Quantum Destinies
A Ranma Fanfic
By Steven Thesken (jurai-knight@home.com)

Editor (as of Chapter 10): D.B. Sommer (sommer@3rdm.net)

This idea occurred to me after I finished the science-fiction novel 
"Paths to Otherwhere" by James P. Hogan.  Ranma and all other 
associated characters are owned by Kitty and the ever-creative 
Rumiko Takahashi.  Any new characters are the property of the 
author.  This is purely a work of fanfiction done for fun, so please 
read and enjoy.

Notes: Thoughts will be bracketed by a * on each end.  Any 
speech other than Japanese will be bracketed by < and >.



Chapter 1 - A Life Unlived

    The soft whirring of the overhead fan was interrupted by a loud 
ringing sound.  A hand emerged from beneath a light blanket.  It 
slowly reached and fumbled around for the source of the noise.  A 
muted grumbling was heard from beneath the blanket as the hand 
took several long moments to track the sound to its source on the 
table.  A brief struggle was won, and silence reigned over the 
bedroom once more.

    A few minutes later, the door opened with a loud bang.  A pair 
of slippered feet made their way into the room, and stopped next 
to the futon.  A rather angry female voice made itself known.

    "Ranma!  You are _not_ going to be late for school again!"  
The figure waited to see what reaction occurred, slowly tapping 
one slippered foot.

    More grumbling was heard from beneath the blanket, then a 
little motion.  The motion became more and more frantic over the 
next several seconds.  More grumbling was heard, then a final 
flurry of motion occurred.  A male body emerged from beneath the 
covers over the futon.  Ranma Saotome was now officially awake.

    "I'm up, mother.  I'm up."  His voice had the mildly sullen tone 
of the typical teenaged boy in the morning.  The dream that he 
was having promptly evaporated into nothing.  He never could 
remember his dreams.

    Satisfied that her son was now awake and would not be late for 
school, Nodoka Saotome charged out of the room to finish making 
breakfast.  Ranma sat on the edge of his futon, and wished for the 
thousandth time that his parents weren't such traditionalists that 
he could have had a bed.  His mother would be scandalized at the 
thought.  His father would simply agree with his mother.

    Ranma got up off the floor and walked over to his closet.  When 
he reached it, he slid open the door.  He pulled his school uniform 
out of his closet with a hint of distaste.  Even though it was 
tailored to fit quite well, he still disliked wearing it on general 
principals.  He put on a clean shirt and socks from the drawer.  He 
eyed the hated uniform for a moment before struggling into it.

    *Now I look like a proper student for the Tokyo Imperial 
Academy.*  His mind was full of sincere hopes that he wouldn't 
run into any trouble today.  His independent study science project 
was near completion.  The last thing he needed was trouble from 
any of his fellow students.

    Breakfast was the usual affair.  His father, Genma Saotome, 
kept his nose buried in the newspaper, occasionally turning pages 
or grumbling at some new development in the world.  His mother, 
Nodoka Saotome, busied herself with delivering another delicious 
meal to the table before she sat down to eat.

    The family ate in relative silence.  Ranma gobbled down his 
food as fast as he could while under his mothers watchful eye, 
trying to avoid her usual morning lecture on his table manners.  
Genma occasionally gulped down some food, briefly emerging 
from behind the barrier of his newspaper.  All in all, it was 
another typical morning in the Saotome household.

    Upon finishing with his breakfast, Ranma picked up his 
bookbag and stuffed his personal notebook deep down inside.  
Inside it were his latest calculations, all dutifully recorded.  A 
large and rather weighty tome with the name "Quantum 
Mechanics and Parallel Universe Theory" joined it.  The author's 
name on the cover was "Dr. Genma Saotome."  He slung his 
bookbag up onto his shoulder, and headed out the door after 
putting on his shoes.  His parents watched him as he headed down 
the street.

    "I swear I don't know what is with that boy lately," grumbled 
Nodoka.  "All he cares about is this project of his."

    Genma grunted noncommittally.  Nodoka turned to look at 
him.  Her look was one that Genma had come to see lately all too 
often.

    "He wants to prove your theories correct.  Do you think he 
can?"

    "My son will succeed.  I didn't drag him over half the world for 
the last ten years, to every center of learning I could find, to have 
him fail.  You really  shouldn't coddle the boy, Nodoka.  You will 
see that I kept my promise.  He will be the greatest mind that the 
Empire has ever seen."  Pride filled his voice.

    "We'll see, Genma."  A small particle of doubt could be heard 
in her voice.

                    ******************************

    Ranma walked along at a leisurely pace.  School was not one of 
his favorite places to be.  It wasn't that he did poorly at it.  On the 
contrary, it was too easy for him.  After following his father all 
over the world for so many years, having learned at the feet of 
every scholar and scientist that the old man could coerce into 
teaching him, school had been a relief.  Ranma had been initially 
content to attend regular classes with other students his own age.  
He had quickly grown bored though, and his lack of social skills 
hadn't helped with his classmates.

    He almost collided with one of the annoyances in his life when 
he turned the next corner.  He stumbled, dropping his bag, as a 
deft footsweep caused him to lose his balance.  The day was still 
new, and it was already looking bad.

    "Watch out, you clumsy weakling!" shouted an angry female 
voice.  He looked up and grimaced inwardly.  Standing before 
him, in her gray Imperial Security cadet uniform, was Akane 
Tendo.  Her older sister Nabiki, also in the gray colors of an 
Imperial Security cadet save for one extra hash mark on the 
sleeve, stood next to Akane with a smirk on her face.

    "Ranma dear," purred Nabiki, "you should make more of an 
effort to be aware of your surroundings."  She flashed a cold 
smile.  It chilled Ranma to the bone.  He had heard that Nabiki 
Tendo already had a promising future mapped out ahead of her in 
the Imperial Secret Police.

    *This is all I need today.*  Ranma kept his face composed as he 
gets back to his feet.  The Thug, as he referred to Akane in the 
privacy of his own thoughts, watched him stand up with a frown 
on her face.  Nabiki watched him with a cool look of detached 
interest.  He bowed his head after regaining his feet.

    "My sincerest apologies, ladies."  He hoped that the faint hint 
of mockery that he felt was not present in his voice.  He kept his 
head down as Akane looked at him for a long moment, before she 
turned with an angry sniff and stomped away.  Nabiki gave him 
another cool smile, and her hand reached out to caress his face.  
Her hand felt warm, but he imagined that he could feel his skin 
crawl at her touch.

    "Be more careful in the future, Ranma dear.  We both know 
that Akane is one to bear grudges for the smallest of slights."  She 
turned with proper military form, and hurried only slightly to 
catch up with her sister.  Ranma watched them walk off before 
taking a slightly different route to school.

                    ******************************

    "You should learn to take it easy when it comes to Saotome, 
little sister.  All that anger can't be good for you."  Nabiki walked 
with an unconscious precision to her stride, her appearance that of 
the perfect Imperial officer.

    "Grrr.  I still haven't forgiven him for what he did at the 
beginning of the year."  Akane kicked a stone through the fence 
and into the drainage stream as she stomped along in a foul mood.  
*Damn you, Ranma Saotome.  I wish you weren't always such a 
weakling.*

    "As I recall it, that incident wasn't entirely his fault.  Someone 
switched the signs for the locker rooms on the first day of school."  
Nabiki smiled as she recalled the look on her sisters face that day 
when Ranma had walked into the girl's locker room.  It had been 
one of her better pranks on her little sister.  The few of Nabiki's 
associates who knew of her involvement would never tell.  Nabiki 
chose her allies carefully.

    "I still think it was just an excuse that Ranma made up in order 
to peep."  Akane could feel her insides as they began to seethe 
from her remembered embarrassment.  She had come out of the 
showers to see a surprised Ranma Saotome looking at her.  The 
other girls from her class had been conveniently absent.  Akane 
had pummeled him to within an inch of his life.

    "You also got detention for a week for harming the star intellect 
of the school."  Nabiki smirked as her sister blushed with obvious 
annoyance.  Baiting her little sister was a favorite game.  Even 
though the Tendo family had served with distinction in Imperial 
Security for almost two centuries, Nabiki just could not see Akane 
as rising very far in rank due to her aggressive nature.

    Akane grumbled to herself the rest of the way to school.  *This 
is all Ranma's fault!  He's a boy.  I keep provoking him.  Why 
won't he fight me?*

                    ******************************

    Ranma finally arrived at the gate surrounding Tokyo Imperial 
Academy.  Built almost ninety years ago, it was a very stolid, but 
dreary-looking structure.  The Emperor of that time had wanted to 
construct a site for serious learning, along the lines of the finest 
schools of far-off lands such as Germany  or Russia.  The 
architecture was to mirror the seriousness of the purpose it was 
built for.  Ranma just found it oppressive.

    His morning classes were dull, even at the accelerated program 
that Ranma was in.  In his current class, he listened half-heartedly 
as the instructor droned on about some lesser-known aspects of 
the history of the Empire.  *Who really cares about some failed 
revolution in Britain's old North American colonies?,* he thought 
with a bored sigh.  The western region of North America had been 
a colony of the Empire for over a century, after the war with 
Spain.  *Would the shape of the world really have changed that 
much?*  There had been peace in the world for the last several 
decades, since it was divided up among the three superpowers in 
the last war: Japan, Germany, and Russia.  Ranma couldn't care 
less about history himself.  Science was all that mattered to him.

    Finally, he was released into his personal study period and 
headed down into the labs in the basement.  Today would be the 
day when he finally solved the problem that had plagued him, and 
he would see another world.

                    ******************************

    *Almost got it.*  Ranma carefully adjusted the small soldering 
iron as he set the last chip in place on the circuit board.  *There.*  
The new chip snapped into place and was held solidly by a few 
daubs of lead solder.  He pushed the board back into place and ran 
the system through final checkout.  The monitor brightened into 
life next to him as he sat with the keyboard in his lap.

*SELF-CHECK COMPLETE

*ALL LOGIC COMPONENTS ARE FUNCTIONING WITHIN 
THE DESIGNATED PARAMETERS

*QUANTUM FLUX COIL IS FUNCTIONING WITHIN THE 
DESIGNATED PARAMETERS

*NEURAL INDUCTION SENSORS ARE FUNCTIOING 
WITHIN THE DESIGNATED PARAMETERS

*SYSTEM HAS 10 QUANTUM COORDINATES STORED IN 
STABLE MEMORY

*SCAN FOR NEW COORDINATES:  YES

*SELECT QUANTUM BAND FOR SCAN:  RANDOM

*SET CYCLE INTO ACTIVE MODE:  YES

*SET TIME DURATION FOR TEST:  60.00 MINUTES

*WAITING FOR SIGNAL FROM NEURAL HEADSET

    Ranma sat back and contemplated the machine assembled in 
front of him on the lab floor.  He could hardly believe that it was 
finished.  After two years of polishing his fathers theories, three 
months of design work, and almost a month of assembling a 
mishmash of prototype components, it was now done.  The proof 
of his father's theories lay before him.  The Quantum Neural 
Resonator was finally finished.

    Ranma picked up the bulky neural induction headset.  All his 
calculations told him it should work.  Every piece of the device 
had been checked and re-checked.  If he was going to do it, it 
might as well be now.  The random search program was engaged, 
but would not engage until he put the headset on.  This would 
give the system a comparison model to use to begin searching for 
a likely quantum signature match.  He could have gone with one 
of the ones that he had already gotten a signature match to during 
his earlier limited tests, but he decided the first full-powered test 
should be to a set of coordinates scanned from scratch.

    He took the precaution of locking the lab door, and the recall 
mode for the Resonator was already set for an hour.  *That should 
give me sufficient time to look around.*

    He settled back onto the couch he had dragged down from one 
of the storage rooms.  It had been used as a prop in a number of 
school plays, but it suited his purposes.  The headset settled easily 
onto his head, the background hum of the Resonator feeling like a 
faint tickle along the inside of his skull.

    *This is it.  I wonder what it will feel like?*

    In the background, the soft computer-generated voice began its 
repetitive statement, "Searching... Searching... Searching...."

    Suddenly, "Quantum signature found.  Activating cycle."

                    ******************************

    There was a brief moment of dislocation, then Ranma found 
himself in another place, another life.  What was unexpected was 
the rush of memories from that other life that filled his awareness 
after a few moments.  It was rather distracting and even more 
disorienting.  He was confused a moment by his surroundings, so 
he didn't realize that someone was addressing him immediately.

    "Mister Saotome!  Have you fallen asleep in my class, you 
delinquent? What is the answer to the question?"  An annoyed-
looking eight year old girl was shouting at him.

    He looked around quickly.  A classroom full of students looked 
back at him.  The uniforms even looked similar to the ones he was 
used to.  To his surprise, Akane Tendo was sitting behind him and 
glaring at him.  She even wore her hair the same way that he 
remembered from home.  She pointed to her text with a final 
glare.  Ranma glanced down at a similar book in front of him and 
flipped to the same page.  Luckily, it was apparently a math class.

    "The answer is the cube root of seventeen, teacher," he 
answered absently.

    The child teacher, Miss Hinako his new memories prompted, 
looked more than somewhat surprised, to say the least.

    "Th... that's right.  You are correct."  She wandered off to ask 
another student about a different problem, still looking surprised.

    "So you _did_ study last night after all," a voice stage-
whispered behind him.  "I thought you were too busy training 
nowadays."

    "I... uh... found the time later," Ranma whispered back.

    Ranma found himself somewhat overwhelmed by the memories 
of a life he had never lived, but intrigued too.  This Ranma had 
traveled for over ten years with his father to learn martial arts.  
His life was a confusing kaleidoscope of random memories.  Brief 
flashes of people met, and various fighting techniques learned 
filled his mind.  A strong image of a valley of pools of water filled 
his mind for a moment, but it was gone before he could focus on 
it.  *Jusenkyo?*  He was engaged by his father to marry Akane 
Tendo, but several other girls also claimed him.

    *Engaged to marry Akane Tendo?*  The very thought made 
him feel slightly ill.  From this Ranma's memories, he could tell 
that Akane Tendo was as much of a thug here as the one he 
remembered from home.  He found himself feeling sorry for the 
poor fool.  He felt even more surprised when he sensed feelings of 
love and affection for Akane associated with the memories, but 
buried beneath layers of denial.

    *Ranma Saotome loves Akane Tendo?  Ranma Saotome falls in 
love with a brutish, angry girl who constantly beats him up?  This 
Ranma needs some serious mental help.*  Ranma looked out the 
window as he mused on the very strange life of his quantum 
counterpart.

    The bell rang while Ranma was pondering these things.

    *Lunchtime.*  He looked at the clock on the wall.  *I have 
about fifty minutes before recall occurs.*  Ranma sat at his desk 
for a minute before the smell of food from his bookbag finally got 
the better of him.  He pulled out his lunch, and set it on his desk 
as his mind wandered.  *Whatever it is smells fantastic.*

    Not too surprising, most of the memories of this Ranma's life 
were rather incomplete.  Apparently, immersion into another life 
did not immediately provide complete access to all the memories 
from that life.  *I'll have to set the timer for longer next time.  
That should let me get more of a feel for my quantum 
dopplegangers life.*

    He felt a tap on the back of his skull.

    "Are you just going to sit there and ignore me through all of 
lunch?"  The voice of an annoyed Akane Tendo disturbed his 
upcoming enjoyment of what smelled like a delicious lunch.

    Ranma sighed softly, and turned around.

    "Sorry about that.  I was just thinking about some things."  He 
hoped if he sounded meek enough, it would defuse the infamous 
Akane Tendo wrath.  She softened her gaze, which surprised him.  
His Akane had never looked at him with the slightest amount of 
warmth.  She saw him as a weakling, since he hadn't spend his 
life learning how to break bricks with his fists like she had done.

    This Akane felt different, and he had to revise his opinion of 
her a little.  Maybe if he didn't do or say anything that this Ranma 
normally did to make her mad, she might even smile at him.

    *Where the hell did _that_ thought come from?*  He blinked a 
moment.

    "Are you okay, Ranma?"  Akane looked at him in mild 
concern.

    "I'm fine, Akane."  He risked a smile, and she smiled in return.

    "Nihao, Ranma!"  A perky female voice spoke up behind his 
head.  The look on Akane's face darkened into a scowl, and she 
turned her head aside with a slight huffing sound.

    Ranma turned around to see a bouncy female body to match the 
perky voice.  She was sitting in the window, holding a delivery 
box.  *Shampoo,* his new memories prompted, *proud Chinese 
Amazon warrior girl.*  He smiled at her, and she smiled in 
return.

    "Ranma happy to see Shampoo?"  She leaped at him in a single 
bound and hugged him without dropping her delivery box. Ranma 
had never been greeted by a beautiful girl like this before.  It was 
more than a little pleasant.  He started to return the hug, but a 
quivering at the back of his skull made him glance behind him.  
Akane was glaring at him again.

    "Ranma," slowly said a furious Akane, "what do you think you 
are doing?"

    "I was about to give Shampoo a hug."  The words seemed to 
just slip out before he could think about the possible 
repercussions.  "What do you think about that?"

    "DIE RANMA!!!"  Akane picked up and threw a desk at the 
couple for further emphasis of her point.

    Ranma grabbed Shampoo and jumped over the hurtling desk, 
which sailed out the window.  It did so, amazingly enough, 
without touching the edges of the open window.  A loud crash was 
heard from below a few moments later.

    "Ranma save Shampoo from violent girl."  Shampoo snuggled 
in his arms happily.  Visions of Ranma's heroism danced in her 
head.  Her voice had dropped into a purring tone.

    "Ranma honey?  What do you think you're doing?"  A large 
metal object attempted to pry Shampoo out of his grip.  Another 
girl was on the end of it.

    *Ukyou Kuonji,* his new memories flashed up, *okonomiyaki 
chef and also engaged to Ranma.*  He let go of Shampoo, and 
Ukyou pried her off of him.  Ukyou moved between him and 
Shampoo.

    "You stay away from Ranma, you Chinese bimbo!"  Ukyou took 
up an aggressive stance, her combat spatula at the ready.

    "Ranma is husband of Shampoo, stupid spatula girl!"  Shampoo 
took up a combat stance of her own, looking ready for anything.

    *I've never had women fighting over me before.*  Ranma just 
marveled at the novelty of the experience.  Both of them looked 
pretty determined to fight over him.  Akane just stood to one side 
and glowered at all three of them.

    "Please don't fight," he said rather louder than he intended.  All 
three women looked at him in surprise.  Akane was so surprised 
she forgot to glare at him for a moment.  "I just want to eat my 
lunch in peace."

    "Shampoo bring you delicious lunch." She grabbed her delivery 
box off a nearby desk, and pulled out a bowl of something.  She 
whipped it under his nose, a steaming bowl of ramen noodles.  
Shampoo smirked at Ukyou.

    "I've got your lunch right here, Ranma honey."  A small grill 
appeared as if from nowhere, and a blur of cooking took place.  
Faster than he would have imagined possible, Ukyou presented 
him with a plate of okonomiyaki while sticking her tongue out at 
Shampoo.

    Ranma felt he was rapidly reaching the limits of his ability to 
deal with the female of the species.  The two women nearest him 
alternated adoring gazes in his direction with murderous gazes at 
each other.  Akane just looked upset at all three of them equally.

    "Umm... that's fine.  Just put it on my desk, and I'll try to eat it 
all."  He sat down and started to eat the original lunch he brought 
out.  Two more full lunches were set down next to it by the two 
girls.  Both of them sat down at two recently-vacated desks next to 
him and sighed as they watched him eat.  Akane just glared in the 
trio's direction.

    *I think I could get used to this.*  Ranma ate with a smile.  
Akane moved off to eat with some of the other girls in class, still 
glaring at Ranma.

                    ******************************

    Ranma shook his head to clear it.  The clock on the wall read 
an hour later than he last remembered it.  *Did I fall asleep sitting 
up?  Oh no!  I missed lunch!*  He didn't feel hungry, which was 
odd.  He would have to ask Akane if he had missed anything 
important.

    He glanced down at the book on his desk, and sighed when he 
realized it was his English book.  What didn't quite register 
immediately, but did within a few moments, was that he could 
make sense of it all of a sudden, and English had always been his 
worst subject.  *Must be from that year I spent in Britain.  
Waitasec.... Britain?*

                    ******************************

    Ranma opened his eyes and smiled.  The experiment had been 
an incredible and unqualified success.  He slipped off the headset 
and stretched his arms out until his spine pops lightly.  Bracing 
one hand against the couch, he flipped off in a smooth midair 
somersault and landed on his feet.  He then froze for a moment.

    *When did I learn how to do that?*  He stared at his arm for a 
long moment.  *Memory transferal?  Could it be both ways?*