Young At Heart- The Bet interp by me, pebble supplied by Krista Perry, pond by Rumiko Takahashi.

"K'nichi wa, y'all. Excuse me, I is from Kansai not Arkhansaw...Thank you. Oh dear, now I've got a Brit accent. Oh well. This is a standard disclaimer, my good fellows, that the author of this piece does not in any way own the various trademarks or copyrights upon the characters or worlds within. This particular 'work' is included among the storyarc of 'the Bet' due to the inspiration of the talented Krista Perry, whose skill as a wordsmith I can appreciate, even if she failed to see that Ranchan's best choice in a fiancee was NOT Akane Tendo. Eh, stick to the script? How droll.   "In any case, we now join the Japanese Susano-o (the "Heart Of Ice" version, not the "Blue Seed" version) in a short (gotta be due to mail limits on AOL, ne?) one-act story.   "Someone want to adjust the Universal Translator before Zen catches me speaking in a manner more befitting 'Masterpiece Theatre'? Ow, wot's that? Aw, krickey. Now I'n speakin' Cockney? That's it mates, I'm outta here."

Ranma 1/2
A Bet Fanfic: Young At Heart
By Gregg Sharpe
Idea by Krista Perry 

     The god Susano-o looked on as gods, demons, and other powerful beings did what such beings have done for millenia. They meddled.

      Here a timeline was skewed to show the Space Battlecruiser Yamato defending Earth against the Zentraedi. Here another timeline was altered so that Gendo Ikari added a second control to the clone self-destruct sequence resulting in a failsafe in case someone unauthorized by him tried to derail his plans.

      Here another timeline was altered, and Akane Tendo watched as the Yamato-no-orochi bit down on the scrap of flesh that had once been Ranma Saotome. A change of a microscopic bit of DNA in the beginning of a pregnancy, and Nabiki and Kasumi Tendo gained a younger brother who was NOT engaged to Ranma Saotome when the time came.

      Other timelines saw the Moon Princess die in her first battle, and other heroes step forward to take the places vacated. And so on. A tiny change that snowballed as it caused further and further changes which fed back into crazy loops and coils.

      Susano-o looked with fondness upon the one called Akane Tendo. Perhaps he could come up with a permanent timeline in which she and this Ranma Saotome were NOT linked as strongly. Then he could always do a little work for that Goddess Relief Office and arrange to grant her wish...Maybe even arrange something like that Belldandy had done over in the Norse section.

      Yes, here was a good place to start. Besides, if that didn't work out, he was counting on the one over in the Orochi-eats-Ranma timeline to go for the violent teenager. Being a god sometimes had its perks.

-----

      "I've got it," the child version of Ryouga grabbed the mushroom and swallowed it in a single bite before Tatewaki Kuno could sneak it off Ranma's grill.

      Ryouga abruptly grew, changing from a six year old to a seventeen year old in seconds. He smirked at Ranma, still a child, and he'd stay that way.

      "Poor Ranma," Ryouga kicked out, catching the shocked Ranma on the chin. "Weak, clumsy, childish, Ranma." Ryouga watched as Ranma landed, clumsily, without the coordination he'd have later in life.

      Ryouga controlled his impulse to force his rival to eat dirt, to revel in his helplessness. He could simply eliminate Ranma as his rival, and this would be much more suitable.

      Ryouga went inside the house to tell Akane that Ranma had a little fall. Then it was time to cook a few mushrooms. The furo should still be plenty warm.

-----

      "Ryouga."

      Ryouga looked over at Nabiki. He didn't trust Nabiki, but then NOBODY trusted Nabiki. He turned back to his pack. New supplies were always among his first priority when he had the chance to restock. "What is it?"

      "You know Akane's looking all over for those mushrooms?" Nabiki flinched slightly as another crash indicated Akane's progress. This had been going on for the past six hours, ever since she'd brought little Ranma back into the house.

      "Yeah, she's already asked me to pick up more the next time I find it." Ryouga grinned. Like there was any chance of THAT happening. Still, he promised, so he'd do it. He just would make sure none of them were capable of growing any further.

      The usual little fantasy appeared in Ryouga's mind, of Mrs Akane Hibiki, hugging her husband - so sad that they were bidding little Ranma-chan goodbye. Said child being hauled off to an all-girl's reform school.  Ryouga offering a few words of comfort to Akane as the screaming little brat was hauled away and out of his life. Ryouga smiled.

      "Ryouga? Are you listening to me?" Nabiki waved her hand in front of his face. "Ryouga?"

      "Huh? Did you say something, Nabiki?"

      "If you bring back the mushrooms this week, I won't tell Akane about you being the one to destroy the mushrooms."

      "You...know?" Ryouga's fantasy abruptly changed, and he was being driven out of the house by a furious Akane and a laughing little Ranma.

      "The little scene you had earlier with Akane pleading with you to try, your gallant acceptance of the quest, with Ranma freaking out through the whole thing, oh, it was quite touching." Nabiki said with a dry sarcasm. "It was all I could do to keep a straight face through it. Suggestion: never play poker, you're way too easy to read. So you cooked the mushrooms, and they won't grow anymore. That gives us six of these 6cm mushrooms, three 4cm mushrooms, and one 39cm mushroom. If I let Akane know what you've done, I think she'll forcefeed you a 4cm one. That's my deal though, I won't tell her if you bring back the appropriate length of mushrooms within the week."

      "I don't know when I'll find the 'Number Of Years' mushroom forest..." Ryouga's voice trailed off.

      "Better get started then." Nabiki smirked.  (smirk #7, "I've got you where I want you.")

      Ryouga silently shouldered his pack. This could be bad.

-----

      Nabiki, being more generous than was usual for her, gave Ryouga nearly a month. During that time, nearly everyone in Nerima had heard about Ranma's problem. Nabiki had sold the information, of course, and had waited more than a week before the amount of yen being offered for details of where Ranma had gone overwhelmed her desire to keep the whole thing secret.

      Not that Nabiki was ever really into secrets.

      The reaction was mixed. Akane had just learned that "Little Ranma" was even more prone to speak without thinking, and had blurted out P-chan's secret under some goading from Nabiki. Nabiki had compounded the shock by the revelation that Ryouga was the one who had cooked the mushrooms, making sure that Ranma was stuck as a child.

      Almost everyone was sure that Akane was not really going to make pork cutlets. At least they had a reasonable doubt that Akane would actually kill someone. Not that anyone wanted to be anywhere near Ground Zero when P-chan met Akane the next time.

       Mousse and Tatewaki had both declared that they would keep an eye out for Ryouga to warn him, up until Kuno found out that Ryouga had also done this to the pig-tailed girl. The Blue Thunder had immediately sworn vengeance, and everyone concerned was quite happy to learn that among Kuno's many faults, pedophilia was NOT on the list.

      Kasumi's attitude had changed. It appeared that she would be a good mother later on. Certainly she enjoyed taking care of children. Never mind that the child in question did NOT want to be dressed up in "Hello Kitty" overalls or to have her hair brushed.

      Once Kasumi was getting ready to give Ranma-chan a bath but Akane interceded, to Ranma's considerable relief.

      Akane had merely flinched when Doctor Tofu had examined Ranma (shortly after Nabiki had released the information, since it was no longer secret, there was no longer a reason to put it off.)  Tofu had observed that Ranma's neurochemistry had also reverted to six-year old developmental levels. He acted like a child because his brain had less of the creases and resulting neural capacity of the more adult brain.

      Akane had mumbled something about not noticing a difference, but her heart hadn't really been in it.

       Ranma had "zombied out" for most of the month, up until the point right after Tofu's explanation, when Akane had held Ranma and nearly cried her eyes out. The two of them had spent nearly two hours holding each other and crying.

       Cologne had come by shortly after learning of this latest disaster to hit Ranma, staring at the child and asking questions. She'd flinched when she'd heard where the mushrooms had come from.

       "So do you know where it is?" Akane was hopeful.

      "Yes, it is near the Spring Of Time." Cologne sighed sadly as she looked at her "son-in-law." "How long has he been like this?"

      "One month, five days." Nabiki didn't trust Cologne but they had developed respect for each other's skills. Nabiki as a sneak and manipulator (Cologne could outmanipulate Nabiki, but was impressed that someone so young had developed her skills to that level), whereas Cologne was a storehouse of esoteric information to Nabiki.

       "Ah." Cologne shook her head. "Well, there's no reason for us to stay in Japan then."

      "WHAT?!?" Soun, Genma, Akane, and Nabiki made an oddly harmonious chorus.

       "Oh my." Kasumi stopped sewing a patch onto Ranma's overalls. Ranma was just grateful it was not another "Hello Kitty" decal. Not that "Sailor V" was much better.

      "The people of the forest do not eat of those mushrooms. Do you know why?" Cologne met their gaze one by one. "If it were simple youthening, you'd think they'd eat them all the time and be forever young, or some reasonable facsimile. They don't though, you yourself related how Hibiki said he'd been warned off."

       "..." Ranma-chan, currently a little girl who was wearing pink overalls decorated with bunnies, made a whimpering noise in the back of her throat. She could tell she wasn't going to like this.

      "Memory loss," said Doctor Tofu, trying very hard to focus on what was going on and not lose it  from the presence of Kasumi. "The brain's architecture isn't very complicated at that age level."

      "Exactly." Cologne shook her head. She didn't notice that she was discussing the child's fate in front of said individual, in the manner of adults ignoring a quiet child's presence everywhere. "The child may have only lost a few memories so far, but this will increase rapidly without treatment.

       "Which is why I am suggesting that we take the child back to China with us."

       "WHAT?!?" The chorus was almost identical to the first one, except that Kasumi was in on it this time.

       Cologne held up a gnarled hand. "Consider that we have various shiatsu and memory-enhancing techniques available to us there. It is unlikely that we can get them from China to here before the memory loss is too great. And if you do keep the child here, what then?"

       "Couldn't we just get a 16cm mushroom if you know where the Forest is?" Akane refused to give up hope.

      "Child," Cologne shook her head, "the Number Of Years Forest is not something you can find easily.  Like many magical sites, it tends to keep its borders closed to those seeking it out, and it has its guardians as well."

      "But..."

      "I'll send Shampoo, if you like. I'm not as quick as I used to be, and I doubt we could trust Mousse even though his duck form allows him to traverse mountains fairly quickly. It still would take too long,  even sending Mousse, at least another two weeks. At that point I'd expect the personality of my son-in-law to have completely been lost. He will have become a child completely."

      Akane hugged the little girl who was sitting there with tears tracking from her eyes, and stroked the girl's hair. "Don't worry, Ranma, I'll find a cure for you, somehow."

-----

      "Kodachi attempted to kidnap Little Ranma again," Nabiki growled. One of her best outfits had a ragged hole where she'd barely avoided the Black  Rose's ribbon. This had been going on for most of the week since the terrible fate of Ranma had become common knowledge.

      "If Mrs Saotome hadn't taken little Ranko out to pick up some nice dresses..." Kasumi smiled.  She had just finished putting some more touches on Ranma's room. Having a little boy/girl around was so much fun.

      "Yeah. It could have gotten messy." Nabiki looked around. "Where's Akane?"

      "I think she's in the dojo. She blew up at Father again today. I think it was the moustache burn that Ranma got from that last 'moustache noogie.' Father is so enthusiastic about having children around the house again."

      "Better him than me," Nabiki quoted.

      "Yes, I remember the moustache attack too."  Kasumi smiled.

      "So does Mrs Saotome....?" Nabiki paused.

      "She knows about the curse, of course, and that Ranko is Ranma and that he's already forgotten most of what he's gone through in the past few years. He's fighting but..."

      "But he's losing." Nabiki shuddered. Bad enough to have to fight for your life, but to be constantly fighting to retain your identity. To Nabiki, who had always fought for control of her life, what Ranma was going through was filed under "Fates Worse Than Death."

      "She's looking at it as a way to erase the damage done by Mr Saotome." Kasumi sighed. "Akane is taking it really hard that Mrs Saotome will be taking Ranma back with her soon."

      "Cologne is still objecting, stating that the best care for her 'son-in-law' is to be had among the amazons. At least if he goes to Juuban, he won't be a target for Kodachi." Nabiki thought she saw movement out the window. "Hey, isn't that Ukyou? What the heck is she doing sneaking down from...Akane's room?"

      "Excuse me, Nabiki, but isn't that one of the mushrooms that Akane had put aside?" Kasumi blinked as the two watched the event transpiring outside the house.  "Oh my."

-----

      "Yay, Ucchan!"

      "Come back here, you jackass!"

      Akane watched the two children at play, a wistful expression on her face. Ukyou had proven that she loved Ranma, and it might not have been an "ultimate sacrifice" but it was a considerable one.

      Mousse and Cologne had left, trying to find out what had happened to Shampoo in the month she had left Japan. It had been a rather long and painful month, the second one of which Ranma had been a child.

      The personality disintegration had not been nearly as bad as had been feared. Noticeable, but not a complete fragmentation of identity. He was still Ranma, still the baka.

      Which brought her here, under the watching eyes of Ranma's mother, as both of them watched the two children playing in the yard.

      Nodoka Saotome's gaze met those of Akane Tendo.  Loss was communicated and grief. Resolution in Akane's eyes met understanding in Nodoka's eyes.

      Akane brought the mushroom to her lips, and ate.

      Nabiki, unseen by either, got the last picture of her sister as a teenager for a long time to come.

-----

      When Ryouga found out, he could have performed a Perfect Shishi Hokoudan that would have leveled a good part of Tokyo.

-----

     Susano-o rubbed his eyes and wondered just why he hadn't seen this coming.

     Smiling at a thought, he waited until the Akane in the Orochi timeline had grieved for the loss of Ranma, then pulled in a favor from a certain Norse deity. Then came a short wait for a certain Akane Tendo to use the phone. Susano-o was ready.

     Urd was more than happy to assist.

     Unfortunately, Urd being Urd, while the two did get together in at least one timeline, there were other ...complications.

     And THAT, as they say, is another story entirely.

To be continued