning to the other visitors she said, "If you wish something other than the cold soda, I can make coffee or hot chocolate. I've never been all that fond of tea, so I don't really keep the supplies to make the stuff."

Logan popped open a can of cola and said, "I often like beer with my food, but this is fine." The others agreed.

As they began to eat, Ranma launched into her story. Because she was speaking between bites, she ate much slower than was her habit. That didn't mean she ate less than usual. In fact she ate more than half of all of the food on the table. When she had emptied the last of the trays she pointed to a half sandwich in front of Naoka and asked, "Hey Grandma, are you gonna finish that?"

With a slight chuckle the older woman handed over the half sandwich and commented, "Honestly dear, I don't know where you put it all."

The little girl shrugged and said, "I'm a martial artist, I burn lots of calories."

Kenjiro laughed and said, "I can believe that."

There was silence around the table for a moment before Kenjiro spoke again, "Well I believe we have a limited time to work with. From what Miss Belldandy told us, Ranma's intelligence is already started to increase and her mutant powers will start to become active in only a few days. It would be best if she were able to get to Professor Xavier's school as soon as that happens to teach her the proper way to use those powers."

He thought for a moment before saying, "Naoka and I have many friends in the government. We should have no trouble getting Ranma removed from the Saotome Clan register and moved to the Himura register. However, to make a clean break of it I think it would be best to change her given name as well."

"What name would you give me, Grandpa?" Asked Ranma.

"Well, you say you are going to be staying female, is that right?" asked the grandfather.

"That's the plan," confirmed the little girl. "At least I'll stay a girl all or most of the time until I reach puberty. After that I'll start taking the ring off when I'm at home and be a guy in private and not in public. Belldandy told me that by that time I should learn how to change by will power and not water."

"What if you decide you like being a girl better?" asked Naoka.

"Good question," Ranma said. "I guess if that happens then I'll be a girl who can change into a guy instead of a guy who can change into a girl. I'll just plan on spending most of my time in girl form in that case. I may still need to change into guy form for a disguise, so I'll keep the ability to transform instead of getting locked."

"That sounds like a good plan," agreed Kenjiro. "Now as to a name, I think you should have a more American sounding name if you are going to be living in that country. I was thinking Veronica Himura."

Ranma thought about that for a moment before saying, "Ok, I get that in America they give the family name last, but why 'Veronica?'"

Kenjiro grinned and said, "A common nickname for Veronica is 'Ronnie.'"

The little red haired girl blinked. Then she said, "Oh right. Ronnie sounds at least a little like Ranma. Then if I needed a name for my guy form, I could call myself Ron. I think that's an American name, right?"

"It is an English name that is also used by Americans," Naoka clarified.

Kenjiro said, "I have some friends in America. The ones I'm thinking of are George and Natalie Tanaka. They are what they call semi retired. Their children are grown and moved out. George writes a syndicated column that is published in 30 newspapers. He has often bragged that he can work anywhere that has a phone or a computer data connection. He currently lives in New York city, but I think he might enjoy a move to upstate New York."

"Are you suggesting I stay with them?" Ranma asked.

"Yes, you could call them Aunt and Uncle," Kenjiro replied. "If you're going to be as smart as that Belldandy girl said, you will probably need to be home schooled. Especially considering that you have already attended high school, regardless of your grades, I can just imagine how you would tear through the curriculum of an American elementary school."

"Home schooled?" the little girl echoed with a frown.

"Yes," confirmed Naoka. "You would study at home for academic subjects and go to the Xavier school for training with your powers. By going to the Xavier school you will get the social interaction that you might miss by not going to a public or private school. To make sure you get the proper certification you would need to take tests from time to time."

"Ok, that sounds like it could work," Ranma allowed. She turned to the mutants and asked, "What do you guys think?"

The professor nodded and said, "I think that sounds like a workable plan. I believe it would be for the best if Veronica travels with us. It would look suspicious for a child as young as she appears to travel alone on commercial flights."

Naoka's expression turned sad. "I'm sorry that we have to say 'sayonara' to you so soon after meeting you, little Ronnie."

"It's not forever, Grandma, Grandpa," Ronnie replied. "I'll be back in the summer."

The older woman smiled. "That's true."

Kenjiro turned businesslike. "I will call my friend, George. Considering the time it will take to fly back to your school, he can drive down from New York City and meet you at the school."

"Very well," said the professor. "Logan, Ororo, go get the plane ready. Ranma, I mean Veronica, will want to say goodbye to her grandparents."

Logan pushed the professor's chair as the mutants left the house. Ronnie went to hug her grandmother. She said, "I'll work hard to learn all that Xavier-San can teach me."

"You should also be sure to mind your uncle George and Auntie Natalie," the pink haired woman admonished.

Author's Note: Ok, it seems people are interested in this story, so here is chapter 2.