Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Reverse Nekoken ❯ Chapter 2

Reverse Nekoken

By King Loki

Disclaimer: I don’t own this series or any other series. I’m a student. I’m dirt poor. Please don’t sue me!

Please feel free to review, and make comments. If you find a spelling or grammar mistake, feel free to let me know. Thank you.

000

Chapter 3

Soun twitched for a moment before slowly opening his eyes to the outside world.

‘Oh my! What a terrible dream. I thought that Saotome’s son had arrived with a giant panda and a cat, but he wasn’t his son but his daughter. Thank god that was all a dream!’ Soun raised his head slightly to get an idea of his surroundings. ‘Ah there’s my dear Kasumi-chan looking all concerned for me. She looks just like her mother. And there’s sweet Nabiki-chan with that scowl on her face. She looks so much like Kimiko. And last but not least my little Akane looking all angry, just like her mother… hang on. They can’t all look like Kimiko! What did my wife look like again!? Hmm… that’s worrying! Oh well. I shouldn’t think about that right now. Oh and there’s that red headed girl talking to her panda… red head… panda? Oh no!’

As Soun Tendo put his head in his hands his oldest daughter looked on with worry.

“Poor father. He’s so upset.”

“He’s upset!” yelled Nabiki. “What about us? Shouldn‘t you have checked our fiancé, daddy?”

“I thought Saotome’s son would be a boy!” said Soun as he message his head, feeling a head ache already starting.

“Does this look like a boy to you daddy?” Nabiki turned to the red head, who was watching things play out, and went to grab her chest to make the point. Unfortunately Nabiki’s hand was impeded by the jaws of the large cat in the girl’s arms.

“Oww!” Nabiki shrieked before pulling her hand back from the cat.

“Serves you right.” the red head giggled. “You’ve already had your free feel!”

Nabiki scowled before backing away from the red head and her little ‘demon’. Akane could only shake her head at her older sister’s behaviour. Looking now at the red headed girl, Akane could relax knowing that the engagement wasn’t going to happen.

‘Maybe me and her could be friends?’ Akane thought as her mood took a U-turn.

Walking up she tapped the smaller girl on the shoulder, gaining her attention.

“Hi my name’s Akane. I’m sorry how my family are acting. Would you like to be friends?” Akane said, giving the other girl her best smile.

Ranma looked at the girl for a moment before smiling back.

“Sure I-”

“MEOW!”

Ranma looked down at the cat in her arms before blushing red.

“Oh right, sorry.”

The girl turned to the other people in the room.

“Hey, we were promised milk if we came here.” the red head demanded looking very serious.

“Meow.”

“And cream! Oh and if you have those little cans with the tuna in them that’d be great.”

Nabiki scowled at the girl.

‘Who does she think she is!? The Empress! The nerve of that girl!’

“Hey you can’t just come in here and demand what you want!” Nabiki yelled.

But before any more arguments could get underway, the voice of reason also known as Kasumi Tendo stepped in.

“Oh my you must be so hungry and thirsty after your trip. I’m sorry we haven’t been such great hosts. Let me get you something from the kitchen.”

“Kasumi!!” Nabiki squawked indignantly but stopped the rest of her argument when Kasumi gave her ‘The Look‘. Nabiki knew she could argue with the best of them but when her older sister gave her ‘The Look’ she knew to just shut up and keep her head down. Kasumi raised from beside her increasingly depressed father and headed into the kitchen. Once Kasumi had left the room Nabiki levelled her third strongest glare at Ranma, who showed only a slight sign of worry from it, much to Nabiki’s annoyance.

Akane felt the tension in the room start to build and thought she should try to save the red head girl from Nabiki’s cold fury. Quickly grabbing the other girls shoulder, she turned her to face Akane.

“Hey wanna see our dojo?” Akane asked hoping the girl would say yes. “Kasumi can bring your snack to you there.” she added when she saw the girl start to decline.

Ranma looked at her for a moment before nodding. The two girls and one cat left the room and headed towards the dojo. Nabiki continued to glare at them until left before she dropped the face and sighed.

“What a day.” she muttered. “And I have a feeling it’s not over yet.”

She turned to her father who was now sitting in a corner of the room with a cloud of depression over him, crying about the schools never being joined.

“Daddy no baka.” she muttered while passing the man on her way out the room, giving him a small bop on the head for good measure.

000

In the dojo Akane had just shown the other girl around.

“So you do Kempo right?” she asked hoping to get the other girl talking. Ranma seemed nice enough to her but every so often she saw the red head whisper things to the cat that she had in her arms.

“A little.” the red head said with a small smile on her face. Then the cat in her arms started to squirm before it hopped out of Ranma’s arms. When it landed it turned back to the red head and gave her a look that Akane could only identify as unhappy.

“What?” Ranma said looking exasperated

“Meow!” the cat stated in a grumpy tone.

“Oh you and your morals. I’m not really lying.” Ranma said with the same exasperated look on her face before sighing in resignation. Akane watch the two with confusion and slight fear for the other girl’s mental health. Before she could say anything though the pig tailed girl had turn around to face Akane.

“Yeah, I have been training in martial arts for about ten years. I hold at least a black belt in Kempo as well as ten other martial arts forms such as Karate, Judo, Akido, Kung fu and traditional Wushu to name a few. I can also beat my father who has thirty years experience over me and most martial artists twice my age. I do consider myself either the best or one of the best martial artists in the country if not the world. I hope that’s warning enough for you.” Ranma finished of taking a deep breath. Akane stared back at the girl for a minute.

“Wow. Have you done that speech before.” Akane said, looking incredulous.

Ranma shrugged. “Yeah. Once or twice.” A frown crossed her face as she turned back to the cat stretching out at the dojo’s entrance. “Someone has a problem with lying or bending the truth.” She said in an over exaggerated tone. Neko merely hissed as a reply.

Akane look between the two before deciding to ignore a few of the quirks popping up with her new ‘friend’.

“Well now that we have that out of the way let’s get back to the match.” Akane smiled, getting into a ready stance. “If you’re so good then I don’t have to hold back!”

Ranma smiled back before putting her arms behind her head and taking a relaxed, open stance. A cocky smirk gracing her face. “Give me all you got!”

Neko sighed in exasperation. He’d seen this happen before. A lot in fact. Many martial artists would fight Ranma, most would lose. The rare few that did get the better of him/her would usually lead to Ranma examining the fight, what went wrong, what his opponents style was and how best to counter it and win. To Neko it was a ongoing cycle in Ranma’s life but Neko did have to concede that Ranma was winning more matches outright then having to put effort into as was being proven quite strongly with the fight being played out before Neko. The girl Akane may be a good martial artist but she was 5 years from even challenging Ranma.

‘And by the look on her face I think she’s just realised that as well.’ Neko thought as Akane reared back her fist for what looked like to be her final attack.

“Now it’s for real!” Akane yelled throwing her fist forward to catch the, what look like, cornered girl with her strongest attack. Ranma dodged by using the back wall to spring over Akane before poking her opponent in the back of the head. Signalling she got a critical strike in.

Akane turned around, slightly upset over loosing the match, but was met by a cheery red head who had started to laugh in a care free way. Akane stopped for a moment but found the red head girl’s laughter contagious and soon joined. Neko looked on at the two girls with a sweat drop on his furry head. Soon Ranma calmed down enough to speak.

“So do you usually break your dojo during friendly matches?” Ranma said with a half smile, indicating the hole in the wall behind Akane. Akane winced slightly when seeing this.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Akane said, looking apologetic. “I just get caught up in the moment when it come to fights. Nabiki’s going to kill me for the damages.”

“Ah it doesn’t look to bad” the red head shrugged.

Akane nodded.

“Yeah I guess you’re right.” Akane turn to face Ranma again. “ By the way. You are really good. I couldn’t hit you even ones! I’m glad you’re not a boy.”

Suddenly both the red head and the cat froze were they stood.

“Would that be a problem.” Ranma said, a large fake smile spreading her face. Neko just looked on, shaking his head.

“I’d hate to lose to a boy!” growled Akane, slamming a fist into her palm.

“Really?” Ranma said, starting to see this new friendship going down the drain quite quickly. ‘The Girl had seemed nice enough’ Ranma thought ‘so of course she had to have a problem with men. Just great!’

Akane look straight at Ranma, flames burning in her eyes. “Yeah. Every boy I’ve ever fought has always been a huge pervert!”

Ranma scratched the back of her neck, uncomfortable in Akane’s heated gaze.

“Well then maybe you’ve just had back luck or it’s just the guys who live around here.” Ranma said, trying to appear not concerned but the sweat at her brow told otherwise.

“Maybe.” Akane muttered, conceding the point. Suddenly her head shot up, causing Ranma to jump. She was still a little edgy.

“I wanted to ask earlier but…” Akane remembered how her family had acted and blushed slightly. Ranma looked on, confused. Akane noticed she had stopped talking and blushed harder. ‘God she’ll think I’m as weird as my Family’.

“Ahh… who’s your kitty?” Akane said quickly, still feeling embarrassed. Ranma smiled at that. She turned and waved to the cat that had been lying at the entrance to the dojo. The cat got up and padded towards the two girls before leaping into the red heads out stretched arms.

“This is Neko-chan. Say hello Neko.” the cat meowed at Akane. She beamed at the cat.

“He looks very nice. Hello Neko-chan.”

The cat then reached out his paw to Akane in what looked to her like a western handshake. Akane giggled before deciding to play along. The giggle turned into a gasp as she felt her hand being shaked by the cat.

“That’s a great trick!” Akane said, taking her hand back. She looked more closely at the large cat.

“Trick?” Ranma said, confused. ‘It was just a hand shake.’

“Meow yowl!” Neko said looking at Ranma.

Ranma suddenly looked herself over before sniffing one of her arm pits. She suddenly looked more embarrassed.

“I stink! Can I use your shower?” Ranma said looking at Akane.

Akane looked at the two. This was at least the second time the girl and animal seemed to have a ’conversation’ between them.

“Ah sure. Go ahead. Would you like me to show you? I could join you if you like?” Akane said, still trying to act like she hadn’t just seen a girl talk to an animal.

Ranma suddenly became more animated and panicky.

“No! That’s alright. I’ll be able to find it myself. I like my privacy. Bye!” The red head shouted before quickly running out of the room.

“Strange” Akane mumbled before looking back at the evening as a whole, realizing that was a big understatement. “Well at least it can’t get any weirder!”

000

Ranma sat down in the furo feeling the change from girl to boy and shivered slightly before letting the hot water relax his tired muscles. The oldest sister had been nice enough to show him to the furo. He caught a slight movement to the side of his vision and turned to see Neko looking at him.

“I know we’ll have to tell them. I don’t think I could hide it for long.” Ranma sighed.

“Meow”

Ranma turned and scowled at the cat. “No, I don’t find it very funny.

Neko look at Ranma a moment longer before closing his eyes “Meoooow”

Ranma shook his head, clearly un-happy. “ Well I’m glad you find this so Hilarious.”

Neko shrugged, which looked quite strange for a cat to do, then turned and trotted over to the entrance to the furo before lying down. Ranma went back to relaxing, trying to come up with a idea to get out of the mess he was in.

“I wonder why Pops wants this engagement?”

“Me Meow”

“Yeah, there’s probably a dowry. Not like I’d want it but you know Pops. He wants almost anything worth somthin’. But I don‘t think I‘ll be getting engaged!”

“Meow?”

“ Well yeah. Akane seems alright, apart from the boy thing, and her oldest sister, was her name Kasumi? Anyway, she was really nice. But I’m just not ready for something like this.”

“Meow Meow.”

“Yeah. Pops will probably still want to stay.”

“Yowl”

“Freeloading? I didn’t think of that. It’ll probably happen though. That’s Pops for ya. Maybe that could get the Tendo’s to give up the engagement. If we’re costing them too much.”

Ranma laid his head back. He was too tired to think up some type of plan.

000

Nabiki walked into Akane’s room. The day’s events still playing in her head.

“Akane the bathroom’s free. You should really get a shower.”

Akane turn to her sister before nodding her head.

“Ok sis.”

Akane strode passed her sister and headed downstairs to the furo.

Nabiki watched her go. 'she seems to have calmed down a lot from earlier.’

Nabiki thought for a second before snorting.

'It probably won’t last long.’

Nabiki headed back downstairs. When she stepped into the living room she saw her father talking with a fat man in a worn white Gi. She walked through the room before heading into the kitchen were her sister was making tea.

“Hey sis, who’s the guy talking to daddy?” Nabiki inquired, trying to look uninterested.

Kasumi turned to her sister. Her face had a thoughtful expression on it.

“I’m not sure Nabiki.”

Nabiki looked back into the room where her father had started to cry again. She shook her head at that.

'Maybe he’s Ranma’s father’

000

Akane arrived at the changing area of the bathroom. She already saw Ranma’s Chinese cloths in a pile in the corner.

'Hmm she’s still in there. Maybe she won’t mind if I join her’

She started to take her gi top off.

Ranma had finally had enough of staying in the furo. It was time to sort this mess out. He rose from the water and started to step out of the furo. At that moment a very naked Akane Tendo walked into the room.

The two teens stared at one another in shock. A moment passed by. Akane started feel a little a faint and took a step forward to steady her self. Unfortunately that step landed on the black and white cat that had been lying in front of the door.

Neko yowled in pain and anger before jumping at Akane, who had just stepped of the cat’s tailed, looking even more surprised. Neko moved a lot faster than Akane had ever seen a cat move, already there were a few scratches on her arms that had come up instinctively to protect herself.

The pain from the scratches was the final straw to Akane so she turn tail and fled, not giving one thought to her current lack of cloths. Neko growled before heading after her, not quite ready to give up on punishing the one who had dared hurt his tail.

Ranma looked on as the girl and cat ran off before sighing.

“That could have gone better!”

000

The rest of the Tendo family and Genma had started to set the table when they heard shrill cries and a lot of meowing. Akane burst into the room completely naked trying to bat away Neko who was pretty much dominating the fight.

Akane quickly jumped over the table and hid behind her father.

“Daddy you have to save me!”

Neko look at his pray who had now hid herself behind that man who cried a lot. He decided against continuing the fight when he saw the number of scratches over Akane’s body. She had had enough… for now.

Soun looked behind him to find his youngest daughter crouched down, terrified. He also saw she was completely naked. Remembering his old friend was in the room he decided to be brief.

“Now Akane you know you shouldn’t be running around the house with no cloths on. I thought I only had to tell Kasumi and Nabiki of for that. Don’t tell me your starting that as well.

“Father!” “Daddy!” The two older girls said, both having the decency to blush.

Akane gawked at them before shaking her head vigoursly. Her family weren’t perverts.

“No Daddy. There was a boy in the bathroom! I was going in to take a bath.”

Nabiki looked at her sister before shaking her head. “Why didn’t you beat him up then?”

“He set that cat on me” Akane yelled pointing at the cat who sat peacefully on the floor, licking his paw.

“That’s Ranma’s cat. I hope she‘s alright!” Kasumi said, looking confused.

“I can explain” said a new voice.

Everyone in the room turned to see a young man with black hair done in a pigtail. His clothes were a red silk Chinese shirt and a pair of black kun fu trousers. The same cloths the red haired girl Ranma had on.

“Who are you?”

The young man turned his head away from them.

"Ranma Saotome. Sorry about this.”

The family waited to hear what he was next going to say but the young man kept his head turned away.

Nabiki sighed, starting to get inpatient.

"Well we’re waiting. What’s wrong?”

Ranma got an embarrassed look on his face but didn’t turn his head. He instead held out his arm and pointed towards Akane.

"Maybe she’d like to… ah put some clothes on.”

Everyone turned to Akane who seemed to just remember her not so socially acceptable appearance. She screamed, put her hands over her body to try and hide what was left of her dignity and dashed out of the room.

000

Twenty minutes later the family and guests were sitting at the table properly dressed, slightly calmer and sipping tea. Soun took I deep breath before facing his three daughters.

“Let’s try this again. This is my old friend and training partner”

“Genma Saotome.” the man said looking slightly bored with the introductions.

“And this is his son”

“Ranma Saotome.” Ranma said looking slightly more worried. He had Neko on his lap and was stroking him slowly, finding comfort from the cat’s presence like always.

Three sisters stared at Ranma. Two had confused expressions on their faced, one only glared.

“Are you really the red haired girl from earlier?” Kasumi asked trying to make sense out of this situation.

Ranma nodded to her, looking slightly embarrassed.

Genma looked at the people around him before sighing and putting on a thoughtful face.

“How to explain this?”

The man turned and grabed his son by the scruff of the neck before hurling him at the Koi pond outside. Both Ranma and Neko, who was thrown with Ranma, landed in the pond with a big splash. The cat quickly burst out of the water, yowling and hissing. Then to the Tendo’s amazement, instead of a black haired boy bursting from the water a red haired girl did.

“Hey! What was that for old man” Ranma yelled, spitting water out of her mouth as she got out of the pool.

Genma struck a dramatic pose. “Oh Ranma you shame your fatherrrrAhhhhhh!”

Genma started to scream and run around. The cat, Neko, had walked up behind Genma and bit down HARD on the soft flesh behind Genma’s leg. Neko was at the moment keeping his teeth locked on Genma as he used his claws to scratch deeper and cause more pain on the idiotic martial artist. Genma danced in pain. He tried to shake his leg to get the little monster of but it had bit down hard. He wouldn’t kick the creature because he knew that was a short path to even more pain!

“Son of a… get it of… Oww you little… someone help….”

Ranma smiled and waited for the right moment, when Genma was close enough.

“Sure Pop!” Ranma said as Genma moved close enough to the Koi pond. Ranma moved towards his father and executed a perfect leg sweep that caught Genma and sent him tumbling into the water. Neko had let go just the moment Ranma struck and to those watching the event it seemed like the two were working like some strange human/animal team.

The Tendos were even more shocked when moments later a giant Panda erupted from the water.

“Now he’s a Panda.” mumbled Kasumi, who was starting to wonder if she should have got up this morning.

“These are some strange friends you have Daddy.” Nabiki said shaking her head.

Soun put his hand to his face and started to cry openly. As usual.

“They weren’t always like this. Not until they went to Jusenkyo!”

“Jusenkyo?” Three girls looked at each other, very confused.

Ranma and Genma went on to explain their visit to the cursed pools of Jusenkyo and how they got the curses that now haunted them whenever hit by cold water.

“I wish I fell into the pool of the drowned cat.” Ranma sighed as the tale came to a close.

“What is it with you and cats?” Nabiki said, finally getting annoyed by the boy’s weird obsession. She knew that there were a few real cat lovers out there but this was ridiculous.

Genma suddenly looked very worried and started to sweat, Ranma merely looked annoyed.

“What’s wrong with cats? You got a problem with them?” The pig tailed boy said with a disapproving look.

“No but I don’t worship them either.” Nabiki retorted.

“Cats are the greatest animals on the planet.” Ranma said as if giving a speech. He held Neko close to him. "Their clever, resourceful, cunning and proud creatures. They are some of the greatest hunters to ever grace the savannah and can survive out in the wilderness or almost anywhere. They also make great companions.” Ranma finished, looking proud of himself and started to stroke Neko once more who began to purr. The rest of the Tendos looked at him, slightly uneasily.

Soun coughed before continuing. “Well none of that is either here nor there.” Soun said, putting on a big smile and grabbing Ranma, turning him to face all three Tendo sisters. “These are my daughters Kasumi age 19, Nabiki age 17 and Akane age 16. Pick one and they will be your Fiancée.”

“Huh?” Ranma said before being interrupted.

“Oh he wants Akane!” Kasumi said quickly, laying a hand on her younger sister’s shoulder. ‘

“Couldn’t agree more!” Nabiki said, pushing Akane forward.

“Huh why me?” Akane said in shock.

“Well you don’t like boys and you’ve always wanted a pet” Nabiki started smugly.

“Well you’re in luck! Ranma’s half girl and he has a pet.” Kasumi finished, looking happy with herself over.

“What did you say.” Ranma yelled annoyed.

“Well you do turn into a girl.” Kasumi shrugged, looking embarrassed.

“Not that!” Ranma growled, looking even more annoyed. “ Neko-chan is not my pet. He is free and can do whatever he wants.” Neko and Ranma both glared at Kasumi before turning their heads away from her indignantly.

“Ehhh... sorry.” Kasumi said, looking slightly confused.

“There is no way I’m marrying this pervert. He’s crazy. He talks to animals.” Akane yelled.

Ranma looked at Akane slightly hurt before letting himself get angry.

“How am I a pervert?”

“You saw me naked!” Akane pointed accusingly at Ranma.

“You walked in on me. Then you walked on Neko!”

“It was his fault for lying in front of the door!” Akane said now pointing at the cat in Ranma’s arms.

“Sis you do know your blaming an animal.” Nabiki said shaking her head.

Akane quickly realised that and stopped pointing at Neko.

“Anyway!” Akane said trying to build up her fire again. “It’s alright if a girl walks in on a boy!”

“I told you I liked my privacy so you had no right to walk in on me.” Ranma growled, now pointing at Akane.

Genma released a short laugh. “Do you see that Tendo! Their already fighting like a couple.”

Soun clapped his friend over his friend's shoulder. “Indeed Saotome. Soon the schools shall be united.”

“We are not a couple!” screamed Akane.

“You got that right!” Ranma said. “I’m out of here.”

Ranma turned and started to head towards the door.

“Were you going Ranma?!” Genma yelled getting up himself.

Ranma turned and glared at his father.

“I’m going to get some milk!”

Everyone in the room sweat dropped.

“You promised me when we got here we’d get milk and cream and tuna but I haven’t seen one drop of milk, one lick of cream, not even a fin of tuna!” Ranma yelled.

Genma stood, his jaw wide open. He seriously did not know how to reply to that.

Ranma snorted before turning back around and starting to head out again.

“By the way” Ranma said stopping at the entrance. “Why would I ever want you as my fiancé when my girl form is much better built!”

Akane growled before letting her anger run free. She grabbed the table before lifting it over her head to bring down on the cause of her current unhappiness.

Neko saw the table coming, though Ranma didn’t, and knew he too would be caught in the attack. The black and white cat let loose a frightened cry. Ranma stiffened up, hearing the cry of his friend, then his more animal instincts took over. Ranma drop the cat in his arms and whirled around.

Nabiki winced and closed her eye, waiting for the smash that came after every time her sister lost her temper. She heard the sound of wood crack, like a tree being hit by an axe. Opening her eyes, Nabiki blinked then opened them wider in shock.

In the middle of the room Akane held an edge of the table, stuck in mid strike. Ranma held the other end, a blue aura circling him. His arms held up and his hands were made into fist. The most peculiar bit was that Ranma was not touching the table. Rather three claw shaped wisps of energy, coming from each of Ranma’s fists, had pierced the table wood.

Akane look at the boy she had almost smashed. He looked different. The blue aura that encompassed him seemed to have taken the shape of a cat. His face seemed to have become more animal like in ferocity. His eyes had narrowed like a cat. For the first time in a long time Akane Tendo felt real fear looking into those cat like eyes.

Ranma growled before tossing the table out into the garden. He turned back to the others who all wisely took a step back. Ranma noticed his father had gone to cower in a corner. Ranma shook his head in disgust before looking at Akane. She looked at him with terror shining in her eyes. He walked right up to her. She hardly moved a muscle; the fear had frozen her to the spot.

“Now Listen!” Ranma growled more than said “ I don’t mind if ya take a shot at me but” he turned and pointed at Neko who seemed unchanged by Ranma’s more cat like appearance. “If ya try an hurt Neko again, you’ll have to deal with me!” Ranma let loose a roar that sounded more like something that would come from a full grown lion then a sixteen year old boy. “Ya got that!!” He looked straight at Akane, daring her to say no.

Akane quickly nodded her head without even thinking.

Ranma turned and picked up Neko, who had started to purr again. He headed towards the front door when he was stopped by a small voice.

“Ranma?” his father seemed to almost squeak.

He turned to glare at his father, who had already started to crumble under the power of that cat like glare. Ranma sniffed the air before frowning.

“I’ll come back. I just need to take a walk and clear my head.” Ranma turned and left out of the front door, carrying Neko as he went.

The room seemed to feel more empty as he left and everyone in it released a breath they didn’t realise they were holding.

Genma got up and shook his head, looking as if he always knew this was going to happen. He then let out a sigh.

“That could have gone better.” he said before grabbing the table that was outside and putting it back in the centre of the room, then sitting at it.

“He’s crazy.” Akane muttered sinking to the floor. She still had a pale look to her face and a little sweat around her brow.

“What the hell was that?!” Nabiki said more loudly, keeping more control over her emotions.

Kasumi didn’t say anything but started to quickly tidy up around her. She then went to put some tea on. She did though still have a worried look on her face.

Soun, though still worried and upset, had more of a thoughtful look on. He had seen Ki techniques like that before. Ha! At one time he had used a few. But what the boy had used had seemed more powerful, more controlled yet still quite wild. “What did the boy use Saotome. Some kind of Ki move or strange martial art?”

Akane’s head rose, a look of concentration gracing her face.

“Martial arts? That was martial arts?”

Genma looked away for a moment, weighing his option. He sighed, coming to a decision.

“You got it right Tendo. That was an exotic martial art you saw my son use.”

Soun nodded as if a given and then took a seat opposite his old training partner. The rest of the Tendos followed his lead.

Genma gaze became unfocussed for a moment before he looked at his audience. He sighed again and then started.

“What you have to understand is that my son is usually quite normal-”

Nabiki snorted, one eyebrow raise.

Genma grumbled a moment before continuing.

“Aside from the Jusenkyo curse my son is quite normal. But his nature changed quickly whenever he sees a cat getting mistreated as you just saw.”

“Why?” it was Kasumi who fielded this question.

“Many years ago, when we were still at the beginning of Ranma’s training journey I came across an old scroll that described an ancient, ultimate fighting technique. It was called the Nekoken!”

“The cat fist?” Akane asked.

“Yes. The training is simple, if touch difficult. What you have to do is dig a pit, fill it with half starved cats. Then take the trainee, wrap him in fish sausage and throw him in the pit. You repeat the process until they learn the Nekoken.”

The Tendos sat there stunned. It took them a moment to get there wits about them.

“That’s horrible!” cried both Akane and Kasumi.

“Sound crazy to me!” Nabiki said.

“How… vigorous!” Soun struggled for words.

Genma nodded to them. “ Yes. I know it sounds extreme, that’s why I was lured into training Ranma in the new Nekoken.”

“There was a new Nekoken?” Nabiki asked, looking sceptical.

Genma nodded. “Indeed. The training in the new Nekoken looked more safe but took longer to learn. At first I had great hopes for it, but seeing the results have me regretting ever starting the training.”

The Tendos shivered as Genma once again looked of into space.

000

Flashback 9 years

Genma heaved one last time and remaining house cats fell into the pit. He stood back and took a step and put his hands on his knees, trying to get his breath back after hours of scouring the surrounding area for local house cats and then digging a bit to hold them all. The sound now coming from the pit was deafening as the cats meowing had reached a crescendo. Genma turned and grabbed the large wooden lid, hauling it over the top and silencing the cats.

“Hey pop! Are you sure about this training gear?”

Genma turned around and suppressed a shudder. Standing in front of him was his seven year old son Ranma. What upset Genma was that Ranma was dressed in a child’s cat costume, particularly a girl’s cat costume, The ‘Hello kitty’ design at the front highlighting that.

“Doesn’t this look a bit girly?” Ranma asked, a cute little frown on his young face.

Genma tensed. The boy had said it. Even he noticed how feminine the costume looked. But Genma was trapped. The manual said that the trainee, in order to learn the fighting style of the cat fist, needed to look like a cat. Attachable whiskers and everything.

Genma let loose a sigh before speaking. “Just ignore it boy. It was the last one that damn costume shop had so live with it!”

Ranma blinked. Usually his father got rid of anything that Ranma brought to him that was remotely feminine, calling it a weakness. To have ignore and in fact encouraged Ranma to wear something that even he saw as ‘girly’ was a strange experience. Ranma didn’t have much of a problem with the costume. Truthfully he was enjoying himself. His favourite animals were cats and in all his young life he’d never been given the opportunity to actually dress up and pretend to be something else. Ranma was finding the ‘training’ fun so far. A switch around for what he felt of most of his pop’s training exercises.

“What’s next pops?” Ranma said enthusiastically.

Genma studied the boy a moment. ‘Was the boy having fun? Impossible! Training wasn’t meant to be fun! It was meant to be tough! That’s the main thing I remembered from my own training with the master.’ Genma shuddered as that thought led on to some rather bad memories. Genma shook himself. There was no need or want to reminisce on the past.

“The training manual now says that the trainee, you, must take the cat food we have collected and take it down to the pit filled with cats. There you must feed the cats and live in the pit until you learn the cat fist.” Genma finished reading and went through the pages, checking if he had missed anything.

“Sounds simple to me boy!” Genma barked, trying find any actual example of training in the manual.

“That sounds easy pops! I’ll learn it in no time” Ranma replied confidently before heading over to the tins of cat food they had piled next to the sealed pit.

‘It sure does’ Genma thought, trying to find the piece of information missing in the manual that actually said how you learned it. ‘Maybe the boy has to discover it himself’ he reasoned before turning to his son who had opened a few of the tins a now stood with an armful of cat food.

“Right boy, you heard the manual!” Genma barked, walking over to open the pit’s hatch “You get in that pit and feed those cat! And remember your going to be staying with them till you learned the cat fist! Also don’t slack off on the rest of your training. Keep doing your katas alright!”

“Yes sir!” Ranma nodded before walking up to the pit edge. Ranma took one last look around before hopping in to the darkness of the pit. Genma closed the hatch after hearing his son land safely. He stood for a few minutes looking around. He tried coming up with something to do. Coming up with nothing new, Genma decided to go with his old favourite, a trip to the local bar.

Ranma landed easily, his martial arts training in learning to fall coming in helpful. The young boy stood for a moment, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness. A sound from behind him made Ranma jump. Ranma knew that sound as the hiss of a cat. As Ranma turned he heard more hissing. Ranma blinked as he came face to face with a wall of cats. Their eyes glinted evilly in the dark hole they were in. Ranma gulped as he took a reflexive step backwards. The mass of cats strode forward now yowling and crying at the young boy hungrily. Ranma kept backing away, fear filling his mind. He came to a halt as his back me the wall of the pit. With nowhere else to go Ranma did the only thing he could think of. He got to his knees, held the cat food in front of him and closed his eyes. The cats upon seeing the food all roared and moved as one.

After a few minutes Ranma opened his eyes to find all the cats eating quite intently the food in his arms. Ranma dropped the food to the floor so they could get at it more easily. The cats continued to eat as Ranma watched on. A few minutes later Ranma couldn’t hold himself back any more and decided to stroke one of the cats. He put his hand out to a big white fluffy one near him. As he stroked it the big white cat let out a content purr before turning to the hand and licking it. The white cat found the hand still tasted of the food it had carried and started to lick it more enthusiastically. Ranma giggled at the feeling of the rough tongue licking his hand. He started to stroke the other cats who had finished their meal and wandered over to him. Soon all the cats in the pit were taking turns letting him pet them. Ranma smiled the whole time, enjoying the attention from his new friends.

000

End Flashback

“So your saying you just left him in a pit full of cats.” Nabiki said nonplussed, getting bored of the story. “Apart from the apparent lack of parenting, I don’t see any reason why he acts the way he does!”

Genma looked at the girl in front of him for a moment.

“I left him in there for 6 months.” Genma said, as if he was talking about the weather.

“What!” Nabiki intelligently replied, her eyes bulging.

The two other sisters looked equally shocked. Soun tried to word his apparent disbelief.

“How… How patient of you Saotome!”

Genma shrugged.

“I could have waited longer but I had gotten bored and the boy was taking too long”

‘Not to mention I had run up a tab in every bar five mile around’ Genma thought.

“Anyway, that was when I discovered that the boy had learned the Catfist. It was not a good experience.”

000

Flashback

Ranma sat down and looked around himself. For Ranma his life had improved the past few months. No getting up at the crack of dawn, no pops yelling at him all the time and no crowds of people running after him and pops, waving big clubs in the air and yelling about there money. All Ranma did now was eat, sleep, go through katas and spend time with his cat friends.

Ranma instinctively started to clean himself with his tongue and hand as he became more thoughtful.

Sure it was lonely in the pit for the first few weeks, but that was before he started to understand his feline companions. It wasn’t speaking but more a mixture of body language and feelings Ranma got from the other cats. It had started slowly. He had noticed that the big white cat, that he had named Fluffy, would always come over to him and shake his tail when he was hungry. So he’d get his father to get more cat food. After that the other cats started to come for him for food, each having their own little way telling him. Soon he could tell other things like which cats were getting along or if a cat wanted to have fun or wanted to be left alone. Soon Ranma had started to mimic them, and then he had started to come up with his own ‘cat like traits’. Stuff he would do when he was cat to tell the others how he felt. It was becoming easier to switch from cat to human, and nowadays he hardly even noticed it.

Ranma also noticed that his martial arts had developed since coming in the pit. He found he could move a lot easier in the tight space that he was in, also his movement had become a lot more free and unpredictable.

Yes! Ranma was having a good time.

This was unfortunate because it was just about to be ruined by the one man that seemed to Ranma now to ruin everything he did.

“Boy!” Genma yelled as he wrench open the wooden lid to the pit, light beaming in for the first time in hours. “This is hopeless! We’ve been here for month but you’ve shown no sign of learning this so called Nekoken! For shame!! Why was I cursed with such a useless son!”

Genma leapt into the pit and grabbed Ranma.

“I’ve had enough boy! We’re moving on.” said the bald martial artist.

“But pop!” Ranma complained, seeing his luxury paradise going down in flames before his eyes.

“No buts boy! We’re going now.” Genma tossed Ranma out of the pit, were he landed by the edge of the opening.

“Please pop!” Ranma begged. “We have to stay. My cats! We can’t leave them.”

Genma looked around at the horde of animals, they had started to claw at the edges of the pit, trying to get to Ranma, obviously already missing him. Tears started to run down little Ranma’s face as he tried to reach for his furry companion.

At the sight of tears Genma started to get worried. ‘Real men don’t cry! I have to toughen the boy up. Make sure he can’t get to attached!’

Genma reared by his foot and struck one of the cats, a small tabby. The cat howled in pain and the others scattered, trying to escape there attacker.

“Patches!” Ranma screamed. “Pop don’t!”

“Stop being weak boy! Real martial artists don’t need pets!” Genma shouted as he reared back his foot to strike again.

He was stopped by a low, bestial growl that came from above him. Looking up he saw his son glaring down at him, his body positioned in a crouch, ready to spring.

“Leave them alone!” Ranma growled out.

“Boy?” was Genma’s last word before his son pounced.

000

End Flashback

“So he learned the Nekoken?” Nabiki asked

Genma shook his head.

“In a way. But it’s useless. Ranma can only tap into the nekoken when he see’s cats being attacked. The rest of the time he just has his own natural skill, albeit quite high!”

The other Tendos digested this.

“So he is crazy!” Akane tried to confirm.

Genma shook his head again.

“No, he just has a strong affinity to cats. So just don’t do anything to cats when he’s around! Ok?” Genma looked at them all

All the Tendos nodded, agreeing to anything after remembering how frightening the pig tailed martial artist was when using the Nekoken.

Suddenly the door open in the hall outside and the very subject of there conversation walked stepped into the room.

“I’m back.” Ranma said, holding the still purring Neko-chan. “I’ve calmed down more.”

Ranma looked stonily at Akane for a moment, who tried to avoid his gaze.

“Are we staying?” Ranma asked.

“Of course!” the two fathers shouted before anyone else could have their say.

“Kasumi! Show our guests to their room.”

Kasumi exited with the two Saotome men in tow.

Nabiki looked around herself, at her still cheery father, her very shaken younger sister and her now ruined dining room table.

‘Things are going to get pretty strange round here.’

000

Omake

Soun looked behind him to find his youngest daughter crouched down, terrified. He also saw she was completely naked. Remembering his old friend was in the room he decided to be brief.

“Now Akane you know you shouldn’t be running around the house with no cloths on. I thought I only had to tell Kasumi and Nabiki off for that. Don’t tell me your starting that as well.

“Father! Don‘t be like that!” Kasumi said as she started to strip out of her house dress.

“Yeah daddy!” Nabiki added, her top already off and her shorts soon to follow. “If Akane decided to become a nudist too then all the better!”

Kasumi walked over to the stunned Akane, taking her hands.

“It’s so great you’ve decided to join our group!” Kasumi said as she waved at the sign Nabiki was hanging up over the doorway. It read ‘Nudists of Nermia’

000

End note: We now know the reason why Ranma is mostly the way he is. Next Chapter looks at what changes that