Dragon 1/4


Note: Takes place before the beginning of the Ranma 
manga and after episode 7 of the OAV of Tenchi Muyo

	Ranma cursed his old man for the umpteenth time as there 
wasn't anything better do trudging through Chinese wilderness in 
the pouring rain.  Or more accurately, Genma trudged while his son 
(though it was nearly impossible to make this relation at the 
moment) flew.  Fly is perhaps too strong a word, since he was only 
hovering about a foot off the ground and had to keep pace with his, 
through at the moment her, father.
	"Stupid pops," he muttered, glaring at the panda ahead of 
him.  It was all his fault he'd been hauled all over the orient on a 
decade long training expedition.  Ranma didn't see why they 
couldn't have just trained at home since his father was the only one 
who ever taught him.  It was all his fault that they just had to go to 
China and while there they absolutely must visit a charming little 
training ground which pops knew next to nothing about since he 
couldn't even read Chinese.  Couldn't they have at least spoken 
with the guide there first?  No, not Genma Saotome, master of 
Anything Goes Martial Arts, he didn't need anyone's advice, 
especially of a person who spent his whole life as the guide there!
	Bad enough he had to get knocked into spring of drowned 
girl, but when Ranma had been chasing after his furry butt to show 
him just what he thought of this whole training expedition, he had 
to trip over that guy and fallen into another spring, learning the 
hard way that curses could mix with strange results.  What was that 
guy doing there anyway?  He had looked vaguely familiar.
	Whatever, now Ranma was stuck with a curse form that 
resembled a buxom redhead with the wings, tail, and horns of a 
dragon.  Bad enough when the wings sprouted it ruined his gi, and 
later on when it happened again it ruined his favorite shirt.  
Everywhere he went people tended to see him as some kind of 
monster and would either run screaming in fear or try to fight him 
out of town.  Worst of all, he was stuck being a girl half the time 
and stuck dealing with all the problems related to that.  It was 
really embarrassing.  Okay, so it wasn't all bad.  It was really neat 
to be able to fly, though he still hadn't gotten the hang of it and was 
pretty clumsy.  He had found out rather suddenly that he could 
actually breathe fire, which came in handy to warm water to 
change back, only in the rain it didn't do him much good.
	Then there was the fact that he was a lot stronger and faster 
in his cursed form.  That had been cool at first, the pounding he 
had given his pop when he had caught up with him almost made up 
for the trip.  Then he thought about how he didn't even all of the 
martial arts techniques that he'd spent a lifetime learning.  He could 
still use them, but what was the point when he could now 
overpower an opponent with his new speed and power?  It was like 
all of his hardships had been for nothing and that made him really 
depressed.
	Not helping his mood was the fact that they had not one, 
but two pursuers.  One was a crazy Chinese Amazon seeking 
revenge while the other was a crazy Chinese demon hunter 
convinced that Ranma' curse form was in fact an oni.  Both had 
been Genma's fault.
	"Pops," Ranma grumbled under his breath, "Anymore 
surprises and you'll find out how really strong this curse form is."  
Then he started mumbling about recipes for barbecued panda.

	Genma was too deep in thought to pay any attention to his 
son's rantings, but he had already heard enough of them to get the 
point.  Ranma was angry about the ways things had gone and if 
they got any worse he was likely to do something drastic.  After 
witnessing what his son's cursed form could do he didn't want to 
see that happen.  He didn't know if he'd survive the experience.  
Ranma couldn't see that none of this was his father's fault.  How 
was he supposed to know those pools was what they meant by 
'cursed' training grounds?  The guidebook, what little he could read 
of it, made the whole curses bit sound like a good thing.  If the 
place is so dangerous, why list it in a guidebook at all?  It was just 
like all those other things.  Ranma expected Genma to know 
everything.
	But the boy wouldn't listen to reason or any of his 
explanations.  Genma knew that his son was one step away from 
having nothing to do with him anymore and he'd have to be careful 
from now one.  He established some rules for himself to get him 
through this latest crisis, rules substantially different from what he 
had followed up to this point.  First rule: Always think before 
acting.  Second Rule:  Try to make sure there isn't any danger 
ahead before proceeding.  Third Rule:  No more surprises.  It was 
amazing how clearly one can think when one's life hangs in the 
balance.
	Genma thought about what he had planned for the boy 
when they returned to Japan.  How would Ranma react to suddenly 
finding he'd been engaged since birth?  Why any boy would be 
thrilled to find this decision taken out of his hands and a pretty 
wife waiting for him, but Genma had a feeling that Ranma would 
react negatively at this, as he had to just about anything lately.  So 
going straight to the Tendo Dojo seemed a bad idea since the 
engagement would be like a time bomb ready to go off at any 
minute.  What Genma needed was time in a peacefully setting with 
the boy in order to let him come to peace again so he'd be in the 
correct mindset when the engagement was brought up.
	Staying in China was out of the question with two 
determined people chasing them down, but Genma was sure they 
wouldn't follow them all the way to Japan.  Who did he know that 
they could stay with in Japan?  Going home was out of the 
question, with Ranma's curse Genma would rather face whatever 
Ranma could dish out than Nodaka, the wellspring of his son's 
temper.  Dealing with her made the engagement seem simple by 
comparison.
	Genma suddenly remembered his cousin Nobuyuki who he 
and Ranma had stayed with soon after the death of the man's wife.  
His father in law was priest of a temple and had maintained the 
grounds on his own.  Surely he'd allow them to stay for a while in 
exchange for them doing work around the place and perhaps since 
priests have stores of arcane knowledge he may know of a way to 
cure them.  It seemed the perfect place, after all what could be 
more peaceful than a temple?

	Soun read the postcard for the third time, scratching his 
head in puzzlement.  'Having problems that will delay our coming 
to the Tendo Dojo.  Will contact you and explain further as soon as 
possible.  Genma Saotome.'
	Oh well, he had waited for the moment for years now, he 
could wait a little longer.  Surely his friend knew what he was 
doing.

	Nobuyuki was at peace, working on his latest project for his 
firm.  There was something about architecture that put his soul to 
rest and pushed all of his troubles away.  He was normally a happy 
go lucky man, feeling free to live for the moment for he knew all 
too well that it may be over in the next, but he had been troubled of 
late.  It had all started with strange visitors coming by the house.  
At first he had reveled in the sight of so many females where it had 
been men only for a time and watched with pride as they fought 
over his son.  How manly he had become!  And he'd been so 
worried for the boy ever since his dear mother had passed away.  
Then things had gotten weird.  Okay, they had been weird from the 
beginning and Nobuyuki hadn't understood much of what was 
going on, but hadn't really worried since none of it had effected 
him.
	Then Tenchi and the girls had vanished for a time and not 
even his father in law gave a clear explanation of what had 
happened.  All Nobuyuki knew that they had come back with what 
had to be the strangest girl to date with spiky red hair and his son 
appeared to be different somehow, in both good ways and bad.  
Clearly something had happened, despite how everyone denied it.  
Then he had come home one day to find the beautiful house he had 
designed completely destroyed!  He was so heartbroken that he 
didn't have the strength to be angry and let his son lead him 
through a door which should have gone nowhere, yet ended up in a 
huge room that someone had called subspace.  By the next morning 
when he was ready to be good and angry, the house was back, 
completely untouched and in even in better shape than it had been 
before.  All the work of a genius scientist who looked to be about 
12, but was really much, much older.
	It all had given Nobuyuki a headache and it was clear that 
he wasn't the only one suffering.  Even Tenchi had been moody 
lately, which he had never been before.  The mistake was 
Nobuyuki was too kindhearted, he thought.  It was a good idea to 
invite some of those girls to stay with them, but he should have 
drawn the line somewhere.  With his father in law up at his shrine, 
Tenchi and he were outnumbered, but the only way he could think 
of restoring the balance would be to kick some of the girls out and 
he simply couldn't bring himself to do that.  Not to mention all of 
the destructive things those girls were capable of when they got 
mad.
	The phone started to ring, bringing him out of his thoughts.  
Nobuyuki was almost thankful for the distraction before he 
realized that it was probably just Tenchi calling to explain how the 
house had been destroyed again or some other disaster.
	"Moshi-Moshi."
	"Nobuyuki is that you?  Its your cousin Genma calling."
	"Genma is it really you?"  He couldn't believe it since it had 
been a decade since he last heard from his cousin.
	"Yep, just came back from China and thought I'd give my 
favorite cousin a call, to see how things were with you.  I can't 
believe you still work at the same firm, though you've become 
quite an important person since we last spoke."
	That was at least true.  He was now one of the senior 
architects.  "China, what were you doing there?"  Nobuyuki had a 
feeling that his cousin had called him up to ask for something, but 
knew Genma would get to it when he was ready.
	"I wanted to train my boy in the great training grounds of 
China.  Nothing but the best for as my heir.   I want him to become 
even more skilled than I and have every advantage that I didn't 
have."
	Nobuyuki remembered when he had last met Genma he was 
going to take his son, who he had been training in martial arts since 
he could walk, on a long voyage of training.  A vague idea of how 
to solve his own problems started to form in Nobuyuki's mind.
	"So you've just come back and first thing is you call me?  
One would have thought that you'd be so eager to reunite with your 
wife that you wouldn't put that off for anything else."
	The was a short pause before Genma replied.  "Well, there's 
a small problem with that.  For reasons I won't go into now, the 
boy's training isn't yet complete and it proved impossible to do this 
in China.  I need a quiet place to finish it and then he'd be ready to 
be reunited with his mother.  In fact, that was one of the reasons 
that I called you.  I remember that your father in law was priest of a 
shrine outside Tokyo and was wondering if you think he'd let me 
and the boy board with him for a little in exchange for doing 
chores?"
	Nobuyuki thought that a few months ago father in law may 
have needed the help, but Tenchi and all the girls there were hardly 
chores that needed to be done.  Still, Nobuyuki saw this as a great 
opportunity to solve his own problems and help out a cousin who 
had helped him in his time of need.
	"Well, I can do even better than that.  I've recently moved 
my house to be near the shrine (just don't ask me how) so you can 
stay with me and Tenchi.  We already have some other guests 
staying with us, but my house is big enough for you and your son 
(and if it isn't I can just have Washu add a new room)."

	"Great, that's wonderful," Genma replied after writing down 
directions, "We'll be there sometime tomorrow.  Syonara."
	"Its all set boy," Genma said to his son as he hung up the 
phone.
	"So we're going to the Tendo Dojo now?"
	"Foolish boy, haven't you been listening to what I've been 
saying to you?  I've decided that first we should stop off to visit my 
cousin Nobuyuki for some peace and quiet before going to the 
Tendo Dojo."
	Ranma knew that he was up to something the way he'd 
been talking up the Tendo Dojo and his old friend Soun for some 
time, so why the sudden delay?  He'd have to wait and see what 
would happen.  If worst came to worst, he could deal with it with 
his cursed body.

	Tenchi knew that something was up when his father had 
come into his room, grinning from ear to ear.  Probably found 
some foolproof way to peep on the girls when they're in the onsen 
and wants to use it to help me with my manhood.  Why can't he 
just give it a rest?
	Nobuyuki shut the door behind him and told his son, "Now 
I don't pretend to know everything that's been going on here lately, 
but I do know you've had troubles with the girls."
	Tenchi nodded.  Just when didn't he have troubles with 
them?  If they're not shouting at each other, they're pulling him 
apart in a game of tug-a-war or destroying the house with their 
fights.  It's a good thing Washu is so handy with repairs.
	"Its clear to me that this is a problem of numbers.  There are 
simply too many of them and not enough of us.  Normally, I'd think 
this a good thing, but lately things have been getting out of hand.  
So I've decided to balance the odds back in our favor."
	"Huh?"  He had no idea what his father was talking about.  
Who are them and who are us?
	"I've invited my cousin Genma and his son Ramna to stay 
with us."
	Tenchi exploded.  "You did what?  Are you crazy?  Its hard 
enough to keep secret what goes on here, but you want more 
people here?  How will they react that our guest are aliens with 
massive powers?  Do you know what the girls could do to them?  
Do you know what Washu will do to them? Do you?!"
	It was clear to Tenchi that all of the things that had 
happened lately had caused his father to snap.  This had to be the 
stupidest idea he'd ever heard, even worse than his attempts at 
peeping.  He vaguely remembered Ranma from a visit long ago, a 
nice little boy with a pig tail who was into martial arts.  He didn't 
want to subject his cousin to the kinds of things that went on in the 
Masaki household on a daily basis.  He had the tenchi-ken and the 
wings of the light hawk if things really got out of hand, and his 
father was hardly ever home, but what would there be to protect his 
cousin from the hell that he was under?  The physical danger was 
bad enough, the psychological stuff was really what got Tenchi 
screaming.  He didn't want anyone to have to go through it.  Not 
even Kagato deserved what he went through on a daily basis.  
Well, maybe Kagato, but not anyone else.
	"Not to worry, Genma is a powerful martial artist and his 
son has been training since he could walk so they'll be able to be 
ward off the occasional danger."  Tenchi raised an eyebrow at 
'occasional.'  "Now, Genma and I will be staying at the temple with 
grandfather, while Ranma will be taking my old room.  Will start 
getting ready for them early tomorrow since they should be here be 
afternoon.  I'll leave it to you to explain to the girls that they should 
be on their best behavior."
	And then he left before Tenchi could argue further.  Maybe 
it won't be so bad to have another guy around the house, he 
reflected.  He doubted any of the girls would actually attack his 
cousin and with martial arts reflexes he should be able to stay out 
of the crossfire.  Explaining about the aliens would be a little hard, 
but it was easy to believe once he saw what the girls could do.  
What could go wrong?
	Tenchi looked out his window.  That was odd.  He could 
have sworn that he heard thunder but there wasn't a cloud in the 
sky.

	"What is this meeting about again?"  Washu asked 
impatiently as she had experiment that needed doing.
	"Why did we move all of father's things to the temple?" 
Aeka added, "Have we offended him in some way?"
	Royoko was tempted to rip into Aeka for the 'father' 
remark, but noticing Tenchi had on his serious face, decided to 
save it for later.
	Sasami, Mihoshi, and Ryo-oki simply waited, curious to 
what was going on.
	"No Miss Aeka, none of you have offended him.  He only 
moved to make room for our new guest."
	"Oh great, another freeloader," Ryoko commented, "Why 
do you need anyone else when you have me!"  And then proceeded 
to try to snuggle him with less success than usual, since Tenchi 
absolutely didn't want her provoking Aeka into a fight now.
	"Yay, another guest!" Mihoshi enthused, most likely not 
even hearing what Ryoko had said, "So who is it Tenchi?  Kagato?  
Emperor Azuza?  Elvis?"
	Tenchi decided to cut her off before she could rattle off a 
list of even more improbable guests.  "He is my cousin Ramna 
Saotome who has just returned from a training trip in China and 
my father decided that it would be nice for he and his father to stay 
with us for a while.  Now, I want all of you to be on your best 
behavior while he's here.  Ranma is just a normal human and isn't 
used to the strange things that you do.  That means no teleporting, 
no flying, no spaceships, no weird experiments, no energy blasts, 
no talking logs, no otherworldly relatives, no mention of how old 
you all really are, and absolutely, positively no fighting!  Do I 
make myself clear?"  Tenchi had tenchi-ken in hand just in case 
anyone didn't get the point that he was angry and ready to carry out 
his threat.

	Ranma looked up to the cloudless sky as he got off the bus 
at the shrine stop, father just before him.  He was a he and was 
determined to stay that way at least until he could break it to the 
people he was staying with gently.  After all, they were simple 
people living in modern Japan who didn't believe in things like 
dragons and oni and would react worse than the people in China 
had to his curse.  It had taken him awhile to learn, but since 
villagers ran either to or from him screaming when hit with cold 
water, he kept a thermos of hot water on him at all times.
	They were greeted at the bus stop by a middle aged man 
who Ranma guessed to be Nobuyuki.

	Ryoko was really bored waiting for this Ranma person to 
show up, though she was sure that she'd still be bored when he did.  
To her, most earthlings were just no fun at all, Tenchi being the 
exception.  So she decided to go take a walk, even though Tenchi 
had told her to wait at the house.  She got tired of walking, so she 
decided to fly up to the shrine to see if this Ranma had shown up 
yet.  She'd been specifically told not to fly or to use any of her 
powers, but there was no way she was walking up all these stairs, it 
took too damn long.  Besides, she decided, she was doing Tenchi a 
service looking out for his cousin to make sure he arrived at the 
house safe and sound.  Tenchi would thank her for being so 
thoughtful.
	Then as she neared the shrine she heard a familiarly 
unpleasant sound.  Yosho was obviously fighting someone and 
Tenchi was back at the house so this could mean trouble.  Tenchi's 
grandfather might not be her favorite person in the world, but she 
did know how skilled he was as the only person that had gone 
more than five minutes recently had been Kagato.  This could be 
bad, they all had just recovered from that whole mess.
	Teleporting to the shrine, she found Yosho locked in fierce 
combat with what had to be an oni, and after impersonating one for 
700 years Ryoko should know.  She had the body of a young girl, 
but had wings, horns, and tail.  The oni was moving so fast that she 
was almost and blur and the punches she rained down on Yosho 
were beating even him back, and she knew from personal 
experience how hard that was.  With no regard for her own safety, 
Ryoko charged the oni with her fist cocked back to deliver one hell 
of a punch.

	Ranma was reveling in one of the best matches he'd had 
since getting cursed, possibly the best match he had ever had 
period.  Here was someone who could actually stand up to some of 
the devastating punches and kicks that he could deliver in his 
cursed form, not only holding his own but getting his own licks in 
as well.  So focused he was on his opponent that he didn't notice 
the Royoko until it was too late.
	Ranma suddenly found herself up against a tree, nursing her 
soar jaw.  Had Yosho got some lucky hit in?  If so he was a lot 
faster than he was pretending to be and a lot stronger to boot since 
Ranma, with his super endurance, had hardly felt his blows.

	Ryoko rubbed her hand as she flew through the forest in 
search of the oni.  What was that thing made out of, stone?  
Probably hurt myself more than I did her, she thought.  Yosho had 
shouted something about Ranma as she was flying off.  Did he 
mean the oni was trying to attack Ranma?  If so, he was in danger 
and Tenchi was sure to reward her for protecting his cousin from 
such a dangerous foe.

	Tenchi was out looking for Ryoko, not that he really 
wanted to, but she had slipped away when everyone was busy and 
she had a way of causing trouble even when she never really meant 
any harm.  She isn't really a bad person, Tenchi reflected, but she 
often acts before thinking and lets her fists do her talking.