Summary: Thanks to Genma's laziness, Ryouga is stuck as a girl when hit with hot water and as a pig with cold water. Now she lives with the Tendos and Saotomes, hoping to find a cure for both her curses, or at least to be rid of the pig.
Warning: Kasumi starts to act OCC.
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Ranma and Ryouga-chan?
Part IV
Goodnight, maybe I will be normal tomorrow?
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Ryouga stood completely still. As far as she could see, she was in Hell. She was surrounded by girls, giggling girls. Sure, the clothes she had worn may not have looked that good on her. But to have the shopkeeper tell her to burn them, that was just too much. And now Kasumi wanted her to try on this feminine thing. Yes, Ryouga was holding a dress in her hands. It was pretty dress, but in her eyes it was the last step towards forgetting who she had been.
"I don't know, Kasumi…"
Kasumi pushed her towards one of the changing rooms. As Ryouga stumbled into the booth, Kasumi instructed, "Now, try these on, and remember to try on the dress!" before handing Ryouga a rather large pile of clothes.
Closing the door behind her, she stared at the very large pile of clothes that Kasumi had given her. There was everything from t-shirts to pants. Thankfully, the only thing that was 100% feminine was the dress.
Closing her eyes and counting to ten, Ryouga took out the first t-shirt and looked at it. It wasn't that bad, a plain yellow one. The next one was black. She could see a few blue and green ones.
Shrugging out of the last set, Ryouga cast a venom filled glare at the article she had been wearing. She didn't know if Kasumi was trying to be funny or if she was just forgetting that she was really a boy. For some strange reason, she had a great desire to burn the Hello Kitty shirt that had been at the bottom of the pile. At least the pants had fit like she wanted them. Somehow, Kasumi seemed to know that a martial artist had to be able to move freely at all times.
Picking up the dress, Ryouga turned it around and held it up in front of her. It was a rather nice deep shade of purple with dark blue birds on it. Putting it on, Ryouga buttoned up the front.
Turning her head, she shot a look at the girl staring back from the mirror. Somehow she couldn't get over the fact that it was really her standing there wearing a dress, even if it looked pretty on her. Slowly, she turned around and looked in the mirror again "Kasumi…"
Kasumi, standing outside the booth, was looking at some skirts when she heard Ryouga call her. "Yes Ryouga-chan?"
"What do you think?"
Putting down the skirt, Kasumi turned and opened the door and stepped in. She looked for a minute at Ryouga, before turning the girl around to look at herself in the mirror. Gripping the younger girls shoulder she looked over her head at the mirror "I think it looks good on you. What do you think Ryouga-chan?"
Ryouga looked into the mirror and smiled in a sad way. "It's nice, isn't it?" Then she started unbutton the dress. "But I'm just not ready to wear a dress yet…" Ryouga stopped unbuttoning the dress and looked up at Kasumi sheepishly. "Um, could you please turn around?"
"Why?" Kasumi looked at Ryouga, who gave her a surprised look back. "We're both girls, right?" Kasumi grinned as Ryouga turned beat red. Ryouga finished redressing in her standard outfit, consisting of the oversized yellow shirt and black pants. Kasumi grabbed her hand and pulled her out to pay for the clothes "Now are you ready to look for some underwear?"
"WHAT!!!!?"
Some of the other costumers, who hadn't been in Nerima often enough to know what a loony bin it really was, turned to stare the shop as it windows rattled from the air pressure alone.
Across Nerima, Ranma looked over the Koi-pond at Akane, who was beating the crap out of a straw dummy with a pigtail. {Great, could she be more open about her feelings?}
Akane looked over at Ranma out of the corners of her eyes. "What are you staring at, pervert?"
Ranma frowned and stood up. "Nothing important…"
*WHAM*
"WHAT'S THAT SURPOSED TO MEAN!!?"
Ranma, stuck under the mallet, chose his next words carefully. "What was that for, you crazy tomboy?" Then again, an attack was said to be the best defense.
Akane shook with anger and pulled out an even larger mallet. "Ranma, take that back!"
Soun cried at the sight of his daughter and ingrate son-in-law arguing for the fourth time that evening. Genma chose that moment to move around some pieces on the shogi board. Soun stopped crying when a sudden thought hit him. "Nabiki, where's Kasumi? I haven't seen her since Ranma and Akane came home…"
Nabiki looked up from the doorway leading out into the kitchen. Removing the apple from her mouth, she swallowed what remained within. "She left with Ryouga to do some shopping. They won't be home until later…"
Soun froze with terror "Then… who's cooking dinner tonight?"
Nabiki blinked "Well, I don't know how to and even if I could, I don't have time for it…" Nabiki grinned at the thought of the stack of photos of Ryouga waiting to be sold to a kendoist with a lot of money.
"Nabiki-chan, Saotome-kun, we must not let Akane hear that Kasumi couldn't cook tonight…"
"Oh, Kasumi's not home tonight? Then I'll make something special for all of us tonight!" called a voice from the other room. Soun and Nabiki groaned, as Akane appeared wearing an apron and holding a knife.
Genma blinked and looked between the doomed faces of Soun and Nabiki and the happily humming Akane as she took out a couple of potatoes. "What's wrong, Tendo? You should be glad that you such a dutiful daughter!"
"I'll be at Megumi's." Nabiki announced as she slipped out of the door. Soun tried to make the same type of getaway, but was faced with Akane's battle aura.
"No one is going anywhere…"
Soun and Genma backed out of the kitchen and collapsed in terror. "What was that about, Tendo?"
Soun looked up with tears in his eyes. "Akane has… a small problem with cooking…"
"I DO NOT!!" Akane stomped out of the kitchen and glared at the elder martial artists covering before her on the floor. "I'm going to cook dinner tonight, and you will like it!"
Ryouga stared at the clothing Kasumi held out. "Look, I know you probably don't want to wear a normal bra, so how about a sports bra instead?"
Ryouga stared at the item in question before taking it "If I must…" Stepping into another changing booth, Ryouga pulled off her shirt and slowly put on the sports bra.
"How does it fit?" Kasumi voiced from outside the booth.
Ryouga sighed and opened the door. "It fits perfectly, now can we please go somewhere else?"
Kasumi giggled at the beat red look on Ryouga's face "Sure!" Turning around, she looked at the sales lady that had showed them where to find the sports bras "We'll take five of them." Kasumi mumbled to the saleslady while she went over the cost of the clothes in her head. "Ryouga-chan, do you have any more money on you?"
Poking her head out again, Ryouga shook her head. "Sorry Kasumi, but after this I'm completely broke."
Kasumi shrugged, then she looked at Ryouga going back into the booth. "Ryouga-chan, you may as well keep the sports bra on." At Ryouga's pain filled look, she smiled matronly. "You need to get used to wearing them anyway…"
Ryouga grumbled something as she ducked back into the booth and pulled the shirt back on again. Well, at least it wasn't that bad. She had been having a slight back problem when she moved too much lately.
After paying for the clothes and leaving the store, Kasumi suddenly grabbed Ryouga's arm "Hey, that's the place Mother took me when I was younger."
Looking up, Ryouga saw a restaurant. "Um, can we afford it? I spent all my money on clothes."
Kasumi looked at Ryouga before she pulled out a card. "I'm sure Nabiki won't mind if we borrow her credit card just this once…"
At the same time, Ranma sat with his father and Mr. Tendo and stared at the dish in front of them. "Uh… Akane, is it supposed to be green?"
Looking up from the head of the table, Akane sneered at the pigtailed boy. "So the color's a little off. It's all about flavor anyway. Now eat!"
Shifting back, Ranma grabbed a bowl and filled it to the top. {Here goes} Stuffing a spoonful into his mouth, Ranma's face turned pale as tears formed in his eyes.
"What's wrong?" Akane looked at the twitching form of a boy lying on the floor. "Can't even appreciate home cooking?" Snorting, Akane stood up and walked back into the kitchen "Just you wait, the next dish will be better…"
Genma slowly put his bowl down and grabbed his glass of water. "Growf!" [Pass the bamboo, Tendo] The panda looked pleadingly at the long-haired man across the table.
Soun looked between Genma and the green stuff. "At times like this, I really envy you, Saotome…" Both adults looked at the boy still twitching. "Looks like Ranma could use some help."
[Nah, the boy needed some training]
Ranma silently cursed as he felt the pain from whatever the smeg (editor's note: Huh-huh…. He said 'smeg'-JH) it was Akane had cooked. "Stupid Tomboy…"
Ryouga gasped as she took a bite "This is…"
Kasumi smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I just love the way they get the meat so tender and the sauce is just…" Kasumi trailed off as she took another bite.
Ryouga blinked. "You like western style food? But you seem so traditional…"
Kasumi put down her fork and rested her head in her hands. "Father fell apart after mother's death. To give my sisters some stability, I took over as their mother…"
Ryouga put down her own fork and knife and smiled sadly at Kasumi. "So, you had to give up your dreams to look after your family?"
Kasumi nodded "I love my sisters, but sometimes I just want to…" Kasumi stopped talking as she held a hand over her mouth, "Oh my, did I just say that?"
Ryouga blinked again before picking up her fork. "So, do your sisters help you around the house?"
Kasumi shook her head "Oh my, no. They are far to busy to do that…"
Ryouga waved her fork as she looked at Kasumi. "Have you tried asking for their help before?"
Kasumi sighed deeply "Yes. Nabiki just doesn't want to do manual chores and Akane is a disaster when it comes to cooking…" At Ryouga's blank stare she shrugged. "She can do the laundry and cleaning well enough, but cooking, well… she could use some work in that area."
"She can't be that bad…" Ryouga looked at the older girl. "It's a not as if it's poison…"
Kasumi grinned "No. But she just doesn't take the time to read the ingredients before adding them."
Ryouga and Kasumi looked up as a waiter walked up. "I hope you enjoyed your dinner. Maybe the young ladies would like some dessert?" Placing a menu in front of them, he cleared off the empty plates. "I recommend the strawberry cake."
Ryouga, at a total loss as to how one should behave in a place like this, closed the menu before looking at Kasumi. "I'll just take the strawberry cake… what about you?"
Kasumi looked at Ryouga with a grin, "I'll have the same." Handing over the menu, she stood and picked up her handbag. "I'll be in the ladies room." Ryouga absently nodded as Kasumi walked off.
As the waiter left to get their desserts, Ryouga looked around the place. She couldn't see anyone she knew. But then again, she was still new to Nerima. {I wonder if I'll ever find a cure. But what if I don't?} Ryouga closed her eyes and held back the sob.
Still smiling, Kasumi came back to the table. "So tell me about your life, Ryouga."
Ryouga looked up, glad for the distraction. "Um… Well…"
Kasumi and Ryouga ate their strawberry cakes, as Ryouga talked about her life before she 'ran into' Ranma. When she finished, Kasumi told her about her life.
Ryouga looked out the window as she unbraided her hair. "So this is where I start my new life? Well, at least till I find my cure…" Ryouga sighed as she stood and dug through the closet pulling out a long shirt. "Guess I better go to bed…" Pulling on the shirt, she turned to look at the small mirror Kasumi had given her when they got home from the restaurant.
Knocking on the door, Nabiki poked her head in. "Um Ryouga, can I talk to you?"
"Sure, what is it Nabiki-san?"
Nabiki flinched at formal name Ryouga used. "Um… first, could you drop the san and secondly, here…"
Ryouga grabbed the round thing Nabiki tossed at her. "What is it?"
Blushing, Nabiki looked around the room. "Well, you've seen how my father behaves right?" At Ryouga's nod, Nabiki stepped closer. "Well, for the last few years, I've been the one to provide the family with money and I did so by selling pictures of my sister to her admirers…"
"You WHAT?!" Ryouga looked at the film roll in her head. "Then this is pictures of Akane?"
"Well… not quite…" Nabiki mumbled as she stepped back again. "I figured that as long as you and Ranma were here that I could make a quick buck off of you and him by selling your pictures."
Ryouga trembled and slowly crushed the roll in her hands. "And how many did you sell of me?"
"None…" Nabiki nearly yelled as Ryouga started to glow faintly. "I didn't sell any!"
Looking at Nabiki, Ryouga held up the remains of the film roll. "So, why did you tell me about it?"
Nabiki blushed again. "Kasumi asked me to tell you about it, before I screwed up and made you want, er… revenge."
Ryouga sat down on the bed "Uh well…"
Leaning in closer Nabiki grinned. "Well, how did the date with Kasumi go?"
"It wasn't a date."
Nabiki grinned wider. "You really should ask my father for permission to date my sister before you go out to eat…"
Blushing and stuttering, Ryouga looked at Nabiki. "We… I… That is…"
"Relax, can't you take a joke?"
Ryouga grumbled as Nabiki laughed. "Well, I just wanted to say I was sorry."
Ryouga looked at Nabiki as she opened the door. "Nabiki, do you need the money so badly?" Stopping, Nabiki looked back into the room. "If you do, you can take pictures of me if you want. But no nude or suggestive ones, got it?"
"Who, me?" Nabiki grinned, as she backed out of the door.
Ryouga looked for a minute at the closed door before turning over. {Goodnight, everyone} Yawning, she closed her eyes. {Is this what it feels like to have a family? If it is, I wouldn't lose it for anything.}
TBC in: Week one: Enter Mousse.
AN: Another chapter done with. Now onto the next one after I get some sleep and finish designing my homepage. When I wrote that I hadn't even started on it, but now it's finished so go and check out my website ^_^
Editor's Note: Sorry this took so long, folks. My bad! Don't lose faith in Demino, he's very talented!