Ranma ½ [Ranma ½] Miscellaneous ideas.

For some reason, despite it having been, like, twelve effing years, I've been thinking lately about "The Fate of the Sacred Bead".

One of the details of that story which never got to show itself because the story died before it would have come up, was that there were two people in the past, reincarnated in the present, with the same or a very similar name. Ranma was the reincarnate of one of those people; a very minor character in Ikkitousen was the other, In the past, both were known as Lu Xun, or something like that, I think the spelling was. However, the story would have people being wrong in which one Ranma had been. I don't remember anymore what IH intended with it, but it was in the cards.

What I recently thought of, which may or may not have worked better, was for the confusion to come about because of Ranma's own name and how it's actually written.

There are at least a couple of kanji which can be pronounced "ran"; the one in Ranma's actual name has fanon about it meaning "wild" -- which, incidentally, it doesn't. It means "revolt, rebellion, war" or alternatively in Chinese, "disorderly, in confusion". And the kanji in his name which is pronounced "ma" just means "horse" or possibly "knight", meaning the horse piece in chess.

But there's another kanji, which can be read as "ran" or "arashi" which means "storm", it's the same kanji used in Naruto for Storm Release ninjutsu ,,, which is a combination of Water element and Lightning element, and it hit me ... what if that were the name Nodoka wanted to give to Ranma but Genma didn't want that and so there was a swap? And that's why people in "FotSB" are confused about who Ranma is -- because his name isn't written the way they expect. His bead/soul/destiny has the storm kanji but his name doesn't!

And it really hit me about why this is important, because in Ikkitousen, there are three ruling dragons who represent different elements. Hakufu's dragon is water, Ryuubi Gentoku's dragon is lightning, and Sousou Moutoku (the main villain)'s dragon is fire. Sousou is also stronger than Hakufu or Ryuubi alone. It's when they team up against him that they beat him in their fight at the end of the second anime series. If for the story Ranma is to be a bridge between Nanyo and Seito by going to Seito but having cousins at Nanyo, one of them who comes to lead the school, he should have gotten a name that better fits that destiny.

Well, hmm, will anyone care about this?
 

PCHeintz72

The Sentient Fanfic Search Engine mk II
Well... I certainly remember it, and liked it at the time, and was sorry to see it fall into the abyss of no updates.

And Yeah... You are literally at the 12 1/2 year mark... as my copy from AA last ep 217941 dates to 3/7/2009. You would need to re-post it somewhere else of course, since AA down.

I'd have to reread it, to see exactly what you are getting at, but would not mind seeing it continued.
 
There is a read-only mirror of the AnimeAddventure, which has the whole thread, but of course it couldn't be added to there.

Honestly I don't know if I would want to continue it. Probably not, but it was interesting to think about. Interesting and nostalgic and a little hot.
 
I just did a thing.

If he had thought about it at the time, he might have paid attention to how suspiciously perfectly the box had fit in his hand.

The box was three inches wide and four inches long, by three inches deep – exactly the right proportions for the bit of jewelry inside and exactly the right proportions to snugly fit inside his palm. A little bit smaller on the long side and it would have been a perfect cube.

He’d ignored that.

The black color of the box was perfect.

The gold kanji lettering on top … flawless.

He had thought it was made for him. He’d had no idea how right he was.

And yet … he should have been more concerned about the name.

The horse kanji second, that was right.

But the storm kanji, first or at all … even though it could also be read “Ran”, it wasn’t right. It didn’t fit. His name wasn’t written that way, had never been written that way.

Yet … he could only feel that it did fit, and at that quite well.

He, Ranma Saotome, should have realized how doomed he was from the start.

Instead of realizing this fact … he defied the gods and opened the box.

Pillowed inside on a fine bed of silk was a jewel bead like those he’d seen on more than a handful of people around Tokyo. They’d all worn the beads as an earring, usually on the left. The rumor he’d heard was that every person wearing one of these beads was a Fighter, and indeed he had felt that some of them were martial artists … although he’d found none worth challenging so far.

From the instant he looked at that bead … he wanted to wear it.

His own ears hadn’t ever been pierced … but to correct that would only be the work of a second, or rather not even that long. The injury, minor as it would be, would heal around the piercing and that would be that.

Sitting in the box the bead was perfectly clear and looked like molded glass. The instant it felt even the smallest touch – less than a hundredth of a second – he caught that instant with his eyes – the bead’s color went from crystal clear to opaque, and a bright burning gold. Even the simple metal loop acquired that golden glow.

The instant he saw that color of gold … he wanted to wear it. He needed to wear it.

“Cool!” he exclaimed, grinning broadly, and slipped it onto his left ear, piercing the flesh of his earlobe with absolutely no trouble. Even the pain passed in barely a setsuna.

In the layers of his soul, somewhere in the deep reaches of himself, something that had never been acknowledged stirred, and the first link was forged to the very deepest of the deep.

He, Ranma Saotome, should have realized how doomed he was from the start.

But these events … are Fate.
New version up. It's still a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad thing. Possibly it's an even more terrible, horrible, no good, very bad thing.
 
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chronodekar

Obsessively signs his posts
Staff member
:( I do not recognize it. Something to do with old folks wearing unique (likely magical) earings?

-chronodekar
 
Magatama. They look a little bit like a thickened nine, they come in different colors, and in the manga/anime series Ikkitousen, they are something like a representation of a warrior's soul, reincarnated from a violent era more than a thousand years before.

EDIT: I revamped the thing.
 
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I did another horrible thing. This horrible thing immediately follows the last horrible thing.

“Where have you been, boy?” Ranma’s father’s voice greeted him as he walked into the Tendou home, though he could see instantly that his pops’ primary focus of attention was on the game he was playing with Mr Tendou.

“Around,” Ranma replied, not caring to give any details; he could tell from his father’s voice that the question was mostly for form’s sake anyhow.

He had been around, more or less just moving, feeling the magatama bounce against his neck as he walked, ran, or leaped. He found that he enjoyed the sensation.

“What’s it to you anyway, old man?” Ranma asked, his own question more or less for form’s sake alone also.

Yet his father rose to the bait, actually turning to look at his son, taking his eyes off the game-board … he would pay for that, Ranma knew, Mr Tendou wouldn’t give up this unanticipated opportunity to cheat … Anything Goes in shogi just as much as anywhere else.

Genma ignored his old friend’s reshaping the game board as he gave his son a cursory up-down glance. But then he saw something that instantly commanded his actual, full attention. The golden bead on Ranma’s left ear.

It was something that he knew and recognized instantly, on sight. His absolute greatest fear for his son. His wife’s sword had nothing on this, not that Ranma knew anything about that. Genma had been running from her since Ranma was a child, had taken Ranma away in hopes of avoiding Fate.

He let himself go pale verging on white. He pointed at the bead and let a tremor slip into his voice. “w – What is that? Where did you get it?”

Ranma tapped the gold bead dangling from his ear. “What? This thing?” he asked insolently, mockingly. “Found it earlier. And don’t even think about swiping it. It’s mine.”

Genma knew damn well it was Ranma’s. That was the whole damn point. Yet the words pierced his heart anyhow.

“Foolish boy!” he shouted, not caring about the disrespect, which was so mild as to be easily ignoreable. “Do you have any idea what that means?” He hoped that his son didn’t.

‘Sure, I’ve seen them before,” Ranma said with a shrug. “It means the person wearing it is a Fighter. I’m a Fighter, so I’m wearing it. Get over it.”

Genme could tell from the tone that Ranma didn’t really know what they meant and so what he was getting into, but there was no way for Genma to hint to Ranma that he did without giving away vital information. All he could do was steam a bit and return his “attention” to the now-worthless game of shogi he was playing, while really thinking of a way to get that bead away from Ranma somehow.

Deep in his heart, he knew that would be a pointless and meaningless gesture even if it succeeded.

Genma considered his options for the rest of the night, arriving at nothing. He made one pitiful attempt to convince Ranma otherwise, and it had failed just as much as he’d anticipated.

As Ranma lay asleep that night, Genma stayed awake for a time. Thinking. Cursing, though silently. Planning. Eventually, falling asleep having accepted one fact.

Fate, it seemed, had found his son.
That's more or less the intro to the story.

Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad.
 
Edit: Link removed, per below.
 
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Well, I doubt much of anyone was going there now anyway, but I just tried to go to the AA mirror ... and my virus-scan software blocked it, says the website looks suspicious. And the website apparently tried to redirect me automatically, so I'm guessing it now goes to malware. Shame.
 

PCHeintz72

The Sentient Fanfic Search Engine mk II
Hopefully, you have a copy of the story, or at least your entries for the 2 AA based Ikkitousan stories (Ikkitousan and The Fate of the Sacred Bead)... I have the downloaded individual chapters/episodes for both, plus a notes file dated from 2013 and 2 attempts that were removed I call lost content from July and October 2009...
 
Hi, PCH. Unfortunately I don't have the episodes of the thread saved on my computer, but I remembered you downloaded and saved things you like to read. If I PM you my email address, could you send me textfiles of "The Fate of the Sacred Bead" episodes, all of them, in order? I don't need anything else. Thanks.
 

BtML

Well-Known Member
Well, I doubt much of anyone was going there now anyway, but I just tried to go to the AA mirror ... and my virus-scan software blocked it, says the website looks suspicious. And the website apparently tried to redirect me automatically, so I'm guessing it now goes to malware. Shame.
Yeah, apparently, this started yesterday, because it worked like normal last Friday.

I admit, it was a nasty surprise when I got a redirect.

EDIT

Forgot to mention, while it didn't redirect me again, it still gives an error message, so whoever decided to mess about there either did by hacking and being an asshole, or they bought the domain where AA mirror is and decided to...redecorate...by deleting the posts and making homepage links to redirect to ads.

Unfortunately, there's no way to contact the person who made the AA mirror, so I can only speculate about what's happening.
 
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BtML

Well-Known Member
Okay, just noting this here. Anime Addventure Mirror site doesn't even go to its homepage anymore, it immediately redirects you into an ad.
 
I found another mirror a minute ago. However, whether it's just a mirror, or a mirror of the mirror, is yet to be determined. I'm gonna snipe all the episodes of the thread now, even my shit ones at the end.

EDIT: Successfully got all the files saved as HTML pages. Yay.
 
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AoMythology

Apparently a report-er
I found another mirror a minute ago. However, whether it's just a mirror, or a mirror of the mirror, is yet to be determined. I'm gonna snipe all the episodes of the thread now, even my shit ones at the end.

EDIT: Successfully got all the files saved as HTML pages. Yay.
Please send them my way, too.
 

AoMythology

Apparently a report-er
I did a thing. I did this thing in hardly any time at all. I don't know if it's a good thing or a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad thing.
"I don't understand, Saotome," Soun informed his old friend. "Why must Ranma leave? What about the Schools?"

Genma sighed heavily as he considered his response.

"I made a mistake, old friend," Genma said tiredly. "I made a number of them, but it all started with Nodoka."

"I don't understand," Soun repeated.

"When I married Nodoka, I had no idea what she was a part of," Genma explained. "If I had, I would have never gone through with it. It wasn't until just before I began Ranma's training in earnest that I discovered the truth."

"The truth?" Soun asked, mystified. "What horrible secret could she have been hiding from you that you would willingly turn your back on our promise?"

“You’re familiar with this book?” Genma asked, using a bit of Hidden Weapons style to produce a book from nowhere.

His friend needed not even a second to recognize it. “Of course, Saotome! You’re just as familiar with it as I! The master,” and then he suddenly stopped, looking around wildly for several seconds before resuming, “the master talked about that book at length, from time to time. He thought it .. what were his words … ‘a very great yarn’, I think.”

His friend nodded vaguely. “I had forgotten that. Well, that’s useful. So it needs no introduction. You know of this book, but did you know there are dozens and dozens of families, involving hundreds of students at seven schools throughout this part of Japan, that continually relive these events? Relive, re-fighting, sometimes dying, all of this ancient history? For most people it’s just a book … but for them it’s their reality.”

Soun Tendou shuddered in horror. “You must be joking, Saotome!”

Genma shook his head. “Sadly, my old friend, it is absolute truth. And Nodoka’s family is one of those families, and now Ranma is one of those wrapped up in what they call the Fate of the Sacred Bead. I wished desperately it wouldn’t have been the case … I took Ranma away in an effort to prevent it … hell, I convinced Nodoka that his name should be written differently in an effort to prevent it! Nodoka wanted his name to have the storm kanji in it, but it would have been read as “Ranma” in any case.” He shook his head. “Useless effort on my part. Fate found him when Fate was ready to do so.”

For a long minute neither spoke. It was finally the taller man who broke the silence.

“Is there no way to prevent this?”

Genma shook his head. “None that I could find. Fate has come for him, so he needs to go. I don’t want your girls wrapped up in this, Tendou, and if you think hard on it you don’t either.”

These words seemed to reach his friend. “No, I don’t,” the taller man said at length. “What will you do, to help your son stay alive?”

Genma’s eyes glinted. “I have trained Ranma to a level that damn few of these fighters will be able to match, I’m quite sure. That was the only way I knew how to prepare him, and what I wanted to do anyway. I won’t deny that old crone at the Cat Cafe has given him useful training,” he grumbled, “but the base was all my work. I will talk to him, make him aware that he may need, at some point that could come well before he’s ready for it, to use lethal force in a fight.”

His friend gasped. “That will not be easy for him to hear, Saotome! It never is! It may be especially hard for Ranma, with skills like his.”

Genma nodded. “I know. Believe me, I know. But there’s no helping it. There will be fighters for whom the code of a martial artist has no relevance whatsoever, and no meaning beyond some pretty words.”

Tears came to Soun’s eyes, but he wiped them away after barely a second. “A sad thought, Saotome. A sad thought indeed.”

For a while, again, they didn’t speak. Again it was the taller man who broke the silence. “Good luck to you, Saotome. May the gods keep your boy alive.”

Genma nodded curtly, “If I have any say in it, they will.”

He walked away from the table and the shogi board, and that was that.
============================================================

"So that's it?" Ranma blinked in disbelief at his father. "After all the crap you've given me about the schools being joined and how I have to marry Akane and now you're saying forget all of it?"

"Things have changed, boy," Genma said as the pair walked toward the Saotome home. "Your mother will explain it to you better than I can."

"What about the others? Ucchan? Shampoo?" Ranma asked.

"What about them, boy?" Genma shrugged. "Do whatever you like."

Ranma was both irritated and relieved at Genma's response. At least the old man hadn't changed that much. Still, it was surprising that his father opted to accompany him to see his mother.

Ranma was still mystified by the old man's sudden turn around. He suspected it had something to do with the gold magatama hanging from his left ear, but what was so special about it that caused Genma to vacate the pact with Mr. Tendo, Ranma had yet to find out.

“Boy,” Genma said suddenly, in a harsh voice. “I want you to remember, always, no matter what, you’re a martial artist.”

"Feh, like I could forget," Ranma snorted.

"I'm serious, Ranma," Genma snapped. "You NEED to remember. You're about to be involved in something far different from anything you've had to deal with before. There’s every chance, and it could come very quickly, that some time in the near future you’ll have to kill an opponent in a fight to protect someone you care about.”

Ranma stopped moving. He considered the words. Reconsidered them. He touched the gold magatama still dangling from his left earlobe. “Is this damn bead that important? What if I just threw it away?”

Genma shook his head. “Throwing it away would be useless at this point. Fate found you before, Fate would find you again. But I’m glad … that you’re not attached to it.”

Ranma saw the expression his old man was wearing and grimaced.

"In spite of our travels, you've led a fairly sheltered life, Ranma," Genma said. "You've never faced evil, or insanity, or greed of the sort you might in the near future. I fear that all that sheltering might have given you instincts that could kill you at any moment. I've trained you to be strong and skilled, but if you want to survive, I believe you are going to have to learn to be hard, too, when it counts. And that isn’t easy, at all. I never taught you that because I had hoped we could avoid this, but that bead you wear found you.

This isn't like the Hibiki boy jumping out at you and shouting 'Prepare to die'. It isn't even like when the Amazon-girl was hunting your female form. She didn't really want to kill you. The people your mother will tell you about won't have any qualms about ending your life. Some of them might even take pleasure in killing. Ranma, if you hesitate, you might be just one more of a psycho’s victims.”

“Pops,” Ranma began, but he found he couldn’t say more, and he was interrupted anyway.

"Your mother will explain,” Genma said, in a voice that told Ranma that was the end of the conversation.

The rest of the trip to the Saotome home passed in silence as Ranma considered what he'd been told.
That basically recounts the second episode of the thread. No advance prep on this, started it hardly an hour ago.
 

PCHeintz72

The Sentient Fanfic Search Engine mk II
Hmmm... If you are serious about restarting this, as you seem to be, shouldn't you actually just make a new dedicated thread to it rather than post the new chapters here in the generic misc ideas thread?
 
Yeah, I won't post any more here. It's more I can't believe I'm actually working on it, I still don't know if I really intend to restart it. I certainly don't intend to rewrite the whole thing; I know I'd never finish.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
I just had this random idea of Ryoga getting so lost he ends up in Wonderland, and ends up playing cards with Alice. That's it. That's the idea. That spontaneously popped up in my head, with no more context than that.
 
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