Nerima, Japan had just had one of its 10-second showers. This time the rain clouds had formed a perfect checkerboard. Three figures were visible walking down the streets of Nerima. Everyone's eyes first went to the panda. A panda in Toyko was very unusual, it being an animal native to China and not known for long-range swimming. This Panda was also carrying a backpack and was signing (with wooden signs, not in Japanese sign language).
A teenage boy was walking on the panda's right. His midnight black hair was shaped (only girls styled their hair) into a pigtail. His royal blue eyes had a self-assured, almost cocky manner. He wore a red sleeveless shirt of a Chinese cut tied with a white belt. His black pants were tied at the ankles. The royal blue arm bands encased his arms. His backpack must have weighted 25 kilograms, but he carried it like he didn't even notice its weight.
The third figure was obviously a teenage girl-no matter how much her shirt and pants tried to hide that fact. It was obvious that she was a relative of the boy because she had similar royal blue eyes and facial structure. Her scarlet hair was formed into a functional and unintentionally cute pigtail. She wore the exactly same red shirt, black pants, and royal blue arm bands as her brother, down to exactly same cut and sizes. Her arms were more slender and graceful than her brother's, but appeared no less capable of dealing out punishment. The gentle curve of her face framed her pouty lips.
"So pops where are we goin'?" asked the teenagers with the exact same intonation, giving the impression of one person talking out of two mouths.
"Home." signed the Panda.
"Pops, what do ya mean by home?" said the teenagers in perfect sync.
"Back to the house where your mother lives."
"My What? You Mean She Has Been Alive This Whole Time!"
"Yes, and we're here."
After they knocked at the door, a Japanese housewife in her mid-30s came out. Her auburn hair was styled into a conservative bun. She had chocolate brown eyes and was wearing an azure kimono over a spring green Nagajuban. The kimono was tied with a forest green obi. She also wore snow white tabi socks and Zori sandals on her feet.
"Hi, Mom." said the teenagers in unison.
The housewife enveloped the boy and said "Ranma, My son!" Ranma's mother, Nodoka (for that is who the housewife was) then noticed the panda and the girl. "Who is your friend, Ranma?" she said as she pointed to the girl.
"That is Ranko and she is part of me. Well sort of. I will explain more once we get pops some hot water." said Ranma.
After entering the house, Ranma got the tea kettle and poured hot water over the panda. The panda turned into a 40-year-old bald man wearing a well-used tan martial arts gi, glasses and a bandana to cover his baldness. He had the same royal blue eyes as his children. The man had the muscles of a martial artist underneath a layer of fat.
"Husband, so you were a Panda?" said Nodoka.
"Ah, yes it was two fateful weeks ago. In order to continue our martial arts training my son and I crossed to China to find a new place to train. It was in China's Mt. Quanjing region in the Bayankala Range, Qinghai Province that we finally found what we were looking for." said Nodoka's Husband, Genma Saotome.
Ranma, Genma and the Jusenkyo guide, a chubby Chinese man wearing a greenish brown communist uniform, stood before a valley filled with spring-fed pools. Ranma was wearing a white martial arts gi.
"Here, sirs. We come to famous Training Ground of Cursed Springs, Jusenkyo." said the guide.
"Are you prepared, Ranma?" said Genma.
"This place ain't near as bad as I thought it'd be," said Ranma as he and his father took off their backpacks.
"Oh, sirs! You very strange ones. This place very dangerous, nobody use now. More than one hundred spring here and each one have own tragedy there!" said the guide.
"Ranma, follow me!" said Genma. He jumped onto the bamboo poles. Ranma followed him.
"What you doing? Very bad if you fall in spring!" said the panicking guide.
Genma and Ranma started fighting in the air over the pools. Ranma finally got an advantage over Genma and kicked him into one of the pools below. "Gotcha-! What's wrong, Old Man? We done already?" said Ranma.
Right then a panda jumped out of the pool and made a perfect landing on one the bamboo poles.
"Wha-? Wha-? Wha-?" stuttered Ranma.
"That one Shonmaoneechuan, 'Spring of Drowned Panda.' There very tragic legend of panda who drown there 2,000 year ago. Now, whoever fall there take body of panda. Is very cursed spring," said the guide.
"Wait a second! You never said anything about -" said Ranma.
Just then Panda-type Genma, who had been too focused on the fight to let a little thing like a change in species distract him, decided to teach his son about not paying attention in a fight. So the panda kicked Ranma into one of the pools.
"Ah, now you fall Nyanneechuan! There very tragic legend of young girl who drown in 'Spring of Drowned Girl' 1500 year ago. Now whoever fall in spring take body of young girl. Is very cursed spring." said the guide.
Just then out of the spring came a red haired teenaged Girl surfaced. 'Did he just say "take body of young girl" does that mean...?' thought Ranma before looking down and touching the new additions to her, previously his, chest. 'I HAVE BREASTS! I should have a closer look just to make sure...' thought Ranma before opening her gi top to get a closer look. After confirming she was in fact a girl, Ranma screamed.
"And that's how our manly son turned into a girl," finished Genma.
"You're one to talk." said Ranma. Ranma grabbed a vase of flowers and splashed Genma with it, turning him in a panda. "My father's a panda!"
"And how did she come to exist outside you instead of you turning into her?" said Nodoka.
"'Cause of the fenlie baoshi or 'splitting jewel'." the teenagers explained in unison, Ranko pulled out an amulet from inside her shirt. The amulet looked like two irregularly cut pieces of colored glass. One piece was red and the other was blue. They were stuck together and attached to a gold chain. The funny thing was that the two pieces of glass weren't glued to each other. It was more like each grew into the other. "Anyone with a Jusenkyo curse who touches the splitting jewel gets their body split into their cursed and uncursed sides but remains in control of both bodies."
"So you see everything she sees and feel everything she feels?" asked Nodoka.
"Yep, and it feels weird," answered the teenagers at the same time. "I still remember what happened right after we split apart. It was a couple days after we got cursed at Jusenkyo I was in a cave where I found the fenlie baoshi. I don't remember touchin' the jewel 'cause... Anyways I was out cold and when I woke..."
"Aaaaah!" screamed the just-awakened teenagers, who were staring into each others' blue eyes from a very close range.
"PERVERT!" yelled the naked female red head as she kicked the clothed black haired male off of herself and jumped up. After they were finished landing, the dual-bodied teenage martial artist of the Saotome school of martial arts got a good look at themselves.
"Wha-? Wha-? Wha-?" stuttered the teenage martial artists together as they tried to understand how they could be seeing out of his eyes and her eyes at the same time. As Ranma became aware that his girl body was naked, he had his boy body remove his shirt and give it to her. She slapped him before taking the shirt.
"Hey, what did you do that for!?" said the boy.
"For Not Turning Away!" replied the girl
"Why would I turn away? You ain't got nothing I want to see!" said the boy.
The partially-clothed female stopped dressing. "WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!"
"It means you're an uncute tomboy who ain't got nothing I haven't seen dozen times before!"
"Uncute, Did You Just Call Me Uncute?" said the girl with the twitching eyebrow.
"Ya, what of it."
"DIE!" yelled the female as she threw a rock bigger than herself at the boy.
'Note to self I'm REALLY uncute when I'm angry,' thought the boy as he ran out of the cave, dodging the projectiles his female half was sending at him.
As Ranma and Ranko finished their story, they saw Nodoka looking at Ranko with a big smile on her face. "Uh, what ... ?" asked the teens simultaneously.
Nodoka hugged Ranko. "I have always wanted a daughter! I will teach you cooking, flower arranging, and tea ceremony. Oh, and of course you will need proper clothing and underwear. Oh, and we will need to get you a school uniform and enroll you in high school. Oh, and ..." said a very excited Nodoka.