Unknown Past
an Ranma 1/2 Iczer crossover
By Stephen J. Scalaro
{ } represents signs
[ ] Foreign languages
" " Japanese or personal thoughts
Chapter 2- What do you mean I'm an elf
Once Ranma was in the guide's hut, she put her father down in the corner
and then asked the guide "You said that hot water would turn us back to
normal."
The guide nodded his head and said "Yes, hot water turn you back to
normal, but cold water will turn you back into an elf."
Ranma was surprised by that. "What do you mean an elf?"
The guide just pointed at her and replied "I didn't know of anything that
drowned in that spring before. Every time before that something fell into it
nothing happen."
Ranma looked at the guide and asked again "OK, nothing has ever changed
in that spring before. But why did you say I would turn into an elf?"
The guide "You have pointed ears, angular face and very tall for a girl.
To me you look like an elf."
Ranma reached up and felt her ears. The tops of them were pointed like an
elf's. She also noticed that her hair was a lot longer than it was before the
change too."
Guide "I still no understand why your clothes change though. That not
supposed to happen."
She looked down at her self and said "It doesn't even feel like I'm
wearing any gloves or shoes." She flexes her hands, and touches the table
with them. "I can't even tell that I have them on right now, I can feel
everything through them like they aren't even there."
The guide moves over to the fire where there was a tea kettle waiting
over it. He picks it up and hands it over to Ranma and says "Water should be
hot enough to change now."
Ranma takes the kettle and pores it over her head and shivers when the
change starts.
The first thing that he notices after it was over was all the small aches
and pains that where absent before. It wasn't anything bad, but just the
common everyday feelings that told you that you where still alive and well.
It did seem strange but now that he thought about it, while in his elf
half there hadn't been any aches or pains. It wasn't that he didn't have any
since of touch or feelings, quit the contrary in fact. It seemed that he had
more than he was used to. Just like every other sense that he had.
The second thing he noticed was that everything seemed out of focus, the
colors weren't as bright, and everything had a lot less detail then before.
It was very strange. He knew that this was how he had seen everything for his
whole life before the change. But now it was like he had put on a pair of
glasses for the first time, then have to take them off.
It was the same with his hearing too. It sounded like he had earplugs on
right now. Everything sounded muted.
The only thing that seemed to be muted in his other form was the
emotions. It wasn't that they weren't there, it was just that they didn't
seem to be as strong. He knew that he should have been a hell of a lot more
pissed of towards his father, but he just felt more annoyed than anything
else at the time.
The last thing he noticed about the change was that he was wearing his gi
again.
The guide must have noticed the same thing "You wearing gi again, very
strange sir. You the first person to have clothes change along with body.
Your hair now shorter too."
Ranma reached back and felt his pigtail and did feel that it was now back
to it's normal length.
When he was done checking himself out Ranma took the kettle and poured
the rest of the water onto the unconscious panda, turning it back into his
father.
Genma woke up sputtering and looked up at his son then back down toward
himself and muttered softly "Thank God, it was just a nightmare."
Ranma "You wish it was a nightmare you old fool"
Genma "You should respect your elders boy."
Ranma "Respect? Respect you old man! This last idea of yours is the
stupidest one since the Nikoken."
Genma "Now nothing bad happened did it boy." He then muttered under his
breath "It couldn't have happened. I'm not a panda right?"
Ranma grabbed the cup of water out of the guides hands and threw it at
his father. "You are a panda pops! You better look again"
Genma "Groff grouff gruoff " The panda then points at Ranma and
continues "Grrr groff grrr grouf grorr"
Ranma shakes his head and speaks to the guide "Do you see what I have to
put up with here? This IDIOT doesn't even know that we can't even understand
a single word he's saying, but he still continues on."
Genma raises a sign {I am not an idiot. As your father I demand respect
that I deserve boy.}
Ranma actually had to laugh at this. "I do give you the respect you
DESERVE pops. That is. None at all"
The panda's only reply to that was to throw the sign that it was holding
right to Ranma's head. Using the distraction that this caused the panda moved
behind Ranma and hit him on the head again rendering him unconscious.
The guide looks at the panda and son and comments "I have to say it
again. You two very strange ones, sir."
Genma produced another sign {I'll have you know that when I was his age,
I lived in constant fear of my masters wrath. He has no idea of how easy I am
on him}
Another sign {Why am I a panda?}
Guide "You sir fall in Shonmaoniichuan. Spring of drowned panda. Very
tragic story of panda who drowned 2000 year ago. The legend say whoever fall
in spring take body of panda."
Genma {Is there any cure for me.}
Before the guide can answer the question the door opens with a bang and a
young man rushes in. The young man was wearing a heavy backpack, yellow shirt
and a yellow bandana with black polka-dots.
Young man "Have you seen two people in white gi come through here
recently? Someone around my age traveling with his father. The kid has a
black hair tied into a pigtail, and the father is nearly bald, and wears a
bandana and glasses."
The panda quickly uses it's immense bulk to block the boys view of Ranma
and shakes it's head and holds up a sign {Nope, Ranma and his father aren't
here. Nope. Just us innocent pandas.}
The panda then points to the way out of the valley {But I think I might
have seen someone matching your description heading that way.}
The boy looks at the panda strangely for a second, scratches his head and
thanks him. With that done the boy leaves. In the direction of the cursed
springs.
The guide seems to think of something for a moment then remembers what
was they were talking about before the interruption. "There is no cure for
the curse, sir. Hot water will turn you back to normal. Cold water turn you
back to panda again."
Genma nods his head and thinks to himself "A martial artists life is
fraught with peril. But I never thought changing into a panda would be one of
the perils. Well, at least my son doesn't have a curse. God knows what would
happen if he actually turned into a girl, like in my dream."
He then takes the kettle that had been cooling off on the table next to
him and poured it on Ranma to wake him up. What he saw next shocked him.
He watched what looked like a brief haze flow over his sons form, and
when it was gone it left a completely different person in his place. In fact,
it looked a lot like the girl that he had turned into in his dream.
He looked at the guide and held up a sign {It wasn't a dream, was it.}
while thinking "Nodika will kill me, Nodika will kill me. Nodika will kill
me............"
Ranma just sat there looking at her father and trying, and succeeding
surprisingly, to suppress her rage. Once she had gotten it under control she
stood up and told the panda "I don't think you know how close to the edge
your pushing me old man. I mean look at what this crazy training scheme has
done to us this time." She gestured at both her new body and the panda in
front of her.
"I mean look at me. I'm an elf now. Not only an elf, but a FEMALE elf.
Every time I get hit with water now I'm going to look like some girl going to
an anime convention."
The panda sniggers at this while holding up a sign {Oh the horror, the
humiliation. My son turns into a fairy.}
Ranma doesn't know whether to laugh, or get mad at the panda's antics. So
she just ignores him picks up the kettle off of the floor where Genma dropped
it and filled it back up and put it back over the fire.
*************
Ranma was lost in thought while they walked towards the Joketsuzoku
village. According to the guide the village was full of amazon warriors, and
they knew the most about the cursed springs than anyone else. They didn't
know a cure, but they might know why her curse was so different from all the
other ones.
The curse was another thing that she was thinking about a lot. She could
tell just form the last few days with it that the curse not only changed her
shape, but it also made her a water magnet.
Every time she had changed back into her original form, within an hour
she was splashed with water. Most of the time she was splashed in some very
unlikely way.
Just like when she had last changed back to her real form last night.
Soon after she had it had started to rain. There wasn't a single cloud in the
sky five minutes before, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky five minutes
after.
That wasn't the part of the curse that scared her the most though. It was
the fact that every time she changed back into her original form, was the
sense of loss that was almost painful.
It seemed that each time she changed back, like she was blind and deaf
for the first few minutes. Then there was also the feeling of all her daily
aches and pains coming back. What was so strange about that was that she knew
in her cursed body that her sense of touch was also much stronger.
At first she thought that the enhanced sense of touch would be a
liability in a fight, but she had found out otherwise while sparing with her
father. If anything it was the reverse. The few hits that he had managed to
get in, hardly hurt at all. She knew she was hit there, she even knew the
exact amount of force behind each hit.
The first night in her cursed form was a bit of an eye opener for her.
Not only could she see in the dark now, she could also see the heat
signatures of all the animals around her.
At first she didn't know what she was seeing. It was almost like
something out of her peripheral vision. It had been there the entire time,
but she hadn't noticed it until night because of all the other distractions.
It was kind of strange to look at because she could see her father and
the guide through their tents. She could see the outline of their bodies
bathed in a whitish light, and brighter spots in various places in the body.
That wasn't the only thing she had found out that night either.
The first thing she had found out was during dinner. It seemed that she
wasn't hungry. At first she didn't know what that feeling was either, she had
only felt it a few times before in her life.
When she had finished preparing the meal over the campfire, and had sat
down to have her daily battle with her father over their food.
For the first half of the meal she had eaten and defended her food out of
habit, but as the meal went on at it's normal furious pace, she had realized
that she wasn't really hungry.
The slight pause of surprise on her part allowed her father to take a
fair amount of her food, for which he berated her for slacking off on her
training. With her mind back on the meal, she continued to eat and defend her
food, but she did so more out of habit, than actual need for the food.
The second thing she had discovered was her improved night vision, and
the ability to see heat sources.
The third thing she had found out was that she couldn't sleep. This was
also a very strange thing for her, She normally could sleep anywhere,
anytime, but it wasn't so that night. For the entire night she had rolled
around in her tent and tried to get to sleep to no avail.
The next morning she had expected to be tired, but she wasn't. When she
got up she felt like she had gotten a full night worth of rest. Not spent the
entire night trying to sleep.
This was how the next two days went to. She had no need to eat or sleep.
When she did eat, she filled up easily. This had also worried her too, she
expected this to degrade her energy levels and tire out quicker, but as she
had found out by sparing with her father in this form, that was anything but
the truth.
During that same sparing session she had also found out the she was also
much stronger and faster now. Not only faster in reflexes an movement, but in
thought too.
When the match started she was amazed at how slowly her father was
moving. Before the change his blows where things that were more sensed than
seen, but now she could see every move he made like it was in slow motion.
She also realized that with each time she tagged him with a hand or foot,
that she put a lot more force into it. The first time she had hit him she had
almost dislocated his shoulder without really even trying too.
That sparing match was also the first time she had ever held back. During
the match she realized that if she went all-out like she normally does, that
she would very likely, seriously hurt, if not cripple, her father.
That match was also the first time that she was able to improvise her
technique during her sparing sessions with him. And she knew that, that was
what she was going to have to do from now on during her sparring sessions
with him
So overall she was fairly happy with her new body (except for being a
female elf and all), but she was also getting concerned about it too. Her
main concern was what if she started to like this body too much.
With a shake of her head she brought her attention back to the village as
the guard waved them through the main gates and into the village.
************
Cologne noticed right away when she felt a being of power enter the
village. It was not a type of power that she had ever sensed before, but she
knew that it was more slumbering now, not yet active.
She followed the feeling until she reached the villages center where the
annual maidens tournament was taking place. Scanning the crowd she notices
the Jusenkyou guide with a girl and a giant panda. Most likely a victim of
the Shonmaoniichuan, she thought.
Before she could get over to the guide and his companions, the panda made
it's way towards the table with the winner's feast on it and started to eat
the food at an incredible rate.
Needless to say her great granddaughter Shampoo, who had just finished
the last match and been declared this years champion, was not happy about
this at all. By the time she got to the guide the girl had already accepted
the Shampoo's challenge, and they were both on the challenge log.
************
Ranma looked at the girl in front of him. She had been reluctant to fight
her, but when the guide had translated that she wanted to skin the panda for
eating her victory feast, she couldn't just let the old man die.
So here she was facing off against a girl for the first time. About to do
something that was told was wrong. She was about to hit a girl.
Not really knowing any way to stop it she got into a stance and signaled
to the girl that she was ready for the fight to begin.
*************
After talking to the Jusenkyou guide Cologne realized that the power she
had felt earlier was emanating from the girl, and that the girl, or elf, was
really a boy. Smiling to herself she perched comfortably on the top of her
walking stick and got ready to enjoy the mach.
What she say the elf girl do on the log amazed even her. On a log no more
that three feet wide and 10 feet long she was able to dodge and block every
blow that her granddaughter threw at her.
Somehow the girl managed to keep this up, constantly dodging, jumping,
blocking every move Shampoo threw at her for over half an hour. When the
match ended it wasn't by her throwing a single kick or punch, it was by
Shampoo tiring herself out and overextending herself during one of her
attacks and loosing her balance.
Not in her 300 plus years of life had she ever seen the Maidens
Tournament be won without the victor ever launching one attack.
Cologne smiled to herself when she realized that not only had she found
the heir she had been looking for, but she was also going to be her grandson
too.
Just before Shampoo could give the girl the kiss of death Cologne stopped
her by saying [Shampoo no. That girl does not get the kiss of death. She gets
the kiss of marriage.]
When Shampoo looks at her and asks what she means by the kiss of
marriage, Cologne replies [She has just received a curse at the cursed
springs, this is not her true form. You know what you have to do if a male
outsider defeats you, or do I have to remind you.]
**********
Ranma jumped off the log after the girl had slipped, and fell of, to help
her up and make sure she was all right.
When she got there to help her the girl roughly grabbed her jaw when a
dry old voice called out to her in Mandarin dialect. When the old woman
finishes speaking to her Ranma could see the tension flow out of the girl
when she gently put her other hand on Ranma's cheek and said [wuo ai ni wuoda
airen] then repeating what she just said in Japanese "I love you dear
husband" and then kisses Ranma on the mouth.
***************
End chapter 2
Notes:
1. Before anyone asks why everyone is saying Ranma turns into an elf, look at
it from their point of view. Ranma's cursed form is a tall redheaded girl
with sharp angular features and pointed ears. If you saw someone like that
assume that she was an elf?
2. Yes, I do plan on having some of the other Iczer characters come into the
story during the later chapters.
contact me for any C&C at stevej1397@aol.com
For previous chapters visit my web page at http://stevej1397.tripod.com/