Ranma and his friends were created by Takahashi Rumiko. This is fan fiction written for enjoyment.

Author's Note: This story has Ranma falling into a spring that has a curse that makes it so he can't use ki at all while in his cursed girl form. Eventually, he will be able to learn magic while a girl to compensate for it. Because of the different curse, Ranma will be somewhat out of character from canon, even while a boy, being more insecure and more thoughtful.

This story owes some inspiration to fanboy913's story Ranma of the Shield, which can be found on this site. That story also has girl Ranma being able to use magic better (although she can still use martial arts-she's just not as good at it as he is due to different stats). This story takes that concept to the extreme and omits any RPG elements that Ranma of the Shield has.

This story also has a minor cross-over that I haven't listed because it's minor and won't show up for at least 7 or 8 chapters. The characters from the other source will be secondary characters and won't be used in the way they normally are. The guest stars' source material also won't be important to this story. I've decided to leave the guest stars a surprise.

This story is planned to have multiple story arcs.

Ranma came up out of the pool with a gasp. The first thing he noticed was that he felt weak. He could not feel his ki. With a few moments of introspection, he determined that he did have ki; it was just a miniscule amount. He could never remember having so little without being exhausted. The peculiar thing, besides the amount, was that it seemed bound to a strange energy within him so that he could not make it circulate.

The second thing he noticed was that everything looked odd. There were odd glows coming out of the pools. The glows formed shapes vaguely reminiscent of animals and people hanging over the pools. He looked at the panda that had knocked him into the pool he was treading water in. An image of his father superimposed the panda.

The third thing he noticed as he stepped out of the pool were breasts—his own. He gave himself a once over and noticed that his once lean, but powerful build was now rail thin—except for the modest-sized breasts and gently flaring hips. He felt his arms and they were like sticks with hardly any muscle tone. His own body had a glow to it that rivaled the pools, but he could not make anything out of it.

Anger bubbled up inside him. His idiot father had gotten himself turned into a panda and then turned him into a girl. With the anger came the energy she had sensed before. She did not know what it was—only that it was not ki. She tried to use it like ki, to make her body move faster, but it only poured off of her in useless waves.

"Pop! You idiot! I'm going to kill you!" she roared. She flinched at the high, shriek-like quality of her voice.

The panda took off running. She ran after him, but found that the panda quickly out-distanced her. Her speed was far slower than it had been when she was still a he. In frustration, she returned to where she had seen the man in the rumpled green uniform.

"Ah, Young Mr. Customer fall into unknown spring. Unknown tragic story. Turn into three-eyed girl."

"Three eyes?" she asked uncertainly.

"Yes, Young Mr. Customer has third eye in forehead," the man said.

Cautiously, Ranma approached one of the pools and looked at her reflection. Sure enough, there was another eye in her forehead, framed by her now-red hair. With some experimentation, she found she could close the extra eye which caused her vision to go back to normal. The reflection was blurry, but it appeared that her extra eye disappeared when closed. She probed the area and felt a horizontal seam where the eye had been. The area was a little squishy, like her normal eyes were when they were closed.

"Come," said the man. "I get you hot water. Temporary cure for curse."

"I can become a guy again?" she asked hopefully.

"Yes, but only temporary," said the man. "Cold water activates curse. Hot water deactivates curse."

"Is there a permanent cure?" Ranma asked.

"This one not know," he replied. "Don't think so. Maybe Amazons know?"

"Amazons?" she asked.

"Tribe of warrior women. Live close to here. Elders very wise."

"Is there a boy or man pool?" she asked.

"Yes," said the man, "Pool of Drowned Boy. Tragic story of boy who drowned 1200 years ago. Whoever fall into pool turn into boy."

"How would that interact with my current curse?" she asked.

"This one not know. Maybe replace. Maybe merge."

A mental image of a three-eyed hermaphrodite that could not use ki came into her mind and she shuddered. It was better not to chance it unless she could verify the effects.

Ranma waited impatiently for the water to heat. While she was waiting the man asked her to sign the guestbook. She put down first names only for her pop and herself with only "Japan" as their origin. With the way her pop was, she did not want anyone he angered to find them through the guestbook. The man only introduced himself as "the Jusenkyo Guide."

When the water was ready, she poured it on herself and felt her ki return and the new, useless power fade. There were traces of the useless energy still in her, but now it did not respond to her in any way. She looked down and saw that her normal form had returned. With a sigh of relief, he said, "Thank goodness. That was too awful."

Before too long, his pop the panda showed up again.

The panda held up a sign that said, Boy, how did you change back!

Ranma grinned and said, "I owe you a beating, Pop!"

He leaped at the panda and the proceeded to attack. The panda was tougher and stronger than his pop's normal form, but slower. The loss in speed allowed Ranma to get the upper hand—nowadays he could best his pop more often than not anyway. The only real challenge was that his father was very underhanded. When his father won their matches it was more often from pure sneakiness rather than upfront martial arts skill.

With a final kick, Ranma sent his pop flying into a tree where the panda lay dazed.

The Guide ran up to Ranma's pop and started to tell him about the curses and the activation and deactivation triggers. His pop asked about more permanent cures and the Guide again recommended the Amazon village. His pop scoffed at the idea that a bunch of women would know anything significant and the Guide just shrugged. After a minute of hesitation, his pop asked the Guide to lead the way. His desperation outweighed his chauvinism.

As they were getting ready to leave, Ranma found himself doused with water. He looked down and saw that he was a she again. She closed her third eye in order to look more normal.

"What have I done to deserve such a weak and worthless girl as a son," his father proclaimed.

Ranma ignored him and went looking to see if there was any more hot water left. She felt something coming at her from behind. She tried to move, but was too slow. Her side exploded into pain as her father landed a glancing blow on her hip. She crumpled to the ground. That was going to be a very bad bruise.

She gritted her teeth and looked at her pop who was gaping at her in shock.

"Are you really such a weak girl that you can't even take a hit, boy?" her pop growled at her.

"I don't have any ki in this form, Pop!" she said through gritted teeth. "The curse took it all away. This body is slow and weak and I can't even use ki to make it better!"

Her father was speechless.

She limped to the guide's hut and asked him to heat some water. When she changed back, he felt his ki gather around the bruise. This dampened the pain and he could feel the bruise start to fade. He rummaged through his pack for a thermos and filled it with the remaining hot water.

Without a word to his pop, he asked the Guide to show them the way. His father followed them sullenly. They had not walked for 30 minutes when a sudden downpour activated their curses. Ranma took out her thermos and used it to change back. However, another downpour activated the curse five minutes later. She used the last of the water to change again, but the reprieve did not last more than ten minutes. With a sigh she accepted the fact that she would be a girl for the next while.

The only consolation was that her cursed body seemed to be in decent shape for a teenage girl. It was nowhere close to her standards of fitness, but at least she was able to walk without tiring.

When they arrived at the Amazon village, most of the village was gathered in the village square. A log was suspended from a large tree over a ditch. Two girls were fighting. One of them was mannish, but the other was quite pretty with long purple hair. Ranma stopped to watch wistfully. The mannish woman was a brute, but the purple-haired girl was quite skilled. Ranma felt a flood of jealousy threaten to consume her. That girl had no problems using ki to fight. Eventually, the purple-haired girl's skill overcame the other girl's strength.

The crowd erupted into cheers. The girl looked happy, until something caught her attention. She started pointing and yelling in Mandarin. Ranma looked where she was pointing and groaned as she saw her pop the panda devouring a feast.

The purple-haired girl yelled at Ranma in Mandarin.

"I don't understand," Ranma replied.

"You, Outsider Girl, that your panda?" the girl said in broken Japanese.

"No," Ranma said. She had no desire to defend her pop.

"No believe you. Others say panda came with you," she said.

"The panda is a cursed man. Give him hot water and he can speak for himself," Ranma said.

"You expect this one to believe Outsider Girl?" the purple-haired girl.

Ranma was shocked. "You've never heard of Jusenkyo? It's not far from here."

The girl concentrated and then said a word or phrase in Mandarin that Ranma did not follow. "Jusenkyo just legend."

Ranma shrugged. "Test it out. I'm not planning to leave. I want to talk to one of your leaders or lore keepers anyway."

"What about, girl?" an ancient voice asked. "Jusenkyo?"

Ranma turned around and saw a short, wrinkled crone balanced on a walking stick.

"That's right," Ranma said.

"My name is Cologne. I'm an Elder of this village. Follow me, please," she said. The old woman said something in Mandarin and several women moved to restrain the panda who was her pop.

The old woman started hopping using her stick. Ranma was surprised, but followed her. They arrived at an old-fashioned home. Cologne led her inside and directed Rama to a place to sit.

"What did you wish to talk to me about, child?" the old woman asked.

"Are there any permanent cures for Jusenkyo?" Ranma blurted.

Cologne sighed. "I'm afraid not, child. You're a victim, correct? The panda too?"

Ranma sighed and nodded. "The panda is my worthless father who found out about Jusenkyo from a pamphlet and decided it was a good place to train despite not reading Chinese well."

"Is this your cursed from, child?" she asked.

Ranma nodded again.

"Were you originally male?" the Elder asked.

Ranma whispered, "Yes."

"Well," Cologne said, "I imagine the curse is somewhat disorienting to you, but it shouldn't be too bad. Over the years I have encountered a number of males who have contracted that curse and while none of them were happy about it at first, most of them adjusted. A few of them even grew to prefer being women."

"But I can't fight like this," Ranma protested. "Martial arts is my life."

Cologne frowned. "You won't get very far saying things like that in this village, child. We're a tribe of warrior women. Didn't you see the match as you came into the village? The victor, my great-granddaughter, is very accomplished."

"If I could fight like her in my cursed form," Ranma whispered, "I would be okay."

"What's stopping you, child?" the old woman asked. "Sure, you need to account for a new balance and perhaps learn new tactics and strategies, but a man's greater strength is not all it's cracked up to be."

"I can't feel my ki," Ranma whispered. She kept an iron grip on her emotions in order to keep from breaking down in tears.

"What?" exclaimed Cologne. "The springs don't work like that! If you were advanced enough to use ki, you should still be able to."

"My pop can use his as a panda, but mine is almost all gone and what I have is locked up somehow."

The Amazon Elder frowned. "Are you sure you fell into the Spring of Drowned Girl?"

Ranma shook her head. "The Guide said it had been an unknown spring." She hesitated. She did not want to be thought a freak, but she had come her for answers. The strangest thing is that I had a third eye when I came out of the spring. It virtually disappears when I close it."

She opened her extra eye. The strange glows overlaid her sight again. The old woman had a very compact, but extremely bright glow. The woman's staff had an identical glow. A few other odds and ends, glowed different colors.

The old woman fell off her staff and stared at her. "There is an old legend," she began slowly, "about an order of sorceresses that used magic to 'open their inner sight' so that they could see magic and become more powerful. The few surviving pictures show them with a third eye on their foreheads."

"I have felt a strange energy within me that I haven't been able to use," admitted Ranma. "It virtually disappears when I change back to a guy and my ki comes back. I've also noticed odd glows to things when I have my extra eye open."

"Everything?" Cologne asked.

Ranma shook her head. "The springs, Pop, myself, you, your staff, a few of the knickknacks in your house."

The Elder hummed. "I think you're seeing magic, like the legend. Perhaps ki too."

"Do you know magic, Elder Cologne?" Ranma asked hopefully. "Could you help me? I hate being helpless."

"I know a few things," the Elder admitted, "but I'm afraid I can't be too much help to you. We are a society of warrior women. We can't have women who can't fight. A woman who can't fight, but turns into a man who can would be particularly problematic in this village. I would very much like to help you develop your talents, but the price would be too high for me. To be honest, I only know small magics and could only get you started, even if I could overcome my peers' bias."

Ranma's emotions were very near the surface, and she had had a very lousy day. She struggled again not to cry.

"But little help is not no help," the old woman continued. "I have a beginner's magic book I can give to you. Unfortunately, it's in Chinese. But if you work at it, I'm sure it will help you. I invite you to stay the night here and rest and eat before you renew your travel. I'm afraid your father will need to be punished before we let him go, however."

Ranma shrugged. "It's not like he doesn't deserve it." She smiled tentatively at the old woman. "I do appreciate your hospitality and the book. Thank you."

The old woman nodded. "My pleasure. I suggest you stay in your cursed form unless you want to unintentionally pick up a wife."

"Huh?" Ranma said.

The old woman cackled.