She surfaced suddenly, aware only that something was horribly wrong. She looked down at herself, confirming one of her greatest fears/hopes.... She had never known which, exactly. She wasn't herself anymore. Immediately, she tried to figure out what could have caused this. The last thing she remembered was...

was....

sitting down...

at her computer.........

to write.

To write.....

...what?

Then she noticed that she was both soaking wet, and reflexively treading water. There was a funny-looking fat man standing on the grass beside the spring, babbling something at her in Japanese. She didn't know Japanese. Hang on, spring?

A cursory glance confirmed that she was, indeed, floating in a spring of some sort, a neat round hole in the muddy turf, with grass drooping over the edges as though threatening to jump in. The water itself was surprisingly clear. With the sun out like this, she could see all the way to the bottom. When she looked behind herself, she caught sight of something long, brown, and furry. With a reflexive thought, her tail- her tail, not something else- came up and landed in her left hand.

Oh crap. She stated, and the fan man stopped, looking slightly surprised.

It was quite ironic really. She could no longer remember this one, yet she somehow knew she had found it the most fascinating of all before this had happened. The videos, the manga- a collector she was, and one with haphazard, genre-spanning tastes. It was one of the odder titles, she was sure, but what, exactly, that meant was beyond her reach. Still, she knew this much.

I'm in an anime.

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Passenger

Chapter 1: Welcome aboard.

A Ranma 1/2 fanfiction by Starblade

Dedicated to those others who have gone before, doing obvious SI.... and not following stereotypes.

Warning: This fanfiction borrows many ideas shown in other fanfictions. Hopefully, those who wrote them, upon reading this, will find my interperetations satisfactory- I don't intend to exactly copy anything. I have the greatest respect for those whose fanfictions I have DLed onto my computer, as they are, in my opinion, the best of the best. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own them. I don't want to own them. BUT THEY MADE ME DO IT!!! WAAAAAAAH!!!! (enters Souun Tendou Cry #46: I've been forced into this against my will even though I find myself mysteriously enjoying it)

Key:

= English

" "=Japanese

[ ]= Jusenkyou Cursed Signs

{ }=Chinese

= internal conversation between Ranma and Yasha

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She climbed from the pool, noticing the cotton gi she was wearing clinging to her uncomfortably and beginning to itch. She had never tried swimming in a gi before, but if she had, this would have been a very good reason not to again, as far as she was concerned. And why was her balance all weird? Perhaps it was her brand new tail, which was already giving off a faint wet-fur odor, but something told her there was a bit more to it than that.

Nearby, a panda perched as if glued to the top of a bamboo pole sticking out of one of the many pools of water nearby. The fat man, wearing an old, baggy green Chinese Communist uniform looked at her a moment, then spoke.

{Aiyaaah! Mr. Customer look very strange for victim of Nyannichuuan! Does Mr. Customer feel alright??} Immediately, the guide mentally cursed himself. Of course the customer didn't feel alright! Nobody ever did. But then, in a way, this was just in following with the pattern set the first time he'd seen someone fall in the spring.

She stared at the Jusenkyou Guide a moment before responding. "Customer" and "strange" she had caught, but the rest of the Japanese sentence was beyond her reach. Well, she had always wanted the opportunity to learn the language... right?

Ah.... I'm sorry, I don't speak Japanese well at all.... Would you mind explaining how I got here?

The Guide did a double-take as the panda nearly fell off of its pole. Both were positively baffled. The guide waddled up to the bizarre looking girl, while the panda hopped from pole to pole, with agility that looked completely ridiculous on an eight-foot ball of fur.

But, Mr. Customer speak Japanese before fall in spring.... the Guide began, thouroughly puzzled. Nothing like this had ever happened before... what was going on, exactly? Every once in a while, the springs would turn out something a little weird, like the Spring of Drowned Piglet creating a full-grown boar form, or the Spring of Drowned Cat leaving someone still capable of speech, but this was... several steps further up the weird scale, and climbing quickly.

That's very interesting, but... the girl looked at herself a moment, then puzzledly at the guide, I really don't think "Mr." applies to me.... She thought a moment more about how her body felt, and then finished. No, definitely not a "Mr."

The panda leapt down from its pole, managing to narrowly avoid landing in yet another pool by digging the claws on its hind feet into the muddy soil, and waddled over to the girl, coming up behind her.

A shadow passed over her, settling especially deeply on her face as she stood there facing the guide.

She blinked twice. Do you ever get the feeling that you're being monitored? She paused. Or that you're about to do a double take?

What you say?

She put one index finger to her lips, and made a shushing noise. Shhh. I think someone's watching us. She glanced first to the left, then to the right. Then, she began scanning the bushes, looking for telltale signs of movement. Perhaps the shack over there?

The guide looked up at the panda staring at the girl, and sweatdropped.

Yes. Other Mr. Customer is watching. He come here with you. The guide indicated for her to turn around.

With an uneasy feeling, she turned slowly, her vision scanning across bamboo, trees, grass, a cliff, some pools...

And a lot of white fur.

Slowly, carefully, she craned her neck back, scanning up the mass of fur, and got a fairly good view of the face of a panda at close range.

.....urk....

She sincerely hoped she was correctly remembering that pandas were NOT disposed to claw, bite, or otherwise mangle hapless people. Just in case she wasn't remembering correctly, she froze in place. Wild animals were not to be toyed with or provoked, she was sure of that much.

Aheh....... Hello there...

"Graa! Grouph urgh owph!" The animal exclaimed, towering over her and waving its claws menacingly.

AAAAAAAAA- WHAM

The panda whipped the sign out of nowhere and slammed it into the girl's head without even realizing it had done so.

[Stop screaming, boy! You're acting like a little weak girl!]

Obviously, the full impact of what was going on had not quite reached the panda yet.

Unexpectedly, from the panda's point of view, all the response this got from the girl was that she fell over unconscious, with a rather large knot on her head.

The panda sweatdropped.

[Get up, boy, stop fooling around! You've taken much harder than that before!] :flip: [Take it like a man, and get back up!]

"Aiyaah, Mr. Customer, no think Mr. Younger Customer is fooling.... Something wrong, very tragic...." The guide trailed off, crouching down to look more carefully at the inert girl.

It was at this point that the panda paused, and held up its arms to stare at them. Then it looked down at its belly. Snarling, it turned on the guide.

[What the hell happened to us?!?]

Dao El sweatdropped again. "Only now you notice?"

Shortly thereafter, in the hut where Dao El, the unfortunate Juusenkyo Guide, lived, a young man was to be found. He stood about five foot five, and had black hair. More or less typical for a Japanese. His eyes were a stormy blue-gray color, and he had the highly fit, though not especially bulky, build common to high-grade martial artists everywhere. His name was Saotome Ranma, and he was perched atop an unconscious lump of panda. He was also thinking.

Saotome Ranma was thinking hard. And he was thinking seriously.

Some would say this is not something of which said young man is incapable. Fortunately, Ranma wasn't aware of them at all, and hence could disregard them entirely with little difficulty.

Something was wrong. He could feel it in his.... bones? No, not in his bones. He could feel it in his head. As though there was a pressure there, in the back of his mind, held back for some reason. He had to figure out what it was... he had an eerie feeling it was related to why he had totally lost control of her... HIS body after falling in the spring. And then blacking out after she... HE got out. Damn, but pronouns were going to be confusing for a while.

He remembered a meditation technique taught to him by a wandering medical student, as a matter of fact, the only meditation technique he knew. As far as his Oyaji was concerned, meditation was for sissies who would rather talk than fight. Fortunately for him, Genma had been off pilf- er, I mean, obtaining... food when the young man had happened on him a few years ago. The student had sensed the ki imbalance caused by Ranma's Neko-ken training, and had taught him the meditation to help him keep it under control. Now he merely ran screaming from cats, instead of instantly lapsing into the Neko-ken. The meditation was used to relieve stress and encourage freedom of thought. And that pressure felt almost confining. He just hoped it would work.

As his body slipped into sleep-function, Ranma's mind coalesced in his imagination. He stood there and looked around his psyche (Of course, he didn't call it that. To him, it was just that place in his mind. You know, THAT place.), and noted that everything seemed pretty much the same, with the strange monuments where the strange monuments had always been, and the trees where the trees had always been. Everything was just right, as usual. Except for one place. He could see, just at the limit of vision, a hill.

A hill that hadn't been there last time. A hill just beyond where he had sequestered the Neko-ken. Ranma shuddered at the thought. Oh, well. He'd have to go past it to get there, there was really no helping it.

And with that, Ranma steeled himself, heading in the direction of the hill.

Halfway there, he almost lost focus, walking past what seemed to be a deserted training hall.... from which issued yowls of hunger and screams of agony. With a final shuddering step, it was again out of hearing..... and Ranma stood at the bottom of the hill.

The hill was very large, but low, and evenly domed. Easily walking up it, Ranma found something very interesting. At the top of the hill was.... a building.

It was a small, two-story, Victorian-style house, and it looked very comfortable. Except for the steel bars over the doors and windows. After a short examination, Ranma decided that the only apparent way to get in was to break something.

Looking over the bars more carefully, Ranma noticed that there was a window left almost totally unobstructed on the swinging garage doors... almost inviting him in. He resolved to be careful, while nothing here could physically harm him, immense mental damage could be done.... he shuddered, remembering the Neko-ken once more. Then he steeled himself, and leapt through the almost-too-small window, shattering the pane of yellow glass in a spray of rippled silicate shards.

Ranma landed on his feet (was there ever any doubt?). There was no sign of the glass from the window. Inside the house was a forest. But not a forest. The paved pathways through it made it seem as though some sort of park. Yet, Ranma could tell that whatever was here, it did not use the paths much. Instead, there were a great many areas where it was obvious someone had passed through, walking across the very grass and dirt, and apparently in hiking boots, too.

Ranma smiled slightly in spite of himself. Despite the paving, the place was nice, serene, and natural overall. Though the effect WAS almost ruined by the presence of an absolutely huge robot off at one end of the wooded area, he had to admit. Then he heard it. Someone was singing. Someone was here. Someone was here, singing. Very well, as a matter of fact. Ranma paused a moment, then appended it further. Someone was here, singing beautifully, and female, and it apparently wasn't him, as he had his mouth shut.

Ranma was relieved for a moment, as he didn't REMEMBER becoming female, although Jusenkyou had rendered that fear rather solid. Ranma immediately tensed up again, as he realized that whoever it was who was singing wasn't a memory of his.... he'd never heard that song before. He couldn't quite make out the words, but the tune was totally unfamiliar. Ranma counted himself fortunate that whoever-it-was didn't seem to want to stop singing as he followed the sounds to their creator.

Ranma wasn't even halfway prepared for what awaited him in the small clearing. He stopped and rubbed his eyes. Whoever it was he was looking at seemed to have six or seven different forms at once, and yet only one. All of her/them, however, was/were female. She/they was/were also in his head. Without invitation. That was not good.

Silently, Ranma leapt to the attack, nailing the singer in the back of the head with a flying kick. There was a loud THWAKK as she/they went flying. Fortunately for the girl(s?), Ranma had pulled his blow quite a bit. Girls couldn't defend themselves very well, after all.

Ranma was expecting his target to fly forwards and plow into the ground, stunned.

He wasn't expecting to feel like someone had clubbed him in the back of the head.

And yet, both of these happened.

"SO," came His voice to Skuld, who was watching the events inside Ranma's head, "HOW GOES IT?"

"Pretty well, actually..." was the twenty-something-looking goddess' reply. "She has a different take on how to do this from the others... she explicitly stated that she didn't want exacting foreknowledge of what would happen... just a general inkling. It should be quite interesting to see how she deals with this whole thing."

She groaned, surprised to be feeling pain in what she had assumed was a dream. The fat guy had doused her with the kettle, and then she found herself here. It took her a bit of thinking to figure out, but she'd supposed that it had to have put her to sleep, since she couldn't think of any other way to get here. Besides, her form kept changing, and a person's body just doesn't DO that in real life. Struggling and standing up, she turned to fix a green/brown/blue/hazel/red-eyed gaze on the pigtailed martial artist.

"And what," she fumed, "was THAT for?! Dammit, I can't even get a break in my dreams now? This is insane!" Several pairs of wings, a few tails, and a pair of chitinous claws all twitched in irritation, phantasmally intersecting each other.

"Wait...your dreams?" Asked an incredulous Ranma, still clutching his head, "Whadda ya mean YOUR dreams?? You're in MY head!"

"In your head?" Her expression changed to one of puzzlement.

"Yes, in MY head. And how'd you take control of my body, anyway? Least, I THINK it was you. Isn't anyone else around in here. I don't get it... I fall in a spring an' someone else gets control of my body? What sorta training is that?"

Her face shifted once again, this time to apology. "I'm sorry for intruding in your mind, whoever you are, but I don't seem to have gotten much of a choice about being here." She shrugged, and continued. "I really have no idea what you're talking about... training? For what?"

The girl with the long, navy-blue hair slowed her jogging as she passed the car wreck, just enough to see that noone had been hurt in the accident. The police were already on the scene, so at least she didn't have to go make an emergency call or anything. Making a note to tell her father about it, she sped back up, rounded the corner and headed straight for the dojo, not even bothering to announce her return to the Tendou-ke.

Changing into her gi, the youngest Tendou proceeded to complete her ritual by shattering a set of concrete blocks. She almost didn't hear the soft "click" immediately after she delivered her blow. Looking up, she saw her sister Nabiki lowering a small camera. Nabiki ran one hand through her 'helmet' pageboy cut of straight brown hair before she spoke.

"There you go again, Akane." Nabiki began, "It's because of this that all the boys think you're wierd."

"So?" came the swift reply. "Not everyone thinks that boys are everything, Nabiki!"

"Oh, really? Then I guess you won't be at all interested in Father's announcement, Akane?"

It was raining in Nerima. It hadn't been raining a few minutes ago- in fact, the sky had been totally clear. However, Nerima was a slightly weird place, and sudden rain was likely to be only the least of the day's interesting events. In fact, it already was, considering how Mrs. Tanaka's pail of blessed water had somehow grown three newts overnight.

Of course, the two figures making their way across the suburb of Toukyou were starting things up on a whole new scale of weird for the day.

People stared as an eight-foot-tall panda walked down the market street on its hind paws. The panda carried a rather large pack on its back, in addition to the other figure. A vaguely humanoid figure in a heavy brown cloak was seated on the panda's right shoulder as it trod the streets, also carrying a pack, though a considerably smaller one.

Ranma, the smaller of the two strangers thought within her head, though certainly not to herself, What's that the old man keeps on muttering about? Some sort of 'engagement' in Nerima?

Beats me, Yasha. Came the answer, from the Other sharing their mind. Prob'ly just another arranged dojo challenge. You know how Oyaji gets 'bout those.

Ah, Yasha thought back, Just about par for the course, then.

Par?

You know, like in golf?

What's a 'golf'?

One small hand emerged from the cloak, rising up to rub at a still-hidden face. A sigh could be heard from the smaller figure. Nevermind. Yasha waved off the panda's curious grunt. "Nothing."

Grinning to itself, the panda continued through Nerima. Who'd have thought the boy's dumb act would help him in this?

Souun and Nabiki Tendou were scared out of their wits. An eight foot tall panda walking into the house on its hind legs was bad enough. The fact that it had a large brown cloak over one shoulder was only kind of weird. It could just be an escaped circus animal, after all. The accompanying horror, however......

"Daddy?" questioned Kasumi, hiding behind the Tendou in question, "This... is your FRIEND????"

The girl was four and a half feet tall, if that, and was staring at them unsettlingly. It was probably unsettling because her irises were blood crimson, not that the rest of her appearance was particularly calming. She had long, pointed ears, the upper ends of which were probably even with the top of her head. It was hard to tell, however, because the thin brown quills that she had in place of hair stuck up the remainder of the fifth foot, as well as arcing down in back to form a massively thick ponytail of sorts. The other noticeably abnormal part of her face was the short fangs, the tips of which barely peeked out from her mouth. Her long, catlike tail poked out from underneath the red, silk tang she wore, seemingly through a hole in her black kung-fu pants. Completing the look were a pair of soft slippers, and all her clothes were far too large for her, making her look even more deformed. Actually, gender was difficult to determine... the clothes hid everything. So, Souun Tendou's mistake was reasonable, given the circumstances, the panda, and his general emotional state.

"You.... you aren't Ranma..... are you?"

"Saotome.... Ranma desu. S-sumimasen..."

(I'm... Saotome Ranma. Sorry about this....)

Tendou Souun fainted.

Tendou Kasumi jumped at hearing someone with fangs like that produce totally intelligible speech. (Even if there was a thick American accent.) The small boy (after all, her father had said Ranma was a boy) seemed frightened, too.

Tendou Nabiki narrowed her eyes. This was something new. A panda doing tricks was neither especially interesting nor particularly marketable. Though it was rather cute. Hopefully, Akane wouldn't fall into another of her 'cute' phases and try to adopt the thing. Bamboo could get expensive. Of course, nothing would ever quite match the Aardvark Incident, but that was another tale. But this boy, if one were to believe her father, was supposedly the son of two relatively normal people. Maybe he had friends like him? After all, American freak shows seemed to go over well . . .

Tendou Akane shifted into a stance, preparing to kill the . . . thing. It was a good thing, she thought, that she was still wearing her gi. At least she wouldn't bloody any of her good clothes killing the demon. Maybe she could get Nabiki to let her keep the panda that had come with it? She'd always wanted a pet.

Yasha backed away from Akane a bit. She did NOT like the look in the girl's eyes, neither when she'd looked at 'him', nor when she'd been looking at the old man. She almost put her arms up in a guarding position, but that could be seen as aggression.... What a pickle. She backed up another two steps, just to be sure. This didn't look like it would be fun.

The panda held up a sign. [Ah. Same old Souun Tendou I remember.] ::flip:: [Would someone like to be a dear and get us some hot water?] ::flip:: [Nevermind, I'll get it myself.]

The wooden sign clattered to the floor as the panda ducked quickly into the kitchen.

Nabiki frowned slightly. She'd seen the sign drop, it only had two sides. How had the panda done that?? For that matter, where had the sign come from? Maybe she WOULD keep the panda.

"Um..." began Yasha, nervously staring at Akane, "P... Please don't... I not try hurt you, and I don't think I able hurt you..." Mentally, she cursed her slow curve at learning new languages. Perhaps it wasn't too late to run yet?

Kasumi stepped forwards around Akane, moving to comfort the small... boy? girl? demon? Whoever they were, they weren't too familiar with Japanese, either. Regardless, anyone looking that nervous probably wasn't dangerous, especially given how this Ranma person was backing away from Akane.

"Please excuse Akane-chan. I'm afraid we're all a bit startled by your appearance. Oh, where are my manners? I am Tendoo Kasumi." Kasumi bowed politely, her palms on the front of her skirt. Akane and Nabiki blinked at this. Kasumi tended to seem a bit out of touch, but bowing in greeting to a demon?

Yasha, looking relieved to be dealing with someone less openly hostile, smiled nervously at the unusually tall, brown-haired girl. "Is okay, Kasumi-san. Must expect when be-" The small demon-girl found herself cut off by a sudden transformation. Genma stood behind her now, empty kettle held over Ranma's head.

Souun said nothing and did nothing, having failed to regain consciousness.

Kasumi stared a moment. "Ara...."

Nabiki jumped, looking startled for the barest instant, then returned to a neutral expression. Pandas with signs and strange-looking people were one thing, but this? Now THIS was something worth getting excited over. Too bad she wasn't showing it. Too bad for this Ranma person, anyways.

Akane, if anything, looked more ready to kill the human boy than she had been to try to kill the seemingly-demon possibly-boy. After all, her 'Toosan certainly wouldn't make her marry a demon. A BOY, on the other hand, was a horse of a different color. Or at least, he would be once she'd done with him. Black or blue, specifically.

Ranma frowned a moment, changing the way he stood almost entirely, as his balance shifted. He also did something to his hair, tightening the ponytail before it's bond could slip off the reduced volume. In doing so, he also changed the large white ribbon from a bow to a sort of wrap around the base of his low ponytail. Now, rather than a somewhat slouched, very short, slump-shouldered, and eerie (if vaguely cute) demon, the Tendoos were faced with an upright, square-shouldered, and athletic (if vaguely bishonen) teenage boy.

like I do to get... oh. We changed. Damn it! I hate being cut off mid-sentence! Yasha continued in Ranma's head. This curse was NOT very much fun.

You an' I both, Yasha, you an' I both. Now whaddo I do? The girl in the gi still looks ready to kill us! Not that she can, but we already got one enemy, and one's plenty, thanks!

Ah.... good question... Yasha replied, watching the girl through Ranma's vision.

Nabiki frowned. "What, exactly, was THAT?" Things had been fairly strange recently, but this sent her weirdometer off the scale. Maybe getting up today hadn't been a good idea. Just in case she hadn't actually gotten up yet, and was still dreaming, she pinched herself on the side.

Ow.

Okay, that lets out THAT possibility.

Genma took dramatic stance #2 (Oh, what a tragedy) and proclaimed, "Oh, the horrible things Ranma and I have undergone in our training trip! It is a wonder that my old friend Souun is coping as well as he is! I must wait for him to wake up, so I can explain to all of you!"

"Now this, I've got to hear."

"Please, Nabiki, stop giving our guests a hard time, and help me with father..."

"Poor daddy. He must have been so disappointed..."

Nabiki just looked at Kasumi for a moment, then returned her obvious attention to her father and her not-so-obvious attention to Ranma.

"I'm so embarrassed. Why does Dad have to act so frail?"

Souun Tendou, having just come to, immediately began doing his best impression of God during that whole Noah thing (Souun Tendou cry # 12: My Daughter Thinks I'm Weak And She's Probably Right). Ranma was, fortunately, far enough away from Souun's head, but Kasumi and Genma only narrowly avoided getting a soaking.

Wow. Lookit him go. It's a wonder the floor isn't suffering water damage yet...

Mmh. Yasha, why do you think that girl is angry at us? came Ranma's response, as he turned their collective gaze on the girl still wearing her gi.

Ranma... some people just hate some kinds of other people. I have never been able to figure it out, but I, and those I associate with, usually fall into the category hated.... Oh well. May as well get back to watching Mr. Portable Niagara Falls here...

Ranma narrowly avoided an argument and eventual beating by turning his gaze from Akane to her father just before Akane decided to glare at him across Souun again. Right about then, Souun turned off the waterworks and looked around.

"G-genma, old friend? Is that you? Tell me, where are the panda and the foul demon thing? Did you drive them off??" Souun sat up excitedly, looking around. Genma was here! That meant Ranma, too! His daughter (whichever one it happened to be) would be getting married soon! Oh, the joy!

Yasha grumbled something in Ranma's head, but he couldn't quite make it out.

"I suppose, Tendou, that a full explanation is in order... for now, an introduction." He turned to the three girls. The young one, Akari was it?, looked ready to fly off the handle anytime now. And Nikibi....Kinibi? Natsumi?.... whatever. She was watching the boy like she thought something was wrong. The eldest one, that Kasumi girl, was looking at Ranma really strangely.... oboy, this didn't look like it was working too well. Genma reflected that he probably should have tried to sneak into the kitchen BEFORE looking for his old friend. Oh well, nothing to do but bull ahead...

"I'm Saotome Genma, and this is my son-"

"Saotome Ranma. Sorry about this..."

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Author's Notes (7/7/03)

Well, here I go around again. It's been over a year since I began this fanfic, and I have to say I was impressed by how many people liked it. Originally, I was doing it just to get some ideas out of my head onto paper (or the electronic equivalent). I posted it on on a lark, and to my amazement, people actually liked reading it. So, here I am over a year and over a hundred reviews later. And I'm looking at it, and I'm realizing that even though I've been writing this thing for so long, I'm still writing it like it was a lark, not really worth spending any serious thought on.

And that's just not fair to anyone who decides they want to read this stuff.

So, I've decided to go back and revise the whole darn thing. Drop inconsistencies, improve the writing, all of that sort of thing. Not because I think other people might not be satisfied with it, but because I am not satisfied with giving it to other people in the form it used to be (in. I think. English teachers are always around at the wrong times.).

For the sake of convenience and comparison, I'm leaving the original version up on , and posting this thing as a new story in the same category. If any of you workers think there's something wrong with this, then by all means delete the old version- I won't be offended or anything.

Further Author's Notes (2/29/04)

And I'm editing it again. After some thought, I've decided that whole scenes need replacing and rewriting. Furthermore, I'm trying to flesh out all the scenes that are already there, providing more depth of detail and character thought. The storyline may well wind up changing significantly because of this, but it should be for the better. I'm also trying to fix a few characterisation inconsistencies, as well as throw in more scenes not centered around Ranma or Yasha/Ranma-Yasha/Kodora. Incidentally, as things are, the name that the me inhabiting Ranma's curse will wind up taking later may change.

The chapter lengths should continue to be more consistent with those of a serial or manga, as that was the way the story was originally designed. Plus, this fic is based more on the manga than on anything else, so the serial-style format seems more appropriate. I've also rethought how I'm printing the japanese words- I've decided to go with romanization of hiragana, rather than anything else. This may result in some confusion for those of you who do not know how hiragana work, but not enough to significantly distract from the story itself. I hope.

Anyways, here's the first chapter, revised and edited by myself (twice).

Please enjoy, and remember....

Never pet a burning dog.

Don't spit into the wind.

Wear a helmet when you ride a bike.

And never, EVER....

Drink root beer on an empty stomach.