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It was a sunny day in Nermia and Ranma Saotome was walking home on top of a fence, their arms laden with groceries. Ranma had come to reject a lot of their pop's teachings over the years, but they still held to the principle of 'everything is training'. It wasn't long before their destination was in sight, the Saotome-Tendo Dojo and, next to it, their home. It had taken a while to truly refurbish the place, once things calmed down enough and the dojo wasn't heavily damaged what felt like every other week.
From the sounds coming from the dojo, it seemed Akane was finishing up a class. Ranma decided to surprise their wife a little by entering through the dojo doors rather than the front door of the house. Ranma started to open the doors.
Akane was finishing up her students when she heard the dojo doors start to slide open. Akane didn't pay any mind, it wasn't the first time Ranma had walked in while she was finishing up, and it was not like she did the same when it was their turn teaching. What Akane did pay mind to was the sound of something clattering to the ground. Akane excused herself for a moment and opened the dojo door fully.
No one was outside, just groceries scattered on the ground.
From Ranma's perspective, the dojo in front of them and the groceries in their hands suddenly vanished. Looking around, they noticed they weren't in Nermia anymore. Based on the surrounding buildings, it might have been Athens, or maybe Rome, hard to tell since Ranma didn't pay too much attention to history or geography in school to tell the difference. It was also raining, activating their curse, not that it really mattered beyond how others would treat them.
"Did I somehow get Ryoga's directional problems?" Ranma wondered out loud. Wondering wouldn't get Ranma home, however, so they started looking around for a payphone to try and call home.
Unfortunately, even after thirty minutes of searching, there wasn't a payphone in sight. When they asked people passing by if they knew where one was, the same answer was always given: "What's a payphone?" At least Ranma thought was being said, given that it was two non-native speakers trying to speak English.
Eventually, Ranma grew exasperated and growled at the latest person they asked: "It's 1998, how does this place not have a payphone!?"
The passerby looked at Ranma like they grew a second head, "1998? It's 2178. Are you alright?"
And, at that moment, Ranma's. World. Shattered.
Ranma sighed as they wandered towards an ice cream shop they had been pointed towards. They'd just suffered two blows to the ego. First was the stark reminder that, no matter how things were going for them, chaos followed them like a magnet. A tournament granting a wish turned out to be a front for summoning some evil god. And second, was the fact that Ranma had lost that tournament in the final round to some guy named Sol. Just because they'd realized they didn't need to win at everything didn't mean that losing a martial arts tournament didn't sting.
Hence the ice cream shop, a parfait had always lifted their spirits, particularly when they started to let themselves enjoy it regardless of what form they were in.
As they entered the shop, they noticed someone sitting at a table in the corner. The person looked like some rockstar witch, with a red witch hat, with a matching open leather jacket and mini skirt. The witch seemed uninterested in everyone and everything around them, yet Ranma couldn't help but feel some sense of familiarity and comfort from them. And so, they took a gamble and decided to take a seat by them. "Hey, I'm Ranma, might I get your name?"
"I-no. Why are you bothering me?" Disinterested, with a slight hint of annoyment
"Dunno, I just felt something," Ranma said, realizing about one second too late they might have just put their foot in their mouth.
I-No seemed irritated now. "Are you trying to flirt with me right now?"
"Nononono" Ranma was quick to clarify "I would never, I have a wife! You just felt familiar for some reason."
"And so you decided to go and bother me?" A pause. "Don't answer, I can at least use this. I need a message delivered to an acquaintance, his name's Sol. Just let him know I'm lookin’ for him."
"Uh, I can do that… I guess. I mean I met the guy not too long ago, shouldn't have gotten too far from here." Ranma shrugged, unsure of why they were going along with this.
Ranma delivered the message to Sol a few days later, then got into a couple of spars with people looking for I-No after putting their foot in their mouth again.
As they were trying to find another lead on a way back, they got interrupted by an irate I-No storming up to them. "You! You ruined a perfect trap! You were supposed to tell Sol, not every person you met!"
Ranma felt riled in a way they hadn't in a long time, not since they and Akane actually sat down and talked things out for the first time in their lives. "Well, how was I supposed to know that? You told me he was an acquaintance, not a gods damned target!"
I-No growled, "Forget it, but I'm not letting you get away without paying for it", and attacked.
Both Ranma and I-No were surprised to find the ensuing fight decently matched and they were somehow predicting each other's attacks better than they would for a random opponent. There was no clear winner, and both were left exhausted.
"You happy now?" Ranma panted.
"You're still standing, so no… but there's something interesting about you, I think I should show you to my 'boss'"
"And who are they?"
I-No paused, as if sensing something, "You'll see soon enough."
Ranma did not get to see, as they suddenly found themself tossed to another time again, leaving I-No blinking in surprise.
Ranma was lying in some vast desolate field, they didn't know where or when it was. Ranma knew they should get up, get walking, maybe try to figure out what caused this particular bad future, so they could stop it when they got chucked back to the past. But it was difficult to find the will to do so, it wouldn't bring them back to Akane.
They had lost track of how many years it had been since they had been flung from their own time, their own home. They had so many leads on ways to go back that turned out to be dead ends or were stripped away as they were flung to some other point in time. Once, they got sent so far back in time they were able to glimpse Akane, only to be ripped away to another time before they could even shout her name.
For a long time, Ranma had wondered what Ryoga's 'years of hell' tracking them down were actually like. Now, they started to think they had a pretty good picture.
Sighing to themselves they stood up, depressing as things may be, moping wouldn't help. As they were stretching, they suddenly felt a hand on their shoulder. Naturally, Ranma jumped high into the sky, getting ready to fight whoever snuck up on them.
Only, when they saw their opponent, it shocked them so much they had to scramble to stick the landing.
Their opponent was themself, the redheaded version, at least. As Ranma landed, their doppelganger chuckled. "Heh, didn't think I'd be able ta sneak up on ya. Me? Whatever. Point is, I'm surprised I was able ta, thought we were better than that."
"And who the hell are ya?" Ranma said, dropping into a ready stance.
"A future version of ya, pretty sure I remember bein' on the other end of this convo." Their doppelganger seemed nonplussed.
"A future version of me? Ya really expect me ta bu-'' Ranma paused. "Wait, yeah, that's likely. So ya got some sorta warnin' for me? If you had good news, ya wouldn't be here."
A smile. "Actually, I do got some good news, I can't say too much without riskin’ ruining things, gotta avoid our old foot-in-mouth syndrome. But I can say that if ya keep goin' ya will get a happy endin' to all this."
They started to turn around to leave, then stopped. "Oh, turns out we can control the jumps a little, not complete control, but makes things hella lot easier." And just like that, they vanished, leaving Ranma alone.
The cat woke up in a new place. It had been a while since it woke up somewhere new. Scanning around revealed that favorite human was not nearby, so the cat started created a to-do list: first find food, second get attention, third find favorite human, fourth nap.
Food was easy, as was attention. In fact, getting food got attention! Some humans with toys ran out to play fight with it! It took a while for the cat to remember that it was supposed to look for favorite human.
The cat started looking around, but favorite human was nowhere. Just as the cat was about to give up looking for it's favorite nap lap, it somehow sensed favorite human far away in a direction the cat had never considered.
The obvious course of action for the cat, and the one the cat took, was to leap in this new direction. And it payed off! It had found favorite human! Now to meow for attention.
I-No, who had been minding her own business, was now being accosted by the seemingly inescapable annoyance that was Saotome Ranma, who was on all fours and meowing at her? Well, they weren't getting in the way, so I-No decided to ignore Ranma and hope they got the point, telling herself that if that didn't work, there was the old standby of violence.
The impossible had occurred! Favorite human was ignoring the cat!?! This was unacceptable, clearly extreme measures were needed!
I-No found her hopes suddenly dashed as Ranma was now headbutting her legs. And so, she swung her guitar at them. "I don't know what you're trying to do, but you're pissing me off, so get lost!"
Favorite human wanted cat gone!?!
Ah, clearly favorite human was in bad mood and needed the cat in her lap, but didn't want to admit. That was okay, the cat could take lap by force if needed.
Just as I-No was preparing to take another swing, Ranma moved with a speed she'd never seen before, pouncing on her. Before she could react, Ranma had knocked her down to the ground and… was sitting on her legs and purring? Why was Ranma purring? And why was she finding this soothing !?!
There was nothing like favorite human's lap, it truly was the bestest place for a nap, even if it felt a little different than normal. Soon the cat felt itself falling asleep.
Ranma was laying on something warm, they must have gone into the Neko-Ken and took a nap in Akane's lap… Wait, this couldn't be Akane's lap, they hadn't been able to find a way back yet!
Ranma scrambled off whoever's lap this was and started apologizing profusely, only to stop for a moment when they realized whose lap they were on. "I-No!? Oh crap, I'm so sorry, I don't what I did to you in that state but-"
I-No held up a hand and sighed, looking embarrassed, "Let's just pretend this never happened, alright?"
Ranma shook their head in surprise, "huh!?"
"I said let's just pretend this never happened " there was an edge to I-No's voice, it promised pain.
Ranma just nodded before fleeing.
After what felt like a few years, a couple more sometimes amicable run-ins with I-No, and a few more cases of the old Saotome luck, Ranma had finally had a break. After a run-in with someone who called themself The Original, who had asked Ranma to deliver a message to I-No's boss, I-No herself came up, threatening to kill Ranma for having met this Original. Somehow, Ranma didn't stick their foot in their mouth and was able to explain the situation, resulting in I-No taking them both back in time to meet their boss.
To think they'd met their way home years ago and missed it, they were kicking themself.
Which led to the now, to find I-No again and ask if she could take them back in time. Thankfully it wasn't too long to find I-No on some beach, inspecting one of the giant stone swords littering it. Ranma waved "Hey I-No!"
I-No looked at them, seeming a little irritated "Oh, it's… you. Why are you here?"
Ranma sauntered over, "Just wanting to ask if ya can send me back to 1998. I haven't had much luck controlin' when I jump."
I-No turned back to the sword she was inspecting "Get in line, got more important things to do."
While Ranma could ordinarily be somewhat patient, on occasion, the very real possibility they could be ripped away at any moment made that hard. "Please, I need to get back to my wife and you're the only person I know who can help me!"
"Was I not clear? I have more important things to do." Irritation oozed in her voice.
"You know I can't wait, I could get sent through time at any moment! So get off your high horse, it won't even take that long for y-" Ranma was interrupted by a guitar being swung at them. "What the hell was that for!?!"
"I told you to wait, you didn't listen, I'm pissed, so I'm making you go bye-bye."
Ranma sighed as they started fighting. Again. It was an old story. Ranma put their foot in their mouth, the other person got angry, and a fight'd break out. While this was a common enough occurrence with a lot of people, something about this made them think back to the fights with Akane, before they learned how to communicate with each other.
Maybe it wasn't too late to try talking things out. "Hey, I'm sorry about being pushy, just let me know if you can send me back or not and I'll get outta your hair"
I-No faltered at this, "... what's your angle here?"
"Uh, tired of fighting every other time we meet. Doesn't get us anywhere, kinda hopin talkin will." Ranma said, dropping out of their ready stance
I-No looked at them questioningly, looking for signs of deception. There was a moment of silence. "I can't send you back."
"Oh." What else was there to say?
"Well, I can't send you back in a way that sticks. We're vagabonds, the pieces of the future we carry with us are something, your past, any past, has recollection of. Sooner or later, that will set us adrift."
"Th… then can ya teach me to at least be able to control my jumps like you can? I want to at least let Akane know I'm alive."
I-No blinked. "Akane… where have I heard that name before?"
Before Ranma could respond a new voice interrupted them. "Yo, I-Noes! You followed me all the way out here!?! You know I'd come back eventually, right" It belonged to someone with a weird mask and red/white hair
I-No sighed, looking at Ranma, "Help me detain her and I'll consider it."
"What'd she do? I ain't gonna attack someone for no reason!"
"She's dangerous, she ends up in the hands of someone else, could end up fucking things up." At this I-No attacked the woman, not waiting for Ranma's response.
By all rights, Ranma shouldn't have trusted I-No's answer, yet they moved to help I-No anyway.
If fighting each other felt familiar, then fighting together was downright eerie. The two of them somehow moved in sync, each exploiting openings the other created. At one point, Ranma expected to see Akane at their side, only to look and be starkly reminded that Akane was hundreds of miles and years away. After that, the fight was a lot less fun.
It wasn't long before the fight was over, with Ranma and I-No the victors, Ranma pinning the woman to the sand.
"Keep her there while I ready containment," I-No said curtly, as she started some ritual or another.
"Sorry 'bout this, miss?..." They trailed off their apology to the woman to fill in her own name.
"Jack O'." A pause "Ranma, you know she doesn't have all the answers…"
"What are you talkin bout? How'd'ya know my name!?!"
"I-Noes doesn't know everything, she doesn't even really understand herself. 'He' is pretty mean, so he probably didn't tell her, either." Jack O' replied in almost a sing-song voice.
At this, I-No looked up, "What the hells you talking about?! I understand myself!"
"Aw, you're so clueless" still in that sing-song voice.
Suddenly I-No gave a shout of pain and collapsed. Ranma put a lot more weight on Jack O' as some protective rage filled them. "What did you do to her!?!" They practically screamed at Jack O'
"Oh, just helped her understand." Ranma was really starting to find Jack O's voice irritating.
"T…that vision… I was the…the world?" I-No groaned.
"Yup! That's the real you!" Suddenly Jack O's voice became colder, harsher. "You are a necessity, a horrible mistake. Both of you."
"What the hell you talking about!?!" Ranma demanded while I-No seemed deep in thought.
"You, Ranma, are a possibility from a broken future, who only survived because your universal designation happened to overlap with I-No's, making the irregular laws that apply to her to apply to you. You are a shogi piece that wandered onto a chessboard, and that makes you dangerous."
"Wait, are ya sayin' this isn't even my world!?! So I can't go back to mine at all?" Ranma slumped.
The sing-song voice returned, "Oh no, you can! You can visit any world!"
I-No spoke up again, "If you're willing to make this one go up in smoke. And you're not willing to do that, are you?"
Ranma could do nothing but nod sullenly. If going home meant destroying everything this world had built, they couldn't do it.
"Oh, and let her go, I changed my mind." I-No continued.
Ranma was too stunned by everything to resist. Jack O' didn't hesitate to take the opportunity to go, leaving Ranma and I-No sitting in the sand.
"What am I going to do now… I can't go back, not if it means making this world disappear" Ranma groaned.
"You've done it before. Every time you went back to avoid a future you didn't like, you made a world disappear."
"That ain't fair! There's a difference between fixing a future for people and trying to get home!" Ranma retorted.
"It's the same, you go back in time, trying to fix things, to see someone smile in that better future. But do it enough times and you realize the people you saved aren't the same people thanking you, that it's all just a fiction that you wrote. It's hard to continue caring and, eventually, you stop trying. I know I did."
"But…" Ranma started to say.
I-No stood up, "It's time for me to go. When you're willing to let go, join me in this life, let me know, I'd be… glad to have your company, somehow." And with that, she vanished.
Ranma had spent some time wandering and finally had a breakthrough with their jumps. Still couldn't stop the random ones, but they could at least make short jumps, not to mention the feeling that they could do more than just jump through time.
It gave Ranma mixed feelings, which Ranma was working through by using a tree as a training dummy.
They had always been a sucker for learning more techniques, but the cost of jumping was high: destroying entire realities, apparently. But it was so tempting to just go back to Akane, ignoring how every person they met here would be gone. There was another problem with going back, though. What if Ranma created a worse future by going back? They'd learned enough that they could probably change it significantly, but not enough to control or predict the outcome. Maybe-
Ranma was shaken out of their thoughts when a squirrel landed on their head, presumably shaken out of the tree by Ranma's strikes.
Ranma was clearly getting stuck in their own head. They needed to talk to someone.
Sadly, the only someone Ranma knew who could actually give advice was I-No, which probably wasn't the wisest choice, but, honestly, compared to the times Ranma asked Nabiki for advice, it was probably safe. Ish.
There was one other problem though, finding I-No. She clearly expected Ranma to find her somewhat easily, given her invitation, so clearly Ranma should be able to do something to get to her. Maybe if they tried jumping, but… sideways?...
Ranma was somewhere else, a featureless white void, save for a potted plant, grandfather clock, a small round table, and two chairs opposite each other. Oh, and I-No, who seemed a little surprised.
"Uh, hey." Ranma waved.
"I wasn't exactly inviting you into my home, you know." I-No sighed.
"Well, how else was I supposed to find ya? It's not like you're looking to be found."
"I suppose I didn't give you a way to contact me, and you did manage to get here, so have a seat, I guess. Just try not to piss me off" I-No took a seat motioning for Ranma to do the same.
As Ranma took a seat, I-No asked, "I take it you made up your mind?"
"Uhh, actually I haven't just needed ta talk some things out, figured you'd understand."
"Please tell me this isn't going to involve some 'for the greater good' nonsense."
"I mean, kinda, more like it's 'a martial artist's duty to protect others' thing. I'm just worried about hurting people with this power, it feels wrong to make a whole world just up and vanish, ya know?"
"You know we make worlds vanish into possibilities just by existing? It'll happen anyways, so what's the point in worrying?" I-No shrugged.
"So you're not worried about screwing things up?"
"No. We're not in a position to change this about ourselves and no one's making us do anything with this power, so what's wrong with using it?"
"What's wrong is when it hurts other people!"
"You sure you haven't made up your mind? It seems to me like you're wasting my time." I-No was getting irritated
"I haven't, it's just…” They sighed, “I want to see Akane again, to let her know I'm alright, but I don't wanna doom a world, I'm supposed to protect people, after all!"
"Maybe you should try living for yourself," I-No said as if that solved everything.
"Huh?"
"We all have to find some reason to keep living but it seems to me you're torn between two reasons: this Akane and being a protector. I am proposing a third path, my path, living for yourself."
Silence fell as Ranma lost themself in thought. Eventually, Ranma spoke again, "I don't think I can give any of those reasons up, but framin it that way really helped." They stood up. "Thanks for the help… hey, if ya ever want to hang or spar, I'd be down for it, so find me." With that, Ranma tried that jumping sideways trick and left.
Naturally, the old Saotome luck meant that the next time the two met, it was as opponents. I-No had been working with a guy named Happy Chaos and they ended up merging, ascending I-No close to godhood at the cost of her color, both metaphorically and literally, all to make everyone like her, like Ranma.
And naturally, Ranma couldn't just stand by and let this happen, so they joined in the fray by saving a blondie from I-No's assault. "I-No! What are ya doing!?! Ya tell me we all need ta find a reason to keep livin', but now you're tryin' ta give everyone's yours."
"So you wanna stand in my way?"
"I guess so, but I'm tryin' ta stop ya from makin' a mistake. I knew a guy like us, didn't deal with time shit, but always ended up in a different place, no pattern to it. He… wasn't a happy person, he had a reason to live, but he wasn't happy. You make everyone like us, and you'll make a lotta people like him. And I think we all need ta be happy, at least once."
"We need to be happy? And why is that?"
"So we can have something to keep us warm in the cold. When my pops dragged me through torture in the name of 'training' I grabbed whatever bits of happiness I found and held on tight. Now, it's harder to hold on, but I still do. Not everyone will if ya do this… do you hold on to something?" The question was an afterthought to Ranma.
I-No paused for a second, raising Ranma's hope that maybe they got through to her. Those hopes were dashed, "It doesn't matter, but you should hang on to yours, as it's about to get very cold for you." And Ranma was blasted away.
It was a long fight, near misses for both sides, but now it'd soon be over. Sol had busted out some weapon to aim at a weak point some other guy discovered, and it seemed to be working. Soon this would be over, I-No's plan stopped, and the world safe as it could be.
None of that mattered to Ranma, what mattered was that this meant I-No was dying. And somehow, despite it all, despite how often they ended up fighting, despite it seeming like it was nothing but chance tying them together, despite the fact that it seemed I-No didn’t care about anything, Ranma couldn’t help but be drawn towards her, to care about her. Something about this moment, the feeling of helplessness, the realization of just how much she mattered to them, sparked memories of Jusendo when Akane lay dying.
But this time there were no waters by which I-No could be saved, nothing Ranma could do but try to comfort her at the end.
Before Ranma could speak, I-No beat them to it, "You know, I think I did hold on to something once… but I forgot it… how much did I forget?"
"You forgot it all?! Not even one small memory?" Ranma blinked back tears, as they struggled against the force Sol's weapon was exerting to get closer.
"No, just boredom and apathy…" I-No fought to get out
Ranma didn't know how to respond, and fell back into old habits, shouting "You gotta have something good to hold on to. I don't want you to die sad you... you... stupid tomboy!" If asked, Ranma wouldn't be able to answer why they used the 'insult' they normally reserved for Akane, other than it just felt right. So many things with I-No seemed inexplicable.
I-No's eyes widened, the old insult rekindling something long forgotten, something to hold on to. "Ranma?... How did I forget you... pervert."
Only one person had ever, would ever, use the word pervert for Ranma in an affectionate way, their wife. I-No using it was the last piece of the puzzle Ranma needed to finally understand. To think, they spent so long searching when they had found her years ago. "Akane?..."
"Ranma..." And with that I-No, Akane, was gone, Sol's weapon having reduced her to nothing.
Ranma couldn't hold back anymore. They sobbed violently, falling to their knees. Everyone else seemed to be panicking about Sol, but for Ranma, only thought lingered in their head.
It really was Jusendo all over again.
Ranma was wandering the streets of Illyria. It had been a week since I-No, Akane, died. The streets were empty, everyone busy mourning Sol, leaving Ranma to mourn I-No, to mourn Akane, alone.
Rain started to fall, activating their curse. Ranma didn't care, it was so hard to care about anything with her dead. They knew the future version of themself said they’d find happiness if they stuck with it, but it felt like they were lying right now. Ranma plopped down on a bench, waiting for hunger to motivate them to get up once more.
Eventually, after a time, someone sat down next to them. Ranma turned to look at the newcomer and saw the impossible, a head of blue hair they hadn't seen in so long. "A...Akane?!"
"I-No." She half-corrected, adopting a lackadaisical posture. Getting a good look at her face, it was clear the correction was somewhat warranted, though some of Akane’s features had started to blend in as well.
"H...How? You were dead! There was nothing left!"
"When I recognized you, really recognized you, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time, I cared about you. And some part of me demanded I don’t leave you alone again. So, with the last of my power, I created a body to inhabit, one beholden to the laws of this world, closer to the Akane you remember" She paused, sighing. "But, I can't be the Akane you remember, Ranma. I've forgotten too much, changed too much. But I want to try caring again, to live in a fictional world I didn’t write. I want to get that happy memory"
Tears started pooling in Ranma's eyes, a smile half-formed on their face. "Then… Then how about we start over." They stood up, turned to Akane, to I-No, and held out their hand. "Hey there, I'm Ranma Saotome, do you want to be friends?"