Author's Notes:

It has been a long, LONG time since I wrote fanfiction. I honestly don't know what to say. But I found a new partner, and now I'm hoping to get back into the game, so I hope folks will enjoy this. At the least, I had to do something to break up this rut of content I'm seeing here on FFN.

So, why this idea? Because I honestly can't remember the last time that I've ever seen somebody explore this idea and its untapped potential. We know Nabiki was the only Tendo girl looking forward to Ranma's arrival in the first episode/chapter - she was actively hoping to get engaged to a cute guy. And was very angry over her boyfriend turning out to be a busty young girl instead. So, what might have happened if that troublesome little curse hadn't reared its ugly head until AFTER Nabiki and Ranma were formally betrothed?

This fic is my interpretation of what would have happened. I hope you all enjoy it.

Chapter 1: Through A Haze of Steam, Two Hearts Meet

Genma Saotome plodded dourly through the streets of the Nerima district in Tokyo, scowling as he went. Though the familiarity of his environs should have brought him great comfort, for this little corner of Tokyo hadn't changed much in the years since he had last been here, he barely noticed his old stomping grounds. Genma was annoyed.

He was also currently a giant panda, but the two facts were not as closely related as one might think.

No, the true cause of his discontent had to do with the voluptuous teenage girl squirming angrily atop his shoulder, smacking the back of his head with her fist from time to time for emphasis. Thankfully, the awkward angle prevented her from putting any real force behind the blows, and the thick fur and solid bone of his temporary body absorbed them harmlessly. But it did nothing to protect his sensitive ears from the onslaught of verbal violence as his currently female son, Ranma Saotome, subjected him to a litany of all the profanity and insults he had picked up over a lifetime of traipsing around the rougher parts of eastern civilization.

Genma was not what most people would call a hot-tempered sort of man. He honestly preferred to avoid confrontation, which was more common amongst martial artists than you might think. But even he had his limits, and as he listened to Ranma with equal parts morbid fascination and mortification, something inside of him /snapped/.

With an angry roar, he threw his part-time daughter to the ground against a nearby fence and then stomped up to loom over her, one finger pointed at her like the wrath of an angry god. "Boy! I've had about enough of your attitude! I am your father and you will do as I say!" he growled.

Instead of acting cowed, Ranma snorted indelicately and glared up at him. "Hey, pop, you forget that I don't speak panda?" she snapped.

Genma froze, standing there in silence as a gentle breeze whistled past with perfect ironic timing. Then he slapped one paw against the top of his head, fingers curling so that his claws raked through the fur as he dragged it down the length of his snout. Curse this stupid curse!

Glancing around, he spotted his salvation; a wandering tea-vendor, with a kettle of hot water bubbling away on the burner mounted on his little cart. Snarling, he threw Ranma a dirty look and what he hoped was a menacing gesture to stay put or else, and then headed to the vendor's stall. Hoping brazenness would stun the man into docility, he snatched the kettle and loped back to Ranma as quickly as possible. To his relief, the tea vendor obviously saw no reason to pick a fight with an eight foot tall panda over a kettle of hot water.

Lumbering back to Ranma, Genma poured half of the contents over himself, growling and grimacing as the heat burned its way through his panda form's thick coat, steam wafting from his now-human scalp. Once he trusted himself to speak, he glared at Ranma and once more pointed an imposing finger at the teen. "I said, we are going to the Tendo Dojo and that is final!"

"Why are you so worked up about this stupid engagement business anyway?!" Ranma snapped back. "Hello, do you really think they're going to want anything to do with me when I show up looking like this? What, were you just going to hope they didn't realize that the BOY they were supposed to be marrying was sporting his own killer rack?" She grabbed her cleavage with her hands and made a show of groping it, hefting it in a way that made Genma shudder; that was just too creepy to see a girl his son's age doing, never mind seeing his actual son doing it!

"I have my reasons!" Genma retorted. "Besides, why are you so against it? What else do you want to be doing?"

"Uh, going back to China and looking for a cure? Hello?" Ranma drawled, looking at Genma as if he'd sprouted a second head.

"Ah, yes, China. Where that crazy Chinese amazon chased you day and night looking to put your head on a stick. You want to go back to that, Ranma?" Genma asked sarcastically, watching as his daughter - er, son's face fell. "Look... I know this isn't exactly something I gave you a lot of time to come to terms with..."

"No kidding - you only told me about it, like, ten minutes ago," Ranma interjected incredulously.

"But trust me, I have a good reason for doing this now," Genma continued, ignoring him. And he did. After all, if by some horrible twist of cruel fate their curses were permanent... why, Ranma getting married and giving her a grandchild might be the only way that they could ever see Nodoka again.

Genma spared a moment to mourn his beautiful wife. He missed her so much - her kind smile, her warm heart, her wonderful sense of humor, and especially her delicious cooking. Leaving her and spending a decade roaming the countryside to train his son had been so hard. But it was a sacrifice he'd had to make, for the sake of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts! ...How was he to know that all that time alone would make Nodoka go a little loopy?! He'd given her that contract just to prove he was serious - he didn't think she'd actually KEEP it! But the letters she'd been sending him before Jusenkyo had made him increasingly worried, and he thought it was best to keep well away from her whilst his son still had his little gender-bender problem.

Snapping back to his senses, Genma tried to press his point. "Look, it's a matter of honor, Ranma, and I know I raised you not to ignore that." As Ranma winced and glanced aside, Genma knew he'd struck a vulnerable point. His son still hadn't quite mastered the wisdom of knowing when not to be baited by such ploys, which Genma still took full advantage of. "So, I'll make you a deal; we'll turn you back to normal, and then we'll go and see the Tendos. If they don't want to carry the engagement, we'll leave, okay?"

Ranma's lips puckered as if the girl had just sucked an unripe lemon. Finally, she gave a reluctant nod. Satisfied, Genma poured what was left of the water over Ranma's head, watching as rich red hair darkened to its original coal-black and his child's body shifted, reverting to its normal masculine dimensions.

Ranma stood up and absently dusted himself off, and then the two Saotomes made their way onward to the Tendo Dojo.

Meanwhile, at the Tendo residence...

Nabiki Tendo smiled excitedly; she couldn't believe what her father had told her. One of them was going to be engaged! Oh, she knew her odds weren't great - with Kasumi and Akane here, what guy was likely to pick her? - but she could get lucky. Maybe this "Ranma Saotome" would be a nice guy who could see her charms for what they were.

Seriously, in a way, she almost owed Kuno a debt of gratitude. If his stupid challenge had done anything useful, it was prove that Furinkan High School's male population was full of idiots who weren't worth her time.

And so it was that as she sat there with her sisters, Kasumi looking pensive and Akane scowling like a thunderstorm, Nabiki was the only one smiling and dressed up nicely. She'd even grabbed a kimono from her closet, hoping to make a good impression. As Akane complained about having no say in the matter, she leaned towards her sister, "Hey, you never know, Akane; he might turn out to be really cute." Straightening up, she smiled at her father, Soun Tendo. "Right, daddy?"

Soun laughed merrily, and then took on a more serious expression. "He'll be here any minute," he said, not directly answering them. Standing up, he marched over to the opening to the yard, looking out over the garden with his hands clasped solemnly behind his back. "Ranma and his father have been on a long training journey; they only just returned to the country from China."

"Oooh, China!" Nabiki chirped, interest flaring. This Ranma guy was definitely sounding more and more appealing the more she heard about him if he was well traveled.

Beside her, Akane scoffed. "So he hiked all the way to China and back. Wow, big deal."

Nabiki threw a sour glance at her younger sister. 'As if you can boast of doing anything that important,' she thought to herself. She just didn't get what Akane was so mad about. Okay, yes, the hentai horde were annoying, but she came out of it without a scratch every day, didn't she? She should be happy to be so popular with the guys!

"Father, how old is Ranma? Younger men are so... young," Kasumi suddenly interjected, a bit redundantly if Nabiki was going to be uncharitable, which to be fair she had a point. As the Hentai Horde proved, maturity amongst the males of the species ran rather a...wide spreadsheet.

"Is he cute?" Nabiki added, more directly cutting to, in her opinion, the heart of the matter.

"I don't know," Soun simply replied.

At this, Nabiki's smile faded. "You don't know?" she repeated incredulously.

"I've never met him." Soun explained, in the same casual tone as before.

Silence reigned over the living room as each of the Tendo girls digested that little revelation. Akane was scowling more furiously than ever, Nabiki's smile had turned into a frown, and even Kasumi looked mildly disappointed at what she was hearing.

Nabiki debated whether or not to start chewing her father out on doing something as idiotic as making an arranged marriage and then never bothering to keep tabs on the male half of the equation, but her thoughts were diverted when an unfamiliar masculine voice suddenly rang out from the entry hall.

"Hello! Anyone there?!"

Soun perked up immediately - if he had ears like a dog, they would have pricked upright towards the ceiling at that voice. "Saotome! My old friend!" he called back jubilantly, jogging off towards the entry hall and away from the trio of females that were also reacting to the arrival.

"Ooh! That means Ranma is here!" Nabiki blurted, smiling with some enthusiasm and hastily rising to her feet to race off after her father. Neither of her sisters seemed at all eager to follow, but that was okay, because it just meant she could meet this mysterious fiance first.

Around the corner, and she got her wish. She barely paid any attention to the sight of her father clapping the shoulder of a beefy, great, shorn bear of a man wearing a travel-worn gi; all of her attention was reserved for the boy standing just behind the two adults, looking as out of place as an American dime in a pocketful of yen. Nabiki greedily drank in the sight of him; he really was cute, with a handsome face and attractive, pale-blue eyes currently set in a shy, uncertain expression, with a red silken shirt just tight enough to hug a body that was lean yet toned, obviously refined through many long hours of exercise and training.

Deep in the primal part of Nabiki's mind, a tiny little voice joyfully squealed 'Jackpot!', whilst the rest of her fought to keep from doing something as blatant as drooling or licking her lips. When it came to looks, Ranma was definitely making the cut. "Why, hello there," she purred, unable to keep her interest from her tone in her current state. "Are you Ranma Saotome?"

"I, I am," he replied, giving her a shy, nervous look that made that little part of Nabiki's brain growl hungrily - definitely not one of the usual hormone-driven jocks, if she was any judge. That was certainly worthier of a higher mark on the potential hunk-o-meter.

"Ah, right, I had almost forgotten!" Soun suddenly said, clapping his daughter on the shoulder and snapping her back to her senses. "This is my middle daughter, Nabiki! Come, you must meet my other daughters," Soun said, starting to lead the small group back to the living room.

Nabiki fell into step, with the Saotomes padding softly along behind. When they reached the living room, Nabiki watched her sisters, sizing up their reaction. Kasumi looked mildly concerned, visibly uncertain what to make of the strange men in their midst. Akane, meanwhile, looked thunderously at Ranma, who visibly shrank back from her hostile reception.

Soun either didn't notice Akane's reaction, or chose to ignore it. "Well then, everyone! Ranma, Genma, these are my other daughters; this is Kasumi, my eldest, and Akane, my youngest," he declared, gesturing to each Tendo in turn.

"Hello, and welcome to our home," Kasumi said politely, bowing in the traditional gesture of welcome.

Akane simply let out an angry 'hmph!' and pointedly looked away from Ranma.

"Akane! I taught you better manners than that!" Soun scolded her, normally he was loathe to scold his youngest daughter but right now the Joining of the Schools was at stake.

The youngest Tendo girl audibly grumbled, folding her arms across her chest, then growled out a rough "Hi" to Ranma, who flatly returned the greeting. Needless to say he was getting...mixed signals as to his arrival and subsequent welcome that made him doubly suspicious of his pop's plans here.

Soun shot his youngest daughter a stern look, but then turned to Ranma and gave him a welcoming smile. "Come, please, sit; you and your father must both be tired after your long journey," he said, gesturing to the table.

"Girls, join us," he added, in a voice that was just as polite, but brooked no argument from his feminine offspring.

Once everybody was seated at the table, Soun smiled and looked at his daughters. "Well, now; since this your first meeting, I'm sure you all must have so many questions. I'm sure Ranma would be happy to answer them, wouldn't you Ranma?" he asked, turning to face their young guest.

"Huh? Oh, sure," Ranma quickly replied. To Nabiki, he looked more caught on the spot than anything, but she couldn't deny, she was curious.

"What was China like, please?" Kasumi asked, catching Nabiki off-guard.

"It was... big," Ranma replied. Then he seemed to realize how lackluster an answer that was and looked sheepish. "Sorry; me and pop were basically walking across the countryside. We spent weeks there, going from town to town and village to village. Plains and mountains and forests... it was sort of like being here in Japan, but everything was spread out a lot more."

"You walked? Why?" Nabiki asked.

"Well, somebody said it was integral to maintaining my growth as a martial artist," Ranma replied, casting a sour look at his father. "I still say you were just too cheap to pay for transport."

"Still, you must be pretty fit to hike that far," Nabiki said, cutting things off before the elder Saotome could do more than growl at his son.

"I guess, maybe a little?" Ranma replied, looking a bit bashful at so much focused female attention, especially Nabiki's… intrigued expression. "I mean, the hiking was easy - I've been doing that my whole life. Swimming to China was the worst part."

One could have heard a pin drop in the Tendo lounge room as three teenage girls (and one grown man, though he hid it better) stared at the teenage boy as if he'd just sprouted an extra head. Ranma ducked his head, clearly not liking the attention.

"You SWAM?!" poured from three feminine throats in perfect synchronization, Nabiki looking impressed while Kasumi and Akane looked shocked and sceptical respectively.

Ranma fidgeted as he tried to figure out how to respond, but his father prevented any potential 'foot in mouth' moments as he clapped his son across the shoulders and let out a vulgar guffaw of laughter. "That he did! My son, too humble for his own good; all the way to China, and then all the way back to Japan when we decided it was time to come home. Always did swim like a kappa, he did."

This was sounding better and better. Okay, he clearly didn't have a lot of money, but he was cute and in very good shape - two out of three wasn't bad when it came to hunks, right? Besides, look at Kuno - he was rich and relatively good looking, and Nabiki wouldn't touch him if he paid her. Plus, Nabiki thought to herself, he seemed reasonably trainable as males went and that would make things easier for sure

"Wow, hiking to China. Big deal," Akane snorted crassly, not willing to give in to what she saw as a challenge to her own prowess.

"You're good at walking - are you any good at fighting?" she demanded, giving Ranma a look that was equal parts dismissive and challenging.

Now Ranma's embarrassed mien melted away; If there was one thing he'd learned throughout his father's…'special' style of training, it was never back down from a challenge. "I've spent my whole life training and sparring. I'd say I have a little skill," he dryly retorted, seeing Akane's look and raising her a lookover of amusement.

"Well, let's put that talent to the test - I want a match! Right now!" she snapped, her face red with annoyance at this...this...baka!

"Akane!" Soun chided her, feeling very much on the back foot with his youngest daughter, perhaps not being involved was one of his less than stellar life choices...

"What? If one of us is supposed to marry him because he's the heir to the Saotome school, then shouldn't we make sure he's actually good at fighting?!" Akane shot back.

Soun glowered like a thundercloud, opened his mouth as if to speak... and then closed it again. Despite his obvious distaste for his youngest daughter's manners, it was clear he conceded that she had a valid point.

Akane smirked and shot a challenging glare at their visitor. "So, what do you say? You willing to show us your stuff?"

"Fine. Where and when?" Ranma replied, a faint blush growing on his cheeks as his mind contemplated the other ways her words could be taken. Said blush was seen by Nabiki, who smirked to herself at finding out her potential fiance would be easy to tease. That would make things so much more fun.

"Right now, in the dojo! Follow me!" Akane said, standing up proudly and marching off in the direction of the dojo. Ranma followed her close behind, and their fathers were quickly on his heels. The elder Tendo girls were the last ones to leave the living room.

"Oh, Akane... why is she being so rude?" Kasumi sighed, she despaired for her youngest sibling sometimes.

"She's taking it out on him because she's mad at daddy springing this on us out of nowhere," Nabiki replied casually, long since inured to Akane's temper. Unlike her elder sister, though, she was not really upset with this turn of events.

She was rather curious about how her potential fiance stacked up as a fighter, and this would be a perfect opportunity to see. Besides, if he and Akane were taking such a strong dislike to each other already, that meant she had a much stronger chance to win him for herself...

The Tendo Dojo was fairly humble, as such things went. It had never seen a great deal of traffic, but since Mrs. Tendo had passed away... well, Nabiki didn't like to think about it. Instead, she just watched as Akane took up a combat stance on the floor, whilst Ranma remained casually poised two steps away. His arms, by comparison, were resting loosely at his sides, and he didn't look even the slightest concerned.

Soun formally raised an arm; it had been a long time since he had played the part of a referee, but he still remembered how it was done. "I trust you both to remember the rules of fair play...Begin!"

Akane let out a ferocious shout and immediately charged towards Ranma, and reflexively Nabiki felt her heart clench. She had seen the biggest, strongest and toughest men in Furinkan High laid out cold with one blow from her sister's hand, and whilst she could probably take comfort in the fact that such a feat should guarantee she wouldn't lose him to Akane, she wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect of seeing Ranma laid out cold!

...And it turned out that she needn't have worried. Akane's hand lashed out in one of her iconic brain-rattling haymakers... and Ranma dodged it effortlessly. He didn't even move his feet, he just twisted his head aside at the last moment and Akane's fist sailed past.

Nabiki couldn't believe it. Akane didn't seem to either; she struck out again, and again, and then again, punching with fast, furious strikes that routinely demolished the ranks of the Hentai Horde. Not a single one of them even ruffled a hair on Ranma's head, who bent and swayed like a stick of bamboo in the breeze, dodging each and every one of them.

Akane's cries turned into a full-blown scream of fury and frustration, confusion written on her face as she pressed the attack, seeming to force Ranma to at least fall back in the face of her advance. When she had him pinned against the wall, she bulled forward, launching her mightiest punch...

And Ranma simply leapt straight up, soaring off of the floor in defiance of gravity and casually leaping higher than Akane was tall. As the youngest Tendo's fist punched clean through the dojo's wall, Ranma made an impossible twist and flipped through the air. As Akane yanked her hand from the wall and spun around to face him, Ranma's own hand speared through the air and tapped against Akane's forehead - not a punch, per say, but a sharp enough impact that Akane stumbled backwards, losing her footing and landing flat on her rump.

The whole Tendo family stared at the tableau as a shocked Akane gaped up at Ranma, before Soun finally managed to raise his arm and stutter out, "Ranma Saotome wins!"

Ranma smirked, and bowed to Akane, the action clearly more sarcastic than respectful, and then turned his back to her before walking away.

Akane was furious; how dare this, this... BOY show her up like this! With a scream of fury, she suddenly leapt to her feet and charged at Ranma... who seemed to disappear in the blink of an eye. The next thing Akane knew, something had hooked around her ankles and pulled them out from under her, sweeping out her footing so that she fell flat on the floor. Later, she would piece together that Ranma had sidestepped her and tripped her up faster than she could see. But, at the moment, all she was aware of was the foot that had planted itself against her back and was pinning her to the floor with almost contemptuous ease.

"Let me go, you smug jerk!" Akane screamed, trying to flail out and shake him off, but her assailant simply pressed down firmer, well out of range of her arms.

"You want to play rough? I can keep this up all day," Ranma drawled, Nabiki noting he was probably telling the truth with how at ease his form seemed to be.

"Akane! That's enough! How dare you do something like that!" Soun suddenly thundered, making everybody in the room flinch.

"B-but daddy! He - this pervert -" Akane protested.

"He did nothing except win a fair and honest match!" Soun decreed, frowning at Akane with an anger that none of his daughters could remember him showing before. "I am deeply disappointed with you, Akane - I taught you better manners than to make such unprovoked attacks! Your poor sportsmanship shames me," he said, sternly folding his arms across his chest as he resisted his youngest child's blandishments.

"D-daddy!" Akane protested, eyes huge with shock and wet with unshed tears. Her father had NEVER spoken to her in a manner anything like this, and her heart clenched until she felt it would break. This wasn't how it was supposed to go! She was supposed to beat him up, show him that she wasn't some thing like the other boys thought, and that would be that. This; this was far beyond what she could have conceived.

"Now, now, Tendo; in fairness to the girl, my son is rather adept at provoking such hostile responses," Genma suddenly interjected, shooting a sharp glare at his son as he patted Soun's shoulder in a conciliatory manner. Last thing he wanted was his son ruining things when they had started so well!

Ranma rolled his eyes, but stepped off of Akane. "Fine, whatever. But if you want a punching bag, tomboy, then you can look for somebody else to fill the role," he said, already marching across the floor. "You want to seriously spar or train, that's a different story."

Nabiki shook off her stupor at this shocking turn of events and darted forward to meet him. "That was great!" she said, giving him a huge smile that was only mildly played up. She was impressed, not a starry eyed groupie after all "I don't think I've seen anyone handle Akane that easily, but you made it seem effortless!"

"I-ah-er, well, it wasn't really that big a deal," Ranma replied, looking embarrassed at the praise and meekly rubbing the back of his head. He looked away from Nabiki to emphasize his words, but she could see the faint blush on his cheeks.

Normally he'd have puffed out his chest and boasted about it, but he was finding his father's stance on 'no distractions from the art' when it came to lovely girls was leaving him a bit flat footed. He blushed a bit harder when he realized that he'd just thought of her as 'lovely' out of the blue. 'We just met out of the blue anyways, cause pops is up to his usual tricks again, no need to read too deep into it.'

'Handsome, an incredible athlete, AND modest too? Ooohh, Nabiki, you may have just hit the jackpot!' Nabiki thought to herself, unconsciously grinning as she sized up her prize. Yes, yes this was definitely a situation she could adapt to, however tactless her father had been about springing it on them.

Before she could speak more, Kasumi suddenly interjected after checking on Akane, who'd merely huffed that 'she was fine' to her eldest sister, "That was indeed impressive Ranma-kun, but you must need freshening up. If you'll follow me, I'll show you to the bathroom."

"Bath?" Ranma said, gaze suddenly snapping up to face the eldest Tendo daughter. "No, thank you, I don't need a bath," he said, shaking his head firmly.

"You've been hiking a long way, Ranma, and you were out in the rain," Kasumi gently replied, pointing at Ranma's visibly water-stained clothes. "And now you've been exercising, and you're all sweaty. Please, come with me," she said, her tone sweet as before, but brooking no argument. And so it was that Ranma was first exposed to the phenomenon that all the Nerima ward took for granted: you could never say no to Kasumi.

"Okay," Ranma said, bowing his head and politely following Kasumi as she left the dojo, taking care to avoid any puddles or drips of cold water along the way.

In their wake, Nabiki frowned as she noticed Ranma's avoidance of anything liquid. She didn't really think Ranma was one of those guys who didn't bathe on a regular basis, he looked too healthy for that...but she'd be a fool if something about that didn't stink...

Ten minutes later...

With Ranma now busy washing off in the tub, the Tendo family and Genma Saotome had gathered in the living room again. Accepting a tall glass of beer from Kasumi, who passed a second mug to Genma, Soun smiled at his daughters. "So then, girls; you've all had a chance to get to know Ranma. What do you think of the engagement?"

"I think it stinks!" Akane snapped, arms folded across her chest and glowering at all and sundry in her state of high dudgeon. "He's just another stupid jerk, like the boys at high school. I want nothing to do with him!"

"That's not fair, Akane. He's been a very nice boy since he got here... although I must admit that I do think he's a bit young for me," Kasumi responded, her expression thoughtful as she gave the matter some thought.

"Oh, please, Kasumi; three years is nothing. But if that's how you feel, then I'll be happy to take him off your hands," Nabiki said, grinning at her sister in a manner more like a hungry fox than a young lady.

"Nabiki? YOU want to marry Ranma?" Soun said, looking at her as if she'd just turned into a nekomimi. Out of the three of them Soun had to admit he'd pegged Nabiki as the least likely what with her...hobbies and all that.

"Don't sound so surprised, daddy," Nabiki dryly quipped back, giving him a raised brow that brought to Soun's mind times when his dearly departed wife would read his mind like Nabiki evidently just did. "You say that somebody's got to marry him, and we all know Akane wouldn't have changed her mind even before he handled her like a doll,"

"He got lucky!" Akane protested fiercely, her face flushed with outrage and injured dignity. She surpressed a twinge of concern that had been niggling at her mind since Ranma had danced around her in the dojo, she was still the best dammit! One out of town boy getting lucky didn't change anything!

"Sure, Akane. He got lucky when he dodged every single attack you made." Nabiki rolled her eyes at Akane's stubbornness before turning back to their still bemused paternal figure.

"Anyway, the point is, that leaves me and Kasumi to do this thing, and since Kasumi said she's not interested or at least not interested enough, that leaves me. Besides, he's cute and nice, which are two things I can't say about any of the other dimwits at Furinkan. So... yeah, I'll be his fiancee," Nabiki said, shrugging her shoulders, worst comes to worst it didn't work out and they went their separate ways. Not like she was going to let the 'two old men' push her around as they seemed inclined to.

She could feel the stares from her sisters and father boring into her soul, but she simply smiled and let them stare, showing them her best ice queen poker face. Only Genma, an outsider who clearly neither understood nor cared about the family dynamics, paid her no attention, instead focusing exclusively on his liquor, draining the glass in record time and already on the hunt for a refill.

Finally, Soun nodded his head in acceptance of Nabiki's reasoning; he had some misgivings, having originally held a vague desire to see the 'schools joined' more thoroughly via Akane and Ranma. But as Nabiki pointed out, his youngest daughter wasn't interested, and he trusted Nabiki to know her limits. "Very well then. Nabiki shall wed Ranma, and the two of you shall carry on the Tendo Dojo," he declared in his most solemn and formal intonation. "All that remains is to tell Ranma of the decision."

"What decision?" came a quiet voice from the doorway. Everybody looked up and saw Ranma standing there, freshly bathed and clad in a new shirt - orange with a little bowtie on it.

"Hey there, handsome; we've decided that you and I are the ones who're going to be getting hitched," Nabiki replied, grinning at her new fiance and lazily beckoning him over, putting his startled expression down to shock at getting the best of the deal.

"Nabiki! A little delicacy, please," Kasumi chided her, able to see more clearly that Ranma was evidently unprepared for the announcement. It almost made her frown at Mr. Saotome but that was for later

"Engaged? Us? Are you sure?" Ranma asked, looking at her in surprise, looking between the faces of the Tendo family for confirmation.

"You don't mind, do you?" Nabiki asked, although this time her glib tones hid some real concern. What if he actually didn't like her? She thought that she'd made a good impression, but what if she wasn't his type? Last thing she wanted after committing to this was to find out it was going to be nothing but trouble.

"M-mind?" Ranma stuttered, visibly caught off-guard. "No, no I don't mind at all," he quickly added, shaking his head for intended emphasis. His desire to reassure Nabiki having bypassed his confusion over being suddenly engaged. He still wasn't sure about this but she seemed rather interested and it wasn't like they were getting married right then, so they'd have time to get to know each other.

"Yay! Then you can come and sit over here next to me; we're just about to have dinner," Nabiki chirped decisively. Okay, maybe she was overplaying it a little, but who cared - she was happy that things seemed to be working out and it was clear that Ranma needed a bit of guiding hand here.

She hadn't woken up that morning expecting to get hitched, but the way she saw it, this was more like a parent-arranged dating system than anything more...permanent, unlike what her father's language had suggested. She was confident she could finagle her way out of things if it turned out Ranma really wasn't a catch...but, right now, he looked like the welcome end to a long and unpleasant drought in her romantic life.

Not to mention he was fun to tease and while she might consider herself a 'modern' woman she did enjoy the game of 'make the boy blush and stammer', as was tradition for her half of the species.

Her smile only grew wider as Ranma quietly did as she'd suggested and sat gracefully down next to her, whilst Kasumi headed to the kitchen to fetch plates and food. She gave him an encouraging smile which he tentatively responded to before being distracted by the smell of Kasumi's food.

Dinner itself passed quietly, as everybody tucked into the food. Their new guests in particular attacked their meal with ravenous gusto, and although Ranma's table manners were decent, even Nabiki couldn't help but stare at the rate he was eating. "Whoa, slow down there, it's not going to run away! When was the last time you ate?" she teased him, albeit with an undercurrent of concern.

To her surprise, Ranma had to stop and consider the matter, making a bead of sweat trickle down face. "Um... yesterday, that was it," he replied casually.

"Don't tease the girl, Ranma; you ate this morning," Genma retorted dryly; partially because he knew his offspring was having her on a bit, partially because he didn't want to give the impression that he was starving the boy...just ensuring his hunger was honed, that's all.

"Oh yeah, because one lousy can of warm soda and an ancient strip of snake jerky is a meal," Ranma scoffed in reply, leaving Nabiki torn between amazement and disgust. Was he being serious?

Soun nodded sagely, missing Nabiki's expression through the closed eyes of reminiscence. "The path of the wandering martial artist is truly fraught with peril," he solemnly declared.

"I remember the many days and nights that we went hungry when we were in training, eh, Saotome?" He said, somewhat ruefully, to his old friend.

Genma nodded sagely in response. "Too true, Tendo, but it keeps you sharp, so it is all to the good, I say."

At that, everybody resumed eating, although Nabiki took a moment to direct a sympathetic look at her new fiance. She had something of a healthy appetite herself, so the idea of skipping meals wasn't one that she liked. Still, it didn't seem the right moment to bring it up, and so she returned her attention back to her own meal. For all she knew, it might be related to the fasting some Buddhist monks performed.

Once everybody was finished - to nobody's surprise, the Saotomes asked for seconds - Kasumi surprised her sisters by being the first to break the silence and ask Ranma a question. "So, Ranma, why did you and your father go to China?"

Ranma audibly choked, eyes going wide like a deer caught in the headlights. "I - um - what?"

"It's just, well, Japan is full of dojos and senseis. Why did you go all the way to China just to train?" Kasumi asked politely, tilting her head a bit in her curiosity.

"As fine as our martial artists are," Genma suddenly interjected, his tone solemn as he adjusted his glasses, looking for all the world the picture of the stern, wise sensei, "Japan does not hold a monopoly on martial arts. Anything Goes is the school of all schools, and so, for Ranma to master it, he must encounter and master as many different techniques and styles as he can. China seemed the perfect place to broaden his horizons, as it were - especially as the Saotome School considers mid-air combat its speciality, and thus we have more to learn from kung-fu than we do from kempo."

"Oh? So, did you spend a lot of time in China?" Kasumi said, still looking at Ranma, who seemed to have calmed down a little. Nabiki still wasn't sure why he'd frozen up like that at Kasumi's question.

"It sure felt like it... we walked for miles; there were times we didn't see a village for days at a time. China's an awful big place, but it's even bigger when you're crossing it on foot," Ranma added. Nabiki shuddered a little at the idea of something so grueling, but Ranma actually gave a wistful smile. "Course, we were there only just last month, so I'm still a little unsure on how long we were actually out of the country," he added.

"So, what dojos did you train at, anyway?" Akane asked. She still clearly wasn't happy about Ranma's presence, but between the fact that she was no longer on the hook to marry him, and the subject matter, she was clearly ready to make some attempt at a peace offering.

"Gee... I, well, I don't know, we visited so many different dojos, senseis, and training grounds - it's a little hard to keep them all straight," Ranma confessed apologetically, scratching the back of his head.

"Except for that last one! Boy, we'll never forget it, no matter how hard we try, huh, Ranma?" Genma suddenly interjected, laughing heartily.

Nabiki wondered for a moment what he was talking about, and then realized that Ranma looked like his father had just grown an extra head.

"Are you nuts, old man?!" he suddenly shouted while making 'shushing' gestures with his hands. "Don't tell them about that place!"

"What place?" Nabiki asked, but she was drowned out by Soun's irked, "Show some respect for your father, Ranma!"

"Oh, it's alright, Tendo! Ranma's still embarrassed over the whole thing. Our final stop in China before we returned here was to Jusenkyo," Genma explained, waving away Soun's outrage on his behalf and not even registering the exasperated " Okay, where's Jusenkyo?" from Nabiki.

Ranma looked like he wanted to strangle his father, letting out a choked sound as he made grasping motions at his paternal figure, whilst Soun looked intrigued. "The legendary training ground of the cursed springs? You actually went there?"

"Oh, yes! And we found out how it got the name first hand!" Genma guffawed again, then turning a gimlet gaze onto his scion. "Come now, Ranma; it's time you showed them."

"You ARE nuts!" Ranma howled, and in a blur of motion that Nabiki couldn't follow, he suddenly leapt up from his seat, hurling over to the hallway in one mighty bound. She just stared at the spot her potential fiance had vacated, whilst a single statement flashed through her mind: 'I have so many questions!'

But Genma leapt up from his own seat with speed far greater than Nabiki would have thought such a big man could be capable of, and the room almost shook with the thunderclap-like smack of flesh on flesh. For a moment, the Saotomes were frozen in a tableau that the stunned Tendos could only try to comprehend; Genma as solid and immovable as a nurikabe, face expressionless but eyes cold, whilst Ranma's chest heaved as he inhaled and exhaled harshly, eyes darting about in pursuit of the slightest opening, body trembling with what could be either fear or the urge to violence - the human embodiment of a wild horse about to bolt.

Suddenly, Ranma lashed out at his father, but Genma deflected his son's punch with practiced ease. The two punched and kicked, Ranma trying to force his way past Genma and clearly not holding back out of any sense of filial devotion, whilst Genma attempted to stymie his son's efforts and grapple him.

"W-what's the meaning of this?! Saotome!" Soun shouted, clearly at a loss for words and not caring who provided an explanation as long as one was forthcoming, but neither Genma nor Ranma responded to his demands.

Instead, Ranma tried to leap clean over his father's head, just as he had done to Akane earlier that afternoon. But this time, he was facing somebody who knew that trick. Genma's hand lashed out at blinding speed and grabbed Ranma by the ankle, hauling him back like a sack of potatoes. The elder Saotome swung his son around his head and then threw him straight out through the open patio doors and into the koi pond, where he landed with a mighty splash.

"Ranma!" Nabiki yelled, scrambling over to the patio in her concern. She didn't understand what was going on - had she just lost her cute new fiance?!

Genma simply folded his arms sternly across his chest - wait, when had he managed to get Ranma's shirt off? "No more delaying the inevitable, boy. It's time they learned the story."

Later, Nabiki would have sworn that the koi pond bubbled and churned, frothing as Ranma surfaced with a scream of fury... but, at the moment, she had other things on her mind. The moon was full and gibbous in the sky above, melding with the light from the living room to make the whole scene crystal clear.

Instead of the drenched teenaged Adonis that a part of Nabiki had hoped to see, the water clung to milky skin and well-formed curves, moonlight glittering on the ampleness of two round, heavy breasts that jiggled freely in the cool night breeze. Locks of what had been coal black hair, now a dark red, clung to a wet scalp over smoldering blue eyes. Even the scream of fury that split the heavens was high-pitched and jagged, a woman's voice rasping as its owner tried to force it to some semblance of a masculine baritone.

Because Ranma had gone into the koi pond as a boy... and come out as a GIRL!

"You stupid old fool!" He - she? It? Screamed as it charged across the grass, a streak of lightning in motion, too fast even for Genma to stop. The Saotome patriarch left out a strangled cry as Ranma's fist buried itself in his solar plexus, and then it was Genma's turn to go flying into the pond... where he emerged as the biggest, burliest, meaning looking panda that Nabiki had ever seen!

"What is going on here?!" Soun roared, and Nabiki blinked; she'd been so caught up in staring that she'd not even noticed her father and her little sister moving into position to protect them.

Even with that, her gaze was still fixed on the sight of her transformed fiance, who seemed to realize that she was looking and visibly shrank away.

"N-no - please - Don't look at me!" Ranma pleaded, choking back a sob and turning away from Nabiki's wide-eyed gaze. The sodden wet teen curled their arms protectively around their chest, huddling in on themselves as if they could disappear if only they tried hard enough.

"R-Ranma...?" Nabiki asked unthinkingly, still trying to accept the reality of what she had just seen.

"Saotome? If that's really you, then talk to me - tell me what's going on," Soun demanded.

"I..." Ranma visibly shuddered, sucked in a breath, and then sighed hugely. "Yeah, I'm Ranma Saotome," the boy-girl confessed reluctantly. "And that overfed furball there is my moron of a father," she sneered, pointing at the impassive hulk that was the panda, who had sat down on one of the larger rocks lining the koi pond.

"How is this possible?" Soun asked in a mix of both shocked incredulity and hesitant fascination, a sentiment that Nabiki echoed.

"It's... it's a long story," Ranma sighed. "May we come in? It's cold out here when you're wet."

Soun stopped, visibly thinking it over. He glanced at his youngest, Akane, who scowled and shook her head, and then at his eldest, who nodded. He looked at Nabiki, hoping for a tie-breaker, but she was still stunned into silence as her previously pure sceptic mind was thrown for an utter loop by physical proof of actual magic. Finally, his manners got the best of him. "Come on in, then. But I want to hear the whole story."

"Of course you do," Ranma replied dully. She shuffled reluctantly back over to the patio, at which point Soun realized that she was naked from the waist up, and he hastily scooped up her shirt and gave it back to her.

Even despite her dumbfoundedness, Nabiki couldn't help but privately note that this female Ranma had one of the biggest bosoms she'd ever seen. She was glad she wasn't the insecure type, because Ranma definitely outweighed her in that department. A part of her wondered if they caused backaches before getting booted into the hindbrain by the rest of her mind that was still processing the itsy bitsy, but ever so crucial, little tiny detail that her male fiance had a rack!

Once more, the Tendos and the Saotomes sat down at the table. But this time, Ranma sat alone, on the side facing the courtyard, whilst the Tendos surrounded her like a judge and jury while Genma sat on the patio, silently watching the whole proceedings through the open door like a very odd pet. Ignoring her father's presence, Ranma visibly sucked in a shuddering breath, sighed again, and then began to speak.

"It's all my stupid old man's fault. He's the one who came up with the brilliant idea to go to Jusenkyo, even though he could barely speak a word of Chinese and read even less than he spoke."

"So, Genma didn't know what he should expect at Jusenkyo?" Soun asked with a certain amount of familiarity at his old friend's...impetuousness. He was aware that his friend - or at least the panda that had disguised itself as his friend earlier - was right there in the room, but he couldn't bring himself to directly talk to panda just yet.

"Him? Course not," Ranma scoffed vehemently. "He just thought that the name sounded cool and decided we should go there. So we had to find out why they call it the Training Ground of Cursed Springs firsthand, all because he got a bug up his ass and couldn't ask around."

"I'm still a little confused on that subject," Soun confessed slowly, as he tried to verbally steer things back to clarifying the overall situation. "You're telling us that Jusenkyo did this to you somehow?"

"That's right. So, we get there; we've been hiking for days through the Bayankala Mountain Range of Mount Quanjing, scrabbling and scraping our way to the most remote backwaters of the Qinghai Province, and at the end of it all is a valley full of all these little ponds and springs, big flat-topped shoots of bamboo jutting out everywhere."

"Doesn't sound like much after all that effort," Nabiki numbly commented.

"That's what I said," Ranma scoffed. "But, anyway, there's this guide going on about the history of the place - over 100 springs, each with its own tragedy, yadda-yadda-yadda. So pop gets bored and we start the training; jumping from bamboo pole to bamboo pole, mid-air combat... nothing really fancy. And down below, the guide's shouting at us to stop - we didn't know why, until I kicked my old man into one of the springs - and he came out looking like this."

Ranma jabbed a thumb scornfully at the direction of the glowering panda. "The guide finally gets around to mentioning that the springs are full of magic; they're all cursed, so if you fall into a spring, you transform into the image of whatever creature drowned in it. Of course, my old man has to be so stupid that he not only brought us there, he punches me into the Nanniichuan - the Spring of Drowned Girl - whilst I'm listening to the guide!"

Here, the boy/girl turned and shot a vicious glower at the panda, who waved his hands and shook his head in a protestation of innocence. When Genma looked at the Tendos for validation, though, he was met with disbelieving stares from Akane and Nabiki, a reproachful look from Soun, and Kasumi shaking her head. "Really, Mr. Saotome? That was a foolish thing to do," she scolded him, making the hulking panda wilt with the power of her polite displeasure.

"Is there a cure?" Nabiki blurted out impulsively, then winced as she saw the crestfallen look on Ranma's face.

"I... we don't know," she admitted sadly. "I mean, we know how to change back, but we don't know how to get rid of this stupid curse."

"And... how do you change back?" Soun asked diplomatically, his only sign of the urgency of his question being the way his gaze was honed on Ranma's face.

"Hot water," was Ranma's flat reply.

"Eh?" The Tendo family responded, making the cursed Saotome heir sigh.

"Cold water activates the curse and makes us change. A good splash of hot water changes us back - until we get splashed again."

'So that is why he was avoiding the rain and got worried about the bath.' Nabiki thought

"I see... Kasumi, dear? Would you go and boil a kettle for our guests?" Soun asked his eldest, to which she nodded and quietly departed for the kitchen.

""Don't let us be a bother to you, Mr. Tendo; we'll see ourselves out," Ranma said softly. The pandafied Genma let out a choked growl of shock and Nabiki felt her heart clench.

"What?! Don't be absurd! What are you talking about?" Soun exploded, hands slamming on the table as he suddenly loomed over the cursed youth.

"Well, you obviously can't want us to stay - we're freaks! I don't even know why my pops made us come here before we got cured!" Ranma protested, waving her hands in warding gestures.

"Bah! I will admit, the curse is a little... hard to swallow... but all things considered it's a minor problem," the Tendo patriarch replied, dismissing Ranma's concerns with a wave of his hand, too committed to the path of 'joining the schools' to back out now in his mind.

"You can't be serious! You'd let a pervert like that marry my sister?!" Akane snarled, thrusting an accusatory hand at Ranma.

"Who are you calling a pervert?!" Ranma snapped back, glaring at Akane.

"Akane, that is enough! We will speak of this later!" Soun thundered, making his youngest daughter quail; she couldn't remember the last time she'd made her father angry enough to scold her, and yet he'd done so twice today.

"He's right, Akane; that is a very unfair thing to say," Kasumi interjected, before passing Soun the kettle she had just returned with. "He has not done anything perverted so far and it would be unfair of us to judge him on something that, without evidence to the contrary, was not his fault."

"Thank you, Kasumi," Soun said with a grateful nod. And then he unceremoniously poured the steaming, boiling hot water over Ranma's head, who let out a screech of protest as the almost scalding liquid washed over her scalp.

"It don't need to be that hot!" Ranma yipped. And... somehow, in the time it had taken Nabiki to blink, the busty redheaded girl had gone back to the boy she had met that afternoon. 'Oh good, he keeps his clothes,' a part of her brain casually observed; that would make things awkward otherwise.

"Sorry," Soun replied, putting the still half-full kettle on the table on a hotplate to keep it from burning the wooden table. Unnoticed by everyone else, Genma eyed it, but privately resolved to leave it until it wasn't so scorching hot. "Anyway, my point remains; this is a minor issue. You and Nabiki are engaged now; you won't be going anywhere. Do you understand? It's a matter of family honor."

Akane stared at Soun with a look of shock, complete with jaw kissing the ground. How could he not see a boy turning into a girl as anything but a big nope?! But Kasumi poked her side and shook her head silently, impressing on the younger sibling that now was not the time to bring it up.

"I..." Ranma fidgeted, then glanced at Nabiki with an inscrutable expression. "...Alright," he finally said, hanging his head meekly when he saw her inscrutable expression. He wasn't going to push right now, heck he hadn't wanted to bring it up in the first place.

"Now, it's been a long day and this was a...rather exhausting little revelation. I suggest that we turn in for the night," Soun stated firmly, as this would give everyone a chance to regroup and, more importantly, give him time to confer with his old comrade in suffering and see just how much any of this changed their plans, his assurances otherwise notwithstanding.

Ranma simply nodded, glancing up as Kasumi touched his shoulder politely. "Please follow me, Ranma," she said, before leading him to the guest room on the second floor.

Akane followed them, partly out of a desire to watch over her big sister, but also to get out of the charged atmosphere of the room, a part of her feeling intensely like she had dodged a bullet...one she didn't envy Nabiki or at all.

Nabiki watched them go, and then turned to her father. "I... think I'll go and have a bath before I turn in. Goodnight, daddy," she said, already moving to leave. She needed to clear her head - she couldn't believe what had just happened tonight. Magic wasn't supposed to be real! It was all kid's stories, fairy tales! But... she'd seen a boy turn into a girl and back again, and a man turn into a panda. She just... she couldn't think about it anymore, or she was going to go nuts.

"Some engagement," she muttered sourly to herself as she flipped the sign on the bathroom door and started stripping off her clothes.

Meanwhile, up in the bedroom, Ranma had slumped down in the futon that Kasumi had shown him to, pulling the covers over himself in an effort to block out the rest of the world. "Some engagement," he muttered bitterly.

Chapter End & Closing Notes

And there we are. The first step taken on a journey that I hope you will enjoy. Originally, I had plans to cover both Ranma's arrival at the Tendo Dojo and his first day at Furinkan High School as a single massive chapter, but scheduling issues forced me to abandon this plan.

So, I present this to you as my Xmas Present for 2018. Here;s to hoping for a full return to fanfiction writing in 2019!