Daughter of Chaos
A Ranma/Sailormoon Crossover
By:Bob Lobster

Disclaimer: What, you thought I owned this? I wish.

Chapter 1: Losing The Way

    The scene was tranquil. It was a calm summer day, the sky was blue
and a rather pleasant breeze wafted through the trees surrounding the
small clearing. This in itself was not odd, except for the fact that
the park remained empty, despite the beauty of the day. Generally, on
a day such as this, the small park, located on the edge of Nerima
district would be swarmed with people trying to take advantage of the
beautiful weather while it lasted. This was especially true with how
temperamental the weather in Nerima was, rain showers being more the
norm than sunny days, people normally took an almost fanatical
approach to enjoying any good weather that they were favoured with.

    Today, however, not a soul was around. This actually came about,
not due to any aberration in the weather. No earthquake reports or
freak storm warnings or even scheduled sales in the market district.
There wasn't even one of the random monster attacks that occasionally
strayed out of Juuban to keep people away today, not that that would
have scared the battle-hardened people of Nerima from enjoying their
day in the sun. No, today they were kept out the park for a very
simple reason: Ranma Saotome had received a challenge from Ryoga
Hibiki. To be more precise, Ranma had received the challenge from
Ryoga to fight in that particular park, exactly one week ago. By
standard calculations, that meant that he would show up sometime
during the day, and Ranma would fight him. This would, in turn, lead
to large portions of the park being demolished, and innocent
bystanders being put in danger. Although none had yet been hurt in one
of these brawls, the excitement of yet another Ranma Vs Ryoga battle
was not nearly enough for people to risk being the first casualty in
this long standing war.

    So it was that there being no one there, no one would witness a
truly strange sight, even by Nerimian standards. The sight was that of
a small spot of light appearing over the clearing, rapidly expanding
into a vast portal, made up of swirling energy, all different shades
of pink, from bright neon pink to sickening cute pink and cotton candy
pink. Truly, anyone unlucky enough to witness the event would have
shortly thereafter gone mad and ended up on a nationwide killing spree
that would have ended with hundreds dead and thousands more injured.
Luckily, however, the park was empty, save the strange pink portal,
and no one was affected any more than a strange shiver that ran
through the collective spine of the district, which was immediately
dismissed as Ranma's fault.

    The phenomenon wasn't satisfied, however, with just being a large
swirling mass of pink, and soon a dark shadow formed in the portal. It
grew larger until it resolved itself into a rather odd looking
balloon, seemingly made in the image of a cat's face, complete with
rather large ears sticking out from the top. The cat's face also
included a small yellow crescent moon symbol on its forehead, and what
appeared to be an antenna sticking out from between its ears. The
strange looking balloon spent a moment righting itself before floating
gently down to hover slightly above the ground directly under the
portal, awaiting the arrival of its master. This was the device known
as the Luna-p, built to be companion, protection and all around useful
tool to the moon princess of a distant future. If one were to follow
the thoughts of the Luna-p, they would find a very linear set of
programs, which allowed it to follow a certain preordained mission. In
this case, that mission was quite simple: Locate the parents of its
master, the princess, and look after said master to the best of its
ability. It had detailed information on the master's parents, where to
find them, what they looked like, and it had every intention of living
up to its programming. Unfortunately, even the best of intentions
sometimes go astray when things don't proceed as planned. In this
case, when the Luna-p was programmed, it was never told of the
intrinsic danger of waiting for its master directly under the portal
through which she would arrive.

    "YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" A loud scream sounded from
the portal above the Luna-p and it turned to face the swirling mass of
pink just in time to see another form take shape from it. The form in
question was that of young girl, no more than six or seven years old,
wearing a dark blue jumper and with long pink hair (of the cotton
candy hue) done up in a pair of pony-tails, one trailing from each
side of her head. Although the form was that of its master, the image
the Luna-p was greeted with coming from the portal was that of the
seat of the jumper coming towards it at a rather fast rate. There was
a moment of confusion as the Luna-p attempted to decide at its best
course of action before one of its programmed functions made itself
known and it was forced to stay where it was, deciding that it would
make a much softer landing for its master than the ground would.

    The resulting collision between young girl and intelligent balloon
caused several unexpected results. The first was that rather than
break the girl's fall, as the Luna-p had planned, its master instead
bounced off of it and landed on her head, rather than her bottom. The
second unexpected result was that the collision caused some of the
Luna-P's circuits to short out in several places, which, although
repaired rather easily, caused the programming within it to be
scrambled slightly. The final result was that the noise from its
master's rather painful-looking landing caught the attention of a
certain individual who happened to be passing by after finishing up a,
in his opinion, depressingly uneventful fight.

    The Luna-p raised itself off of the ground and shook slightly to
remove the dirt that had accumulated from its close encounter with the
ground.  It then looked around, first at its master, laying face down
and unconscious under a tree, then towards the young man who had now
stopped to stare at the odd scene in front of him, before reviewing
its programming to determine a course of action. A quick review of its
programming determined that it was here in order to use all of its
ability to find some parents for its master which would protect her
from any harm. A quick scan of the young man before it caused the
Luna-p to discover that the man was quite powerful for a human, and
would be suitable to protect its master as her new father. Now it only
needed to find a mother for her as well and its mission would be
complete.

*********************************************************************

    Ranma Saotome was having a rather dull day. This, in itself,
worried him greatly. A normal person may wonder why someone would be
worried when they were having a dull day, but then no one ever accused
Ranma of being normal. Even the long awaited fight between himself and
the Lost Boy had proved somewhat inadequate to alleviate his boredom
as Ryoga's new "invincible" technique turned out to be a bust in that
department. The fabled "Hermies Sandals" did indeed speed one up to
insane levels that even the young Saotome couldn't match, however,
they only seemed to apply that new speed to the users feet. So, while
Ryoga could now run extremely fast, his brain couldn't keep up with
his own movements, and his arms couldn't seem to find their target
before he was long past it. This, unfortunately for the Lost Boy, led
to him running around his opponent in circles trying to hit him before
he got past which in turn caused Ranma to gain a slight insight and
finish the fight by simply sticking out his arm and waiting for Ryoga
to run into it. All in all, it was rather anticlimactic for the
Saotome Heir, who had been waiting for the fight all week and hoping
all day that it would break the monotony.

    In fact, the only thing even slightly unusual that had happened to
him all day was that his curse had yet to activate. This led him to
the very unsettling conclusion that the world was waiting for just the
right time to drop the latest exciting, yet horribly dangerous
adventure in his lap. So, it came as no surprise when he glanced at
the sky while walking towards the entrance to the park that he saw a
strange flash of the most nauseatingly cute shade of pink he had ever
seen. Knowing that, whatever it was that had caused the flash, it was
no doubt related in some way to him, Ranma had the brief consideration
that maybe, for once, he should just pull a Genma and run for it,
avoiding his fate if at all possible. In the end, though, it wasn't
his indomitable courage nor his unbreachable code of honour that
caused him to face his fate and head towards the disturbance, but his
sad resignation that somehow, eventually, it would find him so he
might as well get it over with before it got worse.

    Trotting towards the disturbance, he was quick to notice when the
disturbingly pink light disappeared and a loud scream took it's place.
Ranma sped up and arrived at the clearing just in time to witness a
small, pink-haired girl (a very *shudder* Amazon colour if ever he saw
one) fly head-first into the base of a large oak, making the oak
shudder slightly from the impact. He winced in sympathy, having lots
of personal experience with head injuries, and started over to check
on her when....It arose. It was an interesting object, and one that
Ranma could honestly say he'd never seen the likes of before. It was a
large balloon, shaped like a demon from the furthest pits of hell
(i.e. a cat), but that wasn't really the weird thing about it. It had
an antenna sticking out of its forehead and hovering, constantly
changing altitudes and shifting like it was drunk. It also had small
wisps of smoke escaping from it from time to time. All this led Ranma
to the rather astute realization that it was anything but a normal
balloon. It was at that point that said balloon shook all the dirt off
of itself like a dog shedding water, thus confirming Ranma's thoughts,
and then seemed to look around, first at the downed girl and then at
Ranma himself. Ranma felt a chill run down his spine as the thing
seemed to consider him for a moment, and he could almost feel it smirk
in self-satisfaction despite the fact that it didn't seem capable of
expressing such (or any) emotions.

    The demon balloon regarded him for a few more moments before
turning towards the downed girl and floating towards her. It was then
that Ranma recalled the state the girl was in and, forgetting the
image of evil before him, rushed to her side to make sure she was all
right. With his speed, and the somewhat wobbly approach of the
balloon, he arrived at the girl first and was just in time to reach
her as she woke up.

*********************************************************************

    The first thing she noticed when her senses began returning to her
was that it felt a lot nicer to be unconscious. The second thing she
noticed was that she couldn't see anything. This brief moment of
disorientation was followed shortly by the discovery that her eyes
were closed. Upon opening her eyes, she quickly decided that she liked
having them closed a lot better. She'd never realized light could hurt
so much. After a sufficient time had passed to bring the blinding pain
to a slow dull throbbing instead, she cracked her eyes open slightly
once more and allowed them to adjust a bit before opening them
further. She kept this pace up until the world came into focus once
more and she realized that she was not alone. Normally the sight of a
man standing over her as she woke up would have sent her screaming
away from him, but at the moment her head hurt far too much of any
quick movements, and screaming was definitely out, so she settled for
staring at him for a moment and then making a rather weak inquiry.

    "Where.....where am I?" She asked, while holding her head to try
and block out some of the pain. The boy looked upon her with concern
for a moment before answering her.

    "You're in the Nerima Park. Are you all right? You hit that tree
pretty hard." She tried to shake her head, but that only caused spikes
of pain to shoot through her. Clenching her teeth she waited for the
pain to ebb a bit before bringing her focus back on the boy and
answering him.

    "Um, no. It hurts a lot." It was only then that she realized that
she was crying, but she was in enough pain at the moment that she
really didn't care. Through the blur of her tears she noticed the boy
getting a bit frantic, though she didn't really know why. Suddenly it
hit her, she must be hurt really bad for him to be acting this way.
This thought brought her tears out in a higher quantity as she broke
down in a wailing sob, which in turn caused the boy to seem even more
frantic, before he seemed to forcibly calm down a collect himself.
Putting on a gentle, if somewhat strained, smile he gathered her
gently into a hug and began to murmur reassurances to her. She slowly
calmed down, her sobbing coming to a hiccupping halt before turning to
face him again. He seemed a lot calmer now as well, and that helped
greatly to calm her down. Perhaps she wasn't about to die yet after
all.

    He smiled down at her and she couldn't help returning his smile,
though hers was somewhat weaker as she was still in a great deal of
pain. He then asked her what her name was and she paused for a moment
as it actually took a few moments thought to bring her name to the
surface. Finally she recalled her name through the muddled mess of her
mind and told him. "My name's Usagi. Who are you?"

    "I'm Ranma, Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes School of Martial
Arts." He said it rather proudly, and seemed to inflate as he did,
causing her to giggle a bit before the pain came rushing back in and
he had to clench her teeth to keep from crying out. His bravado turned
quickly back to concern seeing her in pain and he gently rose up to a
stand, holding her still in his arms and trying his best not to rattle
her at all. "Geez, you must really be in pain. We better get you to Dr
Tofu. We should probably call you parents first. What are there
names?"

    Again she jumped into the shuffled mess that was her brain in an
attempt to find the information that he wanted, but was confused and
more than a little scared to find that she couldn't find it. She kept
looking, but the information just wouldn't come out, causing her worry
to increase and the tears to start building in her eyes once more. As
she started to cry once more, the boy getting nervous again, she
managed to stammer out a sobbing, "I...I don't know. I can't
remember."

    Ranma looked at her worriedly again before beginning to walk
towards the path to the side of the clearing. He held her close as she
cried and told her that it would be alright, that it was just the hit
to the head that caused her to forget and that it would come back to
her shortly. She began to calm down again after he said that, and
tried to answer all the questions that he kept asking, where she
lived, how she got there and others, but nothing would come out except
for her name. She briefly remembered an accident, like she was going
somewhere but ended up in the wrong place, but that was all she could
get. It worried her a lot, but Ranma seemed convinced that it would
all come back to her, so she managed to keep from breaking down again.
It was then that she noticed something odd. There was a balloon shaped
like a cat that seemed to be following them. It looked familiar, but
like most things at the moment, she just couldn't remember if she knew
what it was or not. She stared at it oddly for a few moments as it
followed them down the path, before asking Ranma about it.

    "Hey, I almost forgot about that thing."  He replied to her
question about the cat balloon. He seemed to mull it over for a few
moments before chuckling a bit and continuing. "I was kinda hoping you
knew what it was. It was with you when I got there, so I thought it
was yours."

    Usagi thought about this for a few moments and realized that if
the balloon thing belonged to her that would definitely explain the
familiarity she had to it. Telling this to Ranma, they decided that,
for the moment, they would just ignore the strange device and hope it
either explained itself or she remembered what it was. She was
starting to feel a bit better by this point, Ranma's ability to walk
without bumping her helped a great deal, and she started to look
around, hoping that something would jog her memory but it remained
obstinately resistant for the entire trip, which ended at a building
with a sign reading "clinic" on the outside.

*********************************************************************

    When they reached the clinic, Ranma was happy to note that the
door was open and there didn't seem to be anyone waiting for
treatment. Usagi seemed to have calmed down a lot and was looking
around, probably trying to jog her memory or something. The demon
balloon thing was still following them, but Ranma had decided that it
didn't seem out to harm her, so he ignored it for the moment, hoping
it would help provide a clue to her identity at some point. Heading
into the clinic, he swept quickly through the reception area to the
room behind where he knew Dr Tofu worked on paperwork and other
mundane tasks while awaiting customers. As expected, the young doctor
was at his desk, head bent over some papers and had yet to notice
Ranma at all. This was a bit odd as Tofu was such a perceptive person,
but Ranma figured he was just caught up in his work. Clearing his
throat, Ranma got the doctor's attention before holding Usagi up a bit
and quietly, so as not to cause her any more pain, saying, "I've got a
patient for you Doc."

    This in turn got the Doctor's attention focused on them quite
quickly as he practically jumped from his chair and hurried around to
where Ranma was standing. Tofu took a quick look at Usagi before
directing Ranma into the examination room where he placed her down on
the table. Tofu then began a more thorough examination of her while
asking Ranma for any details he could.

    "What happened exactly, Ranma?"

    "I didn't see it all, Doc, but I saw her take a pretty bad bump on
the head. I got there in time to see her hit a tree, but I don't know
how it happened since she was the only one there."

    The doctor turned his exam quickly to her head, feeling for bumps
and asking her where it hurt. Her answer of everywhere didn't seem to
please him too much but he just gently asked her to elaborate. Usagi
told him that her head really hurt and when she moved around too much
she felt really sick to her stomach. Tofu continued his exam without
asking too many more questions, examining the bump forming on her
forehead, and her eyes, which didn't seem to be dilating or
constricting properly. He then gave her a shot of mild painkillers,
and told her to lie down and rest for a while. Usagi fell asleep quite
quickly after that, the days stress mixing with the effects of the
painkillers to put her out like a light, and Tofu asked Ranma to
follow him into the other room.

    Once in his office, Tofu sat back down in his chair and motioned
Ranma to be seated as well, while he considered the girl's condition.
He was about to speak up when something odd caught his attention and
he stopped a moment to stare, his mouth open slightly. He got a hold
of himself quickly and looked back at Ranma before asking the most
pressing question on his mind.

    "Um, Ranma, why is there a cat shaped balloon following you
around?" Sure, it didn't have a lot to do with the girl's condition,
but it was enough of a quandary that he wouldn't be able to
concentrate very well until he got the question off of his chest.
Ranma just glanced over his shoulder, before looking back at the
doctor and answering.

    "Huh, funny, I thought it would have stayed with Usagi. I found it
with her actually, but I'm not really sure what it is.....besides the
obvious, that is. We think it's hers, but that's something else I
meant to mention. Other than her first name, she doesn't remember
anything." Ranma looked worried at that, but Tofu had already
suspected something of the sort when she didn't tell him anything but
her first name. Some memory loss was always a concern with an injury
like this, but it was generally temporary so he wasn't too worried.

    "I'd suspected that may be the case. It seems the hit to the head
has given her a concussion. Nothing too serious, but that would be
what's responsible for the memory loss. In cases like this, the memory
usually comes back quite quickly, so I wouldn't worry too much on that
regard." As he said that, Tofu was happy to note the tension leaving
Ranma. It seemed the boy was worried for her, but then he always had
been a fairly caring individual so that didn't really surprise Tofu at
all. Once Ranma had taken this in, he continued on, explaining the
rest of the issue to Ranma. "The concussion itself shouldn't last more
than a few days, though I'm going to keep her here for at least one
night for observations. In the meanwhile, well have to get in touch
with the city to try and find her parents. They're probably quite
worried and I wouldn't want.....Ranma, what's that thing doing?"

    This last statement caused Ranma to turn around in time to see the
balloon float quickly over to Tofu, causing him just as much confusion
as it's apparent target. It got within about a meter of Tofu and Ranma
was about to grab a hold of it, thinking that whatever it had planned
probably wasn't a good thing, when it's eyes suddenly started glowing,
which was matched by Tofu's own. This only lasted a moment,
accompanied by a strange "Zzzzzork!" noise, before it floated back
once again, and settled into it's previous position by the door. Ranma
stared at it dubiously for a moment before turning his attention back
towards Tofu, who was sitting there in a daze.

    "Umm, Doc? You okay?" Ranma asked, waving a hand in front of
Tofu's face, causing him to blink and then shake himself out of his
stupor. He looked at Ranma stupidly for a moment, something that Ranma
couldn't honestly say he'd ever seen before, and then seemed to come
completely back into focus.

    "I'm sorry, where was I? Oh yes, I'd like to keep her overnight,
but then you can probably take her home. You can also stay here the
night if you want as I'm sure Usagi would like her father with her."

*********************************************************************

    It took a moment for the last comment to completely register in
Ranma's mind, but when it did, his mind did something of a double-
take. He stared incredulously at the doctor for a moment, before
saying the first thing that came to his mind. "HUH?!?"

    That eloquent response was coupled with a rather substantial
increase in the size of his eyes and a subsequent dropping of his jaw,
as it opened and closed in an effort to say something else to
illustrate his confusion. Said illustration,  however, was unnecessary
as it would take a blind man to miss all the signs prevalent in his
face and body movements. Doctor Tofu was not a blind man, but he did
gain his own slightly stupefied look as if he couldn't understand
Ranma's confusion. This staring contest continued momentarily before
the doctor decided that it was getting neither of them anywhere and he
should speak up, which was really too bad for Ranma as it meant that
his brain hadn't completely caught up with the last statement yet.

    "Ranma? What is it?" Tofu asked, honestly confused at Ranma's
reaction. It was, after all, an innocent and obviously true statement.
What six-year-old girl wouldn't want her parents there while she was
sick. This brought up a bit of a quandary as Tofu couldn't seem to
recall who the mother of Ranma's daughter was, which was something he
was sure Ranma would have told him. Ranma always confided in him, and
he always made sure to remember all the details of Ranma's life so he
could give better advice, so why couldn't he remember this bit of
information now? Shaking his head, Tofu decided to put that thought on
the backburner for the moment, sure that the answer would come to him
shortly. He must be tired.

    Ranma, meanwhile, was seriously debating whether to get his
hearing checked. He was almost certain that Doctor Tofu had just
called Usagi his daughter. This couldn't be right though, he didn't
have a daughter. Doctor Tofu knew he didn't have a daughter. He knew
that Doctor Tofu knew that he didn't have a daughter. Doctor Tofu knew
that he........well, suffice it to say, everyone knew that Usagi
wasn't his daughter, so he must have misheard. Now to test said
theory. "Ummm, what did you say, Doc?"

    "I said that you could stay here the night and look after Usagi.
She would want her father there after all." Seeing the confused look
on his face come back in full force Tofu began to wonder if perhaps
Ranma had taken a bad hit to the head as well. That couldn't be right
though, Ranma was hit in the head all the time, and it never seemed to
cause him any trouble before. Well, except that time he thought he was
a woman for a while, but so far that was an isolated incident. "Umm,
is there something wrong with what I said, Ranma? She would like you
there, wouldn't she?"

    Ranma was still staring at Tofu like he had said he was running
away to marry Happosai when he regained his faculties enough to
answer. Lowering his head slightly and shaking it lightly to bring
himself back to his senses fully, Ranma raises his eyes to meet Tofu's
once more before saying his peace. "Umm, Doc, don't take this the
wrong way, but what the hell are you taking about? I don't have a
daughter, you know that."

    Now it was Tofu's turn to look confused, although his look was
laced with concern as well, as he now seriously wondered if Ranma had
suffered a head injury of some sort. Tofu was very good at reading
people and Ranma had never been very good at hiding his true feelings
so it was rather easy to tell that he believed what he was saying, but
that made no sense. He remembered Usagi. He remembered the day Ranma
introduced them, it was fresh in his mind, like it had happened only
yesterday. How could Ranma himself not remember his own daughter?
"Ranma? You had a fight with Ryoga didn't you? Did he hit you in the
head at all? Do you feel dizzy?"

    "Naw, it was a pretty pathetic fight, he didn't even get a shot in
this ti.......wait a minute. I'm not forgetting things here, Doc. I
don't have a daughter." By now Ranma was getting somewhat worried. He
had easily figured out that whatever was wrong with the doctor was the
fault of the demon balloon, but what it had done to him was beyond
Ranma, other than the fact that Tofu seemed to think Usagi was Ranma's
daughter. This, of course, was ridiculous. First off, she was six and
he was sixteen. He would have had to be ten when she was born and with
the nine-month pregnancy that meant that he was, according to the Doc,
getting laid at the tender age of nine. Ranma was pretty sure he'd
remember losing his virginity at age nine. That's not to say that he'd
never had sex before, it was a rather long training trip with his
father after all, but he distinctly recalled losing his virginity to
that girl he knew in Kobe. That memory brought a bit of a smile to his
face, but that was only two years ago, right before he went off to
China, and they'd remembered to wear protection.

    Ranma sighed. What it all came down to was Usagi couldn't possibly
be his daughter, no matter what strange thoughts the evil ball behind
him had put into Tofu's head.

    By now, Tofu was thoroughly convinced that Ranma had a bit of
amnesia to match his daughter's. He probably got in a fight with Akane
this morning or something, or maybe got hit during sparring with his
father. Either way, he couldn't let him go home as he was, he couldn't
even remember his own daughter for Kami's sake. "Well, daughter or no,
I would still prefer you stay with her for the night. You're still the
only person she knows and having you around will make her feel a lot
better when she wakes up. She'll probably still be pretty sick when
she wakes in the morning, so she'll need someone to comfort her."

    *Sigh, he's not gonna let this go. Oh well, I guess he's got a
point, I am the only person she knows for the moment.* These thoughts
flashed through Ranma's head as he considered his options. Another
bright side he thought of was the fact that Tofu's clinic was
considered off-bounds for martial arts battles so as long as he was
here, he would be able to get some rest and enjoy the peace. That
decided it for him, although he tried to ignore the creeping thought
that that was just an excuse because he didn't want to leave Usagi
alone. He sighed again, thinking he was too soft hearted for his own
good sometimes, before answering the Doctor. "Alright Doc, I'll stay
here for the night. It'll give me a little time away from the all the
nuts that normally visit me at home. You have an extra bed or should I
crash on the couch?"

    "I'll set up one of the examination tables for you to sleep on,
that way if Usagi wakes up you'll be right there. Children tend to get
frightened when they're injured, so it'll help her to know that
someone is watching out for her." Doctor Tofu studied Ranma carefully
while he said this and was happy to see him react a little worriedly
when he mentioned Usagi becoming frightened. This led him to at least
know that, whatever else happened Ranma still cared for her, even if
he had forgotten her temporarily. It was an odd coincidence that both
father and daughter would gain amnesia on the day, but then Ranma's
life seemed to be built on coincidence so it was to be expected.

    "Sure, sounds good. I'm just gonna go out for a little while and
grab a bite to eat. Do you mind giving the Tendo's a call for me, if I
call them Akane will accuse me of sleeping around with Shampoo or
something." Ranma suddenly got a tired look when he thought about his
life as it stood now. He raised to his feet and began moving towards
the door, giving the Demon Balloon another evil look before opening
the door and walking into the reception area. Tofu followed closely
after him, deciding to check on Usagi again while he waited for his
next, and consequently last, patient for the day.

    "Sure thing Ranma, I'll give them a call right after I check on
Usagi again." Tofu said as he headed towards the examination room he
had left Usagi in. "Oh, if you go near a Ramen place, would you mind
grabbing me a deluxe, please? I didn't have time to grab dinner
tonight."

    "Sure thing, Doc. I'll be back in a bit." With that, Ranma headed
out the door to the clinic. He absently noticed that the Demon
Balloon, which he had less than affectionately nick-named Akuma-B(The
'B' standing for balloon, of course), had left him to follow the
Doctor back into the examination room, presumably to be around Usagi.
As the thing in question didn't seem too inclined to hurt her, and
with it's present record for screwing with people's minds, Ranma was
rather glad not to have the thing around for a while.

*********************************************************************

    Inside the clinic, Tofu quickly finished checking over Usagi. She
was still sleeping quite soundly from the painkillers he had given her
and he couldn't find anything else wrong with her, so he headed back
to his office to call the Dojo as he had promised.

    Reaching for the phone, he dialed up the number from heart, having
called it many times over the years, and even more during the eight
months Ranma had been living there. He chuckled lightly to himself as
he thought of all the chaos that seemed to follow after Ranma and his
little entourage. It was a wonder Usagi wasn't hurt all the time with
all the weird things that seemed to center around Ranma, but he
couldn't remember a single time she had been brought in for anything
beyond a simple check-up, something she always made a big fuss about.
In fact, he recalled somewhat amusedly, this was the first time she
had visited him that she hadn't protested the entire time. He chuckled
again as he waited for the phone to pick up on the other end.

    When the answering machine picked up he was somewhat surprised as
they'd never had one before. He shrugged it off as something Nabiki
must have added in recently and waited for the tone so he could leave
his message.

    "The Tendo's aren't in right now, but you can leave your name and
number after the beep and if you're important, we'll get back to you."
Tofu chuckled again at hearing Nabiki's message. Then there was a
somewhat annoying beep and Tofu began speaking somewhat woodenly. He
really hated talking to machines.

    "Umm, this is Doctor Tofu calling. Ranma brought his daughter in
to my clinic for a mild concussion and I decided that she should stay
the night. Don't worry, she's fine, but I want to keep her here for
observation. Ranma will be staying the night as well,  so he asked me
to call and tell you. Umm, that's all." He then hung up the phone and
sat back. He wasn't good at talking to answering machines, but at the
very least that should keep Ranma out of trouble with his reluctant
fiancee. After all, Akane liked Usagi so she would understand Ranma
wanted to look after her.

    Tofu then heard his last patient come into the reception area and
got up to meet him at the door. He sighed to himself as he remembered
that it was Mr. Takishi. The man was the biggest hypochondriac Tofu
had ever served and found new sicknesses to be convinced he had every
other day.

    *Oh well,* He thought to himself. *time to go to work.*

*********************************************************************

    About an hour later a much happier and more full(though the second
was the main reason for the first) Ranma returned to the clinic,
baring a Ramen for the good Doctor. Said Doctor was quickly located
out front sweeping the entrance way and more than willing to take a
break in order to eat. Ranma took over the sweeping and finished it up
quite quickly before heading in and joining Tofu at the table. He sat
quietly for a few moments as the Doctor ate, before breaking the
silence.

    "So, how's the kid?" Ranma asked as Tofu took a sip of his tea.
Tofu looked up at him for a moment, as if trying to decide why he was
asking, before smiling and responding.

    "She's fine,  Ranma. Still asleep actually, I expect she will be
until morning though." He watched for any reaction and was pleased to
see Ranma relax a bit. He wasn't sure if it was worry from being a
father or just Ranma's concern for people, but it was encouraging
none-the-less.

    "Oh, that's good to hear." Ranma went back to sitting quietly for
a few moments, thinking about the girl he had brought in. It was
strange that Doctor Tofu seemed to think she was his daughter, though
he supposed her pink hair was fairly similar to his own female sides
red, just a few shades lighter. He really hoped that Akuma-B didn't
try that trick on anyone else, whatever it had done, he really didn't
need his fiancees thinking that he had a kid. If that happened, the
whole Saffron would seem like a cakewalk in comparison. Speaking of
fiancees. "Oh, did you call the Tendos?"

    "Yes, I did. They weren't home, but I left a message saying that
you were going to be here." Tofu then paused for a moment,
considering something, before speaking again. "I hadn't realized they
had an answering machine. Something new Nabiki added?"

    "Hm? Yeah, she's started 'updating' the Tendo place ever since mom
insisted pop pay rent. Since she's got more money now, she said that
it was about time they got a few new things,  the machine was just one
of them." Ranma answered, in a somewhat less than approving voice. He
had always been of the opinion, something passed on from his father he
guessed, that people didn't need anywhere near all the little
amenities that they seemed to collect. He felt that having too many
comforts in life made you weaker. Now that wasn't to say that he
relished the idea of giving up a roof over his head and going back on
the road any time soon, but things like TVs and dish washers and other
modern 'conveniences' only made for excuses not to do any work
yourself. It wasn't, however, his home and he wasn't the one who did
the work there so he felt it wasn't his place to speak up against the
apparent modernization of the Dojo. Besides, if some of that stuff
helped Kasumi out, then it was alright in his books.

    Seeing that Tofu was finished eating, Ranma decided that, seeing
as it was still fairly early, he would get a little practice in before
retiring for evening. Asking permission from the Doctor, he headed for
the backyard of the clinic in order to do some Katas, as he had no one
around to spar with. On the way to the back, he detoured a bit in
order to check on Usagi, just to make sure she was alright. Not that
he thought that she would be otherwise, Tofu always kept his patients
as comfortable as possible, but he felt somewhat responsible for the
girl as he was the one that brought her in. As well, he was one of the
only people she knew right now and he felt that left him to take care
of her until either her memory returned or they found her real
parents, something that would prove difficult with Tofu adamantly
convinced that Ranma was indeed her father.

    He stood briefly in the doorway to the examination room glancing
at the sleeping form on the bed. All seemed to be well and he was
about to leave when he caught sight of a black shape moving toward
him. The large, black balloon that seemed to be a staple in Usagi's
life floated toward him, as if to see who was looking in at the girl.
Ranma was still rather wary of the thing, it had messed with Tofu's
memories after all,  besides which, anything shaped like a cat had to
be evil, but he was relieved to see that it seemed to be looking out
for Usagi. This meant, at least, that he didn't have to worry about
leaving it alone with her.

    Ranma turned and headed out toward the back of the clinic. He went
out the back door and entered the rather spacious yard in order to
begin his evening training regime.

*********************************************************************

    In a darkened hallway a young woman walked over to a light switch,
flicking it on and illuminating the area. She glanced down the hall
towards the small end table that sat there, a telephone and small
answering machine atop it. Her eyes focused on the blinking light on
the machine, indicating that a single message was saved and, pushing
shoulder-length brown hair behind her ear,  she walked over to it.
Reaching the table, she pressed down on the blinking button, allowing
the message to replay itself.

    As she listened through the message, several expressions ran
across Nabiki Tendo's face. The first was amusement; she always did
love listening to people fumble their way through leaving a message.
People were so amusing sometimes. Her expression then became confused
before settling on wide-eyed(or as wide-eyed as she ever got, she did
have a reputation to protect) shock. She calmed herself quite quickly
though and decided she had probably merely misheard the message; there
was no way Saotome could hide something as big as a daughter from her
of all people. However, after replaying the message two more times,
she became convinced that one of three things had occurred. Either
Doctor Tofu had completely gone off the deep end(something she had
feared for a while, what with his reactions around her sister), Ranma
was a lot brighter and more devious than she believed him to be(not
likely, but you never know, he does pick up those techniques pretty
quickly, so he must have some intelligence) or it was a simple case of
a misunderstanding(definitely the most likely with Ranma around).
Deciding that the third option was probably the true one, Nabiki
decided she would be nice and save Ranma from the beating he was sure
to receive when her little sister heard the tape.

    She was just popping the tape from the machine and muttering to
herself about how much he owed her for this one, when Nabiki felt a
distinct heat coming from behind her. Turning about she came face to
face with the human furnace she liked to call her little sister
blazing at full tilt. Sighing at the futility of attempting to calm
Akane down now that she had heard what could, although she very highly
doubted it, be considered damning evidence as to Ranma's
unfaithfulness, Nabiki pocketed the tape and slipped past her stewing
sister, privately wondering when Akane had arrived behind her. Nabiki
may not have been a world-class martial artist but she was very good
at sensing when she was being watched and she was trying not to let
her sister hear the tape.

    Deciding that she must have been distracted by the tape's somewhat
shocking message, she said a silent prayer that Ranma would survive
the latest misunderstanding and headed up to her room to think about
how best she could profit from this.

    Akane, meanwhile, was wondering to herself about whether it would
hurt more if she skinned her bastard, cheating fiancee in male form or
female form, while she silently pealed the paint off the walls with
her battle aura.

*********************************************************************

    Ranma walked back into the clinic in a rather sordid state. He was
grumpy, he was wet, and he was a she. His, now her training had been
interrupted prematurely by a sudden rain and while she had ignored it
for a time, she really disliked being wet, something that the curse
had only added to, so she quickly retired to the dryness of the
clinic.

    Giving a half-hearted wave to Tofu as she passed his office, she
quickly inquired as to the location of a towel and some hot water and
was rewarded with the location of the linen closet. The Doctor stated
that he would get the water himself as he had planned on making
himself some tea anyway. Retrieving a large and pleasantly fluffy
towel, Ranma began to dry her hair, walking unconsciously towards the
examination room. Allowing the towel to drop to her shoulders, she
opened up the door to the room in which Usagi was sleeping and glanced
in once more, smiling slightly at seeing the peaceful expression on
the young girl's face. For a long moment she stood there, considering
the mystery that was the little girl before her.

    The first question Ranma wondered about was the where of it. In
other words, where had she come from. With the flashing pink lights
that had been in the sky moments before she had come across Usagi -
and she was certain that the lights had come from the glade she had
found her in - it was somewhat likely that the pink lights had
something to do with the girl's appearance. Another thing that led to
the conclusion of her not being from the area was the strange cat-
balloon thing that seemed to gravitate wherever Usagi went. It was
very obvious that the Akuma-B wasn't something that one saw every day
and it seemed to Ranma that it was either a machine of some sort or
the weirdest life form he'd ever seen in his life. If it was a machine
than it was far ahead of what could be made now - Ranma may not have
been the most technologically inclined, but Nabiki's attempt to tutor
him in computer use hadn't been completely wasted effort on her
part....just mostly - and that led to it either being from the future,
a possibility with items like the Nanban Mirror about, or it was from
offworld, also a possibility if the rumours from Tomobiki District
were to be believed. Ranma didn't even want to consider the
possibilities if the cat thing turned out to be a life form.

    At that moment she noticed said balloon was heading in her
direction and, though she couldn't really see any emotions on the
thing, Ranma got the distinct feeling that it was upset. It floated
quite quickly up to her and began to push her out of the room,
surprising Ranma with the amount of strength it portrayed, before she
realized that it didn't know who she was and was therefore protecting
Usagi. She was just thankful it hadn't tried to use its hypnosis trick
on her. She stopped her backward motion, bringing the balloon to a
stop as well, before shoving it back a bit and trying to explain.

    "Relax, I'm not gonna hurt her." Ranma began in as calming a voice
as she could muster, making it a rather good thing that the Akuma-B
didn't require calming, before continuing. "It's me, Ranma."

    The demon balloon looked at Ranma, tilting its head to one side,
as if trying to determine what she was talking about. It seemed to
tilt it's head back and forth several times making it seem distinctly
like it were thinking the matter over before giving Ranma a firm push
and them tilting to the side again. Ranma correctly interpreted this
to be a request for an explanation.

    "It's a curse, you see." She began, trying her best not to think
about the fact that she was trying to convince a balloon of who she
was. Thoughts like that were a sure way to leave one's sanity behind.
"Got it in a place called Jusenkyo. Cold water turns me into a girl,
hot water turns me back into a guy. I'm a guy really though." The last
part was added quickly in an effort to retain some of her masculinity.
When you changed gender on a regular basis, every effort to retain
your sexual identity helped.

    She stared at the balloon for a long moment as it seemed to
consider the matter when Tofu came up behind her, carrying a kettle of
hot water. He handed it over to Ranma, gaining a quiet thanks for the
effort and moved to check on his patent, walking past the Akuma-B
without seeming to notice it. Ranma continued to stare at the balloon
for a moment before telling it to watch closely and pouring the water
over her head. As he felt the usual tingling that accompanies the
change he was somewhat satisfied to see the demon waver in the air as
if fighting a faint spell before righting itself and staring at him.

*********************************************************************

    The Luna-P was confused, to say the least. Shocked even. In fact,
it was so shocked it almost fell out of the air. In front of it was
the man it had chosen as it's masters father, but moments before that
man had definitely been a woman. This, of course, didn't compute very
well with the information the Luna-P had about the differences between
men and women. It knew that they definitely weren't the same, nor were
they interchangeable in a single person. It had, however, seen the
change with it's own eyes and therefore couldn't very well deny it, so
it's information must be mistaken, some of it had been damaged in the
fall after all.

    Coming up with an idea, the Luna-P began looking through its
databases on the concept of a marriage. It quickly found the
information it was looking for, programmed in by the Queen herself,
and discovered that a marriage was a joining of a man and a woman into
one person, bound forever together. Realizing the implications of this
with respect to the current situation, Luna-P came to the quick
determination that this meant that the boy Ranma and the girl Ranma
were in fact a married couple who had become one as the Queen had
explained it.

    Overjoyed by the fact that it had found it's master a mother,
Luna-P turned around and headed into the examination room behind it in
order to make the proper "adjustments".

*********************************************************************

    Ranma sighed in relief when the Demon Balloon seemed to relent and
allow him into the room. He did wonder, however, why he suddenly felt
an ominous chill run up his spine, but he put it out of his mind as he
followed the Akuma-B back towards where Doctor Tofu was giving Usagi a
quick examination. He started to worry a bit as it didn't seem to stop
in it's usual place a few feet from her sleeping form and headed
straight for Tofu, but figured it was just keeping an eye on him as he
was so close to it's apparent charge. It hadn't stopped him from
attending to her in the past after all, why would it now.

    With these thoughts going through his head, Ranma was rather
surprised when the thing moved right up to Tofu's side and made a
strange noise. It was kind of a low pitched squeak and didn't seem to
serve any purpose beyond getting Tofu to look away from his patient
and towards where the sound came from. It was then that Ranma realized
that was exactly the point of the sound, but it was too late to stop
what he realized the Akuma-B was about to do. It's eyes glowed
brightly once more and the "Zzzzork" noise was repeated before it
retreated back to it's position by the head of the bed, allowing the
Doctor to shake his head and then turn back towards Usagi as if
nothing had happened. Ranma was almost afraid to ask but he forced
himself to anyway. "Ummmm, you okay Doc?"

    Tofu looked up at Ranma with a somewhat confused expression and
regarded the younger boy a moment before answering, "Of course I'm
alright, Ranma. Why wouldn't I be?"

    He then bent back down and rapidly finished his examination,
standing back to full height and heading back over towards the door.
As he reached the door, he stopped and seemed to consider something
for a moment before looking back at Ranma and dropping the bombshell
Ranma knew was coming. "By the way, Ranma, did you manage to get a
hold of Ranko?"

    "Eh?" Was the only thing Ranma could manage to get out. The only
Ranko he knew was the one he had pretended to be for his mother for
the time he and his father had been hiding from her. How he could 'get
a hold of' his female sided was quite beyond him, so he just stared at
Tofu hoping for a further explanation. Tofu obliged, but Ranma wished
he hadn't as soon as he did.

    "You know Ranko. Your fiancee. Akane's cousin? Short redhead? Any
of this ringing a bell?" Tofu was getting somewhat concerned for Ranma
now, seeing the blank look on his face, but pressed the issue, hoping
that Ranma was only confused as to why he should call her, not who she
was as Tofu suspected. "She is Usagi's mother, after all. I would
think she would want to know that her daughter was alright."

    Ranma just stared at Tofu for a few more moments before it all
came together in his mind. *Of course,* He thought to himself, *The
Balloon thingy hypnotized him again, it must have decided that my
female side was Usagi's mother like it made me her father. Now it's
got Tofu convinced that we're different people. Well, I better go
along with it for the moment, or he's gonna think I'm even nuttier
than he does now.* Having decided on a course of action, he tried to
bring a look of dawning comprehension to his face - not hard in this
case since he really was beginning to understand things - and answered
Tofu in the most convincing voice he could muster, which he hoped was
enough to relieve the good Doctor. "Oh, yeah, I met up with her while
I was out. She was really busy running around for groceries, but I
told her I'd take care of Usagi and we'd be home in the morning. She
seemed satisfied with that."

    Ranma smiled, albeit slightly weakly, and hoped Tofu bought his
excuse,  especially with how badly he lied. Tofu seemed to consider it
for a moment before smiling and seeming to accept the explanation he
was given. Privately, he decided to keep a closer eye on Ranma, but he
would let him off the hook for now and hopefully a good night's sleep
would put him right again. "Okay, good, as long as she knows. I made
up the bed over there for you to sleep in, and I'd suggest you get to
bed early, you've had a long day."

    Ranma sighed as Tofu said this and quickly agreed that he could
use the sleep, he was exhausted by all the weird things that had
happened. He bid Tofu a good night and quickly stripped down to his
boxers and undershirt, making sure that Usagi was still asleep, before
laying down on the other bed in the examination room and pulling the
covers Tofu had provided over himself. Quickly realizing just how
tired he was, Ranma took one last glance at the girl sleeping in the
bed next to his and then fell asleep himself.

*********************************************************************

    The morning light filtered into the room, filling it up with
little rainbows from the crystal hanging in the window. Songbirds sang
their beautiful melodies, a serenade to all those awake to hear the
pleasant tunes. Usagi groaned, wishing the sun would set again and the
birds would bugger off and let her sleep a few more hours. No one had
ever mistaken Usagi for a morning person.

    Residing herself to having to leave her dreams behind for a while,
Usagi rubbed the sleep from her eyes before sitting up and running a
hand through her long pink hair, which had been let down out of it's
usual pig-tails. Looking around she quickly recalled where she was, a
Doctor's examination room in the clinic her new friend Ranma had
brought her to last night. Speaking of Ranma, she spotted him laying
in the examination bed next to hers and quietly giggled at the sight
of him sprawled across it, a line of drool hanging from his mouth.

    She continued to visually explore the room and quickly spotted
that strange balloon thing that had been following her yesterday. It
seemed familiar to her and it definitely seemed to know her, but for
the life of her she couldn't remember where she knew it from. That got
her thinking of the fact that she couldn't actually remember much of
anything at the moment aside from her name and her mood plummeted
rapidly. The thought of her never finding her family brought tears to
her eyes and though she tried to brush them away, she couldn't help it
as she began to quietly sob into he pillow.

*********************************************************************

    Ranma awoke to a sound he always dreaded to hear: a girl crying.
Instantly he was fully awake and looking around in an attempt to
determine what he had done to whom in order to cause the current
dilemma. He quickly spotted the young girl sitting in the bed next to
his, crying into her pillow but it took him a moment to remember who
she was. As the events of the day before came flooding back to him,
Ranma found himself moving over to Usagi and wrapping his arms around
her awkwardly in an attempt to comfort her. She quickly dropped her
pillow in favour of latching on to him and he found himself hoping
that she calmed down before she set off his curse. Luckily it didn't
take long for her to calm down from her sobbing to sniffing and the
occasional hiccup. Once she was calmed enough to talk again, Ranma
asked her, gently as he could, why she was crying.

    "I...I don't remember. Anything. Not my full name, or my parents
or where I live or anything." She started shuddering at this point as
if holding back another fit of sobbing by shear force of will. Ranma
held her a bit tighter and she calmed down again before continuing in
a quiet voice. "What if I never remember? I'll have no one to take
care of me. I'll be alone." And then it was too much for her and she
began to sob in earnest once again, adding to the growing wet spot on
the shoulder of Ranma's shirt. This went on for another moment before
Ranma spoke up.

    "I'll take care of you." He said quietly, startling her out of her
sobbing. She looked up at him through teary eyes and asked in a shaky
voice what he had said.

    "If we can't find your parents," Ranma answered her, looking into
her eyes and putting on a caring smile, "then I'll look after you.
I'll stay with you until either you remember, or we find them."

    "You....you promise?" Usagi asked in a quiet, wavering voice, as
if afraid that he would abandon her if she spoke too loudly.

    "I promise." Ranma replied, giving her a serious look, "I won't
abandon you."

    Usagi's eyes filled with tears once more and she buried herself in
Ranma's shirt again, crying loudly. Ranma was beginning to panic,
thinking he may have said something to upset her, when a quiet "Thank
you" reached his ears. He smiled slightly and hugged her a little
tighter to him, allowing her whatever time she needed to calm down
once more.

*********************************************************************

    In the next room, Tofu stood peeking through the door, which was
cracked slightly open, and smiling brightly at the happenings inside.
He was glad to see that even if Ranma seemed to have forgotten his
daughter, he was still acting like a father.

    Tofu moved away from the door to begin the day, feeling as if,
memories or no, things were going to work out fine.

To Be Continued...

Author's Notes: Well, I started another one. Sigh, I really have to
start working on the ones I already have out. This story was actually
inspired by a discussion on the Delphi Fanfic Forum, and is based upon
an idea begun by RavenStar22 and developed through discussion amongst
the other members of the forum.
Any C&C is well appreciated and can be sent to ranikkoku@hotmail.com
This story will be archived with all of my others on my website at
www.geocities.com/ranikkoku