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DISCLAIMER: All characters from "Tenchi Muyo! TV" (Tenchi Universe) are the
property of AIC, Pioneer LDC., and Kajishima Masaki. All characters from "Ranma
1/2", the anime and manga, are the property of Viz Communications, Kitty
Productions, and Rumiko Takahashi. All Rights Reserved.
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R A N M A U N I V E R S E
An Alternate Ranma/Tenchi Reality
PART 1: A Different Destiny
By Michael "TheZorch" Haney
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NOTE: This fic was previously dead. Due to overwhelming reader demand I am
resurrecting it. There will be periodic updates to the fic, but it will not
be updated as often as my other fics.
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Saotome Ranma wasn't in a very good mood, scratch that, she was in a
really nasty mood. It was her usual state of mind, her normal mode ever since
leaving China. So wrapped up in her own dark thoughts she failed to notice the
bewildered stares she and her companion received as they walked down the streets
of Nerima, Japan, a seemingly ordinary prefecture of Tokyo. The sight of a huge
panda bear is not too daunting, nor frightening, but it's when they are walking
on their hind legs as easily a human being is when it gets disconcerting. Ranma
was less of a disquieting sight, she was in reality quite a vision to behold.
At about seventeen years of age, at a height of five foot three she was a vision
of beauty, a creature of such immense loveliness that in ancient times bards
would have sung praises to her beauty. She received a number of admiring stares
from younger men who took notice of her lovely face, more than ample bosom,
fiery red hair, and nearly perfect hourglass figure. Saotome Ranma was the
living incarnation of every high school boy's greatest wet dream in baggy, red
Chinese tunic and black pants.
Their destination was the home of one Tendo Soun, Ranma's father's best
friend and one time sparing partner. Ranma wasn't too sure why they were headed
there, her pop wouldn't give too many details, but knowing him he had something
in mind for her. Ranma really didn't want to think about it at the moment, she
too busy brooding, stewing in her own juices so to speak. She suffered from an
affliction she acquired while in China, and it was all her pop's fault because
the baka couldn't read Chinese and he didn't bother to listen to the tour guides
warnings. Ranma's mind drifted back to that faithful day about a month ago when
'his' life was altered forever...
"Aiya. Mr. Customers, here is ancient martial arts training ground Cursed
Springs of Josenkyo." Said the tour guide.
Saotome Ranma and his father Saotome Genma took in the scene before them,
it was a vast field of natural springs, perhaps several hundred. Rising from
the center of each semi-circular pool was a tall bamboo poll. Ranma had fought
his pop on training ground like these before in different lands, there was
something like it in Taiwan. There was a sign near the entrance to the place,
but neither of them could read the Chinese kanji pictographs.
"Come on boy!" Genma shouted as he leapt high into the air and alighted
onto one of the bamboo poles with acrobatic ease.
"Oh yeah!" Ranma yelled as he leapt nearly thirty feet into the air and
touched down on his own pole. Genma came hurtling through the air delivering a
kick, but his foot just passed through thin air where his son had been only
seconds before.
"Mr. Customers, what you doing, is very dangerous!" the guide cried out.
Neither combatant could hear him as they concentrated on the battle at hand.
Ranma came down on his father's head and used it as a spring board to find
footing on another pool. The momentum of the collision sent the elder Saotome,
a man perpetually dressed in karate gi, white bandana wrap covering his bald
head, and form-fitting sports glasses into one of the pools below.
"No, you fall in Spring of Drown Panda, very tragic story of panda who
drown here thirteen hundred year ago, very tragic story!" the guide gasped.
Ranma waited for his pop to rise to the surface to renew their aerial
battle, but what emerged from the surface of the pool wasn't human. A very
irate, fat panda bear roared as it launched itself into the air and executed a
perfect aerial spin kick. The impact sent Ranma flying and he barely had time
to cry out before he landed in a spring on the far side of the field.
Beneath the surface of the water Ranma felt a strange sensation run
through his body. It began as a tingling sensation that started from his head
to his toes, then the very alarming sense that something was not quite right.
It felt as if he were, changing, morphing, reshaping in some manner that was
beyond his comprehension. The Saotome youth struggled to reach the surface of
the pool and gasped for air as he breached the waters. He made his way to the
shallow end of the spring and stood up, his clothes dripping wet. He felt the
water dripping down his face, his arms, his legs, and his breasts. HIS
BREASTS!! With a sense of sudden dread Ranma tore open the front of his Chinese
tunic and beheld what was underneath. A pair of pert, nearly perfectly formed
breasts. "AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Ranma cried, and it was at that moment that he
realized his voice was of a much higher pitch than before.
"Oh no! You fall in Spring of Drown Girl, very tragic, very tragic story
of girl who drown fifteen hundred year ago!" the guide cried in dismay.
Ranma looked up at the tour guide with a look of total dismay on her now
lovely features then beheld the oversized panda that stood next to him on its
hind legs. A rage that was all consuming traveled up from Ranma's gut and she
lunged towards the fat creatures with the intent to cause great physical pain.
"You big fat jerk, look what you've done to me!" she cried as she
delivered a round house kick. The kick didn't connect as the panda moved with
lightning speed to counter the move and deliver a punch of its own. The hit
knocked Ranma back to the edge of the spring, she twirled her arms to regain her
balance and was nearly back on dry land when the panda stepped forward and
tapped her on the nose with one claw from his paw. Ranma fell back into the
water with a splash and the tour guide nearly had an embolism.
"NO, OH NO, WHY YOU DO THAT MR. CUSTOMER, SECOND DUNK VERY, VERY BAD, NO
CHANGE BACK EVER!!!" he screamed in shock.
The big panda turned to him with a proverbial "deer caught in the
headlights" expression and held up a sign with words in Japanese kanji reading,
"Nani?"
"Curse turn you to cursed form with splash of cold water, warm water turn
you back, but second dunk in cursed water make cursed form permanent, forever,
never change back!" The guide explained to him in his broken Japanese.
"Uh ho." The kanji on the sign read as the panda flipped it over.
It would be a few hours after the second dose of the curse before Ranma
was able to get a good look at himself, or herself in a mirror at the tour
guide's shack. The fact that he was a girl now was certainly disconcerting, but
to hear from the guide that he was now permanently stuck this way was too much
for him to handle. A few hours later Ranma felt a little better as she left a
severely beaten and battered roly-poly panda unconscious on the ground outside
their camp. Getting used to being female was hard, her arms and legs were
shorter so she literally had to relearn all of her fighting moves to get used to
the size change, and then she had to learn to deal with her breasts. Sometimes
they got in the way, and they made her top heavy so she had to learn a new way
of balancing. To her dismay she discovered the other aspects of being female
when she began her first period and the cramps began. Needless to say Ranma
developed a new respect for women after learning this was something they went
through once very month of their lives. The other adjustment was dealing with
the attention her curvaceous figure attracted. She got a good look at herself
naked in a body length mirror in a Hong Kong hotel room before returning to
Japan and had to admit she was a real work of art. That didn't make her
transformation any easier, nor did it do anything to improve her disposition.
Ranma came back to the real world as her panda father tapped her on the
shoulder. "We're here." Read the sign in his hand.
The place looked like any typical Japanese suburban home except for the
attached dojo. The property was surrounded by a wall, a through-back to the
days of the feudal era. A kanji sign next to the main gate to the property read
"Tendo Dojo of Indiscriminate Grappling Martial Arts". Her father had explained
that he and his friend studied the same martial arts system, but their schools
were fundamentally different. The Saotome Anything Goes Martial Arts is the
system of the air, meaning aerial attacks, while the Tendo Indiscriminate
Grappling Martial Arts is the system of the earth, meaning fighting technique
performed mostly on the ground. Ranma knew her pop's friendship with this Tendo
Soun went back to the days before she was even born.
The panda grabbed up Ranma and flung her over his shoulder like a sack of
potatoes and pushed past the gate and into the yard. "Hey, what are you doing,
let me go!" Ranma protested. The noise attracted the residence of the Tendo
household. They filed out of the front door and beheld the unusual sight of a
big panda bear walking on its hind legs and carrying somebody over its shoulder.
"Let me down you big fat-OOF!" Ranma cried out as she was dropped onto her
bottom at the front steps of the house.
A tall man with long black hair, black mustache, and wearing a gray
martial arts outfit walked down the stairs and offer her his hand to help her
up. On the porch stood three girls, all very pretty. The shortest had a long
pony tail and bangs and was dressed in a white karate gi. The next tallest,
looking older, was a girl with a helmet-like hairstyle and wore slacks with a
twin heart motif sweater. The tallest girl was much older, with long black
hair, dressed in a knee length dress and wearing an apron.
"Can I help you, uh, Miss?" he asked.
"Ranma, Saotome Ranma." Ranma replied sadly.
A bewildered and confused look crossed the man's features. "Are you a
child of Saotome Genma?" he asked her.
"That's my pop, are you this Mr. Tendo guy?" Ranma asked.
"Yes, Tendo Soun, but I was told in your father's letter that you were his
son not his daughter." The man said with a look of confusion on his face.
"Where is your father, by the way?"
Ranma smiled, which looked kawaii on her face, and scratched the back of
her head. "Well, there is an interesting story behind that."
"Hey, your panda just went into our house!" cried the youngest Tendo girl.
They all went into the house thinking to stop a huge panda from wrecking
the place. What came out of the kitchen wasn't a panda at all but a short man
in a karate gi with a barrel chest, white bandana on his head, and a pair of
form-fitting sport glasses on his face. Soun recognized him immediately.
"Genma, Saotome Genma, my old friend!" Soun shouted with delight.
"Tendo, it's been a long time." Genma smiled and return his friend's manly
hug.
"Where's the panda?" the middle girl asked as she looked around.
"That I can explain." Said Genma as he pushed his glasses up on his nose.
They all gathered in the dining room to hear Genma's tale of Josenkyo.
Ranma was introduced to the three Tendo sisters, Akane the youngest, Nabiki the
middle sister, and Kasumi the oldest. Akane, Ranma learned, had an affinity for
martial arts and was a pretty good fighter in her own right. Nabiki had the
slippery and clandestine air of a Yakuza boss, her eyes betrayed a cunningness
and a sharp wit. Kasumi was the living embodiment of sweetness and polite
behavior. She acted like a doting and submissive Japanese housewife as she
brought them a tray with the family tea service and some snack crackers. When
Genma finished his tale there was total silence at the table until Akane spoke
up.
"You mean, you turn into a panda when you get wet with cold water." She
said in disbelief.
"Apparently the training grounds we went to have hundreds of cursed
springs, each having their own tragic story of something drowning in them, and
whoever falls into these springs turns into whatever drowned there when splashed
with cold water." Genma explained. "But warm water changes you back."
"Oh my." Gasped Kasumi.
"Tell them the rest of it you tub of lard!" Ranma spat.
"That is no way to speak to your father, boy!" the man replied sternly and
sent Ranma flying out through the shoji doors and into the koi pond out in the
Tendo's back yard.
"Saotome, I don't understand, when you wrote me you said you and your
'son' were coming." Soun said scratching his head.
"You are right about that, but unfortunately there were other
complications." Genma told him with a worried smile.
Ranma leapt out of the pond sputtering and seething with rage. "That fat
bastard did this to me, I'm a guy not a girl, a guy!" she cried. "And now I'm
stuck this way!" A month's worth of anger and rage welled up in her heart and
Ranma fell to the floor sobbing into her hands.
"Oh my, the poor thing." Said Kasumi as she went to Ranma's side.
"If you get one dunk in a spring you change between forms with cold and
warm water, but a second dunk makes the change permanent." Genma explained.
"Clumsy boy fell in a second time!"
Ranma sprang to her feet frightening Kasumi and waved her fist into her
father's face. "You knocked me into that spring, twice you dirt bag!" she
growled. "This is all your fault!"
"Girls, why not show Ranma around the house while my old friend and I
discuss some important business." Soun smiled at them.
"Uh, ok." Said Akane. She got up and offered her hand to Ranma. "Hi, I'm
Akane, wanna be friends." She smiled.
Ranma was a bit taken aback by this girl. She was really cute, with
bluish hair done up in a pony tail and long bang that hung over her ears. Her
smile was very pleasant, but it was her eyes that capture Ranma. She was the
youngest of the three Tendo sister, this much Ranma knew from their
introductions.
"Um, sure." Said Ranma as she shook the girl's hand and followed her out
of the room.
"Ok, what's up daddy, this morning you told us your old friend was coming
with a boy that one of us was supposed to marry." Nabiki said with her hands on
her hips.
"It was an agreement Saotome and I made a long time ago, a giri, when
Ranma was just a baby." Soun replied. "We wanted to join the two schools."
"But, Ranma's a girl, or she's a girl now if you wanna believe that curse
stuff." Said Nabiki.
"That's what your father and I have to discuss." Genma told her. "Since
Ranma isn't a boy anymore he can't legally marry one of you."
"Oh my." Kasumi sighed.
"This is really screwed up." Nabiki sighed shaking her head. She didn't
know whether to be mad at her father for trying to force an engagement on them
or to be sad because of what happened to her father's best friend's son.
Soun turned to his daughters and said, "Could we be a alone for a moment,
this is adult talk."
Nabiki got up and headed for the stairs that lead to the second floor
where their bedrooms were. Over her shoulders she tossed, "Yeah, whatever."
"I'll be in the kitchen if you need anything father." Kasumi said sweetly
as she left.
"Nice girls." Saotome commented.
"They are my pride and joy." Soun mused for a moment and then his face
went serious. "Now, what do we do, without a male Saotome heir we can't honor
the giri we made ten years ago. How could you let something like this happen?"
"I don't know Tendo." Genma shook his head. "Neither of us knew this
would happen."
"My girls can't marry another girl, now the schools will never be joined!"
Soun cried spraying the room down with a sudden shower of tears.
At least nothing much changed where Tendo Soun was concerned. He was
still the same old "Fire Hose" Soun that Genma knew from the old days. Genma
didn't know what to say though. This was his fault after all, if that boy
hadn't gotten him so mad and made him push him into the pool a second time.
But, what's done is done, and now he had to think of a way out of this situation
that could satisfy the honor of both clans. Ranma was his only heir, the three
girls were Soun's only heirs, and all were girls now thanks to Josenkyo. The
aged martial artist racked his brains, which was quite an effort actually, and
suddenly remembered something. Soun had a brother! Tendo Noboyuki! There was
a rift between the two young men however that dated back to the time when they
still dating the women who would one day become the mother's of their children.
Noboyuki had taken a liking to the young Tsukino Kimiko, the pretty young girl
who was to become the mother of Soun's three girls. One day Soun caught his
brother trying to seduce Kimiko and a fight ensued. That one sibling battle
turned into an outright family feud that split the brothers apart and forced
their parents into sending Noboyuki to live with his grandparents in Ohkayama,
Japan. Since that time relations between the two men have improved some, but
the most important thing was that Noboyuki, who was now a member of the Masaki
clan by way of marriage to his late wife Masaki Achika, had a teenaged son.
"Say Tendo, doesn't your brother have a son?" Genma asked.
That turned the faucets off. "Noboyuki, I do believe he has a son, yes."
Soun replied without comprehending what his friend was thinking at the moment.
"He should be about high school age right now." Soun went on. "Met him a
few years ago, a nice young lad named Tenchi."
"Hmmmmm." Genma thought for a moment. Tenchi, means Heaven and Earth, odd
name for a boy., Soun thought.
"What are you thinking, old friend?" Soun asked raising one eyebrow in a
blatant Spock Maneuver.
"Hear me out on this, I think I know of a way to get us out of this mess."
Genma said with a sly smile.
Akane took Ranma on a tour of the modest Tendo home. It was that big, a
two story house with five small rooms upstairs, a kitchen, sitting room, dinning
room, and foyer downstairs. The bathroom was larger than some Ranma remember on
his many journeys around the globe with his dad. It had a large open space for
washing and a big furo for soaking. The back yard was nice. A single tree
stood in the yard wrapped with padding to use as a kicking post for martial arts
training, a koi pond filled with carp that Ranma was now familiar with, and then
there was the dojo itself. Ranma mentioned that she trained in the martial arts
nearly all of her life, so Akane offered to show off some of her moves against a
practice dummy.
Ranma watched Akane's movements as she squared off against the practice
dummy. Her trained eye followed every move and made mental notes about each
nuance. The girl was really strong, she noted, but not very fast. Her balance
wasn't bad, but needed serious work. As a martial artist she was only average
and nowhere near her caliber. She was good enough for maybe the lower junior
grade competitions, but wouldn't stand a chance in the really tough tournaments.
Especially the nasty underground blood sports that were often fought in Hong
Kong, which the 'boy' Ranma had competed in a few times to earn some extra cash.
This went on for a few minutes until Ranma couldn't stand it any longer. She
stood up and said, "Hold on, you're doing it all wrong."
"Ok, show me." Akane said and stepped back from her target. When someone
was critical of her martial arts prowess Akane's first reaction was normally
outrage. Yet, for some reason she could not muster the anger she needed towards
Ranma. Akane liked boys, but sometimes they wore her pretty thin the way they
treated her. She was not a wall flower, she wasn't fragile, and she sure as
hell was not going to let any boy treat her that way either. She knew Ranma was
a boy underneath his gorgeous exterior, yet she couldn't get angry with her like
she did her father or any other boy who criticized her technique.
Ranma took her place at the dummy and went through the maneuvers. She
punched and kicked the dummy where the vital areas of a real opponent would be.
Akane gasped with surprise and awe at the other girls fluid, graceful movements
as she battered the dummy with attacks that seemed almost too fast for the human
eye to follow. When Ranma was done Akane was too stunned for words. She'd
never seen anyone move like that, with such grace, such perfect posture, and in
full control of their mind and body.
"Your form is good, but you put too much of your strength into your moves,
save it for when you connect or you'll wear yourself out too fast." Ranma
explained. "Also, you move too stiffly, you're thinking about your moves, just
let your body flow without thinking about the moves and it become so much
easier, react by instinct and not by thought."
"I'll try that, thanks for the advice, you're pretty good." Akane smiled
at her..
"I've been training in the art since I can remember, this stuff comes easy
to me." Ranma said casually.
"Wanna spar for a bit?" the Tendo girl offered.
"Uh, ok." Ranma accepted. The two moved off to opposite sides of the
dojo, bowed, and took fighting stances. Akane came in first with a series of
punch and kick combinations, but Ranma flowed around them with graceful ease.
Close up like this Ranma noticed the girl left too many openings and
overcompensated on some of her wider attacks. Ranma switched from the defensive
to the offensive and launched some basic attacks she thought the girl could
handle. Akane found herself suddenly hard pressed by the redhead, her moves
were very fast and powerful. It was clear to her that she was sparing with a
fighter who seriously outclassed her by leaps and bounds. Ranma found a wide
opening in the girl's defenses and delivered a solid kick to her midsection, but
pulled it at the last second so as not to use her full strength. Had she not
done so the Tendo girl would have likely gone through the far wall. Akane went
down hard with a loud groan.
"Oh, geeze, I'm sorry I didn't hurt you did I?" Ranma asked in a worried
tone. She ran over to the prone girl fear that she hurt her somehow. Ranma
wanted to kick herself, she was fighting a girl, and her upbringing said hitting
a girl wasn't manly. Did that apply anymore, she wasn't a he anymore?
Akane rolled over and sat up laughing with tears in her eyes. "I'm ok,
you're at a lot better at this than I am, and I'm just happy to have someone
take me seriously in the art for once." She said and wiped her eyes.
"Uh, no problem, but doesn't your dad teach you or anything?" Ranma asked
as she helped the girl up.
"He used to, but he stopped a few years back." Akane told her. "It was a
little after mom died."
"You-you lost your mom?" Ranma asked sadly.
Akane gestured towards a small makeshift shrine sitting in one corner of
the dojo. "Yeah, cervical cancer, me and my sister were just little kids at the
time." Akane explained.
"That bites, I'm sorry to hear that." Ranma sighed.
Akane turned around to regard the redhead. "Are you really, you know,
really a guy in there?" she asked. It was so hard to think of the gorgeous
redhead as a man. Akane a sour predisposition towards boys for good reason, but
this boy in the guise of a teen supermodel was unlike any she had ever met.
There was something about her, or him, that struck such a right key in Akane's
mind. The younger Tendo girl was not sure what this mean, she never
contemplated the idea that she might swing that way, or both ways like her older
sister Nabiki. There was something about Ranma's blue eyes, it was like they
could see into the depths of your soul.
Ranma sighed and slumped to the floor. She looked down at her hands and
said, "Frankly I really don't know anymore."
"You're father said your change is permanent." Akane remembered.
"I got an 'accidental' second dunk in the Spring of Drowned Girl," Ranma
explained to the Tendo girl, still looking at her hands. "The tour guide
explained the transformation was permanent and could never be changed."
"Wasn't there like a Spring of Drowned Man or something?" Akane asked.
"Already thought about that, but the guide said it would be really bad if
I took a dunk in it." Ranma told her.
"Like, how bad?" asked Akane.
"The conflicting magics of the curse in the water and the magic inside of
me would, well, uh, I'll just say I'd be a crispy critter." Ranma explained
sullenly.
"That's terrible." Akane said as she sat down next to her. "But, there
are worst things than being a girl."
"Eh?" Ranma looked over at her.
"I can't stand macho jocks, you have no idea the trouble I've got at
school, the same thing every single day." Akane groaned. The anguish and
distress in Akane's face was evident. It touched Ranma's inner nature, she
didn't like seeing other suffer.
"What is it?" Ranma asked her.
"The lame brained captain our school Kendo club, Kuno Tatawaki, told all
the boys that in order to date me they gotta defeat me in battle or something or
other, so every morning I gotta wade through almost eighty boys to get to
class." Akane growled angrily.
"They try to beat you up?" Ranma gasped in disbelief. She couldn't
believe what she was hearing. Beat up a girl to get her to date them, what sort
of nutcase is this Kuno guy?, Ranma thought.
"They're pathetic, no matter how many times I clobber them they keep
coming back for more." Akane went on and slumped her shoulders.
"That's no way to impress a girl, but I can see why they'd want to date
you, you're kinda cute." Ranma smiled.
Akane looked over at her and blushed, "You think so?" Akane began to
question her own sexuality in that instant. Ranma's look of genuine concern on
her beautiful face combined with those dreamy blue eyes was enough to cure even
a full-blown, pun intended, homosexual. No boy had ever called her that.
Albeit that this wasn't really a boy, well a boy in the body of a girl, but did
that really matter? Akane wasn't sure if she was ready to follow her older
sister's chosen sexuality and play both sides of the field, but in that instant
she was severely tempted.
"Yeah." Ranma answered, blushing. Ranma's thought immediately circled
around to a nagging question. This trip to the Tendo's home had to be more than
just a social call. Her dad had been in a hurry to get here. This put Ranma on
edge, she sensed one of his schemes was involved here, so she obviously decided
to question Akane on the matter. "Uh, I still wonder why me and my dad came
here, or why he was in such a hurry. No offense to you or your family or
anything, but this smells like one of his schemes."
"Probably more like one of his and my dad's schemes, they're old sparing
buddies from way back before they met our moms as I understand it." Akane leaned
back and looked up at the ceiling of the dojo. "Before you showed up daddy told
us that an old friend was coming with his son, and one of us was going to become
his iinazuke."
Ranma's eyes went as wide as a set of dinner plates. "Iinazuke?"
So that was it, his old man was going to drag him halfway across the world
on this wild training mission and in the end dump him on some unsuspecting girl
as her iinazuke without even tell her about it. She clenched her fist and
snarled, "I knew it, that jerk!"
Akane sat up and put her hand on Ranma's shoulder. The redhead looked at
her and a slight blush ran across her face. "I know you look like a girl, but
you're really a boy inside." She said. "But, I can tell you're a really nice
person, not anything like the jerks at my school. If situations were different,
I'd, well, um, I'd be your iinazuke." Akane's face blushed. Oh, Kami-Sama, did
I just say that!, she gasped inwardly.
"Huh?" Ranma gasped.
"I've only known you for maybe fifteen minutes but I can tell you're a
really nice." Akane smiled, blushing quite heavily. "Its sad that this happened
to you, I think I would have liked being your iinazuke."
Ranma regarded this girl. She was pretty, had a sweet smile, a nice
personality, and a love for the art. She thought about what it would be like if
she just had an ordinary Josenkyo curse. Would Akane accept her so openly as
she does now, or would the shock of discovering she wasn't what she seemed to be
somehow put a rift between them. Ranma didn't want to reflect on this, she
liked Akane, she was nice, and Ranma didn't have many friends and never stayed
in one place too long to develop a strong relationship with anyone. Maybe, just
maybe, if things had turned out differently.
"I, uh, well, um, I think I would have liked being yours too." Ranma
replied softly feeling her face burn. There was awkward silence between the two
before Akane spoke.
"So, what do you think you and dad will do now?" she asked.
Ranma looked down at her hands with a sigh, "I ain't getting engaged to
anybody, at least not now."
"Hey, there are worse things than being a girl, you know." Akane rubbed
the redhead's back wishing she could do more to lift the girl/boy's spirits.
"I think you said that one already." Ranma told her but she seemed to
smile a little. "I've already learned some respect for you girls, I didn't know
you went through so much. I've been a girl for a month and things happening to
my body have really opened my eyes."
Akane gasped, "You're had a period?"
"Yeah, and I hurt like hell, like a nasty bout of gas, I felt like I was
getting fat or something, and don't get me started about all the blood." Ranma
groaned.
"Oh, the cramps are the worse, and the fat feeling is bloating, I hate it
too." Akane laughed.
"What do you do when that happens?" Ranma asked her.
"Well, Kasumi usually has this herbal tea that seems to help with the
cramping, she got the recipe from our doctor Tofu-sensei." Akane shrugged. "As
for the bloating, well I just live with it. I wear panty liners for the
bleeding, though you can try either that or tampons. Panty liners go inside
your panties, but Tampons actually go inside of you."
"Huh, you mean you put something, in, in, in there?" Ranma blushed
heavily. The thought of inserting something inside of herself in that "area"
seemed beyond her current level of conscious thought at the moment.
Akane laughed, "That's why I don't wear them, I tried it once and it felt
so weird."
"I bet." Ranma laughed in spite of herself.
It was Akane's turn to look sad and stare down at her hands. She felt
sad, sad for Ranma's condition, sad that something wonderful could never be.
"This is all my luck, I finally meet a half-way decent guy, and he's been turned
into a girl forever." She sighed.
Ranma reached out and put a hand on the girl's shoulder. She felt the
same way. Akane was a nice girl, and she would have loved being with her.
"Hey, you're like a really cute, no, a really pretty girl, you're smart, funny,
strong, you're bound to find somebody nice." She told her soothingly.
"I'm not that pretty, but I often wonder why I attract so many guys."
Akane mused.
"Maybe its like more than just your looks." Ranma smiled, and that made
Akane blush a bit. Akane was flattered that Ranma though she was definitely
worth all the attention she was getting at school. It was strange, why did
Ranma's opinion of her, this person who only less then half an hour ago was a
total strange, meant so much to her?
"I don't know, but you're a lot prettier than I am, at our school you'd
have half the entire male student body drooling by second period." Akane smiled
back.
"Uhhhhggggg!" Ranma groaned. "I don't even want to get into how many
times guys, and girls have made passes at me since Josenkyo." The journey from
China to Hong Kong before the flight to Japan was anything but pleasant. Nearly
at every stop she was approached by men, young and old, and even women with
admiring glances. Time and again Ranma had to be polite, sometimes not so
politely, and refuse their advances.
"I wish they'd leave me alone." She added.
"You're not planning to live alone your whole life are you?" Akane asked
her with concern.
"Nani?" Ranma blinked.
"Well, I know this is a touchy subject, but you're a girl now." Akane
pointed out so plainly. "Why not, well, maybe think about acting like one."
"You mean, date boys?" a wide eyed Ranma asked. That idea was so foreign
to Ranma's way of thinking, so contrary to his upbringing that such concepts
were unmanly. Date boys, no way!, she cried out in her mind.
Akane looked at her with a sad expression and said, "It would be a shame
that a really kind person like you lives alone without someone to love the rest
of their life." Ranma couldn't look away. The thought of living the rest of
her life never knowing the love of another was, well, sad. No, not sad,
frightening. As a man Ranma had hoped to one day find a girl he could one day
fall in love with and marry when they were ready. On his many travels with his
father Ranma met many young girls who were certainly very pretty, and had be
stayed in any one place he was certain they would have gotten closer. The sad
expression on Akane's face and Ranma's own fears of being alone for the rest of
her life put a serious dent in the armor surrounding her predisposed notion of
manliness. What manliness, there was nothing manly about himself anymore, he
was a she, a real she having real periods! Would she have to live her life
seeking the affections of other women, and be ostracized by her clan for being a
lesbian? In that brief moment Ranma seriously decided to give the notion of
boys more thought later on.
"I guess that was gonna come up sooner or later." Ranma sighed. "I don't
know if I'm ready for that though."
"If your gonna be stuck like this for the rest of your life, well just go
with the flow and get on with your life." Akane told her with a smile.
"A good martial artist must be able to adapt to any situation." Ranma said
repeating one of her father's many mantras. "Dating guys, man, I don't know,
I'd really have to think that one over really hard."
"You're a boy on the inside, but a girl on the outside." Akane said. "I
can see why it would be hard. I know I'd have a hard time myself."
"I know, I'm not gay, and you're not lesbian, and a change like that would
mean, well, sort of becoming like that." Ranma replied with a terrified
expression on her face.
"It would be easier for my sister Nabiki, she would deny it but I know for
a fact that she's bisexual." Akane laid back again and folded her arms behind
her head. "I've seen her checking out both the boys and girls at our school,
and she was really checking you out a while ago."
"Uh, y-y-your sister was checking me out?" Ranma looked shocked.
"Yeah, I caught her, well not caught, but actually happened to see her,
umm, with someone once." Akane explained with a blush. "It was her friend from
school she does business with, Nabiki runs these betting pools at school to help
bring in money for home, and she was making out with her in her bedroom."
"Wow!" Ranma gasped.
"Then, a few days later she went out on a date with this really cute boy
from school." Akane went on. "That's when I put two and two together and
figured she was bi."
"I bet it was a shock." Said Ranma.
"Hell yeah, you would be shocked too if you saw your sister naked in bed
with another girl making out like two cats in heat." Akane laughed. The girl
didn't notice the wince from Ranma when she said "cat".
"Ooookaaayyy." Ranma drawled. "I think I've heard more than I ever wanted
to hear about that." Akane had to laugh, she couldn't hold it in and guffawed
wildly. It took a few moments for Ranma to catch up to her, but she soon laid
back laughing along with the younger Tendo girl.
"I don't know, Saotome, that might be asking too much of the boy too
soon." Tendo Soun said after listening to his best friend's idea.
The two old friends were no longer in the dining room but were now in the
sitting room. Between them was a "Go!" game board. A smiling Kasumi came in
with a tea service and some rice cakes. Tendo Soun had to admit, his old
friend's idea has merit. His older brother Noboyuki lived in Ohkayama most of
his adult life. It was there that he met his wife, Masaki Achika, a very
beautiful young girl and the daughter of a Shinto priest. Though neither one of
them got along well with one another, a reason for why Noboyuki and he lived
apart, they did share one thing in common. Both of them lost the women they
loved when their children were very young. But, where Soun had nobody else
around to help him raise his three precious little girls, Noboyuki had his
father-in-law around to help in raising his son Masaki Tenchi. Achika and
Kimiko's deaths helped to narrow the gap between them until they were actually
capable of being civil with one another. Another driving force that slowly
reunited the two brothers was the fact that Kimiko and Achika became fast
friends, and even wrote one another often. Over the years Soun desired to find
a way to finally close the gap between him and his brother. Maybe, maybe this
might be it, but...
"This is a matter of family honor, the boy will do the right thing." Genma
said resolutely.
"It is an interesting way of dealing with the problem, join our two
families together by way of the Masaki clan to create a triumvirate union." Soun
scratched his chin as he ran the idea through his mind.
"You and Noboyuki never did get along all too well until after Kimiko
passed away, this might bring you two together a little closer." Said Genma.
Soun smiled, "I was thinking that same thing a little while ago."
"There, you see, it's a perfect plan!" Genma cheered.
"Don't mention anything about it to Ranma yet, let me call my brother and
see what he says about it." Soun suggested.
"Good idea, mum's the word until then." Genma smiled. "The boy might
resist the idea at first, but he'll see reason." With that Genma cracked his
knuckles to emphasize his point.
The next morning Ranma dragged herself out of bed and took a quick bath.
It has been a long time since she had a good sleep in a decent bed. Her usual
sleeping place was wherever she got comfortable on the ground. So, sleeping on
tami mats and futons was like sleeping in a four star luxury hotel. It didn't
help when you had a four hundred pound panda snoring up a storm next to you who
had a tendency to kick you in his sleep. Otherwise, it was a good sleep, but
what Ranma wasn't used to was the early hour she was woken up at.
She had been in school before on the many stopovers in her and her dad's
trek around the world training in the art. At one particular middle school she,
or he, had something of a close friend then. Ranma wondered where he was right
now, the guy was a baka, hot headed, high strung, and had a terrible sense of
direction that seemed almost supernatural in origin. Just before leaving that
region of Japan the baka challenged Ranma to a match, and of course didn't show
up for three days after which 'he' and 'his' dad left. Their next destination
would be Mainland China, and oh what a misadventure that turned out to be.
Ranma discovered, to her horror, that Kasumi had tailored one of her old
high school uniforms to fit the redhead's dimensions. Ranma now sat with this
dress on at the dinning room table trying not to look too disgusted.
"You look nice in that." Akane commented.
"Gee thanks." Ranma replied with a sigh.
"Why am I doing this again?" Ranma asked her old man.
Genma crossed his arms over his furry chest and help us a couple of signs,
"Because, we could be here for a while and you need your schooling, a good
martial artist is an intelligent martial artist." That caused Ranma to do a
Spock Maneuver eyebrow lift. The only reason she, he, attended school in the
past on their journeys was to keep the local truant officers off their backs.
To quote her own father, "If it has nothing to do with martial arts its not
worth learning."
"Where is this high school anyway?" Ranma asked Akane.
"We go to the same school, its Fureinken, named after the Fureinken
Financial District of Tokyo." Akane explained. "We can walk together."
"Uh, ok." Ranma smiled, happy she wouldn't have to go alone.
"Besides, you'll get to see Akane's admirers in action." Nabiki smiled and
Ranma could 'feel' the older girl's eyes on her body. Kasumi did a wonderful
job adjusting the dress, it fit her well, and did much to accentuate her figure
without being too blatantly sexy.
Akane frowned, "Oh, yeah, almost forgot about those baka." She looked up
when she heard a popping sound and realized it was Ranma cracking her knuckles.
"Maybe I can persuade them to start treating you right." She said with a
grin.
"Ranma, I can fight my own battles you know." Said Akane with a frown.
"I'm a Saotome, Akane, and Saotome's always protect their friends." Ranma
said looking into the girl's eyes. It was Ranma's own code, based on the code
of Bushido, the ancient Japanese warrior code that samurai of old lived by.
Even if her father didn't believe in what she just said Ranma did and meant
every word. That one brief eye contact made Akane seriously reconsider becoming
bisexual once again, the thought made her blush intensely. She could see her
sister's quirky smile. Nabiki was certainly attracted to Ranma, which for some
odd reason made Akane suddenly very jealous.
"Well, the boys are nothing, they're pretty pathetic fighters, its Kuno-
sempei who's dangerous." Akane went on.
"Kuno?" asked Ranma. "Oh, I remember he's that samurai wannabe you
mentioned last night."
"Kuno Tatawaki, the captain of the school Kendo club." Nabiki told her.
"He's also stinking rich, a little on the loopy side, but he is kinda cute."
"A little?" Akane smirked.
"Ok, so he's a total loon, but at least he's a rich loon." Nabiki waved at
her.
"He's always dressed in these samurai robes, fancies himself a samurai
from the feudal era, and is always spouting off bad poetry." Akane explained to
Ranma.
Ranma laughed, "Oh, I gotta see this guy."
"You will, after I clobber the boys, he insists on fighting me after I
wade through the Hentai Horde." Akane groaned.
Ranma laughed, "That's an interesting name."
"My friend Yuko thought it up." Akane shrugged and smiled.
"Oh my." that statement seemed to be a part of Kasumi's regular
vocabulary. "You three had better hurry or you will be late for school."
Akane glanced up at the clock on the wall and winced, "Oh no, she's
right." Ranma finished off her breakfast with record time consuming her bowl of
rice and plate of steamed vegetables. Akane had seen Ranma wolfing down her
dinner the night before and found it curious, but her trained martial artist's
eye noticed why. Ranma was competing with her father over the food on her
plate! Akane asked Ranma what was up with that late that night before they went
to bed, and Ranma just shrugged her shoulders.
"I've had to compete with my dad for food for as long as I remember," she
said. "There were night I went to bed hungry, I literally starved for a long
time until I got good enough and fast enough to protect my food from him."
Akane was appalled, how could a father steal food from his own son.
Ranma's response was, "It's all a part of the training, everything in my life
has been nothing but all training, every waking hour of my life." That blew
Akane away, every aspect of Ranma's life had been turned into some form of
martial arts training, fighting for food at dinner time, fighting for the covers
at bedtime, getting dressed in the morning, etc, etc, etc! No wonder Ranma
outclassed her at the art, his, her, whole life was dedicated to the study of
it! She didn't know whether to be happy for Ranma or feel a little sad. Such a
life could not have been easy, and was also probably pretty lonely. She
couldn't resent Ranma for being better than she was. Little did Akane know, but
she was about to see first hand what ten years of exhaustive study of the
martial arts could accomplish.
The three made their way to Fureinken High School at a steady walk. Akane
was surprised to see Ranma climb up on the chain link fence that ran along one
of the canals that crossed through Nerima, and actually walked along the top of
it like it a tight rope walker in a circus. She did this after making sure
nobody else was around. The last thing Ranma wanted was a bunch of high school
boys soaked in overflowing hormones to look up her dress. When it looked like
they were about to have some company Ranma leapt down with cat like grace.
"That was, amazing." Akane gaped.
"I've had to learn how to balance all over again, because of these." Ranma
pushed up her bosoms. "I honestly don't see how you guys can walk with them,
they get in the way, they throw off your balance, especially if they go jiggling
all over the place."
Nabiki looked at her with a sly smile and said, "That wouldn't happen if
you wear a bra, and besides its noticeable your not wearing one which will
certainly have all the gossip channels overflowing before the end of the day."
"W-w-w-wear a b-b-b-b-bra?" Ranma stammered. Wearing panties had taken a
great deal of mental effort on Ranma's part. Kasumi had insisted she wear
panties instead of her usual boxers. They were certainly more comfortable, but
her manly male mind was resistant to a point. Yet, there was a certain quality
to Kasumi's innocent smile that made one not want to disappoint her, and in her
presence the word "No" seemed to almost fade from your vocabulary.
"You don't want them to sag do you?" Nabiki added playfully.
"Huh?" Ranma gaped, her mind doing pinwheels at this notion.
"Nabiki, quit teasing Ranma." Akane frowned at her sister. "This being a
girl thing is new to him, and it's not fair to rush all this stuff onto her."
Nabiki looked at her sister for a moment and a crooked smile crossed her
face. She had always suspected that Akane would one day follow in her footsteps
in certain areas, and this was one of them. The way Akane hung around Ranma,
always talking with her, him, whatever, and now defending her. Nabiki herself
would not admit to her dual sided sexual preferences. Such a thing in proper
Japanese society wasn't exactly frowned upon, expect by the older generation who
held to old stogy notions of proper morals, but keeping her sexual preferences
secret but to a select few suited her purposes for now. She, of course, knew
about Akane catching her in the act of 69ing her best friend Ryonami and partner
in her "business", among other things. Nabiki took some morbid please at
seeming Akane's wide eyed, silent expression of shock, but her well trained eyes
didn't miss the noticeable hardening of her sister's nipples underneath her
nightie. Akane would deny having been turned on, of course, but Nabiki knew her
little sister better. Being bi was nothing to be ashamed of, Nabiki never lost
any sleep over it, well not unless she was entertaining some friends that is.
The main gates to the school were coming up and Ranma got her first look
at the "Hentai Horde". Just about every major sports and martial arts club at
the school was represented in that writhing mass of raging hormones. There were
boys wearing Kendo fighting gear, hockey gear, football gear, karate gi, and so
on and so forth. What a strange battle formation they made. The mass of sex
starved boys spotted the object of their desire walking along the street towards
the gates. Like some massive one-cell organism the mass of boys began to flow
outwards towards her loosing battle cries of "Date with me!" upon the air.
"My life sucks." Akane sighed and the carnage ensued.
Ranma stood back with a shocked expression splattered across her face.
When the dust cleared that was concealing the horrendous battle, she looked upon
a street that was littered with bodies. Standing in the center of the
devastation was a seething Tendo Akane. Some groans of pain could be heard from
all around as Ranma wade through the aftermath of the carnage to survey Akane's
handiwork. In a sense, the scene was a slaughter, one lone girl flattened over
eighty boys in less then fifteen seconds all by herself. There had to a world
record for that., Ranma mused. Upon seeing Ranma Akane's mood brightened and
she smiled at her. The two followed behind by Nabiki carefully negotiated their
way around their prone classmates through the school gates.
"HOLD!" came a loud cry.
Ranma saw Akane roll her eyes and knew this must be the moment she'd been
waiting for. The Tendo girl said Kuno Tatawaki was a touch character, pretty
dangerous, and a proficient Kendoist. There was a certainly vulnerability to
the art of Keno and that was the reliance on weapons. Unlike arts like
Ninjitsu, Jeet Quan Do(pioneer by Bruce Lee), Shaolin karate and other arts that
taught both armed and unarmed fighting techniques Kendo was severely limited.
Without their swords Kendoists were nearly helpless unless they also studies
additional styles to compensate for the lack of a weapon.
The young boy who stepped out before them looked like a throwback to the
old feudal days or a character in once of those old period samurai plays Ranma
saw once with her father in Hokido. He was handsome with bushy black hair and a
well build physique. Ranma almost slapped herself, where did that line of
thinking come from, she was a guy for crying out loud! Ranma decided to ignore
that sudden lapse for a moment to study this samurai wannabe. He had an
arrogant air about him that just screamed "old money". Resting on one shoulder
he held a long, slender bokken made of dark wood. His movements were measured
and almost graceful which betrayed his martial arts training. Exactly how
gifted this boy was at his chosen art Ranma wasn't certain, but she was
certainly hoping to find out.
"Fair Akane, I Kuno Tatawaki shall face thee in battle, or if you defeat
me I will permit you to date with me." The boy said with arrogant flair. He
took a battle stance with his bokken held at the ready. Akane fell into a
fighting stance clenching her first and grinding her teeth. Something seemed so
wrong about this picture, beating up on a girl to get her to date you! Anger
well up inside Ranma, she didn't know where it came from. This boy's arrogance
just rubbed her the wrong way, and she certainly didn't like somebody beating up
on her friend. She stepped up past Akane and stuck her finger into the
astonished Kendoist's face.
"What the hell is wrong with you, you think beating up on a girl is any
way to get her to like you?" Ranma snapped. "What kind of man are you?"
"Ranma!" Akane gasped. She was torn between being pissed off at the
girl/boy for interfering with her fight with Kuno but also felt somehow
flattered at being protected at the same time.
"What is this I see?" Kuno gaped in surprise at the angry redhead. "Do
mine eyes deceive me, has the hallowed halls of our fine school been blessed by
the appearance of two angels, Tendo Akane, and this fierce creature of
loveliness!?"
Ranma blinked her eyes, "Nani?"
"The heavens doth bless this simple soul with such bounty!" the Kendoist
droned on. "But alas, I cannot choose, for I seek the hand of the fair Akane,
yet my heart doth flutter in the presence of this fiery haired vision!"
"Hey, aren't you listening to me?!" Ranma growled.
Akane looked up at the school building and noticed a large number amount
the student body not laid out on the street was gathered on the school balcony.
She sighed, so much for not wanting to cause much a scene for Ranma. It was a
huge shock that Kuno, the guy was so head over heels in love with her, if you
call what he really feels is love, would suddenly become enamored with Ranma.
Not that she wasn't happy that someone else was taking the heat for her this
morning, but she wasn't very happy that it had to be Ranma who took the brunt of
Kuno's twisted idea of courtship. Her sister was already in the school. Akane
saw her with Ryonami and her cohorts working the crowd as usual taking bets.
She knew all of the underhanded dealings Nabiki was involved in were for the
benefit of the family but sometimes the length to which she earned that money
was seriously questionable. At least Nabiki hadn't turned to selling her body
for an easy Yen, but there were a number of wild rumors going around Fureinken
High that the middle Tendo sister ran a prostitution ring on campus.
The students were reacting to the presence of this newcomer in many
different ways, Akane observed. Many of the boys had wide eyed looks of
surprise, if not full out drooling. The girls wore masks of resentment at the
fact that their boyfriends were all going gaga over this new girl who was
entirely too pretty and top heavy to boot! She could hear comments of "big
boobed hussy", "gorgeous babe", "dike", "bimbo", "their silicon", and many more.
It made Akane angry, how dare they judge Ranma before getting to know her!
"This humble warrior hath been blessed with two infinite beauties!" Kuno
went on putting the back of his hand to his forehead for a dramatic pose. "Yet,
to choose one over the other would cause grievous agony to the one not chosen!
Oh what sweet dilemma!"
Ranma eyes grew several inches wider and she spat, "Now wait one damn
minute I'm not..."
Before she could finish Kuno reached out and grabbed both her and Akane into his
embrace crying, "I shall not spurn the blessing of the Kami, I shall endeavor to
have you both!"
Ranma's brain was in total shutdown mode, not only was this guy hugging
her entirely too tight but his hand was groping something very soft and round on
her person. Unseen changes were taking place inside of Ranma's brain, changes
she was only now becoming awake of. The touch of another's hand on her breast
wasn't all that uncomfortable, almost pleasant, but it was the knowledge of
who's hand it was that made her skin crawl She liked the feeling and loathed it
at the same time, and it would be a few more days before Ranma realized why
she/he was thinking this way. In her mind all she could think about was making
Kuno pay. In the mountains of Tibet, Ranma the boy, learned a technique from a
withered old monk. The channeling of one's chi energy through the body to
heighten awareness, speed, strength, stamina, and toughness was an ancient and
almost forgotten art in the modern world. Ranma learned it at a young age and
was now a master at channeling the energy through her body to where she needed
it. Right now that energy was collecting in her right fist. Her mind was
ablaze with loathing for this boy who had the audacity to put "his" hands on her
body without first asking permission, as if she'd grant such a privilege to one
such as he! Ranma acted on instinct, broke free from Kuno's iron glomp and
brought her fist up in a swift uppercut aimed at Kuno's chin. As she acted she
screamed out the only thing she could think of that was appropriate at the time.
"PERVERT!!!!!"
The impact resounded like a thunder clap as Ranma's fist connected with
the boy's chin. The student body of Fureinken High School and some faculty
watched with horror and amazement as Kuno Tatawaki flew twenty feet into the air
seemingly in slow motion, then landed in an unconscious heap thirty feet away in
the grass. His bokken came flying down and embedded itself into the ground
point first a few feet away from where Akane and Ranma stood. There was total
silence from the school as everyone was still in total awe at what they'd just
witness. Even Akane was shocked and a bit frightened at the same time. Sure,
she's beaten Kuno up lots of times, but she never knocked him across the school
yard like that! What Ranma just did could have been classified as superhuman!
Up on the school balcony Nabiki and Ryonami were watching everything that
went on below. Nabiki ran the number over in her head, they collected quite a
few bets in Ranma's favor after she planted some useful info about the fact that
the girl was a long time student of the martial arts. By the last period she'd
be rolling in Yen after making all the usual deductions towards the payroll of
her staff and business expenses, but what would be left over was a sizable chunk
of change. With Ranma and her father at the house they'd certainly need the
money to keep the family fed. Despite her notorious "Ice Queen" reputation,
Nabiki dearly loved her sisters, sure she exploited Akane's affinity with the
male students at school, but it was all done for the purpose of keeping a roof
over the family's head and putting food on the table. Sure feelings got hurt,
but this was business and what would happen if the creditors came and took the
house away from them. Her father wasn't much help. Ten years have passed since
her mom died and he still grieved for her to the point where he no longer took
in students to the dojo, thus forcing a little girl of six years of age to grow
up before her time. Ranma was proving to be a most interesting study, she was
cute, strong, and gaining popularity with the boys and the hatred of the girls.
Hopefully she'll be staying longer, Nabiki hoped, so she can squeeze even more
money off her fellow victims, uh, students.
"Remind me not to piss her off, sempei." Said Ryonami in awe.
"Kuno baby sort of deserved what he got." Nabiki waved at her.
"Yeah, about time somebody finally laid out that hentai." Ryonami smiled.
Ranma could not help but notice the antagonistic looks she got from many
of the girls in her class. The boys were literally soaking the floor with drool
just looking at her as she stood at the front of the class when the teacher
introduced her. A few of the girls greeted her with friendly smiles, those
girls without boyfriends in the same classroom, and a very small number of girls
were actually looking at her in a very different way that somehow made Ranma
both uncomfortable and flattered at the same time. Lunch period could not have
come any sooner, Ranma was starving! Akane was in one of her earlier classes
and she passed a note to her telling her where to meet in the school yard.
Outside on the back lawn of Fureinken High, in the shadow of a large tree,
Tendo Akane and some of her close friends gathered for lunch. Akane looked
around at the students milling about in the school yard hoping to spot Ranma so
she could call her over. Akane's friends, Yuko, Hitomi, and Sakura sat with
her.
"So, who was that girl you came to school with this morning, Akane?" Yuko
asked a bit sheepishly.
"She's a friend, her and her dad are staying at the dojo for a few days."
Replied Akane.
"What's her name, she sure is pretty." Sakura smiled.
"And tough, did you see what she did to Kuno this morning." Hitomi added.
"Her name is Ranma, Saotome Ranma." Akane told them.
"Hmmm." Yuko though that one over. "Means 'Wild Horse', odd name for a
girl."
Hitomi laughed, "It fits the way she sent Kuno-sempei flying, serves the
baka right."
"Yeah, I don't see how you can put up with him every morning, Akane."
Sakura looked at her friend.
Akane sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "Believe me, I didn't ask for
this much attention."
"We can't hold it against you, most of the boys in this school are only a
few steps short of snails on the evolutionary ladder anyway." Yuko giggled.
"Hey is it me, was she 'not' wearing a bra this morning?" Sakura asked.
"No way, she wasn't wearing a bra?!" Yuko gasped.
"How does she keep them from sagging?" Hitomi wondered.
"No bra." Yuko mused.
Then all at once Akane's three friends cheered, "Scandalous!"
"Be nice, Ranma's had a very hard life, what she needs right now are
friends." Akane scolded them.
Yuko raised one finger at her friend and blinked her eye. "We'll behave,
won't we girls." The other two nodded wearing broad smiles.
Akane spotted someone leave the school, there was no mistaking that head
of fiery red hair. "Ranma, over here!" she called.
"Ok, she's coming, be nice." Akane told her friends.
"Hi Akane, who's your friends?" Ranma asked after she made her way to
them.
"Ranma, this is Yuko, Hitomi, and Sakura, girls this is Saotome Ranma."
Akane said in introduction.
"Love what you did to Kuno-sempei, that baka needed someone to teach him a
lesson after all he's done to make Akane's life miserable." Yuko smiled.
"No foolin, its pretty pathetic of all those boys if you ask me." Sakura
commented.
Ranma sat down next to Akane, laughing and scratching the back of her
head. "Oh, it wasn't much."
"Don't be modest, honey, what you did was incredible." Hitomi smiled at
her.
"How did you do that anyway?" Akane asked, then she handed Ranma a bento
box. "Here, I got your lunch, Kasumi made it this morning."
"Thanks, Kasumi is one heck of a cook." Ranma tore open the box and freed
her chopsticks from their cellophane wrapping. "As for how I did that, well as
I said I've been training in martial arts all my life."
"My father's a grand master at Kempo, and I've never seen him do anything
like that." Sakura remarked.
Ranma swallowed a mouthful of rice and tube root and said, "There is more
to martial arts than just learning physical techniques, there's a spiritual side
to it too."
"Huh?" all the girls looked at her in surprise.
"I learned this technique from a monk in Tibet that teaches you how to
channel your chi and draw more from your spiritual center." Ranma went on. "You
can channel this chi to where its needed if you know how."
"My Shinto priest great grandfather used to talk about chi, but I never
imagined you could use it in martial arts." Hitomi looked surprised.
"It's nearly a forgotten art, and it can be dangerous." Ranma explained to
them. "You have to know how much to use or you could over do it. That baka is
lucky he still has his head on his shoulders."
"WOW!" the girl chorused, including Akane. She never imagined Ranma
possessed such power. No wonder her father wanted him engaged to her or one of
her sisters, someone of this power would be an incredible asset to the dojo.
Even she could see that, but, of course, circumstances have arisen to prevent
that.
"Remind me to stay on your good side." Yuko beamed at the redhead.
"Hey, I don't hold a grudge." Ranma paused between stuffing her face. "I
just didn't like the way he's treating my friend here, and beside that he coped
a feel."
"Uhg, he's almost as bad as Deisuke." Sakura rolled her eyes. "What my
sister sees in that pervert I don't know."
The girls all giggled, Ranma couldn't help but go along with them. She
wasn't sure why but it felt 'right' just being one of the girls. For the first
time Ranma felt like she fit in, nowhere else did she feel this way.
"Say, after school lets hit Toba's Ice Cream Palace." Sakura suggested.
Hitomi looked at her. "You keep eating those sundaes and people will
start calling you wide load."
Sakura pointed an accusing finger at her friend saying, "Oh, and what
about you and those boxes of rice candy you got hidden under your bed?"
Hitomi blushed. "Uh."
"I 'love' fruit sundaes." Ranma swooned and rolling her eyes.
Akane grinned at her. "You'll like this place, they got the best fruit
sundaes in Tokyo."
"Sounds like a cool idea to me." Yuko chimed in.
"You always think about going for ice cream, Yuko." Hitomi waved at her.
"You got food on the brain."
"I'm not the only one." Yuko pointed at Ranma who had just finished off
her bento box before everyone else was half done.
"Geeze, honey, did you taste it while it was going down?" Hitomi smirked.
Ranma blushed and scratched the back of her head. "Uh, I'm just too used
to eating quick, come from living on the road for ten years."
"I heard you've been traveling the world for ten years." Sakura commented.
Akane smirked at her accusingly. "You mean you bought the info off my
sister." She never told her friends about that, so Nabiki was the obvious
source. She just hoped other certain info about Ranma didn't get leaked out.
"Uh, ok, yeah I did." Sakura seemed to pout and had that "busted" look on
her face.
"Bought the information?" Ranma looked at the girls with a clueless
expression.
"Tendo Nabiki, the Ice Queen Mercenary of Fureinken High School, she does
anything to make a Yen short of getting horizontal for cash." Hitomi explained
to her.
"Hey, that's my sister you're talking about now." Akane scolded her
friend.
"Sorry, honey, but you have to admit your sister's turning to quite a
Yakuza boss." Hitomi patted Akane's shoulder.
"Yeah, I still haven't quite forgiven her for selling pictures of me in my
bra and panties to Kuno-sempei last year." Akane sighed.
"She what?" Ranma gasped and struggled very, very, very heard to keep from
getting a nose bleed just thinking about Akane half dressed. It certainly would
not have looked good in her current company.
"Bet that fueled his fire." Sakura laughed.
"Oh, that's when he got the fool idea to tell the boys that the only way
he's let them date her is if they defeat her in battle." Hitomi explained.
"That baka." Ranma groaned, snapping her chopsticks.
"So, Saotome, ya got a boyfriend?" Sakura winked at her sheepishly.
Ranma stammered, "Uh!"
"She just moved her yesterday, geeze, give her time." Akane prodded the
offending girl with her chopsticks.
"He would have to be something else to keep up with a girl like you."
Hitomi observed.
"Oh, hehehehe, you think so." Ranma laughed thinking how in the nine hells
did this subject suddenly come up. Yet, strangely, why did she feel her breasts
firm up and her nipple grow hard? Ranma filed that thought away for later and
concentrated on the conversation.
"My boyfriend goes to a different school, his dad is carpenter." Said
Yuko.
"I don't have a steady boyfriend, I like to keep my options open." Hitomi
added.
"I had a boyfriend last year, but he left for America on a foreign
exchange program." Sakura sighed. "We used to write one another, but lately we
haven't talked in months."
"Cheer up, you'll find somebody else." Akane encouraged her.
"I don't know, finding somebody like him will be hard." Sakura replied.
"Who have you ever gone out with Ranma?" Yuko asked her.
"Uh, I've never stayed in one place long enough to really meet anybody."
She replied quickly.
"WHAT?!" Akane's friends gasped.
"You mean you've never been on a date, ever!" Sakura cried.
"Man, that really bites." Yuko sighed.
"Girls, I think its time for Operation Hook Up Ranma." Hitomi smirked at
the redhead. A long list of eligible candidates started scrolling through her
head.
"Nani?" Ranma gaped.
"Put on the brakes!" Akane shouted. "Ranma might not be staying in Nerima
that long, so lets cool it with the matchmaking."
Hitomi smirked at her. "You are such a wet blanket sometimes, Tendo."
"She's right, I don't when I met be leaving." Ranma explained to them. "I
wouldn't want to start something only to have to leave it behind soon after." A
small part of Ranma told her it was the truth.
"It's really a shame, a cute thing like you, honey, without a boyfriend."
Hitomi sighed looking at Ranma with an expression of pity and sadness.
"I get by." Ranma gave her a faint smile.
"Well, lunch period's almost over, we'd better back to homeroom Ranma."
Akane stood up and picked up her empty bento box.
"Ok, we'll meet you two at the gates and go on to Toba's after school."
Yuko said as she stood up.
"We'll see ya there." Akane waved to her friend as she and Ranma went back
to the school.
The sun was setting over Nerima and Saotome Ranma was trying very hard to
think about her experience with the girls at the ice cream parlor. They all
joked about girl stuff for almost two hours. Ranma didn't feel alienated, a
gaijin, she felt like she belonged. Her thoughts went to Akane's three friends.
Yuko was as tall as Akane with waist length, black hair. She was the joker of
the group. Hitomi had a short hair style that framed her face very well and she
almost seemed rather mature for her age. She was the tallest girl of the group.
Ranma also suspected her of being a closet bisexual the way the girl would look
at her sometimes. Sakura had curly blonde hair and a cheery disposition. She
was always happy and loved making others around her feel happy to be around her.
A few things happened at the ice cream parlor that made Ranma really think
about her situation. While they sat at their both eating their sundaes a boy
came to the table. Ranma looked at him and immediately in her mind she remarked
that he was really cute. That shocked the hell out of Ranma. She thought a
'boy' was 'cute'! After that a discussion of which male heart throb singers
they liked. Hearing the girls' descriptions of their ideal lovers made her
breasts firm up, her nipples harden, and a strange feeling of moisture between
her legs. Hitomi then went into detail about her first time with one of her
boyfriends. During the entire story Ranma had the strangest feelings go through
her body. They weren't unpleasant feelings, no not at all, but they were so
alien to her. There was a strange but unmistakable urge to want to rub herself
between her legs in answer to a pronounced feeling that was growing there. It
alarmed Ranma, but she tried not to show any sign of being effect. She decided
to ask Akane about when they walked home.
Ranma wasn't sure how to bring up the question really. But, Ranma being
Ranma, she was about as subtle as a lead pipe. Making sure the street was
somewhat devoid of other pedestrians in order to avoid embarrassment she asked
the question, "Akane, what does it feel like when you get, well, when, um, when
a girl get a-a-a-a-aroused?"
Akane looked at her and saw the deep blush covering the girl/boy's face.
She was wondering if Ranma was going to ask that question. She noticed her
fidgeting a lot during the whole time they were in the ice parlor. She knew why
too, even she was turned on by Hitomi's ecchi description of her deflowering at
the hands of one of her old boyfriends. She knew Ranma had to have been
effected.
"It's nothing to be embarrassed about." Akane reassured her.
"How does it feel, well, I guess the first thing that happens is the
breasts firm up, then your nipples stand up on end and get hard." Akane began
and gestured with her hands as she explained. "They get really sensitive when
that happens, I know. If you really get turned on by something you secrete,
that means you set wet, down there. There this feeling, I can't describe it,
it's like a burning but then it's not between your legs."
"It gets so strong you want to, um, touch down there?" Ranma asked, her
face burned even more and she felt the arousal symptoms take hold.
"Sometimes." Akane smiled at her. "This is new to you, your so used to
how thing are for a boy that things for a girl are freaking you out aren't
they?"
Ranma shook her head. "You could say that."
Akane put her hand the girl's shoulder to reassure her. "Its natural, it
happens to every girl."
"I just have to get used to it." Ranma sighed.
Then she looked at Akane and asked, "What if that feeling, you know, down
there, doesn't go away?"
"That's an interesting question, but I'm not sure if your ready for the
answer." Akane laughed.
"No, tell me." Ranma egged her on.
"Ok, but don't say I didn't warn you." Akane smirked at the girl. "It
happened to me a few weeks ago before you came here. I saw this gorgeous boy, a
real hunk, I couldn't get him out of my head. So I ran home after school, went
straight to the furo and did it."
"Did what?" Ranma asked innocently.
"You know." Akane smiled.
"No, I don't." Ranma replied.
Akane's mouth fell agape. "You're telling me you don't know what
masturbation is?"
"Mast what?" Ranma looked totally clueless.
This is going to be harder than a thought., Akane realized. "You know,
playing with yourself, touching yourself, uh, chocking your chicken, yanking
your cord." She said.
Ranma shook her head. Akane leaned over to Ranma's ear and spelled it out
quickly in hushed terms. Ranma's brain executed a full scale nuclear meltdown!
"YAH! Uh, you mean that's what it was for?" Ranma exclaimed
questioningly. It never dawned on Ranma by boys had a penis and girls did not,
he was never taught why, it was never told to him why it got hard sometimes, and
his father certainly wasn't much in the way of a good educator.
"Of course silly, why do you think boys have them and girls don't." Akane
just smiled at her trying not to laugh in the girl/boy's face.
"So to get rid of this feeling I got to..." Ranma looked like she was
about to faint when Akane nodded. Ranma gulped hard.
"You have been out of touch for ten years, haven't you." Akane said with a
concerned voice. "Didn't your father every teach you about the birds and the
bees?"
Ranma sighed and slumped her shoulders. "My pop was on this kick about
always being manly about everything, I guess he thought such stuff wasn't manly
or something."
"No wonder you seem so sexually immature." Akane murmured.
"Who's immature?" Ranma growled, anger welling up in her.
"Calm down, its just nobody has ever sat you down and explained this stuff
to you before today." Akane calmed her. "I'm not insulting your maturity, I'm
not too perfect in that area either."
"Like how?" Ranma asked her.
"You haven't noticed yet, but I kinda got this nasty temper problem."
Akane looked embarrassed. "You haven't done anything to set it off, but others
have seen it and those include my sister Nabiki. Especially after I found out
she was selling pictures of me half naked to Kuno last year. I absolutely blow
up on her."
"You don't seem like a violent girl to me." Ranma commented.
"Really piss me off someday and you'll think differently." Akane smiled
crookedly at the redhead.
The two reached the gates to the Tendo home, they walked silently towards
the house and walked around until they reached the dojo. Ranma looked over at
Akane and felt her face burn from a blush.
"Akane." She said softly.
"Yeah." Akane replied.
"Thanks, for like all the help and stuff." Ranma scuffed the toe of her
shoe in the earth. "It's really helped me out. I wasn't sure how to handle
this whole being a girl thing, but since I met you it's like things have gotten
easier to deal with."
"Your welcome, Ranma." Akane replied. The two looked into each others
eyes for long moment. It seemed like the world drained away around them leaving
just the two of them in that place. Slowly they moved together, their arms
wrapping around one another, then their lips met. To Ranma it felt like
electricity was flowing through her body, she felt the signs of female arousal
in her body and the call of that feeling between her legs became louder and more
pronounced. Suddenly Ranma realized what was happening and alarms when off in
her head. She broke free from Akane's arms and staggered backwards.
"OH GOD, OH NO, AKANE I'M SO SORRY, OH GOD, DON'T BE MAD AT ME!" Ranma
panicked not know how Akane would react. The Tendo girl just touched her lips,
she liked that kiss, enjoyed it. She didn't get mad, she didn't feel like
clobbering Ranma.
"It's ok, Ranma, Ranma stop, calm down, I'm not mad, I could never get mad
at you." She tried to reassure the panicked redhead.
Ranma sat on the ground sobbing into her hands, "What's happening to me, I
feel like I'm going nuts or something."
Akane kneeled down next to her and put her arm around the girl. "I
couldn't even begin to understand what's happening to you, Ranma." She whispered
to her. "I've never known anyone with your particular problem before."
Ranma wiped her eyes and looked up at Akane. "Look at me, crying like a
girl."
"You are a girl, at least on the outside, but I got a weird feeling you're
becoming one on the inside too." Akane told her.
"I've been noticing that, it's just little things really, like I thought
that boy at the ice cream place was cute." Ranma smiled at little.
"You're frightened, anyone in your position would be." Akane explained
softly.
"I'm not frightened, Akane." Ranma looked into her eyes. "I'm scared
shitless."
Masaki Noboyuki sat in his study deep in thought. It had been almost
three years since he heard from his younger brother Soun. The forced separation
they lived under for much of their early and later adult lives wore heavily on
Noboyuki. Looking back he knew what he did was wrong, trying to seduce the
woman Soun was engaged to. It was a wonder Achika and Kimiko became friends,
but in a way it inevitable. Noboyuki kept the peace with his brother for her,
but now she was gone to be with her ancestors. What he wasn't prepared for was
how devastated Soun would be over Kimiko's death. How his younger brother kept
the family out of debt without running the dojo he wasn't sure. Noboyuki
suspected his father-in-law had something to do with that. Despite living in
seeming poverty, Masaki Katsuhito, keeper of the Masaki family shrine was a
wealthy man with many investments in the Nikkei Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, and Dow
Industrials. Much of the money went to funding charities, opening medical
clinics in Third World countries, and the rest went into a general fund that
would be Tenchi's inheritance once he turned eighteen and married.
Marriage. That was one subject on Noboyuki's mind. Soun called him up
with one of the most interesting proposals he'd ever heard. Long ago he and his
best friend Saotome Genma formed a giri to join their two schools by wedding
their children. The whole plan ran into a roadblock when it was discovered at
Saotome's only heir was a girl and Soun himself only have three girls as his
heirs. With no boys in the family the giri could not be honored, which
jeopardized the integrity of the Saotome and Tendo family honor. A way out was
formulated by Saotome Genma. The idea was to engage his daughter Ranma to
Noboyuki's son Tenchi, at the same time Soun would file the appropriate papers
that would make Tenchi the legal heir to the Tendo dojo while keeping his Masaki
name. The gesture of giving Tenchi the dojo wasn't needed, but it was the
spirit of the offer that intrigued Noboyuki. It was intended to bridge the gap
between to rival brothers, himself and Soun, and bring the two family back
together again while joining the Saotome and Tendo clans together via the Masaki
clan. This would form a triumvirate union that would only strengthen the three
clans well into the future. The simplistic genius of the idea was mind
boggling, but there was one problem with it. Tenchi was incredibly shy with
girls, and selling him on the idea would be very hard. Also, Noboyuki wasn't
sure what his father-in-law would say about it either.
As if on cue the elderly patriarch of the Masaki clan strolled silently
into the study holding the faxed details of the marriage contract Soun sent over
the other day. He adjusts his glasses before he decided to speak to his son-in-
law.
"The idea appears sound." He said.
"That's what I thought, but I wanted you to approve it first since it will
effect the whole Masaki clan." Noboyuki told him.
"That was wise of you." The old priest complimented him. "Do you think
Tenchi will go for this?"
That was where Noboyuki wasn't too certain. "He's pretty shy with women,
I don't even remember the last time Tenchi even had a girlfriend."
"Hmmm." Katsuhito mused. "The boy is getting older, a young man like him
without a girlfriend is unusual." He stepped into the room and took a seat next
to his son-in-law. "Maybe this is what the boy needs to get him out of his
shell." He went on. "I have become a bit concern about him, he is the heir to
the Masaki shrine and without a wife how can he continue the family line."
"So, you approve?" Noboyuki looked hopeful.
"This sort of contracts are a bit outdated, but not uncommon." The old
priest commented. "Yes, I approve."
"What do you know about this Saotome Ranma?" the priest asked.
"Only that she's lived on the road most of her life learning her clan's
martial arts style, the Anything Goes system." Noboyuki explained.
A shadow crossed Katsuhito's face just then, and vanished almost
immediately. He remembered his encounter with the Master of the Anything Goes
Martial Arts school and it wasn't a pleasant experience. There hasn't been any
sign of the old demon for a long time. So, this Ranma is heir to the family
legacy., he thought.
"You studied under that system once, did you not?" Katsuhito asked.
"Uh, only some, I don't remember a whole lot." Noboyuki grinned and
scratched the back of his head. "My younger brother was always so much better
at it than I was, and his old sparing buddy Genma wasn't too bad either."
"This marriage would bring the Anything Goes system into the Masaki clan,
combined with our own discipline this could prove quite fruitful." Katsuhito
reasoned.
"Although I don't see what Tenchi would do with a dojo." Noboyuki
wondered.
Katsuhito waved at him, "We'll cross that bridge when we get there, you
can't rush these arranged engagements, let the two get to know one another and
then start planning the wedding."
"Well, if everything is ok I'll call my brother up tomorrow and spring the
news on Tenchi." Noboyuki smiled. "Boy will he be surprised.
Katsuhito laughed and could just imagine young Tenchi's reaction. "Wait
until I return from the shrine, I miss this for anything." He grinned.
Ranma could not bring herself to hate her father, she got mad enough to
want to inflict terrible pain on him sometimes, but no she never hated him.
Genma was the only family she, he, has ever known. Despite the things he's done
to her, him, in the past Ranma could still remember the days when she, he, was
badly sick. Genma would cradle her, him, in his arms to keep her, him, warm.
Would feed her, him, when she was shivering from a terrible flu, or protected
her, him, when the night became too scary and the noises outside their tent
became too frightening. There were things he did do that were very
questionable, some outright cruel, but in the end the end he was only family
Ranma had.
She sat across the dinner table now looking at her father with wide eyed
shock. After dinner the next night her father had gotten a phone call from
somebody Mr. Tendo knew, they spoke at length, and after that phone call her dad
and Mr. Tendo called a family meeting. That was when Genma and Tendo Soun
sprang the news on an unsuspecting Saotome Ranma. The giri to join the schools
she learned about from Akane was going to be upheld despite Ranma's condition.
The two old friends were steadfast on this subject, their schools would be join
one way or another. It was how it was going to be accomplished that shocked
Ranma to her core. She was to be engaged...to a boy! Not just any boy, the son
of Tendo Soun's brother Masaki Noboyuki named Masaki Tenchi, a seventeen year
old high school student in Ohkayama, Japan.
Ranma was not sure why she did not see this coming. She knew her father
was pretty stubborn and when he put his mind to something there was little you
could do to change it. The giri to join to the two clans was on such subject,
albeit the agreement had to be modified to incorporate the Masaki clan into the
equation. There was a rift in Mr. Tendo's relationship with his older brother
and making Tenchi the heir to the dojo and upon his marriage to a Saotome was a
logical and honorable way to end the sibling feud. This would also satisfy the
honor of both the Saotome and Tendo clans in respect to the giri. Simple
enough, but for one problem. Ranma thought the whole idea stank worse than
sewer water!
"ARE YOU TOTALLY NUTS, OF ALL THE CRAZY, NUTBALL SCHEMES YOU DREAMED UP
THIS ONE IS THE WORST!!!" Ranma made her opinion of the whole idea perfectly
clear.
"I really don't see what the problem is." Genma commented.
"I'M NOT A GIRL YOU IDIOT!" Ranma cried.
Genma held up a mirror to the girl's face and asked, "Ever look in a
mirror lately?"
"Mr. Saotome, you're asking too much of Ranma right now." Akane spoke up.
"This is a matter of family honor." Genma stated, puffing up his chest.
"Since when did you ever care about honor." Ranma looked at him crossly.
Genma slammed his hand on the table rattling the tea service. "Boy! This
concerns the future of the Saotome Anything Goes school, there is nothing more
important than that!" he yelled.
"I ain't marrying a boy!" Ranma shook her head vigorously. "You can't
make me."
Ranma's father reached under the table and produced a long length of rope.
"Oh really?" he grinned. The man lunged at Ranma wrapping the robe around her
arms, but Ranma leapt up and kicked her father in the head. The man stumbled
backwards and fell into the koi pond outside. As the redhead struggled to get
free of the rope the fat panda launched an attack that Ranma easily dodged. The
two combatants faced off on either side of the dining room when Akane stood up
and yelled, "Wait!"
"Akane this doesn't concern you." Her father said.
"Ranma's my friend, just let me talk to her." Akane pleaded. "Please."
The panda held up a sign that read, "Alright."
Akane went over to the girl as she slipped out of the rope and took her
hand. "Come on." She said.
When they were gone Kasumi looked at her father and smiled. "Father,
haven't you noticed something about Akane?" she asked.
"Huh?" the Tendo patriarch replied.
"Yeah, like she's not acting like her usual 'pissed off at the whole
world' self." Nabiki shrugged.
Soun scratched his head and replied, "Come to think of it, Akane has
seemed to calm down lately."
"I think Ranma has been a good influence on her." Kasumi smiled at her
father warmly. "Too bad he isn't a boy anymore, I think they would have been
perfect together, don't you think so father?"
"Indeed." Soun sighed.
"Maybe she can talk some sense into the baka." Read the sign in the
panda's paw.
Ranma paced back and forth in the dojo. Many thoughts ran through her
head. How could her father do this to her, first he curses him so he is a she
forever, and now he expects him, her, to marry some boy she doesn't even know.
But, hey, he was expecting you to marry one of Mr. Tendo's daughters so what the
hell's the difference?, a deeper part of her mind asked herself. I'm not a
girl!, another part of Ranma's mind protested. Sure you are, and I'm the next
Maharaja., that deeper part replied sarcastically. Akane watched her with
concern, she could tell the girl/boy was suffering from many conflicting
thoughts and emotions. Just yesterday something happened that confirmed
something she suspected was starting to happen to her friend. Ranma was very
slowly changing, on the inside. He was becoming a real 'she' mentally to catch
up with her body. How that must be wreaking havoc on poor Ranma's psyche she
wasn't sure, she wasn't a psychologist so she really didn't know. There was
nothing in Akane's life that could compare to what was happening to Ranma right
now, not even all the business with Kuno and the Hentai Horde.
"I can't marry a boy, I'm a boy!" Ranma growled. "How dare that baka
suggest such a thing after what he did to me!"
"Ranma, Ranma stop, you're gonna wear a groove in the floor." Akane
pleaded. "Just try and think about it with a clear head."
"What is there to think about?" Ranma asked her and stopped her pacing.
"My pop goofed up and now he needs me to bail him out, plain and simple."
"Is it that simple, and is becoming engaged to a boy so terrible?" Akane
looked up at the redhead.
"It's a brilliant plan, yeah, I'm shock my pop actually thought it up, but
to marry a boy!" Ranma ran her hands down her face and sat down in front of
Akane.
"Look back at the past day and tell me what you remember?" Akane asked
him. "Remember what it felt like to be with my me and my friends, what it felt
like meeting that boy at the ice cream place."
Ranma thought back to the events of that day. She felt like she belonged
among the girls, she wasn't an outsider. She thought the boy that came to their
table was cute, and she was sexually aroused by Hitomi's story of her first
time. But what did it all mean?
"I do remember." Ranma replied.
"Ranma, you need to really think about this." Akane reasoned with her.
"This is your future you've got to decide."
"You're not thinking I should go through with this are you?" Ranma looked
at her friend with shock.
"All I'm saying is that I really care about you and I don't want you to
spend the rest of your life hating yourself because of what you've become."
Akane confided in her. "I don't want you to grow old never having known love.
This could be your chance."
"A chance at what?" Ranma asked, not sure she got the point.
"A chance at redemption, a second chance at life." Akane smiled.
Ranma never thought of it that way. To her, her life ended when she, he,
fell into the cursed spring at Josenkyo. Many of the things that Akane said to
her made sense and really made her think. Her experience with Akane and her
friends at the ice cream parlor for instance was a pleasant one. For the first
time Ranma felt like she fit in and was actually happy. Could she be happy
being a 'real' girl?
"I'm just scared." Ranma's voice quivered.
"Of what?" Akane looked at her.
"I'm scared that if I let go, if I let myself become up here what I am
here that I'd loss who I really am." Ranma pointed to her head and them at her
body to exemplify what she meant.
"You're afraid you'll become someone else." Akane realized.
Ranma nodded and looked down at her hands. "Sure you'll change, but I
don't think the part of you that makes you Saotome Ranma will disappear
altogether." Akane told her.
"I ain't scared of nobody, yet this scares me more than anything in the
world." Ranma admitted.
"You like travel, adventure?" Akane asked. Ranma nodded.
"Think of this as a new adventure, a new challenge for you to face." Akane
hoped she was getting through to the redhead.
Akane saw a certain gleam appear in Ranma's eyes. "A challenge?" Ranma
look up at her.
"Yeah, think of it as martial arts challenge." She suggested.
"A martial arts challenge." Ranma repeated the words. "I've never lost a
martial arts challenge as long as I can remember, I've never been defeated."
"Then don't let this defeat you, face it head on Ranma, like a challenge."
Akane smiled praying to the Kami that she was getting through to the girl/boy.
Ranma leapt up and thrust her fist into the air. "Yeah, a challenge!" she
shouted. "Saotome Ranma's never has been bested in a challenge! And I'm about
to let this thing beat me!"
"That's the spirit!" Akane cheered.
"Akane, thanks, for everything and stuff." Ranma smiled at the girl
allowing a warm feeling flow through her.
"I care about you Ranma, you're my friend, and I don't want you to
suffer." Akane replied. She reached out and hugged her friend, for a moment
Ranma didn't respond, but eventually her arms encircled the Tendo girl.
"You ready to go back in there?" Akane asked Ranma as she peered into the
girl's beautiful blue eyes.
"Yeah, lets get this over with." She replied with a faint smile.
Ranma watched the scenery of Japan pass by her window on the train to
Ohkayama. Her thought drifted back to the emotional farewell at the station
back in Tokyo. Akane was crying but was smiling in spite of her sadness in
seeing her new best friend leave. Kasumi was also crying. Ranma was going to
miss both of them, she would miss talking with Akane and being with her friends.
She also miss Kasumi, not only just for cooking, which was like better than
anything else she's ever had, but also because of her motherly touch and kindly
nature. Ranma wasn't too sure about Nabiki, she would miss the middle Tendo
sister thought. The one person she would not miss was her father. He decided
to stay behind on this trip. His reasoning was to keep the Masaki's from
finding about the curse, but Ranma suspected there was another reason for him
staying in Tokyo. Before Ranma boarded the train that would take her to the
station in Ohkayama, Akane took both of her hands and into her eyes.
"I'm gonna miss you." Ranma said, a tear falling down her cheek.
"Me too." Akane replied, streaks of many tears were already evident on her
delicate features.
"It might be a while before we meet each other again." Ranma said.
"You know, we could write one another." Akane smiled at her. "And I'm
sure my dad could afford one long distance phone call a month."
"That sounds good, we'd be like pen pals or something." Ranma mused.
"Yeah, just because you're leaving doesn't mean we still can't be friends
and talk from to time." Akane explained with a smile.
"Ok then, I'll write you in two weeks and let you know how things are
going." Ranma beamed, but the tears were still falling.
"Ranma." Akane said looking down at her hands linked with those of the
other girl.
"Yeah Akane?" Ranma did the same.
"I think I love you." She said.
"Nani?" the redhead gaped.
"I said, I love you." Akane looked into her eyes.
Ranma reacted in the only way she knew how, and drew Akane into a tight
embrace. "I love you too." She whispered.
"Take care of yourself." Akane whispered.
"I will, and give Kuno-sempei a kick in the nuts from me." Ranma laughed.
The two pulled away at arms length and Akane snickered, "Don't tempt me."
The two new best friends laughed together, hugged one last time, then waved to
one another as Ranma boarded the train. Akane stood with her family and Mr.
Saotome as the train pulled away not long after and wiped the tears from her
eyes. She somehow knew Ranma was going to be alright in her new life. Little
did she know that Saotome Ranma's adventure was only just beginning.
_________
END OF PART 1
STAY TUNED FOR...
PART 2: Autumn in Ohkayama
Saotome Ranma arrives at the Masaki residence and meets her iinazuke for the
first time. Tenchi isn't what Ranma was expecting and she starts to realize the
changes going on inside her head. Just as Ranma is about to accept the idea of
becoming a girl in mind as well as body a certain space pirate and cop come
crashing to Earth. Now Ranma has competition, watch the sparks fly in the next
episode.
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