***Disclaimer***

I do not have any type of ownership of Ranma ½ in any way and such; I don’t have any right to be using the characters or places used. I only use them in my stories that I create to quench my writing desire to change the fate of the Ranma Universe at some level. General Warning to the owners of Ranma ½: Don’t bother suing me please. I’m still a lowly college student and if you remember your college days, money is scarce while schoolwork is plentiful (yet I can still make time to write this stuff. Lets here it for procrastination). It will be only considered a loss on your part.

***WARNING***

I’m still a beginning writer at this; so don’t get bent out of shape if my grammar goes to hell throughout the story.

***Story Notes***

I was inspired to do this while I was writing, “Return of the Eagle.” I was in the middle of one of the earlier chapters when I thought about all the Ranma altaverse/divergence stories that exist out there. In every one of them, Ranma either has his regular curse or no curse. There is a rare few that deal with Ranma who has a curse that is completely different than the norm. Plus, no matter what story it is, Genma is always a panda. What would happen if Ranma and Genma, while at Cursed Springs, Jusenkyo, received different curses from the original cannon? As such, this story came about. Hope you enjoy it.

A Tendo & Her Falcon

Chapter 1

In the farthest reaches of China, “Welcome sirs to Cursed Springs, Jusenkyo. Here’s is most dangerous training ground known to man,” the Chinese guide stated proudly to his two traveling companions. He had been hired by the older man to bring him and his son to the cursed training grounds. Why they wanted to come here, he had no clue but didn’t care as long as they heeded his warnings.

Ranma stood with his father dressed in their training gi. His father had been searching for this specific training ground, why Ranma couldn’t figure out. Whenever asked for the reason, the reply would always be, “It’s supposed to be the most dangerous training ground there is and every martial artist must give his life for the art,” or something along those lines.

He really began to wonder if what his father was saying was just a lie, since he seemed to be constantly looking at something that looked like a tour brochure. Of course, not knowing Chinese impeded their efforts finding the training grounds and it was several days later before Genma finally broke down and tried to find someone that could take them there. With luck and a little bargaining, his father was able to find someone that would take them, and so, here he stood, looking at hundreds of pools of water with bamboo sticking out of them as the sun crested the valley walls.

“This doesn’t look that tough, Pop. I think that sales person gypped you where you got that so called brochure. Come on, lets get out of here and go back home. You’ve been saying that we would go home after our training journey and you said this is the last stop. Lets just go home now.”

Genma did some quick thinking before responding to Ranma, “Come on boy. Unless you are not good enough to beat me,” falling back on the same taunt that he has for the last several years. The truth was that Genma did not have plans for taking Ranma home, yet. There was still one more thing to be taken care of before that could happen. Don’t worry Tendo, soon our two schools will be joined and we will live the easy life. Genma dropped his pack a few feet from the edge of the pools and jumped up on top one of the bamboo poles.

“I’ve been beating you for the past half year Pop. There is nothing more that you can teach me.” Ranma responded as he too landed on a pole with one foot and took a crane stance. Over the years, Ranma’s ability to absorb martial art techniques has grown to the point were he only needs to see it and can master less than a week later. In his spars with his father, Ranma’s skill was then pitted against his fathers experience; experience was only able to win half the time.

The guide that was with them suddenly started yelling in broken Japanese, “No sirs! What you doing? You no listen to me. It very bad if fall in spring.”

The guide’s warnings went unheeded as Genma sprang toward his son as Ranma jumped up to meet him halfway. Midway, the two combatants met with a flurry of kicks, jabs and punches before breaking off from each other to land on another bamboo pole.

“Come on Pop, is that all you got? I’m barely getting a warm-up here,” a smirked crossed Ranma’s face as he watched his father get flustered by his taunt. “You’re the one that challenged me, are you sure you want to continue before you get hurt old man?”

“I’ve barely started boy and it seems I need to teach you to respect your elders,” Genma barked back. He knew his son was good, but he has apparently gained a huge ego as well. So, Genma jumped at Ranma again and met him halfway as they traded blows back and forth and it continued for several more passes. The guide watched precariously as father and son battled above the pools of sorrow. He only could pray that they’ll tire out and quit before someone fell in.

Up in Heaven, a little prankster named Murphy, twitched his ear when he heard that thought and decided that this would be more interesting than moving peoples belongings around the room as they searched for the item. What he saw made him laugh with glee, as this would be a major mark to put on his resume. He took out a coin and flipped it, heads for Ranma to take a dip first and tails for Genma. With the result heads, Murphy, always taking the opposite from the toss (just in case another prankster god was playing with him), assisted Ranma’s kick to Genma’s stomach and sending him into a pool.

SPLASH!

Ranma landed on a pole and turned around and looked for his father. He knew the old man was getting slow and this just proved his point. Scanning the pools, he saw the guide walking towards one of the pools that seemed to have bubbles coming from it. Suddenly, a petite redheaded woman popped out of the spring. As Ranma was getting over the initial shock, he heard the guide’s voice.

“Oh no! You fall in spring of drowned woman. Story says woman drowned in spring 3500 year ago. Now, anyone that falls in spring take body of drowned victim. I’m very sorry sir.” The guide shook his head as he waited for a reaction from the older gentleman that fell in the pond. The guide’s attention was drawn to the sound of laughter and found the young sir laughing while holding onto the pole.

Ranma couldn’t believe it. His father had turned into an older woman. His father had always badgered him about women being weak and always needing protection. Plus, there was the constant reminder to be ‘manly.’ Now, Ranma could give some payback for all the teasing that his father did to him during their journey.

Genma stood in the waist deep pool and just stayed there. As soon as he was knocked into the pool, he was going to jump out and continue the fight. But as he was getting up for the jump, something in his head shouted, “WARNING!” For the first time, Genma listened and stopped to find out what was wrong. It was then he noticed that his balance was different and felt there was some extra weight on his chest that he shouldn’t have.

Standing in the pool, somewhat in shock as his brain, slowly (he rarely use this muscle remember, so it takes a little longer than normal) took stock of the situation, he heard parts of what the guide said, “Pool of drowned woman,” “Take body of drowned victim.” Genma’s brain, taking note of what the ears heard, started to relate them to what the brain was told by the rest of the body and confirmed it with it notes. Finally, the brain made a decision to let Genma know what it found out and requested visual confirmation.

Slowly, Genma looked down at his gi and found that it was protruding more than normal. He then grabbed the opening of the gi and flung it open and found: BREASTS! Genma Saotome, of the Anything Goes Martial Arts, an epitome of manliness and fighting skill, had breasts. “WHAT!” Then he noticed that his voice was a bit higher than normal.

His brain though, just got visual confirmation and conferred with the rest of the body with its findings. To say the least, the body wasn’t too happy since last it knew, it was a man. Now, the brain is telling them, with visual proof, that they were now female. In response, the body froze up. Seeing the body freeze up, the news that it just related caught up with itself and the brain went into shock. With the brain in shock and the body frozen up. Genma did the only thing he could: he fainted and fell into the pool.

Ranma was now holding his sides he was laughing so hard. He was just getting his laughter under control when he heard his fathers voice had changed octaves and was looking down at his chest. It was then that Ranma saw that his father did indeed have female breasts. Instead of getting his laughter under control, he ended up breaking up into another laughter fit. He was laughing so hard that he didn’t notice that his father had fainted into the pool.

Elsewhere, another person was stumbling upon the cursed training grounds. “Damn you Saotome. Where are you now?” Ryoga Hibiki just stepped out of the bushes and found that he was standing at the top of a cliff, overlooking hundreds of little pools. As he stood there and contemplated where he should go, the sound of laughter was heard as it echoed through the valley. Ryoga immediately scanned the valley floor for the source of the laughter and saw a boy, possibly the same age as himself, barely holding onto a pole. Not far from him, someone seemed to be dragging a person from one of the pools. The boy though seemed to draw his attention the most. There was something about him that seemed to be familiar. Ryoga continued to lean over the cliff, trying to get a better view of the boy on the pole. It was then, that a few loose stones that Ryoga was kneeling on loosened, causing Ryoga to quickly loose his balance and fall over the edge. “Damn you Ranma!” Ryoga cursed as he fell down the cliff. Unable to maneuver as he fell, Ryoga suddenly hit his head on a small outcropping, knocking him unconscious as he fell. Don’t worry though; one of the pools broke his fall. SPLASH! SPLASH!

When the guide saw that the older man, now woman, was going to faint he ran over and grabbed a large tree limb and managed to drag the woman out of the pool before it was too late. He took a side-glance and only sighed as the younger man continued to laugh. Taking his attention off the boy, the guide made sure that the woman was alive. Finding a pulse and that she was still breathing, he sighed with relief when he heard a splash, or was that two?

He turned to the sound and saw that the younger boy finally fell off the pole and into a pool. Getting up, he ran over to the general area of the pool and found a little black pig squealing like mad as it tried to get out of the pool. Shaking his head in resignation, the guide used another stick and pulled the little pig out of the pool. With the pig in hand, still squealing, the guide walked back over to the woman to wait for her… er… him to wake up so he could explain the nature of the curse and how it works. The guide never saw the bubbles forming a couple pools over.

Ranma was just getting under control from the last laughter fit when he suddenly heard his name from above him. Turning quickly to see who it was and if the person was attacking, Ranma lost his grip, which was already strained from laughing so much, and fell into the pool below him. As soon as he hit the water, Ranma felt his body change. It was such a strange feeling that he couldn’t think that he could explain it if someone asked him to.

As he contemplated the strange feeling, the lungs let out a warning that he was running low on oxygen. Instinctively, Ranma tried to swim to the surface but found extreme difficulty as he tried to swim up. What he didn’t know was that because of the body change, his clothes didn’t fit him anymore and as he struggled, he got part of his shirt wrapped around a foot. As he continued to struggle, he somehow, still unknowingly, was able to cut most of the cloth away except for a small amount that was tied around his ankle.

Luckily, Ranma was able to break the surface near the edge of the pool and was able to drag himself out of the pool. Resting on the ground catching his breath, Ranma began to notice that something was wrong with him. First off, he found that his vision was magnified greatly and was able to see the rocks in great detail on the opposite side of the valley wall. He also found that he couldn’t move his arms normally as he tried to get up, but failed and fell to the ground. Bending his head down, Ranma found that he had wings instead of arms. He also found that he had talon feet instead of human feet.

Slowly, tears began forming in his eyes as he realized that he was cursed to be a predatory bird. It was through sheer willpower that he didn’t faint. “WHAT? That can’t possibly be my son!” Genma-chan shouted. The delicate resolve that Ranma still had crumbled when his own father, said that he wasn’t his son. Wanting to get away from his father as much as possible, Ranma could only think of one person that still might claim him: his mother.

The guide was trying to explain to the man turned woman that the boy he picked up was the only person he found in the springs. “I’m sorry sir, but this only boy I find. It very strange since this first time spring do this to customer.” The guide looked over to the partially covered boy that he found. When the woman, er, man woke up, he tried to explain the curse and how it works. But the boy turned pig was causing so much noise that the man simply knocked the pig unconscious, allowing the guide to explain the curses. Using the pig as a visual aid, the guide poured warm water over the pig transforming him back into a boy. The reaction was not what he was expecting.

Genma was fuming as he looked down at the boy that the guide was claiming to be his son. But it couldn’t possibly be his son. He knew for a fact that his son had a pigtail and this boy didn’t. Oh no, Nodoka! What would she say, or, Genma gulped, do? Soun! What about our pact? What about our easy living off our children’s hard work? What about… Genma’s thoughts grinded to a halt when he realized something; no one knows what Ranma looks like. I’m saved! A plan started running through his head when he realized something that he forgot about, “Um could I have some of that hot water please?”

“Owe, what hit me?” Ryoga groaned as he regained consciousness. Opening his eyes, Ryoga found himself looking at a wood ceiling. Looking around, he found that he was in some sort of room in a cabin. Sitting up, Ryoga rubbed his head, trying to lesson the pain from two lumps that he found. He turned his head to the door when he heard it creak open and found a heavy set man dressed in a white gi with a bandanna covering his head.

“Oh good, you’re awake finally. Come on son, I have some dinner prepared and you need to eat so we can train some more tomorrow,” Genma said from the open door. He prayed that this would work.

“Um, I don’t mean to be rude, but who are you?” Ryoga paused as he discovered something else, “Who am I for that matter?” Ryoga held his head as he tried to figure out who he was.

“My only son has forgotten about his dear old father. It must have happened from getting hit on the head too much,” Genma sighed exasperated. Genma however, might have looked repulsed at the boy forgetting about him, but was cheering his good fortune inside. Yes! The boy doesn’t know who he is. My luck is finally changing. “I am Genma Saotome, master of the Anything Goes Martial Arts. You my boy, since you forgot, are my son, Ranma Saotome. Together, we have been traveling for almost ten years now, ever since you could walk. Your mother died when you were very young and I have been taking care of you since.”

Ryoga just listened to man, who called himself Genma tell his story. As he listened, something clicked in his memory, “Yeah, that’s it. My name is Ranma Saotome.” Proud that he figured this out, Ryoga remembered something else, “Uh, Father?”

“Yes?” Genma was grinning from ear to ear inside and he showed concern to his son; this was the first time that he was getting respect. Maybe having this boy as my son won’t be so bad. He at least shows respect to his elders.

“Did something happen to us? Like a curse of some sort.” Ryoga watched as his father’s expression slumped a little.

“Come on over to the table. We are at the guide’s hut near the valley and he will explain everything for you.”

Ryoga nodded as he got up from the cot and walked over to the door. That’s strange; I could have sworn that the door was over here. When did they put up a wall here?

“Over here boy, over here.” Genma called to the boy. Turning around the boy walked over to him and exited the room by his side. Deciding to take a precaution, Genma took hold of the boy’s shoulder and sat him in the chair at the table, where the guide, with a pot of hot and cold water sat on the table. Hmm, better figure out how to solve that direction problem before we arrive at the Tendo’s. A little while later, outside the hut, loud shouting could be heard, “I turn into a WHAT?”

About a hundred miles away, Ranma Saotome, the real Ranma, was eating a rabbit that was held in his talons as he stood on a tree branch. After about an hour after leaving the valley, Ranma realized that he needed to know if there was a cure to his curse. So, turning himself around, he headed back for the valley and hoped that he could find the guide. He was able to find the valley easy enough with his new sight, but the guide and his father had apparently left. Giving up, and not wanting to see his father at the moment, reoriented himself eastward and flew off for Japan again, hoping that he could find his mother.

Going back towards Japan again, Ranma discovered something about his curse; he actually was enjoying it. The feeling of being able to fly and perform aerial aerobics, the specialty of the Saotome School, was invigorating. No longer was he ground bound by gravity, being limited to only jumping. Ranma was able to take the school to a new level as he learned to perform loops, twists, turns, dives, and other maneuvers as he flew towards the ocean. Then, with his enhanced eyesight, he could fly hundreds of feet into the air, riding the air currents, and still see the ground perfectly and be able to identify multiple objects without difficulty.

As the sun was finally setting, Ranma was beginning to feel hungry. Lowering himself closer to the ground, he began to scan the ground for food. Just as the sun was about to set, Ranma spotted a lone rabbit in a field and dove upon it. Now, Ranma was eating his catch. He didn’t bother trying to cook it, since he couldn’t start a fire without hands and he was too hungry to care, as his beak was able to tear apart the rabbit with little trouble.

Ok, how do I find Mother? And once I do, how do I talk to her to tell her that I’m her son? Better to leave that question alone until I do find her. Pop, never did say where she was or if she was even alive. All I can think of is being in a big city when I last saw her. Tomorrow, I’ll be over the ocean and in Japan where I will start looking for her. Once I find her, somehow, I’ll worry about trying to communicate to her. Ranma finished his dinner and let it drop to the ground below him as he got himself comfortable and fell asleep.

Four days later, Ranma found himself resting on top of a tall metal tower, right in the middle of a very large city that he found. A few days ago after crossing the ocean, he decided to continue going east searching for cities and didn’t find one that was big enough, to him, to consider try searching. Today, he found this huge city and decided that this would be the best place to start and began right away. With two-thirds of the day gone, Ranma wasn’t able to find anyone that could be his mother. Of course, he was only going by a vague memory of what she looked like. He knew it wouldn’t be easy, but he was thinking that maybe he should have started at one of the smaller towns first.

About mid-afternoon, Ranma was searching another part of the city at a reasonable height that would allow him to dive down quickly if he needed to. So far, Ranma had been completely unlucky in finding someone that resembled his memory of his mother. He was about to try a different direction, when he saw something that made him very angry. With his enhanced eyesight, Ranma saw two men approaching a girl that was slowly backing up from them. It was the knife in the hand of one of the men that really got Ranma angry. Still holding on to the one rule of a martial artist, even though you’re a bird at the moment, Ranma dove for the man’s hand holding the knife to help the girl.

Nabiki Tendo was scared for one of the few times in her life; really scared. She had been leaving to take a loan payment to the bank that day taking her usual route. Today was an important day since this was the last payment and the dojo’s expenses would drop considerably and allow a savings to be established. She wasn’t expecting these two muggers that were apparently waiting for her to come by a more secluded place on her route, “I don’t care what you say, your not going to get anything.” She turned on her mask and tried to take a martial artist stance that her memory recalled from the days when she was younger.

“Oh ho! The girl has some spunk. Maybe we should have some fun before we dispose of her eh?” the smaller of the two snickered. Nabiki didn’t show it, but she was now near shaking as she watched the face of the one holding the knife. “Yeah, maybe. But first, lets see how much spunk this one has first,” and ran forward to try to stick her with the knife. Nabiki just watched and prayed that help would appear or her memory would recall the lessons with her father.

Just as the guy was upon her, bringing the knife up for a downward slash, her prayer was answered. From above was a high-pitched shriek as a large, black colored bird grabbed the man’s knife hand. He screamed in excruciating pain as the bird that grabbed his hand, dug his talons deep into the hand. Reflexively, he dropped the knife and grabbed his hand.

Ranma held onto the hand for dear life as he flapped his wings to keep his balance and annoy the attacker. When the attacker grabbed onto his hand, Ranma was close enough to use his beak and began pecking the guys face with aggression while keeping his talons dug deep.

“AHHHHHHHH! Damn it! Do something about this damn bird will you. It’s killing me here,” The guy managed to yell back to his partner as he continued to try to get the bird off his hand.

“Put your hand into the air quick!” When his partner complied, he pulled out a small handgun and took aim and pulled the trigger.

Ranma seemed to be winning when he was suddenly lifted into the air. He heard the shot and a millisecond later; he was hit in the shoulder followed by immense pain. Screaming, in bird language, Ranma let go and fell to the ground. Attempting to move only caused more pain to his shoulder and let his pain be known.

The attacker was pleased to be rid of the bird, but really wanted to hit his friend for drawing the gun. “Let’s get out of here quick! That gun just alerted anyone in the area,” he said as he backed up from the bird that was still screeching as it tried to move on the ground, and the girl. Still holding onto his hand, trying to stop the bleeding, he turned and ran away with his friend close behind.

Nabiki was frozen with fear when the guy started to attack her. Then she was frozen with shock when the bird appeared out of nowhere and began to attack the man. Unable to comprehend what was going on, she watched, as the bird seemed to be winning against the man. When the gun went off, Nabiki was able to move again as the two men said some words and ran off. The bird’s high-pitched chirps caught her attention. Seeing the bird on the ground and bleeding, Nabiki moved over to try to help the animal that had apparently saved her.

She looked over the bird and Nabiki discovered that she didn’t have a clue what to do. Her first aid lessons that she learned in school came back to her. Nabiki took hold of the lower edge of her shirt and pulled hard, ripping a long strip and tried to slow the bleeding. “Shh, shh, stop moving. It’ll be ok. Just stop moving.” Nabiki saw that her voice was having an affect as the bird still chirped sadly and continued to hold the pressure on. Picking up the bird as gently as she could, Nabiki cradled it as she ran towards the only person she could think of: Dr. Tofu.

Dr. Tofu was sitting down and enjoying the quiet day as he took care of some paperwork when he heard his door thrown open, “Dr. Tofu? Help, please!” Recognizing Nabiki Tendo’s voice, he ran to the waiting room. He found her near tears and cradling a large bird. “What is it Nabiki?”

“Dr. Tofu, help it please. It…” she mumbled out as she choked back a sob.

Even though he knew that this wasn’t his expertise, he decided to do something so someone with the proper skills could take over. Carefully taking the bird, “Stay here and calm down first. Is there any one that needs to be called?”

“Yes, the police. I’ll explain later.” Nabiki sat down and tried to compose herself. She had never felt so useless. She had lost control and that was something that she didn’t like.

Dr. Tofu went into one of the examination rooms and set the bird down. Pleased that it was still breathing Dr. Tofu went about bandaging the bird up and tried to make it comfortable. “Nabiki, can you come in here and watch the bird. I think I better make the call to the police and your family but I need you to make sure the bird doesn’t move too much and fall off the bed.”

Nabiki nodded and sat in a chair just staring at the bird that had saved her as Dr. Tofu disappeared to make the calls. How did I loose control? I never loose control, yet it happened. Then this bird came out of nowhere and saved me. Why? Did it think that the knife was something to grab? Nabiki’s thoughts were interrupted as Dr. Tofu came in.

“A policeman is on the way over to take a statement Nabiki and I left a message at your place.” He walked over and took a seat, “Want to talk about it?”

“No, let me say it only once with the officer here, please,” Nabiki said somberly. Suddenly she remembered something, “Oh no! The loan money! I need to get this money to the bank today,” Nabiki fretted as she pulled out the envelope with the check and bank slip. It was then that the front door opened, “Dr. Tofu? Nabiki?”

“Over here Akane,” Dr. Tofu opened the screen and allowed a worried Akane into the room.

“Nabiki, I just got home. Kasumi was at the store and, you know how Dad is at this time. What happened?” Akane then saw a bird, wrapped in bandages, on the bed, “Oh no!”

“I’m fine now Akane. I’ll explain everything at home but I need you to pay attention to what I’m about to tell you.” Akane immediately turned her attention to her older sister. “I’m not able to take this right now but this is the last payment on our loan. Take it to the bank now before it closes. I’ll be home by the time you get back.”

“Sure thing Nabiki,” grabbing the envelope, Akane left the room and ran out the door for the bank. Just as she sighed in relief that the disaster was averted, another voice rang out as the door opened again, “Excuse me, is a Nabiki Tendo here? It’s the police and we would like to get a statement.” Nabiki got up with Dr. Tofu who gave a gentle squeeze on her shoulder for encouragement. Nabiki took a deep breath and walked out of the examination room and went to talk with the officer while Dr. Tofu listened from behind the curtain as Nabiki explained the situation and told her story.

A half an hour later and multiple questions later, the statement was taken, “Thank you again Ms. Tendo. I’ll get over to where you were attacked to find the knife that you mentioned was dropped. Hopefully it is still there and we can catch the people that attacked you. We have your number and where we can find you if we need to talk to you again,” the officer smiled warmly. “Care if I have a look at the bird that saved you? I would like to see the bird that saved you?”

Nabiki nodded and directed the officer to the room where the bird was still sleeping as Dr. Tofu watched over it. The officer took a good look at it and whistled, “That is a large bird there. You are lucky that it happened to attack the assailant when it did.” Nabiki nodded, unable to say anything. “Well thank you again and we’ll contact you if we catch the criminals Ms. Tendo.” Dr. Tofu then showed the officer out the door as Nabiki slumped into the chair next to the bed. Slowly, she reached out and began to gently pet the bird’s head.

Dr. Tofu came in and smiled as he watched Nabiki pet the bird’s head. “Nabiki, while there is still time, why don’t you come with me to get the bird looked at by a vet. I have a colleague who is a vet and can possibly help us.” Seeing her nod, Dr. Tofu left for a moment and returned with a cardboard box, large enough to place the bird in and placed paper and cotton on the bottom before carefully, without disturbing it, placed it in the box. Giving the box to Nabiki, who took it readily, he led her out and to the vet.

Kasumi was busy making dinner when she heard the front door open. Seeing who it was, she was relieved to see that it was Nabiki, who was carrying a large box. She heard the message that Dr. Tofu left and was still worried about her even after Akane said that she ok. “Oh Nabiki, it’s good to see that you’re ok. Is everything alright?”

“Yeah sis, everything is fine. Did Akane get the payment in on time?” trying to avoid talking about the experience more than once with the family.

“She got it in on time and brought back a receipt for your records. Is that the bird?” Inquiring the box that Nabiki was carrying as they walked into the house. Sitting down at the table, Nabiki gently placed the box on the table to show Kasumi the bird. “Oh my, what a beautiful bird,” Kasumi exclaimed as she stared at a bird that was about two feet long and it’s feathers were a dark blue. The top of the head was blue while the bottom half was a cream white that was spotted with small dots of black.

“The vet said it was a Peregrine falcon and that it was very lucky that none of its bones were injured. He wants another check up in a couple days. Don’t worry, its only sleeping.” Nabiki explained.

“Are you going to be taking care of it then while it heals?” Kasumi asked, already guessing the answer. Nabiki just nodded and whispered, “It’s the least I can do for it.” Smiling, Kasumi went back to the kitchen as Akane came in with their father.

“See Daddy, Nabiki is just fine like I told you. There was nothing…”

“WHAAAAAAA! My daughter is alive! WHAAAAAA!” Soun cried as soon as he saw his middle daughter. Rushing up to her, he grabbed onto her for dear life, fearing that if he let go that he would loose her.

“Daddy, stop it! You’ll end up hurting the falcon.” Nabiki exclaimed as she tried to pry her father off her. Gees, when will he ever grow up and act like a grown man?

“Father,” Kasumi’s soft voice filtered through the noise like a hot knife cutting through butter, “calm down. Nabiki is fine and you don’t want to wake up her pet falcon.”

Soun immediately closed his mouth and let go of Nabiki. Akane came over and looked in the box, “What kind of falcon is it sis?”

“The vet said it was a Peregrine. After examining it, he said that the wound wasn’t dangerous and that the bird should be fine in a few days and back to normal in a week. He’s letting me take care of it for now. Tell Kasumi that I’ll be in my room Akane when dinner is ready.” Nabiki picked up the box and walked upstairs to her room. Akane watched on while Soun still had tears falling. She knew that Nabiki was bothered about something but decided it wasn’t her place to bug her about it.

An hour later, someone knocked on Nabiki’s door. Nabiki, sitting at her desk, was just staring out her window and occasionally watched the falcon as it slept in its box on her desk. “Come in.”

The door opened and Kasumi walked in with a tray with a plate of food for her and a small plate of uncooked meet next to it. “I figured that you would want to be with the bird when it woke up. The meat is for when it wakes up. Just bring the dishes down when you are done.”

“Thanks sis.” Nabiki took the dishes and began to eat as Kasumi quietly left the room.

Slowly, consciousness began to creep back to him. Opening his eyes, Ranma looked around and found that he was lying down in a box with paper and cotton. What happened? Last thing I remember was the fight? Trying to move, Ranma felt a jab of pain as he tried moving his right wing. Looking over, he found that it was wrapped up in a bandage with part of his body. Trying it again the pain, came and Ranma let out a series of curses that only came out as chirps. Then he heard a voice, “Shh, don’t move or you will aggravate the wound.” Ranma turned his head around and looked up at a pair of deep, caring, brown eyes and his heart sped up a bit as he stared at the girls face. She’s cute.

Nabiki smiled as she looked into the falcon’s blue eyes, “You’ve been asleep for a few hours now. The bullet went right through and you should be fine in a few days.” Nabiki didn’t know why she was talking to the falcon. She always thought that people who talked to their pets or plants were a little crazy. But she was finding that doing this was relaxing as she was able to tell anything she wanted to to the bird. “I just wanted to say, thank you. For saving my life.”

Ranma continued to listen as the girl that he saved told him what happened after the fight. He was really angry that he was shot. The men definitely had no honor to draw a gun, let alone attacking a defenseless girl. When the girl offered her strips of meat, Ranma readily accepted it as he was very hungry and hadn’t eaten for several hours now.

Nabiki smiled as she fed the falcon the meat and watched it gulp the meat down, “You must have been hungry,” she commented when all the meat was gone. “I’ll go see if Kasumi left some more for you in the kitchen.” Ranma watched the girl leave and tried to stand up again. Failing, he rested his head down and relaxed again. A few moments later, he heard voices outside the door, one he recognized as the girl he saved while the other was new, “Nabiki, can I feed the falcon with you?”

“Sure sis,” Nabiki said as she opened the door. Ranma finally had a name the person that he saved when he recognized the voice. He looked up and found two pairs of brown eyes, one with short brown hair and the other with long black hair. He recognized Nabiki with the short hair, and guessed that this other person was her sister. Seeing the meat in her fingers, Ranma quickly grabbed it from the sister’s fingers and gulped it down.

“Nabiki, have you figured out a name yet?” Akane asked as she fed the last strip of meat and gently petted it’s head, enjoying the feeling of the feathers on her fingers.

“Ra, an Egyptian God that had a head of a falcon,” Nabiki whispered.

“What did you say?”

“Oh, I was going to name him Ra. We learned about him in our ancient history class.”

“Hmm… I guess that will work,” Akane agreed as she got up to leave. I’ll see you in the morning sis. I’m going to finish my homework then go to bed.”

“Night Akane,” Nabiki called as Akane left the room. After Akane left, Nabiki pulled out the dojo’s financial books and went to work planning the family’s finances. She was so involved in the books that she didn’t hear the rustling from the box.

Five minutes after Akane left, Ranma got tired of not knowing what was going on around him and was able to stand up without aggravating the wound. When he peeked over the box rim, he found Nabiki writing in a small book. He didn’t know why, but he didn’t mind watching her work even though he didn’t know what she was doing. Before he knew it, Nabiki was closing the books that she was working in.

“NNGH,” Nabiki groaned, stretching out a few kinks. Nabiki then noticed a pair of eyes from the box. “So, how long have you been watching?” Caught unaware, Ranma flustered a little, ashamed that he was caught staring. Nabiki let out a small giggle seeing Ra’s feathers fluff. It was as if was surprised. “It’s ok Ra, I was just putting the finishing touches on the Dojo’s finances before bed.”

She then got up and started to undress for bed. As soon as he noticed what she was doing, Ranma quickly ducked down in the box and closed his eyes. Nabiki came back and looked in the box and found Ra crouched down with his eyes closed, thinking he was asleep. “Goodnight Ra, and thank you again for saving my life.” Nabiki gently rubbed Ra’s head before climbing in bed and falling asleep shortly after. Ranma looked up and watched her sleep in her bed for a while and smiled before laying down and falling asleep as well.

***Author’s Note***

Hey, what do you think? I know I wasn’t too original with Ryoga’s curse, but I like him as a pig, and so do many others. What do you think about Genma becoming the ‘woman’ of the family? Maybe this will actually teach Genma some manners eh… Nah, never happen. Anyway, if you hadn’t noticed I like predatory birds such as falcons, hawks, eagles (This is the second story that I’m using them in you know). I was tired of Ranma always ending up with the girl curse because, the stories always brought up bad subjects/thoughts/stories that dealt with who would accept Ranma for who he was with his uncontrolled curse. So I gave Ranma something completely different and have integrated it into the cannon universe. For the length of this series, I can’t answer that yet. I know it won’t be too long since it will move quickly at parts, yet the cannon universe will change slightly. All those fans for our favorite chef and amazons; don’t worry. They will be showing up in this story as well and causing just as much trouble as before, if not more. How will I bring them in you ask? Very simple, Ukyo is already going to show up (a given) and where do you think Genma and Ryoga, aka Ranma, are going to stop off at next? I’ll give you 3 guesses and the first two don’t count.

I’m going to try to keep the characters the same, though Nabiki might be changed slightly. Will she be more caring or cold; you’ll just have to read about it in the next chapter.