The Strange Stranger from China
Akane wiped the hard earned sweat from her brow. She had been practicing in her family's Anything Goes Martial Arts dojo for hours. She was the youngest of her father's three daughters, and since he had no son to pass the school to, it was up to one of his daughters to carry it. While marrying a martial artist was an option, Akane preferred to think she could do it herself. She was just as strong as any boy she knew, and she certainly had the talent. She bested every boy in school every day before the final bell rang! She clearly was the best option for this.
The shutter of a camera and a flash caught her attention from the open dojo door.
Her older sister, Nabiki, was leaning against the frame, holding a disposable camera in her hand. "Gee, Akane," she drawled, "if you get any more muscular the boys in school won't be able to tell you're a girl."
Akane sniffed as if the comment didn't hurt. So she wasn't as feminine as her sisters? What did that matter? She adjusted her belt. "So what, Nabiki? Not everyone thinks the world revolves around boys!"
Nabiki shrugged and turned to start walking back to the house. "Then I suppose this wouldn't be of any interest to you."
Akane followed behind her sister, curiosity driving her. She'd finish her workout later.
After a few minutes, Akane and her older sisters were sitting at the table across from their father.
Soun Tendo was practically glowing with excitement.
Akane noted that Nabiki had changed into her formal kimono and was all but bouncing in her seat.
"My dear friend, Genma Saotome, and his son, Ranma have been on a training expedition in China for the past years," her father continued babbling. "It was always our dream to combine our martial arts schools by betrothing our children. Now, that dream can finally become a reality!"
"Ooh! China!" Nabiki said, impressed over something she clearly had no understanding of. Big deal that his father took him on an awesome training trip to learn more styles?
"When are we expecting them, father?" Kasumi asked.
"Any moment now," her father beamed.
"Is he older than me?" Kasumi asked, clearly that was her only issue with this entire situation.
"Yes! What is Ranma like, Daddy? Is he cute?" Nabiki chimed in with enthusiasm that Akane rarely heard from her.
Her father laughed, pleased with their interest. Then he stopped abruptly and looked at the postcard his friend had sent him. "I don't know."
Kasumi became more uncomfortable and even Nabiki appeared perturbed.
"You don't know?" Nabiki asked, her usual skepticism returning to her tone as quickly as it had disappeared.
Her father looked out to the Japanese garden in their yard. "I've never met him," he admitted without a hint of concern.
Akane had already made up her mind that an arranged marriage was not for her, but now she was sure that she wanted nothing to do with this. Boys were such a hassle anyway, but her father hadn't even met this Ranma, much less vetted that he was a good man. He was blindly trusting his friendship. Just because he was friends with his father did not automatically make his son a good man.
The sound of yelling and the front door opening stopped the conversation from progressing and simultaneously snapped Nabiki back to her starry-eyed self that Akane had never seen before now. Had her sister wanted an arranged marriage? She had never thought to ask.
"They're here!" Soun announced as he stood.
Nabiki was out of her seat and dashing down the hall before Akane could blink. "I hope he's cute," she said before she disappeared.
"Saotome, old friend," her father called as he started his own excited pace down the hall. "We've been waiting!"
Kasumi sighed and she and Akane begrudgingly made their way to the hall. "I hope he's older than me," Kasumi said to no one in particular.
Akane eyed the empty hall like it led to her execution, not her possible future husband. Hopefully, he wouldn't be into strong women like her and would simply dismiss her for one of her sisters. But... what if he-
Nabiki came running back down the hall, faster than Akane thought her capable.
Her father was following close behind her with a confused and terrified expression.
Akane's body immediately prepared for attack. If their "guests" were actually intruders, then she would handle them by her father's side. She couldn't have mentally prepared herself for the giant panda that rounded the corner with a pair of kicking human legs slung over its shoulder!
"Stop!" A voice yelled as the head and upper body appeared and the frustrated fists collided with a deceptively fuzzy head. "You're scarin' 'em spitless!"
"These are your friends, Daddy?!" Nabiki snapped at her father as she hid behind him.
Soun adamantly shook his head.
The panda placed a young red headed girl in oversized male Chinese clothes in front of it.
The girl opened her mouth to speak but then hung her head in embarrassment instead.
Akane was trying to wrap her head around the bear's strange behavior and felt an immediate draw to be friends with this poor girl.
"You...wouldn't be..." her father stammered.
"I'm Ranma Saotome," the redhead said, barely above a whisper. "Sorry about this."
Soun's excited smile returned and he wrapped the girl in a large hug. "It's so good to finally meet you!"
"Ooh! He is cute!" Nabiki said, daring a look around her father before the small girl disappeared in his arms.
Her father stiffened as though a thought occurred to him and he pushed Ranma back, looking at her blue eyes as though he didn't understand what he was seeing.
Nabiki stepped around him and narrowed her eyes at Ranma suspiciously, zoning in on the two very obvious assets on her chest. Being the straightforward girl she was, Nabiki grabbed a breast a squeezed it.
"Um... could you stop that, please?" Ranma asked timidly.
Nabiki turned to her father in a rush of disappointment and fury. "Ranma's not a boy...she's a girl!"
"A...girl?" her father stammered before his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell backward to the floor.
"Father!" Kasumi called.
Akane stepped forward and caught him before he could hit his head.
:)
A few moments later, Kasumi had made a bed for their father and Akane had carried him to it, Ranma and her strange panda pet watching her the entire time.
Her father slowly began to awaken.
"How could you not know she was a girl, Daddy?" Nabiki demanded, not even sparing a moment to check on her father's wellbeing before laying into him about her dissatisfaction with the situation.
"I assumed my friend's son was a boy," he defended.
Nabiki grabbed Ranma's breast again. "Does this look like a boy to you?"
"Could you, please, stop doing that?" Ranma timidly asked her again.
"Nabiki," Akane scolded her sister, "that's enough. A guest is a guest!" She put a kind hand on Ranma's shoulder, hoping to make her feel welcome with her sister's very cold dismissal. "Let's be friends, okay?"
Ranma's eyes lit up and she smiled widely at Akane. She gave her a quick nod and never broke eye contact.
"I can show you the dojo if you want?" Akane offered, thinking it best to get away from the raging Nabiki.
"Yeah," Ranma said, leaping to her feet with fluid ease.
Akane led her to the dojo. If she had been training so much with her father, then she must be capable enough. "You've studied kenpo, right?"
"A little," Ranma answered, looking around the dojo.
Akane turned and smiled back at her. "Well, why don't we have a little match then?"
Ranma blinked at her as if surprised by the idea.
"I'll go easy on you," Akane assured her.
"Okay," Ranma responded, a soft smirk forming on her lips.
Akane prepared for a gentle attack. She went for a punch, but Ranma dodged it easily. She tried for more punches, unable to land a single hit. Ranma was too fast.
"Attack me!" Akane demanded, frustrated that she wasn't able to reach her target. She had faced multiple opponents at a time and never had this much trouble getting a hit.
On her next attempt, Ranma flipped over her and tapped the back of her head. Akane had barely seen her move and she certainly hadn't been able to guess what defense she would use. Ranma was good. Akane almost couldn't react, she was so surprised. She turned her head to see Ranma laughing.
Akane couldn't help but laugh as well. "Wow. You're good," she complimented her new friend. She began walking to the dojo doors. "I'm so glad you're not a boy," she spoke without thinking.
"What?" Ranma asked, seeming to be perplexed by her words.
Akane looked over her shoulder at the redhead and smiled. "I just would have hated to lose to a boy."
She wasn't sure what to make of the expression on Ranma's face as she began walking back to the house.
:)
"I have some homework to finish, but maybe we can do something together later," Akane told Ranma as she left her with Kasumi to find her a room.
"Sure," Ranma said with a soft smile that faded into a worried frown all too quickly. Akane wondered if she was concerned that Nabiki would be rude while Akane was gone. She may have to have a talk with her sister.
Akane went to her room and worked on her homework until it was all complete.
Her bedroom door had a soft knock on it and it opened to reveal Kasumi. "You can take your bath now."
"Okay! Thanks!" Akane called to her as she put her things away.
She made her way to the bathroom. She saw Ranma's clothes in the basket. She undressed. Normally she wasn't shy around other girls, but Ranma was awkward and she didn't want to make her stay more difficult.
"Ranma, I'm coming in, okay?" She called through the door.
"NO!" A deep voice rumbled through the door.
Akane startled. "Ranma?"
"I'm shy. Please, don't come in," Ranma's soft voice called.
Akane stepped back from the door. She was sure she had heard a male voice. Had Ranma been crying and it made her voice sound deeper? "Okay. Let me know when you're done, alright?"
"Sure!" Ranma called.
Akane pulled her clothes back on and returned to her room.
:)
Ranma hated that he was more terrified of the brown-eyed, Akane than he had ever been of any fight he'd ever been in. He had just gotten his heart to stop beating out of his chest. She had almost walked in on him! He had transformed back into a boy as soon as he got in the hot water in the bath.
He stared at himself in the mirror after dressing. He couldn't lie to her, right? That would be wrong... and surely his father would have already explained the situation...
"I'm so screwed," he mumbled to himself.
Akane's warm smile came uninvited into his mind. She had been so nice. Kasumi treated him as a necessary evil and Nabiki all but wanted him thrown out after molesting him. But Akane...
"Let's be friends, okay?" she had said.
But why had she been to adamant about not losing to a boy? Did she not like boys? What would happen to her offer of friendship when he had to introduce himself again?
He ran a hand down his face. That smile... would he ever see it again after she found out the truth? It wasn't as though he lied to her, right? She never asked him if he was a boy or a girl. She assumed because she met him as a girl. He just hadn't corrected her.
"Why is everything so hard?" he grumbled as he made way out of the bathroom and down the hall. He had seen the door with the duck sign with Akane's name on it earlier when Kasumi was showing him around the house.
He stood outside the door, arm raised, ready to knock. His mind refused to think of something to say. Would his mind blank again when she looked at him, the way it had while they were taking care of her fainted father? He was barely able to squeak out the few words he had to her. He never had that problem with girls.
"Ranma, come join us in the den!" his father bellowed as he made his way down the hall.
Ranma felt his entire body stiffen at the thought that Akane might have heard him. He hadn't even been able to knock on her door yet!
"Let's go!" his father demanded as he pulled him down the hall.
"Akane! Come to the den!" Mr. Tendo called up the stairs.
His father deposited him at one end of the table and sat beside him, his friend and his other two daughters sitting on the opposite side.
He heard Akane's footsteps as she neared the room. He fought his mixed feelings on being excited to see her again and being terrified of what the truth would soon do to their budding... friendship? Yes. Friendship.
Akane eyed his father and then him and offered an incline of her head before taking a seat beside her sisters. Curiosity was swimming in her brown eyes and Ranma wished he had the strength to look away.
"Now then," Mr. Tendo began, addressing his daughters. "This is my friend, Genma Saotome and his son."
"Ranma," Ranma introduced himself, sparing a glance for Mr. Tendo before returning his gaze to Akane.
She eyed him with curiosity, but not the same friendly interest as before.
Damn.
"Wait," the slightly older daughter with short brown hair, Nabiki, Akane had called her, spoke up first. "So there are two Ranmas?"
"There is a very tragic explanation for that," Mr. Tendo said to his daughter. "Saotome, tell my girls about your troubles."
Akane gave Ranma a pitiful glance before turning her attention to his father.
Great. I don't want your pity.
"Let's see. Allow me to demonstrate," his father said before unexpectedly throwing him into a landscaped pond in the Tendo yard.
He emerged from the cold water in his female form. His eyes immediately found Akane's shocked expression and he hated that he didn't know what she was thinking right now.
Say something!
"What'd you do that for?!" he barked at his father.
"They were training in a specialized training ground in China and have been cursed. When splashed with cold water Ranma becomes a girl and Saotome becomes a panda," Mr. Tendo explained.
Ranma made his way to the house and threw his father into the pond. "Like so!" He deserved it after what he had done. "He insisted we go there even though he didn't speak a word of Chinese!"
"But your problem isn't so bad," Mr. Tendo told him. "When splashed with hot water you return to your true male self," he said, attempting to pour steaming water from a tea kettle onto him.
Ranma dodged. "Hot water, not boiling!"
Mr. Tendo laughed and turned him toward his daughters. "These are my daughters: Kasumi is 19, Nabiki is 16 and Akane is 15. Choose who will be your bride."
Kasumi and Nabiki were quick to move behind Akane and nudge her in his direction.
"Akane is the closest in age, so she would be the best fit," Kasumi stated, as if that were her main concern.
"I agree. It's a match!" Nabiki said with a grin. Her earlier malice for having not had a perfect husband prospect still evident.
"What? But..." Akane looked between her sisters and then back to Ranma, that pity still in her eyes, but also something else. Was she disgusted by him? He knew he was disgusted with himself.
His father used the finally cooled to a normal temperature water in the tea kettle to turn himself back into a man and then poured a little on Ranma without warning.
"Sounds like the decision is made for you," his father told him, laughing and giving him a slap on the back. "She's the cutest of the bunch as well, huh?"
Akane's face flushed pink and she averted her eyes to her hands fisted in her lap.
Ranma watched her carefully, taking in every detail. Why couldn't he speak?
Akane stole a quick glance at him and then turned to her father. "What if we don't want our futures decided for us?"
Ranma felt his heart sink in his chest. Of course she didn't want him either. Who would actually want him in this state?
"You're still young. There is plenty of time for love to grow," her father assured her.
Ranma watched her bite her lower lip. He'd never kissed a girl before, but he knew his lips when in female form were incredibly soft.
Akane noticed his stare, and confronted him. "Don't you have anything to say?"
Ranma swallowed the lump forming in his throat. He had a lot of things to say, but no words would form properly around her.
Akane leveled him with a stare. "Do you want this?"
"I...um..." Ranma cursed himself for being unable to speak. Say something!
Akane's face contorted in frustration. "I guess you weren't planning to tell me about you being a boy either? Had to let daddy do that for you too?"
Ranma's attention snagged on her words. She thought he wasn't speaking because he was pathetically following his father's orders? That wasn't it. "Hey, wait a minute-"
"No!" Akane barked at him, on her feet in an instant, hands fisted at her sides. "You had your chance to speak," she stomped past him with the glitter of tears in her eyes, "and you wasted it." Her pounding footsteps could be heard until they were finished with the slamming of a door.
His father laughed. "Ranma's new fiancé has a lot of fire!"
"That's one way of putting it," Nabiki said as she reclaimed her place at the table and began nibbling on some rice crackers.
"She really is a nice girl when you get to know her," Kasumi commented.
Ranma stared down the empty hall.
"Let's be friends, okay?"
So much for being friends when she found out I was a boy.
That smile would haunt him forever now. The smile he would never see again.
:)
Akane fumed as she finished her bath.
He didn't say anything! He only had to agree! He obviously doesn't want this anymore than I do!
She splashed water on her face. He hadn't shown the slightest interest in her when he was pretending to be a girl. He was a coward!
She pulled herself from the water and made her way to where she could towel off.
The door opened and she looked up from her feet to see blue eyes wide and staring back at her from beneath red bangs.
Ranma was standing before her in all of her naked glory. Knowing that the body was simply a curse made Akane angry that Ranma's breasts were larger than hers and hips much trimmer. She might not have been so annoyed by it had he been a girl and they developed a friendship.
Ranma's eyes dropped to her naked body before darting away. "I, um.."
Akane smacked him across his perfect complexion. She grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself. "Nothing to say even when you're caught being a Peeping Tom?!"
Ranma's eyebrows lowered. "I didn't know you were in here!" He looked away, his red bangs obscuring his lovely face.
Akane clenched the towel. "Didn't stop you from getting a good look though, did it?"
Ranma's gaze shot back to her. "I..."
Akane scowled at him. "You're in a home with girls now, real girls, so learn to knock!" She grabbed her clothes and stormed out the door. He couldn't even apologize for barging in on her while she bathed?! What a coward!
"Wait!" Ranma's soft voice called after her.
Akane stopped and looked over her shoulder. "What?"
Ranma took a breath and stared at her, standing mostly in the hall and completely naked. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you... before..."
Akane was surprised to get the apology. She swallowed her anger and managed to say, "I understand." She didn't fully. She couldn't imagine what his curse must be like. Still, she wouldn't want that to be the first thing she had to tell someone either. She gave the redhead a soft smile and continued walking to her bedroom.
:)
Ranma quickly cleaned up, returned to his male form and slipped into his pajamas. He wanted to talk to Akane once more before going to bed.
He thought she was mad at him, but... she had smiled at him. The faintest glimpse of how she was prior to knowing his darkest secret. And... his curse didn't seem to bother her. She'd only become upset when he hadn't protested the betrothal and...when he had walked in on her.
Ranma swallowed the lump of nerves in his throat. He shouldn't have looked. He should have kept his eyes locked on hers and apologized immediately. He just... only had so much control.
He has seen himself countless times, but that hadn't prepared his fifteen-year-old hormonal male self for seeing Akane. All that skin... it was probably incredibly soft... He shook away the ideas forming in his head. He didn't need to make his pants tight before speaking to her.
He reached her door and traced the name on the duck, not quite ready to knock.
He took a breath. He needed to do this. He knocked on her door before he could think twice.
Akane opened the door and looked up at him. Her brown eyes inquisitive and threatening to swallow him whole. "Yes?" she didn't sound particularly mad, but she certainly wasn't pleased he was at her door.
Ranma rubbed the back of his neck. "Listen, I... was hoping... we could... start over?"
Akane canted her head to the side. "You want to start over?"
Ranma nodded. "Just... you know... give me the chance at a fresh start?"
Akane assessed him with her incredible stare. After what felt like an eternity, she gave him a nod. "I'm Akane Tendo," she said a little awkwardly, as though the idea of introducing herself again was too odd.
Ranma smiled widely. "I'm Ranma Saotome."
Akane returned a smile. "It's nice to meet you, Ranma."
Ranma fidgeted, hating that he was showing the weakness of being nervous. "So, uh, we can be friends now, right?"
Akane nodded calmly. "Friends," she confirmed. "I should be getting to bed," she excused herself.
Ranma nodded and took a step back from her doorframe. When had he moved so close to her? And why did the slight distance feel so much larger than it was? "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," she said as she closed the door. The finality of the click as the door closed his Ranma in the chest.
Ranma started down the hall toward his room. This was fine, right? He didn't want his father to pick his fiancé for him. He hadn't had the best track record of favor following his father's decisions after all. He cast one last glance over his shoulder. Still...