Epiphany

Review

This was actually the first story that anyone has recommended to me since I started my Ranma-chan fanfiction section and I really appreciate that, Crescent Pulsar!

I am normally reluctant to review a fanfiction that starts with the death of one or more of the regular characters, but if the story is good enough and the deaths make sense that I'll review the story. The deaths of Genma and Soun are plausible in this story so that part is ok.

The rest of the story is an excellent psychological examination of what Ranma went through during Genma's training, and the great extent of damage that training did to his psyche. In the series Ranma-chan has to overcome the mental anguish and once and for all reconcile her male and female parts. During this process we get to see just how much mental anguish the other people caused Ranma which is something not often covered in fanfiction.

I like the way the author handles all the characters; we really get to see just how strong Nodoka, Akane, Kasumi and Nabiki all are. Even Kuno ends up understanding just how terribly he treated Ranma/Ranma-chan and turns into a very positive character. Cologne is shown as willing to help, but Shampoo points out that the types of things she has done to Ranma would classify as abuse of a woman by her tribe and could get her in a lot of trouble with the Amazons if they found out.

There's also a lot of humor in the story, especially the Nabiki/Shampoo "relationship." The characters show more maturity in this story than they do in the series but that's fine. They all come across as being more three-dimensional in the story than in the series which is another good point.

I rank this as one of the best of the series stories that I have read so far.

Synopsis

Chapter 1

Nodoka goes to the hospital where she identifies the bodies of her husband and Soun. They had been out drinking and had fallen into the canal (seen every so often in the series) and drowned.

She then goes to the Dojo where the sisters are all very upset but Ranma-chan holds all her feelings within. She finally finds out that Ranma-chan is her son. She makes it very clear that she had no intention of forcing anyone to kill themselves over the contract that Genma had signed.

Chapter 2

Ranma-chan explains about the curse and Nabiki demonstrates it by pouring water on Ranma-chan. Shampoo comes by for a short and very civilized visit. Meanwhile, someone is watching them all, but at this point we have no idea who the person is.

That night Nodoka can't sleep and has a feeling that something is wrong. She checks on Ranma-chan and finds out the girl is having a terrible nightmare. Kasumi explains about how Genma threw Ranma into a pit of hungry cats after covering him with fish sausages.

Chapter 3

We next go into Ranma-chan's dreamworld where she meets Ranko who explains to Ranma-chan that she is the curse itself. She tells Ranma-chan that she knows male Ranma holds emotions inside but when in female form lets at least a little bit out. She then merges with Ranma-chan after explaining to her that she can stay a girl if she wants, that she will have control of the curse and how it acts.

Ukyou comes by and talks to Nodoka. Ranma-chan goes upstairs to take a bath. A short time later she screams and several of the women run to the bath, Nodoka taking out her katana, Ukyou her battle spatula and Akane assuming a battle stance of her own.

When they arrive they see Ranma-chan in the water curled up and still screaming. They calm her down and Kasumi realizes that the water she was in is hot but that Ranma is still in girl form.

Ranma-chan goes to the Cat Café where he demolishes a wall and attacks Cologne. He thinks Cologne is behind what happened but Cologne says she had nothing to do with whatever happened. She puts Ranma-chan to sleep so she can talk to Nodoka.

She explains to Nodoka that she is afraid that Ranma-chan is going insane due to all the things her father had put her through. Ranma-chan is dreaming and again meets Ranko and this time pays attention to what the curse is saying. When Ranma-chan awakes she demonstrates to everyone that she can now change genders whenever she wants.

Chapter 4

Cologne tells Ranma-chan that she is now a magic shapeshifter, no longer cursed. Later Ranma-chan and Nodoka go to Nodoka's home for a short time.

Chapter 5

Ranma changes forms at school when he is hit with some water in class but Ranma-chan doesn't seem angry about changing at all. Later she gets into a swimming pool with Akane but the other girls are hostile towards her.

Nodoka later tells Akane that Ranma might be developing a split personality. Later Kasumi takes Nodoka to see Dr. Tofu and he tells her that Ranma-chan suffers from terrible anxiety attacks.

One of the strongest lines in the story is when Dr. Tofu is describing Ranma as being emotionally underdeveloped and says that, to Ranma/Ranma-chan "...happiness is when he could sleep at night without pain or hunger.

Kasumi also points out that when Ranma-chan changed to male form, Nodoka stopped holding her and her expression told Ranma that she was not approving of his "manliness." Dr. Tofu tells Nodoka that she should keep Ranma-chan out of school for a while, keep Akane and the others away and just spend a lot of time holding her.

Nodoka isn't told everything, though, as there is a reference made to something that happened in the furo, something that Dr. Tofu says "They all need to know exactly what their treatment of Ranma has done. Physically as well as emotionally." Considering everything that Ranma/Ranma-chan went through in the series, when you consider all of that it's surprising that Ranma-chan didn't suffer a total nervous breakdown, so the stories that revolve around her relatively delicate mental state are, in a way, more realistic than the actual series.

Unfortunately Kuno comes to the dojo and Nodoka ends up challenging him over his lies and accusations about Ranma/Ranma-chan (who she is now developing a cover story about having two children, one male and one female, including using a doctored picture showing Ranma in both forms but seemingly at the same time and as two people.)

After Kuno leaves Kodachi arrives and uses one of her special powders to put Nodoka to sleep which basically drives Ranma-chan over the edge. She ends up breaking quite a few of Kodachi's bones in one of the most vicious attacks seen in any fanfiction story (and an attack that is quite justified, in my opinion).

Oddly enough, Kuno arrives and provides a cover story so Ranma-chan won't be questioned by the police. Cologne and Shampoo have also arrived, and Cologne is quite worried about what is happening to Ranma-chan and has no idea how she is managing to produce such power.

Cologne puts Ranma-chan to sleep and near her mother, leaving Shampoo to watch over them.

Chapter 6

A really funny incident happens in which Ranma-chan and Nodoka wake up to find Shampoo and Nabiki asleep next to each other. Nodoka takes a picture and Shampoo plays along, saying "Wo ay ni, Airen" to Nabiki who totally freaks out.

This is immediately countered in an emotional roller-coaster way, though, when Akane later sees Kasumi and Ranma-chan together, Ranma-chan having another severe anxiety attack. Akane begins to realize how her treatment of Ranma was wrong and how he has virtually no one who is a friend as such, all the people around him wanting him (or not wanting him) for some reason but not to have just as a good friend. She goes to her and asks Ranma-chan if she wants to be friends.

Later Ranma and Akane have a major talk, Akane revealing that she is comfortable with Ranma being a girl if that what will make him happy, and that she still loves him, even in girl form. Ranma-chan and Akane end up kissing.

Chapter 7

Ranma-chan reveals that she has no idea how two women have sex with each other, leaving Nodoka to try and explain. She gets a vibrator from Nabiki to help explain things to Ranma-chan. Meanwhile, Shampoo apparently was there and in a bodystocking and chases Nabiki out the door.

The curse in Ranma's mind helps him figure out a way to cause Ryoga to change so Akane can learn he is P-chan, but things don't go exactly as planned.

Chapter 8

Ranma and Akane have a friendly sparring session. Ranma-chan jokingly wishes Akane had a curse then she passes out and both fall into the pond.

Akane now has the ears and tail of a cat.

Ranma tells Akane about Ryoga's real curse. Ranma-chan offers to remove Akane's curse but she says not too, that she wants to learn about the types of problems she has had to go through with her own curse.

Chapter 9

Akane says she will now be able to help Ranma-chan get over her fear of cats.

Things don't go well, though, and the curse forces Ranma-chan to grab Akane and hold on to her so that she can bring Akane's mental self into Ranma-chan's mind where Akane sees the result of all the pain and suffering she was forced to endure under Genma's teachings.

Ranko (the curse) also reveals that she was originally evil but, when pulled into Ranma's mind she was able to see all the suffering he had been through and that she could not find one single happy memory that he had during his time with Genma. Akane finds that Ranma-chan's emotions are sealed in stone, she has buried them that deeply, but Ranko and Akane together are able to get the stone to shatter and free Ranma-chan's emotional side from its self-inflicted prison.

Chapter 10

Back in Ranma's mind Akane and Ranko (the curse) are working to cure Ranma-chan. She has freed Ranma-chan's pent-up emotional self and then has to merge the basic neko-ken with that part of him. Think of it this way: Ranma's mind has been splintered into a number of pieces due to the emotional pain he suffered under Genma's teaching, and now Akane and the curse are trying to put him back together again, so to speak.

Akane, alone, has to help Ranma face his greatest fears. As she approaches, she has to deal with images of people in his life including Genma and a false Nodoka. She ends up confronting a whole series of images, all of whom are putting Ranma down and all of whom she defeats by showing their own arguments to be false.

She manages to help him deal with his fears and overcome his main fear of cats.

Chapter 11

Happosai and Ranma (male form) get into a fight. Ranma is able to produce claws from his chi and attacks Happosai with them, finally managing to defeat him by using his energy and his tornado-like attack.

Ranma passes out from the use of so much energy and he is again in his own mind where he finds a dying Ranko. He channels energy and manages to make her a real person in the real world.

Chapter 12

Ranma is still unconscious, but Ranko wakes up and can communicate with him telepathically. She thanks him for allowing her to have a physical form and he tells her to ask Nodoka if she wants a daughter as well as a son.

Akane and Ranma-chan end up sleeping together as do Ranko and Nodoka.

Chapter 13

At breakfast Akane and Ranma-chan talk about a dream Ranko had and Kasumi reveals a rather startling secret. It ends up that both she and Nabiki prefer girls.

Shampoo reveals that, in a way, she was as abused by Cologne as Ranma was abused by Genma. At one time she even went back to her village hoping they would force her to kill herself for not capturing Ranma.

Shampoo turns into a cat and Ranma-chan and the others pet her and Nodoka says something about adopting her as a daughter.

It's assumed that, while the others were gone on a shopping trip, Nabiki and Shampoo made love.

Ranma-chan and Shampoo talk and Shampoo tells her that she attacked her so often because she saw how badly she was treated by everyone in the house and she wanted Ranma-chan to run away.

It also turns out that Shampoo has the ability to make herself invisible.

Chapter 14

Ranko and Akane go to school and Ranko is made fun of by a bunch of boys (thinking she is Ranma). Kuno rushes to her defense and Ranma arrives and gives a small demonstration of his power to the boys who leave quickly.

Later at the Tendos Cologne appears, talks to Shampoo briefly and then it's revealed that when she put the Cat Tongue touch on Ranma-chan (trapping Ranma-kun in the girl form apparently forever), it was enough to drive him to a mental breakdown. Kasumi had found Ranma-chan in the bath having started to commit suicide by slashing her wrist and then changing her mind.

Shampoo also points out that Cologne could get in a lot of trouble with their Amazon village if they found out she used that technique on Ranma and why she did that. The people there also realize that Ranma really wants to be a girl.

It turns out that Cologne has given the Cat Café to Shampoo.