Sorcerer's Solution Prologue [Ranma]
"Kasumi is nineteen, Nabiki is seventeen, and Akane is sixteen. Pick
one and she will be your wife."
Ranma's eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped. He turned to look at his
father, who was grinning like an idiot.

"Well Son, who shall it be?" Genma asked impatiently.

If his father and Mr. Tendo weren't such idiots, Ranma may have
believed they were joking, but they didn't have the capacity for such
advanced humor. Before making his displeasure known, Ranma looked the
girls over. Kasumi smiled sweetly at him, but her eyes revealed the
strain it took to maintain, Nabiki regarded him coldly with the
expression on her face making her intentions clear, and Akane was
glaring at him as if he had killed her mother."Since I'm a guest and
all, I'm not going to hurt you, at least not yet, but you're an idiot
if you think you can choose who I'm have to get married to."

Genma's face fell noticeably, but Soun seemed unaffected by the
statement. Tears of joy ran down his face and his features practically
glowed with bliss."I understand that the choice must be quite
difficult. All three of my daughters have grown into fine young
women."

The Tendo sisters became quite obviously upset, but instead of
directing the hostility at Ranma like he had expected, the girls
turned to their father. Even Kasumi wore an angry frown. Probably
because it sounded like he was trying to sell a prime piece of meat.

A more direct approach would be necessary, Ranma decided. He spoke a
couple of alien words under his breath while twitching his fingers a
bit under the table. Then, in a flash, Ranma's right hand, the one he
had turned palm upward, sprouted a fist sized ball of crimson fire. It
hovered a few inches over his palm and its surface boiled violently,
but was held in check by Ranma's will.

There were gasps from all present except for Genma, who had recently
become intimately aquainted with his son's newfound penchant for
pyrotechnics. It had been that reason alone that he hadn't told Ranma
about the engagement a few blocks from their destination. Soun did
have a family to take care of so Ranma was bound to have mercy on him.
Hopefully.

"Here's the deal: Tendo-san, if you can get out of the room before I
blow you up, I'll marry one of your daughters. I'll even let you pick
which one. Keep in mind that if you try and fail, though, your
daughters will be fatherless."

A shocked silence hung in the air at Ranma's proclamation. All three
girls had gone pale. Akane's hand had slipped from where it had been
gripping the table edge in preparation to brain Ranma, and Genma was
trembling. His son had become very, very ruthless after jusenkyo and
the subsequent stay in the amazon village.

Soun's voice cracked as he spoke."Now S-son, I'm sure you're just
overreacting. W-why don't we talk about this a little later after
you've had a chance to settle in? Maybe a long soak in the furo and a
home cooked meal will ease your nerves?"

Ranma bounced the ball of fire in his hand and asked,"So you going to
go for it, or are you just going to give up on the whole stupind
idea?"

Soun, racked with indecision, went almost a minute without answering.
He may have been none to bright, and a little on the emotional side,
but he couldn't leave his children alone to fend for themselves in a
harsh world, and from Saotome's reports, Ranma was a prodigy. The
chances of him standing up, getting around the table, and out the door
before Ranma could hit him with whatever it was he had conjured up
were slim beyond reason, so finally he relented,"You win." His
shoulders slumped in defeat and his body was actually shaken by sobs.

Ranma sorta felt sorry for the man. The union of the two schools was
obviously very important to him, but Ranma would 'not' be forced to
ever do anything. He followed his own code of honor, and in his
opinion, it was without equal. The ball of fire grew transparent and
faded away.

Kasumi quickly rose from her position next to her father and tried her
best to comfort the emotionally crushed man. As he shook in her
circling embrace, Kasumi levelled Ranma with a disapproving look that
spoke volumes.

Akane's fists were clenched in pure rage. No one could treat her
father like that, even if he did deserve it! It was only Ranma's
obvious command over forces beyond her understanding that kept Akane
from attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm upon Ranma. Since her
oldest sister was the most experienced caregiver of the family, she
left her father to Kasumi, opting instead to direct a very nice
murderous glare at Ranma.

Ranma's father hadn't been shocked by Ranma's display, he'd seen much
worse from his son. The sight of Soun capitulating so easily, however,
was like a blow to the very order of reality. Tendo never backed down
from anything when his mind was set to it. Not anything!

With calm, unemotional, and methodical grace, Nabiki's mind ran over a
list of facts she had picked up from her already ex-possible fiance.
Besides good looks and the skill he would almost certainly have from a
lifetime of training in the martial arts, Ranma also possessed a very
strong will that he imposed on others with ease, and last, but
definately least, was that he appeared to casually play around with
magic, something Nabiki had never really even had a second thought
about. She had heard an incantation though, at least that was what she
guessed it to be, and the ball of fire certainly hadn't been a trick
done with mirrors and a flashlight. Conclusion: Ranma equalled several
money making opportunities, fiance or not.

"Ranma, why don't you go out and have a look at the dojo? Tendo and I
have much to discuss," Genma said. Though he wanted the schools
joined, Genma didn't want it enough to upset Ranma to the point that
he started getting... violent. Besides, maybe they could trick Ranma
into falling for one of the girls, they were all very attractive.

Ranma shrugged, seeing his father's attempt to get rid of him for what
it really was."Why not?" He stood to go, but a sudden thought struck
him. "Hehe," he laughed weakly,"where is the dojo?"

Before anyone else could answer, Nabiki volunteered,"I'll show you."
She also had a good idea what the two men would talk about, and the
camera imbedded in the wall could pick up anything she missed.

Ranma didn't see the slightly startled looks directed at Nabiki by her
sisters, so he replied,"Sure, lead the way."

Nabiki led Ranma through the house and across the walkway that led to
the dojo. She followed him into the dojo and said,"You handled that
pretty well." Nabiki couldn't help but respect someone who could stop
her father in his tracks.

Still looking the training hall over, Ranma said,"Sorry I made him cry
and all, but it really was a stupid idea. I'm only going to get
married when I'm ready for it." He found the center of the dojo and
sat down in a lotus position on the tatami mats. A couple seconds
passed while Ranma spoke a short phrase that Nabiki couldn't
understand, then his crossed legs slowly rose from the floor.

Nabiki didn't let the suprise show on her face. It would be a serious
disadvantage if Ranma knew just how interested in his abilities she
was."Don't worry, he had it coming. How do you do that," she asked
him, sounding and looking innocent.

"Magic," answered Ranma smiling."It's really easy to do if you've got
the potentioal for it."

"Could you teach me?" Kami, she could make a 'lot' of money selling
real magic lessons!

Ranma shook his head slightly."It's too hard to tell yet. I'd have to
be around you for at least a few days before I could tell for sure."
Unknown to Nabiki, Ranma was, with slow and careful precision,
expanding his aura throughout the structure of the dojo. Once he was
firmly linked with it, Ranma withdrew the energy and settled back to
the floor. His was a rare gift, the ability to draw knowledge and
power from outside sources. Of course it would be a long time before
he would see any noticeable differences in his overall magical
strength, and the knowledge that had become imbedded in the very
foundation of the dojo would take even longer before it began to
integrate itself into his own style, but he was patient and already
had several other sites linked to himself.

"You mean you would really teach me magic, for free?" Now that was
suprising. The concept of 'free' was alien to Nabiki.

"It's against the rules to charge for that kind of instruction." Ranma
climbed to his feet and began the opening moves of a simple kata,
while Nabiki took a seat on a nearby bench.

"Rules?" This was great, she wasn't even having to pay him for the
info, and he was actually willing to teach her magic. If she knew the
secret, Nabiki knew that she wouldn't even need Ranma.

"Oh yes, there's lots of rules." Ranma smiled."One of them is not to
force a willing student to pay for instruction."

Who would enforce the rules? It wasn't like there was some kind of
magic polce or something."How would one...sorcerer know that another
one had broken the rules?" Magician would have sounded just a bit
ridiculous. Ranma didn't seem like the type to go around pulling
rabbits out of a hat.

"Sorry, but I can't tell you anything else until I know wether or not
you can even learn magic. The chances are pretty slim."

Nabiki decided to change the subject. There wasn't much point in
getting her hopes up, and even if she could have done magic, the rules
would have taken all the fun out of it."My sister Akane is probably
going to try to kill you."

"I wasn't really going to kill your dad, you know. I just had to scare
him into giving up on that stupid idea of his and Oyaji's."

"Hey, I'm not complaining, but Akane looked more upset than I've ever
seen her, and her temper is legendary."

Ranma frowned, and came to a halt."Isn't Akane the heir to the
school?"

"Yeah, she is." Nabiki had decided not to charge for any information
yet, at least not as long as he was forthcoming with her."Hey, how did
you know that?"

Ranma took one last look at the dojo, making sure that he was firmly
linked with it, then left for the house."She was wearing a gi in the
house and you and Kasumi don't carry yourselves like fighters," he
answered to Nabiki.

Nabiki caught up with Ranma and followed him into the house. She felt
pretty stupid for missing the obvious clues that had led Ranma to his
deduction. ****

"Oh it's just horrible Tendo, horrible! Those evil women brainwashed
my son. Now he is disrespectful and rude, but he used to be such a
well behaved boy," Genma was saying as Ranma and Nabiki came back in.

"Wow, when all that brainwashing happen, Oyaji?" Ranma asked from
behind his father.

Genma turned several shades paler. Spinning around to face Ranma, he
said,"It's all right Ranma, I was just telling the Tendos about what
happened in China."

"So you told them about the curses?" He was still using the
brainwashing story? Stupid Oyaji.

The fat man now matched the color of his dingy gi."W-what curses?"

Ranma sighed."I'll be right back." He already knew where the kitchen
was since he had passed it on his way to the dojo. It took him a
minute to find a set of glasses and fill them with water. He returned
to find his father looking a bit wild-eyed, and the Tendo, Soun
included, looking like curious little children.

"Ranma, think about what you're doing, please," Genma pled. They would
all know his shame now! Oh the humanity!

Ranma splashed himself and Genma before anyone could even blink. The
results were spectacular, to say the least. Ranma, once a muscular
young man, was now a shorter, though very endowed red-headed girl.
Genma, found himself, no longer fat, male, or bald. In fact, he was
the mirror image of his son turned daughter. Using such a negligible
amount of magic that a spell wasn't even required, Ranma warmed the
water in the other glass and poured it over herself and her stiff as a
board father.

To the Tendos, who were all taking turns staring at the pair of
Saotomes, Ranma said,"We got the curses at a place called Jusenkyo
because Oyaji is the world's smartest retard. Cold water activates
them and hot water reverses them."

"Couldn't you just," Nabiki wiggled her fingers,"use magic or
something to get rid of them?"

"I wish, but the kind of magic I do, except for a few tricks, is
purely destructive. My teacher said that there were people with the
right kind of magic to break the curse, though. I can't really find
one of them, but I haven't given up.

Kasumi and Nabiki were taking the revelation in stride. Now Ranma and
Genma would know what it was like to be women. Akane just knew that
the Saotomes were perverts, being girls like that, and couldn't stop
thinking about what they must do to themselves every opportunity that
they got. Perverts! Poor Soun, his already fragile mind made more so
by Ranma's demand, just couldn't handle the extra information. While
thinking about the horrors that his friend had endured for the art, he
fainted.

Author's Notes: While writing Power and Responsibility, I got this
idea. I know I shouldn't start yet another fic while I'm working on
two already, but the idea stuck in my head until I had to write it
down. Writing something from the beginning of the series gives me a
chance to alter Ranma's personality too. In Darkness Ahead, Ranma is
born with special power, in Power and Responsibility, he is granted
power, and now in Sorcerer's Solution, Ranma knows magic. I don't know
wether I'm gonna continue this or not, but please send in any
suggestions to dark_phoneix@hotmail.com Hotmail has been acting up
lately so I may not see your messages for a few days, but I will
eventually
Sorceror's Solution Chapter 1 [Ranma]
Sorceror's Solution: Chapter One
Nabiki just couldn't understand Ranma, and that left her off-balance
in her dealings with him. Ranma's father was so frightened of him that
he even seemed to avoid stepping in his son's shadow, and her own
father practically ran away, screaming or gibbering in terror at the
very sight of Ranma. The young man actaully had to eat his meals at a
different time so he wouldn't distress the Tendo patriarch. But, even
with that much control, or was it power, Ranma had allowed himself to
be enrolled in Furinkan High, the same school she and Akane attended.
Not that school was a bad thing, far from it, but Ranma didn't seem
like the type that cared that much about, or even really needed, an
education. So here they were, Nabiki and Akane, escorting him to his
first day at the most f#&*ed up school in Japan.

"Ranma, why did you let your dad make you come to school?" Nabiki
voiced her thoughts to Ranma, who strangely enough, was walking on the
chainlinked fence along the sidewalk.

Ranma casually walked off the fence, never breaking stride, and
continued walking next to Nabiki."Oyaji doesn't make me do anything,
not anymore." He smiled boyishly, almost shyly, and said,"It's been a
while since I was around people my own age, so I just gave him a small
victory."

Seeing the look on Ranma's face was strange. He usually wore such a
confident expression, with a smirk that made him look like he always
found his surroundings amusing, that Nabiki was thrown further off-
balance. This was a strange boy indeed.

Akane snorted derisively."Can't see why you want to associate with us
'normal' people. Afterall, we're just 'normal', not super-martial
artist wizards. How can you even stand to be around us?"

Now that Nabiki could understand. Akane had been angry enough after
Ranma's treatment of their father, but when she had challenged
Ranma... it hadn't been pretty. Worse, her defeat had made a complete
mockery of her, up to the time, unsurpassed skills. Of course Nabiki
had the little fight on tape, not that she would sell it, Ranma was
too valuable and unpredictable to risk angering, but a periodic
reminder to Akane would definately help control her ego.

"Mage," Ranma replied absentmindedly."Sorceror is all right too, but
wizard makes me sound old." He was looking intently ahead."What 'are'
they doing?" he asked, pointing up the road.

Nabiki had been covertly examining Ranma, he was nice to look, so she
didn't see what he was talking about at first. When she looked down
the road she couldn't help but groan. They were back again. She
couldn't understand how Nerima General got them back on their feet so
fast."Ah, those are just Akane's admirers." Approaching the school, it
was obvious that many of the gathered boys were walking wounded. Many
stood on cructches, had bandages wrapped around their head, and a
couple were in wheelchairs. She was about to elaborate further when
Akane interrupted her.

"I hate boys! I hate boys!" the now glowing girl repeated to herself
slowly through clenched teeth. Then she charged at them like an angry
bull.

Ranma looked to Nabiki, confusion evident on his face."A classmate of
mine made a proclamation at the beginning of the year that anyone who
wanted to date my sister had to defeat her in combat. That was last
semester. They just won't give up."

Ranma's eyes bulged a bit, and for a moment Nabiki thought he was
going to be sick, but then he broke out in a fit of laughter that left
him leaning against someone's wall, clutching his ribs.

When Ranma had gotten himself under control, Nabiki asked,"What's so
funny?" Her voice held a note of irratation in it. Akane was her
sister, afterall, and her plight wasn't that funny.

Ranma must have heard the tone of her voice because he said,"Sorry,
I'm not making fun of Akane, it's that the whole situation is so
ridiculously similar to Amazon marriage laws that I couldn't help but
laugh."

"Amazon marriage laws?" Surely he didn't expect her to belive in
Amazons. They were ancient mythology.

"Me and Oyaji ran across them in China. The laws are pretty stupid,
but they stick by them. If an outsider of the opposite sex defeats
you, you have to marry them, but if they're of the same sex, you have
to kill them."

"You're joking, right? There are no such thing as Amazons." They were
nearing the gates of Furinkan, and from the bodies littering the
ground, it was obvious that Akane had already gone ahead to class.
Hmm, Kuno would probably be getting out of the hospital soon.

As they carefully maneuvered between the broken, groaning bodies,
Ranma commented,"Tell the Amazons that. If you ever decide to, you
better watch out though, they are all fighters." Ranma winced in
sympathy when he stepped over a whimpering boy who had a baseball bat
inserted into a rather sensitive area.

"Okay, say these Amazons do exist, how do you know so much about
them?" Nabiki asked as they entered the school. She decided to escort
Ranma to the office and help him with the paper work.

"After I got cursed I kept trying to kill the Oyaji, so he ran off to
give me some time to cool down. A few days after he ran out of camp
while I was sleeping, I found the Amazon village. I was pretty hungry,
so I acted all girly and frightened and stuff. They took me to their
village and fed me for a few days, but on the day I was planning to
leave someone dropped a pot of hot water on me and I turned back into
a guy. Things got pretty bad from there. They were real pissed for
tricking them so a lot of them tried to kill me." Ranma walked past
the office door.

Nabiki grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back and led him into
the office.

"Ah, thanks. Anyway, after a few minutes I was engaged to about two
dozen Amazon women. Eventually, they did over power me, but I'd taken
out a least thirty of them by then. This big ugly one was about to
chop my head off when a bolt of lightning struck her sword and knocked
her out. A gaijin woman walked into view and burnt the ropes that were
holding me to the stake. Turns out that she was a sorceress and had
seen my potential. When the Amazons found 'that' out they made
themsleves scarce. Later I found out that there's a really big rule
they have about not hurting mages, good or bad."

Chibi-Hinako was busily jumping up and down on the secretary's desk
shouting,"I want bubble gum flavored chalk!" repeatedly.

"So that's the woman who taught you magic?" Nabiki asked. If she could
believe in magic, believing in Amazons wouldn't be too hard.

"Yeah, she's from America, but she was visiting a friend for a while.
Guess I got lucky."

Lucky didn't even begin to describe it."Excuse me," Nabiki said to the
secratary who was ignoring Chibi-Hinako's tantrum.

"Yes, may I help you?" the gray-haired old woman asked.

"My friend here needs to register for classes." ****

"Class, we have a new student. This is Ranma Saotome," the teacher
introduced.

Excited whispers broke out among the girls in the room causing Akane
to scowl at Ranma. He probably couldn't wait to get his hands on all
those defenseless girls. Well, she wasn't going to let that happen.
She'd talk to Nabiki, maybe give her a little money, and there would
be rumors of Ranma's perverthood going through the school by the end
of the week.

Ranma found an empty window seat near the back. Once the teacher had
managed to quiet the class down, he began a long and boring lecture on
some obscure point of Japanese history that Ranma missed completely
becasue he fell asleep before the teacher actually mentioned what he
was talking about. ****

Ranma didn't know anyone at Furinkan besides Nabiki and Akane, so at
lunch he sought out the older of the girls. Akane definately wasn't an
option. He was carrying his lunch tray over to the bench where Nabiki
and another girl was sitting when a large group of boys surrounded
him.

"Hey Saotome," a tall, brauny guy sneered,"we hear that you're staying
at Akane's place."

Ranma couldn't believe these idiots were actually trying to bully him.
When he didn't say anything, the same guy continued.

"Well, we don't like it, Akane's our's, you hear," he laughed and the
dozen or so other boys joined in.

"You know I would never cheat on your mom, Son," Ranma finally said.
Ranma had long ago decided that most people were complete idiots, and
therefore undeserving of any respect. A person had to earn his respect
and these people weren't doing a very good job.

The leader of the little gang turned red with rage and began
sputtering. The other boys closed in on Ranma, tightening the rough
circle they had formed around him.

Deciding to end the conflict so that he could at least have time to
eat his lunch, Ranma sprang into action. ****

Nabiki had been watching the little encounter between Ranma and some
of Akane's playmates with a little interest. Ranma could take care of
himself, but when she heard his comment to the brute who had done the
talking, the scene gained her immediate attention. That had been
'good'! It was when Ranma threw his tray straight into the air and
became a barely visible blur that people starting gasping in suprise
and shock. When Ranma again became visible, he caught his tray and
proceeded on towards her position. Every last one of the boys who had
intended to waylay Ranma was on the ground, clutching his throat and
making sickly gurgling noises. Several nearby girls looked like they
would be sick.

"Do you think I overdid it?" he asked Nabiki.

Even as she answered no to his question, Nabiki was thinking of
possible uses for Ranma. Besides his possible future as her instructor
in the arcane arts, Ranma represented a half dozen different financial
ventures, but most of those wouldn't get his consent and as she had
just seen, Ranma was not someone to be uspet, even if you disregarded
all the interesting ways he had of blowing people up. But if she was
seen to be his friend, and she was in a way becoming one, just the
reputation he was sure to gain would be a very good deterent to
debtors. Who would skip out on a payment when they were looking down
the barrel of a fully loaded Ranma?"How was your first day?" she asked
him. Had she blinked or did all the food just disappear off Ranma's
tray?

Ranma wiped his mouth with a napkin before answering,"Eh, pretty
boring. The girls kept passing me notes and I got sent out of class a
lot." He shrugged,"It's not like I really care or anything, but it
really sucks to get blamed for stuff that isn't your fault."

Nabiki nodded in agreement. It had been a long while since anyone had
accused her of doing anything besides swindling them, but she
remembered getting blamed for breaking Akane's toys when they were
kids. Nabiki secretly suspected that it was Kasumi who kept twisting
the heads off all of Akane's dolls, but no one had ever had the nerve
to accuse Kasumi of anything.

"Who's your friend, Nabiki?" Rei, one of Nabiki's business associates,
asked.

"Ranma Saotome, a friend on the family. Ranma, this is Rei Hino."

They exchanged greeetings and Ranma looked over at his victims who
were still on the ground choking.

"You didn't do anything dangerous or permanent, did you?" Nabiki
asked. There was only so much that she could cover up or gloss over,
and Ranma may have pushed a little past her limits.

"Nah, they just think they're choking, the effect will wear off in a
few more minutes," he answered. Across the yard, Akane was sitting
under a tree with two other girls, and all three were glaring at him.
Ranma smiled and waved, hoping to further upset the tempermental
Tendo.

"What exactly did you do to them," Rei asked worriedly. Her younger
brother was one of the idiots who had been harassing Ranma.

"It's just a prssure point that makes a person think their throat is
swollen shut."

"So they're not in any danger?"

"They may be a bunch of assholes, but I wouldn't kill them or anything
like that over something so stupid." The bell rang, signalling a
return to class. Ranma told the girls he would see them later and went
to put his tray up.

"He wouldn't really kill somebody, would he," Rei asked urgently.

"No, he was just joking around." At least Nabiki hoped he was joking.
Ranma didn't really seem like a killer, though. ****

"Just look at him over there hitting on my sister," Akane growled to
Yuka and Sayori.

"You should report him to the police. He did threaten your kill you
dad," Yuka said between bites of a sandwhich.

"And tell them that he did it with a ball of fire?" Akane pointed
out."No, I'll just have to get rid of him myself."

"How, you said that he beat you easily when you sparred with-" Sayori
broke of the question when she heard Akane snarl.

"Damned pervert, I'll get him, just watch." An uneasy silence grew
between the three girls.

Yuka and Sayori shared a concerned glance behind their friend's back.
They knew that the new arrival, this Ranma Saotome, was only making
Akane's rage hotter. For months the boys had attacked her relentlessly
and for months she had fought them off, becoming more and more brutal
with them as the weeks wore on. It wasn't uncommon for two or three of
her attackers to spend weeks out of school with multiple broken bones,
but that course of action, though useful with others, wouldn't work on
Ranma, and Akane knew it. So how was she going to get Ranma out of her
life?

"Um...Akane, how do you plan to get him?" Yuka eventually asked.

Akane grinned hatefully, and directed a glare at Ranma. Yuka and
Sayori, both upset at Ranma for further angering their friend, gifted
him with glares of their own. Across the field Ranma waved to them.

Akane growled again and little sparks of battle aura began to appear
around her."Ranma doesn't know how Nabiki really is. All I have to do
is pay her enough and she'll make Ranma run back to China crying like
a little girl." Then she started chuckling.

Yuka and Sayori slowly scooted away from Akane. Her battle aura was
becoming a bit uncomfortable to be near. Thankfully, the bell rang.
****

"Nabiki, I need to talk to you in private," Akane whispered to her
sister.

To Ranma, who was walking along the fence, Nabiki said,"Go on ahead
Ranma, me and Akane need to talk privately."

Ranma shrugged and ran ahead. Akane didn't look happy and he wasn't
about to get involved in a family dispute.

"So what you need, Sis?" Nabiki asked once Ranma was out of sight.

Getting to the point, Akane said,"I need you to make the whole school
see how much of a pervert Ranma is. I've only got 6000 yen, but I'll
take out a loan if you need me to."

Alarm momentarily flashed in Nabiki's eyes. She bent close to Akane
and fiercely whispered,"I don't want to hear anymore talk like that
out of you, Akane! Just because Ranma's better than you are in the
martial arts doesn't mean you have to hate him." Nabiki realized that
she was defending Ranma for no reason. She hadn't even thought about
the incentives of staying on his good side.

Akane pushed right on ahead,"I hate him because he threatened Daddy,
and he's a pervert! Can you imagine what he does to that poor girl
body he's got?"

"Akane, I'm not going to help you mess up Ranma's reputation. He's a
friend, and I don't have too many of those. And besides, I have video
evidence of the things you do to your poor body." There, that ought to
shut her up.

Akane was about to say something else when she caught the meaning of
what her sister had said. In between heartbeats, her face went from
slightly pink from the chilly air and anger, to purple, and her mouth
started making funny little fish gulps.

Ranma was her friend. Well, he might be someday, but it was a start.
The thought almost made Nabiki stop laughing as her sister walked home
woodenly, her face purple and her fists clenched tightly.

She couldn't believe Nabiki, her own sister, would side with that...
that pervert! And the nerve of the girl too spy on her doing 'that'!
Ooooh, she didn't need Nabiki's help, she could do it on her own.
Akane walked past the front gate of her home, she needed to pick up a
few things from the store. ****

Nabiki found Ranma in the dojo. He was doing a very basic anything
goes kata that she recognized from her childhood when she had still
practiced the Art. She sat down to wait for him to finish. Only after
observing him for a couple minutes did Nabiki notice how the air
around Ranma seemed to shimmer as if it were very hot."Ranma, what's
wrong with the air?"

Ranma's response sounded strange and muffled."I'm making the air
thicker so that its harder to move through."

That explained it. Ranma was doing the equivalent to training with
heavy weighted clothing. Curious, Nabiki walked to the edge of the
distorted air and pushed her hand into it. It felt like trying to push
her hand through wet cement! The force Ranma was exerting to move
through that stuff had to be enormous.

Finally, a few minutes later, Ranma stopped the kata, and the air in
the dojo returned to normal. He was sweating profusely and panting,
but his face held a delighted grin."Lasted twenty seconds longer this
time," he told Nabiki.

"That's nice. I just came to warn you that Akane may be planning to
reveal your curse to the people at school tomorrow."

Towelling himself off, Ranma said,"Thanks Nabiki. Are you sure that
Akane isn't...you know..." he made the universal insane person gesture
by swirling his finger around his ear.

Nabiki found herself laughing at Ranma. He was almost like a walking
contradiction, sometimes cold and collected, and every so often,
bashful and awkward."I don't think she is, but we never really had her
tested." ****

Akane dumped all the things she had bought onto her bed. There were
water balloons, water guns, edible panties, a polaroid camera, a flesh
colored dildo, and a very sleazy set of black silk lingerie. She would
show everybody just how perverted Ranma was if it killed her. ****

Later that evening, the Tendos and Saotomes were watching the news on
tv. They were featuring a new french restaurant on the cooking
segment, but the camera operator momentarily stumbled and his camera
swung to the side. To Akane's horror, it showed her coming out of the
sex shop with a bag of stuff. All eyes turned to the belligered girl.
Needless to say, she fainted. ****

Author's Notes: How does everyone like the story so far? If you
noticed I used the name of Sailor Mars from Sailor Moon as one of
Nabiki's business associates. If I get good responses, or just decide
to, an alternate Sailor Moon universe may cross with my new Ranma one.
All you Akane lovers out there, sorry, but Akane's life is gonna get
worse before-wait, it won't get any better. Send all C&C to
dark_phoneix@hotmail.com

Need input!!!
Sorceror's Solution Chapter 2 [Ranma]
Sorceror's Solution Chapter 2:
Soun looked poleaxed as he stared at his youngest daughter. She had
seemed like such a nice innocent girl, respectful to her elders,
intelligent, and even the heir to the school of Tendo anything goes,
but when had she become a pervert? He looked to his friend Genma for
support, but the other man was busy looking at the tv as various
dishes of French food were displayed. Kasumi wasn't doing much more
than staring at her sister in shock. The sound of laughter filtered
through into his troubled mind. Upon investigation, Soun found Nabiki
and Ranma sitting side by side on cushions off to the side of the
room. Both of them were laughing so hard that they looked to be having
trouble sitting up."Wahhhhh!" he wailed after finally deciding that he
would get no sympathy from his friend or family.

"Hey Nabiki, how many people from school do you think saw that?" Ranma
asked after he had recovered.

Wiping tears of laughter from her eyes with the back of her hand,
Nabiki answered,"I'm not sure, but you better believe that anyone who
didn't see it will have heard about it by tomorrow. Akane's reputation
is screwed."

Horrified at her sister's prediction, Kasumi started to cry softly.
Where had she gone wrong? She had raised her sisters and father as
best as she could, but it looked like her efforts hadn't been
sufficient.

Akane chose this time to wake up. Her head jerked from side to side
and she surveyed the room with wild eyes, seeing Kasumi and her father
crying and Nabiki and Ranma laughing, the reality of her situation
crashed down around her. They didn't understand! She wasn't a pervert!
She had had to stop by that dirty place to get the stuff needed to
setup Ranma. Oh no...what if someone from school saw?

Soun saw that Akane was awake and practically flew across the room to
her side. The hug he gave her was bonecrushing."Oh Akane, I'm not mad!
We'll help you get through this tough time!" He once again collapsed
into tears.

"It's not what it looks like, Daddy!" insisted Akane.

"Of course not dear," he sobbed.

Akane just sighed hopelessly and looked around for some support, but
knowing it wouldn't come. This was all Ranma's fault! He must have
used magic to make that camera man stumble like that so everyone would
see her! That bastard! Detaching herself from Soun took a few minutes,
but eventually she managed it, then she ran upstairs. She would get
back at him if it was the last thing she did! ****

The next morning Ranma finally got his answer to whether or not Nabiki
could learn magic or not. He came downstairs early, so as not to
disturb Tendo and hopefully to avoid Akane. To his suprise, Nabiki was
already sitting at the table, reading the newspaper and nibbling on a
piece of toast. And, low and behold, she was surrounded by the
numerous dot of floating light that signalled an untrained magical
talent. Ranma was so suprised that he missed the last step and fell
flat on his face. He couldn't believe that she actually had the gift.
The chances were just so slim that he had even made her think that
there were all kinds of rules to follow so that she wouldn't feel as
upset or jealous as she might have when he told her that she couldn't
use magic. But now, well it looked like he was going to have his first
student.

"Ranma, are you all right?" Nabiki asked from his side. She sounded
concerned.

He heard Kasumi giggling softly to his left."Sure, just lost my
balance," he answered as he climbed to his feet.

Kasumi, a basket of wet clothes held before her, smiled and said,"You
really must be more careful, Ranma." Then she was out the door and on
her way to hang up some clothes.

Ranma held out his hand to Nabiki and she looked at it quizzically for
a few seconds before finally deciding to shake it. Her confusion was
only increased when Ranma grinned and said,"Welcome to the club."

"Huh?" she asked, but then before Ranma could answer, she caught
Ranma's meaning and asked,"Magic?"

Ranma nodded and said,"It looks like I've got my first student."

In a completely uncharacteristic display of emotion, Nabiki threw her
arms around Ranma and hugged him. When she drew back, she saw Ranma
blushing slightly."Oops, sorry about that. I just got carried away."

Ranma scratched the back of his head nervously."Heh, no problem."

Nabiki's face took on a business-like expression and she took hold of
Ranma's shoulder."Come on." Then she started pulling him back up the
stairs, ignoring his protests that he hadn't eaten breakfast yet. They
didn't stop until they were in Nabiki's room.

"You're acting weird, Nabiki. Are you feeling okay?"

"I feel fine. Now, have a seat and start teaching me magic." Nabiki
sat on her bed and pointed to the other end of it.

Ranma joined her and said,"This takes a while, you know?"

Nabiki waved his objection off and said,"Well, since school is
cancelled today, we can at least get a start."

"School's cancelled? Why?"

"The Principal's son is getting out of the hospital today so he
declared today a holiday."

"How'd you find out?" Ranma wasn't going to complain about a free day.

"The secretaty called me. That's why i was up so early this morning."

"Ahh, I bet that Akane will be glad to hear it." They shared a minute
of laughter over her predicament.

"Oh she was. Okay, back to magic."

Ranma looked sheepish for a moment, but finally said."To begin with, I
guess that I should tell you there aren't a lot of rules to it like I
led you to believe. I didn't really believe that you would be able to
learn, so I was just trying to make you not feel bad if you couldn't
learn."

Nabiki agreed with Ranma's reasoning, but couldn't help but think how
funny it was that Ranma had actually believed that some rules would
really make her feel better about not being able to do magic.

"Magic is based on the four basic elements, fire, earth, air, and
water. Each mage has a single element that they are most attuned to.
Before we start anything, I've got to find out which you are most
attuned to."

"How do you do that?" Nabiki asked. Now they were getting somewhere.
She hoped that fire was her element. It had always fascinated her as a
child, but adherence to rules such as not burning stuff had dampened
the fascination. The chance to really play with fire would be great.

"I just did." Ranma grinned again.

"What did you do?" Nabiki hadn't seen Ranma do anything she could
associate with magic.

"Nothing really. I just repeated the same thing that my sensei told me
about the elements. It's some kind of catalyst she said. We always
think about something related to our element and it shows in the
sparks."

"Sparks?"

"When we aren't trained yet, we have a bunch of little floating lights
around us that a Mage can see. Your's turned red, which means that
you're element is fire."

"But I've seen you do magic with fire and air. You said that we always
had a single element."

"There is always an element that we are 'most' attuned to. That's the
one that we have the potential to use without speaking or making
gestures. You can still use magic based on other elements but never as
strongly as your prime element, and never without the incantations and
finger wiggling."

Nabiki had heard Ranma speak some kind of incantation when he had made
the fireball that frightened her father into giving up on the
engagements, so she knew that his must be another element."What's your
element?"

"Air."

"Is it going to be harder to teach me because we don't have the same
elements?" Nabiki asked.

"No, my sensei was an Earth Mage and she didn't have any problems
teaching me."

Impatience began to gnaw at Nabiki, and she said,"Now that that's
taken care of we can get down to the learning."

Damn, Nabiki certainly was eager."Some of the flashier stuff is going
to be a problem, but we'll deal with that when we get to it. Hold out
your hand."

Nabiki did so, a bit confused, but trusting in Ranma. Ranma turned her
hand palm up and splayed her fingers, then laid his own larger hand
over it. Ranma glowed a reddish orange for a second, then the light
flowed across his body towards his hand. When it had all gathered,
Ranma's hand was obscured within a solid blob of dark red-orange
light.

"This is going to feel weird, but I think you'll like it." Then, in a
rush, the blob shot downward into Nabiki's hand.

Instead of feeling the intense heat in her hand that Nabiki was
expecting, her whole body grew warm and a general sense of euphoria
spread with the warmth. ****

Nabiki awoke an indeterminate time later. After a couple seconds
Ranma's head feeled her field of vision as he leaned down over her.

"That didn't take long."

"How long was I out?" Nabiki felt slightly embarassed. She had fainted
before Ranma had even had a chance to teach her anything.

"Just a few minutes." Ranma helped her sit up."That was really great.
You must be very highly attuned to fire if you absorbed the energy
that fast."

"Huh?" Nabiki grunted in confusion.

"I just crammed the most basic firespell into your head along with
enough raw fire magic to allow you to cast it a few times. Hold out
your hand and think about light, it's easy."

"You mean that's all there is to it, learning magic I mean?" Learning
to count had been more difficult than that.

Ranma shook his head."No, getting the spell is the easy part. I can
transfer them to you when I infuse you with magic energy. Teaching you
to gather and store the energy is the hard part. Until you get that
far into it, you'll only be able to cast spells with my energy."

That wasn't a bad deal at all."Okay, so what can I do now?"

"It's just a light spell. I duess you could use it as a projectile put
it would only be about as strong as a snowball."

Nabiki followed Ranma's earlier instructions. She held out her right
hand and thought about light. At first nothing happened, but then,
when she had begun to glare at ther hand, a small spark of light
formed. It continued to grow until Nabiki held a semi-solid ball of
light, about as strong as a 100 watt lightbulb.

"See, easy wan't it?" Ranma grinned.

Nabiki instinctively clenched her fist, causing the ball of light to
disperse into hundreds of motes of light which all faded away slow as
they float around the room."How many more times can I do that before I
run out of energy?" It felt great to be defying so many laws of
physics. Hell, it felt great just being able to do something that
almost no one else could.

"Depends on how strongly you are attuned to fire, but judging by how
fast you recovered, I'd say five or six."

"Okay, I'm ready for more." Nabiki held her hand out to Ranma so that
he could give her another spell."

"Nope, can't do it. You have to use all the energy that I gave so that
the spell takes hold in your mind. Besides, it's really dangerous to
try to teach you another on your first day. Tomorrow I can teach you
two, and I'll begin teaching you the mental exercises that help you to
absorb mana."

Nabiki almost pouted, but Ranma said that trying to learn another
could be dangerous, and he was the expert afterall, so she gave in and
busied herself with making another magic lightbulb. ****

Akane didn't come out of her room the entire day, so Kasumi had to
carry her meals up to her. Later in the evening, after dinner, Nabiki
was once again commandeered Ranma, dragging him to her room

"What now?" Ranma asked half-heartedly.

"You said that you can't teach me any more magic today, but I'm sure
there is all kinds of stuff you could still tell me, am I right?"
Nabiki couldn't help herself, magic just made her feel more alive. It
gave her another name too, at least in her mind it did. There was the
Ice Queen, evil mercenary by day, and Fire Mistress, kick-ass
sorcoress in training by night. She reminded herself to never mention
that to anybody else. It just sounded to corny.

Ranma sighed and grabbed a chair."Yeah, I guess."

"OKay, how about starting at the beginning?"

Sigh, again."Of what?"

Did she have to spell it out for him?"What you know about magic," she
said with forced cheerfulness.

Ranma abandoned his chair in favor of a more comfortable seat on the
end of Nabiki's bed. This was going to be a long night."I guess I
should tell you about elemental strength based on your affinity."
Nabiki nodded."Okay, since your main element is fire, it's your
strongest form of magic. Your next strongest element will only be 3/4
the strength of you fire magic. The next strongest is only 1/2, and
the last is 1/4. My second element is fire, my third is earth, and my
fourth is water. If my main element had been water and my second air,
I would be able to break my curse."

"How do I know what order the other elements come in relation to my
own?"

"We won't be able to find out until you know all the fire spells."

"Well, go on."

Jeeze, she certainly was eager."Depending on your first to elements,
you can sometimes gain control of a sub-element with a whole other set
of spells. My air and fire combine to give me lightning. If your
second element is air you'll get that power as well. If it's water
you'll get a kind of general control over the weather on a local
scale. And earth will give you control of certain geothermal
processes. That one only works in some places where the earth's crust
is really thin."

Ranma continued talking for almost two hours, informing Nabiki of
various power combinations, the limitations of each element, and what
telling her what she could expect in the comings days of her
education.

Finally,"After this we call it quits for the night?" Reluctantly
Nabiki nodded. Ranma stood up and said,"Cover your eyes, this is going
to be bright."

Nabiki reached into the drawer of her bedside table and pulled a pair
of sunglasses out,"I'm ready."

Ranma gritted his teach and tenses all his muscles, then, with
blinding speed, he punched his arm into the air. There was indeed a
bright flash of light, though it was blue. Nabiki gasped as almost the
whole arm disappeared. Ranma drew it back slowly. From somewhere, he
had aquired a black gauntlet that reached to his elbow. It appeared to
be made of pure blackness. There were no visible seems, and the short,
forward facing spikes that lined its back blended in perfectly with
the base of the unusual garment. With a slight gesture, Ranma had a
four foot blade of the same blackness in his hand.

"Cool, heh?" Ranma asked with a cocky little smirk.

Nabiki pulled her shades off and said,"Yeah, but what 'is' it?"

"When a mage has learned all the spells and has achieved there full
power limitations, we make a kind of focus out of pure magic. It can
be anything from a hairclip to a shoe, but once it's made it only
works for its creator and is totally indestructible. They only help
focus our power a little bit, but they can have other uses too. I
don't like to fight with weapons because losing a weapon that you have
become accustommed to can be a serious disadvantage, but my gauntlet
can imitate any type of martial weapon and it can't be taken away from
me without chopping my arm off and that's a little hard to do when
someone's blasting you to hell and back."

Nabiki reached out and touched Ranma's enshrouded arm. The black
substance was incredibly smooth and flexed with Ranma's arm without
trouble, but it also appeared to be as hard as steel.

"I'm not a fighter, how would something like that help me?"

Ranma shrugged and the gauntlet disappeared, taking the black sword
with it."Like I said, it can be anything you want, but it's a one time
deal, so it's best to make something that you'll always find useful."
****

The next morning, Ranma awoke to someone poking him in the side. At
first he thought that his pop was trying to get himself a beating, but
through blurred vision and a cloudy mind, Ranma picked out Nabiki's
voice.

"Wake up Ranma, hurry!" Nabiki whispered excitedly.

"What do you want, Nabiki?" Ranma half groaned, half growled.

"We've got to get ready and go to school early. Kuno is going to be
back today and we can't miss the show. I'm sure someone has told him
about Akane and the sex shop if he didn't see it himself."

"So?" Ranma sounded a bit more coherent.

"You don't know Kuno like I do. This could be the funniest thing we'll
ever see!" She punctuated the exclamation by shaking Ranma.

"All right, all right. I'm getting up." Ranma sat up, wiping the sleep
from his eyes.

"Kasumi is making us breakfast, so don't take long in the furo. We've
got to get good seats and I need to set the camera equipment up."

Muttering obscenities to himself, Ranma gathered up his bath things, a
fresh change of clothes, and a towel from the linen closet in the
hallway. After a short bath, he hurried to the kitchen in order to
placate Nabiki's uncharacteristic excitement. She was already eating.
Kasumi had gone western this morning, fixing sausage, eggs, and toast.
Ranma ate much more slowly than he would have without his father
around, cathing up with Nabiki just as she finished.

"Come on Ranma, we have to hurry."

Wordlessly Ranma followed Nabiki out the door. My God, the sun hadn't
even risen yet! It was only a five minute walk to school, what could
Nabiki possibly need to get to school two hours early for? ****

Author's Notes: I figured I would finish the next chapter one of my
regular fics since I'd been dredging up so many old ones. I know this
chapter probably seemes like a lecture on the new magic system that
I'm creating from bits and pieces of all those from all the books I've
read, but it allowed me to get a clear idea of how things should work
magic wise from now on, so it helped. Next chapter is gonna be one of
those funny ones that make you laugh till you cry. Hopefully it will
be. Send me some C&C at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com