Prologue
Jusenkyo, 1992: a cloudy night
The cursed springs beckoned the unwary. Those who fell into one of the pools found themselves hit with the thermosensitive water-based transformational curse, and any cure tantalizingly out of reach.
In the dim light, two were careful not to get *too* close to the springs. Though one was already cursed by the springs, and one was simply accursed.
"I don't care what you're going to use it for," the taller figure said. "All I care about is revenge on Ranma Saotome and the others!"
"Cursed springwater from Jusenkyo," the short man said nodding. "Concentrated down to its maximum potency. Say, what would happen if I used it in the concentrated form?"
"Nothing. You have to add at least three parts water to the concentrate for it to have an effect. The regular mix is ten parts water. Dilute it any further and the effects become temporary, giving the Jusenkyo curse but only for a few years at best." The moon peeked from behind a cloud, revealing a slightly older Herb of the Musk Dynasty. A Prince of a Hidden Chinese Kingdom, and not nearly as good a loser as appearances might have indicated.
"Is there any way, save the Chiisatuon to lock them in the cursed form, or change their personality?" Happosai, the ancient and perverted martial arts master, was revealed as the short figure. "After all, we both have grudges against Ranma."
"It is ONLY because of that fact," explained Herb as darkness moved across the field again, "that I am helping you at all. Phoenix Mountain has assisted in this, as many of their citizens have also reason to hate Saotome and all he has done. That is why you have this." A large wooden ladle was handed to Happosai.
"Ah, a copy of the Chiisatuon? Sweet-o." Happosai smiled as he took the ladle, an evil smile on his face. The "locking ladle" was a sacred treasure of the Musk Dynasty, and he was only slightly disappointed that he couldn't use the original. "This locks them in their form, but what about the personality?"
"Hit them with the right water using THAT, and you lock them in the form of a young girl forever. Actually, Happosai, I'm surprised you didn't think of this. There is a Spring Of Virtuous Man, but did you not think that there would be other springs of a similar nature? After all, there are 131 different springs in this valley, and only thirteen springs lack a template."
"Spring Of Virtuous Woman?" Happosai couldn't see where that would be a particularly good vengeance.
"Actually there was a young bride who drowned in one of the other pools one thousand two hundred years ago. Until you supplied us with things like electric water pumps and rubber permaseal hoses, it was not easy to get to it, however. Now, we have drained it twice, concentrated and distilled it, and will use the future waters for our own purposes. You, however, have the task of transporting forty gallons of concentrated Juusenkyo Spring Of Drowned Bishojo Bride water back to Japan."
"Which will make four hundred gallons of the curse water," said Happosai happily. Just the name - "Beautiful Young Girl Bride" conjured wonderful visions to the ancient pervert once described as the World's Most Evil Martial Arts Master. (A title he was proud of, by the way.) "That MIGHT be enough for my plans."
"Whatever," Herb gave a wave of his hand. He didn't particularly like the shrunken old man, but one had to use whatever tools were available. "This concludes our business. You'll find the casks of concentrate at the end of the Valley by dawn, and you already have the copy of the sacred ladle. I will warn you that the psychological effects are NOT going to be immediate, however. Depending on the strength of will, it could potentially take months for the effects to take place. As long as they are locked in that form, they WILL convert eventually. The identity remains the same, as will memories, but the cultural attitudes and overall personality will eventually conform to the template."
"It's perfect," Happosai said and began to laugh. He barely noticed when Herb left.
Events were already moving that made Happosai's job of revenge more difficult than he had planned.
"POP!" The main gate to the Tendo household fell off its hinges and slid a few feet towards the house. That it was a massive wooden reinforced gate made this notable.
Genma and Soun Tendo looked over to where Ranma was standing. Ranma had numerous little cuts, bruises, one sizable bruise covering one side of his face, what looked like a few burned patches on his clothing, and a missing patch of hair showing the reddish brown of recently dried blood on the piece of scalp thus revealed.
Genma, currently in his Jusenkyo-cursed panda form, pulled a sign out. [Excuse me?]
"Does the name HARENCHI ring any bells with you?" The glowering martial artist in the doorway spat blood out of the side of his mouth without taking his gaze off his father.
The sign flipped. [I don't recall.]
"You sold me AGAIN!"
"Genma, you didn't!" Soun snarled. Bad enough with Daikokuji, or that shameless Kuonji person, or...
"Oh yes, he DID. To make matters worse, guess who sold the information to one Yohko Harenchi?" Ranma glared around until he spotted Nabiki. "HOW MUCH DID YOU GET FOR THAT INFORMATION!"
"5000 yen, a steal at that price." Nabiki smirked at the fuming boy.
Battle aura flared, the same shade of blue that Akane usually manifested. Nabiki blinked. Ranma didn't hit girls, however she had never seen him this close to completely losing control.
"First she shows up and challenges me to a battle. Did you know she uses whips, chains, manacles, and various 'accessories' in battle! I wasn't sure if she was going to kill me from sheer embarrassment there!"
The panda held up a sign, however it seemed to explode for no adequately explored reason. Perhaps the smouldering aura surrounding Ranma's right fist had something to do with it.
"After wrecking a good part of the school, Kodachi comes swinging in, decides she likes the whip concept too, after all it is CLOSE to her ribbon, and I have another sick twisted woman trying the 'hundred lashes' attack on me." Ranma lashed out, a spin kick that tore through another sign that Genma had pulled out, and slammed into the panda's head. "Then at lunch Shampoo comes by with some ramen, Ukyou with some okonomiyaki, and Akane starts giving me grief about Yohko, Ukyou, Shampoo, PLUS some girl named Kotono that I've never heard of!"
"I see fuse bombs coming in the middle of all this, courtesy of that damn Chemistry Club, and I knock Akane to the ground when they go off. What does my wonderful fiancee do? She starts beating on me for being on top of her! Shampoo glomps me, Ukyou starts fighting with Shampoo, and Akane starts malleting me and tells me in great detail how much she HATES me. Ryouga hears this, and starts doing his “Breaking point technique” to make me pay for making Akane upset."
"I....HAVE....HAD...IT!" This was made more impressive in that Genma's panda form was considerably more massive than Ranma. "THE ENGAGEMENTS, ALL OF THEM, ARE OFF!"
Soun had watched this display impassively until this last line. Then the demon head trick again came into play. "How Dare You, Sa-o-to-me!"
Ranma glared at him. "Try me, Mister Tendo. Just try it. I am in no mood for your theatrics, and I just do not care about your feelings, nor anyone else who has been manipulating me for the past three years. That is it, that is all, no more!"
Soun stopped. He was angry, but not so much that a survival instinct didn't immediately make itself known. He was sufficiently close enough to Ranma to feel heat actually coming off of the younger boy, so angry was he.
Nabiki snorted. "Oh, come on, now, Ranma, you don't really expect me to believe..."
Without appearing to move, Ranma was suddenly behind Nabiki and had touched a set of pressure points on her back. She abruptly stopped moving.
"I'm leaving," Ranma informed the paralyzed Nabiki. "I am NOT coming back, and if you really want me to get pissed off, you will PERSONALLY regret it."
Nodding at Kasumi, Ranma walked upstairs. A few moments later he was back down, his backpack over one shoulder. "Kasumi, let Dr Tofu know I've hit her paralysis spots. To YOU I want to say I'm sorry, you've never hit me, you've never abused my trust, you've never insulted or belittled me." He didn't mention the time she'd found out he was afraid of cats and she had dumped a large number on him. Mainly because he didn't remember.
Kasumi smiled. "Take care, Ranma."
He nodded, still not smiling, and left the Tendo house without a single glance back.
Kasumi watched him leave, turned back to Nabiki and quietly hit a series of spots along her paralyzed sister's back. Nabiki abruptly collapsed as her muscles relaxed all at once.
"Don't try to move just yet, Nabiki, your muscles will need a few moments to recover from that."
"Urrrrggghhh."
"You know you were quite fortunate, with him being drugged like that, he could easily have hit the wrong areas and paralyzed your heart muscles as well."
"Drugged..." Nabiki managed from the floor.
"Drugged?" Soun Tendo asked quietly.
Kasumi shrugged. She hadn't read all those medical books and studied Chinese Medicine without learning a few things. "There were signs...I hope I wasn't mistaken."
"Yes, as a matter of fact he WAS drugged," Cologne said. "NOT by Shampoo, however."
"Who then?" Soun wasn't quite sure whether to believe Cologne or not. Still, any explanation that might make this a temporary situation was something he was willing to listen to.
"Mousse." Cologne moved into view from where she had been hidden in the shadows. "Mousse found an antidote for Passion Spice, and thinking that Shampoo had drugged son-in-law's ramen, added the Passionate Spice. Right now, son-in-law's emotional state will be very volatile over the next twelve hours. No matter what the emotion, he will experience it in the extremes beyond anything he has felt before. While it would merely counteract Passion Spice if that was present, this Spice by itself will cause him to swing from extreme to extreme until the drug works its way through his system."
"Oh my," Kasumi managed. "If Akane should mallet him NOW..." Her normal bullying of her fiance might not be as safe as it usually was.
"We gotta warn her..." Nabiki got up slowly from the floor. She abruptly sat back down as various groups of muscles advised her that this was a Bad Idea. "Still, it's not as if he doesn't have SOME control. If he were that bad, I'd probably be dead right now."
"True," Cologne nodded. "Son-in-law does have his honor and some degree of discipline. I would not want to be present, however, when those restraints are broken. A berserker is not a pleasant companion."
Everyone thought seriously about the possibility of Ranma-the-Berserk-Killer and shuddered. Kasumi immediately called Doctor Tofu who could help find Akane and warn her.
Cologne continued her search for Shampoo. Nabiki went to sell info to everyone, after all, what did it matter if people got hurt if she could turn a profit here. Soun watched Genma slowly crawl out of the yard to the shogi board. This would be a long night, and not a gentle one to his nerves.
"Wait a minute, Saotome!" Soun stopped abruptly. "If ANY emotion is made stronger by this Spice, we can use this opportunity to have Ranma confess his love to Akane!"
[I don't know. Look what happened when we tried to get the two of them drunk.]
"Oh, that was a just a FLUKE. Besides, only one of them is affected this time!"
The sign flipped. [You DO remember what happened when they got drunk, don't you?]
"Ranma spent three hours blubbering about not being able to see his mother, and Akane grabbed that large knife and was saying something about making both Ranma's forms women. She calmed down eventually."
[She passed out.]
"Oh yeah. Well, Ranma did hit you rather hard didn't he?" Soun thought about it. "Well, then, why don't we see what we can get from this Chinese Medicine catalog the Master stole from the Nekohanten?"
[As long as it doesn't involve finding that ungrateful boy tonight.] The sign flipped down. Genma was feeling rather like a throw rug at the moment.
A day went by, and then another. There was still no sign of Ranma. Things quieted down some around the Tendo dojo, with the exception of Tatewaki Kuno's renewed attacks on Akane, Gosunkugi's purchase of the 'Cook Book Of Chinese Alchemy For Beginners', and Soun scraping together enough money to mail order some odd things like 'Love Potion 69' and 'Golden Passion Dust Elixir.'
(Both Soun and Genma ignored the warnings for both potions. The Love Potion warning dealt with "potential" side effects, and the Elixir warned that continued use would be habit-forming.)
(Meanwhile, Gosunkugi had discovered that the book itself was in Chinese and the available Chinese-Japanese dictionaries weren't really that much help.)
"I'm back...." Happosai said quietly. He'd spent some time readying THIS nasty. Still, he was sure to get Ranma with this, and most likely everyone would BLAME Ranma for their sudden transformation. That this would be such wonderful eye candy for him would also be perfect.
He waited for just after the bell announcing the start of the second class, where the number of people outside their classrooms would be minimum.
First he'd disconnected the sprinkler system and drained it. Then he'd used the dipping bucket to refill the pipes, blocked the ends, and then done a little sabotage on sprinkler heads from one end of Furinkan Senior High School to the other.
With a laugh and images of what would happen to fuel him on, he reconnected the water pipes, and water pressure slammed through the pipes a moment later.
Happosai felt a moment's regret, after all this had used most of the four hundred gallons that he could make with current supplies. As he heard the shrieks and screams coming from inside, though, he felt the results would be worth it.
Happosai moved away, just avoiding a janitor who came racing out of the building to turn the water off again. Happosai watched as the woman in ill-fitting clothing struggled with the shut off valve without the upper body strength that she had used to have.
Happosai looked towards the door and realized that staying behind to gloat might not have been a good move. A number of students had seen him. As he bounded away, he considered this almost as good. So Ranma wouldn't be blamed for this, but Ranma WOULD know who had trapped him as a girl forever!
Behind him a small crowd had formed, with some of them going into shock, others angry, still others (a distinct minority and already wearing school dresses) were admiring the changes in their figures.
Hiroshi-chan peeled her wet boy's school uniform shirt away from her breasts and glanced miserably over at Daisuke-chan. "I don't envy Ranma nearly as much as I used to."
Daisuke-chan nodded, equally miserable. "So it was Happosai who did this..."
The name was picked up by others who repeated it. More former guys made the transition from shocked and babbling to thoroughly pissed. When the discovery was made that hot water had no effect, battle auras began to flare. Even on those who were not fireball-throwing martial artists.
Search-and-destroy parties were quickly organized and dispatched.
A small crowd of people, gaijin (foreigners) by the look of them, were standing outside the Nerima Animate store. Happosai chuckled a little. He'd noticed how well built some of those students had looked, and was quite curious what the effect on gaijin would be like.
The device looked an awful lot like a dayglo flamethrower. He'd had to take some waterproof caulking and reseal a number of the joints, as even tiny little leaks were not something he'd wanted to deal with.
"Two minutes still to opening," one of the gaijin was saying as he glanced at a watch.
Happosai landed on the other side of the small and now wet crowd. Another five gallons down, he noted. Flipping up and over to the roof of a building, he turned to witness the results of his work.
"Sweet-o." Happosai immediately went to the other device he had and started snapping photographs. This was a dream come true, he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of something like this before. All he had to do was escape before those below finished climbing up the side of the building to rip him apart.
Snapping two more photos, Happosai vanished. He left behind a note saying that if they wanted to turn back, they needed to take it up with Ranma Saotome.
Unfortunately, very few of those reading the note were that good at kanji, and those that were had little doubt that this was some sort of trap.
When a search-and-destroy party of young high school girls showed up, the truth came out, and a somewhat larger party left with visions of beating a little old man like a pinata filling their heads.
Of course, that still left a small group of wet and badly dressed young women who proved that they were indeed otaku (fanboys- er, fangirls), for nothing this minor would keep them from their shopping trip. One in particular was thinking that the Sailor Moon fuku in the window looked just TOO kawaii.
Meanwhile, on a small boat, hundreds of miles away, a pigtailed girl sat up and wondered where the hell she was. Why did she have this empty space in her memories, where she vaguely remembered yelling at the Tendos. She'd stalked off then, she remembered THAT much. Then she'd gotten splashed, which had done the usual Jusenkyo transformation turning him from blackhaired Japanese boy to redhaired Japanese girl, he'd seen a cat and had the panic attack and had started to run. Everything was a blur after that.
Finally a vague memory of crawling aboard a ship and hiding as fear had just increased beyond all conscious thought. Ranma sighed, she had to have been drugged, that was the only thing that made any sense to her.
Ranma wondered what was happening back in Nerima. No doubt everyone was far happier without her around anyway. Akane always hitting her, Nabiki always using her, and all the people who saw her as an object or as some prize to be won. It didn't matter if she was a he or a she at the time, it just changed who was doing it at the time.
Ranma decided she wouldn't go back just yet, she really needed some quiet time to think, and she just could not see that happening back at the old stomping grounds.