The Doll (rewrite) by Gregg Sharp ===== a Ranma 1/2 Alterniverse set within "The Bet" storyarc i don't own any Ranma 1/2 char,setting,etc. so don't tell Takahashi-san! -------------------- Marller's interest wasn't really in this, but she could see possibilities for mayhem and despair, so she was game for it. A step not taken, a small alteration in a timeline's thread, and how much of a divergence could be brought forth. The result: Toltiir, a being from outside the Yggdrasil system would give the winner of this little contest enough power to make permanent the timeline. This had enormous appeal to Marller, demon first class. The first temptation had been to go after Belldandy and that insipid mortal she was hanging around with. No, too obvious. The others were messing about with this Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist, and after viewing the timestream decided to tweak one mind. An idea could be the most dangerous weapon. ---------------------- Nabiki arranged the passports for China, then hesitated. Jusenkyo. The opportunities for mischief and profit represented by that place were incredible. Nabiki added her own name to the list of people going to China, as well as a suitcase and number of watertight containers. ---------------------- Weeks passed before a tired figure carrying two large suitcases stopped in front of the Tendo-ke. "Might as well go in and face the music." Kasumi gasped upon seeing her sister. Nabiki looked terrible, as if she'd aged years since they'd left to deal with this Phoenix Mountain problem. "Where's Ranma and Akane?" Nabiki just waved her sister off. "Get everyone. I'll tell you all at once. I...don't think I can do it more than once." As Soun was the only other one present, it didn't take long at all. "So," Nabiki sat and stared at her tea. "Ranma and the rest of them haven't gotten back yet." "Nabiki, you left them?" "Yeah," Nabiki sighed. "Yeah, sis. Let me tell this though, without interrupting me. It's...not good." "Go ahead, daughter." Soun was ready to climb the walls. "Ah." She hesitated. "We went to Jusenkyo, the springs were dried up. We went to Phoenix Mountain where the source of the springs were, where Saffron was. During the fight, Akane got involved." "Aaaaaaa! My baby's dead!" "Daddy, quiet. No interruptions, remember. Anyway there was some weird magic that supposedly dehydrated her into a doll. Stuff and nonsense actually, since if she'd dehydrated she'd more have resembled an overlarge prune and had most of her weight intact. No, this was some magical shrinkage. Cologne said that Akane would die unless she was rehydrated by these magical waters. When I questioned her, she thought it likely that any magical waters would do. "Saffron was STRONG. I mean, really strong, Daddy. The legendary Phoenix of Phoenix Mountain. Able to blow away mountains with his chi. THAT good. I just couldn't see Ranma winning this one. Against anything even remotely human, no prob. Against THIS... "So I took Akane. I remembered her stories of this legendary 'Spring Of Life' in Ryugenzawa. I stole Akane away from Ranma and grabbed transport out of there. Did you know there is mining out there? They have pilots, and the pilots can be bribed. I must have broken some speed records going from the Tibet border to Ryugenzawa. Did I mention that there was a time limit before Akane's dehydrated form died? "I...immersed her in the waters of the Spring Of Life. I figured if magical waters would do the trick, then these should especially fit the bill. No Saffron or his bird-people to get in the damn way." "And?" Soun Tendo was shaking, ready to unleash a flood of tears in typical fashion. "It worked...kinda." Nabiki reached into a pocket. Akane stood on her sister's palm. "Hi Dad. Uhm. Do you think we could get a bath now? It's been a really long week." -------------------------------- Another day passed as the Tendo household tried to move along. "No Kasumi, those 'Moga-chan' clothes are all scratchy. That imported 'Barbie' stuff is even worse. Can't you just make a few alterations on some more hankerchiefs?" "Well, I suppose, Akane, but it will take me a little while to make them and your one outfit was in pretty bad shape." "Can I at LEAST go with something besides the 'Vegas Showgirl Barbie' outfit? Honestly, no wonder it was in the Bargain Bin..." "But Akane, you look so cute in it!" Soun walked by, stopped, backed up and looked up at the shelf where his youngest daughter was standing and wearing an outfit... A moment later he shrugged and continued past, muttering something about turning the dojo into a day care center. "He wouldn't?!" Akane shrank back, a moment of horror as she pictured some little girl or boy getting ahold of her as tiny as she was now. "Don't worry, Akane, it'll be okay. Look, P-chan is here!" "Bweee?!" "P-chan!" "P-chan fainted? He must be exhausted, Kasumi, could you take care of him?" "Of course, Akane." Kasumi took the little black pig into the kitchen, setting her younger sister off on the kitchen table on her way. "Damn, this outfit is cold." Akane looked out the door. "Ranma, where are you? You should have won by now." ------------------ It was afternoon when Ryouga showed up. "A-Akane! How?" "Ryouga! When did you get here?" Akane was wearing what had been a silk hankerchief before extensive rework by Kasumi. It now looked rather more like silk pajamas. "Earlier today, ehm." Ryouga stared at Akane, feeling like King Kong next to the tiny figure. "Was..." "Nabiki tried to help me. I'm alive, but there were 'side effects' - so how's Ranma doing?" Akane tried to keep the eagerness from her voice. "Not well," Ryouga sighed. "Everyone thought you were dead. He went off for revenge against Saffron. He didn't do too well..." "Why," Akane felt tears coming to her eyes. The horror of her own life being put aside for the moment. "What happened, Ryouga?!" "Ranma pulled a suicide attack on Saffron. Saffron reverted to an egg, nobody's seen Ranma since then. They decided that since Saffron's an ugly little kid, that we won, so they let us go. Shampoo is still looking for him, Mousse and Cologne have given up." "Ranma..." Akane felt tears come to her eyes and wiped them away as best she could. Ryouga attempted to hand her a bandana, but the size difference made the gesture rather futile. "You baka..." Kasumi, at the door, nodded sadly and returned to her work. Nabiki came down, still looking nearly as depressed as Ryouga usually did, and was looking rather worse as things were explained to her. The remainder of the facade of "Furinken's Ice Queen" broke the moment she made it back to her room. ---------------------- There was a gentle knock on the door. Nabiki mumbled something that might have been an interrogative and dried her eyes. "Nabiki," Kasumi began. "Sis, I blew it. Big time. Ranma DID manage to beat Saffron. It might have been just squeaking past the time limit, but it could have made it. You know Ranma, he's always just in the damn nick of time." "You couldn't have known," Kasumi sighed. "He's won against all odds before, but as you've said there's always a first time." There was a pause as the two considered this. Nabiki looked up. "Kasumi, who's watching after Akane?" "She's on a table, and P-chan's there, she'll be okay." "Oh, hell, c'mon!" Nabiki lunged for the door. The two ran downstairs to hear a "P-chan GIDDYAP!" in Akane's new little piping voice. "Damn you, Ryouga!" Nabiki ran for the gate, but Ryouga was already lost. She'd suspected before, but when she'd seen him at Jusenkyo, she'd known. "Where?" Kasumi felt bad about this, she should have known that Akane would try something. "She's gone to find Ranma, of course." Nabiki sighed. "Damn, and I just got back. Well, I've got to go get the two, there's no telling what problems they'll get into without me there." Kasumi looked back into the kitchen. "I'll leave a note for father." Nabiki snorted. "Right, Kasumi, you going off on an adventure. NOT! Kasumi, sis, I love you, you're family, but you'd just get in the way. It's a tough world out there." "I know, but..." "No, Kasumi, and that's final." ------------------ Three days later, Nabiki crested the hill. "I CANNOT believe this." Kasumi, parasol carried jauntily over one shoulder followed her immediately, a little smile on her face. "Wasn't it nice, Nabiki, that we don't have to carry all our equipment by ourselves?" Hiroshi and Daisuke, carrying size Huge backpacks, followed behind Kasumi. "How'd we get talked into this?" Yuka and Sayuri were next, wearing variations of Ranma's costume. "It's because you thought you'd be sharing a tent with us, you perverts." Yuka thought about it. "Maybe on the way back." "YUKA!" Sayuri looked scandalized, then realized that Hiroshi and Daisuke had picked up their previously lagging pace. Well, Sayuri allowed, they were Akane's best friends and had managed to scrape together enough money to help Nabiki put together this expedition. Why shouldn't they have a little fun... "The heck if I'm gonna let that Amazon hussy nurse my Ranchan back to health," Ukyou grumbled along with her own backpack next. "It is not fitting that the noble Tatewaki Kuno should have to walk so far." Carrying only his bokken and the moneypouch, Kuno was quite an addition to this expedition. An addition that everyone else would rather have done without, except Kasumi who thought he was quite polite if a little violent. Finally, bringing up the rear, Sasuke and his Obscenely Huge backpack didn't have enough breath to say anything at all. At the head of this line, Nabiki continued to swear. "Just a quick in and out operation, just by myself, nobody else having to get involved. But Noooooooo..." ------------------------- "P-chan? Where are we?" Akane looked around, but from her vantage point on P-chan's back, everything looked so different. It was a street, but where? "Bweee." P-chan looked a little confused as well. It almost sounded like a 'weren't you the one driving?' squeal. "I swear, P-chan, you get lost almost as easy as Ryouga sometimes..." Things started to go 'click' in her mind, but no, she was imagining things surely. Just way too much stress lately, that was all. "Bwee?!" P-chan sweated but the expected explosion didn't come. "OOOooooo, Antoinette!." Akane looked back, saw Azusa Shiratori staring at her and did the most sensible thing she could think of. She panicked. "P-chan!" "Squueee?" "Charlotte! Antoinette!" "Faster, P-chan, she's gaining on us!" "Buki!" P-chan did his full best to comply. ---------------------- Shampoo dug the scrap of black cloth out of the mud lining the banks of the flooded Jusenkyo. The waters hadn't quite receded to normal. Moving to the Guide's hut she prepared some hot water, then doused herself with cold. A quick sniff with her cat form's enhanced olfactory sense confirmed it. Ranma's scent was on the cloth, which looked like a strip of his pants. There was also the faint presence of blood in a crease, somehow not washed away. "Airen," Shampoo began. If Cologne or anyone from her village had been around, Shampoo would have been far too proud to cry. Since there wasn't, a geyser worthy of Soun Tendo began to gush forth. "Shampoo no get to tell you. Shampoo no tell you how much she love you. Shampoo no...baka." Holding the scrap like a lifeline, Shampoo wailed her grief to the heavens. --------------------- "Oh no, P-chan. We've got to get out of here." Akane looked up at the estate walls. "I don't know how we got here, but we've got to leave now." "Bwee? Bweeeeee!" "Ohohohohohohoho. My goodness, Akane Tendo, I don't know what happened to you, but we shall have SUCH an amusing time." Her ribbon snaked out at the two who had wandered so close to close to the Kuno estate. She'd have to think of a...suitable welcome for her unexpected guests. ------------------------ "Are we there yet?" Hiroshi staggered under the burden of his backpack. "Unngh." Daisuke managed. "Wimps," muttered Nabiki as she crested a hill. "My goodness, look at all the amazons," said Kasumi with a smile. "What amazons?" Yuka stared around her. "Amazons? You mean like Shampoo?" Sayuri looked around at the canyon walls. "Where?" "Kasumi, stop playing games," Nabiki called back. "We're nowhere near the village yet." ------------------------ As the procession went around a bend and out of sight, Do Wop turned to one of her sisters. "" Lu Fa shrugged. "" ------------------------ Kodachi smiled haughtily at the tiny figure in the metal birdcage. "Oh, Akane, you look so chilly there..." "Let me have my clothes back, you bitch! And what have you done with P-chan?!" "Temper, temper," scolded Kodachi. Hanging the birdcage from a hook, Kodachi moved a candle underneath the tin floor. "Just to show there are no hard feelings, let me warm the place up for you." Akane felt the floor of the cage growing warmer. She began to scream curses and insults at Kodachi, as the cage grew progressively hotter. Kodachi merely lit a cigarette from the candle, then smiled and lounged back in her chair. This was so ...entertaining. Watching Akane hop around in some odd dance just seemed _so_ amusing. After this, she thought she'd just let her imagination go wild. -------------------------- P-chan focussed on how helpless he was, how hopeless the situation. He'd never tried it before, but technically it was possible to utilize a "Shishi Hokoudan" or other chi attack in cursed form. This looked like a VERY good time to try. Especially as the cookbook was plainly visible from where his cage was. It was open to the page for "Roast suckling pig." ------------------------------ Cologne stirred the ashes and gave an unhappy little sigh. "" Shampoo sniffled, still holding onto the scrap of cloth. "" Cologne admitted, "" "" Shampoo managed. "" Cologne snorted. "" Shampoo nodded, still clutching the piece of dark fabric. Cologne sighed. "" That penetrated. Shampoo looked up. "" "" Cologne shook her head. "" Shampoo nodded, almost smiling. "" "" ------------------------------------ Well folks, this pretty much shows a direction that damn few have gone in. I could see this becoming a Lawson or Krista-style Great Epic, with: Nabiki coming to terms with having screwed up big time. Kodachi getting "inventive" with new ways to inflict discomfort (without even leaving visible injuries) upon her 12" tall capitive. Akane & P-chan's Big Escape. Is Ranma really dead? And if he's alive, and he marries Akane, how are they going to handle the wedding night considering respective size/mass differences. (Any ideas, Kun-chan?) Shampoo's destiny. Kasumi goes adventuring, oh my. (There was a scene planned here where Kasumi falls into the clutches of an evil dragon, only said dragon finds for some reason he just can't do it...she's too NICE...oh the shame of it!) Happosai finds out about the mini- Akane and sets out in search of her. He may know of a cure, but will Akane be willing to pay his price? Oh well, this could be a real pain in the Bet too. Ja ne, minaasan. gregg