[Episode 3066] [Episode 3066]((AN: The following originally appeared as part of the Unending BE Addventure, episode 250654 written by S/Rohm. So that's who to blame, not me. ;) Seriously though, let's see what direction this takes here. ))
Ranma recalled what he'd learned growing up a second time as Ash Ketchum.
During World War II the United States had been alarmed by reports of German research on atomic power. This had led to the formation of the Manhattan Project. The US had also been alarmed by Hitler‘s interest in the occult. This had led to the formation of the Merlin Project. Both projects were aimed at producing weapons, one based on atomic power, one based on magic power.
In early 1945, the Manhattan Project had been plagued by setbacks and delays, while the Merlin project had their weapon ready for testing. Because they did not have enough time to develop any but the crudest weapons, they had simply made a bomb that would release a huge amount of magical energy, utterly destroying anything in a five mile radius.
Testing in the badlands of North Dakota had been a success. When the US needed a weapon to convince the Japanese to surrender, they used their ‘mage bombs’. After losing two cities to this terrible weapon, Japan surrendered.
After the war, people were dismayed at the destructive power of the weapons, which quickly became the primary weapon in Cold War arsenals. Magic gained a sinister and dangerous reputation and people began to fear it and place strict limits on its use. Treaties were signed (and often ignored) limiting research into, and production of, magical weapons.
Having never been used for destruction, nuclear power suffered none of this stigma and was rapidly gaining popularity as a source of energy. The scientists used the knowledge they had acquired during the war, and slowly developed safe and well tested means of using it. Learning from the stigma magic had acquired, they were extremely careful to make nuclear power plants safe and well shielded.
The need for proper shielding was emphasized when the long term consequences of improperly shielded magic started showing up. Here and there, all over the world, people were starting to show signs of being altered. Researchers quickly linked the changes to exposure to raw, unshielded magic. Often it was not the person exposed who was changed, but rather their children or grandchildren. Most of the cases of changes were limited to only a few people, mainly children of those working in the research facilities, but there were a few exceptions. The US and Canada had a high number of cases centered around North Dakota. Several communist countries were rumored to have varying numbers of cases in communities unintentionally (or intentionally) exposed during their own research into magic weapons.
Of course, Japan suffered the highest number of cases.
Perhaps as much as 1% of the population of Japan was affected. It was difficult to get an exact number, because the change wasn't always immediately noticeable, and the Japanese people tended to hide it if possible, to better fit in.
Changed people fell into two basic categories.
First were Magical Girls. So named due to the fact that females tended to be affected a lot more often than males. For every one male with noticeable powers, there were at least 100 females. These were people who basically had some form of super power, whether they still looked completely human or not.
Second were Furries. These were people who had some form of non-human appearance, but no (or at most rather lame and inconsequential) super powers. While not all were actually furry, most were and the name stuck. The female to male ratio for furries was also about 100 to 1.
For a number of years, the Japanese government ignored this problem. The altered people were not legally distinguished as any different than the unaltered. The occasional furry who was too non-human to talk (or had other problems) was treated as if they were handicapped.
This benign neglect changed in the 1970's and 80's.
It started in the late 1970's when several evil groups hatched different plots to seize control of Japan and from there take over the world! Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!
Ahem. Anyway, these groups were each opposed by one or more Magical Girls. For years their battles were fought all over Tokyo and Japan. While some Magical Girls were initially cheered on by the public, this changed when one of the evil groups got the idea to discredit their enemy.
They started a publicity campaign vilifying the ‘Magical Girl Wars’. They emphasized the amount of damage these fights caused, and played up the extent of any collateral damage. Their goal was to break the morale of their opponents by turning public opinion against them. To the eventual horror of at least a few of the groups, they succeeded far beyond their expectations.
After an initial slow start, the movement against Magical Girls gained support and momentum and soon had a life of its own. This culminated in 1984 after a particularly vicious battle between two rival groups of evil Magical Girls. The devastation caused by this battle led to such a public outcry that the Japanese government was forced to act.
So in 1984 they passed the Magical Girl Control Act (MGCA).
This act reduced the legal status of all girls changed by magic to that of property.
Furries, never considered that much of a threat, held a status equal to pets.
Magical Girls (and this act defined any girl with greater than human abilities as a Magical Girl, whether they were actually magical, alien, esper, or whatever) were considered slaves.
To enforce this law, the government assembled a team of top scientists and researchers. Together with the help of many of Japan‘s top research facilities, they created control devices designed to hold even the most powerful Magical Girls. A collar, bracelets, and anklets made out of adamantium, with circuitry inside that synchronized with the wearer?s nervous system and conditioned and trained them to be obedient slaves. Once fitted on, they would never be able to be removed.
In a measure intended to encourage those outside the government to help, the law gave ownership of a newly collared girl to the person who brought her in for collaring. Needless to say, there were provisions preventing known criminals from benefiting from this part of the law.
Technically, magical and furry males weren‘t covered by the MGCA. Their numbers were so few compared to the girls, that they had been completely overlooked when the law was written. But it did have an effect on them. Learning from the fate of the girls, they started policing themselves. Anyone who looked like they might be creating a public outcry was ganged up on by nearly every other magical male around. The evil ones quickly learned to act subtly, keeping their powers out of the limelight and the good ones were extremely careful when using their powers. The persistent rumor that the government had a means of changing the sex of those they deemed a menace, and thus making them subject to the MGCA, also kept them in check.
The heroics of many of the ‘good’ magical males did contribute somewhat to improving the public's opinion of magic in general. Much to the dismay of many feminists however, this restrained use of magic power by males, combined with the public's memories of the Magical Girl Wars, contributed to an increasing belief among the Japanese (and, to some extent, world) population that only men could be trusted to use magic wisely. Girls obviously couldn't handle the responsibility for such power. This in turn led to a hardening belief that all Magical Girls should be caught and enslaved.
(Few paid any attention to those who pointed out that if the gender ratio of those affected had been reversed, they might now be arguing that only women should be trusted with magic power, and that the men should be enslaved.)
The Gatekeepers operating in 1969 against alien Invaders had provided some precedent for Empowereds (term to indicate Magical Girls, furries, and whatever males were along for the ride) to be in government service. However the public outrage and heavy handed reform in the Diet (and to a lesser extent in other countries) against Magical Girls caused them to be downgraded to the status of 'slave' and so they couldn't openly be working for the government, could they?
The solution was obvious. The government hired the owner of the Magical Girl for her services. Rather like dealing with a burakumin that had useful skills, you used a front man who wasn't ‘untouchable’ for the job.
And so ‘Sailor Uranus’ was hired through her new Master - Ash (Ranma) to use her power.
While the idea of owning a pretty girl with super powers might be attractive to some, not just anyone could go down to the corner mini-mart and get one.
They were slaves, they were owned, they were property. That didn't mean that they didn't have rights or supporters.
Mothers of Magical Girls tried to find a good owner. Not necessarily a rich one, since there were plenty of rich but despicable guys out there. They wanted nice guys who wouldn't do as some of the more wealthy ones - keeping their slaves naked except for a leash and pitting them against each other in hidden arenas.
This oddly converged with something the government had developed. It had started as a process to keep supervillains-in-secret or Yakuza would-be-overlords from accumulating Magical Girls as private armies. A screening process that looked for someone responsible. In the aftermath of the Magical Girl Wars, behaving as an irresponsible thug would get you attacked and incarcerated in very short order - especially if it looked like you'd cause either massive property damage or injuries to bystanders.
In his original timeline, Ranma didn't particularly fit the description of responsible. However, In the current timeline, his alter ego of Ash, did.
All of which left formerly-selfreliant 'Ranma Saotome' in the vulnerable body of Ash Ketchum and dependent on the combat power of his new slave, Haruka ‘Sailor Uranus’ Tendo.
And so, completely bewildered and not-at-all amused, Ash and his new 'partner' set off on their journey...
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(Posted Thu, 21 Nov 2002 11:21)
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