The sight in the genkan was not what Nabiki expected, regardless of whether it was related to engagement promise her father had brought up or not. There was a panda standing there, with two teens in Chinese style frog button shirts beside him (or her? Nabiki wasn't really sure how you determined the sex of a panda). One was a redhead, while the other had black hair. If either one was the groom-to-be, then he was seriously bishonen. Bishonen wasn't bad, per say, but they were kind of short too. The panda kind of threw all logic out the window though, and Nabiki decided to step back to let her father deal with this.
"Er, hello there?" Soun offered. "I... Er, are either of you a Saotome?"
The panda held up a sign that read: #It's a long story, Tendo-kun.#
Meanwhile the short teen with black hair stepped forward nervously. "Er, I'm Saotome Ranma, this is my sis, Hibari. D'ya got a kettle or any-"
Ranma's words were interrupted by Soun's sudden embrace. "My boy! Welcome to...to... you're softer than I'd expected."
Soun stepped back and crouched a bit to get a better look. Nabiki likewise leaned in for a second appraisal. Ranma's chest was rather prominent. It must have been the strangeness of the panda that somehow distracted her from what was now a rather obvious fact. Just to make sure, she reached forward and poked.
"Ya havin fun with that?" Ranma asked as Nabiki poked again.
"Hah, good work, Ranma. You've found yourself a girlfriend already," the red haired girl said, laughing to herself.
Nabiki, for the first time in a long time, felt a bit self conscious. "I was just checking. We were expecting a boy, so-"
The was a loud thud, and Nabiki realised her father had fainted.
A minute or two later, the group sat around the living room table, and Kasumi had successfully woken their father back up. Ranma's sister, Hibari, seemed to have taken over 'leader of the pack' duties for the moment, as she sat a little in front of her two companions.
"Hey, so, there seems to be a misunderstanding going on here. Like Ranma said, I'm Saotome Hibari, and-"
"One of you is supposed to be a boy!" Soun suddenly shouted, tears streaming from his eyes. "Genma promised there'd be an engagement!"
Though Hibari said nothing at first, Nabiki noticed the other girl's eyebrows fly upward at that news… and she also noticed the smirk that briefly came and went from her face. For the briefest of moments, Hibari turned, making eye contact with her sister, before looking back at the Tendos.
"Right, the engagement. Pops was telling us all about that on the way here. He actually feels really bad about this whole situation, and wanted to come apologize about it in person." Splaying her hands out, Hibari smiled even wider as she said, "You see, he doesn't have any sons - just us two daughters."
Nabiki had never tried to ascribe emotions to a panda before, but this one looked positively irate. It pulled a marker out of seemingly nowhere along with a blank sign and began furiously writing, only to be stopped by Ranma grabbing the marker out of its hands. The panda immediately tried to get it back, which quickly devolved into fist fighting, though the two combatants didn't move an inch from where they sat.
Meanwhile, Hibari continued talking as though nothing of interest was happening behind her. "Unfortunately, though, our old man lost his courage right before we got here. He sent the two of us along instead, to relay the message for him."
"The two of you? What about the panda?" Nabiki said. Hibari had definitely been surprised when Soun had mentioned the wedding, so there was no possible way she was telling the truth now. But Nabiki was sure she could get to that truth with a few simple, probing questions.
"That's just our pet, from China. He gets sad when Ranma and I aren't around," Hibari said, waving the question off. That answer had come much more quickly than Nabiki had expected. "Anyway, as you can see, there's no boys to be had, so I have to assume there's no engagement, either. Unless it's a lesbian wedding you're after."
Though her father immediately fainted again, Nabiki hardly noticed. What caught her eye instead was the brief, knowing look that Hibari gave her when saying that last line. One of the many things Nabiki prided herself on was her ability to keep her emotions from showing. Earlier, she had, for just a moment, felt self-conscious about Hibari's 'girlfriend' joke, but she was sure she'd given no sign of it. And yet clearly this Hibari girl had somehow picked up on that earlier moment of weakness, and was now exploiting it for her own amusement. It was both impressive and maddening.
"Can you… that's not even legal, is it?" Akane said, clearly nervous about her own line of questioning.
Pressing a hand against her sister's shoulder, Kasumi said, "Oh, dear, I'm afraid it's not."
Eye narrowing, Nabiki pushed ahead, not beaten just yet. "Why's your panda want that marker so much?"
"It likes to draw," Hibari said without missing a beat.
The speed of this girl's lies wasn't the only impressive thing, it was also how much confidence she put behind every word. But Nabiki refused to relent. "Okay, but it wrote words when you first got here."
"Is it not allowed to do both?"
Working overtime to prevent her irritation from showing, Nabiki gripped the edge of the table. "Why's your sister keeping the marker from it, then?"
"She's just playing with it."
Before Nabiki could toss out another question, she felt a hand press firmly against her shoulder.
"Nabiki, are you alright?" her older sister said, her eyes filled with concern. Those eyes dipped down for a moment to look at her hands, and when Nabiki followed suit she realized with surprise that her skin was white from how hard she was grasping the table.
Relaxing her grip, Nabiki took a breath, and with it, a moment to steady herself. There was no reason for her to be getting so worked up. Hibari was clearly lying, and though her voice was convincing, her words really weren't. But would directly calling that out even do anything? Probably not. If Nabiki were to grab another marker for the panda, though, what would happen th-
"Are you really a martial artist?" Akane said, looking over at Ranma.
"Sure am!" the black-haired girl said, smiling wide while still keeping the panda at bay.
"Me too!" Hibari added, also beaming.
Eyes sparkling like she'd just been given a present, Akane stood to her feet and said, "Do you two maybe want to spar for a bit? We've got our own dojo, afterall!"
Both Saotomes leapt to their feet in excitement, to both Nabiki and the panda's surprise. "Heck yes!" they said in unison.
Tossing the marker over her shoulder, Ranma followed Akane out of the room, her sister by her side. The soft 'ploop' sound Nabiki heard a moment later made it clear the marker had ended up in the koi pond.
Despite the panicked panda rushing out into the garden, Nabiki's eyes stayed locked on Hibari as all three guests exited the room. Kasumi, hand still on Nabiki's shoulder, said, "Really, Nabiki, are you alright?"
She sighed. "Yeah, I'm fine." As Hibari disappeared down the hall, Nabiki's eyes dropped to the floor, her mind whirring. "I'm just… not sure about these Saotomes."
Akane couldn't help smiling. After the fright of her father announcing an engagement, things had really turned around. Rather than any annoying boy, two girls had shown up; two quite cute girls, if she was being perfectly objective (a fact she wasn't sure why she was noticing as much as she was).
"Well, here's the dojo," Akane announced as she slid open the door.
Turning around as her guests stepped inside the dojo, Akane swore Ranma blushed a little at her smile. She wondered why for a moment. It couldn't be that Ranma leaned that way, right?
Dismissing a bit of confused emotions, Akane spoke up. "How does some light sparring to warm up sound?"
"Sounds good to me," Ranma replied. "Unless ya wanna go first, Hibari?"
The taller girl shrugged. "It's okay, you can go first. Some of us like to look before we leap."
"That's the borin' option," Ranma replied, before walking out to meet Akane in the centre of the dojo.
Akane adopted a fighting stance, while Ranma stayed loose. The two paused a moment for Hibari to step up and give the begin gesture. Akane waited a split second to see if Ranma would strike before launching her own assault. Ranma dodged her with ease.
As Akane was starting to get frustrated at the other girl's impressive grace Hibari gave a shout.
"Roundhouses. Ranma's bad with roundhouses!"
Akane blinked, wondering if it was a trap. Ranma's sharp glare at her sister indicated otherwise though, and so Akane decided to give it a try. Just not too quickly, going for a few punches as a feint before sliding in the kick. While Ranma blocked it, at least Akane had made contact.
Shedding the strange impression she'd had that Ranma was some sort of inhumanely graceful kitsune, Akane redoubled her efforts to attack. After a few more punches she went for a leg sweep, which Ranma unsurprisingly dodged. However that was a feint, and Akane swung back with a low ax kick aimed at thigh level on the shorter girl.
That's when Ranma leapt up, over Akane's head. As Akane spun to follow her opponent she couldn't help feeling like maybe her first impression that Ranma was beyond human was right. The short girl landed with impossible grace and her hand shot out to Akane's head. The youngest Tendo braced for impact only for Ranma's fist to stop just short. Frozen in shock a moment, Akane did nothing as Ranma rotated her wrist and lightly rapped on Akane's forehead as one would a door.
Ranma then pulled her fist away, smiling an adorably nervous smile. The clash between incredible skill and that innocent expression Ranma was wearing was confusing enough Akane couldn't help but begin to giggle. Ranma joined in soon enough.
Out of the corner of her eye Akane noticed Hibari smiling. There was something in that taller girl's eyes that Akane couldn't quite read, but it didn't feel threatening.
"I'm so glad you're a girl," Akane said to Ranma as the giggling ended. "I don't know what I'd do if a boy were that much better than me."
Ranma's face suddenly went serious as the short girl turned to her sister. They made a wordless exchange that ended in Hibari shrugging (but not losing that smile of hers) and Ranma turning back to Akane.
"Well, y'see, things are a little complicated on that front," Ranma explained.
"How can that be complicated?" Akane asked, her mind trying to fill in the very large blank.
"It'll probably sound crazy unless I show ya," Ranma continued.
"The part you can show is new, but your being complicated isn't," Hibari mentioned, walking over to the other two and poking her sister in the side of the head.
"Well yeah, but that part's even harder ta explain," Ranma countered. "But I guess the easiest way ta say it is just that sometimes I'm a girl and then other times I'm a guy."
Akane just blinked. What else could she do? She had no way of processing what she'd been told. Boys were boys, loud and obnoxious hormone driven jerks, while girls were... well, girls. The confusion must have been obvious on her face going by the nervous glance Ranma shot Hibari.
"Maybe if you go into more specifics?" the red haired girl offered.
"What specifics are there?" the shorter sister countered.
Before Akane could ask any further questions the dojo door slid open, revealing a rather smug looking Nabiki.
"Alright you two, time to come clean. Your 'pet' has done some very interesting things," she said, her tone downright swimming in arrogant satisfaction.
"Well, it was fun while it lasted," Hibari replied, apparently utterly undaunted by whatever had Nabiki looking so self-righteous.
A few minutes later the four of them were walking down the hall back to the living room, each wearing a vastly different expression. For Ranma, frustration, and for Hibari - confidence. Nabiki, on the other hand, had a positively sinister smile. Akane herself, meanwhile, was sure she just looked confused. She still hadn't quite been able to parse what the Saotome siblings were talking about, and it was making her head hurt to try. Adding the looming mystery of whatever it was that had her sister so excited was filling Akane's head up close to bursting.
Quickening her pace to move near Nabiki, Akane whispered, "What's going on? Why're you so happy?"
"Oh, you'll see," Nabiki said with a low, short cackle. Akane rarely saw her sister acting quite like this, but whenever it happened she knew there was reason to worry. Though the two sisters loved each other immensely, Akane was under no impression that her second-oldest sister was a saint. Kasumi, maybe, but Nabiki? She was pretty much the opposite, especially when she got like this.
The four of them soon emerged into the living room, where the first thing Akane noticed was a distinct lack of a giant panda. The second thing she noticed was the presence of an older man she didn't recognize, wearing glasses and dressed in a white gi.
While Akane came to a stop, Nabiki kept going, confidently striding over to the man in white. "Mr. Saotome!" Nabiki said, in an overwhelmingly obnoxious tone. Putting an arm around the slightly-uncomfortable-looking man's shoulder, Nabiki looked back at Ranma and Hibari, smiling from ear to ear. "I brought your kids back like you asked, so they can help you explain what's really happening!"
For a moment, the only thing that happened was the older Saotome glaring at the younger two, who glared right back. Akane wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but if she had to guess, it had to do with the supposed engagement. Goodness knows she'd been angry at her father too.
Though, admittedly, the thought of engagement didn't sting quite so much as it did before, now that she'd actually met the Saotomes. Akane's breath hitched, fear gripping her heart as she was faced with the stark reality that a large amount of the thoughts she'd had today were decidedly not straight-person thoughts.
Yet despite her inner turmoil, the world around kept right on moving.
"Why did you have to go and lie to them all, Hibari!?" Mr. Saotome said, his voice angry and booming.
"Why did you lie to us about why we were coming here!?" Hibari countered, her voice nearly as loud and her arms crossed.
"Seriously, Pops, that was messed up," Ranma added, looking more sullen than angry.
"Hmph," Mr. Saotome said, crossing his arms just like Hibari. "If I had told you, would either of you have even come?"
"No, we probably would've knocked some sense into you instead!" Hibari said.
"Well there you go."
Throwing her hands into the air, Hibari said, "That doesn't justify it, you conniving, heartless old man!"
"Perhaps we could all stop yelling?" a soft voice suggested, drawing everyone's eyes to Kasumi. Smiling warmly, her voice and face radiating peace, she said, "If we cool our heads a little bit and sit down, maybe we can talk all this out? My family and I are a little confused about this whole thing, too, I believe."
"Speak for yourself, I know exactly what's going on," Nabiki muttered, loud enough to be heard by everyone. Though her expression remained unchanged, Kasumi locked eyes with her sister, who begrudgingly sat down a moment later, whispering, "Sorry."
Once everyone had taken a seat around the table, Mr. Saotome began to speak. "I must apologize on my children's behalf. They were upset that I withheld information from them, and ended up lying to you all in the process." Though she looked like she really wanted to interject, Hibari remained silent for now. "As you may have guessed, I am Genma Saotome, these two's father. And the engagement does not need to be thrown aside, since they are-"
"Both boys!" Soun said, a little too eagerly.
Akane's eyes went wide, staring over at the two younger Saotomes, her mind trying to combine this new information with the two very feminine-looking people she could see right in front of her. That couldn't possibly be the truth, could it? A pit opened up in Akane's stomach — a vortex that twisted her emotions into painful knots. On the one hand, if her father was wrong, she'd be forced to deal with the very gay feelings she'd been having since the two younger Saotomes arrived. But if her father was right… maybe those feelings weren't gay? Frustratingly, the thought disappointed her. For years she'd been mocked by callous jerks for being a "dyke", something she'd insisted wasn't true. Yet now, she was disappointed that something might disprove the idea? What was wrong with her?
"Is that what you told him!?" Hibari shouted, the sound snapping Akane out of her own head. Hibari's fists were clenched and shaking and Ranma, for her… or his, or…?
How was Akane even supposed to think of Ranma? She looked like a girl right now, and Akane was finding it difficult to consider her anything else. Regardless, she seemed unsure of what emotion to feel after Soun's outburst, her expression somewhere between sadness and anger.
Genma turned toward his children, holding his hands out like he was defending himself. "W-well, not exactly… I tried to explain the, er… nuances…"
"What nuances!?" Hibari said, voice rising even higher. "I am a girl! I am not and have never been a boy! I thought—" Her voice caught for a moment, angry tears forming in her eyes. "I thought, when we talked back at the springs, that you finally understood that."
Though she still barely understood what was going on, Akane knew intrinsically that she was on Hibari's side. Looking at the red-haired Saotome with sympathy, she said, "Maybe you could explain what he's trying to say, so we can understand the way you want us to?"
Though her hands were still balled into fists, Hibari smiled at Akane, and visibly relaxed ever so slightly. "That sounds great, thank you." She took a deep breath, relaxing even further, then started to talk, looking right at Akane as she did so. "I'm a girl, like I said. Always have been, but for a long time my body made me feel less like a girl than I wanted. And certain people"—she glared at her father before looking back at Akane—"were under the false impression that my body meant I was a boy. But now, most of the time, my body's exactly how I want it, so there's really no excuse."
"I was trying to tell my friend that," Genma said, gesturing at Akane's father, who just looked confused by the whole affair.
"And then there's my sometimes-sis, Ranma!" Hibari said, giving her sibling a side-hug. "You want to tell them?"
Shrugging, Ranma tried looking at Akane, but quickly looked away. Then she tried glancing at both of Akane's sisters, seemingly settling on Kasumi to maintain eye contact with. "Well, um, it's like I told Akane earlier. Sometimes I'm a boy, sometimes I'm a girl. I think sometimes I'm not even really either of 'em. I dunno, it's kinda confusin', even for me, but it's just… how I feel, ya know?" To Akane's surprise, Kasumi nodded her head, though Akane wasn't sure if this meant her older sister actually understood, or if she was just being her usual polite self. "An' now, after the springs, my body can kinda go back an' forth like my mind, which is pretty cool."
"Um, I don't mean to interrupt, but what's with these 'springs' you all keep mentioning?" Akane said, unable to hold back her burning question any longer.
Hibari laughed. "That's a whole story, really."
"It is indeed quite a tale!" Genma said, sitting up to his full height. Smiling, he said, "It began not long ago, in China…"