Legends of the Four Masters
By: Tellemicus Sundance
#01—Ticket to a New World

It was a relatively unnatural setting that descended upon Nerima that evening. It was quiet. No screams of angry women chasing a panty-thief. No cries of rage from rivals who'd come seeking vengeance. No crashes of destruction as private, public, and government properties were smashed. And, especially, no grunts and whacks of exertion as Ranma and his father trained out in the backyard for their ritualistic evening spar. The city seemed to almost sigh in relief as it took full advantage of the respite.

For the beautiful Tendo Kasumi, it was such a fleeting peace that had become increasingly rare around her household that she couldn't help but relish in it. She was sitting in the living room of her home, absently watching a rather curious cartoon that had become very properly recently. Something about a bald kid with a blue arrow tattoo, who could also use the wind to fight, trying to save the world from an invading army of fire-using soldiers. Though it was clearly meant for children, she had to admit that it did hold a certain charm that made it interesting even for adults. Plus the ambiguous references to the Japanese and Chinese culture and architecture were welcome surprises she rather enjoyed seeing.

Next to her on the floor sat P-chan, Akane's little black piglet. Kasumi wasn't sure if it was waiting for Akane to find it, since it had a rather curious habit of always getting lost and disappearing, or if it was watching the cartoon with her because it found it interesting as well. Well, she'd have to remember to bring up to Akane later. Maybe P-chan would help her calm down from whatever had upset her earlier.

Kasumi wasn't sure what had happened this time. Her younger sister had come storming home, alone, and promptly set to work destroying every cinderblock in the backyard to vent her fury. Having seen this happen far too many times before, Kasumi knew that Akane had likely sent Ranma flying into low-earth-orbit again for some kind of perceived perversion against her or infidelity against their engagement. The random hateful shouts of 'SHAMPOO—HAH!' Crash! gave Kasumi the obvious perpetrator of that infidelity, since she knew that Ranma was surprisingly loyal if only somewhat insensitive to a woman's feelings.

That had been over two hours ago and by this point, most of the family had already gone to bed. It was just Kasumi and P-chan still awake in the household now. So they were the only ones who heard the front doors open quietly as Ranma finally trudged his way inside, looking a bit downhearted, filthy, and female. Turning from the television, Kasumi stood up and walked over to greet him with a pleasant smile.

"Hello, Ranma-chan," she said. "Did Akane knock you out again?"

Ranma looked immediately affronted by the question, but after a second the redhead just sighed in exhaustion. Kasumi took that as meaning that she didn't want to talk about it. Kicking off her shoes, Ranma-chan passed her as she quietly said, "I'm gonna take a bath."

Kasumi nodded, heading quickly into the kitchen to put the dinner leftovers she'd saved for him into the microwave. Once done, she hurried back to the television to watch the cartoon again, only to be faintly annoyed to see that a commercial had come on during her distraction. By the time that Ranma had finished his bath and changed into a fresh pair of clothes, the cartoon had ended and a new one had started. That was something that Kasumi actually enjoyed about the show, it was so popular that they'd started playing it as 'double features', two or three episodes in a row.

"What'cha watching?" Ranma asked absentmindedly, now as a boy again as he headed to where the pleasant smells of reheated dinner were coming from.

"Some new cartoon that's come out," Kasumi answered, giggling quietly at one of the funny remarks the dark-skinned boy in blue clothes made. He was always making sarcastic jokes that were very funny. "It's very popular these days."

Walking into the room with his plate of dinner, Ranma took a seat nearby to watch as he ate his dinner. It wasn't long, Kasumi noticed, before he was equally enthralled at the show. But, knowing him, he was probably observing the fighting styles, the various air, fire, and water attacks that were being done, and trying to decide if it'd be worth his time to experiment with them later.

"That's Baguazhang, with some Xingyiquan," Ranma said, his eyes glued to the screen. "Northern Shaolin Kung Fu for those fire dudes. And the Yang style of T'ai Chi Ch'uan for the water girl. Those are Chinese martial arts!"

"Oh?" Kasumi asked, not at all surprised that he figured which styles were being used. Nearby, P-chan grunted almost in derision.

"Airen?" a familiar voice called from outside, catching all three beings' attentions as the purple haired Chinese Amazon came walking in, uninvited as per the norm.

"What'cha want, Shampoo?" Ranma asked, reflexively standing up in preparation to flee or fight as the situation needed. However, as the girl came into view, it seemed pretty obvious that she wasn't here to cause trouble again. Her face was downcast and slightly remorseful, a stark contrast to her usual bubbly good cheer.

"Shampoo come to say sorry," Shampoo said looking up at Ranma pleadingly. "Shampoo not know Violent Girl have bad day again."

Seeing Ranma slightly off balance, Kasumi put on an understanding serene smile as she spoke up, "That's alright, Shampoo. I'm sure Ranma's used to this by now. But it was very thoughtful to come and apologize." She looked somewhat pointedly at Ranma, "Right, Ranma-kun?"

Figuratively caught between a rock and hard place, Ranma just put a slightly strained grin. "Yeah, it's no problem. Besides, Akane going ballistic like that helps build up the endurance against pain, right?" Now his strained grin had morphed into his classic cocky smirk.

Shampoo instantly lit up like a Christmas tree, jumping up and hugging Ranma despite his protests. After a moment, Shampoo restrained herself and drew back, her hands drifting into her pockets. When she did this, her eyes suddenly lit up again as though she were just remembering something. "Ranma? Shampoo have something for you!"

"What is it?" Ranma asked, trying and failing to not show his sudden unease. It was a proven fact that whenever Shampoo came to him with gifts, they almost always turned out to be cursed magical items that caused great big headaches for him and everyone else involved. Even Kasumi felt herself tense up as the realization hit her a few short moments after Ranma and P-chan.

Either ignoring or not noticing her beloved's sudden unease, Shampoo extracted something small, shiny, and golden from her pocket and held it out triumphantly. "This be the Golden Ticket of Urban Legends!" Shampoo declared happily. All she got from her audience was a series of blank-faced stares. It took her only a few seconds to realize none of them had ever heard of her item before, causing her to groan in annoyance. Didn't they notice or hear about anything that wasn't related to martial arts?!

After a moment to recollect herself, she held out the Golden Ticket for Ranma to examine. "It be a special movie ticket that let up to five people watch any movie anywhere for free!"

"Isn't that what a normal ticket does?" Kasumi couldn't help asking.

"No, not this one!" Shampoo quickly answered, shaking her head in response. "It be special ticket because it work at any theater anywhere in the world! All that's needed done to activate it is to break it into two."

"Activate it?" Ranma asked cautiously, holding the ticket with exceeding carefulness in case it's magic might somehow negatively affect him. "What's that mean?"

"In order to get into movie without paying, silly," Shampoo laughed lightly at Ranma's almost fearful handling of the said ticket.

"Is that all it does?" he asked, still not convinced. Since when had magic ever been anything but trouble for him? He was 100% sure that there was some kind of unknown and dangerous curse linked to this seemingly harmless ticket in some way. That's how it always worked with him.

"Of course!" Shampoo said, now starting to get annoyed at Ranma's paranoia. "Why it do more than that? This is 'I-am-sorry' gift to Ranma. No want to curse Airen when trying to say sorry!"

After a few moments, Ranma took a deep breath and visible forced his paranoia down. Though Shampoo had been no end of headaches ever since he'd first fought her on that log in China, she had never been anything less than honest in her intentions and actions. He'd give her the benefit of the doubt this time.

Kasumi stood up and took the Golden Ticket from Ranma to examine it, P-chan following closely at her heels with its big eyes locked almost hungrily upon the ticket. Looking down at the golden paper, Kasumi looked at it closely. Despite its unique coloring, it seemed to be just a classic theater ticket with the words 'Admits up to 5' printed down the center of it. She couldn't see or feel anything out of place, be it normal or magical.

"Seems relatively normal, Ranma-kun," Kasumi said as she handed it back towards Ranma.

That was when everything went wrong, as things usually tended to go. As Ranma took hold of the ticket, P-chan suddenly took a powerful jump upwards, aiming for the ticket. The sudden attack caught all of them by surprise, but Ranma was still able to keep his grip on the ticket as the piglet bit down on it. The two of them fought over the ticket for a brief moment. Well, Ranma began flailing the ticket and piglet in the air with loud yells of anger at it while P-chan was trying to wrench it out of Ranma's grasp. Something had to give…and something did.

The ticket out got ripped into even halves clear down the center. The flailing Ranma had been doing sent P-chan flying through the air, where it landed with surprising ease on the floor beside the television.

"Why you little pig!" Ranma was ranting furiously, his fists clenching tightly in his anger as he began advancing on the animal. "I'm gonna make pork chops of you, bacon breath!"

The ensuing fight between Ranma and P-chan was suddenly cut off as they noticed something strange happening. Two bright points blinding golden light lit up, one from the ticket clenched in Ranma's fist and the other clenched in P-chan's mouth. Before any of them could do anything more than stare in surprise, a blinding golden void suddenly filled the air around them. When the blinding light vanished only a split-second later, so had the four of them.

(Author's Note) The next story that's come to me in a whim. Let's hope that I can make something of it. I admit that my knowledge of the Ranma characters is fairly limited, so I hope all of you who have better knowledge will help correct me when I make mistakes in that regard.