China had given one of the fruits of their genetic research to the North Koreans. The North Koreans hadn't quite realized what a doomsday weapon the virus would turn out to be.
The Chinese name was long and involved the phrase "Flowers Of Jusenkyo" - and it involved a virus they'd developed utilizing Jusenkyo's waters as a culture medium.
Initial experiments following the doublespeak-named "People's Revolution" had created a mixed spring - Spring Of Anthropomorphic Girl. As many of these had minor superhuman abilities, the original thought was to create a race of supersoldiers. Alas, the vast majority of those affected became more affectionate than aggressive and that line (and the funding) was dropped.
As anyone dunked in Spring Of Drowned Anthropomorphic Girl (sometimes referred to as Spring Of Busty Cute Affectionate Anthropomorphic Girl because almost invariably the result fit that description) was observed to have certain traits, spreading the viral form was desired for the morale-reduction and panic enemy troops infected by the virus would go through.
The Chinese had released a small quanitity of the virus to their Korean minions/allies. It was meant more as a gesture of goodwill and trust than anything else. After all, the virus could only be spread through sex or exchange of bodily fluids or contaminating water with it - hardly things that could be controlled that often.
The Chinese had not envisaged the North Koreans working out a method for the virus to be spread by planting an agent in one of the medical facilities of a MASH unit, who tainted their blood supplies and then went on to the Central Command to do the same. As many medical supplies were sorted through Seoul and Tokyo, other agents attended to those.
It was wildly successful. The MASH 4077th became the test case and after conversions there, the spread continued through Japan and South Korea. The North Koreans began to celebrate such a marvelous victory and began moving their forces through the chaos that they had sown.
Except that viruses do not respect political lines. Now that the genie was out of the bottle, putting it back was impossible. The virus mutated just a little, becoming a short-lived but airborne contagion. Sneezing or coughing - though the odds were against infection that way - it was still possible and continued to happen.
When Beijing saw a fair amount of its populace becoming young girl pets, the decision was made to nuke their own ally in North Korea.
As it was a virus, antibiotics were ineffective. When the virus finally began dying out, the gender balance had become skewed. Those who had gone through the illness (Deng Anthromorphic Synthetic Flu (DAS Flu)) became furry anthro-girls down to the genetic level. Because of the crushing effect this had on the neurochemistry, the new girls were usually more feminine acting than those born that way. They also typically had some anthro-behavior based on whichever species they emulated.
The gender ratio went from 2:1 to 4:1 for the most part, though in some areas the gap was higher. Mainly in Asia and other areas that were the worst hit by the virus. After initial high suicide rates, counseling and gender orientation therapy was mandated for all victims in most countries. Normal human girls became rarer and rarer as women who caught the flu became busty, cute, and then anthromorphs. Lack of knowledge about how antibiotics only fought bacteria (and DAS Flu being a virus) led many women to catch the virus and not report it until it was too late for the largely ineffective measures available to work anyway.
With the gender ratio skewed like that, multiple marriages became more commonplace. The most common method of infection remained sexual, but if one avoided the virus in the communicable stage (sneezing and coughing as the virus set up shop) - it would die off after a few months. After that, infected water or shared needles. Screening blood kept it from spreading in that manner. It retreated from the headlines unless someone important or a celebrity caught it simply because it was now pretty much like being in a traffic accident - just one of the hazards of life. On occasion some guy would catch the bug, spend a few months quarantined and getting their counseling. When she emerged, she was then smoothly reintegrated into society.
So it was that many years later, in Japan, multiple marriages such as had occurred with Genma Saotome or Ryoga Hibiki were normal.
One frequently had pets/girlfriends and one frequently married them if one was compatible, and other than some of the hazards associated with particular breeds - life went on.
So Ranma continued to dream, but now he was dreaming of much safer matters - mainly training in new and powerful martial arts special techniques - still not knowing what havoc he'd begun with the Great Will firing off or that he didn't have nearly the problems with fiancees.
Also not knowing a problem with this new timeline was that:
(Posted Mon, 31 Mar 2003 12:50)
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