Disclaimer: See parts 1 - 2.
Summery: Thanks to Genma's laziness, Ryouga is stuck as Girl when hit with hot water and as a pig with cold water. Now she lives with the Tendo's and Saotome's hoping to find a cure for both her curses or at least to be rid of the pig. The Chinese Amazon Mousse has show up, and declared that he and Ryouga are engaged. Ryouga is currently telling Akane Tendo how she and Mousse met back in China and wound up getting engaged.
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Ranma and Ryouga-chan?
Part VIII
In China it happened part III
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Ryouga Hibiki stared straight at the bamboo wall of her new room. Her mind was lost in an endless flow of thoughts as she failed to get the rest she wanted. For in the end, all her thoughts really boiled down to just one thing. Her kiss, her very first kiss, and it had been with a boy. Sure, Mousse wasn't such a bad fellow, but she was a guy dammit, no matter what she may look like now, she was a guy. So why couldn't she forget it? Why couldn't she forget, just forget it dammit.
Moving fast, Ryouga closed the distance between them, letting her body urges take over. She couldn't understand the feelings of her new body, but she did know that she wanted to kiss the boy who was holding her, more then anything else. As their lips pressed against one another, Ryouga's heart was beating faster then it ever had, she could feel herself melt into Mousse's arms, making him serve as the only thing holding them both up. She knew deep down that what she was feeling was wrong, but it felt so right, like this was where she was destined to be. Slowly, Mousse's lips moved away from her own, and his finger traced a path across her lower lip. "I... I..."
Ryouga didn't know if she should scream, trash the room, or simply hope that by some miracle she could get lost again. Still, it wouldn't be so bad getting married to Mousse, he was very friendly, and really good. (Gah) Ryouga mentally kicked herself, what was her problem? Looking over her shoulder, Ryouga learned just what her problem was, it was big, it was ugly, it was Bi-so, the second winner in the tournament, and she was sitting just outside the door.
Ryouga tapped her fingers on the table before she regarded the bamboo and clay walls around her. It might have served as a good prison to someone else, but this was Ryouga Hibiki, she could kick down the wall and be out of here in no time. Standing up, Ryouga lifted her foot and aimed to bring down the whole wall. "Goodbye, hope we never meet again."
"Going Somewhere?"
Ryouga's foot stopped a whole centimeter away from the wall as the dry and all too familiar voice broke out behind her. Turning her head around, she came face to face with a smiling Cologne and three other Amazon girls holding large piles of clothes. "You, get me out of here." Making a grab for the old crone, Ryouga was rewarded with a rather hard bop on her head, sending her face first into the floor. Looking up, she glared at the old woman who was twirling her staff around with one hand and with a big smirk on her face. "Dammit, I'm not marrying anyone, do you understand?"
Cologne stopped twirling her staff and looked to the three Amazon girls.
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Mousse stared hard at the sword before him. Glimmering in the light as he moved his hand over the blade, he felt for any imperfections in the blade itself. Smiling, as none could be felt, he settled down to finish with the wrapping of his engagement gift. "Ryouga, It has been a long time, but tonight our engagement and marriage will be settled." Standing up, Mousse lifted the fine leather sheath for the sword and slid it in. As he regarded it, he wrapped a fine pink silk cloth around it and tied it together with a silk band.
Behind him, the other in the smith clapped as Mousse turned around and presented the package to the master smith. "Master Bo san, I ask that you finalize my work with your blessings." Holding out the gift-wrapped sword, he lowered his head to show his sincerity of the request.
Smiling, the elder Amazon male stepped forward and took the wrapped sword from Mousse. "I will put it into the shrine with the pure firing incenses until the ceremony of your finalized engagement tonight."
Bowing one last time in gratitude, Mousse looked up at the man who had stood by him as he worked on making the finest sword he could for the one he loved. Stopping, Mousse blinked as a sudden image of Shampoo flashed before him. "Maybe I'm not completely over her, but Ryouga is the girl I love, not Xian Pu."
Pushing the small cloth in front of the door aside, Mousse stepped out into the sun filled day and blinked his eyes. Spending three days inside the smith's house hadn't prepared him for the sudden amount of light outside the house. Finally able to see, he lowered his eyes to see a bald and wrinkled mummy holding onto the side of a staff. "Well Mousse, have you complete your gift for the outsider bride of yours?"
Glaring at the elder Yu-san, Mousse hid his hands inside the large sleeves of his robe as he bowed his head to the superior of his family. "Yes Elder, I have completed my gift for my coming wife." Hiding the more venom filled words as he spoke, Mousse waited for the elder to leave so he could return to his family home and prepare for his marriage at midnight.
Looking up, the elder Yu-san nodded as a rare smile crossed her face. Tapping Mousse on the shoulder with her staff, she grinned. "Well Mousse, I hope that you will have a happy marriage." Then the staff was pulled back and used as a means of looking at Mousse at an even height. "It can only be better than one with an Amazon woman."
Mousse blinked as the soft words hit him and made him step back in surprise. "Elder Yu-san?" Looking around again, Mousse found himself standing alone on the ground outside the smith's house. Smiling, he turned in the direction of his house. "Thank you, Great Grandmother."
Standing on the roof of the building, Yu-san stared down at her thickheaded great grandson and shook her head. "Mousse, you were always the rebellious one, just like your grandmother." Thinking over the over confident and love sick Amazon girl that had been her second child, she felt a pang of regret. "Maybe, I shouldn't have acted like that. But falling in love with an outsider that hadn't beaten you was forbidden back then." Using a trick that all the Elders in the Amazon tribe knew, she pogoed through the city using the roof tops as a road.
The trip back to his parent's house and his home for the last sixteen years was a long one, but to Mousse it wasn't long enough. The words of his great grandmother, even if she or his mother wouldn't admit that they were related, had him wondering. It had been common knowledge that the council or his mother hadn't accepted his grandmother's marriage to the outsider Hiroko, it had also sparked the elder woman's resentment to all outsiders, so why was she suddenly giving him her unofficial blessing?
"Well, if it isn't the lucky boy himself."
Groaning in embarrassment, Mousse struggled to get out of his father's embrace and to get up to his room. "Mom, tell him to let me go." The just as vision impaired woman looked up from her place at the end of the table and stared at him with an indifferent look. "Um. Mom you're okay with my marriage, aren't you?"
Standing up, the woman crossed through the room and stared down at her son with narrowed eyes from behind her trick glasses. "Just like my grandmother. Nothing but trouble." Pushing her husband away, she grabbed Mousse by the ear and dragged him further into the room. "Are you looking to increase the distance between the San clan and our family?"
Mousse pulled his mother's arm away with a cold look in his eyes. "No, but I'm still going to marry Ryouga, and that's the end of it." Turning away from the angry glare pointed at him from his mother, He looked at his father with a warmer gaze. "Father, I'll be in my room until the ceremony can begin." Bowing to the older man, Mousse quickly left the main room and made his way towards the room that served as his place in the building.
Closing the door, Mousse shook his head as he sat down on the simple bed and relaxed. "Dammit, the one person who never treated me as a family member suddenly speaks to me as a lost son, and then my own mother won't let me marry the one person I love." Mousse dropped back onto the bed and closed his eyes. Finding the robe he had selected for his wedding could wait a few moments.
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On the hills outside of the Village of the Amazons, a lone red haired girl and her panda were approaching the village in front of them. The guide was currently leading the way towards the village with a heavy heart. He had spent most of the time today warning the elder costumer about the danger of visiting the Amazons. And each of his warning had fallen on deaf ears. Now, he was leading them towards the village as he had agreed on when the panda had promised not to cause any trouble.
Ranma-chan, still fuming over turning into a girl, was busy rubbing her sore hand and shooting a death glare at the old man she called a father. "You know pops, if you knew any Chinese we wouldn't be in this mess." Glaring back at the road, Ranma-chan missed the angry look coming from Genma-panda.
Growling at his ungrateful son, Genma pulled out one of the trusty signs that he had learned to do in his panda form and quickly scribbled down a message on it. Flipping the sign around, he bonked his son on the head and used what could be seen, as a language for pandas, to get his son's attention on the sign. [Growf, something has come up boy.] The panda flipped the sign around when he noticed his son had finished reading it. [We will stop at the next village and get some] Once again the sign was flipped over, and the old writing on the back replaced with a new one. [More provisions. Then it's back to Japan, boy!]
Pulling the sign away from the large Panda, Ranma-chan glared up at the old fool, who could be seen as her father if he wasn't such a big idiot most of the time. "So, where is this village?" The question was aimed at the guide, as Ranma doubted her father had even bothered to study the map they had borrowed from the shop five villages back.
In front of them, the guide stopped and turned to face them as they passed the first houses. "Honored costumers, this is Joketsuzoku, village of Chinese Amazons." Looking around the village, the Guide noticed that the entire village was gathered near the center of all of the houses. "We in luck, they have party tonight."
Both Ranma-chan and Genma-panda looked up at the word party, something like that could only mean one thing. Food. Looking down at his son with a big panda grin as he rubbed his paws together, Genma-panda nodded and both of them began to walk towards the center of the village with a more rapid pace then before.
Stepping into the back of the large crowd, Ranma-chan blinked as she noticed that most of the males were sitting in the back, except for two of them who had been given a place near the center of the half circle. One of them was dressed in a rather elaborated robe with a beautiful bird symbol on it. The elder man sitting next to the boy was holding a large wooden box in his hands and was currently looking rather excited at the large platform in the very center of the circle.
The guide had removed his pipe before he had even had a chance to light it. This was not good, if any of the costumers were to cause any trouble right now, he would most likely be hunted down along with them. Turning to face the red haired girl, he spoke in a rather hushed voice. "Be very quiet honored costumer, it is Amazon wedding ceremony."
Ranma blinked and turned to face the guide, and then nodded. It hadn't taken long for a train martial artist like him to notice the number of weapons that some of the women were sitting with. Sitting down at one of the tables standing outside the rather large hut, Ranma-chan followed the event with a curious eye.
It didn't taken long before the circle of women and men suddenly became completely quiet. Looking in the direction that all the others were facing, she spotted a group of ten rather old women walking in a single line towards the platform. A few of them were not walking, but rather holding on to the side of a staff and using that to walk with.
Stopping on the platform, nine of the women sat down in a half circle. Facing the villages, the only one still standing up, lifted her staff and spoke in a clear voice. Turning to face the large hut behind the half circle, Cologne pointed her staff at it. Child of the outsiders, come out and receive the honor of becoming the wife and leader of the house of Mousse.
Ranma-chan blinked and looked to her side as a young purple haired girl opened the door into the hut to allow the four inside of it to leave it. As the group passed her, she closed the door and returned to face the circle and the platform. Ranma-chan narrowed her eyes and stared at the girl wearing a robe embodied with a tiger and leaves motif. The long black hair had been pulled into two ponytails and she was holding in her hands, a small wooden box.
Walking on both sides of the girl, two Amazon girls dressed in more dull robes were holding up a spear with both a red and blur scarf tied to it. Behind them, a third girl walked. Even if she didn't hold a weapon, it was clear that she was capable of putting up a good fight. Stopping in front of the platform, the two girls stopped and turned around to face the crowd, the third followed after the girl holding the box and looked up at the elders with a proud look in her eyes. Finishing her line, she turned around and walked down to sit among the other villages to wait for her second part of the marriage ceremony. As she walked past the two girls with the spears, she felt them lowered down to meet in an X.
Nodding to Ryouga in a friendly way, Cologne turned to look down at Mousse sitting next to his father. Even as she spoke, the two girls standing before the platform uncrossed their spears and allowed him to come closer to the girl he was going to marry. Looking at his father, Mousse took the wooden box from him and walked up to bow before each of the elders.
The guide leaned over to mumble a translation to Ranma-chan when he was rudely pushed out of the way by Mousse, holding a rather sharp and deadly set of knives in his free hand. "I don't care who you are, but for ruining my wedding, you are going to die!" Yelling out the last, Mousse blinked, as the panda looked at him with a somewhat questioning stare.
Then, a third member shoved her way into the group with a glare of her own, both fists clenched and a vein poking out on her forehead. "Ranma Saotome, must you always butt into everything!?" The last words were delivered with a good deal of venom and the very rage and emotion, pushed the more drugged and feminine Ryouga back and allowed the anger filled one to remain in complete control.
Ranma-chan looked from each one until she stopped at Ryouga with a scared look in her eyes. "Get those hands off me you, you… What the hell are you doing anyway? Aren't you a guy?" Ranma-chan blurted out as she stopped pulling on the hand holding her up. "What the heck are you doing getting married to this guy anyway."
Turning her head to stare at Mousse, the love drug kicked back in and the grip around Ranma-chan eased up. "Mousse… Uh… Well…" Shaking her head, Ryouga tried to beat down the desire to reach out and kiss the boy staring at her with a loving stare on his face. Stepping back from the table and holding her head, she looked up at Ranma with a pleading look. "Help me."
Looking more closely at Ryouga. Ranma-chan eyes narrowed as she spotted the halfway glazed over look in her eyes. "A drug." Turning her head to face Mousse, her hand snapped out and grabbed the boy at the front of robe, pulling him close enough to feel her breath on his face. "What have you done to him?"
Next to them, the guide had moved over to stand next to the confused Shampoo and begun to work as a guide to translate the words she didn't understand yet. Inside the Amazon girl's head, a fear had begun to grow. The outsider girl with the red hair had seen the signs of the love powder she had used on Ryouga. It was bad enough that she knew about it, but if Mousse found out, he might…
Ranma-chan snapped around at the roar and stared as the Amazon girl lifted up her bonbori and prepared to smash it down on her head. Acting on instinct, she dropped Mousse and spun around in a Circle Kick, passing right through the purple haired girl's defense and sending her flying through the air to land in the remains of the food, much to the sound of disappointment from Genma-panda when the food was ruined.
Pulling herself out of the remains of the Chicken and Beef flavored Ramen noodles, Shampoo turned around and stared long and hard on the Red Haired Girl with a look of pure hate. Stepping closer to the still battle ready Ranma-chan, she reached out slowly and grabbed her head gently, to the utter confusement of the pigtailed Girl. Tilting the head, she slowly moved her head in and placed a kiss on the cheek.
Even as Ranma-chan lifted up her hand to touch the place where she had kissed her, The Amazons around her had moved back with a loud gasp of surprise and bewilderment. Behind the Amazon girl, the guide had turned completely white and was making strange sounds. Then he rushed over and grabbed her hand. "We must to run Mr. Costumer."
Looking up at the guide with a look of surprise as they ran, Ranma-chan ignored the fact that the guide was holding her hand. "Why?"
Not looking back, the guide continued to run like the rampaging hordes were right behind him, aiming to kill him. "You just get Kiss of Death."
"Kiss of what?"
The guide's face became even more troubled as he spoke of the Kiss of Death. "Amazons have very big pride. Losing to outsider, is worse shame than death. Kiss of Death, is promise to chase you to end of earth and kill!"
Ranma-chan gulped as she looked back over her shoulder, running behind her, were Genma-chan, and behind him came the Chinese girl and… Ranma-chan turned her head back around and ran even faster when she spotted the large sword the girl was waving around in the air. It wasn't until she became aware of someone screaming bloody death at the panda that she looked back again.
Running up to the side of Genma-panda, Ryouga reached out and tried to pry her present to Mousse, lost from the amount of stuff that Genma-panda had grabbed off the table when he ran. And even further behind them and Shampoo, Mousse was running as well, yelling out promises to both Ranma-chan and Genma-panda for ruining his wedding.
++++++++++++End of Flashback+++++++++++++
Ryouga looked up from where she sat and stared at Akane with half closed eyes as she put down her cup of tea. "I did get my present back from Genma, but at that time, he had gotten us all lost in the woods, and since I didn't know my way around that part off China, I had no other choice but to stay with them."
Blinking her eyes, Akane looked from Ryouga to Mousse with a look of anger as she reached out for her trusted anti-pervert-mallet-of-doom, as she went over the part of Mousse trying to marry a drugged Ryouga, and in her mind that thing was worse then trying to grope a girl. "You… you pervert!!" Akane glared down at Mousse as his head was stuck into the blanket they had been sitting on. "I can't believe you would try to force Ryouga-san to marry you!!"
Ryouga blinked and then reached out to pull Mousse free from under it. "Akane, you should try and control your temper, Mousse was drugged as well remember?" Making sure that Mousse was okay, She turned back to face a nearly crying Akane, who shook with rage. "Akane, calm down will you? Look, sit down and I'll tell you something you should know."
Still holding her mallet, Akane glared at both of them. First at the pervert who had tried to force a girl into a marriage when she was drugged, and then at Ryouga who had the nerve to defend him even when it was her who had nearly been married. "How can you defend him after he nearly ruined your life?!"
Ryouga flinched and fought down the urge to slap Akane silly and settled for glaring up at her. "The powder stopped working four weeks ago." Her head turned away as she spotted the surprised look on Akane's face. "I stopped turning into a love sick person four weeks ago when Ranma and I finally found someone who had a cure for the powder."
Akane looked from Ryouga to Mousse with a look of confusion on her face as she fell down on her back. "So you are not drugged anymore, but what about the pervert?" Her finger pointed at Mousse who was still in lala land.
Ryouga looked at Mousse with a sad smile on her face. "The drug helped speed up the process of becoming a true girl, but it also affected me emotional. I love Mousse, just as I would love any girl I had met when I was a boy." Looking at Akane, Ryouga smiled as a set of tears began to run down her face as she remembered the moment she had finally accepted the harsh truth. "I gave the cure to Mousse as well when he showed up. And after he had taken it, he just stared at me, with those hollow eyes and finally, he ran away." Hiding her eyes by looking down at the ground, Ryouga fought back a choke. "I was so hurt by it, and that was when I learned, that I loved him. I really loved him."
Akane stared at Ryouga and felt her heart clench at the sight of Ryouga beating herself emotionally for it. This was worse then a physical beating, at least that you could get rid off in a few weeks, this was close to an emotional scar on his soul. "You… You are angry about it."
Ryouga turned her head and stared at a tree with a look of pure rage. "Of course, I've been raised as a boy, lived as a boy." Clenching her fist, Ryouga hammered it down onto the ground. "And then, I'm stuck as a girl forever, and now… I fall in love with another guy." Ripping her hands through the grass in order to hurt something, Ryouga looked up at the sky as a tear of anger flew from her eye. "You can't even BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH I HATE MYSELF FOR IT!" Silence ruled after the outburst as Ryouga lowered her head. "And yet, I can't help but feel my heart beating faster when I see him, I lose all will to hurt him when I see him… All I want to do is hug him and kiss him. And I hate myself for it, and yet… I can't help it." Ryouga borrowed her head into the safety of her arms and knees as she began to cry.
Still staring at her, Akane looked down at Mousse with a look of pity on her face. Falling back down, she closed her eyes, and wished for her big sister to be there. Kasumi would have known what to say, but her… She had no idea how to deal with stuff like this.
"Ryouga!"
Looking back over her shoulder, Akane blinked as she noticed Ranma standing there, his eyes full of pain and concern as he took in the scene he had wandered into. Turning to face Akane, he gave a halfhearted smile at her in an attempt to break the sense of sadness in the place. "So… now you know. I feel bad for it. If I hadn't given him the cure, this wouldn't have happened." Turning his head, Ranma looked at Mousse with an indifferent stare, then he stopped closer and bent down to pick him up, grunting from the weight of all the weapons hidden in the robe. "Akane, can you take Ryouga home?"
Akane nodded, dumbfound, and stood up dusting off the grass from her dress. Walking over to the still crying girl, she bent down and reached out to touch her shoulder. "Ryouga… Ryouga." When the girl before her looked up, Akane fought down the urge to hug and cry along with her. Those eyes, they held so much pain in them. "Come on, can you walk home or do you need some help?"
Ryouga looked past Akane when she noticed the red Chinese shirt and the slippers of the boy holding Mousse in a rather loose grip. "Ranma?" Her words hung in the air as Ranma smiled at her, and then gave a small nod to show that he understood, that he had always understood. Turning back to Akane, She reached out and accepted the hand and used it to pull herself up. "Thank you, Ranma… Akane." Turning away, Ryouga felt Akane wrap an arm around her, gently guiding her towards the Tendo home.
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Jumping off the boat she had borrowed in order to get to Japan, Shampoo stretched her body and smirked. Now that she had made her way to Japan, all she had to do was find the pigtailed outsider who had dared to humiliate her at such a public event.
TBC: Back to normal? Invasion of the Amazons.