The Spring Of Drowned Thief

A Strange New Family


After about a year of traveling across China and Japan, a cute and drenched redhead, pig-tailed girl looked down at her map, then up at a billboard and then a smile came upon her face as she read it. (Welcome to Nemira) With a smile still large, she continued forward walking through the town taking in the sights and sounds. Busy and full of business, along with the sight of kids rushing to school before they are late. A small taxi taking a couple to their destination, and few people huddled under umbrellas to avoid the light rain. The steam from a local hospital rose into the sky, while no one seemed to be in a rush to get there. Generally, a nice town with all it’s little quirks that makes a place its own. The clouds parted a little bit to let the sun shine come in a little, to light up the scene, and also brought a little corner restaurant to her attention. She checked her savings, and smiled a little brighter as she walked in.

It seemed to be a bit of a breakfast rush in the noodle shop, but not alarmingly busy. She found a seat, asked for some ranmen and waited calmly for her meal. She shuffled a few thoughts through her head, some of which were ‘I wonder what they’ll be like?’ and ‘I really wish pops told me why it’s important that I find them.’ The pig-tailed girl decided to just wait until she found these so called, Tendo’s, and maybe they could explain.

The ranmen came, and was disposed of in a matter of seconds. In fact the waiter hadn’t even finished putting the bowl down, and just stared at her for a few seconds. Her first thoughts where, ‘Crap! I’m not supposed to do that when I’m like this! Now I actually have to pay… unless….’

Ranma quickly put on the puppy dog eyes along with a ditsy personality, and spoke with cuteness that could easily melt any man’s heart and a speed that could only rival a cheetah’s speed. “…er… I’m-so-sorry-mister! I’ve-been-one-the-road-for-days-and-became-very-hungry-after-3-days-and-didn’t-mean-to, -oh-my, -I’m-so-embarassed, -I-must-look-so-disgusting-to-you, *sniff. * I-hate-to-ask-but-could-I-please-have-another-bowl?” She then slowed down dramatically, looked away shyly, and asked lowly. “I only have 4 yen left because I was mugged the other day. What would be the cheapest thing you have on your menu…?”

The waiter, being a man of high honor, and after hearing such a beautiful girl’s plea for help, and story of such malice as being robbed… The waiter, became somewhat misty-eyed, bit his bottom lip, and held his fist tightly and close to his heart. A slight sniffling could be heard from between his teeth, and finally he shouted, “Miss! While I Work at this establishment, you shall eat all you may at my expense! So please! Order all you must, and if you ever have any troubles please seek me out!”
‘That certainly wasn’t expected…’

The red head girl looked around the restaurant at the mass of people who seemed to all fall to the floor with warding sign posed with their hands. Every one but the waiter seemed to catch the lie. The boss in the kitchen smacked his forehead and had an extremely disappointed look on his face. The waiter still stood tall and proud at his firry display of heroism. The girl looked up at him, scratched the back of her head and said, “Uhh, thanks!” ‘I can’t believe that crappy lie worked!’


After a hardy meal and a waiter being sold to science to pay off the bill, she looked for a phone box with a phone book, found the pages with ‘Tendo’ on them. There was an annoyed look and a vein popping out of her head when she counted 42. She found a map of the city in the back and discovered that all these names weren’t even close together. She sighed, and began her search. She really wished her father gave her a first name to look for as well, but at least they where expecting her, err, well him. ‘Need to find some hot water.’

Soun Tendo was busy reading a letter sent by his old friend Genma. Tears of joy where spread across his face as he read it. “Finally… Ranma’s coming. *Sniff. *” And then the water works started. After drying his face he went up to each of his daughters rooms. Nabiki, Kasumi, and Akane. Akane was the only one not in her room, and was soon found in the dojo, breaking cinder blocks. He quickly gathered them all into the family room and began to tell them the great new.

Soun started, “Now girls, we are having a very important guests coming to our house and I want you all to treat them nicely.”

“Who are these people dad?” Nibiki inquired.

“One of them is my old best friend and training partner Genma Soatome, and the other is his son Ranma.” Soun began to drip tears again.


Soun continued, “Genma and I decided a long time ago that we would unite our schools by marrying our children.” Soun made Niagara Falls look like a minor pipe leak.

Kasumi started up this time, “Oh, my! I hope he’s older then me.”

Nibiki said her part, “Is he cute and rich?”

Akane didn’t seem to like the idea but asked any ways. “What’s he like?”

Soun answered with a look over his shoulder and a bit of a smug look on his face. “I’m not sure.”

There was then a three-way “WHAT!?”

Nabiki came to her senses first, “What do you mean you don’t know what he’s like?”

Soun turned away to look at the koi pond out side, “I mean I’ve never met him before. Ranma and his father have been on a 10-year training trip in China. They should be arriving soon. I got this letter from them about 2 months ago and specified they’d be showing up toady.”

Akane and Nibiki face faulted, while Kasumi said, “Oh, my!”


House 39 came up and the pig-tailed girl was gripping about an old lady watering the damn sidewalk. She turned, pointed at the old lady and shouted, “THERE IS NO POINT TO THAT!” The old woman seemed oblivious. She turned again, to face the door, and knocked. On the other side could be heard a mad rush for the door. An entire family at the door greeted her. A little bit shocked to see a brigade of people to answer the door, she opened her mouth for some standard routine. “Hi, I’m Ranma Soatome, were you expecting me?” The family just seemed to keep looking, so she bowed her head and said, “I guess not. Sorry about this…” and just as she was about to walk away she was grappled into a tight embrace followed by the words,

“RANMA! YOU’RE FINALLY HERE!”

Nabiki came up to look at her and said, “Hey, he IS cute!”

Ranma’s pigtail began to stand on end and she started vibrating a little, and said, “Um.. Sir? You’re crushing me and I can’t breath.” Soun seemed a little preoccupied at the moment as he squeezed the boy in his arms a little tighter. Then a look of shock on his face as he pulled away, looked down and stared. The redhead looked a little angry now and said, “Please stop staring…”

Nabiki peered over her fathers shoulder and asked what he was looking at. Before Soun even thought about answering, Nabiki had already caught it and started her own examination. She stuck a finger out and poked. She wasn’t completely satisfied so she went for a grab. Ranma closed her eyes, and the look of annoyance on her face grew even more. “Please stop doing that…”

Nabiki looked up at her audience and said, “Yup, it’s a girl all right.” Soun rolled his eyes and fainted.

Soun came to a little while later surrounded by four concerned girls. “FOUR!” and he fainted again.

About 12 seconds later he was back, and it was Nabiki looking him in the eyes. “Daddy, honestly. How could you have made this kind of mistake? This is a girl, not a boy.” Nabiki did the cup test again, which was followed by a pissed off look and a, “Would you PLEASE stop doing that…”

Soun seemed to be in a disbelieving half dream state. “Genma said he had a son, not a daughter. And that he was his only child. Where is Genma any ways?”

Ranma looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you get my letter?”

Now it was Soun’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “The last letter I received was from your father 2 months ago. GENMA SOATOME, IS your father, right?”

Ranma bowed her head and was at a bit of a loss for words, “Yes he is, but… ummm… How do I explain this…?”

It was Akane’s turn to speak this time, “Father! Don’t be so rude! We have a guest in our house.” She turned to look at Ranma and smiled, “Hi! I’m Akane, want to be friends?” Ranma was at another loss for words. There was a certain bounce in Akane’s voice that Ranma didn’t miss, but before she thought to deep into it she came to the realization that she had no friends, and this was in fact one of her first invitations.

“Uhh, sure!”

Akane’s face got bright, “Great! I heard you where a martial-artist, wanna spar?”

And so Ranma found herself standing in front of Akane. Akane was in a ready position, while Ranma just stood there examining all the holes and flaws in her form. Akane also seemed a bit preoccupied at the moment too, and was having trouble focusing. Ranma caught this in an instant, and a bit of a smile crept onto her face. Ranma gathered her courage and stood in with her hands behind her back, open to any hits that may come. Akane found it weird but saw it as a trap of some kind. She couldn’t figure out what Ranma was doing but she decided she’d learn through trial and error, so she launched out with full force. As Akane’s fist closed on Ranma’s face every thing seemed to slow down for her. She was about 10 inches from Ranma’s face and no movement. 6 inches, no movement. 4 inches, no movement. Suddenly a million thoughts went through her head. ‘Isn’t she going to move!? What’s she waiting for?’ 2 inches, no movement. ‘NO! I’m going to hurt her if she doesn’t do any thing!’ At the last possible second Akane, let her punch fly left, and to her surprise Ranma followed her fist, and took the shot dead on. Akane gasped as she watched the red head fly back and hit the wall with full force. She slid down slowly and hit the ground with a thud.

Akane shrieked and started to run over to where the fallen girl lay. The key word was ‘started’ though and quickly Akane tripped and fell flat on her face. She looked up and saw Ranma’s face, which didn’t bare a single mark at all, but a really smug grin. Akane then noticed as she was trying to get up, that she couldn’t, she also noticed that her gi was hanging a little bit loose to, and finally she noticed that her hair was rather messy, due to a lack of a hair tie. Akane then did a recap in her head to figure this all out. The only problem was that she couldn’t.

Ranma got up and walked over to her. “I think I win.”

Akane looked at her long and hard. “What did you do?”

Ranma pointed to her hands and legs, and said, “Well, while you where busy in your thoughts about hitting me, I took your hair tie and gi belt and tied them to your opposite arms and legs.”

Ranma then proved her point further by untying Akane. Akane ran every thing through her mind and came to a conclusion. “THAT’S PHYSICALLY IMPOSIBLE!”

Ranma tilted her head and shrugged her shoulders. “Not really, you just have to do it a few times to get good at it.”

Akane was now thinking again. “Wait, why did you let me hit you then, if I was going to trip up any ways?”

Ranma looked at her with a small smile, and said, “I needed to get raise up about two inches into the air to tie your hands with out you noticing. I started with your feet, and if you didn’t hit me then I would have been in trouble.”

Akane gave this a thought, and then finally said, “That sounds too stupid to make sense. So it must be true.”

Ranma giggled a little bit and scratched her head. “Isn’t it though?”

Akane shook her head passively and put a few fingers against her head. “At least I wasn’t beaten by a boy…”

Ranma raised an eyebrow, as if hearing some thing she was waiting for. “And why would that be?”

Akane’s face became a bit of a scowl. “I just couldn’t stand it if a boy beat me. I hate them all. No good at all, just a bunch of hormone crazed perverts!”

Ranma laughed a little, and started making mental notes. ‘I’m dead if she finds out! The punch hurt like hell! Hmmmm. Just got to stay away from hot water! That’s it! No one needs to know!’


Akane gave the air a waft and looked Ranma dead in the eyes. “When was the last time you took a bath?” Thankfully Akane wasn’t the most observant or else she would have caught the look of freight on Ranma’s face as she was hiding some thing. But she saw it as embarrassment. “I knew it! You need a hot bath. We can take one together in the furrow.”

Ranma frantically shook her head, “That’s ok, I can take one by myself, you don’t need to trouble yourself!”

Akane started leading the way, “Hey, we’re friends now, it’s ok. Besides we’re both girls, nothing we haven’t seen before.”

Ranma finally pieced it together, and came to the horrible realization about Akane, and why she was distracted earlier. ‘Shit! She’s a lesbian! I knew it! Aww, crap she’s probably trying to see if I like girls. Ever since I worked at that bar in Osaka! I swear ever day since! DAMNIT! She was nice until she found out I was a guy… Need to find out how to get out of this… DAMNIT BRAIN! FUNCTION!’

Akane, with a smile, was busy dragging Ranma into the bathroom. Nabiki noticed Ranma’s straining look on her face and smiled a little. Nabiki started thinking. ‘If that’s another one Akane’s trying to seduce, then its high time for my camera.’ Nabiki also ignored the silent plea of help Ranma was giving out.

Once in the bathroom Akane was naked in a matter of seconds and Ranma was working very slowly on her shirt buttons. It wasn’t intentional but it looked extremely sexy, and seductive, which was causing Akane’s heart to thump a little faster. Ranma was also blushing a small shade of red when she caught a glimpse of Akane. This caused Akane to start thinking herself. ‘Oh, my god! What’s her problem, it’s like she’s never seen another girl naked before. Wait a minute. Maybe she’s…. Oh, god! Look how slowly she’s taking off her shirt! I think she’s trying to seduce me! Maybe, she’s a girl that likes other girls… Better not give her the wrong idea…’

Akane looked up extremely bashful and started covering herself with a towel, “Um, Ranma. This may sound blunt and a bit personal, but I need to know. Do you like, umm other girls…?”

Ranma now felt like she was stuck between two large trucks coming in for a collision. Ranma couldn’t think of any thing else to say, but to look down and say, “….um… yeah…” Akane looked really shocked as she hit the nail on the head.

Ranma started moving closer to Akane, and whispered a little. “I’m sorry, but I think there are a few things you should know about me before we go on, but-“

She was quickly cut off by Akane. “WHA-What do you mean go on! I’m not into that!”

Ranma was now confused. “But I thought you liked girls too?”

The next thing Ranma saw was a bright blue aura, and an inter-dimensional mallet nailing Ranma right on the head. Then the crashing foot steps of Akane. “PERVERT!”

Just before Ranma blacked out she thought to herself. ‘I thought for sure she was…. ZZZzzzz….’

Akane was fuming about some pervert in the dojo while breaking cinder blocks. Kasumi came in to tell her that dinner was almost ready when she took note of her younger sisters angry mood. Kasumi went in to investigate, and soon she had the story about what had happened. “Akane, do you think that maybe you heard Ranma wrong, or it was just a misunderstanding?”

“No! That pervert was trying to seduce me!”

\"Are you sure you’re not over reacting again? Just tell her you’re not like that. You have probably hurt her feelings like that.”

Akane sighed a little. She couldn’t argue with her eldest sister. I was simply impossible. “Now Akane, I want you to go tell Ranma that dinner will be ready soon and apologize for hitting her. Also find out if she needs a doctor or an ambulance.”

Akane sighed again. “Ok, Kasumi.”


Ranma came to a few moments later and decided a really hot bath was in order. “Damnit! She didn’t have to hit me so hard. Well then again, I did kind of jump to conclusions.” Ranma sank into the bath, grew about 7 inches, his hair changed to black, and his gender switched. “Damn. I wonder how I’m going to explain this one. Maybe I should try the truth for once…” Ranma decided it was time to come clean and he got up. Just then Akane opened the door getting ready to say some thing when she noticed a very naked stranger looking at her frozen like statue. She calmly turned walked out, screamed, and ran to daddy. Ranma smacked his head, and the vein on his head appeared again. “WHY. DOES. THIS. ALWAYS. HAPPEN. TO. ME!?”

Dinner was just being severed as Akane ran in the room and flipped food off the table and even the table at that above her head. Soun began to wail. “What is it Akane!? What’s wrong!?”

“THERE’S A MOLESTER IN THE HOUSE!” Akane screamed.

Soon after that said, so-called molester, appeared in the family room and said, \"I’m Ranma damnit! *sigh* Sorry about this…”

The table lowered with a thump on Akane’s head as the adrenaline rush wore off. Soun shook his head and sat in front of Ranma. “Would you please explain my boy, and tell me where your father is?” Ranma nodded and sat down.