He could not shake the feeling that he was drowning.

Suddenly, it was Jusenkyo all over again, and he felt himself gasp for breath as he went below the water’s surface, panic building up slightly within him. He frowned as he felt as if his form was altering, shifting, before he pushed up and began to swim toward the surface. He knew that he should have popped up above water, gasping for breath even as he looked down on his chest to see a new, unfamiliar part of his anatomy. It was a day he knew he would remember always, for it had marked a remarkable change in his life.

This time, however, he did not emerge from the pool from where he had fallen.

He felt a vague sense of familiarity as he saw a silver-haired girl with fox-like ears protruding from her head being chased by a mob of seemingly angry villagers carrying swords and other weapons. They spoke in a language of what appeared to be ancient Chinese, their voices shrill and rash with anger. The girl had tried to run faster, but they were fast catching up with her, throwing knives and bladed weapons in her direction. He was aware that the girl had been wounded and was bleeding in various places.

He gasped as the scene blurred and shifted to a place he knew he had been to before. He now saw that the girl was exhausted and weary, more wounds now covering her body, and he could somehow sense that she had been crying. The mob was still chasing her, and as she glanced up she saw a means of escape. She leapt atop the bamboo stakes in front of her, thinking that perhaps here atop the poles she would be safe from their pursuit. But the girl had lost her balance, plummeted into one of the pools below and sank below the water’s surface.

And she did not emerge again.

 Ranma Saotome sat bolt upright, sweat profusely pouring from his brow. He wiped this away with his hand wearily, his heart still pounding from the strange dream. He knew the place where the girl had fallen had to be Jusenkyo, and the pool the same one he had fallen into during his training trip with his father. Yet he had never seen the girl before, yet some part of him felt that he should have known her. Sudenly, the guide’s words came into his head:

Ranma frowned, his brow creased in concentration. He knew that a girl must have fallen into the pool before, since he had come to assume a female form when being splashed with cold water after their training trip to Jusenkyo. However, he had never considered who might have drowned in the spring before, just that someone did drown and now he was doomed to assume her form unless a cure could be found. He was bound to his female side, it seemed, for life.

That silver-haired chick…so she was the one who drowned in that spring many, many years ago? But how could she have had ears like that? Had she been human at all?

Suddenly, the panda beside him stirred and spun, sending a kick seemingly directly aimed at Ranma. Ranma was too distracted to dodge, and he found himself flattened against the wall. He groaned as he slid down, then growled and turned to face the sleeping panda. He stalked toward the panda, his dream forgotten in a sudden onslaught of fury. The old fool, up to his old tricks again. Well, I’ll show him.

"Hey, wake up, oyaji!" Ranma screamed, grabbing the panda by the fur and shaking him awake. "Hit me in your sleep, will you? You want a fight, come get some of me – awake!"

The panda blinked, and narrowed his eyes at being awaken so rudely all of a sudden. But then again, he was used to his son’s usual brash behavior, something that mirrored his own. The panda flashed a sign that read "go back to sleep, baka!", shook himself free from Ranma’s grasp and fell into a lump on the futon even as he began to snore. Ranma shook his head in disgust as he kicked the panda and sent him sailing into the wall this time.

"Revenge is sweet," Ranma muttered, grinning. His grin widened as the panda glared at him in return and began glowing with red ki. "But even more so’s fighting you, old man."

And the Tendo household woke up to another typical day of bickering between the Saotomes.

• Proceed to Part II

Ranma 1/2 is a copyright of Rumiko Takahashi / Shonen Sunday / etc. Yu Yu Hakusho is a copyright of Yoshihiro Togashi / Shue Isha Fuji TV, Studio Pierrot. This fanfic is for non-commercial, entertainment purposes only.