CHAPTER THREE

YOU'RE JOKIN'! I CAN'T BELIEVE ME EYES!..
Akago looked back over his shoulder and saw his friends disapear over the horizon. He took to the sky. He flew over the beach for a few miles before deciding that he should try to track Ryoga in another way.
"Come on Ryoga, where are you!?" he felt out with his mind for the familiar Ki-signature and headed inland. Soon, he found his mark and descended. A T-Rex, a Saber-Toothed Tiger and a Velosa Raptor were all closing in on the same point at the edge of a small lake. As he grew closer, he couldn't see the boy; he must have been under the water.
"Great! Just great, Ryoga! make me come all the way out here to save your butt and you go and try to drown yourself!" He dove under the water and grasped something a lot smaller than Ryoga. Akago burst out of the water, sprayed the enemy with a curtain of electric bolts and landed safely far away.
"What the hell?"
The tiny black pig stared, pop-eyed at him.
"Why do you feel like Ryoga?"
It began to squirm and thrash in his grip. Suddenly, the pig clamped its teeth down on the boy's hand. Akago cried out and released it. It took off running, hid in a nearby cave and panted.
"Hey! I just rescued you, you ungrateful little ham-hock!" Akago shook his hand in pain. "I wonder where Ryoga is. Maybe he was in the stomach of one of those monsters! No. That can't be." He frowned at scanned the landscape.
P-Chan scuttled shamefully further into the cave. It was warm inside. It thought to itself that maybe it could live out its days here and no one would notice. Just as its self-pity was creshendoing, it stumbled into a hot spring.

"Sensei!"
"Ryoga! There you are! I thought you were toast! Well, I also thought you were a pig!" Akago rubbed his hand and stood up to greet him. He laughed, "I wish I could train your sense of direction, boy!"
Ryoga blushed a little, but said nothing. He couldn't believe how close he had come to blowing his cover, but he was a little more amazed at having seen his Sensei fly and emit lightning bolts from his fingertips.

Ranma clashed with Akane as Gosan watched. Their speed and agility was greatly increased, but the boy knew there was so much more they could do. Ryoga and Akago jogged back to them, silently. Akago had tried conversation, but Ryoga was trying hard to conceal his wonder, so he clamed up.
"Ok, great, you got them started." He was relieved to get back to his brother. "Ryoga, you get the winner."
"Hai, Sensei."
Things were awkward all afternoon. By the time night came, Akago was ready for some much needed rest. He made sure the others had turned in for the night and put a kettle on to boil.
"Ahhhh.." Go-Chan sighed and closed the bedroom door behind her.
"Hey, sis!" Gosan piped. "Long time no see!"
She towel-dried her tail and sat cross-legged on her bed. "Yeah."
"What's wrong?"
"Aw jeez, Gosan," she muttered, frustrated, but when she saw the classically concerned, oblivious look on her brother's face she caved. "I like Ryoga."
"Really? Why does that suck?" he said without thinking, "oh..."
"Yeah, 'oh...'" she mimicked him. She couldn't help it.
"What are you gonna do about it?"
"DO!? What can I do!?! I'm half a boy!!" she began to cry.
"It's ok, Go-Chan. When this is all over, we'll start looking for the Panda again."
"We'll never find the panda!" she bawled. "He's probably hibernating or something!"

Akane shuffled in her slippers to the sink. She filled a glass with water and headed back to her bedroom. Muffled sobs made her stop and perk up her ears.
She closed the door behind her.
"What?" Ranma saw the confused look on her face and had to ask as he slipped under the covers of his futon.
"I just heard someone crying."
"Who?"
"I don't know.."
He shrugged and closed his eyes. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

Ryoga stared out the oval-shaped window into the night sky. He didn't know what to do about what he had seen. He couldn't ask Akago directly about his powers because he would make the connection between him and P-Chan. He also did not want to tell Akane and Ranma. It would only upset their training and might lead to Akane learn his secret. He respected his Sensei too much to question him, but with this added knowledge, the feeling he had that Akago was hiding something only grew.
'How can that be, if I have discovered his secret? Can there be more? What other unbelievable things does he have in store?' Something about the young man troubled Ryoga and he shuddered as if to shake the feeling off. He gave up his pondering and went to bed.

DUDE LOOKS LIKE A LADY..
Akago rose late. Her brother was already up and in the shower. She yawned and stretched out. The sun had already risen. She had spent most of the night talking with her brother. The stress of being in charge had gotten to her more than she thought it had. So much came out; her fears and frustrations regarding her transformation and Ryoga and separation anxiety, which her brother admitted he shared. They missed their family terribly and agreed that once the Boudkai was over they would return home, shame or no shame to have their Aunt Mira the sorceress fix Akago up. For now, they had a commitment to Soun and Genma. The Tendo dojo had shown them hospitality and it was the least they could do in return.
Akago rubbed sleep from her eyes and opened the bedroom door. She took not two steps before she dazedly bumped into to someone.
"Oops, sorry.." Ryoga froze in his tracks.
"It's ok.." she looked straight ahead, but instead of meeting his eyes, met his chest. Go-Chan looked up slowly and panicked. "Uh... ah.. sh..."
"Go-Chan!!" Gosan shouted as he came out of the shower and witnessed the collision.
Ryoga raised an confused eyebrow, "Go-CHAN?"
"Heh heh heh, that's me," she was wide awake now.
"So, this is your sister," he stared into her violet eyes, they were so much like her older brother, Akago's, he thought. 'She's.. beautiful..' He was so overtaken with her that he soon became unable to do or say anything.
"Well, it was great seeing ya again, sis! Stop by again some time! Ha ha ha!" Gosan grasped her by the shoulders and ushered her out the front door. She was compliant, but stared back at Ryoga. She loved the way he was looking at her. She was mesmerized. She was in love.
"Ok, Bro. Bai bai.." she murmured dreamily. Gosan slammed the door behind him, picked his useless sister up, ran and dunked her in the ocean.
"You ok?"
"Yeah.." he sighed and smiled at Gosan.
"Man, this is just weird. Come on, snap out of it."
Akago shook his head. "Yeah. ok, I'm all right. I am. I'm a boy. Can't do much about it. Gotta keep it a secret. Ok. Cool," he tried to convince himself.
"You sure?"
"I hope so."

Ryoga, Ranma-Chan and Akane finished their morning workout and lined up on the beach facing the surf. Gosan paced in front of them and acted like a drill sergeant.
"Ok troops! Today we'll see how well you can control your Ki energy. Can any of you focus your Ki into an energy attack?"
Ranma and Ryoga raised their hands. Akane bit her worriedly bit her lip.
"Great, show me what you can do," he twisted his wrist-bands and rubbed his hands together expectantly.
"You want us to fire at you?" Ranma tried to ask as politely as she could. Ryoga said nothing. If Akago could do what he saw him do, his brother could most probably defend against such an attack. The boy nodded and she demonstrated her Moko Takabisha for her trainer. Gosan deflected the blow with the palm of his hand. It went arching over his head and landed in the ocean causing an explosion of steam.
"Not bad. Ryoga, whatcha got for me?"
Ryoga concentrated his angst as well as he could, but it was hard. He couldn't get the image of Go-Chan out of his head. His Shishi Hokoudan was unusually weaker than Ranma's attack. "Kuso," he hissed.
"It's ok." Gosan dusted his hands off. "That's a tough one to have to rely on. Both of your attacks are focused on your mental sate of being aren't they?"
They nodded humbly. Akane blinked, amazed at his ability to block such attacks so easily.
"Hmm.." Gosan thought to himself. "Hey Go.. go go, Akago hee hee hee.." he caught himself. Akago glared at him. "You think we should lay the teachings of the Turtle Hermit on these guys?"
"I was thinking the same thing, o brother of mine, but I don't know if I want to teach someone else's technique."
"Can I at least show them?" he grinned widely.
"Let's both, shall we?"
"Oh certainly!"
They were getting silly. Akane noticed and got giddy with anticipation.
The siblings turned their backs to their students and spread their feet slightly. They bent at the knees and brought their hands up to their abdomen.
"Kame..." they began to chant. Their fingers curled up into a cupped position and the area within began to glow.
"Hame.." The orbs of light grew brighter and the air sung with the gathering of energy. "HA!!"
The blast rocketed out of their hands and flew off over the horizon. A beat later the water blossomed with the impact and a few moments after that the sound of the blast reached their ears.
"WOAH!!!" Ranma shouted. Ryoga smiled, he knew that in time they would teach him to do that. Akane stood dumbfounded at the power and wondered if she could ever become that strong.
"Yeah, I don't feel right teaching this to them." Akago shook his head in all seriousness.
"WHAT!? You show us something that amazing and then refuse to let us learn it!?"
"That's not what I said, Ranma," the older boy turned to face them. "I said I didn't want to teach you."
"You want me to?" Gosan was confused,
"No."
"Ah..." he smiled.
Akago found his hoi-poi capsules and fished around till he located the number 72 speed-boat. He exploded it in the water and turned to his students.
"Pack up your stuff. We're goin' on a field trip!!"

BOOM ANIME BABES THAT MAKE ME THINK THE WRONG THINGS..
Ranma, Ryoga and Akane waited impatiently by the boat as the Sons went up to the tiny house. The old man was watching the aerobics channel. He appeared to have a nose bleed.
"Hey, Muten Roshi, how's it goin'?!" Gosan hollered as he burst into the living room.
"Can't ya see I'm preoccupied, sonny?"
"Not sonny, Son!"
He looked up at the boy blocking his television.
"Oh, Gosan. Long time no see, boy. How ya been?"
"Pretty good. You remember Akago?" he tried to keep from laughing and pointed to his 'brother'.
"Huh? Akago? But.. bu bu but.." He made a curvy woman gesture with his hands. The older boy hit him.
"I AM Akago!"
"Ooh, sure are! I'd recognize that back-hand anywhere! What happened to you!?"
They explained their bizarre circumstance and begged his permission to teach their students the Kamehameha.
"What!?! Whaddaya think I am, some kind of guru people can just flock to!? I'm an old man, you know!"
"But Kame Sen'nin, two of them are girls.." Akago tempted him.
"Girls?" he drooled.
"Hotties, if you will."
"Two hotties!?" He burst out the front door and glared at the young women. "Oh sure, I'll teach them no problem!"
Gosan rolled his eyes.
The old master made a closer inspection. "Oh yes, very nice.." he ogled Ranma and Akane from various positions and finally moved in for the 'puff-puff'. He soon found himself ass-over-teakettle on the sand.
"Hey, gramps, you wanna watch where you're grabbin'!?" Ranma hollered. "You didn't tell me they were feisty as well as beautiful!" he croaked from his awkward position.
"At least Happosai gives you a running start..." Akane grumbled as she dusted off her hands.
"Speaking of that," Roshi righted himself and got down to business. "Show me what you can do."
The Son's students were put to the test once more and demonstrated all their skills for the Turtle Hermit.
"Excellent, you've followed the same regimen that I set for you when you trained with me, only at double the pace!"
"Do you think they're ready, Master Roshi?" Gosan implored.
He stared at Ranma's breasts a bit before answering. Ranma blushed with anger, but kept quiet. "Yes."