Ranma and Kasumi are missing, everyone is annoyed about it. Nabiki is doing her best, Akane is going slowly crazy (or at least crazier) and the parents are still idiots.
— FFN summary
A Ranma ½ fan fic. After the failed wedding, Ranma leaves and takes Kasumi with him. After a couple of years, Nabiki manages to find the pair. And finds herself getting involved in their lifestyle as Magical Girls.
It can be found here
and here.
A character list by the author can be found here.
Desperately Seeking Ranma provides examples of:
- Alternate Universe: For the Sailor Moon universe, the entire universe is completely AU. Tuxedo Mask, and by extension, Chibiusa, don't exist, and there's no reference made to any of the threats outside the 'scripted' Dark Kingdom attackers.
- Apocalypse How:
- Halleckton. A rich industrialist gets hold of a demonic portal, and proceeds to fill the tunnels under his vacation home with demons. The entire town is devastated, and Ranma is forced to turn the place into a lake in order to make sure the demons that had been summoned are gone.
- The truth about the Silver Millenium. A alien supercomputer, posing as the Gates Of Time of Sailor Moon canon, was attempting to recreate the civilization that birthed it, by using the Sailor Senshi and a false prophecy.
- The time device that was creating the narrative was the remains of a civilization that had sterilized three realities.
- When Ranma and his allies attempt to stop The supercomputer resetting the entire timeline, a few seconds of time just cease to exist.
- Awesome by Analysis: Akane screws up a bank robbery before it begins thanks to her and Shampoo’s observation skills.
- Badass Bureaucrat: Ms. Aoyama. She classifies herself as a government official for an agency that 'does not exist'. The 'agency' really doesn't exist... yet.
- Beyond the Impossible: Whenever the Silence Glaive is used by Hotaru to destroy things, it's usually since anything short of the Nuclear Option has failed. And, in one case, even the Nuclear Option failed.
- Big Eater: Misaki. She rivals Ranma in sheer appetite.
- Bring My Brown Pants: The general mindset of anyone who encounters Ms. Aoyama.
- Bullet Catch: Yori and Chou show this off when one of the magical terrorists grabs a gun and shoots. Yori notably catches a bullet sent to one of the mundanes. It's later explained that just about any of the Wrecking Crew could do it (although Ryouga would lean toward No-Sell).
- True to above, Akane eventually snags one during an armed robbery, later on.
- Aiko shows this off to the stunt personnel during Akane's and Shampoo's orientation.
- Akane does this again during the bank robbery.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Anything Ms. Aoyama says or does. Especially when she gets out her folder and begins reading.
- Two words... Duck Pond. It's not describing the technique. It's describing the new glass-lined water feature that was the target.
- Character Development: Nabiki has developed quite a bit from her highschool con-artist persona. Akane is no longer a walking timebomb and Kasumi is more than a domestic housewife...
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Happosai gives Ranma and Kasumi an apartment building with vague mentions to a mystic security system. This same security system has evolved by the time the Sailor Senshi are added to the point that it saves the entire timeline...
- The fact the Silence Glaive is the oldest thing in the senshi arsenal, and a massive power battery. When something is needed to channel literally all the mystic energy of the planet into one blast, It manages it.
- Decon-Recon Switch: Akane is written at first with the exaggerated anger issues, common in fanfiction, to the point of being violently unhinged, then is given a dark explanation as coming from a rare degenerative disease. In later chapters she recovers and becomes closer to her canon portrayal.
- Deus est Machina: The S.I Units, being learning computers sold by a technologically advanced race to become self-aware.
- Disaster Dominoes: Subverted at least twice.
- After Halleckton, Anthony Murray's financial dealings are investigated. Several banks and financial institutions go under fire as a result. It's strongly implied that the inevitable result will be that there will NOT be the infamous real world Global Financial Crisis.
- When they actively begin to help the Sailor Senshi, one of the things they discover is the asteroid that is one of the fan causes of Crystal Tokyo. By the end of their interactions with it, they've sold it off for it's mineral worth as financial backing for literally saving the world.
- Doorstopper: At over 1.4 million words in length, it is the longest Ranma ½ fic on FFN and AO3 as of June 18, 2021.
- The Dreaded: Ms. Aoyama is quite frightening. This extends to people who know her. And even the ones who actually DO know where she's from. Well, except for Hotaru Tomoe.
- Foreshadowing:
- Ranma meets with Sasuke and persuades him to tell him of anything which is a confirmed piece of evidence as to where he is. Nabiki never figures out that is how Ranma knows she's coming.
- A short running gag with Yori and Chou is that they'd make a killing in Hollywood with their skills. It's not Yori and Chou who end up working in Hollywood, but they DO end up getting the same kinds of contacts as any Hollywood actress would have.
- Early in the story, Akane is mentioned to have, when she got really angry, hospitalized Ryoga and scared him out of Furinkan. When she goes to Minato, Ryoga is lucky that Yori and Chou are miracle workers...
- Ranma and Kasumi, when monitoring Usagi and Minako, never see Luna or Artemis nearby. They're a psychic projection of Usagi and Minako created as part of the narrative.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- Akane. When she decides to bury the hatchet with Shampoo, she also has an epic mood swing that sees her destroy a street in Minato as well as almost killing Ryoga. However, after her temper issues are solved, she is working as a Hollywood stunt performer alongside Shampoo, and is practically adopted into the latter's family.
- Ami, Rei, Hotaru, Minako, Luna and Artemis. The first three even take an active role in recovering their credibility as Magical Girls, and stop using their Sailor Senshi uniforms, while Minako is clearly willing to accept Yori and Chou's help, as are the Moon Cats. In Luna's case, it's because she'd be dead if Usagi's mind collapses any more.
- Nabiki. The police knew about her enough that they figured she'd be running the Yakuza after graduation. Not joining, running. She does have a bit of a Heel Realization as things progress.
- Heel Realization: With the exception of the Kunos and Ryouga (who don't appear much in the story), pretty much everyone has this when it comes to the way they treated Ranma. Shampoo and Akane get a notable scene in Chapter 91 where they recognize how badly they screwed things up for and with him.
- Akane goes back to Minato to apologize profusely for destroying the street she fought Ryoga on, after realizing quite how much mindless destruction she caused.
- Hollywood Law: During the portal bomb plot, the heroes are told off for conducting warrantless searches. Since they are acting alongside, and therefore as agents, of law enforcement, they are bound by the laws regarding search warrants; however, these laws have exceptions. First, if you are looking for a live bomb or other similarly dangerous device, you do not need a warrant, as exigent circumstances apply. Second, if a criminal stashes evidence of a crime on the property of a unknowing, non-consenting third party, you do not need a warrant since the criminal has no expectation of privacy with regard to the property of that third party. That goes double if the contraband consists of a live bomb or similarly dangerous device. Admittedly, the main reason they have that problem is that barely anyone of authority who would sign off on the lack of a warrant even recognises the bombs AS a dangerous device.
- Ice Queen: Nabiki is a former Ice Queen who has defrosted. To an extent.
- Azumi Ito's battle style is one of emotional detachment, and tends to send chills up people's spines. Her disapproval runs around the temperature of liquid nitrogen. Ms Aoyama is so much an Ice Queen, she freezes various things she walks past. They both are ALSO Nabiki.
- Period Piece: Several references, like to the early days of digital camera technology, the boat chase at the beginning of The World Is Not Enough and the Euro have the story set in the period between 1998 and 2000.
- Little Miss Badass:
- Azumi Ito, who only had her façade break during the Halleckton affair. Admittedly, that was almost The End of the World as We Know It.
- Hotaru Tomoe, whose whole design is completely played straight as far as her canon capabilities are involved, completely no sells Ms. Aoyama, and seems to want to be her protegée.
- The Medic: Both Chou and Yori show time and again that they are the best healers around. Regrowing organs, healing dozens of critical patients in a few minutes, removing parasites from the mind and fixing chemical imbalances, & being able to scan the body to identify damage and irregularities.
- Mind Virus: Akane’s rage was amplified by a little known parasite that was slowly destroying parts of her brain.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Václav is hit with this after the Halleckton incident. One cannot blame him for his sarcastic praise of his accomplishment given the results.
"'What the hell have I done?'"- Akane's whole mindset about when she has one of her more destructive episodes, especially when she almost kills both Shampoo and Ryoga.
- Nuclear Option: As soon as they find the supercomputer that is causing all the trouble, they're handed several antimatter warheads, royalty-free, to throw at it. It prematurely detonates them, so they go with the magical nuke of Sailor Saturn instead.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Ms. Aoyama walking up. Just her walking up. If she has Business with you... You'll wish she didn't... while, if she gets out her folder, well, Death is a good alternative.
- Whenever someone uses the attack known colloquially as 'Duck Pond'. At least one instance had the local civic authority just put up a set of benches and fill it with water. Another incident had an entire invasion force wiped out.
- Ryouga has this reaction when he walks into Minato and hears Akane's voice. And, after that, whenever he finds he's near Tokyo.
- Precision F-Strike: All of the characters swear very liberally, including the word "fuck" and its derivatives, but the sole example of the word "cunt" appearing is during an argument between Usagi and Luna, showing just how unhinged the former is.
- Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: Borderline example between Akane and Shampoo, in that they're practically sisters, and inseparable to the point that Akane can't think of moving on with her life without Shampoo being alongside her all the way.
- Running Gag: After Ryoga encounters Ms. Aoyama, there's random snippets of news stories about his cursed form, mainly in Osaka.
- The increasingly odd ways of describing Ms. Aoyama.
- Whenever someone new is introduced to the general weirdness surrounding the magical girls, all the old hands will reassure them that they will eventually, "Get used to it". Oddly enough, most people do.
- Scare 'Em Straight: Done by Ms. Aoyama to Akane and Ryoga as well as an alien crime lord, several government officials, Cologne, Kodachi Kuno... It seems to be her modus operandi.
- Yori and Chou are also fond of this.
- Shapeshifter: The Illusion technique Ranma and co. uses seems to be closer to this.
- Shout-Out: Yori, Chou and Azumi are very similar to the Pretty Cure, right down to their use of martial arts and powerful one-shot kill strikes and the regularly used pattern of a team of two being joined later by a third member.
- Shown Their Work:
- Nabiki berates Ranma for the fact his new home is only around thirty kilometres from where he used to live. By foot, it's about twenty.
- Every reference to pop culture and technology is accurate to the turn of the millenium, even having general low opinion of technology that, ten years later, is commonplace.
- Stripperiffic: The costumes of Aiko and co was this. Needless to say, they are happy when their transformation stops turning their clothes into this.
- They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Ms. Aoyama NEVER uses her first name. It's Reiko, by the way.
