Worlds Fall Apart

Review

This is an interesting what-if-Ranma-was-a-girl-full-time type of story. In this case it's a chaos demon responsible for things being the way they are. The story then jumps off from Ranma being Ranma-chan full-time to examining how the various people react to that event. It's an interesting series of reactions, and most of them seem to be quite plausible; the only one I wondered about a little was Nabiki's reaction.

Anyhow, it's a good story, especially from the viewpoint of people reacting to Ranma-chan as a permanent girl.

Synopsis

Chapter 1

The story starts with the start of the series. When Soun passes out from the shock of finding out Ranma is a girl (at least at the time), the author adds an event where Soun talks to a chaos demon, a female who bewitches him and gets him to sign a paper which will set up a lot of chaos in the future.

He talks to her once again before the end of the chapter and she says chaos will follow anyone having anything to do with him.

Chapter 2

Ryoga and Ranma have a fight and then Ranma falls into a fountain. Ryoga asks Ranma-chan if (in male form) he loves Akane, and Ranma-chan can't really answer the question, but the explanation that is given is well thought out.

Ranma gets a herb that will help him achieve clarity and help him make sense of the things going on in his life, but while he's trying to use it almost everyone after him in one way or another shows up, resulting in something going wrong and incredible pain for Ranma.

Chapter 3

Dr. Tofu arrives and takes Ranma to his office. Everyone goes with him and he explains that Ranma did not read the directions properly. He is suffering, in effect, from a massive overdose of magic. He tells them that there are 100 ingredients necessary to be gathered to be used to help cure Ranma.

Chapter 4

Ryoga has a mental battle with himself on whether or not to help Ranam and his actual relationship with Ranma.

People report back to Dr. Tofu's with the ingredients. He begins to mix the ingredients and hours later he tells everyone else to get out of the room. An incredible process occurs which only he is able to watch, and Ranma's body is purged of magic.

However, there is a side effect. Ranma is now Ranma-chan. Dr. Tofu tells the group there is a problem and talks to Genma in private while Akane tells Ryoga that she finally has to admit she is in love with Ranma. Ryoga leaves and finds a place where he can cry in private.

Chapter 5

Dr. Tofu tells the group that the only way the spell could have not worked was if Ranma was really a girl in the first place, and a spell had been put on her to turn into a boy. Soun finally admits what he encountered in the first chapter with the chaos demon.

Everyone is absolutely furious with Soun, and Dr. Tofu asks him to leave.

Chapter 6

Soun comes into the room as Ranma wakes up and she begins to give him the worst beating of his life. However, the chaos demon again appears to Soun, and Dr. Tofu can sense that it is there.

Soun tells them that the chaos being cannot change things, but that Ranma-chan's memory as being a real girl will come back to her, although she will also remember being a boy, and everyone else's memories (which had been manipulated by the chaos being) will also slowly return and they will recognize Ranma-chan as a natural-born female.

Ryoga, who had not been in the group when Ranma-chan recovered, attacks Ranma-chan, thinking she is the normally cursed Ranma, but Ranma-chan finally falls apart, crying while holding him and Ryoga has a flashback of a memory of a female Ranma-chan when they were in junior high school.

Soun says he's going to go search for a cure for Ranma-chan, to turn her into a boy again.

Ranma leaves the house and finds Akane and Ryoga. She tries to run away, but she hasn't eaten anything in several days and finally collapses, Ryoga catching her.

Chapter 7

Ryoga brings Ranma-chan to Ukyo's and then leaves. Ukyo touches Ranma-chan's hand and they both have a memory flashback to when Ranma was a five-year-old girl. Ukyo realizes right now Ranma-chan needs her friendship more than ever before.

Ranma-chan realizes that she needs to start rebuilding her life, as a girl, at least until a cure is found (if ever.)

Chapter 8

This chapter opens two weeks after the end of the events in the last chapter.

She has still been fighting admitting to herself she is really a girl, one example being by avoiding touching her body as much as possible when bathing. The sisters get on her, though, (especially when she goes five days without washing), and they also say she needs to get some decent clothes.

Neither Akane nor Genma are talking to Ranma. Ryoga has been somewhat nice towards her. She hasn't returned to school, although she's been told the students there know what happened and that she is really a she.

The shopping trip goes badly, but Ranma-chan runs into Ukyo and she helps her understand what type of clothing is ok for her to wear and what she doesn't have to wear.

Chapter 9

Ukyo helped Ranma-chan a lot when she was shopping, helping her find the types of underwear she wanted, which were basically fairly simple, no lace, no ruffles.

Ranma-chan and Ryoga have an argument, then they fight, then they both end up realizing that they are friendly rivals after all.Chapter 10

Akane is still mad at Ranma-chan. During an argument, Ranma-chan says she used the clarity spell to find out what her feelings for Akane really were, and if they should get married or not.

Ranma and Dr. Tofu talk, and he tries to help her come to terms with actually being female and what other people think about that.

Chapter 11

Ranma-chan is attacked by Shampoo, but Ramna-chan asks her a very important question (other than why?). Shampoo reveals that she loves Ranma in any form he's in, even if he is a she.

Ranma-chan almost gets in a fight with Ryoga, but later reveals that, in the short time of clarity she had, she realized she did not love Akane.

Akane and Ranma-chan are going to have a talk.

Chapter 12

Akane tells Ranma-chan she might be in love with her, but Ranma-chan tells Akane that she loves her as a friend.

Ryoga asks Ranma-chan if she likes girls and she replies she doesn't know.

The next day Ranma-chan verifies something she had thought about; Ryoga is cured of being P-chan and he's also cured of his problem with getting lost.

Ryoga also finally realizes that he is now friends with Ranma-chan, no longer a rival.

Chapter 13

This chapter takes place three months after the end of the last chapter.

Ryoga and Akane have become sort of a couple, at least in the early stages of being a couple. Shampoo is still after Ranma-chan, and Ranma-chan doesn't yet really know if she's interested in guys, girls, or both.

Ranma-chan and Ryoga are also friends, now. Kuno is still after the pig-tailed girl and Moose is angry at Ranma-chan for chasing Shampoo.

Ranma-chan's martial arts abilities have decayed, though, and Ryoga tells her it's largely because her girl body has a different center of balance, so Ranma-chan asks Ryoga to train her and he agrees.

Chapter 14

Ranma-chan and Ryoga head out on a training mission. Ryoga is having memory flashes of the “real” female Ranma-chan that he knew. He's been having a very hard time accepting Ranma-chan as being a real, born-that-way girl.

Chapter 15

We learn that Ryoga had a crush on Ranma-chan in middle school. There is also some other kind of connection between the two that is causing him problems.

Chapter 16

Genma still refuses to accept the fact that Ranma is actually a girl.

Ranma-chan and Genma have a major sparring session. Then there's sort of a sudden leap in the chapter where Genma and Ranma-chan are cheating someone out of some food. They run into Ryoga, then Shampoo comes along and glomps Ranma-chan, then Mousse tries to attack Ranma-chan but Ryoga trips him.

Chapter 17

Ranma-chan goes to a therapy session with Dr. Tofu. Dr. Tofu tries to help Ranma-chan figure out who she is sexually attracted to; males, females, or both. Ranma-chan admits she might be interested in guys.

Akane admits she is going to go on a date with Ryoga. Ranma-chan gets really upset.

Chapter 18

Ranma-chan and Ryoga talk about Ryoga's date with Akane. Ryoga doesn't understand at first why Ranma-chan is so upset.

Later, Ranma-chan gets mad at Nabiki, and Nabiki ends up crying. Then Kasumi comes in and says that Dr. Tofu has asked her out on a date.

Chapter 19

Ranma-chan gets Nabiki to take Kasumi to a spa while she goes to spy on Ryoga and Akane's date. She throws popcorn at the two to try to keep them from getting too close to each other. She then tries to sabotage the two of them when they go to a cafe. Akane sees her, though.

Chapter 20

Akane tells Ryoga that she wants to go steady with him. Akane gets mad and yells at Ranma-chan when she is in the dojo.

Ranma-chan goes to talk to Ukyo, and Ukyo explains to Ranma-chan that she (Ranma-chan) is actually attracted to Ryoga, and that's why she tried to mess up his date with Akane.

Chapter 21

Ranma-chan then goes to talk to Dr. Tofu. Ranma-chan has realized that she is in love with Ryoga. Ranma-chan later talks to Ryoga.

Chapter 22

This chapter takes place about a month later.

Akane gets really mad at Ranma-chan, realizing that Ranma-chan is interested in Ryoga. They argue, and Ranma-chan won't back down. She tells Akane basically that she has every right to go after Ryoga also, so now it's a full-scale competition between the two girls.

Ranma-chan has a talk with Ukyo about Ryoga and she says she feels now that she is a real, 100% woman. She has no doubts about that any more.

Chapter 23

Ranma-chan buys a bunch of new clothes, trying to impress Ryoga.

Ryoga and Akane were going to go into town and buy some things for Kasumi, but Ranma-chan manages to become the one to go with Ryoga instead.

Chapter 24

Nabiki starts to think Ranma-chan might take Ryoga from Akane after all. She's willing to help Ranma-chan get Ryoga to a resort for some romantic time together.

Chapter 25

When Ranma gets to the resort, she finds out that Shampoo, Cologne, Ukyo, Mousse, Kodachi, etc. are all there. Nabiki has come up with a final showdown; whoever gets Ryoga to kiss them first wins Ryoga. The other has to back off.

Akane gets mad at Ryoga when he catches Ryoga on top of Ranma-chan (he had just saved her from getting hurt by pulling her out of the way of a mirror). Ryoga says Ranma-chan will just be a friend to her.

Chapter 26

Ryoga and Ranma-chan get on a roller coaster. They are having memories of a time in their past when the roller coaster gets stuck. Ryoga is realizing just how strong his feelings are for Ranma-chan when the coaster gets going again.

When they get off, Akane sees they are uneasy with each other and thinks they have kissed. She says she's done with Ryoga and stomps off. Ryoga finds out he was sort of a prize in a contest and gets angry and leaves.

Chapter 27

Three weeks later. Ranma-chan is still hurt about Ryoga leaving. Akane still thinks Ryoga was her (Akane's) boyfriend. Kasumi is mad at Nabiki for meddling.

Kasumi finally has had enough and speaks her mind. She tells Akane that she is stubborn and self-centered. She makes Akane admit that she never really loved Ryoga. Akane finally comes to some realizations about herself and has a good cry.

Some message arrives and Akane is the only one to read it. She leaves a message of her own behind and leaves, no one knowing where she has gone.

Chapter 28

This takes place three weeks later.

Soun has obtained some magical water that will change Ranma-chan into a male permanently and alter everyone's memory so they will think she was always a male.

Akane finds Ryoga and explains to him how much Ranma-chan actually loves him. Ryoga runs off to find Ranma-chan before she drinks the vial of magical water and becomes a male forever.

Ranma-chan is just about to drink the water when Ryoga tackles her, spilling the water. He confesses his love for her and they kiss.

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