MUTM-Productions presents:

Simon 1/3
Please don't hug

First chapter:
Uphill and downhill

Three months after taking part in this competition from the Ranma1 / 2 special edition and winning the main prize, Simon Rubens climbed, panting, a path that led rather steeply along a rock face. His father panted in front of him and the two little sisters chatted happily. Of course they weren't exhausted, after all they sat on the shoulders of the two men. Simon had already considered several times to just let the little nuisance fall on his shoulders, but first of all the little ones were kind of liked and second, his father would push him after him to absorb their impact ... or he would jump himself. And Tomas wasn't sure what would be more uncomfortable for him.
So for heaven's sake he dragged himself off with the child. He was still lucky. Bianka was only three and didn't weigh that much ... Father had to drag six-year-old Stella, which required a completely different effort.Why was this stupid spring area actually so high up in the mountains? As if the Jusenkyo couldn't have built at the foot of the mountain ... but no, everything had to be as realistic as possible. The visitor should feel just as if they got into the manga. The difference, however, was that Genma and Ranma were martial artists and not in the least tired after making this promotion. But as far as Tomas looked around, he only saw fans ... no martial artists. The fans, however, seemed to be international enough. Europeans as well as dark-skinned and also some Chinese or Japanese were represented, Tomas did not know exactly what it was. The language according to Japanese, but he could be mistaken in that too.
Basically he seemed to be a relatively light fan. He was wearing a T-shirt with P-chan on it, but there were quite different ones. Some had re-beamed the clothes of the manga characters and the group of Japanese even seemed to have gone so far as to imitate the entire characters.However, they didn't look like the manga characters because they lacked big eyes and their face was more yellowish. Otherwise, however, they had mimicked the characters perfectly. A young man who went ahead had a stiff braid and muscular arms. Next to him was an older man, probably his father. True to the model, Ehr wore combat uniform, glasses with ear loops and a white bandana. Ryoga stomped behind him ... well, at least someone who had copied him very well - headband, backpack and umbrella, everything was right. And the end was formed by a girl with an elaborate hairstyle that shone slightly bluish and a boy with long, black hair, thick glasses and a wide robe. Incredible ... the perfect imitations. It's a shame that Ranma didn't come as a girl, thought Simon and watched the young Japanese man, who, however, had to be at least twenty years old, just like the others, with the exception of the father. If he looked closely, he noticed that the five figures were apparently not in the least exhausted.Perhaps in their Ranma fanaticism they had simply trained martial arts until they were hardened, or they ran this route more often.
Tomas stumbled and Bianca gave a startled scream. Only now did he realize that he had been looking back the whole time. Thank goodness, the way to the abyss was closed off with a more than Manshohen lattice fence, otherwise it might have turned out very differently. So he caught himself again and since nothing had happened to Bianca, despite his exhaustion he took a few faster steps to catch up with his father. While he was walking on the path with his eyes he thought about it. Yes - that was most likely. These people, who had dressed up so perfectly, were certainly actors who walked this path every day with different fan groups and then maybe gave some kind of demonstration upstairs. Extremely satisfied with this explanation, he bravely marched on. Down in the valley stretched out endless bamboo forests and in between lay meadows and the Amazon village where they had spent their night.It was perfectly replicated and in the "Neko Hanten" - the hotel, she had served an old waitress who was almost as tall as Simon, but so wizened and ugly that Simon couldn't help but think of Collogne. Now that thought came back to him and he grinned: That was probably the reason that she served. She should look like the old hag. Obviously - after all, a two-meter-long, club-like stick had been leaning in the corner.
When he thought about it that hard, more and more things came to mind that were apparently set up on purpose. On the way to the Neko Hanten they met a young woman who had the typical bob haircut of Akane and also wore her tracksuit. And at night when it rained, Tomas had seen a white, wet cat through a window on the way to the toilets. Although - that could also have been a coincidence.
Actually, he didn't expect that everything would be so realistic. Everything had started so normally.Simon wasn't anything special, just a normal boy of 17 years old who just had a thing for Ranma. One day he took part in this award letter, in which he had to answer thirty questions about the story, and promptly won the main prize - a flight to China to the haunted springs. Which, as he now noticed, were recreated very realistically!
At that moment a drop of water fell on his hand. And then a second on his cheek
"Honored guests!" Shouted the Chinese guide who, as Simon only now noticed, was wearing the brown uniform of the Jusenkyo guide. "It starting to rain! Here is shelter nearby! Follow me!"
He could just barely speak that much English ... a shelter. He followed his father, who in the group was running quite far behind the guide ... obviously, Tomas had fallen back again.
"Hee, honey run! Daddy is running away!" Oh ... the little sister was still there too. In his thoughts he had completely forgotten about Biaca and the child had remained unusually quiet.She had probably been watching the landscape. but now she began to fidget and Simon took a step.
"My name is SIMON!" He instructed his appendage, although he knew how pointless it was. His two little sisters kept calling him by his nickname, even though they knew he hated him or maybe because of it. He had earned the name because of his (incidentally black) hair, which went straight down to his shoulders. One day a boy whistled after him from behind and called sweetheart. That's where he'd get the nickname.
It was already raining and Simon actually expected Bianca to howl. Instead she suddenly cheered and giggled, "Circus! Circus!" "Strange child ..." thought Simon ... but it should be fine with him. A happy sister was easier to bear than a crying one and so he didn't worry about which "circus" she meant. There was already the shelter.A little hut. It was not built in the Chinese style at all, but clearly in the American style. The interior was not Asian either. Benches on the walls, a few plastic tables, a conspicuous electrical heater and a few neon tubes on the concrete ceiling.
Simon, who had taken Bianca off his shoulders as he walked in, rummaged through to his father and sat down with him. He wiped awkwardly with a handkerchief on the lens of his camera. He had spent most of their vacation taking care of his photographic equipment. He had bought a camera and equipment especially for this vacation in China and was constantly tinkering with it, cleaning it again and again and apparently learning the instructions by heart. Tomas had exchanged about thirty sentences with him so far, most of which were about going out to dinner or good morning or evening.
Stella shifted around in her seat for a while and then came to Tomas."Can I borrow your Gameboy?"
Simon shrugged his shoulders, meanwhile the rain was pattering outside.
"If you are careful ..."
He pulled the mini-console out of his shoulder bag and handed it to his sister. The Ranma volume 9 fell out of his pocket, with the Ranma girl in disguise holding the P-chan in his arms. Bianca babbled to herself and her sister had already withdrawn into the small game computer, whose soft beeping noises barely penetrated the babble of voices that the various fans were doing.
"Boy will be piggy ...", Bianca squeaked and laughed again with her bright child's voice. Simon had probably told her about Ryoga once ... at least she seemed to be enjoying herself wonderfully. Perhaps the book reminded her of it, because she pointed to the black piglet and crowed: "There! There! Piggy boy! Seen! Seen!"
"Yes, that's right ... Ryoga transforms into a piggy. And the pig's name is P-chan.Did you see that in the manga? ", he explained to the little one and decided to lock his room again in the future so that she couldn't get his manga.
"Pischan, Pischan!" Giggled Bianca and then fell back into her toddler language, apparently very busy with herself.
Simon put the book back, looked around and suddenly noticed that the Japanese actors were missing. They weren't in the hut. They couldn't possibly have stayed outside, that would rain down their costumes. He shook his head and leaned his head against the cold concrete wall.
A strange noise made him sit up and take notice. It sounded a bit like the creak of a door and a bit like the sound of someone snoring softly. It sounded muffled and suppressed by the many voices in the room, but it was there. And it came from outside. Simon raised his eyebrows and stood up. With a few steps he went to the smeared window, where he had to squeeze through a group of laughing Americans.The window was so smeared that he could only see shapes. He rummaged in his pockets and brought up a packet of tissues.
"Exactly what I need," he thought. He spat on the handkerchief and wiped the grayish-brown streaks that clouded the glass. The dirt was so thick that he needed three handkerchiefs to get a semi-transparent peephole.
Then he kept his eye at a short distance from it and peered out. He