By Tangent
(disclamer not in place yet. Will be added in later dafts)

     I suppose that Ranma... could have... gone on,
had he been willing to live with just turning into a girl
upon contact with cold water. But who could blame 
him, really? After all, he had been raised since early 
childhood to be a "man among men", whatever the 
hell that meant. If you were suddenly cursed to 
become the physical opposite of what your only 
parental guidance has raised you to be, wouldn't you 
jump at a chance at a cure offered the very same day? 
Wouldn't you?
     It had seemed innocent enough to him at the time. 
Instructions hidden in one of the books in the guide's 
hut were straight foreword and easy to follow. Simply 
gather some of the grasses growing in and around the 
spring which cursed you in the first place, as well as 
some of the actual water. Use these to prepare tea, of 
which a cup or two will be ingested, while the rest is 
poured over you before it becomes cool. Be sure to do 
so while in your true form so as to avoid locking yourself 
in your cursed form. The inherent contradiction involved 
with becoming exposed to the heated cursed water is 
supposed to strain the curse to the point that there would 
be a one in six chance of it breaking.
     Well, something broke all right... For a moment, 
nothing appeared to have happened, and Ranma allowed 
himself to hope that the cure had taken effect. Then the 
pain set in. Do you know what it feels like to have your 
skeleton slowly contract and reconfigure itself while your 
muscles and tendons shift this way and that? Or how 
about the all consuming agony of literally knowing where 
each and every nerve ending in your body is, inside and 
out, as they too undergo the same dramatic change?. A 
change that seems to last forever, although I'm told that it 
was still relatively quick, actually lasting only moments 
longer that what would have been usual for the curse.
     Ranma Saotome died right then, whether he... I... knew 
it at the time or not. I am... was... Ranma Saotome, heir to 
the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, Saotome Ryu. 
This is my story....

     Excerpted from the journals of Ranko Saotome.

 Boiled Nyanniichuan

     Genma Saotome ran as fast as possible, following 
the trail pointed out to him by the Guide of Jusenkyo. 
Cradled in his arms was the convulsing body of what had 
been his son, Ranma, who only moments before had 
attempted to cure himself of the Nyanniichuan using the 
method described in the book the Guide had found. A 
book that the Guide had tucked into Genma's gi as he 
was giving directions to the distraught parent, so that the 
Elders of Joketsuzoku, the closest of the neighboring 
villages, could look at it, to see what had gone wrong...
     Of course the Guide had no reasonable expectation 
of keeping up with Genma, even as burdened as the man 
was. As bulky as the man was, a lot of it was merely the 
muscle acquired from a lifetime of hard training, as 
opposed to fat. And what fat Genma did have helped to 
sustain his muscles on this grueling test of his endurance, 
as he raced against time to get Ranma to someone who 
could treat her effectively.
     What minor obstacles that cropped up in Genma's 
mad dash for his child's salvation were simply bypassed 
with a leap, or bowled over as the desperate man ran past....
          

*     *     *

     Ryoga got up from the vaguely Ryoga-shaped impression 
in the path, turning to glare at the running man who had 
boweled him over and trampled him in passing. The dusty 
mark of the man's foot could clearly be seen on the front of 
Ryoga's black muscle-shirt. As the eternally lost boy shook 
his head to clear it, he remembered where he had seen the 
man before.
     "That was Ranma's father..." Ryoga murmured. "That 
means that the person he was carrying had to have been 
Ranma!" Ryoga quickly snatched up his pack from where it 
had fallen, and casually carried its bulky weight as he took 
off after the man while he was still within sight.
     "Damn you, Ranma!" Ryoga shouted after the retreating 
figures. "How dare you get hurt before we settle our duel!?"

*     *     *

     Genma looked up from where he sat waiting for news of 
Ranma's recovery. Cologne could see the desperation and 
worry on the man's face quite clearly, just as she knew that 
he had no idea that he had interrupted the annual tournament 
that determined the ranking of the unmarried women of the 
village. Not that he wouldn't be forgiven for it as a matter of 
form, due to the reason for it. A parent could be forgiven of 
much when their child's life was in danger. And it wasn't as if 
the tournament couldn't be started over again in another week 
or so.
     "My boy..." Genma started shakily. "Is he... is he going to 
be all right?"
     "The girl will live, if that is what you mean," Cologne 
responded. "Our best healers have pretty much stabilized the 
flow of her ki, and are now treating the other signs of trauma 
from her ordeal. It is believed that she will regain full physical 
health by tomorrow evening."
     "Full physical health," Genma mumbled as he stared at the 
floor. "Will he... will he be able to change back into my son?" he 
asked, looking back up at the small elderly woman.
     Cologne shook her head. "I will not lie to you. It is doubtful that 
the girl will ever be able to safely change forms again, if she is even 
still able to. This is the worst case of transformation shock that I 
have personally ever seen in my long life, although I have read about 
worse cases. If she can still assume her birth form, it will most likely 
be with the use of water hotter than that used in that so called cure 
from the book the Guide had given you. Even then, it is likely that 
your son will slowly change back into a woman."
     "My son..." Genma stared at the ground bleakly.
     "The cure in the book could have worked," Cologne assured the 
man in order to assuage his guilt. "There was, indeed a one in six 
chance of that particular remedy would have broken the curse. 
Unfortunately, the book was an older copy, made before the other 
risks of that cure were discovered. For, while one in six are indeed 
cured of the curse of Jusenkyo, one in twenty are bonded to the 
curse at a potency of tenfold or greater, and may never take their 
birth forms again in their lives. Perhaps even beyond, for that matter. 
That is where the transformation shock comes from - the spirit 
recognizes the loss of the body's birth form, and tries to reject 
the change. Unfortunately, the stronger the spirit, the worse the 
transformation shock is, for a strong spirit will fight to near death 
in its attempt to throw off the curse."
     Genma continued to stare blankly at the ground, the fact that 
the book had been out of date hardly comforting him in the least.   
     Cologne took pity on the hopelessness exhibited in the man's 
voice and posture.
     "There may be a way to unlock the curse, and permit the girl 
to safely return to her birth form, but it will not be easily acquired. 
And it might not have any effect at all, for that matter."
     "Anything," Genma replied with some force, as he grasped at 
even this qualified ember of hope. "Any chance for my son to be 
restored, no matter how small! I must know!"
     "Long ago," Cologne explained, "there had been a fierce people 
in this region known as the Musk Dynasty. While they were indeed 
great warriors, forsaking all comfort while growing up, just so that they 
may train from the very beginning to be the best, they tried too hard to 
emulate the animals upon which their fighting styles were based. For 
they had come into the practice of fighting those very animals, and 
then using the cursed springs of Jusenkyo to turn the defeated 
animals into their wives, so that the fierce traits that they admired 
would be passed on to the following generations. In some instances, 
even particularly powerful foes who were allready human were treated 
to the Nyanniichuan, although such cases were very rare."
     Genma felt somewhat queasy about the notion being described to 
him. "That's... That's..."
     "Ancient history," Cologne interrupted. "The Musk Dynasty is no 
more, as far as anyone can tell these days, and good riddance to 
them I say. They were a bloody nuisance to everyone in the whole 
region, especially once there warriors got far enough along in their 
training that they were permitted to think of women at long last. In 
three thousand years of Nichieju history, most of our vaunted fighting 
techniques were invented in order to fend off abductions by the Musk 
Dynasty!" Cologne stopped for a moment to calm herself. As much 
pride as she rightfully took in her peoples warrior heritage, she 
disliked remembering how they came to such dauntless and skilled 
fighters.
     "Umm..." Genma hesitated. "You were the one to bring them 
up...."
     "So I did," the elderly matriarch acknowledged. "So I did. In any 
event, they eventually made two mystic artifacts to aid them in their 
use of Jusenkyo. One, really a set of objects, was comprised of a 
bucket and ladle that could lock any Jusenkyo-cursed being ladled 
with water from the bucket in their cursed forms. The other was 
made after the fact, when it became apparent to even them that 
they needed something to unlock a curse again should an accident 
occur. It is the Open Water Kettle, or Kaisuifuu."
     "This kettle will cure my son?" Genma asked.
     "There is a small chance that it may unlock your son's curse, 
even though the circumstances of this lock are different." Cologne 
equivocated. "In any event, using the Kaisuifuu, should you be able 
to find it, won't further harm the child as the failed 'cure' from the 
book had."
     "Where might I find this kettle?"
     "Somewhere in Japan, on a mountain with a natural formation 
that resembles a tea kettle. That's all I know. It has changed hands 
over the years, and many of the details of it's journey have grown 
obscure. It may have even been moved since the last account 
I knew about."
     "I see..." Genma mumbled, contemplating the problem....

*     *     *

     Shampoo brushed scarlet bangs back from the forehead of the 
village's ill guest. Part of her wanted to be angry with the girl for 
interrupting the tournament when it looked as if she had a serious 
chance of making it all the way to village champion. With another 
week or two to train, some of those who had made a poor showing 
before were going to be harder to defeat in the rescheduled event. 
Even so, the strange girl had been deathly ill from what the village 
elders called transformation shock. Apparently, she had been a 
boy before, and something had happened at Jusenkyo which 
changed her into what she was now, with no way for the new girl 
to regain her old gender. Shampoo could not bring herself to hate 
the target of such cruel misfortune.
     There was talk, of course, of how to help the girl adjust to her 
new form. Much of it having to do with carefully easing her transition 
into her new life. Shampoo favored more blunt tactics though, and was 
all for immersing the girl into her new life so fast that she didn't have 
time to think of what she had lost. To her line of thought, the girl 
needed to experience what it meant to be a woman as soon as 
possible. With a husband and child to care for, and warrior training 
to complete, surely the girl would find her new life quite fulfilling. Now 
who to hook up with the girl, and how to do it....
     Ranma shivered in her fevered sleep. Perhaps in premonition of 
times to come.

End Chapter One

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