Chapter 2: No! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Ranma and Akane screamed waking everyone in the house.

Akane was now in Ranma's body, while Ranma was in Akane's body. There was only one bathroom and so they turned and glared at each other. Akane went towards the bathroom and got a bucket full of cold water.

"Don't you dare!" Ranma warned with horror.

Akane's voice was still in Akane's body, and Ranma's voice was still in Ranma's body, but their brains and souls had been transferred. Akane poured the cold water on her so that she was a she.

Ranma grabbed the kettle and filled it up with hot water, Akane tried to run from him. Ranma chased Akane around until the hot water was poured on her. Akane glared at him and was about to pummel him to the ground when they heard Kasumi.

"Ranma? Akane? Are you guys alright?" Kasumi called up to them, getting both of them to curse silently.

"Fine." Akane yelled down at Kasumi then turned to glare at Ranma. "Ok listen you jerk. We have to pretend to be each other. I have to pretend to be you, and you have to pretend to be me, ok?"

"Look at me. I'm Akane. I'm an un-cute tomboy, fight anyone who tries to be nice to me, and claim to hate boys, but I secretly love Dr. Tofu." Ranma responded in a fake Akane voice. "Sound good?"

Akane grabbed the pole of the bath curtain and hit him in the head with it. "Not one bit! Stop playing around and act like me!"

"I was acting like you. Your as skinny as a stick, build like a brick, you're legs are too thick…" Ranma dodged the pole as it was flung at him. "Neh, neh, neh, neh, neh. You missed me."

"Get back here you jerk!" Akane yelled and followed Ranma out of the building chasing him.

Ranma easily dodged her attacks still trying to get used to operating Akane's body. Akane wasn't used to Ranma's body so her punches were off by a long shot. She continued to throw punch after punch until she sat down exhausted.

As Ranma stood next to her looking down at her, Akane's only regret was that she didn't have something to throw at him, or clonk him on the head with. Ranma rolled his eyes, even now he would tell her she was un-cute.

But he couldn't tell her the truth, there was no way she would listen to him anyway. After everything he had learned from her, she would always make fun of him. He couldn't possibly tell her that he… yes that he loved her.

The tomboy part of her actually make him want to smile. She would fight him when she was mad, but he could always defend himself. Besides everything worked out when they fought. One way or another.

"You are so un-cute." Ranma huffed out as he sat next to her anyway. "What's crying going to do? It's not going to solve anything. If you want something solved you gotta work to solve it! Not sit here and mope about it all day."

"Who asked you?" Akane sobbed out. "Why don't you leave the un-cute tomboy alone if you hate her so much?"

"Because she's currently in my body, and I don't want my body to get trashed when I'm not looking. That's why."

Akane threw a punch at Ranma, which he easily grabbed, Akane just sobbed some more. Her whole life was ruined. She was going to be stuck in Ranma's body forever. She felt her world crumble and was intent to fall with it.

Ranma meanwhile had been thinking. He had been doing a lot of thinking. First of all how were they going to portray the other person, when they themselves had no clue about said person. Second who cast the spell on them? Third how were they to break it? And more importantly how was he to make Akane remain in boy form most of the time? Ranma glanced at Akane.

She looked so much like a little puppy that he wanted to hold her to make her all better. But he couldn't, not without answers. He stood and Akane watched as he said nothing but bounded from roof to roof.

Finding the witch that had cursed them he glared at her. She kept the same pleasant face but on the inside was laughing.

"Take it back. Reverse the spell!" Ranma demanded her. "Now!"

"Magic can't be stopped, and even if I could I wouldn't. You still only care about yourself." The witch started to walk away when Ranma grabbed her hand. "I can't slow down the spell, but I can speed up the time it takes for it to become permanent, so let me go or else you only have a week to complete the spell."

Ranma though angry and wanting to kill her, released her. She turned and continued to walk away. Ranma tried to understand her spell, what was he supposed to do? He had thought of all the options but none seemed right.

"I remember what she said, 'those who seek to understand, will learn as they go. While those who seek freedom, may come to know.' But what does it mean? How do we solve the puzzle?"

Ranma sat in Akane's room and thought about the message behind the spell. Akane walked into her room and glared at Ranma, but remembered that this was now his room.

"Ranma? What are you thinking about?" She asked.

"The spell. And how we can reverse it. Tomorrow we have school, remember."

"Let me help."

"Like a tomboy like you would be of any help."

"Ranma…" Akane took a deep breath in and let it out. "Let me at least try to help."

"Fine see if you can figure out what 'those who seek to understand, will learn as they go,' could mean."

Akane walked into Ranma and Mr. Soutome's room to think. She sat down and thought for a while, then she started muttering to herself and writing something on paper.

"Those who seek to understand… hmmm. Well it could mean we have to understand something but what? …Will learn as they go. Hmmm… Those who seek to understand, will learn as they go… Those who seek to understand, will learn as they go… Those who… I GOT IT! Those who seek to understand will learn as they go means Ranma and I have to understand each other as we go though this spell."

Akane ran up to her room and nearly ran over Ranma in the process. Once they could both stand and Akane had pushed Ranma into her room and locked the door she looked at him.

"I figured it out. Those who seek to understand, will learn as they go means that while we are trapped in this spell we have to understand each other, and in doing so we'll gain knowledge."

"Your crazy." The more Ranma thought about it however, the more right she seemed. "Ok. That only complicates things even more. Now I really don't understand."

"What's the second part?"

"Huh? Second part of what?"

"Excuse me anyone home. The spell you moron."

"Oh. Uh… While those who seek freedom, may come to know."

"Got it!" Akane opened the door and went back into her room and scribbled some more on the pad.

Only this one was really stumping her. What could this part of the riddle mean. The two sides seemed totally opposite of one another.

"While those who seek freedom, may come to know. It doesn't make sense. Know means to understand something with no definition. But freedom you have to work for. Their complete opposites and yet she said them as in to help us. I don't understand what…" Akane fell into a nap. Her brain hurt and she was exhausted.

"She just fell asleep." A man told the girl, which had cast the spell on Ranma and Akane, after looking in the ball. "And here I thought Ranma would figure out the riddle."

The girl had now taken the man's spot and looked in the crystal ball showing Akane, in Ranma's body, asleep. "Ranma doesn't give Akane enough credit. If push came to shove, she could probably beat him in 'Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?'"

The witch looked carefully into the crystal ball, and gave a happy smile. The man looked at her then the ball and confused called her name.

"Eudora?"

"She is so close. Awe I have to I feel sorry for her."

"Eudora what are you doing? EUDORA!"

"Shut up Lark!"

Akane slept peacefully when all of a sudden she saw Eudora from her class. Confused she walked towards her not noticing that she was in a dream for she had her regular body. She continued to follow Eudora almost hypnotically.

All of a sudden she saw a giant sign that said selflessness. Confused she wanted to touch it but thought better of it. Yet the urge to touch it was too strong and she tried to touch it. There was suddenly a barrier and Ranma appeared glaring at her.

Akane woke up gasping, and looked around back at her paper. Suddenly she had an idea and thought about it. Wrote a few things down then snapped her fingers in knowledge.

Meanwhile back in the house Lark was glaring at Eudora. "You didn't tell me you didn't." When Eudora leaned back in the chair Lark practically screamed. "You did didn't you?"

"Eh. So I gave her a little nudge in the right direction. Sue me."

Lark was stuttering and babbling incoherently. Eudora simply rolled her eyes and went back to looking in her crystal ball. She wasn't an evil witch, she only "cursed" those who needed the lesson.

"I figured it out Ranma!" Akane ran in and told Ranma. "We have to understand each other, gain knowledge, and be selfless to each other. Now how all that comes together I have no clue, but I figured it out!"

"Not possible." Ranma glowered at her. "How could a tomboy like you figure out something as advanced as that?"