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Revised slightly, and hopefully improved!
Send comments to karaohki@snet.net



Just Add Hot Water

A Ranma 1/2 fanfic by June "KaraOhki" Geraci
April 15, 2001
Revised May 20, 2001


Ranma 1/2 is the creation and property of Rumiko
Takahashi.  I'm merely borrowing it for a bit.
This story was written for entertainment purposes
and may not be used commercially

------------------------

Bayankala Region, China.

The earth shook.

Everyone for miles around took cover or fell to the
ground, holding on and hoping the movement would
stop.  An ear-splitting shriek rang out, causing
widespread panic.  People fled in every direction
or collapsed in tears, praying to their gods for
deliverance.  Why had this scourge come to China?

Then as suddenly as it had begun, it stopped.
Mothers picked up their children and covered them
with kisses, weeping in relief.  People scanned the
horizon, looking for the horrible vision that they
had been expecting.  What had happened?

*****

A light rain pattered on the roof of a small house
where a man held his crying daughter in his arms.
The shrieks outside were getting louder, and they
had nowhere to hide.  Then there was no sound but
the rain on the roof.  They waited a full hour
before venturing outside.  While they did so a
newly cursed creature crawled out of a spring and
walked away, growling softly to itself.  Soon the
rain erased any tracks it left behind.

*****

A group of warriors left their village and searched
the area for signs of what they had heard but not
seen.  They were beginning to think that they had
imagined everything when they found the giant
tracks leading to the cursed springs.  The tracks
were full of water, softening the edges, but they
had no doubt what had been there.  They also had no
doubts as to what had been the fate of their
visitor.  Jusenkyo had claimed another victim.

"Now is the time to find it," said one.  "We must
track it down and kill it."

"That would be an excellent idea if we knew what
form it had taken," replied one of her friends,
"but I see no tracks leading from the springs."

Despite this handicap, the women searched for
several days before giving up and returning home.
During this time they had slain many small animals,
taking the precaution of pouring hot water on each
one just before death took it.  Unfortunately, none
of them proved to be cursed.

*****

Miles away, the wandering animal stumbled into a
hot spring.

*****

A Chinese soldier sat on a hilltop, watching the
approaching monster through his binoculars.  He
picked up a radio and called his commanding
officer.

"He is heading for the ocean, General.  Perhaps he
wants to go home."

"Let him!  I don't know how he got here with no one
seeing, but we're damn lucky he didn't kill anyone!
Tell everyone to stay out of the way."

"Yes, sir!"

*****

Godzilla approached the ocean.  He had been looking
for it for days, but this land had such huge trees
that he couldn't see it.  Then he walked through
the hot spring into a place with much smaller
trees, and the first thing he saw was the distant
sea.  He knew that his home was on the other side
of that sea and he headed toward it, walking over
and through anything in his way.

*****

"I don't believe it!"

"What don't you believe, soldier?  Report!"

"He's gone!  He got to the beach, and he just
disappeared!"

"You mean he went into the water?"

"No!  He walked into the surf, and then he just
vanished!  I can't spot him anywhere!"

There was a long silence before the soldier got a
reply.

"We'll send a plane out to search.  As for you,
report back here!  You have some explaining to do."

*****

Nerima Ward, Japan.

Kasumi sat in the living room, her mind half on the
mending in her lap and half on the newscast.  Then
her head jerked up, she stared at the screen, and
she jumped to her feet.  Soun and Genma looked up
from their game and went white.

"Ranma!  Akane!  Come quickly!"

Pounding footsteps came down the stairs and Ranma
ran into the room half a second ahead of his
fiancee.  "What's wrong?" he asked.

Kasumi pointed at the television screen.  "Look!"

On the screen, the announcer was pointing at a map
of China.  "The first sightings of Godzilla were in
this area, where he mysteriously vanished.  No
further sightings occurred until this morning, when
he was seen several kilometers from the sea.
Chinese military followed Godzilla's movements
until he reached the shore, where reports say that
he mysteriously vanished."

"Godzilla?"  Akane suddenly found herself hanging
onto Ranma's hand.  "He's back?"

Ranma shrugged.  "What are you so excited about?
He's in China!  Let THEM worry about him!"

Soun began to wail.  "Noooo!  He mustn't come back
here!  He took my darling wife, and now he'll take
my babies!"

"Now, now, Tendo," said Genma.  "Listen to the boy.
We probably won't see him at all."

Ranma just stared.  No one had ever explained to
him how Mrs. Tendo had died.  It was Godzilla's
fault?  No wonder Mr. Tendo was such a wreck.

Kasumi switched off the television, where the story
had shifted to baseball scores.  "I hope the two of
you are right.  I remember." she sniffled, and
fought hard to maintain her composure.  "I remember
she pushed us out of the way, but she couldn't run
fast enough."  Kasumi burst into tears and ran
upstairs, followed by her youngest sister.

*****

The news was filled with the hunt for Godzilla for
several days.  Planes from China searched to no
avail, and the Japanese government also took the
precaution of searching, but there was no sign of
the monster.

The members of the Tendo and Saotome families
watched the news as an expert gave his opinion.
"Godzilla has gone back to sleep," he said.  "There
have been no signs of his presence - none at all.
Therefore we can conclusively state that there is
no danger."

An exhausted little animal clung to the piece of
driftwood he had chanced upon, watching the distant
shoreline.  It seemed to be getting closer, and he
was so hungry and tired.


*****

A young woman leaned back in the hot spring, eyes
half closed.  The smell of grilling food made her
mouth water, and she looked up to see how her
husband was progressing making their lunch.

"Is that nearly done?"

"A few more minutes.  You don't want it raw, do
you?"

"I suppose not."  The girl paused before smiling
seductively at her husband.  "If you don't HAVE to
watch it cook, why not come sit with me?"

The couple was so involved in each other that they
didn't hear the approach of the animal; but they
did hear when the grill was knocked over.  Both
looked up to see a small black pig eating their
steak.

"Hey!  Cut that out!"  The young man kicked out and
sent a spray of water in the direction of the
marauder.  "That's OUR lunch!"

The pig rippled, changed color, and grew.  The last
thing the two young people thought was that they
would have been better off letting him eat their
lunch.

*****

The live report had everyone glued to the
television.  A reporter stood there in the rain,
with an umbrella in one hand and a microphone in
the other.

".completely destroyed the spa behind me, and
devoured a pair of newlyweds before vanishing into
thin air.  If not for the reports of eyewitnesses
and the tracks left behind it would be difficult to
believe that Godzilla is here.  No trace can be
found of him, and his tracks simply stop.  Everyone
is urged to remain calm and wait for more
information."

Ranma's arm crept around Akane.  His fiancee was
trembling.  Then a huge crash and a hole in the
wall announced the arrival of another young woman.

"Ranma protect Shampoo from monster!"

Before Ranma could reply another girl took
advantage of the hole in the wall, and he was
confronted by Ukyo.

"Ran-chan!  He's COMING!"

"Um!"

"Boy, it's a martial artist's obligation to protect
those weaker than him!  You do that!"  Soun and
Genma turned toward the hole in the wall but found
it blocked by everyone in the room.

"Where are the two of you going?" demanded Nabiki.

"Nowhere?" said Soun.

"Right," replied Akane, stroking her mallet
affectionately.

*****

He was hungry, tired, and extremely irritable.
There was something wrong with him, because he
couldn't breathe fire, and everything was too big.
Those irritating two-legged creatures were bigger
here, and none of them were afraid of him.  He
needed food, and he needed rest.

Rest won.  As he slept, he was lifted up by a pair
of small hands and carried off.

*****

"Wake up, Charlotte!"

Godzilla opened his eyes and growled.  Azusa
giggled, and patted his head, narrowly avoiding
having her fingers removed.

"Good morning, Charlotte!  Does little Charlotte
want breakfast?  Is little Charlotte hungry?"

The only reply Azusa got was a growl, but that just
made her giggle again.  "You're not a morning
person, are you?  Mommy will bring breakfast!"

Ten minutes later Godzilla the piglet was devouring
a substantial breakfast.  That made him feel
somewhat better, until the irritating person who
had just fed him picked him up and hugged him
fiercely.

*****

The phone rang at the Tendo Dojo, and Akane ran to
answer it, to discover that her friend Yuka was
calling.

"Akane, I thought you should know this.  That ice
skating girl Azusa has your pig again."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes.  I saw her going into her house this morning,
and she had him in her arms."

Akane went from calm to furious in a second.  "How
COULD she!  I'm going to get him back right now!"

*****

Azusa hummed happily as she ran the bath.  Her cute
widdle Charlotte was a teensy bit smelly and dirty,
and needed a nice bubble bath.

She also hoped that a bath would make Charlotte
happier, since she'd spent the last hour throwing
herself against the bars of her cage and growling.
She opened the cage and removed the struggling
piglet, once again avoiding the snapping teeth.

"Be good, Charlotte!  The nice bath will make you
all better!"

Azusa tossed the piglet into the tub and fell over
as something went through the roof of the house.
Her eyes followed the large green foot in front of
her up, up to the gleaming teeth.

"Charlotte!  What did you do?"

The foot was raised and came down towards her,
making a huge footprint in what had once been
Azusa's lovely bathing room.  Then Godzilla moved
on, leaving the girl under the rubble she had
rolled beneath to avoid being crushed.  As he did
so the burst pipes soaked him, and a small pig ran
out of the wreckage and out of sight.

When Akane arrived at Azusa's home, she found a
rescue team extracting her from the wreckage.

"Charlotte!  Charlotte!"

"Is there someone else inside?" asked one of the
rescue workers.  Akane held her breath waiting for
the response.

"My Charlotte was here, but she got big and walked
away!"

"Don't bother listening to her, she's obviously
hysterical," said one of the paramedics as they
carried Azusa off.  "Anyone who has Godzilla step
on her house has a right to be."

Akane turned around and ran towards home.

*****

"Well, look who's here!"

Godzilla-pig looked up and saw an unfamiliar face.
Then again, all humans were unfamiliar to him,
except the one who had put him in a cage.  If he
ever saw her again he would eat her.  He tried to
duck out of the way but a ribbon wrapped itself
around him and he fell over, hopelessly tangled.

"If it isn't Akane Tendo's pet!  How lovely to see
you again."  Kodachi began walking; the pig firmly
tucked under one arm.

"Perhaps I can convince Akane Tendo to trade you
for her fiance.  After all, she loves you more than
she does him."

*****

"Ranma!  Find my baby!  She's out there all alone,
and Godzilla is here!  FIND MY BABY!!!"

"I will as soon as you let go!" replied Ranma
irritably as he tried to get loose from the
stranglehold Mr. Tendo had on him.  Soun released
him and Ranma took off.  He had no idea where Akane
was, but he was determined to find her.

*****

"What are you doing with that filthy creature?"

Kodachi frowned at her brother, who was sitting at
the table enjoying a late breakfast.  "Holding him
hostage.  I intend to trade him for my darling
Ranma!"

"I wish you success, Sister!  With the fiend
Saotome out of my way, surely the fair Akane will
be mine!"  As he spoke, Kuno gestured with his
teacup, sending the contents onto his sister and
the pig.  Kuno pulled his sister out of the way in
time to keep her from being crushed.

*****

Something was moving.  Something that looked
edible.  Godzilla looked down and grabbed the thing
that was sunning itself on the lawn.  Midorikame
became his second breakfast of the day.  It tasted
wonderful, but the hole in Godzilla's stomach was
still there.  He needed something more to eat.  He
looked over the wall of the Kuno home and spotted
many two-legged creatures running away.

Behind Godzilla, Kuno waved his sword.  "Begone,
foul creature!  How dare you trample on the Kuno
home!"  Godzilla didn't hear him.  He was too busy
focusing on the potential meals on the other side
of the wall, and stepped toward them, into
Midorikame's pond.

Godzilla vanished, and Kuno sheathed his sword.
"Surely Godzilla is even more cowardly than
Saotome!  He dared not gaze on the face of Tatewaki
Kuno, but instead fled in terror!"

*****

The sound of screaming was enough to make Ranma run
toward it.  People running in the opposite
direction impeded his progress, but he continued
on.  Beyond them there was nothing - just deserted
streets.  Then he caught movement out of the corner
of his eye.

"Hey, Ryoga!  What are YOU doin' here?"

Ranma picked up the pig and started back the way he
had come.  "I gotta get you back to the house so
you can change back and help me find Akane.  Just
don't go getting' lost on me!  Godzilla's around!"

The pig in his arms growled and bit him.

"Ow!"  Ranma swatted the pig and held him up to his
face, avoiding the teeth.  "Willya cut that out!
Akane's missing!"

*****

Akane trudged into the house.  She hadn't found her
pet, and the entire city was in a panic.  Perhaps
Ranma would help her look for him.  She felt safer
when he was around, even if she'd never admit it to
him.  She turned around to shut the door and heard
a familiar voice.

"Hey, Akane!  What's going on?  Everybody is going
crazy!"

"Ryoga!  Haven't you heard?  Godzilla's here!"

"Godzilla?  I'll protect you!"  Ryoga rushed into
the house and closed the door.  "Where's Ranma?
Did that coward run away?"

Then both paused as they heard a familiar voice.

"Hold still, willya Ryoga!  I'm just trying to
help!"

Akane rushed to the back door, followed by Ryoga.
She found Ranma just outside, holding a kettle of
hot water in one hand and P-chan in the other.

"Who are you calling Ryoga?  I'm right here!"

Ranma whirled at the sound of Ryoga's voice.  Akane
stood behind him, Ryoga beside her.  Ranma blinked
before his nerveless fingers dropped the pig onto
the porch.  The kettle soon followed, and the yard
became extremely full.

*****

Food.  There was food down there, and it smelled
delicious.  Godzilla leaned down and looked his
victims in the eyes.

Then he howled in pain, as two of the puny
creatures in front of him raised their hands and
blinding lights flew toward his eyes, followed by
searing pain.  His attackers covered their ears at
the sound at the same time as he stepped backwards,
clawing at his eyes.

*****

Ranma held his ears, trying not to pass out from
the pain.  Akane was already on the ground, holding
her ears and sobbing.  His and Ryoga's attack had
given them a few seconds' time, and he needed to
get his fiancee away before she met the same fate
her mother had.  By his side Ryoga was getting to
his feet, and they moved as one toward Akane.
Ranma lifted her into his arms and she clutched him
frantically and buried her face in his chest.
Ranma started to run into the house, intending to
exit through the front,  but stumbled on the porch
when the earth shook as Godzilla took a step toward
him.  Akane went limp in his arms, and he set her
down just inside the house and turned around to
face his opponent.  Ryoga stood at his side.

Then another roar filled the air, but it didn't
come from Godzilla, but from the sky above him.  A
second later, it began to rain.  Ranma and Ryoga
stared in mingled shock and relief as Godzilla
shrank and changed.  The pig growled, ran into the
house and leaped at Ranma, who caught him easily.
He held the struggling animal and looked at his
friend.  Their eyes met, and no words were needed.

*****

That evening three shaken young people stood behind
the house, staring at a small mound of earth on the
far side of the pond.  Akane pulled out a pad and
scribbled a note.  Ranma and Ryoga stood close
together and read it in the fading light.

"Should we tell anyone?"

Ranma shook his head negatively, and wrote for a
few moments.  "We better not.  Nobody would believe
us."

Ryoga grabbed the pad and made a note of his own.
"We can't hear their questions anyway.  You sure
this is temporary?"

"The doctor said so," was Akane's written reply.
"He said we were lucky."

They all looked again at Godzilla's grave.  They
had been very lucky.

--------------

Blame this one on my brother PikaOhki.  He thought
of the idea, but wouldn't write the story no matter
how hard I begged him to.












--------------------------------------------------
www.karaohki.com
--------------------------------------------------
     You could turn this way,
I'm also lonely
     this autumn evening

Basho


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