9+Akane Two-Ranma
By Ron Dow75
04: If Only
Breaking out of the bamboo woods, Akane Tendou, the girl with a red ponytail and cuts and sores all over her petit body, caught sight of the thatched and whitewashed Chinese-style cabin that was the only base she had in Juusenkyo. Now, if only that blasted panda--or worse, its naked man underneath the fur--wasn't around. The mountain valley was apparently above most of the weather, and it wasn't that cool. But she didn't like running around, literally, without even a skirt on!
The girl was at least 7.6 centimeters/3 inches shorter than Akane had been, which allowed the Ranma's oversized kempo coat to better cover the parts a girl wouldn't want to show in mixed company. It felt almost like a miniskirt. {Not that I've worn that many miniskirts. Modest dresses are what are truly feminine.} Suddenly the thought of Dr. Tofu rose up. He liked Kasumi. Her big sister wore even MORE modest dresses than Akane had.
As Akane headed for the cabin, she tugged at the bottom of the coat, trying to get it to go lower still. At least the Ranma-identity let her. If he didn't have any shame, at least he wasn't an exhibitionist.
= = =
"Ranma! Just look at you!! Not even in a real fight, and you look like the loser!" {Oh, wonderful. The jerk's father can talk, now.} The wide, middle- aged, bald man in a both a kempo-gi coat AND pants was coming to meet her.
She yelled, "I TOLD you, I ain't Ran--" Zzaff! Zznick! The shampoo-and- conditioner treatment the Guardian of Juusenkyo Attar had given her wouldn't even let her say that!
She turned to something Ranma would say, "What'd you do with the pants!! Give me them, or I'll take yours, Old Man!!"
The father was inspired again. He adopted the defend-or-attack position. "It's the man who wears the pants. Are you ready to prove yourself a man?!" Only IF this girl he still considered his son demonstrated he DIDN'T want to be a girl, could he overlook what Ranma might have to do in his girl form. After all, Genma Saotome wasn't above unconventional tactics, himself.
Akane did not know his name, yet, let alone the way he thought. But, angrily, accusingly, she thought, {He's one of those who thinks women SHOULDN'T be martial artists! Only video game flashers would train without pants!}
While the Ranma-identity's conditioned response was, "Hah! This'll show who the 'man' is!" as he launched the redhead-body at the conceited sensei who knew only how to push his son's buttons.
Akane screamed at the identity that couldn't, or WOULDN'T hear her, {Idiot!! This time his battle plan is different! A direct assault isn't going to work! Don't you know a girl's reach isn't as long as--}
SOCK!
= = =
"Hey! That's hot!!" Akane's male voice cried, trying to sit up.
He raised a tough hand to his thick head, "Ow! Why am I hurtin' in places I no longer have?" Besides the pain, Akane-kun briefly noticed he was on the grass outside the cabin. She also noticed, "I SAID I want some pants!!" He tore his eyes away from his perfect legs.
Genma dropped the teakettle. "Why didn't I see it yesterday!?!"
The Ranma-body lashed out blindly, while Akane-kun said, "How could you NOT see--" With the other hand, he pulled down on the coat.
The Chinese guide was sitting with his back to the sidewall of the cabin, smoking from his very long-stem pipe. "Visitors to Juusenkyo get many surprises. Many not discover all until after they leave valley. If then."
Genma nodded, "That has to be it. I was thinking only of the relief we shared that my son had safely returned to his own form yesterday."
Trying to get up from the ground without exposing himself more than he could, Akane-kun said, "That's not how *I remember it!"
Genma ignored those remarks as his fist grasped the epiphany, "Do you realize what has happened, boy!!?!"
On his feet, Akane yelled, "I ain't a guy!!" His sex, though, was rising to argue differently.
The broad man reached out and pulled the front of Ranma's kempo coat wide open. He demanded, "Don't you see, Ranma!?!! Look, see what has happened to you, boy!!?!!"
The body slapped the man's arms away at pressure points. Akane-kun told him, "I SAID I ain't!!" The unintended effect was that the coat was pulled from his shoulders, too. "And I don't WANNA look at it!!"
The father hung on, "Yesterday you were attacked by a great clawed animal!"
The body set himself as his hands took hold of the man's coat. "That was YOU!!" Akane-kun, too, wanted to throw the man handler down.
As Akane-and-Ranma tested for leverage, the inspired martial artist went on, "Then this morning, you gave a hard chase over rocks and peaks!"
The leverage was found. "That was ALSO because a you!!!" he yelled, using jujitsu to toss the disturbed man.
The man held fast, and the coat was torn from Ranma's body. All that remained on him was the black belt.
Akane-kun covered himself: His arm over his muscular chest {Reflexes! I don't need to do that in THIS body!}, and a hand lower down. Without thought he grasped the semi-flaccid male. {Oh-oo-rr! This feeling is different from what I felt as a girl!} The girl inside the guy was at least thankful that his identity didn't want to enjoy himself.
Genma rolled onto his knees. Holding up the coat, he said, "You're healed!! Your wounds, your cuts, your sores, your bruises, your acne are GONE!!!"
Lifting the offending hand OVER the male member, Akane was in the middle of wondering why HIS sex was responding to HER feelings, when she heard what wound-up man was talking about. Akane looked at over the almost totally exposed body.
He was right! The body was perfect, if not superb.
The Chinese guide, Mr. Chorus saw that the two were ready, perhaps, to finally listen to him. Emptying the ashes against a stone, the soft-looking man said, "Body that heal self is part of curse of Juusenkyo."
Genma got to his feet in the direction of the guide. "How can you SAY that's a curse! It's every martial artist's dream to be able to take hits and be able to come back for more!!"
Akane thought, {What kind of a masochist is THIS man!?!} He asked, "Then WHY can I still feel the pain!?!!"
Mr. Chorus took out a pouch with shredded herbs in it; "Healing power is like hammer power. When warrior understand how power work, he destroy power."
Akane said, "Hammer power"? She didn't make the connection with the wooden mallet she'd hit Genma with yesterday because of a pickup in the breeze. She didn't like the reminder that this naked male body was one SHE was in: "Gimme some clothes!!!"
Feeling the bouncing, wagging male member as he ran, Akane-kun forced himself and the boy's body to get a grip on it again. It did not make for an effective charge.
Genma ignored the lamed attempt and went past to the guide, to say in a demanding voice, "A true martial artist is always prepared to understand and develop a new technique!"
Mr. Chorus filled the small bowl of his pipe; "That is part of way curse work. The more greedy for power warrior is, the less power he has."
Putting his bare, flat butt away from them, the Ranma-identity bellowed, "If you don't gimme something, I'll, I'll." A time came for choices: Akane finished the threat, "I'll turn YOU into a panda!! Let's see how you like havin' those clothes ruined!"
Genma told him, "Quiet!! This man is about to reveal to us secrets that should not be revealed!"
Akane-kun cried, "Talk about something that shouldn't be revealed!!" And a wooden mallet appeared in her free hand without her being really aware of she had the wished for the weapon.
Genma remembered the thing from yesterday. He glanced back at Mr. Chorus, "Are you sure that I will heal, as well?"
The Chinese man had closed the pouch and had brought out a match; "You not want know."
Genma held up a hand towards the boy, "Alright, Ranma!" while tossing Ranma's gi-coat. "I'll get your pants!"
The hammer disappeared as Akane and the body reached out and caught it. {I hope this sex of his doesn't get any more filled with lust.} It seemed to have stopped at a neither/nor state. But the hand over it felt contaminated.
Genma moved to the covered box near the Chinese man smoking his pipe. He pulled the pants out of the firewood box. "Here! Let's see if you ARE a man!" he said, throwing THAT at him.
Akane used the arm with the coat to get them; "What'd you mean by--Hey! These stink!"
The man got a wicked gleam behind his glasses, "Even in sleep, a true martial artist needs to be alert to any disturbance. Be ashamed, Boy! You couldn't wake up for the most basic of causes!"
Akane's mind got angry at Madam Attar for putting her under so deep she wasn't able to. Akane's embarrassment over hearing a MAN talk about something so personal, became more charged by the difference as he realized, (I wasn't the girl at the time. I had this..}
The one with still naked guy body yelled, "Gimme something I CAN wear!!!"
Genma said, "Ranma! How many changes of clothes do you think we have!?! Clean them!!" And he looked prepared to take him on again.
Akane cried, "Are you nuts!!? I ain't goin' anywhere NEAR those springs!!"
= = =
(At least it should be easy for me to change out of HIS body,} Akane thought as she came out of the cabin as the redhead girl in bare feet but green pants. She was completing the buttoning up of the green coat she'd found. It was only a little big, so it couldn't belong to Mr. Chorus (No offense, but I think it's been decades since he could've worn this size.} The green uniform was a typical Mao design {We Are in China, after all}; she even wore a cap with a red star on the front. {I wonder how I look? There was no mirror inside. --What am I thinking!? I won't be seeing ME!}
She barely heard what Mr. Chorus and the 'father' was talking about: "How can wish space NOT be wish space??!"
The Chinese guide told him, "Wish is not wish, if warrior expect. Wish is if-only. Everybody have their own if-only inside of them. Ranma think 'If only I have hammer'. I think 'If only I have sign'.
Genma voice trembled, "And once I say "I will HAVE what I want", it is no longer if-only."
Mr. Chorus nodded, "The more warrior think about things, the more things not happen."
Genma nodded, "Talk about organic. This is a technique that is DESTROYED by practice." He wondered if he DID know too much, now. If there WERE one wish he could have, it was 'If only I wore what I was wearing before I became a panda'. These were the last clothes he had.
Akane-chan came around the corner of the cabin, saying, "I hope you don't mind me borrowin' this."
Mr. Chorus was tapping the cooling ashes from his pipe into his hand, "That is for when I train Plum, my daughter, here."
Akane asked, " "Plum"? If I may ask, Mr. Chorus, why'd you name your daughter "Plum"?"
He said, "I call her Plum, because people call me "Grape"."
Akane stared dumbly. " "Grape"? "Plum"??" She knew about grape-plum jelly, and they were lip liner colors.
He laughed, "Both are purple!"
Akane still didn't understand. "So your name is.?"
He said, "You can call me Chorus."
She thought, {Well, it DOES seem to describe what he's been doing, I guess.} "Mr. Chorus, are you sure there's no way for me to get my own body back?"
Mr. Chorus looked at the girl-body, "You not change back to boy? Oo, not good for Juusenkyo reputation, if that happen."
Akane-chan told him, "Yes, I can become the boy! But I wanna become a girl --No, not this girl! I wanna be the girl I--" Znapf, Zzert! Shampoo 101 short-circuited her attempt to identify herself.
The Chinese guide turned to the father, "Oh, poor sir. Look like your son want be sexy girl, not cute girl."
Akane-chan's frustration increased, {Madam Attar must've given him--Both of them, I bet!--the shampoo treatment! They can't think of me as anyone but the Ranma boy!}
Genma bellowed, "Ran-ma! I am disappointed in you! I raise you to fulfill the promise I made to make a real man out of you, and, and.you want to be the opposite!"
Splash!
The wet Akane-kun yelled in his tenor voice, "Hey! Where'd the hot water come from!!?!"
Mr. Chorus rose from his seat, "Sir! You break no hot water rule! Wish is for only ordinary water!"
Genma looked down at open teakettle he held in his hand. He paled when he realized, "I, I haven't given up one of my wishes, have I?"
He tossed the kettle aside with vigor. In a voice of righteousness, he declared, "It doesn't matter! Who but a father has the right to break the rules when it comes to helping his own son! I OWE it to Ranma to lead him back to the path of true manhood!"
Akane cried, "WHAT!?! I don't WANNA be a man!!"
Genma rebuked him, "Quiet! As your sensei, it is now up to me to retrain you in the ways of manliness!"
Akane used Ranma's-identity to get into the stance, "Ha! That'll be the day, Old Man!"
The "Old Man" looked pleased, as if he'd just maneuvered the youngster into making the first mistake in a game of shogi/Japanese chess. He quirked a smile, "I am glad to see there is ONE thing you have not learned."
The Ranma-body ran at the larger male. He got a couple of strong blows in on the adult, but the one hit the father scored sent Akane-kun backwards, stumbling for almost a meter/yard.
Again the Ranma-identity attacked with male force. Again the punch and heel- thrust used this time did no real damage to the man the boy's emotions were raging against.
Again the father shoved the teenager further backwards.
The bald man WAS beginning to show the bruises from the abuse Akane-and- Ranma were giving him. "Ha! Give it up, fool! It looks like you're NOT gonna heal!"
This time Genma kicked him HARD in the gut. Akane felt it and joined the body in doubling over in pain. "Let's see if you can heal when injured as a guy, Ranma--Not an accursed GIRL!!" And in as much contempt as he was able to deliver to his unfortunate son, he tossed him as far away from him as he could.
Only the skills Ranma'd gained practicing falls kept Akane-kun from being seriously hurt as she landed further down the hill. Those skills that had been drilled into his bones allowed him to tumble and roll yet further down the slope.
At last Akane-kun could feel the breath that had been slammed out of him return. He put his foot out and stopped his slide.
He, the two identities, got up on the balls of his feet and a knee ready to charge again.
But Genma had rushed to meet him. At just the right moment he lifted the youngster up over his head.
Mr. Chorus yelled at them in his soft voice as he ran towards them: "Not that one, Sir! If original body accursed again, body count as drowned! Body gone to you forever!"
Akane-kun wondered what the man was talking about. {I don't think I'm going to like it, though!}
The father told him, "Half-a-man is better than being all girl half-the- time! Facing being a freak of nature should make you fight to stay dry!"
Akane-kun twisted his head around, "What are you babblin' on about, you old- -" He was being carried towards one of those springs!
Genma said, "The guide pointed this spring out to me. THIS is the spring of drowned young man, Dan-niichuan!"
Mr. Chorus was finally close enough to be heard clearly. Huffing, he yelled, "Yhou not understand, Sirh! That Ahccursed Spring of Drowned Boy-- Chinese OPERA Singer!"
Genma yelled over his shoulder, just as he was about to throw his son's body into the spring, "So, Ranma will be able to sing in Chinese!"
The man reached out to grab the boy who was still meters/yards from him. "Dan play part of GIRL! Throw boy in, he become female-impersonator!"
Genma cried, "WHAT!!?!"
Feeling the grip loosen, Akane-kun brought his fists down against the father's back; "Ha! You wanna know what it's LIKE to be a guy when you don't WANNA be!"
Akane-kun somersaulted and landed on his feet.
He turned: There was the father struggling, using all of his martial arts skills of balance to keep from falling in the terrible water.
Akane-kun got Ranma's smile, "All it's gonna take is one little push."
Mr, Chorus was almost within reach; "Vhery tragic story of young boy and yhoung girl who come to Juusenkyo fifteen hhundred year ago."
Neither Akane nor the Ranma-identity could bring himself to do that to his father. "Aw, rats!" he said, taking hold of the back of the adult's gi coat.
Mr. Chorus could finally stop and catch his own breath, ".They take lovers vow! They want change to body of other. Oo, very tragic story of suicide."
It downed on Akane what Mr. Chorus was talking about, "15 hundred-- You mean the identity that goes with the redhead's body might only be a girl WANNABE!!?!"
Splash!
As the bank gave way, Akane-kun yanked the father away from the brink of disaster. "That woulda been ONE way to lose weight!"
Notes below:
There are times when Ranma hurts after a battle, and times when he doesn't. It has to do with the "If-only" rule.
There are times when props appear and times when they don't. I'm just attempting to set up a logical reason. Thus: When Genma WANTS to douse to turn Akane-chan into a guy, to consciously will it, he will NOT be able to do it. It is ONLY when it comes from his gut, without thinking, that the hot water can appear.
And on who else has the "if-only" power. In the very first episode, the second time we saw Nabiki she was taking a picture of Akane breaking cinder blocks in the family dojo. If you look carefully, her camera disappears WITHOUT conscious thought. I hope to provide a logical explanation of why some have the "If-only" power in the Ranma-verse.
But do those without this special status have the power to activate the Juusenkyo curse with their thoughts of, "If only there were a cute girl around"?
You will remember that Ranma, especially in the early episodes, had very few changes of clothes. (Which is why he ran around in his boxer shorts so much of the time while Kasumi laundered them.) You may also remember that after China we didn't see his kempo-gi again.
Yes, I was told the Chinese guide and his daughter appeared in later manga, and Grape and Plum are their official names. I STILL like "Mr. Chorus" better!
How can the redhead girl be the Chinese female impersonator when Ranma got cursed in a different spring? The girl jumps into the Spring of Drowned Young Girl. Her body replaces the other girl's. The boy jumps in and gets his girlfriend's body. But THEN, his uncursed form jumps in again, trying to get rid of his MALE body for good. But there is no body he to replace that body with. He doesn't come up; he was as good as drowned. The girl jumps in again to rescue him. SHE gets his male body. Heartbroken that he is lost to her forever, and cursed to be reminded of him because of his body, she commits suicide in Dan-niichuan. (And who says "Yeti-Riding-Bull- Carrying-Crane-and-Eel" is complicated?)
But, you may say, the redhead's body would STILL have the reflexes and identity of the original girl, not the boy. Not is she willingly, magically, GAVE herself to him.
Why CAN'T the identity of the redhead be just a girl who's more girlish than Akane? Perhaps it is. But the idea that it MIGHT be a female impersonator is different.
No further analysis of the how the Accursed Springs work, for now, please.
04: If Only
Breaking out of the bamboo woods, Akane Tendou, the girl with a red ponytail and cuts and sores all over her petit body, caught sight of the thatched and whitewashed Chinese-style cabin that was the only base she had in Juusenkyo. Now, if only that blasted panda--or worse, its naked man underneath the fur--wasn't around. The mountain valley was apparently above most of the weather, and it wasn't that cool. But she didn't like running around, literally, without even a skirt on!
The girl was at least 7.6 centimeters/3 inches shorter than Akane had been, which allowed the Ranma's oversized kempo coat to better cover the parts a girl wouldn't want to show in mixed company. It felt almost like a miniskirt. {Not that I've worn that many miniskirts. Modest dresses are what are truly feminine.} Suddenly the thought of Dr. Tofu rose up. He liked Kasumi. Her big sister wore even MORE modest dresses than Akane had.
As Akane headed for the cabin, she tugged at the bottom of the coat, trying to get it to go lower still. At least the Ranma-identity let her. If he didn't have any shame, at least he wasn't an exhibitionist.
= = =
"Ranma! Just look at you!! Not even in a real fight, and you look like the loser!" {Oh, wonderful. The jerk's father can talk, now.} The wide, middle- aged, bald man in a both a kempo-gi coat AND pants was coming to meet her.
She yelled, "I TOLD you, I ain't Ran--" Zzaff! Zznick! The shampoo-and- conditioner treatment the Guardian of Juusenkyo Attar had given her wouldn't even let her say that!
She turned to something Ranma would say, "What'd you do with the pants!! Give me them, or I'll take yours, Old Man!!"
The father was inspired again. He adopted the defend-or-attack position. "It's the man who wears the pants. Are you ready to prove yourself a man?!" Only IF this girl he still considered his son demonstrated he DIDN'T want to be a girl, could he overlook what Ranma might have to do in his girl form. After all, Genma Saotome wasn't above unconventional tactics, himself.
Akane did not know his name, yet, let alone the way he thought. But, angrily, accusingly, she thought, {He's one of those who thinks women SHOULDN'T be martial artists! Only video game flashers would train without pants!}
While the Ranma-identity's conditioned response was, "Hah! This'll show who the 'man' is!" as he launched the redhead-body at the conceited sensei who knew only how to push his son's buttons.
Akane screamed at the identity that couldn't, or WOULDN'T hear her, {Idiot!! This time his battle plan is different! A direct assault isn't going to work! Don't you know a girl's reach isn't as long as--}
SOCK!
= = =
"Hey! That's hot!!" Akane's male voice cried, trying to sit up.
He raised a tough hand to his thick head, "Ow! Why am I hurtin' in places I no longer have?" Besides the pain, Akane-kun briefly noticed he was on the grass outside the cabin. She also noticed, "I SAID I want some pants!!" He tore his eyes away from his perfect legs.
Genma dropped the teakettle. "Why didn't I see it yesterday!?!"
The Ranma-body lashed out blindly, while Akane-kun said, "How could you NOT see--" With the other hand, he pulled down on the coat.
The Chinese guide was sitting with his back to the sidewall of the cabin, smoking from his very long-stem pipe. "Visitors to Juusenkyo get many surprises. Many not discover all until after they leave valley. If then."
Genma nodded, "That has to be it. I was thinking only of the relief we shared that my son had safely returned to his own form yesterday."
Trying to get up from the ground without exposing himself more than he could, Akane-kun said, "That's not how *I remember it!"
Genma ignored those remarks as his fist grasped the epiphany, "Do you realize what has happened, boy!!?!"
On his feet, Akane yelled, "I ain't a guy!!" His sex, though, was rising to argue differently.
The broad man reached out and pulled the front of Ranma's kempo coat wide open. He demanded, "Don't you see, Ranma!?!! Look, see what has happened to you, boy!!?!!"
The body slapped the man's arms away at pressure points. Akane-kun told him, "I SAID I ain't!!" The unintended effect was that the coat was pulled from his shoulders, too. "And I don't WANNA look at it!!"
The father hung on, "Yesterday you were attacked by a great clawed animal!"
The body set himself as his hands took hold of the man's coat. "That was YOU!!" Akane-kun, too, wanted to throw the man handler down.
As Akane-and-Ranma tested for leverage, the inspired martial artist went on, "Then this morning, you gave a hard chase over rocks and peaks!"
The leverage was found. "That was ALSO because a you!!!" he yelled, using jujitsu to toss the disturbed man.
The man held fast, and the coat was torn from Ranma's body. All that remained on him was the black belt.
Akane-kun covered himself: His arm over his muscular chest {Reflexes! I don't need to do that in THIS body!}, and a hand lower down. Without thought he grasped the semi-flaccid male. {Oh-oo-rr! This feeling is different from what I felt as a girl!} The girl inside the guy was at least thankful that his identity didn't want to enjoy himself.
Genma rolled onto his knees. Holding up the coat, he said, "You're healed!! Your wounds, your cuts, your sores, your bruises, your acne are GONE!!!"
Lifting the offending hand OVER the male member, Akane was in the middle of wondering why HIS sex was responding to HER feelings, when she heard what wound-up man was talking about. Akane looked at over the almost totally exposed body.
He was right! The body was perfect, if not superb.
The Chinese guide, Mr. Chorus saw that the two were ready, perhaps, to finally listen to him. Emptying the ashes against a stone, the soft-looking man said, "Body that heal self is part of curse of Juusenkyo."
Genma got to his feet in the direction of the guide. "How can you SAY that's a curse! It's every martial artist's dream to be able to take hits and be able to come back for more!!"
Akane thought, {What kind of a masochist is THIS man!?!} He asked, "Then WHY can I still feel the pain!?!!"
Mr. Chorus took out a pouch with shredded herbs in it; "Healing power is like hammer power. When warrior understand how power work, he destroy power."
Akane said, "Hammer power"? She didn't make the connection with the wooden mallet she'd hit Genma with yesterday because of a pickup in the breeze. She didn't like the reminder that this naked male body was one SHE was in: "Gimme some clothes!!!"
Feeling the bouncing, wagging male member as he ran, Akane-kun forced himself and the boy's body to get a grip on it again. It did not make for an effective charge.
Genma ignored the lamed attempt and went past to the guide, to say in a demanding voice, "A true martial artist is always prepared to understand and develop a new technique!"
Mr. Chorus filled the small bowl of his pipe; "That is part of way curse work. The more greedy for power warrior is, the less power he has."
Putting his bare, flat butt away from them, the Ranma-identity bellowed, "If you don't gimme something, I'll, I'll." A time came for choices: Akane finished the threat, "I'll turn YOU into a panda!! Let's see how you like havin' those clothes ruined!"
Genma told him, "Quiet!! This man is about to reveal to us secrets that should not be revealed!"
Akane-kun cried, "Talk about something that shouldn't be revealed!!" And a wooden mallet appeared in her free hand without her being really aware of she had the wished for the weapon.
Genma remembered the thing from yesterday. He glanced back at Mr. Chorus, "Are you sure that I will heal, as well?"
The Chinese man had closed the pouch and had brought out a match; "You not want know."
Genma held up a hand towards the boy, "Alright, Ranma!" while tossing Ranma's gi-coat. "I'll get your pants!"
The hammer disappeared as Akane and the body reached out and caught it. {I hope this sex of his doesn't get any more filled with lust.} It seemed to have stopped at a neither/nor state. But the hand over it felt contaminated.
Genma moved to the covered box near the Chinese man smoking his pipe. He pulled the pants out of the firewood box. "Here! Let's see if you ARE a man!" he said, throwing THAT at him.
Akane used the arm with the coat to get them; "What'd you mean by--Hey! These stink!"
The man got a wicked gleam behind his glasses, "Even in sleep, a true martial artist needs to be alert to any disturbance. Be ashamed, Boy! You couldn't wake up for the most basic of causes!"
Akane's mind got angry at Madam Attar for putting her under so deep she wasn't able to. Akane's embarrassment over hearing a MAN talk about something so personal, became more charged by the difference as he realized, (I wasn't the girl at the time. I had this..}
The one with still naked guy body yelled, "Gimme something I CAN wear!!!"
Genma said, "Ranma! How many changes of clothes do you think we have!?! Clean them!!" And he looked prepared to take him on again.
Akane cried, "Are you nuts!!? I ain't goin' anywhere NEAR those springs!!"
= = =
(At least it should be easy for me to change out of HIS body,} Akane thought as she came out of the cabin as the redhead girl in bare feet but green pants. She was completing the buttoning up of the green coat she'd found. It was only a little big, so it couldn't belong to Mr. Chorus (No offense, but I think it's been decades since he could've worn this size.} The green uniform was a typical Mao design {We Are in China, after all}; she even wore a cap with a red star on the front. {I wonder how I look? There was no mirror inside. --What am I thinking!? I won't be seeing ME!}
She barely heard what Mr. Chorus and the 'father' was talking about: "How can wish space NOT be wish space??!"
The Chinese guide told him, "Wish is not wish, if warrior expect. Wish is if-only. Everybody have their own if-only inside of them. Ranma think 'If only I have hammer'. I think 'If only I have sign'.
Genma voice trembled, "And once I say "I will HAVE what I want", it is no longer if-only."
Mr. Chorus nodded, "The more warrior think about things, the more things not happen."
Genma nodded, "Talk about organic. This is a technique that is DESTROYED by practice." He wondered if he DID know too much, now. If there WERE one wish he could have, it was 'If only I wore what I was wearing before I became a panda'. These were the last clothes he had.
Akane-chan came around the corner of the cabin, saying, "I hope you don't mind me borrowin' this."
Mr. Chorus was tapping the cooling ashes from his pipe into his hand, "That is for when I train Plum, my daughter, here."
Akane asked, " "Plum"? If I may ask, Mr. Chorus, why'd you name your daughter "Plum"?"
He said, "I call her Plum, because people call me "Grape"."
Akane stared dumbly. " "Grape"? "Plum"??" She knew about grape-plum jelly, and they were lip liner colors.
He laughed, "Both are purple!"
Akane still didn't understand. "So your name is.?"
He said, "You can call me Chorus."
She thought, {Well, it DOES seem to describe what he's been doing, I guess.} "Mr. Chorus, are you sure there's no way for me to get my own body back?"
Mr. Chorus looked at the girl-body, "You not change back to boy? Oo, not good for Juusenkyo reputation, if that happen."
Akane-chan told him, "Yes, I can become the boy! But I wanna become a girl --No, not this girl! I wanna be the girl I--" Znapf, Zzert! Shampoo 101 short-circuited her attempt to identify herself.
The Chinese guide turned to the father, "Oh, poor sir. Look like your son want be sexy girl, not cute girl."
Akane-chan's frustration increased, {Madam Attar must've given him--Both of them, I bet!--the shampoo treatment! They can't think of me as anyone but the Ranma boy!}
Genma bellowed, "Ran-ma! I am disappointed in you! I raise you to fulfill the promise I made to make a real man out of you, and, and.you want to be the opposite!"
Splash!
The wet Akane-kun yelled in his tenor voice, "Hey! Where'd the hot water come from!!?!"
Mr. Chorus rose from his seat, "Sir! You break no hot water rule! Wish is for only ordinary water!"
Genma looked down at open teakettle he held in his hand. He paled when he realized, "I, I haven't given up one of my wishes, have I?"
He tossed the kettle aside with vigor. In a voice of righteousness, he declared, "It doesn't matter! Who but a father has the right to break the rules when it comes to helping his own son! I OWE it to Ranma to lead him back to the path of true manhood!"
Akane cried, "WHAT!?! I don't WANNA be a man!!"
Genma rebuked him, "Quiet! As your sensei, it is now up to me to retrain you in the ways of manliness!"
Akane used Ranma's-identity to get into the stance, "Ha! That'll be the day, Old Man!"
The "Old Man" looked pleased, as if he'd just maneuvered the youngster into making the first mistake in a game of shogi/Japanese chess. He quirked a smile, "I am glad to see there is ONE thing you have not learned."
The Ranma-body ran at the larger male. He got a couple of strong blows in on the adult, but the one hit the father scored sent Akane-kun backwards, stumbling for almost a meter/yard.
Again the Ranma-identity attacked with male force. Again the punch and heel- thrust used this time did no real damage to the man the boy's emotions were raging against.
Again the father shoved the teenager further backwards.
The bald man WAS beginning to show the bruises from the abuse Akane-and- Ranma were giving him. "Ha! Give it up, fool! It looks like you're NOT gonna heal!"
This time Genma kicked him HARD in the gut. Akane felt it and joined the body in doubling over in pain. "Let's see if you can heal when injured as a guy, Ranma--Not an accursed GIRL!!" And in as much contempt as he was able to deliver to his unfortunate son, he tossed him as far away from him as he could.
Only the skills Ranma'd gained practicing falls kept Akane-kun from being seriously hurt as she landed further down the hill. Those skills that had been drilled into his bones allowed him to tumble and roll yet further down the slope.
At last Akane-kun could feel the breath that had been slammed out of him return. He put his foot out and stopped his slide.
He, the two identities, got up on the balls of his feet and a knee ready to charge again.
But Genma had rushed to meet him. At just the right moment he lifted the youngster up over his head.
Mr. Chorus yelled at them in his soft voice as he ran towards them: "Not that one, Sir! If original body accursed again, body count as drowned! Body gone to you forever!"
Akane-kun wondered what the man was talking about. {I don't think I'm going to like it, though!}
The father told him, "Half-a-man is better than being all girl half-the- time! Facing being a freak of nature should make you fight to stay dry!"
Akane-kun twisted his head around, "What are you babblin' on about, you old- -" He was being carried towards one of those springs!
Genma said, "The guide pointed this spring out to me. THIS is the spring of drowned young man, Dan-niichuan!"
Mr. Chorus was finally close enough to be heard clearly. Huffing, he yelled, "Yhou not understand, Sirh! That Ahccursed Spring of Drowned Boy-- Chinese OPERA Singer!"
Genma yelled over his shoulder, just as he was about to throw his son's body into the spring, "So, Ranma will be able to sing in Chinese!"
The man reached out to grab the boy who was still meters/yards from him. "Dan play part of GIRL! Throw boy in, he become female-impersonator!"
Genma cried, "WHAT!!?!"
Feeling the grip loosen, Akane-kun brought his fists down against the father's back; "Ha! You wanna know what it's LIKE to be a guy when you don't WANNA be!"
Akane-kun somersaulted and landed on his feet.
He turned: There was the father struggling, using all of his martial arts skills of balance to keep from falling in the terrible water.
Akane-kun got Ranma's smile, "All it's gonna take is one little push."
Mr, Chorus was almost within reach; "Vhery tragic story of young boy and yhoung girl who come to Juusenkyo fifteen hhundred year ago."
Neither Akane nor the Ranma-identity could bring himself to do that to his father. "Aw, rats!" he said, taking hold of the back of the adult's gi coat.
Mr. Chorus could finally stop and catch his own breath, ".They take lovers vow! They want change to body of other. Oo, very tragic story of suicide."
It downed on Akane what Mr. Chorus was talking about, "15 hundred-- You mean the identity that goes with the redhead's body might only be a girl WANNABE!!?!"
Splash!
As the bank gave way, Akane-kun yanked the father away from the brink of disaster. "That woulda been ONE way to lose weight!"
Notes below:
There are times when Ranma hurts after a battle, and times when he doesn't. It has to do with the "If-only" rule.
There are times when props appear and times when they don't. I'm just attempting to set up a logical reason. Thus: When Genma WANTS to douse to turn Akane-chan into a guy, to consciously will it, he will NOT be able to do it. It is ONLY when it comes from his gut, without thinking, that the hot water can appear.
And on who else has the "if-only" power. In the very first episode, the second time we saw Nabiki she was taking a picture of Akane breaking cinder blocks in the family dojo. If you look carefully, her camera disappears WITHOUT conscious thought. I hope to provide a logical explanation of why some have the "If-only" power in the Ranma-verse.
But do those without this special status have the power to activate the Juusenkyo curse with their thoughts of, "If only there were a cute girl around"?
You will remember that Ranma, especially in the early episodes, had very few changes of clothes. (Which is why he ran around in his boxer shorts so much of the time while Kasumi laundered them.) You may also remember that after China we didn't see his kempo-gi again.
Yes, I was told the Chinese guide and his daughter appeared in later manga, and Grape and Plum are their official names. I STILL like "Mr. Chorus" better!
How can the redhead girl be the Chinese female impersonator when Ranma got cursed in a different spring? The girl jumps into the Spring of Drowned Young Girl. Her body replaces the other girl's. The boy jumps in and gets his girlfriend's body. But THEN, his uncursed form jumps in again, trying to get rid of his MALE body for good. But there is no body he to replace that body with. He doesn't come up; he was as good as drowned. The girl jumps in again to rescue him. SHE gets his male body. Heartbroken that he is lost to her forever, and cursed to be reminded of him because of his body, she commits suicide in Dan-niichuan. (And who says "Yeti-Riding-Bull- Carrying-Crane-and-Eel" is complicated?)
But, you may say, the redhead's body would STILL have the reflexes and identity of the original girl, not the boy. Not is she willingly, magically, GAVE herself to him.
Why CAN'T the identity of the redhead be just a girl who's more girlish than Akane? Perhaps it is. But the idea that it MIGHT be a female impersonator is different.
No further analysis of the how the Accursed Springs work, for now, please.