Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ An Unusual Father ❯ A Warrior and His Hamster ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

An Unusual Father

A Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction by Ryo Oki
ryo_oki@pacbell.net

Disclaimer: All characters and places not created by me
are probably owned by someone else.

Author's Note: This story will be a little different from my last
story, 'Little Angel Lost' in that it has no set ending. I will simply
be adding chapters as ideas come to me. This story will be primarily a comedy
with some romance thrown in. It will be primarily a crossover with the
Baldur's Gate 2 pc game universe and the forgotten realms universe in general
with one other crossover that will be apparent a little later.
For those familiar with AD&D mechanics the setting will use a mixture of
first and second edition rules with a home made spell point system instead
of the usual magic system used in AD&D.

******************


Chapter 1: A Warrior and His Hamster.



A small village in the Southern half of Rashemen, on the
world of Toril, (Forgotten Realms):



Two women were sitting by a large caldron in a primitive
wooden shack. Both were wearing robes that covered them from the neck
on down. One their faces they wore an elaborate mask cut into the form
of some sort of bird's head. One of the women was stooped with age and the
other younger woman had to help the elder woman as she moved around the shack
gathering ingredients from various glass bottles that lined the walls.

"Are you sure that we should be doing this? Do we have a right to
interfere in another person's destiny?", the younger woman asked the
older one.

"You have seen what the caldron had shown us earlier my dear
Siervella. It is in the boy's best interest that we interfere. He
will have a far better life and perhaps he can help tame that headstrong
daughter of yours.", the older woman said to the younger woman.

"She is not that bad mother?", Siervella said as the older woman
just shook her head.

"My time is short on this world. I have perhaps a dozen years left
at the most. When I pass on, you will take my place and when that happens
you will need someone to assist you. If your daughter is not ready, the
leadership of our tribe could go to one of the other families. Your
daughter will need some help in growing up and hopefully the boy will
be able to help not only in that regard but perhaps in as a suitor as
well.", the old woman said.

"Sigh, you know what my dear Suzanna, thinks of most males. If it
weren't for the fact that she used to have a crush on the village smith
I would think that she preferred the company of other females. This boy
will have quite a time getting to know her.", Siervella pointed out.

"That he will, but for now let us begin the summoning
ceremony.", the elder woman said to her daughter.

The women began to circle the cauldron, chanting in a language
that few people outside of their tribe had ever heard. As they moved
the ingredients from the various bottles were tossed into the caldron
causing it to hiss and bubble.

As they continued to chant a red fog started to rise from the
cauldron and within a minute it had almost filled the shack. As the
last ingredient was tossed into the cauldron various multicolored
spheres of lights flew out from the shack and began to hover over an
inscribed series of circles and lines in the center of the village.

As the chanting reached its crescendo, a loud cry of, "Watch where
you put your hands, 'BOY'!", distracted Siervella causing her to recite
the last words of the spell improperly. The spheres of light flew out
from the village, towards a nearby swamp and the cauldron began to shake
violently before it exploded, destroying the shack in the process.

As the smoke cleared many of the villagers were clearing away what
was left of the shack. They worried about whether the two women were
still alive and were quite shocked to find them buried but unharmed due
to a transparent blue energy bubble that was surrounding them.

The last of the ruble was tossed away by a women with dark black
skin, snow white hair and slightly pointed ears. Many of the other villagers
seemed to stay away from her, despite how she was helping them.

"Lady Siervella, Priestess Navidene, are you alright?", the elvish
looking woman asked as she helped them both to their feet.

"We are alright Viconia, but I am afraid the spell was not a success
entirely. I do not know if we managed to summon the one that we intended to.",
Queen Navidene replied.

"Several spheres of light were seen streaking towards the nearby
swamp. If they were part of the summoning, the one that you had intended
to bring forth may have materialized there.", Viconia.

"He will not survive long in that troll infested region.
Several warriors will have to be sent at once to retrieve the boy.",
Siervella stated.

"I thought as much and sent my darling husband to retrieve the
boy. I do not believe that any of the trolls will be so foolish as to
get in his way.", Viconia said.

"No I don't believe that they would.", the queen said to
Viconia.


*****************

Meanwhile in another world entirely:


A young boy of about eight years, and a balding man in his
mid thirties were running through a lightly wooded area as fast as they
could. Both were wearing tattered white martial art gis and sandals.
They both had rather panicked expressions on their faces which
changed to shock as a tree branch in front of them seemed to explode
while a loud cracking sound roared out from behind them.

"Dammit pops what did you do this time?!?", the boy shouted out
as he realized that he and his father were being shot at.

"Don't talk boy, just keep running.", the older man said as he scooped
the boy up in his arms and began to run even faster.

Life had been difficult for the man lately. His name was Genma
Saotome and it was his goal in life to teach his son Ranma to be the
best martial artist that even existed. He wanted to do this partially
out of pride, and partially out of the fact that his highly skilled
boy would be able to support his loving father in his old age.

Genma had stumbled onto an old martial arts manual that
mentioned an 'unbeatable' technique known as the neko-ken, or
cat fist, but from the start he was having trouble teaching the boy
the technique. He had to first collect dozens of cats, starve them and
throw them into a pit, where they would attack his brave son, who would
then fend them off, while learning to fight with the ferocity of a
feline in the process. Well, at least that was the idea.

From the beginning though, the little demons, (cats), did
not seem like being grabbed and tossed into a bag by the elder martial
artist. It also hurt when they scratched him. To make matters worse,
whenever he set the bag down in order to start digging the pit in which
he would toss the cats and his son into, the cats would somehow escape.
If he had the ability to pay attention to more than one thing at once,
Genma would have noticed that it was his son who was letting the cats
out of the bag, so to speak. Ranma was always fond of cats and his mother
had always let him have one or two as a pet when her was 'young', so he
didn't like it that his daddy was being so mean to the kitties.

Because of the amount of stray cats that kept getting away
Genma had decided to start 'borrowing' house cats. They tended to be
more docile and were easier to bribe with food. Unfortunately many
people tended to be quite fond of their pets and were not too happy
when someone tried to steal them, which brings us to the situation
that Genma and his son Ranma now found themselves in.

Genma had come across a large walled estate in which the owner
kept a large number of cats as pets. Most were quite fat and easily
caught. Genma was quite proud of himself for finding such 'easy
pickings'.

The estate though turned out to belong to a local Yakuza boss, who
was not exactly thrilled to see some vagrant make off with his purebred
'babies'. Upon being discovered the chase began.


Genma continued to run, but he knew that he could not keep it up for
much longer. He needed a place to hide and he needed to find it fast. He
spotted what he thought was a shallow depression hole, covered by some
bushes near by, so without thinking he threw Ranma into the bushes and
continued onward before finding another 'shallow' depression. As he leapt
into the hole, Genma found out that it was a partially hidden edge of a
cliff and Genma barely managed to stop himself in time.

Looking over to where his son was supposed to be, Genma gasped in
shock at seeing his son roll off of the cliff and fall downward out of
sight.

Ranma initially hit the ground hard and started to roll. He wondered
what his idiot father was up to, when the earth just seemed to give away.
As he started to fall, Ranma saw just how far the ground was below him. Now
Ranma had always possessed quite a good imagination and he now had a pretty
good idea what he would look like after hitting the ground.

As he began to panic, Ranma saw a variety of multi-colored balls
of light began to form around him. Within a few seconds Ranma and the
lights, vanished entirely, without any evidence that they had even
appeared in the first place.

Genma was lucky in one regard; It was growing dark and the men
who had been chasing him failed to notice Genma's bruised and battered
body laying near the edge of the cliff. His formerly white gi was now
covered in dirt and foliage which helped hide the man. The men
hunting him and his son, soon gave up and started back to their boss's
home.

As Genma continued to lay as still as he could near the edge of
the cliff he knew that he had a large problem on his hands. With his
son gone, and lost due him trying out a training method that his dear
wife probably would not have approved of, he was stuck as to what he
should do next.

He couldn't tell his wife or anyone else the truth. They would
not understand. Maybe he should not even go back to wife, even if he
did think up some sort of story to help explain how he had lost Ranma.
If his wife did except his story and did not try to kill him Genma would
be expected to take care of the family and that involved......getting a
job. Genma was not sure that he could handle that.

For most of his life, Genma had trained in nothing but martial
arts. This was not true when he was child. Up until he was almost
twelve Genma had a different dream. Surprisingly Genma used to be
quite skilled in math such that even at the age of ten he could
give any adult a run for their money in problem solving. This
was unacceptable to his father, who was a lackluster martial
artist at best.

Genma's father wanted his son to be what he could not, so he
contacted a skilled, but somewhat unusual teacher by the name of
Happosai. The little pervert's methods were harsh, but they did
produce some amazing results. Genma became quite a skilled martial
artist, but there was a price to pay. All of the abuse that Genma
suffered led to the boy, then man becoming brain damaged, to such
an extent that he could no longer access the skills that enabled him
to be considered a math prodigy by his peers. All he had left was his
martial arts, everything was a hazy dream.

Genma, knowing no better began to train his son the same way
that he had been trained. He did not do this out of spite or evil as
his master did. No it was just that due to all of the blows on his
heads that he had suffered, Genma now possessed a wisdom score
lower than most forms of plant life. Because of this Genma's age old
'dream' of becoming a CPA was long behind him. He now had to rely
only on his martial arts skills.

After a few more hours of waiting, Genma began to make his way back
towards his home in Jubaan. He wanted to run away more than anything, but
the only option that left him, was to become a wanderer from now on, and
that would not lead to the comfortable life that Genma crave. No, he
would have to return to his wife and hoped that she would believe the
story that he still had to create on how Ranma met his end.


******************


Back in Rashemen, it had been an hour since the explosion destroyed the
hut and disrupted the spell that Siervella and her mother had tried to
cast. Neither of the women were hurt seriously, but both were quite angry
at having such a delicate spell disrupted, especially after they found out
who was responsible for the disruption and the reason that her yell did
disrupt the spell.

A twelve year old girl with long green hair and red eyes was brought
before Navidene and Siervella. She had an angry expression on her face that
vanished instantly when she noticed the stern expression on the faces of
the older women.

"Daughter do you know what your foolishness has done?", Siervella
spoke sternly to the young girl, who mumbled something incoherently.

"Suzanna, you will answer clearly when your mother speaks to you.
Your actions today are a disgrace. you must learn to set a better example
for those around you. Do you understand what I am saying to you?", Navidene
said.

"But grandmother, I didn't do anything wrong, it was that boy that
touched me.", Suzanna said while pointing to a young 12 year old whom the
guards had brought before the two women.

"Are you saying that this boy did something improper?", Siervella
said to her daughter.

"Hey all I did was touch her on her back to get her attention. I
didn't do nothing wrong.", the boy said loudly, then apologized to the
two older women.

"See he admits it. I am going to lead this tribe some day so no one
should touch me without my permission.", Suzanna said in an arrogant tone
of voice.

"Why were you trying to get my daughter's attention?", Siervella
asked the boy.

"I saw her drop this earlier and I was just trying to get her
attention so that I could give it back to her.", the boy said as he held
up a silver necklace.

"What my necklace! I didn't lose it. He probably took it and was trying
to take something else, when I yelled, he is nothing more....", Suzanna tried to
say but was cut off by her grandmother.

"That is enough young lady. I am growing quite tired of your arrogance
and childishness. You may go son. Guards leave us as well.", Navidene said
in a harsh tone of voice that caused the boy and the guards to leave the
room as fast as they could.

"My dear daughter, each day you disgrace yourself more and more. What
am I to do to you. It is bad enough that you think of yourself as being
better than everyone else, but to accuse someone of theft when he was trying
to return something to you is going to far.", Siervella stated.

"How do you know he was telling the truth?", Suzanna replied to
her mother.

"Your grandmother and I have ways of telling. You should know
that from all the times you have 'exaggerated the truth' in the past.",
Siervella said to her daughter.

"Now you are going to apologize to that boy, then you are going to
return here and your mother and I will decide on your punishment.",
Navidene stated.

As Suzanna left in a 'huff', Siervella turned towards her mother
with a tired look on her face.

"Do you still wish to bring that boy into the village. It might
be better to send him to live somewhere else. We do not have to
return to his world and let him suffer that fate, but I still do not
think that he will be able to 'tame' my daughter.", Siervella said.

"I have seen more of his life than you have, and I think that at
the very least he will show our dear Suzanna that she is not better
that everyone else. Of course if the gods do happen to smile on us, perhaps
something more will happen between them.", Navidene said.

"In either case we should not speak of this to either of them. I
do not know how this boy might respond, but I do have an ideas about
how Suzanna might respond.", Siervella said.

In another part of the village, Suzanna had just given a
half hearted apology to the boy that she accused of being a thief. She
expected him to be angrier with her, but he seemed to accept her
apology quite quickly. What she didn't realize was the affect that
her appearance had on boys her age. The reason that so many boys seemed
to accept her was not her families, position in the village, but the
fact that she was one of the most exotic looking and beautiful girls her
age in the village.

Her looks did not have the same effect on the girls on the village.
If anything they had the opposite effect. Many of them were jealous and
quite angry at how Suzanna treated most people, especially the boys her
age, who in many of the local girls' opinions, would be far better of if they
paid attention to someone else.

"Spoiled brat, look how she is treating Keane.", one of the local
girls said to another.

"And look how he is responding. Why are they so interested in her. It's
not fair.", another girl said.

"I think she needs to be taught a lesson.", a third girl said.

"She does, and I have an idea on how we can do it.", the first girl
said to the other two.


Five miles outside of the Rashemen village, the 'balls' of light had
formed into a ring and were now hovering six feet in the air. Their appearance
had attracted some of the 'residents' of the area, who were curious about
what the ring signified. Not one of the beings approached it, but they were
close by.

The light ring suddenly flared and out of it fell a familiar eight
year old boy, wearing a tattered martial arts gi. He landed with a loud
splash in a particularly foul pool of water.

"(Cough) (Choke), Dammit pops what the $^#&$ did you do to me now?",
Ranma said as he quickly pulled himself out of the pool and looked around
to find himself in the middle of a swamp.

"Stupid old man, better not be trying to find a bunch of wolves
to chase me through a swamp again.", Ranma said in an annoyed tone
of voice.

"Being chased by wolves? Now there is an interesting form
of amusement.", a guttural voice echoed throughout the area.

Ranma looked around trying to locate the source of the voice when
he was surprised by a rather large creature that almost seemed to
materialize out of nothing. The creature was almost eight feet tall with
green 'rubbery' looking skin. It had a large nose with stringy green
'hair' and 2 small red eyes.

"What are you?", Ranma asked the large creature while beginning
to back away.

"What am I? I am a troll of course, but you should know that since
you are speaking my language, which is most unusual for a human.", the
large troll said.

"Troll? Like living under a bridge type of troll.... Wait a minute,
you aren't speaking Japanese.", Ranma said.

"Boss....Boss.... You here? Oh! you find human...Maybe we eat?",
a younger and smaller looking troll said as it came up from behind the larger
one.

"Eat!?! Heh, sorry I ah have to go now.", Ranma said as he turned
around and tried to run, only to find himself scooped up easier by
the large troll which moved a lot faster than Ranma thought such a
large creature could move.

"Now don't be rude, besides I have no intention of eating you.",
the large troll said to Ranma.

"We not going to eat him boss?", the small troll said.

You are such an idiot Alphonse. I swear if you weren't my
brother I would.....Never mind just listen and try to understand. This
human understands our language and we understand him. There is some
sort of magic involved here and I think that those witches are
involved. Maybe he is one of them. In any case he is worth more
alive than dead. We can ransom him off to the witches for food or
wealth and buy what we need from those idiot orcs nearby.", the large
troll said.

"I don't know boss. Those witches very tough, and if boy belongs
to them, then maybe 'HE' will be sent to retrieve the boy.

Albion, the larger troll sighed. He wondered why he was doomed to
be surrounded by idiots. Why couldn't more trolls have received the
blessing of their god like he did. If they were more intelligent and
more 'cultured' like he was, in his opinion then their race would be
much better off. But no, they were all idiots who hid in the swamps for
fear of being killed by humans, who had far too much fire around them for
the trolls liking.

"Never mind him lets return to our camp then we can send one of
those worthless kobolds to the witches so it can relay our demands to
it.", Albion said.

"Hold foul creatures lest you incur the wrath of Minsc and Boo.", a
new voice bellowed out.

"Oh $^## its 'him'!!!", said in a panicked tone of voice.

Albion turned towards the voice and found himself looking at one
of the witch's pet barbarian warriors. This one looked particularly
unintelligent and it had some sort or small rodent sitting on its
shoulder.

"This is the fearsome warrior my idiot brother is scared of?",
Albion thought to himself in disgust.

"Alphonse take care of that fool human!", Albion ordered.

"What!?!", Alphonse replied in terror.

"Just do it or you will be the next sacrifice for that
damnable lich.", Albion ordered.

Alphonse cautiously advanced towards the human and his hamster,
but when he came within six feet of the human, the warrior hurled
his hamster towards the smaller troll with a strange battle cry of,
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!!!"

What happened next left Albion standing dumbstruck. As the small
Hamster Boo came within inches of his brother time seemed to slow down. The
hamster landed on his brother's nose then spun around and kicked his brother
causing Alphonse's head to snap around violently. Another kick send Alphonse
spinning end over end into the ground.

"What the nine hells is going on? Is that some sort of disguised
dragon or demon?", Albion thought.

As Alphonse hit the ground for the third time, he screamed like a
scared kobold and took of running as fast as he could. Boo Leapt off of
the ground and back onto the Minsc's shoulder. This was a leap of over
20 feet. Something wasn't right here and Albion was not amused.

Dropping Ranma to the ground on his head, stunning the boy,
Albion leapt towards the man and his 'demonic' rodent. Alphonse maybe
a whining worthless idiot, but he was Albion's brother and only he was
allowed to beat the crap out of him.

Albion saw the hamster approaching him and he managed to knock
it aside much to the human's surprise. Albion had lived for over
forty years and he was not to be taken lightly.

Minsc leapt backwards, avoiding Albion's claws and pulled out
a large two handed sword from its sheath that Minsc wore across his
back. The sword now free of its containment burst into flame, causing
Albion to retreat for the moment.

Normally such large swords were quite hard to handle but the
human seemed to be able to move it as fast as one could normally
move a dagger through the air, Albion noticed.

Minsc leapt towards the large troll, his sword catching Albion in
the shoulder and moving on through, severing Albion's right arm. Off
balance Albion stumbled just avoiding Minsc's sword, which would have
removed his head.

Albion cursed himself, he was far too old to be making such
foolish mistakes. He knew that if he wanted to make it to his 41st
birthday he would have to retreat now. The fire wound would take far
to long to regenerate.

Managing to stand upright, Albion leapt away as far as he could into
the deeper water surrounding the pond in which he first grabbed the
small human. Hopefully the warrior and his accursed rodent would not be
able to follow him. Albion would not forget this defeat though.

Picking up the unconscious Ranma, Minsc turned to where Albion had
fled and shouted out, "Evil beware! Now you know the true power of a warrior
and his Hamster!!!


Halfway to the village Ranma awoke and found himself being carried
by someone. At first he thought that it was his father, but since his father
usually did not wear metal armor, and since whoever was carrying him was at
least 6 inches taller than Genma, Ranma knew that this wasn't his father.

Feeling Ranma starting to stir, Minsc set Ranma on the ground, with
his back leaning against a large cypress tree.

"Ah good, you is awake. Minsc was worried that you hit your head
to hard.", Minsc said.

"(Squeak, Squak) He evidently has a head as hard as yours. Hopefully
it is not as empty though.", Boo squeaked.

"Huh, did that thing talk.", Ranma mumbled while blink to clear his
still fuzzy vision.

"Oh you can understand Boo? You must be very special or very smart.
Only Minsc can usually talk to Boo.", the large barbarian said to Ranma.

"Which is proof that intelligence is not a factor.", Boo squeak
out.

"See even Boo thinks you are smart.", Minsc said, while not really
being able to speak 'Hamster' all that well.

"Stupid pops. He must have hit me too hard again. I saw that big green
thing, now a rat is talking to me.", Ranma grumbled.

"I am not a rat. I have you know that I am a miniature giant space
hamster that come from a long line of noble hamsters.", Boo squeak out
with pride.

"Boo is not a rat, he is a miniature giant space hamster.", Minsc
said.

"Didn't I just say that?", Boo remarked in his own language.

It took about an hour, but Boo and Minsc finally convinced
Ranma that he wasn't dreaming. The question was though how did he get
here to this Rashemen? place and how was he going to get home. Maybe
these witches that the big bald guy talked about could help if they
were real that is. Ranma had never seen any real magic. He had seen
some martial arts skills that looked like magic, but that was different.
Hopefully the big guy was telling the truth.


Back in the village it was decided that neither Navidene nor
Siervella would tell Ranma that they were responsible for bringing
him here to their world. At his age it was doubtful that he would
understand. Even if he did realize what his father had planned for him
he still might want to go back since the boy had known no one else.

No they would be silent. It would be a shame for such a
promising boy to die so young, especially in an attempt to save
one who was so unworthy of the effort.


"So if there witches can not help is there a telephone or
radio that I can use to call the police or my mother?", Ranma asked,
while still thinking that he was in his world. After all there are
all sorts of legends of weird animals in myths and stories.

"Telephone?, Radio? Sorry Minsc not know what you mean.", the
large barbarian said to Ranma.

"Never mind....", Ranma said as the village Minsc talked about
came into view. Maybe someone there could help him.

As they entered the village, Minsc pointed out his mother
and sister to Ranma as the two people who could be the most help
to him in trying to get back. Minsc was presently unaware that they
were the ones who brought Ranma to Rashemen. Only the two witches
and Viconia knew where Ranma came from.

Ranma looked at how old the village seemed to be. It reminded him of
something he once saw on television before his father dragged him off.
Maybe these people were like those he saw on TV. Those people were in
Africa though, not in Japan.

Now Ranma was not a stupid child, in fact he was quite intelligent as
Genma was before he had his intelligence beaten out of by Happosai, proving
that, in this dimension at least, Genma at first did give his son at least
something of importance.

It was only after years of physical and mental abuse by Genma that Ranma
reverted to just reacting to his surroundings instead of thinking
things through. Still he was a little confused about how a bunch of
darker skinned American? looking people could have such a village in
Japan. Maybe those weird lights brought him someplace else, like on that
old American science fiction series his mother used to watch.

Minsc and Ranma walked up Navidene and Siervella. Ranma noticed
the strange masks that the women were holding. These definitely reminded
him of those African villagers on TV. Before he could say anything though, the
two women and a few armed guards? Ranma guessed, led them into a very large
log cabin type of building.

"So Minsc, I see you brought us back a guest. Was he at the source of
the magical disturbance that we detected.", Navidene lied with a calm
demeanor.

"Minsc find boy in Swamp. His name is Ranma and he was going to be
taken prisoner by troll warriors.", Minsc said.

"I think they wanted to eat me.", Ranma said as everyone seemed
surprised that he could speak their language.

"You speak Rashemen son. Have you been here before?", Siervella
said in confusion.

"That big troll said the same thing, but he was speaking
my language like you are now.", Ranma said as Siervella and Navidene
shared a knowing look with each other.

"I found out that the boy can speak to Boo as well. I was
quite surprised as usually only Minsc can understand Boo.", the large
bald barbarian said to his mother and sister.

"Well he tries to understand anyway.", Boo sighed as Ranma
snickered at Boo's statement.

"Can you help me to go home?", Ranma asked Navidene. It was
obvious that the boy was more than a little concerned about where
he was despite the brave front that he was putting up.

"We will try our best to get you home eventually, but I
believe that it may take a little time.", Navidene said.

"I wonder where pops is now? He probably doesn't care that I
am even gone.", Ranma said sadly.

"Don't be sad. All of us will help you. You can even stay with
me and Viconia.", Minsc said.

"Who is that?", Ranma asked.

"She is Minsc's wife. Maybe you to can talk since she is not
from here either.", Minsc replied.

"Now that is a bit of an understatement.", Viconia said as she was
led into the room.

Ranma turned towards Viconia and his eyes practically bugged out
of his head. She looked like someone from an anime.

"Why are you staring?", Viconia said a little too sharply. Her
looks were still a sore point with her. Maybe this boy shared other
humans' opinions of her race.

"I uh....um....", Ranma tried to say.

"Don't be nervous, Viconia just thought that maybe you thought
that she was strange looking.", Siervella said with an evil grin
directed towards the somewhat sensitive drow woman.

"No she's not strange. She is.....well....", Ranma still
stumbled over his words.

"Yes, go on.", Siervella coached the boy.

"I was looking, because I thought that she was preety.", Ranma
said to a stunned Viconia.

"(Snicker), (Giggle), Why Viconia dear, how scandalous of you
to attract such younger men.", Siervella replied.

"Perhaps I overreacted, I did not mean to scare you.", Viconia
said to Ranma.

"That's ok. Maybe you want to be friends.", Ranma said with a smile.

"Well at least he doesn't sulk for long. Tis a shame that you can not
say the same for other people.", Viconia thought to herself.

As everyone left the assembly hall, Navidene and Siervella stayed behind
to discuss Ranma's 'surprise' appearance near their village.

"At least we know now how my mispronunciation of the last part of the
spell affected our guest.", Siervella said to her mother.

"Instead of transporting the boy, you said translation. That explains the
boy's gift of tongues.", Navidene said.

"It will make it easier for him to fit into village life.", Siervella
remarked.

"And it will make it easier for him to get to know your daughter as
well.", Navidene stated.

As Ranma was leaving the assembly hall, he felt someone run into and
bounce off of him. Staggering bag slightly, Ranma noticed that a strange
looking girl was on the ground in front of him. She was a couple of years
older with long green hair and red eyes.

"Watch where you are going you stupid boy.", the girl exclaimed.

"Hey it was you who ran into me.", Ranma said.

"As charismatic as ever I see, Suzanna dear.", Viconia said
to the young girl as she yanked her up back onto her feet.

"I wasn't talking to you, 'DROW'.", Suzanna said in contempt as
Viconia briefly contemplated squashing the little girl like one would
do to a rather loathsome variety of vermin.

"Geeze what spoiled brat.", Ranma grumbled.

"How dare you speak that way to me. Do you now who my mother
and grandmother are, you grungy and homely little boy.", Suzanna
replied.

"Hah, you are the ugly one, 'Troll Face'.", Ranma said with a smirk.

"What did you call me?", Suzanna growled out.

"I called you 'Troll Face', because you look like one of those ugly
trolls in the swamp, with your funny green hair, little red eyes, and that
big nose of yours.", Ranma grinned even wider.

"My nose is not big!", Suzanna shouted.

"Hmmm, now that Minsc think about it, her eyes kinda like that of
swamp trolls.", the large bald barbarian remarked. as Ranma snickered.

"See I am not the only one who thinks that you are funny looking.",
Ranma said as Suzanna had a red aura briefly appear around her and she
managed to pull a wooden staff out of no where.

She swung the staff at Ranma who stepped to the side causing the
staff to strike the ground and vibrate out of Suzanna's hands.

"Stay still you miserable $#*$ $*#($ $%(#!!!", Suzanna yelled out.

"Geeze, you stink. But you are just a dumb funny looking girl
anyway.", Ranma said as Suzanna charged at him and Ranma took of running,
while having fun with teasing this silly girl.

"Ah, tis good to see children playing. Reminds Minsc of when he
was a boy, having fun teasing Siervella.", Minsc said with some
fondness in his voice.

"Sigh, men in their silly games. It's fortunate that they have
us to look after them.", Viconia thought to herself.

As Ranma continued to run, with Suzanna right behind him, he
noticed a patch of ground, that the ground he was approaching, was 'blurry',
for some reason, like some sort of mirage. Not wanting to take any
chances, he leapt into the air, as soon as he reach the edge of it,
surprising three young girls who were hiding near.

All three of the girls, were a little older than Ranma, but
one seemed very short for her age.

"That was so neat.", the young 'short' girl said as her
friend smiled as the expression of awe on the little Halfling
girl's face.

As Ranma landed on the far side of the 'shimmering' ground,
Suzanna ran right up to the edge then seemed to disappear. A few
seconds later, a scream of outrage echoed throughout the village.

The shimmering effect was some sort of illusion and Suzanna
fell right through it and down onto a rather large and foul
smelling compost heap.

As soon as he heard the scream Ranma stopped and turned around
in confusion. He didn't seem the little troll faced girl anymore, but he did
see a 'new' pit in the ground. Walking up to it, he carefully looked over the
edge and saw his new 'friend' trying to climb up, while covered in garbage.

"Pew.....You stink. Now you even smell like a troll.", Ranma said as
Suzanna began to yell out some very violent and quite creative things that
she was going to do to him, when she caught him.

As Ranma walked away from the pit and back towards the center of the
village, he saw three young girls walking towards him, one of whom looked like
she a midget or dwarf, Ranma guessed.

"I see you had the 'pleasure' of meeting Suzanna", the tallest
girl of the three, said to Ranma.

"And you kicked her butt too.", a blue-eyed blond girl said to
Ranma.

"How did jump so far?", the little Halfling girl said to Ranma.

"Oh that was nothing, anybody can do that.", Ranma said.

"Really?!? So you could teach me to do that?", the little Halfling
girl looked at Ranma with stars in her eyes. A fact that made Ranma
nervous for some reason.

"Please forgive Cassandra, she is just happy that someone finally
put Suzanna in her place.", the blond girl said to Ranma.

"Well now that Suzanna has been dealt with, let me introduce
myself. My name is Marlena.", the tallest girl of the three said to
Ranma.

"My name is Corinne.", the blond girl also said to Ranma.

"And my name is Cassandra.", the Halfling girl said as thunder
suddenly was heard. "I wish I knew why that happened.", Cassandra
said as she noticed how the thunder surprised Ranma.

"Don't worry about it, a martial artist is not scared of
anything. Besides its kind of neat.", Ranma said.

"Reeaaalllyyyy???", Cassandra said as she took hold of his arm
and smiled at Ranma.

"Sigh, there she goes again.", Marlena stated.

Ranma introduced himself to the three girls. They were curious
as to how he first appeared in the swamp. He really didn't know, but
he told them that the witches that he met thought that it was some
sort of magic.

The girls also asked Ranma where he came from. They had never
heard of Japan, but they had seen two people from Kara-tur in the
village before, so they guessed that Ranma must be from around there.

The other two girls left Ranma and Cassandra alone shortly
there after. Ranma wanted to find Minsc so that he could show him
where he would be staying. Cassandra said that she knew where the
house was so she showed Ranma.

Minsc and Viconia arrived a little while later and Viconia
seemed to be quite amused to see the little Halfling girl hanging
off of Ranma. He was the latest in a long line of crushes that the
girl had evidently.


Suzanna eventually made her way home and amused her mother
with her 'somewhat' disheveled appearance.

"Do I want to know what happened?", Siervella said to her
daughter while sounding as if she already knew what caused her
daughter to be in such a state.

Suzanna told her mother how she had been attacked by a very
evil little boy, who first insulted her, then chased her into a pit
while calling her 'naughty' names.

This explanation seemed to conflict with what Siervella had
seen earlier as she and her mother watched Suzanna chase Ranma
around the village.

Since the last thing she wanted to do was argue with her
headstrong daughter at the moment, Siervella simply sent the girl
off to clean herself up.

After Suzanna had left, Navidene faded into view next to her
daughter.

"I take it you heard everything.", Siervella said to her
mother.

"Of course, it wouldn't do to ignore my dear granddaughter.",
Navidene replied.

"Their meeting could have gone better. I would hazard a guess
that Suzanna almost hates the boy at this point.", Siervella remarked
to her mother.

"She is just stunned at someone near her age standing up to her,
especially a boy. I don't think that she would ever truly mean to cause
him, or anyone permanent harm.", Navidene said.

"It is fortunate that Suzanna's magic skills are still rather
weak. I would hate to go around the village searching for the boy if
Suzanna ever learned how to polymorph someone.", Siervella said.

"The most she could do right now is a 'daze' or frost bolt
spell, both of which are far to weak to do the boy any real harm.",
Navidene said to her daughter.



******************


Back on Earth it had been two days since Ranma had disappeared
and Genma still was unsure of what he should do. He was still walking,
although, quite slowly, back towards the home he shared with his wife,
but he had yet to think of a credible story to tell as to how Ranma
had disappeared. He could tell her that the boy died, but then he would
have to explain what had happened to the boy's body.

Admittedly Nodoka was quite gullible at times. That is what
attracted Genma to her in the first place. She came from a rather
wealthy family, and believed all of the silly stories about honor that
Genma had told her over the years.

Genma was not ashamed to admit that he like his women very cute
and stupid. It may not be right, but it wasn't anyone's business to
judge him. So if he fell for Nodoka because she often displayed less
common sense than even Genma himself possessed, so much the better. Genma
knew that he wasn't a genius, but at least he realize his
limitations....well for the most part anyway.

Perhaps he should look up is old friend Soun. Together they might
come up with a good reason to explain the boy's disappearance. With
Ranma gone they would no longer be able to join the families, unless
Nodoka decided not to kill him and wanted to have another child instead,
but Genma wasn't exactly holding his breath on the odds of that
happening anytime soon.

With that in mind, Genma decided to skip going to Jubaan and
began to head towards Nerima and the Tendo dojo where his old
friend should still be teaching.

It took Genma less than a day to reach his old friend's house. He
recognized the old dojo immediately, but something was not right. As he
approached the gate, he noticed black wreaths and black crate paper
decorating the fence surrounding the house. Soun was prone to fits of
depression Genma remembered, but this seemed a little excessive.

As Genma was deciding whether or not to ring the bell at the gate
it opened and he found himself looking down at a rather depressed looking
eleven year old girl with long brown hair.

"Can I help you?", the girl said listlessly.

"Is Soun Tendo home, I would like to speak with him.", Genma
said carefully as if expecting something unpleasant to happen at
any moment.

"I'm sorry father is not seeing anyone now.", the girl said as
she started to close the gate.

Stopping the gate Genma looked at the girl and said "Tell him that
his old friend Genma is here, I'm sure that he'll see me.", Genma said.

The girl, sighed, turned around and led Genma into the front yard.
The front yard was a mess to say the least. Bits of bricks and wood were
tossed in small piles all over the yard. The koi pond was covered by a
layer of green algae and was emitting a rather unpleasant smell. Genma
could even see the living room through the open back veranda of the room,
and from what he could tell the inside was probably as bad as the outside
of the home.

What was wrong with his friend? No student would ever approach a
dojo that was in such bad shape. It spoke of someone who was sloppy and
undisciplined.

The young girl, disappeared into the home. A few moments later,
Genma was about flattened by a U.C.O, Unidentified Crying Object. As
Genma pushed the loud 'creature' away from him he noticed that is was
his old friend Soun.

"Old friend I am glad you are here. It is horrible, just horrible.",
Soun said.

Before Genma could ask his friend what was going on, he heard a very
familiar voice that caused his freeze in place with a very nervous expression
on his face.

"Genma is that you. Is Ranma with you?", a young looking woman with long
red hair said as she stepped up on the front porch where Genma was.

"Why Nodoka-chan funny meeting you here.", Genma said nervously while
wondering what he was going to do now.


**************


Back in the Rashemen village, Minsc and Viconia led Ranma into their
home, with Cassandra still hanging on the boy's arm. Once inside their home,
Viconia's personality seemed to change dramatically in how she treated Ranma.
Outside in the village she seemed rather cold and distant, but inside she was
acting like a doting and protective mother. She even went as far as to use
a healing spell to treat some very minor wounds that the boy had picked up
during his little adventure in the swamp.

Viconia seemed quite excited to show Ranma his room, which was already
decorated as if a young boy was already living their. As Ranma was looking
around the room, Viconia excused herself by saying that she had to prepare
dinner and that she was going to make sure that Ranma had enough food for
a growing warrior.

Ranma looked very confused at the dark skinned lady's behavior. He
also noticed a look of concern on Minsc's face.

"Is something wrong, she's acting a little funny. It's ok if I stay
here isn't it. I mean I don't have to share a room with your son if he
doesn't want to.", Ranma said as he notice Minsc wince when he mentioned
Minsc's son.

"Minsc and Viconia no longer have a son. He 'left' us many years ago
when village was attacked by the trolls. Please do not mention this to
Viconia. Even since our son died she has not had anyone to take care of, so
if she treats you like a little child, please do not complain. Maybe
having you here will help her feel better.", Minsc said

"I don't want to hurt her. She seems like a nice lady. If she acts
a little funny I won't complain.", Ranma said as Minsc smiled.

"I won't say anything either.", Cassandra said which wasn't really
necessary since the whole village already knew about how sensitive
Viconia could be if someone mentioned her son.

"Stupid trolls.", Ranma grumbled as Minsc left him alone in the
room with Cassandra.

"They used to cause all kinds of trouble, but after Seren was
killed, both Minsc and Viconia spent almost a year killing every
troll that they could find. I was surprised that you even met one
when you were in the swamp. The few that are left hide whenever they
see anyone of our tribe.", Cassandra said to Ranma.

Cassandra left about an hour later, just before everyone
was going to have dinner. She wanted to stay, but she would have had
to told her mother earlier. Instead she settled for hugging a surprised
Ranma, then waving to him as she ran off. Minsc seemed to be amused by
this and he watched Ranma wince as he asked the boy if his girlfriend
was coming back tomorrow.


Author's Note:


As I said in the beginning of this chapter, I do not have a set
ending for this story as I did when I wrote the first book of Little
Angel Lost. You may have noticed the amount of ways that this story
could go, from all of the loose ends that were started in this
chapter. For now though, I can say that Ranma will be spending the
next couple of chapters in the Realms. He probably will eventually
make his way back to his own world, but I have other things in store
for him first.

My next project might be a second chapter for this story or
perhaps a side story for Little Angel Lost. I am not ready to begin
the second book that that story as of yet. It has been a few years
since I have looked at any source material for Krynn in which the
second book of Little Angel Lost will take place. This is not to
say that the first book of that story was exactly planned out very
well. I n fact I had originally intended for it to be a 30 or 40
page short story but as you may have noticed it became somewhat
larger than that. So I guess we will all just have to wait and see
what develops. Whatever I come up with it will of course be published
under my name on Fanfiction.net as well as a few other places.

If you wish to send me email about this story or any of my others
you can leave me a message at ryo_oki@pacbell.net

Hope to here from you.

Ryo Oki