Gold Digger Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Grave's New Life ❯ Chapter 9

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter 9: 8

Grave's New Life

Chapter Eight

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi-sama. Gold Digger belongs to High Lord Fred Perry.

Note: For this chapter to make any real sense, it must be understood that it happens during chapters five through seven.

Genma Saotome sat down on a stool in a bar. He was now back in Japan, however, he was in Hiroshima, not Tokyo, as he pondered what to do now. 'I can't just pop up on my wife and tell her that I lost our son now can I?' He frowned and looked at his drink. He may have been gluttonous and greedy, but he still had his priorities straight, at least if they were long-term priorities and not short term.

"You okay mac?" The bartender asked him. He was about five-foot-nine, grayish colored hair, a short beard, a solid build, which could mostly be attributed to working out and having to occasionally step in to stop a brawl, the scars on his arms and chest could account to that; and brown eyes. He was wearing a blue button shirt and jeans as he wiped a glass.

Genma looked at him and shrugged. "A little. Got some problems to work out."

"Oh?"

"It doesn't concern you though."

The bartender nodded and went to go and take an order for some sake.

Genma sighed and reached into his Gi, pulled out a postcard and looked at it. After Jusenkyo, the bald martial artist had thought to send the postcard to Soun and let him know that he and Ranma were coming, but it seemed that fate decided to make that impossible.

Genma smirked. 'Heh, maybe it's not impossible just yet.' He wasn't about to go to his wife and let her know about what happened to Ranma, but he could still go to his friend's house and tell him about it. 'After all, the Master,' Genma unconsciously shivered, 'had lots of stuff like that scroll I used. Perhaps there may be something that can help us find out just where the boy is.'

Shaking his head he signaled for the bartender to give him a pen and Genma began to write down a message to his friend.

A few days later Soun Tendo, a thin man who was a little over six feet tall, he had long black hair, a mustache, and was wearing a black Gi, went to get the mail. "Let's see, bills, bills, bills, manga? Must be Nabiki's. Bills, postcard from old friend, bills, bills, poems by Shakespeare? Must be for Akane. Bills, bills, Esocentric Medical Practices? Hmm, must be Kasumi's." Soun then blinked. "Postcard from old friend?"

Quickly digging through the mail to find the postcard, Soun could barely hold down his excitement. Finally the houses would be joined. When he found it, he read it to himself.

There's been a complication. Will explain when I arrive. Be prepared to dig through you-know-who's stuff.

Saotome

Soun blinked and stared wide-eyed at the postcard. 'It must be serious if Saotome needs to look through the Master’s,’ Soun shivered unconsciously, 'stuff.' Shaking his head, Soun went into the house to tell Kasumi that an old friend would be arriving soon.

(----)

People in Nerima were used to interesting sights, actually, most of the people in Japan were used to interesting sights, considering everything that happened from time-to-time. A Panda walking down the street on its hind legs in the rain while carrying a backpack counted as interesting.

Most of the people stopped and blinked; then ignored it as the endangered species paid them no heed and continued on its merry way.

Genma was a bit surprised that people were taking his appearance so calmly; he knew that if he hadn't dealt with Happosai all those years ago that he might be a bit freaked out right now. 'Did things really change so much in the last ten years?'

Shaking his head, the beast lumbered his way toward the Tendo Dojo.

(----)

Nabiki Tendo, a brown-haired girl with a keen intellect, stared at her father. "An old friend of yours is coming to visit?" Suddenly, the middle Tendo had an inexplicable feeling of doom running down her spine.

Soun nodded. "Yes. The postcard said that he would arrive shortly." Well, it really didn't say that, but Soun figured that his friend would arrive shortly.

Akane Tendo, a five-foot-six bluish-black haired girl, frowned and looked at him. "So you called me away from practice just for an announcement that your friend was coming?"

Soun nodded. "It's best that you're prepared for his arrival instead of surprised."

Akane blinked, that was true. "Say, if that's true, then what about Kasumi? Why isn't she here?"

"I already told her about what was going to happen. And, she's in her room studying."

Akane and Nabiki both nodded. Nine months ago Kasumi went to a convention of some sort, and when she came back, she was changed. Not changed as in a bad way, or in a dramatic way, but she was changed enough that she was doing things differently now. The biggest change happened three months ago when she started to study for medical school. Both sisters were behind her one hundred percent.

Suddenly, there was a knocking on the door and Soun smiled. "Why, I think that's him now." Walking towards the door, Soun called out. "I'm coming, I'm coming."

Nabiki sighed and got up. "Might as well see what the fuss is about."

Akane nodded, got up and followed her sister. The two walked quickly and quietly, not that either of them had anything to really say, to the door. When they got there, they were a bit surprised. "A Panda?" The two cried out at once.

Soun stared wide-eyed at the scene.

The Panda seemed to sigh and looked at them. "Growlf!" Producing a sign out of, seemingly, nowhere, the beast wrote on it. Hi, I need hot water. Flip! It'll make more sense when I get some. Flip! Please don't be afraid.

Nabiki, Akane and Soun nodded slowly. Akane shook her head and went to get the hot water. It was an understood rule in Tokyo, when weird things come into the home, get what they want, then ask questions, it was always easier to get information from someone or something that got what it wanted first, as long as it wasn't important.

Nabiki was more amazed that the Panda was able to write, as well as the fact that it was able to write on three sides of a two-sided board, especially since only one side of the board could be used as the other side had a stick in the middle of it.

Shaking her head, the middle Tendo looked at her father. "Some friend you have there daddy. I didn't know you knew a Panda." She then smirked. "What's next? You knowing a guy that has lips that can stretch to eat large amounts of food? A Gnome? Oh wait! The best one yet, a flying Minotaur.”

The Nabiki of two years later could tell her younger self that her father only knew two of those three before she was born.

"Growlf!" Just get me hot water and I'll explain.

At that moment, Akane came back into the room. "It's not hot, but rather warm, I hope it's okay." Normally, when weird situations popped up, she'd react a bit differently from this, but the current situation, a Panda that could write and stand on two legs, was a wee bit abnormal.

The Panda nodded and doused himself with the warm water, instantly; a bald, overweight man took his place. "Soun, it's me, Genma!"

The bald martial artist blinked as Soun fainted. "I didn't think he'd take it that badly."

The two Tendos blinked a few times.

"Akane?"

"Yeah Nabiki?"

"If this is a dream, I want you to pinch me."

Akane looked at her and shrugged, reaching a hand up, she pinched her sister's cheek and pulled on it.

"Ow. Okay, I guess I'm not dreaming then."

Genma sighed. "It's a long story."

(----)

A while later, Soun, who had regained consciousness, Akane, Nabiki, Kasumi, who had been called down for an important announcement, and Genma were sitting at the table.

Soun shook his head as he heard how his friend had been forced to change with a small application of cold water. "My friend, I feel for you, what horrors you and your son had to go through for the name of the Art."

Nabiki shook her head. "Speaking of that, where is your son?" Something just didn't smell right about all this.

Genma winced. "It's not something I like talking about... But you see, shortly after my son and I got cursed we ended up at this village of Amazon women."

Akane rolled her eyes. "Amazon women?" Though she had to admit, if changing into a Panda was possible, Amazons might be as well, though she doubted it.

Kasumi blinked. "That's... Interesting." Shaking her head, she looked at Genma. "So what happened next?"

"Well, when we got there, my son, who was in cursed form at the time, was so hungry that when he spotted a buffet on the table, he couldn't help it and went and started to devour large quantities of food."

Genma shook his head. "Alas, while I did not speak nor read any Chinese, I could tell that the food was there for a reason, so I did not partake of such a glorious meal."

Soun blinked a few times, his friend NOT partaking in a free meal? 'He must've been sick or something.'

Kasumi pursed her lips a bit, with the way that Genma looked; it didn't look like he would resist free food.

Nabiki had similar thoughts.

Akane shook her head and rolled her eyes. 'Leave it to a boy to do something so stupid.'

"Anyway, shortly after Ranma got done eating the majority of the food, the winner of the tournament that was going on nearby challenged him to a match for the insult that he accidentally gave her." Genma sighed and shook his head. "While the girl was good, she was no match for my son, who had gone under the most extreme training available to become the best in his generation, and was quickly defeated."

Soun shook his head as tears came to his eyes. "My friend, your son must be incredible to be able to win a fight so easily."

Akane snorted. "I bet that the girl was so tired that she couldn't put up much of a fight."

Nabiki and Kasumi both shrugged, they couldn't form an opinion one way or another.

"So what happened next?"

Genma sighed. "Apparently the girl was a sore loser and used an old rule in her village and gave Ranma what the Amazons call 'The Kiss of Death'."

Kasumi blinked. "Kiss of Death? Sounds terrible."

Genma nodded. "It was, according to the guide, the kiss that the girl gave my son required her to hunt him down to the ends of the Earth and kill him." Genma then sighed. "The reason that I'm here and not my son is very simple." Looking at Soun, he continued. "Several days later I attempted to use a scroll from 'you-know-who', I was prepared to send my son forward and arrive here."

Soun's eyes widened. "You mean to tell me that something went wrong?"

Genma nodded and sighed. "Yes. I started chanting and was had a destination in mind, namely here, when I was startled out of the chant by the girl who tried to kill Ranma." Sighing again, for who knows how many times, Genma continued. "I was so concentrated on the spell that with her war cry, I was startled out of the trance and lost the destination in mind as I finished the spell, so now Ranma can be ANYWHERE! And... I need some help to find him again."

Soun shivered. "You don't want me to look through 'you-know-who's' stuff in the attic do you?"

Genma narrowed his eyes and nodded. "There is no other way Soun."

Akane frowned. "What are you two talking about?"

The youngest Tendo didn't get an answer as the two Masters of Anything Goes left in a hurry.

Nabiki sighed and rolled her eyes. "Might as well help them find what they can Akane."

"What for?"

The middle Tendo smirked. "You have to admit, Mr. Saotome's arrival was the most interesting thing that has happened in the last three months around here."

Kasumi giggled. "Well yes it is, after all, we haven't had a shape shifter in town since those traveling Americans came through, what did they call themselves again?"

"Shifters."

The eldest Tendo nodded. "Ah, right. Well, those Shifters came through and had to take care of that Vlad person who was sticking around here for some reason."

Akane smirked as the three went upstairs. "I'm still amazed that they trusted us with that information."

Nabiki shrugged. "Who knows?" 'Though it probably has to do with the fact that we know that Oni from Tomobika.'

The three Tendos just went upstairs to see if they could help the two fathers out in their quest.

Meanwhile on Jade, Ranma cracked an eye open and looked around. 'Damn, what happened?' He sat up and took a look around. 'Stone walls, strong door, no windows.' Wincing a bit he wondered what he had done to deserve to get thrown into jail.

Suddenly a thought came to him and he checked himself over. "No injuries?" He asked himself in wonder. "But how?

Suddenly the door opened and Ranma looked up. The figure in front of him was wearing full body armor that was colored blue; he was rather big and looked to be tough, in fact the only thing Ranma could see besides the armor was some white eyes behind the faceplate.

Not in a mood to deal with mysterious figures, he glared at the person in front of him. "Alright, just who are you?"

"Heh heh, you can call me Rook."

"Alright Rookie, why the hell am I in jail? I ain't done nothing wrong."

"My name is Rook, not Rookie. As for your injuries, well, you've been out for a few days now and a healer came in and fixed you right up. We saw no reason to keep you shackled to a chair, so we tossed you into this cell." Seeing the boy get a look in his eyes, Rook warned him. "Don't try to break out, first off, the rock's enchanted to levels beyond what you can actually damage boy; besides, if you cause too much problems, it will be very bad for your Werecheetah friend."

Ranma's eyes widened and his face paled. "What did you do to Grave?!"

Rook mentally chuckled; the boy had little control of his emotions and was probably very easily manipulated. "Nothing yet." Rook made a point to emphasize 'yet'. "As long as you cooperate, nothing will happen to her."

Ranma glared but sat down, they could threaten him all they wanted, but Grave was another matter. "Fine." He growled out. "What do you want?"

"I was merely curious as to what style that you used, as well as your teacher."

"My pops taught me." Ranma's eye twitched. "Why? Did that fool make a promise to you and now you're here to collect on it?"

Rook shrugged. "Who's your father?"

"Genma Saotome, why?"

Rook shook his head. "Nothing, don't worry about it." 'Seems I was right, 'He' didn't train anyone else in all his years of life.' With that, Rook turned around and left.

Ranma's eyes widened and he jumped up and ran towards the door, only to have it close on his face, knocking him back. Growling a bit, the pigtailed martial artist got up and punched the wall, only to find that his punch had no effect. "Dammit!" Narrowing his eyes he glared at the door. 'Just you wait Grave. I'll find a way out and save you.'

Preview of next chapter: "Damn! What just happened really sucked you know. Let's just see them try and keep me in that cell in the next chapter."

1 Kind of slow on the updates, I know. Think of this as a filler chapter to tide you over a bit.

2 HA! I bet no one saw that one, Kasumi studying for medical school, coming now did they? First off, I'm going to say this, NOTHING will be exactly as it was for Ranma 1/2, at least what most people think is that series. I will say that you'll find the changes very interesting, be they large or small. I'm not going to list the changes, but if you pay close enough attention, you'll see that there are many changes throughout the whole fic for both series.

3 Reference to the webcomic "Shifters". It's a cool webcomic so check it out. You can find it at

4 Ranma's not stupid. As to why he didn't try to get out when Rook was there is simple, Rook threatened Grave, and since Ranma didn't know where she was, he sat down and behaved while Rook was there, though he wanted to get out and find Grave.