Story: Double Trouble

 

In case it wasn't clear, the future is a malleable thing. Himiko? Adorable little treasure that she was, she didn't normally exist. She's a product of reflexivity. She literally only exists because versions of her parents, adorable tsunderes Ranma and Akane, had appeared in the past, which made their own past selves realise how they looked to other people, which is, you know, basically 'gosh they're cute together and obviously into each other.'

But one other thing to keep in mind is this: No man is an island. The butterfly effect is often applied to time travel for a reason. We have effects on others that we might never be able to take into account. The person we passed by on the street might have caught a cold from us. The person we held a door open might have been late had we not. Things like that, conscious or not, impact those around us.

Now let's consider what happens when you have an intertangled relationship web like the one that exists within Ranma 1/2. There's a reason it's called a love dodecahedron. It's complicated. It's messy. It's... Well, it's Ranma 1/2 in graph form, and - Holy shit that is a lot of nodes and vertices.

One particular node worth paying attention to is Ukyo Kuonji. Consider her introduction for a moment there, shall we? In regular continuity, she was introduced as a supposed boy left behind by Genma, who was seeking revenge after all this time, only to turn out to be a cute girl that Ranma, quite by accident, managed to charm the pants off of.

Cue Ukyo then seeing Ranma and Akane get into an argument and hello there new node and vertice to the graph.

But now, let's consider what happens when Ranma and Akane are already married, Akane is expecting, and Ukyo, as it turns out, is not remotely stupid or self centred enough to try to be an actual homewrecker.

It was hard, for Ukyo, to really accept it. The boy she'd kinda crushed on for ten years was married, and would soon be a father. It was hard to stay mad at him as well - Try as she might to resent Akane, she just kinda... couldn't. Akane was kinda hot tempered, but she was also really nice.

Instead, she had no choice but to get over it. Ranma was kinda nice too. He's the kind of guy that's both easy and hard to hold a grudge against. So they all sorta fell into the friend zone together - 

And then, one day, Ranma, Akane and their adorable precious daughter vanishes into thin air. Nobody knew anything. Not Happosai, not the Joketsuzoku, nobody. 

Well. If anyone though they could deprive Ukyo of little Himiko, they had another thing coming. This was a girl who had trained against the sea, who had grown up pretending to be a boy to the point she'd attended an all boys school. Do you know how hardcore you've gotta be to try that sorta thing when you're this freaking cute? And then get away with it? Then - Then! Tracked down a pair of wandering martial artists, only knowing they'd been journeying across Japan, set up her own okonomiyaki place, kept it running on top of all that -

It's maybe not as obvious as, say, hunting Ranma's girl form across China, but it's still kinda badass in a quiet way, you know?

Anyway! Would you believe that she'd only gone and worked it out? One day, she was reading over some books while Konatsu was giving her a backrub when she noticed what had happened, and then within the hour she'd set up a summoning circle, and - 

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The dust of the Musashino road clung to Ukyo’s skin, a gritty film that tasted of salt and old resentment. She adjusted the grip on her oversized spatula, the heavy metal humming slightly as she shifted her weight. Every muscle in her calves burned, a familiar ache that fueled her drive. Ten years. Ten years of chasing a ghost, a promise made in the shadow of a childhood grudge, and a heart that refused to stop beating for a boy who had likely forgotten her name. Repressed feelings of a silly crush underneath that weight of humiliation..

She stopped by a weathered cedar tree, wiping sweat from her brow with the back of a bandaged hand. The silence of the countryside usually offered her peace, but today it felt heavy, like the air before a summer storm. 

Then, as if to spite her, the world seemed to tear at the seams for a mere fraction of a moment. A violent crack of ozone split the atmosphere, smelling of burnt sugar and static electricity. A circle of iridescent light erupted in the center of the road, swirling like a whirlpool of crushed opals. Ukyo leaped back, spatula raised, her boots skidding in the dirt.

"Who's there?" she barked, her voice raspy from the road. Ready for a fight at a moment's notice!

Two figures tumbled out of the light, landing in a tangle of limbs and soft fabric. The rift snapped shut with a sound like a closing book, leaving a ringing silence in its wake. Ukyo stared at the two of them.

The woman sitting in the dirt looked like a mirror reflecting a life Ukyo couldn't imagine. She wore a flowing, soft-knit dress of pale cream that draped over a frame far more curved than Ukyo’s own. Her hair, though still the same shade, was styled with a mature elegance, free of the boyish shortcuts. But the most jarring detail was the swell of her stomach.

The woman was heavily pregnant. Beside her, a girl with a gentle face and a supportive grip on the pregnant woman’s arm blinked in confusion. 

"Oh, dear," the pregnant woman sighed, leaning back on her palms. "The coordinates were a bit off. We're a few miles east of where I intended."

Ukyo’s spatula lowered an inch. "What the hell is this? Who are you?"

The woman looked up. Her eyes—Ukyo’s eyes—crinkled with a warm, knowing smile. 

"Hello, little me," she said. "I'd say it's a pleasure, but I remember how much my feet hurt at this age. Actually, they hurt more now."

Ukyo stepped forward, her chest tightening. "Little you? You're... me? I'm pregnant?"

The future Ukyo chuckled, a rich, melodic sound that lacked the jagged edge of the younger girl's voice. She patted the curve of her belly.

"Quite," the future version replied.

"Who?" Ukyo demanded, her voice rising. "Who is it? Is it... is it Ranma?"

The hope in that question was a fragile thing, a tiny spark that had kept Ukyo moving for a decade. She waited for the confirmation. For that moment, revenge forgotten for she might well have laid claim to a better prize.

Future Ukyo looked at the woman next to her, who beamed with pride. The older woman turned back to her younger self.

"No, sweetie. It's Konatsu's. This young man right here."

The silence that followed was absolute. Ukyo felt the world tilt. She looked at Konatsu—a girl, as far as she could tell—and then back at the woman who claimed to be her future.

"What?" Ukyo whispered.

"It's a boy," Future Ukyo added, her voice airy and content. "We've already decided on the name. We're calling him Ranma."

Ukyo’s spatula hit the dirt with a dull thud. She stared at her future self as if the woman had just sprouted a second head. The name—the name of the boy she had spent her entire adolescence hunting, the boy who occupied every corner of her longing—was being given to a child fathered by an extremely convincing crossdresser.

"What the hell...?" Ukyo grunted, and then looked her other self up and down. "What happened to your butt?"

"Ooh, still in that boyish mindset, huh?" her future self asked. "Right to the point - but I guess that's part of what makes you cute!"

"C-Cute..."

Something about hearing that from her more womanly future self made Ukyo blush like mad. She's not cute! Not cute at all! Even so! For right now her attention was really going to this 'Konatsu' guy. This was meant to be her future husband? He hadn't even said anything yet! He was so... meek and submissive, how could she ever marry someone like that?!

Ukyo huffed and stooped her back in frustration as the future version of herself walked off hand in hand with Konatsu.

This didn't sit right with her. None of it sat right with her at all! The idea that she'd change so much in what must be a shortish period of time... No chance! There had to be some kind of trick behind this, and whatever it was? You'd be sure she'd find it!