A beginning is a very delicate time. Know then that it is the year One Thousand, Nine Ninety-Eight. The Known Universe is ruled by the King of the Moon, Ray D. Tutto. However, that is not important as it has no bearing on this story.
What is important is that in this time the most cursed substance in the universe is the water of Jusenkyo. The water complicates life. The water confuses consciousness. The water is most annoying to those who fall in it. The people and animals who have drowned in these waters over thousands of years give the water the ability to alter form. That is, change those who subsequently fall into the water from one form to another.
Oh, yes. I forgot to tell you. A year ago a group of Boy Scouts from Troop 192 visited Jusenkyo and did not escape the curse. Because of this their very lives are now in jeopardy, and they must take refuge in a far off country. The country is Nipon, also known as Japan...
What is important is that in this time the most cursed substance in the universe is the water of Jusenkyo. The water complicates life. The water confuses consciousness. The water is most annoying to those who fall in it. The people and animals who have drowned in these waters over thousands of years give the water the ability to alter form. That is, change those who subsequently fall into the water from one form to another.
Oh, yes. I forgot to tell you. A year ago a group of Boy Scouts from Troop 192 visited Jusenkyo and did not escape the curse. Because of this their very lives are now in jeopardy, and they must take refuge in a far off country. The country is Nipon, also known as Japan...
part 1:
Strangers In a Strange Land
by Matthew Atanian
©2006 by Matthew Atanian
Strangers In a Strange Land
by Matthew Atanian
©2006 by Matthew Atanian
As he left the plane, Boy Scout leader Matthew Atanian looked behind himself to make sure that his four Scouts were right behind him. "Here we are," he said to them, "on Japanese soil."
"I don't know if you'd call the interior of an airport 'soil'," Aaron Abdowmassy responded. Aaron had come to Japan ostensibly as part of a scholastic foreign exchange program that he, and by an amazing coincidence three other Scouts from his Troop, had been selected to be a part of. One of his troop leaders, Matthew Atanian, had been selected to accompany them as a chaperone for the year. As for the other three scouts, it had been his three friends Mike Quadrozzi, Bill Hughes, and Bill Gelinas.
There were five of them getting off of the airplane, but it wasn’t Matt, Mike, Aaron, Gelinas, and Hughes. It was Matt, Mike, Aaron, Gelinas, and their young friend Kenneth Pendrall. Kenny had accompanied them, at his own expense, as he had always wished to visit Japan. He wasn’t planning on staying the entire year like his fellows were, but he was looking forward to his brief visit.
They didn’t know exactly where Hughes was. He had called them at the last minute and told them not to worry about him, and that he’d made other travel arrangements. Of course, last time he had disappeared for a while, he had reappeared with inexplicably gaudy dress and a penchant for trying to catch and eat small birds or rodents. He had very quickly lost his newly acquired appetites but his new dress sense had merely toned itself down a notch rather then disappearing.
"Where to now?" Mike asked.
"I guess we get our luggage, go through customs, and then…" Matt paused, took out a piece of paper, and read from it. “From the Narita Airport, follow the signs to the JR railway entrance. Board the Narita Express train for Shinjuku. Get off at the Shinjuku station and transfer to the Yamanote line train. Get off at the Takadanobaba station and transfer to the Seibu line train. Then get off at the Tokeizaka station. From there, I guess we walk.”
“What’s the address again?” Gelinas asked.
“3-3-9 Tokeizaka Nerima-ku, Tokyo. But someone’s supposed to be meeting us at the station.”
After a lengthy and eventful trip through the customs area, the five emerged from made their way to the Japan Rail station. They bought tickets to the appropriate station and boarded the train just as it was about to leave. The five of them found seats, and four of them – four friends that shared a burden of a terrible curse – each contemplated the strange series of events that had led to their exile in the land of the rising sun.
For they may have come to Japan seemingly as part of a foreign exchange program, but they each new that this was merely a ruse concocted for the purpose of preserving their lives. Lives that were in danger because of the curses that had been thrust upon them a little over a year ago. A danger that had only become apparent a little over a month ago. But a very real danger it was.
Saturday morning up at the Horace A. Moses Scout Reservation went by in a blur of breakfast and closing ceremonies and then everyone packed their stuff into their parent’s cars and headed back to civilization with its real toilets and working hot showers.
Gelinas, Hughes, Mike, and Aaron were the last youth of Troop 192 waiting for their parents to arrive. Matt Atanian, too, was waiting for his father (he supposed he should get his driver’s license one of these days) and was waiting with his friends in Crown Point.
A few of the other adult leaders had stayed (what with that whole two-deep leadership thing) but they were currently down at the road watching for cars. Matt heard one of them shout up to them. Mrs. Abdowmassy had arrived in her large blue mini-van.
Aaron went to go grab his stuff. The others moved in to lend a hand. It was then that, with murderous intent, an old Chinese man leapt from the forest and attacked them.
What happened next was a blur as the aged man rushed at them, brandishing twin swords with vicious looking long, curved blades. Hughes, with his newfound fashion sense, took a millisecond to note that he was wearing what appeared to be some sort of uniform, red in color, but otherwise quite like the green one that had been worn by the guide who had accompanied them on their trip to China the previous summer.
Just when the cursed scouts of 192 thought they couldn’t get any more startled, however, something proved them wrong.
With a jingling of bells, a second old Chinese man leapt from the trees and with little more then what appeared to be a shoot of bamboo, fended off the first one’s attack. For now thwarted, their assailant disappeared back into the cover of the forest.
This new man turned to look at the stunned scouts. He was dressed in robes that had the air of having once been quite regal, but now care worn with age and travel. From the belt of his robes hung a strand of cloth with bells sewn onto it. His eyes were dark and wise as he looked upon the scouts, still too stunned to do much more then blink at him.
“Greetings to you,” he said. “My name is Líng Rén. We have much to discuss.”
They met that night at Perfume’s Pizza. The Amazon was, in fact, joining them, as was Kenny.
“We were told not to speak of this to anyone,” Aaron mentioned when he found Kenny had been invited.
“Kenny’s not just anyone,” Mike responded. “Besides, maybe he can do something to help us.”
They began the meeting, after each grabbing a piece of the pizza pies Perfume had provided, by telling their new friend what had transpired. About the attack, and about what the old Chinese man had told them afterwards. And about how Perfume, too, was in danger.
How there was an organization dedicated to preserving the secret of a certain training ground of cursed springs. About how this group had once taken the position of trying to train cursed individuals to overcome the curses effects. About how after a rather disastrous encounter with a group of cursed martial artists from Japan, a split had occurred within the organization. How certain members of it felt that their efforts were futile, and that the only course of action that would truly preserve the secret of Jusenkyo was to get rid of any individuals who may have suffered falling into a spring and becoming cursed.
Getting rid of them permanently.
Getting rid of them terminally.
Other individuals, the old man had explained, felt that this was going too far. They could not support such actions, and would do whatever it took to prevent them.
“Alas,” he had told them, “they have found you.”
“So you’re going to protect us?” Aaron had asked.
“If it comes to that. But for now, I shall hide you.”
He told them of a scholastic foreign exchange program that, knowing the enemy was close at hand, he had taken the step of rigging so that Mike, Aaron, and the Bills would be chosen for it. He knew that those going would be allowed to bring an adult chaperone along, and given the “successful” job Matt had done when they had gone to China (if one didn’t count allowing them to all get cursed in the first place) that the boys parents would undoubtedly see if he was willing to do the job once more.
“And if we are found again?” Matt had asked.
“Next time, we will be ready,” Líng Rén had answered.
“What of Perfume?” the Amazon asked.
“He made no mention of you,” Mike admitted. “But I think it’s safe to assume that you should go into hiding, too. Do you have anywhere you can go?”
Perfume nodded. She looked around and sighed. “So much for pizza shop,” she said.
As trains were wont to do in Japan, theirs had left exactly on time. They each made themselves comfortable for the journey.
Billy Gelinas had bought a pack of Magic cards at the airport. “Rebuilding the collection?” Mike had asked him jokingly, referring to a bet the two of them had had up at Summer Camp. Billy had lost the bet, loosing all of his Magic cards to his hat-wearing fellow in the process.
Of course, Mike hadn’t actually taken all of Billy’s cards. He had only taken one. However, it had been a really nice card which Billy was sad to loose,
but it allowed Mike to finally complete his collection of Mirage.
“Shut up, Mike,” Billy had responded. Now, on the train, Billy opened the cards and flipped through them. As they were all printed in Japanese, he could only tell what about half of them were. Still, Billy was happy.
Aaron was sitting with his nose buried in the latest Wheel of Time book. In the window seat next to him sat Kenny.
Kenny was holding in his small hands what looked and sounded very much like a classic Star Trek tricorder. He kept twisting the dials on it while occasionally muttering things along the lines of, “Fascinating,” or, “Intriguing.”
Mike got up for a moment to retrieve a Slim Jim from his bag on the overhead luggage rack. Then he sat back down next to Matt, who was gazing out of the window at the passing country side.
Mike took a bite of his beefy goodness, chewed for a moment in silent contemplation, swallowed, and turned to Matt. “So,” he asked, “what did you end up telling Sarah?”
“Huh?” Matt asked. He turned from the window. “Sarah?”
“Yes,” Mike said. “You did see her, right?”
“Yeah, well,” Matt began, “I did go see her, but it could have gone better.”
Sarah answered the knock at her door. She was surprised to see Matthew Atanian standing outside. “What can I do for you?” she asked him.
“I… Well, something’s come up,” he said. “I have to go away for a while, and I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
“Why are you telling me this?” she asked him.
“Well…” Matt fidgeted a bit and took off his hat. “I think it isn’t a secret that I have feelings for you. And despite what you might believe, they aren’t hormonal.”
Sarah looked at him. “They aren’t?”
“Well,” he replied, “most of them aren’t.”
Sarah actually laughed at that. “Honesty. I like it.”
Matt felt a bit of a tinge at that. For one thing, there was the whole Matty Hayes thing. And for another…
“So where are you going?”
Ah… the other. “I can’t really say.” Líng Rén had been quite clear that they were not to tell anyone other then close family where they were going, at least until after they got there. Matt wasn’t sure why. I mean, it wasn’t like their enemy was going to capture Sarah and torture the information out of her, was it? And if that was the case, then why was it fine to say after they got to Japan? But they were depending on this man for their lives, and he was not yet about to question his reasoning.
Sarah was about to question him further, when he just suddenly blurted out, “I love you, Sarah Porter!” and ran off.
“Wait!” she called after him. She had taken her first step out of the door to make to follow him, when a voice came from behind her.
“Who was that just now?”
Sarah turned to see her sisters behind her. It was Kirstin who had spoken. She told them what had transpired.
“Well, in a way I suppose that will make things easier,” Nicole said.
“Sister, really,” Kirstin responded.
“So have you told Aaron yet?” Nicole asked.
Neko-chan mewed inquisitively.
Kirstin stood there silently. When no answer seemed forthcoming, Nicole patted her twin on the shoulder and said, “Thought so.”
At the Shinjuku station they took the opportunity to stretch their legs during the twenty minute wait between trains. They made their way from the platform out to the lobby and out through the front door into the city. They took in the sight before them with no small awe.
It was Aaron who first attempted to describe what was before them. “My God,” he said, “it’s Coruscant!”
“Not quite,” Matt said, “but Tyoko is a big city.”
“I thought we were in someplace called Shinjuku,” Gelinas said.
“Shinjuku is a ward of Tokyo,” Matt explained. On the flight over, he had practically memorized the Japan travel guide he’d bought before leaving home. “I suppose you could say it’s a sub-city, complete with it’s own local government. There’s about twenty-three of them, including Shinjuku, Chiyoda, or our destination of Nerima.”
“I thought we were going someplace called Tokeizaka?” Aaron said.
“Tokeizaka’s part of Nerima,” Matt explained.
“Which is part of Tokyo,” Kenny added, looking up briefly from his tricorder.
“Japan’s confusing,” Mike said.
Matt smiled. “I can’t wait to unleash myself upon it. But come on, we need to catch the next train.”
Catch their train they did. That train took them further on, and after one other transfer they were on their last train and almost at their final destination.
They all were eager to get to their final destination and get some rest. All except one of their number, who continued to be preoccupied.
“How’s it going Kenny?” Mike asked.
“Scan now,” Kenny muttered. “Explain later.”
“This is bloody weird, though,” Aaron said.
Matt nodded. “I know the expression and all, but who would have thought that truth really was stranger then fiction?”
“A big conspiracy of silence concerning the truth of Japan?” Gelinas said, cueing a flashback to the airport. “’Bloody weird’ doesn’t begin to cover it.”
Aaron rejoined the group looking somewhat dejected. “I couldn’t get my calling card to work with the payphones here,” he said.
“Buy one from somewhere in the airport after we get through customs,” Gelinas recommended.
“Yeah, I really need to call Kirstin and tell her where I am.”
“She’s going to be pissed,” Mike told her. “You never even told her you were leaving.”
“Oh, come on, it isn’t like we’re dating or anything,” Aaron insisted.
“Sure,” Mike said. “Oh, hey, is that your bag?”
Matt nodded and retrieved the last piece of their luggage. “Well, on we go,” he said.
He led the group to the customs area. There were two doorways, one for Japanese citizens, one for foreign visitors. They were approaching the later doorway when Kenny suddenly motioned for them to stop. There was a beeping coming from his pack, and he pulled a device Matt couldn’t help but think looked like a tricorder out of it. He looked at the device for a moment, concern on his small features.
“What is it?” Matt asked.
“There is something strange about that doorway,” Kenny responded. “That isn’t an ordinary doorway.”
“Then what is it?” Aaron asked.
“I’m not sure… It reminds me a little of a device I was working on once. Remember the one I had to use on Mr. Swett when he overheard something he shouldn’t have?”
“Oh, you mean the flashy thingy?” Gelinas asked.
“Well, it does have a technical name,” Kenny replied, “but yes. This doorway is a little similar to the... the ‘flashy thingy.’ It seems much more advanced, though, and doesn’t operate optically.”
“So what will it do to us when we walk through?”
“I don’t know,” Kenny admitted. “But I think I can negate whatever it is before we walk through.”
“Do it,” Mike said.
Kenny twiddled a few dials on his tricorder, aimed it at the doorway, and flicked a switch.
The others waited.
“All done,” Kenny said.
“That was it?” Gelinas asked.
Kenny nodded.
“All right,” Matt said, “let’s go.”
They stepped through the door into the customs area.
They blinked.
They stepped back out into the baggage claim area.
They looked around at all dark haired Japanese people.
They blinked.
They stepped back into the customs area. There were still plenty of dark haired Japanese people, but also blonde Japanese people, red headed Japanese people, blue haired Japanese people, purple haired Japanese people, and green haired Japanese people.
They blinked.
One Japanese business man came through the other doorway and pulled at his dark hair, revealing it to be a wig hiding the pink hair underneath.
“What the hell…?” Aaron asked.
“Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?” Matt asked.
“I don’t know, is it what I’m seeing?” Gelinas asked.
“I hope so, or I’m going crazy,” Mike added.
“You’re not crazy,” the large, black-suited, sun-glasses wearing, Japanese man said.
“Thank you, I feel so much better,” Mike said.
Then Mike looked at the man looming behind them.
He had friends.
Three of them.
Three almost identical friends.
The four large, black-suited, sun-glasses wearing, Japanese men grabbed them and dragged them off.
“I want to see a lawyer!” Aaron wailed.
The five of them were sitting in a room that was empty but for the chairs they were sitting upon, a small table that their chairs were all on one side of, an additional empty chair that was on the other side of the table, and a naked light bulb hanging down from the ceiling on a wire.
There were no windows. There was one door. It had been locked behind them.
The light bulb was swinging back and fourth ever so slightly.
No one answered Aaron.
Forty-two minutes later, the door opened and in walked the first of the large, black-suited, sun-glasses wearing, Japanese men. He sat in the chair and placed a briefcase upon the table. He opened it and pulled out a file folder. He opened that, read to himself from it’s contents at length, and then looked up at the scouts.
“Do you have anything to declare?” he asked. “Any flora or fauna?”
“Um… no?” Matt responded.
“Good. Purpose of your visit?”
“Scholastic exchange program,” Mike said.
The man sighed. “Real purpose of your visit?”
“Scholastic…”
“Real purpose of your visit?”
Aaron leaned in close to Matt. “Well,” he said, “he told us not to tell anyone until after we got to Japan, and we are in Japan.”
Matt sighed. “It’s a little hard to explain,” he said to the dark suited man.
In response, the man leaned forward and placed his palms upon the table. “Try me.”
“All right,” Matt said. “You asked for it. We’re all on the run from a shadowy Chinese martial arts organization that wants to kill us to preserve the secret of a place we once visited that gave us all aqua transmogrific curses. The whole scholastic exchange program is being used as a front for us to be in the country.”
The man sat for a moment digesting this statement. He then produced from his briefcase Kenny’s tricorder. “This,” he said. “Who does it belong to?”
Kenny raised a timid hand. “Me, sir,” he answered.
The man seemed to focus all of his attention onto Kenny. “Do you have this alleged... curse, too?”
Answered Kenny, “No, sir.”
“Kenny here is just our super genius friend who accompanied us on the trip,” Mike supplied.
“I see.” The man sat back in his chair once more and folded his hands together. “So let me see if I have got all of this straight,” he said. “Secret curses, homicidal Chinese martial artists, and adolescent super geniuses.” He looked at each of the Scouts in turn. Then he said, “You seriously expect me to believe all of that?”
The Boy Scouts sat in worried silence.
“Because I do,” the man continued.
“But you have to,” Gelinas exclaimed. “We’re telling the truth! Wait... what?”
“I believe you,” the man repeated. “Oh, sure, maybe not the exact same thing as you five, but we get this sort of thing all of the time! In fact, for a group of people planning to stay in our country for an extended period of time, it would be more strange for you to really be perfectly ordinary people here for perfectly mundane reasons. We’ve already had one such group today. Two would be unheard of.”
“So what now?” Aaron asked. “Denied entry and sent home?”
The dark suited man seemed genuinely surprised at that suggestion. “What? Goodness, no! In fact,” and now the man smiled for the first time, “welcome to our great country of Japan!”
Now it was the Scout’s turn for surprise as the dark suited man suddenly became warm and personable. They muttered assorted thanks for his welcome.
“So we can be on our way?” Matt dared to hope.
“Not quite yet,” the man responded, returning to his all-business facade. “First, you need to be briefed.”
“Briefed?”
“Briefed on the Truth of Japan.”
“Truth of...?”
“Yes. It all began in the early 1950’s due to American nuclear testing in the Pacific. The first and most dramatic effect of this was the attack of the great monster...”
“Oh, come on, I saw that film,” Gelinas interrupted. “The one with Raymond Burr.”
“That was a documentary. You Americans added Raymond Burr and called it a fiction to ease your consciences. We learned from that that you didn’t want to face your responsibilities, and when other effects began to become apparent, our pride told us to keep it to ourselves. We would embrace the effects rather then fear them. We would take them into our national identity. But they would be our secret.”
“Why tell us this?” Mike asked.
“We use our Neurolizer technology to alter the perceptions of anyone visiting for a limited time of up to one month. Anyone else, however, it becomes too great a thing to hide. So we take them into our confidence and entrust them with our secret. If they prove trustworthy, then they are forever a friend of Japan and that friendship is rewarded.”
“And if they are not trustworthy?” Matt dared to ask.
“Then we must use our Neurolizers on them to alter their memories. However, such a deep job of alteration and erasure can leave one... well... changed.” The man paused. “I don’t wish to talk of such things unless necessary, and I do hope it won’t be.”
“Well,” Matt responded to that, “we’re all with the Boy Scouts, and the first point of our Scout Law is ‘Trustworthy.’”
“I am glad to hear that,” the man said to them.
“So what is this secret?” Aaron asked.
“Well... I understand it that there is a small underground following in your country for animation from our country, yes?”
“One could say so,” Mike said. “Matt here in particular is an avid fan, but we’ve all had some degree of exposure to anime.”
Matt grinned at this.
“Well,” the man continued, “not counting such things as pure science fiction or fantasy, what if I were to tell you that many of the more fantastical elements of our animation that are usually seen as eccentricities of the style... What if I told you that they were all true?”
They collected their luggage and departed the train at the Tokeizaka, or Clock Hill, station. “It really is true,” Kenny was telling them. “It’s all true. I’ve
detected things such as variable gravity fluctuations and a weakness in the local space-time continuum. I’ve even detected differences in the physical
bodies of the Japanese populace. It also appears that our own bodies are going through changes that take them in line with those differences!”
“Um, what sort of differences?” Gelinas asked nervously.
“It seems that the average Japanese person has much more blood in their bodies all kept at a higher pressure. Our bodies have increased blood production to match.”
“That sounds rather... bad.”
“Oddly enough, this seems to have no detrimental effect.” Kenny said. “Although I should warn you that there does seem to be a thinning of the nasal capillaries. I don’t know what effect that will have. Just watch your noses.”
“Got it.”
The five of them exited the train station and were approached by a man who introduced himself as the husband of the manager of the building they were to be staying in. It was a good bit of a walk to the building from the train station, and so they started out by going through the shopping district and then starting their way up a large hill that put anything up at Moses to shame. They passed a bar by the name of Cha Cha Maru and eventually came to a large, old, and comfortable looking building that was to be their home for the next year.
There was a woman standing outside sweeping the steps. She was a woman who looked as if ten years ago she would have been quite beautiful and the years had done little to change that except add some wrinkles around her eyes and some grey to her hair. She wore an apron with a faded picture of a baby chicken upon the chest. She paused from sweeping the steps and smiled at their guide, her husband.
Then she regarded the Boy Scouts, her new tenants. “Hello, my name is Godai Kyoko. Welcome,” she said, “to Maison Ikkoku.”
"I don't know if you'd call the interior of an airport 'soil'," Aaron Abdowmassy responded. Aaron had come to Japan ostensibly as part of a scholastic foreign exchange program that he, and by an amazing coincidence three other Scouts from his Troop, had been selected to be a part of. One of his troop leaders, Matthew Atanian, had been selected to accompany them as a chaperone for the year. As for the other three scouts, it had been his three friends Mike Quadrozzi, Bill Hughes, and Bill Gelinas.
There were five of them getting off of the airplane, but it wasn’t Matt, Mike, Aaron, Gelinas, and Hughes. It was Matt, Mike, Aaron, Gelinas, and their young friend Kenneth Pendrall. Kenny had accompanied them, at his own expense, as he had always wished to visit Japan. He wasn’t planning on staying the entire year like his fellows were, but he was looking forward to his brief visit.
They didn’t know exactly where Hughes was. He had called them at the last minute and told them not to worry about him, and that he’d made other travel arrangements. Of course, last time he had disappeared for a while, he had reappeared with inexplicably gaudy dress and a penchant for trying to catch and eat small birds or rodents. He had very quickly lost his newly acquired appetites but his new dress sense had merely toned itself down a notch rather then disappearing.
"Where to now?" Mike asked.
"I guess we get our luggage, go through customs, and then…" Matt paused, took out a piece of paper, and read from it. “From the Narita Airport, follow the signs to the JR railway entrance. Board the Narita Express train for Shinjuku. Get off at the Shinjuku station and transfer to the Yamanote line train. Get off at the Takadanobaba station and transfer to the Seibu line train. Then get off at the Tokeizaka station. From there, I guess we walk.”
“What’s the address again?” Gelinas asked.
“3-3-9 Tokeizaka Nerima-ku, Tokyo. But someone’s supposed to be meeting us at the station.”
After a lengthy and eventful trip through the customs area, the five emerged from made their way to the Japan Rail station. They bought tickets to the appropriate station and boarded the train just as it was about to leave. The five of them found seats, and four of them – four friends that shared a burden of a terrible curse – each contemplated the strange series of events that had led to their exile in the land of the rising sun.
For they may have come to Japan seemingly as part of a foreign exchange program, but they each new that this was merely a ruse concocted for the purpose of preserving their lives. Lives that were in danger because of the curses that had been thrust upon them a little over a year ago. A danger that had only become apparent a little over a month ago. But a very real danger it was.
Saturday morning up at the Horace A. Moses Scout Reservation went by in a blur of breakfast and closing ceremonies and then everyone packed their stuff into their parent’s cars and headed back to civilization with its real toilets and working hot showers.
Gelinas, Hughes, Mike, and Aaron were the last youth of Troop 192 waiting for their parents to arrive. Matt Atanian, too, was waiting for his father (he supposed he should get his driver’s license one of these days) and was waiting with his friends in Crown Point.
A few of the other adult leaders had stayed (what with that whole two-deep leadership thing) but they were currently down at the road watching for cars. Matt heard one of them shout up to them. Mrs. Abdowmassy had arrived in her large blue mini-van.
Aaron went to go grab his stuff. The others moved in to lend a hand. It was then that, with murderous intent, an old Chinese man leapt from the forest and attacked them.
What happened next was a blur as the aged man rushed at them, brandishing twin swords with vicious looking long, curved blades. Hughes, with his newfound fashion sense, took a millisecond to note that he was wearing what appeared to be some sort of uniform, red in color, but otherwise quite like the green one that had been worn by the guide who had accompanied them on their trip to China the previous summer.
Just when the cursed scouts of 192 thought they couldn’t get any more startled, however, something proved them wrong.
With a jingling of bells, a second old Chinese man leapt from the trees and with little more then what appeared to be a shoot of bamboo, fended off the first one’s attack. For now thwarted, their assailant disappeared back into the cover of the forest.
This new man turned to look at the stunned scouts. He was dressed in robes that had the air of having once been quite regal, but now care worn with age and travel. From the belt of his robes hung a strand of cloth with bells sewn onto it. His eyes were dark and wise as he looked upon the scouts, still too stunned to do much more then blink at him.
“Greetings to you,” he said. “My name is Líng Rén. We have much to discuss.”
They met that night at Perfume’s Pizza. The Amazon was, in fact, joining them, as was Kenny.
“We were told not to speak of this to anyone,” Aaron mentioned when he found Kenny had been invited.
“Kenny’s not just anyone,” Mike responded. “Besides, maybe he can do something to help us.”
They began the meeting, after each grabbing a piece of the pizza pies Perfume had provided, by telling their new friend what had transpired. About the attack, and about what the old Chinese man had told them afterwards. And about how Perfume, too, was in danger.
How there was an organization dedicated to preserving the secret of a certain training ground of cursed springs. About how this group had once taken the position of trying to train cursed individuals to overcome the curses effects. About how after a rather disastrous encounter with a group of cursed martial artists from Japan, a split had occurred within the organization. How certain members of it felt that their efforts were futile, and that the only course of action that would truly preserve the secret of Jusenkyo was to get rid of any individuals who may have suffered falling into a spring and becoming cursed.
Getting rid of them permanently.
Getting rid of them terminally.
Other individuals, the old man had explained, felt that this was going too far. They could not support such actions, and would do whatever it took to prevent them.
“Alas,” he had told them, “they have found you.”
“So you’re going to protect us?” Aaron had asked.
“If it comes to that. But for now, I shall hide you.”
He told them of a scholastic foreign exchange program that, knowing the enemy was close at hand, he had taken the step of rigging so that Mike, Aaron, and the Bills would be chosen for it. He knew that those going would be allowed to bring an adult chaperone along, and given the “successful” job Matt had done when they had gone to China (if one didn’t count allowing them to all get cursed in the first place) that the boys parents would undoubtedly see if he was willing to do the job once more.
“And if we are found again?” Matt had asked.
“Next time, we will be ready,” Líng Rén had answered.
“What of Perfume?” the Amazon asked.
“He made no mention of you,” Mike admitted. “But I think it’s safe to assume that you should go into hiding, too. Do you have anywhere you can go?”
Perfume nodded. She looked around and sighed. “So much for pizza shop,” she said.
As trains were wont to do in Japan, theirs had left exactly on time. They each made themselves comfortable for the journey.
Billy Gelinas had bought a pack of Magic cards at the airport. “Rebuilding the collection?” Mike had asked him jokingly, referring to a bet the two of them had had up at Summer Camp. Billy had lost the bet, loosing all of his Magic cards to his hat-wearing fellow in the process.
Of course, Mike hadn’t actually taken all of Billy’s cards. He had only taken one. However, it had been a really nice card which Billy was sad to loose,
but it allowed Mike to finally complete his collection of Mirage.
“Shut up, Mike,” Billy had responded. Now, on the train, Billy opened the cards and flipped through them. As they were all printed in Japanese, he could only tell what about half of them were. Still, Billy was happy.
Aaron was sitting with his nose buried in the latest Wheel of Time book. In the window seat next to him sat Kenny.
Kenny was holding in his small hands what looked and sounded very much like a classic Star Trek tricorder. He kept twisting the dials on it while occasionally muttering things along the lines of, “Fascinating,” or, “Intriguing.”
Mike got up for a moment to retrieve a Slim Jim from his bag on the overhead luggage rack. Then he sat back down next to Matt, who was gazing out of the window at the passing country side.
Mike took a bite of his beefy goodness, chewed for a moment in silent contemplation, swallowed, and turned to Matt. “So,” he asked, “what did you end up telling Sarah?”
“Huh?” Matt asked. He turned from the window. “Sarah?”
“Yes,” Mike said. “You did see her, right?”
“Yeah, well,” Matt began, “I did go see her, but it could have gone better.”
Sarah answered the knock at her door. She was surprised to see Matthew Atanian standing outside. “What can I do for you?” she asked him.
“I… Well, something’s come up,” he said. “I have to go away for a while, and I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
“Why are you telling me this?” she asked him.
“Well…” Matt fidgeted a bit and took off his hat. “I think it isn’t a secret that I have feelings for you. And despite what you might believe, they aren’t hormonal.”
Sarah looked at him. “They aren’t?”
“Well,” he replied, “most of them aren’t.”
Sarah actually laughed at that. “Honesty. I like it.”
Matt felt a bit of a tinge at that. For one thing, there was the whole Matty Hayes thing. And for another…
“So where are you going?”
Ah… the other. “I can’t really say.” Líng Rén had been quite clear that they were not to tell anyone other then close family where they were going, at least until after they got there. Matt wasn’t sure why. I mean, it wasn’t like their enemy was going to capture Sarah and torture the information out of her, was it? And if that was the case, then why was it fine to say after they got to Japan? But they were depending on this man for their lives, and he was not yet about to question his reasoning.
Sarah was about to question him further, when he just suddenly blurted out, “I love you, Sarah Porter!” and ran off.
“Wait!” she called after him. She had taken her first step out of the door to make to follow him, when a voice came from behind her.
“Who was that just now?”
Sarah turned to see her sisters behind her. It was Kirstin who had spoken. She told them what had transpired.
“Well, in a way I suppose that will make things easier,” Nicole said.
“Sister, really,” Kirstin responded.
“So have you told Aaron yet?” Nicole asked.
Neko-chan mewed inquisitively.
Kirstin stood there silently. When no answer seemed forthcoming, Nicole patted her twin on the shoulder and said, “Thought so.”
At the Shinjuku station they took the opportunity to stretch their legs during the twenty minute wait between trains. They made their way from the platform out to the lobby and out through the front door into the city. They took in the sight before them with no small awe.
It was Aaron who first attempted to describe what was before them. “My God,” he said, “it’s Coruscant!”
“Not quite,” Matt said, “but Tyoko is a big city.”
“I thought we were in someplace called Shinjuku,” Gelinas said.
“Shinjuku is a ward of Tokyo,” Matt explained. On the flight over, he had practically memorized the Japan travel guide he’d bought before leaving home. “I suppose you could say it’s a sub-city, complete with it’s own local government. There’s about twenty-three of them, including Shinjuku, Chiyoda, or our destination of Nerima.”
“I thought we were going someplace called Tokeizaka?” Aaron said.
“Tokeizaka’s part of Nerima,” Matt explained.
“Which is part of Tokyo,” Kenny added, looking up briefly from his tricorder.
“Japan’s confusing,” Mike said.
Matt smiled. “I can’t wait to unleash myself upon it. But come on, we need to catch the next train.”
Catch their train they did. That train took them further on, and after one other transfer they were on their last train and almost at their final destination.
They all were eager to get to their final destination and get some rest. All except one of their number, who continued to be preoccupied.
“How’s it going Kenny?” Mike asked.
“Scan now,” Kenny muttered. “Explain later.”
“This is bloody weird, though,” Aaron said.
Matt nodded. “I know the expression and all, but who would have thought that truth really was stranger then fiction?”
“A big conspiracy of silence concerning the truth of Japan?” Gelinas said, cueing a flashback to the airport. “’Bloody weird’ doesn’t begin to cover it.”
Aaron rejoined the group looking somewhat dejected. “I couldn’t get my calling card to work with the payphones here,” he said.
“Buy one from somewhere in the airport after we get through customs,” Gelinas recommended.
“Yeah, I really need to call Kirstin and tell her where I am.”
“She’s going to be pissed,” Mike told her. “You never even told her you were leaving.”
“Oh, come on, it isn’t like we’re dating or anything,” Aaron insisted.
“Sure,” Mike said. “Oh, hey, is that your bag?”
Matt nodded and retrieved the last piece of their luggage. “Well, on we go,” he said.
He led the group to the customs area. There were two doorways, one for Japanese citizens, one for foreign visitors. They were approaching the later doorway when Kenny suddenly motioned for them to stop. There was a beeping coming from his pack, and he pulled a device Matt couldn’t help but think looked like a tricorder out of it. He looked at the device for a moment, concern on his small features.
“What is it?” Matt asked.
“There is something strange about that doorway,” Kenny responded. “That isn’t an ordinary doorway.”
“Then what is it?” Aaron asked.
“I’m not sure… It reminds me a little of a device I was working on once. Remember the one I had to use on Mr. Swett when he overheard something he shouldn’t have?”
“Oh, you mean the flashy thingy?” Gelinas asked.
“Well, it does have a technical name,” Kenny replied, “but yes. This doorway is a little similar to the... the ‘flashy thingy.’ It seems much more advanced, though, and doesn’t operate optically.”
“So what will it do to us when we walk through?”
“I don’t know,” Kenny admitted. “But I think I can negate whatever it is before we walk through.”
“Do it,” Mike said.
Kenny twiddled a few dials on his tricorder, aimed it at the doorway, and flicked a switch.
The others waited.
“All done,” Kenny said.
“That was it?” Gelinas asked.
Kenny nodded.
“All right,” Matt said, “let’s go.”
They stepped through the door into the customs area.
They blinked.
They stepped back out into the baggage claim area.
They looked around at all dark haired Japanese people.
They blinked.
They stepped back into the customs area. There were still plenty of dark haired Japanese people, but also blonde Japanese people, red headed Japanese people, blue haired Japanese people, purple haired Japanese people, and green haired Japanese people.
They blinked.
One Japanese business man came through the other doorway and pulled at his dark hair, revealing it to be a wig hiding the pink hair underneath.
“What the hell…?” Aaron asked.
“Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?” Matt asked.
“I don’t know, is it what I’m seeing?” Gelinas asked.
“I hope so, or I’m going crazy,” Mike added.
“You’re not crazy,” the large, black-suited, sun-glasses wearing, Japanese man said.
“Thank you, I feel so much better,” Mike said.
Then Mike looked at the man looming behind them.
He had friends.
Three of them.
Three almost identical friends.
The four large, black-suited, sun-glasses wearing, Japanese men grabbed them and dragged them off.
“I want to see a lawyer!” Aaron wailed.
The five of them were sitting in a room that was empty but for the chairs they were sitting upon, a small table that their chairs were all on one side of, an additional empty chair that was on the other side of the table, and a naked light bulb hanging down from the ceiling on a wire.
There were no windows. There was one door. It had been locked behind them.
The light bulb was swinging back and fourth ever so slightly.
No one answered Aaron.
Forty-two minutes later, the door opened and in walked the first of the large, black-suited, sun-glasses wearing, Japanese men. He sat in the chair and placed a briefcase upon the table. He opened it and pulled out a file folder. He opened that, read to himself from it’s contents at length, and then looked up at the scouts.
“Do you have anything to declare?” he asked. “Any flora or fauna?”
“Um… no?” Matt responded.
“Good. Purpose of your visit?”
“Scholastic exchange program,” Mike said.
The man sighed. “Real purpose of your visit?”
“Scholastic…”
“Real purpose of your visit?”
Aaron leaned in close to Matt. “Well,” he said, “he told us not to tell anyone until after we got to Japan, and we are in Japan.”
Matt sighed. “It’s a little hard to explain,” he said to the dark suited man.
In response, the man leaned forward and placed his palms upon the table. “Try me.”
“All right,” Matt said. “You asked for it. We’re all on the run from a shadowy Chinese martial arts organization that wants to kill us to preserve the secret of a place we once visited that gave us all aqua transmogrific curses. The whole scholastic exchange program is being used as a front for us to be in the country.”
The man sat for a moment digesting this statement. He then produced from his briefcase Kenny’s tricorder. “This,” he said. “Who does it belong to?”
Kenny raised a timid hand. “Me, sir,” he answered.
The man seemed to focus all of his attention onto Kenny. “Do you have this alleged... curse, too?”
Answered Kenny, “No, sir.”
“Kenny here is just our super genius friend who accompanied us on the trip,” Mike supplied.
“I see.” The man sat back in his chair once more and folded his hands together. “So let me see if I have got all of this straight,” he said. “Secret curses, homicidal Chinese martial artists, and adolescent super geniuses.” He looked at each of the Scouts in turn. Then he said, “You seriously expect me to believe all of that?”
The Boy Scouts sat in worried silence.
“Because I do,” the man continued.
“But you have to,” Gelinas exclaimed. “We’re telling the truth! Wait... what?”
“I believe you,” the man repeated. “Oh, sure, maybe not the exact same thing as you five, but we get this sort of thing all of the time! In fact, for a group of people planning to stay in our country for an extended period of time, it would be more strange for you to really be perfectly ordinary people here for perfectly mundane reasons. We’ve already had one such group today. Two would be unheard of.”
“So what now?” Aaron asked. “Denied entry and sent home?”
The dark suited man seemed genuinely surprised at that suggestion. “What? Goodness, no! In fact,” and now the man smiled for the first time, “welcome to our great country of Japan!”
Now it was the Scout’s turn for surprise as the dark suited man suddenly became warm and personable. They muttered assorted thanks for his welcome.
“So we can be on our way?” Matt dared to hope.
“Not quite yet,” the man responded, returning to his all-business facade. “First, you need to be briefed.”
“Briefed?”
“Briefed on the Truth of Japan.”
“Truth of...?”
“Yes. It all began in the early 1950’s due to American nuclear testing in the Pacific. The first and most dramatic effect of this was the attack of the great monster...”
“Oh, come on, I saw that film,” Gelinas interrupted. “The one with Raymond Burr.”
“That was a documentary. You Americans added Raymond Burr and called it a fiction to ease your consciences. We learned from that that you didn’t want to face your responsibilities, and when other effects began to become apparent, our pride told us to keep it to ourselves. We would embrace the effects rather then fear them. We would take them into our national identity. But they would be our secret.”
“Why tell us this?” Mike asked.
“We use our Neurolizer technology to alter the perceptions of anyone visiting for a limited time of up to one month. Anyone else, however, it becomes too great a thing to hide. So we take them into our confidence and entrust them with our secret. If they prove trustworthy, then they are forever a friend of Japan and that friendship is rewarded.”
“And if they are not trustworthy?” Matt dared to ask.
“Then we must use our Neurolizers on them to alter their memories. However, such a deep job of alteration and erasure can leave one... well... changed.” The man paused. “I don’t wish to talk of such things unless necessary, and I do hope it won’t be.”
“Well,” Matt responded to that, “we’re all with the Boy Scouts, and the first point of our Scout Law is ‘Trustworthy.’”
“I am glad to hear that,” the man said to them.
“So what is this secret?” Aaron asked.
“Well... I understand it that there is a small underground following in your country for animation from our country, yes?”
“One could say so,” Mike said. “Matt here in particular is an avid fan, but we’ve all had some degree of exposure to anime.”
Matt grinned at this.
“Well,” the man continued, “not counting such things as pure science fiction or fantasy, what if I were to tell you that many of the more fantastical elements of our animation that are usually seen as eccentricities of the style... What if I told you that they were all true?”
They collected their luggage and departed the train at the Tokeizaka, or Clock Hill, station. “It really is true,” Kenny was telling them. “It’s all true. I’ve
detected things such as variable gravity fluctuations and a weakness in the local space-time continuum. I’ve even detected differences in the physical
bodies of the Japanese populace. It also appears that our own bodies are going through changes that take them in line with those differences!”
“Um, what sort of differences?” Gelinas asked nervously.
“It seems that the average Japanese person has much more blood in their bodies all kept at a higher pressure. Our bodies have increased blood production to match.”
“That sounds rather... bad.”
“Oddly enough, this seems to have no detrimental effect.” Kenny said. “Although I should warn you that there does seem to be a thinning of the nasal capillaries. I don’t know what effect that will have. Just watch your noses.”
“Got it.”
The five of them exited the train station and were approached by a man who introduced himself as the husband of the manager of the building they were to be staying in. It was a good bit of a walk to the building from the train station, and so they started out by going through the shopping district and then starting their way up a large hill that put anything up at Moses to shame. They passed a bar by the name of Cha Cha Maru and eventually came to a large, old, and comfortable looking building that was to be their home for the next year.
There was a woman standing outside sweeping the steps. She was a woman who looked as if ten years ago she would have been quite beautiful and the years had done little to change that except add some wrinkles around her eyes and some grey to her hair. She wore an apron with a faded picture of a baby chicken upon the chest. She paused from sweeping the steps and smiled at their guide, her husband.
Then she regarded the Boy Scouts, her new tenants. “Hello, my name is Godai Kyoko. Welcome,” she said, “to Maison Ikkoku.”
Author's Notes & Disclaimers
Well, here we are. We’ve begun anew with some of the same old characters, but thrown into a new setting and new situations.
Boy Scouts ½ in Japan.
So much to put in the notes this time. Hope I remember it all. If not, look for addendums in upcoming stories. Well, here it goes.
First the usual of the fact that this series is not endorsed by or meant to reflect the values of the Boy Scouts of America.
Now... There’s the good old standard of the Jusenkyo curses being from Takahashi Rumiko’s Ranma ½. However... Also from Takahashi-sensei is Maison Ikkoku, the Clock Hill District of Nerima Ward, and any related characters or locations. These are from her series named, well, Maison Ikkoku.
So here comes the definitive difference between the Boy Scouts ½ reality and our reality: The two manga / anime series of Ranma ½ and Maison Ikkoku are not works of fiction but are in fact reality within the Boy Scouts ½ universe.
Takahashi Rumiko still exists, as do her other works of fiction. In the Boy Scouts ½ reality, Takahashi’s first big success was Urusei Yatsura, but then she didn’t have any further long standing series for quite a while. Instead she did a lot of one shot stories that were quite popular but didn’t lead to much success. The closest she had to a long running series during this period was a horror series called Mermaid Saga which ran for four or five volumes. She finally had a major success again by blending the romantic high school comedy of Urusei Yatsura with the horror of the Mermaid Saga in a new series called Inu Yasha which began not long before the events of this story.
The above is pretty close to what reality would be if Maison Ikkoku and Ranma ½ were removed from Miss Takahashi’s resume.
So within the Boy Scouts ½ universe. Ranma and Ikkoku are real. All other anime and manga is still fictional.
A word about time:
Ranma ½ was one of those series in which time never really seemed to pass, and the characters were relatively the same throughout. Maison Ikkoku, on the other hand, had a definite passage of time. One could tell the passage of years. Seasons changed. Characters grew. Life did not stand still. Because of this, I am taking two different approaches to any characters from those shows who may appear in Boy Scouts ½.
Ranma characters will be as they are in their parent series, and the events of Boy Scouts ½ in Japan could fit in any time within the Ranma ½ series as long as it is after the episode of the anime entitled, “The Killer from Jusenkyo.” In that episode, The Jusenkyo Preservation Society decides they have stood by long enough, letting Ranma & company abuse their Jusenkyo curses for immoral and selfish purposes, and dispatches a team charged with capturing them and teaching them the error of their ways. (It is the falure of this that causes the split that Líng Rén describes. In true Life of Brian fashion, one of the split off groups will continue to be The Jusenkyo Preservation Society, and the other will be The Preservation Society of Jusenkyo. I have not decided which will be which yet.)
As far as Maison Ikkoku, Boy Scouts ½ in Japan will take place approximately eleven years after the end of the series. (Best estimates place Maison Ikkoku as taking place from 1979 through 1987.)
A brief note about continuities: In both Ranma ½ and Maison Ikkoku, there are differences between the original manga and the anime adaptation. Usually not vast differences, but differences non-the-less.
I doubt it will ever be important to firmly establish this... But I’ve actually not read or watched Ranma in many years now, and thus any Ranma related
elements that are included in future stories will be taken from a combination of memory and web-based (and hopefully accurate, but one never can tell) research. And if I need to, I’ll feel free to use things from both the anime and the manga.
Maison Ikkoku, on the other hand... I have the entire manga series. I’ve read it recently. I have most of the anime, and the rest of it on order. There are also a few very good websites out there with information about the series. (One of these websites, for example, had the address I used. It actually had a two or three addresses, from a few different times in the anime where an address was shown on screen, such as on an envelope of a received letter. I picked one I liked best and used that one.) Thus, I am much more confident about Maison Ikkoku, between knowing the series better and being set eleven years after the series, which allows for some changes to have happened over time. Lastly, although the adaptation of Maison Ikkoku into an anime was a very close one, differences still exist. And should it ever become an issue, I am using the manga as the definitive source.
Now, some people (*cough*Mark Abert*cough*) may be fearing that they will need vast inside knowledge about these shows and will thus be quickly left behind. While I won’t lie and say that such knowledge wouldn’t add extra insight, I will do my best to see that it isn’t essential. Anything that is must have knowledge I will do my best to work into the narrative.
Hmm... Anything else? Ah, yes. The language problem.
A lot of fan fiction does something like this:
“Hello, I am speaking English.”
[And now I am speaking Japanese.]
For some reason, I always found this approach annoying. So the way I am going to present things is to not tell you (the reader) what is being said in a foreign language unless the scene is being presented in the point of view of speakers of that foreign language. Much like in BS½ year one, where the Jusenkyo guide spoke thickly accented English, but I wrote his dialogue as completely normal when doing a scene which featured only him and Perfume, as obviously they would be speaking Chinese to each other, and there were none of the American characters present to view the scene through and thus wonder what they were saying.
Oy... Even I’ll admit this sounds a bit confusing when I try to explain the concept in words. I’m hoping it will be less so in execution. We’ll just have to wait and see!
Hmm... anything else? I went to bed last night in the middle of typing up the “language problem” bit, so it was easy to finish that off, but I cannot recall if I had anything else to put in here. Ah, well. If anything else comes to me, there’s always next time!
Boy Scouts ½ in Japan.
So much to put in the notes this time. Hope I remember it all. If not, look for addendums in upcoming stories. Well, here it goes.
First the usual of the fact that this series is not endorsed by or meant to reflect the values of the Boy Scouts of America.
Now... There’s the good old standard of the Jusenkyo curses being from Takahashi Rumiko’s Ranma ½. However... Also from Takahashi-sensei is Maison Ikkoku, the Clock Hill District of Nerima Ward, and any related characters or locations. These are from her series named, well, Maison Ikkoku.
So here comes the definitive difference between the Boy Scouts ½ reality and our reality: The two manga / anime series of Ranma ½ and Maison Ikkoku are not works of fiction but are in fact reality within the Boy Scouts ½ universe.
Takahashi Rumiko still exists, as do her other works of fiction. In the Boy Scouts ½ reality, Takahashi’s first big success was Urusei Yatsura, but then she didn’t have any further long standing series for quite a while. Instead she did a lot of one shot stories that were quite popular but didn’t lead to much success. The closest she had to a long running series during this period was a horror series called Mermaid Saga which ran for four or five volumes. She finally had a major success again by blending the romantic high school comedy of Urusei Yatsura with the horror of the Mermaid Saga in a new series called Inu Yasha which began not long before the events of this story.
The above is pretty close to what reality would be if Maison Ikkoku and Ranma ½ were removed from Miss Takahashi’s resume.
So within the Boy Scouts ½ universe. Ranma and Ikkoku are real. All other anime and manga is still fictional.
A word about time:
Ranma ½ was one of those series in which time never really seemed to pass, and the characters were relatively the same throughout. Maison Ikkoku, on the other hand, had a definite passage of time. One could tell the passage of years. Seasons changed. Characters grew. Life did not stand still. Because of this, I am taking two different approaches to any characters from those shows who may appear in Boy Scouts ½.
Ranma characters will be as they are in their parent series, and the events of Boy Scouts ½ in Japan could fit in any time within the Ranma ½ series as long as it is after the episode of the anime entitled, “The Killer from Jusenkyo.” In that episode, The Jusenkyo Preservation Society decides they have stood by long enough, letting Ranma & company abuse their Jusenkyo curses for immoral and selfish purposes, and dispatches a team charged with capturing them and teaching them the error of their ways. (It is the falure of this that causes the split that Líng Rén describes. In true Life of Brian fashion, one of the split off groups will continue to be The Jusenkyo Preservation Society, and the other will be The Preservation Society of Jusenkyo. I have not decided which will be which yet.)
As far as Maison Ikkoku, Boy Scouts ½ in Japan will take place approximately eleven years after the end of the series. (Best estimates place Maison Ikkoku as taking place from 1979 through 1987.)
A brief note about continuities: In both Ranma ½ and Maison Ikkoku, there are differences between the original manga and the anime adaptation. Usually not vast differences, but differences non-the-less.
I doubt it will ever be important to firmly establish this... But I’ve actually not read or watched Ranma in many years now, and thus any Ranma related
elements that are included in future stories will be taken from a combination of memory and web-based (and hopefully accurate, but one never can tell) research. And if I need to, I’ll feel free to use things from both the anime and the manga.
Maison Ikkoku, on the other hand... I have the entire manga series. I’ve read it recently. I have most of the anime, and the rest of it on order. There are also a few very good websites out there with information about the series. (One of these websites, for example, had the address I used. It actually had a two or three addresses, from a few different times in the anime where an address was shown on screen, such as on an envelope of a received letter. I picked one I liked best and used that one.) Thus, I am much more confident about Maison Ikkoku, between knowing the series better and being set eleven years after the series, which allows for some changes to have happened over time. Lastly, although the adaptation of Maison Ikkoku into an anime was a very close one, differences still exist. And should it ever become an issue, I am using the manga as the definitive source.
Now, some people (*cough*Mark Abert*cough*) may be fearing that they will need vast inside knowledge about these shows and will thus be quickly left behind. While I won’t lie and say that such knowledge wouldn’t add extra insight, I will do my best to see that it isn’t essential. Anything that is must have knowledge I will do my best to work into the narrative.
Hmm... Anything else? Ah, yes. The language problem.
A lot of fan fiction does something like this:
“Hello, I am speaking English.”
[And now I am speaking Japanese.]
For some reason, I always found this approach annoying. So the way I am going to present things is to not tell you (the reader) what is being said in a foreign language unless the scene is being presented in the point of view of speakers of that foreign language. Much like in BS½ year one, where the Jusenkyo guide spoke thickly accented English, but I wrote his dialogue as completely normal when doing a scene which featured only him and Perfume, as obviously they would be speaking Chinese to each other, and there were none of the American characters present to view the scene through and thus wonder what they were saying.
Oy... Even I’ll admit this sounds a bit confusing when I try to explain the concept in words. I’m hoping it will be less so in execution. We’ll just have to wait and see!
Hmm... anything else? I went to bed last night in the middle of typing up the “language problem” bit, so it was easy to finish that off, but I cannot recall if I had anything else to put in here. Ah, well. If anything else comes to me, there’s always next time!
Additional notes from the 2013 Website Restoration
This is something of a "Special Edition" of Boy Scouts ½ in Japan part 1, as it contains an additional scene -- the short prologue before the title. This is not a new creation, but a vintage piece of writing that I turned up when gathering elements for the restoration. It was written when Boy Scouts ½ in Japan was first being worked on, but ultimately left unused.
However, I thought it might make a fun addition and thus decided to tack it on before the beginning of this story.
In the interest of disclosing things, this prologue is of course based on the brief bit of narration present at the beginning of the David Lynch adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune. The prologue, in addition to Dune, also makes a slight reference to Terry Gilliam's film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
However, I thought it might make a fun addition and thus decided to tack it on before the beginning of this story.
In the interest of disclosing things, this prologue is of course based on the brief bit of narration present at the beginning of the David Lynch adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune. The prologue, in addition to Dune, also makes a slight reference to Terry Gilliam's film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
--Matthew Atanian, 23 April 2013