No Need for Ranma! Prologue, part b

	Genma stood in the midst of a whirlwind as his wife got the 
house ready for a visit from her sister Achika and her family.  The 
plan had originally included the Tendos as well, but they had to 
cancel at the last moment.  He didn't think that Nodoka needed to 
be this frantic, the house had looked spotless before she started, but 
he knew that it was a wasted effort to try to convince her of it.  
Nodoka would not be satisfied until the house was perfect.  It was, 
after all, the first time Achika would visit the new Saotome home.
	"I'll just go out back and train the boy," Genma said a bit 
nervously as he inched to the door before his wife could find yet 
another way he could help in her quest to eradicate all signs of dust 
and dirt.  Ranma had been smart enough to hide in his room.
	"I don't think that's a very good idea, husband," Nodoka 
told him without looking up from her cleaning.  "Why don't you 
and Ranma take a nice bath so you'll be ready for when everyone 
gets here?"
	"But they're not going to arrive for another hour and a half 
at least.  Still have enough time to get some training in and have a 
bath."
	"Husband," Nodoka said with a slight edge to his voice.
	Genma bowed to the inevitable.  "Yes, dear," he said and 
went off to find the boy so they could have their bath.
	Unknown to Genma, one of the reasons that Nodoka was 
being so determined in her cleaning is that her sister had recently 
taken ill and she didn't want anything to be around to aggravate her 
condition.  She had tried to talk Achika out of coming, since they 
could just have it next week when she was feeling better, but her 
sister wouldn't hear of it.  She wanted to see how Nodoka was 
doing and Tenchi was eager to meet his cousin Ranma. It was an 
odd coincidence that Soun's wife had gotten ill a little before and 
was now unfit to travel, which is why the Tendos had to cancel.

	"Who's coming over, pops?" six year old Ranma asked his 
father as they both sat in the furo.  Genma was currently planning 
to stay right where he was until just before the guests arrived.  He 
made sure not to run the bath too hot for just that reason.
	"Weren't you paying attention to what your mother was 
telling you yesterday over dinner?"  Genma asked.
	"Course not, gotta keep you from stealing my food!" 
Ranma accused his father and laughed.  "What did she say?"
	Genma laughed a little too.  It had been a stroke of 
brilliance for him to disguise martial arts training as games.  He 
knew that chopsticks duels over meals was one of Ranma's 
favorites.  Genma made sure not to steal too much of his son's 
food.
	"Do you remember you Aunt Achika and Uncle 
Nobuyuki?"
	Ranma shook his head.
	Genma realized then that Ranma had only been a baby 
when they had visited the Masaki house.  Even though they lived 
near one another, the Saotome and Masaki families were rarely 
able to get together.  This was only partially due to a certain father-
in-law.
	"Well, they're going to be paying us a visit.  They're also 
bringing their son Tenchi, who is about your age."
	Ranma though about it.  It would be cool to have someone 
around who was his own age.  He loved his parents, but he always 
dreamed of having a brother or sister.  'A cousin is almost a 
brother,' he reasoned.
	Despite how well Genma and Ranma had made sure to 
clean up and dress, Nodoka was unsatisfied.  It was ten minutes of 
washing noses, behind ears, and adjusting clothes before she would 
declare them presentable.  The doorbell rang only a few minutes 
later.

	"Hi, I'm your cousin Ranma," said the pig-tailed boy.
	The shy boy smiled a little and replied, "I'm Tenchi."
	Ranma grabbed his cousin's hand and said, "Come on, let's 
go play!"
	Before he could utter a word of protest, Tenchi was 
dragged out into the backyard.  The adults all laughed as they 
watched Ranma show off his martial arts training while keeping up 
a excited monologue for the befuddled Tenchi.
	"I have a feeling that the two of them are going to be 
friends for a long, long time," Achika commented.

***

        The Saotome family was staying with the Tendos through
their time of grief.  Genma went to comfort his old friend Soun,
who had just lost his wife.  Nodoka went to comfort the three
Tendo sisters who were now without a mother, something that
Mrs. Saotome was all too familiar with.
        Ranma went along with them.  He was six and everything
new was exciting to him.  He ran ahead of his parents and right
into the dojo.  He looked around himself in awe.  It was the first
time he'd ever been in such a place, but his Pop talked about them
sometimes.
        Then he noticed a girl about his own age there, with short,
blue-black hair and a pale yellow gi.
        She turned from looking up at the family alter to face him,
having heard him come in.  "Who are you?" the girl asked.
        "I'm Ranma Saotome and I'm gonna practice here."  That
was what his father had told him on the way there at least.
        "You can't!  This dojo belongs to me, Akane Tendo.
Mamma gave it to me!" she practically screamed.
        "I can practice here if I want to!" Ranma answered, who
didn't like anyone telling him what he could and couldn't do.
        "No you can't!"
        "Yes, I can."
        "Can not."
        "Can too."
        "Can not!"
        "Oh yeah?  Well, you can't stop me!"
        "Can too!  I'm gonna beat you up!"
        And then the two six-year olds began to fight with skill that
would have been surprising in kids twice their age.  In the end,
Ranma won, pinning Akane to the ground by sitting on her.  He
sat, smugly surveying the dojo, until Akane began to cry.
        "What are you doing?" Ranma told her.  "Be a man!"  It
was what his father always told him whenever he cried.
        "I'm a girl, you baka!" Akane screamed at him through her
tears, kicking her legs in the air in a futile attempt at escape.
        Ranma practically leapt off of Akane then.  'Oh no, mom is
going to punish me good about this.  She's always telling me to
never, ever use what I learned on a girl 'cause she doesn't want me
ending up like the guy who taught my pop.'
        "Are you sure you're a girl?" Ranma asked.
        "Of course I'm sure, baka!" Akane shouted back.  She had
stopped crying and sat up.  She wanted to beat the boy up some
more, but she was still a little too sore from their earlier fight.
        "How was I supposed to know that?  You look just like a
boy!"  It was all this stupid girl's fault he was going to get
punished by not dressing like a girl.
        "What did you say?" Akane asked in a much calmer and
colder tone of voice.
        Ranma failed to notice her tone.  "I just said that you look
just like a boy."
        Unknown to Ranma, Akane had recently started elementary
school and the one thing that got her really mad was the way
everyone, even the teacher, mistook her for a boy because of her
short hair.
        "Die, Ranma!" she shouted and leapt for him.  Soon they
were fighting in earnest again.
        The two kids were unaware of their respective fathers now
watching from the doorway.  Genma had been trying in vain to
find some way to snap his old friend out of his depression, who
seemed intent on either wailing or sobbing.  Tendo had been a bit
emotional before and Genma could understand the depth of his
loss, but this was a tad ridiculous.  He had gone out in search of his
son to show Soun what he'd been teaching the boy, and so walked
in on the middle of Ranma and Akane's second brawl.
        "See how well they get along, Tendo?  And they only just
met!  The Tendo and Saotome families are sure to be joined."
        "My little Akane is going to be a bride! Waaaah!"
        Genma shook his head.  'Was there anything that could stop
his friend from crying?'

	"Ouch."
	Kasumi had been looking for Ranma, since Mrs. Saotome 
had asked her to, when she heard a boy's voice come from the dojo.  
She went there to find Ranma nursing a bump on his head, she 
absently noted a few other bruises and scrapes.
	"Ranma," she called out to him.
	He looked up in surprise.  "Kasumi, right?"  They had been 
introduced when Ranma had arrived yesterday, but he didn't really 
remember it that clearly.
	Kasumi nodded.  "What happened to you, Ranma?"
	Ranma laughed a bit nervously and said, "Just sparring with 
my pop."
	"But I was sure that I saw your father go with my father to 
celebrate something.  That was some time ago.  Have they come 
back already?"
	Ranma decided to just tell the truth.  He was no good at 
lying anyway.  "Okay, I was kinda fighting with Akane."
	"Oh, that's wonderful!"
	"It is?" Ranma said with some surprise.
	"Oh, yes.  Akane has been needing someone to spar with, to 
help her control her temper.  She's been much worse since . . . well, 
you know.  Father won't spar with her anymore, so it's good for 
Akane to have someone she can work off her anger with."
	"I don't know about that," Ranma said sheepishly.  Akane 
always seemed angrier after their fights than before.
	"I'll go get your mother so she can tend your injuries.  She 
sent me to find you anyway."
	"No, don't!" Ranma called out to her as she began to walk 
away.
	Kasumi stopped and turned back around.  "Why not?"
	"Cause my mom will punish me if she finds out that I've 
been fighting girls.  You can't let her find out."
	Kasumi thought about this for a few moments, being more 
thoughtful than most nine year olds.  She hated the idea of lying to 
anyone, especially a person as nice as Mrs. Saotome, but Ranma 
seemed convinced that she would be against their sparring.  Akane 
had been acting better lately, and now Kasumi knew why.  
Fighting with Ranma seemed to be her little sister's way of coping 
with their loss.  In short, Akane needed to fight Ranma and there 
was a good chance that Mrs. Saotome would put a stop to it if she 
ever found out.
	"All right, I won't tell her.  I want you to lie down on one of 
the mats over there."
	"Huh? Why?"
	Kasumi opened up the first aid kit that her father had put in 
the dojo and took out some things that she was going to need. She 
wasn't entirely sure of what she was doing, but she had seen a 
doctor take care of her family's martial arts related injuries several
times.  Someone needed to take care of Ranma if they were going 
to keep this a secret from Mrs. Saotome.
	"Thank you," Ranma said with a small bow after she had 
finished taking care of his injuries.
	Kasumi smiled a little.  "You're welcome."

	Ranma had been staying at the Tendo Dojo for five days, 
and every day Akane would challenge him to a fight to prove that 
he didn't have the right to practice in the dojo.  Ranma didn't want 
to fight a girl, but Akane gave him no choice.  It never occurred to 
either of them that Ranma got all the practicing he needed with her 
daily challenges.
	Nodoka was currently unaware of her son's sudden rivalry 
since she was much too busy with the older Tendo girls, Kasumi 
and Nabiki.  Kasumi was very interested in cooking as well as 
medicine.  Nodoka had been helping Kasumi prepare all of the 
meals and showing her what she knew about first aid. Little did 
Mrs. Saotome know that Kasumi had been using her teachings on 
the latter to tend to Akane and Ranma.
	Nabiki, however, had no interest in that 'girlie' stuff, as she 
saw it, but was very intrigued by the fact that it was the woman's 
traditional role to manage the finances of the house.  The middle 
Tendo sister had always enjoyed using her brain and it seemed to 
her that trying to earn money was a game that was both fun and 
challenging.
	Nodoka sat in the living room with Kasumi and Nabiki.  
She was showing the former how to mend clothes, while 
instructing the latter on the finer points of managing one's finances.  
Personally, she thought that both daughters were a bit too young to 
be worrying about such things, but they seemed genuinely 
interested and it kept their minds from their grief for at least a little 
while.
	Suddenly, she was distracted from her thoughts by the 
sound of a loud splash coming from the koi pond.
	A little before this, Ranma and Akane had been brawling in 
the dojo.  Nodoka wasn't concerned for either of them because she 
didn't know about their fighting and her husband had assured her 
that he'd watch out for both of them.  While Genma had been 
unreliable in the past, he had shown to be serious about helping out 
Soun and his family.  Genma had been watching their matches, if 
just to gage the boy's skills against a somewhat lesser opponent.  
This time, however, he had decided that they would be fine left 
alone and took Soun to get a little drink.
	The 'sparring' matches between Ranma and Akane were 
normally confined to the dojo, but due to one of them forgetting to 
shut the door, the fight soon spilled over to the lawn.  Ranma and 
Akane were too focused on 'sparring' to notice their change in 
surroundings, until they both ended up in the koi pond.
	Nodoka rushed outside and was shocked to see Ranma and 
Akane bruised, dirty, and dripping wet.  Despite all this, they were 
still fighting. There was also no sign of Genma or Soun anywhere.
	"Just what is going on here?" Nodoka shouted.
	That stopped their conflict immediately.  Ranma, feeling 
bad for doing something his mom had told him not to, tried to hide 
behind Akane.  He ended up slipping back into the pond though.
	"Ranma, what did I tell you about fighting girls?"
	"But Mom, Akane started it."
	"Did not!"
	"Did too!"
	"Did --"
	"I don't care who started it!  This is going to stop right here 
and now!  Am I clear?"
	Both children had their heads bowed and answered at the 
same time.  "Yes."
	"Good.  Akane, why don't you go in and take a bath?  I 
need to talk to my son privately for a few moments."  Nodoka 
failed to realize that her hand was resting on the hilt of her
katana.  The children noticed though.  Ranma gulped and Akane 
fled into the house.
	"Now what were you doing fighting with a girl when I told 
you not to?"  Nodoka asked her son as soon as Akane had left.
	"Jeez Mom, I was just sparring with Akane, sort of like I do 
with pop."  Though Ranma had been resistant the entire time due 
to his mother's disapproval, he actually looked forward to him and 
Akane's daily matches.  They were fun, and him and Akane kind of 
had a good friendship going.  It was like what he had with his 
cousin Tenchi, only different at the same time.
	"First of all, what you and your father do is closer to real 
fighting than sparring and Akane is still a girl regardless."
	"Mom, it's not like Akane is a real girl."
	"What do you mean by that?"
	"Well, she isn't like Kasumi.  Akane acts and dresses like a 
boy all the time."
	"That may be so, but that doesn't change the fact that she is 
a girl.  Now I don't want you fighting with her again, is that clear?"
	"Yes, Mom," Ranma answered reluctantly.
	"Now, why don't you go inside and take a bath once Akane 
is done with hers."
	Ranma nodded and ran inside.  Nodoka's fingers idly 
tapped on the hilt of her katana as she planned to have some words 
with her husband.

***

	After coming home from their extended stay at the Tendos, 
Genma had convinced Nodoka that he should take a short training 
trip alone with the boy.  She eventually agreed and he might have 
extended it by ten years if it wasn't for Nodoka's promise to send 
her father after them if they were late.  Genma shivered; only the 
master could equal the level of fear that Katsuhito inspired in him.  
It was a wonder that he'd had the courage to go against him and 
marry Nodoka in the first place.
	A few days later, and away from the diet that Nodoka had 
been imposing on him, Genma was starting to feel that he hadn't 
brought nearly enough food to last him and the boy for a month.  
Luck was with him when he spotted an okonomiyaki cart.  He 
didn't have enough yen for the both of them, but he did have a 
plan.
	"Ranma my boy, would you like to play a game?"
	"Wow, a game!" little Ranma enthused.  His dad always 
came up with the best games.
	"Do you see that okonomiyaki cart over there?"
	The boy nodded.
	"Well, if you manage to take one of the okonomiyaki 
without them catching you, then it's free!  Doesn't that sound like 
fun?"
	Ranma nodded again and was off in a flash to begin the 
game.
	Mr. Kuonji smiled as his daughter assisted him in tending 
to the eager customers of his cart.  Things just couldn't be better.  
Their cart was doing great, Ukyo was picking up on the family 
business much quicker than expected, and best of all, he almost 
had enough saved to open his own restaurant.
	Ukyo smiled along with her father.  Working as a chef was 
so much fun that it didn't matter that no one at school could 
understand why she did it.  She dreamed of a day when she'd have 
her own cart to tour around Japan with, selling warm okonomiyaki 
to the eager customers.  She was so caught up in this dream that it 
was a few moments before she realized that the okonomiyaki she 
had been working on was missing.
	"What?" Ukyo said as she looked all around, her eyes 
finally resting on a boy in a dirty gi, half eaten okonomiyaki in his 
mouth.
	"You!" Ukyo yelled and ran after him, waving her spatulas 
in the air like weapons.
	Ranma, being mindful of not getting caught, executed the 
Saotome Final Attack as he father had shown him.  In other words, 
he ran.

	"Wait," Ranma said just before they started fighting.  Ukyo 
had finally managed to catch him.  Ranma was a fast runner, but 
Ukyo knew the area much better than he did.
	After his experience with Akane, he had learned not to 
always judge a book by its cover.  "Are you a girl or a boy?"
	"I'm a girl, you jackass!"
	"You are?  Then I can't fight you."  Ranma's tone conveyed 
his disappointment.  He really wanted to fight; it would be fun.  It 
didn't matter to him if he fought a boy or a girl, but it did matter
to his mom.  She had been really upset when she had caught 
Ranma and Akane in the middle of their sixth brawl.
	"Why?"
	"Well, my mama says I ain't supposed to fight girls, only 
bad people do that."
	Ukyo thought about this for a moment.  While she was 
initially angry about the stolen food, the chase Ranma had given 
her was one of the best times she had had in a while.  Putting the 
skills her father had been teaching her to the test would make it 
even better.  If she got to do this every day, then it would be worth 
the price of a meal.
	"Okay, why don't we just pretend fight instead?"
	"Pretend fight?"
	"Yeah, me and my father do it all the time."
	"I don't know�"
	"I'll give you another okonomiyaki if you win."
	"Deal!"  Ranma reasoned that his mom couldn't get angry 
over that, since it would all be just pretend.  It might be fun trying 
out this pretend fighting stuff on Akane and his cousin Tenchi.

	From that day on, the two kids settled into a familiar 
pattern.  Ukyo would cook okonomiyaki and try to defend it from 
Ranma, who would do his best to steal it.  Contests between them 
usually ended up as duels, with Ranma always the victor.  Ukyo 
didn't get mad the way Akane always did when she lost though, 
she just swore that she would win the next day.  Genma watched, 
happy that Ranma had someone at his own level to spar at, while 
Mr. Kuonji was happy that his daughter had a playmate.

	"Here I come, Ucchan!" Ranma shouted as he ran in for the 
attack.
	"You won't beat me this time, Ranchan!" Ukyo declared as 
she readied her small combat spatulas.
	There was a small smile on her lips as she thought of the 
nicknames that they had come up with for each other.  Ranma had 
just started calling her 'Ucchan' one day, so naturally he became 
'Ranchan.'  It made Ukyo feel special that Ranma had come up 
with a name just for her.
	Several minutes later, both kids were sitting on a rock, each 
happily munching on their okonomiyaki.
	Ukyo was the happiest she had ever been in her life.  Her 
cooking skills were getting better each day, she got to practice her 
martial arts often, and she had found someone who made her smile 
and laugh all the time.  Ukyo also loved to rub it in the face of the 
neighborhood girls that she had a boyfriend.  She hoped that the 
days like this would last forever.

	"I'm from Juuban," Ranma told her during one of their 
talks.
	"You mean you're not from around here?" Ukyo asked in 
surprise.
	"Nope, pops wanted to take me pretty far away from home 
since we had a whole month to train."
	"A month?"  Ukyo said as she started count on her fingers 
how many days she had known Ranma.  She was surprised to find 
that it had been three whole weeks already.  "We are you going 
back home?"
	"In a few days, I think."
	Ranma suddenly found himself caught up in a fierce hug.  
"No, you can't go!"
	"Huh?  Why?"
	"I don't want you to.  You're my best friend, Ranchan."
	"You're my best friend too, Ucchan.  I want to stay and 
keep playing with you, but pop says we got to go in a few days.  
Besides, my mom is waiting for me."
	"Okay, but you got to promise me that we'll be best friends 
forever."
	"Of course we will."
	"Pinkie swear?"
	Ranma nodded.  They both locked pinkies and said, "We'll 
be best friends forever!"
	Ukyo hugged him again.  "I'll miss you, Ranchan."
	"Me too, Ucchan."

***

	Genma was flipping through an old training manual that he 
had found among the master's things while he watched Ranma play 
with a stray kitten that had wandered in the yard.  Normally, 
Nodoka would be watching the boy, but she had gone on a trip 
with Achika to help boost her sister's declining health.  She had 
warned him, on the pain of his father-in-law and her katana, to not 
take the boy away from school on some training trip.  Genma had 
grumbled, but agreed, not that he had any choice in the matter.
	Now he reasoned, if he couldn't take the boy off to training 
to improve his skills, what he needed was some kind of super 
training technique that could be done right in his own home.  The 
kitten that Ranma was playing with kept distracting his thoughts 
though.  Pity he couldn't give the boy claws or the agility of a cat.  
Not to mention the enhanced senses and absolute fearlessness.  If 
only there was a technique like that . . .

	Nodoka made her way up to the Saotome home.  The trip 
had done Achika so much good that they had decided to cut it short 
so her younger sister could spend some of that time with her 
husband, Nobuyuki.  Nodoka smiled at that thought.  Tenchi may 
have a little brother or sister on the way.
	Nodoka was shocked out of her thoughts when something 
running on four legs knocked her over.  She looked down in horror 
to see her own son curled up in her lap, purring like a cat.
	"Genma!"
	Her aforementioned husband took one look at the scene and 
was immediately grateful that his wife didn't have her katana at the 
moment.  He also knew that he'd be camping out of the couch for a 
week because of this.
	Genma was wrong.  Nodoka made him sleep outside, for a 
month, in the middle of the rainy season.  She also fed him nothing 
but water and a small portion of rice.  He was forced to get a 
second job just to avoid starving to death, since all the checks for 
his first job were directly deposited into an account that his wife 
had control of.  Nodoka was of the opinion that she had let him off 
easy.

***

	The Kuonjis were at a loss over what to do about their 
daughter Ukyo.  Ever since that Ranma boy had returned home, 
she'd been listless and uninterested in learning how to be a chef.  
Mr. Kuonji had tried to get Ranma to stay by offering to engage 
the two of them, but his father had turned it down, even after he 
had offered his cart as a dowry.  The man had looked tempted, but 
at the same time afraid of something.  About the only good thing 
was The Kuonjis finally had enough money to start their own 
restaurant.  The problem now was picking a location.  Then 
suddenly, Mr. Kuonji had an idea.
	"Ukyo?"
	"Yeah, dad?"  She was just sitting in her room, not doing 
anything, which was normal for her lately.
	"Well, we've finally saved up enough to start our own 
restaurant.  Now where do you think we should have it?"
	To Ukyo, there was only one place she wanted to be, the 
place Ranma said he was from.  "Juuban!" she replied 
immediately.
	Mr. Kuonji smiled to see Ukyo smile.  If he finally had his 
daughter back again, moving to Juuban was a small price to pay.

	Ranma was about to go into elementary school when he 
was suddenly tackled from behind.  He prepared to strike back, 
only to see who it was.  "Ucchan?"
	"Ranchan!"  Ukyo shouted, glomping on to him again.  She 
was happy that he had remembered her, since it had been over six 
months since they had parted.
	"What you doing here?" Ranma asked her.  "You and your 
pops still traveling with that cart?"
	Ukyo shook her head.  "I'm going to school here.  Today is 
my first day.  We sold the cart and are opening a restaurant right 
here in Juuban.  Isn't that great?  We can play all the time like we 
used to."
	"Cool!"
	Both smiled and laughed, happy to have their friend back 
again.

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