Just a Little Time

Chapter 1
Just a Little Time

Ranma "Just a Little Time"

The Ranma 1/2 characters and universe are the copyright of Rumiko

Takahashi and Viz Video.

"Just a Little Time" (part 1)

A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic By: Dark Oni

(Edited by Tuxedo Will)

"Ranma, you idiot!" Akane yelled as she swung her briefcase at the

teenage boy’s legs. The young martial artist, who was currently on top of a wall overlooking a canal, easily dodged her swipe.

"What’re you so upset about?" he replied. "I’m the one who got into the fight with Kuno."

"After you told him you’d never have anything to do with someone as uncute as ME!" she retorted angrily, taking another swing.

Ranma dodged again, landing in a partial handstand with his legs

extended. "It got Kuno to stop bothering you didn’t it?"

Akane paused for a moment and replied in a serious tone. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe I like a little attention?"

Ranma froze in confusion. Before, he’d say that he thought Akane hated Kuno’s attention, the girl gently reached over with her finger and poked Ranma in the forehead. Immediately, Ranma lost his balance on the wall and fell into the water below.

"Gotcha!" Akane yelled, and then the teenage girl turned and walked towards her home.

As Ranma surfaced, he cursed himself for falling for the same trick

again. He could immediately feel that his red shirt and black pants had gotten looser. As soon as he’d hit the cold water, he’d turned into a red haired teenage girl again thanks to the cursed Jensenko spring he’d fallen into in China. While most of his body had shrunk, his chest had become as large as it always did in his female form and the top of his shirt was very tight. "What the hell did you that for?!" Ranma yelled in a high voice at Akane’s retreating back, but all he heard in response was the girl’s loud giggling.

As Ranma swam for the canal’s shore, she reflected on why she’d gotten into that fight with Kuno. The brash young swordsman had challenged Ranma to a duel (again) for the right to date Ranma’s fianc?e Akane. It didn’t seem to matter to anyone involved that Ranma had never asked to become Akane’s fianc?e and he didn’t want to marry the girl. Their fathers had simply arranged things and expected the two of them to accept it.

"It wouldn’t be so hard if she weren’t so annoying," Ranma whispered to herself. Ranma knew Akane didn’t like the setup any more than he did but whenever he tried distance himself from her she took offense and reacted angrily, like she had moments before. Ranma had to admit that part of the problem was the fact that he kept insulting Akane by saying she was ’sooo uncute’.

"But it’s sooo much fun," Ranma thought, as the redhead pulled herself from the canal.

Deep down Ranma had to admit that despite the girl’s stubbornness, there were things that attracted him to Akane. "I just wish I’d been given more time to think about things," Ranma sighed.

As the female Ranma continued to mull things over, she didn’t seem to notice the almost clear tentacle reaching out for her. The light blue appendage gently wrapped itself around Ranma’s ankle without eliciting a response. Suddenly, Ranma felt very strange. Her body was tingling and she had a falling sensation in her stomach. She closed her eyes and placed a hand on her forehead, rubbing it. "What’s happening?" she whispered to herself but immediately she noticed something was wrong.

The ever-squeaky tone of her female voice seemed to have somehow become, higher? She felt something else as well. Her shirt no longer felt tight.

Opening her eyes, Ranma confirmed her suspicions. Her breasts had gotten smaller and were continuing to shrink. Ranma’s mind raced with the possibilities. Had she fallen into another cursed spring? Had one of her enemies placed a spell on her? As she contemplated what might have happened, her breasts flattened against her chest, their former positions marked only by two pink nipples. Her shirt now hung on her and her pants and underwear fell from her hips. She could see that her suddenly revealed legs were no longer firm and full. They were skinny, like a child’s, and they were getting smaller.

Ranma could feel her emotions swirling and fear was one of them.

Reacting on instinct, the little redhead broke into a run and felt

something snap off her ankle as she jumped back up to the wall she’d fallen from. Crouching on the wall, she turned to see her pants, underwear, and shoes still on the ground next to the canal. She could also see a pale tentacle retracting back under the surface of the water.

Part of her wanted to investigate. Attack the thing that had just done

this to her. Somehow though, she felt different. Much of the brashness that marked Ranma’s personality had disappeared. Mostly, she was scared and suddenly felt an overwhelming desire to be someplace safe. Without any further hesitation, the little girl dropped down from the wall and ran home. She held her wet shirt above her knees, her bare feet padding against the sidewalk. Tears came unbidden to the child’s face as her control was lost. Ranma only hoped that someone could tell her something about the creature that had just attacked her, so she could figure out some way to undo this.

Before the little wet footprints that Ranma had left behind had even

started to dry, three teenage girls, wearing the same uniform as Akane, arrived at the same spot he and his fianc?e had been bickering at. Stopping, the lead girl raised her hand without turning her head backwards and asked, "So, Yuriko, how much did we take in on the Ranma/Kuno fight?"

The nervousness in the longhaired girl’s voice could be clearly heard as she responded, "Well, actually, we just cleared about 5000 yen."

Immediately she added, "It would’ve been a lot more if Ranma hadn’t won so quickly."

Nabiki Tendo sighed loudly, then commented, "I’ll have to have a little talk with my dear sister’s fianc?e about giving his opponent a fighting chance."

"Not too much I hope," Yuriko said without thinking. "The way we slant the odds, if Ranma ever lost, we’d be wiped clean."

As Nabiki slowly turned around, she allowed a small glare to escape her features. It had the desired effect of catching Yuriko’s attention. "I know that, Yuriko. I’m the one who makes those odds, remember?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Yuriko apologized, as Nabiki came closer.

Immediately Nabiki became cheery. "Don’t worry about it. Anyway, I

believe my cut comes to 3000 then." Nabiki took the amount from Yuriko’s hand and counted to make sure it was right. Yuriko handed half of what was left to the shorthaired girl standing next to her. Wisely, Maki had kept her mouth shut so as not to attract Nabiki’s attention.

It wasn’t that Nabiki Tendo was a mean person, she just took making money very seriously. With the family dojo taking in as little as it did, she was actually her family’s main source of income. That was a lot of pressure to put on a seventeen year old girl who made her money mainly by organizing bets for school fights and selling pictures of her sister and the female Ranma to interested male students. Still, the art of getting other people to freely give you their money was pretty fun in and of itself. All in all, Nabiki enjoyed her life.

Before Nabiki could finish counting, a high voice called out, "Hey,

Yuri! Wait up!" Nabiki looked to see a girl of about twelve, also in

uniform, running up to the girls.

"Oh, what does that brat want?" she could hear Yuriko mutter under her breath. She then added "Nanami, you should be home by now!"

The girl looked up at her older sister and angrily said, "Mom told me to wait for you. You were supposed to walk home with me." Glaring at Nabiki and Maki, she added, "Not surprised to see you running off with your friends and forgetting about me."

Yuriko inwardly cringed. She had completely forgotten, but she wasn’t about to admit that to her little sister. "I had more important things to do," she answered. "Besides, you’ve said you’re old enough to walk home by yourself. I just gave you the chance to prove it."

Nanami glared at her sister. "Liar! You forgot. Wait’ll Mom hears about this. You and your friends think you’re so important, but you’re not."

As Nanami stomped away, Yuriko yelled to her back. "Fine. Run home to Mommy, you little baby. See if I care?" Even though she was upset, Yuriko stopped her ranting the instant she noticed Nabiki was calmly staring at her.

"Are you finished?" Nabiki asked.

"Heh, uh, yeah. Sorry. Little sisters. You know."

"Actually, I don’t. Akane’s only a year younger than me and we get along quite well." Looking down at the money in her hand, Nabiki finished counting and returned her attention to her partners. "Well, ladies, I certainly hope our next take is better than this one. I’ll see you two on Mon...day." Nabiki placed a hand to her head as a wave of dizziness took her. Her skin was tingling and she felt as if she were sinking into the sidewalk. Shaking her head, she managed to see her two friends, each with a strange blue glow surrounding their bodies. Nabiki could see that the uniforms each girl wore looked too large and were getting bigger.

The features on the girl’s faces were changing as well, becoming rounder and fresher. For an instant, Nabiki thought of how much Yuriko looked like her younger sister. That’s when she realized that, however ludicrous it sounded, her friends looked like they were getting younger.

"I must be seeing things," she reasoned. "If they were getting younger, they’d be getting smaller too and we still look the same size."

It took about half a second before an icy fear gripped Nabiki’s heart as her mind solved that conundrum. She looked down at herself and saw that the top of her uniform hung on her. She could feel her bra hanging as well just as her panties started to slip down her hips. The sidewalk was definitely much closer than she’d remembered. Gazing at her friends, she could see them staring incredulously back at her.

Yuriko’s mouth moved but instead of her voice, out came a high squeak that seemed to form words "Omigosh, Nabiki, what happened to y...?"

Yuriko’s hands flew to her mouth as she noticed the offending tone. A muffled, "My voice!" could then be heard. Yuriko then turned to Maki and as each noticed the other’s predicament, the two little girls screamed in an extremely high pitch.

Nabiki struggled desperately not to scream as well. In her stomach, it was like the worst fear she’d ever felt had suddenly been magnified ten times over. She couldn’t comprehend what was happening to her and the helplessness she felt because of that was tremendous. A frantic Maki broke her spiral of despair.

"Noooo! Get it off! Get it off!" The girl looked to be about seven or

eight now and her uniform dress had already started to pile on the

ground. A stocking foot stuck out from under the pile as she

desperately kicked at something long and blue that was wrapped around her tiny ankle. Nabiki looked to her own skirt and saw another tentacle there as well. Nabiki, a child now just like her friends, likewise panicked. "Ahhhhh! It’s a monster. Run."

All three girls, now screaming in unison, ran for it. Luckily for them,

the tentacles each slipped off of their now much smaller feet. Unluckily for them, their now huge dresses caused each of them to stumble and fall into one another after only a few steps.

"Hey, get off me!" Nabiki yelled as Maki’s weight forced her down. The other girl was sprawled across her back while both of them were on top of Yuriko’s legs.

"Both of you get off! You’re crushing me!" Yuriko screamed back, real distress showing in her voice.

Untangling their bodies was made even more difficult by their now

gigantic clothes. Nabiki could feel the ends of her once short sleeves

now brushing against her wrists as her shoulders peeked out of the

collar of her dress. Even after she managed to roll over and sit on the cement, the hem of her dress still came well below her feet. She felt miserable and helpless and her eyes started to water. She noticed the well-squished Yuriko already had tears coming down her cheeks. The unscathed Maki however, almost sounded happy. "Hey, I think it’s gone."

Sure enough, the sidewalk was now completely clear except for a sewer drain. A sobbing Yuriko broke the silence. "Wh-what was that thing? What happened to us?"

Sniffling herself, Nabiki answered, "I don’t know, but at least it’s

stopped." Even though she was expecting it, her high, childish voice

still took her by surprise.

As if on cue, the blue glow returned to each of them and Nabiki was

suddenly afraid again. There were no tentacles in sight and yet it was happening again. Before her fear could cause her to panic, she noticed that the aura didn’t surround her friends’ heads, just their clothes.

She could see the uniforms on her friends’ bodies starting to shrink and change as well. She could feel her own clothes shrinking around her. Her sleeves rose back up her arms as the hem of her dress revealed first her feet and then her knees. Her collar crept back up her neck as her entire uniform tightened around her body. When it stopped, Nabiki could see her friends were now dressed in uniforms meant for kindergarten students and she figured she was probably wearing the same.

Nabiki and Maki stared in silence at each other, marveling at what had just happened. Yuriko, who was still crying, didn’t have the emotional control for that. "What the hell is going on here?!" she yelled.

A new voice entered the conversation, "That’s what I’d like to know,

Yuri. And where did you pick up language like that?"

The heads of the three little girls snapped up in unison to take in the form of Nanami looming over them. A minute before, the twelve year old had been at least a head shorter than each of them, now she was simply huge. Nabiki could hear Yuriko softly whimpering. She suspected the girl wasn’t taking the image of her gigantic ’little’ sister very well. Maki, on the other hand, allowed a torrent of words to rapidly escape from her high-pitched vocal cords.

"Oh Nanami, thank goodness you’re here. We were just standing there when we started getting younger. Then we noticed these tentacle things grabbing our ankles and so we ran but our dresses were too big so we fell over each other but then our dresses shrank to match us and then you came along but the monster could still be here so I’m scared. Please help us."

Nabiki was shocked at Maki’s outburst. The girl was normally so quiet and what she’d just said sounded so totally ridiculous. But it had happened and they were the proof.

Nabiki’s confidence was dashed, however, as she realized something was wrong. Instead of being shocked, Nanami had a smile on her face and a pleasant one at that. For an instant, the suspicious side of Nabiki feared the girl was the cause of all this but that thought was quickly eliminated.

In a somewhat excited and higher than normal voice meant for small children, Nanami said "Oh, really? A monster, huh? Well, don’t worry about that mean old monster. Even if it turned you into a baby, you’re back to normal now, sweetie." Patting Maki on the top of her head, Nanami laughed and added "Y’know, that’s what I like about you, Maki. You come up with the cutest stories."

The three girls simply stared dumbfounded at the now gigantic twelve year old. "Back to normal?" Nabiki thought. This was just too weird.

Nanami broke the silence, "Even so, that doesn’t give you three an

excuse to play on the ground in your uniforms and kick your shoes off."

Sure enough, Nabiki could see three pairs of black children’s shoes

lying on the sidewalk where three teenagers had been two minutes before.

"Mom’s going to have a fit when she sees your dress, Yuri. And why did you three leave without me? You know you’re too young to walk home by yourselves." Sighing, Nanami continued, "Oh well, get up. We have to get going."

Slowly and cautiously, Nabiki and the others rose to their feet. She

noticed her balance was different and it took her a few seconds of

wobbling to get used to it. Meanwhile, Nanami had returned with the

shoes in her hands. Nabiki noticed that even standing, she and her

friends were staring into Nanami’s tummy. "Here you go, Maki." Bending over, Nanami grabbed Maki’s ankle and lifted it, placing the shoe on her little stocking foot and strapping it into place. As Nanami placed the second shoe on the stunned girl’s foot, she noticed the bills that had fallen under the girls in their frantic escape.

"Hey!" Nanami exclaimed, as she picked them up, "Where’d this money come from? There must be five thousand yen here. Cool. Now I can buy that video game Mom won’t get for me."

Even shrunken as she was, Nabiki wasn’t about to let someone else get her hard-earned money without a fight. "Hey! That’s our money!" she squeaked. Nanami simply laughed. "Yeah right. How would three five year olds get this much money? What’d you do, sell your panties to some businessmen? I don’t think so. No, whoever’s money this was, it’s mine now."

Nabiki, for what it was worth, decided she had to at least try to set

things straight and she took a deep breath and spoke, "Nanami, please listen. We’re telling the truth. A monster really did attack us and we really did get younger. We’re really seventeen and that’s our money. You’ve just been fooled by the monster." Nabiki was surprised how hard it had been to keep her concentration as she spoke. It was as though even those simple words had been a struggle for her.

In response, Nanami smiled and grabbed Nabiki’s right ankle in her

strong grip, supporting the little girl’s weight with her one arm. She

then started to place a shoe on Nabiki’s foot.

Nabiki suddenly felt very embarrassed. Not only had her friend’s little sister ignored her, she was dressing her and Nabiki’s little body had no chance of resisting.

Losing a little control, Nabiki cried out, "Hey! I can put on my own

shoes!"

Nanami stopped, the shoe on Nabiki’s foot completely unstrapped.

Mockingly she said, "Oh yeah, that’s right. You’re seventeen, aren’t

you? Well, by all means, go ahead."

Nabiki looked back at the bigger girl with a glare. "I’ll show her!" she

thought, bending over to strap her shoes. The first thing she noticed

was how much shorter and stubbier her fingers had become. She also realized she hadn’t buckled shoes like these in probably ten years.

It was difficult to handle the leather strap on her black shoe and she

found it nearly impossible to get the strap through the buckle. After a few unsuccessful attempts, she finally managed to pull the strap into the buckle. She pulled the strap tight and with a little effort was able to get the metal pin through the last hole. Carefully holding the pin in place, she then pushed the tip of the strap into the opposite end of the buckle and pulled the strap tight. Looking up triumphantly, Nabiki proudly said, "There! Now do you believe me?"

Nanami clapped and said happily, "Very good, Nabiki! You’re almost as fast as Yuri now."

Nabiki’s heart sank and she mentally scolded herself. Why had she

thought that would prove anything? Of course, she could strap her own shoes. That’s why she had straps instead of laces. With a chill, Nabiki realized she couldn’t remember how to tie laces anymore. She desperately tried to think of something else. An equation, a quote, anything that would prove she was seventeen. But to her horror, she couldn’t. All that came to her mind in that instant was a song about her ABC’s. As Nabiki stared straight ahead in frustration, Nanami lifted her other foot and swiftly strapped her other shoe onto it.

Yuriko whimpered as Nanami put her shoes on her and seemed even more uncomfortable than Nabiki had been. When she finished, Nanami playfully messed up her new little sister’s hair and said "C’mon, squirt, let’s get going." She then paused. "Oh, I almost forgot."

Reaching down, Nanami gently lifted up the back of Yuri’s dress and then loudly smacked her sister’s pantied bottom three times. By the third strike, Yuri’s face had gone from looking shocked to scrunched up to crying. Dropping Yuri’s dress, Nanami added "That’s for disobeying Mom and leaving the school grounds without me. C’mon girls."

As Nanami took Yuri’s hand and dragged her off, Nabiki could hear her friend’s cries getting louder. From her facial features, Nabiki could tell her Yuri was struggling for control and was failing. After

exchanging a frightened glance with Maki, the two girls hurried after

Nanami, not wanting to test their own limits of control.

Somewhere near. Under the street. Something rested and absorbed what ithad stolen. Soon it would be ready, but not yet.

To be continued...

Copyright Dark Oni. 1998.

 

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