Philip Hacker wrote:

Here is the other Ranma/Futaba-kun fusion that I promised.

Same mistake as before.  You are still copying the original action and 
dialogue in the story you are altering.  Don't write scenes you aren't 
going to change and stop and think whether a reaction makes sense under 
the altered circumstances.

prohackr@hotmail.com

Question: What if the Tendous were related to the Shimerus?

Akane-chan Change

written by Phil Hacker

Chapter I: An Unlikely Match

**********

Soun Tendou strained to keep himself calm as he once again read the
telegram that had just arrived. It read:

DEAR TENDOU STOP BRINGING RANMA FROM CHINA STOP
SHOULD ARRIVE TONIGHT STOP SAOTOME

This was wonderful news. After all these years he would finally get to
see his dear friend Saotome. He had to tell the children at once.

"Listen up! Kasumi! Nabiki! Akane! Futaba!"

There was no response. He would have to track them down himself.

***

First stop was the kitchen. Kasumi was there, getting an early start on
supper.

"Kasumi?"

Kasumi looked up from her cooking. "What is it, Father?"

***

Soun opened the door to Nabiki's room. Sure enough, she was lying on
her bed, reading a manga and sucking on a popsicle.

"Nabiki!"

"Hm?" Nabiki looked up at her father.

***

Akane and Futaba, however, were not in their rooms, nor could Soun
find them anywhere in the house.

"Where are those two?" he asked himself.

***

The two children in question were, at that moment, sparring in the dojo.

"Ready?" asked Futaba.

"Ready," his cousin replied.

They charged at each other and briefly exchanged blows before breaking
off to reengage. Futaba had tagged Akane's shoulder, but Akane had
struck him squarely in the stomach. They were fairly evenly matched:
while Akane was somewhat more experienced, they were closely
matched in strength, though Futaba had the advantage in speed.

This went on for several minutes until both teens collapsed on the floor
in an exhausted heap. They lay still for another minute, then Akane sat
up groggily.

"Whew. That felt good," she said.

"I'll getcha next time," Futaba responded, also sitting up.

"Yeah, you and what-" Akane was cut off by the sound of applause
coming from the door.

"Very good, you two. With the way you get along with Futaba, I'm
surprised that you keep saying that you hate boys so much, Akane,"
Nabiki said.

"Futaba's not a boy, he's family," Akane snapped.

"Whatever. Anyway, I came out here to tell you two that Daddy's got
something important he wants to tell us."

***

"A fiance?"

"Yes," Soun replied. "He's the son of a friend of mine. If one of you
three girls were to marry him and carry on this dojo, then the Tendou
family legacy would be secured. His name is Ranma Saotome."

"Wait a minute!" Akane interrupted. "I don't remember any Saotomes in
the tribal list of families. Are they new?"

"Actually, no. You see, my friend's family is not of our tribe."

This elicited a gasp from all four children.

"You mean he's an outsider?" Kasumi asked. What was strange was not
that their father had arranged a marriage for them; that was common
enough among the members of their tribe, but for the marriage of one of
the tribe to an outsider being encouraged by the parents of both was
almost unheard of.

"She's right, Daddy," said Nabiki. "There's no way any of us could
marry an outsider boy. Futaba, on the other hand..."

"No way!" Futaba exclaimed.

Coming from anyone not of their tribe, this conversation would seem
utterly insane, but it made perfect sense to them. The people of the

Don't explain it to us.  Explain it to Ranma and let us listen.  We can 
wait for his arrival.  

Shimeru tribe had a most unusual genetic quirk which made it necessary
for them to inbreed if they were to reproduce at all. Whenever a member
of the tribe became excessively tense or excited, he or she would change
into the opposite sex, and be unable to change back without first
calming down. Every member of the tribe had it, starting at puberty,
though this still didn't prevent the occasional outside marriage. Thus,
there were several subfamilies in the tribe, each with a different
surname, but only the Shimeru family, of which Futaba was a member,
had no patrilineal outsider ancestor.

Then of course there's the Shima family.  

"Well, you're not marrying me to any foolish outsider!" asserted
Kasumi. She folded her arms across her chest.

A little too belligerent for Kasumi.  "I'm sorry, Father, but this 
doesn't seem likely to work." is more her speed.  

"Don't worry," Soun assured. "I'm sure that everything will turn out
just
fine."

***

Several spectators stared at a redheaded teenaged girl being pursued
down the street by an angry panda. After all, it wasn't something that

Delete this scene.  We've seen it before, so many times, starting with 
the original.  The only reason to write is to establish a difference 
between the alternate continuity and the original, and there is no 
difference here.

***

"Ranma and his father have been on a long training mission," continued
Soun. "Recently, they crossed into China.

"Cool!" said Futaba. "I've always wanted to go there."

"Big deal," said Akane. "He's still just a Normal."

The Shimeru would be more likely to refer to non-Shimeru as "Outsiders" 
or something.  "Normal" would mean something very different to them.

"What's he look like?" asked Kasumi.

"Is his family rich, or important or something?" asked Nabiki. If their
father wanted one of them to marry an outsider, there had to be
*something* to gain from it.

"What's Ranma like, anyway?" Kasumi and Nabiki asked in unison.

"I don't know," admitted Soun.

"You don't know?" Nabiki repeated.

"I've never met him."

'Oh, please. I don't believe this,' though Akane.

There came a noise from the front door.

"Leggo, you old fool!" a girl's voice shouted. "I told you: I want no
part
in any of your insane schemes! Now put me down!"

"We have visitors!" Kasumi exclaimed.

"It must be them!" Straining to contain the tension lest she change,
Nabiki stood up and rushed to the door.

"Saotome, my friend! We've been waiting!" Soun rushed after her.

A few seconds later they came running back, panicked. Nabiki had
finally lost control, and had immediately changed to her male form.

Immediately behind them was a large panda, carrying a rather small
redheaded girl slung over its shoulder.

"Cut it out!" the girl screamed, pounding the panda. "You're scaring
them!"

"Whoa, it's a panda!" exclaimed Futaba.

"So, this is your friend?" asked Kasumi.

Soun shook his head.

Soun should probably be a woman the moment he hears the knock since he's 
really excited about Genma and Ranma's arrival.  Kasumi and Akane 
responded to the situation more calmly and would be able to stay female. 
 

"Oh, so this panda just decided to drop in, is that it?" Nabiki-kun
demanded.

The panda deposited its passenger in front of Soun.

"You...wouldn't be...?" Soun asked, hopefully.

"I'm Ranma Saotome," the girl said in a small voice. "Sorry 'bout this."

"Oooh, she *is* cute," remarked Nabiki-kun.

Barely able to contain his excitement, Soun embraced the new arrival.
After releasing her, he quickly ran out of the room. A loud, feminine
whoop was heard from the hall.

Futaba approached Ranma. "I'm Futaba Shimeru. Pleased to meet you.
You'll have to forgive Uncle Soun. He can get a little...emotional at
times."

'What's going on here?' Ranma wondered. 'Weren't they expecting a
boy? And why is that tall guy with the pageboy haircut looking at me
like that?' Realization of one possible explanation hit her. Maybe 

Nabiki would probably have a different hairstyle, likely a shorter one.
In any case it wouldn't be called a pageboy style when worn by a boy.  

they

*hadn't* been expecting a boy. 'No! Pop couldn't've-I mean, really!'
She shivered involuntarily.

"Why don't we go out in the dojo while everybody calms down. You do
Kempo, right?" Futaba asked.

"Well...yeah." Was he trying to make a pass at her? She hoped not.

"Well then, why don't we spar a little?" Futaba offered.

"Uh, okay," she said nervously.

Big mistake here, if you intend Ranma to end up with Akane.  That 
initial bonding helped lay the groundwork for their relationship.  

Akane grabbed Futaba as they left the room. "What do you think you're
doing?" she whispered harshly. "We don't even know yet whether
Ranma's one of us or just a Normal girl."

"What harm could a little sparring match do?" Futaba asked.

"You know you can't control your excitement during a fight. You could
leak our whole secret."

"I think you've got me confused with yourself. Besides, from what
Uncle Soun says, the engagement will stand no matter what. Ranma'll
have to know sooner or later."

"There's no way I'm going to marry some Normal, you got that?!"
Akane shook Futaba.

"Okay, okay. Forget I even brought it up. If you're really worried then
come watch us. Besides, until we can get her calm, we won't know for
sure if she's a Normal or one of us."

"Well, all right," Akane conceded.

"Come on." Futaba motioned for Ranma to follow them as they headed
for the dojo.

"Let's see just how good you are." Futaba took a defensive stance.

Ranma also took a defensive stance. For several minutes, Akane
watched as neither opponent moved. Finally, Futaba decided to break
the deadlock. He charged at Ranma and launched several punches at
Ranma that held the potential to disable her...had they connected. To

Wrong.  With a totally unknown martial artist, the first few blows 
wouldn't be that dangerous in a sparring match.  Futaba might hurt her 
if her skills turn out to be second-rate, and he doesn't want to do 
that.  

Futaba's surprise, Ranma was dodging every blow, sometimes by scant
millimeters.

For Futaba, who prided himself on his speed, this was maddening. He
brought a deeper level of concentration into play in an effort to keep
from changing. As a by-product of their ability to change genders when
excited, the people of the Shimeru tribe had developed great powers of
concentration in an attempt to control the change. A Shimeru who had
mastered all of the techniques could control the change in most
situations. It was too bad that few ever reached that level.

Futaba pressed his attack, but remained unable to connect. Ranma, on
the other hand, had already tagged him lightly in several spots on his
chest and shoulders.

Akane watched their fight intently. It was obvious that Ranma had
superior speed and skill, but she seemed a bit off balance, almost as
though she were used to having greater reach and power. It sort of
reminded her of herself when she first started changing, only in
reverse.
Maybe Ranma really *was* one of them...

'Okay, time to get real,' Futaba thought. He drew back a few paces, then
charged straight at Ranma.

Ranma, of course, saw him coming long before he could connect. She
leaped over Futaba's head and landed softly behind him. Just as she
reached out to tag him on the back of his head, he jerked his elbow
backwards to strike her solidly in the stomach. Ranma went sprawling
backward onto the floor.

Futaba isn't that good.  Not if he's evenly matched with Akane.  Ranma 
would _not_ be trying to tag Futaba, but would go ahead and punch him, 
because Futaba is appearing as a boy.  

"Hey, you're pretty good," Futaba said as he helped her to her feet.

"You're not bad yourself," replied Ranma, smiling. "You just gotta work
a bit more on that speed."

"It's nice to have somebody around who can keep up with me," said
Futaba.

"Oh? And what about me?" Akane asked, incredulous.

"In your dreams, Akane."

"Well, you'd just better watch your back the next time we spar," said
Akane. "I'm going to check on everyone. See you." She quickly left the
dojo.

"Strange girl," Ranma commented.

"She's always like that." Futaba sniffed the air. "Phew. Maybe you
should take a bath. You've been on the road all day, haven't you?"

"Well...yeah," Ranma admitted. "But, really-"

"Go on. It's not like a little hot water's going to hurt you or
anything."

Ranma saw that arguing would get her nowhere. Besides, it was only a
bath. What could go wrong?

***

Nabiki stuck her head into the kitchen. "Hey, Kasumi, Who's that old
guy with Dad?"

"I don't know," replied Kasumi. "Maybe a friend of Father's."

Nabiki opened the refrigerator and came out with a bottle of cola. "If
you say so."

"Oh, could you tell Akane that she can go take her bath now?"

"Okay."

***

'What am I gonna do?' Ranma thought as he relaxed in the bathtub.
'Man, what a crazy family. They didn't seem worried at all that I was a
girl, even though Pop definitely said that he wanted me to marry one of
his friend's daughters. That Futaba guy seems okay, and maybe that
younger girl with the long dark hair. What was her name again? Akane?

'Well, they're bound to find out sooner or later. I guess I may as well
just go out like this.' He rose from the tub.

***

Akane locked the bathroom door and began to undress. Failing to notice
the red shirt in the laundry, she grabbed a towel and slid open the door
to the bath.

What she wasn't prepared for was the sight of a strange, naked boy
standing in the bathtub. She stared at him for a few seconds. Then, she
calmly slid the door shut, put her clothes back on, and exited the bath.

As soon as the outer door to the bath was closed, she let her anxiety
wash over her. Snapping almost instantly into her male form, he
screamed as loud as he could and began running down the hall.

Uh-hunh.  Why didn't Akane just say, "Ranma, is that you?  Sorry, I'll 
wait until you're done."?  Relaxing in a hot bath is exactly
when you would expect a nervous Shimeru to revert back to his base 
gender.  The obvious conclusion, seeing a strange boy in the bath who 
looks like the girl that one of them is supposed to marry, is a sigh of 
relief that he's one of the Tribe after all.  

Running into the livingroom, he immediately grabbed the dining table
and held it over his head. Soun and the man with him were barely able
to remove their drinks from the table's surface in time.

"I'll drown him in the bathtub!" Akane-kun screamed.

"Huh? What's all the excitement? Futaba asked, running down the
stairs.

"There's a pervert in the bathroom!"

"So why didn't you just clobber him?" asked Nabiki.

"Because I got scared, okay?"

"Um, excuse me," a male voice said.

Everyone turned to see a young man wearing a red Chinese-style shirt.

"Who are you?" asked Nabiki.

"I'm, uh, Ranma Saotome. Sorry 'bout this."

Ranma was confused as the others' expressions changed from ones of
confusion to ones of realization. He had expected them to become even
more confused when he explained who he was. Were they all insane?

***

Genma surveyed the room. Everyone had calmed down after the initial
confusion, and were now seated in a circle in the livingroom. Akane had
returned to the room after a short absence to calm down and revert to
her normal form. Simply not being excited wasn't enough; to change
back one had to actually relax. Still, she still seemed a bit angry.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Genma Saotome. This is my
son..." Genma gestured.

"Ranma," Ranma concluded.

Nabiki was the first to speak. "So, we finally get to meet the male
Ranma."

"But I thought Father said that he wasn't-" Kasumi began.

"Don't worry, girls. My friend Saotome has taken care of everything."

"Indeed," said Genma. "Watch." Grabbing Ranma by the shirt, he
heaved him through the open screen doors into the koi pond.

"Whadja do that for?!" Ranma-chan shouted when she surfaced.

"So I see," observed Nabiki.

Futaba was wondering how exactly Ranma was able to change. From
what his uncle was saying, Ranma was an outsider, so he shouldn't be
able to. It *was* possible to induce changing in someone without the
genetic trait through a transfusion of large amounts of Shimeru blood or
bone marrow, but even that would wear off after a couple of months.

That isn't actually true, you know.  E-mail me if you don't know why and 
want the spoiler.

"What?!" Realization began to sink in. "If you want me to marry one of
them...and they all change sexes when excited...then *that* means that
I'M SUPPOSED TO BE A MOTHER?!?!!" She grabbed Genma and
hoisted him by his shirt. "Tell me this is all a joke Old Man," she
growled, hatred in her eyes.

"Um, well...no, it isn't."

"Wrong answer!" Ranma-chan threw her father into the koi pond.

Everyone stared as Ranma-chan and the panda began fighting again.

"Well, you have to admit," Kasumi said, "Ranma *did* grow up
expecting to be male all the time. This must really be a shock for him"

Soun poured scalding water onto the panda from a teakettle. "However,
hot water changes you back to normal."

Impossible.  The panda is in the Koi pond.  

"Well, it needn't be quite *that* hot, Tendou," said a slightly burned
Genma.

Soun next approached Ranma-chan. "When doused with cold water,
you become a girl, but hot water turns you back into a boy." He tried to
pour the scalding water onto her as well, but she dodged it.

"Hot water, not boiling!"

"Everything should work out just fine," said Soun. "Here are my eldest
daughter, Kasumi, nineteen, my middle daughter, Nabiki, seventeen, and
my youngest daughter, Akane, sixteen. Pick whichever one you want,
and she'll be your fiancee."

"Father, there's no way I'm marrying an outsider, especially one who's
so much younger than me," said Kasumi.

"You know," said Nabiki, "maybe we should pair him up with Akane."

Why does she say that?  The original Nabiki dumped the engagement on 
Akane because she wasn't thrilled about the idea of marrying the freak.
Losing that problem, why does she want to lose her chance of marrying a 
really cute girl?  Uh...boy.  No...girl.  Boy?

"What?!" Akane demanded. "Why me?"

"Well, you both love martial arts, and this would be the perfect excuse
for getting rid of all of those boys at school," said Nabiki.

"You must be joking! Why don't we give him to Futaba?"

"No thanks," said Futaba. "Besides, the agreement was to match Ranma
with one of the children of Soun Tendou."

"There's no way I'm marrying that perverted Normal!"

"Who're you calling a pervert?!" Ranma-chan demanded. "And what the
hell's a Normal?!"

"You are. You saw me in the nude, you letch!"

"Wait a second! *You* walked in on *me*!"

"How was I supposed to know you were in there?!"

Well, for one thing, he put out the sign that said "occupied".  Akane 
ignored it because she "knew" it was a girl in there.  

"How was *I* supposed to know your whole family'd be a bunch of
freaks?! I never wanted to be a girl, or to marry any of you!!"

"See? They're already acting like a perfect couple!" Soun laughed.

"We are not a couple; we're fighting!" Akane snapped. "Anyway, I
refuse to marry someone like you!"

"Goodbye!" Ranma-chan turned to leave.

"Ranma, just where do you think you're going?" Genma demanded.

"To find a way to get rid of this stupid curse," Ranma-chan replied. She
turned back to face Akane. "By the way, you took a pretty good look at
me, too. Besides, if I wanted to see a girl's body, I'd go look at
myself.
I've seen that plenty of times. And I'm better built, to boot." She
began
laughing

Akane finally released what was left of her weakening control over her
anger. He looked around for something heavy to clobber Ranma-chan
with. The table was handy, so he brought it crashing down onto her
head.

This whole exchange is so...perfunctory.  In reality, Ranma would be 
calling the Tendos "freaks" and getting clobbered for it, not running 
throught the motions of a previous self who was in a very different 
situation.  

Remember:  When the situation changes, so must the dialogue and 
characterisation to match.  

"Ranma deserved that," observed Genma.

"Now that, he had coming" was funnier.  

***

Ranma-chan awoke to find Kasumi and Nabiki leaning over her.

"You'll have to forgive Akane. She's usually very sweet, but today's
been kind of hectic, and when that happens, she tends to become very
violent."

"Oh, good, Kasumi. That makes *lots* of sense," said Nabiki.

***

Akane-kun scowled as he finished toweling himself off. 'Make a fool of
me, eh? That...that...NORMAL!"

As he headed out of the bath, he came face-to-face with Ranma-chan.
Actually, more like face-to-chest, since Ranma-chan was about twenty
centimeters shorter than he was, but it was the same thing. He noticed
that she was just as naked as he was.

"I, um...that is..."

"Why, you...!" Akane-kun reached back and slapped Ranma-across the
face.

<Sigh>  It doesn't work. 

***

"But you were the boy this time," Futaba insisted. "Doesn't that make
you even?"

"Hmph!" Akane turned her back on her cousin.

"So she's got spunk," said Genma. "That just makes her even more
cute."

"'Cute' is not the word," Ranma said. "Nope, she's definitely not
'cute'."

[End Chapter I]

**********

Now, I guess it's time for me to explain a few things.

Of the three Tendou daughters, Kasumi is the least openly prejudiced
against "normals" (anyone who can't change), Nabiki sees them as
something to exploit for fun and profit, and Akane is the most openly
hostile. It's basically a form of racism, and we will see Akane applying
the label "Normal" to Ranma much as Takahashi's Akane uses the term
"pervert". This will force Ranma and Akane apart a bit more early on.
At the same time, Soun and Genma will be pushing them together a bit
harder, since the whole point of Ranma's curse is to make him into
acceptable marriage material.

There is no way that this Akane is getting together with Ranma.  Not 
ever.  It's impossible.  You haven't laid _any_ groundwork for an 
affection between them.  They shouldn't even be engaged at all.  Ranma 
should be engaged to Nabiki.  Nabiki likes his looks, (both of them), 
and isn't a bigot.  Further, logically it's Ranma who should have have 
the tolerance problem.  Further "Normal" is a really pathetic insult.  
Would you want to punch out someone for calling you normal?  

Why does Futaba live at the Tendou Dojo, you ask? In this continuity,
his father is actively pursuing his career as an idol singer and found
himself unable to raise Futaba on his own upon the death of Futaba's
mother (who did not die in normal FKC continuity). Since Soun is the
next of kin, he is charged with taking care of Futaba. Yes, we will also
be seeing Futana, who has now graduated high school and is living on
her own, and there will be some references to Misaki (all of the FKC
stories save for the last chapter are assumed to have happened already,
although Soun frowns upon Futaba pursuing a Normal. Futaba's
relationship with Misaki also means that he lacks the prejudice against
Normals that Akane displays). I added Futaba and Futana to add more
weight to the Futaba-kun elements, and to have someone who would be
a little friendlier to Ranma early on.

BTW: Most of the Ranma 1/2 plot threads are intact. These include
Ryouga, Shampoo, Happousai, and Ukyou, whom Genma engaged to
Ranma before he found out about Jusenkyou.

Please tell me what you think of the story so far.

Phil

prohackr@hotmail.com

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