Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ The Adventures of Jusenkyo Man ❯ Chapter 1

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

The Adventures of Jusenkyo Man

or

More evidence that Lord Raa should be sectioned?


Disclaim-me-do: I think you all know how this works by now. This is _a_ continuation of "Unexpected Effect," but not necessarily the only way I could be continue that crazy idea. If anybody wants to continue that, drop me a line contact details are at the bottom.


**********


For reference:

“Blergen” = Japanese.

“{Quartz}” = Foreign language.

[Yedden] = Panda sign or other written note.

‘I wonder if there’s any jam left’ = thoughts.

*BLAMMO* = Sound effects.


**********


Ranma had been plagued by bizarre dreams for the past few days. It was beginning to take its toll on his ability to fend off the girls. 'When did Kasumi start having such naughty thoughts?' he asked himself.

Luckily, he managed to convince them to leave him alone when he was using the facilities.
Ranma was leaving the toilet when he was bathed in a yellow light.

“What’s happening?”

Nodoka came running to the room. “Ranma!”

“Mom!” Ranma shouted back. “Stay back, I don’t know what’s happening to me.”

When the pigtailed martial artist disappeared, there was a brilliant flash and a blast of heat.


**********


“Where am I?”

“You are in a holding cell. What is your name?”

“Ranma Saotome. And you are?”

“I was designated Jenny. Ranma Saotome, I have some bad new; the biosphere your home planet has been destroyed in a meteor shower.”

“What? When did that happen?”

“Moments after I brought you here. Do you know why you are here?”

Ranma thought for a moment. “This doesn’t have anything to do with a crazy dream I had yesterday, does it?”

“That was not just a dream. You are the last hope for humanity.”

“But my planet was destroyed…”

“That was an attempt to kill _you_. Remember that there are an infinite number of universes?”

Ranma nodded.

“Several of them are devoid of human life. This in itself is not unexpected. The conditions for the evolution of Homo sapiens do not appear in every universe. The Flid have started to kill all humans. It would seem logical that you hold the key to defeating it.”

“Mankind or me?”

“Both. With your physical skills and newfound abilities, you make an excellent champion for you race. Human tenacity and ingenuity are marvelled when ever they are encountered and you have never been known to give up.”

“Hang on, I remember that someone said something about me being the _last_ Ranma Saotome. How can that be if there are multiple universes?”

“The threat you pose has been removed from the rest of them, either as a child or through the many challenges you faced as you became an adult. In some of the timelines, your ancestors were sterilised to prevent the right combination of DNA creating you. You are the last Ranma Saotome that can stop the elimination of the human race.”

“And just why should I believe you?”

Jenny opened the door to the cell. “Follow the lights to the briefing room. There you will see the remains of your home and what has been done to humankind in other timelines.”

“What are you?”

“I am an artificial intelligence. My mission is to ensure your participation.”


***********


After viewing the video of the timeline where the Mongol invasion had been successful and the island nation of Japan pillaged, Ranma asked Jenny, “is that all the proof you have? It’s not terribly convincing.”

“Here is what’s left of your Japan.”

Ranma stared open mouthed at the new coastline. It surrounded Mt Fuji.

“T-that’s my Japan?”

“Yes. Here is the timeline where alien contact was unopposed.”

Ranma turned pale when he saw translucent skinned people harvesting the local population for organs. “How did that one come about?”

“The heroes in that timeline were sabotaged during their early days and as such proved to be insufficient. You seem a bit saddened.”

“Of course I am! I mean humans there are being harvested like daikon radishes. What can I do to help?”

“I need to do a full set of examinations on you.”

Taking a deep breath, Ranma acquiesed. “Ok. Lead the way.”


**********


Jenny performed her automated scans on Ranma. It was true that he was in fine physical condition, but his mental health was much more troubling to the AI.

“Ranma, I need you to sit in this chair and wear the headset by the console.”

“What does it do?”

“For want of a better term, it is a teaching machine.”

Ranma did not look impressed at Jenny’s assessment of his intellect.

Jenny had a feeling that this Ranma might be one of the more arrogant ones. “I will be able to correct many of your deficiencies, would you like to be free of the Neko-ken?”

“What are the side-effects of using this machine?” Ranma’s recently found reasoning abilities made themselves known.

“Behaviour that you would have considered erratic,” Jenny answered, glad that Ranma was not the idiot she feared him to be.


**********


Six hours later, Jenny stopped the teaching machine. “Ranma, it is time for you to take a break and eat something.”

“Yeah, I’m feeling a bit drained.”

Sitting down to his meal of synthetic protein and carbohydrates, Ranma looked at the mess hall. “So, where is the rest of the crew? This is a big ship.”

“At the moment, the crew consists of you.”

“Did they die in a horrific computer related accident?” Ranma asked with a hint of humour in his voice.

“No. The Flid attacked when the ship was still in dry-dock. I escaped during the raid with only a skeleton crew aboard. Upon contacting the home world, we found that the Flid were exterminating us one outpost at a time. 25000 years ago, the Flid caused massive radiation contamination and killed most of the crew. I had to keep the survivors in cryogenic sleep until the radiation had subsided to safe levels.”

“That sucks. What about the last of them?”

“They died on the mission that generated your abilities. They were vaporised by high energy particle weapons.”

“That definitely sucks. Well, I’m done eating. What am I going to learn next?”

“You are scheduled to learn about advanced nano-mechanics and quantum physics. Tomorrow I will brief you on the basics of dimensional and temporal travel.”


**********


After the briefing on dimensional and temporal procedure, Ranma looked out of the window.

The patterns in the walls of the different realities were soothing and hypnotic. They were also strangely disturbing in an “I am somewhere, but I’m nowhere” sort of way.

“Ranma.”

“Yeah?”

“You are not comfortable with what I’ve asked of you, are you?”

“Not really,” Ranma sighed.

“I understand. I realise that a lot has been asked of you, especially since you’ve just had major upheaval in your life.”

“You could put it that way. Tell me about the Flid, why do they want to kill all humans?”

“It is not yet known.”

“Any idea what it is that we do that causes them so much trouble? I mean do they have some kind of allergic reaction to us? Did we drink the last of their booze? Did we leave the toilet seat up once too often?”

Jenny laughed at Ranma’s flippant and irrepressable attitude. “The most likely theory is that something that happens in the future and with the advent of time travel, humans eradicate all trace of the threat.”

Ranma nodded. “This temporal mechanics lark makes my head hurt. I liked it better when my life was simple, you know: getting married to four girls in a legally and morally dubious arrangement, a job doing highly dangerous and exciting tasks for the government and god-like powers that enabled me to do anything I needed to save the day. Oh and let’s not forget the psychotics out for my blood and the insane martial arts disciplines that found their way to me.”

Jenny laughed again. “I saw that. Did you know that Kasumi Tendo was the most perverted of all those girls?”

Ranma shook his head.

“Some of her day-dreams about you were worthy of the finest erotic literature. Anais Nin had nothing on Kasumi.”

Ranma blinked at that piece of information. “How long were you watching me?”

“Since your new powers manifested themselves. It was necessary to be sure that you had the right combination of characteristics needed to perform this task. You are not the first Ranma I’ve been assigned to recruit, nor the most powerful, but you are the last hope to save countless trillions of lives.”

Ranma turned to the window. “Just how am I supposed to do that?”

“You help out certain individuals and organisations. You ensure that they accomplish certain things. In one universe it could be as simple as helping a boy train for his school sports team. Others could be ‘kill this monster’ or ‘destroy that asteroid.’”

“How will I know what to do? I mean you’re not all knowing otherwise you would still have a crew.”

“That is true. But I am constantly improving myself with each repair and upgrade that gets performed. I am able to scan timelines for the necessary events and trace them back to which person starts the ball rolling, as it were.”

“How?” Ranma turned away from the window.

“It requires a complicated series of calculations and analysis of that timelines historical events. Some things will lead to others, for example the development of the internal combustion engine will usually give rise to heavier than air flight. But sometimes the atmospheric conditions do not allow for flight.”

“Oh.”

“Ranma, you should know that you will see those that you lost again. But they will not be exactly the same as you remember them. They will have different memories and experiences these will make them different people.”

“In other words, take nothing for granted and rely on myself when I’m on the mission. How will we know which reality to visit next? Or if we need to revisit them?”

“The Flid have a unique signature, we will be able to detect their presence. Unfortunately their appearance is varies from reality to reality. No two Flid specimens from parallel universes look alike.”

“That would explain why you’ve not shown me any images of them. By the way, what is this ship called? You never told me its name.”

“To tell you the truth, the ship was never officially named. We were attacked after a shakedown cruise, so the serial Number of JDE-739IKH was all it had. Though I believe the last of the crew were thinking of naming it the Jade Falcon.

“Jade Falcon? I like it.”

“Ranma,” Jenny began in a tone that meant bad news was coming.

“Yes?”

“Do you understand that you may have to allow people to die?”

Ranma turned back to the window. “I thought that my job was to keep the human race alive?”

“It is. I want you to understand that there _will_ be hard choices for you on the mission. You will have to go with your instinct on those. I trust your feelings, so should you."

Ranma snorted in derision. "My instincts told me to choose okonomiyaki over Ucchan. They told me to eat the winner's feast in Shampoo's village."

"But your combat intuition is excellent. With some training from me, it will be beyond reproach. You are a good man, Ranma Saotome, and you will save countless lives."

"I guess you're right.

I will not always be able to advise you on the mission. Sometimes due to technical issues – communications could be disrupted because of atmospheric conditions, others because cellular telephones haven’t been invented in that timeline yet.”

"That sucks. Will I at least have a vague idea about what I'll be doing before I land?"

"Yes!" Jenny insisted.

"Sorry, it's just that random things happen to me all the time. I'd like to know what I'm supposed to do from time to time."

"Oh, I know that. Some of your missions will be blindingly obvious: keep hitting the bad things until they stop working."

"That I can handle," Ranma chuckled. "What's first on our list?"

"There are some girls that are reincarnated warrior princesses trying to create a utopian paradise for the betterment of humanity in their timeline. Though I should point out that a couple of them seem a bit love-starved."


**********



To be continued....?




Yeah, I'm a tease and dangerously insane, but you all still love me anyway.


At least enough to give a burning sensation when I urinate.


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