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Version 1.1
#include <ahoal/author_notes.h>
#include <mega_crossover/std_disclaimer.h>
#include <alternate_universe/std_disclaimer.h>
#include <ranma/std_disclaimer.h>
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Akane Tendo has having a bad day. During lunch that mysterious woman appeared, afterwards, Shampoo, Ukyou, and Kodachi came by demanding to know where Ranma was. Of course, one of Akane's friends had to make a comment about the mysterious woman to them, gleefully mentioning that the woman didn't even mention them in her 'talk' with Akane about Ranma....
The end result was a brawl. It started when Shampoo, Ukyou, and Kodachi started arguing about who should get Ranma. Which erupted into actual blows when the heat of the agrument got too much for all four girls. It got even worse when Mouse came by to defend Shampoo, followed by Ryoga, who showed up to defend Akane, and matters really got out of hand when Kuno showed up trying to date with Akane since Ranma wasn't around. The brawl was only stopped when Hinako-sensei sucked the battle-auras out of everyone. Akane liked to think she gave as good as she got. But all she got was a black eye, some bruises, and a torn dress.
Still the fight did let her vent some of her anger. She had manage to tag both Shampoo and Ukyou during the fight, so the afternoon was not a complete loss. As she approached home, she noticed that something was wrong...
The house was too quiet as she entered. When she called out that she was home, her father told her to come to the dining room. When she arrived, she was surprised to see Ranma's mother, Nodoka, sitting beside her husband, Genma, who was in human form. There was such sadness in Nodoka's eyes that Akane's knees to begin to buckle. Even before she fully sat down, Akane had to ask, "Ranma's not coming back, is he? He's..."
Seeing the pain and hurt on Akane's face, Nodoka finished for her by saying, "Dead? No, my son is not dead... Although, it might have been better for him, if he was."
"Nani?!?!?" exclaimed Akane. "How dare you say that?!?!?!?"
"Because at the moment, my dear," Nodoka explained gently, "Ranma's in Hell."
"Hell?" Nabiki responded too quickly. "There's no such thing."
Eagerly Akane asked, "Then Ranma is alive? How do you know?"
"Well," Nodoka replied, "I found out this morning...."
= - = - = - = - =
Nodoka sighed as she finished cleaning up the dishes from her breakfast. The house was quiet. Some would say too quiet and Nodoka would agree with them. She knew why the house was silent. It was a punishment. A curse...
Kami-sama was punishing her for the huge *mistake* she made when she allowed Genma to take her son, her *only* son, *away* from her on an extended training trip. That happened ten years, one month, one week, two days, and forty minutes ago. She had been paying for that mistake every moment since, with a quiet house, a cold bed, and no one to truly confide in.
All her former friends couldn't believe what she had *done*. They all looked at her with pity and sadness. She tried to explain but her response about honor, duty, and the hope that her son would be a 'man among men' began to sound as hollow as the house after a few years...
Oh, she made some attempts to locate her husband and son but all she got for her trouble were rumors, pity, and bills. In desperation, she had went to the Tendo Dojo two week ago in hope that Soun Tendo, an old friend of her husband, might know where he and her son was... After all, besides cooking and eating, the other only thing Genma respected was the martial arts. He had trained with Soun for a long time, and they could considered themselves as brothers, even promised their children would on day marry in order to truly unite them. But all she found was her husband and son missing, a tame panda bear, a truly tomboyish girl with red hair, and Soun's three daughters, who needed a mother's firm hand, although the eldest, Kasumi, seemed to be all right, unlike the other two.
As she headed for the door to spend the day with Kasumi, she noticed two men waiting for her there. The man on the right was a stranger. The man on the left was Master Po, the elderly Shaolin priest from the temple down the street. Nodoka had visited the Shaolin temple a number of times since Genma and Ranma had left her. She found comfort there. In all her time there, she never heard nor seen Master Po leaving his beloved temple, much less associated with strangers...
As she opened the door, Master Po asked if they could speak with her. Intrigued, she showed her guests into the living room, prepared some tea, and sat down with them. After she and Master Po had exchanged the necessary greeting rituals, Master Po introduced the stranger by saying, "This is Peter Caine [KF2] of the Kwai Chang [KF1] line..."
The stranger, introduced as Peter, waved his right hand to signal to Master Po that he shouldn't continue. Nodoka thought it was rude of Caine-san not to allow Master Po to properly introduce him. She noticed that there was a brand in the shape of a dragon on his arm. Which confused her since only a Shaolin priest wore the dragon/tiger brands on their arms. This Peter Caine didn't have the look of a Shaolin Priest.
Peter said simply, "I am Peter Caine. Like my father and his father, I too am a Shaolin priest. And I am here to repay a family debt..."
"A debt?" Nodoka asked confused. "I don't understand..."
"Yes, a debt of honor," Peter explained. "You see, your son, Ranma Saotome, helped my great-grandfather, Kwai Chang Caine, when he was in great peril."
"Nani?!?!?" Nodoka exclaimed. "When was this? How could an old man..."
With a slight smile Peter replied, "The events I'm about to tell you happened over seventy-five years ago...."
Nodoka sat there as she listened to Peter Caine tell her how Ranma helped the then-young Shaolin priest Kwai Chang Caine in the American Wild West deal with a gang of bank robbers who were preying on a small home stead... It was too much for her, so she motioned for Caine to stop and said, "While that's an... interesting... story, Caine-san, but my son is only seventeen years old... He... *I* wasn't even alive back then..."
"Yes," Peter replied. "That's part of why I'm here. You see, your son and Happosai --"
Nodoka waved her hand and said, "Happosai was my husband and Soun Tendo's master in the Martial Arts..."
"Right," Peter continued. "Last week, Ranma and Happosai fought an Oni..."
"Nani?!?!?" Nodoka exclaimed. "Oni are only legends..."
"Oni are real, Saotome-san," Master Po said matter of factly.
"To make a long story, short," Peter responded, "the Oni took both Ranma and Happosai to its home..."
Scared, for some unknown reason, Nodoka asked, "And where do Oni live?"
With a sad smile, Peter replied, "In this case, Hell..."
"But," Nodoka began to inject.
"Your son is alive and well, considered where he is," Peter tried to reassure her. "After confronting the demoness who cursed Happosai, they were able to make it to more 'friendly' territory. There, Ranma learned how to travel from one plane to another... Unfortunately, while traveling between planes isn't that difficult, navigating through them is."
"You mean..." Nodoka asked worriedly.
"Yes," Peter said seriously. "Ranma is trapped in those other realms... those other time frames... without knowing the way back. But! You can help him..."
"How?" Nodoka replied. She didn't understand much of what Peter Caine was saying but if she could help her son...
"Blood calls blood," Master Po answered.
At Nodoka's confused face, Peter explained, "As Ranma's mother, there is a bond between you and Ranma... a bond of flesh... a bond of blood... We, Master Po and myself, along with you can across the dimensions to them, Ranma and my great-grandfather, to show Ranma the way home."
"Home... Ranma... home," Nodoka stated to herself. Out loud she said, "Of course, I'll help...."
Peter nodded his head expecting that answered but he had to add, "There's something else... another reason why we came here."
"Oh?" Nodoka stated confused... What could be more important than getting Ranma home?
Gently Peter began, "as we like to think otherwise, there is more to our World than what we can see with just our eyes. There are other worlds... realms... beside this one. But, in all the realms, there is a balance between the two opposing, fundamental forces in the Cosmos, Ying and Yang."
"Yes, but what does this have to do with my son?" Nodoka asked. A premonition that she would not like the answer settled over her.
"You required that your son be a 'man among men,' right?" Peter asked,
"Yes, but," Nodoka began.
"He succeed," Peter stated matter of factly.
"I don't see where you are going, Caine-san," Nodoka replied.
"To be a 'man among men,' means that Yang must be greater than Ying, an imbalance," Peter explained.
"Yes, but," Nodoka interrupted.
"The Universe does not like any *imbalance*. It wishes Ying and yang to be even," Peter continued. "Thus the Universe took steps to correct this *imbalance* in your son.... In this case, the Universe led your son and husband to Jusenkyo, 'the land of cursed springs,' where a person who falls into one of its pools *assumes* the *shape* of whatever drown in that pool."
A thought, which Nodoka had dismissed, came back. Out loud she said, "How... What do you mean?"
"It's easier to show you than trying to explain it with words," Master Po said as he took the now-cool tea and dumped its contains over his head.
Before Nodoka's startled eyes, the old priest changed into a tiger. The priest's robes fell off the priest-turned-tiger as the priest-tiger walked on all fours around Nodoka and then returned to his robes. Peter held his cold cup of tea up, concentrated for a moment, then poured the reheated tea onto the tiger which turned back into Master Po.
"How?" a wild-eye Nodoka asked
"When I was young," Master Po said, "I went on a journey through China. Not believing the Jusenkyo Guide, I was not as careful as I should have been. So I fell into the Spring of Drowned Tiger."
"While fascinating, I fail to see what this has to do with my son," Nodoka stated.
"As I said, Ranma had an imbalance. The Universe corrected it," Peter repeated.
"Yes, but," Nodoka once more injected.
Gently, Peter replied, "The end result was Ranma fell into the Spring of Drowned..."
"Girl," Nodoka finished for him. "And I had wondered if Genma had had an affair with a Tendo....."
Seeing that Nodoka had drifted off into thought, Peter reached into his robe and pulled out a crystal which he set between himself and Master Po. Nodding at Master Po, Peter assumed a meditation position facing Master Po, who took up a similar position.
Nodoka had thought 'Ranko Tendo' looked familiar... After her second visit Nodoka had noticed the similarities between Ranma and Ranko. Her fear was that Ranko had gotten the similar features by being Genma's daughter... Now she realized why Ranko looked so familiar... Ranko looked quite a bit like she did when she was Ranma's age. And she had thought that the reason why Ranko was such as 'tomboy' was because she had such a poor mother... which Nodoka feared was the truth.
"Even with a woman's body, I'm still a man, Mother," Ranma said. "Always have been."
Nodoka's eyes snapped open upon hearing her son's voice. There between the two Shaolin Priests sat Ranma in the air. Or at least, it looked like Ranma, if he was blue and transparent.
Floating in the air between the two priests was a glowing crystal which served as a center for a blue transparent Ranma, who was wearing his Chinese clothes that he usually wore. There was a slight smile on his face as he looked at his mother and said, "Hello, Mother."
Nodoka could feel her eyes widening in surprise. She whispered, "How? Why?"
With a chuckle Ranma stated, "I've learned a few things while I was in Hell..."
With some dread Nodoka asked, "Are... Are you dead?"
"No," Ranma laughed, "I'm just stuck Between, at the moment."
"Stuck?" Nodoka wondered.
"Yeah," Ranma replied. "I don't have anything to point the way home...."
"But..." Nodoka began.
Ranma interrupted his mother with, "Yes, there is the love between mother and son... and I do love you, Mother. Blood calls Blood. That's how I got this far... But I need something, *physical*, from *this* Time to get back to the *proper* Time Frame..."
"That something," Peter injected, "must tie your son and you together."
"The Saotome family sword," Nodoka realized out loud. Since she was preparing to leave, she was carrying the sword on her back as she did whenever she left the house. She reached behind her back, uncovered the sword and passed it onto Ranma without thought.
When Ranma's ghost hands touched the sword, the sword began to glow the same color as Ranma did. Nodoka absently noted that Ranma's touch was both soothing and warm... like her father's was. After a brief flash, the Saotome family sword became as transparent as Ranma.
"Thank you, Mother," Ranma said heart-fully. "I hope I'll make you proud..."
With that the ghost of Ranma disappeared.
"Ranma-chan," Nodoka cried at seeing her son disappear. Master Po took Nodoka into his arms until she regained control over herself.
Once she was more composed, Nodoka asked Peter about what he knew of Ranma. Peter told her about how Ranma had also helped his father when he was Peter's age and what he knew about Ranma's life before these events befall him. He told her about Ukyou, the Neko-ken, Jusenkyo -- mention that Genma turned into a panda, Shampoo, and about his love and forced engagement with Akane Tendo.
When Peter finished, Nodoka excused herself, got a thermos filled with hot water, and said, "You understand... I have to check *this* for myself..."
Peter and Master Po just nodded as Nodoka headed towards the Tendo Dojo.
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Akane smiled when Nodoka said that Ranma loved her... and she loved the Baka too. After Nodoka finished, Akane asked, "So when will Ranma be home?"
"I don't know, Akane," Nodoka replied. "As I understand it, the sword will only point Ranma in the right direction. He will have to find the natural bridges that connect the various realms together on his own. Caine-san called them, 'portals' and 'gateways,' and some of them must be used in the certain order..."
"Certain order, Auntie?" Nabiki asked intrigued. "What happens if Ranma doesn't..."
Akane shot her sister a dirty look and quickly waited for Nodoka's answer which was, "According to Caine-san, these 'bridges' not only connect between here and there, but between the Past and the Future..."
"The Future?" Nabiki exclaimed as she thought of what she could do with the money she could make if she knew the Future.
"Yes, and the Past," Nodoka stated. "That's how Ranma was able to help Caine-san's family. Ranma will have to go through a number of 'bridges,' some which connect to the Past others to the Future, in order to get home."
"So it's just a question of time," Akane stated out loud. To herself she thought, //Of when *my*Ranma will come back to *me.*//
[=== End of Part 2 ===]
Appendix: Kung Fu Series
[=== End of Appendix: Kung Fu Series ===]
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Last Updated: Tue Dec 23 18:53:11 CST 2003
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