Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Paternity of a Princess ❯ Stuck ( Chapter 2 )

Paternity of a Princess

A Ranma/Sailor Moon Crossover Fanfic

By Michael A. Ivins

 

I don't own the characters of Ranma One Half or Sailor Moon, I'm just borrowing them for my own amusement and hopefully that of my readers. I make no money from doing this.

 

There are some lime bits in this story, so be warned.

 

The only time that Ranma will be male in this story will be for a part of the first chapter. For all of the rest of it she will be female so there will be no usage of “Chan” or “Onna” to differentiate between male and female Ranma. This story takes place after the end of the manga (so after the failed wedding.)

 

 

Chapter 2

Stuck!

 

At the train station Ranma got up to the ticket window and presented her money for the ticket to Nerima. The man in the booth looked at the tattered, blood stained clothing and held his hand over his phone to call security. The girl looked like she might have been the victim of a mugging or an attempted rape. He asked, “Are you alright, Miss?”

 

The redhead had expected this. She said, “The Sailor Senshi were fighting some monsters. I'm a martial artist from Nerima, so I went to help. My clothes got torn up pretty bad and I was wounded but the Senshi healed me.”

 

The man in the ticket booth looked surprised for a moment but just said “Oh,” as if “martial artist from Nerima,” explained everything. He took Ranma's money and passed the ticket over. He did advise, “The train is on the platform. They're scheduled to leave right about now, so you'd better hurry.”

 

The girl took the ticket gratefully and ran to the train. As it was she just barely got there as the doors were starting to close. She was taking a train in the afternoon so she missed the crowds of commuters. The seats were full of people out on the Sunday but there was no packed crowd of people standing. She grabbed an upright stanchion to steady herself.

 

Before the train had gone very far a man from a nearby seat had taken note of her tattered clothing and asked, “Excuse me, Miss. Are you alright?”

 

Ranma gave the brief explanation that she had given to the man in the ticket booth. Upon hearing this, the man stood and told her, “It's likely you're tired. I'm getting off at the next stop anyway. You can take my seat.”

 

On another day Ranma might have argued with this little bit of chivalry. She would have thought it was offered just because she was a girl at the moment. As things stood, she did feel tired and the seat was welcome. She thanked the man and sat down.

 

As she rode the girl fell into a sort of half doze and awoke with a start when the PA system announced her stop coming up. When she got out of the train station she noticed that the rain had either stopped or maybe it hadn't been falling in Nerima like it had in Juuban. She thought about using the restroom at the station to change to male but decided against it. Being the water magnet she was, it seemed likely she'd be female again before getting home.

 

As an alternate plan, Ranma decided to stop at the Nekohanten. Not only could she get some hot water there, she could also talk to Cologne about the odd way she was feeling since she had been healed by the Senshi. The feeling wasn't unpleasant, but was a nagging feeling that something was off or different. It almost felt as if something were missing, but she wasn't sure what.

 

Upon entering the restaurant, the door chime announced Ranma's arrival. As usual Shampoo rushed forward, ready to glomp onto her husband, but pulled up short when she noticed the girl was wearing tattered rags that barely met the standards of decency. There were recent bloodstains on the clothes.

 

It was in the lull between lunch and dinner so there were currently no customers in the place. The purple haired girl put a hand on Ranma's shoulder and held her at arms length, asking, “What happen to Airen? Was in fight?”

 

Keeping the explanation even shorter, Ranma said, “The Sailor Senshi were fighting monsters and I helped.”

 

Cologne heard this as she bounced up and said, “From your clothing and the blood on it, I'm guessing you were wounded in this fight and the Senshi healed you.”

 

“How did you…?”

 

The Elder gave Ranma a “Who do you think you're kidding?” look. She said, “It looks like claws shredded your clothing but there are no wounds visible on the exposed skin.”

 

Ranma nodded. “Yeah, that's right. I was hoping to get some hot water from you guys and I could use your restroom to change into the clothes I wore yesterday. I've got them in my pack. They aren't the cleanest, but at least they aren't all ripped up.”

 

The old woman nodded. “That sounds like a good plan. Shampoo, go get hot water from the kitchen.”

 

When the purple haired girl left, Cologne asked, “How are you feeling?”

 

“Honestly, I'm not sure,” responded the pigtailed martial artist. “I guess I lost enough blood that I passed out. Sailor Moon used some kind of magic healing on me. After I woke up from that; I've been feeling a little weird ever since. I'm tired and I guess I'm going to need to get a lot of sleep and food to build up my blood.”

 

The Elder pursed her lips in thought. After a moment she said, “Yes, rest and food are a good start. Tell me if you can describe this `weirdness' you mentioned.”

 

“I'm not sure if I can,” Ranma replied. “It's doesn't hurt or make me dizzy or anything like that. It like being aware of something missing without knowing what.”

 

At that moment Shampoo returned from the kitchen with a kettle. Ranma took the kettle from the Amazon warrior and poured some of the water on her head. Other than getting wet, nothing happened.

 

The redhead felt a moment of panic but controlled it with an effort. She had been locked before, and it had always been temporary. She asked, “Could that magic healing have locked my curse?”

 

The Elder was peering at the young Saotome intently. After a few moments of this she said, “I don't want to say anything until I have tested you thoroughly. Shampoo, fetch my magic testing kit from the office.”

 

While Shampoo was getting the kit Cologne said, “Mousse has gone back to the village for a little while to visit with his parents. Hopefully they will be able to talk him out of his obsession over Shampoo, but I have my doubts.”

 

When the Amazon warrior came back she was carrying what looked like an old style doctor's bag in black leather. From this bag the Elder pulled out a wooden rack into which she placed glass vials that looked like test tubes. She also got out several bottles of various liquids and small packets of various other things.

 

From a drawstring pouch she pulled out a crystal that was oval in shape, about half the length of Ranma's palm, flat on one side and faceted on the other. She handed this to Shampoo and in the warrior's hand the crystal glowed with a bright blue light. When Cologne nodded in satisfaction, Shampoo handed the crystal back to the elder.

 

Next the old woman handed the crystal to Ranma. In the Saotome girl's hand the crystal glowed with a soft light that was white, almost silver in color. The old Amazon looked in a book and jotted notes on a notepad in precise Chinese characters.

 

She had Ranma touch a strip of pink paper to her tongue and noted the color it changed to after comparing it to a color chart. She put a strand of Ranma's hair and a nail clipping into two of the glass vials. To those she added clear liquids and made notes about the kind of reaction that happened and the color the liquid turned.

 

With a pin, the Elder pricked the tip of one of Ranma's fingers and had the girl place drops of blood on each of four pieces of test paper and one into each of two more vials. She jotted notes on the results of each of those tests. She added different clear liquids to the blood samples in the vials

 

The last thing she did was to pull out what looked like a peculiar pair of glasses that were designed to let one place extra lenses in the frames. The Elder put lenses in them and looked Ranma over intently then made more notes. She changed the lenses and looked some more.

 

Finally the elder went over the notes she had taken and used them to look up information in the same book she had looked in before. She seemed to be making some kind of calculations based on the notes but eventually set her pen aside and interlaced her fingers and sat as if trying to think of how to phrase what she wanted to say.

 

Growing impatient, Ranma demanded, “Well, out with it! Is my curse locked?”

The old woman took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. Finally she said, “It's not locked, it's gone.”

 

The girl frowned and demanded, “What do you mean, gone? Gone, like in cured?”

 

Cologne made a helpless gesture with her hands. “The magic used on you had to have been very powerful to overcome a Jusenkyo curse. It did something that I would have believed impossible. In the process of curing you of your curse, the magic also made your cursed form your real form, your natural form.”

 

Ranma closed her eyes tightly for a moment. “I think I understand what you're saying but I really hope I'm wrong. Please tell me that I'll still change with water. I could stand changing into a guy with cold water and a girl with hot.”

 

“I'm sorry, that's not the case.”

 

The girl grit her teeth for a moment before asking, “What about my male form?”

 

“I don't know,” the old woman confessed, shaking her head. “Like the curse, it is gone. It may be destroyed or the word `dead' may even apply to it. I can find no trace of your male form.”

 

Stunned, Ranma didn't reply. After giving the girl a chance to absorb that, the Elder continued, “You test as a normal female. The tests I gave you are not as comprehensive as the ones you could get from a doctor using a medical lab, but for what I'm looking for, they're good enough. Your body tests as if you were born female and were that way for all of your life.”

 

A thought seemed to occur to her as she looked at her notes. “When I say `all your life' the results of the tests show your current body to be about 15 or 16 years old and just over your period. That means you will have another period in about three to three and a half weeks. I would guess that before your female form was closer to 13 years old.”

 

“My girl form was younger than my guy form?” Ranma wasn't sure what to think of that.

 

The elder nodded. “You looked older because of your well developed bosom. Some girls do develop early like that.”

 

Cologne was looking Ranma up and down. “Stand up,” she ordered.

 

When Ranma was standing, Cologne told Shampoo to stand next to her. “As I thought, you look to be about nine to ten centimeters taller. In addition to your body aging a little you also grew. You were rather small before, so that's probably all to the good. You would be about average or a little tall for a Japanese girl.”

 

She paused before going on. “Of the curse magic there is no trace, but I do find there is still some magic on you. I think it is some kind of protective spell, possibly to prevent you from ever being cursed like that again. There is also a trace of other magic on you but that is very old and bonded to your soul. I think it is a carry-over from a previous lifetime. Whether that has any relevance to your current life, I don't know.”

 

Ranma considered that. After a moment she said, “So, are you saying that I couldn't even go back to being half-and-half by dunking in Naniichuan?”

 

The old woman shook her head. “I'm saying that I don't know. However, that is something that we can test. I don't have any Naniichuan water here with me, but I do have some packets of the instant.” She pulled a sealed foil packet from the leather bag.

 

Ranma took the packet from her and looked at it. She'd seen them before. She asked, “Is this a real one and not one of the fakes that Shampoo used before?”

 

“It's real,” The elder assured.

 

The red haired girl shrugged. “It's worth a try, I guess.”

 

She took the packet and followed the Amazons up the stairs to the bathroom. It was a typical Japanese style bathing room complete with furo. The tub was empty at the moment but that wasn't what Ranma needed.

 

Cologne said, “We'll give you some privacy. We'll be in the bedroom across the hall.”

 

When they were gone the girl dropped her pack and stripped out of the tattered remnants of her clothing. She emptied the contents of the Instant Naniichuan powder packet into a bucket of cold water. She used the handle of a back scrubber brush to stir the water in the bucket. When she was ready she stood over the drain in the floor and dumped the contents of the bucket over her head.

 

With eyes closed, Ranma stepped over to where the mirror was. When she opened her eyes she saw the same cute girl's face and red hair. The same busty figure was reflected in the mirror. She felt black despair trying overwhelm her. No! She wasn't going to give in like that. There were things she needed to do.

 

She finished washing and put on the spare outfit from her pack. It was dark pants and an orange shirt. After drying her hair and re-braiding her pigtail, she left the bathroom and knocked on the door of the bedroom across the hall.

 

Shampoo opened the door but didn't say anything. Ranma was still a girl so obviously, the instant Naniichuan water didn't work.

 

Cologne nodded. “I feared as much. You would appear to be immune now to the magic of Jusenkyo. I think it would be safe to say that you could not get any curse from any of the springs now. Unless some other kind of magic works on you, the way you are now is the way you will stay other than normal aging.”

 

“What does this do to the Kiss of Marriage?” Ranma asked.

 

The elder shook her head. “While the laws of our tribe do recognize and allow for same-sex marriages, such a union wouldn't produce no children and negates the goal of bringing your blood into the tribe. I doubt you would have any desire to get married to one of our men.”

 

The redhead shuddered.

 

“I thought not,” confirmed the elder. “In my capacity as a matriarch of the Joketsuzou Amazon tribe I now declare that the Kiss of Marriage is revoked.”

 

“Great Grandmother, no!” Shampoo protested. “Shampoo love Airen. Still willing to marry even if girl forever.”

 

Under normal circumstances, Ranma would be afraid of hurting the feelings of the other girl. Right at the moment she was emotionally numb and didn't care. She said, “Shampoo, give it up. I don't love you; I don't even like you. How could you expect me to love someone who tried so hard to kill me?”

 

“That was mistake. Shampoo not know…”

 

“That I was a man?” Ranma interrupted. “Well guess what - I'm not a man anymore. If you are going to reinstate the original Kiss of Death, I think it would be a kindness.”

 

With a sob the purple haired girl ran from the room.

 

The old woman shook her head. “No, the Kiss of Death was revoked when it was discovered that you were a man. I let you think it was still in force so you would be more motivated to marry my Great Granddaughter. We can't reinstate it now without a full vote of the council and by law such a vote must be unanimous. I can guarantee that it would not be.”

 

The redhead let out a sigh. “If that's your final word on it then I'll have to make other arrangements. I have some duties to take care of first, then I'm ending it.”

 

Now alarmed Cologne asked, “Is it your intention to kill yourself?”

 

Bitterly the girl said, “What else is left for me. If I'm not Saotome Ranma, man among men, then who am I? I'm just a girl who doesn't even know how to be a girl. I'm a freak and a pervert and the world would be better off without me in it.”

 

The elder shook her head. “I can't argue the point about having been a freak. That was true before, but it is true no more. As to not knowing how to be a girl, you could learn. I'm sure Shampoo would be willing to help teach you, as I believe the Tendo girls would also help. You were never a pervert and Tendo Akane was wrong to call you one. If anything you were a bit too innocent in such matters.

 

She paused a moment and asked, “What were the duties you spoke of?”

 

“I need to resolve the engagements,” explained Ranma. “You already got me started on that with Shampoo. Now I need to break it off with Akane and Ukyo and try to get the Kuno siblings to accept it.”

 

Frowning, Cologne said, “I was under the impression that there was no formal arrangement with either of the Kunos.”

 

Ranma nodded. “I know that and so do you. They don't. Both of them seem to believe I have declared my love for them. When I tell Kodachi that Ranma is dead, she's likely to try and kill me. Even if I do want to die, I'm going to make her work for it.”

 

“I see,” said the Elder. “And were there any other duties you must perform?”

 

“Yes!” Ranma affirmed. “Even though I'm sure Sailor Moon removed my curse because she thought she was helping me, she still screwed up. I'm going to find her and tell her that because of her actions a man is now dead and a woman soon will be. For someone who claims to fight for love and justice, I'm sure that will be a lot worse punishment than if I killed her.”

 

The old woman shook her head. “You are a fine person with a great deal of potential, regardless of your gender. I would hate to see that potential go to waste. Know this: I will not help you end your life but neither will I stand in your way. I will try to persuade you to continue living, but if I were to come upon you with the knife in your hand, I would not try to wrestle it from you.”

 

The redhead bowed her head and said, “Thank you. I'd better go now. I still have to get back to the Tendos and tell them about what happened. I just hope my Pop doesn't try to insist on the `joining of the schools' even with this change.”

 

With a frown the Elder asked, “How would such a thing be possible now?”

 

With a grim expression, the girl said, “He could insist that I marry Tendo Soun.”

 

“Ah!” The old woman nodded. “I can well imagine how distasteful you might find such a thing.”

 

“Distasteful?” Ranma considered the word. “Yeah! It would be that.” She left the room and headed for the stairs.

 

She stopped long enough to borrow the telephone to call the Dojo. She told Kasumi that something major had happened and to please gather all of the family for when she got there.

 

A relatively short while later Ranma walked into the living room where the family was gathered, including Genma. Per instructions given over the phone, Kasumi did bring a kettle of hot water.

 

Genma demanded, “What's this all about, boy?”

 

Giving the man a long-suffering look, Ranma took the kettle and poured some of the hot water over her head.

 

There was a storm of words that came forth from the watching family members. Ranma let them go for a moment before holding up her arms with hands held out to indicate a request for silence.

 

When silence finally fell, Ranma said, “I'm stuck as a girl and this time it's not just the curse being locked.”

 

This elicited a storm of comment but this time Ranma shouted them down. “I've got things to say and I'd like it if you'd let me finish before interrupting.”

 

When the others fell silent again she said, “I was heading to the train station from Mom's house when I stumbled on a battle the Sailor Senshi were having with some monsters.”

 

She glared at the group to keep them quiet. “Yes, Akane, I met Sailor Moon, your hero and idol. I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this but your idol is a human being who can make mistakes.”

 

“What do you mean?” demanded the youngest Tendo.

 

“I mean she made a big mistake with me,” Ranma fired back. “In the battle I was wounded pretty bad. I tried to tell them that I could heal myself, but passed out. In proper heroic fashion, she healed me. If it was just my wounds she healed that would have been fine, but she also tried to cure my curse without asking what the magic on me was or what it did.”

 

The redhead sighed deeply. “I don't know how she did it, but Sailor Moon cured the curse but kept me female.”

 

“Cured the curse?” For once Ranma was glad her father had such a one track mind. He had latched onto that one fact and conveniently ignored the rest of what Ranma had said.

 

To bad she would have to bring this back to the level of reality. In tones dripping with sarcasm, Ranma said, “Yep, that's right. Sailor Moon can cure Jusenkyo curses. Why don't you go look her up and ask her to cure yours?”

 

She let him smile in contemplation of that for a moment before she continued, “There's just one little problem with that. Sailor Moon is a superhero with a secret identity. It's not like you can just look her up in the phone book. Before you can ask her, you have to find her. Maybe you could go to Juuban and hunt up some monsters. She'd be sure to come to fight them. That's if the monsters don't kill you while you're waiting for her to show up.”

 

She stopped but muttered a bit. Finally, “This is serious, Pop. Like in `the schools will never be joined' serious. If I'm permanently a girl I can't marry Akane or any other girl. The only way the schools could be joined is if I get married to a guy and one of my kids marries one of their kids.” She made a gesture to indicate all of the Tendo daughters.

 

Getting himself back to the present, the Saotome patriarch said, “Well, there is an alternative…”

 

“Stop right there!” Ranma yelled. Before her father could go any further, she said, “If you were going to suggest that I get married to Mr. Tendo, you can just forget it. I'm not doing it. Nothing against you personally, Mr. Tendo, but I don't want to be married to you.”

 

“But honor demands…” the elder Saotome began in his usual pontificating manner.

 

Ranma cut him off. “Don't you talk to me about honor. For you honor is whatever is to your advantage right now. Before honor demanded that I marry Akane, now you say it demands I marry her father. Ten minutes from now some guy could walk in off the street and say you promised your daughter to him in marriage to settle up a bar tab and you'd say honor demanded I marry him. You've played the honor card too many times. It doesn't mean anything any more.”

 

“How dare you say honor has no meaning,” Genma declaimed. “Ungrateful child! You will marry Soun to satisfy family honor.”

 

For once Tendo Soun was able to show some backbone. He said, “Saotome, stop! What makes you think I even want to get married again? You're suggesting that I get married to a girl less than half my age. After living with him… her in this house for the last two years it would feel like marrying one of my own daughters.

 

“But Tendo, the agreement…”

 

Ranma interrupted again, “Or the agreement could end with my death.”

 

All eyes now fixed on the redhead. The bald martial artist demanded, “Your death? What nonsense are you talking about?”

 

“You raised me to be a `man among men',” Ranma replied. “I can't be that anymore. You raised me to value honor when you don't. Should I look forward to marrying some man and being the mother of children when the very thought has been one of my worst nightmares since getting the curse. Once the engagements are settled I have one duty left then I will commit seppuku.”

 

“What duty? What are you talking about?” The elder Saotome sputtered.

 

With a grim expression the red haired girl said, “Sailor Moon is a hero and did to me what she did for undoubted heroic reasons. Even so, by her actions a man is effectively dead. I will search for her and when I find her I will tell her of how badly she screwed up and then I will kill myself in front of her so she may suffer the guilt and shame for what she did to me.”

 

There was a chorus of protests against this. It seemed that nobody wanted to see Ranma dead. She was strangely unmoved by it.

 

Genma said, “Don't take that attitude boy. You must do your duty to family honor.”

Ranma shook her head. “You don't get it, do you Pop? You're still calling me `boy.' I'm not a boy and I'm not your son anymore. I'm one of those weak, silly women you're always talking about. You have a daughter now. Everything has changed and you keep telling me what to do like everything was still the same. Wake up to what's going on.”

 

She paused but only for a moment. “Your son is gone, effectively dead. Your daughter is going to be dead pretty soon so you need to start thinking about what you're going to do for an heir to your school. Since mom can't have any more kids I guess you'll have to adopt someone. It would probably be best if you get a kid who already had some martial arts training so you don't have to start from scratch.”

 

Finally seeing that bullying tactics were not working, Genma tried a different approach. “Son… Uh, Ranma? Is there any way I can talk you out of killing yourself?”

 

The girl cocked her head at and angle and said, “You can try. But you're going to have to come up with some new arguments. I'm not really going to pay attention to any of the old ones. You've used all of them so often they don't mean anything anymore.”

 

She turned away from her father with an expression of disgust. She said, “I need to call mom and tell her what happened.”

 

A short while later Nodoka was saying, “Ranma, I wasn't expecting to hear from you so soon after you left this afternoon.”

 

Ranma explained, “Something happened on my way to the train station.”

 

“Were you involved in that monster battle of the Senshi's that was just on the news?” The Saotome matriarch wasn't too worried. Ranma couldn't have been too badly wounded or she wouldn't be talking on the phone.

 

“Yeah Mom, I was in that battle,” Ranma confirmed. “It was what happened after the battle that I'm calling to tell you about.”

 

“What happened?” Something in Ranma's tone was enough warn Nodoka that something was wrong.

 

The girl replied, “Sailor Moon made a mistake when she healed me. She probably thought she was helping. She removed the magic of the curse but kept me female. Because of her your son is gone, effectively dead. I can't change anymore. You only have a daughter left.”

 

There was the sound like a sob then, “No! The gods couldn't be so cruel to take my son from me so soon after finding him again. Please tell me this is one of those temporary locks on the curse that you've told me about before.”

 

With a deep sigh, Ranma answered, “I wish I could. The elder of the Amazons I told you about tested me and she says there is no trace of my male form left. It's gone, erased. I couldn't even get cursed again to be half-and-half because I'm now immune to Jusenkyo magic.”

 

Sounding fearful the older woman asked, “What will you do now?”

The girl sighed again. “I had finally got to where I was willing to accept both forms as being part of myself. If someone had offered me a cure to the curse I'm pretty sure I would have refused it. All Sailor Moon had to do was ask me about it, and I would have told her not to remove the curse. Now a man is dead because of her actions.”

 

She paused and said, “I have to get the engagements settled. Once I've done that I'm going to track Sailor Moon down and commit seppuku in front of her so she can feel the horror, shame and guilt of killing an innocent, one who was only trying to help her.”

 

There was silence on the line for a good long time. It lasted long enough Ranma prompted, “Mom?”

 

Nodoka finally answered, “That is a rather extreme solution to your situation. I can understand your reasoning, but I hope you will keep an open mind on this. Life as a woman is not so terrible a thing. You've survived so much, I'm sure that with your abilities you would not only survive as a woman, but thrive.”

 

Why was everyone opposing her on this? Ranma said, “I'll try to keep an open mind. Likely it'll take a while to track down the Sailor Senshi. I'll give it that long. I still want to give that woman a piece of my mind even if I don't end my life.”

 

“Yes, I can agree with that,” The older Saotome woman said. “She needs to learn that taking actions like she did, even if for the best intentions, can have devastating results. Ah head of Clan Saotome I will officially end all engagements and so record it on the clan register.”

 

As a thought occurred to her Nodoka asked, “Are you absolutely sure there is no way to restore your manhood?”

 

The red haired girl took a deep breath then let out in a long sigh. “The only one who can answer that question is Sailor Moon. She did this to me and she's likely the only one who could reverse it. I'm not too confident that she can.”

 

“Why wouldn't she be able to undo what she did?”

 

The young Saotome girl explained, “Sailor Moon is younger than I am. When they were fighting I got the strong feeling that they were making stuff up as they went. If she really knew what she was doing when she removed the curse, I'd be surprised. I'd be even more surprised if she knows how to reverse it.”

 

Nodoka paused for a moment to think. “Very well, for the moment we will have to work with the assumption that this is permanent. It will be necessary to establish a new identity for you as a woman. I'm not sure how to approach it. I could try to tell the government that your birth records were in error and you were really a girl to start with.”

 

Ranma thought about it and said, “We could say that Pop wanted a boy and had the records changed to show me as male. We could say he raised me as a boy since that part is true.”

 

“That might work,” the Saotome matriarch acknowledged.

 

The red haired girl suggested, “Maybe Nabiki can do something. She has contacts everywhere.”

 

The elder Saotome woman said, “Yes, talk to her. I believe that we would need to get you to a doctor so they can do an examination and can then state with certainty that you are a woman and not a man.”

 

“Yeah, we can work on that tomorrow. I'm too tired to think that hard right now. Uh… Mom, could I move in with you?” Ranma asked.

 

“I'd love to have you live here,” the mother said. “But what brought this on?”

 

Ranma sighed. “It's Pop. He's being an idiot.”

 

“What did he do now?”

 

“He's pulling the same kind of stuff he always does,” Ranma explained. “When he heard that I'm stuck as a girl he started on the whole `schools must be joined' thing and said that honor demanded that I marry Mr. Tendo.”

 

Nodoka was shocked. “He demanded that you marry a man more than twice your age?”

 

“Yeah,” Ranma affirmed. “Mr. Tendo surprised me. He said no, he didn't want to get married again, at least not to me. He said that after me living in his home for two years it would feel like marrying one of his own daughters.”

 

“Good for him!” Nodoka approved.

 

The older Saotome woman then said, “The agreement doesn't even require that the joining of the families must be in your generation.”

 

“What?”

 

Nodoka explained, “After learning that I was pregnant with you, Genma and Soun went out for drinks to celebrate. When your father got back he told me of the agreement that he and Soun made while they were toasting each other. Soun's wife had become pregnant about three months before I did.”

 

“After Genma sobered up and told me about it, I had to try to talk some sense into him,” Nodoka related. “I pointed out that neither Kimiko or I knew the sex of our babies. If we both had girls, the agreement would never work. So the agreement was modified to say that if a marriage were impossible because of incompatible gender of the children, the obligation would fall to the next generation. In other words one of your children would be honor bound to marry one of the children of Akane, Nabiki or Kasumi.”

 

“Well, the genders are definitely incompatible now,” Ranma observed. “I still want to be away from Pop. The way he treated me when I was a guy was bad enough, now that I'm a `weak, silly girl,' I don't feel like I can live with it.”

 

They talked about arrangements to move Ranma and get her registered with Juuban high school then ended the call after that. Ranma went up to the guest bedroom and gathered her stuff. When she came back down the stairs Genma spotted her and demanded, “What are you doing?”

The red haired girl responded, “I'm going to sleep in the dojo. It's probably not a good idea for a girl to be sharing a room with her father.”

 

“Are you implying that I would molest my own flesh and blood?” Genma asked.

 

Kasumi came to the rescue. “She's right. Even if you don't intend to do anything, it is improper for her to sleep in the same room as you. I didn't say anything about it before when Ranma was a girl only half the time but it really wasn't proper even then.”

 

Ranma bowed her head and said, “Thank you Kasumi.”

The eldest Tendo daughter said, “I don't know if sleeping in the dojo is the best solution, though. It puts you fairly far from toilet facilities. I'll tell you what, for tonight you can put your futon in my room or at least until we can work out a more permanent solution.”

 

The young Saotome girl bowed and thanked Kasumi again and headed back up the stairs to Kasumi's room. Akane followed, her expression looking like she was trying to decide something. After setting up the futon, the redhead turned to the other girl and asked in a neutral tone, “Did you want something?”

Appearing to come to a decision the dark haired girl said, “Hi, I'm Akane. Do you want to be friends?”

 

Ranma expression softened at this repetition of the greeting that Akane had given on the first day they'd met. She actually smiled as she said, “Thanks for trying to cheer me up, Akane.”

“Is it working?” Akane asked.

 

The redhead nodded. “You know when I first came here I wasn't looking for a fiancé, that was Pop's idea. I would have been happy with just a friend.”

 

The raven haired girl nodded. “I think I understand that now. Even though I don't really want you to die, I'm not going to try to talk you out of it. I do say that if you ever have any questions or need help coping with being a girl, I'll give what help I can. Kasumi will too.”

 

Ranma let out an amused snort. “I'll bet even Nabiki would help… for a fee.”

 

“Oneechan isn't that bad,” Akane protested.

 

In sad tones, the young Saotome said, “Isn't she? Even when she took over the engagement for a while and claimed to love me she was just looking for a way to earn some yen off me.”

 

Akane shook her head. Part of her felt she should be offended by what Ranma was saying but the pain in her expression, the utter dejection in her tone made it hard to be angry with the redhead. Ranma was really hurting. Akane tried, “I'm pretty sure not even Nabiki wants you dead.”

 

“Maybe not.” Ranma thought, “Of course, she wouldn't want to lose such a great source of income.”

 

Their conversation was interrupted when Kasumi announced that dinner was ready. They went down the stairs with Akane wondering what she could do to convince Ranma that living as a woman wasn't so bad.

 

Author's Note: I'm not too sure how good I am at writing angst. Let me know. Oh BTW this is going to be a “Ranma in a Sailor fuku” story eventually. She will be Sailor Terra, the Senshi of Earth.

 

This started out as a writer's block story to work on after I ran out of ideas on another story. I now have three stories that are partially finished as well as ideas for a couple more. I'm going to post the first two chapters of each of the three stories and the reviews I get will help me decide which one to concentrate my efforts on finishing first.