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Chapter Text

It was another typical rainy day in the Nerima Ward of Tokyo as a not so typical high school girl went about her time practicing martial arts within her family’s dojo.

Akane Tendo breathed as she swung out her leg in a roundhouse kick towards an imaginary opponent. Akane returned to a standing position as she tightened her belt to fix her training gi.

A knock echoed out through the dojo causing Akane to turn towards the entrance and squint her eyes at the slightly blurry figure standing in the doorway.

“Nabiki?”

“Duh, you know anyone else who could pull off this fantastic hairstyle?” Nabiki grinned and flicked one side of her helmet shaped hair before leaning against the frame of the doorway. “You know if you were wearing your glasses you wouldn’t be having any difficulty seeing me just standing here right?”

Akane grumbled as she walked over to the wall of the Dojo where she left her water bottle and her glasses case. “And YOU KNOW that I like training without them so I don’t accidentally damage them.” Akane pouted towards where she knew her sister was standing and even though her face was blurry she could clearly imagine the smug grin plastered across her face at that moment.

Akane knelt down and clicked her glasses carry case open and quickly slid her circular rimmed glasses onto her face. She blinked a few times to readjust her eyes to the lenses before snapping the case shut and putting it into the pocket of her Gi.

Akane turned back around to a much more clear Nabiki just as she tilted her head in the direction of the main house. “Welp, c’mon Space Invader, Dad wants to talk to us about something.”

Akane blushed as she pointed a finger at her older sister. “Nabiki! You jerk! You know I don’t like that nickname!”

Nabiki just shrugged, completely unthreatened by her younger sister’s shouting. “Well if you didn’t make space and all things spacey related half your personality then maybe I’d consider it.” Nabiki just laughed as Akane stomped her foot in annoyance.

Akane watched Nabiki walk off out of sight, still laughing at her expense, as she picked up her water bottle and took a long drink to cool herself off. ‘Dumb Nabiki… She doesn’t see me making fun of her money stuff. So what if I like space, it’s not any of her business to make fun of me for it.’ Akane thought to herself before lowering her bottle with an audible exhale.

“Though… I wonder what Dad could possibly want to talk to us about…?”

Akane hummed to herself in thought as she bunched up her long free flowing blue hair and tied it up into a loose ponytail before walking out of the dojo.

—----------------------------------

“WHAAAAATTTTT!?”

Akane slammed her hands onto the family room table as she glared daggers at her father.

“AN ARRANGED FIANCÉ?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? WHAT KIND OF FATHER DOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS TO HIS OWN KIDS!?”

Soun Tendo gulped as he looked into the eyes of his youngest daughter, her usual soft brown eyes in that moment could have been mistaken for blazing red fires locked behind the barrier of her glasses. Soun began to rapidly look around the room to avoid Akane’s fiery glare, occasionally locking eyes with his other two daughters in the process.

“C-Come now Akane! Just think of the positives!” Soun tried to reason, which only caused Akane to start audibly growling at him.

Soun flinched hard at the look he was receiving just as Nabiki spoke up to interrupt Akane’s yelling. “Soooooo, what’s this guy like Daddy? Is he cute? Or maybe handsome? Oh! Is he a smart, talented hunk?”

Soun gulped again as he brushed his thumb against his moustache. “O-Oh well… he and his father, my old training partner, have been on a training journey for several years now so I’m positive he is at least in shape and very strong!”

“Uh huh uh huh, what else?” Nabiki nodded along before raising an eyebrow at him. “Anything else?”

Soun was quiet for several seconds before coughing into his fist and clearing his throat. “I’m afraid not.”

“Huh?”, “Oh my…”, “What exactly does that mean?” The three Tendo sisters said together as Soun audibly gulped again.

“It means I uh… I don’t know anything else about the boy.” Soun’s eyes bulged out of his head as he saw Akane start to pull out what looked like a sword from her gi pants. “B-BUT I CAN ASSURE YOU THREE THAT RANMA IS AS TALENTED AS THEY COME WHEN IT COMES TO MARTIAL ARTS!”

Soun let out a yelp as a sturdy hard plastic sci-fi sword zipped past his head and embedded itself into the wall. Soun shut up and turned his head to look at it just as Akane started stomping out of the room towards the stairs.

“Ah! Akane, where are you going?” Kasumi called out to her youngest sister just as Akane turned the corner out of sight.

“I’m getting changed and going for a walk! I’m not staying around here just for some jerk boy I have no interest in!”

The distant sound of a door slamming shut was heard as the remaining two Tendo girls looked back at their father just as he began pulling Akane’s sci-fi sword out of the wall.

A few minutes later Kasumi and Nabiki watched as Akane stomped past them, now changed out of her training gi and into a graphic t-shirt depicting a classic grey alien head with a fuzzy open jacket over the top, its sleeves extending to cover enough of Akane’s hands to just show her fingers. She wore a plain black skirt that ended just past her knees with a pair of leggings underneath and some running shoes. She had restyled her hair into a bun with two large strands of hair framing her face and over her round glasses.

“W-Wait Akane! I do think it would be best if you stayed until our guests arrived! I can assure you the Saotome’s may be here any moment now!” Soun yelled out, trying to convince his daughter and only now fully removing the sword from the wall.

“I’m not sticking around just for some stupid guy Dad!” Akane yelled back.

Without another word, Akane left the house with a loud slam to the door behind her.

—----------------------------------

The rain had stopped and now only left a dark clouded sky and puddle-covered concrete in its wake as the youngest Tendo walked down a shop lined street. 

She let out the occasional irritated huff as she kept replaying the interaction she had with her family several minutes ago.

‘Stupid Dad… Telling us he engaged one of us without us knowing… Whoever this jerk is is just going to judge me like every other bastard that’s found out about my interests, even if I’m not the one engaged to him… besides, it’s not like I actually like b-’ Akane’s thoughts were suddenly cut off by the sound of an electrical explosion down the street in front of her.

Several people who were also on the street turned towards the direction of the explosion, a mix of curiosity and concern at the sound.

“Did one of the street terminals just explode…?” Akane whispered to herself before she heard several people gasp and yell in fright from further down the street, drawing her attention even more.

Just as she was about to ask what was happening, she saw a red haired girl rush out from a side pathway and onto the main street with a large travel pack on her back.

The things that surprised all the onlookers were that the Girl was being chased by a massive bipedal panda carrying its own travel pack but also that the Girl was actually flying about a metre off the ground, her body perpendicular to the street and her face scrunched up in annoyance.

“Just give it up already! You’ll never be able to catch me, Old Man!” The Girl yelled out to the Panda right as it made a lunge towards her. The Girl rolled to the side midair to dodge the Panda’s grasp before shooting up higher into the air and gripping onto a street pole. She spun around it with one hand before stopping to look down at the Panda. The Girl planted both flats of her feet against the pole with one hand still gripping onto it, giving her the pose of a monkey hanging off a tree.

The Panda growled up at the Girl who just shot it a smug grin. “What’s wrong? I thought Pandas were supposed to be able to climb?” The Girl mocked as she pulled down one of her eyelids and stuck her tongue out.

The Panda, to everyone’s surprise, suddenly jumped into the air towards the Girl still clinging to the pole. The Girl simply scoffed as she launched herself into the air again just as the Panda delivered a kick to the street pole, bending it inwards.

“Hah! See? Told you you aren’t fast enough!” The Girl yelled out again as she flew back towards the ground. The Girl landed and simply put her hands behind her head. “C’mon Old Man! I’ll beat your ass without even leaving the ground!” The Girl said to the Panda as it landed back down across from her. The Girl took up a defensive fighting stance as the Panda mimicked her.

Akane stared in awe as she was finally able to get a clear view of this new mysterious Girl fighting the unnaturally moving panda.

She looked to be shorter than Akane herself and wearing clothes that looked far too baggy for her body. She had a red sleeveless silk shirt with three black stripes on top of each other embroidered into the sides of her shirt. The stripes ran from one side of her shirt's buttons, under her arms, around her back and back to the other side of the buttons which gave the appearance of tiger stripes.

She wore loose black pants that were pulled up to her waist and tied up by a white belt. Attached to the belt by a string was a small golden medallion with a lightning bolt engraved onto it. Her shoes were black flats that looked to be a size too large for her while she wore red wrist bands with various sized black tiger stripes across the bands.

However, her clothes were the least interesting thing about her as Akane continued to examine her. Her pupils were a bright red with purple eyeshadow along the length of her eyelids. Her ears came to a pointed end and her nails came to a sharp point as well. The most outstanding thing about her however was her hair.

Her hair looked completely unnatural and out of this world with it being coloured a beautiful iridescent pink. The strands of her hair seemed to shift through various shades of pink with every small movement she made due to light reflecting off it. Her hair was styled into a pigtail that gently bounced behind her head.

“What’s up with that girl’s look? Is she wearing some kind of costume?” Someone in the crowd asked.

“No way, she was definitely flying for real man. No way is that a costume.”

“Do you think she’s even human? I mean what’s with that hair? And who just decides to fight a weird as hell panda?” Another person asked just as the Panda rushed towards the Girl and tried to punch her several times.

She easily dodged out of the way of each attack and delivered a single punch right back that sent the panda sliding backwards across the wet concrete.

“Heh, you already forget I’m way faster like this Old Man? Or do I have to beat it into that thick fuzzy head of yours!” The Girl shouted out as she launched towards the Panda in a blur of motion.

The Panda flinched for just a moment at the inhuman speed the Girl showed off and attempted to focus on getting into a defensive stance, the slight moment of hesitation however was all the Girl needed to deliver a harsh kick to the bottom of the Panda’s jaw.

The crowd gasped as they watched the Panda fly up in an arc before crashing back down against a nearby stop sign, thoroughly bending it out of shape.

The Girl huffed as she simply readjusted the travel bag on her back. “Serves you right. I’m heading back to China. Follow me if you want. I don't really care.” The Girl turned away from the downed Panda and pushed off the ground to begin flying away.

However, just as she did so, the Panda suddenly recovered and ripped the damaged sign post out of the ground and rushed towards the Girl.

Akane gasped as she took a step forward and yelled out. “HEY! Behind you! Look out!”

The Girl instantly spun from Akane’s warning and just as the Panda began to swing down with the sign, the Girl kicked her leg up and launched the sign up into the air out of the Panda’s grip.

“Yooooouuuu!” The Girl growled as the Panda took a single fearful step back. The onlooking crowd watched as the Girl became engulfed in a storm of electricity, her hair shifting hues to now be a mix of iridescent blues. “BASTARD!!” The Girl threw her hands forward as a large bolt of electricity rushed from her palms and hit the Panda.

The Panda’s limbs spasmed uncontrollably with its face shifted through various looks of pain as it was electrocuted for several seconds. The Girl finally allowed the electricity to end which caused the Panda to fall backwards. The now unconscious Panda had its eyes replaced with dazed spirals while its fur had become puffed up, small bolts of static danced across its coat while it occasionally twitched.

“Hmph! Serves you right you asshole.” The Girl flicked her pigtail over her shoulder with her hair fading back to its iridescent pink and began to float higher into the air. “Next time don’t try and sneak attack someone with a crowd around!” The Girl grabbed the edges of her mouth and pulled them wide while sticking her tongue out again at the unconscious Panda.

As various bystanders walked closer to the Panda, Akane couldn’t take her eyes off this inhuman girl who had just shot several volts of lightning out of her hands as if it was nothing. Akane’s admiring was quickly cut off when she spotted a metallic object falling down from the sky, straight towards the mysterious girl.

“HEY ABOVE YOU! LOOK OUT!” Akane called out to try and warn the Girl in time.

The Girl was still mid taunt as Akane’s warning reached her but let her mouth go as she looked straight up to see what she was being warned about.

Almost immediately the Girl’s face was met with the stop sign she had kicked out of the Panda’s hands just moments ago with a loud CLANG.

The onlooking crowd winced at the impact and watched as the Girl’s flight became wobbly and unstable before she started to uncontrollably fall back towards the ground. Akane gasped but quickly sprung into action to help her.

“I’ve got you!” Akane rushed forward and put all her power into an impressive leap towards the falling girl. Akane collided with her mid-fall and managed to pull her into a princess carry before landing in a crouch that cracked the street beneath her. Akane knelt down onto the street and adjusted the Girl so that she was laying across her lap. “That was close…”

Akane let out a breath of relief as she looked down at the unconscious girl she was now cradling.

As Akane looked at her more closely she felt a small blush begin to build on her face. ‘Woah… she’s… she’s really pretty… hey wait, are those?’ Akane squinted her eyes as she looked closer at two unusual bumps on the girl’s head. She shifted the Girls unnatural looking hair and gasped softly as she saw two yellow striped horns sitting atop of her head. ‘She has horns? Is she some kind of demon? But… How could a demon be this cute?’

Just as Akane began to think about this new revelation about the mysterious girl’s appearance, she saw her scrunch up her face—which gave her an even cuter look in Akane’s opinion—and slowly blink her eyes open.

“Mmmgghnn… what… what happened…?” The Girl asked no one in particular before blinking once more to fully adjust her vision. Her bright red eyes widened as she was immediately greeted by Akane’s glasses-covered eyes staring down at her in concern.

“Hey, are you okay? That sign hit you pretty hard.” The Girl heard Akane ask.

“U-Uh… y-yeah I’m alright, I think.” The Girl stammered out which had the blue haired girl holding onto her give a smile that showed her relief. ‘Holy crap… it should be illegal for anyone to have a smile that nice…’ The Girl thought to herself, feeling a blush growing on her cheeks that could match her hair.

“That’s good! Uhm…” Akane paused as she seemed to think something over for a few seconds, “I hope this isn’t rude or something but… you’re not human, are you? Are you some kind of demon? A Yōkai?”

The Girl seemed to tense up before shaking her head. “N-No! I ain’t no demon! I’m…! Well I’m uh…” The Girl suddenly got very shy as she turned her head away to avoid looking at Akane as she answered. “I’m an… alien…”

“An… alien?”

“Y-Yea… uh… could you put me down now please?”

Akane slowly nodded as she placed the—apparently—alien girl onto her knees across from her. “You’re really an alien?”

“Yeaaaaaa?” The Girl seemed hesitant to answer but decided to anyway.

Akane sat quietly as she looked down at her lap. The Alien Girl leaned closer and started to extend a hand towards her. “Hey are you oka-?”

“I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! A REAL ALIEN!” Akane’s head suddenly sprung back up, shocking the Alien Girl and making her retract her hand. She watched as Akane shuffled closer to her while looking her directly in the eyes. She could have sworn she saw actual stars being reflected in Akane’s glasses from her pure excitement. Akane adjusted her glasses from suddenly whipping her head up as she seemed to be shaking in excitement. “I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS I WANNA ASK! HOW DOES YOUR BODY WORK COMPARED TO HUMANS!? HOW ARE YOU ABLE TO FLY AND SHOOT LIGHTNING LIKE THAT!? DO YOU HAVE A SPACESHIP!? WHAT’S YOUR PLANET LIKE!? WHAT TRADITIONS FROM YOUR CULTURE CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT!?”

The Girl leaned backwards as Akane leaned forward with every rapidly fired question. “N-Now just hang on a minute!”

“Oh my gosh! Wait! I don’t even know your name! I’m so sorry! I’m Akane! What’s yours?”

“Uhhhhh… R-Ranma.”

Akane suddenly stopped as she stared at Ranma for a moment. “Your name is Ranma?”

“Uh… yea? Why? Is that a problem?” Ranma said, turning away slightly to side eye Akane.

‘There’s no way this is the same Ranma Dad was talking about, right? He made it pretty clear that the Ranma he was talking about is a boy and most definitely NOT a cute alien girl with amazing pink hair who can fly and shoot lightning out of her hands.’ Akane shook her head as she flashed Ranma another smile. “Sorry about that. Your name just reminded me of something silly. Nothing to concern yourself with.” Akane laughed nervously while she—again—readjusted her glasses back up her nose.

‘Woah… even her laugh is… nice. I also never thought I’d like seeing glasses on a girl…’ Ranma thought to herself. “Uh, right, no worries.” She nodded just before noticing the remaining crowd on the street was still staring at them and beginning to whisper to each other, while some people remained around the unconscious Panda.

“Did that girl with blue hair just say that the other girl is an actual alien?”

“Does that mean the Panda is also an alien?”

“Should we call someone? The government maybe?”

“Maybe we should get that girl away from that thing! What if it hurts her! It just shot lightning out of its hands for gods sake!”

Akane also finally noticed the crowd and began looking around at everyone. She shuffled closer to Ranma and began whispering to her. “Hey, we should probably get out of here before someone tries something.”

“That’s probably a good idea, but where the hell are we supposed to go?” Ranma whispered back.

“We can go back to my house. Don’t worry, I'll make sure to protect you!” Akane smiled again at Ranma which only made the pink haired alien’s cheeks even redder.

‘I don’t need protecting! I’m a martial arts prodigy! And I have these crazy alien powers!’ Ranma thought but she couldn’t find it in herself to vocalise her objection.

“U-Uh… y-yea sounds good Akane.” Ranma stuttered out.

Ranma and Akane noticed the crowd beginning to circle around them, muttering and whispering more harsh things about Ranma and her being dangerous.

Akane thought silently again for a moment before looking Ranma in the eyes. “Hey, can you still fly if you’re carrying someone?”

Ranma’s eyes seemed to light up in recognition at what Akane was asking. “Yea I can do that no issue. Just make sure to hold on.” Ranma held out a hand to Akane and flashed her her own smile, allowing Akane to see Ranma’s sharp pointed teeth. “Don’t worry, I’ve carried things way heavier than you before.”

Akane blushed at the comment about her weight but decided to let it slide, figuring it just came out wrong with Ranma trying to reassure her that she could actually carry her despite her small stature, and also the fact that she’s still probably unfamiliar with human manners and phrases. Akane grabbed onto Ranma’s hand and immediately felt Ranma pull her close before sweeping her up off her feet and into a bridal carry, mimicking how Akane was holding her just minutes before.

Akane let out a yelp of surprise and instinctively wrapped her arms around Ranma’s neck for extra safety.

“Hang on!” Ranma called out as the crowd that had begun to surround them let out shocked gasps at Ranma suddenly picking up Akane with ease. Before they could reach the two girls, Ranma had shot up into the air like a bullet that sent a small shockwave of dust and water droplets at the crowd. Akane let out a shriek as they ascended into the air, the onlookers could only watch as Akane and Ranma became completely out of reach.

“Which way is your house?” Ranma asked, simply hovering in the air with Akane in her arms.

Akane, still slightly shocked from the abrupt takeoff, pointed in the direction of the Tendo Dojo. “It's that way! By the way, is that Panda you were fighting going to be okay?” Akane asked as she took a glance down at the ground below them but instantly regretted it as she almost shoved her face into Ranma’s shoulder in surprise at how high they were floating.

Ranma also took a moment to look down at the Panda who was only now just coming back to consciousness. She thought about it for a second before nodding. “He’ll be fine. He can handle himself. Besides, he can just find me again if he wants to. He always manages to.” Ranma grumbled the last part to herself as she began flying towards the Tendo Dojo. ‘Sorry about this Pops, but I ain’t risking myself or Akane to whatever those people had in mind. Maybe this’ll also teach you to not be such a jerk and try to get me engaged out of the blue.’

Akane made sure to have a proper grip on Ranma the whole time, not wanting any doubt in her mind that she’ll be dropped. “H-Hey! Ranma?” Akane said, pulling her face slightly away from Ranma’s shoulder.

“Yea? What’s up?”

“I know this is a bit sudden, but do you want to be friends? I’ve never had an alien friend! Let alone had the chance to meet one before! But I gotta say I’m glad my first time meeting an alien is with someone as cute as you!”

Ranma’s flight stumbled slightly as she heard Akane call her cute. Akane let out a small squeal of surprise and clung to Ranma tighter from the sudden turbulence. “C-Cute…? You… think I’M cute?” Ranma asked, almost as if she was unsure she heard Akane correctly.

“Well of course! What? Has no one ever called you cute before? I find that hard to believe!” Akane laughed and Ranma couldn’t stop the burning blush from covering her face.

‘Cute? She really thinks I’m cute? But… I can’t be cute… I shouldn’t be cute… but why does hearing that feel… NOPE! Nope, not going to think about how that makes me feel! Feelings bad!’ Ranma thought just as she felt Akane shift in her arms again.

“Hey my house is right there! See the one with the dojo attached to it?”

“Dojo? Your family owns a dojo?” Ranma asked.

“Yep! My family are the proud practitioners of the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts!” Akane said, a spike of pride in her voice as Ranma began to descend towards the house.

“Anything Goes?” Ranma asked, her mind beginning to slot her thoughts together like puzzle pieces. ‘This girl also practices Anything Goes? But under a different school? Wait…’ Ranma’s eyes widened as Akane watched the ground grow closer and closer. ‘No way… Pops mentioned that his friend we were going to also does Anything Goes! Does that mean this girl is who I’m supposed to be engaged to!? Crap! How the hell did this happen!?’ Ranma silently panicked as she planted her feet on the soft grass of the Tendo Dojo’s backyard and placed Akane back down onto her own feet.

“Phew… I gotta say Ranma, it’s quite a thrill to fly like that! Even if I couldn’t look down for most of it. I can’t believe you get to do that all the time!” Akane said as she watched Ranma slightly fidget in place. “Hey are you okay?”

“Yes I’m fine!” Ranma quickly yelled out in an octave higher than her normal fight, her body tensing up like a statue.

Akane hummed in thought as she put a hand onto Ranma’s shoulder. “Are you worried about that Panda finding you here? Don’t you worry Ranma! I’ll make sure he can’t touch you! Now come on!”

Akane grabbed Ranma’s hand as she started dragging her towards the house.

“W-Wait hold on! Isn’t your family gonna freak out seeing an actual alien in their house!? M-Maybe I should just go y’know? I don’t wanna be a bother!” Ranma tried to stop herself from being pulled by digging her feet into the dirt.

“Hey none of that Ranma! As soon as we explain, I'm sure my sisters and dad will understand! Besides, we’re friends and you’ll be my guest! I won’t let anything bad happen to you!”

Ranma sighed and began to float off the ground with her legs tucked up behind her, allowing Akane to drag her properly into the house. ‘I guess it won’t be too bad to stay for a little bit. Akane is the only friend I’ve made in… forever, even if I just met her. It would be a jerk move to just bail now.’

“I’m back!” Akane called out as she stepped inside, Ranma floating in behind her.

“Oh Akane you’re back!” Kasumi called back as she stepped out of the kitchen. “I’m afraid our guests haven’t arrived yet so it’s good you came back so… soon…?” Kasumi stopped as she saw Akane holding hands with Ranma who was still floating in the air beside her.

In a blur of motion, Kasumi rushed forward and grabbed a hold of Akane, pulling her out of Ranma’s grip and positioning herself in front of her younger sister.

“Wha-! Hey! Kasumi! What the heck!” Akane said as Kasumi continued to look at a now flabbergasted Ranma.

“Stay behind me Akane! I will not allow a demon to invade our home and harm my youngest sister!”

“W-Wait what!?” Ranma yelled out as she hovered back slightly away from Kasumi.

“Kasumi! Just hold on a second! She’s not a demon!” Akane tried to reason with her older sister but Kasumi didn’t stop or listen to Akane’s plea.

“Begone from our household demon! Let this talisman banish you from this plane!” Kasumi yelled as she reached into her apron and threw a paper talisman at Ranma. The piece of paper smacked Ranma in the face and stuck to her for only a moment before sliding off and harmlessly fluttering to the floor.

“W-What? That’s impossible…” Kasumi said, shocked that her banishing talisman hadn’t worked.

Akane growled as she pushed her way past her sister and stood in front of Ranma with her arms spread out. “That’s because she’s not a demon Kasumi! She’s an alien! And also my friend! So stop freaking her out!”

“An alien…?” Kasumi repeated as Ranma rapidly nodded her head, adjusting her hovering so she’s more hidden behind Akane.

She knew it was cowardly to use someone else as a shield like this, let alone use a girl she had just befriended like a human shield, but if it meant she and Akane could convince Akane’s sister that she was not a threat then so be it.

“Yes! She’s an alien! She also hasn’t done anything to harm me or anyone else so just relax Kasumi!” Akane squinted her eyes slightly while tensing her brow to show her sister how serious she was about this. She kept herself firmly locked in place to be a barrier between her eldest sister and her new friend.

Kasumi was silent as she just stared at Ranma for several seconds, examining her as she hid behind Akane. Kasumi knew that the talisman she had thrown at this apparent alien girl did work, especially against Oni’s which she had thought she identified this pink haired alien girl as, so for it to not only be ineffective but also slide off her like any other piece of paper held some credibility to what Akane and the otherworldly newcomer was telling her.

“I… I see.” Kasumi finally said as she smoothed out her apron and knelt down to retrieve her fallen talisman. “Well… I don’t know anything about… aliens, let alone ones that resemble Onis but if you keep an eye on her and promise she won’t harm anyone in the house Akane. I suppose she can be invited inside…” Kasumi still squinted her eyes suspiciously at Ranma but decided to trust her sister.

Kasumi gave a small bow to her Akane’s new extraterrestrial friend. “I’m Kasumi Tendo, Akane’s eldest sister. What is your name Miss Alien?”

Ranma blinked at the sudden change in attitude from Kasumi but quickly hovered out from behind Akane to return the bow. ‘I should probably avoid telling them my last name, besides it won’t be too weird if an alien doesn’t have one right?’ Ranma thought. “I’m Ranma, thank you for having me.”

Kasumi stood up straight again with an expression of confusion. “Ranma? Your name is Ranma?”

Ranma felt a bead of sweat roll down her cheek as she straightened back up again and finally landed back onto her feet, making her have to look up at Kasumi now.

‘Crap! Of course they’d at least know my first name if these are the people me and Pops were going to! That’s probably also why Akane acted weird when I told her earlier!’ Before Ranma could properly respond, she heard the rapid thumping of feet against wood just before seeing a man in a brown gi slide around the corner and make a mad dash towards the group.

“Is it true!? Are you finally here Ranma!?” Soun yelled out as he immediately embraced Ranma in a bone crushing hug. Ranma felt the air getting forcibly released from her lungs as the man began to cry, cartoonishly large waterfalls of tears streaming down his face. “Oh! I can’t believe you’re finally here Ranma! We’ve been waiting all day for you to arrive!”

“DAD! Let her go! This isn’t that dumb boy you said we’re supposed to be engaged too!” Akane yelled out as Ranma made a small breathless noise while trying to squirm out of Soun’s grip.

“L-Let…! Let go!” Ranma managed to gasp out as she sent a mild electric pulse out from her body that lightly shocked Soun into letting her go.

Soun gasped as his moustache and long hair puffed up from the static Ranma sent across his body as he now stared at Ranma, giving her a proper once over.

“Wha… You’re NOT Ranma Saotome?” Soun asked as he bent forward towards Ranma.

‘Shit! If I tell the truth then they’re just gonna ask questions! But if I lie then what the hell will happen!?’ Ranma gulped down her nerves before shaking her head. “No sir, I’m… I’m not this… Ranma Saotome person. Just uh… just Ranma.” Ranma felt a pang of hurt and guilt at not only lying to her new friend’s father but also simply throwing away her last name for… whatever she thought she was doing.

“Oh…” Ranma watched as Soun stood up straight again, smoothing out his moustache but with his posture clearly showing his disappointment. “I apologise then, I suppose it was foolish of me to assume a young girl like yourself was my old friend’s son after all.” Soun then took a second to look at Ranma again, from head to toe and while specifically eyeing up her hair and horns. “Though, I must ask… what exactly are you young lady?”

Before Ranma could again inform someone on what her current form was, Akane excitedly stepped in, adjusting her glasses again to stare up at her father. “She’s an alien, Dad! An actual alien! I met her out on the market street a little while ago! She was being attacked by this mean looking panda that was standing on two legs but she kicked it’s ass! And she’s my new friend!”

Ranma felt a small blush grow on her cheeks at the praise from her new friend while still locking eyes with the Tendo Patriarch.

“An alien!? Is this true!?” Soun exclaimed, completely bewildered at the revelation.

“Uh… yes sir, it is.” Ranma was doing everything she could to be as polite and non-threatening as possible.

Soun took a moment to compose himself before offering a bow to Ranma. “I have never had the opportunity to host an alien in my home before, so on behalf of my household and well, the human race, I welcome you to the Tendo Dojo Miss Ranma.”

Ranma was taken aback by the immediate politeness but like she did with Kasumi, bowed back. “Thank you. Uhm, I’ll do my best to be a good guest.”

Soun stood up straight again and nodded at Ranma. “Excellent. I must say, I’m impressed by your understanding of our traditions and sense of manners, Ranma. If you don’t mind me asking, how long have you been on earth for?”

“Oh yea! You have to tell me everything about yourself Ranma!” Akane said, squeezing her way into the conversation and now holding an alien themed notebook and pen in her hands which she pulled from… somewhere.

‘Damn it I knew this was going to happen! C’mon Ranma you can do this! Just think of this as a disguise! You and Pops have done plenty of disguises and made up way dumber characters than a stranded alien girl! Just gotta slip some half truths in here to make it more believable and easy to remember! Yea!’ As Ranma planned out how she was going to craft up her new identity to her brand new friend and her family she was shyly scratching her cheek with her sharpened nail to give off an air of nervousness. “Oh uh… y’know, believe it or not but I’ve actually been on earth pretty much my whole life.”

Akane, Soun and Kasumi all looked at Ranma with differing levels of curiosity. Akane was obviously completely unquestioning on her new friend’s answer and was simply fascinated on getting to know more about her. Soun was equally as curious though not as excited as Akane clearly was. Kasumi however was looking at Ranma as if she didn’t fully believe her. ‘She must still think I’m a demon trying to disguise as an alien.’ Ranma thought as she tried her best to avoid the eldest Tendo sister’s gaze.

“Why don’t we all have some tea and you can tell us all about yourself Ranma, I think it would be wise for us to know just who my youngest has befriended.” Soun nodded with a sense of finality as he strolled down the hallway towards the family room to sit down at the table.

Kasumi gave one last squint at Ranma before slipping back into the kitchen to prepare tea for everyone. Akane grabbed hold of Ranma’s wrist and excitedly dragged her into the family room to sit down beside her.

As Ranma was pushed down onto one of the cushions, she spotted another girl simply lounging around on the floor watching TV. She was laying on her side with her chin resting in one hand while the other was lazily resting against the floor. As she heard people shuffle into the room she turned her head to stare at Ranma. She raised an eyebrow as Ranma could feel her start to examine her with a critical eye.

“Uh… hi?” Ranma said, raising her hand in a small wave.

The helmet haired girl simply gave Ranma a head tilt of acknowledgment, not moving her chin off her palm or even moving to sit up. “Sup. So, who’s the cosplay girl Akane?” Nabiki said while moving her gaze to her younger sister.

“She’s not a cosplayer Nabiki! She’s an actual alien! And her name is Ranma so don’t be rude!” Akane said.

“Is that so?” Nabiki flashed an unimpressed stare at Akane and Ranma as she spun around to face them before sitting up right. Nabiki shuffled over to Ranma and leant in far too close to Ranma’s personal space, not breaking eye contact with her. ‘Well this certainly doesn’t look like a boy who's supposed to be our fiance, but…’

“Uhhhhh… c-can I help you?…” Ranma nervously said as she stared back at Nabiki.

Without warning, Nabiki reached up and grabbed onto one of Ranma’s horns and gave it a firm tug while grabbing the end of her pigtail to look at it closer. Ranma let out a yelp as Nabiki’s tug simply pulled Ranma’s head along, shifting her out of her seat.

“OW! HEY WATCH IT!” Ranma yelled as she smacked Nabiki’s hands away from her and began rubbing her poor abused horn.

“Wow, either that is some amazingly strong glue or you have actual horns attached to your skull.”

Ranma couldn’t decipher how Nabiki was feeling about that revelation as both her voice and face was one of the best poker faces she had ever seen.

“Nabiki! She’s a guest and my friend! Don’t just grab her like that!” Akane was completely shocked at Nabiki’s disregard for her new friend’s personal space as she shuffled closer to Ranma to help stop any further unwanted touching.

“Yea what the hell!” Ranma pouted while still rubbing her horn. “They’re surprisingly sensitive you know…” Ranma glared at Nabiki.

She made some electricity spark through her iridescent hair and caused it to flash blue for a moment, to show her displeasure at her horn being aggressively grabbed and to also act as a warning.

That made Nabiki and Soun’s eyes widen in surprise. Nabiki shuffled a bit further away from Ranma as Kasumi entered the room with a tray of 5 tea cups. She placed the tray down and distributed the tea to each member of the table, including herself.

Kasumi sat beside her father as they all looked at Ranma.

“So, Ranma,” Soun began as he took a sip of his tea, “You said you’ve been on earth for your whole life?”

“Uh yea, that’s correct Mister uh… Tendo.” Ranma began to sweat as she prepared for some of the biggest half truth bullshitting she’d probably ever have to do. “You see… my earliest memory was… waking up near a valley of springs.” ‘Okay Ranma that’s a good start, now time for a bit of bullshittery, you’ve seen enough space movie stuff in passing to make this convincing.’

“I was really young when I first woke up, and was inside a… Ship that had crash landed near these springs.” Ranma started to explain as she looked around at the listening faces. ‘If Pops ever finds out that I’m describing how he raised me to living in a crashed spaceship he might actually throw me through a wall. Sorry Pops, but this works for the story.’

Ranma continued to conduct her fabricated story for her alien identity. “I didn’t know anything and practically lived inside it for most of my life. It was stocked up on food and stuff for me to survive for several years. The Ship had stuff onboard that taught me to talk, walk, and even how to defend myself. The Ship was smart when it came to stuff like that…though it was also dumb more times than I’d like to count due to it being… y’know, banged up from the crash and everything.” ‘Sorry Pops but you deserve to be called dumb for a lot of the shit you did.’

“One of the things the Ship managed to teach me was a whole bunch of martial arts styles and techniques all without me ever leaving the Ship, y’know, on top of my actual powers and stuff.” Ranma saw Akane’s eyes widen at the mention of martial arts. It seems that she gets that same excited spark behind her glasses at martial arts just as much as hearing about aliens. Before Akane could say something however, she was interrupted by her older sister.

“Sooooooooo…” Nabiki drawled out while pointing at Ranma with a lazy finger. “You lived inside your spaceship since you were a baby and it raised you? Is that why you can speak Japanese so well?” Nabiki continued to look at Ranma as if she was a puzzle and her words were the pieces to be figured out.

Ranma nodded, internally thanking Nabiki for helping her continue her story. “That’s right! The Ship managed to pick up any languages it thought I might need living here on Earth so I can speak Japanese, a little mandarin and uh… my native language.” Ranma felt weird referring to that weird language she sometimes found herself slipping into ever since she got cursed with this form.

Though she was now silently thanking whatever magic from the springs also granted her this ‘native language’ that her cursed forms’ race apparently spoke, since it would be weird for an alien to have Japanese as her native language and not some weird alien one.

Akane was practically vibrating from excitement as she leaned closer to Ranma, frantically scribbling on her alien notepad. “YOU HAVE YOUR OWN LANGUAGE!? CAN YOU SAY SOME THINGS TO US!? PLEASE THAT WOULD BE SO COOL!”

“Akane!” Kasumi said in a semi strict tone which had the blue haired girl flinch while letting out a small yelp before sitting back down into her spot properly. Even Nabiki and Soun seemed surprised at Kasumi’s tone towards the youngest Tendo. Kasumi took a moment to compose herself but she still seemed… rigid from what Ranma could see. “Perhaps we should not overwhelm our… guest too much by asking her to do things.”

Ranma gulped as she brushed her hand through her otherworldly looking hair. “U-Uh it’s cool! I can say something if Akane really wants me to!” Ranma flashed a smile at Akane who rapidly nodded. Kasumi seemed to squint suspiciously at Ranma still but Soun and Nabiki at least looked interested as well, Soun with general interest and Nabiki with a look that said she was waiting for Ranma to somehow mess up her story.

Ranma took a deep breath as she thought about this new strange language she found able to speak, understand and even write ever since she emerged from that damn cursed spring more than a month ago.

“P nylhasf hwwyljphal fvb ovzapun tl pu fvby ovtl, Tendo mhtpsf.” Ranma said in the alien language.

Ranma was met with blank, confused stares after she had finished speaking.

“Uhhhh… what? The only thing I caught out of that was Tendo.” Nabiki finally said.

“Well, I said ‘I greatly appreciate you hosting me in your home, Tendo family’. Names are said the same way in my native tongue like how Japanese does it. Probably why it was so easy to learn! Haha!” Ranma let out a laugh to try and ease the tension. Honestly she was thankful this weird alien language treated names the same as Japanese to make it a little more familiar to her.

“Hmmmm, you mind saying it again? I just wanna check something.” Nabiki suddenly said, making Ranma tense up. Ranma knew she was being tested by her but also knew if she refused then… well she wasn’t sure what would happen but she knew it wouldn’t be pleasant.

“Uhh… P nylhasf hwwyljphal fvb ovzapun tl pu fvby ovtl, Tendo mhtpsf?” Ranma repeated the same phrase for Nabiki perfectly, making her eyebrows raise in surprise. She was clearly expecting Ranma to mess up on what she assumed was complete gibberish and forget it a second later but no, Ranma has said it exactly the same way with perfect pronunciation from what Nabiki could tell.

“Anyway!” Ranma said loud enough to hopefully interrupt any more questions the Tendo’s might have. “I hate to, y’know, cut all the questions short but could I go use your bath real quick? I haven’t been able to have a proper soak in a while. I can keep answering questions once I get back though?”

While it was true Ranma hadn’t had a proper soak in a furo for a long time, she was mainly hoping she could use the time away to further craft her expertly weaved backstory with details and answers the Tendo’s might ask once she returned.

Kasumi hummed to herself in thought, debating whether or not she should allow this alien girl—who she still wasn’t totally convinced WASN’T a demon in disguise—to use their home’s bathroom. Kasumi considered it for an extra moment before nodding in approval at Ranma. “I suppose there wouldn’t be any harm allowing you to do so, Ranma.” Kasumi said. Kasumi allowed her eyes to drift towards the kitchen to where their wall phone was located, ‘I suppose it would allow me time to call Miss Sakura and ask for advice about this situation…’

Ranma seemed relieved as she let out a small breath. “Thanks! I appreciate it!”

Ranma heard Akane slap her notebook closed, drawing her attention just in time to see her hop to her feet. “C’mon Ranma! I’ll show you where the bath is! And then I wanna know everything!” Akane flashed another one of her cute smiles at Ranma who smiled back.

“Thanks Akane!” Ranma floated up until she was hovering just a few centimetres off the ground. Nabiki and Soun seemed baffled at Ranma causally hovering in the air as she followed Akane out of the room.

‘Alright, let's see what else I can come up with for ‘Ranma the Alien Girl’, and figure out what I’m supposed to tell them about the whole water change curse crap.’ Ranma thought to herself just as she and Akane turned the corner and out of sight to the rest of the family.

Chapter Text

Ranma let out a satisfied sigh as he sunk into the warm water of the furo. It had been forever since he was actually able to relax in a body of hot water and even a while since he had been able to turn back into a guy since arriving back in Japan.

After Akane had shown him the bathroom and left him to his own devices, he had quickly done his washing up just to get into the furo as quickly as possible. He even went as far to avoid looking at the mirror, in either form, in case he got distracted from looking at himself.

Ranma sank further into the steaming water just enough for his mouth to become submerged, closing his eyes as he did so.

As he sat in the water, he let his mind wonder and begin to reflect on the events that had happened so far today.

What was his luck that the one person he’d managed to make friends with was a part of the family he and his Pops were supposed to be going to visit anyway? And not only that but he was actively lying to her and her family about who he was just because it was his cursed form that she had befriended.

Ranma opened his eyes and looked down at his body still submerged in the water and carefully brought a single hand to rest against his flat, muscular chest. Ranma didn’t have much time to think about it since he got cursed to turn into a pink haired electricity throwing alien girl but everytime he changed back into a guy, no matter how briefly from his luck, he felt… weird.

He felt as if something was missing whenever he was a guy now, and he couldn’t find the words to describe it aloud. Was he getting controlled by his new cursed form to want to spend time in it? Was he just getting too used to using those powers his cursed form gave him and now when he didn’t have them he felt… incomplete? A dull sense of… wanting and desire perhaps? Pops was warning him not to rely on them since it would take away from his work in the art but he couldn’t help it! They just felt so natural to use that more than half the time since he got cursed he didn’t even realise he was using them! Their school of martial arts was all about aerial combat anyways! Flight at the very least seemed to be the perfect addition!

That was the other thing Ranma had to think about now too. He had just left his still cursed Dad unconscious in the street with a bunch of strangers. But he knew his Pops could handle himself, even as a fat lumbering panda. Besides, he had a good reason! He wasn’t just going to let his new friend get caught up in whatever those assholes that started circling them had in mind! What kind of a martial artist would he be if he let that happen!? He was just fulfilling his duty as a man!

Ranma let out a heavy sigh as he tilted his head back to stare up at the ceiling. ‘Right… that’s the other big thing isn’t it?’ His Pops had raised him as a ‘man amongst men’ his whole life but now he was cursed to turn not just into a girl but an alien girl! And now he was lying to these people that his cursed form was just who he is!?

Ranma grumbled as he brushed his fingers through his pigtailed tied black hair. Could he seriously just keep lying to these people about who he was? Pretend to be some Alien Girl who spent almost her whole life in some crashed spaceship that doesn’t actually exist.

But if he told the truth, would Akane’s Dad just try to force this whole engagement thing onto him if he did tell the truth? He could see that Akane was cute nice looking, but he didn’t wanna be forced into some engagement his Dad never even told him about before today! Besides, it didn’t sound like Akane was particularly thrilled by the engagement idea either from what he could pick up.

Would telling the truth also affect his new friendship with Akane? Would she hate him for lying to her about who he is and not ACTUALLY being an alien?

But on the other hand, would continuing on with this lie just to keep his new friendship with someone he had practically just met be worth it? Would that not just be throwing away everything his Dad had been trying to teach him about being a man his whole life? Would he also be throwing away his humanity by continuing to act as some stranded alien girl?

What would even be the benefit of keeping up the alien girl persona let alone having to spend most of his time in his cursed form around these people? The ability to move faster than he ever had before? The flight and electricity manipulation he was able to use? Him placating those dumb dull feelings of discomfort and the insatiable itch across his whole body that he felt whenever he was a guy but didn’t feel when he was an alien girl?

Nah it couldn’t possibly be that last one.

Ranma was taught that feelings just got in the way of the art so maybe it would be best if he just ignored that last point. Besides just because he started noticing those feelings more prevalently and the itch only got stronger since getting cursed and constantly flip flopping between both forms just meant he could use it for more training when he had the chance. Being a guy was SUPPOSED to be tough, challenging and filled with hardships, it was common knowledge! At least Pops said it was.

Ranma groaned as he began lazily twirling his pigtail around his finger. “This whole thing sucks… why the hell did Pops have to take us to those damn springs. If he didn’t then I could’ve just kept ignoring all this crap and would’ve been FINE. But nooooooo, his dumb panda ass had to kick me into the damn water…”

Ranma closed his eyes again and thought back to when he and his Pops had gotten cursed in the first place.

—----------------------------------

Weightlessness.

That’s what she felt as she floated here.

Where was ‘here’ though she wondered.

She was floating, like gravity wasn’t having any command over her.

Was she in space?

Space…

She liked space.

She liked looking up at the stars at night.

She liked pointing out constellations to herself when things were quiet.

She liked to ask questions to the distant planets and celestial bodies, even if no one else listened.

Being in space felt… right for her.

Space always seemed to call to her, but she could never seem to answer.

But then why was she in space now?

Wait… space doesn’t have bubbles or rippling sun beams coming down on top of you.

Ranma’s eyes widened as he suddenly came back to understanding and began frantically swimming towards the top of the spring he had been kicked into just moments before.

Ranma broke through the surface of the water and took as big of a breath in as he could before uncontrollably coughing due to the small amount of water that he unintentionally swallowed.

“OH NO! Young sir you’ve fallen into a very tragic spring indeed! That is the Spring of Drowned Oni Alien! 3500 years ago an alien resembling an Oni crash landed in this very valley and fell into that spring and drowned! Now any who fall into that spring are cursed to become an Oni Alien themselves!” The guide yelled out to Ranma just as he began to collect his bearings. “Though… huh, that is strange, there hasn’t been any reports of someone coming out of the spring looking like… that.”

Ranma blinked at the Jusenkyo guide in confusion before his words finally registered with him. ‘Wait… cursed? Oni alien??’ Ranma thought as he finally looked down at his body and tensed up. He immediately ripped open the front of his gi and saw two protruding mounds of fat attached to his chest. Ranma began to internally panic as he saw his rippling reflection in the water and instantly reached up to his hair and felt around. His hands wrapped around his new horns while he saw the way his damp fringe fell into his field of vision was now an iridescent pink which nobody on earth should have.

Ranma let go of his new horns and took in a deep breath before doing something he never did before.

He let out a loud, terrified, feminine shriek.

Ranma rapidly swam to the edge of the spring and flung himself out of it as he began patting himself all over, trying to get an understanding of his whole new body.

“W-Wha… I-I’m-! I’m a-! W-WHY AM I A GIRL!?” Ranma suddenly screamed at the guide as he gripped onto his new breasts for extra emphasis.

“P-Please calm down young sir! I’m sure we can figure this out!” The guide said, frantically flailing his arms around in the air.

“FIGURE THIS OUT!? DON’T YOU RUN THIS PLACE!? WHY THE HELL DID I ALSO TURN INTO A GIRL!?” Ranma yelled out as he gripped onto his new horns again.

“This has never happened before to anyone else who was reported to have fallen into the Spring of Drowned Oni Alien! Every last recorded incident of someone falling in has always just been transformed into an Oni Alien with no change to their sex! We’ve also never had anyone come out of the spring with that hair colour before.”

“WHAT!? SO I’M EVEN WEIRDER THAN OTHER PEOPLE WHO FELL INTO THAT DAMN SPRING!?”

“P-Please young sir! I’m sure it’ll all be fine! It’s probably just a rare hair colour for this curse that hasn’t shown up yet!”

“W-Well what other colours are there that aren’t goddamn pink!?” Ranma grabbed his ponytail and pulled it out to the side while pointing at it with his other hand.

“Well… from what I can remember from the Jusenkyo archives there’s been teal, blue, green, purple, orange…”

“HOW MANY DAMN PEOPLE HAVE FALLEN INTO THIS SPRING FOR YOU TO HAVE A LIST OF COMMON HAIR COLOURS!?” Ranma yelled out, interrupting the guide from his listing.

“Ah! My apologies young sir, either way, this is the first time that someone has emerged from the Spring of Drowned Oni Alien with pink hair and had a change of sex! It’s truly fascinating when I get to learn new things about these old springs and document new information that isn’t just recording a new person who got cursed!”

“HEY STOP TALKING ABOUT ME LIKE I’M SOME PIECE OF SCHOOL HOMEWORK!”

Ranma growled and let his eye twitch as he watched the guide start to mumble to himself about archives and records. Before Ranma could say anything else, he felt a smack to the back of his head from what was a very meaty but fuzzy paw.

“HEY! The hell!?” Ranma spun around and came face to face with his newly cursed father. Ranma’s eyes widened at seeing the skewed glasses on his father’s panda face and stretched gi across his arms. Ranma saw his cursed father suddenly hold up a wooden sign with marker written all over it.

[Stop reacting like some girl Boy! I didn’t raise you to react this emotionally to stuff!]

Ranma read the sign and slowly started to grind his now sharp teeth together. “How dare you say that Pops…” Ranma started to let out a growl as Genma watched him start to float in the air. Genma took a frightened step back just as Ranma’s hair changed colour from its iridescent pinks to iridescent blues, Genma also noticed that sparks of electricity began zapping off Ranma’s entire body. The sparks grew in intensity with Ranma’s hair now going from blue to rapidly shifting between different bright colours like a rainbow.

“WHEN THIS IS YOUR DAMN FAULT IN THE FIRST PLACE!” Ranma threw his hands forward at Genma and fired a massive bolt of electricity at him. Genma managed to jump back just in time for the bolt to not hit him directly, but the bolt still caused a big enough explosion that the shockwave sent Genma flying away until he crashed into a nearby cliff and sent Ranma spinning uncontrollably through the air until he collided with a large bamboo stalk surrounding the cursed springs.

The Guide yelped as several springs all had their water explode up into the air from the force of the blast. He quickly pulled out an emergency umbrella and ran away from the edge of the cursed springs until he reached Ranma who was still wrapped around the bamboo and completely dazed.

The Guide managed to cover both himself and Ranma with his umbrella from any stray cursed water. The Guide let out a sigh of relief as all the water was either harmlessly soaked into the dirt and grass or fell back into the springs themselves.

“Phew! It’s a good thing the different cursed waters can’t be mixed within the actual springs themselves! Now wouldn’t THAT be a fine mess to deal with!” The Guide laughed as Ranma slid down the bamboo he was pressed up against until his cheek rested against the ground.

“Uggghhhh… Did someone… catch the plate of… that truck…?” Ranma’s words were slightly slurred as his pupils spun in a spiral shape from his dazed state.

“Oh yes, I suppose I should mention to you young sir that everyone who has fallen into the Spring of Drowned Oni Alien finds themselves with the ability to not only fly but also use some form of elemental manipulation, the most common being electricity and fire. And I must say your display of electrical power was quite impressive for someone newly cursed young sir!” The Guide said while crouching down next to Ranma on the ground.

“E-Eheheheh… G-Greaaaaaat…” Ranma said before passing out.

—----------------------------------

Ranma let out a grunt as he finally stepped out of the furo and stretched out his limbs.

“Sigh… I’m just glad that damn Guide decided to explain how these stupid curses worked once I regained consciousness instead of continuing to look at me like some lab experiment.”

Ranma grabbed hold of his left shoulder and began to rotate it to further loosen up his shoulder joint.

“Ah damn… I forgot to grab a towel. Maybe I can just slip out real quick and grab one before anyone sees me like this.” Ranma said as he began walking towards the door.

However he froze once he heard the outermost door open and the sound of someone walking into the changing room echoed into the bathroom.

“Ranma? Are you okay? You’ve been in there a while. Oh! I think you forgot to take a towel in with you! Don’t worry I’ll bring one in for you!” Akane’s voice echoed into the bathroom as Ranma began sweating hard.

‘CRAP! I CAN’T LET AKANE SEE ME AS A GUY! EVEN LESS SO NAKED LIKE THIS!’ Ranma thought to himself in a panic as he suddenly dove towards the shower head and almost ripped the handle off to turn on the water.

The sliding door to the bathroom slid open and Akane peaked her head inside. “Ranma?”

“H-Hey Akane! Over here!”

Akane turned towards where Ranma called out to her and saw the pink haired alien girl laying on his side while floating in mid air, clearly trying to do a casual pose while the shower head sprayed down onto his still naked body.

Akane blushed and looked away from Ranma. “R-Ranma! W-What are you doing there? I thought you’d still be in the furo!”

“O-Oh! N-No actually I wasn’t! My body doesn’t like hot water all that much so when I tried to get in I had to get out quick and cool myself off! Hahaha!”

Akane furrowed her brow and turned her head just enough to look at Ranma from the corner of her eye. “Your body doesn’t like hot water?”

‘Uh oh! Why did I say that!? Wait no! This is perfect! Now I have a perfect excuse to not touch hot water in front of Akane or anyone else! Alright now to just make this convincing!’ Ranma simply nodded to Akane as he turned off the shower head and landed on his feet. Ranma wrapped his arms around himself and hunched forward slightly to give off a nervous and shy energy. “Yes… I’m sorry Akane, it’s so embarrassing to say aloud…” Ranma turned up the cute innocence in his voice.

Akane furrowed her brow in worry as she walked over to her friend and offered him the towel she had grabbed. “You can confide in me Ranma, that’s what friends are for.” Akane smiled at him and caused his cheeks to get the smallest tinge of pink while he wrapped the towel around himself.

“Promise you won’t tell anyone?” Ranma said, playing up his shy puppy dog eyes look which only made Akane blush more. She couldn’t even say anything as she nodded her head. “Okay… You see Akane… when I was still living on my crashed ship, the hot water system for the bathroom was completely destroyed… ever since I was a kid I’ve only been able to bathe in cold water and because of that, my skin developed a rare… disease that reacts awfully if I ever get splashed or am submerged in hot water… my Ship told me I’ll have to live with it for my whole life after doing a medical test on me…” Ranma turned his face away from Akane, forcing his eyes to water slightly to help his story.

“Ranma… that’s awful, I can’t even imagine…” Akane said, genuine sadness in her voice for her new friend.

“Yes… I thought I could bear the pain and hurt and finally try soaking in hot water but I couldn’t do it… at least I am still able to drink hot liquids because of the hot water for the kitchen being undamaged… so at most I can enjoy a small luxury of hot water… I just have to be careful not to be splashed…” Ranma brought a hand to his mouth and turned further away from Akane. ‘I’m sorry for telling you such a big lie like this Akane! But I can’t risk turning back in front of you!’

“Oh Ranma…” Akane then pulled Ranma into a hug which had the pink haired alien tensing up at the contact, finally turning his head back to look at Akane.

“Don’t worry Ranma, I won’t tell anyone. I know it must already be hard enough being an alien among humans, so if I can spare you from this piece of yourself then I will. All I will tell anyone is that you don’t like hot water if I’m ever asked. Not only that, I’ll do my best to protect you from any hot water, okay?” Akane smiled at Ranma who couldn’t help but stare back at her in awe.

‘She would do that for me…?’ Ranma couldn’t describe how he felt while he stared at Akane’s warm brown eyes behind her cute nice looking glasses. Ranma just nodded, his mouth slightly agape the whole time.

Akane finally let him go and stepped back. She shyly scratched her slightly flushed cheek while readjusting her glasses back up her nose. “A-Anyway I’ll let you finish up in here! See you back at the table Ranma.” Akane gave a small wave to him before turning around and leaving him alone again.

“R-Right… yea… t-thanks Akane…” Ranma mumbled out with a small wave back that Akane didn’t see. Ranma looked down at his towel wrapped body and began hovering only a few centimetres off the tiles. He felt his chest tighten as he brought one of his hands to grip the front of his towel. It was like his heart was fighting itself for what emotion he should be feeling, guilt for telling Akane constant lies just to hide his curse, relief that she’d go out of her way to help him not get splashed and… another feeling? He wasn’t sure what it was but all he knew is that whatever it was contributed to the flushed state of his cheeks.

Ranma sighed and was about to leave but before he could he caught sight of a flash of pink in his peripheral vision. He turned towards it and felt his eyes widen as he came face to face with his reflection in the mirror at the other side of the room.

Ranma knew he should be getting changed but… one peak at what he looks like wouldn’t hurt… right? After all, the most he’s seen of his cursed form up until this point was a blurry water reflection.

Ranma floated over to the mirror and was finally able to get a clear look at his cursed form's appearance.

Ranma was shocked to see how much his cursed form still resembled him but… different. The curves and edges of his face and features were softer and less harsh than what he knew his face should be like. He reached up and gently pressed the tips of his fingers against his cheek and watched the gentle squish that occurred when he applied a small amount of pressure.

Ranma widened his eyes to see his bright red pupils in their full glory while also tracing his finger along the purple eyeliner that seemed to just be a part of his skin. He tapped the ends of his pointed ears with his index fingers and watched as they pressed in just enough to send a small shiver through his body.

Ranma opened his mouth and stared in awe at the sharp teeth his cursed form possessed, giving his whole mouth the look of some kind of predator rather than a human. He snapped his mouth shut and finally turned his attention to his iridescent pink hair and stripped horns.

As he stared and gently stroked his fingers through his cursed hair he had to admit that he didn’t… hate it. But he was supposed to, right? That’s what his Pops had been telling him every day since they got cursed. But he just couldn’t find it in him to hate it, in fact it almost felt… right?

But that couldn’t be true, he was supposed to be a guy! A HUMAN guy!

But here he was, floating in front of a mirror and staring at his face that was very much the complete opposite of a human guy and it didn’t bother him like it should be. The way his hair looked so natural on him despite being the most unnatural looking hair imaginable. The way his horns helped give his appearance a more distinctive non-human look, along with the rest of his inhuman features that all seemed to help quiet down that weird buzz that he had always felt within his heart, almost like it was finally satisfied after years of being left neglected and hungry.

Ranma quickly shut his eyes and turned away from the mirror. He clenched his fists tight enough to feel the push of his sharp nails press into his palms. ‘W-What the hell was I thinking! I’m supposed to be a guy! A HUMAN GUY! Sure, one that’s a once in a lifetime martial arts prodigy but a human guy either way! I’m just doing this to not upset Akane! It doesn’t matter how I feel about all this! No matter how good it… NO! No! Feelings just get in the way of the art! So just… just ignore them… yea… just ignore them like a proper guy should.’

Ranma unclenched his fists as he flew out of the bathroom to get changed and rejoin the Tendos.

—----------------------------------

Kasumi stood with the wall phone pressed up to her ear and nodded along to whatever the other person was telling her.

“I see… salt, you said? … Right, I will try it. Thank you for your advice Sakura-sensei. Oh by the way, am I still okay to come by the shrine this week? … Excellent, then I’ll see you then. Enjoy the rest of your day Sakura-sensei.” Kasumi hung up the phone and nodded to herself as she looked over at the empty tea cups.

‘Right, let’s see if this will make that demon reveal her true nature.’ Kasumi grabbed one of the cups and began pre-making tea just before Akane and her ‘alien friend’ returned from the bathroom. Kasumi was sure this alien was still simply a demon that had somehow resisted her talisman and she wouldn’t stand for it!

Once she was finished pouring the hot water into the cup, she grabbed the spare bag of salt she kept in the kitchen and began pouring it straight into the tea cup. Kasumi poured enough salt into the tea that she was positive that it was more salt water than tea at that point and nodded to herself proudly. ‘Let’s see this demon try and resist this. Don’t worry Akane, I’ll keep you and the rest of our family safe from this demon.’

The sound of her youngest sister’s voice echoed out from the other room as Akane sat back down and only a short while later, she heard Ranma’s voice enter the room as well. Kasumi smiled as she prepared the last four cups as normal before bringing them all out on a tray to serve.

“So Ranma, what else can you tell us about yourself?” Nabiki asked as Kasumi passed out the tea cups.

“Uhhh… well that depends… what do you wanna know exactly?” Ranma smiled shyly as he picked up his tea cup.

Kasumi brought her sleeve up to her mouth to hide the smirk she got from watching Ranma pick up his tea. ‘Alright demon, let’s see you try and resist this.’

Kasumi watched as Ranma began drinking the tea before suddenly stopping mid sip and pulling the tea cup away from her mouth, a surprised expression on his face.

“Hmmm? Is something wrong Ranma?” Akane asked, adjusting her glasses while Ranma stared down into his tea,

“This tea… it’s…” Ranma started saying, making Kasumi’s smirk grow even wider.

“It’s amazing! It’s like the best damn tea I’ve ever had! There’s so much flavour!” Ranma yelled out as he started downing the tea in large gulps.

Kasumi’s jaw dropped and she placed her arm into her lap. She just stared in disbelief at Ranma downing tea filled with enough salt to rival the Dead Sea.

Ranma placed his tea cup back down onto the table and licked his lips, completely satisfied. “Wow! I didn’t know tea could taste that great! Thanks Kasumi!” He gave a wide smile to Kasumi to show his appreciation.

Kasumi blinked at Ranma and forced herself to give a polite smile back, feeling a small bead of sweat slide down her cheek. “Uh… y-yes of course Ranma, it was my pleasure.”

“Anywaaaaay.” Nabiki said, taking a sip of her own tea. “How long have you been around humans for Ranma? After all you said you lived in that crashed spaceship of yours ‘most of your life’ right?” Nabiki raised an eyebrow at Ranma. Ranma felt a shiver down his back from Nabiki’s look, it seems she was still trying to visibly dissect him.

“Well uh… about… two weeks?” ‘That’s not totally wrong… THIS body has only been around other people for that long’.

“Two weeks? You’ve only been outside of your ship for a fortnight?” Nabiki’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion while Ranma just nodded.

“That’s right, it’s the first time I’ve ever actually uh… explored Earth instead of just looking at it through a screen.” Ranma shyly rubbed the back of his neck. “My… Ship said I was finally prepared enough to explore and allowed me to leave it. So now I’ve been exploring everywhere I can. Though that hasn’t been a lot to be fair haha!”

“Uh… huh…” Nabiki squinted her eyes at Ranma.

Akane, however, simply nodded along as she wrote down Ranma’s story as best she could in her notebook. “Hey Ranma, I wanna know what your deal is with that Panda you were fighting. You two certainly didn’t seem like friends from how you were fighting and talking to it.”

“Oh! Him! Yea I guess I can tell you about him!” Ranma said, feeling a bead of sweet roll down his cheek. ‘Dammit, how do I make this sound convincing? Damn you Pops, why the hell did you have to be cursed to be a Panda and not something smaller?!’

“Well, you see… when I met him it was just after I had left my ship for the first time. Apparently my ship had crash landed in the place you uh… humans call ‘China’. Anyway, after about a day or so I came across this… shrine! It was a shrine to a panda spirit that looked after the bamboo forests where my ship was!” Ranma nodded to himself, proud of his improv skills.

“You see, I hadn’t had anything to eat that day and there was a whole lot of food sitting at this shrine so I decided to help myself. I… didn’t know the significance of the food and angered the panda spirit. It started chasing me and picking a fight everytime it managed to find me after I thought I ditched it. It followed me everywhere until I eventually had to cut my exploring of China short and head here.” Ranma closed his eyes to allow the others to digest this story from ‘Ranma the Oni Alien’s’ past.

“Wow… I can’t believe you’ve had to put up with that Ranma, and it being one of the first things you came across after leaving your ship…” Akane scribbled down in her notebook some more but still looked at her friend with sympathetic eyes.

Nabiki hummed to herself as she continued to examine Ranma. ‘So this Ranma also came from China? How… coincidental.’ She thought.

Kasumi squinted her eyes and did her best to not pull apart the seams of her apron as she picked at the fabric. She kept staring at Ranma while keeping her face as a polite smile. ‘So she does have a connection to spirits… but did this other spirit only continue following her because she is a spirit herself? She must be! That’s the only explanation!’

Soun nodded at Ranma as he stroked his moustache. ‘Goodness, only 2 weeks exploring on her own and already she has such fascinating stories. The life of an alien on Earth is truly an eventful one.’

Before anyone could say anything else, a loud crash was heard from outside the Tendo Dojo, shocking the five occupants inside.

“What was that?” Ranma asked, turning his head towards the front door.

“It sounded like it came from the street! Let’s go see what happened!” Akane said, suddenly leaping up to her feet. Akane grabbed hold of Ranma’s hand and started pulling him along as she rushed down the hallway.

“W-Woah! Hold on Akaneeeeee!” Ranma called out as he began floating to not let his feet drag across the wooden floors.

“Akane, wait!” Kasumi called up, standing up as well and rushing behind them. Soun and Nabiki quickly followed behind as well.

Akane rushed through the front door to the Dojo and opened the front gates to the open street. She let Ranma go as the sight before her made her blink in confusion, Ranma copying her confused expression.

In the middle of the street was a wooden two wheeled cart with a large empty metal cage sitting on it that was being held up by two police officers. At the back of the cage cart were two more officers trying their best to maneuver a currently unconscious panda with a few tranquilliser darts sticking out of it through the cage’s open door. And finally, standing next to the side of the cart was a short man in a priest outfit and a straw hat on his head eating from a bowl of rice.

“Mmmmmm. Are you boys done yet? I want to get back to my hot pot.” The priest said to the officers still pushing the panda inside the cage.

“A-Almost!” One officer said and with a final heavy push, they shoved the panda inside the cage. The officers shut the cage behind it and securely locked it.

“Oh you’re done? Good.” The priest said, suddenly devouring the rice bowl completely.

Ranma watched the whole interaction completely stunned as the rest of the Tendo family came up behind him and Akane.

Kasumi gasped when she saw the short priest and waved her hand at him. “Oh! Master Cherry! Hello!”

The priest turned around and looked up at the Tendo family. “Ah the Tendos, I was wondering if you all were going to come see what was going on.”

“Hey Ranma, isn’t that…?” Akane whispered to Ranma while pointing at the cage. Ranma nodded while looking at the tranquilised cursed body of his father.

“Yea it is…” Ranma floated forward and looked down at Cherry who stared back up at him. “Hey, where are you taking him? Is he going to be okay?”

“Mmmmmmm.” Cherry continued to stare blankly at Ranma before an identical paper talisman to Kasumi's was thrown at his face by Cherry.

“CAN PEOPLE STOP THROWING PAPER AT ME!?” Ranma growled out as he grabbed the talisman off his face and crumpled it up into a ball.

“Hmmm, so you’re not a demon then. That talisman would have worked if you were.” Cherry said.

“I AIN’T A DEMON! I’M AN ALIEN!” Ranma yelled at Cherry, his hair flashing blue and small sparks zapping through it.

“Huh. Could have fooled me. Considering that cursed smell you have on you.”

Ranma calmed down instantly as he stared at Cherry in disbelief. “C-Cursed smell…?” ‘N-No way… Is he going to out me this easily after all I did to make up those stories…?’

Cherry simply nodded. “That’s right, though it’s not as strong as that big guy in the cage. His smell is like walking into a garbage dump of cursed energy. Yours is faint enough to barely notice but it is the same. Tell me, do you know that panda?”

‘M-Maybe I can still salvage this!’ “Uh yea! It’s been following and fighting me for about two weeks! It’s a spirit I accidently pissed off from China! And no matter what I do to make it happy again it doesn’t go away!” Ranma yelled out while pointing at his currently passed out cursed father.

“I see then. Well that explains your smell then. Well don’t worry. After a while I’m sure it will vanish on its own due to being separated from him. Anyway I’m having it moved to my niece’s shrine to see what can be done for that cursed energy coming from it. Perhaps once it's freed from whatever is plaguing it it will simply go home.”

Cherry then looked past Ranma and at Kasumi directly. “Oh Kasumi, will you also be coming by the shrine this week? I’ve been craving that delicious lunch of yours since the last time you visited.”

“Huh? Oh! Yes! I will be Master Cherry, I informed Sakura-Sensei about it earlier!” Kasumi called out to Cherry who nodded in response.

“Good to hear.” Cherry then suddenly began walking away while the four police officers started carting Genma away in the opposite direction. “Welp, I'm going back to my hot pot. Don’t worry, the panda spirit will be in good hands at my niece’s Miss Alien.”

Ranma simply watched the police officers cart off his cursed father further down the road. He landed on the street and furrowed his brows at the scene. ‘Should I really just let them take him to some random shrine? He’s still my Dad, no matter how crappy some of the things he’s done are… but… maybe they’ll end up removing the curse from him while he’s there? That’s what he would want… wouldn’t it?’

“Hey,” Ranma felt a hand gently grab onto his shoulder. He turned his head to the side and saw Akane giving him a kind smile, “I think it’s sweet that even though it was attacking you you still want it to be okay. Don’t worry Ranma, I’m sure he’ll be fine. Miss Sakura is one of the best priestesses in all of Nerima, she’ll do everything she can to make him right.”

“Yea…” Ranma nodded, turning back to see the cage cart vanishing down the road. “ Yea I guess so…”

The two stood quietly for a moment before Akane squeezed Ranma’s shoulder. “Ranma?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you have anywhere to stay right now? I can’t imagine you have any money, being an alien and everything.”

A small blush grew on Ranma’s face as he looked away from Akane. “O-Oh uh… n-no not really… I managed to uh… pick up some free camping stuff and that pack of mine while I was travelling s-so that should be fine for me.”

Akane just shook her head as she grabbed Ranma’s other shoulder and spun him around to stare directly at her. “No way! I’m not letting my friend camp outside when we have room for you in our house! Why don’t you stay with us Ranma? I’ll show you all the stuff Japan and humanity has to offer!” Akane smiled warmly at Ranma who felt the blush grow on his cheeks.

“H-Huh?” Ranma’s eyes widened as he stared at Akane’s smiling face.

The two heard Soun cough before stepping forward. “Now Akane, you do know that we are still expecting other guests to arrive at some point.”

“Aw come on Dad! They’re not even here yet and we have no idea when they will be! Besides, Ranma can just sleep in my room if it’s such a big issue with the spare room. We have the futons for it.” Akane let go of Ranma’s shoulders and crossed her arms at her father.

“Well…” Soun thought it over as he turned his attention to Ranma directly. He examined him closely and saw the shy, almost cat-like nervousness that the pink haired alien was showcasing. “I suppose I see no harm in it then.”

Akane punched up in the hair in celebration, a wide smile on her face. “Yes!”

“As long as she behaves herself and helps contribute around the house I don’t see any reason she shouldn’t be allowed to stay until she decides to move on.” Soun nodded at Ranma with a kind smile.

“Really? T-Thank you Sir! I won’t be a burden I promise!” Ranma bowed at Soun who simply laughed.

“Come now Ranma! Any friend of Akane’s is a friend of the household! Now come along! Let’s see if we can’t get you set up in Akane’s room hmm?” Soun turned around and began walking back into the house.

Kasumi just watched on in silent shock, doing her best to keep her smile and expression as polite and neutral as possible. ‘S-She’s staying for longer!? Maybe this just means I’ll have more opportunities to reveal her true demonic nature…’

Nabiki shoved her hands into her pocket as she looked over Ranma again, a grin now plastered across her face. ‘Maybe I could make some extra yen off this extraterrestrial beauty if she’s going to be staying with us.’

The rest of the Tendo family followed Soun back into the house with Ranma lingering outside a little longer. Ranma looked up at the still cloudy afternoon sky and internally sighed to himself. ‘Jeez… can my life get any more complicated? Well, at least I have a friend to help me through it I suppose.’

“Ranma! Come on, I want to show you my room!” Akane called out to him, waving from the front gates to the Tendo Dojo.

“Ah! R-Right! Coming!” Ranma pushed off the ground to fly towards Akane and back into the house.

—----------------------------------

A long distance from Earth, an alert started to beep on a console from within the cockpit of a large, cylindrical, tiger striped spaceship.

A soldier with short orange iridescent hair and striped yellow horns couldn’t believe his eyes at what his control console was telling him. The soldier suddenly stood and turned around to face a large captain’s chair at the back of the cockpit.

Sitting on the seat was a large, bulky man in a full one piece tiger striped suit. He had large protruding fangs coming from either side of his mouth that pointed up from his bottom row teeth. His hair was a dark iridescent green while large striped yellow horns sat atop his head.

“High General!” The soldier called out to his superior.

“Yes? What is it?” The General called back to the soldier.

“I-I’m getting a bioscan report here that is of utmost importance!”

“Hmmm? A bioscan? Has someone from the empire been stranded?”

“I don’t know sir but… t-the reading… it…!” The soldier was stumbling over his words due to the sheer impossibility of what he was about to reveal.

“Well spit it out man! What is it?”

“The bioscan… it says it’s picked up a member of our race with royal blood.” The soldier finally managed to say.

The entire cockpit froze at the news, all turning towards the standing soldier.

The general also froze and sat quietly for several moments. “Project it immediately, soldier.” The General finally said.

“Yes sir!” The soldier sat back down and began rapidly tapping at his console until the bioscan reading appeared mid air via hologram for the whole cockpit to see.

Every single person in the cockpit looked on in stunned silence at the pink dot blinking on the map of the universe.

“Well I’ll be damned…” The General said in a breathless voice. “After all these years. Soldier, where is this bioscan being picked up from?”

“Sir, it’s coming from system R12-1987 on the third most planet of the system. The natives seem to refer to it as ‘Earth’.”

The General smiled as he lifted himself from his chair and began to laugh. “Well then! It looks like we have a new mission on our hands! Send a message to any and all available Oni Empire Space Cruisers! We’re going to Earth!”

“Yes, High General Sir!”