The First Ranma II: It Gets More Twisted
By Ron Dow75

Section I: In Altered History

"Ryuu-chan!" called the green-and-long haired girl with
little yellow horns and little tiger-striped bikini flying
towards him.

No: Her! Ryuunosuke Fujinami was, in truth, a girl!!

Standing up from where she had fallen in the explosions,
the shaggy haired brunette in a Tomobiki High boys' uniform
felt, like the surf against breakwaters, her determination
to be a-

Lum-chan's bosom came smack up against her cheek.

Lum cried, "How do you stop!?" while flipping ass up and
boobs down, knocking Ryuunosuke backward.

Ryuunosuke cried in pain: her clip-on earring was caught on
the bikini top's fur. Being new to jewelry, the martial
artist thought it was either lose an ear or-

Down the school hall, in his blue wool uniform pants but
red T-shirt, Ataru Moroboshi cried, "My top!!"

Lum's large boobs exposed, the rest of her body completed
the mid-air tumble safely when her ass was around to down,
and the little put-put sounds began.

As for the firm young boobs, "Bouncy-bout's more fun to
look at!"

With the fire of a righteous samurai soul, a warrior cried,
"Mo-ho-bo-shi!!" and sliced into five easy pieces the
rifle-sized alien weapon he thought Ataru had stolen from
the Princess's UFO.

Watching them clang to the floor, Ataru cried, "Mendou! I
was just taking away the powers of-"

Handsome, rich Shuutarou Mendou in his white uniform and
slicked back hair now turned his sword's blade on the
homely churl of a classmate, "You are defiling the Lady
Lum! This is your day of judgment! I will finally exact
justice on your unrepentant hide, Ataru Moroboshi!!"

Ataru ran. "I'm not Dahling!! I'm Lum! Dahling's in my
body!!"

Up the hall, Lum yelled, "Don't believe him, Mendou!! You
know what a liar Ataru is!!"

Ryuunosuke held out Lum's furry top for her to take. "Hey,
that doesn't sound like you, Lum."

Lum said, "Yes, it does! Every time I, I mean, Ataru does
something Lum doesn't like, she fries him with her
lightning bolts or lets somebody else hurt him!"

Ryuunosuke was still holding out the top. "Aren't you
afraid that Mendou's going to kill him, this time? You're
the one who told me whose effigy his private defense
department practices on."

Lum scoffed, and said with pride, "Ataru Moroboshi is
famous for his ability to survive."

Decency required that Ryuunosuke could no longer keep
looking at the pair of bare boobs. Shoving the top into
Lum's hands, she looked away. "He has to be, the things he
does."

Lum defended her husband, her voice rising in intensity,
"Ataru Moroboshi's a healthy Japanese male determined to
make the most of these brief, shiny moments of youth before
he's forced to settle down into the life of a wage-slave
like his dad..." While the girl had been talking, her hands
had begun to feel herself up, making good use of the fur
top.

While she wasn't looking at what she was doing, the others
in the hall were. The boys stared bug-eyed, leaning
forward; the girls stared with their eyes brought in,
leaning backwards. Both sides were murmuring among their
own kind.

Finally Lum stopped. But it wasn't because of the public
exhibition she was making of herself. She was aware of
that. It was because of her awareness of something closer.

Put-putting again, she rose up, and headed for the large
gaping hole where the girls' room door had just been
minutes ago.

She left a spore of very spicy fish. The Japanese love
fish.

The school bell rang.

= = =

When Lum opened one of the surviving stalls, she screamed.
But instead of Cherry in there, it was the mad Buddhist
monk's niece, Sakura the Shinto priestess and school nurse.

It was her roomy and creased white top and red pants
priestly garb she wore, complete with the stick with
strings with pieces of paper prayers attached.

Still topless, Lum yelled, "What are you doing here!?"

The long haired epitome of all that was the beauty at its
mature peak said, "This is still the ladies' room. I
wouldn't allow my uncle in here."

Lum told her, "If you can control where he pops up, you
should have done it long ago!!" And she went to slam the
stall door on her face.

Then thought better of it. She grinned.

She slammed the door behind her as she made her moves.

The stall was shaken by more than just the activity inside;
there were also the martial artist's yells of anger and
disgust.

With, "Get Lum's hands off of me!!" the door's lock was
busted as Lum's body was thrown so hard it didn't come to a
stop until it hovered to a stop outside the hole where
windows had been.

Lum's top in hand, Sakura ran to the hole, "Ataru! I know
it's you in Lum's body!"

Put-putting, she yelled back, "Prove it!"

Sakura scolded, "Don't you have the least bit of shame?!
What about poor Lum stuck in your wretched body?! If
something happens to it, you'll never become yourself
again!"

Still hovering bare breasted, Lum told her, "Ataru has
taught me to live for the moment! He's very Zen."

Sakura screamed, "That is too much: Perverting even a path
of spiritual enlightenment!" And she tossed the top at the
alien's body so she could use both hands on her priestess
wand. She waved it before her as she chanted.

Catching Lum's top, she yelled in defiance, "You can't
exorcise me from this body! I possess it through science
fiction!"

Crashing threw a classroom window over the heads of those
gawking at Lum came Megane. Ryuunosuke voice came roaring
after him, "There's nothing wrong with me wearing an
earring!"

Lum said, "Not the window bit again!"

Seeing the half-naked love he'd dedicated his life to,
Megane got a very stupid grin. "Lum!" he cried, opening his
arms for her.

Sakura could stop her chanting, now, "This is what I was
conjuring!"

Lum looked from Megane to Sakura back to Megane, "Wha?!...
Wha!?..."

Too late: The long-faced stormtrooper in glasses grabbed
Lum around her arms and hugged, burying his face between
those magnificent orbs.

They hung in mid-air only for a moment.

Then Lum screamed as both fell, tumbling towards the ground
below. "Let go of me!! This is totally out of character for
you!!"

Through great effort on Lum's part, they came to a stop
with her classmate's knees inches from the ground.

Then she ran out of gas.

She fell on her ass.

And Ataru's second worst friend and rival fell from his
sore knees on top of her.

Her ass hurting, she started beating and pushing at Megane:
"Get off of your idol Princess!! Let go of her, you're
sullying your pure love for her!!"

The boy clutched her even tighter and bawled, loudly, into
her bosom, "I am, and I don't care! What is wrong with me!?
I no longer feel your exotic allure and delightful
presence!"

Now putting the soles of her high top tiger-striped boots
against the creep's scrawny hips to help her push him away,
she said, "Great! He knows I'm not Lum without knowing I'm
not Lum."

From the second floor hole above, Sakura yelled down, "I
sent a demon after you! I guess he's it!"

Lum looked up, and shook her fist (the one with the top) at
her, "You're suppose to get rid of demons! Who do I go to
get your license taken away?!"

= = =

Lum's tiger-striped bikini top back in place, Lum strode
for the school's gate. "Leave me alone! Go back to
classes!" Megane was close behind her.

Megane said, "I won't desert you, dear Lum! I know, I feel
it by the deep connection I have with you, that something
is wrong!"

Lum muttered angrily to herself, "Just how out of character
is this character going to get?"

A stout man who had his own personal logo (a hot spring) on
everything he wore ordered, "Halt! Why aren't you in
class?!"

Lum ordered back, "Onsen-Mark!? -Why aren't you in class?!"

Onsen-Mark told her back, "I'm the teacher!"

Megane came to her rescue: "Lum is out of school uniform!
She has to go home and get one!"

The big lummox nodded, "Okay. You can pass."

Lum was past the gate before, the teacher realized, "Hey,
you can wear one of the spare uniforms the school keeps for
emergencies!"

Lum ran, "What!? Wear somebody else's clothes?!"

Megane was close behind her.

= = =

Lum rested her bare back against a concrete utility pole,
getting her breath back, "Why can't I fly? I've lost the
motivation."

Megane was bent over, his hands clutching his knees; he was
having a harder time catching his breath. "You probably
just ran out of fuel, Lum-chan."

Lum grimaced. "Lum-I drink rocket fuel?"

Megane looked at her with great concern, "Something like
that. What has happened to your memory? (It has to be that
bastard Moroboshi's fault!) No, dear Lum, you don't drink
it, you eat it." And he looked about, "Maybe if you can get
some from a restaurant-"

Lum perked up, "Restaurant?!" And she, too, looked about,
knowing every one in the neighborhood.

Getting an idea, the bikini-clad girl grabbed Megane and
pulled him after, saying, "You're treating, of course?"

= = =

It was Megane who had to pull Lum into the Curry Favor,
over Lum's protest, "I want to go to the Beef Bowl! Oh,
ramen in a gravy stew with chunks of actual beef..."

Megane told her, "But you need spices! The hotter the
better! Believe me, I've dedicated my brain to you." And he
swung her around to where she had to sit on the padded
stool in front of the counter. "I have kept extensive files
on you, cross-referenced, checked, and extrapolated all of
the possibilities..." (Lum thought, Trekkie freak.) "...And
all of my research comes back to the in disputable fact
that your alien physiology, Lum-chan, needs heat."

Lum pulled at the little tiger-striped bikini, trying to
get it to cover more, "You got that right. It's gotten
chillier."

Megane told the man behind the counter, "Master! A bowl of
your most powerful curry-and make sure it has plenty of
chili!"

Lum corrected, "Make that 3 bowls! And if that doesn't kill
me, make it three more!"

Megane turned ashen, "S, si, six...?"

Lum frowned at him, "You want to make me happy, don't you?!
That's what your Lum's Fan Club Appreciation Society
Stormtrooper Guards, or whatever you're calling yourselves
today, is about?!"

Defeated, Megane said, "Yes." And checked his wallet.

Lum savored the smells, and told the cook, "Make it hot
enough to burn the nostril hairs off of ordinary people!"
Then she said in a laugh that sounded more like Ataru than
Lum, "Every time Lum gives Ataru something to eat he gets
2nd-degree burns from his lips to his stomach. If Lum needs
this stuff, then Ataru's going to go want some, want it
real bad. I can't wait until he tries to eat some
(hehhehhehhahah!)" Then, louder, "Another bowl for my
friend!"

Megane cried, "I don't need to eat!"

Lum yelled at him, "Who said it was for you!?"

Megane emptied his wallet, and slapped it down for the
master of the shop to see the limit of the orders. Sitting
on a stool beside her in a way that let him look straight
at her. Talking like a serious sci fi geek, he said, "The
International Lum Fan Allegiance, of which I'm Chairman and
President (Open to everybody around the world who can write
in Japanese, because I can't write or speak English very
good-"

Lum grunt, "Who can, with Onsen-Mark teaching it." Then she
got a big fanged grin as the first bowl was put in front of
her.

Megane dropped his commercial voice, and dropped back into
that of a learned fanboy, "The general consensus is that
the Oni cells have microscopic bladders-"

Lum yelled at him, "Don't say 'bladder' when I'm trying to
eat! And I mean trying! Don't talk at all!"

Megane said, "Begging your pardon, Lum-chan, but I believe
this is important to the plot-"

Lum stabbed both chopsticks into the bowl of rice and
mystery meat, "I don't want a plot! I just want to get my
energy up so I can fly off somewhere and take advantage of
this body!"

Megane said, "Not even when it involves pheromones?"

Bringing her face down to the dangerous bowl, she said, "I
won't bite. I'm not going to ask what pheromones are." And
she put the first bit in her mouth.

Both of her fangs showed with this grin: "Wow! It's like
nothing I've had before-And I've tried everything I could
get my hands on!" Bringing the bowl up to her, as she sat
upright, she used the chopsticks to scoop the meal into her
mouth. She barely chewed and hadn't quite gotten the first
swallows down before she shoveled more in. And still she
insisted on talking, "The sharp, acrid tang of burning
embers are mixed with the exploding crystals of menthol! In
other words, the hotter it gets, the more relief I taste!"
And she reached for a bottle of Tabasco, and shook that
into the bowl. "More curry! But put all you've got into
it!!"

Megane continued his treatise, "Oni's are not only able to
extract and control the storage of gases, they are able to
use them as environmental bubbles: Space suits, as it were,
that-"

Something the size of a cow came crashing through the
eatery's ceiling to land on the stool on the other side of
Lum.

Lum looked up at the tiger-striped cow with the long yellow
horns and cried, "Re, Rei!?!!"

Megane shook his head ruefully, "If a story involves
eating, I guess he had to show up."

As soon as the debris had settle, the silly looking monster
shrunk into the most male looking of Lum's humanoid race.
"Lum," he declared.

Lum put up her booted foot and tried to keep the guy some
handsome that, as she saw it, it even made Lum sick, "No!!
Stay back: This is my food!!" And she scarfed even faster.

The teen with shaggy green haired with little yellow horns
in a tiger-striped bodysuit stopped trying to hug his ex-
fiancée when he noticed where they were.

He sat his now perfect body up straight on the stool and
lifted a finger to place his order.

Megane told anybody that'd listen, "I'm not paying! Lum
took all my money!"

Lum told him as she put her free hand around all of the
bowls that were out on the counter, "That's what girls do!"

She watched suspiciously as the proprietor fearfully gave
Rei what remained prepared in his place. It was the extra
bowl Lum had asked for-She yelled with a full mouth,
"You're not my friend!!"

Megane adjusted his glasses as he studied Rei digging into
the bowl in front of him. The alien boy did it quickly, but
with more grace than Lum was doing at the moment. Then a
gleam went over the lenses. "Ah, I see. You will notice,
Lum-chan that all of the curry powder has been used up in
your orders. Rei is eating his meal plain."

Lum slurped down what remained in a bowl, "So!?!"

Megane said, "Because a scene had to be cut out to save
time, I will come right out and say it." Ka-ching! "The
reason Rei has to eat so much is because he doesn't like
hot and spicy foods."

That actually got Lum to stop eating. "You mean... He's
wimp?" Then she began to laugh almost hysterically. "The
guy Ataru is most jealous of because of the effect his
looks has on the babes can't take what it takes to be an
Oni Ogre?!"

His feelings hurt, Rei enlarged into the tiger cow.

Lum told it, "You don't scare me any more! You're just an
inflated bag of gas! And not even hot stuff, at that!!"

= = =

From the cloud of dust and spices coming out of the little
restaurant came the crashing, banging and roaring of an
enraged tiger cow! Out of the chaos came flying a scratched
and bruised Lum. "I thought you said aliens were full of
hot air!?!"

Running to keep up was an even more mauled Megane, "Rei
must be full of heavy gases!

"That wasn't like Rei! He's never attacked you before!"

Lum said, "Yes, he has, but not Lum. Everybody seems to
sense there's something different about Lum today! They're
permitted to act out of character!"

Megane cried as Lum spurted up and ahead of him, "Lum, come
back!!"

Lum yelled back, "You're the summoned demon! You're
supposed to keep up with me!"

Section II: Back when we last saw Ataru's body:

Ataru was running for his life from the samurai sword
swinging Mendou, yelling all the time, "Come back here and
die with honor, you blot on everything Japanese!"

Ataru was doing his own yelling, "Mendou, I am Lum, I tell
you! Dahling would be cackling and making some remark about
your overly serious reading of the samurai code!"

Mendou cried, "Don't make aspersions on my lineage,
Moroboshi!"

Ataru cried, "I wasn't!" And started running down the
stairwell.

Sliding down the rail beside her was Cherry, saying, "You
have a most unfortunate continence."

Ataru told the crazy monk as he jumped steps, "I'm not
Dahling!"

The little monk said, "I know. That is why it is so very
unfor-" The railing didn't turn.

Mendou didn't bother trying to avoid stepping on the
irritating gnome.

Face down on the floor, Cherry groaned, "That boy is in for
a miserable future. I will pray for him."

= = =

Outside, and avoiding the over used window exit, Ataru
summoned Lum's tiger striped UFO to lift him inside.

Mendou burst out of the doors and cried, "You will not
escape from me, this time, Ataru!" And leaped with sword in
hand.

Both stopped in mid-air. Ataru realized, "Without my own
body, my spacecraft barely accepts my codes and overrides!
Now it thinks I'm trying to take somebody else it doesn't
like on board!"

That he was suspended meters up did not deter Mendou, "On
the ground, in the air-to the deepest oceans! It matters
not to me, I'll hunt you down to the ends of space itself!"
And he flailed at his archest of enemies and friends.

Ataru informed the boy who should be smarter than that,
"Space doesn't have ends!" He escaped being slashed only
because he was able to use his feet to kick the blade away.
But for how long could he keep up this dance with death?!

He called to his craft, "If you won't let me in, give me
Lum's sword! How will Lum feel, if you do not let her
husband defend himself!?!"

While the UFO thought about it, Ataru got an open toed
shoe.

Lum's broadsword was lowered to him -Just as he got a
matching pair of shoes.

Hands expertly wielding the two-handed weapon, Ataru lifted
his legs up, as he brought the sword down. Clang! Clang!

Not liking that Ataru may have the high ground Lum's
spacecraft raised Mendou while leaving Ataru almost at the
same height.

It was a classic battle of space-age alloy sword against
ancient spirit infused sword. Both weapons were designed to
slash and attack. Lum's was fully double edged. But
Mendou's was a Japanese sword: The only kind in the world
(and most of known space for that matter) meant to be used
not just to attack, but defend. Lum's sword was awkward
when it came time to using it as a shield. Lum was used to
having some form of armor when she fought in the Oni's
yearly battle with the Gods.

Ataru conceded, "This is no good! I need another kind of
sword. One that a samurai has no experience against:
Spacecraft, give me Lum's spring-loaded epee!"

Mendou heard then saw what was coming. He guessed it could
be extended beyond the meter reach of his family's sword,
and be retracted before he could slice it. He reached in
his pocket, and pulled out a cell phone.

Ataru told him, "A wireless phone that size is
anachronistic!"

With a smirk, Shuutarou Mendou said, "I am the son of
nearly the richest man in the world. I have prototypes even
before they've left the drawing boards." Then he made his
call. "Send in the Mendou Private Air Force! Code name
"Enemy of All Women". Repeat: Code name "Enemy of All
Women"!"

Ataru cried in disbelief, "Now I am going to have to
escalate! How many times can this town be destroyed?"

Just as the UFO was about to play "Let's put weird and
weird together and make it even weirder..."

Chung: another UFO struck it. This one looking like a
silver plumb bob, longer and more pointed on the front or
down end.

The woman's voice over the spacecraft's P.A. yelled, "Lum!
Can't I go anywhere without bumping into you!?!"

Ataru told her, "You bumped into me!"

The voice cried in disgust, "Ataru Moroboshi!!?!"

Mendou recognized who this was and struck a pose in mid-
air. "Princess Kurama."

The voice of the Princess of the Crow Goblins declared,
"This time I will make sure I never have to see your ugly
face again!!"

Lum's UFO started playing, "Let's put weird and weird to-"

Until: An all too familiar second voice said over the P.A.,
"It is fate. You, Kurama, and Ataru cannot escape your
Destiny together."

Ataru cried, "Cherry!??!"

Kurama cried, "What are you doing in my spacecraft!!?!"

= = =

Once landed, the top end of the crow people's craft opened,
and a gale blew the insufferable monk out and high up into
the air. (Past Mendou, who Ataru had left levitating under
Lum's UFO.)

Ataru looked as the dot disappeared. "Where did you send
Cherry?"

Carrying one of her large wonder leaves, the beautiful and
well-made-up woman with the green crow wings extending out
from her black 'hair' told her hated betrothed, "The middle
of the Pacific."

Kurama wore a black strapless low-cut one-piece, laced but
open wide all the way to the yellow sash with the bow in
the back, a single armlet, and high top boots. Attending
her was one of the crow people that were the size of and
looked like a crow, except that he had hands, too, and was
dressed in a traditional Japanese pantaloon-and-matching-
shirt uniform with a long red coat and little red cap. This
one had a long white 'beard'.

Ataru let any guilt he may have had (which wasn't much) go
with, "He'll probably survive. He always does." Then he
turned his full attention to one of Lum's archrivals to her
husband's hand in marriage. "Kurama! If you want to get
away from Ataru, why come back to the school? The town?
Japan! Go to America to find a husband to help you give
your planet a new generation of Crow Goblins!?! I'm sure
there are more than enough people there who'd give their
lives to spend one night of total sex with you."

Kurama put her hand on her hip, posing with her leaf. "The
reason I prefer Japan is that is where my esteemed and
illustrious father came from."

Ataru nodded, having gone back in time and met him (and
rescuing him from Ataru). "Ushiwaka Maru, one of the
cultural heroes of Japanese history, and who went on to
become Genghis Khan."

The little crow elder nodded, "Nearly 800 years ago."

Looking wistful, Kurama said, "Oh, father; oh, father... if
only there were one as worthy as you... (sigh!)"

Wide-eyed, Ataru said, "You've looked all over the world,
and only found one person that can live up to your image of
your father!?!"

Kurama bent her head in shameful acknowledgment.

The elder said, "It's a terrible time to find noble souls."

Ataru looked out at the crowd skipping classes and that one
person in the crowd. "No wonder you keep coming back here."

= = =

Up on the stair landing before the school's main doors:
Curly-topped Perm told his fellow Lum Admirers, "Pretty
cheesy way to get Ryuunosuke back in the story. Having two
UFOs with super-tech guidance systems bump into each other
over the school."

Wide Kakugari told him, "Stranger things have happened."

Little Chibi added, "Especially around here. Sometimes the
things that happen around here remind me of the kind of
stuff you find in a high school literature magazine." Then
he had a thought of his own, "Why are we saying this part?
Why doesn't Ryuunosuke?"

Perm told him, "Because Ryuunosuke takes everything
seriously She's a tragic figure. Whatever happens, she
finds it hard to enjoy anything, let alone see the humor in
anything.*"

Kakugari grabbed Chibi around his scrawny little neck, and
started rubbing his head, "Just be glad we got to be at
least a chorus. In the manga, we're forgotten about."

Perm mused, "At least we got to see an exciting sword
fight."

Kakugari looked up from his roughing up of his best friend
to remind Perm, "But we didn't get to see any of the town
destroyed."

A voice behind them interrupted, "And that is why I decided
to get involve and used her guidance system to bring the
crow princess here."

Perm stared in awe as the person who owned that voice
strode past them, "Wow... not cheesy."

= = =

Students and even teachers had gathered in front of the UFO
and had formed a clearing. In the center were two alien
space princesses and the guy all the girls admitted was the
one they'd most like a boyfriend. Or was he a girl?

Leaning against Kurama's UFO, arms crossed, frowning, and
refusing to look at anybody, Ryuunosuke told them all, "I'm
not becoming a guy! Just yesterday in front of my sensei, I
took my most sacred vow that I was going to dedicate my
life to becoming a girl."

Kurama held up her gender-changing ray rifle, "I can't
become the man. I have to be the queen bee for my race."

Trying to do the right thing, Ataru said, softly,
hesitantly, "Kurama, if Ryuunosuke doesn't want to be a
guy-"

Kurama yelled at him, "Shut up!! You just want to mate with
me!!"

Ataru cried, "No!!" And a little sorry for himself, "(Why
does everybody have to misinterpret my intentions when
they're the good kind?)"

The voice, the sexy voice of the mature woman said, "I have
a solution to all of our problems."

Ataru said, surprised, "Sakura??"

The beautiful woman in perfect make-up was now in a dress
and the long lab coat of the school nurse, "...But for it
to work, Lum must prove her dedication to Ataru."

Ataru said, "If I wasn't dedicated to making this marriage
to Dahling work, would I still be here after all he's done
to it?"

Satisfied for the moment, Sakura began to reveal her plan,
"Princess Kurama, you like the way Ryuunosuke looks."

Kurama smiled as she gazed on Ryuunosuke's continence.
"Yes, I do!" She was tempted to stroke the girl's cheek.
"If you're going to mate, isn't it better to do with
somebody handsome?"

Ataru tried to remind her, "Girls are not handsome."

Sakura reminded her, "This is Japanese." Then to the other
alien, "But Fate has played a nasty trick on you, Princess
Kurama. No matter how hard you try, you seem destined to
mate with Ataru Moroboshi."

At the very thought of the unspeakably revolting idea:
"No!!"

Sakura suggested, "Why not trade? Put Ataru in Ryuunosuke's
body?"

The crow princess was still frowning, "Unacceptable! It'd
still be Ataru inside! He would still behave like-" Half of
her frown raised as she thought of something, "...like
Ryuunosuke?"

Sakura smiled, "Yes, that is my inspiration. That would
take care of the problem of the Terrible Ataru Moroboshi!"

Ataru understood, "No! I don't want you to overlaying
Ryuunosuke's behavioral patterns on Dahling!"

Ryuunosuke stood up to tell them, "And I don't want to be
stuck in Moroboshi's body!" After looking at the homely
thing, she had to look away from it. "I want to be a girl,
remember!?"

Sakura told her, "You won't be in Moroboshi's body. You'll
be in Lum's body. That's where he is now."

The thought of being in another person's body, even the
very girlish Lum's was not something that pleased
Ryuunosuke. Kurama said, not entirely thrilled with the
idea of acknowledging the worth of another space princess,
"You would have the Oni's behavioral patterns, if that's
what you want."

The crow elder informed, "Behavioral patterns are
established in the part of the brain closest to the body."

Kurama added, "But those core patterns are normally put to
sleep when somebody possesses a body. We would just make
sure they stay awake this time."

Sakura said to Ryuunosuke, "What better way to learn to
become a girl?" Except, of course, having her own,
Sakura's.

Ryuunosuke was seduced, "To really be a girl..." But, "No!
That wouldn't be me!" She looked away, closing her eyes to
the possibility. "It'd be like I was a different person."

Pouting, his arms crossed, Ataru helped his own decision-
making by explaining it to her, "You would still have your
own free will. You would have to use it to reassert your
own patterns. That's where the learning comes in. You
establish new patterns that are a combination of the two.
Then, when you're back in your original body, its old
behavioral patterns that we put to sleep. (As much as they
can be, anyway.)"

The elder informed further, "Or, if somebody else has used
the original body, you can use their patterns guide you."

Having nibbled at the bait she heard, Ryuunosuke was a
little confused, "I would get my own body back?"

Sakura said, "Everybody will. Better than ever." The woman
capable of being very seductive said, "...With everything
male about yours drained away."

Ataru had a disgusted look, "She means Kurama's wants to
turn your body into guy's and steal all its male essence.
How else do you expect to repopulate a planet from just one
man?"

Ryuunosuke thought she had it, "You mean... when my body
becomes a girl again, there won't be anything that's male
left to come along in the change back?" Ryuunosuke dared to
hope.

Ataru said, "But Ataru will be in it while it's being
drained!"

The elder told her, "But not conscious! Our technology
allows it to happen on a strictly reflexive level."

His princess said, "The Crow Goblin Theory of Evolution
only requires that Ataru demonstrate the virtues we expect
in our offspring. It is that spirit, that essence, we want
passed on."

Sakura said, "And under Human Theory of Evolution, the
father would be the genetically worthy Ryuunosuke Fujinami:
Not Moroboshi."

Ataru still resisted, "Dahling's a baka, but he's my baka!
I don't want him to be part Ataru, part Ryuunosuke, and
part me!"

Ryuunosuke asked, "You?"

Sakura told her, "To make sure Ataru keeps the lessons he
learns as you, Lum is going to have to show her true, and
absolute dedication." And the Shinto priestess's voice took
on a somber tone, "Lum will have to take on Ataru's
behavioral patterns and fight them off. No: Win. She has to
make his patterns act the way she wants them to act, or..."
The thought was too chilling to finish.

Ryuunosuke shuddered. It sounded as if Lum would be risking
her soul.

But the more immediate question was, was Ryuunosuke ready
to risk her own?

Word had apparently gotten back to the master of the school
store for, from behind the crowd, but forcing his way
through, "Ryuunosuke! Ryuunosuke, my son! Don't do anything
foolish! Remember your heritage -You're inheritance! Don't
forget why I raised you to be a man's man!"

Ryuunosuke said as if remembering one of her honored
ancestors, "Dad..."

She turned to Kurama, and said, "Okay: I'll do it."

Sakura turned to Ataru, "You'd better hurry to. Who knows
what Ataru is doing with your body."

Ataru rose up straight to tell her, "Ataru is my husband.
If a husband can't..."

Sakura nodded: "Quick! Everybody aboard Princess Kurama's
UFO!"

= = =

... Lum found herself naked in a very drafty place.

And her hands in places where they shouldn't be! They were
damp from sweat... and another fluid.

She withdrew them quickly, and sat up to see where she was.

She was under the open blue sky, sitting on metal, high up
overlooking the town. Moroboshi had flown Lum's body up to
the water tower so he could get the thrill of doing it 'in
public' before he actually did do it in public! (Probably
winding up in a public bath or some other place he couldn't
go as a guy.)

She wondered just how far Ataru had gone with Lum's body.
She did feel all swampy and excited, open and twitchy down
there, and the nipples were erect and the breasts ached for
something. In fact the whole body was heated and alert. "So
this is what it's like to be a girl." Ryuunosuke had had a
girl's body for as long as she could remember clearly, but
she had never allowed herself to...

No! I couldn't do it with my own body I can't do it with
another girl's. It's not right. If I let anybody be my
friend, Lum could be one. I will not betray...

"Lum."

What would Lum do? I am here to let her direct me, teach me
how to be a, a...

= = =

Somebody discovered sex for the very first time, and the
surprise sent a mighty echo reverberating over the town of
Tomobiki.

Still standing in front of the Curry Favor, a boy who knew
nothing of fulfillment heard the painful sound.

Crying in utter frustration, Megane asked, "Now, whose
demon am I supposed to be?"

The End

*Note: There is one thing that Ryuunosuke enjoys {besides
the fantasy of being a real girl). It is only times I
remember seeing her truly wonderful smile.

Note 2: No, I did not make up the part about Genghis Khan.