At The Beach A Ranma Nibunnoichi Fanfic (with some reference to other works by Rumiko Takahashi) by Chris "Chika" Johnson -------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer With the exception of Toriko, Sokkenai and Mansaku, none of the characters are mine. And while I think about it, this is the chapter with the gratuitous sex scene in it. OK, it isn't much of a scene, but just so you know about it! OK, OK, so it's pretty weak, but you know what some folk are like - "Oooooo, you made Ranma do THAT?!? You'll burn in hell^H^Hck for that one, you disgusting person you!" So now I have your attention.... :) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Four: Overdosing on Fish Kuno was not happy. He had waited before the gates at the beginning of school every day since term had started, and never once had he been approached by the pigtailed girl or Akane Tendo. Mind you, he had seen nothing of Ranma Saotome either. No, each day he would stand there, rain or shine, until Nabiki walked out, bopped him on the head and took him in for his now daily spell of hall duty. This was becoming embarrassing, though obviously it was all his own fault. But then Kuno never let common sense get in the way of his feelings towards the two loves in his life and that... that... Saotome! Yes. Kuno was an idiot. What Nabiki saw in him was anyones' guess. Well... actually, it wasn't that hard to guess. Kuno might have been an idiot, but he was a rich idiot. A rich, unattached, gullible idiot, and Nabiki knew it. The way things were going, he could soon be due for another fleecing at the hands of the remaining Tendo sister. Nani? Tendo ka? "I wish to find the whereabouts of the lovely Akane and the fair pigtailed girl, Nabiki Tendo," he said following his midmorning skull music. Nabiki narrowed her eyes. It was not because of the question as such, it was the reasoning behind the question that worried Nabiki. She knew exactly where her sisters and Ranma were, but why should she let Kuno know? Yen signs now blossomed in her eyes. --- Ryoga, on the other hand, was unhappy for a totally different reason. He had just found a seaside village and, more importantly, he had found a whole lot of clothing and other bits that were immediately identified as belonging to one Ranma Saotome. Actually, someone had rescued it all from the beach and, after giving it a thorough cleaning, this someone was now selling it off. Trouble was that it was all female clothing apart from one set of the familiar Chinese garb that he was more used to seeing Ranma dressed in. That confirmed that Ranma had been here, doing something that quite possibly involved his beloved Akane. At that instant, he bumped into an old, raggy bundle that almost resembled a man, though it was Ryoga that fell down. This puzzled him somewhat, but his only words to the grizzled creature was; "Sorry." Mansaku watched the boy as he tried to find a way out of the village. "I believe that we shall meet again, Ryoga Hibiki," he quietly said as the eternal lost boy disappeared down yet another blind alley. --- Sokkenai looked at the red haired mermaid, smugly sizing her up for the mother of all beatings. The problem was that the mermaid in question looked back at him without the customary look of anguished fear that usually started these beatings. If anything, this Ranma seemed annoyed, even angry. Obviously he had scored a direct hit when he had found this ring shortly after the afternoon fighting had finished, which he had recognised as being the same circlet that Ranma had been wearing before the fight. It was worth something. Chances are that it was something that Ranma could not afford to lose. Ranma, on the other hand, was torn between fury at the loss of the circlet and the increasing fear that completion would rob her of her only chance at returning to the land, a thought that already sickened her. The effects of the curse were gradually eating away at her mind like a cancer and, though Sokkenai had already been beaten once, it had taken time to do and time was not on Ranma's side. Contemptuously flinging the band out of Ranma's reach, Sokkenai commenced his first attack. Unlike before, he did not open with the modified Shishi Hokodan attack (or whatever name Sokkenai used for it - Sokkenai didn't yell the name of the move like Ranma and most of his acquaintances did, for some reason), but he started with some close moves that he had not used in the previous bout, possibly because they had an astounding effect that Ranma found to be somewhat unsettling, to say the least of it. Had she known, Sokkenai was actually using techniques that were barred from open competition, especially because it gave an unfair advantage to male opponents when used. Up to now, it is safe to say that Ranma had never even thought of the problems of sexual stimulation when in female form. Since Ranma had always assumed the feminine form to be a curse and, therefore, transitory, she never even gave it a thought. Actually, it had never really come up when Ranma was in his true form, since he was so busy with his martial arts, his constant duelling, fighting off unwanted girlfriends and such, that there just had been no time. The fact that he had spent so long travelling with his father to inhospitable places and training, training, training was another reason for never really bothering before. Genma had neglected many parts of his parental responsibilities so that Ranma could grow up to be... whatever it was that Genma wanted him to be. Now, miles from land, more miles from home and father, female, betailed and in trouble, Ranma silently cursed the name of Genma Saotome. --- In the Tendo Dojo, Genma Saotome turned suddenly into a panda. Without the benefit of cold water. Soun looked at his friend in puzzlement. "What just happened?" he asked. Genma held up a sign. On it was a large question mark. No change there, then. --- Ranma was certainly in trouble. It seemed that Sokkenai knew exactly where to touch her to get her turned on, and Ranma could do nothing to stop him. What was worse was that as the fight continued, Ranma's sexual urges were getting the better of her fighting skills, making them ineffectual against the runt. Ranma could hear herself starting to moan, her back beginning to arch as Sokkenai continued to pile on the stimulation. She drifted to the ocean floor, writhing in ecstasy, now totally unable to fight further. Sokkenai knew his moment had come, and unleashed his special technique directly at the prone mermaid. How Ranma avoided it, she was not sure, but somewhere deep in her mind she realised that there was a fair amount of energy being built up in her. Sexual energy. It had worked before. With an effort, Ranma brought her arms up, aiming at the runt, and let go with a blast so powerful that it drove the surprised Sokkenai through the roof, through the ocean and up into the air. Not that he got to see much after hitting the roof of the dojo cave, since that alone was enough to knock him silly. The move also affected Ranma, her moan changing to a pure howl of pleasure as the wave did something within her that she had never felt before. Being poorly taught about such things, Ranma could not name this sensation, but she enjoyed it immensely. The problem was that it drained her so thoroughly that it was quite a while before she could even move again. Akane arrived at the dojo shortly after this. She had discovered Ranma missing and, after a short search of the cave, had just been about to waken Kasumi when she saw Sokkenai's precipitous egress and had swum as fast as she could to the dojo. Now she looked on at Ranma, who lay there with a languid smile on her face, occasionally moaning softly and moving in a way that Akane found a little disturbing. Then she noticed that Ranma was minus one circlet and swam over to her to try to wake her. Ranma came to, smiling lazily, looking into Akane's eyes. "Ohayo, Akane-chan," she said, sleepily. "Ohayo yourself," Akane responded, curtly. "Where did your head thingy go?" "Hmm?" Then Ranma sat up sharply. "The circlet! I left it in the arena where Sokkenai threw it down." Akane and Ranma searched all over the arena for the missing circlet, with others from the dojo also joining the search, and when Ranma finally found it there was a sigh of relief from everyone, but Ranma seemed reluctant to replace it on her head. "Why hesitate, Ranma? You know what will happen if you leave it too long," Akane chided her. "The trouble is that I think I might be too late already," Ranma admitted after a long pause. Akane took the circlet from her and tried to put it on Ranma herself but, for some reason, she could not bring herself to do it either. Akane looked at Ranma. "Uh oh..." --- "So do you think there is anything you should be telling me, Ranma?" Ranma looked back at Akane as they sat in the cave with Toriko and Kasumi and blushed furiously. This was hardly an easy subject, especially as Ranma was unsure about the actual mechanics involved. "Well," she demurred, certainly more feminine than Akane had ever known the martial artist before, "you remember that I found that way to modify Ryoga's shi-shi-hokodan attack?" "Yes," Akane responded. "You used your enormous ego to substitute for Ryoga's depression. What did you call it? Fierce Tiger kick?" "Ball," Ranma corrected. "Fierce Tiger Ball. Well, I thought I could do it again, so I did, but I couldn't find a good source of power." Ranma stalled again. "So? What about your ego?" "I'm not sure I like you referring to my Moko Takabisha as something made out of my ego!" Ranma complained, still somewhat feminine in her petulance. Whatever it was that had happened, it had somewhat shaken Ranma's essential masculinity. What am I thinking? Akane added mentally. Everything that has happened since the start of that holiday has probably shaken his essential masculinity!!! "Sokennai did... things..." "What sort of things?" Toriko asked, gently, swimming in front of Ranma and stroking Ranma's fin. This had a calming effect on Ranma. With a deep breath, Ranma continued. "He did things that made me feel funny." "You mean he used sexual tricks on you?" Toriko was now disgusted. Not so much at the tricks; she had been the subject of this form of stimulation on more than one occasion, but it disgusted her that it was done without consent to achieve an advantage in what was supposed to be a fair contest. "I guess..." "What do you mean by that?" Akane was getting annoyed now. Not at Ranma, but at the idea that was insinuating itself in her mind. Toriko explained. "Mermaids are susceptible to sexual stimulation using certain methods, and when a merman does it, the mermaid becomes powerless to respond. It is only usually done, traditionally, with the consent of a mermaid, and it is certainly not allowed to use it in a fight like that. The dojos outlawed it the first time someone tried it on. It makes a fight unfair. If Sokkenai did that, and anyone got to hear of it, he would probably be beaten worse than he got of Ranma." Akane looked at Ranma again, who was blushing even more furiously by this time. Every bit of Ranma that was not tail was beetroot red. Akane was unsure now exactly what she felt, but there was a fury there which, at one time, might have been directed against Ranma, but would almost certainly have killed Sokkenai had he been anywhere within reach. Then she caught Ranma's eye, and Akane suddenly cooled. She swam across and scooped the redhead up, hugging her close. Ranma started to cry, burying her head in Akane's shoulder. "So what was it that hit Sokkenai, then?" Toriko asked, puzzled. Akane looked at Toriko and, picking at the pieces of information to hand, tried to make a plausible explanation of it. "Ranma has done something like this before on the land." - shudder - "A boy we know used a kind of attack that used his depression as a wave of power. Ranma adapted the technique using his... confidence... as an alternative source of emotional power. I think what Ranma is trying to say that she was so sexually excited that she threw her excitement at Sokkenai." "She orgasmed at him?!?" Toriko started to giggle at that, which infectiously started Akane and, thankfully as far as Akane was concerned, Ranma laughing. As for Kasumi, she only had the one thing to say about it, and we all know what that was! When they had all calmed down, Ranma brought up the subject of the circlet. "I was told that it wouldn't come off, but it has, and I'm suffering the effects." "Effects?" Akane questioned. "I'm losing my desire to return to my former self." "That's a problem?" "Well, it is if I really want to go home, but that's the problem. I need to talk to Mansaku urgently! But how am I supposed to find him if he's up there and I can't go there?" --- The following morning, Ryoga awoke on the beach. Well, if I can't get out of this dratted village, he had thought the night before, I might as well make the most of it here. And so he had, settling down for a late dinner and a sleep. It was still early morning, and there was a light sea mist drifting in on a somewhat cold breeze which made him sneeze. Fish. Yes, fish would be a good breakfast. Ryoga started to set up a makeshift line when he suddenly realised why he had thought of it. He could smell fish somewhere close by. Maybe someone fishing from the shore, just as he was proposing to do? No, this part of the beach was generally empty at this time as it caught the sun too much in the morning. The fishermen generally fished down shore to make the most of the mountain shade. But there it was. Fish. Then he noticed a large fish. It had beached just a short distance from his sleeping spot, and was motionless, so it had probably been there some time. Not more than a single night though; Ryoga was certain that it had not been there when he had settled down for his supper of... FISH! Ryoga now realised that he was slowly getting sick of fish. Especially fish that talked back to you. Ryoga did a double take as one end of the fish suddenly resolved itself into a familiar figure. "Of all the people to wash up here, it had to be the eternal lost boy!" "R... Ranma?" Ryoga spluttered as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. "Who did you think it was?" "B... b... but..." "You leave my butt out of this!" Ranma quipped. "Look, Ryoga, I'm stuck here with Akane and Kasumi..." "What happened to you?" "I need you to find someone for me," Ranma tried to cut through Ryoga's confusion. This was going to be an uphill struggle. "He's a shaggy looking old man, wearing rags." Ryoga suddenly came back to sanity, or at least as close as he ever got. "Him? I bumped into him yesterday." "Well, I need you to bump into him again today. I need you to get him to come and meet me in our usual place." "You got another one on the go, then?" "Don't get silly on me, Ryoga," Ranma responded, anger and desperation in her voice. "If I don't get this problem sorted out soon, P-Chan, you will never see Akane again. Or me, for that matter." The cogs whirred away merrily in Ryoga's head as he took this all in. Find old man, get Akane back, good. Find old man, get Ranma back, bad. Don't find old man... a no win situation. Ah well, if he did find the old man, it wouldn't make the situation any worse. "OK, Ranma, I'll find him. Er... care to tell me how you got like that?" "Another time," Ranma said hastily before flicking herself back into the ocean. "I owe you one!" "Yeah," Ryoga said to nobody in particular as the water closed over Ranma. "Like I care about that!" --- "I hope this information is correct, Nabiki Tendo," Kuno growled. "Oh, it's the best that money can buy," Nabiki responded, mentally totalling up her takings as the pair continued on their luxury boat trip. Perhaps I might even cut Ranma in on the deal... --- Trouble was that Ryoga then promptly got lost trying to find his way out of the village, still trying to understand what had happened to Ranma, Akane and Kasumi. Odd how someone who had a curse of his own to deal with had so much trouble dealing with a curse like that, but then nobody ever claimed that Ryoga was the brightest spark in Nerima. In fact, he ran across Masaku again purely by accident, and by that time he was unable to tell the old man anything. Well, he had just tripped over Mansaku's water bucket. All Mansaku knew, at first, was that a small, black pig with a yellow scarf around its neck had just caused him to have to go to the well and drag up another bucket of water. Great. More work! And just as he had set up the last bit of the spell, ready for the casting at the rock when the next full moon came up. Oh well, perhaps I can use that pig later on. Supper, perhaps? The pig was still there when he returned with the refilled bucket, and it seemed to be excited about something. Hmm... seen that scarf before. I wonder... "Ryoga Hibiki?" "Skweee skweeeeskweee!!!!" "Curious how all these Jusenkyo curses seem to be popping up here lately," Mansaku pondered as he began to heat up some water. "Reminds me of that odd swan girl that came through here a few years ago. Wonder what happened to her?" Ryoga was somewhat relieved to recover his normal self. Pulling his clothing back on (a feat that many of the Jusenkyo-cursed seemed to be able to do, though the actual method seems to be a martial art in itself, one that is a closely guarded secret), he delivered Ranma's message. "When did you receive this message?" "Er... about a week ago," Ryoga was never happy to admit, even remotely, that he had a problem finding his way about. "Right, this is important," Mansaku seemed eager about something. "Did you notice anything on Ranma's head?" "I was more interested in his.. er... her tail," Ryoga blushed even more. Damn Ranma, why did he have to be so damn pretty when in his girl form? And the change to a mermaid had only made things worse! "It's really important.." "No. Apart from the missing pigtail..." Now Mansaku had an idea why Ranma needed him. He quickly bundled up some things and headed off through the forest toward the outcrop, Ryoga in pursuit. At least he was in pursuit by one route or another, though it would be a few more days before he actually caught up. --- Ranma had to exercise plenty of control when Mansaku finally showed up. This was not just the fear that had haunted her since the transformation, this was something far stronger. Mansaku could see the problem as soon as he saw her, and immediately asked to see the circlet, which Ranma handed over via the intermediate rock. "As I feared," he said, tutting with exasperation. "The transformation has completed. If this whole thing is not finished by the next full moon, I believe that there will be no hope for any of us." This puzzled Ranma. "What do you mean by that?" "Well," Mansaku explained, "you now have lost your desire to return to the land. You are the bearer of the curse, and if you cannot be freed of it, it will become permanent. You see, I am bound up in the same curse. How else did you think I had lived for so long?" "You mean..." "I mean that when the curse is complete, I shall die." Ranma was shocked by this. She had not known Mansaku long, but the idea of somebody being so bound up in a curse that their very life was affected by its course never pleased Ranma, and this was not the first time he had heard of such a curse. "It'll be a relief, I can tell you," Mansaku added under his breath, then said in a louder voice; "but this cannot happen unless you have that circlet on." "But I can't," Ranma responded to this. "It was an accident, and now every time I try to put it on, I... I just can't!" "Well you have until the full moon in two days time to find a way to do it, or you will have to say goodbye to your former life." Mansaku pronounced this, knowing full well that Ranma no longer really wanted to go back to her... or his former life now. Ranma said nothing more. She just took the circlet and dived back into the sea. --- "What are you doing here?" "I could ask you the same thing, Nabiki," Ryoga responded. "And what is that doofus doing here with you?" Kuno was puzzled by the insult, but he had an idea that he had just been insulted, so he did what he always did when he felt insulted. And the result, though it was hardly the same as when he challenged Ranma, was remarkably similar. He often wondered if he should get frequent flier awards for his airborne trips around Nerima. And other selected parts of Japan. "Well, before you knocked my benefactor over the village and into the next time zone, we were trying to find Ranma, Akane and Kasumi." "Probably best that you didn't mention Ranma to your... er... benefactor... anytime soon. It would probably make it worse." Nabiki looked back to where she could hear an annoyed yell and the sound of running feet. Sounds like an upset kendo idiot on the warpath. One look at Ryoga convinced her that his thought had been fairly similar. "Back already, Kuno-baby?" she said, talking quickly to give the slow witted sempai no chance to start issuing more ill conceived challenges. "Well, Ryoga here knows where to find Akane..." Suddenly, Nabiki got a sinking feeling as she remembered the catch to this strategy. The eternal lost boy knows where Ranma, Akane and Kasumi are. Oh yes, this is not one of my better plans. - End of chapter four -