Title: Who wants to be a magical girl?
Category: Anime/Manga » Crossover » Ranma 1/2 & Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
Author: Blackcat101
Rating: Rated: K+
Genre: Adventure/Humor.
Chapter 1: I swam to China for this?
Edited by gsteemso
WARNING: Temporary female-mode lock for Ranma.
Ranma Saotome frowned as he looked at Jusenkyo. "This is it? Just a place with pools of water and bamboo sticks? I swam to China for this?" Without looking back, Ranma slowly started to walk away. Truth be told, there was a voice inside his head that told him to leave as fast as he could, and every time he had ignored that voice so far he had ended in trouble. For once, he decided he would listen to that voice; unfortunately, his father had other plans.
"Oh sirs, please listen to me, this is important," the Guide said as he gestured to the pools. "This place is very dangerous. No one use it anymore since there are over one hundred springs here and each one have own terrible curse."
"Ranma, let's spar a bit!" Genma said as he leapt up to one of the poles that stuck out from the pools. Then he finally noticed his son walking away. "Where do you think you're going? It took us over a week to find this place even with a map!"
"Well," Ranma said without looking back, "I'm leaving. This place is not worth my time."
"What? Foolish boy! You think you can just leave me after all the time I invested in you?" Genma jumped back to the ground and ran to his son, trying to hit the back of Ranma's head. He couldn't understand why his son was doing this. He had done every possible thing to make the boy love the Art and only care about martial arts.
Ranma easily ducked away, and used his left leg to make Genma trip, all without even looking back. Of course, it wasn't going to be that easy to win. Soon the fight escalated and both fighters ended up jumping onto bamboo poles, while the Guide screamed at them to run away before it was too late.
Ranma was now focused on the fight, once again ignoring that little voice in his head. The two fighters kept jumping around the bamboo poles, trying to make each other fall. Finally, Genma was kicked into one of the springs.
"See? This place is a waste of time!" Ranma shouted, just as Genma resurfaced as a panda. While that surprised Ranma, he had been trained to fight by instinct, so he ducked out of the way without needing to think about it—only to step onto a damaged bamboo pole that snapped under his weight. The boy was sent plummeting toward the large pool below and splashed down into it.
"Oh sirs, what a great tragedy, sir fell into the Shonmaonichuan, spring of drowned panda! Very tragic story of panda…" The Guide's speech was cut off as the water where Ranma fell started to glow blue.
"What? Other customer fell into the Nyannichuan, but why is the spring glowing?"
"Gruff?" asked a confused panda, who just moments ago had been a bald martial artist.
Then Ranma jumped out of the spring and landed on the ground, in the form of a redheaded girl.
"Very strange, why did Mr. customer glow while in the pool?"
"I… I don't feel so well…" Ranma's body felt tired and hurt—actually, not merely tired, he felt exhausted, as if he had trained until he could no longer move, and his body hurt like he had been trashed by a superior opponent. Finally, even his stubbornness could not keep him up any longer and he collapsed in a dead faint.
The Panda took a sign out of nowhere that said What happened to my son? While he could understand the curse, the fact that he had fainted and wasn't moving was bad.
"I… I don't know… " the Guide admitted, shocked. He would have to consult his books and scrolls to see if there had ever been any other case like this.
It turned out that while hot water changed Genma back, it didn't change Ranma, who wasn't waking up no matter what they did. Panicking in fear for his endangered retirement plans (of Ranma running a dojo and supporting him), Genma asked the Guide if there was any place where they could get medical attention for Ranma and find out why his curse was apparently locked.
*********
Two days later…
Ranma woke up. He seemed to be in comfortable bed, located inside some kind of hut or cabin made of wood. The sunlight visible through the small window indicated that it was early in the morning.
"Finally. Now we can talk," said an elderly female voice. Looking towards the sound, Ranma saw a very old woman who to him looked like some kind of ghoul or monster. However, considering that his whole body hurt, and he had no clue where he was, he decided to save the insults for later. He looked himself over, looking for injuries, and noticed that he… had breasts. A quick look and he noticed that yes, he was fully female and apparently a redhead. Worse, he was only wearing his shorts and undershirt.
"Who are you?" Ranma asked, "Where am I? And why the hell am I a girl?" Ranma would have reacted more strongly, in fact he wanted to, but he had felt a calming presence since awakening, so he didn't.
"My name is Cologne. You are in Nyujiezu, village of the strong warrior women. You would call us Joketsuzoku in Japanese. Your body hurts so much because you had a strange reaction to being cursed."
"Cursed?" Ranma asked, surprised
"Yes, you fell into a cursed spring. Not only have you turned into a girl, you seem to be locked in that shape. Also, the guide mentioned that you glowed with a strange blue glow while in the pool. Apart from being in the wrong body, you seem to be healthy—if anything, you are too healthy."
" 'Too healthy?' How could anyone be too healthy?"
"You are a martial artist, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am. Why, what else is wrong?" Ranma was grateful for that calming presence, whatever it was. Without its aid, he would have reacted more strongly and probably said something stupid, like insulting women to this old woman's face.
"Because you have no scars, no sign your body has ever been hurt badly. You still seem to have the effects of any training you have done, but such a perfect looking body is very rare on a trained martial artist, unless… Do you know any magic?"
"No. In fact I didn't even know magic existed before…" Ranma bit back the insults he had prepared against his stupid father and the curse. "Before I was cursed."
"I see."
"Uh?" Ranma didn't like the way the old woman was looking at him. Suddenly, she threw hot water at him. Where did she get it from? Was it a magic trick? Maybe some secret martial arts technique to hide weapons?
"What the hell was that for?" Ranma asked, eating the words 'old ghoul' before they left his mouth.
"Just checking again." She then proceeded to hit him with cold water. Ranma just looked at her in disgust. "Yes, still locked. Let me explain. Normally when a person falls into one of the cursed springs of Jusenkyo, with cold water they turn into whatever creature drowned there, while hot water changes them back to normal. For example, your father got cursed to turn into a panda."
"I see, serves him right for causing me to get stuck like this. Where is he?"
"It turns out that after leaving you with a doctor, he ate a feast that was supposed to be the prize for a martial arts tournament. The winner who was supposed to get it happens to be my great-granddaughter Shampoo. So we are forcing him to work to pay for the food he ate."
Cologne forgot to mention that had Genma been younger and handsome, she would have allowed those two to fight, so the kiss of marriage could be used. But Genma already had a son, even if the boy was stuck as a daughter, so that complicated things since it could mean that he had an existing wife hanging around somewhere. Also, Genma gave her a similar impression to a terrible pervert she had known long ago, meaning he wasn't the kind of man she wanted Shampoo to marry.
"Sounds like him, all right. So is there any way to cure my curse?"
"In theory, bathing in the spring of drowned man could change you back into a male, but the springs of Jusenkyo seem to have a mind of their own. Trying to find a cure always ends in disaster. And you are the first case I ever heard about of someone's curse being locked right away, unless a magical device was explicitly used to do so. And anyone whose curse is locked won't be affected by other cursed springs." Cologne had to try hard to focus on what she was saying, her eyes wandering over Ranma's perfect body. Besides locking the curse, whatever other magic was at work had also made the former boy's body quite beautiful.
"Yeah, I get it." Ranma felt like screaming, yelling, crying… why had this had to happen to him? What kami had he offended? If it wasn't for that calming presence, he would probably have gone nuts and tried to kill his dad by now. Also, he did not like the way the woman was looking at him. For some reason it sent shivers down his spine. It was a look he had seen a few adult women have while looking at him, when he was a boy. It just screamed of danger.
"Can I get a mirror to look at myself?"
Cologne just took a hand mirror out of her robes and gave it to him. "Here you go." Cologne was thinking about offering the former boy a stay in the village with the excuse of looking for a cure, during which she would be able to test her to see the girl's potential. Even after the magical change, the girl had the body of a trained warrior, and while there weren't any prophesies about redheaded girls that she was aware of, Cologne did not believe in coincidences.
Ranma looked at his new face. It still looked familiar, but… he was a girl. A girl that looked like she could be his twin sister, and so… well endowed that Ranma knew there was no way he could pretend to still be a boy. Even wearing chest bindings and loose clothing, he would still look like a girl. The redhead stood up. At least this female body wasn't any shorter than he had been as a guy. His balance felt off due to the wider hips, the bigger backside and the stupid breasts. If he had to be a girl, why couldn't it be a typical Japanese one who had no problems disguising herself as a man?
"Is it illegal to kill your father around here?" Ranma asked, passing the hand mirror back.
"Yes. You don't seem to like your father very much." While Cologne had to agree that Genma didn't seem like a very good parent, bringing someone with no respect into the village would cause more problems than it would be worth. Still, this would make it easier to get the new girl on her side. Maybe later on, she could travel to Japan looking for those legendary age changing mushrooms she once read about? No! What she was thinking! She was a respectable elder of… damn, if Ranma had that effect on her, then she was glad the younger girls had yet to see him. While not every woman around the village liked other women, enough did, and in a tribe that preached female superiority, most girls experimented with same-sex relationships at least once.
"Well, to be honest, my father put me through some very stupid training when I was six, and I almost died. I may also have got hit in the head or something, because since then, I don't seem to care much about what he thinks. He talks about honour and all that, but what he says and what he does are two different things. Plus, since I'm a girl now, I can't be the manly son he wants anyway."
Ranma was surprised about his own bluntness, but since something was calming him down, insulting his father seemed to be the only outlet for his anger, at least until he could ask someone for a spar.
"Do you feel strong enough to walk?" Cologne asked. Ranma's stomach growled in reply, but that made sense since the girl hadn't eaten for two days.
"Yes, I guess I could go and get…" Ranma started to walk to the door but was stopped by Cologne. "Oh no, you stay here. I will tell my great-granddaughter to bring you lunch."
"Okay…" Ranma wondered if he should try to run away. But… he was a guest here, wasn't he? Plus he was hungry and for once no one was blaming his father's actions on him. Moreover, Ranma knew something was wrong, as there had never been a calming presence in his mind before.
Cologne had to get herself into the Soul of Ice to stop her mind going to places it had not gone in a long time, especially when she had the weird thought to see if maybe that body swap scroll might work, so she could have a young body for a while and teach the new girl the pleasures only another girl could deliver. She mentally slapped herself in shame for what she just thought and left the room.
Now that he was alone, Ranma did a basic and slow kata to get the feel of his new body. He frowned. It would take weeks to get used to fighting like this.
"Safe Mode Reboot initiated. Stand by..."
Where did that voice come from? Ranma looked around, he also felt the calming feeling disappear, but decided that freaking out would be a bad idea. Just because he had the body of a girl didn't mean he had to act like one.
Then Ranma felt pain is his chest, and a blue orb of light shot out of it. Ranma had to try hard to not fall down, as a wave of weakness hit him. In front of the girl was floating some kind of small, round, blue gem. Ranma felt the impulse to touch it, and did so, then berated himself for being so impulsive.
"Safe Mode initiated, battery low. Estimated duration of current charge, two hours, six minutes, fifteen seconds. Compatible Linker Core found, initiating emergency protocol."
"What the hell is going on?" Ranma was really confused.
"Do you wish my power?"
"Power? What are you talking about?"
Before the strange gem could answer, the door opened again and Ranma heard another voice.
"Oh, is boy turned girl a Magical Girl?" asked a girl's voice in broken Japanese.
"Do you wish my power? Please answer yes or no."
"Uh…" Ranma stared indecisively between the floating gem and the brown-eyed, purple-haired Chinese girl, unsure what to do.
"Oh my gosh! Shampoo found Magical Girl just about to make contract! You have to say yes!"
"Okay… yes?"
"Connecting to Linker Core... recharge initiated... unit HR-1987 will be fully recharged in twenty hours, five minutes and two seconds. Warning! Self diagnosis system damaged. Unit AHR-1987 may be in need of repairs." The gem then stopped floating and fell down. Ranma grabbed it before it touched the ground, feeling strangely protective of it for some reason.
"Shampoo finds that disappointing, Shampoo wanted to see redhead's magical transformation."
"Eh… Can I have food now?"
"Oh, right! Shampoo was rude to honorable guest."
As Ranma ate breakfast, he was grateful that the girl named Shampoo didn't start to pester him with questions about Magical Girls, whatever those were. Then Ranma opened his mouth to ask, and was bombarded with information; the girl sure loved to talk. Still, while they were in Chinese, it was nice of Shampoo to offer to lend him her magical girl Mangas. Not that he would read them anyway, but the offer was still nice.
After that, Ranma was led to a common bathing area to take a bath. The way they stared at him made him feel really uncomfortable, like he was a mouse trapped in a room full of cats, but since he did not know the language and Shampoo stuck to him like glue, nothing happened.
*******
It had been a day since Ranma woke up stuck as a redheaded girl. Everyone was polite to him, but they had not let him out of sight since the whole "Magical Girl" deal had been revealed. So Ranma had stuck to the basics while doing katas, since he still didn't trust his new body with the advanced ones, and the basics were so ingrained that while slower than usual, they soon became automatic.
While Ranma had realized that he apparently was a prisoner, the fact was, he did not know the language, and so far the whole deal had allowed him time to think and relax.
That was one of the things Ranma had rarely had during his ten year training trip, but now… he had the whole day to himself. The problem was, he had no clue what to do besides training. And he was still stuck as a girl.
That was until Shampoo found the new girl and dragged the redhead out to get a change of clothes. That was how Ranma learned the 'wonders' of using female underwear.
Oh, and there was that magical gem thing. After the whole talk about Magical Girls he had a better idea of what it was; apparently it was his transformation item. Not that Ranma had any intentions of using something so damn girly, but considering that he also had not wanted to be stuck as a girl in the first place…
'Some kami up there must be laughing at my misfortune.'
"Unit AHR-1987 fully charged, rebooting..."
Just great, it looked like Shampoo might be able to see a Magical Girl transformation after all.
PS: So any comments, reviews, recommendations, critics?