Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Qinghai, 1983

“Please watch your step,” the guide said as the Tendo family arrived. “Behold the legendary training ground Jusenkyo.”

“Well girls,” Soun asks his three daughters, “what do you think?”

“This is it?”  his second daughter, Nabiki, said, her face unamused. “You took us to see a marsh?”

“I think it looks lovely,” his eldest daughter, Kasumi, replied. “Though I can’t help but get an eerie feeling from it as well.”

“You have a good eye miss,” the guide said. “Every spring here has a tragic tale related to it.” The guide points to one of the springs, “This one right here-”

“Hey dad! Look at all the bamboo sticking out!” Soun heard his youngest daughter, Akane say as she ran up to the springs.

“Young lad,” said the guide, “please step away from the springs!”

Akane looked at the guide angrily, “I’m a girl!”

The guide reeled back, “Oh… My apologies. But seriously, please step away from the springs, you don’t want to fall into one.”

“It’s just water,” Akane said and then proceeded to stick her tongue out while pulling down her lower eyelid. “Besides, it’s a training ground, isn’t that why we’re here?”

Soun knew this was going to come up. He hasn’t trained Akane in the Anything Goes style for years, and Akane was always bitter about it with him. Akane wanted to learn martial arts since she was a little kid, and although Soun tried to keep training her after his wife passed, he stopped when the grief became too much.

“Akane, this is just a tour, nothing more, nothing less,” Soun admitted. “Now can you please listen to the kind guide and step away from the water.”

“NO!” Akane yelled. “I thought we came here because you wanted to resume my training!”

“A-Akane I…” Soun tried and failed to find the words he needed at this moment.

“That’s the problem,” Nabiki said deadpan, “you think this will resume it, you think that will resume it. Akane, you should just give up already and accept an average normal life for once.”

“Nabiki!” Soun scolded her.

It was too late, Soun could see the tears in his youngest’s eyes. Akane ran away from them crying, deeper into the training ground.

“Young girl!” the guide yelled. “What are you doing!”

“Akane!” Soun ran after his youngest, leaving Nabiki and Kasumi with the guide. Akane ran through the training ground, almost falling into a couple of springs as she ran through. “Akane please stop, you still can’t swim if you-”

Akane lost her balance and fell into one of the springs. “AKANE!” Soun yelled at the top of his lungs. Soun jumped in after his daughter, quickly grabbing her hand before she sank too deep.

Soun is able to get the two to surface quickly, but when Soun checks his daughter, he could tell something was wrong. The guide quickly rushed over, “This is what I was worried would happen,” he said.

“What happened to my daughter!” Soun yelled, tears streaming from his eyes.

“The springs of Jusenkyo are cursed,” the guide explained, “one is cursed to transform into whatever drowned in the spring. Fortunately for you sir, this spring’s curse won’t affect you in particular.”

“Why’s that! What happened to my daughter!” Soun wanted answers and badly.

“Both of you are currently in the Spring of Drowned Boy. A truly tragic tale, it is said that 1700 years ago a boy fell into the spring and drowned. Now, anyone that falls into that spring will be cursed to transform into a guy.”

The guide continues, “It does not affect you sir because you are already a guy. Your daughter on the other hand will now turn into a boy when splashed with cold water. Only hot water can reverse the curse."

"Wh-what?!" Soun was at a loss for words, "It there a way to permanently remove the curse?"

"There is no cure," the guide said, "falling into another spring will cause the curses to mix, so the Spring of Drowned Girl will only cause person to change into an intersex person.”

Soun couldn’t believe what he was hearing, but as they get out of the water Akane immediately starts inspecting their body. Akane was still too young for any details to be too obvious, but there were still signs something was off. Her clothes were slightly tight on her, her face was slightly sharper in frame, and her shoulders had slightly more definition. Combined with her usual clothes, no one would have assumed this was a 12 year old girl just a few minutes ago.

Akane had been silent the whole time after surfacing, but it was inevitable that the first sounds she’d make after hearing the news was a loud, if a little deeper than normal, scream.

----------

Tokyo, 1987

Akane Tendo’s alarm goes off, waking the girl up from her slumber. “Four years,” She thinks as she wakes up. It had been 2 weeks since the 4 year anniversary of her accident at Jusenkyo, but it had been the first thought she’d had every morning since.

Four years of transforming into a boy. Four years of having to have two sets of clothes in case of any water accidents. Four years of being the weirdo at school, it didn’t take long for the curse to be known by her peers. Four years of being unable to be seen as a girl by anyone but her friends and family.

It didn’t matter that she was born a girl, she spent almost all of her tween years dressing and acting like a tomboy. To too many people, she was a boy, and now they think of her as a boy who turns into a girl, not a girl who turns into a boy. No amount of proof would satisfy them, birth certificates, old photos before her tomboy streak, growing her hair out. She even tried, on numerous occasions, to explain how the curse worked, all failed constantly.

Her friends believed her, but also admit they know people who would be jealous of what she got, and she could never understand who could be jealous of this. The boys on the other hand, like calling her a pervert and a freak because she dares to act like the girl SHE WAS BORN AS.

However if there was anyone who bothered her more than anyone it was Kuno. “ It’s because of Kuno I’m forced to wear the guys uniform to school. It’s because of Kuno I need to change in the nurse’s office for gym. IT’S BECAUSE OF KUNO…” Akane couldn’t muster the mental energy to finish that thought, replacing it with a simple phrase. “I hate boys,” was the only thing Akane could muster to say before getting out of bed for the day.

She opened her curtains to get a look outside, she could see a grey cloud in the far distance, which could only mean one thing, rain. Akane hated the rain, cold water according to the curse was pretty much everything room temperature or lower, so rainy days were always especially frustrating for her. Akane would hope that she could get her morning routine that day done before the rain arrived.

----------

*KIYAAAAHHH* Akane’s fist slams into the cement blocks she set up for training. She always made sure to end her routine with a strength test, to see how far she was improving. So far she could instantly shatter two cement blocks on the first go, which was a sign she should up her ante soon.

Still a lingering thought from over the years since she got her curse crossed her mind yet again after her training session ended, “I really should see how many I could break in my guy form.” Akane shook her head and forced the thought back into the recesses of her mind. She swore to never do her training regimen in her guy form, it would be cheating is what she thought, that or it would be pointless.

Also the idea of being seen intentionally in that form would rollback a ton of progress on being seen as a girl in the eyes of her peers. If her peers recognized her as a girl then maybe she could get Kuno’s grip off of her and let her resume her life the way it was decided when she was born. Though Akane could never figure out why she always felt bad thinking about that last part.

“Hey, little Sisbro,” she heard Nabiki say from behind.

“How many times do I have to tell you to not call me that!” Akane yelled. “I’m a girl Nabiki, it’s just sis.”

“In both ways or,” Nabiki said, confusing Akane as to what the other meaning of ‘sis’ could be. “Nevermind, father received a postcard in the mail, something about guests. You might want to get inside before-” *BANG* Rain almost instantly fell from the sky, soaking Akane. “-that,” Nabiki said as she stayed dry by staying under the overhang of the roof when talking to her. Akane however had to deal with the shame of returning to the house in her cursed form.

----------

Kasumi had placed a kettle on the stove to heat up so Akane could change back. Akane would do it herself, but the family hasn’t trusted her with that after one incident shortly after getting her curse. Akane sat down at the table where her father and Nabiki were seated, Kasumi arriving with a tray of snacks.

“So dad,” Nabiki said, “what’s the occasion? Finally moving on from mom?”

“Nabiki!” everyone else said in sync.

“You seriously need to watch that tongue of yours!” Kasumi scolded.

“Trust me sis I know,” Nabiki looked away from Kasumi, unfortunately for her it meant looking at the worst case of her tongue causing trouble. Nabiki then faced their father again, “But seriously what’s the occasion?”

*EHRM* Their father violently cleared his throat, probably to ignore Nabiki’s prior comment. “Well, this morning I received a postcard from an old friend of mine. His name is Genma Saotome, and he is another master of Anything Goes.”

“What!” Akane abruptly yelled, causing everyone in the room to flinch. “You mean to tell me while you were busy sulking over moms death all these years, there was someone else who could have taught me the style?!”

“N-now Akane it’s not that simple,” her father stuttered before regaining his composure. “Saotome’s style of Anything Goes is different from mine, besides I doubt he would have trained you, even if you could find him.”

“Find him?” Nabiki asked.

“Yes,” their father replied. “Saotome has been on a training journey these odd 13 to 14 years, training his own successor.”

“Oh wow!” Kasumi exclaimed.

“Successor?” Akane asked. “Really? Spending all that time on just that feels like a waste to me.”

“Says the one who would take the offer in an instant,” Nabiki jabbed.

“I have a life outside of training, Nabiki!” Akane glared at her sister.

“Yes well, Saotome and I may have very different ideas of how to train, but despite that, we were the best of buds. We even showed up to each others weddings, though I never understood how that guy was able to land such a lady as-”

*Ehrm* Akane cleared her throat to get her father’s attention.

“M-my point is,” their father said as he regained his focus, “that before any of you were born we made a promise involving the fate of Anything Goes going forward.”

“And that being?” Nabiki asked.

“That we would combine the School of Anything Goes Martial Arts THROUGH AN ARRANGED MARRIAGE BETWEEN OUR KIDS!!!!” their father shouted with a gusto the rest of his family swore he lost over a decade ago.

The room was so silent they could hear the kettle in the kitchen steaming. “Oh, I forgot about the kettle Akane,” Kasumi said. “It’s probably too hot to safely use right now.”

That kettle was an apt metaphor for how Akane was feeling at the moment, “WHAT?!?!” Their father was taken aback from Akane’s reaction. “No way! I won’t let you do this to us.”

The room became silent again. Kasumi was the first to speak up again, “Akane does have a point father,” she said, “we’ve never met your friend or his child before.”

“What if they’re not even a guy,” Nabiki asked bluntly.

“Well, the postcard says that their name is Ranma,” their father replied.

“So what?” Akane replied. “I remember a girl named Ranma in my grade in elementary school, even if she was only there for a few months and people kept calling her a boy as an insult.” Akane got along with that girl that year. They were fond-ish memories, though those memories were also reminders of her plight of being called a boy long before she even got her curse, even by Ranma sometimes.

“I mean, I know Akane looks like a guy right now and all that fun stuff,” Nabiki said, “but I seriously doubt any girl would want to date her.”

“As if I would date a girl!” Akane replied. “Do you know what that would do to my reputation?!”

“Now Akane, if it comes to that,” their father tried to reassure her, emphasis on tried.

“What will happen is you cut the engagement bullcrap and we can move on with our lives,” Akane yelled. *Aaaaaaaaaagh!* Akane marched out of the room, “I’m going out!”

“In the rain?” Nabiki asked, her tone showing an attempt at pointing out the obvious.

“Yes, because it’s better than being here right now!” Akane shouted as she put on her shoes for her guy form and left.

----------

The remaining members of the house sat in silence for a few seconds, the sound of the kettle in the kitchen and the rain outside once again being the only noises they heard.

“So uhhh…” Soun tried to bring the convo back on track. “What do you two think about this…”

“Is Ranma cute?” Nabiki asked.

“I mean I’ve never met the guy so…” Soun said, assuming Ranma’s a guy. Soun then looked at Kasumi, “What about you Kasumi?”

“How old is he?” She asked. “I don’t want a younger man.”

“Well Genma wasn’t married until…” Soun tried thinking about it, “your mother was expecting Akane any day at that point I believe. So…” Soun realized this might be harder than he thought, and that was assuming Ranma was a guy.

----------

A jog through the rain wasn’t going to help burn through Akane’s anger, she needed a full blown sprint. Running was the only thing she could think to do, it was the only option she had, there weren’t enough cement bricks in all of Tokyo to burn through Akane’s anger. So much of her life was out of her control, none of it was her fault, she just had the misfortune of being born in it.

Born to a mother who was taken from her too soon. Born to a father who would sell their dojo to a friend he hasn’t seen since before Akane was born. Born in a life that wouldn’t respect what she wanted to do with it. Born… a girl.

That last one hurt the most, but the reality of the situation was that she was born a girl so, curse or no curse, she was one. Her peers always saw her as the girl who would’ve been better off born a boy, and her curse solidified that mindset among most of them, but the fact was that she was a girl and needed to act like one like what was expected of her. That made getting away from her tomboy streak especially hard, she'd never admit to missing it, but if she knew it was only going to make her life so much harder as she got older.

The rain had finally stopped, but Akane kept running. She hated being reminded of all that her life did to ruin it, and it didn’t help that it made her remember the one fleeting friend that made all that confusion tolerable. A friend that still confused her as a boy, and didn’t somehow make her feel like that was a bad thing.

“Ranma, maybe one day we’ll meet again,” Akane thought as she ran through the crowded market. It was impossible though, finding and reuniting with one girl from 8 years ago in the sea that was Tokyo would be impossible. That was assuming they were even still in Tokyo to begin with.

Akane kept running, the crowd was starting to thin, and as it did, she could hear the sound of more footsteps coming her way. She wasn’t looking where she was going before she ran into someone heading in the opposite direction. Akane fell backwards from the force of the impact, landing on her behind.

“Ow! What’s your probl…” Akane failed to finish as she took in the person in front of her. They were a girl, their chest certainly made that apparent, “Come on Akane!” she scolded herself. “Why were the big boobs the first thing you noticed?” Her outfit was very obviously foreign, likely Chinese, and quite big on her all things considered. Lastly her hair was a bright reddish pink, it was in a pretty boyish cut, minus the pigtail braid that was tied up in the back.

The pigtailed girl spoke as she shook off the impact, “I was going to ask you that!” she shouted. The girl eyed Akane as if to ascertain every detail about her, and Akane was very lucky she was wearing her gi for her guy form when training that day. “You a martial artist?” the girl asked.

“Uhh, yeah,” Akane replied with not an ounce of confidence, “at least trying to be one.”

The girl got up and went to collect the pair of oversized shoes she dropped. “Then get out of my way,” she told her.

“Huh?!?” Akane was shocked at the vitriol in her voice.

“I don’t have time to be dealing with this crap right now!” she said, her expression showing clear anger. “I’ve had enough crazy martial artist bull this month to last a year!”

Akane shot her a confused expression, “W-what are you talking about?”

The sound of loud footsteps could be heard quickly coming their way, Akane could hear one word being shouted amongst the crowd. “PANDA!” “Is that a panda?” “It’s a panda!”

Suddenly, a giant panda appeared right behind the girl, readying to strike. Akane tried to warn the girl of its attack, but before she could, the pigtailed girl quickly gave the panda a rising kick to the stomach, sending it flying back.

“Here, hold my stuff,” the pigtailed girl said as she tossed her oversized travel pack at her. Akane wanted to admit to catching it with ease, but the sheer weight of the thing caused Akane to be knocked backwards and on the ground.

“What is in this thing,” was all she was able to say after having the wind knocked out of her.

The pigtailed girl didn’t hear her, however, as Akane looked over the pack to see her using her whole body to twist the panda’s arm and then getting sent flying by it in response. Akane follows the girl’s trajectory and is amazed as she lands on the balls of her feet on top of a stop sign.

“The gymnastics team really could use a girl like her,” Akane thought.

Akane turned her eyes towards the panda as it spins its arm, likely to detangle any twisted muscle. Once it finishes, it looks over at where the pigtailed girl was then gives a shocked expression. Akane looks back to see that the pigtailed girl was gone. Looking back at the panda, Akane got a brief glance at what looked like a pigtail behind the large bear.

“Heheh,” Akane heard the girl give a confident chuckle, right before the panda went for a backhand that she quickly dodged. She then leaped over the panda and then while she’s at its back pushes it far away from her, despite the huge weight difference.

“How is this girl that good?” Akane thought to herself. Akane realized she hadn’t moved from her spot on the ground since the pigtailed girl gave her her travel pack. She focuses on getting out from under it, she could hear the girl saying something but wasn’t really processing what.

As Akane got back on her feet, she felt a small quake and turned around. The pigtailed girl had just thrown the panda over her head and into the stop sign she perched herself on earlier, knocking it out of the concrete.

“Okay I’m heading back to China,” the girl said to the oversized panda, “have a miserable day you old fool.”

“H-hey uh…” Akane managed to stutter out.

The girl turned to face her, “What?”

“Are you sure you should be assaulting a panda like that?” Akane asked. “Aren’t they endangered?”

“Trust me,” the pigtailed girl replied, “he deserves every blow dealt. Besides, this ain’t even the worst I’ve done to him.”

“Is there a reason you managed to piss off a panda, they’re usually not this…” Akane didn’t really know how to finish the sentence, “pandas usually don’t know martial arts.”

“It’s my old man,” the girl said.

Akane gave a confused expression, “What like… it’s his pet?”

“Something like that,” was all the girl said in response before grabbing her shoes and walking over to her. “Can I have my pack back?”

“Oh yeah uh…” Akane tried handing over the pack, but quickly tossed it aside when she saw the panda get up. “LOOK OUT!”

Akane grabbed the girl and pulled her to her chest right before the panda slammed the dislodged stop sign down where the pigtailed girl was standing. Akane’s vision went red with rage, “You… BASTARD!” Akane did a rising kick straight into the panda’s jaw, knocking the oversized panda out for the count as it fell backwards. Akane didn’t realize they had so much rage left over from earlier.

“So…” Akane heard below her, making her realize she was still holding onto the girl. “What was that about not attacking an endangered species?” the girl said with a grin and a small blush.

Akane barely heard what she said as she was mesmerized by the girl’s smile and her cute face. “U-umm… uh…” Akane let go of her, unable to find the words.

“‘Umm uh’ what buddy?” the girl said, her smile resting. “I don’t have all day.”

“I-i umm,” Akane didn’t know what to say next. “M-my name is A-akane, Akane Tendo.”

“Akane?” the girl asked. “Isn’t that a girl’s name?”

“RIGHT! I’m in my cursed form, she thinks I’m a guy.” Akane thought to herself with worry. “I mean it can be a guy's name with the right kanji… I think.”

The girl thought about it for a sec, then shrugged, “It’s fine, I’m not going to throw insults at a guy for having a girly name. I knew a guy named Akane back in elementary school, at least until I had to move away a few months later.”

Akane paused on that last sentence, “wait, there’s no way.” she thought. “Well, one way to confirm it.”

“You okay?” the girl asked.

“Uh… you never told me your name,” Akane replied.

“Oh! Umm…” The girl rubbed the back of her head, “I’m sorry, I’m Ranma, Ranma SaO-”

Akane braced Ranma in a tight hug, “I can’t believe it!” she exclaimed. “And just when I was thinking I’d never see you again.”

“H-hold on…” Ranma said, sounding like they were struggling to breathe. “I think you are making assumptions!”

Akane eased her grip on Ranma, looking her in the eyes. “You’re Ranma right?” Akane asked. “Went to Jōshōko elementary in the 2nd grade for a few months before leaving in the late fall?”

Ranma looked away, clearly embarrassed, “the time frame is correct. B-but that’s not the point. Don’t you, ya’know, notice something off.”

The two hear something shift and immediately face the panda, but it was only the sign falling out of the panda’s hand. “Hey uh… why don’t we go somewhere quiet to catch up. I know a good ramen place nearby. My treat, like old times.”

“It better be,” Ranma mumbled. “I don’t have any cash on me.”

----------

After ordering their food and getting seated, it didn’t take long for food to arrive. Akane held her breath as she hoped the ramen wouldn’t spill on her, as the hot broth would revert her back to a girl. Strangely, Ranma appeared to be doing the same, but she probably just didn’t know if she’d like the food or not, that or she just realized how big her bowl is. After there were no accidents, the two ate for a bit before resuming their prior conversation.

“So Akane,” Ranma said, “as I said before we came here, didn’t you notice anything different about me since we last met?”

Akane saw that Ranma’s ramen bowl was already empty, “It certainly isn’t your appetite.”

“Ha ha,” Ranma laughed with a sarcastic tone. “But seriously Akane, look at me! Notice anything!?”

Akane took a good look at Ranma, some places more than she’d like to admit, to see what she meant. It didn’t take long for Akane to see what was different, even if she couldn’t take her eyes off of some other things. “Yeah I noticed,” Akane said.

“My eyes are up here,” Ranma said deadpan, and when Akane looked her in the eye, she noticed the unamused look on her face.

Akane rubbed the back of her head, “Sorry. But you’re right I did notice something.”

“That being?” Ranma asked.

“You dyed your hair!” Akane said, pointing to Ranma’s very brightly colored hair. Ranma gave Akane a dumbfounded expression, confusing her. “I mean, I remember your hair being black back then, but nothing else stands out, besides your… ‘generous’ developments.”

Ranma’s expression went from dumbfounded to anger, “Akane those developments were what I was talking about! Can’t you see I’m a-”

“I always knew you were a girl,” Akane said nonchalantly.

Ranma’s expression changed again, this time from anger to shock, “Excuse me?”

“Yeah,” Akane said. “In fact most of the people I knew in that class that I still interact with knew you were a girl. It was just a few bullies who called you a boy back then.”

“Oh…” Ranma looked away, face red with embarrassment, likely from her assumption.

“That’s why I became your friend by the way, because we both were…” Akane stopped herself, remembering what Ranma said that started this whole reunion. ‘I knew a guy named Akane’ is what she said before realizing it was her. And Akane is currently in her guy form, so to Ranma, they aren’t misremembering anything.

“Akane?” Ranma asked, head tilted slightly.

“Umm… We were,” Akane tries her best to come up with an excuse on the spot, “both constantly referred to as the opposite gender and stuck out for each other.” Ranma was obviously thinking about it, hopefully there wasn’t a clear memory that contradicted her cover.

“I mean… you did always hang out with those two girls before class,” said Ranma. “They probably thought you weren’t a boy cause you hung out with girls.”

“It’s actually because I wasn’t a boy, Ranma,” Akane thought, but didn't say. “Hey now, according to yourself, you weren’t much help in that regard either.”

“That’s different!” Ranma exclaimed.

“How so?” Akane asked without breaking her, at the moment, calm expression. “Last I checked you were the one who always walked up to, and wanted to play with, me.”

“Well that was because…” Ranma stopped, then looked away, “just drop it, it’s embarrassing.”

“I mean, I don’t see why it would be,” Akane replied. “I liked hanging out with you too. And how we’d always get ice cream after school before the weekend, my treat of course, and watch the sunset at the park.”

“Oh yeah,” Ranma looked as if they were thinking about it. It did come to a surprise to Akane when she started blushing, “I do remember that.”

“Yeah! I’d always get the mint chocolate and you’d alway get strawberry. I always got you an extra scoop because you were always a big eater, not to mention you always got ice cream on your face. I remember that one day when Tomoyo, I don’t know if you remember her or not, but she did your ponytail and gave you a nice ribbon to tie it with, you were really cute wearing that while eating your cone and…”

Akane just noticed how red Ranma’s face was, it was redder than her shirt as a matter of fact. Ranma was looking down, avoiding eye contact with her. “Hey Ranma, are you okay? Was it something I said?”

“I umm uh eyeh tha- was uh ah…” Ranma was failing to form a coherent sentence, reduced to a stuttering mess.

Akane couldn’t figure out what she said to cause this. Then it hit her, “Oh no! Did she have a crush on me back then?” Akane was starting to panic on the inside. “This isn’t good, I was just being a good friend to my poor, and admittedly gluttonous, friend. Why would she have a crush on me?”

“S-sorry about that,” Ranma finally managed to say.

“Wh-what got you so flustered?” Akane said, forcing a reassuring smile in hopes of getting a clear answer.

“I-i-i-it’s n-nothing,” Ranma said, still beat red, and now turning her whole head away.

“OH GOD IT’S TRUE!” Akane panicked in her mind, “She’s in love with a boy that never existed.”

“Umm…” Akane tried to think of a way to change the subject. “So where are you staying in Tokyo? We only saw each other at school, living in opposite directions to the place. I'd like to have you back in my life and be able to visit regularly.”

Ranma’s blush wasn’t fading, but she was able to answer this question semi-coherently, “Well… pops and I have been all over the place. We just got back to Tokyo today and he was planning to make us stay with his friend. I don’t know anything about them though, so I don’t know if they’d let me bring a friend over. Not that I want to stay.”

“That’s a shame,” Akane said with disappointment in her voice. Akane wanted to rekindle their friendship, but if Ranma doesn’t know where she’s living at the moment there is only one thing to do. “Why don’t you come over to my place for now? I could even give you the home phone number so we could stay in touch.”

“Now he’s giving me his number?” Ranma mumbled, blush still not fading.

Akane gave a nervous chuckle, “Seriously, what am I doing that’s making her blush so badly?”

----------

The two of them were walking down by a canal in Nerima, “We should be getting close to my family’s dojo soon.”

“You have a dojo?” Ranma asked. “I guess you did say you were trying to be a martial artist.”

“Yeah but… you’re clearly very good at it,” Akane said.

*Tch* Ranma scoffed, “That fight at the market was nothing impressive.”

Akane wondered why she said that, as if she was not currently balancing on the canal fence with no effort. “Are you kidding me?! You were amazing!”

Ranma hopped down from the fence, her blush had returned as she tilted her head down to the ground.

Akane tried to change the subject, “Where did you live before returning to Tokyo?”

“Oh, we’d been wandering all over China for the past couple years,” Ranma said.

“China!” Akane replied in intrigue.

The two walked in silence for a bit, not sure where to take the conversation. Akane then remembered something, “Oh yeah, my father is expecting guests to arrive at any time, so they might be there when we arrive.”

“That’s fine, I’ve never been nothing but a guest wherever I go,” Ranma said.

“Have you ever stayed in one place for more than a year?” Akane asked.

“Nope,” Ranma replied. “Pops and I have been wandering and practicing martial arts for as long as I can remember.”

That tickled a thought in Akane’s mind, “Why does that sound familiar?”

It wasn’t much longer before they saw the Tendo Dojo in the distance. The two arrived at the front gate, then turned towards each other. “Look, I know it was probably awkward running into an old friend on your first day returning to Tokyo. But I hope this time you’re able to settle in this time.”

“What do you mean,” Ranma asked, anger rising in her voice. “I’m just going to find a place to prepare before returning to China!”

Akane reeled back a bit from her anger, “R-right you mentioned that earlier!”

“Yeah!” Ranma said. “Settling down is my old man’s idea! And not for my sake either!”

“Really?” said Akane, intrigued.

*Uh huh* Ranma nodded, “that jerk wanted to apparently fulfill a promise he made before I was born. And not to my benefit, NOOOOOO! The jerk wanted to get me married to his friend’s kid!”

There was an eerie silence in the air as Akane started to think about all the coincidences up to this point. A child named Ranma, who’s been on the road their whole life training in martial arts, and is being engaged because of her father’s promise to friend decades ago. “Wh-what was your family name again?”

“Saotome! Ranma Saotome!” she said with a hint of anger in her voice.

Just then, Akane heard the sound of the front gate being quickly opened. “WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?” she heard what sounded like her father scream.

The two turn to see the rest of Akane’s family standing on the other side of the front gate. “And here I thought you were just bringing over a girlfriend,” Nabiki said to Akane.

“You’re really the person we were expecting,” Kasumi said to Ranma.

“Y-y-you’re a… girl?!?” Akane's father said as he pointed at Ranma.

Ranma turned towards Akane, clearly angry, “Okay what’s going on?!”

“It appears that the friend of your father you mentioned… is my father,” Akane said in a nervous tone.

“What!?!” Ranma said, anger not subsiding.

“Well Akane,” Akane heard Nabiki say, prompting the two to turn to her and see her smiling mischievously. “Congratulations! Hope you enjoy your new fiancee!”

“Well… they seem to get along just fine,” Kasumi said.

“Hang on!” Ranma and Akane said in unison. “We never agreed to this!” The two then looked at each other before averting their eyes, blushing.

“Hey!” Nabiki said to get back their attention. “Is that a panda?”

Akane was confused, turned around, then immediately jumped back as the panda from earlier was just… randomly at their front gate. It was at this point that Akane’s father finally fainted.

Chapter Text

Ranma didn’t really expect the day to go how it has so far, except the part where he beat up his father for doing something stupid, he definitely expected that. No, what he wasn’t expecting was to reunite with an old friend from one of his times at an elementary school, and for that old friend to admit that he thought Ranma was a girl back then.

Then for that old friend to turn out to be related to pops’ friend, even though pops never even bothered to a.) mention him, and b.) mention the engagement plans. The engagement plans could also be thrown into that pile of ‘didn’t expect to happen today,’ as he really didn’t know his old man was planning on marrying him off to some generic chick in the middle of Tokyo.

Ranma was just lucky he didn’t seem to inherit anything from the old man genetically as far as he could tell, and hopefully that meant his hairline as well. He was apparently, quite the looker according to his peers. Not that he could see it, he always hated looking at his reflection lately. But despite that, he was a perfect man among men if anyone were to see him… at least until two weeks ago.

That was when his old man decided to take him to that cursed training ground all the way out in China, the result of which led to him leaving with a, very ironic, girl curse. Now he turns into a girl when splashed with cold water, and can only become a man again when splashed with hot water. What makes it worse is how much the curse fights to make you want to stay in it, as it seems to make your uncursed form feel worse to be in. Though pops says that he sounds insane whenever he mentions that.

Now here he was, in his girl form, in his old man’s friend’s house, watching Akane’s eldest sister tend to her father after he fainted earlier. “This was what I am doing instead of going back to Jusenkyo for a cure?” Ranma thought, “I didn’t know why pops made us leave instead of asking the guide where the boy spring was, but that had to be the cure for them, it just had to!”

Ranma decided to not think about why his father wouldn’t rush to cure them immediately and instead turn his attention to his surroundings. He was between Akane and Akane’s younger of the two sisters, and his father was behind him, still cursed as well. Ranma was surprised that his father hadn’t focused on changing back yet, there was already a kettle set out when they got there for some reason, but Ranma could only guess he wanted to make sure his friend was okay. Ranma on the other hand didn’t want to change back until he could explain it properly to Akane.

“Poor father,” the eldest Tendo child said, “all of those sudden reveals must have been quite a shock.”

“Yeah, well,” said the middle Tendo child, “What isn’t a shock is that I’m disappointed that I’m not the one getting a fiance.”

“C’mon Nabiki,” Akane said to her, “you shouldn’t be disappointed just because Ranma turned out to be a girl.”

Ranma wanted to correct Akane right there, but he also wanted to vanish right then and there instead of being between the two siblings. It didn’t help that, until Ranma got out of his cursed form, they’re going to assume he’s a girl. Even then, he definitely didn’t want to get forcibly engaged to Nabiki instead.

“Says the person that father is definitely going to force Ranma onto,” Nabiki said.

“Nabiki,” Akane groaned. Nabiki got up, walked over to the otherside of Akane, and whispered something in his ear. Akane recoiled from what was said, “N-n-now’s not the time for that!” Akane yelled. “Besides we should wait until father recovers, and for Mr. Saotome to arrive.”

Ranma knew that was when he wanted to explain the curse to them, but what would they have to mention? “These are city folk, so there’s no way a dojo boy like him has been to a place like Jusenkyo. So what info are they holding on me?”

Nabiki raised an eyebrow, “You sure? I thought you’d want to have tea now… but if you think so then… suit yourself.” Nabiki then turned to face her father, “But seriously father, if you were as serious about this engagement as you said you were, you should’ve checked with your friend at some point about their child's gender.”

“Saotome was confident he’d have a son!” the Tendo patriarch yelled.

“Yeah, well confidence doesn’t cause F-cups now do they?” Nabiki said, sarcastically. “Can’t stop staring at them, can you Akane?”

Ranma looked at Akane after that comment, and Akane’s eyes darted away from him when he noticed. Ranma was unamused, the guy constantly oogling him, and he was so bad at hiding it. Ranma didn’t want to judge Akane for all the staring, he’s stared at his own breast plenty over the past 2 weeks since getting them. Though he had to draw a line at the constant flirting. 

He didn’t remember Akane being such a flirt when they were kids, but back then he thought Akane knew he was a guy. Except now he knew he didn’t and now Ranma was recontextualizing every interaction he had with the guy from the lens of a girl.

Treating him with ice cream every weekend, complimenting his outfits despite his limited wardrobe at the time, calling him cute when he had a girly ribbon tying his ponytail that one time. Ranma was blushing from the amount of embarrassment he got from not recognizing it sooner, “Akane’s a flirt!” Ranma thought to himself. “And if I don’t say something soon, I’m going to be forced into marrying him!”

*OOOOH* Nabiki yelled, “I think you’re embarrassing her, Akane.”

“Nabiki!” Akane yelled. “I’m not trying to…” Akane failed to finish his sentence. *ahg* “Kasumi, can you please help me here!”

“Nabiki!” Kasumi said. “How many times have we been over this! If you have nothing nice to say, then…”

“…then you’re better off saying nothing,” Nabiki finished. “I’ve heard that a million times sis.”

“Maybe she’d stop telling you it if you actually did it for once!” Akane said to her.

“I don’t have time for this,” Nabiki deflected, then started leaving the room. “Enjoy your fiancee, ‘bro!’”

“Hang on!” Akane shouted, but it was too late, Nabiki left the room before she could see how much of a blushing fool she made out of Ranma. A blush that Akane quickly capitalized on, “H-how about I show you the dojo?” Akane asked him with a smile.

“S-sure… That’ll be fine,” Ranma replied. “I’ll talk with Akane about his habit of flirting AFTER I change back. Right now I just need to not think about how his genuine smile is making me feel.”

----------

Akane was forcing a smile as she brought Ranma to the dojo, “What am I going to do about this engagement?! The moment she finds out I’m a girl she’s gonna freak!” Akane has been stressed the whole time Ranma was here, hoping that her family wouldn’t give away that Akane was actually a girl.

“I don’t care about the engagement itself,” she thought to herself, “but if Ranma’s in love with me, that means she’ll be willing to go through with it even if she says otherwise. I mean, I like her as a friend and would be more than willing to spend a lifetime with her… Did I say that? No I didn’t! But who knows what that means if the truth gets out!”

Her thoughts continued, “I just got her back into my life, I want her to be a part of it, but if she finds out she fell in love with a girl, she’ll be heartbroken!” Even as Akane walked out onto the path between the house and dojo, her thoughts continued to spiral. “Girls can’t date girls, it’s unnatural, and girls definitely can’t marry girls either! I’m one water accident away from ruining her life, I can’t let that happen.”

“Um, Akane?” Ranma said.

“I’ll just live my life as a boy,” Akane let his thoughts go wild, “shouldn’t be hard, I was practically doing that already!”

“Akaaaaaaaaane…” Ranma said.

“I just need to convince my friends and peers to go along with it for a while until it becomes second nature,” He continued to think, “however long it takes. Then from there it should be smooth sailing!”

“Akane?” Ranma said once again.

…

…

“WAIT, WHAT AM I THINKING!” Akane panicked as she realized what she just thought about. “I’m a girl, I have to be a girl! There’s no other choice in the matter! Born a girl, be a girl! That’s how the world works, anything else is perverted and wrong and…”

“AKANE!!!” Ranma shouted in Akane’s ear, at least as close as the girl could with her short stature.

“Huh?!?” Akane was violently snapped out of her spiraling thoughts. “What?!?”

“The dojo,” Ranma said pointing at the front door. “You were gonna show me?”

“R-right! Right!” Akane said as she refocused, opening the door to the dojo. “D-do you know kempo?”

“A little,” Ranma said. “I mean I tend to mix and match whatever’s necessary. Y’know, Anything Goes and what not.”

“Y-yeah!” Akane replied. “How about a spar?”

“Huh?”

“A spar! Get our minds off that engagement stuff!”

“Sure!” Ranma said, arms behind her head. “As long as it gets your mind off of however many pick up lines you came up with on the way here.”

Akane looked at her with a confused expression, “What are you talking about? The only thing I want to pick up is you.” Akane figured the context of the spar would be enough for her to get it. “Wait, why is she red in the face again?”

“Just start punching already!” Ranma shouted angrily, putting her arm from behind her head to behind her back.

Akane quickly bowed, nervous as to what he did wrong, then got into proper form. Ranma, on the other hand, kept their hands behind their back. “Is she leaving herself wide open?” Akane steeled herself, and got ready to go straight for the win.

Akane suddenly felt weightless and a sharp pain in her stomach, at least until she hit the floor of the dojo with a thud. Akane looked at Ranma, she appeared to have not moved at all.

“Point,” was all Ranma said.

“I didn’t even see you hit me,” Akane said as she got up.

“I wasn’t that fast,” Ranma said.

“How humble,” Akane muttered. “Let’s go again.”

The next few minutes, or was it an hour, was more of the same. Akane getting bested by Ranma in every round, failing to land a blow while she gracefully dances around getting strike after strike after strike.

On what ended up being the last round, Ranma decided to be extra playful and get up against the wall. Thinking she had her cornered, Akane went in for a strong blow, her fist blowing through the wall. Ranma however, merely jumped over it, and also jumped over Akane while at it.

Akane didn’t have time to react as Ranma gracefully tapped Akane on the back of the next. Akane turned around to face Ranma, expecting her to once again say ‘point.’ She didn’t however, she just smiled, a really cute smile, then started giggling.

Akane decided to join in and started laughing himself. It took a few seconds before they managed to stop. “You’re pretty good- no, you’re amazing!” Akane said.

“Don’t I know it,” Ranma said with confidence.

“I’m just glad you’re not a guy,” Akane said without thinking.

“Huh?” Ranma seemed shocked by that statement. “Okay… that’s your worst one yet.”

“What?” Akane had no idea what she meant by that. “No, I meant it.” Akane’s mood soured, causing her to clench her fists, “I hate boys… o-other boys to be more accurate. They’re all selfish jerks who think they know what’s best for everyone. It doesn’t matter if they’re wrong, they’ll be so stubborn about thinking they’re right and be adamant about it until no one opposes them anymore.”

Akane clenches her fists hard enough to draw blood, “That’s why I never want anything to do with any other boy ever again. Other than my father, I’ll never want another boy in my life ever again!”

Akane relaxed her fist, breathing heavily after venting her frustrations with boys, and turned towards Ranma. Ranma’s face was pale, as if all the blood was drained from her face. She kept her hands close to her heart, Akane could admit it made her look a lot more delicate than she actually was.

Ranma kept trying and failing to maintain eye contact as before breaking silence. “S-so you… like… HATE hate boys is what you’re saying?”

Akane realized that she probably made Ranma uncomfortable. “Hey now,” she grabbed Ranma’s hands, “you don’t have to be so scared. I’m not going to judge you if you want to make friends with any guys or anything like that.”

Ranma avoided eye contact for some reason, “I-i-i…” Ranma pulled her hands away from her, “I think I just need some fresh air after all that sparing.”

“Okay, I’m going to stay here for a bit longer,” Akane replied. “Please, do whatever you want, I’ll always appreciate that smile.”

Akane swore she heard Ranma groan for some reason, “What did I say?”

----------

“Akane’s gonna kill me with pick up lines at this rate,” Ranma said as he viewed the sunset. “That’s assuming he doesn’t kill me when he finds out I’m a guy.”

Ranma had been mulling over Akane’s rant after their spar since leaving the dojo. “I should’ve told him the truth right away,” Ranma thought to himself. “ Why didn’t I? Was it because I couldn’t show it? I guess I did wait until I’d finished my ramen bowl to bring it up. But I was hungry, and I’m not going to say no to free food, especially when pops isn’t around to steal it. Still, I could’ve used Akane’s bowl, but that would’ve been rude.”

There was a different reason Ranma considered, “I guess the only other reason I could think was that it was… nice being treated like that by Akane. Most guys who see the real me tend to keep their distance or challenge me to a fight. Not that I blame them of course, I have this freak of nature ultra muscle body that I’m told is handsome, but I just look at it and get disgusted by it.”

The memories of how Ranma felt after falling into the Spring of Drowned Girl still linger in the back of his mind. “Stupid curse, making me look back at my guy form in disgust. But besides that one crazy girl who chased across China, everyone’s been so nice to me as a girl, while my guy side got nothing but threats. I can’t blame them, I am a total cutie, even if I want to hurl whenever a guy flirts with me.”

“Yet Akane doesn’t make me feel that way, too much at least, compared to some real pervs in china,” Ranma considered. “Sure he’s an absolute flirt, the flirtiest of flirts even, but even if I can’t ever see those memories of us as kids as anything more than Akane’s attempts at flirting with me back then, I can’t deny it. Being treated like a girl is… nice.”

Ranma shook his head, “What am I thinking?” he said aloud.

“I don’t know, what are you thinking?” said a soft voice behind him.

Ranma bolted around to see who said that, only to ease when he saw it was just Akane’s eldest sister, Kasumi he believed her name was. “Don’t scare me like that,” Ranma said.

“Oh, my bad,” Kasumi said, putting her hand to her cheek. “I just wanted you to know that your father finally arrived.”

*GULP* Ranma swallowed a large amount of air, “That’s… good to know.”

“Though I would’ve preferred if he could’ve at least knocked before entering,” Kasumi said, pondering. “He kinda just showed up out of nowhere. That panda from earlier also vanished as well.”

“Heheheh…” Ranma could only chuckle as he knew exactly why pops suddenly showed up and the panda vanished.

“By the way Ranma,” Kasumi changed the subject, “the bath is ready. It’s almost dinner and I’d rather you not show up all sweaty.”

“I… I’m good, seriously,” Ranma said, trying their best to get out of the situation in front of them.

“No I insist,” Kasumi said, not breaking her smile. “Besides father and Mr. Saotome want everyone in one place, something about the ‘current situation of the engagement.’”

*Sigh* Ranma knew at that point he wasn’t getting out of this. “Fine! But I’m taking my sweet time in there.”

“That’s fine. Take as long as you need.”

----------

Ranma got clean in the bathroom, “The Dragon Whisker curse only affects me in guy form and this is the first private bath I’ve ever had since, so I’m being thorough about this while I can.” The Dragon Whisker curse was another curse he picked up in China, causing a guy’s hair to shoot out until it's all gone. Unless they’re bald where it causes natural hair growth to return. Only a Dragon Whisker, used to tie the victim’s hair in a pigtail, can halt the effects of the curse.

Ranma had to do a ton of mental gymnastics in order to explain why he spent the past week keeping his hair in the pigtail. He knew that if his old man knew what his ‘simple hair tie’ could do, he’d do anything to get it. Then he’d be doomed to forever live the rest of his life in his cursed form, fearing any and all hot water, less his hair shoots out of his scalp.

For now though, Ranma was just relishing in being able to let it out for the time being. “I’ll have to tie it back again before entering the furo,” Ranma thought to himself as he poured the basin of water over his head. *Brrrr* “That’s so cold!”

Ranma sat there in silence, pondering about Akane, “What am I going to do about Akane? I want to be his friend but… after what he said, there’s no way that could happen. If I could somehow convince pops to keep my curse secret, maybe. But that means that Akane’s father will likely try to convince pops to marry us together.”

Ranma considered a life with Akane. “Not that it’d be bad to be with him, assuming he drops the pick up lines and flirts, but the longer I put this off, the worse it’ll feel… for both of us probably when it gets revealed.”

Ranma shook his head, “I should stop with this train of thought, I’m a guy, a man among men! If Akane gets upset about the truth I’ll just leave, not like I care about marrying Kasumi or Nabiki anyways! They don’t seem like bad- Okay, KASUMI doesn’t seem like a bad person, but they feel more like a big sister more than anything. Nabiki, on the other hand, has this aura about her that scares me in a way I can’t put to words.”

Ranma finally gets up and walks towards the furo. He gets ready to change back into a guy when he realizes something, “Wait! Almost forgot the pigtail!” Ranma grabbed the Dragon Whisker from the sink and started re-braiding his hair. He thinks he has it, but it falls loose before he could tie the whisker. “I got to get better at this.”

After a few minutes of fumbling the pigtail, Ranma finally gets a decent one in place. “Finally, now to change back!” Ranma walks over to the furo, ready to step in, when he hears the sliding door to the bathroom open. Ranma turns to see who entered while he was in there. It was Akane!

Ranma had a ton of thoughts forming and none finishing. Akane was here, walking in on her, naked. He was staring at a girl’s body, her body, breaching her privacy. Yet Akane didn’t appear to even blush! Ranma’s body went redder than it ever had before. There were plenty of things that she could do here, but her mind decided to take the rest of the night off at that moment, leaving only one choice.

*YIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH*

----------

A Few minutes Earlier

Nabiki walked out of her room and down the stairs to the dining room, apparently Mr. Saotome finally arrived and wanted the whole house to show up. Before she got there she ran into Akane, who appeared to be heading up the stairs. Unfortunately for Nabiki she smelled him before he got close.

“P-yew, I can smell you from here y’know,” she said.

“Very funny Nabiki,” Akane said unamused.

“Seriously though, you look like you ran a marathon,” Nabiki said. “I hope all that sweat was from training and not… other activities a guy does alone after seeing a cute girl.”

“GROSS! Nabiki!” Akane was clearly angry with her, why was beyond her understanding.

“Whatever,” Nabiki said as she walked past the walking stink bomb, “by the way the bath is ready in case you want to hop in and change back or something like that.”

“I can’t Nabiki,” Akane said in a ‘sad?’ tone. “Not until I explain things to Ranma.”

“Whatever,” Nabiki couldn’t care less about what their brother-in-denial thinks about her soon-to-be sister-in-law. “There’s no way dad would let his age-old plan go up in flames, especially with Akane’s curse factored in.”

Nabiki arrives at the dining room, finally getting a sight of Mr. Saotome. *gag* “Your daughter took nothing from you, that's for sure,” she said to Mr. Saotome.

“Nabiki!” her father scolded her.

“That was the wrong thing to say, was it,” she thought to herself.

“Just because a statement is true, doesn’t mean you should say it,” Kasumi said, clearly upset with her. “Now sit down while we wait for Akane and Ranma.”

“Why do WE have to wait for them?” Nabiki asked. “Why can’t they just relay this info to them later.”

Father was clearly thinking, “Well, I guess we could use the time waiting to explain some things.”

“Agreed Tendo,” Mr. Saotome replied.

Nabiki sat down by Kasumi, grabbing one of the rice cookies on the table. There was a brief silence before someone spoke up.

“I’m afraid there is a complication when it comes to the arranged marriage, Saotome,” father spoke up first.

“You’re right there is, Tendo,” Mr. Saotome replied. “Because Ranma isn’t marrying your son that’s for sure.”

“Well…” father rubbed the back of his head.

“Wait…” Nabiki spoke up, “Why would you arrange a marriage for your daughter if you won’t let her marry the only son of the family?”

“Well girl,” Mr. Saotome faced her, “That’s because I don’t have a daughter, I have a son, and that…” Mr. Saotome pointed towards the stairs, “is the result of a training accident two weeks ago.”

“The stairs have been there long before that,” Nabiki replied. “And why are you calling Ranma your son? Ranma is clearly a girl. A training accident can’t swap someone’s sex!”

“Nabiki,” father said in a wooden tone, “might you remember 4 years ago, what was the place that Akane had her accident described as again?”

*Scoff* “Please father, that's easy,” Nabiki replied. “It was described as a ‘cursed… training ground…’”

“Thank you,” was all her father replied with. “Saotome, I take it you and Ranma went to Jusenkyo while you were in China?”

*hmmm* Mr. Saotome was scrunching his forehead, “judging by what you’ve said, you’ve been yourself, have you not?”

“Correct,” father replied, “Akane is not my son, but my daughter, she looks like that because she fell into the Spring of Drowned Boy 4 years ago. Judging by how Ranma showed up, I take it he fell into the Spring of Drowned Girl?”

“Fell wouldn’t be the right word,” said Mr. Saotome. “Me and the boy were sparring when he knocked me into the Spring of Drowned Panda.”

“OH,” Kasumi finally said something, “So you were the panda that disappeared earlier!”

“Yes,” Mr. Saotome admitted.  “A great shame on me, but not as shameful as what happened next. I leapt out of the spring, unaware of my transformation, roaring to resume our spar. Suddenly the boy turned chicken and started fleeing. I, completely in the zone, got a clear shot on the boy, accidentally knocking him into the Spring of Drowned Girl. It was when I saw that what popped out of the spring was not my son, but a girl that looked a lot like a younger version of my wife, that I realized my own transformation.”

“I mean… I’d turn chicken too if I saw a giant fat panda chasing me,” Nabiki said.

*SIGH* Father let out a large sigh for some reason, “I am… so deeply sorry for my daughter’s ‘comments.’ Her mother insisted something was ‘special’ with her but I could never deduce what she meant by that.”

Nabiki didn’t exactly like being reminded of the only person who was gentle and kind with her whenever she ‘said something wrong.’ Not even Kasumi could claim that, and she was the nicest person she knew. She was the only nice person she knew now that she thought about it, everyone else was either a scumbag, a pervert, or in the case of her clients: both.

“Then it appears,” father resumed, “that there isn’t actually an issue with the arrangement.”

“Indeed it does, Tendou,” Mr. Saotome replied.

“Ranma should be done with her bath soon,” Kasumi said. “Nabiki, where’s Akane?”

“Last I saw him he was going upstair, I told him the bath was re-”

*YIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH*

That was not the sound of Akane’s girl form screaming, which meant it could only be one other person. It didn’t take long for the sound of running to become the sound of fists flying and people screaming.

“PLEASE WAIT-” “I THOUGHT YOU WERE-” *SLAM* “-A SECOND! I DIDN’T-” “-JUST A WOMANIZER!” *THUD* “-KNOW YOU WERE IN-” “BUT NOW-” *CRASH* “-THERE! I THOUGHT IT WAS-” “-I SEE WHAT YOU REALLY ARE!” *BANG* “-EMPTY! I DIDN’T MEAN TO-” “YOU PERVERT!! ”

The sounds got closer and closer until they heard the sound of someone being grabbed by the throat, followed by the sight of Ranma slamming Akane into the floor in front of the stairs, both still naked. 

Ranma sat on top of Akane, “HOPE YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SAW! CAUSE IT’S THE LAST THING YOU’LL EVER SEE!!!” Ranma screamed as she readied what looked like a beatdown on an immobile Akane.

Mr. Saotome got Ranma off of Akane before anything more could happen. “Ranma, enough! What’s the meaning of this!?”

“That pervert peeked on me in the bathroom!” Ranma yelled.

“It was an accident!” Akane said as he sat up, voice raspy from being choked earlier. “I didn’t know you were in there!”

“OH that’s what you WANT them to believe!” Ranma yelled back. “‘Oh I just HAPPENED to walk in on the girl I’ve been flirting with all day!’ He said with the honestly of snake oil salesmen!”

“What are you talking about?” Akane said. “I never flirted with you!”

Even Nabiki could usually tell when Akane was lying, he was really bad at it even when he tried, so Nabiki knew she could trust her brother-in-denial that he wasn't trying to flirt, even if to Ranma it seemed that way. Still, this whole debacle had given her an idea. A truly awful idea, and one she knew she needed to execute on now if she wanted to see it through.

“Oh yeah?!” Ranma glared at Akane, “Then what was it, HUH!?!”

“Ranma, enough!” said Mr. Saotome. “Quit acting like a little girl and change back into a…”

“Now now,” Nabiki interrupted before Mr. Saotome could ruin things. “I think we can all agree that this was just a huge misunderstanding.”

“We all CANNOT agree!” Ranma shouted at her.

“But we can’t let this spoil everything Ranma-chan!” Nabiki continued, “After all, it only makes sense for you two to get engaged.”

“Nabiki, can we first explain-,” her father started, but Nabiki quickly reclaimed control of the conversation.

“OH, father and Mr. Saotome knew that it was already decided by fate! Akane Tendo, sole male of the Tendou School, and Ranma Saotome, only child and fierce tigress of the Saotome School. Childhood friends for a time, separated through ignorance, but fated to find each other again and fulfill a promise between families!”

“Tendo!” Mr. Saotome yells, “get your daughter to shut up! I will not have her saying that about my-”

“Were such a fated bond to be squashed, it would be a tragedy greater than Julius Caesar.” Nabiki knew she needed to strike, because now was when the iron was hottest! “They see the other’s love as clear as day, not even the deepest of secrets could possibly shatter it!”

If Nabiki could control time, she would pause it right there. Right at the moment the color drained from Ranma and Akane’s faces. She knew they had bonded enough that this incident could be overlooked after a while, but she also knew they haven’t changed back since meeting each other. Not that she needed the details, Akane was still a guy even when he’d been home for a few hours. Ranma could’ve done the same but hadn’t, even though she knew that, as far as she could tell, she’d be engaged to a guy because of it if she didn’t. Not that she seems to mind.

If anything, Nibiki could assume they were still like this to not shatter their illusion of their old friend, one they hadn’t seen in forever, worried of the consequences. “ Now all I need to do is convince the fathers- actually, I think Kasumi would be able to do a better job at that… I think, assuming I can get her to go along with this.”

There was a long quiet after that. Kasumi had apparently walked upstairs and grabbed Ranma and Akane some clothes while Nabiki was doing her big speech, as she was walking down the stairs when she finished.

“Is she done talking that nonsense?” Mr. Saotome asked, the ignorance of fine arts of acting oozing from his slouched posture.

“Nabiki,” her father said, wooden, “I think that we need to talk to somebody after today. Regardless I think we should discuss things moving forward over some ‘tea.’” Nabiki could see Ranma and Akane flinch at the mention of tea, meaning they knew what was going to be discussed. They fear being caught, and will do anything to make sure to keep their lie going. “You two! Get dressed!” As Kasumi handed them their clothes to change into, Ranma spoke up.

“W-wait!” Ranma shouted, causing everyone to freeze. “F-fine, I’ll accept it was a misunderstanding,” Ranma said, hands on her hips. “I-i think I could give Akane… a second chance.”

Mr. Saotome’s face showed confusion, and father’s showed shock. Nabiki then faced Akane, who was looking back and forth between the fathers and Ranma.

Nabiki spoke up, “What about you Akane?”

“Huh? OH!” Akane got up fully, then cleared his throat as he got dressed, “Yes! Yeah! A second chance is all we need!”

“Now wait a minute Akane!” her father said. “You don’t have the big pic-”

“Father!” Nabiki brought back the dramatics, “Are you saying you’re backing down from the engagement!”

“N-n–n-n-n–no Nabiki!” her father stuttered out. “But this is-”

“I think they’d make a wonderful couple like this!” Kasumi speaks up.

“Thanks Kasumi!” Nabiki thought. “Though I wonder if she’s caught onto what I am doing or not.” Nabiki continued, “Well, it seems like it’s 4 against 2 in favor of this.”

Father and Mr. Saotome both looked at each other, grimacing at the situation they’ve been put in. “I really think we should still discuss-” father started before getting interrupted.

“What’s there to discuss!?” Ranma and Akane said in unison.

“Besides, who said anything about us getting engaged!” Ranma said.

“Yeah! We’re just giving ourselves a second chance at being friends!” Akane continued. “Even then, this is the only way the engagement can happen anyway, right?”

“Y-yeah!” Ranma said, knowing that she could just reveal her curse and choose to marry Kasumi or her. “Shouldn’t you be happy I’m giving the pervert a second chance!”

Akane flinched at the comment, prompting him to turn towards Ranma, “Who are you calling a pervert?! I thought we agreed it was a misunderstanding!”

“Oh please!” Ranma said, folding her arms underneath her breasts. “I’ll cave in on your ‘misunderstanding’ claim, but you still stared at me naked! That alone is more than enough proof you’re a pervert!”

“Come on! That doesn’t make any sense!” Akane replied.

“Neither is a guy walking in on a girl and doing nothing but staring!” Ranma shouted.

“Don’t know where she got that idea from,” Nabiki thought. “I know plenty of guys who would stare.”

As the two argued, Nabiki saw Kasumi walk up to her father and Mr. Saotome, whispering into both of their ears. “Ranma and Akane getting engaged are the only way you two are getting your combined martial arts schools, and I think keeping their curses hidden from each other is the only way that will happen. Besides, I think they’re cute together this way.”

“So she did catch on,” Nabiki thought.

Father mulled on what Kasumi said for a sec, then cleared his throat. *Ehrm* “W-well, I suppose they are getting along.” Mr Saotome closed his eyes and nodded in response.

“We are most certainly not,” Akane replied.

“Such a shame,” Nabiki said sarcastically, “you two would’ve made the perfect couple.”

“There is nothing perfect about this!” Akane shouted back. “And as for you!” Akane pointed at Ranma. “You saw me naked too!”

“There’s a big difference between a guy and a girl being seen!” Ranma shouted back. Ranma looked away pouting, “and besides, I know what I have! I’m irresistibly hot!”

“You?!” Akane said, a slight chuckle slipping through. “Maybe to someone who likes slutty tomboys! In fact, I know something that would sell that look better! A DAMN HAIRCUT!”

*SLAM!*

In the blink of an eye, Ranma slammed the dining room table on top of Akane. 

“Now that, he had coming,” Mr. Saotome said.

Ranma walks around the turned over table and heads upstairs, “I’m finishing my bath!”

----------

“Stupid Akane!” Ranma was still bitter about Akane’s hair comment. “How would you feel if someone gave YOU a haircut!”

Still simmering from the earlier fight, Ranma finally stepped foot into the furo and changed back into a guy. He shot up in height, his shoulders broadened, chest flattened, arms thickened, and that off feeling returned. “Finally! Back to normal.”

Ranma laid in there for a while, realizing what he’s putting himself up to. “Am I really going to pretend to be a girl full time? What if Akane was just exaggerating?” Ranma shook his head, “After that stunt there’s no way he’d take it well.”

Ranma heard the sound of a sliding door opening. “Well well well, Mr. Saotome was right! You are a guy.”

Ranma quickly turned to face the sound of the voice, only to immediately cover his eyes when he sees it’s Nabiki, naked. “Oh god, really?!”

“Well at least you’re not a hypocrite,” Nabiki said nonchalantly as she sat down on a stool. “It’s such a shame you chose to stick by Akane, you’re actually quite cute like this.”

Ranma didn’t want to give the girl the time of day, “She shouldn’t be complaining, especially since she’s the reason it wasn’t revealed in the first place !”

“You do realize the situation you’ve put yourself in right?” Nabiki said. Suddenly Ranma felt Nabiki grab his chin and force him to turn around and face her. Nabiki was close enough that only her head was in his vision.

“Let me tell you something I’m sure Akane’s already told you,” Nabiki said, smirking. “My little brother hates boys, so I don’t know how he’d feel about being told he’s being engaged to a boy.”

Ranma felt his heart rate spike, “She’s right! I have to keep this a secret or else… well I don’t even want to think about it.”

“Unfortunately for you, Mr. Saotome is going to make things a little difficult for you, since he has no qualms about hiding his curse from us. So my little bro is going to know how the curse works, and that means he’ll know exactly what form is your birth form.”

Ranma's heart now dropped. “Akane will know of the curse’s existence, but that means I need to work extra hard to be as convincing a girl as possible.”

“That’s not even mentioning a little problem,” Nabiki said, getting Ranma’s attention back on her. “Father has constantly criticized me for… ‘always saying what’s on my mind without restraint’ is how he described it. So you can imagine I’m not the best at keeping a secret, especially from my brother.”

Ranma may be in the furo right now, but all the color had drained from his face. He not only had to risk hot water, but risk Nabiki spouting it out on accident.

“Don’t worry ‘Ranma-chan’ I can restrain myself on the most dire of secrets, but it does take a lot of effort and I don’t know if I can do it without getting something in return.”

*Gulp* Ranma knew he couldn’t risk Nabiki being a liability. “That being?”

“I happen to have a side business at school,” Nabiki said, “photography sells well, especially with the right ‘model.’ If you let me use your girl form as a model, I’ll consider your secret secure. Who knows? I might even give you a chunk of the profits.”

Ranma knew he had no choice, but couldn’t refrain from saying one thing, “You are the worst person I have ever met! And that includes people who want me dead!”

Nabiki grinned, GRINNED, *Awww* “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me! I’ll take it that means yes then?”

“It’s the only thing I’ve said to you!” *ugh* Ranma groaned, “Yes, I’ll do it!” Ranma gets out of the furo, “I’m done here.” As soon as Ranma gets fully out of the furo, he feels a spray of water hit him. *ack!* “Icy!” Ranma felt everything in his body fit back into place as he was forced back into his cursed form.

“You didn’t almost forget to change back first before drying off, did you?” Nabiki said, holding the showerhead.

“You didn’t give me a chance!” Ranma yelled.

----------

*Ughhhhh* Akane woke up to a head-splitting headache. It was clear to Akane that she was now in her room.

“Oh good, you’re awake finally,” Kasumi said, by her bedside. “Ranma’s quite the impressive martial artist.”

“Yeah, she’d be more impressive if she wasn’t so needlessly violent,” Akane replied.

“Now now Akane,” Kasumi scolded, “you’re not one to talk.”

“I know, I know,” Akane said back. “You think I’m doing the right thing by keeping my curse a secret from her?”

Kasumi was silent, smiling as she put some medical supplies away. “I think you two need to form a better understanding of each other and yourselves before you make such a big decision like marriage.”

“I-i didn’t say anything about marriage! I just want to be friends again! Like back in the second grade.” Akane’s voice got quiet near the end of that statement. She wasn’t sure how she wanted their friendship to develop going forwards. “But after that display, revealing I’m a girl might do more than break her heart. I’m worried it will ruin any chances of being in each other’s lives going forward.”

Just then an idea crossed Akane’s mind, “Maybe I’ll show her the curse, but tell her that the girl form is the cursed form! That way to her she’ll think I’m a guy without having to hide it from her!”

“I don’t think that's a good idea,” Kasumi said.

“It’s fine! What would she know about Jusenkyo?” Akane asked. “I mean everyone else at school already thinks so, so how hard could it be convincing her!”

“She’s been there recently,” Kasumi replied.

*Huh?*

“Yeah,” said Kasumi, putting her hand on her cheek, “Mr. Saotome got cursed at Jusenkyo a couple of weeks ago. He was the panda from earlier.”

Akane’s heart dropped, “Well there goes that plan… I’m SUPER screwed.” Akane cusps his face, “What am I going to do now!”

“Well,” Kasumi pondered about it, “I think it would be best if you try to convince your classmates to keep it a secret before Ranma is signed up for school.”

Akane lifted her head violently, “Wait, what?”

*un huh!* Kasumi’s smile radiated a feeling of calm, but Akane wasn’t feeling it. “If you’re lucky, you should have a couple days before Ranma is able to start classes.”

Akane took a deep, strained, breath, “Y-yeah… no pressure there.” Akane got out of her bed, “I still need a bath.”

Akane left her room and entered the changing room before the bathroom. “Tomorrow is going to be a stressful day,” she thought as she undressed for a second time. *Sigh* Akane sighs as she gets ready to enter the bathroom.

The sliding door moves before Akane could get to it. Akane couldn’t see anything directly in front of her, so she looked down, to see that the person who opened the door was Ranma.

“Oh! Um… I…” Akane’s words failed him.

Ranma’s face was red with embarrassment, or was it rage? “What do you think you’re doing!?!”

*TWACK!!!*

----------

Akane wished she could just relax in the furo, but the pain in her jaw from Ranma’s uppercut persisted between forms.

“So… enjoying your new, energetic, and cute, fiancee yet?” Nabiki said, grinning while drying off.

“She’s not cute!” Akane replied.

“Welp!” Nabiki finished drying off and started leaving. “I’m lucky I’m not the one getting married then. Tata!” Nabiki closed the door leaving Akane alone in the furo.

(....) All those moments together as kids. (.u..) When they first met as kids. (c...) All the times they got ice cream as kids. (..te) The time they did her hair with that ribbon. (.u.e) Their sudden goodbye. (cute) Their unexpected reunion earlier that day. ( cute ) Her beautiful form and figure while sparring. (CUTE) How easily embarrassed she gets about her crush on her. ( CUTE ) That… that smile.

Akane felt the tiles on the outside of the furo crack from the pressure she applied on them. All of those pleasant moments together, wiped away from one accident. “WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD THINK THAT SHE’S CUTE! ”

Chapter Text

Tokyo, 1979

“I don’t get it,” Akane told her friends, “why do some kids join in the middle of the school year?”

“I’m told it’s because they appear out of nowhere and are dragged into the school like the rest of us,” said Noriko.

“No it’s not!” Tomoyo replied. “It’s because they moved from somewhere else most of the time!”

“They live somewhere else?” Akane asked. “You can do that!?”

“Yep,” Tomoyo replied. “Did not like it one bit, but then I met you two.”

“Oh wow!” Noriko said in awe. “Then maybe we should try to be the new kid’s first new friends!”

“Really?” Akane asked. “I don’t know. What if they’re a boy?”

“Does it matter?” Noriko asked.

“It matters!” Akane replied. “People keep calling me a boy! I want it to stop!”

“Then stop wearing boys' clothes,” Tomoyo said.

“But they’re comfy!” Akane said back. “They have pockets!”

“Alright class!” said the teacher. “We have a new student here! Please, come on in.”

The new kid came in. They were short, probably the new shortest kid in class, and they had long hair tied up in a ponytail. They were also wearing an oversized, very faded, ‘red?’ ‘pink?’ shirt.

Akane whispered to her friends, “Very much a girl.”

“Certainly!” Tomoyo replied.

“Really?” Noriko said, “It might be a boy?”

“How is that a boy?” Akane asked her.

“Shush in the back!” the teacher said to them. “Now why don’t you introduce yourself?”

“I’m Ranma Saotome, thank you for having me,” the new kid, Ranma, said to the class.

“Ranma? Seems like a weird name for a girl,” Akane thought of the new kid.

“That’s good Ranma,” the teacher said, “now why don’t you take a seat behind Akane over there.”

The new kid seemed to be looking around the room trying to find her. Akane waved her hand to get her attention. The kid tilted their head in confusion, then looked at the teacher.

“Akane’s the one waving, please have a seat,” the teacher told Ranma.

Ranma shrugged and walked over to the seat behind Akane. Akane couldn’t help but introduce herself to her.

“Hi,” Akane waved to her, “my name’s Akane, I’d love to be your friend!”

Ranma stared at her for a sec, before smiling.

----------

Tokyo, 1987

The sound of sparring was what woke Akane up that morning, not her alarm. Of course that wasn’t the only sound she could hear, as a fiery pinkette’s voice could be heard from outside.

“What’s the point of giving me my own room if you’re just going to barge in anyways?” Ranma asked, presumably, her father.

“Privacy is no reason to shirk your training!” Mr. Saotome said. “Besides, I know what you get up to whenever you have privacy, and it ain’t training!”

“If you mean I have a life, then yes!” Ranma clapped back.

*SLAM*

*SPLASH*

Akane rubbed her eyes, “Did someone get knocked into the koi pond?”

Akane heard growls that sounded like they’re trying to imitate human speech. “Oh can it, pops!” Akane heard Ranma say. “If we’re going to be settling down and living here I’m going to be doing more in my day than just training!” There was the sound of a scoff, then nothing else afterwards.

Akane took that as her que to get up and go to the bathroom, her planning on washing the tired out of her eyes. It was before she did that that she realized something. “Oh crap!” Akane set the water to cold and immediately splashed their face, triggering their curse. Akane’s breathing was rapid for a brief moment before calming down. “Geez, I went to bed as a girl! What if Ranma saw me?” Akane let her breathing fully settle before walking out of the bathroom.

Akane walked downstairs expecting to see Mr. Saotome and Ranma sitting on the engawa. What he actually saw was Ranma and a soaked panda sitting on the engawa. It took Akane a second to process why, “Oh! Right! Kasumi did mention you got cursed in China, Mr. Saotome.”

The panda, Mr. Saotome, pulled out a sign, [Correct!] He then proceeded to flip it, his eyes clearly showing disapproval, [Happen to know the place?]

“Heheheh…” Akane laughed nervously, hoping that Ranma wouldn’t catch on.

“Why would the pervert know the place?” Ranma asked, angrily, “he wasn’t there when you explained it!”

“Hey!” Akane said, angrily. After recomposing herself, “A-anyway, Kasumi filled me in last night. It was called Jusenkyo, right?”

“Yeah!” Ranma replied, “you want to know the dumbest part of all that?”

“What?” Akane asked.

Ranma put her hands behind her back and closed her eyes while leaning back. “The travel pamphlet pops used to find the place did mention the curses in it, but the whole thing was in Chinese!” Ranma said, “and the idiot doesn’t know a lick of it!”

Akane looks at Mr. Saotome deadpan, completely unable to process how anyone could be that stupid. Akane could see Mr. Saotome scoff, before making growls that sounded a little like mumbling.

Kasumi walked into the dining room, bringing out the last parts of breakfast. Akane’s father and Nabiki came downstairs after being called. Ranma and Mr. Saotome sat next to each other. Before anyone could dig in, Ranma pinned the panda’s paw to the table with her chopsticks.

“Try to take my food while we’re here and the first thing other guests will see when they walk in is a panda skin rug!” Ranma said through clenched teeth.

Mr. Saotome held up a sign with their unpinned paw, [Such an ungrateful child!]

“Now why would Mr. Saotome do that?” Kasumi asked.

“Because he sees it as another form of training!” Ranma said. “But I think he really just wanted an excuse to eat more than necessary!”

Akane’s father closed his eyes, his head tilted downwards and his arms crossed. “Anything Goes is a style about adapting around any situation, that includes training.”

“He can’t seriously think that’s an okay thing for Mr. Saotome to do to his kid, right?” Akane thought.

“But I won’t deny there is always a time and place for such a method, and my dining room is no such place,” Akane’s father finished. “Besides, Kasumi’s cooking is excellent! I definitely want to hear the opinion of my future so-” Akane sword Kasumi’s face contorted into a threatening smile for a second. “D-daughter-in-law, future daughter-in-law.”

“Hmm? You say something?” Ranma asked, there was some rice on the corner of her mouth.

“Kasumi’s cooking,” Nabiki said, “why don’t you try some of it.”

“I already did,” Ranma replied, right before she scarfed down her bowl of miso soup in record time.

Akane looked at the food laid out on the table. A chuck from each item, maybe around ⅙ from each, was taken. “You’re already done?” Akane asked.

“Well I didn’t want to take more than expected,” Ranma replied, blushing, “I’m not pops.” The panda slapped Ranma in the back of the head for that comment. Ranma retaliated by giving the panda a backhanded punch to the jaw. “The food was delicious, by the way!”

“Well, hopefully your lightning fast eating also applies to lightning fast learning once you start school,” Akane’s father said.

“I’msorrywhatnow?” Ranma said, almost too quickly to decipher.

“You get to go to school with me and Akane,” Nabiki said. “Dad wants you to get admitted today.”

Ranma’s head falls forwards, *Groan*

“Don’t be such a big baby,” Nabiki said.

“We’ll try to convince the school to skip the entrance exams,” Akane’s father said, “and we’ll see about getting you and Akane into the same class.”

“Because that’s what I’ll need dad,” Akane thought sarcastically, “more time pretending to be a guy!”

“I should get going,” Akane says as she gets up from the table, “I need to get something done before school starts.”

“Don’t worry little bro,” Nabiki said in a sarcastic tone, “I’m sure your classmates will understand perfectly!”

Akane glared at Nabiki, but the glare subsided when he saw how adorable Ranma looked when she didn’t know what Nabiki meant. Akane was about to head out the door when Kasumi lightly jogged into the genkan.

“What is it Kasumi?” Akane asked.

“I just thought you’d want something for ‘later’” she said as she handed Akane a thermos.

“Heheh,” Akane gave a light chuckle, “yeah… ‘later.’ See ya!”

As soon as Akane was out the door, she opened the thermos and poured some of the contents on her. The hot water turned her back into a girl, and after capping the thermos, she properly headed off to school.

On the way Akane made a plan, “Okay first I have to deal with the horde, they’ll probably be surprised by me arriving early. Then I’ll have to spend time today explaining my situation to the class and convincing them to go along with it. Lastly, likely dealing with Kuno again once he hears about my plan. No pressure!” Akane jogged to school, worried about the things to come.

----------

Ranma didn’t like how persistent Kasumi was in convincing Ranma to help with the dishes. He’s done them on the road all the time, whether that be when he cooks or whenever he works for a meal. He certainly didn’t expect to be wrangled into doing them as a house guest.

“You’re a natural Ranma-chan!” Kasumi complimented him.

“Please, just Ranma,” Ranma said, blushing. “I get a weird feeling whenever someone calls me ‘chan.’”

“Is it a bad feeling?” Kasumi asked.

“No! It’s… it’s not bad at all,” Ranma said. “I-i-i-i just.” *Sigh* Ranma decided to bite the bullet, “I’m sure pops has already told you…”

*Mhmm!* Kasumi nodded.

“You know I’m a guy Kasumi,” Ranma said, “being called ‘Ranma-chan’ is just… pathetic.”

“I don’t get it, why do you see it that way?” Kasumi asked as she puts away the last few dishes.

“Because pops thinks I need to be a man among men above all else,” Ranma said, “It’s what my whole training journey has been building towards.”

Ranma follows Kasumi out of the kitchen and they continue in the living room. “Let me ask you this, Ranma,” Kasumi said.

“Yeah?”

“You’re how old?” Kasumi asked.

“15, just old enough to enter high school,” Ranma said.

“Once high school is over, you’ll pretty much be an adult in the eyes of the law,” Kasumi said. “You’ll be forced to make your own decisions.”

“I guess I never thought much of it,” Ranma replied.

“But you should start thinking about what you want to do sooner than later,” Kasumi said. “Even then, we don’t always know what we want until we have it.”

“What do you mean?” Ranma asked.

“I wanted to be a doctor growing up, when I told father he was super supportive,” Kasumi replied. “But I had to almost give up that dream when…” Kasumi didn’t finish, but Ranma could see her mood saddened from thinking about it. “Despite… what happened, I’m content with the life I’m living.”

“I guess that must have been a lot to think about,” Ranma said.

“The days after I made that decision were some of the most depressing days of my life, I even remember my father telling me not to give it up for a year after I made it,” Kasumi said. “But I found a way to get past it all.”

“That being?” Ranma asked.

“That I don’t need to ‘give up’ a dream, I just need to prioritize on what will make me happy now,” Kasumi said. “Then when the time is right, that's when I can resume working towards my dream. Only when I truly have tried it will I know if it’s for me.”

“But what if you’re too old when that happens?” Ranma asked.

“You’re never too old to start something Ranma-chan,” Kasumi said in a sweet, almost sappy tone. “Besides, neither of us have to worry about stuff like that for a long while. I’m only 19 after all, I’m already reading medical books I borrow from our local doctor. Also, once you and Akane graduate I’ll be heading off to college with you two.”

“O-oh!” Ranma said, shocked. “I-i’ll admit I thought you were in your early 20s.”

“Yes well, most of my peers said I always gave a ‘mature’ aura whenever I was around them,” Kasumi replied. “But that’s probably from having to take over a lot of household duties at a young age.”

“Even then, I don’t think I could do college,” Ranma rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t even know if I can do high school at this point.”

“Well you’ll never know unless you try,” Kasumi said. “Speaking of which, we should get you signed up for school.”

“Yeah,” Ranma said, breaking eye contact. “Kasumi?”

“Yeah?”

“Why are you telling me all this?” Ranma asked. “We haven’t even known each other for a day.”

“Well,” Kasumi puts her finger to her lower lip as she thinks about it. “It just seems like you have this expectation you should follow something instead of thinking about what you want, is all.”

“I do know what I want,” Ranma said, “I want to be the world’s greatest martial artist! A man among men!”

“And what if in the future you realize it isn’t what you wanted?” Kasumi asked. “Do you have any other hobbies?”

Ranma froze, he never really thought about it much, the art took up too much time. “I don’t know, never thought about it much. But I do know that I must be a man among men!”

“Why that above all else?” Kasumi asked.

“ Idunno,” Ranma said quickly, “pops never tells me.”

Kasumi was at a loss for words, “Yes… well… I… don’t think most ‘men among men’ can turn into girls when splashed with water.” Kasumi managed to get herself giggling, causing Ranma to stiffen and awkwardly fidget there for a second. “Besides, you’re in the very early months of high school,” Kasumi replied. “My advice: make friends, find hobbies, figure yourself out. You never know what you’ll gravitate towards.”

Ranma looked away from Kasumi, unsure what to say. “But… I don’t know, what if it’s too… girly?”

“You can turn into a girl with a splash of water,” Kasumi said. “There are plenty of guys with girly hobbies, and they don’t have a girl curse to avoid scrutiny. Even then, they don’t let it get to them.”

“I-if you say so,” he replied.

“Now let’s get going,” Kasumi said. “We’re going to get you everything you’ll need for school.”

“Thanks Kasumi,” Ranma said, leaving him to think.

“I guess I should think about what I would want to do,” Ranma thought to himself, ”now that me and pops are settling down. I mean there are plenty of sports I could excel at, and I could join a club at the school to do them. There’s track, basketball, baseball. I’ve always wanted to learn kendo, but dad was always against it for some reason. There’s also swimming, soccer, gymnastics, cheerlead-”

Ranma shook his head to clear his thoughts, “Easy there! Maybe I should think about other hobbies. There’s plenty of manga I could read, maybe I could also learn how to draw. There’s also video games, that’s pretty newish, and supposedly a boy hobby!” Ranma delve deeper into her thoughts, “Or maybe I should get a better understanding of fashion, maybe go all the way and learn more about cosmetics-”

Ranma once again shook his head of the bad thoughts, “Crap! I’m slipping again! Maybe chatting with Kasumi will help!” Ranma turned towards Kasumi as they headed out, “So what, exactly, do we need?”

“Well first we need to get you signed up for school, obviously,” Kasumi said.

“Okay,” Ranma thought.

“Then we’ll need to get you a uniform,” Kasumi said. “Since you want to keep your curse a secret from Akane, I take it you’ll go to school as a girl? That means you’ll need the girl’s uniform.”

“Nevermind retreat!” Ranma panicked.

“Then we should probably get you some casual clothes,” Kasumi said “your chinese silks are big on your girl form, so we should get you some girl’s clothes.”

“Retreat! Retreat!”

“We also should probably get you some bras,” Kasumi finished, “and maybe some make up as well.”

“RETREAT!”

----------

Akane did not back down from the horde, which made getting through today especially easy. It did help that they also didn’t expect her so soon and weren’t ready themselves, she even heard a couple guys complain it wasn’t fair. “Wasn’t fair?” She said. “You guys swarm me every day since the beginning of the school year! Who cares about fair!” Akane knocked the last guy down, and finally caught her breath.

“Kuno!” Akane yelled. “Get out here!”

Akane could see Kuno walk out from behind a tree, wearing his training gear for kendo instead of the gakuran. “Such a rush for the inevitable defeat you shall face, vile Tendo!” he said.

“I’m not in the mood Kuno!” Akane yelled back. “Why don’t we settle this once and for all!”

“HA!” Kuno laughed at her. Kuno pulled out a water bottle from seemingly nowhere, “Until you give up on your perverted ways maybe I will, but I won’t relent until then!” Kuno tossed the water bottle at Akane.

Akane caught the bottle. Normally she’d just deflect it, but now she never knows when she’ll need a sudden cold shower.

“I see you finally decided to consider my offer,” Kuno said, before pointing his bokken at her. “Turn back willingly right now and I might consider stopping the horde!”

*Sigh* Akane should’ve known Kuno would notice her change of pace, “Let me make one thing clear Kuno!” Akane dropped the water bottle into her bag, and then tossed the bag to the side. “I was born a girl! I don’t care how long it takes for that to sink into that thick head of yours, but it’s the truth whether you like it or not!”

Kuno clenched his teeth, glaring at her, “More of your perverted lies!” Kuno charges at Akane, “I won’t accept them on these grounds!”

Kuno performs an overhead strike with his bokken, but Akane grabs the blade with her hands and counters with a rising kick to Kuno’s jaw. Kuno is forced to let go of his bokken and gets sent flying back, landing a few meters away from the rest of the carnage from earlier.

“I managed to knock a panda out yesterday with that one, Kuno!” Akane yelled. “Hope you liked it!” Akane grabbed her bag and headed into the school building. It was when she was at her shoe locker that she fully grasped the absurdity of what she just said. *Sigh* “This is my life now, isn’t it?” Akane mumbled to herself as she headed to class.

When Akane arrived at the classroom, only a few students were there. Lucky for her, the two people she was there that early for were already there. “Tomoyo! Noriko!”

“Akane?!” Tomoyo was the first to notice her, “What are you doing here so early?”

“Tried to give the horde the slip today?” Noriko asked.

“Nope! I knew they would be there this early,” Akane said, “but getting the jump on them was certainly a bonus!”

“Maybe you should change up when you arrive everyday,” Noriko said. “Keep them guessing.”

Akane sat down, slouching in her seat, “While that would be nice, I won’t be able to in a couple days. That’s actually why I’m here early, I need to talk with… well the whole class.”

“What happened?!” Tomoyo asked.

“Remember that kid we were friends with in the second grade for a few months?” Akane asked.

“The girl who was obsessed with pig wrestling?” Noriko asked.

“That was the 4th grade,” Akane replied. “No, I’m talking about Ranma.”

*GASP* “She’s back in Tokyo!?” Tomoyo exclaimed.

“I thought Ranma was a boy?” Noriko said to Tomoyo.

“She was a girl, Noriko!” Tomoyo replied. “What about her screamed ‘guy!?’”

“I just figured you two just couldn’t see it,” answered Noriko. “Besides, he always wore boys' clothes.”

“Well so did Akane!” Tomoyo replied. “Yet she was a girl back then, and that’s true no matter what Chinese curses do and what people have said since!”

Akane didn’t like being reminded of her cruel interests in fashion at the time and how it came to bite her years later. “Girls! Girls!” Akane tried to calm her friends down. “Ranma’s a girl, I can confirm.”

“What confirmed it for ya?” Tomoyo said. Akane blushed. *OOOOOOOOH* “Well don’t get too jealous Akane.”

“I’m not jealous at all!” Akane said sincerely. She then blushed even harder, “They were pretty big though.”

“Okay fine,” Noriko pouted, “I’ll accept Ranma’s a girl. But why did that affect how early you arrived at school today?”

“Okay, so I ran into Ranma yesterday after… something… got me out of the house during the rain yesterday,” Akane told them. “I am definitely keeping the engagement a secret.”

“I bet she was confused that there was this guy claiming to be her female friend from elementary school,” Tomoyo replied. Both girls started giggling.

“That’s why I’m here early!” Akane said. “Because she thought I was a guy back then!”

Noriko and Tomoyo stopped giggling, their expressions showing shock instead. “You made sure to correct her, right?” Noriko asked.

“That’s the thing, I think she had a crush on me back then!” Akane said. “She clearly shows signs of being interested in my guy form, but if I reveal the truth to her, I’ll just break her heart.”

“Akane…” said Tomoyo in a sad tone.

“So, why didn’t you just pull Kuno’s leap in logic on her and say that your girl form is the cursed form?” Noriko asked.

*Groan* Akane slammed her head into her desk, putting her hands on her head. “I would, but it won’t work,” she said. “Ranma and her father have been to Jusenkyo recently, and her father got cursed there.”

“Oh…” both of Akane’s friends said in unison.

“Yeah, so don’t be surprised if you see a panda randomly in Nerima one day,” Akane said, getting a chuckle out of her friends. “But seriously, I need you girls’ help right now! Ranma is applying for school here and my dad wants us in the same class. So…”

“You want us to help you convince the entire class to hide your curse until you’re able to tell her yourself?” Noriko asked.

“Until nothing!” Akane said. “I’d rather she not find out at all!”

“Akane…” Tomoyo said in a disappointed tone, “you couldn’t even hide it from us for a month when you first got it. What makes you think Ranma won’t find out eventually?”

“That was four years ago and I’m certain I can do better at hiding it now compared to back then,” Akane replied. “Besides,” Akane grabs the water bottle she took from Kuno, and spilled the contents on herself to transform into a guy, “it’ll be easier to hide it in my cursed form. Hot water is a lot less common than cold water.”

“If you say so,” Noriko said.

The teacher walked in from the back door and walked towards the front. They suddenly tripped on one of the desks and that led to them accidentally spilling their coffee on Akane as she turned to see what happened, the hot coffee changing her back to a girl.

“S-sorry Mr. Tendo,” said the teacher.

Akane usually corrected anyone who called her ‘Mister’ Tendo, but right now she needed all the help she could get. Akane turned back towards her friends, who looked a lot less confident in her plan.

“If you say so…” Noriko said again, this time with a lot less confidence.

----------

“Here we are,” Ranma heard Kasumi say as they approached the building. “This is Furinkan High School.”

Ranma looked at the building with disinterest, he never cared too much for school, and not going to one for a while definitely was going to make going to this one worse. “I just hope I keep up,” Ranma replied.

“Oh, I wouldn’t mind tutoring you until you’re comfortably caught up,” Kasumi said as they passed the main gate. “I’m sure Father wants to make sure whoever is helping run his dojo in the future has a proper education.”

“Well he chose the wrong person to make friends with if that was the case,” Ranma said. “Pops didn’t ignore my education per se, but it was definitely on the backburner compared to the art. He did always praise me when I did well in school though, so he’s not completely heartless.”

“I won’t judge then,” Kasumi said, though even to Ranma it was clear Kasumi didn’t approve of his father.

“I promise you he loves me,” Ranma said as they walked up the stairs. “We just both have an odd way of showing it.”

“Well I hope all that fighting you do with him means that you mean the same thing with Akane,” Kasumi said.

“That perverted flirt? As if!” Ranma denied Kasumi’s claim as they passed the second floor. “Why are we heading upstairs anyways?”

“The Admission’s Office is on the 3rd floor,” Kasumi replied.

“Okay then,” Ranma said, putting his arms behind his head. Ranma could only see the backs of people’s heads walking by, but he swore he saw someone with Akane’s hair in room 1-F. But before he could see their face, Kasumi got his attention.

“By the way, Ranma,” Kasumi said.

Ranma faced her, “What?”

“Some of Akane’s other friends from her second grade class are in her current class,” she said, “so you’ll get to see them again as well.”

“O-oh…” Ranma said. “Okay…” Ranma was hesitant to admit he didn’t really remember Akane’s friends that well. But for now he just needed to worry about getting admitted.

----------

It took just one glance outside the window for Akane to panic, “CRAP! I forgot the Admission’s Office was on this floor!” Akane saw Ranma and Kasumi walking by the classroom, and Kasumi shot her a look that clearly meant one thing: ‘get changed now!’ Luckily Kasumi distracted Ranma before she could see her face, and her sitting down masked her height, but she wouldn’t be able to mask the former when they eventually left.

Akane didn’t know what to do at the moment, she didn’t have any more water on her person and she didn’t want to cause a scene by changing mid class. It didn’t help that class didn't end for another 20 minutes, and she didn’t know how long it would take for Ranma to get admitted. Her shoulders tensed up from the stress, which gave an unfortunate reminder of what happened that morning.

“Ack!” Akane inadvertently yelled when her burns from the spilled coffee flared up.

“Mr. Tendo,” the teacher said, “I told you to go to the nurse’s office if you were in pain.”

“I told you it’s-” Akane cut herself off from denying her only shot to hide from Ranma. “Fine, I’ll go.” Akane was about to head out when something came to mind, “Where’s the nurse’s office?”

“It’s past the admission’s office, you can’t miss it,” the teacher said.

“Don’t panic yet!” Akane took a deep breath, “Thank you, sir.” Akane exited the classroom, and once she knew no one could see her, “Okay… now panic!” Akane was so stressed out that the aches from her burns felt more like a mild itch by comparison.

Akane walked down the hall until she saw the admission’s office. “Of course…” Akane thought, “Of course there are big windows that show into the office.” Akane’s luck was being tested thoroughly that day, and she hated every second of it.

Akane peeked into the office just enough to hopefully be discreet, but still see into the place. Ranma was filling out forms with her back to the entrance, Kasumi was facing towards the door, allowing her to see Akane. Akane looked at her, then Ranma, then back to Kasumi.

Just as she was about to walk across, Ranma spoke up. “Okay, I think that’s everything.” She said, facing Kasumi. If Akane crossed now, Ranma could possibly get a glance of her, and she can’t risk it.

“O-oh! Are you sure?” Kasumi said, trying to get Ranma to turn away. “Double check just to be sure.”

“Seriously?!” Ranma said in an exhausted voice, turning again to check the form.

With that Akane sped walked across the office window and into the nurses’ office. There she gets the nurse to check her burns and to use the sink there to change into her guy form. Luckily the burns were minor and all she needed was to avoid agitating them for a bit.

Akane was lucky she changed when she did, because it didn’t take long for Ranma to barge in. “Akane!” Ranma said as she opened the door, “Kasumi said she saw you heading here, did something happen?”

“Oh, Ranma!” Akane said, feigning shock. “You’re here? Did you get signed up for school?”

“Yes, but that’s not important!” Ranma said angrily. “What happened?! Why is your uniform stained like that?!”

“Oh… Teacher accidentally spilled coffee on me,” Akane said, “no big deal! Really!”

Ranma was silent, her eyes showed clear signs of concern. “O-okay, but don’t act all tough and mighty if you can’t handle it!”

“I can handle it just fine,” Akane said. “I’m surprised you’re so worried over a coffee spill, though you are a great joy to be around like this actually.”

“Aaaaand you ruined it,” Ranma said, blushing. “Why do I even bother?”

“What?!”

“Nothing!” Ranma said, avoiding eye contact. “Anyway Kasumi wants me to join her on some errands after this, so who knows if we’ll be home when you’re done.”

“Okay,” Akane said. Ranma took it as her que to leave. “Oh! And Ranma!”

Ranma stops as she is halfway through the door, *ugh* “This better not be another pick up line! What?” She asks as she turns to face her.

“Thank you! For checking up on me that is,” Akane said, he couldn’t help but smile at her.

Ranma blushed pretty hard from what he could tell and kept making and breaking eye contact with him, “O-o-oh! N-n-no problem. See you soon,” Ranma said as she closed the door.

*sigh* Akane sighed after a few minutes, then got up and turned on the hot water to change back. After getting cleared with the nurse, she headed back to class.

Chapter Text

Ranma wanted to change back to guy after leaving the school, but unfortunately for him, that would have to be put on hold until Kasumi’s done with her errands. Errands meant for him, specifically his girl form. Kasumi wanted to get Ranma girl clothes to help him blend in as a girl a lot more convincingly.

Now Kasumi’s reasoning was sound, because no matter how much Ranma argued against it, she just kept giving reason after reason. So Ranma caved and let Kasumi drag him to a shopping mall deeper into Tokyo so that they can give him some clothes. Ranma just knew that he was going to hate every minute of it.

“Okay so…” Ranma said as they entered the mall, “what’s first on the ‘make a fool out of Ranma’ list? Skirts? Dresses?”

“Bras,” Kasumi said. “We need to get your size for that.”

Ranma’s face went red from embarrassment, “o-oh,” he said weakly.

“After that we can get you the other things you’ll need,” Kasumi said.

“Do I have to?” Ranma asked.

Trust me Ranma,” Kasumi said looking at him, “you’ll want the support, especially with how… big they are already.”

“They can’t be that big,” Ranma said.

“Well, we’ll see,” Kasumi said as she took Ranma’s hand and dragged him into a clothing store.

----------

Akane wanted to scream from how stressed she was at the moment, it was going to be that or smash a hole in the wall of the school, but one would get her in far less trouble. Ranma was going to be going to school here in a couple days and she needed to act. She needed to at least convince the class to treat her as a guy while Ranma’s around and to not mention the curse at all.

After changing into a clean uniform, she went over what she had done so far. She’s got Tomoyo and Noriko to agree to help and so far quite a few classmates have agreed to go along with it. Most of the girls were surprisingly understanding, then again they did understand that Akane was born a girl so that’s likely why. There were a few girls who were hesitant, though.

As for the guys, the first two she got on board were Shingo and Kichi. They were even fine with Akane using the guy’s locker room, though Akane said she’d only do it if all the guys agreed to that and also agreed to not to mess with her showers. Otherwise there were more guys who still needed convincing than not, but Akane was at least able to get most of the class to agree to do it before lunch. Akane didn’t even bother with the couple of guys that were a part of the horde in the morning, but they were already calling her a guy anyways, so she didn’t bother.

She made sure every conversation was either one on one or two at a time, it made it easier to explain the situation without getting swarmed with questions. It also meant word was less likely to spread to Kuno for a while longer. Akane knew that the moment Kuno caught on, he’d make her life a living hell. After spending the past month opposing him on this, there was no way he’d take the sudden change of heart well, especially if he found out why she was doing it.

But by the time lunch rolled around Akane desperately needed to calm down. She grabbed her bento and spent the beginning of lunch just quickly eating it until it was gone. “At this rate, if I don’t calm down, I'll start eating as fast as Ranma.”

“Does Ranma still eat like her food’s going to get stolen?” Noriko asked.

“Yeah…” Akane said, “turns out her dad would do that as a form of training.”

“Training?!” Tomoyo asked. “For what?”

“How do you know that already?” Noriko asked.

*sigh* Akane forgot to explain that detail. “So apparently her dad and my dad were old training buddies back in the day. Ranma is her father’s heir to their style and she’s been training all her life for it.”

“‘Apparently?’ As in you just now figured that out recently?!” Noriko asked. “Despite going to school with her for months?!”

*Hmm* Akane realized it was pretty strange, “I’ll have to ask dad about that, I’ve heard of stranger coincidences.”

“Same!” Tomoyo exclaimed. “Like this time, back in 5th grade, I was on the same train ride to Osaka as our middle school gym teacher! We were even only seats apart and didn’t know it until one day while-”

“I’m sure this is an interesting story but I’m more curious about Akane’s current situation with Ranma right now,” Noriko said.

Akane did wish Tomoyo went on, if anything as a distraction, but Noriko was right, “Well anyways. The reason I found out about the training thing is because Ranma mentioned it right as breakfast started.”

“Breakfast?” Tomoyo said.

“Don’t you always eat breakfast at home? Was Kasumi unable to cook?” Noriko asked.

“No, the point I’m making is that, currently, Ranma is staying with me and my family,” Akane said. “Anyway that’s all I wanted to say. So Tomoyo what was that train-”

“Have you lost it, Akane!?” Tomoyo exclaimed in a semi-whisper, as to not draw attention to them. “You’d be spending most of your time as a guy! I thought you hated being a guy!”

“I’m more surprised at how shocked you are about this, Tomoyo,” Noriko said, unamused.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tomoyo said.

“I’m saying that this isn’t the most surprising thing for Akane to do,” Noriko said. “Or did you forget all the times in the past 4 years Akane would use her curse to get those ‘cute couple’ discounts with me?”

“No, I don’t,” Tomoyo said. “Why do you even do that?”

“Because not all of us are as wealthy as you are!” Noriko exclaimed.

Akane’s face went red, “I guess I do jump to using my curse a lot more than I remember.”

“But this is different,” Tomoyo said, worried. “It’s one thing to be like that for a couple hours, but for days straight?! Ranma and her father are just staying until they move into their own place right?”

“They’re staying with us indefinitely,” Akane said. She breaks eye contact with them, “I’d rather not get into details.”

“Yeah, even I’ll admit, it’s one thing if it was only at school,” Noriko said. “But if you two are living together, you’re pretty much going to have to be in that form all the time.”

“I know. It’s frustrating, but I’m willing to do it,” Akane said with certainty.

“Well… okay,” Tomoyo said with worry. “I’m trusting you on this.”

“It’s fine,” Akane told her. “Besides, I’m sure I can find excuses to get away from Ranma without worry.”

Noriko and Tomoyo looked at her with concern. Akane could tell they knew nothing they could say will change her mind on this. Akane really was hoping something would break the current mood they had going.

“AKANE TENDOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” they heard someone yell from the hall.

*Sigh* Akane sighed as she got up from her desk. “I saw this coming. I guess I was asking for it.”

Kuno barged into the classroom and then immediately tossed a bucket of water at her. Akane could usually dodge a spray gun or the ladle lady she walks by on the way to school, but a full bucket was pretty much impossible for her in this tight of a space.

“Maybe if I was as fast as Ranma I could dodge it,” Akane said as she got soaked and masculinized.

Kuno tossed the bucket to the side, “How DARE you make a fool of me this past month!”

“You did that all on your own Kuno!” Akane said back. “Now leave me alone!”

“NEVER!” Kuno shouted as he drew his bokken. “After forcing my hand for this long, you have the GALL to just… change your mind!?”

“I never changed my mind Kuno!” Akane yelled back. “I have my reasons for doing it and I’m definitely not telling a spoiled rich kid, where the only thing that is slower than their brain is a snail!”

Akane’s chair was split in half a couple seconds later. Akane grabbed Kuno and threw him out of the classroom into the hall. Giving chase, Akane dodged a few sword swings before the two duked it out on the stairs down to the second floor.

They kept going for a while, Kuno actually managing to get a couple bruises on her, until Akane was able to toss Kuno back into his classroom. While there, Akane glared at her sister who was in the same class as Kuno.

“Did you tell him?” Akane asked her.

“Hey, I just thought he’d appreciate knowing that you’d willingly be going to school as a guy for the foreseeable future,” Nabiki told her.

“And that’s ALL you said, Right?!” Akane asked.

Nabiki put her hands in the air, “I haven’t said anything else! Especially nothing about the en-”

“Don’t just say it!” Akane exclaimed. *agh* The bell rang, signifying the end of lunch, “Whatever, just please don’t cause me any more problems, Nabiki.”

“I promise nothing!” Nabiki said, with more pride and snark than Akane wished she had. Akane meanwhile went back to class, but not before changing back.

----------

Ranma was red in the face, not just from being in a store looking for girl’s underwear, but from the fact that he’s apparently a ‘very blessed girl for her age.’ Even Kasumi’s eyes widened from the number she got.

“Nabiki wasn’t too off the mark yesterday, apparently,” was all she said.

Ranma was going to die from embarrassment by the end of the day at that rate. *Sigh* “C’mon, I’d rather be done with this, quickly!”

“Why don’t you wait in the changing room while I grab a few different types for you?” Kasumi said. “Then I can show you how to put them on.”

“That’s probably for the best,” Ranma said, knowingly dreading it. “I know I’d have no idea what to do otherwise.”

Ranma waited in the changing room for what felt like forever, it gave him time to look at his reflection in this form. Although Ranma could tell it was still him in some weird way, it definitely lost any and all resemblance to pops Ranma already barely had.

“I knew pops had black hair from back when I remembered him having any,” Ranma thought to himself, ”but who could he have gotten with for me to have potentially ended up with pink!? I’m just glad that’s not on my guy form, I can’t imagine pops would’ve trained me to be a man among men with that! Not that I would’ve minded pink as a guy, even if it wouldn’t be a manly color.”

“Ranma,” Kasumi returned, “I got some that I think you should try.”

“O-okay,” Ranma replied, weakly.

Ranma looked at the assortment of bras and grimaced, he knew next to nothing about bras. *Sigh* “Let’s just get this over with.”

Ranma grabs one of the generic bras and eyes it, he can kinda guess what goes where, but he’s confused as to how one is supposed to connect it. After a couple minutes of fumbling, Ranma gives up, “Hey Kasumi,” Ranma whispers, hoping Kasumi is just outside the booth.

“Yeah Ranma?” Kasumi says back.

“Can you help me?” Ranma asked. “I’ve met my match.”

Kasumi had the gall to laugh at him, “It's okay Ranma, nothing to be ashamed of. Took me a few tries to get it my first time!”

Ranma blushed, “It’s still too embarrassing.”

“Nothing to worry about,” Kasumi grabbed the bra and showed Ranma how to put it on. “And then when you’ve got it hooked, fasten the shoulder straps so it’s nice and snug on the body. If you did it right you should feel it supporting them properly.”

Ranma adjusted the straps until, finally, it just felt right. *Huh* “Okay, I guess I see why you wear these.”

Kasumi smiled, “just wait until you try on the sports bra, I’m sure you’ll like those. But now that you’ve got it, you think you can handle the rest of these while I look for clothes.”

“I-i guess,” said Ranma. “Just let me pick a few outfits for myself as well. I’ll admit I don’t know if I can trust your…” Ranma looks at Kasumi’s plain and homely dress, clearly something someone 15 years older than her would wear, “sense of fashion.”

“I have my preferences, Ranma,” Kasumi said, “but I choose to wear this over what’s trendy. I can assure you I won’t pick anything that I’m certain you won’t like.”

“Oh… okay,” Ranma felt embarrassed he judged Kasumi like that, “s-sorry.”

“It’s okay Ranma,” Kasumi’s smile didn’t wane.

“I should make it up to you for that comment though,” Ranma said, “you didn’t deserve it. Just for that, I-i-i’ll try on whatever you pick out.”

“I already told you it’s okay,” Kasumi said more assertively, “and I’m not going to pick anything I don’t think you’ll like. But I won’t stop you if you think you should go through with it.”

“You didn’t deserve what I said,” Ranma said, “you’re not Akane.”

“Well I don’t think Akane deserves it any more than I do,” Kasumi replied, “but I understand you’re probably still a little upset from last night. Just head back to the changing booth and I’ll bring over some clothes to try. Then maybe you could pick out a few things for yourself.”

Ranma nodded, then Kasumi walked out of the changing booth to grab Ranma some outfits. It didn’t take long for Kasumi to return with a few things, there were a few blouses, some women’s pants and a couple of skirts.

“Let me know when you’re ready to show me,” Kasumi said on the other side of the curtain.

Ranma looked at the assortment of clothes, cursing himself, “How did THIS become my life?”

Ranma decided that the best course of action right now was to just pick out what he thought would look best, but he forced himself to save the skirt for last. Ranma grabbed the closest to his current outfit, red blouse and the dark gray pants, and put them on. When he did he still felt something was off, “Kasumi am I missing something?” he asked her as he pulled back the curtain.

*Hmm* Kasumi pondered, “Have you seen yourself in the mirror yet?” Ranma nodded,  “If you still don’t like it, try tucking the bottom of the blouse into the pants.”

Ranma shrugged, “Sure why not,” he said as he tucked the blouse in. “I don’t see how much of a difference it’ll-”

It made a difference. Instead of the blouse hiding her curves they were accentuated. Ranma started to get a strange feeling inside her. It wasn’t the same feeling she got as a guy, it was… warm, pleasant even.

“Do you like it?” Kasumi asked.

“It’s… um… well… I-i don’t know,” Ranma lied.

“I still think that’s a good enough answer to buy them,” Kasumi said. “Though I think you should try on one of the skirts.”

Ranma went red, “f-fine.” Ranma closed the curtain, took off the pants, and grabbed one of the skirts. It seemed simple enough to wear, so Ranma just pulled it up and tucked in the blouse again. “I shouldn’t expect to like this one bi-”

Once again Ranma proved herself wrong, especially when the skirt flared up when she turned to get it. Ranma did a couple of twists and twirls, she loved the skirt and was more than willing to try the other clothes.

After trying as many combinations from what she was given, Ranma heard a voice. “Ranma? How is it?” Kasumi asked.

Ranma peaked her head out the curtain, “Do you mind us staying here for a bit? I want to try picking my own outfits.”

“Oh!” Kasumi said, surprised. “Sure, take as long as you want. I just wanted to also have you try on this-” Ranma saw the dress and swiftly took it from Kasumi’s grasp before she finished her sentence. As Ranma was changing out of what she was currently wearing, she heard Kasumi say something. “I think little Ranma-chan found a hobby,” she said, sounding happy.

Ranma herself was having a blast.

----------

Akane couldn’t be more glad school was over, especially after spending most of it trying to convince her classmates to go along with her plan. Now that Kuno found out about it, she was going to probably have to prepare for him to be even more of a nuisance out of spite. There was also Nabiki being a ticking time bomb waiting to happen, something she needed to take care of.

Akane walked over to where the photography club was stationed and found Nabiki going over different types of camera lenses. “Nabiki, we need to talk. Privately.”

Nabiki just shrugged, “sorry guys, today’s session on camera advice is on hold for now. Clearly my brother wants to make sure of something before heading out.”

“Sister!” Akane corrected her.

*heh* Nabiki had the gall to chuckle, “Not after tomorrow.” She turns to the other club members, “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Nabiki followed Akane until they were in a truly private place, the girl’s bathroom. “Are you sure you should-”

“One more joke like that and all your camera film will be in the koi pond when you get home,” Akane said.

“Then-”

“No, I will not pay for it no matter how much you insist on it,” Akane said, interrupting Nabiki. “This is serious, Nabiki!”

“It’s only serious because you decided it needed to be,” Nabiki said. “Why can’t you tell Ranma the truth about your curse?”

“You wouldn’t tell her if you were in my shoes!” Akane exclaims. “She has a crush on my guy form, it’s obvious!”

Nabiki was trying to hold back a laugh. “That’s definitely it!” She said sarcastically.

“I don’t see how this is funny!” Akane yells.

“Oh, it’s hilarious!” Nabiki replied. “But why talk with me about it?”

“Because I know you, Nabiki!” Akane said. “I know for sure that you will tell Ranma, even accidentally, if I don’t mention it now!”

“You DO know me Akane,” Nabiki said, “which means you know the surefire way of keeping me quiet.”

“I’m not paying for your silence,” Akane said.

“No but if you let me take bets on any fights you or Ranma get involved in, my lips will be sealed. I’ll make sure you two get a small cut of the profits each match.”

“That’s…” Akane mused about it, “Fine! But only if me and Ranma get 25% profit each!”

Nabiki shrugs, “Ranma’s already agreed to be a model for my photography gig, I won’t need much more from betting.”

“I’m sorry what?” Akane said.

“I’m saying that you need to pay attention to when a room is occupied, little bro, otherwise you might get another uppercut to the jaw by a fiery pinkette,” Nabiki said as she left the bathroom, leaving Akane alone.

“THAT DIDN’T ANSWER THE QUESTION!” Akane yelled.

----------

“I wasn’t expecting to get so much!” Kasumi said.

“Sorry I went overboard,” Ranma replied with a smile.

“There’s nothing wrong with finding passion in a new hobby,” Kasumi said, “just know that you’ll be buying your own clothes from now on.”

“That’s fine,” Ranma said. “Nabiki wants me to do model work for some kind of business she has at school. It was the cost of having her keep my curse a secret from Akane, but she is letting me keep a quarter of the profit.”

*Sigh* Kasumi sighed, likely because of Nabiki, “Nabiki’s always trying to find ways to make money. She’s good at it, but I worry she’s going to cause trouble because of it.”

Ranma didn’t say anything as they arrived back at the dojo, as she didn’t know enough about Nabiki to comment. Also because she wanted to change the subject, “By the way. I know you got me some makeup, but I don’t know how to do it properly. Can you teach me?”

“Of course, Ranma-chan!” Kasumi said as they entered the house. “I’d be happy to teach a thing or two about makeup.”

“Thanks Kasumi!” Ranma couldn’t help herself and giggled like a little schoolgirl.

*Ehrm* they heard a voice in front of them, it was Pops. “I see you’re back.”

“Hey pops!” Ranma said nonchalantly.

Kasumi put the bags she was carrying on a table, “I’ll go get something to drink.” Kasumi left the room, leaving Ranma with her old man.

“Kasumi got me some stuff to help with my girl form,” she said. “It should hopefully make hiding my curse easier.”

“I don’t see the point in doing this, if I could be frank,” Pops said.

“Well I don’t see the point of me getting married!” Ranma said back. “Why marriage!? Why can’t me and Akane combine the schools in a different way!?”

“Marriage was how we decided it years ago!” Pops said. “Why are you still a girl!? I don’t see why you decide to pretend to be some dainty school girl for a ‘guy’ who’s actually a-”

“Opps!” Kasumi dropped a glass of water on Pops, triggering his curse. Pops tries to glare at Kasumi, but even Ranma could sense the intent of harm behind Kasumi’s smile.

Pops relented, but still pulled out a sign, [Don’t forget you have to be a man!] The sign flips, [No amount of girling around will change that!]

Ranma hated the reminder, but Pops was right, he had to be a man! “You’re right, sorry,” Ranma said.

“Now Ranma,” Kasumi said, “why don’t we all have a nice discussion about this before we make any-”

“I need to get changed,” Ranma said as he walked to his room. “As much as I like these new clothes, I should only wear them when necessary. Besides, there’s something I need to do as a man anyways.”

Ranma gets out of the new clothes he bought and changes back into his chinese silks. He then leaves his room to change back, the furo was empty, so Ranma went downstairs to the kitchen. On the way, he heard what sounded like Kasumi scolding Mr. Saotome.

“…you really should let Ranma be her own person instead of forcing…” He heard Kasumi say, but Ranma ignored it.

Ranma entered the kitchen, it appeared a kettle was set out earlier and still hot enough. Ranma poured the hot water over his head and changed back into the large, boxy, unflattering man he is supposed to be. Ranma walked out of the kitchen and Kasumi got a look at his guy form for the first time.

“Oh…” Kasumi said, shocked.

“Yeah, I know,” Ranma said, “I don’t see what people see in this either.”

“That’s not it,” Kasumi said, “I’m just surprised at how tall you got! With how short you were as a girl I thought…”

“Yeah yeah, stop reminding me,” Ranma said. “I’m going out for a bit. Don’t worry I’ll change before returning home.”

“Really? Akane should be home any minute now!” Kasumi said.

“Then just say I was an acquaintance of myself or something like that,” Ranma said as he puts his guy shoes on and heads out.

Ranma roof hopped for a bit, he knew where he was in Nerima was close to where his middle school was in Suginami. That means he’s close to his friend’s place and this should give him a chance to see if he’s home. Now if only he could place what his friend’s name was again before heading there.

When Ranma arrives at the river, he hops down from the roof and jogs across the bridge, where he walks past a couple students from Furinkan High who were heading home. One that draws his attention is the blue-haired girl in the guy’s uniform running past him, “I guess they allow girls to wear the guy uniform. I should talk with Kasumi about that. Why did she seem familiar though?”

----------

“Is Chinese silk a new fashion trend?” Akane said as she ran past the tall black-haired boy in said silks. “Still not as tall as my guy form. Why did he seem familiar though?” Akane put that thought to the side as she headed back home. Akane rushed back home, but made sure to douse herself with a hose before opening the door.

“I’m back,” she said.

“Welcome home!” Kasumi said as she exited the kitchen with a kettle. “Ranma just went out, so you should be safe to change back for now. Just try to stay in your room until he gets back in case you do.”

“Thanks!” Akane replied as she took the kettle, dumping all the hot water on herself and changing back. “I got hosed earlier just in case, but it appears it wasn’t necessary.”

Akane felt someone tap her on the shoulder, she turned around to see the panda that was Mr. Saotome stare at her. “Yes, this is what I normally look like!” Akane said.

The panda pulled a sign, [That’s not it.] He flipped the sign, [I needed that hot water too!]

Akane stuck her tongue out, “aren’t you already freeloading off my dad enough? Get your own hot water!” Akane turned back to face Kasumi, “by the way, my class seems to be going along with my plan from the looks of things.”

“That’s good!” Kasumi said.

“That is certainly not good!” Akane heard her father say as he entered the room. He runs up to Akane, “Why are you doing this Akane!? I thought you hated being a boy?!”

“W-well…”

“I can’t imagine you’re comfortable denying your birth form like that after all these years!”

“D-dad…”

“I can only imagine the shame your mother would feel-”

Akane cut her father off, “DAD!” That caused him to stop and pay attention to her. “I’m doing this for Ranma, no one else.”

“But Akane,” her father started, “That’s only because you assume-”

“That she’d be devastated that she was being forced into marrying a girl?! Yeah dad, I’m sure that’s obvious!”

“But you’re not engaged to a-” Akane’s father was interrupted by Kasumi.

“Akane made his decision, father,” she said. She then whispered something in her father’s ear, something Akane couldn’t hear.

*Sigh* her father sighed, “So you think that Ranma would want nothing to do with you if your curse was revealed, correct?”

“Yes,” Akane replied. “And for you that means the engagement would be over, so can you please leave me alone about this?”

Akane’s father didn’t move, one could assume he was a statue with how still he was. He then spoke, “I’ll let it be, but please understand what you’re putting at risk doing this.”

“I’ll be fine dad,” Akane said.

“Alright, if you say so,” her father replied.

Kasumi stepped in, “If you excuse us Akane, I need to talk to Father and Mr. Saotome about something, privately. Then I’ll be making dinner.”

“Okay,” Akane said as she went to her room.

----------

Kasumi led Father and Mr. Saotome to the dojo. There the three of them sat down to discuss Ranma and Akane.

“I can’t believe you’re going along with this Kasumi,” Father said to her. The panda that is Ranma’s father nodded in agreement.

“I’m just doing what I think is the best path going forwards,” Kasumi replied.

“By what? Having them play pretend until it breaks them?!” Father replied.

“I don’t think we have to worry about that,” Kasumi replied. “But I do think you two need to stop bothering them about this going forward.”

Father grimaced, “This wouldn’t have been an issue if Nabiki let us get a word in edgewise.”

“I don’t think it would’ve changed the outcome, Father,” Kasumi said.

“But the fact remains that they’re doing this over a misunderstanding we tried to clear up last night!” Father said. “I seriously doubt this will have any positive effects on the engagement!”

“Well I do,” Kasumi said. “That’s why I’m letting them do this. Ranma has already shown a side to herself she wouldn’t have if she didn’t go through with this, and while Akane’s had his curse for longer, he’s surely to better understand himself if he lets himself spend actual time in it!”

“Kasumi…” Father said agitated, “I don’t like it when you make me agitated. I also don’t like what you’re assuming.”

Mr. Saotome was finally able to get a sign in edgewise, [My son HAS to be a man, young lady!]

“Mr. Saotome, your expectations of your child and what they need aren’t the same thing!” Kasumi said. “Father that also goes for Akane! A better understanding of themselves is the best route going forwards, and if they end up liking their cursed forms more because of it, who are we to judge!? I can’t decide what will make Akane or Ranma happy, but I can allow them an environment where they’re allowed to. But in order to do that, I need you two to cooperate with this!”

Father and Mr. Saotome looked at Kasumi in shock. *Sigh* Father recollected himself, “I should know better by now, whenever you’re determined to see something through, there’s nothing I can do to stop you.” Father looks at Mr. Saotome, “Saotome-san, as much as it pains me to say it, I think at this point we should just let young love be for now.”

Mr. Saotome held up a sign, [I don’t like this…]

Kasumi smiled, masking her thoughts behind it, “Well there are a lot of things I don’t like, but I know when to not intervene. I have a lot I would love to say to you though, Mr. Saotome.” Kasumi stood up, “Well, I should get to making dinner!” Kasumi walked out of the dojo, hopeful for Ranma and Akane’s future.

----------

The rest of the day and most of the following day went by uneventfully in Akane’s eyes, she didn’t even have any water accidents to speak of. The only thing that came up was on Tuesday morning when Akane fought Kuno that day.

“Here this, Akane Tendo!” Kuno shouted. “While you’re finally being the man you always were, I will not call off the Horde on a pervert like you! Not until you truly learn to respect women!”

“Go ahead then!” Akane shouted, determined. “I’ll just keep fighting you until you can’t fight anymore!” Akane hits Kuno hard with an uppercut. “You! Can’t! Beat! Me!”

Otherwise, class was boring, gym was uneventful, and the walk home had nothing interesting, other than purposely getting splashed again before entering the house. When Akane went upstairs, she decided to see if Ranma was in her room.

“Hey Ranma,” Akane said.

Ranma was laying on a futon placed on the floor, she was reading a manga. “Yeah?” she said.

“Are you ready to go to school tomorrow?” Akane asked.

“Not really,” She said.

“Well, let me know if I can help,” Akane said. “I want to see the best ‘you’ you can be tomorrow.”

*groan* Ranma groaned for some reason, “Whatever.”

“Noriko and Tomoyo are excited to see you tomorrow,” Akane said.

“Who?” Ranma asked, confused.

“You don’t remember them?” Akane asked.

“I barely remember my friend from middle school, Akane!” Ranma said. “Actually, I was surprised how close my middle school was to here, so I tried to visit him yesterday to see if I could remember.”

“Well?” Akane asked.

“They weren’t home,” Ranma replied. “Not that I was surprised by that.”

“Oh…” Akane said.

“It’s fine, he’s bound to show his face eventually,” Ranma said. “I left a note saying I’m living here, so he’ll know where to find me.”

“Well, that’s good,” Akane said. “…wait ‘he?’”

“Yeah,” Ranma said. “You said I can have guy friends, remember? Besides, I met him before you told me that ‘I hate men’ spiel!”

“Oh… right…” Akane couldn’t look at Ranma out of embarrassment. “I should… get some homework done.”

“Okay,” Ranma said, getting back to her manga.

Akane spent the rest of the day thinking about Ranma and her friend, “She said they were friends… that’s it. But why was she so interested in seeing them again? They couldn’t have been more than that right? RIGHT?!”

Akane was thinking about this well into the evening, he needed answers. Akane opened the door to Ranma’s room, “Hey Ranma I wanted to know more about your fri-” Akane realized that he walked into Ranma currently in the middle of changing. At that moment, he knew he messed up, “uhhhhhhh… your underwear is cute?”

“LEARN TO KNOCK, YOU PERVERT!” Ranma shouted as she tossed her still obscenely heavy travel pack at him, knocking him to the ground.

Akane then saw Nabiki walking by, reading a magazine. “This is what I meant yesterday, ‘bro,’” was all she said before heading back to her room. Akane could only lay there in shame.

Chapter Text

“Todays the day,” Ranma thought to himself. “First day of school!”

Ranma was nervous, not only because this would be his first day of school in years, but because this would be his first day of going to school, intentionally, as a girl. Emphasis on intentionally, as the last time was an accident that was caused by his peers. Didn’t help that no one noticed the mistake, not even him, but this was different, he was going as a girl, in a noticeably girl body.

“It’s fine!” Ranma thought. “You’ll just be going to school, for the first time in years, with people who knew you but didn’t KNOW you.” Ranma grabbed the school bag Kasumi gave him and headed down stairs.

When Ranma entered the dining room, Kasumi was the first person to notice her outfit. “Oh! You’re not wearing the uniform?” She asked.

Ranma blushed, rubbing the back of his head, “I just didn’t feel the most comfortable putting it on yet. I’ll put it on if I get in trouble for it.”

“As long as ‘Tattletale’ Kuno doesn’t say anything, you’ll be good,” Nabiki said.

“‘Tattletale’ who?” Ranma asked.

“A nuisance!” Akane replied. “He gets in a fight with me before school everyday! So expect to see him when we get there.” Akane faced Nabiki, “Also Nabiki, you were more synonymous with being a tattletale! Remember when you were in 2nd grade! The tales of ‘Tattletale Tendo’ spread far and wide!”

“If you mean to the fourth graders that’s because of Kasumi,” Nabiki replied. She then got up and headed out, “Anyway I’m trusting you to get your fiancee to school Akane, have fun you two! But not TOO much.”

“Nabiki!” Akane yelled, blushing.

After Nabiki left, Ranma finally sat down, and ate her lunch at a reasonable pace.

“You know you can chew before you swallow, right?” Akane jested.

“You know you can knock before entering, right?!” Ranma replied angrily after finishing her rice.

“I said I was sorry!” Akane exclaimed.

“You’re going to need to do a lot more than that if this keeps up!” Ranma said. Ranma then shook his head clear, “Can’t forget, guy! I swear Akane makes me do that a lot!”

Ranma gets up from his seat. “It was delicious, Kasumi. C’mon Akane, we should get going,” Ranma says as he grabs Akane by his long ponytail.

“But I’m not done yet!” Akane replied.

“Too bad,” Ranma said, then stuck his tongue out.

“Actually Ranma,” Kasumi said, stopping Ranma from hauling Akane out of there.

“Yeah?” he said, letting go of Akane.

“I wanted to ask if you wanted to help me with something after school?” Kasumi asked.

*uhhhhhhh* Ranma didn’t know what to say, on the one hand, Kasumi is probably going to make him do something really girly, on the other hand, it’s not like she hated what they did last time. “S-s-sure, I’ll help.”

“Oh good!” Kasumi said. “I get you when you’re needed. Until then though, have a wonderful day at school!”

“Finished!” Akane said as he finished his food, his chopsticks risen with determination.

“Good, because we’re going,” Ranma said, pulling the guy by the ponytail and out of the building.

----------

“If you hate me, just say it,” Akane told the girl currently balancing on the fence.

“I hate you,” Ranma replied angrily.

“Oh okay,” Akane replied nonchalantly. She then raised his voice, “Can you at least explain why?”

“I dunno Mr. Peek-a-Perv, you tell me why!?” Ranma said, pulling her eyelid down and sticking her tongue out.

“Whatever,” Akane said as she tried to change the subject, “By the way, no talking about the engagement at school.”

“You think I want that sort of attention?” Ranma said. She hops off the fence to get in her face, “It’s not like I WANT to be known as the girl married to the biggest perv in town! In fact, I think the only thing worse than that is-”

Ranma is interrupted when she is suddenly splashed with a bunch of water. She quickly turns around, getting in stance for battle, but eases when she sees it was just the washer lady.

*ugh* She said as she pinched her chinese silks, trying to get them to not stick to her.

“Yeah that lady gets me all the time on the way to school,” Akane said, leaving out the fact that she was usually transformed because of it. “The uniforms are pretty good at drying quickly. So maybe you should wear it next time.”

“I’ll consider it,” Ranma said.

“By the way,” Akane said, “Why aren’t you wearing the uniform? I thought Kasumi got you one.”

“Oh…” Ranma appeared to get embarrassed. “ I just thought the girl’s uniform looked ugly.”

“You wouldn’t be the first person to think that,” Akane replied. “It’s fine Ranma, no one can really judge you for wearing it.”

“I just wonder if I can request to wear the guy’s uniform instead,” Ranma said.

“I doubt they’d let you do that,” Akane said.

“Why not?” Ranma asked, “I saw a girl wearing the guy’s uniform the other day! Why couldn’t I?!”

Akane’s heart sank, “Ranma saw me in girl form?” He thought, “When?! I didn’t even see her anywhere!” Akane refocused and caught his breath, “I don’t think it’s as simple as that Ranma, unfortunately.”

*sigh* Ranma sighed, “If I’m lucky no one will say anything.” Akane then sees Ranma looking forwards, “Looks like we’re almost there.”

Akane took a deep breath, “Okay, time for the first hurdle in all this.”

----------

Ranma noticed Akane started to pick up the pace, “Ranma, keep your distance.”

“Why?” Ranma said.

“I’ve had to do something here every morning since the year began,” Akane said, being vague.

“That be-” Ranma stopped as the sound of what felt like a charging army became apparent. It didn’t take long for Ranma to see what was making that noise.

A swarm of boys appeared from behind the walls of the school and started charging at them. Ranma, deciding to take Akane’s advice, hopped onto the wall to the school courtyard as Akane charged into the horde. From the wall, Ranma could hear some of the things the horde were saying.

“PERVERT!” *SLAM* “WOMAN HATER!” *SMACK* “CREEP!” *THUD* “BASTARD!”

“Geez! I agree Akane’s a pervert,” Ranma thought, “but what did he do to get all the guys to hate him like that?”

“Hey Ranma!” Ranma heard what sounded like Nabiki shouting. Sure enough Ranma looked at the second floor and Nabiki was there. “Why don’t you head into the building!”

“What about him?!” Ranma shouted back.

“Akane can totally take care of himself!” Nabiki shouted.

Ranma looked back at the fight and sure enough, Akane finished the fight by the time he could even consider joining in. “I’ll admit it, not aloud of course, that was pretty impressive.” Seeing Akane standing on top of the pile of unconscious boys was giving Ranma a warm feeling, and she wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

*UGH!* Akane grunted, “They do this EVERYDAY!”

“But of course!” Ranma heard another voice say across from her. Ranma turned to see the boy who said it. “Until you’ve truly abandoned your perverted ways the horde shall not let you rest.”

“You aren’t going to change anything by forcing it this way, Kuno,” Akane said. “I’ve told you time and time again to give up!”

“NEVER!” Kuno shouted. “You will not be getting out of this until you’ve truly learned your lesson!”

Ranma jumped down from the wall, landing beside Akane, “So, you’ve been a pervert longer than I thought.”

“Not helping,” Akane said through clenched teeth.

“Why’s all this even happening anyways?” Ranma asked.

“Nothing important,” Akane replied.

Ranma saw Akane turn to face that ‘Kuno’ guy again, but his face went from anger to curiosity. Ranma turned to face the guy to see why, he was staring directly at Ranma, mouth agape.

“Young lady!” he shouted. “What are you doing?! Get away from that pervert, less he ruins you!”

“Ruin me?” Ranma said, confused. He looks at Akane, “What’s he talking about?”

“Beats me,” Akane said.

Kuno suddenly grabbed Ranma by their hand and pulled them away from Akane. He then clasped both of Ranma’s hands with his own.

“I won’t let that horrible man hurt you, young lady!” Kuno said.

“My hero…” Ranma said deadpan.

“Might I have your name?” Kuno asked.

Ranma looked at him unamused, but eventual decided to say it, “Ran-”

“But it would be rude for a noble samurai like me to ask without giving a name first!” Kuno interrupted him.

Ranma was very unamused, “go ahead then.”

“Very well,” Kuno said. He then proceeded to pull Ranma close to him. “I am Takewaki Kuno of class 2-E, leader of the kendo team, and rising star in the high school kendo space! I am also widely known as,” Kuno wrapped one arm around Ranma while using his other to point his bokken upwards, “The Blue Thunder of Furinkan High School!”

*CRASH* Lightning stuck just behind Kuno.

Ranma closed his eyes, grimacing angrily, “Ranma Saotome. Now would you please… LET GO OF ME!!!” Ranma said this as he gave Kuno a fast uppercut, knocking him out in one blow. “That guy is in no place to talk about you like that if THAT’S how he acts around women.”

“Just don’t tell anyone about what happened the last few days at home,” Akane said. “If you think he’s bad about it now, he’d be unbearable then if it got out.”

*BOOM*

“Let’s head inside,” Ranma said, “I’d rather not get rained on.”

“Me neither,” Akane said as they headed inside.

----------

Akane knew that the next few minutes were going to be really stressful, especially since there were still one or two students who were hesitant to go along with her plan. If anything were to happen it would be with those students. Not that she could do anything now, now that the teacher walked in and started class.

“Anyway, before we begin,” the teacher said, “we have a new student here. Please come in.”

Akane saw the front door to the class open, and Ranma walked through. Suddenly, memories of a young 7 year old girl entering her second grade classroom came flooding back. Ranma was taller now, but still easily the shortest in the class. Their black haired ponytail back then was now a pink haired pigtail. The faded red t-shirt now replaced with pastel red chinese tangzhuang that tucked into her pants and was clearly hiding nothing from him or the rest of the class.

“Introduce yourself, please,” the teacher said.

Ranma quickly wrote her name on the board in Kanji (早乙女乱馬) then quickly twirled around. “I am Ranma Saotome, this is my first time back in Tokyo in 2 years. Thank you for having me!” She said as she bowed to the class.

“We had been told that Ms. Saotome had just returned from training in China,” the teacher said. “Please give her the space to adjust back to a normal school life. Now Ms. Saotome, please take an open seat behind Mr. Tendo right there.”

Ranma walked over to the seat behind Akane and sat down, once again memories flooded back her and her friends all sat in the same seating position they did back in second grade. Akane was clearly not the only one to recognize this.

*ooooh* Tomoyo said in a whisper, “Just like in second grade!”

“It’s nice to see you again, Ranma!” Noriko also whispered.

*umm* Ranma looked away from them.

Akane knew Ranma didn’t remember them, but for some reason, she failed to tell her about them beforehand and Akane didn’t remember why. But that didn’t mean she had to struggle right now.

“Girls,” Akane said to her friends, “Ranma doesn’t remember much from back then. She didn’t remember you two when I brought it up yesterday.”

“Oh…” Noriko sounded disappointed.

“Well… hopefully those memories come flooding back by spending more time with each other again!” Tomoyo said.

Ranma blushed, “Th-that’d be nice.”

“Quiet in the back!” the teacher said. “If you have questions for the new kid, wait until after class!”

----------

Nabiki wasn’t expecting Kuno to show up in the state he was in. It wasn’t that he was clearly housing another bruise on his jawline, that she was expecting, it was that he clearly had something on his mind. Nabiki couldn’t really decipher anything from his face, so she decided to ask.

“Got something on your mind Kuno?” Nabiki said. “It better be school appropriate.”

“Like you would know anything about what is and isn’t appropriate,” Kuno replied. “Not only do you let your mouth recklessly prattle on without thought, but you allow that pervert you call a brother to get away with such atrocious antics.”

“If Akane decides to live as a guy or a girl, why should I care?” Nabiki said. “It’s their life, not mine.”

“That is not how the world works, Nabiki Tendo, and you know it,” Kuno replied. “A man cannot become a woman and vice versa!”

“Then explain Akane’s curse,” Nabiki said.

“It is as you say Nabiki Tendo, a curse!” Kuno exclaimed. “A curse that causes suffering for all that surrounds the wielder! Putting such innocent maidens, like that new girl in such perilous danger! For what is a curse? Nothing but suffering!”

“I don’t know,” Nabiki said, “the girls seem to be just fine from what I can tell. If anything it’s you guys who are suffering because of it.”

“It would be wrong for us guys to allow such a pervert to roam the school as a girl!” Kuno said. “I only worry for that new girl, Ranma Saotome.”

Kuno continued, “I looked up her name in the school records on my way here. The kanji of her name paints the image of a beautiful maiden in her image, up early to plant rice in the rice fields of rural Japan, riding elegantly upon a wild horse! To be an acquaintance of such a known pervert like Akane Tendo could only mean she is yet to figure it out!”

“Well you got that right,” Nabiki said. “Akane’s showing up to school as a guy now because of her. So if anything, you should be thanking her.”

“I cannot be thankful to her, not when she is ignorant of what danger she puts herself in!” Kuno exclaims. “Who knows what that monstrous pervert will do to her if he is allowed to make a move on her! I cannot allow such a relationship to evolve!”

*heheheheheh… Hahahahahahaha!* Nabiki averted her eyes, she couldn’t stop herself from laughing.

“I don’t see how this is a laughing matter, Tendo!” Kuno shouted.

*heh… heheh… heeeeh* Nabiki managed to calm herself down. “Oh Kuno, you are SO stupid!” Nabiki thought. “I can’t wait for him to find out they’re already engaged.” But, Nabiki knew she needed to keep that thought to herself. “Still… I made a promise that I wouldn’t-”

“THEY’RE WHAT!?!?!” Kuno shouted at the top of his lungs. Nabiki turned to face Kuno, who stood up incredibly quickly. Nabiki wasn’t the best at deciphering people’s emotions, but she knew rage when she saw it. “THEY’RE ALREADY ENGAGED!?!”

Nabiki looked around, everyone was looking at them. “Did I say that part out loud?”

Kuno didn’t even let her explain herself, “DAMN THAT PERVERT!” Kuno rushed out of the classroom. “I WON’T ALLOW IT!”

Nabiki just stared at the door for a minute, before the teacher finally spoke. “Ms. Tendo please stand in the hall for interrupting class like that.”

----------

Any and all attempts at the teacher keeping class in line failed as more and more questions came Ranma’s way. Most were questions about China, which to Akane, Ranma seemed to answer honestly. She did seem to keep some details a secret, which didn’t surprise her. She kept the return trip from Qinghai a complete secret, not surprising since she probably didn’t want to explain her father being cursed to turn into a panda.

That was definitely to Akane’s benefit as well, since that meant Ranma didn’t need to explain the Jusenkyo curse, which also meant Akane’s curse was also kept secret on top of that. If Ranma mentioned Jusenkyo, there was no way Akane could keep her own curse a secret. Even if she denied it, it would eventually just be forced out of her.

“How did you get away with dyeing your hair!?” one of the girls asked. “Our school has a no hair dye policy.”

Ranma flinched at the comment, and Akane couldn’t help but admit, he was curious. “Me, Noriko, and Tomoyo knew Ranma in the second grade, her hair was black back then,” Akane answered. “So yeah, I’m surprised you got away with dyeing it.”

Ranma looked away from everyone and confessed, “I-i-it’s not dyed, it’s naturally that color. I was forced to dye it black when I was young, up until middle school. I didn’t go to school while in China so it eventually just washed away. Luckily for me Furinkan High didn’t seem to care how bizarre it is of a color.”

Things did start to get tricky though when people started bringing up how she arrived with her that morning. “So why were you with Akane this morning in the courtyard? I get you two used to know each other, but why were you showing up together?” asked Shingo.

“Hmm?” Ranma turned to face him. “Oh that’s because I’m staying at the Tendo Dojo. Our fathers are friends and Akane’s is letting us stay there with them.”

“So do you know then?” one of the boys said. Akane couldn’t tell who said it though, and clearly Ranma didn’t either.

“Know what?” Ranma asked, looking around for who said it.

“About Akane?” the unknown boy said. Akane was finally able to figure out who said it.

“Gosunkugi! I forgot about him!” Akane thought. “Gosunkugi! Don’t spread rumors about people! Especially to the new kid!”

“But they aren’t rumors, Akane!” the sickly looking boy said. “Everyone else here has seen it!”

Ranma rolled her eyes, “I have no idea what that kid is talking about, but I’m not interested. Besides, I probably know it already, Akane’s not good at keeping secrets.”

That got a chuckle out of the class, but it gave Akane a sigh of relief, at least Ranma’s lackadaisy response worked in her favor.

“C’mon!” Gosunkugi said. “It’s not something that can just be ignored!” Gosunkugi went into his bag. What he pulled out caused Akane’s heart to sink. A thermos, and a bunch of photos. “If she’s living with a pervert like you she has to know!”

The teacher finally decided to stop drinking his ice coffee to start doing his job again. “Okay everyone back in your seats!”

“But the new kid needs to know about Akane’s-” Gosunkugi started, but was interrupted.

Kuno charged into the classroom, “AKANE TENDO!”

Akane jumped out of her seat as Kuno did a horizontal size, cutting the top of her chair and splitting her desk in. It was clear to Akane that something set him off, and badly.

“What the hell, Kuno!?” Akane said angrily.

“I heard about you and Ranma Saotome!” Kuno said.

“Huh?!” was all Akane could get out before…

“I REFUSE TO ACCEPT YOUR TWO’S ENGAGEMENT!” Kuno shouted at the top of his lungs.

The only sound that could escape Akane’s mouth after that was a long, weak, wheeze. It wasn’t much longer before the entire class erupted with energy.

“Wait, you're engaged?!” “Is that why you wanted us to be all secretive?!” “See this only proves Akane’s prior perversion!”

“N-now hold on!” Akane said.

“Our parents are just doing whatever they wa-” Ranma was interrupted by Kuno pulling her away from her seat.

“I will not allow such a violent pervert to get his way with such an innocent young maiden!” Kuno said, clasping Ranma’s hands with his own again. Ranma stared at him befuddled.

Her expression then turned into one of anger, “I know why I call Akane a pervert.” Ranma then uses Kuno’s grip on her to throw him over her head. “BUT WHAT’S YOUR EXCUSE!?”

Kuno lands right next to Gosunkugi, but he quickly gets back on his feet. “If you truly do not know,” Kuno grabbed Gosunkugi’s thermos out of his hand, causing Akane’s heart to once again sink, “then it is my duty as a noble samurai to show you!” She couldn’t get splashed, not here, not now, not in front of Ranma. Akane backed off, then ran out of the classroom. “You dare run from fate you coward!” Kuno yelled.

As Akane ran into the halls she turned her head to look back, Kuno was chasing her with the thermos in one hand, bokken in the other. Akane tried to keep her distance, but eventually she ran out of hallway and almost sent herself out the window. If anything, the pool would’ve broken her fall if she did, but it also meant she had nowhere else to run.

Akane turned around, Kuno was right in front of her. “Nowhere else to run, pervert!” Kuno yelled as he unscrew the lid of the thermos. “Now to show the innocent Ranma your perverted deceit!”

Kuno threw the hot water in a way Akane couldn’t dodge, forcing her back into a girl. “This was it,” Akane thought, “all that work for nothing. Ranma’s going to see me and be devastated.”

“Akane!” she heard Ranma further down the hall, “What happened?!”

She heard footsteps heading her way, “Ranma heading this way, but I can’t see her because Kuno’s blocking the view… which probably means she hasn’t seen me transform yet!” Akane realized she might be able to keep her curse hidden, but she would need cold water. Fortunately and unfortunately for her, there was a convenient water source below her, but she, a.) needed a way to do this without being seen in this form, and b.) couldn’t swim and needed someone to haul her out. Luckily for her she had an answer to both, unluckily for her, it was Kuno.

“Now see innocent maiden how Akane Tendo performs his perverted-” Kuno started saying, but Akane grabbed Kuno by his Kendo Uniform.

“Just to let you know, Kuno,” Akane whispered to him with clenched teeth as she jumped onto the window railing, “this is ALL! YOUR! FAULT!”

“What are you…” Kuno started to say as Akane jumped out of the window with him in her hands, “PLANNING!?!?!”

“What’s Akane doing!?” she heard Noriko yell. “This is the third floor!”

“The pool!?” Tomoyo yelled. “But you can’t swim!!”

“AKANE!” Ranma yelled.

*SPLASH!!*

“Okay Akane!” She thought to herself as she transformed back into a guy. “You’re underwater now, unable to swim, and at the mercy of the wannabe samurai who, while angry at you, you know won’t just let you drown for no rea-” Akane looked at Kuno in horror, he was unconscious from the impact. “I’m going to drown! ” He thought. “I was an idiot and I’m going to drown, all because I didn’t have the stupid confidence to be honest with the girl I love! And she’ll be heartbroken forever, and lonely, and, and, and…”

*SPLASH*

Akane heard a muffled splash as someone else entered the pool and grabbed him. He was suddenly being pulled out of the water and quickly hit the surface.

*COUGH! Cough! Cough! Wheeze* Akane had almost forgotten what drowning felt like, not that he liked being reminded. But it gave him a chance to see who saved-

*SMACK*

Akane felt a heavy slap to the face suddenly. He turned to see who gave it to him. It was Ranma, soaking wet as if she… “She saved me?!”

“I-i thought you were on the…” Akane started.

“Third floor?! Yeah!” Ranma said angrily, “I jumped out the window like you did, you stupid, dumb…” Ranma’s wet hair covered her eyes, but it didn’t take long for Akane to see tears, “IDIOT!!”

Ranma fell to her knees, grabbing Akane by his shoulders. “Why did you jump into the pool if you can’t swim! What type of idiot did you have to be to think of that!? Don’t you know how scared I got when Tomoyo said you couldn’t swim! Or when Kuno appeared to not move! I didn’t know how long you could hold your breath! Or if you could even get to the surface, or, or, OR…”

Ranma stopped talking, as if she exhausted every word she could think of. Akane didn’t know what to say at this moment, so he did the only thing he could do. He hugged her, “I’m sorry! I panicked and didn’t think.”

*sniff* Ranma returned his hug, “Yeah, well… you need to get better at that!”

The two stayed there for a few seconds, Akane taking in the moment to its fullest. “This is… nice,” Akane thought. “Even though we’re both soaked, this hug feels… so warm! Warm and more comfortable… than ever before. With the girl I-”

Akane’s thought stopped just as it clicked exactly what he was doing. *ah!*

*Hmm?!* she heard Ranma grunt.

The two broke the hug at the same time, distancing from each other. Akane couldn’t force himself to look at Ranma, not while blushing like an idiot, but brief glaces showed Ranma staring at him, also blushing. “What am I doing?!” Akane thought to herself. “We're both girls! Even if she doesn’t know that, it’s not right for me to… have feelings like this for a girl!”

“I-i should…” Ranma started to say, “probably get Kuno out of the pool.”

“Y-yeah,” Akane replied. “That… that sounds like a good idea. He may be an ass, but I don’t want him to drown.”

As Ranma dove in to grab Kuno, Akane took deep breaths. “What am I going to do? I have all these conflicting thoughts and feelings, but… I can’t… it’s wrong! Perverted!” Akane’s thoughts spiraled, as she tried and failed to avoid the harsh truth. “Kuno was right, I am preying on her… I… I really am a pervert…”

Chapter Text

If there was anything Ranma wanted to do right now, it was kill Kuno. That bastard had to gall to wake up in the middle of her poolside rescue and the first thing he does is grope her! She at least responded reasonably, and by that she meant scream like a girl and throw him into a different section of the school grounds, but it’s the attempt that mattered.

Ranma shook his head, “Guy! GUY! I got to remember that!” Ranma had been trying his best to remind himself of that ever since the pool. Of course it gets harder and harder to do that each day as he spends more time in his cursed form. There were plenty of reasons for that, one of which will now be the constant reminder that he’s engaged to Akane, and the whole school pretty much now knows that.

Then there is Akane himself. Why did I have to be stuck with him of all people? He’s just plain reckless! Fighting pops for me when we just reunited was one thing. Fighting every boy in school for who knows what reason is a second thing! But who jumps into the deep end of a pool when you can’t swim, just so you can win a fight?!”

As he and Akane returned to class, Akane stopped at the second floor, marching over somewhere, and Ranma couldn’t help himself and followed. There he saw Nabiki, standing in the hall, holding a couple of buckets. It didn’t take long for her to notice the two of them.

“Really Nabiki?!” Akane asked in an angry and strained voice.

“I swear it was an accident!” Nabiki replied. She then examined the two of them, “Why are both of you soaking wet?”

“Because this idiot decided to jump into the pool!” Ranma replied, pointing at Akane.

“I just can’t believe you sometimes, Nabiki,” Akane said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Look, I doubt you would’ve kept it a secret for THAT much longer,” Nabiki said.

“YES! I could!” Akane replied angrily. “I swear the only way you’d keep a secret is if you had some way of monetary gain for doing so!”

*Hmm…” Nabiki appeared to actually be considering that, “That doesn’t sound like a bad idea! Do you know how much people will pay for gossip?” It sounded like Nabiki was genuinely asking that question.

Akane grabbed Nabiki by her shoulders and just GLARED at her. “Don’t worry pretty boy, that will be off the table,” Nabiki said, “I already have another incentive for that one.” Nabiki turned towards Ranma, “Same with you Ranma-chan.”

Ranma didn’t know what Nabiki knew that Akane desperately wanted to keep a secret, but he could assume it’s his inability to knock the past couple of days. That being said, Ranma didn’t like being reminded of how much of a hair trigger gossip Nabiki apparently is. But that’s why he agreed to model for her, even if he dreads what that’ll mean in the future.

“Let’s just get back to class,” Akane said to Ranma as he walked by him. Ranma couldn’t help but agree, as he didn’t want to deal with Nabiki much until he had no choice. Though he does admit, if he does get paid for that modelling work, it’d be nice to have the spending money. After all, she does want to try to get more clothes from the store.

Resuming class was simple enough… technically. In actuality, Ranma’s lack of education the past couple of years was really showing as there was very little that was being discussed that he actually understood. Who knew what ‘Trigonometry’ was and Ranma dared not ask what ‘SIN’ and ‘COS’ meant. “Maybe I’ll take Kasumi’s offer for tutoring,” Ranma thought to himself.

Then, after suffering through more classes like History and English, the lunch bell rang. Ranma just wanted to eat then maybe get away from everyone for the day, the last thing he wanted to do was ask more questions. “Hey Akane, what do you normally do during lunch?”

“Well…” Akane rubbed the back of his neck, “Me, Tomoyo, and Noriko head out to the roof to eat.”

“Oh, okay,” Ranma replied. “Can you show me how to get up there?”

*umm* Akane broke eye contact. “I think you should get to know some of our other classmates more instead, but maybe tomorrow. Just stay away from Gosunkugi, people say he’s into the occult.”

*shivers* Ranma has dealt with magical cursed springs, so occult magic probably existed for all he knew. “Yeah… good advice.”

“Okay, Great!” Akane said as he started backing out of the classroom. “Have fun, and remember to stuff that pretty face.” Akane left the room before he could hear Ranma groan.

Ranma didn’t really want to interact with anyone else, he just wanted to eat and maybe spend a few minutes deciphering some of the junk they were supposedly learning in class. Otherwise there were a couple guys talking manga near where he sat, but he didn’t want to interact with them for the reason that he was currently a girl, and it’d be weird for a girl to talk manga with a couple of guys. Even if he did read the same stuff they did and they would probably be good friends, it wouldn’t help his disguise at all.

Once Ranma finished his meal, which didn’t take long, he decided to take a walk around the school. He would’ve gone to see Akane, but he didn’t want him to get on his nerves about making friends so he decided to leave him be. Plus he wouldn’t admit it, but he probably needed space from him as well, especially after that hug after the pool made things kinda awkward.

“The fact that I felt that about a guy was awful, and it would make me a pervert like Akane! I can’t be a perv!” Ranma really wanted to change back into a guy to see if it was just his girl body doing this to him, but since he was still in school, he had to force himself to deal with it for now.

“Once I’m done here, I’ll go out and change back for a few hours until I need to go home for dinner,” Ranma thought. He stopped walking, “But I agreed to help Kasumi later, so I guess I should put that idea on hold.”

“Fair pigtailed maiden!” an, unfortunately, familiar voice said.

Ranma turned around to see Kuno walking towards him. “What do ya want?” Ranma hissed.

“I wish to warn you properly of that scoundrel Akane Tendo!” Kuno said.

“I already know he’s a pervert, you don’t have to remind me!” Ranma replied.

“Ah! But do you know how he gets away with his perverted acts!” Kuno said. “What Akane Tendo does is truly reprehensible! The fact that the girls let him get away with it is truly appalling!”

“And that’s why you boys gang pile him every morning?” Ranma said unamused.

“Exactly!! It’s a samurai’s duty to protect the weak when they cannot protect themselves!” Kuno shouted. “Especially when it is from someone as vile as Akane Tendo! If you aren’t convinced about how truly awful it is, I can prove it!” Kuno pulls out a kettle, Ranma was too annoyed at this point to think about why.

*ugh!* Ranma pinched the bridge of his nose, “Look here Nimrod Nobunaga. If what Akane’s doing is okay with the girls, then is it really as perverted as you say it is?”

“OF COURSE!” Kuno shouted unapologetically. “There is nothing okay about a man-”

“HEY!” The two of them heard a third voice enter the conversation.

----------

A few minutes earlier

It was hard to focus for the rest of the day in Akane’s opinion. It may have been for the lack of an intact desk thanks to Kuno, the mountain of sticky notes from classmates on the remaining frame of said desk throughout the day asking her questions, or it could be her harsh realization after the pool haunting her thoughts throughout the day. All Akane knew was that, by lunch, she was exhausted!

Akane, Tomoyo, and Noriko went up to the roof to talk. She would’ve brought Ranma along, but instead told her to make new friends in class and to avoid Gosunkugi at all cost. She needed to talk to her friends privately, preferable after a hot splash.

When Akane got to the roof, she was in girl form. “Okay, can we sit somewhere so that people heading up here can’t see me right away?”

“So you can change in case Ranma shows up,” Noriko asked.

“Yeah,” Akane said, “I need to clear my head.”

“I told you this is a bad idea Akane,” Tomoyo said to her.

“That’s not it,” Akane replied. “Girls… I think Kuno’s right about me, just… not in the way he thinks.”

“Well obviously not,” Noriko said. “But you’re not a pervert Akane, being born a girl and going into girls spaces isn’t perverted. Heck, I’d argue going into guy spaces isn’t perverted if you can turn into one.”

Really?” Tomoyo asked, then pondered about it. “I mean, as long as they’re being respectful about it.”

“There’s nothing respectable about the girl’s locker room, Tomoyo,” Noriko replied. “Besides, how else could you be perceived as a pervert?”

“Becauseithinkimayhaveacrushonranma…” Akane said quickly.

…

…

“I’m sorry, repeat that,” Noriko asked.

“I-i… think I may have a crush on Ranma…” Akane said.

“Oh,” Noriko said unamused, and then resumed eating her bento. Akane looked at Tomoyo and she just shrugged.

“That’s it!? No reaction!?” Akane yelled.

“Akane, let me tell you something about love: you aren’t perverted for liking someone,” Noriko said.

“Yeah, no matter what people tell you, if you like someone, you like someone,” Tomoyo said. “Just because YOU think it’s weird and perverted doesn’t mean it is.”

“Yeah but-” Akane started.

“Is you going into the girl’s locker perverted?” Noriko said.

“NO!” Akane said.

“Kuno thinks it is,” Noriko said back.

“Kuno’s an idiot!” Akane replied.

“Exactly!” Noriko said, pointing her chopsticks at Akane. “So by that logic what you’re suggesting is idiotic! I mean, it’s not like you’ve intentionally walked in on her in the bath!”

“Or while she was changing!” Tomoyo unfortunately added.

Akane looked down, “Well… not intentionally.”

“Oh…” both girls said in response.

There was a silence for a few minutes, especially as the three of them sat there, awkwardly picking away at their bento.

“So that’s why she thinks you’re a pervert?” Noriko asked. “Why don’t you go and apologize?”

“I did!” Akane said. “She’s incredibly stubborn about it though!”

“Then maybe we can convince her!” Tomoyo said. She then tossed some of her water onto Akane, changing her back, “Come on! Let’s go find her!” She said as she grabbed Akane’s hand and dragged her back inside.

They went back to the classroom, but Ranma wasn’t there. When they asked where she was, they were told she apparently went for a walk. They decided to check the ground floor for her, Akane assuming she’d prefer it to the halls of the school, and she was right.

Ranma was in a secluded part of the school, only one of two people there at the moment. Unfortunately for Akane, the other person was Kuno, and it appeared the subject matter was him.

“HEY!” Akane yelled at Kuno, getting the two of them’s attention. “Just what are you telling her!?” Akane marched over to them, Kuno had a kettle so he stayed behind Ranma just in case she needed to duck. “ Not that it’d make a difference, Ranma was only up to my chest in height when I’m in this form, so I’d have to seriously crouch in order to use her as a shield. Not that I want to of course! That’d be awful!”

“I’m only telling her the truth!” Kuno shouted.

“What you think is the truth is some dumb conspiracy you made up in your head!” Akane said.

“Conspiracy!?” Kuno was baffled. “HA! I have witnessed your antics, Akane Tendo! I know they are not mere conspiracy!” Kuno thrusted the kettle forward, although no water was sent flying it still caused Akane to duck behind Ranma.

“What are you doing?” Ranma asked unamused.

“Don’t want to get burned,” was Akane’s excuse.

“Hey!” Ranma turned around to face him, “I’d rather not get hit by that water either! So why don’t we do this the right way?” Ranma quickly turned back to face Kuno and kicked the kettle high out of his hand and high into the sky. Surprisingly, no water was sent flying. “Now Kuno… where were we?”

Kuno was angry, “You can’t seriously be defending this pervert?! It is clear he forced you into your engagement because he couldn’t land a girl due to his antics!”

Akane couldn’t believe Kuno’s accusations, “If you met Ranma earlier, then you’d know how much she crushed over me!”

“Huh!?” Ranma was surprised at his declaration!

“You should’ve seen what she was like after the pool!” Akane shouted with pride. “Oh wait… you were unconscious because you couldn’t handle such a simple impact!”

Ranma was flustered, “Akane, please! That was-”

“Besides Kuno! You can’t even make a female friend! Meanwhile, look at what I have! Yeah she may look like a total tomboy on the outside, but on the inside she’s the sweetest princess you’ll ever know!”

Akane felt a very powerful kick hit him in the chest, sending him skyrocketing into the air. “WHO ARE YOU CALLING A PRINCESS!?!” Ranma shouted at him.

“What did I say?” Akane thought as he was flying through the air. “I was just complimenting her sweet side!” Akane wasn’t given much chance to think beyond that as he crash landed into a tree.

----------

Ranma was super embarrassed now! “Stupid Akane! With his stupid flirts! And that STUPID bravado of his!”

Ranma turned around to face Kuno, “and as for you Kuno!” he said pointing at him. “I don’t hear anymore about Akane’s supposed perversions! I already have enough chaos in my life by myself! I don’t need to have Akane’s own chaos added onto mine, unless you want me to toss you into the nearest river! So please! LEAVE! ME! ALON-”

The kettle Ranma kicked straight up into the air landed right beside him empty, the hot water inconveniently deciding to land directing on top of him. Ranma was lucky he wore his chinese silks, because anything else he owned would’ve been really tight on him right at this moment. But that would’ve been nothing compared to the dread Ranma felt being seen changing by Kuno.

“If Kuno saw Akane as a pervert!” Ranma thought, “What will he think of me?!”

“I… I don’t believe it!” Kuno said, flabbergasted.

“L-look! This is a long story…” Ranma started.

Suddenly he was suddenly pulled in by Kuno, holding him as if he was still the ‘innocent maiden’ Kuno thought he was. “That bastard Akane Tendo inflicted his misery onto you!”

…

…

…

*Huh?* Was all Ranma could manage to muster out.

“I cannot believe such foul play could even be done! Yet here you are! Suffering at his hands!” Kuno continued.

“Wait!” Ranma tried to interrupt, “I’m confused-”

“Worry not! I will make sure such an injustice is corrected immediately!”

Kuno starts to run after Akane, but Ranma didn’t want Akane knowing about his curse and needed to stop him. Ranma quickly grabs Kuno, and turns him around. “The last thing I need, IS YOU MAKING THINGS WORSE!” Ranma near instantly kicks Kuno in all his weak points, it takes a few seconds, but the fool collapses to the ground unconscious.

Ranma brushes his pants legs of dirt, “That’s what you get for bothering me all day!” Ranma was about to look for water to change back into a girl, but fails to move as he notices that there were onlookers. Akane’s friends and apparently his from second grade, Tomoyo and Noriko, were there the whole time.

*uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh* Ranma didn’t know what to do or say, they were just staring at him, dumbfounded. “Look, I can explain…”

The girl Ranma believed was Noriko turned to the other, Tomoyo, Ranma could only assume. “I told you Ranma was a boy!”

“Yeah yeah…” Tomoyo mumbled.

“W-wait!” Ranma panicked. “You’re making a lot of assumptions!”

“Honestly!” Noriko walked up to Ranma, “Akane told us your father got cursed to turn into a panda AND how it works! We can kinda figure it out from there!”

Ranma’s heart sank, “Please don’t tell Akane!”

“Why not?” Tomoyo asked.

Ranma spoke quickly, “If he finds out I’m a guy he’ll stop being friends with me cause he doesn’t like boys. Which I don’t want to happen because I haven’t had many friends, and I think I like him, and I don’t want to ruin what we have and… and… and!”

“Enough!” Noriko said. “I think I got the gist of it. I’m just surprised you’re willing to pretend to be a girl the whole time… I can’t imagine being a girl is comfortable for you?”

“Nah, being in the curse form is the easy part,” Ranma said nonchalantly, “it’s the social pressure of being a convincing girl that stresses me.”

“Really?” Noriko asked.

“Noriko, if Ranma’s comfortable being a girl, then they’re comfortable being a girl!” Tomoyo said.

“I-i-i mean it’s still a curse!” Ranma said. “I need to figure out how to get rid of it eventually! But…” Ranma didn’t really want to continue that ‘but’ statement, “ I’d hate to admit to THAT! Especially after just saying I want to cure it.”

“Look,” Ranma said, “I promise I’m not doing this for any perverted reasons, so can you please keep it a secret!”

Noriko put her finger to her lip, pondering, “I don’t know…”

“Noriko,” Tomoyo said, “what did you say earlier this lunch period? Wouldn’t the reverse be true?”

Noriko looked like she wanted to say something back to Tomoyo, but simply sighed, “I guess I can’t really judge you about it. Okay, I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

“Me too,” Tomoyo said. “But…”

Ranma gulped, “But?”

“Only if you agree to spend Sunday with us on a girl’s day out!” Tomoyo finished.

“Tomoyo,” Noriko said, concerned, “are you sure you want to do that to him?”

“Oh I think they’ll enjoy it,” Tomoyo said. “It’ll be my treat.”

Ranma tried to keep calm, “y-y-yeah sure whatever I’ll go.”

“Good!” Tomoyo said.

Just then, the three of them heard a voice coming towards them, “Girls?” It was Akane. Ranma grabbed Tomoyo’s water bottle, opened the cap and splashed himself with it, changing back just as Akane came into view. “Are you three okay?” Akane then sees Kuno on the ground, unconscious, “What happened to him?”

“Hit him in all his weak points,” Ranma said, “he’ll be feeling it all week.”

“I hope so,” Akane mumbled. “Anyway, lunch is almost over… I think.”

“You think?” Ranma said.

“Because of you, I landed in a tree and got knocked out!” Akane said. “Sorry, if I don’t know how long that was!”

The bell then rings, signifying the end of the lunch period. “Well you weren’t too far off. C’mon ya pervert, let’s get back to class.”

Akane looked at her dumbfounded, then looked at Noriko and Tomoyo as Ranma walked back to class. “I thought you would have talked to her while I was away,” Ranma heard Akane say.

“Something came up,” Tomoyo said defensively.

“Yeah! You asking Ranma to join us on a girl’s day out,” Noriko said, unamused.

“Tomoyo!” Akane said.

“Look, it’s important that Ranma gets time to remember us,” Tomoyo said. “She already spends every day with your family. Unless you want to come to carry all her stuff? See her try on new clothes?”

“I mean…” Akane stuttered, “I don’t…”

Ranma spoke up, “I already got a bunch of new clothes the other day. I don’t need any more.”

Ranma felt someone grab her shoulder, “That’s where you are wrong, Saotome!” Tomoyo said. “A girl can never have too many clothes!”

“Says the girl with a walk-in closet,” Noriko commented.

“Anyways, we'll make sure it’s the best day ever! My treat!” Tomoyo said, then turned to face Akane. “Are you going to be coming along bag boy?”

“‘Bag boy!?’” Akane said, offended. “I think I’m good, you three should get caught up with each other.”

“Okay then,” Tomoyo said. “Dress you best Ranma!”

*heh…* Ranma gave a nervous laugh as they returned to the classroom.

----------

The rest of the day went by without a hitch, leaving Ranma’s first day at Furinkan High as his craziest first day yet. That just left Ranma waiting for Kasumi to need him once they got home. Unfortunately for Ranma, she needed him practically immediately as he got back.

“We’re back,” Akane said.

“Oh good!” Kasumi said. “Ranma, it’s time I needed your help.”

“I just got back from the craziest first day of my life,” Ranma said, slouching with exhaustion.

“Well then you’ll have lots to talk about while you help me in the kitchen,” Kasumi said with a smile.

Ranma dropped his bag, “Seriously?!”

“If you two are getting married, you’d best learn how to cook,” Kasumi said.

“We’re not getting married!” Ranma and Akane said in unison. They then looked at each other, then away, blushing.

“Well, either way it’d be best to learn how to cook,” Kasumi said.

“Even if we do get married, why do I need to be the one to cook? Why can’t you teach Akane?” Ranma asked.

*giggle* Kasumi giggled at that response. Ranma was going to call her out, but Kasumi looked away from her. Ranma could’ve sworn her eyes had lost all the light in them, as if they’re remembering a truly traumatic memory.

“Fine! Fine! I’ll do it,” Ranma said. “I already have experience with cooking on the road anyways.”

“That’s good,” Kasumi replied, “that means we can hop right in!”

“I’ll be in my room,” Akane said as he left the Ranma with Kasumi. “But first I’m taking a bath! I’m ragged after today, so please don’t disturb me until dinner’s ready.”

“What?” Ranma said. “Ya think I’m gonna walk in on you in the bath? I’m not you!” Ranma stuck her tongue out.

“Ha ha,” Akane laughed sarcastically as he went upstairs.

Kasumi walked towards the kitchen and Ranma begrudgingly followed her there. As they passed their fathers playing a game, they walked into an already prepped kitchen. It was a simple meal Kasumi was asking him to prepare, but he won’t deny he was intrigued by the ingredients.

“You're making me make miso soup from scratch?” Ranma asked.

“Of course,” Kasumi replied. “I’ve been following the same recipe for a long while now so I know exactly what to do, but if you think that’s too difficult.”

“No no, I just thought you’d start me on the rice or something with only a couple steps,” Ranma said. “But this is fine, I like a challenge.”

“Oh I don’t think it’ll be that difficult,” Kasumi said. “Besides, miso is only one part, I’m teaching you the whole meal.”

“Okay…” Ranma said hesitantly.

They started on the soup, which had a lot of waiting involved, but it left the two of them time to talk. “So how was school?” Kasumi asked.

*ugh* Ranma groaned. “I’m going to need those tutor sessions you mentioned. I am definitely behind in my studies.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem for me,” Kasumi said. “How was it otherwise?”

Ranma proceeded to tell Kasumi about his day. From meeting Kuno, to Akane fighting Kuno, to Kuno pestering him during lunch. A lot of Kuno when Ranma thought about it, “I swear if I have to deal with Kuno like that all year I’m going to punch someone! Probably Kuno again!”

“Well it’s good to know you and Akane have a rival to share,” Kasumi just smiled.

“That’s not just it, Kasumi! He caused me to transform on accident!” Ranma said.

“Oh no!” Kasumi said.

“The worst part is, is that he for some reason can’t put two and two together,” Ranma ranted. “He thought Akane gave me my curse for some reason and that I’m a girl cursed to transform into a guy! What kind of leaps in logic do you have to make to have those be your first assumptions?!”

*eheheh* Kasumi gave a nervous laugh.

“The worst part is that Akane’s friends were also there when it happened!” Ranma continued. “Now I have to hope they can keep the curse a secret from Akane. I don’t even know if I can trust them yet and now I need to hope they can keep their word about my biggest secret!”

“Ranma, calm down,” Kasumi said, worried.

“How can I stay calm, when my first day of school ended up so poorly!” Ranma swung his fist randomly, hitting something besides him. Unfortunately for him, it was the pot of hot water they set out.

The pot tipped over and sprayed hot water onto Ranma, changing him back as the pot fell to the ground with a deafening klang. Ranma stood there for a second as they processed what happened, not moving until he heard what sounded like someone moving upstairs. Ranma, in their mind, went through where everyone was at the moment, “Pops and Mr. Tendo are on the engawa playing shoji, Nabiki’s still at the school, and Kasumi is right in front of me, so the only person rushing down here from upstairs was… AKANE!”

Kasumi must’ve also realized the same thing, as she quickly turned on the tap. However, Akane was down there before Ranma had a chance to reach it, forcing them to duck behind a counter when he entered the kitchen.

“Oh Akane!” Kasumi said. “You don’t need to worry! Ranma just knocked over a pot.”

“Ran-”

Ranma’s world felt like it froze, she didn’t even notice the high pitch of Akane’s voice. “I’m done! Akane’s going to see me, the ugly, real me! The fake girl that had been drawing his love and attention from real ones! Now he won’t love me anymore, and I’ll never be able to be seen in a good light by him! I’ll just be known as the pervert who played with his heart and…”

“Akane!” Kasumi interrupted Akane and every thought Ranma was thinking. “Are you sure you want Ranma seeing you like that?”

Ranma didn’t hear anything for a sec, then heard a high pitched gasp and the sound of someone, likely Akane, rushing out of the kitchen. Ranma used this opportunity to make a break for the faucet. Ranma changed back into a girl, just in time for Akane to reenter the kitchen.

“Ranma! Are you okay!?” Akane asked.

“I’m fine,” Ranma replied. “The water wasn’t that hot yet.”

“That’s a relief!” Akane said, exhaling as if they were holding their breath that whole time.

“By the way,” Ranma said. “What had you rush out of the kitchen? Did you forget to put on pants after your bath?”

Akane blushed hard at that statement, then rubbed the back of his neck, “I forgot… something.”

“Okay, well you can go back to whatever you were doing while me and Kasumi start over,” Ranma said.

“Actually Ranma,” Kasumi said, “I’ll take over until we get back to where we were, you go and get changed into something cleaner.”

*sigh* Ranma sighed, “Okay…”

Ranma headed upstairs to his room, walking over to his travel pack. Intending to just switch to a different silk shirt, Ranma does find one that would be comfortable but hesitates to put it on. Ranma instead, just looks at the shirt pondering.

“Maybe…” Ranma says to herself. “I’ll try something different. I did just buy a bunch of clothes after all.”

----------

Akane was in her room being harsh on herself, for good reason too according to herself. “Idiot!” She mumbled to herself. “You almost had Ranma see you in girl form!”

Akane just wanted to relax in girl form in her room until dinner was ready, she already told Ranma not to disturb her so she knew she was safe to do so. This did almost cause her to get caught and if it weren’t for Kasumi having her back she would’ve accidentally revealed it herself. After the incident, Akane just stayed in guy form for the rest of the time until dinner. It was just easier to do so, for many reasons, but mainly so there wasn’t a repeat of earlier.

So Akane decided to do her homework and get it all situated before dinner was called, which didn’t take too long. Akane looked in the mirror to double triple check she was in guy form and then headed downstairs.

Kasumi was setting down a couple plates of food when Akane entered the dining room. From what she could tell, it was the same meal Kasumi liked to make on the regular. However, one of the side dishes was missing.

“Did we run out of something? I thought you got everything you needed?” Akane asked.

“Oh no, it’s not that,” Kasumi said. “Ranma wanted to make something they knew to go along with the meal, so I let her do it. She should be on her way out with it any second now.”

Akane just shrugged and was about to take her spot at the table, but was stopped when she saw a giant panda sitting there instead. “Mr. Saotome, I believe you’re sitting in my spot.”

“Actually,” Akane’s father spoke up, “We talked about this, and you’re going to sit next to your fiance.”

*Huh?!* Akane was baffled.

Mr. Saotome held up a sign, [Decision’s final.]

“You two cannot be serious?!” Akane said.

“Now Akane,” Akane’s father said, “we’re making a lot of compromises with this engagement as is. I would hope this would at least be the bare minimum you can deal with?”

*Sigh* Akane sighed, “Fine! But I get first dibs on whatever Ranma made.”

“Hope you’re hungry then!” Akane heard Ranma say as she walked in.

Akane was about to say something back, but his jaw dropped when he saw Ranma. She replaced her chinese silk with a similarly red blouse, and instead of her pants she was wearing a full blown pleated black skirt. It was simple, but she made it work.

She was setting on the table a plate of Gyoza with some sort of sauce on it. “What?” Ranma said as she looked at Akane, who was frozen in awe.

“N-nothing!” Akane said. “Y-you look good in that.”

“Really?” Ranma said, confused. “I kinda just threw together a couple things randomly. You can be honest and say it sucks.”

Akane blushed, “It doesn’t though… really!”

Before Akane could be any more of a stuttering mess, Nabiki intervened. “As much as I love seeing Akane break down in real time, I think I can speak for the rest of us when saying we’d all like to eat.”

Akane’s blush got redder as he- she rubbed the back of her neck. Akane sat down in her new spot and, as she said she’d do, she grabbed the first piece of gyoza Ranma made and took a bite.

*mmmhm* Akane couldn’t help it, “This is good! Like really good! I’m impressed Ranma can make something this good! I would’ve thought it’d be worse than my- hot. Hot! VERY HOT!” Akane quickly grabbed a glass of water and gulped it down.

*Eugh* Akane breathed after drinking the entire glass. “Why was that so spicy?!”

“It is?” Ranma took a bite herself, after half a minute, it didn’t even appear to faze her. “Don’t know what you’re talking about. I thought I put a reasonable amount of chili oil on it.”

“That was NOT a reasonable amount!” Akane complained. “And to think I thought it was actually good before you assaulted my mouth with an active volcano!”

*ehhh!* Nabiki said with a smirk, putting her hand to her ear. “Are you telling us you actually liked it?”

“Oh why don’t you all give it a try then!?” Akane said. “See what you think then!”

Everyone else, except Mr. Saotome, grabbed a piece with their chopsticks and took a bite. It didn’t take long for everyone to need to refill their glasses of water.

“Your guys' loss,” Ranma said as she ate another piece like it was nothing.

“Maybe you should tone down the recipe!” Akane said.

“Maybe you need to develop some spice tolerance!” Ranma clapped back. “I mean, I spent the past 5 years of making spicy food to get to this point! I’m certain you can too! Unless you’re not man enough for it!”

“How… DARE YOU!” Akane didn’t know why he got offended, but he did. “I bet I can easily get used to your spicy food by the end of the school year!”

“Is that a challenge?!” Ranma asked, her face serious with determination.

“It’s a challenge alright!” Akane replied, also filled with determination.

The two were snapped out back into reality from the sound of a light clap. It was Kasumi, “So does that mean you’ll be helping me in the kitchen more often, Ranma?” she asked with a smile.

Ranma looked away from everyone, “yeah, sure, whatever. Just not everyday, okay?”

“That’s fine,” Kasumi said.

“Just please keep whatever ungodly spice concoction you come up with away from the rest of the food!” Nabiki complained.

Akane’s father crossed his arms, “I’m inclined to agree with Nabiki on this one.”

*Hmph!* Ranma seemed offended by the comments. “Whatever. You guys know I helped make the rest of the meal as well, right?”

The table went silent for a minute before anyone besides Ranma or Kasumi even dared to touch another item. But eventually they all caved and ate the meal. It was just a slightly not as good version of the usual, minus the exceptionally spicy gyoza of course.

Gyoza that Akane didn’t know why he decided to take a second bite of, but he did, it was painful, but he agreed to a challenge and wasn’t going to back down. If this was what his life was going to be moving forwards, there were worse things that could happen. As it stood, he was sure he was capable of enjoying this new normal.

----------

Elsewhere

“I’m looking for the Tendo Dojo,” said the wandering boy holding up a small map.

“Tendo Dojo you say,” said the farmer, “well let me get a look at that- hey isn’t this a map of Tokyo?”

“This is Kagoshima buddy,” another farmer said.

The boy looked at the two farmers, then put his map away, “Is that so?” The boy then proceeded to leave, heading south.

“Guess he’s lost.”

The boy kept hiking, not aware of where he was going, but knew his destination. “The Tendo Dojo! There, I will finally find you Ranma Saotome! And then… I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!”

Chapter Text

Tokyo, 1979

“Akane, where are you taking me?” Ranma asked Akane as they walked down the street from school.

“Ice cream, silly!” Akane replied.

“Wh-wh-what!?” Ranma practically recoiled from that.

“Ice cream!” Akane repeated. “It’s hot out and I want some, so I thought you’d like some as well.” She then looked away from her, sad, “Also my… My mom is… I don’t… I don’t know…”

“B-b-but…” Ranma poked his fingertips together, “Pops wouldn’t like it if I ate some.

“You’ve never had ice cream before?” Akane asked.

“Pops says that it’s very sugary and not very good for you,” Ranma replied. “But also complains about how it ‘betrayed him later in life.’

*huh?* Akane was confused, “how ice cream can betray anyone, it’s delicious!” Akane knew she needed to blow this girl’s mind. “Well I’m going to make you enjoy it!”

“I don’t know…” Ranma looked away.

“Too late! We’re here!” Akane said as they arrived at the ice cream vendor. “Excuse me, Mr. Kanpachi!”

“Akane! Who’s your friend?” Mr. Kanpachi asked.

“This is Ranma!” Akane said smiling.

“H-Hi…” Ranma said as they hid behind Akane.

“Why hello to you too Ranma!” Mr. Kanpachi said with a huge smile. “Is there anything you’d like?”

“U-um… I don’t know,” Ranma said, avoiding eye contact. “Besides, pops doesn’t give me any money.”

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll pay,” Akane reassured her. “One scoop of mint chocolate for me please.”

“Sure,” Mr. Kanpachi replied. He then looked at Ranma as he grabbed his scoop, “You don’t be shy with me, little one. Actually, how about this?” Mr. Kanpachi went and made a strawberry cone, extending it out for Ranma to take. “Go on!”

*um…* Ranma still didn’t make eye contact, it actually looked like they wanted to say something. “I-i-i-if it’s alright… can I get t-t-two scoops, please?”

Mr. Kanpachi’s grin widened, “Sure thing, kiddo!” Mr. Kanpachi put a second scoop on the cone. “Here you go, kid!”

Ranma took the cone, then hesitantly took a lick. It wasn’t much longer before Akane saw sparkles in that girl’s eyes as she had more of her ice cream.

Akane grabbed her cone and paid for it, “thank you for the ice cream.”

“No problem kiddo,” Mr. Kanpachi said. “I hope you two come back again soon.”

“Will do,” Akane turned to face Ranma, then ran over to her as she noticed something, “Ranma, you're getting ice cream all over you!”

----------

Tokyo, 1987

The rest of the week went into a routine. Akane and Ranma would arrive at school, beat up the horde, go through the day without any other conflict, then return home. After that it was a little up in the air.

On Thursday and Friday, Ranma didn’t help Kasumi in the kitchen, but she did on Saturday since it was a half day at school. Which led to another spice trial for Akane that day as he swore to brave the burning inferno that was Ranma’s cooking. But it was otherwise a new routine that Akane knew he was eventually going to get used to, like when he first got his curse-

“She. SHE! SHE! ” Akane thought to herself that Sunday morning. “Why is this so hard all of a sudden?!” Akane has been spending a lot of time in her cursed form lately, and it was clearly having an effect on her. She needed to have girl time in order to hopefully calm whatever is happening to her, but her friends were going to be occupied that day with Ranma.

She could technically have girl time herself, but she couldn’t sit back, she’s worried that Tomoyo and Noriko will put his cute tomboy friend through the girly girl wringer! Akane couldn’t just sit there and worry, she needed to act.

When Tomoyo and Noriko arrived, Akane greeted them at the door. “Hey you two, here to pick up Ranma?”

“No, we’re here to force her into increasingly expensive dresses at the mall and at her expense,” Noriko said Akane didn’t know if she was being sarcastic or not with that statement.

“Yes we are here to pick Ranma up, Akane,” She heard Tomoyo say to her. “Also, are you sure you don’t want to join us?”

Akane shook her head, “You three have fun, I’m going to be spending today relaxing.”

Tomoyo and Noriko looked at her, clearly impressed by the cover story she crafted, then shrugged.

“Suit yourself,” Noriko said.

Akane went to get Ranma and actually remembered to knock this time, “Come in,” Ranma said.

Akane opened the door to the guest room, and was impressed with Ranma’s outfit. “Wow! You dress like an angel.”

Ranma blushes, a slight groan escaping her mouth, “You’re just saying that! I have the fashion sense of a wild animal.”

“Then I should let wild animals pick my clothes in the future,” Akane replied. “Of course, you are pretty wild yourself, emphasis on pretty.”

Ranma rolled her eyes, walking by him without saying a word and not saying another thing until she’s ready to leave. “I’ll be back in time to help with dinner,” she said.

“Have fun!” Akane could hear Kasumi say from the hallway as Ranma left.

Akane now put her plan into action. She went into the bathroom, splashed herself with hot water, then ran into her room. She then opened her closet with her girl clothes in it and got changed into them. Once she was properly dressed, she went over to Kasumi, “Got that thermos ready?”

*Mhmm!* Kasumi nodded, then pulled out a thermos, “Just in case you change on accident.”

“Thanks Kasumi,” Akane said as she grabbed the thermos.

“Though I really think that you should’ve gone with Ranma,” Kasumi said. “I’m sure she would’ve enjoyed your company.”

“I’m good,” Akane lied. “I’ll be back before dinner.”

“Okay,” Kasumi said, “have fun.”

Once Akane was out the door, she immediately started running. She didn’t really care how much of a head start her friends got since she knew exactly where they’d bring Ranma. She had spent more than enough time with them to know that for sure. And sure enough, when Akane was in Shibuya, she found the three of them in the exact mall she thought they’d be in. Akane knew Tomoyo and Noriko wouldn’t rat her out to Ranma, especially while she’s in girl form and dressed like one, but she still didn’t want to be caught by them.

She kept an eye on the three as they walked past the stores, glancing at the displays and commenting on them. Ranma didn’t really comment much, which didn’t surprise Akane since this was probably her first time doing this in years, if ever. Then she saw them go into a clothing store for both boys and girls, probably to ease Ranma into the experience.

*Sigh!* Akane gave a sigh of relief, she won’t deny she enjoyed Ranma’s tomboyishness a little too much, even if it hurt him at times. And it hurt him a lot, since Ranma doesn’t really hold back her punches with him.

Akane shakes her head viciously, “Oh god! I’m thinking like a guy in girl mode now!” It has happened before, usually when Akane and Noriko went on too many faux dates for couple discounts in a short period of time, but staying out of her cursed form for a few weeks usually helped her regain focus. Unfortunately there’s a certain pink haired girl who’s making that impossible.

Her friends walked out of the store, only one new bag in hand, it sounded like they got a new tank top for Ranma. Then suddenly, Noriko pulled it out of the bag and Akane saw it, it was a white tank-top with Ranma’s name embroidered onto the chest area. Akane wouldn’t deny that she likes it, and can only imagine how it would look on someone as cute as Ran- “Wait, why is it angled towards me?” Akane flinched when she saw Tomoyo and Noriko look at her, it was obvious they knew she followed them.

They thankfully didn’t say anything as they just headed off to another store nearby. Akane followed, but at a distance, she didn’t want Ranma to notice her. She was hopeful that her outfit and appearance would make it so Ranma wouldn’t recognize her at a distance, but she was worried she’d put the pieces together if she was too careless.

They went into another clothing store, but this one was exclusively for girls. Akane decided to wait outside again like last time, but it wasn’t much longer before Tomoyo came out of the store, alone, and was walking towards her.

“Honestly Akane, you aren’t subtle,” Tomoyo said, “especially since Ranma was mentioning that she felt like we were being followed by someone.

Akane's face went red, “Sh-she knew I was following you three?”

“Well she didn’t know WHO was following us, but we had a good hunch it was you,” Tomoyo said. “As for you, I think that since the cat’s out of the bag, we ought to get you involved.”

Akane’s heart sank, “b-but… I’m dressed like this… I didn’t…”

“Don’t worry yourself,” Tomoyo said, relaxed, “I’ll have Noriko bring you over to one of the guys' stores to get you something to wear. In the meantime, I need to prep Ranma up a bit. But first…” Tomoyo grabbed the thermos out of Akane's bag and dumped the contents into a nearby potted plant.

Akane was now stuck if she transformed, but she was also worried what Tomoyo meant when she wanted to ‘prep’ Ranma up, but she wasn’t given much time to think about it as Tomoyo reentered the store. Noriko quickly left the store soon after and grabbed Akane by her arm.

“Alright, sir knight Tendo,” Noriko said jokingly, “let’s get you dressed to impress.”

Akane wanted to argue, wanted to run, but it was too late now. He would only hope they make him look stylish at least.

----------

Ranma didn’t know why he was so jumpy about getting more clothes right now, it’s not like this is his first time doing this in just this week alone. Heck it wasn’t like she even hated doing it last time, she loved it. But doing it with Akane’s friends, friends who now know his secret, is adding a lot of stress. On top of the fact that they haven’t said anything about the curse at all today.

Ranma’s worried that they’re just doing this to destroy his, admittedly hard to maintain, manhood. Pops needed that from him, and it’s the thing he’s put in the most effort of maintaining! He’s worried that one too many cute skirts and she’ll never recover.

“Okay, I got what I wanted you to wear,” Tomoyo said as she returned to the clothing booth. Her hand came from the other side of the curtain with a thick, pastel blue, long sleeve, zip-up jacket. Then after taking it Tomoyo then handed her a pastel pink blouse and a pastel pink mini-skirt.

“Really!?” Ranma whispered as he peaked his head beyond the curtain.

“Come on, it’ll match your hair!” Tomoyo replied. “You haven’t even seen the last thing yet!” She pulled out a pair of striped pastel blue/white knee high socks.

Ranma stared at her, deadpan, “You’re almost worse than Kasumi.

“It’s not that bad, Ranma,” Tomoyo said. “Now hurry up, I want you looking your best when Noriko gets back!” Ranma glared at her, prompting Tomoyo to do her best puppy eye impression, “Pretty please? With a cherry on top?”

*sigh* Ranma sighed, “what choice do I have?” Ranma put his head back into the curtain and started changing.

After getting the blouse and skirt on, Ranma realized something. “Hey, how are you supposed to see the blouse behind the oversized jacket?”

“You’re not supposed to zip it up silly,” Tomoyo replied. “Next you’re going to tell me you don’t know how to do make up.”

Ranma stuck his head out of the curtain again to look her in the eyes, again deadpan. “Tomoyo…”

*Oh* It finally clicked, “Right…” Her expression saddened, but it quickly returned to her usual cheery self, “Guess I’ll have to do it for you this time!”

“Wh-wh-wh-what?!” Ranma flinched at the declaration.

“You heard me!” Tomoyo said. “Now let’s finish getting you all dressed up so we can do this. We’re on a time limit!”

“A time limit?” Ranma was confused, “for what?!”

“You’ll see,” Tomoyo replied as she stepped into the booth with him.

After another minute, Ranma was fully dressed in the ridiculous outfit Tomoyo picked out. Then after another few minutes of agony, Tomoyo put make up all over Ranma’s face/

“Done!” Tomoyo said. “I kept it simple, but I hope you like it either way.”

“Just let me see it,” Ranma said, frustrated that Tomoyo wouldn’t let him look at his reflection while doing this.

Tomoyo turned Ranma around to face the mirror, and once again, Ranma Saotome was made speechless by her own reflection. It was the same feeling she felt when she first did this, but even then, “I don’t know…” Ranma said, “something about this just doesn’t click.”

“Well, I'll leave you to figure it out. Stay in here until Noriko comes back,” Tomoyo said. “I’ll let you know.”

Tomoyo left the booth finally, leaving Ranma to think to himself. “I don’t know why something about this feels off, it just does.” Ranma examined his whole appearance to see what wasn’t clicking. It took a bit, but eventually he thought he found the issue. “Maybe it’s my hair?”

“The pigtail isn’t exactly working with this outfit,” Ranma continued, “even if it is necessary to keep the dragon whisker curse at bay while as a guy. But I’m not currently a guy and I can probably tell Tomoyo and Noriko about it just in case of an accident. I mean, they’re girls, and they have no use for it. So…”

Ranma undid the Dragon Whisker keeping his hair in a pigtail, causing the hair to unbraid and fall just below the shoulders. “Maybe I should try the ponytail again, at least until I get home.” Ranma tied their hair into a ponytail, he tried a more feminine ponytail that was tied more higher up than what he usually did before the dragon whisker.

“Ranma, Noriko’s back,” Tomoyo said. “We’re ready.”

“I’m not,” Ranma responded, “need a minute.”

After getting it just right, it all clicked for Ranma. She won’t deny the jacket looked poofy on her, but with it unzipped as it was it still allowed her figure to show at certain angles. The feeling she first got when she was first doing this returned, and it felt greater than before as well. She really didn’t know how to describe it as anything more than-

“Hey silent princess, are you still with us!?” Tomoyo said.

*Huh!* Ranma was shocked out of her mindless bliss, “Wha… Oh! Um… Yeah!” Ranma grabbed the curtain to the booth to pull it open, “I don’t know why you want to make a spectacle about it, it’s not like Akane’s he-”

Ranma stopped when she saw what she did. Akane, wearing a white t-shirt that had a picture of a fist breaking a cement block and text that read ‘STONECUTTER’ in Romanji on it. He was wearing it under a denim jacket and back pants. He wore it as if to impress her and she won’t deny it was working.

But that's besides the point, Akane was there, looking at her, in the insanely cute outfit Tomoyo practically gift wrapped to her. “A-a-a-aa-ah-a-a-uh-ah-aaaa-a-a-ak-a-aaaaa-” Ranma tried and failed to even say a single word, as Ranma’s face went redder and redder.

“Ranma…” Akane was blushing, and it wasn’t subtle. “You… um… I… … That outfit… looks really…”

“I think we broke them,” Tomoyo replied.

“Definitely,” Noriko replied back.

Ranma was suffering from a sensory overload, and eventually, her brain decided enough was enough and fainted.

----------

After a few minutes, Tomoyo and Noriko managed to get Ranma back on her feet. Which was good because it meant Akane could now explain himself to her. They got lunch at a nearby fast food joint and got some simple burgers to eat, of course Ranma got like 4 to herself.

“You know Ranma,” Noriko said, “you’re not going to look like a femme fatale forever if you keep eating like that.”

“It’s not my fault I get hungry again after like only 3 hours without a big meal,” Ranma complained. “Pops always said that if we weren’t always on the road, I would’ve eaten us out of a house and home.”

“You should still watch what you eat,” Akane said, “you never know when it’ll catch up with you.”

“Oh, so you’re going to monitor my weight like you have my day?” Ranma said in an accusatory tone that wasn’t unfounded. “Spill it pervert, why were you following us?”

“Can you please stop with the pervert already?” Akane asked. “I haven’t walked in on you in 3 days.”

*Hmmmmm* Ranma thought about it as she kept a fry hanging in her mouth. “Give me about… 3 months to think about it.”

“THREE MONTHS?!?” Akane yelled.

“Quiet you two,” Noriko scolded.

“Actually, something I have been thinking about since you joined us,” Ranma said, “Why’s your hair tied up with a ribbon? It’s kinda girly, isn’t it?”

“Huh?” Akane was confused for a second, until she remembered her own, boyish, ponytail she had in her current form was tied with the same ribbon she kept from… “Oh… That…”

Akane tilted her head away from Ranma, giving her fiancee a view of her ribbon, “This is my mom’s, WAS my mom’s. It’s… the only keepsake I have of her.”

“Oh…” Ranma looked away, her face showing guilt from asking.

Tomoyo and Noriko looked at each other, then got up, “So um…” Tomoyo started, “Me and Noriko will look around for a bit. We’ll leave you two to… talk.”

The two of them left, leaving the two martial artists just sitting there, awkwardly. They knew they had to break the silence eventually, but were scared to.

Eventually, Ranma caved, “Can I ask… how it happened?”

Akane nodded, “it started about 9 years ago. At first I was told it was because she was sick, and granted she was. At first I wasn’t worried, I thought she’d get better quickly, she always did.”

Akane could feel her tears coming, “But she never did. Day after day, she just got worse and worse. By the time you came into my life, she spent more time bedridden than not. She couldn’t leave the house and… I won’t deny, I spent time with you a lot just so I could have a couple more hours away from her each day.”

Akane couldn’t help it anymore, she let herself cry, “I still regret that, had we known you’d only be around for a few months, had I KNOWN how long she had left, I probably would’ve spent every minute after school I could with her. I should’ve! I WANTED to!”

“Then… why didn’t you?” Ranma asked.

*sniff* Akane continued, “Because when I told her about you, you know what she told me?” Akane took a deep breath, to try to recompose herself, it wasn’t working. “Sh-she told me she could tell I wanted to be with you as well, and told me to spend time with you instead. At least… that’s the best I can recall of what she said, I don’t know, I might have been too young to really get it. During that time she… she never judged me… or any of us… for not understanding things, or for any of the things we did or said, she just… wanted us to be happy.”

Akane cried for a few minutes, at some point, Ranma went and sat next to her so that she could help comfort her. “I’m… sorry for your loss… I…”

*sniff* Akane was finally able to regain her composure, “It’s fine, Ranma.” Akane stood up from her seat, “Well, I… I think I need a palate cleanser after that.”

“Well you’ve barely touched your food,” Ranma pointed out.

Akane looked at the burger she only got a single bite in and untouched fries and drink. Akane smiled, “That’s not what I had in mind.”

----------

After finally returning to Nerima, Akane went a different route than what was usually taken to get home. With Ranma behind her, she kept walking and walking, until a familiar vendor came into view.

“There he is! Hey! Mr. Kanpachi!” Akane shouted.

*Hm?* The now aging vendor saw the two of them walk towards him. It was clear he was trying to remember the two of them, but it had been a long while. “Wait a second! Akane!?”

*heheh* Akane chuckled, “Yeah it’s been a while.”

Mr. Kanpachi turned towards Ranma, “Is that you Ranma?” Ranma nodded, “My gods you’re… Why I haven’t seen either of you in 8 years! You’re both all grown up now, aren’t ya?”

“Yeah…” Akane rubbed the back of her head, “I’ll admit I stopped coming here for… personal reasons. But… I think I can get over it now.”

“I can tell,” Mr. Kanpachi seemed to give a knowing smile, but Akane couldn’t understand why. “I can tell you two are back together, aren’t ya?”

Both Ranma and Akane went red, “That… we’re friends!” Akane said.

*ohohohohoho* Mr. Kanpachi laughed, “Ya could’ve fooled me! You two were inseparable back then! You didn’t even accept a free comfort cone I gave ya after your little girlfriend left, you were so heartbroken.”

Akane’s face was redder than a strawberry, “Th-that…”

Ranma meanwhile, looked at him offended, “You’re telling me… you refused FREE food!”

“THAT’S what you focused on!” Akane shouted at her, completely forgetting why he was embarrassed.

“FREE! FOOD!” Ranma emphasized, poking him in the chest with each word.

*ohohoho* Mr. Kanpachi had the gall to laugh at that, “Well… My offer still stands!” He says as he makes a mint chocolate cone. “In fact,” Mr. Kanpachi placed the cone in a cone holder as he made a second cone, a two scoop strawberry, “here you go you two. On the house! I take it you two just reunited?”

“Y-yeah…” Akane replied. “This week actually! And um…”

Ranma was already a few licks into her cone when Akane spoke, “Akane?”

“Nevermind,” Akane said to Mr. Kanpachi, “I can tell you another time.”

Mr. Kanpachi shrugged, “Keep your secrets. Tell me when you want to.” Mr Kanpachi grabbed the cone for Akane again, “Now take it before it melts, kiddo.”

Akane complied, taking the cone and sitting down with Ranma on a nearby bench. It was earlier in the day then they would’ve been here back in the day, but they still got a nice view of the park from there. Akane wouldn't deny it, she missed this. After a while, Akane was only about halfway with his cone when Ranma finished. She usually never went through ice cream as quickly as everything else due to how she ate it, but she definitely still left a mess all over her face.

“Really Ranma?” Akane asked.

“What?” Ranma asked back, confused.

“You’ve got ice cream on your cheek!” Akane noted. “How do you manage that?!”

*hmph* Ranma turned away from Akane, putting the stain on the forefront, “I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“Give me a second,” Akane said as he grabbed a napkin. He wiped the strawberry cream off her cheek, taking a little makeup with it. “Oh great, I ruined your makeup.” Although he said that, he wouldn’t deny she still looked distractingly amazing.

“Makeup?” Ranma asked, completely forgetting she had makeup on. She then appeared to realize something, “Oh SHOOT! We totally ditched Tomoyo and Noriko!”

“Who?” Akane asked, still distracted by Ranma’s pretty face.

Ranma looked at him, unamused, “You’re joking, right?”

Akane refocused himse- HERself, “Sorry! But you’re right, we totally did!”

The two sat there for a bit in complete silence. It took a few minutes before one of them spoke again. “Well,” Akane said. “I think Kasumi should be expecting us soon.”

“Yeah…” Ranma replied. “I gotta help make dinner.” She got up and stretched her arms and legs, “Hope you’ll enjoy the curry I’m about to make, because it’ll be quite the kick!”

*heheh* Akane chuckled nervously as she got up, “S-sure!”

The two of them headed back to the Dojo, satisfied with their day. “Hey, quick question,” Akane asked, “think we’re forgetting anything?”

“Not to my knowledge,” Ranma replied. “What’s there to forget?”

----------

Elsewhere

“Do you know where the Tendo Dojo is…” the wandering boy asked.

The man looked at him, “Kid, might want to look to your left.”

The boy looked to his left to see a monument, on it had a sign that read ‘The Northernmost Point of Japan.’

“I see,” the boy said, “thank you.” The boy then proceeded to walk north, as if there was anything that way.

Chapter Text

It had been over a week since the shopping trip. Tomoyo and Noriko were apparently upset when they realized Ranma and Akane ditched them in Shibuya, though based on how Nabiki exaggerated saying it she doubted that, but were still kind enough to send the stuff they got Ranma over to the dojo.

The only thing of note for the week itself was that the horde that Akane fought every morning was thinning with each passing day. In fact, Akane was in for quite the surprise on Monday the following week.

*Huh…* Ranma said as they arrived at the school on Monday, “Hey Akane, question: What does a white flag mean?”

Akane noticed what she was talking about, the horde that had been pestering her for 6-7 weeks was not only not charging her, but actively surrendering. “I guess that means they give up finally,” He said, before mumbling, “Took them long enough!”

The two of them arrived at the gate and the horde spoke to them, “Akane Tendo,” one of the school boxers spoke for the horde, “we surrender! We apologize for accusing you of being a pervert and recognize our mistake!”

“Well it only took you… six weeks? Seven? To accept that,” Akane replied. “What about Kuno?”

“When we told him about our plan to surrender, he got mad at us and said that he’ll still face you himself,” a school softball player replied. “However he hasn’t really shown his face at these fights lately, so I don’t think he’s holding himself to that.”

“That’s fine by me,” Akane said. “It was a waste of time for everyone here anyways. Come on, Ranma, let’s head to class.”

“Yeah,” Ranma replied.

----------

Elsewhere?

“Now where am I?” the wandering boy said. It was the afternoon at this point, and he was clearly in a town. He bet that he was somewhere in Hiroshima at this point, but he knew to never trust his sense of direction.

There was a school in front of him, it was clear they were just getting out of class. All it reminded him of was how much he needed help to get to and from school by… HIM. “Maybe, just maybe, someone at this school, what is it called? Furinkan High School! Maybe someone here could finally point me in the right direction!” He thought.

He grabbed a random student by the collar, “You there!” he yelled, “I’m looking for a place called the Tendo Dojo! Heard of it!?”

“Wha…?” The student was panicking, but finally, he got an answer from someone, “T-tendo? Uh… I think we have a student named Tendo, why?”

“I’m looking for someone there by the name of Ranma Saotome!” the wandering boy replied.

“Oh! Well they’re probably leaving the building this moment-”

The student was interrupted when the wandering boy heard a voice, “Ranma, wait for me!”

The wandering boy let go of the student, grabbing his umbrella from his travel pack, “There! He’s here! Now is the time to strike!”

----------

“Ranma, wait for me!” Akane shouted at him as he ran off ahead.

Ranma was really in a playful mood at the moment. No water accidents for over a week, and an actual quiet day at school with no shenanigans for him or his friend thanks to the horde giving up meant that his life might finally get to some sense of normal. Which would be nice, as Ranma hadn’t had that in years, the last time he could think of was that year of middle school he did.

“Sorry, Akane,” Ranma jokes, “but the last one home is a rotten egg!”

“You can’t!” Akane replied. “Kasumi asked us to get rice and miso on our way home, and you’re helping her tonight!”

“Can’t you grab it yourself?” Ranma yelled. “I figured you’d want to show off your stupid strong strength now that the horde’s no longer bothering you!”

“You can’t seriously expect me to carry all that on my own can you?!” Akane replied. He starts to pick up the pace, “Get… back here!”

Akane tried to grab him, but Ranma jumped out of the way, “You have to catch me fir-” Ranma’s words were interrupted by him feeling a sense of bloodlust.

“ RANMA! ” shouted a familiar voice, “ GET READY! ”

Ranma reorientated himself so that he would dodge the incoming strike, using his hand to push himself back. He was glad he did, as a weapon slammed into the ground where Ranma would have been had he not done so. But Ranma had to react quickly as the ground surrounding him shattered upon the weapon colliding with the ground, forcing Ranma to push himself to intact pavement.

Dust was everywhere, making it hard for Ranma to see his attacker, but the familiarness of his voice was definitely sparking SOMETHING in his memory. As more dust settled, the only other thing that clued Ranma in was the familiar yellow and black striped headband the person was wearing.

“Hang on…” Ranma said as it finally clicked, even if he couldn’t see his attacker’s face yet. “Ryoga?!”

“Finally decided to let me catch up to you, RANMA!” Ryoga said under the veil of dust. “After over two long years! I will finally have my revenge against you!” The dust was finally clearing, allowing the two to see each other eye to eye, “RAN-” Ranma only got a glance of Ryoga’s serious expression before he immediately was dumbfounded by something. *EHHHHHH?!?!*

“What?” Ranma asked, confused.

“Wha… How… WHAT’S THE MEANING OF THIS!” Ryoga shouted.

“Meaning of what?” Ranma asked.

Ryoga pointed his weapon, which Ranma could now see was a mere umbrella, at him, “Don’t play dumb! This… Those… How are you a girl!?!”

It finally clicked for Ranma what Ryoga was talking about, the last time he saw him, he was a boy, and now, he’s a girl. So here he was, in front of the whole school, practically ready to spill his secret in front of everybody, including Akane.

“Oh uh… you know… I was… always one?” Ranma tried to come up with an excuse, no matter how stupid, “puberty hit me late and like a truck. You’re not the first person to confuse me for a boy as a kid,” Ranma turned to the one person who could vouch for him, “R-r-right Akane?”

Akane looked at her unamused, “Yeah… definitely some real jerks in the second grade. But I’m surprised you still got confused for one at that age.”

“Wha…? What are you trying to pull?!” Ryoga shouted. “We went to an all boy’s school!”

There were a bunch of confused looks by a lot of the students. Akane spoke up, “An all boy’s school?! How’d your father manage to do that!?”

The color drained from Ranma’s face, yeah, it was going to be really hard to justify that one. Luckily, Ranma could at least improvise off an actual reason this time. “Uh… Pops said that that school was infamous for things getting aggressive and physically violent there, and thought it would be good survival training! I didn’t know it was a boy’s school until he already signed me up!” That last part was a lie, he knew going in, but it would hopefully sell the illusion just a little bit more.

“Why are you…? I’ve seen you na-…” it then appeared as if something clicked with Ryoga, “Oh… OH! I mean… I guess… you were kinda a shrimp back in middle school, and never liked changing with the rest of us during gym. Not to mention when you skipped out on pool days.”

*Phew* Ranma’s terrible ‘being seen shirtless’ anxiety paid off for her this time, even if she would prefer if Ryoga didn’t say all that in front of a crowd. Hopefully she wasn’t forgetting anything that would’ve ruined her cover story for Ryoga. “Yeah! So I hope that explains all… that.”

*heh!* Ryoga seemed to be satisfied with that answer, “Sure. I’ll ‘accept’ that excuse…” His expression then turned to anger, “But it does not excuse why YOU ran off from our duel!”

*huh?* Ranma was now confused again, but for a different reason, “That? I waited for you in the same spot for three days.”

“Three days?!” Akane said, shocked.

“Yeah!” Ryoga replied, “And when I got there on day four, you had already ran off with your dad to China!”

“Alright then” Ranma said, intensity to his face, “then I have one question for you Ryoga!” Ranma’s expression then changed to one of bewilderment, “Can you explain to me how it took you four days to get to the lot behind your house?”

“Shut up!” Ryoga shouted. “You think I spent all that time just lollygagging about?!”

“No, but… four days?!” Ranma said, still bewildered. “I even asked if you wanted me to bring you to the lot! But nooooooooooooooo… you had to be all ’it would be foolish and shameless to be brought to battle by my opponent’ shtick.”

“It WOULD be foolish and shameless!” Ryoga said.

----------

At some point, their argument had devolved into Ranma listing the things she did while waiting for Ryoga to arrive. It was entertaining to Akane for about 5 minutes before it became slightly annoying.

*Sigh! heh* Akane sighed, then chuckled, “This was the friend Ranma talked about? It didn’t seem like he knew Ranma was a girl back then, so I think I’m in the clear!” Akane let that thought settle for a bit, “wait… in the clear for what?”

At some point, Tomoyo and Noriko showed up behind me, “It seems like they really hate each other,” Tomoyo said.

“Obviously,” Akane said. “Don’t know what I was worried about when she mentioned a ‘middle school friend.’”

Tomoyo and Noriko looked at him with a knowing look that Akane could not decipher, before Noriko finally spoke. “I don’t know… I heard one of my friends in one of the other classes say that they could’ve actually been heartbroken middle school sweethearts!”

“HUH!?!” Both Ranma and Ryoga were snapped out of their arguing from that one.

“Not even remotely close, Noriko!” “That… I mean… Not at…!” Both talked over each other, Ryoga seemed to be flustered and blushing.

Akane knew he needed to step into this, “Okay, can we stop this?” Akane asked, trying to get between the two. “It’s clear you two have a history, and I’m sure you two would love to catch up, but Ranma and I have errands to take care of. So would you please do us a favor and save this for another-”

Akane was interrupted as Ryoga tossed his impossibly heavy travel pack at him, slamming him into the ground and holding him in place, “Y-you don’t get to decide ANYTHING you o-onlooker!”

*uhhhhhhh* Akane was barely still conscious from that, “Why does that keep happening to me?”

Ryoga turned his attention to Ranma, “I-i-i don’t care that you ended up being a c-c-cu… a girl! Y-you broke a g-gentlemen’s agreement!”

“Hey now,” Tomoyo grabbed Ranma by her shoulders, “Is it really fair to hold a pretty lady to a gentlemen’s agreement!” Ranma appeared to blush from that statement and Ryoga started to blush more and even appear to be even more flustered.

“I don’t think that’s what it means, Tomoyo,” Noriko said sarcastically.

“That… that’s not the point!” Ryoga shouted. “Y-you still broke it! So now… we’ll finish this!” Ryoga tossed Ranma a challenge letter, “Th-there now! I’ve made it official! I… shall win, and… t-take away what’s left of your h-h-happiness!”

Ranma looked at the stuttering fool, “Take away my happiness?” Then to Akane, “Am I happy?”

“I’m certainly not right now,” Akane said under the unexplainable weight of Ryoga’s pack. Lucky for her, the boy picked it up off of her and slung it back on his back.

“D-d-don’t run off on me now! R-ranma!” Ryoga managed to stumble out before making a mad dash out of there.

Akane got up from her spot on the ground. It was clear to her that she needed to avoid anyone with travel packs from then on. But that wasn’t her main focus right now.

“So who was that guy you were apparently so close with!” Akane said, worried about the answer he was about to receive.

*Hm?* Ranma looked at him, then answered nonchalantly, “Ryoga Hibiki, we were just rivals in middle school as far as I can remember. He took me pretty seriously back then too.”

“Just rivals…” Akane repeated, trying and failing, to reassure himself. “That’s it… just rivals. Just Rivals. Just Rivals! Just… RIVALS!!!!”

“Uh… Akane?” Ranma said, waving her hand in his face.

“Y-yeah!?” Akane quickly responded.

“You said something about getting rice and miso?” Ranma asked. “Or am I going to have to carry all of it myself?”

It took a second for Akane’s brain to reboot, “RIGHT! R-right…”

…

…

…

“Let’s get going…” Akane said, hoping to ease his own tension. Akane then shook her head, “It'd be easier if I could stop acting like a guy in these situations!”

----------

Ryoga was smacking himself in the face, he could’ve handled that situation a whole lot better. “Stupid. Stupid! STUPID!” He thought. “How could you almost out someone like that! You know your parents taught you better than that!”

“Yes, Ranma ruined your life,” Ryoga continued, “but that doesn’t mean you should socially oust her! People can be cruel, and even if Ranma can handle herself just fine, it would’ve been a worse punishment than what Ryoga could ever truly see as justifiable. It doesn’t even involve fighting, and he knew that if he truly wanted to punish Ranma for what she did, it would be with his fist.”

Ryoga then started blushing harshly, “But still… that might be harder than I hoped, why did she have to end up so cute!” Ryoga shook his head as he refocused himself on his surroundings. “Let’s see, a town square surrounded by large skyscrapers covered in billboards with exclusively romanji on them, with large honking cars on all sides and no one who speaks Japanese.”

…

…

…

“Definitely Nagoya.”

----------

It was Thursday and Ranma had decided this time around to help Kasumi make breakfast. This was mainly because Ranma wanted to try her hand at it and not to impress anyone in particular. No one at all.

As they set the table and got ready to eat, Kasumi came in with the last dish and something else. “By the way Ranma,” Kasumi pulled out the challenge letter Ryoga gave him, “I found this by the miso.”

“Right…” Ranma said, unamused, “I forgot about that.”

“A challenge letter?” pops commented, “when did you get that?”

“Monday after school,” Ranma replied. “Remember that kid I helped to and from school everyday back in middle school?”

“You did what back then?” pops said, confused.

“Nevermind,” Ranma replied. “Anyway, he’s mad at me for some reason that I can’t think of.”

“Maybe you’re just not thinking hard enough,” Nabiki said.

*hmm* Ranma decided to take Nabiki’s advice, and really tried to think about it. *OH!*

“Huh? That actually worked?” Nabiki said, shocked.

“I think it was early into middle school…” Ranma really tried to think about it, then it clicked. “I think he’s mad I took the last curry bun during lunch! At least I think… that was how we first met.” Everyone else in the house face planted onto the ground.

Akane was the first to get up, “Is he really the type of guy to get that mad over a piece of bread.”

“He took everything we did together very seriously, especially sparring,” Ranma replied. “Not that I minded, of course, I don’t like it when I’m not taken seriously. But who knows, it could’ve also been the yakisoba bun, the red bean bun… the katsu bun…… the takoyaki………”

“I think this is a little bit more than just A piece of bread,” Nabiki commented.

“Oh man…” Ranma replied as more and more varieties of buns he took came to mind. Ranma looked to Akane for something… anything, but he was busy reading the challenge letter to notice.

“Hey, Ranma,” he finally said, “the challenge was slated for yesterday.”

Ranma rolled his eyes, “yeah, yeah, I wouldn’t worry about that… he gets lost all the time. I bet he’s somewhere in Iwate right now.”

----------

“It’s this way to Tokyo, right?” Ryoga asked the stranger as he pointed westward.

“Monsieur! Vous êtes à Nantes!” the stranger said in a foreign language. Ryoga assumed it was probably dutch. It didn’t matter, he needed to arrive for his duel.

----------

Ryoga didn’t show up for another week. A whole week Akane was forced to worry about Ranma and her safety. Hopefully Ranma’s plan works, even if Akane herself had little faith in it. Still, Ranma got in position for her duel with Ryoga as it appeared Nabiki decided to place bets on the fight. Even if Akane knew it was making Nabiki keep her curse a secret from Ranma, she didn’t know WHY she would want to do that.

“So Ranma,” Ryoga said, “You ready to settle this?” Akane could’ve swore there was a hint of hesitation in the lost boy’s voice.

“Wait, Ryoga,” Ranma said. “Before we fight, I need to give you something.”

Ranma tossed Ryoga a bag, Ryoga looked at her, confused, but opened it anyway. Inside was one of each type of bun Ranma could recall taking back in middle school.

Ryoga stared back at Ranma, still confused, but also angry, “Wha…? What’s the meaning of this, Ranma!?”

Now Ranma looked at Ryoga confused, “I thought this was about your buns?”

“Who’d said this was over BUNS!” Ryoga shouted as he took a good look at the buns, “Besides they’re all past their expiration dates!”

“Not my fault,” Ranma said as she folded her arms, “I had to wait for you for a whole week.”

“Enough!” Ryoga yelled, grabbing his umbrella and tossing his travel pack in a random direction. Unfortunately for Akane, that direction was right at her. “Let’s get this over with!”

“Maybe one day I’ll be able to dodge one of these things,” Akane said from underneath the, somehow heavier than last time, pack.

Ryoga charged at Ranma, swinging the umbrella at her feet as if to keep her off the ground. “If there’s anything I know about how Ranma fought, it’s that I know she prefers staying in the air when fighting. Considering that Ryoga has known Ranma for longer than I have, he should know that.” But that wasn’t the only thing she noticed about how Ryoga fought, but it was drowned out by the combatant’s banter.

“C’mon Ryoga,” Ranma complained as she jumped over Ryoga’s attacks. “Ya gotta tell me why you’re so angry!”

“Because of you Ranma,” Ryoga said as he jumped after Ranma, “My life has been changed, practically ruined forever!” He swung at Ranma while they were in the air, but Ranma contorted her body to dodge it.

Both combatants then landed, “Really?” Ranma said, unamused. “You already get chronically lost all the time. What could I have possibly done?”

“Even IF I told you,” Ryoga said as he unfurled his umbrella, “there’s no way you’d believe me!”

As Akane got out from under Ryoga’s pack, Ryoga tossed his umbrella at Ranma, which she dodged with ease. Ryoga saw that coming and as she dodged the umbrella, he took off his headband, revealing another one underneath it, and slapped onto Ranma’s wrist as a makeshift restraint.

“Seriously, Ryoga?” Ranma said.

“I’m not letting you run away from me again!” Ryoga shouted, determined, which worried Akane for some reason.

“No, not that,” Ranma said as the two kicked at each other, both deflecting the other’s. “How many bandanas are you wearing?” She asked with curiosity.

“Wha…?” Ryoga was puzzled.

Akane slouched at the sheer audacity Ranma displayed in asking that question, that or stupidity, which Akane chose to believe because it made her seem cuter in his eyes. But that wasn’t all he noticed when he saw Ryoga, “Is Ryoga… blushing?!” Akane thought to herself.

The umbrella Ryoga tossed spun back around and landed beside Akane. She tried to pick it up, but the umbrella didn’t budge. Akane then put a lot of heft into lifting the umbrella, and it still barely budged.

Akane then came to a horrifying realization, “Ryoga’s able to just swing and throw this thing like it’s nothing, not to mention his travel pack! His strength is on a whole different level from Ranma!” Akane needed to warn her, “Ranma! You gotta keep your dist-”

Akane stopped when something didn’t add up, Ranma was still restrained by Ryoga’s headband, but the two were clashing with their hands. It appeared Ranma was actually overpowering Ryoga, which didn’t make sense. Ranma was strong, yes, but she still had shown her limits while training in the few weeks they’ve known each other. She’s seen her actually struggle to carry some things once or twice, but they were light compared to the stuff Ryoga carried around.

Yet here was Ranma overpowering a guy who was able to lift a bunch of extremely heavy things like they were nothing. To Akane, that could only mean one thing. “Hold it! Hang on! Stop the fight!” Akane shouted, walking onto the field the battle took place on.

*huh?* Ranma said as she somehow was still ‘overpowering’ Ryoga. She then got angry with her, “What are you doing, Akane?”

Akane forced the two to separate, ripping the headband used to restrain Ranma from Ryoga’s grip and stuffing it in his pocket.

“What’s the big idea!?” Ryoga yelled.

“That’s what I want to know,” Akane said. “How is it that, despite carrying all that extremely heavy stuff like it’s nothing, you’re still able to be overpowered by Ranma?”

“What are you getting at!?” Ryoga yelled.

“Yeah, Akane!” Ranma yelled. “Are you calling me weak?!”

Akane ignored Ranma, and pointed at Ryoga with determination and gusto, “Your attacks were easy to read, you’re clearly carrying more things on you than you’re using, and you’re letting Ranma overpower you in a clash you clearly have the advantage on! You’re holding back, Ryoga, aren’t you!” There were a couple gasps in the audience, Nabiki looked very annoyed with Akane as if she was the one ruining the fight Ranma had been preparing for all week.

“Wha…?” Ryoga flinched at the accusation. He then got defensive about it, “Even if that were true! Why would it matter?!”

“I know Ranma doesn’t like not being taken seriously!” Akane replied. “I know that she told me you always take your fights seriously! So why hold back!”

“Stay out of this! You’re just an onlooker!” Ryoga said back.

“I’m Ranma’s fiance! If she cares, I care!” Akane declared in front of the crowd.

----------

Ranma didn’t know how to feel. Akane accusing his friend of not taking their current fight seriously would’ve made him angry, furious even. But then the jerk had the gall to just call himself her fiance to her best friend like it was nothing. Even if Ranma didn’t mind spending her whole life with Akane, that was just an unrealistic fantasy and they weren’t actually going to get married.

Ryoga just stared flabbergasted at Akane from his declaration. He then turned slowly towards Ranma, “Wait… you’re engaged?!” He then looked at Akane more closely, his shock wearing off and him returning to a more relaxed pose. *tch* He scoffed, “I doubt it was by choice.”

Akane raised an eyebrow for some reason, “And what’s that supposed to mean?!” Ranma had no idea what Akane meant, since that was just the truth of the matter.

Ryoga however, had a different idea, “I mean… it's obvious! Ranma’s a lot of things, but tasteless wasn’t one of them!”

“Uh, Ryoga, I’m right here!” Ranma complained.

“There’s no way Ranma would ever want to be associated with a plain, average, and effeminate man like you!” Ryoga shouted at Akane, getting up in his face.

Akane was silent at the accusations, at least until he proceeded to upcut Ryoga in his jaw unexpectedly, causing Ryoga to reel back, clenching his jaw in surprise.

“What the hell was that for,” Ryoga shouted, but before he could get an answer, Akane threw another punch at him.

“Effeminate, huh!?! Akane shouted. “I’LL SHOW YOU EFFEMINATE!”

Akane went in for a rising kick, the very same one that knocked out pops and supposedly Kuno from what she’d been told. It connected with Ryoga’s jaw effortlessly, which should’ve probably knocked anyone out after that onslaught.

Ryoga however, simply responded by grabbing Akane’s leg for stability, shocking Akane that he’s still standing after that. Ryoga kept hold and lifted Akane off the ground, before slamming him back into it with a force Ranma knew he didn’t show when fighter her. Akane laid there in pain.

“Maybe try again when you’re better at fighting!” Ryoga shouted.

Akane was shaking, but still managed to move and started getting up. “You think that will knock me down?” Akane said as he got up. “I’m just getting started!” Akane kicked Ryoga in the stomach, then followed it up with a roundhouse kick to his side. This sent the guy flying into the crowd of students, who scattered when they saw Ryoga being sent towards them.

Ryoga got up quickly, then dodged one of Akane’s punches as he made a break for his umbrella. He grabs it, and as he attempts to turn around he is grabbed by Akane. Akane then does a judo circle throw, launching Ryoga over the field’s fence. Ryoga screamed the whole time and landed with a thud. Akane gave chase, going around the fence.

Ranma just couldn’t believe what he just saw. That was supposed to be his fight with his rival, and Akane just hijacked it like that. That wasn’t the worst thing though, “Ryoga WAS holding back on me! He never held back with me before!” Ranma yelled at no one in particular.

Tomoyo and Noriko walked up to him, “Well… at least you didn’t get badly hurt!” Tomoyo said as if that would make him feel better.

“That…” Ranma clenched his fist. *argh!* Ranma gave chase after the two idiots by jumping over the fence. After a little bit, Ranma was eventually able to find them brawling by a one way alley near the gym storage.

Ranma ran up to them and forced them to separate, “Enough!” he shouted. “Akane, I never asked you to fight my fights for me!”

“I didn’t get involved to fight for you!” Akane replied. “I just didn’t like how this guy was treating you!”

“Yeah, well it’s still none of your business!” Ranma shouted. He then turned to face Ryoga, “And you, Ryoga! You were holding back on me! Why!? You always took our fights seriously in middle school! Why the sudden change when YOU’RE the one who issued the challenge!?”

Ryoga wasn’t looking at him, rather he was looking at Akane, puzzled. What happened next puzzled Ranma, Ryoga was laughing. *HA! HAHAHAHAHAHA!* Something made Ryoga burst out laughing and Ranma didn’t understand why until he calmed down. “I’m- I’m sorry! Your name is Akane?! That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day!”

Akane was getting very angry, clenching his fist, “You have a problem with it!?”

“Oh I have plenty of problems with you, Akane ,” Ryoga said mockingly, “but how about we finish what we started!”

Both guys get ready to fight again, but Ranma pulled on both their ears to get their attention. “Ryoga! Your fight is with ME, remember!?!”

“R-ranma!? You can’t seriously be defending this wimp!” Ryoga said to Ranma.

“Wimp?!” Akane exclaimed. “Last I checked, I threw you over the ball fence!”

“Yeah, after an ambush!” Ryoga exclaimed back. “You’d still be in a crater in the ground if you didn’t surprise attack me like that!”

“Just admit I’m actually a competent fighter and accept defeat!” Akane said.

“Why?! Because last I checked, I’m still roaring to go!” Ryoga replied, his battle aura flaring.

“Bring it!” Akane said, his battle aura flaring in response.

“ENOUGH!” Ranma yelled, snapping the two out of it… again! “How many times do I have to tell you guys to stop!”

“Ranma!” Akane is now yelling at her. “I’m doing this to protect you, idiot!! ”

Something snapped in Ranma right then and there, and she slapped Akane hard in the face. Ranma tried to keep her composure, but it didn’t take long for tears to form on her face. “Is that it? You don’t take me seriously either!? I’m just ‘some girl’ to protect!?”

“R-ranma…” Akane said, but Ranma wasn’t having it.

Ranma walked past Ryoga, up against the wall at the end of the alley, “Ryoga, either hit me here and now as hard as you can or don’t! Either way, I’m done after this!” Ranma leaned against the wall, giving herself nowhere to go. “Well? Your move! Are you going to take me seriously or not!”

“Ranma, wait!” Akane said.

“I wasn’t asking for your opinion!” Ranma yelled at him. Ranma then looked at Ryoga, “Well? DO IT!”

Ryoga's breathing accelerated, mulling over the decision given to him. *AAAAAAAAAAAGH* Ryoga screamed as he took his umbrella and jabbed it at Ranma, but Ranma didn’t feel anything connect. Instead she heard a loud slam right beside her as Ryoga’s Umbrella had pierced through the wall behind her, connecting with something metallic on the other side of the wall.

“I knew it…” Ranma said, almost… no, completely disappointed in both of them. “Fine then… if that’s how it is…” Ranma stopped holding back tears, “then I want nothing to do with either of yo-”

*tssssssssssssssssssss* Ranma heard behind her the sound of steam escaping from somewhere. She turned around to see what exactly Ryoga hit that was behind the wall.

It was a water heater.

*BANG* The water heater exploded, sending hot water everywhere. Ranma realized they were no longer a girl at the moment and right in front of Akane, the only saving grace being that the entire alley was covered in thick steam that obstructed everything. But once the steam cleared, it was all over and she’d be caught.

“Y-you!” Ranma heard a voice that she swore was Akane, as they sounded pissed.

*Ack!* Ranma then heard the sound of Ryoga being grabbed, with the sound of Ryoga’s umbrella dropping to the ground following suit.

“Ryoga’s Umbrella!” Ranma thought to herself, “Maybe I can use that to hopefully salvage this!” Ranma reacted quickly, grabbing Ryoga’s umbrella as it came into view. “Sorry about this!” She only had a second before the steam cleared enough to be seen, so with the only visual she had being a couple silhouettes, she swung Ryoga’s umbrella as hard as she could, sending the two of them flying.

Ranma’s breathing was heavy, but she did it. She stopped the two of them from seeing the ugly truth of what she- Ranma shook his head, *Sigh* he then sighed, “I was thinking like a girl even when as a guy!”

Just then, Ranma saw his and Akane’s friends come into view. “What happened?!” Tomoyo asked, “We thought we saw an explosion, and then people got sent flying!”

“I had to… stop Akane from… seeing me like this,” Ranma said, exhausted as he dropped Ryoga’s umbrella, it hitting the ground with a loud thud. “Even if I really shouldn’t care anymore!” Ranma pouted, “that jerk!”

“Okay…” Noriko said, concerned. “I’d ask if you want to talk about it, but I think there are other things to worry about. Did you really have to send them flying towards the pool?”

*Heh!* Ranma got a chuckle from that, “Good one.” No one said anything, leaving Ranma to think about the odds of him actually launching them into the pool when Akane can’t swi- “I’m not risking it!” Ranma said as he sprinted towards the pool.

----------

A minute earlier

*BANG*

Akane couldn’t believe his dumb luck, of course Ryoga ended up hitting the only spot where a water heater was. Now Ranma’s going to know his secret, and he’s going to look like double the idiot he already did for what he said to her. He meant to say that he wanted to ‘protect ranma’s dignity,’ but something in his head decided that he instead ‘wanted to protect her’ from that chronically lost idiot instead.

Still, Akane was angry and Ryoga was the perfect punching bag, “You!” Akane grabbed Ryoga by his shirt and pulled the lost boy towards him. Ryoga dropped his umbrella in response, but still hadn’t seen her as he wiped his eyes off the steam. Who knew, if Akane was quick enough, he could give the boy a black eye before his life was ruined fore-

Akane felt a massive blow hit the two of them and send them flying. After shaking off the blow, Akane turned his attention back at Ryoga, who was staring at him- her in shock.

“Wha…?! WHAT’S THE MEANING OF THIS!?!?!” Ryoga shouted, grabbing her as they flew over the school.

“This… this is…” Akane could figure out what to say.

Ryoga readied a punch at her, “YOU SCUMBAG!!”

Akane managed to dodge the punch, “You have no idea what’s going…”

“Don’t think you can pull a fast one on me!” Ryoga shouted. “I know a Jusenkyo curse when I see one! And to use one to trick an innocent girl like Ranma!”

Akane should’ve been panicking, but was angry instead, “I'm not tricking anyon-” But then a thought crossed her mind, “Wait… how do you know about Jusenkyo?”

Ryoga looked like he was going to say something, but stopped when he was shocked about something ahead of them. Akane turned around to see it, it was the school pool, “Of course!” Akane thought right before impact.

Akane lost her grip on Ryoga upon impact, which also caused Ryoga to let go of her. The water getting in her eye forcing her to close them and preventing her from seeing. She is eventually able to open them, trying to look around for Ryoga, but unable to find him.

Akane tries her best to walk over to the shallow end, but isn’t certain if she’ll make it before drowning. Still, she walked, hoping that by some chance someone is nearby to save her.

Akane is suddenly enveloped in a shadow. He turns to face who he assumed was Ryoga at first, but eased when he saw that it was someone diving in to save him. At first he couldn’t tell who was saving him, but once they entered it was clear to him it was Ranma, though he swore a trick of the light made it appear as if her hair was black for a second. Still, Ranma grabbed him and pulled him out of the pool, though Akane could tell she was still mad with him.