Author's note:

This is the first in a series of YAAH stories (Yet Another
Alternate History) based on Ranma 1/2.  Although some elements
resemble several stories that have appeared (ie, "Curses", et al.)
the idea came to me independently.

I asked myself, "What would happen if there was _one_ difference
to the Jusenkyo curse?  How differently could the story/series
evolve?"  After much thinking and plotting, I began to write.
What follows is the product of this idea.

Because I don't have access to the manga, only the anime, as
likely as not this will be a limited series, on 10 to 20 parts
in length.

Since everyone else does it, I might as well also start giving
disclaimers to my stories:

      "All rights to Ranma 1/2 and its characters belong to
      Rumiko Takahashi.  My use is intended solely for the
      purpose of fan entertainment, and no profit is to be
      derived from this story's posting to the Internet or
      any other medium.  If it becomes the case where this
      story's existence violates copyright, the story is to
      be deleted, destroyed, or removed from all sources
      unless permission from RT is given."

Sound legal enough for everybody?  Good.  On with the story.

======================================================================

                      Ranma 1/2 :  Half and half

                     Part 1: "Here's Ranma-chan!"

======================================================================

Nerima was a sleepy little part of Tokyo.  It was a safe, clean,
and friendly place to live.  But, oh lord, it was a strange place,
and never a dull moment.  Especially when the newcomers arrived.

It happened to be a rainy day as from the distance, a large panda
galloped down a Nerima street on its four paws.  Three things were
immediately noticeable about this event.

1)  It was a panda.  In downtown Tokyo.

2)  The panda wore a backpack.

3)  A young redheaded girl rode on its back, clinging to the
    panda's pack.

Like I said, Nerima was strange.

"Hurry, Mr. Panda, this rain is so cold!" cried the girl as the
rain continued to fall.  The panda was moving very fast, making
a real effort to reach their destination.  "I wish you had told
me sooner just where we're going, before the rain changed you!"

The panda did not falter nor reply, simply continuing to run as
fast as he could.  "Tendo dojo.  Must reach Tendo dojo," thought
the panda.

      *****

Inside an old well-established home, a man, Soun Tendo, sat
crying as he read a postcard bearing a picture of a panda on the
front.  From his long lost friend and training partner, Genma
Saotome, it was written with a simple message: "Am bringing
Ranma from China.  Will arrive soon."

"How long I have waited for this day, a day that will assure the
future of the school of Anything Goes Martial Arts," spoke Soun
Tendo.  He stood up from the central room's table, and began to
search the house, calling for his daughters.

"Kasumi!  Nabiki!  Akane!  I have something to tell you!" he
said, first finding Kasumi in the kitchen.

"What is it, father?"

"I must see all of you at table, daughter."  He went upstairs and
found his second daughter, Nabiki, in her bedroom reading a book.

"What is it, Daddy?" said Nabiki.

"Nabiki, please come downstairs, I have something to discuss."

Soun looked for his third daughter, Akane, first in her bedroom,
then the living room, and called through the door to the bath to
find her.  "Where is that girl?"

Outside in the dojo, a young woman in a yellow gi was setting up
bricks.  She slowly summoned her strength, and with a cry, brought
down a mighty blow upon them, shattering the concrete into rubble.

"Whew, that felt pretty good!" she remarked to herself as she wiped
her brow.  Nabiki stood at the door, taking a picture of her sweat-
soaked younger sister, then chided her for her own amusement.

"Typical of you, Akane; no wonder the boys think you're weird."

"What do I care?  Besides, Nabiki, not everyone thinks the world
revolves around...BOYS!" yelled an irritated Akane.

"Oh no?  Then I guess this wouldn't interest you."  Nabiki spoke
with a hint of mischievousness in her voice, to which Akane looked
at her sister in surprise.

Soon all three daughters were seated at the family table, listening
to what their father had to say.

"I've just received a postcard from a very good friend of mine,
named Genma Saotome.  He has a son, Ranma, and if one of you girls
would marry him, our two families would be joined as the only ones
who practice the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts."  Soun
looked at the postcard again.  "They'll be here any minute!"

"You expect one of us to marry some guy we've never even met!?"
said an incredulous Akane, still in her gi.  "I don't believe this!"

"Father, how old is this Ranma?  Younger men are so...young." asked
Kasumi, wearing a comfortable dress with an apron overtop.

"Is he cute?  Is he rich?" chirped Nabiki, wearing a formal kimono,
looking as if she were anticipating their arrival.

Soun stood from the table and walked to the edge of the engawa,
looking out into the rain.  He let out a light laugh, then said,
"I don't know.  I've never met him."

"You don't know?"  Nabiki asked with a little anger in her voice.

All three daughters looked at their father with more than a little
concern over their joint situation.

At that moment, the front doorbell rang.  Nabiki quickly jumped up
to answer it, Kasumi standing, ready to greet their visitor, and
Akane just sitting there, slowly stewing at the thought of a forced
engagement.

Nabiki returned from the front door, with a perplexed look on her
face.  "Father, you must be kidding!  Ranma's a girl!  And with a
pet panda, no less!" she said, leading a soaked girl and her panda
into the room.

Soun turned to look at the visitors, shock on his face as he heard
his daughter's words.

"A...girl?"  he spoke, near fainting as he saw the buxom redhead
in front of him.  It was the panda barely able to walk on all fours
down the narrow hall that pushed Soun over the edge.  He went down
like a sack of hammers.

      *****

With a pillow under his head and a blanket over him, Soun Tendo
slowly woke from his shock-induced slumber.  As he slowly opened
his eyes, he looked at those who surrounded him: his three
daughters and the girl who had just arrived.

"Oh, Father's awake," Kasumi noted.

"Some fiancee, Daddy!  Ranma's a girl!" said an annoyed Nabiki,
poking at Ranma's breasts.

"Aah!  Stop that!" cried Ranma, bringing both her arms to protect
her chest.  "I'm not that kind of girl!"

"Nabiki!  And you call me weird!" said Akane.  "Leave her alone."

Nabiki turned to face her now sitting father, chastising him for
this mistake.  "I would have thought you could tell the difference
between a boy and a girl, Daddy.  Does _this_ look like a boy?"
said Nabiki, again poking at Ranma's chest.

Ranma was now very distraught and near tears, turning away from
Nabiki as Akane reached to comfort the redhead.

"Nabiki, that's not very nice!" said Akane, turning to Ranma.
"C'mon, let's get you warmed up, you've been out in the cold."

Ranma sniffled, happy for the friendly way Akane treated her.

"Do you want to take a bath, Ranma?"

"N-no, I don't want to inconvenience you or your family."

"Oh, don't worry!  You look like you'll freeze to death in
those clothes.  I'll let you borrow some of mine, okay?" Akane
offered with a smile.  The two walked toward the bath, hearing
the argument between Nabiki and their father in the background.
"I'm Akane.  Do you want to be friends?"

Ranma looked at her with a shy smile.  "Mm hmm," she said nodding
as they walked.

After Akane had left Ranma to take her bath, she retrieved two
sets of her clothes and returned to the bath for her own scrubdown.
In the entry to the bath, she lay them on the washing machine and
began to undress herself, looking forward to talking to her new
friend.  She opened the inner door to the bath.

The panda, whom no one was paying attention to, simply lay down to
sleep on the engawa.

      *****

In the warm water of the bath sat a black haired teenage boy,
quietly talking to himself.  "Hmm...what to do?  I guess I'll have
to stay as a girl for now until I can explain things.  Might as
well change back."

The boy got out of the hot bath and sat down on the stool he had
used before, filling a bucket with cold water.  Just as he raised
the bucket above his head, the bath door opened, and in walked a
naked Akane.

She stood there for a second, looking at the back of the boy's
naked body, a scream building inside her.  That scream was
released, however, when she saw the water fall on his head, and
he began to change into a girl.

Ranma had his back turned to the door and was in the motion of
dumping the bucket as Akane had entered, so he didn't know she
was there until she screamed.  Quickly dropping the bucket, she
turned to face Akane.

"What's wrong, Akane?  What happened?"

Akane stood with the small towel barely covering herself, and not
doing a very good job of it.  With one hand pointing at a naked
Ranma, she stuttered out "Y-y-you!  What's going on?"

Realizing she had been seen, Ranma stood to walk to Akane, trying
to explain, but Akane's fear talked louder than Ranma.  Akane
jumped behind the door, slamming it shut and quickly put on her gi
before leaving the bath area.

Kasumi quickly came running to find a shaken Akane.  "Akane, what's
wrong?  Why are you so scared?"

"Ra-ranma's some sort of freak!  I saw her...him...a boy turn into
Ranma when he dumped cold water on himself!"

"Akane, don't be silly!  That's not possible!  You must be
imagining things.  Look, let's both go in and see how Ranma's
doing, okay?"

Akane trusted her sister, but still believed what she saw, and
stood behind Kasumi as she opened the door to the bath.  There
they found Ranma nearly dressed, again in her still wet clothes,
much to Kasumi's dismay.

"Ranma, dear, you'll catch cold in those clothes, you should have
put on the ones Akane brought you!" said Kasumi.

Ranma looked very shy and embarassed, staring at the floor as she
replied, "I know, but...Akane saw me and my secret.  I think it's
best I tell everyone right now, and set everything right."  She was
quiet, almost apologetic in her words, unable to look Kasumi or
Akane in the eye.  "Kasumi, could you please bring some hot water
to the table?"

"Certainly, Ranma," she smiled, leading away a still shaking Akane.

      *****

With everone at the dinner table, Ranma sitting with her back to
the engawa where the panda lay, Akane on the opposite side, and
Soun and Akane's sisters seperating them, she began to explain
what happened.

"I'm sorry I didn't say it earlier, but I was afraid you'd reject
me," she said in a quiet voice.  "Six weeks ago, my father and I
were on a training mission in China, at the Cursed Springs of
Jusenkyo.  Father did not bother to find out all the details about
the place, so we were not prepared for what was to happen to us.
Despite warnings from our guide not to train there, we fought upon
the tops of poles that stood in the pools.  After a while, I put a
good blow against my father, and he fell into one of the pools."

Akane still looked at Ranma with fear and shock, and even a little
anger, while Ranma evaded everyone's gaze, hoping to complete her
story.

"I had thought father would simply get out of the pool and continue
to spar with me, but what I saw coming out of the water was a large
panda crawling on the ground," said Ranma.  "In my surprise, I lost
my balance and fell into the pool holding the pole I was standing
on.  When I surfaced, I found that I was a girl."

"But you are a girl, Ranma...aren't you?" asked Kasumi.

"No, I'm not," she spoke, beginning to pour hot water upon herself.
The eyes of all Tendo family members reflected their shock upon
seeing Ranma's transformation.  "I'm a guy.  I never wanted to be
a girl.  Like I don't got enough problems with the stupid old man
dragging me off to some cursed place."  Ranma stood and walked to
the engawa.

"Nice going, old man!  What's next, training in a rock avalanche?"
said Ranma with vitriol in his voice as he poured hot water onto
the panda.

Soun and his three daughters were shocked at the different tone in
Ranma's tone when he became a boy, but they lost all compusure when
they saw the sleeping panda turn into a naked, fortyish year old man;
thankfully, his back was to the table and the girls.

"My old friend..." began Soun.

"You had to go and drag me all the way to China, didn't you, even
though you couldn't speak a word of Chinese!" spat an angry Ranma,
kicking his father into the backyard koi pond.  A now awake panda
emerged from the water, very wet and very angry and beginning to
charge at Ranma.  With yet another well placed kick, the panda
ended up back in the pond, this time unconscious.

"So now you know.  If I get hit with cold water, I turn into a girl;
I need hot water to change back."  Ranma looked at Akane who was now
more angry than anything else.  "Sorry about this," he said, then
looked down.

"You pervert! you saw me in the nude!"

"Hey, I didn't walk in on you, you walked in on me!  Anyway, it's
not like I was a guy when I saw you.  I was a girl!"

"Oh, like that makes all the difference!"

"It does!  In my cursed form I like boys!"

Ranma immediately clamped his hands to his mouth, wishing he could
take back those words.  It seemed everyone else did, too, their eyes
wide open in shock.

"Y-you're not one of those..." began Soun, pointing at Ranma when
Ranma grabbbed the collar of Soun's gi.

"*NO!*" yelled an angry Ranma into Soun's face.  "I'M NOT!  When I'm
in my cursed form, I am a girl, just like Pop's a panda when he's in
his cursed  form.  Right now, I'm a guy, and I don't wanna hear
anything about guys.  Got it?  I prefer *girls*."

Soun let out a laugh at this revelation.

"Well, now, your problem's not so bad after all.  These are my three
daughters," said Soun, pointing to each in turn, "my eldest daughter
Kasumi, she's 19.  My middle daughter, Nabiki, she's 17, and my
youngest, Akane, she's 16, pick anyone you want, she'll be your new
fiancee."

"Hey, don't we get some say in this?" shouted Akane.

"I think Akane would be the best choice." Kasumi said with a
little insistence.

"Couldn't agree more," said Nabiki with a little smile.

"Marry that-that freak?  You must be joking!" said Akane with a
little panic.

"Oh, like you're that hot a marriage prospect yourself!" Ranma came
back with.  "At least when I'm a girl I don't hate boys.  And I'm
better built, to boot."  With a look of defiance, Ranma turned his
back on his unwilling better half.  A mistake.

With a look of fury on her face, Akane picked up the table and
slammed it down on Ranma's head.  ....8, 9, 10, knockout.

      *****

Ranma began to awaken, finding himself under a blanket in a
bedroom, with Kasumi tending to him, and Nabiki sitting as an
interested onlooker.

"Ooohh, my head...."

"Just lie down, Ranma, you've taken quite a knock.  You know,
Akane's really a sweet girl.  She's just...high spirited."

"Oh, good, Kasumi, like that explains everything."

"And she calls *me* a freak.  It ain't normal for a girl to be
like that; even I'm not when I'm a girl.  Jeez, what kind of tomboy
is she?"

"Ranma, I don't think you should say that around Akane, she doesn't
take too kindly to it.  You should be nicer to your fiancee."

"Fiancee?!  I'm nobody's fiancee, okay?  This is no time for 'em,
I've gotta go back to China and change back for good.  Just knowing
I'm starting to judge guys' looks makes my skin crawl."  Ranma
shuddered.

Against better judgement, Ranma got up and went downstairs, passing
Akane who was on the way up.  Each gave a look to the other that
would have killed a lesser person.  As Ranma entered the dining area,
he found his father in a gi talking to Soun Tendo, both regaling in
old stories and drinking sake.

"Fun's over, old man, I'm going back to China, with or without you.
Just give me the rest of our money and I'm gone."

"I'm afraid not, boy, we'll be staying for a while.  We ran out
of money getting here, so I'll need to earn some more."

"You?!  *I'M* the one who was earning the money, you jerk!  All you
did was spend it on booze!  Now you're saying there's nothing left?
Stupid old man!"

In a sudden rage and before Genma could react, Ranma punted his
father back into the pond, with an incredulous Soun Tendo looking on.

"Suck on that, old man," said Ranma, walking back inside.

	*****

Akane sat in her room, fuming at what had happened earlier.  She
felt humiliated and disgusted at what Ranma had said to her.  If
he would dare show his face to her again tonight...even she had
never considered what she was planning to do to him.

She started at the sound of a knock on the door, so lost in her
thoughts she was.  She wasn't expecting anyone....

"Who is it?"

"It's me."

Akane fumed for a few seconds, then stopped herself before yelling.
Onna-Ranma, she realized.  Akane hesitated, debating with herself
over what to do, and finally came to a decision.

"Enter," she said firmly, with a touch of anger in her voice.

The door opened slowly, a shorter, and meeker, red-headed girl
first looking in cautiously, then opening the door fully to walk
in.

The two looked at each other in silence, Akane sitting on her bed
with an intense look on her face, and Ranma standing, fidgeting
with her fingers, trying to look Akane in the eye.

"Akane, I...I'm sorry for what I said earlier," she began softly.
"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, it's just when I'm a boy,
I'm very headstrong and selfish.  I changed into a girl because I
knew it was the only way I could make myself apologize to you."
Ranma paused, a small smile growing on her face, "I also thought
you might not beat me up."  Ranma then sat cross-legged on the
floor.

Akane looked down at the girl, mentally questioning what was going
on, whether Ranma was just making a fool of her, or if she was
truly sincere.  Ranma began to speak again.

"Akane, it's been a long time since I settled down anywhere.  I
haven't had much contact with people my own age, so I'm not very
good with my manners and behaviour.  Even how I'm speaking to
you now is more a nature of the curse than any politeness or
guilt I really feel."  She looked at Akane with pleading in her
eyes, and said "I know we got off on the wrong foot, but I'd like
to start again.  We don't have to be fiancees, not if you don't
want to."

"Do you want to be someone's fiancee, Ranma?"

"Now's not really a good time to ask, Akane, you know I'm not
attracted to girls," she said with a laugh.  "But we could play
along for now, keep our fathers happy, and get to know each
other.  Tell you what, I'll promise to be as polite as I can
when I'm a boy, and you promise not to hit me if I sometimes
slip up.  Deal?"

"You also promise not to insult me?" Akane asked, to which Ranma
nodded.  Akane sat silently for a minute mulling it over.

"Deal.  And you take back everything you said earlier?" Akane
asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not all of it," replied Ranma, a mischievous grin appearing on
her face, and continuing just as Akane started to get mad.  "Not
the part about wanting to be friends."  A once angry Akane now
wore a wide smile.

Ranma changed to a kneeling position, leaning on Akane's bed
with her elbow, and putting out her right pinkie finger.

"Friends?" she said with a smile.

"Friends." Akane's little finger linked with Ranma's.

======================================================================

                              E     N     D

                                  Part 1

======================================================================

C&C welcome at:
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