by Nekomata-sensei » Sun Mar 29, 2009 3:47 pm
I don't know about Haruna being Ranma's child, as you'd think she'd know about the existence of magic already (although her lack of surprise might say something and she keeps her knowledge secret for the privacy of her family).
But it might be interesting to have her be Ranma's cousin, perhaps she only knew about Ranma when he was younger and "Auntie Nodoka" more recently, and Haruna's parents are actually somewhat involved in the magical world in some way, but don't like it, (perhaps having incurable curses that they can somehow hide that she didn't inherit, or having had some bad run-ins with magic) and they sent her to Mahora because of some of their friends in the magical world teaching there, but want her kept out of it, possibly worried about some sort of family destiny sort of thing where Saotomes run into magic a lot, and have high mystical potential (Haruna's artifact is really powerful, she can create a temporary being with virtually any powers she can imagine, with power limits, but still incredible versatility) and they allow her to go there partly because they trust their mage friends to try and protect her if she eventually does encounter magic and it backlashes.
They kept her from getting back in contact with Ranma after he's presence was noted in Nerima and they called up Genma because they found out about the curses from Genma, and knew that with Haruna's personality she'd throw herself into the magical world if she found out about it, and didn't tell her Ranma had been found, and had Nodoka also keep Ranma's return secret from her when Ranma was reunited with his mother. Ranma himself has mostly forgotten Haruna, as it was before the training trip that he last saw her, and he'd hardly remembered his mother either.
But what if while Haruna is getting training in preparation for the summer trip to England, she has a brief time leaving the dorms to visit her parents, and accidentally (or perhaps on purpose if she trusts them and doesn't think they'll stop her) they find out about her pactio artifact and starting magical training and that she is now familiar with the magical world, and in hopes of warning her away, they reveal the Saotome family tendency to have bad encounters with magic, first trying to convince her with her own problems and some of those of her ancestors that they know of, and when that fails because of her dedication to her friends, they try with reuniting her with Ranma and his and Genma's curses. Ranma is surprised by this, and slightly upset his parents had hidden relatives from him, especially nicer ones, even if they meant it for Haruna's well being, they could have at least told him and told him why.
Haruna still isn't convinced to start avoiding magic or abandon her friends' project to seek the thousand master, so they decide instead to have Genma give her some training, so she can at least defend herself better, and request they bring Genma along on the trip to be a bodyguard of sorts. Genma is lazy about it and doesn't really want to train a girl, plus he can tell Ranma is stressed out about the fiancee mess and hasn't gotten up the courage to try and confront Ukyo and Shampoo to try and get them to leave and give up on him, as this is right after the failed wedding, so instead he fobs this off on Ranma, pointing out that Ranma has surpassed him and due to the curse might be better able to know how to train a girl, and that Ranma should go on the adventure to find the thousand master with Paru and her friends and teacher, not revealing that the friends are all girls to Ranma's fiancees and such, to avoid trouble or tag along people. Genma convinces Ranma to go by revealing that he's heard about the thousand master, and that man might actually have a spell to cure Jyuusenkyo curses, and even if not, helping Negi who is a powerful mage might convince Negi to research such a cure for Ranma and the other Jyuusenkyo victims, as it would require both a large research project and a powerful mage.
Ranma jumps at the chance for a potential cure, and wants to make sure Haruna stays safe, so he agrees to become a bodyguard for the mission and train Paru in the basics, and while Paru doesn't much care about bringing him along as she knows how powerful her friends are, she still takes him to meet them and to one of their training sessions after getting permission from Negi and Eva. Ranma gets quite a bit worked up about being defeated a bunch of times, by Eva, Kotaro, Negi, Setsuna, and Kadae, and realizing Ku is more skilled than him in pure physical martial arts, and gets a bit worked up about this, and determined to train to surpass them, and is pleased that Negi offers to research curing his curse regardless of him helping on their journey, and is mostly reluctant to let Ranma join because he doesn't want to possibly endanger more people, causing Ranma's ego to be more threatened if he won't face dangers a 10 year old is running after, and he pretty much demands to come along.
Luckily, Ranma's prior training provides a good starting point for Eva and some of the ki types in the group to bring up Ranma's skills, helping him perfect ground contractor, learn some ninja arts from Kadae, and learn some elemental ki tricks from Setsuna, and some better basic ki attack skills from Kadae, and learn void instant movement, and increase his skills all over with the help of Eva's training regimes like the desert and ice survival zones, and getting Ku's help on fixing up and improving his physical martial arts, and he's able to help some of the others as well with some special techniques he can teach them, and works on getting Paru trained in basic martial arts and improving the combat ability of her golems. Eva mostly allows his involvement because he is amusing with his antics and curse and she likes how tragic the mess his life is currently sounds.
Kotaro mostly accepts Ranma as a fellow guy that likes fighting, although is a bit weirded out by Ranma's curse and cursed form. Negi is grateful for more help and likes that Paru is even more energetic and determined with the introduction of her cousin. Kadae finds Ranma amusing the same way she does Negi and Kotaro. Paru finds Ranma like a long lost childhood friend and close cousin, plus she finds his curse amusing and the stories of his adventures she weedles out of him interesting, and enjoys playing pranks to get him into situations of romance or perverted situations with her friends much like she does to Negi concerning Pactio kisses and such. Asuna accepts Ranma coming along mostly because she isn't very connected with Paru to the point she feels normal about arguing with her and can see how strong Ranma is, and realizes the value of more support for Negi, and she sees how well Ranma takes to the training, plus Ranma helps greatly improve her own skills by putting her through an imitation he comes up with of Kuno's watermelon training, and he's a closer sparring partner for her than Setsuna in skill at first.
Ranma feels a bit awkward because this group quickly becomes better friends than even Ukyo, Akane, or Ryoga ever were, but his luck with ridiculous situations continues, much to many of their amusement, and it appears his luck is similar to Negi in that regard, so they get along well and sympathize with each other.
But wait, that's not all! Even before leaving, it turns out that, revealed by Nodoka Nodoka wasn't hugely surprised when she found out about Ranma's curse because she was already familiar with the magical world herself, while she has the same defect as Takahata, being unable to use incantations, and never tried to make up for in other areas, the red hair she has and in Ranma's girl form comes from her being the illegitimate spawn of Negi's grandfather, and is actually the half-sister of Nagi! This is why Genma knew about the thousand master! In fact, Nagi had been there for Genma and Nodoka's marriage and Ranma's birth, gave Ranma some of his early training while Ranma was a toddler before Negi was conceived, helped seal Happosai, and is through all this Ranma's half-uncle! This is discovered because Eva recognizes the taste of Ranma's blood after getting to feed on him a bit as part of the Springfield bloodline, and has Ranma confront his parents about it. Now Ranma also has a bigger reason to help in the search for Nagi, and a closer connection to Negi, who turns out to be his cousin too! Based on this discovery, it is realized that Ranma has similar magical potential to Negi and Konoka, which has been laying mostly dormant, but he used a bit subconsciously to aid him in using the staffs of ascension against Saffron and allow greater manipulation of the HSH with the wind affinity of the Springfield line, and he didn't inherit Nodoka's inability to use incantations. Negi becomes determined to help Ranma start to learn magic too, and Ranma is willing mostly because of learning some magical skill being a good step towards learning Kanka, which he is impressed by Asuna's use of, and how strong Negi is. Paru is starting to realize that perhaps the Saotome weirdness attraction and talent tendency might be more real than she thought, although this only makes her more excited...
But wait, there is more! Ranma will probably eventually make a pactio and with someone and get an artifact... and given how powerful and versatile Negi and Paru's artifacts are and that an artifact reflects an aspect about a person, Ranma's artifact is likely to be quite amazing as well...
"Health, Learning & Virtue will ensure your happiness; they will give you a quiet conscience, private esteem & public honor." Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)