Weird Ranma reincarnation oneshot

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

This strange idea came to me in the witching hours and just wouldn't leave, until finally I resolved to put it up here and get some feedback on it.

It opens with Akane waking up and feeling strangely disorientated, as well as unable to remember the last few days. Her confusion is only confounded when she discovers that not only has the Tendo Dojo changed, but so has her physical appearance, her confusion growing to its peak when she is accosted by a girl she's never seen before, though she looks strangely familiar, who insists that she's Nabiki, despite being a year too young. Before they can panic too much, they are accosted by a man and a woman, both strangely familiar, who calm them down and explain things. It's about 16 to 18 years in the future, and neither of them is quite who they were when they went to sleep...

Back in the past, the Tendo Dojo was attacked by some sort of monster... I'm honestly not sure what it was, why it attacked or where it came from at this point; it could have been something from the Kuno vault (see the Cards of the Beast), some kind of demon that one of the old men ticked off, or even an out-of-control robot that Gosunkugi bought. Anyway, it crashed into the Tendo dojo and began attacking people indiscriminantly; Nabiki was badly hurt when it managed to catch her. Akane insisted on fighting at Ranma's side in an attempt to drive it away so that they could save Nabiki- now, while she could have avoided any real damage, her bad fighting habits (not paying attention and getting distracted by fighting with Ranma) meant that she got careless, so she got hurt badly as well.

Well, the creature was destroyed, but that didn't leave either Tendo sister any better off- the wounds were severe, potentially fatal. The Amazons stepped forward with an offer to help; they offered to use magic to remove the 'essence' of each girl and store it safely within an item- without any risk of mental or spiritual damage, the body would thusly be better able to heal itself. The first part worked. The second went all wrong; to the horror of all, the bodies died. For reasons that escape me, perhaps to assuade suspicion that they had something to do with it, perhaps merely to atone for being so wrong, the Amazons revealed that the 'phylacteries' they had created for Akane and Nabiki could be used to reincarnate them.

Originally, it was planned that Ranma would wed Kasumi and they would then reincarnate Akane and Nabiki as their daughters, but that plan sort of fell apart for various reasons, among which was Kasumi developing a mutual attraction to Ryoga due to their leaning on each other for comfort in the wake of Akane's death. I'm not entirely sure how it was that Ukyo wasn't chosen, though the possibilities that it was either Ranma being too blind to her feelings to consider her as a wife or simply that she felt the idea of giving birth to her former rival and her rival's sister to be too unnatural, but, anyway, that's how fate turned out. Ranma wedded Shampoo, and nine months later they welcomed "Sakura Saotome" and "Kichi Saotome" into the world, the new vessels for Akane and Nabiki's spirits respectively.

Back in the present, the girls are, naturally, aghast by all of this, but one of them manages to retain presence of mind to know why they only just became "aware" now; I'm unsure of the techno-lingo to apply here, but the basic idea is that full awareness from birth on is very rough on the reincarnation's psyche, and it would have been against the laws (spirit?) of the bargain to leave them with 'normal' reincarnation (entirely unique personality, but with figments of the original personality lingering), so they instead went for a sort of compromise. For the first 15 years of their life, Sakura and Kichi were their own people, with Akane and Nabiki's minds lying dormant. On their 16th birthday, Akane & Nabiki would 'awaken' and become the dominant personalities, though the 'basics' of the other girls would be within their mental access and, if things go well, the two will functionally "merge" into a single persona.

The rest of the story is something of a blur from there, but basically focuses on the two ex-Tendos coming to terms with their new lives. Two details (one detail?) that I have worked out is that Sakura was given no training in martial arts; while Akane remembers what she was able to do, her body has no training at all. When/if questioned, Ranma & Shampoo admit that this was deliberate; while Akane's skill level wasn't "bad" in and of itself, the way she allowed it to fuel her ego to impractical levels was- that was how she got killed, after all. While they won't stop her from resuming training, she's going to have to prove she has the discipline to train; neither of them will baby her like Soun did.

In contrast, Nabiki discovers that Kichi was trained, and they admit that just as they didn't train Akane's body in hopes of helping to "smooth out" some of the nastier aspects of her personality, they trained hers in hopes of giving her a chance to be someone besides the lazy, sarcastic, money-grubbing, self-absorbed git that she was in her last life.

I was thinking of having it turn out that, basically, Akane's life has proven more or less the same this time around; without the impositions of her hobby, she's more the socialite than ever, with lots of friends with whom she enjoys spending time and she's basically one of the most popular girls in school. In Nabiki's case, however, Kichi's different life has led to different circumstances; she is liked and respected for her skill and personality, people are casual and free around her, she even has a steady boyfriend- a childhood friend who got into martial arts alongside her (perhaps even training with her under Ranma, or he might belong to a different school) and who has been going steady with her since Junior High.

I'm hesitant about those ideas though, because for some reason while I see Nabiki weighing Kichi's life against her own (feared, shunned, loathed, with only a small coitre of flunkies for friends and no romantic prospects period, despite the rumors spread by disdainful students that she's into girls (due to her minions being girls) or Kuno's wealth- and let's not talk about that one that blurs to the two to make out she's after Kodachi) and deciding that she'd rather be Kichi Saotome, I also see Akane becoming incensed at the 'unfairness' of having her martial arts stripped away, and deciding that she hates Sakura's life- at its worst, I even see her trying to find some method of time travel in hopes of preventing this existence from coming to be.

But, enough of my ramblings, you all get the basic idea. So, what do folks think?

[Spokavriel]

I'd make the Monster some of Akane's cooking that got away under the house. And the reason they die is from it being too toxic for their bodies to recover from the drippings that got into their wounds.

Edit: I think the Training angle would be better if it were a matter of the new lives choices. Maybe have a bit of a carry over of the connection between The Art and Anger making Akane's reincarnation frustrated if not hate everything to do with fighting before she awakens. And then on the Nabiki side Memories of how frightening some of Ranma's fights got and how it left her relatively helpless could inspire her to learn to defend herself.

It also might be interesting if you wrote it so they could claim they didn't know who would be which daughter even if they did have suspicions.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

The unfortunate thing about the internet is that I honestly cannot tell if you're actually serious and trying to be helpful, or if that's a sarcastic comment meant to emphasize just how bad you think this idea is.

Either way, I wouldn't make the Monster Akane's cooking; not only is it cliche, it's actually a terrible bit of fanon. Well, unless she was messing around with spell ingredients (she knocked out the entire household while trying to brew a potion in one anime episode)... but even then, why would she be fooling around with magic?

I'm also leery of making it a Happosai-conjured demon, as that's another cliche bit of fanon.

Edit: I guess you were trying to help, I apologise.

That's some interesting ideas for the training, thanks very much. Should I use it instead, or could that blur into their realisation of which girl was who and thus be 'melded' with their original intentions/purposes for training/not training them?

And I don't suppose you could suggest how I could write this story to use your suggestion that Ranma & Shampoo claim (honestly or not) that they didn't know which girl would be which Tendo?

[Spokavriel]

Make the pregnancy part of a ritual where they have to put the essences of the girls to be reborn into Shampoo. They are coming back as congenital twins already anyway. So aside from coloration and with other things having already gone wrong in not being able to preserve their bodies in the first place. Why would they be certain as to who is who?

I wasn't being sarcastic on the Monster thing. My idea to have a cooking monster though had me thinking of Goz trying to do a banishing spell on Ranma and ending up with a summoning spells components and slipping it in the food so Ranma could ingest it before the spoken part of the magic that the Banishing would have required but the summoning on the next page of the spell book wouldn't. < Did I imagine something too complicated just to add a daemon to the already disgusting soup pot. I think so but I could also enjoy the irony of Akane dieing by her own cooking.

Edit: I don't think it would be best to wave something like deliberately not training Akane in front of her. No matter the reasons it would be just a bit too much. But saying the suspicions because of temperment and saying they didn't train her because she clearly hated having to do anything to learn in this life would be the way I would see it. After all it's not like they would force their daughter to learn to fight when she clearly hated it no matter who she might have been. Shampoo isn't Cologne.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Ironically, I was already planning that the pregnancy that resulted in "Sakura & Kichi" would require a ritual based around the phylacteries before, uh, "conception", so it seems our minds were on the same path.

...It's a little hard to understand what you're saying about the monster, but you were basically thinking that Gosunkugi added some components to Akane's latest dish as part of a summoning spell, and it went wrong (or right) and basically made a Curry Monster (ala Red Dwarf's DNA episode) from Akane's cooking? And that the basic inspiration was how ironic it would be for Akane's cooking, which she never touches herself, to be the cause of her death?

Well, if that's the case, then I'll keep my options open as to that...

And, yeah, I kinda felt the 'explanation' I came up with for not training Akane was badly biased anyway. Making it her choice, stating that it was because Sakura hated to fight (with, at most, an implication it was also an inheritance of the fact Akane is fundamentally rather lazy when it comes to martial arts), works much better.

Hmm... I don't suppose anyone has any suggestions as to where I should take this story once the whole explanation part is done? Because I can't seem to get the idea of Akane rejecting her new life out of my head, and that's just bad anyway, even without the scenario straight out of a horror movie (albeit one of those bad ones where you can't really sympathize with the victims) that keeps coming to me.

Also, does anyone have any suggestions as to what the ex-Tendo sisters might look like now? I was thinking that while their faces might more or less resemble who they were, their bodies and colors (hair & eyes) would have altered- while that is a Tendo soul in each, both bodies are the result of fusing DNA between Ranma & Shampoo. One vague idea was that Akane definately can't be called a tomboy in her new body- and certainly not flatchested either (I'll let your imagination figure out why)...

[Spokavriel]

One thing that might be interesting to contemplate are the Jusenkyo curses. They are now children of two curse victims. And if you have the curses cured it is passing on possibilities for comedy and chaos to break up events.

There are Fannon ideas for what happens with kids of two curse victims such as being cursed themselves. But I don't know if you would want the reincarnated Tendo girls to have Cat Girl Curses.

The Neko-ken also remains un-resolved.

And then you now have Akane more or less in a position where she is going to be in love with her new father. However strong you think that love really got to be.

Just imagine what the descendants of last Generation's Furinkan students reacting to those things. And maybe even trying to splash Ranma to see his/her womanly form. He may be the dad but I could see the ilk of Hiroshi and Dai labeling Ranma a Milf.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Truth be told, however, the curses of the parents wouldn't actually affect Akane and Nabiki that much- they are still teenagers, but Ranma & Shampoo are adults, they live a seperate life. What opportunities for chaos they provide to affect "Sakura" and "Kichi" are the sort of things Soun & Genma pulled in canon; causing trouble the falls into the laps of their children. I frankly don't see how their canon curses could provide anything that cheap, one-shot jokes and gags. Take your Hiroshi/Daisuke comment for example, or the casual mention that Ranma has become a vigilante who uses his female form as his 'super identity'- what impact does that have on Akane and Nabiki? It happens and then things just move on: boring. That's just like the canon.

Not only do they not provide anything new, there's also the logistical problem of Ranma remaining cursed: in this particular scenario not only does he have nothing holding him back, it's in his best interest to get cured. How fast do you think Soun and/or Genma would have stuck him on a plane to China if it was suggested that his curse meant that he (and, by extension, all Saotomes of the future) would only sire/bear daughters? Not to mention his new in-laws could easily ship him a barrel of Nanniichuan- exactly how/why would he stay cursed? And please do not bring up the Octo-Taro thing again, I've already had that fight with you.

That said, the idea that Shampoo is compelled to remain cursed due to her laws is a unique spin on the situation, and could have some "real" effects on the story- it certainly provides a lot more depth than the lame clich of "Ranma is older but still the same old aquatransexual". Blah; if I wanted to focus on him remaining cursed, I'd watch the anime or read the manga. Fanfiction is for creation.

Anyway, to get back on topic, it's sheer foolishness to wed a person with a Cat curse to someone with great power and a deep phobia of cats, but on the other hand Shampoo is obligated to retain a Jusenkyo curse. These are the possible 'replacements' that occur to me, but others might suggest some other routes.

Nekomimi: Shampoo immerses herself in a bath of Nyanniichuan with added Maoniichuan, with the resultant curse being a blend of human and cat. Problems with this is that it's perhaps the weakest and most cliche way to handle things, unless the curse-form comes out something like the hybrid forms of the Weres from Gold Digger. It also strains the hypothetical rules the most.

Scale-up: phobias are strange things; despite misconceptions otherwise, it's actually very rare for things that are related to the phobia to affect a person as badly as the phobia. This could explain why Ranma never seems bothered by those scenes where he has to interact with a tiger, bar that one time in the school gym (where he was already surrounded by cats and confronted with a hungry tiger, which is scary for anyone, ailurophobiac or not). With this in mind, Shampoo trades the housecat curse, which is the source of Ranma's phobia, for a bigger cat, which wouldn't trigger the neko-ken (for reasons pointed before). Problem with this is it's just as overpowered, in its way, as the Nekomimi route- Shampoo retains the problems posed by having an animal body (inability to speak, open doors, etc) but also loses the weakness in combat.

Trade-Off: simple and effective, Shampoo merely switches her cat curse for another curse- most likely an ordinary animal, given that she'd hate a gender-bender curse as badly as Ranma does, and she wouldn't want a mind-affecting curse (bad thing when she has to care for children). The Spring of Drowned Child, though, might work... and perhaps Ranma also gets it to replace his girl-curse, as it gives a "logical" explanation as to why 30+ year olds still only look barely into their 20s (given that Happosai didn't start looking middle-aged until sometime in his 2nd century, the logical presumption is that Ranma & Shampoo will be young and strong for quite some time to come)...

If Shampoo does maintain an animal curse, then, as you pointed out, this could likely have some effect on their children; the simplest option is that they are 'touched' by the animal genes, kind of like the Musk, but other possibilities are that they are kemonomimi instead of human, or assume such a form (or a pure animal form) when splashed with cold water.

[Spokavriel]

You have allot to work with. But when it comes to the curse. My personal preference is that it not get cured. The reasons for it would be that after Nabiki and Akane died to the monster he might consider it a fair punishment to live with it. And Ranma would see the lost of their lives as his failure. Heck I could even imagine it going so far as Shampoo having to talk Ranma out of being the mother to the reborn Tendos. Add on to it that I could see Ranma feeling Guilty about being cured if Shampoo doesn't also get cured. That is if their relationship is a certainty.

Thinking back on the boy that the girls might have trained with. Why not make it a child of Kasumi's?

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Now, to focus on your other, better comment: yes, Akane is going to have some major league adjustment to do. Not only is the boy she was in love with now her legal and genetic father, there's also the fact that she never was sure that he did love her at all (part of the reason why they don't get together in canon is because neither is really sure that the other feels anything for them at all), but there's also the 'fact' that he must be in love with Shampoo by now.

For some reason, I just cannot get the aforementioned horror image out of my head when I think about that. It basically has Akane rant to Shampoo about hating her for 'ruining her life', only for Shampoo to start ranting back about how she hates Akane just as much for destroying her 'family'; remember, until Akane and Nabiki awoke, Sakura and Kichi were fundamentally their own people. When Shampoo bid Sakura goodnight before the morning when Akane woke up, she did so in full knowledge that she was basically watching her daughter die, that the next morning would see a complete stranger walking around in her daughter's body, living her daughter's life.

Anyway, there are two aspects of chaos that Ranma & Shampoo definately have provided to Akane and Nabiki's new lives. Firstly, the Saotome School has surely made rivals/enemies of other martial arts schools; now how much do you want to bet that their practictioners of the 'new generation' will want to make a name for themselves by taking down their counterparts of the Saotome School? Secondly, I was thinking that Ranma and Shampoo have more children than Sakura and Kichi; do you think that there would be chaos when the two of them have to interact with siblings that they, functionally, have never met before, and who themselves would be completely confused (Ranma & Shampoo having insisted on treating their firstborn as just that, not trying to mould them into mirrors of their previous lives) by the changes in their big sisters' behavior?

[Spokavriel]

I think that the girls are going to have to remember both lives. Which may take some more work in back story that doesn't have to be told. And in a way a question of how instant and complete the change over is comes to mind.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

...I am sorry, but those are the stupidest reasons why Ranma would remain cursed that I have ever heard of. Why would he associate the curse with their deaths? Gosunkugi was after him because he was in love with Akane, not because he wanted Ranma's girl-side. If they had died because someone went mad after having their "love" for "Ranma-chan" rejected, then perhaps he might think that way. Hell, the girl-curse might have even been why he wasn't able to save them: s/he might have tried to hold the monster down while Akane saved Nabiki, but his female form was too weak to keep it from breaking loose and dealing a mortal blow to Akane.

And why would he even think of being 'mother'? Ranma's abhorrence of his female-side is one of his strongest mental characteristics, plus the fact that it would be only 'right' for Kasumi, their sister, to resurrect them (which will ensure that they are still, genetically, Tendos). Ranma can be noble, yes, but he isn't that self-sacrificing; that he will be their father and protector would be enough to soothe his ego.

Yes, he might feel guilty about being cured if Shampoo has to stay cursed- but Shampoo loves Ranma as who he really is, a guy, and would not want him to stay a sex-changing freak (in his own words) because of her. Her dream is to have him as a whole man. If she failed to persuade him to get a cure, she would at least insist that he switch the Nyanniichuan for a different curse.

Edit:

I think that the girls are going to have to remember both lives. Which may take some more work in back story that doesn't have to be told. And in a way a question of how instant and complete the change over is comes to mind.

I'm sorry, but what are you saying here? I don't quite follow.

[Spokavriel]

I'm talking about an irrational view of him seeing himself at fault for not keeping them from dieing. The curse is irrelevant to that point. I have seen worse and really having the suggestion called stupid is part of the reason I tend to be less than jovial in responding in threads you also participate in at times.

Edit: Reason for Ranma being Mother. He still has a Fiancée mess. Ukyo Shampoo and the self appointed Kodachi. It's easier but nothing he would want to decide on in this tragedy.

Edit again: I took a moment to think about how best to describe what I meant there. Nabiki and Akane are going to have to be able to remember not just their lives before reincarnation but their current ones that their consciousnesses have just taken over too.

Without that it really is just a case of those new lives having been killed. And well it's a quick way to end up a pariah when you instantly become strange to everyone who thought they knew you.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

I truly do apologise for being rude, but this is something that tends annoy me. I know that you have your reasons for suggesting it, and I respect that, but I just don't feel that their original curses would be at all appropriate, nor contribute anything of worth to the story. They were a key part of Ranma 1/2, yes, but that was because a focus of that story was the problems switching sexes brought to Ranma- and even then, it was more in the subtle way (luring new challengers, hurting his attempt to figure out a relationship with Akane). They just don't feel right for this story- messing with the curses, replacing them, that I feel could indeed make this story interesting (I even mentioned that the two of them might have gotten "matching" Drowned Child curses), but simply keeping them, when there's every reason why they would be cured or at least replaced, just because "it isn't Ranma 1/2 otherwise", bugs the hell out of me.

Yes, while Ranma would/could be rather irrational, there's also the fact he is surrounded by (semi)rational people who would object to such an insane plan. If even Soun Tendo, the one person who has the right to demand he perform such a deed, instead insists that making them his children by their sister Kasumi is the right way to handle it, Ranma would go along with it. None of those around him would want him to stay cursed; even Ryoga, the one person likely to think that way, would probably call Ranma on it when the reincarnation plan is determined, the rationale being that Ranma's duty is to protect them, not to leave himself so weak that he can't help them. If they had been slain permanently, with no hope of returning, then yes, Ranma would not only remain cursed, but would likely be demanded to do so.

The fiancee mess is, as I mentioned, quite simply sorted. Ranma never wanted anything to do with Kodachi, and after something like this would put her down. Hard. Ranma is determined (read: obsessed) to reincarnate the slain Tendos, so if Ukyo doesn't want anything to do with that, then fine; he won't marry her, and tough luck. Shampoo gets the 'winner's place' through a combination of being willing to host the babies and actually being a source of comfort in this situation.

There's also the fact that this does't happen all at once. The Tendos get hurt first, and there is guilt- but there is every reason to believe that they will pull through, compounded by the actions of the Amazons. When things go wrong and they do die, Ranma is devastated- but before he can get too out of his head, the Amazons step in to reveal the reincarnation factor. Given Soun & Genma's obsession with uniting the schools, coupled with Kasumi's basic existence, that they would immediately demand Ranma marry her and have her host the souls. There is a 'downtime' while everyone gets the components needed for the ritual... but on the day, Kasumi reveals that she just can't go through with it. This is make it or break it time for the other girls; the ritual has to be done, and with the key player now gone, one of them could step in right now and claim her place. Kodachi isn't present (they wouldn't want her around), and more than likely neither is Ukyo, if she and Ranma haven't already broken up over the reincarnation idea (which she would likely see as insane). That leaves one girl to step in and fill Kasumi's boots- Ranma doesn't even get the time to contemplate having the babies himself before he has a chance to even think of doing it himself.

Does this make sense? Do you follow what I am saying? Like I keep saying, I don't mind fiddling with Ranma & Shampoo's curses, but I don't see any reason why they would keep their original curses, and the idea of Ranma-as-mom is just plain squick. Do. Not. Want.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Oh, I see, that was what you meant? Then, yes, that was what I intended- they do remember their 'sleeping' lives, but the knowledge isn't automatic at first- it will come to then, and do so with steadily increasing speed, but there will be a slight 'delay' in their recognition of facts and faces for a little while. The knowledge will eventually become second-hand and instinctive to them, but only if they accept their other lives; if they insist on seeing "The Saotome Twins" as being entirely different people to them, there will always be a sort of "gap" between the two sets of memories. Does that make sense?

[Spokavriel]

The memory thing makes perfect sense and is exactly what I was trying to suggest.

On the curses again. You titled this as being for a One Shot. The biggest reason I had for suggesting the curses be left alone is because making any changes there including a cure puts this into multi chapter realm just because to have the changes not come across like lightning strikes from Zeus they take at least a little in telling.