Disclaimer:All rights of Ranma Nibunnoichi are held by the awesome and talented Rumiko Takahashi as well as all those who publish and/or distribute this great series!

Note:() is the author.

In Childhood...Losing You Deep Inside Of Me.

By Yui Miyamoto

Long, long ago, in a marketplace far, far away...

(Bet you haven't heard of THAT one, right?It's okay, I retch at it too.)

In Tokyou, that is.Well, it may not seem so far to YOU, but when you don't know where you're going, of course you're going to think you're on the other side of the world.

The little boy with his red bamboo umbrella on his backpack and a yellow bandanna on his head looked around the crowds of people around him.No one watched him or was even fazed by it.They were already used to seeing him once in a while as he traveled great distances.

Bandanna Boy just tilted his head and looked at a map that didn't help him much.All it was a picture he had drawn of his home near Mt. Fuji.(Hey, he was only five, all right?)Not a big help at all.About to burst into tears, he could only think of his mother waiting for him at home.Then again, this was the umpteenth time he thought he got lost and was so far away from home.It ran in the entire family in fact.(I can imagine if it’s this bad for him.^^;;;)

"Ouch!”a little boy had shouted at him as he dusted himself.“Watch where you're going, you jackass!"

This made Bandanna Boy’s eyes immediately become slits as he thrust his umbrella at the little boy with a pair of spatulas in his hands in preparation for his defense.

"How dare you dishonor Ryouga Hibiki?!"

"Well, when people are stupid, I tell them so!So there!"

"No one says that to me!"Ryouga's anger exploded."Let's fight you stupid boy!!!!"

"Boy?!BOY?!?!"At hearing this, the boy immediately slammed a great big spatula on the head of Ryouga.Ryouga fell to the ground.

“Ukyou Kuonji is one hundred percent girl!”With the wiping of his hands, he left to go back to her dad's okonomiyaki cart."The nerve!Calling me a boy!Doesn't he know a girl when he sees one?!"

(Okay, so we found out the little boy was a little GIRL instead.Well, he looked like a boy to me too, you know…)

Ukyou was not far when another little girl slipped past her defenses and took out one of her spatulas from her pocket.With a giggle and a kiss to the spatula, she said, "You're SO cute!I will name you Joyeux!Tee hee!"

"Hey!"Ukyou took back her spatula."That's mine!"

"It's mine!It's mine!It's mine!" the girl repeated over and over. 

"It's my Joyeux!My Joyeux!Give me back my Joyeux!"

"Azusa!" a tall boy called."Stop doing that!"

"But, but..." she sniffed as the boy began to talk to Ukyou."I'm sorry.My friend's been doing this since she was 3."(Started early, huh?* huge sweatdrop *)

"Sanze!Sanze!Give me back my Joyeux!" Azusa wailed annoyingly.

Sanzenin looked at Ukyou and took her chin in his slick hand."You're a very pretty gi-Thump."(Didn’t you kind of expect that from Sanzenin, though?^^;;;)

Both Azusa and Ukyou had punched Sanzenin.But, Azusa went away to find Ryouga still on the ground."Ooh!How cute!"

And it started all over again...until a little girl with a pretty dress and had come over to Azusa and Ryouga.

The girl looked at Ryouga."I like him," she thought.

Azusa gave her a look that said, "You touch him, you die. He's mine.I found him first."

But the first thing that Ryouga saw when he came back to consciousness was the little girl that had just come to sit by his side."Do you need help?"

"Huh?An angel?" he said.(Of course the girl was wearing white and he was just hit on the head, you know.I’ve always loved Ryouga, but he came be such a stupid guy too… * sighs *Being dense is cute up to a certain point though…)

But he went back to sleep.(Ack!What is he doing?!)And Azusa was getting pissed off with the little girl next to her and ordered her to leave.But, the little girl put a cold cloth to his forehead.

Hoping for the little boy without a name to remember her, she politely said, "When he wakes up, just tell him I helped him too.My name is Akari."

Akari got up and left to go more things for her home.

Of course, Azusa wasn't going to do that.But at that moment, she forgot about Ryouga and looked at the commotion around her.

"Stop FOLLOWING ME!" a five-year-old girl screamed as she ran away from an older boy with a bokken in his hands.

"Ah, but Akane Tendou!I can nothing but!"The boy continued to follow this girl with yellow shorts and a white shirt."I, Tatewaki Kunou, age 6, will follow you unto the ends of the Ear-thunk!"

Breathing heavily after hitting Kunou with an interspace hammer and kicking him out of sight, the short haired girl name Akane shouted, "Finally!"

Without her knowing, her six-year-old sister gave a sly glance around, took out pictures of Akane and stuffed them into Kunou's pocket as she took out more yen than she should have charged him."Ah, as always, it's nice doing business with you, Kunou-baby."

With a mischievous smirk, she stashed the cash casually into her overall's right pocket.(* sweatdrop *I guess those pigtails of hers don't miss much...eh heh heh...)

Then, as she was leaving to buy things (or rather, do “hard bargaining” for things) she heard the familiar sound of her older sister's voice say, "Ara?"

The older sister came walking towards Akane."Akane-chan?Daijoubu?"

She knelt to her knees to look at Akane at eye level and dust off her off.

"Hai, Kasumi onee-chan."She turned around to show her.She knew Kasumi could be such a worrywart."See?"

"Okay."Kasumi got up gracefully from the floor and proceeded to walk around with Akane hand-in-hand.

What happened to Azusa so far you may ask?Well, when she saw that bright star of a Kunou fly by, she wanted to catch it.So, she ditched Ryouga.

Well, as you can imagine, being the tomboy and all, Akane decided to wander away from Kasumi only to find herself staring at a little boy with a bandanna.(Yes, we have yet again come back to Ryouga.)

And this time, Akane looked away to find on the opposite side of where she came from, a little boy with a red, Chinese shirt and a pigtail was being glomped by a purple-haired Chinese girl.(Persistent as ever we see.* nods *Yes, very persistent.)

"Geez!What is with you!?Get off me!" the little boy screamed."Stop hugging me!!!"

"I no want to do that!"She smiled happily as she hugged him more."You look like strong boy.Fight me."

"What?Is that a challenge?I'm not fighting some girl!"

"Why you no like?"She looked at him with a big question mark on her face while thinking, "Other boys both in and out of village fight girls..."

"Because you're a girl!"And he folded his arms macho-like.(* shakes head *Little boys.Really!)

Akane, who couldn't stand such chauvanism, well, she stomped on over and whacked that pigtailed boy on the head."What do you mean because she's a girl?!Girls are as good as boys!"

The boy and Akane were having a staring as well as verbal match when a myopic boy in other Chinese clothes comes running and glomping the hand of the advertisement poster near them."Oh Shampoo!Aren't you eating right? You're hands are so thin!But no matter!Will you finally marry me?"

"Mousse..." she whispered to herself as she turned around slowly.She cringed, but she didn't want to waste the opportunity to leave and leave quickly!Because he was still a little way off and had taken his glasses, she ran away as fast as she could...but not before she kissed the boy in the red Chinese shirt on the forehead."You no forget me, k?"

Pigtailed boy immediately wiped the kiss off his forehead.

If by reflex, she didn't know, but Akane just hit the boy out of anger.(You saw that coming out of nowhere too, huh?)

"Hey, whaddya do that for?!" the little boy retorted to her.

"Oh, never mind."She walked away with her fists and knelt by Ryouga again.

"Hey, are you okay?"

“The angel?”Ryouga's eyes were fluttering."Hmm?"

"Akane-chan!Akane-chan!" Kasumi called with slight worry in her voice.

And so, Ryouga got up dizzily only to see a girl running away and a cloth falling into his lap."Akane, huh?" he mumbled silently to himself.

The little pigtailed boy in the red, Chinese shirt was next to him.He had heard around the shops that that little boy with a bandanna was lost and so, he dropped a real map into his lap.He didn't want to do it, but he had felt he had to for some strange reason.

"Ranma!" his mother called out to him."Ranma!Where are you, Ranma?"

Ranma ran towards his mother's voice.

"She was kind of cute," he thought to himself."Naw, she's not. Totally uncute."

As he took his mother's hand, all he could think about was wanting to fight more with the girl because weirdly, it made him kind of happy.That's why he went near that lost boy...

...he wanted to somehow get her name.

11 years later...

“But you were both girls, right?” Nabiki said.

“No, it is NOT right!” Akane shouted back.But then, in the back of her mind, she thought, “It’s like I’ve seen this coming.Have I done this before?”

She gave an angry expression as she snatched a glance of Ranma by the door.It contrasted with how she felt and thought inside though.“I don’t know…but deep inside, I was relieved that he didn’t go with my other sisters.Jerk that he is…”

"She's uncute," he answered his father as his brand-new fiancée had just slapped him for walking into the bath as he was going out in his girl form.

But inside, he was kind of happy.He had been to many places and had done many things, except now, he thought he finally found a home.He couldn't describe how that worked or if he could even understand it at all; but this had been somewhat hidden and buried deep within the recesses of his heart, which were now lost of how to even react and recall what and why.

"I remember this feeling..."Even though he was pouting, he finished his thought."But where did it come from?"

--

Author's note:

Yea!I came out of my writer’s block!!

I just wanted to make a story about fate.But since I think chibi's are very adorable, I wanted to make them little kids that already met but will meet again in the future because of fate.^_^

Sorry about the side comments, but I wanted to try something different.^_^