Ranma's Travels (A Ranma One Half / Multi crossover) By Ammadeau Roy.Fokker@UNSpacy.org http://Ammadeau.tripod.com/fanfiction.htm World 6: Neon Genesis Evangeleon Ranko rubbed her head, mumbling how he wished that Lina would be more careful with that Dragon Slave of hers. Luckily, she hadn't been in the center of the blast. She doubted that with her increased power she would have made it without being killed, or at least seriously hurt. That was when she noticed the room. An unfamiliar ceiling. The room looked Japanese, but it wasn't always easy to tell such things in a new dimension, where she realized that she must be. The bracelet must have thought she was in danger more serious than it was and transported her randomly. Still, it was odd to be lying in someone's futon in what had to be a girl's room. Ranko was even more surprised when she noticed what she was wearing; a feminine nightgown and panties. Had she come to this world naked and someone had found and dressed her? She also noticed when she stood up that her balance was a little off, like the time when she had first been cursed. What could have happened to throw her balance off? It was like her whole body had shrunk a few inches. Were her eyes going too? Her hair looked darker than normal. Then there was a light, almost tentative knock at the door. "Yes, who is it?" "It's Misato, can I come in?" 'Must be the woman who found me,' Ranko thought, and said, "Sure." The woman looked to be in her early thirties, tall and quite attractive, with dark purple hair that Ranko suspected wasn't natural. Ranko was a little surprised when this Misato sat on the futon right next to her and nearly leap away when the woman put an arm around her. "Are you all right?" Misato asked, her eyes filled with concern. "I guess, you seem to have taken pretty good care of me." Ranko was a little surprised when the woman nearly jumped, acting as if a compliment was the last thing she had expected or even wanted. "Well, we all know that things have been hard on you lately." 'How exactly did she know,' Ranko wondered. 'Did I talk in my sleep?' Besides, things hadn't really been that bad. Sure, she had just been blown up, but that was normal for her. "It's okay if you miss a few days of school. I'm sure that with a little rest, you're synch ratio will shoot right back up there." "What are you talking about exactly?" Ranko couldn't believe that this woman wanted her to go to school, I mean she hardly knew her. And what was a synch ratio anyway? "Don't worry, everything will turn out fine Asuka." "Asuka? Who's that?" Misato looked at her closely. "Are you sure you're feeling all right?" "I've got a slight headache and my body feels a little off, but otherwise fine. But my name isn't Asuka, it's Ranko." Unless I'm male at the time, then it's Ranma. But she wanted to avoid explaining that little bit about herself if she could. "If this is some kind of joke, it isn't funny Asuka." "Damn it, my name isn't Asuka!" Ranko jumped back from the mirror as if she expected it to bite her. Blue eyes, red hair, but not her eyes or hair, some else's. She was a little shorter now, less muscular and her face was even more gajin than before. Somehow she was in someone else's body, this Asuka person that Misato insisted she was, Ranko guessed. "Ahh! What the hell happened to me!?" Hearing the yell, Misato entered the bathroom. "What's the matter?" Ranko turned on the woman and grabbed her by the shirt, thankful that this body had some strength to it. "Did you do this to me? I want my own body back!" Misato was too stunned to resist being throttled by the enraged Asuka, but decided that she would stop teasing Shinji about her assaults. Asuka was a lot stronger than she looked. She was also glad to have the angry Asuka back rather than the sulking and depressed one, even though she was talking a little crazy. Ranko spied the hot water tap and turned it on quickly. Hot water sprayed everywhere, but she was disappointed to what she saw in the mirror. Still female, and a body that was not her own. Misato stood before the commander of NERV, Gendo Ikari, making her report on the third child. "And you say that she really believes that she is this person Ranko, somehow trapped in Ms. Langley's body?" "She insists on it and gets violent anytime anyone says otherwise." "What do the doctors say?" "After a thorough analysis, they've concluded that Asuka has a personality disorder. They believe that things got so bad that they were too much for Asuka to deal with so she created this other personality, Ranko, in order to get through life. They point out the fact that the real Ranko is described as also having blue eyes and red hair, only different from Asuka's. This Ranko is a martial artist, which Asuka has had training in. She is estranged from her mother, which is a more preferable version of what happened to Asuka. She knows nothing about the angels, NERV, or anything of the sort; denying the existence of what has caused her pain." "And their recommendation?" "Observation and therapy." "Unacceptable. While we could get a new pilot for Unit- 02, he or she wouldn't have the experience of Ms. Langley. If this Ranko personality is her way of coping chances are that she will be able to synchronize with Unit-02 again. Bring her in tomorrow for a synch test." "What about this Ranko?" "If it keeps her sane than we will indulge in her fantasy. We will treat her as Ranko until such time as she wants to become Asuka again. That is all major, dismissed." @ Ranko cursed for about the 17th time in the past couple hours. Just because she had forgotten to use the bracelet, which had somehow mysteriously vanished, she was now stuck in someone else's body. Everything was screwed up; without the bracelet she was stranded there for good, she couldn't fly anymore, her ring was missing so no water priestess powers, no solar flares, and she couldn't call up the Light Hawk Sword. Not that she could do the latter very often, but it'd be nice to at least be able to do something. She even tried using some of the spells that Lina had taught her, but the only result she got was a fizzle. She could be casting them wrong though, since she hadn't quite mastered them when she had left Lina's world. To make things worse, everyone she'd met thought she was crazy and undergoing some sort of stress-related disorder. Ranko wasn't very clear on what was going on since most of them refused to tell her anything and what they did tell her made no sense. 'Why the heck were angels attacking the city? What's a EVA? Or a Geofront? Dammit, I can't live in a world where everyone thinks I'm nuts!' Then a plan started to form in Ranko's brain. It was the kind of plan that had gotten her in trouble before, but she pushed that negative thought away. This time it seemed like her only choice. Well, if everyone thinks I should be this Asuka person, then that's who I'll be. Now all I have to do is find out what Asuka is like. Shinji was surprised when there was a polite knock at his door. He knew that Misato wasn't due to be home for a while and she just came in without knocking anyway. Asuka was the only one home, besides him and Pen-Pen, and she was back to acting the way she had before the mind-rape angel, at least to him anyway. The only odd thing was her insistence on being called Ranko. Misato had said to humor her for now, that this was her way of coping. Asuka, or Ranko, wouldn't want to have anything to do with him as always, and besides when she knocks it's likes she's trying to break the door down. "Who is it?" Shinji called out tentatively, thinking 'I'm going to be very weirded out if the answer is a 'wark.'' "It's me, . . . Asuka." To Shinji it sounded as if Asuka had gone back to being sullen and depressed but sane, rather than angry and insane. He wasn't sure at the moment which version was better. He much preferred the rare cheerful Asuka. "Umm, come in." Asuka entered the room, offering Shinji a tentative smile that made his heart race a bit. It was all too easy when she was shouting at him to forget how pretty she was. "Look, I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier," she told him. Shinji blinked in astonishment. Asuka was actually apologizing to him? Was the world going to end tomorrow? "It's okay," Shinji answered, biting back the urge to tell her that she was used to it by now. A humble Asuka was a rare thing, best not do anything that could spoil it. "I've just been under a lot of stress lately and I think all these angels, EVAs, and things were helping me to lose my identity. I need to take a look at myself, but what I really need is to find out how others perceive me. Shinji, how did I act, at least before all these things happened lately? I really need your help so be as honest as you can." "Umm. . . " replied Shinji, stalling for time. He had always lived by trying to be as nice to people as he could, not make waves, not get others upset, though Asuka above all tested this resolve. Now if he told her how he really saw her acting she was sure to get upset, new humble attitude or not. Though she was likely to be upset if it became obvious that he wasn't being completely truthful. Maybe he could say the truth but in a nice way? "Well, you always try to be the best EVA pilot that you could be. You once said to me it was a way of proving how great you are to the world. I guess I always respected that, the way you'd charge right into battle without a moment's hesitation. Usually you're smiling, unless something ticks you off which happens much of the time. But normally it's not you're fault getting mad. I mean, you get angry at all the boys in school sending you those love notes. Sometimes you get pissed at me, but it's usually because I did something stupid anyway. Even though you smile a lot, I always got the sense that you were never really happy. That in a way a smile was the way you dealt with the world, which I guess is better than not dealing with it at all." "Okay, so I'm normally happy but I get angry all the time. What kind of things do I do when I get angry?" asked Ranko, only partially concentrating on what Shinji was saying. "You shout a lot, sometimes in German. Sometimes you hit things and if you're really angry, you hit people." 'Hmm,' Ranko thought, 'sounds a lot like acting like Akane, only I'd have to learn German. Well, that shouldn't be too hard.' "Thanks," Ranko told him with a smile and left. Shinji stared after her in astonishment. That had been weird, he thought, even for this place. Back in 'her' room, Ranko was psyching herself into becoming Asuka, which basically meant to her was acting just like Akane, only shouting in German rather than Japanese. That last part was going to be tough. Most of the German words than Ranko knew were names of food, and she doubt shouting "Sawarcruast" or "Snitzel" was going to be very believable. She also didn't think that any of those learning foreign language books would have a section for what to shout at people. She'd just have to stick to Japanese until she could learn some German. Unknown to Ranko, Shinji was now standing outside her door, trying to gather up his meager store of courage. Asuka had actually been pleasant to him and seemed to be happy rather than angry or sad. She hadn't shouted or tried to hit him, nor did she look like she was about to break down and cry. This was his opportunity to finally tell her how he really felt about her. Unfortunately for Shinji, Ranko just happened to open the door as he was leaning on it. Ranko looked down at Shinji who was now lying on the floor in front of her. His face was all red and there was a slight trickle of blood from his nose. 'What's going on?' she wondered. Then it hit her, she was wearing a skirt at the moment, this Asuka person didn't seem to believe in pants, and from his angle Shinji had an unobstructed view of her panties. For some reason this didn't bother Ranko. Maybe because she wasn't really a she or it could have been the fact that it wasn't her body. Either way, it gave her time to think over the situation. She didn't know how Asuka would react to this, but she was certain how a certain tomboy would. With a cry of "Shinji no hentai!" Ranko booted the boy out of her room in the direction of the kitchen. For added effect, she held up her nose in the air and slammed the door closed. 'You know,' Ranko thought to herself with a grin, 'this might not be so bad after all.' Misato came back to find Shinji in the kitchen nursing a rather large bruise on his forehead and looking utterly miserable. She had to smile a little at that, it seemed that this 'Ranko' wasn't that much different from Asuka after all. At the same time she hated to see Shinji depressed, even though it sometimes seemed to be his natural state. "What's got you so down, Shinji-kun?" Misato asked, though she thought she already knew. "Asuka's acting like her old self again," Shinji replied with resignation in his voice as he applied ice to his bump. The nice Asuka had been too good to last. "Wait a minute. Is she calling herself Asuka now?" The not-so-mighty pilot of Unit-01 (though he does try) nodded. "I think that she was having some sort of identity crisis before, but she seems okay now." Misato was lost in thought for a moment. The doctors thought that it might be months before Asuka would be willing to shed this false personality she had created. She couldn't have gotten sane so quickly, it just wasn't possible. Something very strange was going on here. "What did she say to you, exactly?" "Well, she came in my room and asked about how she had acted before the business with the last angel. I basically told her the truth and she left. I went back to her room, and sort of saw something I shouldn't have by accident, so that's why she gave me this bruise." "How was she acting when she first came in your room?"