Story: Cursed Joketsuzuko

I actually had this written a week ago before going offline. I've also written quite a lot on Curvy Akane, but couldn't access my notes on Asuka WP so that's not really got anything done on it yet. I'll finish off those two before working on ANDFR, and hopefully this weekend I'll be able to have everything all caught up.


The visitors were seen approaching from quite some distance. This makes sense. A village like this used to be quite the warrior’s haven, and therefore it is readonable that anyone approaching it should be known of well in advance. Better the time to prepare defenses. Better the time to rouse the warriors and construct a battle plan! Of course, modern advantages certainly helped as well, and this old woman was peering through a pair of binoculars at them. The village didn’t get too many visitors these days, sad to say…

Cologne regarded the three of them warily. One was known to them. The Jusenkyo guide. How the poor man hadn’t fallen in a spring by now was a mystery to her. Perhaps he was so fearful of the curses that he took better care than visitors? Perhaps he had some form of protection lest he be cursed? He certainly didn’t have any idea of the cure! It seemed likely that was why he was coming. Her gaze flicked over to the larger figure. Yes. That did make a lot of sense. No doubt that panda carrying a rucksack was the latest victim of that valley.

Then there was the girl. Something about her kept drawing Cologne’s attention. Why was that? Was it the simple fact that she was not flaunting her body like every other young girl she’d seen the last several years? Was it the fact that she was wearing a gi a little too big for her? She could but speculate. It was a shame, really. This would have been the day of the festival normally, but the celebration had been cancelled some years back. No point to it anymore, not when the girls simply weren’t interested in - as they would put it - getting bruised or beaten up for the sake of a bit of fruit. The boys weren’t so impressed with strength these days anyway, so why go to all the trouble?

That line of thought sickened her to the core of her being. It went against every principle she ever believed in. She remembered a time when the village champion would hold their head up high as they sat down to consume their prize after a long day of tiring battles. Why, Cologne even hoped Shampoo would have won this very year, but… No, it was not to be. It was not…

What was it about this girl that kept drawing her attention? She could see them approaching quite clearly without the binoculars now, and she could plainly see that there wasn’t anything truly remarkable about her. Even so, Cologne’s old instincts rarely let her down, and right now they were - They were -

How very peculiar.

It happened the moment she set foot on Joketsuzoku soil. The girl sort of froze in place, her back leg still resting upon its toes as she prepared to lift it for the next step forward. Her eyes had gone wide, her body completely still save for a trembling motion that went from her planted leg all the way up her body until even her pigtail was standing clear up in the air, pointed at the sky.

And then the change hit. Oh, Cologne had seen it a few times here and there. The sudden, almost inexplicable alteration in mass, the quickening of the breath, the mad scramble to get whatever was around her chest away from her chest because it was suddenly much too small while keeping at least one hand on the lower half of their outfit lest it drop from their waist. In this case that resulted in a bit of a paradox. Her gi top was held closed by a belt, but that same belt held her trousers up. Ah! But she seemed to get the trick to it, simply retying the belt around the trousers only. Quick thinking in a panic situation, very good.

“Wh-what the hell?!” the girl exclaimed, looking down at her new breasts while the panda and the guide made very conscious efforts not to stare. Alternatively they had seen another girl wandering past. Yes, that seemed more likely given the small amount of drool she could see forming around their mouths. Cologne rolled her eyes and watched with minor amusement and tremendous pity as the young pigtailed martial artist cupped her new breasts, gasped, and then fainted with a nosebleed and a smile.

“Get her inside,” she ordered a passing young woman, who gulped nervously and did as she was told. “I need to speak to the guide for a moment. Keep watch over her until I can speak to her.”

<hr>
So here she was, looking after some outsider girl Great-grandma was interested in. As opposed to going out to have fun like she’d wanted. Shampoo stared down at the outsider girl with her red hair tied up in a pigtail and scowled. There could be no question that this girl had True Power. Cute face. Perfect figure. Soft, inviting skin. It was a trifle peculiar being in the company of an outsider with True Power, she had to admit. None of the others that had visited or passed by the village had anything remotely like it, all flat chests or flabby waists. What was it about this girl that made her different then?

Could she be related to Great-grandma’s foolish quest to get rid of True Power? Shampoo sighed wearily. Just like the other elders, she could not get past the fact that times were changing in the village and a new manner of thought was coming into dominance. It was sort of sad the way she was insisting on fighting it even now. Either way, Shampoo would be a good granddaughter until the point where she either gave up or passed on and it saddened her to think that the second was likelier to happen before the first.

The outsider began to stir, and sat up with bleary eyes that she rubbed. The girl blinked a few times, and took in her surroundings before setting sight upon Shampoo. At which point she said something, but Shampoo couldn’t even begin to catch the meaning.

“Sorry,” Shampoo said in her native language, “I don’t understand you. Do you understand me?”

The two girls just stared at each other for a moment, with the silence providing the answer. Namely: No.

The outsider sighed and looked down at herself with a wince. But then apparently had some sort of idea. She pointed at a kettle stored on a shelf in rather an animated manner, prompting Shampoo to reach for it and hold it out to her. “You want this?” she asked, and the outsider nodded quite enthusiastically. Probably understanding the gist of what she was saying without knowing the language. Okay. Shampoo passed it over. There was a little water in it, still warm from the feel of the kettle. The girl smiled excitedly, then reached up to tip it over her own head -

“I don’t think so,” a voice interrupted, and all of a sudden Great-grandma’s staff reached out to whip the kettle out of the girl’s grip before a single drop could be spilled. The girl let out an exclamation that was likely to the effect of “Hey, what was that for?” to which Great-grandma replied in that calm way she did right before whacking someone on the head with her staff. Just like that, as it happens.

The girl rubbed her head and the two of them spoke for a little while in the foreign language Shampoo didn’t speak a word of. At one point the girl’s face went deadly white and she stopped speaking for a while, which provided Great-grandma the chance to turn to Shampoo and say, “Sorry about that, my dear, I forgot that you don’t speak Japanese. This young… person’s name is Ranma Saotome. Ranma has fallen victim to the magic of Jusenkyo, which has transformed <i>him</i> into the young girl that you see before you. I just finished telling him that it is likely he will lose all his martial arts prowess if he were to transform back into his normal self while he is on our grounds, but in truth I would prefer it if he was not mobbed before we left the village.”

“Oh,” Shampoo said. “I suppose that makes sense, but… What do you mean by leaving the village? I do not understand.”

“It’s simple enough, my dear,” Cologne said. “I believe that Ranma may be key to discovering the cure for the curse that has befallen our village. No other outsider has fallen victim to it before, and this peculiarity must be observed. Therefore - under the guise of the Kiss of Marriage - we shall be leaving with Ranma and the panda within the hour. In exchange for which we will help them find a cure to their own curse. You had best hurry, my dear. We do not have a lot of time.”

She might as well have torn Shampoo’s heart from her chest and stomped on it. Leave the village? No, that couldn’t… That wasn’t right at all! She had friends here! She had lived her whole life here! How could she leave now? When her great-grandmother left the room, she scowled at the outsider, this Ranma Saotome. How dare he take her away from her home! Male. Female. Whatever! It didn’t matter. Shampoo would use her True Power to take everything away from Ranma Saotome, just as everything was being taken from Shampoo!

1.     Shampoo changes her mind later on once she catches sight of Ranma’s male form.
2.     During the hour they are in the village, Ranma takes the time to explore.
3.     Skip ahead to the four arriving at the Tendos.
4.     Something else