Ranma's Full Potential

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 and are owned 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. In X-Men I haven't a specific place to draw from. You could say this takes a little bit from several versions that have appeared including comics, cartoons, etc.

Prologue

At the home of the Tendo family in the Nerima ward of the city of Tokyo, Japan, the eldest daughter, Kasumi was humming a tune while putting away the groceries she had just brought home. At least she was putting away some of them, as part of this load was to be used in making tonight's dinner. She smiled as she thought of how happy the meal would make her family. Things had gone well at the market today and she had obtained some of her family's favorite foods and at excellent prices.

As far as she knew at the moment her middle sister Nabiki was doing something in her room and the youngest sister Akane was out of the house. Her father was playing shogi with Uncle Genma. There were times she simply couldn't understand the appeal those two men found in the game. She was sure if she tried playing it as much as they did, she would be bored out of her mind.

At that moment a beautiful, petite red haired girl stalked into the kitchen, her facial expression, stride and body language eloquent of anger. Her clothing looked rumpled as well. She stopped and took a moment to regain her composure before saying, "Hi Kasumi. Could you heat a kettle to change me back?"

Feeling a little concerned over the person she regarded as a younger sister (Or brother), Kasumi said, "You seem upset. I thought you were going to work on developing a new technique. Is that not going well?"

As the older girl turned on the heat beneath the kettle, Ranma complained, "It would go a lot better if people wouldn't keep interrupting me."

"Sometimes it helps to talk about it," Kasumi stated. "Would you like to tell me what happened?"

Since it would take a while for the kettle to heat, Ranma decided that it wouldn't hurt to talk. She started, "Right. Well, like I told you, I had seen a technique in an anime that I thought I could make work for real"

"Yes, I remember," Kasumi confirmed. "You told everyone at breakfast."

The red haired girl nodded. "All I wanted was a little time alone to work on my technique. Before I had spent even ten minutes working on it, Ryoga showed up. He did his usual 'Prepare to die,' speech and I still don't know if he was mad about something new or the same old stuff. I try to ask and says, 'As if words could convey the depths of my suffereing.'"

She sighed. "I fought him for a while and finally knocked him out of the dojo and into the pond. He didn't come back to bother me any more after that. I guess he must have got lost again or something." She thought that maybe he had gone to Akane as P-Chan. Really, the guy is pathetic.

"It took me a while to get calmed down from that before I could seriously concentrate on my technique," said the girl. "When I did finally get back to work on it, Shampoo showed up. She glomped onto me, going on about me taking her on a date and naturally, with the way my luck runs, that's when Akane showed up. I don't know why she was there, but she called me a pervert for 'letting Shampoo hang all over me' and malleted me into the pond. (Kawaiikune tomboy.)"

"While I was getting out of the pond, Akane and Shampoo spent some time yelling at each other," Ranma said. "Shampoo left and Akane stomped off and I think she may have gone out. I went into the house and got a towel out of the dirty clothes basket in the laundry room to dry off. I thought about asking you for hot water to change back then, but I didn't want to bother you, so I decided to stay a girl when I went back to work on my new technique."

Her expression turned angry again as she said, "I was just starting to get a good idea on how to make the technique work when the Old Freak showed up and groped me. I got him off me and begged him to let me keep working. He sulked about it, but I guess he decided that I should go ahead and work on improving my Art."

"After he left, Kuno showed up, wanting to give roses to his 'pigtailed goddess,'" Ranma stated with a scowl. "That guy is so clueless. He said the usual crap about trying to 'free' me from the foul sorcerer. I punted him out of the neighborhood."

"Well, after I got rid of him, his sister showed up and attacked, trying to free her 'Ranma-Sama' from me, like she usually does," the redhead explained. "After she left Mousse showed up, wanting to kill me for the way I treated Shampoo. After he left, Nabiki came by to pester me about money she says I owe her and trying to get me to pose for her to take more pictures. I told Nabiki no or at least not now and she left, probably working on a scam to separate some other poor sucker from his money."

"That's when I saw you coming back from your shopping," she said. "I decided that I might as well come in and get some hot water to change back."

The older girl had a sympathetic expression. She said, "It sounds like you have had a rather eventful day."

With a shrug, Ranma said, "As some days go for me, I'd say it was about average. I've had lots worse."

By this time the kettle was steaming, so Kasumi took it off the heat and handed it to Ranma. The petite girl felt of the side of the kettle to make sure that it wasn't hotter than she needed, then poured some over her head. The black haired boy handed the kettle back and said, "Thanks Kasumi."

With another sigh, the young man said, "I'm just about out of patience. I'll give it one more try today. If I get interrupted again, I guess I'll have to give up and try again some other time. I probably won't have the time to do it again until next weekend."

After Ranma left to go back to the dojo, Kasumi's usually serene expression slipped. Since no one was around to see, she let her sadness show on her face. Poor Ranma. He always tried so hard to do the right thing and to be a good person, but so many of the people he knew just wouldn't seem to allow it. She just feared that Ranma would reach his limit and then, who knew what would happen?

Elsewhere in the Tendo home, the bathroom was currently unoccupied. Suddenly the surface of the full length mirror suddenly seemed to bulge outward. That surface quickly moved back into the frame of the mirror to reveal a beautiful young woman with light brown hair. On her forehead there was a mark that looked like an elongated blue diamond shape and on each cheek under the outer corner of each eye was a triangle of the same color.

As she stepped out of the mirror, the young woman looked around. She was pleased that the room was empty. She didn't want any more mortal humans to see her than was necessary.

As she made her way toward the dojo she passed by the kitchen. There she was spotted by Kasumi who was puzzled by the stranger in the house. The eldest of the Tendo daughters called out, "Hello."

Belldandy stopped and looked at the homemaker. She had hoped to avoid this, but there was no help for it. She bowed and said, "I am sorry to intrude on your home, Miss Tendo. I am Belldandy, goddess of the present, first class, category one, unlimited license. I am here to grant a Wish for Saotome Ranma."

The eldest Tendo daughter studied the intruder in her home for a moment. In many ways the woman reminded her of herself. She didn't seem like a burglar and she had the feeling that the girl was not there for any evil purpose. Still, she was looking for Ranma and that didn't always bode well.

"You say you are here to grant a Wish for Ranma?" Kasumi asked, trying to get clarification. She managed to copy the capitalization of the word "Wish." "From that, may I assume that you are not another fiancée?"

The goddess had been briefed on the kind of life her current assignment had led. She knew what the pleasant young woman was talking about and said, "No, I assure you that I am not here to pursue an engagement with Saotome-San. His father didn't make any arrangements with my Father that I am aware of." (He might have said some prayers, but she hadn't been informed about any of them, so they must not have been relevant to the case.)

Kasumi felt somewhat reassured when the visitor said she was not a fiancée. Still there was that matter of a Wish. She asked, "Is there magic involved with that Wish?"

"Well, yes," Belldandy said. "Why do you ask?"

"Ranma has had some bad experiences with magic," the eldest Tendo daughter explained. "And that is putting it mildly," she silently added. "I don't know how pleased he will be to see you or to hear about a magic Wish."

The goddess bowed her head and said, "He is under no obligation to accept the Wish. He can refuse if he wants to. But I should mention that this is a divine Wish. It isn't like the wishes of mythology that are granted by genies. I will grant the wish in the spirit in which it is asked, with no intent to twist it into something bad or hurtful. In addition it must be a heartfelt wish, not something casual."

Nodding her head, her manner serious, Kasumi said, "I don't know why, but something about you inspires trust. You should go talk to Ranma. He is out practicing in the dojo. You can reach it by going out that door and following the covered walkway. I feel compelled to ask you to please be patient with him. He has had a truly terrible day and may not be in the best mood."

Beldandy bowed and said, "Thank you Tendo-San. I will see if I can improve Ranma-san's mood."

As the goddess stepped to the door and out of the house she looked along the walkway and saw a teenaged boy walk out of the dojo, leaving the door open. She could see inside the building that there was another boy still inside. Part of her briefing had included photographs of the assigned wish recipient, so she knew the boy who had stayed was Ranma.

Inside the dojo Ranma was staring at the shrine on the wall, not at the door, his frustration near its peak. He was wondering what kami he had angered. All he had wanted was to use the Sunday to try and develop a new technique, was that too much to ask? But people kept interrupting.

This last interruption at least wasn't someone trying to attack or date him. What he couldn't understand was why Hiroshi, his friend from school, would come to the dojo just to tell him about a new manga he had bought. He could have done that at school. As politely as he could, Ranma had told his friend that now wasn't a good time and asked if Hiroshi could tell him about the manga when they saw each other in school on Monday.

"Why can't they leave me alone?" he asked himself. Then out loud he said, "I wish I had a chance - a real chance, to reach my full potential without all of the crazy people in my life interfering or interrupting all the time."

At that moment he could sense a presence. His ki senses alerted him to an enormous power signature and he looked over to the door that Hiroshi had just left open. Apparently the other boy hadn't closed the door when he left.

In the doorway Ranma could see a beautiful young woman with light brown hair and strange marks on her face. The woman stood with her hand raised and fingers curled if to rap on the frame of the open door but seemed to be standing frozen with her eyes wide and mouth open in an "O" of surprise.

"Oh great," he thought. "Another interruption. I just hope she's not another fiancée." Still, just because he was feeling frustrated that didn't mean he should act rude.

"Uh, hello?" He said tentatively. That was when he noticed that the marks on the woman's face had started to glow with an eerie blue light. Alright, that was different. He'd never seen anyone with glowing tattoos before.

The woman suddenly dropped her hand to her side and stepped into the dojo. When she was inside, the door slid shut behind her without anyone touching it. Oh crap! This couldn't be good. It looked like the girl was working some kind of magic.

Suddenly a beautiful, melodious voice spoke the words, "Wish Granted!" The voice sounded as if it were amplified and coming from everywhere at once. The glow from the facial marks increased until it was almost blinding and then the next weird thing happened.

A light seemed to shine through the ceiling of the dojo. In that shaft of light the woman seemed to levitate into the air and extended her arms out to the sides with hands spread and toes pointed.

Another shaft of light came down and illuminated Ranma. He found himself feeling very strange. As the light shone on him he felt a tingle like his change in genders but there was something different about this. It also appeared that things around him were getting larger. There were other strange feelings. Under the circumstances, his mind assessed the situation and made a strategic withdrawal. Or in more common language, he fainted.

On the other side of the world in the USA in the state of New York it was late at night. In the basement of a mansion in Westchester county, a bald headed man was sitting in a wheelchair on a platform that was the on the end of a sort of bridge that stuck out from the wall like a tongue. He wore an oddly shaped helmet on his head and there seemed to be images flashing on to the walls of the spherical chamber he was in.

After a moment he took off the helmet and set it on the console in front of him. After tapping a few controls to turn off the computer, he turned his chair and rolled to the door which opened for him as he left. He had been having trouble sleeping that night and had decided to try and accomplish something useful by using the Cerebro computer to scan for new mutants.

His search had been successful. He had detected a new mutant in Japan. More specifically the mutant was in Tokyo, in the ward of Nerima. From the readings it appeared that the mutant was a telepath, levitator and telekinetic like his student Jean Gray. It appeared that this mutant's X gene had just activated. He thought about it and decided that in the morning he would take Logan and Ororo with him to Japan to meet the new mutant and offer to let him come to the school.

Author's Note: I've actually written a lot on this story but never posted any part of it yet. I want to post the prologue on my blog to see what kind of reaction I get to it. Let me know if you think this deserves to be continued. If anyone would like to volunteer to be a pre-reader for me to help edit and proofread, I would welcome any help I can get.