At The Beach
A Ranma Nibunnoichi Fanfic
(with some reference to other works by Rumiko Takahashi)
by Chris "Chika" Johnson

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Hello, and welcome to your favourite show... Spot the Disclaimer!

And now for our first contestant. And your name is...

"Yes, Michael!"

Hahahahahaha.... And your name...

"I go to church regularly!"

Right then, Mrs. Scum, for the grand prize of the blow on the head,
tell me if the characters in this story belong to the writer!

"No, they don't. Well, except for Toriko and Mansaku..."

Well done, Mrs. Scum! You win tonight's grand prize.... *SPLAT*
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Chapter Two: Finding the Way Back

Ranma felt incredibly lonely that night.

Well, she had suggested to Akane that she could carry her up the
beach and into the guest house but, for some reason, Akane didn't
like that idea. Nor did she like the idea of Ranma and her sleeping
together on the beach. Not because of any idea of propriety, but
Akane seemed to suddenly have an instinctive fear. Only after a
short while did Akane finally work out what she was afraid of. Legs.
People with legs. It seemed that an invisible barrier was suddenly
being slid in front of her like a glass wall, separating her from
Ranma, Nabiki, her father... everyone she had known back on the
land. She suddenly started to strip the clothes that remained on her
away until she was totally naked, her tail flapping in the midday
sun. The final clasp and kiss from Ranma had confirmed her
suspicion; though she desperately wanted to be with Ranma, her new
mermaid instincts told her that this contact was all wrong, and she
needed to get away from these humans. With a sudden powerful flick,
she was in the water and swimming away from the land as fast as she
could, Ranma watching her until, with a flick, Akane disappeared
beneath the waves.

At least this time she can't drown, Ranma thought as Soun roused and
started to wail yet again. Nabiki was suffering badly by this time,
since Soun had now moved into her room, not so much to cut the costs
(since Genma still stuck to his room) but in some sort of protective
move to save his last remaining daughter. When morning came again,
however, the manager politely asked the remaining party to leave as
he could not afford to have the rest of his guests upset by a
hysterical man. Messing the place up had been bad enough, but then
all the wailing through the night had brought a flurry of complaints
when he arrived that morning.

Genma decided that it would be safer for all to retreat to the
safety of the dojo and thus forced Soun to accompany him homeward.
Nabiki went too, her funds dented somewhat by the need to assuage
the manager after the damage committed the previous day. She would
extract her revenge on her father at a later date when he wasn't
quite so emotional. Ranma, on the other hand, refused to leave the
village, and resolved to stay on the beach until a way could be
found to bring the missing Tendo sisters home. Genma made a weak
joke about aquariums, the resulting furore being the parting shot
between Ranma and the others before they went home. Trust the old
man to think up something that stupid, Ranma reflected on her way
back to the beach.

Down at the beach, Ranma found a perch and sat down, looking sadly
into the water. It was something of a surprise when Akane suddenly
splashed out of the ocean and pulled herself onto a neighbouring
rock, her tail glistening and wet. "Hi, Ran-chan," she chirped, just
as she had done the previous morning, as though nothing had happened.

"Akane-chan," Ranma responded, rising from her seat, "are you OK?
Did you find Kasumi?"

In response, Akane seemed to try to back away, unable to allow Ranma
any closer than they were. "Don't come near me," she warned Ranma.
"For some reason, I can't stay near humans."

"But..."

Akane butted in on Ranma's attempt to rationalise the moment. "I had
a long think about it last night - oh yes, and I did find Kasumi.
She's doing fine, though it certainly was a surprise for her!"

"And it wasn't for us?"

"Really!" Akane smirked. "I actually found more than just Kasumi
though. There's a whole colony of merpeople down here, and they know
about the curse! They explained it to me last night."

"Is that what we saw over there?" Ranma pointed to the far arm of
the bay.

"Yup," Akane replied, smugly. "It seems that what the shopkeeper
said was absolutely true, but what he didn't know was that the curse
is all linked to the legend of the mermaid. You know, the one about
immortality and stuff."

"Immortality? You mean you can't die?"

"No, silly, I'm not immortal," Akane smirked, then pensively added;
"well, I don't think so."

"So..."

"Look, mermaids are an ancient race, who have lived in this area for
millennia, but it seems that they aren't totally compatible with
humans. However they do have a few compatibilities, one of them
being this business about immortality. Mermaid flesh, so they tell
me, is poisonous to humans, but it can make anyone who survives
eating it immortal. It's just that it usually kills anyone that eats
it and turns most of the rest into horrible monsters. The skin,
however, is cursed so that anyone that wears it turns into a
mermaid, and it will force the issue occasionally, like it did with
me."

"And there is a cure, yes?" Ranma said, hopefully.

"No," Akane responded. "At least, nobody here knows of one. There is
some magician that knows something more about it, but I can't find
him... her... whatever."

"So this means that you may never..." Ranma gulped and, not for the
first time, Akane wanted to go to her and hug her, but apart from
the practical difficulties of moving across the expanse of sand with
no legs, the fear of humans suddenly bubbled up again to make that
thought totally revolting to her.

"Ran-chan..."

Ranma suddenly stood up again. "I vow that I shall never return to
the dojo, nor shall I ever return to my male form until you are back
on land with me." She suddenly looked Akane straight in the eyes.
"I'll do whatever it takes."

"What about Kasumi?" Akane asked with a faint smile and a half-sob.

Ranma suddenly turned and ran up the beach to where she had left a
pile of things including cases and bags rescued from the guest house
after she had been turfed out. Pulling one bag out, she bundled the
skin onto the beach, picked it up and flung it around her legs.
Akane watched, and when the cursed skin came out she called over in
fear, this time because she didn't want Ranma to be lumbered with
another curse. Ranma now jumped back down the beach to the water,
stripping clothing as she went and, at the waters' edge, she dived
in. Akane followed, swimming up the beach to see what had happened
only to find Ranma transformed. With some trepidation, Akane swam
closer to Ranma, but the fear that had kept her apart from the
aquatransexual didn't seem to notice. The pair surfaced some
distance from the beach, together, hugging each other. Then Akane
asked.

"Ranma, where did the skin go?"

Ranma looked around but couldn't see it anywhere. They swam back to
the beach and pulled themselves ashore, Ranma now admiring her new
tail. Then she realised. "I'm still wearing it! It has become part
of me!" Pulling and prying produced nothing but pain, since the skin
had indeed attached itself and had become part of Ranma. What this
would mean for her chances of getting ashore, she did not know, but
at least it would keep the dratted thing out of human hands! "I need
to get a few things from the cases," Ranma suddenly said to Akane.

"How do you expect to do that?" Akane asked with an exasperated air.
"What do you need, anyway?"

Obviously Ranma had not thought this through, but then Ranma did
that. A lot. "Well," she said, blushing a little, "what about my..."
Ranma finished the sentence by whispering in Akane's ear.

Of all the times for Ranma to think of feminine hygiene! Akane
thought. Her only response to Ranma, however, was a quick bang on
the head before both mermaids dived into the ocean.

                                ---

Well, Kasumi thought as she finished trimming the makeshift table in
the cave she had adopted as her home, it isn't quite what I would
normally call pretty, but it's neat. Perhaps Akane will bring back a
few bits that might improve things. As if on cue, Akane swam in with
Ranma following.

"Ran-chan!" Kasumi cried, delighted to see another familiar face.
"How is father?"

"Being taken slowly back under sedation following a rather noisy
night in the guest house that got us all kicked out." Ranma replied
sourly.

"Oh my!"

"Kasumi-neechan," Akane began, "has there been any more word from
this sorcerer person?"

"Oh yes," Kasumi replied with a sweet smile. Ranma perversely
realised that he had actually missed them. OK, Akane was cute when
she smiled, but there was nobody quite like Kasumi, and a quick
glance to Akane was enough to ascertain that she agreed with this.
"A messenger came in while you were gone. He will be at Far Bay Rock
at sunset tomorrow, and he has been told about the curse."

"As if this guy needs telling," Ranma noted. "Chances are that he
should know more than we do. At least I hope so..." she trailed off,
giving Akane's hand a quick squeeze as she appeared somewhat
apprehensive about this meeting.

"I should mention, Ranma," she said in a monotone, "that this
sorcerer is human."

"So I could have stayed human?" Ranma queried, a little exasperated.

"Yes, but I'm glad you didn't," Akane responded, a quick kiss to
Ranma's cheek following. Ranma suddenly remembered the raw fear in
Akane's eyes when she looked at Ranma in human form and decided that
being a mermaid had its uses. Hmm.... mermaid... now there's a
thought.

"I wonder what this curse has done to my Jusenkyo curse?"

Akane turned sharply to face Ranma, her mouth round with alarm. It
was obvious that Ranma was in female form, before and after
transformation, and that was unlikely to change down here on the
ocean bed, surrounded on all sides by cold water, but this curse was
totally different to the one that Ranma had put up with for so long,
the result of that fateful trip that Genma had taken Ranma on. Did
the skin have the same effect on males as it obviously did on
females? If not, then could Ranma become human again, at least in
male form?

                                ---

About a days' swim from Kasumi's cave, near the newer resort that
had blighted their holiday village so much, was a group of hot
springs. Nothing unusual there; Japan was volcanic in origin and
boasted hot springs all over its bulk. However, at high tide, the
sea ran into these particular springs allowing for creatures of the
sea to get into them. Humans never came here, since it was too
inaccessible and there were more springs in the resort, but many
animals used the springs. When they arrived, Akane and Ranma were
not the only mermaids waiting for the tide to allow them passage to
the springs, however Akane privately hoped that Ranma would not
change into anything remotely human. Had she but known it, she had
become completely mermaid in mind, body and soul by this time, to
the extent that the idea of her even being human at one time was not
pleasing to her. This would cause problems later on, but for now
Akane concentrated on the task at hand. With a final big wave, the
waiting folk were swept into the springs.

Akane turned to see what had become of Ranma, and was greeted by a
shy, smiling female Ranma face. "I guess my Jusenkyo curse isn't
working right now," she noted. Akane peeked into the water and saw
that Ranma was still a mermaid.

"You went to Jusenkyo?"

Akane turned to see another mermaid, somewhat older, a little lanky,
but still quite pretty, with quite long, white hair and a nose that
might be described as beakish if you were disposed to be indelicate
about it. She seemed to be familiar with the cursed training ground.

"Ranma did," Akane informed her. "She fell into the spring of
drowned young girl."

"Knocked into it, more like," Ranma corrected her, far from amused
at the memory of the event.

"So you are actually a boy, yes?"

"Normally," Ranma replied. "But I was in cursed form when I became.."

"A mermaid," the friendly mermaid finished for Ranma. "You aren't
the first Jusenkyo victim to get cursed by that villages' curse,
though I never met anyone that fell into that spring before! Anyway,
the mermaid skin blocks your Jusenkyo curse, so I found."

"You mean that..."

"Yes," she said sweetly, almost as sweetly as Kasumi announcing
lunch, "I was a victim too!"

"So you are..."

"A swan. I fell into the spring of drowned mute swan when I was
there. Imagine my surprise when I got transformed into a mermaid
only to find that I couldn't change into my swan form! I used to
love changing and flying away."

"You liked your curse?" Ranma was incredulous about this, but the ex-
Swan was unperturbed.

"Yes! Yes I did!" Seeing the bewildered looks on both Ranma and
Akane's faces, she expanded a little. "Well I didn't at first! A
real nuisance it was, if I spilled a bucket or got caught in the
rain or whatever. Try opening a door when all you have are wings!
But I got used to it, then I realised that I could do things that no
mere human"- all three mermaids shivered - "could ever do! Flying!
Flying anywhere, free, with nobody to stop me! And swans are
beautiful birds too. I used to dress all in white when I was
normal..." she sighed, remembering her life before the sea took her.

"Wonder if Mousse ever felt like that?" Akane mused out loud.

"As I recall," Ranma responded to that, "Mousse was always more
interested in Shampoo! That and beating me up whenever possible."

It was the other mermaid's turn to look surprised. "You have to be
Ranma! The Jusenkyo Guide said so much about you and your friends
and their antics around the springs!"

With a comic bow, Ranma solemnly addressed her. "Ranma des'.
Sumimasen..." Akane giggled. She remembered these words from the day
a Panda carrying a girl over its back had stormed the dojo. It
seemed so long ago now, but the memory... even her fear of humans
seemed to allow a little time to reflect before it swarmed over her,
berating her for her dredging up memories of human times and places.

The tide washed up again, and the mermaids all flipped themselves
from the spring to the safety of the sea, and suddenly the swan
mermaid remembered her manners and introduced herself. "I'm Toriko."

"That's an odd name," Akane noted. "Apt though! I'm Akane..." she
trailed away, realising belatedly that she couldn't say her family
name. She couldn't even think of it.

"Don't worry," Toriko laughed. "I have the same problem. Anything
from before we came to the sea is firmly locked away behind that
phobia thingummy. I don't remember my family name either."

The thought had not entered Ranma's mind, but trying to remember her
own family name was just as impossible for her as for Akane and
Toriko. However, with a long day's swim back to Kasumi ahead, the
three decided to part and, maybe, meet again sometime. Of course,
this would depend on the outcome of the meeting tomorrow evening.
Trying to find things to do while waiting was a little difficult,
but Ranma and Akane ended up doing the same thing as they waited by
the rocky outcrop. Both had noticed that Toriko had been able to
swim far better and somewhat faster than they could, no doubt
because she had been down here longer, so they practised by racing
each other, jumping the outcrop and other games that exercised their
tails and swimming skills. Pulling themselves onto convenient rocks
to rest, Ranma mentioned how well Akane was swimming now,
considering her previous problems doing that. Though both again felt
the cold dread of all things human, Akane could not suppress a
giggle about her former life and her problems with swimming.

Akane sat bolt upright. "Ranma," she said slowly, "I don't want to
go back."

Ranma regarded Akane as though she had not understood entirely what
she had meant. "You don't want to..."

"I want to stay in the sea. I want to stay like this. I don't want
to.... stop being a mermaid." Akane hastily corrected herself,
attempting to control her feelings.

"Then it could be that I am too late," said another voice from
behind them. Akane cried out and shot into the water. Ranma resisted
the urge to follow, but it was a close thing. "I am simply known as
Mansaku." The man, if man it was, was old, bedraggled and covered in
rags. He picked his way carefully through the rocks, but stopped
short of Ranma so as to keep a wary distance from the mermaid so as
not to panic her too. "Your reluctant friend there called for me,
and I got here as fast as I could, but my age and the problems with
getting to such places as this are against me. I have done this many
times before, but in each case my answer is the same. Only when the
cursed hide returns to the sea may anything be done to cure those
held here against their will."

"Then do something," Ranma said, unevenly. "It's on me."

Mansaku looked closely at Ranma's tail, Ranma trying desperately to
control her fear. Then he grunted and stood up again. Ranma breathed
a sigh of relief as Mansaku backed away again.

"Yes, it is, isn't it?" he chuckled. "You had the presence of mind
not to rip it off when you were taken." Ranma smiled guiltily,
though she said nothing, especially as the reason had nothing to do
with presence of mind. "That's good, as now the curse may be
addressed as it should have been many years ago."

"There's a cure? For Akane too?"

"Indeed yes, though for your friend the way is difficult as the
curse has completed on her."

"What do you mean by that?"

Mansaku inhaled and coughed then, clearing his throat, he explained.
"The curse works on a number of levels. The physical transformation
is the first and most noticeable level, the fear of humans and human
things being the second, but the deeper level is where your mind is
changed so that it becomes ever more difficult to remember your
humanity to the point where, eventually, you would never wish to be
a human, no matter what was available to change you back. This has
happened to your... Akane, did you call her? She is totally
transformed into a mermaid and, though I can change her back, she
will not want to change back. You will have to convince her. You
will have plenty of time to do so, since I now have to make the
various incantations and other arrangements before I can start the
spell."

"But what if I complete before you are ready? I know I want...." -
Ranma strained against an inexplicable pull that made the next few
words difficult to say - "to change back, but what if..."

In response, Mansaku waved his hands in the air, as if a conjuror,
and suddenly produced a circlet. This he placed on the rock recently
vacated by Akane. "When I have left this place, take it and place it
on your head. It forms the first part of the spell and also suspends
your own transformation. Once on, you will not be able to remove it
until my work is completed, but it will give you the wherewithal to
try to convince your friend to return to the human world. The only
thing I advise to you is not to attempt to use force with her. A
false wish to return is as useless and dangerous as the curse
itself."

Ranma thanked Mansaku, but as the sound of her voice died on the
wind, the old hermit had already vanished. Ranma now noticed that
Akane had been watching the whole affair from the sea, though some
distance out. She cautiously swam back to the rocks as Ranma took
the circlet and nestled it on her head, pulling hair through to hide
all but the part across her forehead. Suddenly, the fear of all
human things seemed to be gone, and Ranma splashed into the water
beside Akane, happier than she had been since this whole sorry
affair had started.

- End of chapter two -