Ranma and his friends were created by Rumiko Takahashi. Honor Harrington and her friends were created by David Weber. This is fan fiction created for fun.

Author's Note: The motivation for this story changed several times over the course of writing. At first I wanted Ranma in a science fiction setting, but the insertion points I liked put Ranma joining the RMN at the end of the current Honorverse timeline and I didn't feel up to plowing completely new ground plot-wise, so this shifted to a how does a mature Ranma deal with characters from Ranma 1/2 that have only changed a little. Eventually I will be introducing Akane and Nodoka into the fic. When this happens 27 years will have passed for Ranma, but only a year and a half for them. I'll have a series of vingettes to indicate time passing. Unlike when I started posting The Missing Bijuu, I'm not done with this yet, but I'm probably closer to the end than the beginning. This one will end up being longer than TMB, but still won't be epic in length.

Italics indicate a foreign language: English in the first chapter and Japanese after that.

Ranma approached Kuno Tatewaki in her cursed form as he posed in front of Furinkan High School with the Wishing Sword held high. She had paid Nabiki a nominal fee to have him meet her here. She had seen Kuno waste two of the Sword's three wishes on trivial things. She wanted the Sword in order to remove her curse.

"Kuno, won't you let me have the Sword? I want to free myself from the awful enchantment on me!" She batted her eyelashes and gestured cutely.

"Fear not, my Pig-tailed Goddess!" Kuno blustered, shifting his pose. "I, Kuno Tatewaki, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High School, the Rising Star of the Kendo World shall free thee and the Fierce Tigress Tendo Akane from the Foul Sorcerer Saotome Ranma!" He thrust forward the Sword. "Wishing Sword, I abjure thee to free my Loves by banishing Saotome Ranma to his personal hell, to not come forth for thousands of years!"

The Wishing Sword began to glow as he finished his words. The glow sprang towards Ranma and engulfed her. She shut her eyes in defense.

When she opened them again she dropped a short distance onto the back of a large, black animal. She looked around and saw three others of the same animal. They had tails and six legs! They all turned towards her and she saw cat-like faces snarling at her. She jumped backwards and quickly ran up against a cliff face. The four panther-like animals crouched on their front four legs ready to spring at her. The panic rose in the back of her mind and all conscious thought fled.

Rational thought came and went erratically for the-girl-who-thought-she-was-a-cat. She knew it had been many days since she had faced and killed the six-legged panthers. A little while after finishing them off, a small housecat-sized, six-legged tawny-colored animal had approached her. It had been followed by several slightly larger animals of the same kind which had chittered nervously. The animals had been vaguely cat-like in appearance, but much less so than the panthers. The resemblance had not been enough to set off her defense mechanism and they seemed friendly. The smallest one in front had approached her and stared into her eyes. She had felt a connection to the animal and had followed it back to its nest.

The others calmed down quite a bit once they had left the panther nest. At her new friend's nest in a large tree, others of the creatures had awaited and appeared to scold them. Her friend had borne the scolding patiently. The tree and the others near it had nests for the creatures. Her friend's nest in the tree had a small opening. She could have squeezed into it, but had preferred curling up outside it.

Normally after sleeping in a comfortable, safe spot her rational side woke up, but being out in the wilderness with animals had kept her feral, cat-like persona in charge.

Gradually her rational episode stayed longer. She still did not know her name, but she began to realize that she was not where she was supposed to be. She began to miss the kind, but sometimes angry girl and the tall, nice girl. She even missed the fat man who taught her to fight-just a little. She remember that she didn't normally have red hair and was not normally this short. She knew it was the fat man's fault, but could not remember how to fix it. She remembered how to walk on two legs and how to dance. She knew that she used the dances to fight when she was a girl, but just doing the dances brought her peace.

She noticed that she had started to be able to feel when her friend was happy or sad through an aura that she could sense even with her eyes closed. Eventually she even started to pick up thoughts from her friend. It was not words like she had spoken when she was a girl-the thoughts had more nuances to them. She also began to be able to sense the other animals' auras, but picking up thoughts from them was much harder. She learned that her friend called herself "Sings Brightly." Her friend's name for her was "Wind Dancer." Both names were more complex, but that was how she thought of them to herself. Sings Brightly helped her to find more of herself, but was limited because she was one of the "People" and not a "Two Legs."

Eventually the weather started to get cooler. The-girl-who-knew-she-was-not-a-cat-but-could-not-remember-how-to-be-a-girl-again thought that the season had lasted longer than was normal. Sings Brightly asked Wind Dancer to follow her away from the nest of the People to meet with other Two Legs. Sings Brightly told Wind Dancer that she knew of some Two Legs that could help her remember herself better than the People could.

She followed Sings Brightly through the forest for two days until they came to a building. Her six-legged friend asked her to stay while she pushed a button not far off the ground. A short time later a young woman came to the door. The woman spoke to Sings Brightly, but Wind Dancer did not understand her. Sings Brightly made gestures with her True Hands.

The woman turned to Wind Dancer and spoke to her, but she did not understand, so she shrugged her shoulders. The woman spoke to Sings Brightly again and then went inside before returning after a short time. She gestured for them to enter a vehicle and Sings Brightly sent encouragement. Wind Dancer sat in a seat and Sings Brightly hopped into a special seat that the woman had attached to the normal seat next to Wind Dancer. The woman went to the front seat and started the vehicle which surprised Wind Dancer by lifting into the air. After a moderate amount of time the vehicle landed at a building inside a city. The woman gestured for them to follow her into the building.

Inside the building were a man and a woman. After more talking and gestures, Wind Dancer and Sings Brightly followed the new woman into a back room with a bath. The woman started the bath and started to remove Wind Dancer's tattered, dirty clothing. When the bath was full, she gestured for Wind Dancer to enter it.

Wind Dancer stepped into the warm water of the tub and felt an almost forgotten tingle and Ranma remembered as she became a he. This time he remember a lot of what had happened during the long Cat Fist episode, although the beginning of it was hazy.

The woman screamed and Sings Brightly bleaked. Ranma covered his head and bent over in the tub. He recognized the language she was speaking as English, but the accent was odd. His English was limited to start with so he only understood every third word. The other man and woman ran in.

"It's a magic curse! I'm not a pervert!" Ranma said in Japanese. He couldn't remember how to say that in English, so he said instead, "Magic. Cold water girl. Warm water boy. My English bad. Speak Japanese? Where am I?" He knew his accent was bad, but he hoped they understood.

The woman stopped screaming and the three talked, but he couldn't understand much. Ranma could feel Sings Brightly laughing at him. Finally the women left and the man said, "Bath now. Talk later. Clothes here. You understand?"

Ranma nodded and said, "Yes. You bring two water for talk. One warm. One cold. Okay?"

The man nodded and said, "Okay."

The man left, but returned with another pile of clothes.

Ranma washed and then dressed in the larger clothes that came with the male under garments and exited the bathroom with Sings Brightly following him.

The man was waiting for them and guided them to a room with a table. On the table were two glasses of water.

The man said slowly, "My name is Carl Jackson."

The woman he had met at the first place said, "My name is Jan Hudson."

The woman he had scared in the bathroom said, "My name is Hannah Garcia."

Ranma remember that Westerners used their family name second. "My name is Ranma Saotome."

Hannah asked him something where he only recognized "how," "boy," and "girl."

He felt the plastic cups and picked up the cold one. "Magic. Cold water girl." He poured it on his head and changed. "Warm water boy." He poured it and changed back. "Really boy. No warm water with them." He gestured to Sings Brightly.

The three had stunned looks on there faces. Carl said a bunch of words where he only understood "how" and "magic."

Ranma shook his head and said, "Magic water. China. No words tell you. Speak Japanese?"

Carl spoke again and he understood "language" and "Japanese."

Ranma said, "Yes."

All three of them looked confused. If Ranma were to guess they did not know what Japanese was.

"I from Tokyo, Japan. Where am I?" he said. He figured foreigners would not know about Nerima.

They looked confused. And Jan shook her head and said something about "know" planet" and "Japan."

Ranma asked, "Planet Earth?"

Carl returned, "Old Earth? Solarian League?"

Ranma said, "Earth yes. Tokyo city. Japan country. Solarian League not know."

Carl said, "Planet Sphinx. Star Kingdom Manticore. Old Earth far away."