Chapter No. 10
"I am a lady!"

Back in Nerima…

After school that day, Akane raced home to tell Kasumi what had happened to her.

"Kasumi, guess what! I got the part to play Juliet in the school play! And if we do well, I could win a trip to China!"

"China?" Kasumi repeated with one of her soft smiles. "That means we could find a cure for Ranma and his father's curse. And I know how much the part of Juliet means to you."

Akane nodded and smiled.

"What's this about China?" Ranma said suddenly as he poked his head in through the door.

"After the school play," replied Akane. "You'll have to get a part first, though."

Ranma stopped and seriously considered the possibility. A cure for his curse – now wouldn't that be something!

"Maybe you could be Romeo," Kasumi giggled.

"Not a chance," said Akane.

"I'll do it!"

"The world's against me," Akane groaned.

There were, as Ranma and Akane discovered the next day, two other males vying for Romeo's part: Tatewaki Kuno and Hikaru Gosunkugi. Kuno, leader of the Kendo club, was a nuisance both Ranma and Akane were thoroughly aware of. As for Gosunkugi, nobody noticed him anyway, so it wasn't like anyone cared about him. The teachers suspected Gosunkugi was into voodooism because he kept sticking pins into wooden manikins during math class. Gosunkugi had bags beneath his eyes which no amount of sleep could get rid of and he failed at life even worse than Ryoga and Mousse did. This was who Ranma was up against.

"I'll get to play Romeo no sweat!" Ranma declared confidently as he and Akane walked to the school's auditorium. "I'll just beat them up on stage and then…" He cackled somewhat evilly. "Romeo is mine!"

Akane wasn't sure whether Ranma even knew who Romeo was. He probably didn't, judging by his attitude. Not that Akane cared overmuch about that. She just wanted to be Juliet. Her desire stemmed from childhood, when her old school performed Romeo and Juliet and she had played Romeo. And she had been a good boy, everyone said. Dr Tofu included.

"Akane, you need to be shed of your burden." Ryoga's words came back to her all of a sudden and she smiled. Now that she thought about it, Ryoga had never thought of her as a tomboy. Now, Akane decided she was going to prove that to the world. Being Juliet would affirm her confidence in her newly-discovered femininity.

"Whatcha thinkin' about?" Ranma asked her, driving her out of her reverie.

"Oh, just the past," she responded lightly.

Ranma had never seen Akane so at ease before. And, although he was loath to admit it to himself, she really did appear stunning in her costume: the long Elizabethan gown, complete with lacy frills and velvet trimmings. She had a wig with long plaited hair. It many ways, she appeared a princess and it was easy to see why Romeo had fallen in love with her.

"Hey, Ranma, if you want to be Romeo, do your best." She smiled. "It would be great if you could break your curse."

He gulped and nodded. There was no point lying to himself. Akane was cute, especially when she smiled.

"And you know," she was saying. "I'd like to go to China myself. Do you think if we win, we might bump into Ryoga and Shampoo? I'm probably getting way ahead of myself, though."

Ranma's tentative smile faded. Perhaps, under different circumstances, something could have blossomed between him and Akane, something quite beautiful that he couldn't quite define. However… it was apparent that Ryoga never seemed to stray far from Akane's thoughts, no matter how lost he got. Stupid pig didn't realise it and neither, probably, did Akane, but…

"We're here!" Akane announced cheerfully, and after that moment, Ranma didn't have time to think. He ventured into the now.

It was a full house that night. If Ranma wasn't so concerned with getting Romeo's part, he might have gotten stage fright, but then again, that wasn't in his nature.

Before he could quite register what was happening, the staging and lighting had been set up, Juliet A.K.A. Akane was standing in front of the audience and the play had begun.

"Once," the narrator intoned, "there lived a beautiful girl named Juliet."

At that point Kuno made his dramatic entrance from the ceiling.

"Akane, marry me!" demanded the amorous upperclassman.

"Follow the script, idiot!" the narrator hissed.

Ranma thought it was about time for him to make his stage debut.

"No, Juliet, marry me!" At least he had the sense to use her stage name. He jumped into the fray and pushed Kuno out of the way. Now he was left staring into the audience with Akane by his side.

The narrator flashed him a glare but quickly adapted to the actors' improvisation. "Juliet," he continued, "was pursued by many handsome and noble men, but there was only one man she loved."

"Oh, Romeo!" Akane cried out emphatically as she batted her eyelids at the nearest male, who happened to be Ranma.

"Oh, Juliet!" returned Ranma.

("What do I say next?" he stage-whispered.)

"Idiot," she hissed scornfully. "It's so you to not have bothered memorising the script."

The audience members, the two realised soon enough, were murmuring among themselves.

"Are you sure they're lovers?"

"They don't really look like it."

Akane was starting to think her one night of femininity was about to be ruined.

Hikaru Gosunkugi slowly walked towards Akane with many deliberate detours. He lacked any kind of stage presence, but that still didn't stop him calling out stutteringly to Akane.

"I-I know the words off by heart."

"Gosunkugi?" Akane looked up curiously.

The bumbling Romeo-wannabe blushed and thrust his face into his hands. Sad boy must have been marvelling at the fact that Akane had actually noticed his existence.

Unfortunately for Gosunkugi, the audience ruined the moment. Some unidentified person exclaimed, "Whatever! Just skip to the kiss scene already!"

Apparently, the kiss scene was the only worthwhile segment of the Shakespeare play. And here Akane had been thinking there actually wasn't a kiss scene at all: there were only dramatic dialogues and suicide attempts. She was wrong, accordingly.

The other audience members seemed to be warming to the kiss scene suggestion.

"Yeah, let's see Ranma and Akane kiss!"

"That's the only reason we spent our money to watch this anyway!"

Ranma and Akane both went red. "No way!" they insisted hotly in unison.

Ranma glanced at Akane. And all of a sudden, he found himself wondering what Akane's lips were like – softening against his.

He shook his head and repeated one specific command over to himself until it became a nonsensical litany of words.

SNAP OUT OF IT. SNAP OUT OF IT. SNAP OUT –

– Akane's lips, so soft –

– OF IT.

Ranma sighed.

Akane was just angry.

"I can't believe this!" she fumed. "A kiss scene doesn't make a great play!"

"Um," the narrator interrupted her. "They were just saying that if you and Ranma kiss, you automatically win the prize."

Ranma and Akane blinked and stared at each other. Did this mean they were going to have to do it?

Over in China…

Ryoga should have felt fairly welcome among the Amazons. He didn't because Cologne said she would only teach him a special move – the Bakusai Tenketsu, the Breaking Point – only if he proved to her that as a martial artist, he was worthy enough to learn it. Mousse had wanted to fight him so enough was said. If he was going to become stronger, he was going to have to prove his tenacity by defeating Mousse. Shampoo had warned him that Mousse was the master of hidden weapons, so besting the near-sighted Amazon was actually going to be harder than it seemed.

If Ryoga remember what – and who – he was fighting for, then it all became much easier to bear. He was doing it all for Akane!

Almost angrily, he hoped she was happy.

Akane was not happy.

"Who do these perverts think they are, anyway?" she grumbled.

There is no need to explain who she was referring to. After all, stage actors are always told to face their audience.

Ranma looked down at his feet, unable to trust himself to look at Akane. He had a sinking suspicion that she was acting flustered not because she secretly wanted to kiss him but because there was no secret: she honestly didn't want to. Gosh, his ego smarted.

A girl like Akane, he though furiously, placed way too much importance on the act of kissing. It wasn't like you could get pregnant doing it. Sure, it could be disgusting if you used the tongue, but who had said anything about tongue kissing? A chaste peck on the lips would be more than enough to satisfy everyone.

He was about to say as much before the thought occurred to him that if he did, it would sound as if he was desperate to kiss Akane. And he was not desperate to kiss Akane. Maybe if he told he was just going to do it for China's sake… a little white lie never hurt anybody.

He continued to stare irresolutely at the floor. It was made of wood.

"Akane Tendo! You need not do the dishonour of kissing Ranma. Allow me to take your divine lips!"

Looked like Kuno was not going down without a fight. Much as he disliked the idea of kissing Akane himself, Ranma disliked Kuno kissing her even more. He looked up.

Akane alleviated the upperclassman with her foot. "No, thanks!" she said distastefully.

Then she kicked Kuno far and away. That was Kuno down.

Ranma sensed someone approaching him from behind. Turning around, he saw that his apprehender was Gosunkugi. Gosunkugi was brandishing a play sword and he had a surprisingly venomous look on his face. Ranma regarded him with half-closed eyes.

"What are you doing, Gosunkugi?"

"Die, Saotome!"

Gosunkugi swung the sword, missed Ranma completely, slipped, lost his balance and landed flat on his posterior.

Ranma rolled his eyes. "I tell you, Gosunkugi. The way of the martial artist is not for you."

Then he picked up Gosunkugi and threw him off the stage. That was Gosunkugi down.

The narrator narrated, "And finally, Romeo and Juliet lean in for the kiss…"

"WE'RE NOT KISSING!"

"Fine," the narrator huffed. "Have it your way. But it means you're not going to see China, you know."

"Stupid manipulative narrators," Ranma grumbled. "They twist a story any way they like it." He said this as he turned to face Akane.

She blinked, gazed at him, and then turned away. "Ranma, I'm not going to kiss you. I'm sorry."

He felt a stab in his heart and involuntarily, he clutched his chest.

"It's Ryoga, isn't it?" he said finally.

"W-What?" Her eyes went wide and her voice became so soft that only Ranma and the narrator could hear her.

They had well and truly forgotten the play.

"I know," said Ranma, "because you always seem to be thinking of him. Maybe you don't realise but… you love him, right?"

"Love him…" Akane repeated slowly and quietly. "I guess you could say that, but… I don't know… I just don't know…"

There was only pain in Ranma's eyes; not anger, not sadness, just pain.

"All I know is," Akane sniffed, "I just don't want to kiss you."

Then…

"I miss Ryoga."

And with that, Akane burst into tears. It was the most convincing display of anguished love the playhouse has ever seen. Because it was real, oh so real.

Akane had set out that night to show off her femininity. And now, she had fallen into the greatest trap known to female kind. It was love.