Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Ranma and Akane - A Saiyan Story ❯ Jusenkyo ( Chapter 3 )

Ranma and Akane - A Saiyan Story

A Ranma/DBZ Crossover Fan Fiction

By Michael Ivins

 

I don't own Ranma or DBZ. Neither do I own AMG. I wish I did.

 

This takes place before the start of either anime or manga for Ranma and DBZ before the destruction of planet Vegeta. To be truthful you won't see any of the DBZ cast, I just want to make Ranma and Akane both Saiyans. The characters will speak of the DBZ anime and Manga.

 

 

Chapter 3

Jusenkyo

 

Ukyo was 16 and Ranma was 15, just a week away from his 16th birthday. The three Saotomes looked from the cliff down on the valley of Jusenkyo. From this vantage they could see the whole valley spread out below them. There were some streamers of thin mist but nothing thick enough to prevent a proper view.

 

Ukyo looked with a jaundiced eye at the valley and the more than one hundred springs revealed there. “So this is the big deal `Training Ground of Cursed Springs?' What kind of training are you supposed to do here anyway, swimming?”

 

Genma pointed down and said, “It's hard to see from here but those things that look like hairs sticking out of the pools should be bamboo poles. The training comes from balancing on the poles while sparring. One would want to avoid falling into any of the springs. Still, if you do fall it will give you something soft to land on.”

 

That still didn't sound to difficult. Curious, Ranma did ask, “What about the `cursed' part of the name?”

 

“Bah,” the older martial artist was clearly not impressed. “That's just a colorful name to impress the superstitious. There are no curses.”

 

The eyes of the two teens met and they both rolled their eyes. In their travels they had met witches, wizards, werewolves, vampires, oni and other demons. They had also met several ghosts ranging from vengeful specters in need of exorcism to friendly spirits who gave helpful advice. How Genma could still say “There are no curses,” with a completely straight face was another of life's many mysteries that they would probably never understand.

 

Ranma shrugged, and followed his father as he went down the trail into the valley. He and Ukyo could both fly, so falling into a spring shouldn't be a problem. That was just one of their talents they had hidden from Genma.

 

In Asgard Urd was sitting at her computer, typing. When she stopped she said, “Ok. Now the spring of Drowned Young Girl is temporarily changed to the Spring of Drowned Young Saiyan Girl. I've set the curse template to reset back to the original after cursing one person."

 

After they got to the valley floor the Saotomes followed the older man to the first of the pools. As Genma had said, the things projecting out of the pools they had seen did turn out to be bamboo poles. Ukyo commented, “It doesn't look dangerous.”

 

Shaking his head, Ranma answered, “It's the places that don't look dangerous that you have to look out for. Remember the Training Ground of the Wounded Lotus?”

 

Ukyo gave a theatrical shudder. That place had been nasty. They had been lucky to escape with their lives.

 

Pointing off to the side Ranma commented, “Looks like someone lives here.” He had noticed a hut.

 

While they were looking the door on the building opened and a man in a green Maoist workers' uniform came out. The man spotted the visitors and started walking toward them.

 

“Hey Pop,” Ranma called out to get Genma's attention. “We're going to have company. This guy is probably the guide they showed in the brochure.”

 

The elder Saotome frowned. He felt sure that the guild would want to give them a long, boring story about the history of the area. He was anxious to get training. Though it was likely the boy would want to listen to the man. He could wait a little while.

 

The Chinese man who was approaching turned out to be somewhat heavyset but not fat and appeared to be a little older than Genma. When he was close enough to be heard without shouting, man said, “Welcome to Training Ground of Cursed Springs, Jusenkyo. I am your guide.”

 

Ranma and Ukyo could both speak Mandarin but had only begun learning to read it. The boy bowed to the guide and replied, “My father doesn't speak your language. Do you speak Japanese?”

 

“Ah… Yes, honored guests,” The guide replied in Japanese. “I do speak your language.”

 

The man bowed to the visitors. “What we have here is Training Ground of Cursed Springs, Jusenkyo. In this valley there are more than 100 springs each with its own tragic story.”

 

Growing impatient, the bald martial artist interrupted and said, “We don't have time for this. We need to get training. Boy, you and I will start first.” As he leapt to the top of the nearest pole he called out, “I won't go easy on you.”

 

The boy tried to sound enthusiastic as he leapt after his father and shouted back, “That's how I like it.” In truth Ranma was the one who had been going easy on his father for years.

 

The Guide shouted, “Wait sirs! I haven't finished my tragic story! It very bad if you fall in spring!”

 

Muttering the man stepped up next to Ukyo and said, “Your father and brother very strange ones. No one trains here anymore.”

 

Watching the sparring out of the corner of her eye, Ukyo asked, “Why is that? And please tell me the short version.”

 

The man got an expression of wounded dignity. Because of how infrequently visitors came to the valley he didn't have that much chance to give his speech on the valley. Oh, well. She asked for the short version and that's what she'd get.

 

He took a deep breath and said, “Whole valley have curse. Any person or animal that fall into a spring will take body of person or animal that drown or die there last.”

 

Ukyo rounded on the man and grabbed him by the shoulders. “Wait a minute. Are you saying if one of them fell into a spring of Drowned Tiger for instance, he would be changed into a tiger?”

 

The guide nodded. “Yes, Miss Guest. You understand it very well.”

The girl turned back to the mock combat and shouted, “Ranchan, get away from there!”

 

It was already too late. She watched in horror as a giant panda leapt from one of the poles toward Ranma. The poor boy had a double whammy on him. He was having trouble processing the fact that a panda had leapt out of the spring his father had fallen into and he was further distracted by Ukyo's shout of warning.

 

Thus it was that a massive paw struck Ranma and sent him flying. Before he could gain sufficient self-possession to use his flight ability to arrest his fall, he struck the surface of another of the pools with a huge splash.

 

As the water closed over him Ranma could feel a tingling all over his body. He vowed to himself, “If I get turned into a tiger or a dragon or some animal like that, I'm going to eat Pop or at least bite off a leg or something.”

 

At that moment Ukyo wasn't thinking too clearly. It seemed to be taking forever for Ranma to come up out of the pool. She ran and dived into the pool that Ranma had fallen into. She was so focused on finding and extracting her brother from the pool that she didn't notice the tingling that spread over her body.

 

She swam down a short way and found a body that seemed to be just bobbing gently in the spring. Ukyo grabbed her brother's shirt and swam toward the surface. A brief moment later they broke the surface and both inhaled with a gasp.

 

Ukyo continued holding on to Ranma's shirt as she said, “Damn it, bro! Don't scare me like that again.”

 

A voice demanded, “Am I still human?”

 

The young girl turned to look at her “brother.” What she saw was a woman wearing her brother's clothing. Ukyo blurted out, “Ranchan, you're a girl!”

 

The red haired girl's hand had gone to her throat when she had heard her voice. Now she looked down at her chest and pulled open the top of her gi. She saw breasts. A short distance away she could see a panda.

 

Genma had finally become aware that something was wrong and had looked to find that he had paws instead of hands. When he had finally realized that he was no longer human he began moving toward where his son had splashed down. He had been too late to stop his adopted daughter from diving into the pool after her brother.

 

The panda was dreading what would come out of the water on the pool. He feared that it would be some exotic creature like a yeti or a tiger and hoped that it would just be his children who came out. What came out of the water could be seen to be two girls. One was obviously Ukyo although taller and shapelier. The other was a red haired girl of almost supernatural beauty. The redhead was wearing the same gi as his son had been, so he was now assuming that Ranma had been transformed into the girl.

 

The panda saw the expression on the redhead's face and quailed inwardly. Even as he watched the blue eyes turn green. The hair that was red became blonde and rose up to stand out in spikes. The girl rose up out of the water to float in the air a few feet above the surface. Genma was further startled when Ukyo also began to float.

 

As he began to feel stark terror at the thought of reliving the pain that Ranma had inflicted on him after the Neko-ken incident, an oddly calm part of his mind noticed that both of the floating girls now had tails like the one that had been removed from Ranma when he was a baby.

 

Up in Asgard, Urd noted that Ukyo was now also a Saiyan. She mused, "Since Ranma was still in the spring it must not have reset back to the original human girl template. When the sister got in the water it changed her from human to Saiyan. This is unexpected, but not a bad outcome. In fact I think this improves the prospects for the future."

 

Back on earth the panda turned and started to run away from the floating girls. He heard a musical contralto voice ask, “Did you ever wonder what fried panda would taste like, Sis?”

 

Getting into the spirit of it, Ukyo asked, “Oh, how about panda okonomiyaki?”

 

“Whatever you want, sis.”

 

The next moment the ground near the panda's hind legs exploded. Genma's speed increased.

 

The guide watched the flying girls chase the panda and shook his head. This was weird even for such a weird place as Jusenkyo. He went over to check the sign on the spring and confirmed that it was Nyaniichuan just as he had thought. The pool was Spring of Drowned Young Girl not Spring of Drowned Girl with Tail or Spring of Drowned Flying Space Alien Girl.

 

This was the same spring that the Musk used to get women for their tribe by throwing animals into it. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of girls had been produced by the spring during the tenure of the current guide. None of those girls came out of it with a tail that didn't have one going in.

 

Either some very powerful wizard or other magical being had tampered with the spring, or there was something very special or at least unusual about the boy and the girl who had gone into the spring. The guide would have thought it would require the power of a god to change the curse on one of the springs to do what he had just witnessed. Either way those two young people had to be special in some way.

 

While the guide had been ruminating on these matters the Panda had begun running up the trail on the cliffside. That might have been a good tactic if his pursuers weren't able to fly. The blonde hovered a fair distance from the side of the cliff and fired ki blasts.

 

It was evident that the girl wasn't trying to kill the panda. With the kind of power she was displaying, it would have been easy for her to blast the fleeing black and white animal or to knock him from the trail to fall to the valley floor. Obviously the girl wanted to punish the panda, not kill him.

 

Either the man who had transformed into the panda was stubborn or stupid, possibly both. Likely he hoped that if he could leave the valley he could lose himself in the forests up there. He would have had better luck going a different route along the lower end of the valley. Probably the panda had come in by way of the cliff trail and didn't think of taking another route.

 

The guide shrugged and started walking back to his hut. At some point the girl would get tired of playing with the panda and would want to come and ask questions. He had some questions of his own to ask. If a god had tampered with one of the springs there was little likelihood that he would ever know the truth of it. Maybe he could at least find out what was special about those young people to prompt some person or deity to tamper.

 

A short while later the guide was sitting at ease in his chair outside his hut. He was smoking on his pipe and sipping at a cup of tea. If he had to wait for those people, at least he could be comfortable while he did so.

 

A short while before Genma had reached the top of the trail up the cliff. The panda ran, passing a young man in rough clothing. The boy wore dark trousers and a yellow shirt. He had a yellow bandana with black spots tied around his head and wore a huge backpack.

 

The boy had walked up to the brink of the cliff to look down at the valley. When the panda rushed past him he turned, took a step back and the dirt on the edge of the cliff gave way. The boy fell off the cliff.

 

Ranma immediately stopped chasing Genma and swooped in to catch the falling boy. As she held him in her arms she saw him looking at her with a goofy expression on his face. Suddenly she recognized the face of the boy. “Hibiki Ryoga? Is that you?”

The expression on the boy's face went from goofy to dreamy. Landing on the ground at the bottom of the cliff, Ranma set Ryoga on his feet. Ukyo landed beside her. The brunette frowned and said, “What are you doing here Hibiki?”

 

Both girls stared at the boy when there was no response to Ukyo's question. Ranma waved a hand in front of the boy's eyes and there seemed to be no reaction. Ukyo snapped her fingers next to Ryoga's ear and he still just stood there with that same dreamy smile.

 

Ranma looked at Ukyo and asked, “What's wrong with him. I'm pretty sure he didn't hit his head or nothin'. Even if he did, he's got a head like a rock.”

 

Just then Ryoga spoke. “Pretty girl,” he said in (you guessed it) a dreamy tone.

 

At that Ukyo looked at Ranma's face then back to Ryoga. She said, “I think I know what his problem is. Bro or Sis… or whatever, you need to take a look at yourself.” She produced a hand mirror from stuff space and handed it to the redhead.

 

When Ranma looked at her reflection her eyes went wide and she said, “This is what I look like?”

 

Nodding, Ukyo responded. “I've heard of women being called `stunningly beautiful' but I've never actually seen a guy actually stunned just from a girl's looks.”

 

The conversation was interrupted by a sigh from the Lost Boy followed by him saying, “She knows my name.”

 

The brunette laughed and shook her head. “Yep, he's got it bad. I don't like the phrase, `love at first sight.' I think a better one is `instant infatuation.'”

 

The neo-girl didn't like where this conversation was going. “Are you saying Ryoga's in love with me? Or at least that he thinks he is?”

 

At that moment Ryoga said, “Marriage… kids…”

 

Ukyo glanced over at the boy and back to Ranma. “Yeah, I'd say he's definitely thinking he's in love with you. It sounds like he's thinking about getting married to you and raising kids.” She definitely sounded amused.

 

The redhead's beautiful face twisted in a grimace of disgust. “Ewww! I'm a guy. I can't get married to another guy.”

 

Raising an eyebrow the brunette said, “You don't look much like a guy at the moment. That guide guy said it's a curse. You `take the body' of whatever drowned or otherwise died in the pool you fell into. The one you fell into must have been Spring of `Drowned Supermodel' or something. I don't know what the deal is with the tail, though.”

 

Ranma frowned. “You've got a tail too.”

 

"Huh?" The brunette looked behind her. She had been sort of busy and hadn't really noticed the tail before. “Ok, that's weird.”

 

The redhead continued, “Besides the tail, you got taller, and your boobs are bigger. Actually you got a lot curvier. But you're still a girl.”

 

Ukyo laughed at that. “Of course silly. If it was a girl who drowned in the spring, then it would change a guy to girl but wouldn't change a girl.”

 

Ranma shrugged. “Maybe it was the Spring of Drowned Hot Chick. I mean you're still obviously you, but sexier.”

 

The brunette smacked her fist into her palm. “We need information. That guide guy seems to know what's going on. Let's go talk to him.”

 

Both girls shivered as the wind changed direction and there was a chill in the air. As they looked they noticed a considerable amount of mist rising from the pools. Ukyo hugged herself and said, “Even if we didn't need to talk to that guy, I think we should get indoors. It feels like it's going to get cold and I think it's going to get too foggy to risk walking around near the springs.”

 

Ranma nodded and said, “I'll bring Lover Boy.” She grabbed the boy's hand and dragged him along.

 

As they walked, Ukyo asked, “What about Genma?”

 

Shrugging, the redhead said, “Now that I'm not chasing him, he should come back. He's got to be curious about what happened to him too. Since the guide is the man on the scene, he's got to know more about it than we do.”

 

Nodding, Ukyo added, “Besides that, the hut is the only shelter in the valley other than trees and maybe a cave or two.”

 

As they approached the hut the guide stood up from his chair and waved. Ukyo looked at the fog rolling in and commented, “I hope Genma has the sense to not wander around in that fog.”

 

In a sarcastic tone Ranma said, “Sense? Since when does Saotome Genma ever show any sense?”

 

Ukyo grinned. “You have a point. We could fly around and try to find him by his ki signature.”

 

Ranma looked toward the cliff where Genma had gone then suddenly spoke in a ki-enhance booming voice, “Come on in Pop. I've finished punishing you.”

 

The brunette had covered her ears with her hands. “Damn, Bro! Next time how about a little warning before you do that.”

 

“Sorry, Sis,” Ranma apologized. “That was the quickest way.”

 

The fog had almost reached them when they heard, “Growf.” A moment later the panda came up beside them. Ranma bowed to the guide and said in Mandarin, “Greetings again honored guide. I'm sorry for not listening to your warning. I hope you can tell us what happened to us. My sister and I speak Mandarin but have only recently learned it. You may speak to us in that language but please speak slowly and use simple words.”

 

The guide nodded in acknowledgement then led the way into the hut and directed the girls to chairs. He let the panda sit on the floor. From a cast iron stove he picked up a kettle and walked over to the visitors. He explained, “I told your sister that valley is cursed. If you fall in a spring you take the body of the person or animal that died there last. The curse can be reversed by hot water.”

 

The guide poured some of the hot water from kettle transforming the panda back to a man. Genma sat up and said, “Oh, Thank the Kami. That is an experience I never want to repeat.”

 

The guide was still talking and Ranma said, “Don't celebrate too soon, Pop. He says that for you the panda is what they call your cursed form. Hot water will return you to…” she hesitated, “Form you were born with? Let's just call it the birth form. That return is only temporary. If you get wet with cold water you will turn back into your cursed form.”

 

A look of depression settled on the older martial artist's face. “Is there a cure to the curse?”

 

The guide understood and spoke in Mandarin. Ranma translated, “If there is a cure it will not be found at Jusenkyo. There is a Spring of Drowned Man but it is not a cure. The curses of Jusenkyo do not replace each other. In fact there is only one curse on the whole valley, a water activated shape shifting curse. What you get from a spring is a pattern for what shape you are changed to.”

 

She listened for a moment before resuming, “If you fall into a second spring the new pattern doesn't replace the old one, they combine or mix. If you were to jump in the Spring of Drowned Man now, your cursed form would be half man, half panda.”

 

“There may be a cure somewhere else in the world but he doesn't know about it or where it might be found. About a half day's travel from here is the village of the Niuchezu Women Warriors.” Ranma frowned a moment then asked, “Amazons?”

 

The guide smiled and nodded. Ranma continued, “Anyway the people of this tribe of Amazons have lived near the valley for thousands of years. They have spent a lot of time studying the curses and in all of that time they never found a cure. If a cure does exist it would take powerful magic from some country other than China. The Amazons have tried everything in this country and in fact pretty much all of Asia.”

 

After a moment Ranma told Genma, “That's pretty much all he has for you right now. If you have questions you can ask later. He wants to talk to Ucchan and me right now.”

 

The guide stepped over to Ranma and poured water from the kettle. Ranma felt a tingle and noticed that he could no longer feel the same tightness of his garments pressing on his breasts. He patted his chest and felt the same hard flat pecs he had come to expect in the past.

 

When the guide came to Ukyo the result was not what he expected. Under the stream of hot water, the brunette girl didn't change at all. She kept her new height and more generous figure and also kept her tail. The guide looked very worried.

 

The older man asked, “May I try again, young guest?”

 

Holding her tail in her hand, Ukyo nodded. The guide emptied the rest of the water in the kettle over the girl's head. Again, nothing happened. The man muttered, “This is very disturbing.” He handed Ukyo a towel.

 

In Mandarin he told the teens, “Young sir, young Miss, I've never seen anything like what happened here today. I have seen many people fall in the Spring of Drowned Young Girl. I have also seen animals fall in. I have read records going back more than a thousand years. There was never a recorded case of anything coming out of that spring with a tail that didn't have one going in.”

 

His expression became even more worried as he looked at Ukyo. “Then there is you, young Miss. In every recorded case of a young girl falling into the spring that young sir did, there was no change at all. You should not have changed. Since you did change, you should have gone back as you were when I used the hot water on you.”

 

He shook his head and said, “It is like something has tampered with or altered the magic of the spring. Maybe the pattern for the curse was changed. Before this I would have said such a thing was impossible. Now that it has happened, I would have to think nothing short of the power of a god could accomplish it.”

 

Ranma and Ukyo shared a look before Ranma asked, “Would a goddess do?”

 

The man looked shocked and asked, “Do you know a goddess?”

 

The boy started to fidget as he sat in his chair. “Uh… I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say about it.”

 

The guide was an intelligent man. He nodded and said, “That's alright. From the little you have said, it seems that at least one goddess, possibly more have taken an interest in the two of you. What their reason might be to tamper with the magic of the spring might be, I can't guess.”

 

Ranma frowned and said, “She wanted me to change into a girl? No offense to you, sis, but I don't want to be a girl.”

 

Ukyo put a hand on her brother's shoulder and said, “I'm sorry bro, but it looks like you're stuck changing into one for at least a while. You do know that if she was doing it on orders from higher up she had no choice.”

The boy's expression became sulky. “I'm still going to have a serious talk with her.”

 

“Cheer up, bro,” Ukyo said. “There's lots of worse things you could turn into than a girl.”

 

The guide nodded. “Yes, you listen to your sister. There are many worse things. There are even some that could be called monsters. At least in your cursed form you are still able to walk, speak and have hands.”

 

Ranma glanced over his shoulder and said, “Pop is still in trouble.” He suddenly paused. “Hey, did anyone see Ryoga leave?”

 

The guide and Ukyo looked. Genma glanced around. “I didn't see him go.”

 

Ranma rolled his eyes. “That guy could get lost trying to find the bathroom. Going out into the fog, he'll be lost before he goes ten steps.”

 

Ranma went to the door and tried to probe with his ki senses. He turned to the people in the room. “I can't sense him in the valley. That could mean that he's dead, but I don't think so. Back when we were going to the same Jr. High School he used to tell me about just spontaneously moving from one place to someplace else. It was hard to believe but it sounded to me like he's been just about everywhere in the world without ever getting on a plane or boat.”

 

Everyone looked at Ranma like he was speaking gibberish. He shrugged. “What it amounts to is that he's not here and I can't sense him anywhere within the limit of my ki senses.”

 

Ranma went back to the chair he had been sitting in. “I don't think Ryoga's dead, but there is a chance that he is. We'll have to search after the fog clears. Damn! It's not like him to wander around in a daze.”

 

Seeing her brother's agitation, Ukyo didn't think it was a good time to remind her brother about what had caused his friend to be in the dazed state.

 

The guide said in Mandarin, “I don't know if the fog will clear before nightfall. I'm sorry but I don't have room for all of you to sleep in the hut. There is a nice flat space in back of the hut where you can pitch your tents. Many have done so before.”

 

In the morning a search failed to find any trace of Ryoga. While they were looking it rained, changing Ranma to female and Genma to a panda. The guide warned that it was the rainy season so they would have to get used to traveling in their cursed forms.

 

The Saotomes decided that it was time to leave. There was no further benefit to be gained by staying in Jusenkyo Valley and there were risks to being there. Ranma and Ukyo thanked the guide for his hospitality before shouldering their packs and getting ready to leave.

 

 

Author's Note: In his review GrayPhoenix pointed out a flaw in the idea of having Ranma going Super Saiyan before going through all the training Goku did. I revised the previous chapter a little. I still have Ranma going super, but it's too much for him and he passes out after blasting Genma. Part of the reason for that is that I wanted her to go super at Jusenkyo but didn't think she would have been angry enough to change if she hadn't done it once before. By the time they get to Jusenkyo Ranma and Ukyo have both been training with increased gravity.

 

I wanted Ranma's cursed form to still be Saiyan. I hadn't originally planned to make Ukyo a Saiyan but this looked like the perfect opportunity. By having her jump in the spring while Ranma was still in there made perfect sense. That way she was changed from human girl to Saiyan girl. Her not changing back and forth is from a glitch in the programming Urd did in Ygdrassl.