Just a Little Time

By Doug Helm and "Tuxedo" Will Wolfshohl

Continuing a Ranma ½ story kernel by Dark Oni

Those characters that are original and the story "Just A Little Time"

are copyrighted ©2003 by Douglas Helm and Will Wolfshohl. Original

kernel copyrighted ©1998 by Dark Oni.

This story and our other stories reside at:

or

kc6x.home.

Send comments to: Douglas Helm () or

"Tuxedo" Will ()

Rating: PG

Chapter 1 - Once Upon a Time...

The wind was cold, the night sky clear dotted with stars, and a

full blue-white moon was ascending in the east. It shone down onto Tokyo

Prefecture, its many districts, and wards. In one of these, the city of

Nerima, sat a dojo that had seen many things. It was the Tendo Dojo,

both home and training hall for the School of Anything-Goes Martial

Arts. The buildings had been repaired countless times over the years.

Light from the main living area spilled onto the yard but didn't quite

reach the koi pond, which over the years had seen its own share of

visitors.

Akane Saotome, daughter of Soun Tendo, wife, mother, and not

least martial artist, was trying to read a newspaper with one eye. The

other eye was carefully watching her youngest. The three year old was

staring intently at the plate of sweets. The mother supposed she could

move the plate out of sight but that would deprive the others.

The child's hand crept slowly forward, little eyes shifted to

regard the aging matriarch of the family. Despite Akane's age, she was

still strong, healthy, and vibrant. Her brunette hair, now grown long

again, was streaked with grey. There were a few crow's feet about her

eyes but little else marked her age.

The three year old made her move but Akane was faster, but of

course, her husband was faster yet. While Akane tagged the child's hand,

her husband lifted the plate up balancing it on his fingertip. She

looked down the table where Ranma was leaning over, his form strong and

defined.

"I'll put these up."

"Aw!" the youngest whined. She got up and scurried after her

father.

Smiling a little, Akane regarded the other occupants of the

room. Her father was studiously reading the newspaper. Her other

daughters sat relaxing. How had she given birth to five daughters? At

least Ranma hadn't complained about not having a son to carry on the

Saotome name, at least within her hearing. Genma had and gotten thumped

for it. Soun hadn't complained because Kasumi had produced twin boys.

"What'll it be tonight?"

Akane blinked and peered at her oldest. "What?"

"It's Saturday, story night."

"Aren't ya liddle old for dat?" her middle daughter asked.

Before a fight could ensue, she said, "Well, whose turn is it to

pick?"

"I believe," Soun piped in, his voice soft and anticipatory,

"It's Ranma's."

"My what?" Ranma's voice questioned. The others looked up to see

him entering the room with the three year old under one arm.

"Turn to pick a story, son," Soun replied.

"Why do we have to do this anyway?"

"Because you totaled the television and we can't afford to fix

it," the eldest girl replied.

"Any ideas?" Ranma asked the group while handing the toddler to

his wife and sitting down.

"What about one where Aunt Nabiki gets zapped!" Soun frowned but

Ranma grinned slightly.

"Well... I suppose I could tell you that one."

"Not that one, Ranma!" Akane said with a sinking feeling.

"Why not?" Ranma asked his wife. Akane just sighed and shook her

head. Settling himself, Ranma began his tale. "This story happens when

your mom and I were still going to Furinkan High School..."

"Ranma, you idiot!" Akane yelled as she swung her briefcase at

the teenage boy's legs. The sixteen year old martial artist easily

dodged her swipe and continued walking down the fence top.

"What're you so upset about?" he replied. "I'm the one who

Ryouga was after."

"After you told him you'd never have anything to do with someone

as uncute as ME!" she retorted angrily, taking several more swings.

Ranma dodged again, landing in a partial handstand with his legs

extended atop a nearby brick wall. "Akane! That's not what I said!"

Akane paused for a moment and replied in a serious tone, "Did it

ever occur to you that maybe I LIKE a little attention?"

Ranma froze in confusion. Before he could think of a response,

the girl gently reached over with her index finger and poked him in the

forehead. Immediately, Ranma lost his balance and fell off the wall into

the water below.

"Gotcha!" Akane yelled, and then the teenage girl turned and

walked towards her home.

As Ranma surfaced, he cursed himself for falling for the same

trick again. He could immediately feel that his red shirt and black

pants had gotten looser. As soon as he'd hit the cold water, he turned

into a red-haired teenage beauty, thanks to the cursed Jusenkyo Spring

he'd fallen into while training in China. While most of his body had

shrunk, his chest had become as large as it always did in his female

form and the top of his shirt was very tight over his new endowments.

"What'd you that for?!" Ranma yelled in a high voice at Akane's

retreating back, but all he heard in response was the girl's loud

giggling.

As Ranma swam for the canal's shore, she reflected on why she'd

gotten into that fight with Ryouga. The young martial artist had

challenged Ranma to a duel (again) because of some perceived slight

against his fiancée. It didn't seem to matter to anyone involved that

Ranma had never asked to become Akane's fiancé nor did he wish to marry

the girl. Their fathers had simply arranged things and expected the two

of them to accept it.

"You didn't wanna marry Mom?" their second youngest asked,

sounding a little horrified.

"You thought she was uncute´?"

"Well, your father had a serious case of foot-in-mouth disease

back then but it seems to have cleared up nicely," Akane commented with

a smirk.

Ranma opened is mouth, saw the challenge in his wife's eyes, and

closed it again. After a moment, he continued, "Anyway..."

A very wet female Ranma vainly attempted to pat her clothes dry.

Grumbling, she started off home. Just as Ranma vanished from sight,

three teenage girls, wearing the same high school uniform as Akane,

arrived at the same spot he and his fiancée had been bickering at.

Stopping, the lead girl raised her hand without turning her head

backwards and asked, "So, Yuriko, how much did we take in on the

Ranma/Ryouga fight?"

The nervousness in the longhaired girl's voice could be clearly

heard as she responded, "Well, actually, we just cleared about 5000

yen." Immediately, she added, "It would've been a lot more if they

hadn't left the schoolyard."

Nabiki Tendo sighed loudly, and then commented, "I'll have to

have a little talk with my dear little sister's fiancé."

"Y'know, the way we slant the odds, if Ranma ever lost, we'd be

wiped clean," Yuriko remarked without thinking. Nabiki frowned. That was

all it took before her friend was apologizing.

It wasn't that the middle Tendo daughter was a mean person. She

just took making money very seriously. With the family dojo taking in as

little as it did, she was actually her family's primary source of

income. That was a lot of pressure to place upon a seventeen year old

high school junior. She made her money mainly by organizing bets on

school fights and selling revealing pictures of her sister and the

female Ranma to interested male students. Still, the art of getting

other people to freely give you their money was pretty fun in and of

itself. All in all, Nabiki enjoyed her life.

Before Nabiki could finish counting, a high voice called out,

"Hey, Yuri! Wait up!" She looked to see a girl of about twelve, also in

uniform, running up to the girls.

"Oh, what does that brat want?" she could hear Yuriko mutter

under her breath. She then added, "Nanami, you should be home by now!"

The sixth grade girl looked up at her older sister and angrily

said, "Mom told me to wait for you. You were supposed to walk home with

me." Glaring at Nabiki and Maki, she added, "Not surprised to see you

running off with your friends and forgetting about me."

Yuriko inwardly cringed. She had completely forgotten, but she

wasn't about to admit that to her little sister. "I had more important

things to do," she answered. "Besides, you've said you're old enough to

walk home by yourself. I just gave you the chance to prove it."

Nanami glared at her sister. "Liar! You forgot. Wait'll Mom

hears about this. You and your friends think you're sooo important, but

you're not."

As Nanami stomped away, Yuriko yelled to her back. "Fine. Run

home to Mommy, you little baby. See if I care?" Even though she was

upset, Yuriko stopped her ranting the instant she noticed Nabiki was

calmly staring at her.

"Are you finished?" Nabiki asked.

"Heh, uh, yeah. Sorry. Little sisters. You know."

"Actually, I don't. Akane's only a year younger than me and we

get along quite well." Looking down at the money in her hand, Nabiki

finished counting and returned her attention to her partners. "Well,

ladies, I certainly hope our next take is better than this one. I'll see

you two on Mon...day." Nabiki placed a hand to her head as a wave of

dizziness took her. Her skin was tingling and she felt as if she were

sinking into the sidewalk. Shaking her head, she managed to see her two

friends, each with a strange blue glow surrounding their bodies. Nabiki

could see that the uniforms each girl wore looked too large and were

getting bigger. The features on the girl's faces were changing as well,

becoming rounder and fresher. For an instant, Nabiki thought of how much

Yuriko resembled her younger sister. That's when she realized that,

however ludicrous it sounded, her friends looked like they were growing

younger.

I must be seeing things, she reasoned. If they were getting

younger, they'd be getting smaller too and we still look the same size.

It took about half a second before an icy fear gripped Nabiki's

heart as her mind solved that conundrum. She looked down at herself and

saw that the top of her high school uniform hung loosely on her. She

could feel her bra hanging as well just as her panties started to slip

down her hips. The sidewalk was definitely much closer than she'd

remembered. Gazing at her friends, she could see them staring

incredulously back at her.

Yuriko's mouth moved but instead of her voice, out came a high

squeak that seemed to form words, "Omigosh, Nabiki, what happened to

y...?"

Yuriko's hands flew to her mouth as she noticed the offending

tone. A muffled, "My voice!" could then be heard. Yuriko then turned to

Maki and as each noticed the other's predicament, the two little girls

screamed in an extremely high pitch.

Nabiki struggled desperately not to scream as well. In her

stomach, it was like the worst fear she'd ever felt had suddenly been

magnified ten times over. She couldn't comprehend what was happening to

her and the helplessness she felt because of that was tremendous. A

frantic Maki broke her spiral of despair.

"Noooo! Get it off! Get it off!" The girl looked to be about

seven or eight now and her uniform dress had already started to pile on

the ground. A stockinged foot stuck out from under the pile as she

desperately kicked at something long and blue that was wrapped around

her tiny ankle. Nabiki looked to her own skirt and saw another tentacle

there as well. Nabiki, a child now just like her friends, likewise

panicked. "Ahhhhh! It's a monster. Run."

All three girls, now screaming in unison, ran for it. Luckily

for them, the tentacles each slipped off of their now much smaller feet.

Unluckily for them, their now huge dresses caused each of them to

stumble and fall into one another after only a few steps.

"Hey, get off me!" Nabiki yelled as Maki's weight forced her

down. The other girl was sprawled across her back while both of them

were on top of Yuriko's legs.

"Both of you get off! You're crushing me!" Yuriko screamed back,

real distress showing in her voice.

Untangling their bodies was made even more difficult by their

now gigantic clothes. Nabiki could feel the ends of her once short

sleeves now brushing against her wrists as her shoulders peeked out of

the collar of her dress. Even after she managed to roll over and sit on

the cement, the hem of her uniform dress still came well below her feet.

She felt miserable and helpless and her eyes started to water. She

noticed the well-squished Yuriko already had tears coming down her

cheeks. The unscathed Maki, however, almost sounded happy. "Hey, I think

it's gone."

Sure enough, the sidewalk was now completely clear except for a

nearby sewer drain. A sobbing Yuriko broke the silence. "Wh-what was

that thing? What happened to us?"

Sniffling herself, Nabiki answered, "I don't know, but at least

it's stopped." Even though she was expecting it, her high, childish

voice still took her by surprise.

As if on cue, the blue glow returned to each of them and Nabiki

was suddenly afraid again. There were no tentacles in sight and yet it

was happening again. Before her fear could cause her to panic, she

noticed that the aura didn't surround her friends' heads, just their

clothes. She could see the uniforms on her friends' bodies starting to

shrink and change as well. She could feel her own clothes shrinking

around her. Her sleeves rose back up her arms as the hem of her dress

revealed first her feet and then her knees. Her collar crept back up her

neck as her entire uniform tightened around her body. When it stopped,

Nabiki could see her friends were now dressed in uniforms meant for

kindergarten students and she figured she was probably wearing the same.

Nabiki and Maki stared in silence at each other, marveling at

what had just happened. Yuriko, who was still crying, didn't have the

emotional control for that. "What the hell is going on here?!" she

yelled.

A new voice entered the conversation, "That's what I'd like to

know, Yuri. And where did you pick up language like that?"

The heads of the three little girls snapped up in unison to take

in the form of Nanami looming over them. A minute before, the twelve

year old had been at least a head shorter than each of them; now she was

simply huge. Nabiki could hear Yuriko softly whimpering. She suspected

the girl wasn't taking the image of her gigantic little´ sister very

well. Maki, on the other hand, allowed a torrent of words to rapidly

escape from her high-pitched vocal cords.

"Oh Nanami, thank goodness you're here. We were just standing

there when we started getting younger. Then we noticed these tentacle

things grabbing our ankles and so we ran but our dresses were too big so

we fell over each other but then our dresses shrank to match us and then

you came along but the monster could still be here so I'm scared. Please

help us."

Nabiki was shocked at Maki's outburst. The girl was normally so

quiet and what she'd just said sounded so totally ridiculous. But it had

happened and they were the proof.

Nabiki's confidence was dashed, however, as she realized

something was wrong. Instead of being shocked, Nanami had a smile on her

face and a pleasant one at that. For an instant, the suspicious side of

Nabiki feared the girl was the cause of all this but that thought was

quickly eliminated.

In a somewhat excited and higher than normal voice meant for

small children, Nanami said, "Oh, really? A monster, huh? Well, don't

worry about that mean old monster. Even if it turned you into a baby,

you're back to normal now, sweetie." Patting Maki on the top of her

head, Nanami laughed and added, "Y'know, that's what I like about you,

Maki. You come up with the cutest stories."

The trio simply stared dumbfounded at the now gigantic twelve

year old. Back to normal? Nabiki thought. This was just too weird.

Nanami broke the silence, "Even so, that doesn't give you three

an excuse to play on the filthy ground in your uniforms and kick your

shoes off." Sure enough, Nabiki could see three pairs of black

children's shoes lying on the sidewalk where three teenagers had been

two minutes before.

"Mom's going to have a fit when she sees your dress, Yuri. And

why did you three leave without me? You know you're too young to walk

home by yourselves." Sighing, Nanami continued, "Oh well, get up. We

have to get going."

Slowly and cautiously, Nabiki and the others rose to their feet.

She noticed her balance was different and it took her a few seconds of

wobbling to get used to it. Meanwhile, Nanami had returned with the

shoes in her hands. Nabiki noticed that even standing, she and her

friends were staring into Nanami's tummy. "Here you go, Maki." Bending

over, Nanami grabbed Maki's ankle and lifted it, placing the shoe on her

little stocking foot and strapping it into place. As Nanami placed the

second shoe on the stunned girl's foot, she noticed the bills that had

fallen under the girls in their frantic escape.

"Hey!" Nanami exclaimed, as she picked them up, "Where'd this

money come from? There must be what... five thousand yen here. Cool.

Now I can buy that video game Mom won't get for me."

Even shrunken as she was, Nabiki wasn't about to let someone

else get her hard-earned money without a fight. "Hey! That's our money!"

she squeaked. Nanami simply laughed. "Yeah right. How would three five

year olds get this much money? What'd you do, sell your panties to some

businessmen? I don't think so. No, whoever's money this was, it's mine

now."

Nabiki, for what it was worth, decided she had to at least try

to set things straight and she took a deep breath and spoke, "Nanami,

please listen. We're telling the truth. A monster really did attack us

and we really did get younger. We're really seventeen and that's our

money. You've just been fooled by the monster." Nabiki was surprised how

hard it had been to keep her concentration as she spoke. It was as

though even those simple words had been a struggle for her.

In response, Nanami smiled and grabbed Nabiki's right ankle in

her strong grip, supporting the little girl's weight with her one arm.

She then started to place a shoe on Nabiki's foot.

Nabiki suddenly felt very embarrassed. Not only had her friend's

little sister ignored her, she was dressing her and Nabiki's little body

had no chance of resisting.

Losing a little control, Nabiki cried out, "Hey! I can put on my

own shoes!"

Nanami stopped. The shoe on Nabiki's foot hung completely

unstrapped.

Mockingly, she said, "Oh yeah, that's right. You're seventeen,

aren't you? Well, by all means, go ahead."

Nabiki looked back at the bigger girl with a glare. "I'll show

her!" she thought, bending over to strap her shoes. The first thing she

noticed was how much shorter and stubbier her fingers had become. She

also realized she hadn't buckled shoes like these in nearly ten years.

It was difficult to handle the leather strap on her black shoe

and she found it nearly impossible to get the strap through the buckle.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, she finally managed to pull the strap

into the buckle. She pulled the strap tight and with a little effort was

able to get the metal pin through the last hole. Carefully holding the

pin in place, she then pushed the tip of the strap into the opposite end

of the buckle and pulled the strap tight. Looking up triumphantly,

Nabiki proudly announced, "There! Now do you believe me?"

Nanami clapped and said happily, "Very good, Nabiki! You're

almost as fast as Yuri now."

Nabiki's heart sank and she mentally scolded herself. Why had

she thought that would prove anything? Of course, she could strap her

own shoes. That's why she had straps instead of laces. With a chill,

Nabiki realized she couldn't remember how to tie laces anymore. She

desperately tried to think of something else. An equation, a quote,

anything that would prove she was really seventeen. But to her horror,

she couldn't. All that came to her mind in that instant was a song about

her ABC's. As Nabiki stared straight ahead in frustration, Nanami lifted

her other foot and swiftly strapped her other shoe onto it.

Yuriko whimpered as Nanami put her shoes on her and seemed even

more uncomfortable than Nabiki had been. When she finished, Nanami

playfully messed up her new little sister's hair and said, "C'mon,

squirt, let's get going." She then paused. "Oh, I almost forgot."

Reaching down, Nanami gently lifted up the back of Yuriko's

uniform dress and then loudly smacked her sister's pantied bottom three

times. By the third strike, Yuriko's face had gone from looking shocked to

scrunched up to crying. Dropping Yuriko's dress, Nanami added, "That's for

disobeying Mom and leaving the schoolgrounds without me. C'mon girls."

As Nanami took Yuriko's hand and dragged her off, Nabiki could

hear her friend's cries getting louder. From her facial features, Nabiki

could tell her Yuriko was struggling for control and was failing. After

exchanging a frightened glance with Maki, the two girls hurried after

Nanami, not wanting to test their own limits of control.

Somewhere near. Under the street. Something rested and absorbed

what it had stolen. Soon it would be ready, but not yet.

As Nabiki walked beside Maki in silence, she tried to puzzle

things out. The problem was that she kept being distracted. Things would

catch her attention and her usually sharp mind would latch onto it. The

pet shop had been the worst.

I stood there just drooling! Nabiki thought disgustedly, Then

Nanami scolds me and drags me away! It had been very embarrassing even

if the puppies were cute. Nabiki wanted to very angry at the big bully

but she just couldn't seem to scrounge that emotion up.

Another major distraction was what was going to happen to her

when she got home. Hopefully, things would be normal there and she could

convince Ranma and Akane to help her out. If they weren't normal, then

Nanami was sure to tattle on her. An image of her mother popped into her

mind and she couldn't help but smile.

Mommy's gone, Nabiki thought and then frowned, But if things

have changed... That was a disturbing thought. She shook her head and

chewed on her lower lip. If her mother wasn't home, or if Nanami was

nice enough not to rat on her, then she would be safe. Soun had rarely

dealt with either Kasumi or herself when it came to misbehavior. He

dealt with Akane. Her little sister had a stubborn streak from the word

go. Akane would take a scolding from her father to heart more than from

her mother. Of course, Akane would listen to Kasumi, but then, even

Nabiki did that.

The now little girl was pulled from her thoughts when Maki

nudged her. "What?"

"We're at my house," Maki observed.

"Oh..."

The group didn't loiter long at Maki's house. Only long enough

for Nanami to say that they'd been playing in the mud at school, no

mention of leaving the grounds. As they left, Nabiki thought she could

hear Maki's mother scolding her.

Yuriko managed to get away from her sister to walk beside

Nabiki. "She's scary," she hissed.

"Yuri..."

"What happened?" Yuriko demanded.

"How the heck should I know?"

"Did you see Ranma around?" was the next question after a minute

or two of silence. Nabiki looked at her diminutive friend. "Just anytime

somethin' funny happens, he's always mixed up in it."

She has a point, Nabiki agreed but didn't say anything. That's

when it happened -- she saw a cat coming out of a cross street.

"Kitty!" she shouted and before she could even consider what she was

doing, Nabiki Tendo raced down the street in hot pursuit of the alley

cat who had taken to flight.

"Ranma!" Nabiki shouted as the door to the Tendo home was

opened. A wave of relief and happiness swept over her.

"Hey squirt," Ranma replied and bent down to give her face a

critical look. "What the heck happened to you?"

"She was playing in the mud," Nanami supplied frostily. "Then

she decided to chase after a cat."

Ranma flinched at the word "cat", glanced at Nanami, and then

Nabiki. "You know, Akane's gonna blow a gasket."

"Akane?" Nabiki asked.

"Don't worry, Nabiki, I'll talk to her for you and..."

Ranma's acting like I'm normal. "Ranma, I'm seventeen!"

The martial artist blinked. "Hey, I didn't even know you could

count that high." Nabiki made an impudent noise. Meanwhile, Nanami

decided to make a quiet withdrawal. She had her own little sister to

torture.

"Stop jokin' or I'll make you pay!" Nabiki warned shaking her

little fist. He straightened up and chuckled. A hand reached out to

gently rumple her hair. "Ranma!" she shouted in frustration. She lifted

up her small foot drove it as hard as she could into his lower shin.

"Hey now!" Ranma squawked sharply. He reached down, got her

under the arms, and lifted her up until he was looking directly into her

eyes. "You apologize."

"Sorry," Nabiki said and knew that she meant it. She was happy

when the boy smiled and adjusted so that he had an arm under her rump.

It was a long way up Nabiki noticed so she instinctively put her hands

on Ranma's shoulders for support.

It was at this point that Akane appeared. "Nabiki Tendo!" Akane

shouted, "What happened to your school uniform?!"

"She was just having a little fun, Akane," Ranma answered for

her, "Ain't that right, Nabi-cakes."

The child winced at the cutesy sounding nickname. "Guess so."

"Honestly!" Akane huffed. "Well, Ranma, go give her a bath and

put that dirty uniform in the wash."

"Ranma give ME a bath?!" Nabiki squeaked, "Why not you?!"

"Because I have to cook dinner," her once little sister replied.

"YOU?!" Today was getting worse and worse.

"Well, Kasumi's at work," Akane explained sounding annoyed, "Who

else is gonna do it?"

She was about to answer, "Anyone else," but thought better of

it. "Come on," Ranma prodded, "We'll go get you some clean clothes to

wear after your bath."

"'Kay," Nabiki agreed, trying desperately to come up with a

plan.

End of Chapter 1

Coming next in Chapter 2 - Nabiki's Walk through Wonderland