Lord Talon;

Nevrmore;

And some guy named Steve

Updated: 01/02/2001

DISCLAIMER: ‘Ranma ½’ and all characters therein belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogagukan, Kitty, and Viz Video. ‘Sailor Moon’ and all characters therein belong to Naoko Takeuchi and Toei Animation Co. Ltd. This fanfict has been produced for my own enjoyment and to pass on without profit. Other characters that come into play in this fanfict may or may not be pulled from other sources (including other fanficts, RPGs, manga, anime, literature, or possibly even *GASP* American comic books!).

A WORD FROM TANGENT: I actually had been thinking of doing a story in which Ranma had fallen into the Nyanniichuan and remained stuck in girl-type for a while now, but I’d been stuck on the particulars. Then, one time before I went to sleep, I thought about using a variant of the premise that I used in ‘Ryo Three-Quarters’, that of someone nearly drowning in one of the Jusenkyo Springs, thus forming a stronger bond with the curse. I decided to carry the process one step further than I had in the other story, and actually have Ranma drown (to be resuscitated, of course). The only problem was one of what would happen next…well, that and who would resuscitate Ranma. I fell asleep wondering how I would put the story together. And then I dreamed.

I actually don’t remember most of my dreams, but this one was vibrant and full of color. It also dealt quite nicely with the problem I had gone to sleep pondering. A Ranma story played itself out as a montage of the anime and manga formats. A story remarkably plausible, in retrospect, for a dream. Too bad I don’t dream with sound or text, I could have used the dialogue.

Anyway, of such dreams are stories made…

Khu Lon led her great granddaughter around the last bend in the trail that lay between Joketsuzoku and Jusenkyo. Xian Pu would one day be an elder of the amazon village, so Khu Lon took it upon herself to make sure that she knew the lands about Joketsuzoku and the risks they held. Risks great enough to have kept the greater area of China from trying to enforce its dominance over the region, whether it be the old Imperial government or the more recent communist regime. Jusenkyo was but one of those dangers that held the outer world at bay, and today Xian Pu was to become more familiar with it.

As they turned the bend and could see down the valley of cursed springs, they saw something else as well. In the distance, they could see that the guide was showing a pair of men, Japanese to judge from their training gi, the springs. Khu Lon idly wondered if the guide had enough sense yet to have warned the outsiders of the risks before they got to where they were standing. She herself made sure that Xian Pu knew to approach the springs with caution. [I guess not,] she thought, as she witnessed the two strangers leap onto the poles without hesitation. [Either that or they are truly serious about their training].

"Hmph!" Xian Pu snorted. "They must be pretty stupid to just leap up like that. They’re not even using the training grounds the way they were meant to be used." Indeed, the two strangers were not trying to make there way across the springs by leaping from pole to pole. What they were doing was actually more impressive – they were fighting eachother in midair while leaping from pole to pole. Xian Pu could not help but to be impressed, despite herself.

"They’re pretty good, Xian Pu," Khu Lon pointed out. "Neither one has fallen in yet, and it has been some time since I’ve seen anyone so focused on midair combat…or so skilled." Khu Lon recognized the style, but couldn’t place it in her memory just yet. She gave Xian Pu a moment to show that she was impressed after all, before she went on. "Still, their level of skill will put one of then in a spring sooner or…Ah, I see one has already been knocked in." Khu Lon sighed. It was never easy for the newly cursed, and these two were skilled enough that neither one would have fallen in if they hadn’t been fighting. She watched as the younger one leaped to a closer pole in concern, and expected to see him dive in if the other one didn’t emerge from the spring soon. They would both end up with the same curse then…Spring of drowned Panda if she remembered correctly.

Sure enough, a giant panda leaped out of the pool and landed on top of one of the poles. Khu Lon was surprised. Not only was the panda assuming a human stance, he seemed to be unaware of the change. [He is too focused on the fight,] she thought. [The other one is in danger!] She picked up the pace, but she knew that she would be too late to prevent the other from being hurt or knocked into a spring himself…possibly both. Xian Pu followed her at a dead run.

All too soon Khu Lon’s fears were realized, for despite dodging the first few blows, the younger man was sent flying across the springs in short order. They could only watch helplessly as he fell towards a pool they both knew by reputation – the Spring of Drowned Girl. Khu Lon flinched as she saw the young man crack his head against the side of the spring as he landed.

Xian Pu felt sick. No one had died at Jusenkyo for quite awhile, and now she had the dubious honor of witnessing what may be the latest casualty. Dying in battle was one thing, but drowning? It gave her shivers. To die without even being conscious enough to try to save oneself was even worse. She could not let it happen if she could help it, and ran all that much faster.

They saw the body finally float to the surface, face down and limp, and watched the Panda go into hysterics. It reached in and pulled the girl from the spring and laid her on her back. As it tried to see if the girl was still alive, it finally noticed its own condition. The sight of it panicking would have been comical if it wasn’t for the potential tragedy of the girl’s condition. Unfortunately, the panda had apparently stopped thinking and ran off.

Khu Lon glared darkly at the retreating panda as she finally reached the girl. She checked for breathing and a pulse, but found neither.

"Elder Khu Lon," the guide said, knowing her as a local, "I have been trained in CPR. I may be able to restore her breathing if you give me some room…"

"Her heart has stopped as well," Khu Lon pointed out.

"CPR covers that, but I’ve got to hurry!" The plea for her not to interfere was unspoken, but there.

Khu Lon shook her head. She didn’t know what ‘seapiyar’ was, but she had ancient amazon techniques that covered this sort of situation. Techniques that worked and worked well. She removed the girl’s gi and began to apply pressure points to various locations in order to induce the heart to start beating again. She directed Xian Pu to alternate between putting rhythmic pressure on the girl’s abdomen and breathing for her though her mouth.

Soon, the girl started choking and coughing, so they turned her head, and Khu Lon applied pressure point to aid the girl in clearing her lungs…and stomach as it turned out. Fortunately for their own sense of nausea, it was all water, regardless. After a moment, the girl’s system was clear, and she rolled over again to rest.

Khu Lon was surprised when the guide informed her that she and her great granddaughter had just performed CPR, although CPR lacked the pressure point techniques that she had used. [What has gone by in the outer world since I have last ventured into it?] She restored the girl’s gi and waited for her to come to her senses.

Ranma felt dizzy and disoriented. A part of her mind was already aware of her new status as a girl, but she was too dazed to react to that fact just yet. Her head hurt where it had struck the side of the spring she fell in, and her lungs felt as if she had run all day doing one of her father’s annoying training exercises. To make matters worse, her sense of balance kept telling her that ‘down’ was in a different direction than towards the ground. Right at the moment, ‘down’ was somewhere in the sky.

<How do you feel?> asked a voice belonging to a small elderly woman.

<My father’s a panda…> Ranma said, remembering. This seemed somehow fitting for some reason, but she still hoped it was part of a bad dream.

<That is correct,> Khu Lon confirmed. <He fell into the Shonmaoniichuan and turned into a giant panda.>

<I feel like I’m about to fall down into the sky…> Ranma observed. The sensation was giving her a mild feeling of vertigo, as well as a vague desire to reach out and try to snatch back her wandering thoughts. Her arms waved about weakly for a moment as she attempted to do so.

<You have a concussion,> Khu Lon pointed out helpfully. <Your sense of balance will return in a day or so.>

<Have I really turned into a girl?> Ranma had to ask. <Or is it just another effect of the concussion that is making me feel this way?> Ranma vaguely hoped that this was the case. She knew that she would ordinarily be more upset than this, but she just couldn’t summon the energy for some reason. She had a sneaking suspicion that her masculine self-image had fallen into the sky along with her sense of balance. She would have to go pick them up later, along with the other random thoughts she felt were drifting out there…

<No, you really are a girl now,> Khu Lon informed Ranma. <You had fallen into the Nyanniichuan and drowned.>

<Drowned?> asked Ranma. <As in dead?> This bit of information started to pull Ranma’s attention back to reality. If you could call dying and recovering as a girl reality. Ranma started to feel sick…and not just from the concussion either.

<Yes, for a short time your heart and breathing had both stopped,> Khu Lon elaborated. <My great granddaughter, Xian Pu, and I resuscitated you.>

<Shampoo?> Ranma wondered who would name their daughter that. Xian Pu, who had been relying on the guide for translation, was a little annoyed that the stranger had mispronounced her name.

<No, Xian Pu,> Khu Lon corrected. <I am Khu Lon, an Elder of Joketsuzoku. You may think of us as a tribe of amazons.>

<I think I may need to practice pronouncing your names correctly…sorry.> Ranma apologized. <They sound like English words for cosmetic products to me.>

<We will try to be patient with you,> Khu Lon chided.

<Amazons are female warriors, right?> Ranma asked. This was a fact that he had learned during the training journeys she and her father had been on while she was a guy. Her father discounted the notion that women could be worthy opponents, but Ranma needed desperately for him to have been wrong about this opinion.

<That is correct,> Khu Lon confirmed.

<May I train at Junket-suzuki?> Ranma asked. She didn’t want to beg, but there was a desperate hope in her eyes.

<We shall see,> Khu Lon told her. <If we are going to train you, I will need to know your name.>

<Oh…sorry,> Ranma apologized. <I am…was…Ranma Saotome of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Thank you for saving my life.> Ranma tried to get up and bow, but ended up somersaulting and lying on the ground again instead. <I feel sick…>

SCENE BREAK: A few hours later, at Jusenkyo…

Ryoga silently cursed Ranma for running out on their man to man fight. He had followed, or at least tried to follow, the Saotomes ever since they had resumed their training journey last year. Now he was somewhere in China (he guessed) and he had no idea if he was even anywhere near the target of his search.

Just a few hours ago, he had dodged out of the way of a giant panda that was running at high speed on its hind legs. That had been one of the strangest experiences of his life. He had almost fallen off of a cliff at the time, so his heart rate was up and he was still a little shaky from the experience.

Up ahead, he could see a valley full of springs, each with one or more bamboo poles standing in them. He could see a shack off to one side, and made his way there in order to ask if anyone there had seen Ranma Saotome.

A little while later, Ryoga came back out of the shack laughing. What the guide had told him had to be the funniest thing he ever heard. There was no point in chasing after Ranma now, so he decided to go home…or try to anyway. The thought of his hated rival having been turned into a girl was just too rich. Ryoga just couldn’t bring himself to hold a grudge against Ranma anymore. It was terribly funny though.

He was laughing so hard that he didn’t see that he was walking right for one of the springs.

SPLASH!

SCENE BREAK: A short time ago, not too far away…

Genma wondered what he would do. He was a panda, and Ranma was dead. His only son was dead, and he had killed him, even if it had been an accident. Even had Ranma not died back at Jusenkyo, they would have been as good as dead if they returned to Nodoka. Ranma had died a girl, so the spring would have probably still turned him into one even if he hadn’t drowned.

His only son was dead, and he had been at fault. If he met Nodoka now, he would gladly perform his duty and take his own life. He had been terrified of the prospect of being forced to commit seppuku at first, but the pain in his heart was too great. His only son was dead, and he had killed him. He wanted to die himself.

His eyes were too full of tears for him to notice the hot springs as he drew near them.

SPLASH!

[Well,] he thought, [I’m a man again, for all the good it does me. I had better go back and get Ranma’s body, so that I may take it back to Japan for a proper funeral.] His clothes were a secondary concern, but he wouldn’t shame Nodoka by traveling around naked if he could help it. After the funeral, he would ask his friend, Soun, to take care of his wife. Then he would commit seppuku as his honor and heart demanded. Life had suddenly become too painful to bear.

As he drew near Jusenkyo once more, he saw a laughing boy fall into one of the springs. He ran over to fish the boy out before anything else happened to him, and was able to pick up the wet and panicked cat that surfaced out in his place. Even just his hand and forearm in the spring enough to trigger another transformation. The cat grew still in shock, partly from being a cat, but mostly from being picked up by an enormous monster that looked like a cross between a giant panda and a cat. Taking note of his second change, Genma simply picked up the former boy, using the neo-cat’s shock to save him the trouble of trying to keep a hold of it as he took it to the shack. The giant… thing… knocked on the door.

<Ah…Mr. Customer?> the guide greeted a bit awkwardly. It was a guess, as he hadn’t really known what would occur if anyone was exposed to an additional Jusenkyo curse, but the cat-monster looked like it used to be a panda. With only two customers in the past year, he figured that it was a safe bet. <You are back! Allow me to get hot water ready! I have good news for you! Very good!>

SCENE BREAK: Later that evening, at the amazon village of Joketsuzoku…

<Today, I have died.

<All that I’ve done is past me.

<I am born anew.>

Ranma Saotome, as she lay recovering in the amazon village of Joketsuzoku.

Ranma lay in the bed that Khu Lon had prepared for her, and reflected on the meaning of the haiku she had just made. Of all she had had before, as little as it was, she had lost nearly everything. Her father was a panda, and was probably off eating bamboo somewhere, never to know that he was just some hot water away from being a man again…until he encountered cold water again, anyway.

It seemed that she herself, because she had actually died in the Nyanniichuan, could not change back so easily. They had tried pouring water of up to scalding temperatures on her back at the guide’s shack, to no avail. All it had gotten them was an irate, if still disoriented, slightly cooked Ranma.

They had brought her to Joketsuzoku to continue their efforts to help the victim of the Nyanniichuan. They had also brought both Ranma’s belongings and her father’s. The packs lay at the foot of the bed. Certain items from both packs had already been removed, such as a postcard and several booklets and pamphlets from Genma’s. These would hopefully provide clues to the whereabouts of the girl’s family when they examined them later.

Four amazons, Khu Lon, Xian Pu, and two others known as Pir Fum and Kho Ome, were in the room with her. Xian Pu was tending to Ranma as Pir Fum and Kho Ome were heating water in a large tub.

<I assume your situation has inspired your haiku?> Khu Lon asked. She was preparing a special herbal lotion for the latest idea that the tribe had come up with. It was possible that the temperature trigger for the curse had moved past the endurance limits of even a trained human body, and the lotion would temporarily raise those limits past the boiling point…far past, if it was utilized properly. The girl had refused to be cooked again, and wouldn’t go along with the idea until Xian Pu volunteered to do it with her. If this worked, then they would give Ranma one of the very hard to prepare Phoenix Pills, and consider the problem solved. If it didn’t, then they won’t have wasted a pill.

<You could say that,> Ranma conceded. With her manhood and her father gone, a kind of void had sprung up in her life. Ranma wondered briefly if her mother was still alive, and then cast the thought aside as moot. Even if she saw her mother again, neither was likely to recognize the other without an introduction. And Ranma had left her as a son. She remembered that this was important for some reason, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember why.

All she had left was the Art. If she could train here at Junket-suzuki, she would have that at least.

<Very profound,> Khu Lon observed. <Now take off your clothes.> Xian Pu complied, knowing that her great grandmother had meant for both her and Ranma to do so. Ranma blushed, averted her gaze, and hesitated. <Remove your clothes, or we’ll remove them for you. The lotion has to be carefully and thoroughly applied over your entire body or you could end up seriously burned or even dead!>

<Couldn’t I apply it myself?> Ranma asked hopefully. Khu Lon, for some reason, found it odd that a practitioner of the Anything Goes style would be shy like this. She filed the thought away for future reference.

<You don’t know how yet, and you’re still too disoriented to take instruction properly,> Khu Lon explained. "Xian Pu."

"Yes, great grandmother?"

"The girl is too shy, and I expect that the lotion will lose it’s greatest potency if we wait for her to be ready," Khu Lon explained. "Strip her and Pir Fum and Kho Ome will rub the lotion into both of you as I directed. I will touch all the required pressure points on both of you."

"What if she resists?" Xian Pu asked. "She is recovering much faster than we expected."

"Maybe so," Khu Lon conceded, "but she is still pretty weak from her ordeal. It is now or never, I fear." Ranma, whose understanding of Chinese was still very poor (and mostly involved profanity that had been directed at her father), didn’t catch a word of this. Still, when a naked kawai girl starts to unceremoniously strip you, one tends to catch on to what has been discussed.

Ranma was rolled over onto her stomach, and Kho Ome administered the lotion to her scalp and back. Ranma began to fidget when the amazon reached her ass, but calmed down again as Kho Ome did her legs. It helped that Pir Fum was doing the exact same thing to Xian Pu. Then the two girls were rolled over so that their faces and arms could be done. Ranma was only mildly embarrassed until Kho Ome moved to her torso.

<H…hey!> Ranma protested feebly. She started struggling again, but between her disorientation and the pressure points Khu Lon touched, she didn’t have the strength to do much. <Don’t do that! I’ll do it myself…what are you doing? Don’t touch those… um… don’t… ah… wow… hey! Stop that! Ah…oh…stop…um…HELLO! Stop that right now! I mean it! Er…oh, YES! Ah…NO! I mean no! Leave me alone! Er…oh my! Please stop! This is humiliating! Oh! Ah…ah…ah Ah! Ahh! AHH! OH YES! YES! NO! YES! NO! YES! NO! YES! YES! YES!! YES!!! YES!!!! YES!!!!!…why’d you stop?>

<Kho Ome has finished applying the lotion,> Khu Lon explained, <and was over stimulating you. I just thought that you’d appreciate it if I stopped her.>

<Oh,> Ranma said, embarrassed. <Thank you. I don’t know what came over me. Sorry.>

Kho Ome giggled and translated the comment for Xian Pu and Pir Fum. "I would say that she came all over herself!" she joked afterwards, then giggled some more. The other three amazons just rolled their eyes and groaned, wondering if it had been such a good idea to include her after all. Of course, besides her and Khu Lon, the only other person in the village at this time who understood Japanese very well was Mu Tsu, and he was male. On the other hand Mu Tsu was well mannered, while Kho Ome was…not.

<What did she say?> asked Ranma, who already felt humiliated and violated enough for one day.

<Nothing that bears repeating, Ranma,> Khu Lon said with a sigh. <The water is ready, so the two of you had best get in now, so that we can get the maximum effect from it.>

The two girls got into the boiling water in tub. Each felt vaguely like they were being cooked for dinner, but the lotion protected them from the damage that the heat would have ordinarily caused. Kho Ome was making them both nervous with her attempts to add soup stock to the water, but Khu Lon and Pir Fum kept stopping her so she eventually settled on making lewd comments in both languages. Ranma and Xian Pu began to feel very uncomfortable, and more than a little embarrassed. Of course Ranma was already embarrassed, and was well on her way towards being humiliated, ashamed, and outraged.

After fifteen minutes, when their fingers and toes started to prune, and they were beginning to feel uncomfortably warm, they were told to get out. Ranma was still a girl. She was, however, arguably the cleanest she had ever been in her life. She was also sleepy from the heat.

Xian Pu and Pir Fum put the neo-girl to bed, while Khu Lon took Kho Ome away. More specifically, she took Kho Ome out of the village and gave her a good reprimand. Unfortunately, Khu Lon would have to think of a punishment that would affect Kho Ome. The little deviant liked pain and degradation about as much as she liked to humiliate and embarrass others.

SCENE BREAK: Somewhere on the valley roads leading away from Joketsuzoku.

Genma had a plan. With the discovery that his…child…was still alive, he had lost all desire to commit seppuku. Unfortunately, from what the guide had said, his…child…was stuck in girl form. That was no good. The Nanniichuan was no good either, he had discovered, but at least his cursed form had proper hands now, and could speak after a fashion. He once again wondered what he looked like – some hideous cross between the three form represented by the springs that he had been exposed to he guessed. The boy, the new boy that is, seemed very nervous around him whenever he was in that form, so he gathered that it was quite intimidating.

The amazons seemed to have taken her in, so Genma decided to leave her there. She would be taken care of, and his conscience was content to retreat back into the murky depths of his subconscious mind. His child would live, and so would he.

He had, however, sneaked in to grab his pack and take a last look at his child. He said nothing, not wanting to wake her and after a moment he left, never to return.

In his mind, he had a son who, at times, behaved as if he had turned into a cat. Well, nothing much had changed then had it? He now had a son who, at times, actually did change into a cat. Much easier to explain to Nadoka than the neko-ken training. All he had to do was convince his ‘son’ that his name was Ranma Saotome, and he would be set!

Ryoga looked at Ranma’s father with some confusion. He had expected Genma to retrieve Ranma from the village, but the older man had just gone in and come back out again with only his pack. Wasn’t Ranma there?

The guy seemed to be pretty out of it, and a little hysterical, so Ryoga decided to travel with him in order to keep him out of trouble. Besides, he needed a traveling companion in case he turned into a cat again. Cats aren’t much for heating kettles, but Genma’s youma form was very able in that ability given that it actually had hands to use. Too bad it gave him the willies. Never mind the claws and the teeth – it was the terminal fuzziness and huggability that got to him. Some things were just too cute for the world.

Ryoga just couldn’t shake this bad feeling he was having over the whole affair.

END.

The two girls got into the boiling water in tub. Each felt vaguely like they were being cooked for dinner, but the lotion protected them from the damage that the heat would have ordinarily caused. Kho Ome started top add soup stock to the water, and Ranma and Xian Pu looked nervously at Khu Lon. The elder amazon looked at Kho Ome for a moment, and then she and Pir Fum began to help her put more soup stock into the tub.

Both of the girls looked at the would-be cooks in alarm.

<H…hey!> protested Ranma.

END.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Some of you may be wondering where the Sailor Moon material is. I’m telling you now that, despite being a crossover story, this is primarily a Ranma ½ fanfict. Sailor Moon and the other senshi do not start making appearances until chapter four.