Ranma ½ Bie Liao

balthanon

Well-Known Member
#1
This is another teaser fic that I don't have any immediate plans for continuing.  I liked the idea enough to start it and get a fair way through the first chapter awhile back and decided I wanted to at least finish off the first chapter and get the ideas that I was fairly solid on embedded into the narrative.

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Bie Liao, Till Violence Breaks Thy Hold
Chapter 1
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Shampoo stared at the girl before her, weapon raised for the killing blow against her adversary and her rage suddenly just drained away as if she were a vase and someone had smashed a hole in the bottom of it.  Her heart clenched as she saw a vision of the boy who had defeated her superimposed over the red-haired vixen-- a boy who though clumsy with words was still kind, who wouldn't abandon his friends, who had all of the traits she had admired in her prey as she tracked her through China and into Japan.  

Eyes filling with tears, she fought back the sobs which threatened to escape from the hole where her heart had stood moments before.  An equal, even a superior, her own age, someone who had put an end to the fear of disastrous failure and loneliness and he was just an illusion conjured up by someone that she was obligated to kill.  As the tears started to leak down her cheeks, she choked out a farewell and then threw herself over the wall.

She intended to run, keep running until it stopped hurting and she could come back and do her duty or maybe keep running until she reached her great-grandmother and could release the tears where someone would care.  Where someone might care, might tell her its okay and it didn't matter that she was cowardly and couldn't kill her opponent or force the fight to its conclusion even before she fell in love, that that love itself might be reason enough for her not to need to do this deed.  That word in her thoughts was too much though and she stumbled as she landed on the other side of the fence surrounding the house and dojo.

Falling back against the wall, she stuffed her knuckles into her mouth as she let the tears out unheeded.  Sobs were muffled, but she was sure that she would be discovered any moment and couldn't decide whether she welcomed or feared the inevitable.  She knew her tears, her love, were silly-- it was too soon and the words should be simple obligations for any Amazon at this point, but she had felt as if she knew the male Ranma for months after she had met him.  She had sensed a bond, a familiarity about the boy that had soothed the fears that made a Kiss of Marriage almost more dreaded than a Kiss of Death amongst her peers.

A Kiss of Death, in many instances, was a death sentence for an Amazon, and Shampoo had certainly assumed as much when she set out after her prey.  Courage was a byword amongst her people though and she had intended to face it with all due solemnity.  She would try and avoid it, she would use stealth and surprise and any other weapon at her disposal to level the skill gap between herself and the red-headed vixen who had defeated her so easily.  She had spent the maximum allowed two weeks training night and day to increase her skills, but when her grandmother had sent her off, there had been tears in her eyes.  Cologne, who she had seen cry only twice before at the funerals of her mother and her uncle.

Despite that, death was, in many respects a known value.  All warriors knew that they would face it in their time and they were prepared for it.  The Kiss of Marriage was something else altogether.  It was being bound to the needs and wishes of one who was more powerful than oneself.  One who could force their wishes upon you and was likely more ruthless and cruel than the Amazon herself.  You could train to defeat such or trick them, to bring a strong husband back to the tribe where your sisters could protect you from the worst of his cruelties or reward them in kind.  But in all likelihood, much as with the Kiss of Death, if the skill gap was sufficient it would never happen.  You would spend the rest of your life bound to a monster who could do as he wished with you because the law forbade your leaving.

With Ranma she had known that wouldn't happen somehow.  Perhaps her heart had known the truth before she was told of it this night or perhaps it had just been the cute way he dithered and blushed upon receiving the Kiss, but she had felt immediately that she wouldn't need to fear her new husband.  There had been such relief that she hadn't been defeated by one of the monsters described as horror stories around campfires by her friends that it had filled her heart.  Perhaps not with love to start, but it had been a close cousin and had swiftly transformed as she continued to see evidence of a gentler strength, kindness to Akane despite her abuses, and even restraint around herself despite her attempts on his friends that made him an eminently worthwhile husband.

As her crying slowed, she buried her face against her knees, hugging them to herself and trying to bring up the will to stand again.  She knew she couldn't kill Ranma, male or female.  Perhaps she had convinced herself otherwise during the trip, but it wasn't simply a matter of skill.  She didn't have it in her to kill someone that would rather be left with a bleeding wound than hurt her permanently.  After the third time she had woken up to find herself stashed away someplace safe, she had known in her heart she couldn't finish this properly.  It was why she had taken the cowards route out and asked her spouse to handle the matter for her.

The thought elicited a bitter laugh and stopped her tears momentarily.  "No wonder she would not agree to it," Shampoo murmured to herself.  The night had gone quickly enough that the irony of asking her husband to kill herself had been lost upon her till now.

"Shampoo sure was cute.  You're probably sorry she's gone."  Blinking away some of the tears, Shampoo turned her head slightly as her name caught her attention.  While her Japanese was poor that sounded like the Akane girl.  Her voice was raised, perhaps to make a point and Shampoo thought she had caught the gist of what she said.

Ranma's voice followed, in her female form, which made Shampoo's eyes well up again.  "She was tryin' to kill me!  Why would I be sorry?"  Dashing the renewed tears away, she tried to follow the conversation, as it continued-- that statement was clear enough, though her husband's rough speech was more difficult to interpret than Akane's.

"You sure looked happy when she was here!"

"There you go!  You are so uncute!"

"So I'm not cute!  Or I've got no class!  Who cares if I'm violent, flat-chested, and twisted!"

"If I knew you'd be like this, I'dve left you with amnesia!"  This elicited a brief giggle from Shampoo.  Her husband or former husband was also funny.  That was also a trait to be valued in a partner.  

"I don't want to remember you anyway!"

"Oh really!?"

"Really!"  A loud crack of metal on flesh followed and Shampoo missed whatever else might have been said entirely.

A sliding door slamming shut made Shampoo assume that the fight was over and she laughed softly to herself.  There was still a trace of bitterness, but in some respects she was simply letting go.  She usually prided herself on being a very upbeat and cheerful person and wallowing in grief like she had been doing for the past half hour wasn't like her.

At the least, the argument had told her something.  She knew now that she hadn't had a chance against the Japanese girl who seemed to hold the heart of her love.  Not through any strength Akane displayed.  No.  Shampoo had made fear for her life the first emotion that Ranma would feel anytime she saw her.  Even if her laws didn't require that she kill Akane, she had already lost to the 'uncute' girl.

Standing, she wandered away from the dojo as the voices within resumed more even tones that were nothing more than indistinct noises to her.  Overhearing the fight had put things in perspective for her, at least in some small respect.  While she had been grief-stricken, her first thought had been to flee back to her great-grandmother, to at least allow her closure in knowing that the last of her kin was dead rather than simply vanishing.  Perhaps she had been thinking of begging for leniency, though she hoped not.

She did have other choices though.  She could refuse to believe Ranma, or profess it so.  However, while she was crafty, Cologne would come to check up on her eventually.  She would not be able to lie to her for long and certainly not without Ranma's help.

If she had been more judicious, she might have used the 110 shampoo on more than one target, or perhaps another altogether.  She wished now that she had made her husband forget Akane instead.  She had considered making girl Ranma forget herself in hopes that that might satisfy the Council back home, but had decided they would not approve.  Her Kiss of Death for Ranma had been given in front of the whole village, not a few Japanese students who did not follow her own laws.

The thought did give her pause for a moment though.  While she was nearly out of 110, she thought there was enough for one final use.  What if she did target Ranma?  Not to make her forget Shampoo entirely, but perhaps the attempts to kill her.  It was a far more subtle change than she had ever attempted, but if it could work... perhaps she could still stay and even get her husband back.

Regardless of her actual gender, Ranma had definitely been attracted to her.  She had seen it when the girl attempted to talk to her out in the yard as a boy and had even noticed that soft glimmer of arousal when she woke up beside her yesterday morning as a girl.  For herself, well... it wasn't Ranma's looks that had formed the real basis of her feelings for him.  Her.  She sighed.  

The idea was still appealing though.  She had quite liked Ranma even when she was attempting to kill her.  This might have had something to do with the fact that she wasn't trying to kill Shampoo in turn, but it was something at least.  Going back home would have one of two results.  She would be executed for failing to fulfill her Kiss of Death or would be punished and shipped right back here if for some reason the Kiss of Marriage was found to be valid.

If Ranma was at least a little willing to play the part of a boy, she thought the Kiss of Marriage being found valid might even be likely if a Council representative arrived.

"How Shampoo get Airen alone though?" she asked out loud in Japanese.  Threats against Akane seemed to backfire, though she thought she would have far less problem going through with one against the annoying girl if she had the chance.  Her spouse had asked that she not harm her though, so she wouldn't, at least for now.

Perhaps at night?  She had snuck into Ranma's room and spent the night sleeping with him without his ever waking up.  That seemed promising.

...

Keeping her presence muted, Shampoo slipped into the room that her husband slept in and stepped to the side to allow the moonlight to wash over the two men in the room.  She wondered why he still chose to sleep in male form, but ignored it as inconsequential.  The light revealed the transformed girl laying sprawled upon his back, his hair still braided into the pigtail that he had taken to wearing halfway through China.  

Pursing her lips, the Amazon warrior tried to decide what to address first-- the pigtail would have to go if she were to access all of the pressure points needed on the skull.  However, with her spouse, yes, that was a better word for it, with her spouse on his back she wouldn't be able to do what she needed either.  She thought turning him over was probably the more likely to wake the black-haired youth, so she decided to focus upon that first.

Kneeling beside him, she wondered briefly about how finely his senses were tuned.  She had attempted this several times as the redhead and Panda fled across China and the girl had invariably woken before she was anywhere near this close.  Well, that or knocked her unconscious before she even woke.  Those had been particularly embarrassing defeats.

The night earlier in the week, it had been a simple matter to slip into Ranma's arms as he slept though and she thought, she hoped, that this would be the same.  While she was perhaps taking something away from her spouse, it was nothing she thought the girl would miss and would hardly hurt her.

At the end of the next two minutes of cat and mouse with the sleeping boy though, she was almost panting and was frankly amazed that he hadn't woken up.  His father had almost woken up several times, but she finally had boy-type Ranma sleeping on his chest more or less peacefully.  Untying his braid, she readied her comb, shampoo, and a bucket of water then blinked.  In the dim light of the moon and with her shadow obscuring that light even further, it almost looked like the dark hair was growing.

Shaking her head, she decided to ignore the odd illusion.  She needed to get this done before the boy rolled over in his sleep again.  Taking a deep breath, her hands flashed as she applied the last of her formula 110 to her spouse's scalp and began the precise and exacting massage necessary to obscure and hide memories.  While she had turned it into a combat technique, albeit one that was only useful against opponents not truly her equal, it was originally developed to aid cases of trauma by removing or softening the memories involved.

For something as intricate as this, she needed the stillness that unconsciousness provided.  Though it would have also helped to have better light.  That damned optical illusion of growing locks was--

Eyes widening as she felt the soft mass of black hair brush her thighs, she realized that it wasn't an illusion.  Her spouse's hair was truly growing!  What could have caused-- no, it didn't matter, she would just need to adapt, the next few moments were crucial and were likely to be very difficult if she had guessed the trigger for Ranma's change correctly based on last night's events.

Not to mention she was pretty sure that if nothing else did it, this would wake the transformed girl up.

Dashing the bucket of water over Ranma while she straddled him was an... odd experience.  She had been hovering over the boy, attempting to avoid touching while still ready to seize him with her knees should he start to turn, so she was very close.  When the water washed over her spouse's head, guided by the flashing comb and an empty hand to rinse away the formula 110 as she teased out patterns, the boy changed into a girl.  

She had been half way expecting that to wash away the disguise and kept her hands and the blow dryer she had just retrieved aligned as the now red headed girl shrank to her more petite height, but the hips and buttocks expanding out slightly to press against her thighs and legs was startling.  For a moment, she lost her concentration, however she pulled through and finished just as Ranma's hand came up to feel her scalp.  Just after that, her spouse rolled her hips slightly, apparently becoming aware of the pressure from Shampoo sitting on her butt.

The violet tressed girl trembled for a moment, wanting to stay like this rather than face rejection again, then flowed gracefully to her feet.  She had been willing to face death, she could stand being scolded by someone she had come to care about.  Tucking away the incriminating evidence, she clasped her hands in front of herself and kept her eyes on the floor.

At best, Ranma should have no memories of her attacking her over the past several months at this point and if she was lucky, her memory would fill in the gaps where they had met with something innocuous.  If she was unlucky, Ranma would recall only the moments when she had not been been violent.  If she was very unlucky, her spouse would not remember her and would forget she had existed any time she turned her back.  If she was very, very unlucky she might have done irreparable damage to her memory with the brief slips in her concentration.

She didn't think she would have a second chance at this if she had screwed it up and needed to remove it.  Even if she ordered additional 110 shampoo, her spouse would be on her guard.  Not to mention...  

"Shampoo?"  The voice was soft, sleepy despite the dousing that Ranma had received.  It didn't sound angry, in fact, if she didn't know better she thought it was... relieved?  A finger touched Shampoo's chin and pushed up gently, until she was looking into the piercing blue eyes of the woman she was technically supposed to kill.  

"Shampoo could not leave," she said, matching the soft tones of her spouse.  "Want..."  She trailed off, not sure what she really wanted out of this.  She wanted the male Ranma that she had fallen so hard for.  She wanted strong children and a happy life and... a companion that she could grow with and respect.  She wanted...  "Want second chance?"

Shampoo couldn't quite interpret the expression on Ranma's face as she stepped forward and the Amazon had to stop herself, from stepping back or moving forward she wasn't sure.  "I do," Ranma whispered, then she stepped in and had pulled Shampoo's lips down to her own.  The kiss was hesitant, clumsy, but it stunned Shampoo nonetheless.  When Ranma pulled away, all she could do was raise her fingers to her lips and stare at the redhead.

She had never...

"Ahh..." Ranma placed her hand behind her head, looking uncomfortable.  "I know I kind of... ran, for a long time.  From you.  From this, I guess.  You never really gave up though, no matter how far I went or where I hid."  Ranma took a deep breath, then let it out.  "I ain't really good at feelings... or friends for that matter, but I never wanted to hurt you.

"I know that doesn't excuse it, and there's Akane, and things are still..."  She frowned and pulled a length of her now knee-length hair forward, playing with it nervously, though with no real sign that she thought it unusual.  When she opened her mouth again, Shampoo stepped forward though and silenced her with a finger on the lips.

"Tomorrow?" she asked.  She was desperately curious about what Ranma "remembered" that had led to a change this drastic, but couldn't let her continue on like that for something that had largely been her own fault.  It made her a touch guilty.  Not guilty enough to not be ecstatic with how well it had worked, but guilty enough to need a break for tonight.  

Plus, she was horribly tired after staying up most of last night and she was only catching perhaps every other word in her exhausted state.  It sounded sweet though and combined with the kiss, well, it was hard to believe her plan had worked to this extent.

She smiled coyly and let herself drop to her knees on Ranma's futon, then patted the bedding, which made her spouse's eyes widen.  "Airen sleep?  Shampoo sleep too?  It is too too long day."

Her spouse nodded, but then confused Shampoo by turning away.  Walking over to a chest, Ranma opened it to pull out a heavy blanket.  She wrapped herself in that and laid down between her father and Shampoo, a smile crossing her lips at the Amazon's pout.  Seemingly only a few moments later, she was asleep again.  Shrugging and happy enough at how the night had turned out, the violet-tressed girl followed suit after doffing her pants.

Frowning, she reached down and pulled the string that Ranma had been using as a hair tie from beneath her thigh.  Tossing it aside, she yawned and fell asleep herself.

...

Cold!  Shampoo woke with a screech as she threw off the blanket she had pulled over her head.  Jumping to her feet, she panted in shock as icy water dripped down her back, her hair plastered to her head.

Akane stared at the Amazon in disbelief for a moment, then scowled.  "You!  What are you doing back?"

"What you care?" Shampoo yelled back, incensed.  She knew the answer to that question, but was justifiably angry about being woken up with a bucket of water.  Besides, that had probably been intended for Ranma.  

The aforementioned red-head finally sat up, blanket still wrapped around her shoulders.  Yawning, she said, "Come on, Akane!  Do you gotta be so loud this early in the morning?"

"Me?  What is she doing back here?" Akane demanded.  She stuck her finger out at Shampoo and the Amazon slapped it away.  Ranma winced and grabbed her head as he looked at the purple-haired girl, her eyes squeezing shut.  After a moment though, she shook her head and said, "She came back last night.  Gave me a second chance."

Shampoo's eyes narrowed at the gesture and she glanced over at Akane.  Did something she said prompt that?

"Gave you a....  What?"  Akane blinked, looking back and forth between the two other girls.  "What are you talking about, you idiot?  You said you were happy she was gone!"

The still sleep-tousled redhead winced.  "I know, but...  I hated hurting her like that, Akane.  Nothing she's done justified that."

"She tried to kill you!"  Akane threw up her hands in exasperation.  "That is a perfect justification!"

"She what?"  Ranma looked confused, though the words didn't seem to spark another of the episodes, so perhaps that had only been a brief relapse in the Xi Fa Xiang Gao's effectiveness.  She sighed in relief.  After the incident with Akane remembering, she had worried she had gotten a bad batch of the shampoo.  "What are you talking about Akane?  I may not a been... comfortable with it, but Shampoo's never done nothing but get a little too, uh, hands on."

Akane's eyes widened and she stared back and forth between Shampoo and Ranma.  The former tried her best to look innocent, but assumed she had failed when the youngest Tendo's eyes narrowed.  "What did you do to him?"  Akane accompanied her question with a series of punches that the Amazon stepped around casually.

"Shampoo do nothing," she said, then she blocked the last attack Akane had leveled, grabbing her fist.  Ranma's eyes squeezed shut again at this and she let out a pained hiss, distracting Shampoo and letting Akane's other hand land an open handed slap that threw the violet-haired girl to the ground.  She shook her head, ears ringing.  That girl was stronger than she looked.

More importantly though...  She stood up, looking at Akane over Ranma, who had gotten between the two of them.  Ranma was defending her she thought, but the slap had caught her ear and the ringing in her ears was making the already difficult task of interpreting Japanese almost impossible.  The entirely too long hair that Ranma was casually ignoring appeared to have distracted his fiancee though.

She needed to confirm something she was afraid of though.  Walking up to Akane, she watched Ranma carefully and gave the girl a literal slap on the wrist.  The girl looked at her like she was insane, but Shampoo's attention was entirely on the clenched eyes and signs of pain that Ranma was demonstrating.

She sighed.  She should have known this was too good to be true.  Her not quite fairy tale romance would only last as long as she refrained from anything approaching violence in front of her spouse.  Which meant no training with her partner, fighting their enemies together... or defending herself from her rival.

The latter she realized suddenly, was quite important, because Akane's eyes had narrowed in response to the signs of Ranma's distress and she seemed to realize what was going on at the same time the Amazon did.  "You used your stupid shampoo on Ranma this time," she said, her voice entirely too calm and even for Shampoo's taste.  "I'll get his memory back, just like he did for me though!"

Preparing to defend herself, Shampoo was fell to the ground in shock when Akane instead rounded on Ranma and pointed.  "Weirdo!  Sex-changing deviant!  Stupid!  Pervert!"

Ranma stared at Akane, completely nonplussed.  "Akane, even if Shampoo did do something like that, I still remember you just fine."

"Oh.  Heh heh.  Umm..."  The short haired girl smiled apologetically.  "Uh, sorry?"

"I'm afraid you've got it wrong, Akane."  Shampoo felt a chill crawl up her spine and turned, seeing her father-in-law dressed up in the most ridiculous female disguise she had ever encountered.  "I was watching the whole thing.  And the trick this time will be to get the Amazon to display her true colors!"

He attacked with that and Shampoo was immediately on the defensive.  Without the ability to block or throw out some type of offense, she was rapidly being overwhelmed though and was nearly on the verge of collapse when she was abruptly caught from behind.  Blinking, she found herself abruptly clutching Ranma's neck and supported in her arms as the girl leaped out of the room through the window and bounded away from the Tendo household to the shouts of Akane and Genma.

Her spouse appeared to have no intention of stopping any time soon though, and Shampoo returned his grin with a weak smile of her own before her body decided that she was safe enough that it was time to rest again.

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Author's Notes
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I liked the beginning of this a fair amount when I wrote it up and it came out as more of a drama rather than the comedy I've mostly found myself writing.  The latter part of it after Shampoo implemented her plan though largely came about because I wasn't sure where exactly I wanted to go with the memory loss precisely.  (Particularly how Ranma interprets the scene where he made her cry.)  I've always thought that the Xi Fa Xiang Gao was ignored after that first time it was used largely because it's almost too powerful though-- it seems odd that Shampoo wouldn't try something else with what is probably her most powerful technique. 

The only explanation my friend and I could come up with was that it's actually forbidden by law typically (or worthless on opponents equal or better than herself in a fight)-- however, here Shampoo is pretty much expecting that she's an outcast anyway.

Shampoo was just aiming for a level set-- equaling the ground on which she and Akane were fighting, but she leap-frogged her instead because when she took away Ranma's memories of her attacking him, his mind substituted the only other actions he's seen from her instead.  Namely being incredibly cuddly, cute, and affectionate.  It basically switches things around to make Shampoo the girl he first really connected with to any extent.  It doesn't really take away what he feels for Akane, but it makes those feelings seem more like he's cheating on Shampoo.

I also thought it would be fun to play around with Shampoo screwing a few other things up here and there as well, so Ranma also either assumes that he's always worn his hair down to his knees or has forgotten about the Dragon Whisker entirely.  I haven't decided which yet. :)

I suspect whenever I end up coming back to this, I would almost certainly revise where Akane walks in on them at the least-- the ending was kind of forced as well, simply because I was done writing for awhile but wanted something approaching a scene break.
 

Stormfury

Well-Known Member
#2
this is another story I like.

There are far too few Shampoo fics that don't suck.

As long as people dont turn into caricatures, like say Genma. In a lot of fanfics they have the fiancees try to win over Ranma's mom with how good a bride they'd be, but none of them really try to work on Genma other then throwing money or food at him. Why wouldn't Shampoo try to win him over with martial skill and dedication, something she clearly beats Akane in no matter how you want to interpret the manga? Like "look at me, I'd be a better mother for the next generation of Anything Goes practictioners!"
 

balthanon

Well-Known Member
#3
Actually convincing Genma to support their claim would strengthen it far more than Nodoka's word as well I suspect, I imagine the reason it gets ignored so frequently is because of how vocal Genma and Soun are about the Tendo engagement. It's a lot harder to see it succeeding because it goes on for so long. That said though, there are ways around that I imagine, particularly for Shampoo. Trying to get Soun to adopt her, for instance, would probably be one route around that major obstacle. Tough to pull off, but I could see that changing the landscape even if it was through one of the irregular magic gimmicks or something.
 

Stormfury

Well-Known Member
#4
If she was going that route, Shampoo's first move would probably be to try to convince SOUN to teach her some of his school's moves. Fanon likes to say that Akane doesn't really know anything special, which I'm not sure if canon actually supports or not (probably never brings up).

The engagement is to "Unite the Schools", which I'm not sure actually if that implies their schools are actually different. It could just be a leadership difference, or a philosophy difference, with only the very advanced kata being different. The sort of thing like Genma's -senkens.

It would make sense, and I could see Shampoo maneuvering this more-pliable Ranma into teaching her the basics (Practice for himself later in life teaching his kids/students? Some type of mastery training thing like what happened in Comes the Cold Dragon? Even just letting him rework his own basics and adapting them to fit his female form with Shampoo's help?), and then trying to get Soun to prove that Akane actually knows more Anything Goes then her. That could lure out any advanced stuff taught for her to try to learn there.
 

AzaggThoth

Well-Known Member
#5
balthanon said:
I also thought it would be fun to play around with Shampoo screwing a few other things up here and there as well, so Ranma also either assumes that he's always worn his hair down to his knees or has forgotten about the Dragon Whisker entirely.  I haven't decided which yet. :)
The first sounds like it would lead to laughs sooner with Ranma remembering he needs the whisker, the going back to look for it, maybe it got cleaned up and he has to go trash sifting, the trying to wrestle it away from Genma when he explains why he needs it back bad enough to dive into the garbage.
 

balthanon

Well-Known Member
#6
AzaggThoth said:
The first sounds like it would lead to laughs sooner with Ranma remembering he needs the whisker, the going back to look for it, maybe it got cleaned up and he has to go trash sifting, the trying to wrestle it away from Genma when he explains why he needs it back bad enough to dive into the garbage.
I've actually always wondered if boiling the Dragon's Whisker would actually destroy it for Ranma's purposes.  From what I could tell from the bit at the end, you don't actually eat the Dragon's Whisker itself, you just drink the broth made from it.  The original proprietor actually even mentioned "Oh, I'm finally going to need to go get another one because this one expired" if I recall correctly.  Which does kind of imply it's re-usable.

I might actually go that route in this fic.  If anything was going to get Shampoo on Genma's good side, it would be figuring that out and convincing Ranma it's worth trying. :)


Stormfury said:
The engagement is to "Unite the Schools", which I'm not sure actually if that implies their schools are actually different.  It could just be a leadership difference, or a philosophy difference, with only the very advanced kata being different.  The sort of thing like Genma's -senkens.  

It would make sense, and I could see Shampoo maneuvering this more-pliable Ranma into teaching her the basics (Practice for himself later in life teaching his kids/students? Some type of mastery training thing like what happened in Comes the Cold Dragon? Even just letting him rework his own basics and adapting them to fit his female form with Shampoo's help?), and then trying to get Soun to prove that Akane actually knows more Anything Goes then her.  That could lure out any advanced stuff taught for her to try to learn there.
I don't remember ever seeing anything in the way of special moves from the Tendo side of things other than the whole demon head thing-- and even that is never actually called out explicitly as a martial arts move that I recall.  I always kind of got the impression that the "Unite the Schools" thing was really just Soun and Genma wanting to be family really and maybe save on the taxes, but it's another thing that doesn't get explored much and could be played either way.

Genma in general seems like a far more proficient martial artist than Soun honestly, so it might even just be "the Tendos will bring a solid reputation/land/dojo" and "the Saotome's will bring a more powerful set of martial arts".  Though that said, it could go either way and because it receives so little attention you do have a lot of leeway with inventing new martial arts for the Tendos, which can be fun.  Particularly if you're using the sen-ken schools as a power baseline.
 

balthanon

Well-Known Member
#7
AzaggThoth said:
The first sounds like it would lead to laughs sooner with Ranma remembering he needs the whisker, the going back to look for it, maybe it got cleaned up and he has to go trash sifting, the trying to wrestle it away from Genma when he explains why he needs it back bad enough to dive into the garbage.
Hmm... I could also see this being a driver for Ranma spending a bit more time in female form to help keep Shampoo's confusion about his gender going longer.  If one of the things that has him keep his hair long is extreme pride he might prefer how it looks loose and that gives him a reason to run around female without going to the nuclear option of having the memory manipulations mess with his gender identity somehow.  (I had been toying around with a situation where he thought he was a boy with girl curse normally in his boy form and a girl with a boy curse in his female form.  I think it would probably hijack the story though.  Maybe something to play around with in the future when/if Shampoo gets more 110 shampoo though.  I suspect at some point I'm going to have her try and fix his neko-ken with it at least, which will no doubt turn out disastrously. :))
 

Lawra

Well-Known Member
#8
balthanon said:
AzaggThoth said:
The first sounds like it would lead to laughs sooner with Ranma remembering he needs the whisker, the going back to look for it, maybe it got cleaned up and he has to go trash sifting, the trying to wrestle it away from Genma when he explains why he needs it back bad enough to dive into the garbage.
Hmm... I could also see this being a driver for Ranma spending a bit more time in female form to help keep Shampoo's confusion about his gender going longer.  If one of the things that has him keep his hair long is extreme pride he might prefer how it looks loose and that gives him a reason to run around female without going to the nuclear option of having the memory manipulations mess with his gender identity somehow.  (I had been toying around with a situation where he thought he was a boy with girl curse normally in his boy form and a girl with a boy curse in his female form.  I think it would probably hijack the story though.  Maybe something to play around with in the future when/if Shampoo gets more 110 shampoo though.  I suspect at some point I'm going to have her try and fix his neko-ken with it at least, which will no doubt turn out disastrously. :))
You could have Ranma get focused on what he said to Shampoo right before she ran off, about being a girl who turns into a boy, but twist that a bit so that Ranma now thinks that's true but want's to be a boy. Would lead to some awkward situations especially with Akane.

Shouldn't need to throw in more shampoo uses, no cat curse so no need to get rid of a fear that doesn't affect her. In fact it's something that may benefit her if Ranma-neko is fine with her.

For the dragon whisker, Ranma could have been required to give it back or have to pay for it. Even if the hair regrowing power ran out around the time Ranma got it, it still had the ability to seal off the affects which would have made it still valuable. Though the translation I have for that specific chapter is kind of suspect. What Shampoo says at the end could possibly mean that that was the only dragon whisker for making that soup as a caption mentions the fight over it has come to an end.
 

Stormfury

Well-Known Member
#9
please do not go the gender confusion route.

Every other aspect of the story would make for a more interesting read then that.
 
#10
balthanon said:
Actually convincing Genma to support their claim would strengthen it far more than Nodoka's word as well I suspect, I imagine the reason it gets ignored so frequently is because of how vocal Genma and Soun are about the Tendo engagement.  It's a lot harder to see it succeeding because it goes on for so long.  That said though, there are ways around that I imagine, particularly for Shampoo.  Trying to get Soun to adopt her, for instance, would probably be one route around that major obstacle.  Tough to pull off, but I could see that changing the landscape even if it was through one of the irregular magic gimmicks or something.
balthanon said:
AzaggThoth said:
The first sounds like it would lead to laughs sooner with Ranma remembering he needs the whisker, the going back to look for it, maybe it got cleaned up and he has to go trash sifting, the trying to wrestle it away from Genma when he explains why he needs it back bad enough to dive into the garbage.
Hmm... I could also see this being a driver for Ranma spending a bit more time in female form to help keep Shampoo's confusion about his gender going longer.  If one of the things that has him keep his hair long is extreme pride he might prefer how it looks loose and that gives him a reason to run around female without going to the nuclear option of having the memory manipulations mess with his gender identity somehow.  (I had been toying around with a situation where he thought he was a boy with girl curse normally in his boy form and a girl with a boy curse in his female form.  I think it would probably hijack the story though.  Maybe something to play around with in the future when/if Shampoo gets more 110 shampoo though.  I suspect at some point I'm going to have her try and fix his neko-ken with it at least, which will no doubt turn out disastrously. :))
Or you could have just have ranma-chan think she is cursed to be a boy, that would be much more interesting to read and could include a lot of funny situations.
 

balthanon

Well-Known Member
#11
Lawra said:
You could have Ranma get focused on what he said to Shampoo right before she ran off, about being a girl who turns into a boy, but twist that a bit so that Ranma now thinks that's true but want's to be a boy. Would lead to some awkward situations especially with Akane.

Shouldn't need to throw in more shampoo uses, no cat curse so no need to get rid of a fear that doesn't affect her. In fact it's something that may benefit her if Ranma-neko is fine with her.

For the dragon whisker, Ranma could have been required to give it back or have to pay for it. Even if the hair regrowing power ran out around the time Ranma got it, it still had the ability to seal off the affects which would have made it still valuable. Though the translation I have for that specific chapter is kind of suspect. What Shampoo says at the end could possibly mean that that was the only dragon whisker for making that soup as a caption mentions the fight over it has come to an end.
Yeah, I considered something like that as well, but again, thought it was probably likely to hijack the story a bit.

For the curing of the neko-ken, using the shampoo in that case wouldn't be about Shampoo benefiting herself.  It would be about her doing something for Ranma-- trying to eliminate his fear of cats, so he doesn't have a crippling weakness.  That said, it probably wouldn't work.  It would be like papering over a pit trap with ground cover-- it just means someone is more likely to step into it and doesn't know what's happening until they're falling. :)

Yeah, the dragon whisker chapter has some open questions around it.  Truthfully, I don't think Ranma was in the paying mood at the time the Dragon Whisker thing happened though.  I kind of got the impression he strong armed the shop keeper into giving him the whisker. :) 

Stormfury said:
please do not go the gender confusion route.  

Every other aspect of the story would make for a more interesting read then that.
At this point, I think it would be a one off chapter if I were to do it.  Though I can't say for sure since I don't have any concrete plans yet, depends on whether inspiration strikes.  I do like those fics, but it tends to deserve its own focus.  If I were doing it most likely Ranma at least technically wouldn't have any confusion though.  It would just be for him. :)  Everyone else other than Shampoo would probably be very confused on the other hand.
 
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