White Wolf found the problem...it seems there's a secret code 
word, that if it appears too close to the beginning of the post, will 
cause the FFML software not to forward the message.  (It's "lecnac" 
spelled backwards.)  So, for all of you who didn't request a copy (and 
thanks for the outporing of those who did...) but still want to read it, 
this post should work.


	(Previously:  In this Alternate Universe, the Jyuusenkyo springs 
change minds as well as bodies, so Ranma's female form is effectively her 
own person, named Ranko.  Ryouga turns into a boy named Shinnosuke.  In 
the last chapter, Mousse defeated Ryouga to negate the lost boy's 
engagement to Shampoo (the Amazon laws being somewhat different in this 
world), thanks to Ranko revealing Ryouga's weakness.  In response to this 
perceived betrayal, Ryouga has threatened to destroy Shinnosuke, who has 
become attached to Ranko.)

			TWILIGHT EXISTENCE
			by Scott K. Jamison
	(Note:  Ranma 1/2 and its associated characters were created by 
Rumiko Takahashi, and no infringement is intended.)
			  Chapter Thirteen

	During the next month, many things happened.  Ranma got into lots 
of fights, including one with a Tea Ceremony martial artist.  He and 
Akane went on their first date.  It was a disaster.  I swear, those two 
could find something to argue about in Heaven, and Father and Mr. Tendou 
shadowing them all night and trying to force them to kiss didn't help.
	My own life was relatively peaceful, absent that "Romeo and 
Juliet" foolishness Ranma tried to hook me into.  Fortunately, I had 
actually read the play, and let him know in advance what it was about.  
And I wasn't about to compete with Akane for something she wanted so 
badly. That time the two almost kissed, but the duct tape made it rather 
silly.
	Shinnosuke sent me a couple of postcards from China.  Ryouga had 
managed to get them over there somehow, but wasn't able to find 
Jyuusenkyo afterwards.  The two were still feuding, though at the moment 
Shinnosuke had the upper hand.  [Hot water is rarer than cold, though it 
seems to spill on me more than I think it should.  Why I can't seem to 
dodge it, I don't know.]  As long as they were over there, Shinnosuke 
agreed with Ryouga that looking for a way to solve their dilemma was 
important.
	Oh, and Father and Mr. Tendou's old sensei showed up.  He's a 
perverted creep named Happosai, who likes feeling girls up and stealing 
their underwear.  I don't like him, but he doesn't bother me much, other 
than rifling my lingerie drawer.  Ranma hates him, because he's always 
coming up with perverted "training exercises", like raiding women's bath 
houses.
	But those are stories for another time.  The one I want to talk 
about now started with a field trip to downtown Tokyo.
	It was my day to be "on", and our class was visiting a history 
museum.  I was taking notes for Ranma, of course.  Our school attendance 
arrangement had become a routine, and though everyone thought it was 
unusual, it was shrugged off as just "more Saotome weirdness."
	Something I should mention for background.  There's a girl in our 
grade named Nuuko, who is...unfortunate in her appearance.  Some of the 
boys treat her rather cruelly, calling her "Inuko" and generally making 
insulting dog references towards her.  Akane has been known to swat those 
boys if they happen to be in range when they're obnoxious, and the other 
girls usually freeze them out to support Nuuko, but a handful of them 
have never seemed to learn.
	The classes were in the Chinese section of the museum, looking at 
various artifacts that had been dug up in archaeological expeditions, 
bought from dealers, or stolen in the last war (though our teachers 
preferred not to discuss that last option.)  Some of it was interesting, 
some of it was just boring fragments of pottery.  
	One of the display cases had, among other things, a bucket of 
silvery metal, with a ladle of the same substance.  It looked kind of 
mundane compared to the silks and brightly colored porcelain in the same 
case.
	Our guide, a middle-aged woman with greying hair and a monotone 
voice, pointed to the bucket.  "That is believed to be the Chiisuiton, an 
artifact of the vanished Musk Dynasty."
	"Who were they?" asked Yuka, who'd been doing most of the leading 
questions for the class.
	"According to legend, they were powerful warriors of the Qinghai 
region, who sought to gain even greater power to conquer all of China."  
The guide smiled in the way people telling a story they don't believe 
do.  "Supposedly, they used the Chiisuiton to turn animals into beautiful 
women who they then married, to gain the potent animal fighting abilities 
for their children.  The rulers were even said to have the blood of 
dragons in their veins!"
	"How exactly did they use the Chiisuiton, ma'am?" I asked, 
wondering if it had anything to do with Jyuusenkyo, which was after all 
in the same part of China.
	"The legends are garbled, but apparently they just filled the 
bucket with water and ladled it onto the animal."
	"Hear that, Inuko?" came a sharp voice from the back.  "They 
could even turn a dog like you into a beautiful girl."
	The guide glared at the interruption, as did most of the girls.  
Sayuri took Nuuko's hand to soothe her.
	"It's just legends, of course," reminded the guide.  "There's no 
such thing as magic."
	I kept my own counsel.
	"What happened to the Musk Dynasty?"  Yuka again.
	"If you believe the legends, they took too many animals as 
brides, and their children grew increasingly bestial.  Eventually they 
stopped caring about conquering China, or farming, or wearing clothing, 
and the different animal descendants starting fighting based on their 
bloodlines, until the people stopped being a kingdom altogether and just 
fled into the wilderness to live as feral creatures.
	"But those are just legends, designed to teach some sort of 
lesson to those who hear the story.  In reality, they were probably just 
a tribe that studied animal behaviors to learn fighting techniques, and 
eventually got wiped out by one of their neighbors."
	The guide then directed our attention to some pottery from the 
Tang Dynasty, and we moved out of the room.  I was lost in my wondering 
how much of the Musk Dynasty legends were true.
	What I later learned happened was that one of the boys who liked 
teasing Nuuko noticed that the lock on the glass case wasn't very good, 
and he pried it open with his pocket knife when no one was looking.  He 
took out the Chiisuiton, and went over to one of the bathrooms.  There he 
filled up the bucket with water, and rushed back to catch up with the 
class.  The only ones who noticed were his buddies, and they were 
interested in seeing how far he'd go, so they didn't say anything.
	The first I knew of it was when he yelled "Hey, Inuko!  Here's a 
cure!" and sent a volley of water at her.  And me and Akane and Sayuri 
too, since we were standing next to Nuuko.
	That water was *freezing*!  I shivered.  Even as used as I was to 
being cold and wet, I wasn't happy about it.
	"Must not have been enough!" laughed the boy, and launched 
another ladleful of freezing water.  Akane growled, stomped over to him, 
grabbed the bucket, and upended it over his head.  Then she slammed the 
bucket down so his head was stuck.  She can be awfully violent, though 
quite frankly he deserved it.  
	Nuuko was crying and I and Sayuri tried to comfort her.  The 
bully's friends had all made themselves scarce as soon as they saw he'd 
hit Akane, so he had to face the guide and the teacher all alone.  Nuuko 
was still herself, and the bully hadn't changed either, so apparently it 
was a legend, or the Chiisuiton only worked on animals.
	Us soaked girls sat out some of the tour so our uniforms could 
dry out a little.  I think we missed the Korean exhibit, mostly.
	We got home late in the afternoon, told our stories (though Akane 
emphasized to Nabiki that no real harm had come to her or me; she felt the 
bully had been punished enough.)  I did my homework, wrote the day's 
events in the diary I shared with Ranma, and went to bed.
	The next morning, I took Ranma's clothes with me to the changing 
room, set them aside, and got into the furo.
	I relaxed as the warmth of the water spread through my body.  It 
felt so good, I wanted to stay in there forever.  Then an alarm bell went 
off in my head, figuratively speaking.  I couldn't possibly be enjoying a 
hot bath.  The touch of hot water always blacked me out, and woke up 
Ranma.  Always.
	I looked down.  Yes, I was still me.  Was this a dream?  I 
pinched myself.  It hurt.  Well, if it was a dream, it was one where I 
could feel pain.  Maybe the water wasn't hot enough?  I ran the tap, and 
stuck my arm under it.
	I squealed in pain as I got scalded.  My arm was bright red where 
the water had hit it.  But even as the tub started to get dangerously 
hot, I still wasn't blacking out.
	There was a knock at the door.  "Ranma, are you done yet?  Other 
people need baths too, you know."
	"Sorry, Akane," I shouted back.
	"Oh, Ranko, haven't you changed yet?  Hurry up!" came her annoyed 
reply.  
	I got out of the tub, reluctantly.  I really enjoyed the relaxing 
soak, my very first one.  Maybe somehow the curse had gotten reversed?  I 
poured some cold water over myself.  No, I was still myself.  I took some 
hot water out of the tub and splashed myself again, still no change.  
Most puzzling, but I was going to be late for breakfast, so I quickly 
dressed and went back to my room to change clothing.
	There was some consternation when I appeared at the table with my 
schooldress on.
	"Isn't it Ranma's turn today?" asked Nabiki.  (Akane hadn't come 
out of the bath yet.)
	"Well...er..."
	"You're not trying to steal time from your brother, are you?" 
asked Father.  He'd gotten better about seeing me as a real person, but 
he still favored Ranma.
	"Umm...you see..."
	"Ranko, why haven't you changed yet!" "asked" Akane, who'd finally 
joined us.  "Ranma needs to help me with that project today."
	"I...I can't."
	"What do you *mean*, `I can't'?!" roared Father.  "I put up with 
enough foolishness, girl, I don't care what your emotional problem is, 
change back to Ranma!"
	I realized he though I meant I was afraid of turning into Ranma, 
or withholding him for selfish reasons.
	"No, no, I really can't change!"  I grabbed the teakettle and poured 
it over my head for emphasis.
	Everyone boggled.  They'd gotten so used to hot water equals 
Ranma that when it didn't happen, it was a total shock.
	"Oh my," said Kasumi, "I could have sworn the tea water was 
hot."  She touched the side of the kettle, and drew back her fingers.  
"It *was* hot."  
	"You see?"
	"What have you done to my son, you witch?" cried Father, grabbing 
at my lapels.
	"Uncle Saotome!" protested Akane, stomping on his foot to make 
him let me go.  "Ranko's your daughter!  She wouldn't do anything to hurt 
Ranma...would you?"  She turned to me, a bit of doubt in her eyes.
	"No, Akane, of course not.  I don't understand it either."
	Kasumi tried to smooth things over.  "Well, if no one understands 
it, then we should all finish breakfast.  If you don't hurry up and eat, 
you'll be late for school."
	Nabiki had already taken this to heart, but said, "Maybe you guys 
should talk to Doc Toufuu after school.  He's been researching that 
Jyuusenkyo stuff, right?"
	"Thanks, Nabiki.  We'll do that."  I sat down and managed to get 
at least some food away from Father's grasp.
	School went well.  Some people expressed curiosity about Ranma 
being missing, but they accepted a vague, "he's away" as an answer.  We 
did have a reputation for disappearing for no apparent reason.
	Kunou tried to ask me and/or Akane on a date again.  Akane (who 
had been looking forward to Ranma helping her with some sort of project 
for home ec) beat on him a bit to release some stress.  
	Afterwards, we went over to Dr. Toufuu's clinic.  I enjoyed 
sipping a cup of hot tea while we waited, and not having to worry about 
spilling it.
	After a demonstration of how I didn't change anymore, the sensei 
asked me what I'd done the previous day.  When I got to the part about 
the bucket, he stopped me.
	"The Musk Dynasty, you said?"
	"Yes, Sensei.  Why?"
	He dug through a pile of scrolls and old books on his desk.  "I 
ran across something on that while looking for a cure for your father."
	"A cure for Uncle Saotome?  Not Ranma?" asked Akane, confused.
	"Mr. Saotome turns into an animal, Akane.  It's much more 
dangerous to him than Ranma and Ranko's situation.  Ah, here it is."  He 
held up a scroll.
	He scanned it.  "Ah.  Here we are.  Excuse my rough 
translation...`Spring of Drowned Girl is even more tragic than the other 
springs of the Pools of Sorrow.  For the accursed warriors of the Musk 
Dynasty, in their hubris, used it to change innocent animals into maidens 
to slake their foul lusts.'  This was written by a member of the 
Joketsuzoku tribe of Amazons, you understand.  They were ancestral 
enemies of the Musk."
	"So the legend the guide told us is partially true.  But what 
does that have to do with the Chiisuiton?" I asked.
	"`The Bucket of Locking Water was used to trap the beasts in 
human form, that they might not escape, nor use their natural weapons 
against the unnatural Musk warriors.'"  Dr. Toufuu set down the scroll.  
"Apparently, the bucket in the museum is the genuine article."
	"So Ranko's stuck like that?  How long?"  Akane seemed worried.
	"The scroll implies the effects of the Chiisuiton are 
permanent."  
	Permanent.  Permanent!  The implications of that word made me sit 
still in wonder.
	"There must be some way of reversing it, right, Sensei?  I mean, 
we have to get Ranma back!"  Yes, she was genuinely shaken.
	Dr. Toufuu adjusted his glasses.  "Well, the scroll does imply 
there is some way of undoing the Chiisuiton, but it doesn't say what it 
is.  I'll do my best of course.  Some more scrolls are due in later this 
week."
	"Oh, please, Doctor Ono, you've just got to free Ranma!"  Akane 
must have been serious, calling him by his family name like that.  But I 
was a little irritated.
	"Are you really *that* anxious to get him back?  What did you 
call him last week, `perverted idiot insensitive jerk fathead'?"  
	"Well, yes," she admitted, "but I don't want him to go away 
forever."  
	"Don't worry, Akane.  You still have me."
	She bit her lip and tried to smile.  "Yeah, I still have you." 
	The sensei ushered us out, promising to call if he had any news.
	Father was missing when we came home, and the rest of the family 
didn't take the news too well.
	Mr. Tendou started wailing about how "Now our families will never 
be joined!"  As anxious as he is to have the Akane/Ranma marriage go 
through, I sometimes wondered if there wasn't more than just a silly 
promise to it.
	"Damn.  I'm running low on fresh Ranma pics, and now you're 
telling me the supplier is stuck?" griped Nabiki.  I knew his pictures 
didn't sell as well as mine (the girls being smarter shoppers than the 
boys, they only bought the quality ones) but it was an important sideline 
for her.
	Even Kasumi didn't look particularly happy about it.  "We'll just 
have to pray for Ranma's safe return to us.  Meanwhile, Ranko, would you 
like to help me make dessert?"
	Father didn't appear until well after dinner.  He looked like 
someone had beaten him up badly, and didn't talk to anyone before 
retiring to his room.
	I wasn't looking forward to telling him what was going on.


			TO BE CONTINUED

Next time, a new character joins the cast, as you've never seen him before!

Comments, please?
Early chapters of this can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Flats/5990

and I'll be reposting the more recent chapters today.

SKJAM!
"Trying to be a hero,
Winding up a zero,
Can scar a man forever,
right down to his soul."