Disclaimer: I don't own any of Ranma.
Chapter 12
It had been almost two weeks since they'd started their patrols and so far nothing had come of it, and while they did their best to visit Ryoga he was becoming a bit stir crazy. The argument he and Ranma got into about their curses's and which was worse the first time Ranma showed up female would of gone longer if not for Ryoga having about as much knowledge of the female body as Ranma did, and Ranma wasn't going to explain any of it, leaving them in an embarrassed and confused impasse.
"We'll see you when we get back Ryoga, bye" Sachiko said, leaving the building through the door Ranma was holding open with Shirokuro who was on her leash.
"Sure, see ya later." He said, hoping his smile wasn't too obviously fake as he once again was left behind and unable to help or do anything.
Once back on the other side of the lake, a steward for the estate having rowed her back across in a small canoe, she met back up with Ranma who was currently in his female form and Mirei who was petting the puppies on their leashes. Ranma adjusted his school uniform's pants and belt a little, looking a bit uncomfortable.
"You sure you're okay going on patrol?" She asked Ranma with a concerned look.
Ranma straightened up and gave her a weak smile. "Yea yea, not going to let this girly stuff keep me down, It's just I have to keep the belt so tight on these pants or they'll fall off, but then that's not very comfortable after a while…." He said, explaining his fiddling with his clothes.
"Well, you could always wear a skirt, I'm sure mother wouldn't freak out about that too much." She teased him.
"Never, Ever, Happening" Ranma replied with a glare.
"Daddy, magical girls don't wear pants!" Mirei tells Ranma in her exasperated tone, not stopping a beat from scratching Splat's cheeks.
"Mirei…" Ranma groaned, "I'm not a magical girl Mirei…" He once again repeated, which after the thousandth time he wondered why he even still bothered.
"I know." Mirei replied quickly which gave Ranma a glimmer of hope that he might have finally gotten through to her. "You don't have disguise pen, yet." she followed up with, causing Ranma and Sachiko to face fault.
"Come on you two, lets get going before it gets dark, we can talk about magical girl outfits as we walk." Sachiko said, calling back to them as she and Shirokuro headed towards the gate. Mirei grabbed a hold of the leashes near Ranma's hand that was actually holding them, while she wasn't old enough to hold them herself, she still liked to pretend she was the one walking the puppies as they headed out.
For what seemed forever, Ranma suffered through his daughters ideas of what kind of skirt he should wear, as well as other parts of the costume. Sachiko did manage to finally get Mirei on a different topic as they started to play a game to say the name of all the numbers they came across while on the walk.
"Sorry she got so fixated on that, I didn't think she could be so...creative with her costume ideas." Sachiko apologized to Ranma, hoping he'd cheer up a bit.
"It's fine, really. I think I've seen her draw half of the ones she described." He replied. "Besides, mom's already asked me a few times if I wanted to get more "feminine" clothes for when I'm stuck, but the underwear is already weird enough for me. My counselor says I kinda have a gender dysphoria issue with this body, but that's kinda to be expected we guess, I think her saying was "we're not working with a large body of evidence" or something."
Sachiko nodded along to his explanation, "That probably does make sense, though it seems your handling this time being stuck better."
Ranma shrugged, "Well, it helps not being paranoid about hiding it, and Jiro won't even make eye contact, though most of the guys won't really. I just wish I could do PE still, having to sit on the sidelines stinks."
"Stinky Binker, Stinky Binker" Mirei starts to chant, pointing at the two puppies back and forth.
"Mirei, that's not a nice thing to call them, you know their names." Sachiko chides.
"Shirokuro!" Sachiko yelps as she's pulled forward suddenly, the dog ears up and alert as it begins to strain at the leash. Looking back, she gives a quick bark and resumes straining.
"Here, Go, we'll catch up!" Sachiko tells Ranma, trading leashes and making sure she had a firm grip on Mirei's hand before she tried to run off following also.
Ranma nods and begins to let Shirokuro lead him quickly down the street, stopping at cross walks only for Ranma to pick up the dog and leap over them to continue quicker. After two blocks striaght forward Shirokuro turned left and heads down a more residential street, following it for another three before seeing a woman across the street that she begins to bark to happily, her tail wagging excitedly. Ranma notices the woman is actually somewhat petite compared to the pack she's carrying, probably only coming up to his mothers chin, as she turns towards the barking, he see's she has short black hair, cut rather coarsely that's framing a face that looks weathered and tired with dry skin and baggy black eyes.
"Shirokuro?" The woman yells across the street, "What are you doing in Russia?" she questions the dog.
Making his way across, Ranma greets her. "Hi, you two seem to know each other, you wouldn't happen to be a Ryoga Hibiki's mother would you?"
"Oh my, you know my son, and you're walking our dog, are you perhaps his girlfriend?" The woman asks, suddenly her eyes lighting up and sparkling as she looks Ranma over.
"WHAT! No no no no!" Ranma shouts, waving his hands back and forth frantically. "We're just friends, We've been trying to find you and your husband for a few weeks now, he has something to talk to you about. Would you be able to follow us to where he is?" Ranma asks the woman.
"Oh my, I'd love to see him again, of course, but who is "Us"? She asks, her eyes not quite stopping to sparkle as she considers the fervent denial from the young lady.
Just then Ranma see's Sachiko and the rest of the group rounding the corner, and gives them a wave. "There they are, that's Sachiko and Mirei, and Shirokuro's two puppies, Checkers and Splat." Ranma explains as they wait for the group to catch up.
"Hello, I'm Sachiko Saotome, this is Mirei Saotome, and you've met Ranma Saotome." Sachiko says as she finally meets up with them.
"Oh, I'm honored to meet such charming friends of my son, my name is Hiromi Hibiki." She said, smiling at this new girl that had a charming look to her also.
"If you'll follow us, we can find a phone and call for a ride to the estate where Ryoga's staying." Ranma says, offering a hand to the woman.
Hiromi nods and takes the hand, noting that while the girl looks young, her hands were rough and there was a large amount of strength in them, almost as much as her own. Giving a smile to the little girl who was hiding behind her sisters dress and staring at her, they started back towards the main road.
# # #
"How is she?" Ranma asked his grandmother as she arrived back on shore. Having stayed behind while Sachiko took Mirei home for dinner.
"Confused, scared, and not very happy about being detained. But she's understanding and being able to see her son is helping. The demon is there, but it's not behaving like with Ryoga, its deeper and isn't lashing out if she's sad or happy." Kofumi told Ranma, her expression showing some mild worry. "She says she never had the curse until getting married, that at first she was able to do things normally, only getting slightly turned around in the house. It wasn't until Ryoga was about eight or nine that she started getting more lost, which seems similar to Ryoga's story about how it mostly got to where it is now around his junior high years with you."
"So he wasn't born lost, just like...corrupted over time?" Ranma asked a bit skeptical, imagining Ryoga not being lost seemed impossible.
"Many evils fester slowly, making it hard to detect them at first, until they grow strong enough to be able to protect themselves. I imagine it's similar here, as a young child wandering the world wouldn't survive, the same if its mother was always absent. It wants to feed off the Hibiki's, not kill them. Yet." She said ominously, but her face remaining hard and neutral.
"Do you think it will work, if we can find his dad and you can destroy the cursed object?" Ranma worried.
"There is no hard certainty when it comes to demons, how deep its ingrained, what holds it might have over others, impossible to know. So, we will do what we can, to stop evil and do our best to protect others, like we have been for millennia. Now, get home, you have many responsibilities to attend to as do I." Kofumi tells Ranma, waving him towards the gate as she turns and heads back towards the administration building.
Ranma says his good bye and heads out. 'I wish she'd treat me as nicely when I was a guy, she still acts all...prickly when I show up as one.' He thought as he left, thinking of last weeks patrol where his greeting to her as he passed by was met with just a grunt and a sour look. 'Heck, I wish people treated my guy side nicer in most cases, but I guess Dr. Suzuki's right, people are more wary of guys they don't know well.' He thought, remembering his last session when they talked about how he'd been observing how others see his feminine side.
Over the last two weeks he'd tried to pay more attention, but he wasn't quite sure if how people treated him was because of his body, or just them. His guy friends just tried not to stare which they'd all agreed too. The girls in class didn't seem to care anymore, or at least stopped the jealous looks from the first week or two. Shampoo and Lufa preferred his male side he felt after they both seemed to be letting their hands wander if they got close, while Lotion didn't seem to mind either form, the one time she pinched his female bottom having caused Ranma to turn beat red for the rest of that patrol they'd shared.
Akane was treating him differently during sparing, as she really unleashed on his male side, and he'd learned to not grapple with her less she go into a rage about him being a pervert. When sparring with his female side though she was far more calm and in control, making it actually harder to get through her defenses even with the increased speed he had. She was nicer too, checking on him after she'd sent him into the wall, instead of just smiling and walking to get some water when she'd done the same to his guy form.
Sachiko though was an enigma to him, she had spent most of the time together focusing on their studies or Mirei, and he didn't think she really cared which form he was in. Admittedly though he hadn't been seeing much of her due to the patrols, practice, and hanging out with his friends or going for noodles at the Cate Cafe. But at least he knew Mirei was starting to like her daddy as just her daddy now, and didn't ask him to change, much.
# # #
"Once Ranma's grandma showed up, they moved me here while they try to get all of us together so they can remove the demon spirit or what ever from us." Ryoga finished explaining to his mother, as they both ate the meals provided too them. While they were in the same room, neither had enough slack to reach the other, being about two meters apart at best, which is where they were about as they sat and ate.
"So, the red headed girl from before is actually your friend Ranma from junior high, who's a boy? Who had the child with the other girl, Sachiko?" Ryoga's mother asked, shaking her head slightly.
"Yea, she's the one I helped get to the Tendo's because of her parents." Ryoga replied between mouthfuls.
"This is all...so much." She answered, staring down at her food with a perplexed look on her face.
Ryoga finished his food, letting his mom process through the story that took him so long to go over. He sat and looked at her in more detail, seeing her rough hands and messy hair he tries to imagine his mother wandering the world like he had been the last few years. She'd always been a homemaker since as long as he could remember, sometimes helping out in a shop for a friend, but was always there to pick him up after grade school, with Shirokuro's help of course. Shirokuro currently being leashed up along the wall he was attached too, having been a bit too excited to let them eat in peace.
"Have you seen your father lately?" His mom asked as she resumed eating, her voice shifting more towards a monotone, Ryoga can see her gaze drifting away from him.
"No, last I remember was at my Junior high entrance ceremony. He got separated from us in the crowd and I haven't seen him since." He replied with a sad frown.
His mother nodded, "The same for me." She seemed strangely detached as she talked about her husband, not like before when she was listening to his stories Ryoga noticed.
"You okay mom?" Ryoga asked.
"I...I'm having trouble remembering things. That woman, she asked if any of my family before had similar problems. I said I couldn't think of any that did, But now...I can't seem to remember any of them clearly. I know I have parents...but I can't even get their names or faces to appear…" She said, becoming distressed as she seemed to try harder to get something to appear in her head.
"What is the earliest thing you can remember?" Ryoga asked, hoping that might be a clue to his mother's problems. While he didn't think he had any memory problems, its hard to remember what you've forgotten, so he couldn't be sure.
"I...I remember getting married to your father, it was just the two of us, but I don't know why." She replied after some time, her body oddly sitting up straight and stiff.
"You and dad never talked about any family, maybe they didn't approve?" Ryoga offered, finding it odd now that he thinks about it, that he knew nothing about either set of his grandparents.
Concern showing on his moms face, her hands rubbing her head as if trying to physically massage the memories out. "I...I know there's something there, but I just can't get it to come...into focus?" His mom said suddenly more distressed, a tear rolling down her cheek as her hands seem to be putting more and more pressure on her head.
"Mom...mom calm down, it's okay. It's probably this damn curse doing it. Let's just wait until they can find dad and defeat this thing." Ryoga says reassuringly, wishing he could reach out and comfort her.
Hiromi does seem to hear him thankfully, and pulls her arms away and takes a deep breath. "Yes...I suppose you're right." She says suddenly serene. Looking back at Ryoga though, her mood seem doesn't seem to match her voice, as her face is once again a blank neutral mask.
"You've grown so much since I last saw you, and so handsome, I'm sure there are some girls interested in you." His mother suddenly said with a smile, and a small glint in her eye.
Ryoga blushed at the thought of a girl liking him, the memory of Akane and Lotion finding out about his curse though made him turn a deeper red though as he stuttered out, "Mom...there…there...there's no way. I'm...too..too...lost all the time."
"Well then, once they do get this curse removed, I'll have to start talking to all these girls you mentioned, they sound quite interesting." She replied while Ryoga hid his face with his hands and wondered what part of the curse this was, not seeing his mother's eyes have a sudden shadow around them.
# # #
"Mom, you're making it too tight." Ranma wheezed as his mother pulled on the obi going around his kimono.
"That's how it is dear, now stop fussing, you're worse than Mirei." Nodoka said, slapping his hands away from the outfit.
"This is awful, why do girls put up with it?" Ranma grumbled while holding his arms out stright for his mother.
"Don't complain, you're the one that upped the ante to your rock paper scissors game with Akane about the chores." Nodoka said, standing back and admiring her work.
"She cheated, how could she possibly have won ten times in a row!" Ranma grumbled, no way anyone could guess correctly that many times.
Nodoka smirked, having watched her son's terrible poker face practically give away his next choice to the point that Mirei could of beaten him. "She didn't cheat, you're just terrible at bluffing dear. Now put your arms down and give me a walk and twirl to see how things are settling." She instructed him. Seeing his female side in this older kimono from Akane, she was struck at how well the dark emerald green high lighted her hair, along with the shape of her body, she wasn't sure about this at first when she'd heard about the bet he'd lost with Akane, but she had to admit it was fun to dress up his girl side, even if he complained the whole time.
Performing the movements as instructed with zero enthusiasm, Ranma hated how confined he felt, there was no way he could fight in this outfit, and even moving his head too quickly might mess up the hair ornaments his mother had put in place. Finally getting an approving nod from his mother, they headed out of the bedroom and down to the entry where everyone was waiting to head to the festival.
Ranma gritted his teeth as he closed his eyes and grabbed the banister, readying himself for the laughs and jibes from everyone. After the first two steps though he didn't hear anything, which suddenly made him even more self conscious than before. Deciding to risk it, he opened his eyes to see the Tendo sisters dressed in their own kimonos and yukatas looking back at him, before getting blinded by a flash of light.
"Aaugh, Nabiki, what the heck!" Ranma shouted while rubbing his eyes, still only half way down the steps.
"Well I couldn't take one with your eyes shut, that would just be poor photographer skills." She answered back as if offended.
"So help you, if any pictures of this show up at school…" Ranma glowered, giving the older girl a glare she hoped would melt through the ice queen's heart.
"She has promised to do no such thing to Mrs. Saotome already, the picture was for me, maybe I'll frame it and put on my trophy mantle." Akane said with a snicker.
"Har Har, laugh it up, I'll win next time and then you'll be in a tuxedo." Ranma said, blowing a raspberry at Akane. "Now can we get this show on the road, the sooner we're back the sooner I can get out of this getup." He asked as he reached the bottom.
"Almost, Mirei managed to get her's loose again, so Sachiko was just fixing it up in our room." Akane explained, and as if cue a door opening from upstairs could be heard.
"Mirei, no running this time, we don't want to get our dresses messy or ripped." Sachiko called out after the little girl already running towards the stairs.
"Festival Festival Festival!" Mirei cried out excitedly, barely slowing down enough at the stairs to not go flying off. She was almost to the bottom before she even realized Ranma was there all dressed up, stopping and staring for a good second. "Wah! You're so pretty daddy!" she cried as she quickly moved around Ranma to look at his kimono and hair which his mom had undone and restyled into a fancy bun, held in place by a decorative jade comb.
Ranma returned a pained smile at her, hoping to not run into anyone they knew at this festival. "You look very cute yourself, though I believe I heard mommy asking you to slow down." He reminded the girl. Mirei was in a light pink yukata, with cute yellow chicks printed around the waist and belt, and a few red flowers along the arms.
"Mommy is pretty too, see!" Mirei responded, pointing to the top of the stairs where Sachiko had appeared. Suddenly the focus of attention, Sachiko blushed some as she watched Ranma's eyes gaze up at her as his mouth slowly fell open.
'That's not pretty, that's gorgeous' Ranma thought to himself as he watched her come down the stairs in her dark red kimono that had a pink cherry blossom motif seemingly blowing them from the right side to the left. The green of the obi seemed to almost match his own kimono while her hair, while hanging down, now had multiple small braids through out it. A pair of pearl earrings and a flowery hair ornament that hung down the left side accented her green eyes.
Seeing Ranma was in a bit of a stupor still when Sachiko reached the bottom of the stairs, Nodoka gave him a poke from behind.
"Ah!" Ranma shouted out suddenly as he came back to reality and found himself almost face to chest with Sachiko in the now cramped entry way. "I ah...I meant "Ah, we can go now"." He said, quickly turning towards the doorway only to see if blocked by the Tendos.
"Smooth…" Nabiki says with a roll of her eyes while Akane gives him a glare with her eyes shifting back and fotth between him and Sachiko while Kasumi seemed to mutter something about young boys.
"You look nice Ranma, mom did a good job." Sachiko says, pulling his attention back to her.
"Uhm...thanks, you look...good yourself." Ranma replied, looking at her face but avoiding eye contact.
"Lets GOOOO!" Mirei whined, taking Ranma and Sachiko's hands and tugging them towards the entrance.
"Okay okay, lets head over to the temple grounds, you two bottomless stomachs are going to make some vendors very happy tonight." Sachiko said with a smile as she was dragged along.
# # #
"#Aiyah, I almost don't believe it.#" Shampoo said as she spotted Ranma in the group as they came to the entrance to the temple grounds where the late spring festival was happening. Lotion and Lufa besides her with similar wide eyes at the red headed girl in the green kimono.
"#I didn't think he'd actually go through with it…#" Lufa said, though seeing Ranma grumbling and glaring at some boys that walked by, she could tell he wasn't too happy about it.
"#His mom really went all out, I think he's got some makeup on.#" Lotion said, causing the other two girls to take another look at Ranma's face in detail.
"Lotion! See, I told you I won!" Akane shouted to the group of amazon's as they got close enough to recognize them. The three girls snapping out of their staring and started to walk over to the group.
Ranma was about to complain about Akane shouting when he looked up and saw the three amazons headed his way, nearly tripping as his brain began to short circuit. The three girls were wearing traditional Chinese cheongsam dresses that left little to any boys imagination with deep necklines and slits up the side that went almost all the way up to their waist. The girls had obviously picked out their preferred colors with Shampoo's being lilac, Lufa's a lighter jade green, and Lotion's sky blue, but all three dresses looked to have the same gold highlights through out.
While the group began to stop and greet the girls, Mirei was on a mission after seeing other kids with treats, masks, and toys coming from the entrance and continued to try and drag Ranma and Sachiko along.
"Mirei, wait up." Sachiko said trying to hold back the little girl safely with out pulling her Yukata loose.
"It's alright, you three go on ahead and let her enjoy herself." Nodoka called over to Sachiko, giving her a quick wink before turning back to talk with the girls about their dresses. The three amazons watching Ranma go but feeling powerless as it would be rude to ignore his mother and her constant questions.
Mirei's first target ended up being a chocolate banana, to which all three ended up getting, though Ranma's seemed to just disappear while Mirei needed to have her face wiped constantly less she end up wearing it more on her face than actually consuming. Next up she wanted a cute panda mask from a vendor and then some cotton candy that Sachiko veto'd to prevent a sugar overload too early. After grabbing some takoyaki and yakisoba to munch on they made their way to the game stalls where Mirei proceeded to win a water balloon yo-yo and a few other trinkets.
"This is a lot of fun, I'd always wondered what these festivals were like as a kid." Ranma said to Sachiko as they watched Mirei throw some hoops at the various bottles.
"Why doesn't it surprise me your dad wouldn't have taken you…" Sachiko said with a roll of her eyes.
"Cause you know he's so cheap he'd only have tried to get the gold fish to save on feeding me for a week." Ranma replied with a smirk, looking back at the goldfish catching booth they'd passed and prevented Mirei from getting soaked in when she tried to pet them, much to her dismay. Sachiko couldn't help but laugh at the bizarre idea.
"Onee-chan...I want panda!" Mirei said, turning to Ranma and pointing at a plush along the prize wall, her voice sounds like she might be on the verge of tears after failing to win it herself a third time.
Picking up one of the rings and flicking it between his hands a bit he looked back down at her. "No problem, leave it up to your daaaa….Onee-chan." Ranma replied, barely catching his slip up in time.
"Hey mister, what do I need to do to win the panda doll?" Ranma calls out to the booth operator and pointing to the prize.
"Four of your five rings need to be on any of the four green bottles." The man answers, giving a snide smirk as the green ones had wider mouths to make it harder for the rings to go around.
Ranma returned the man's smirk with his own patented cocky grin. Handing the man the money for five rings, he gently readied one, seemingly taking his time and trying to aim in an exaggerated way, only for the ring to bounce off the middle golden bottle.
"Oh, gonna have to try harder." The man called out with a chuckle.
"Oh, you mean like this?" Ranma replied, flicking all four of his remaining rings into the air at once, each one falling perfectly onto one of each of the green bottles. "I'd like the panda please." he said in his most overly cutesy voice he'd learned to use on ice cream vendors thanks to Shampoo.
"What..but..how…" The man stumbled on his words, eyes wide as he picked up the four rings to inspect them before slowly going over and retrieving the prize and handing it down to Mirei who had her arms open wide.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" Mirei said to Ranma as she bounced next to him with the panda in her hands. She soon looked around at all the other games though, and holding the panda in a hug, hid the smile that would of made Nabiki proud. "Let's go get more!" She said as she started to bolt to the next booth causing Ranma and Sachiko to have to hurry after her.
# # #
"There they are!" Lufa shouted back to Shampoo and Lotion over the buzz of the crowd, pointing down one of the small alley ways of vendors. It had taken them what felt forever to finally get away from Mrs. Saotome and her constant questions and request for help, it was obvious she'd been trying to stall them in Lufa's opinion.
As the three made it closer to their target though they realized there was something going on, something that involved Ranma shouting as a group of boys while Sachiko looked on a bit frightened and holding Mirei. Lufa quickened her pace, giving a hand signal to the other girls who nodded and jumped to the sides to begin flanking. Doing a flying leap over a large group, and earning a number of nose bleeds from boys below much to her compliment, Lufa landed just as Ranma was ready to throw a punch at the boy in front of the group of five.
"Ranma, I don't think your mother would appreciate you ruining your outfit after she worked so hard on it." Lufa said like a snide smile as she slid up next to him, wrapping her arm around his right arm and then pulling him a bit further back towards Sachiko. "Now what is the problem?" She asks Ranma, aware of a crowd starting to form around the disturbance.
"The problem is head jackass over there thinks he can cop a feel when ever he pleases." Ranma snarls out. "We were playing the cork gun game and he grabbed both of us." He further explained, his aura lighting up when he mentioned Sachiko had been molested also. Well the boy in front didn't seem to notice or care about the small red head now glowing red, his three friends behind him seemed to look a little worried.
"It's a crowded place, I's just got bumped into ya's, that's all." The leader said with a wide grin. "Why don'tcha come with us, and we can make it up ta ya…" Taking a step forward he tries to grab Lufa's wrist, but she easily dodged it and stepped back, now right up against Sachiko and Mirei who both looked frightened.
"Hah, not in a million years." Ranma shouted back, trying to take a step forward before being pulled back by Lufa. Giving her an annoyed look as he really wanted to pummel these guys, she just gave him a stern look, almost like his mother would give him when she wasn't asking.
"What, you'se think you're too good for us, like you'se some upper class ladies just cause you're dressed up all fancy?" The boy replied, getting some laughs from his buddies who seemed a bit more brave with Ranma being held back.
Lufa put on her most appeasing smile she used for customers as she spotted Lotion and Shampoo in position. "Oh my, why that is not the case at all, you're simply not our type, being such crass, uncultured, and useless males." She replied, quickly turning Ranma towards her and leaning over to plant a kiss on his lips, to which his whole body stiffened in shock.
The crowd itself seemed to go quiet but there were three shouts of "LUFA!" heard clearly from Sachiko, Shampoo, and Lotion who were all a bit shocked or upset at the display. Finishing the kiss Lufa deftly pushes the dazed Ranma back to Sachiko, his face frozen in shock still while a few whistles are heard from the crowd. The group of boys now distracted by the show seem to lose their steam, the leader unsure how to even respond as he just stutters to himself.
"Unless you want to keep harassing us in front of everyone, I suggest you leave, maybe go handle your...problems." Lufa said a cold tone glancing down at the boys bulging pants.
Turning red in the face, the other boys quickly start to head away, leaving their leader suddenly alone and his confidence dropping. "What ever, we can do betta then u'se anyway." He angrily yelled back as he followed after his friends.
"Lufa!" Shampoo and Lotion say as one as they land next to her, a mixture of anger and jealousy showing.
SLAP
The three girls turn to look at Sachiko who's wincing as she shakes her hand, obviously regretting her recent action. Seeing the three looking back at her along with Mirei's wide eyes she gets defensive. "What, I was just trying to snap him out of of...what ever this is." She says haughtily while motioning to Ranma's still completely stiff body with a glazed over face.
"#Jealous?#" Lufa asks the other two girls.
"#Jealous.#" They respond, all giving Sachiko a knowing look to which she frowns at not knowing what they said.
"Is daddy broken like the TV?" Mirei asks, staring at her fathers odd behavior. "Hit him again." Knowing that it could take a couple whacks before the TV would work.
"No, we are not hitting Ranma again, my hand already hurts…" Sachiko replies to Mirei who is now poking Ranma's thigh to see if she gets any response.
Ranma seems to suddenly snap back to reality, taking in a big breath, and seeing all the girls looking at him, does truly the greatest move his father ever taught him, and runs away in a panic. Lufa quickly grabs the back of the dresses of Lotion and Shampoo before they could chase after him and simply smiles at Sachiko.
"Go get him, It would be our honor to make sure Mirei is safe and has a good time, isn't that right Sisters?" Lufa says knowing that she and Sachiko couldn't possibly out match the other two in tracking the boy down, and not wanting to give them any alone time. Sachiko gives her a questioning glance before nodding and chasing off in Ranma's direction.
"Well Mirei, what would you like to do next?" Lufa says with a smile to the little girl.
Looking up at the three girls, knowing they were martial artist like her daddy, a devious smile once again crept up on her face. "I want those!" She said, pointing to more stuffed animals in a game booth.
"Oh, which one?"
"All of them…" Mirei replied, a laugh escaping her that gave Lufa a shiver as she got a flash of Nabiki in her mind.
# # #
"Ranma!" Sachiko shouted once more, working her way through another busy path but still having no luck. The loud sounds and bright lights now in full effect as the sun had gone down. Seeing a side path up the hill to the shrine proper, she decided that maybe a view from above would help. 'How hard can it be to find a red head…' She thought, annoyed and tired at the search going on for so long.
"You don't want to go up there." Ranma said, suddenly just a few feet behind her.
"What?" Sachiko said in confusion as she turned around to see the disheveled look of Ranma. His outfit now loose and lopsided due to his quick exit it was never designed to withstand, she notived a rip along the left side that went up almost a to his knee.
"I tried to hide there first but uh...there's a bunch of couples…" He said with some embarrassment.
Suddenly understanding his implication, she also got a look of embarrassment and quickly stepped back down away from the path towards him.
"Ranma, are you...okay?" She asked, closer now she could see that he'd obviously had some tears and ended up rubbing his eyes and making a mess of the makeup. Seeing his hesitancy to answer, she took his hand and guided him down to sit along the stone wall that bordered this side of the festival.
"I...I don't know what to think. Lufa just kisses me in front of everyone, when I'm a girl, and...and I liked it. But why was it different from when we kissed back in junior high, does my guy side not like girls, or does my girl side just really like them? Maybe I do like Lufa and that's why, but what if only my girl side likes her? I don't know how any of this works. I just...I just really wish I could punch that asshole right now."
Sachiko scooted a little closer and purt her left arm around him, he jumped a little at the touch but let her pull his smaller body against her side. "I'm glad you didn't. He'd probably end up in the hospital, get the police involved, school would find out…" She said, trailing off.
Ranma groaned as he realized how bad it could have been if had been allowed to do what he wanted. "Argh...What's the point of protecting the weak, if I just get in more trouble for it…" He complained.
"How was it different from when we use to kiss…" Sachiko asked as if she hadn't heard him, keeping her face looking down at the ground.
Ranma seemed to hold in a breath, taking a few seconds before answering. "When...When Dr. Suzuki asked me about us, I said I didn't really understand any of it. Everything was training to me back then, so I just watched, learned, and demonstrated I could do it. Thanks to pops, I have "stunted emotional growth" and just didn't think about that kinda stuff back then. So...when we use to...kiss, it was like I was just going through the motions, if you were happy it meant I did it right I figured and that made me feel...proud." Ranma answered glumly.
Sachiko felt like her stomach fell out at the realization Ranma never even really enjoyed their time together back then any more than a simple lesson. She really had just taken advantage of him, a clueless boy who'd been raised by such an asshole of a father that it made her own almost seem bearable. 'Maybe this is just some karmic justice…' She thought as tears began to roll down her cheaks.
Seeing her starting to cry after he told her how he felt made Ranma panic. "I'm sorry, I uhm, should of known better back then, please don't cry." he hurriedly apologized.
"It's not." Sachiko begins before wiping her eyes and looking at Ranma. "It's not your fault, it's all mine. You were like an innocent kid back then and I just lied and used you over and over, and then got us into this giant mess and you never even at least had some enjoyment from any of it. How am I any better than those boys tonight?" She said through tears and choked back cries.
Ranma felt his heart beating wildly, Sachiko's grip would probably leave a bruise on a normal person as she started to truly wail into his shoulder. His brain was screaming at him to stop her crying, but offering nothing in the form of a plan on how to do that. Suddenly, something took over though and he simply began to breath and try to calm his mind, he realized it was from his training with his father, to always keep a cool head in a fight, but not sure why this kind of instinct would occur now.
As he was able to calm himself, he thought back to his sessions with Dr. Suzuki, about all his own self doubt and hate he was feeling about this situation. How he'd explained he hated not being there for her when her parents were hurt her, to help her escape. Dr. Suzuki had asked him how does someone get over their hate, to which Ranma hadn't had an answer. She'd told him that it was only when he could forgive himself, that he'd be able to move on, which of course he thought was awkward at the time.
"I forgive you." He told Sachiko, surprising himself a bit that it came out easily.
Sachiko pulled her head back from his shoulder, it was a mess of stray hair, blurred makeup, tears, and snot. "WHAT!" She shouted.
"I...I forgive you, for all of it." Ranma said, a little harder the second time but he added some resolve to it.
"You Can't! You can't do that!" She screamed, offended.
Ranma blinked, but replied quickly. "Yea, I can. I. Forgive. You." To which she quickly slipped down from the wall and turned away from him, beginning to step away from him.
"Sachiko, don't…" His words falling short as the girl began to vomit up all the food from the evening. Quickly hopping down he moved to help support her as she heaved until she was dry.
"You...okay now?" He asked as she seemed to finally be able to breath normally.
She turned and seemed to fall onto his smaller frame, clearly exhausted from being sick and the crying. "Home...please." Was all she said in response.
After wishing he could of changed back first, he quickly cradled her as best he could and began the trip back home.
# # #
Slipping into the bath felt like heaven after all the events of the night, and the long week of being stuck as a girl, and then forced into that stupid getup. Ranma chuckled as he heard excited shouts coming in the window from below as Mirei sorted through all the things they'd won her, glad he wasn't going to be the one to have to break it to her that she would only be able to keep three of them, the rest going to a charity. After Nodoka had found Mirei cackling like Nabiki does around money, she decided it would be a good idea for the young woman to have to break the news due to her "poor influence" on a child.
Unfortunately, his brain wasn't going to let him relax though as it played back the other events of the evening. 'Great...can't go a minute with out you being a problem.' He thought dejectedly towards his crotch as it reacted to the memory of Lufa's full on kiss. 'I guess at least this means my guy side likes girls still.' absently he moved his fingers to his lips as he thought what it might have been like if he was a guy at the time. That train of thought ended up going longer and a bit more lurid than he had planned and it wasn't until he heard the doors to the bath's entry room open that he was snapped out of it.
As Soun and Genma entered the bathing area and spotted Ranma, they both stopped in their tracks, odd expressions on their faces, like a mix of confusion, sympathy, disappointment, and then eventually they both just started laughing at him.
"What the hell's so funny?" Ranma asked angrily while glaring at the two men.
"You ah...You're gonna need to ask the girls for some help…" Soun was finally able to get out between laughing and gasping for breath, having already fallen on his knees.
'What the hell?' Ranma though as he looked over his whole body, quickly standing up to look at his legs. "There ain't nothing wrong with me, what you two idiots laughing about?" He said, balling up his fist.
The two men stopped laughing when Ranma rose out of the water though, their mirth suddenly replaced by feelings of inadequacy as they adjusted their small towels. Soun finally gave a cough and began to move towards the washing stations to soap up. Without looking back he simply told Ranma, "A bunch of makeup is water proof Ranma, you're gonna need help cleaning all of it off."
It took about two blinks before things registered in Ranma's mind and he quickly ran into the entry area with the sink and mirror to look at himself. Sure enough, while some had washed off in the bath, most had simply been smeared around, making him look like some sort of degenerate clown. Groaning, he quickly dried off and changed into his pajamas before heading down the stairs to find his mom.
She wasn't around though, and another round of laughter from the Tendo sisters was all he got before Akane took pity on him and took him back to the bathroom and showed him where the makeup removing pads where and how to use them. Finally cleaned up he headed back down to check on Mirei and wait for his mother.
"Daddy, Look at Pandas!" Mirei cried happily as he entered the family room, she was crowded next to a pile of at least ten stuffed panda's of various sizes.
"Wow, your onee-chans really won you everything…" He replied with a smile, looking at various stacks of different animals now sorted, along with a catch all pile that had to be at least twenty or thirty more.
"I'm going to sleep here tonight." She stated, laying down on the largest panda which was bigger than even him.
"I'm...not to sure about that, but you can probably bring one or two with you to bed tonight." He answered her, knowing there wasn't any way she'd be allowed to sleep here.
"But...but they will be lonely!" Mirei says, turning on the water works almost instantly.
Ranma silently groaned to himself as he tried to think of a way out of Mirei's soon to be in full effect temper tantrum.
"Mirei…" Ranma said, trying to put on his best parental voice, though it seemed to be ignored by Mirei and only earn him some giggles from the peanut gallery of Tendo's behind him. "This is a living room, and good little girls sleep in bedrooms." He said, internally applauding his use of logic.
Mirei seemed to think about this for a second before amazingly her tears seemed to disappear as she simply picked up as many of the panda's as she could and began hurriedly towards the stairs. Nabiki came to the conclusion of the little girls plan first and started chuckling.
"Mirei...I said one or two…" Ranma said as he began following after her as she turned the corner in a clumsy run with her arms full and started to go up the stairs.
He was about to grab her at the top of the stairs when he saw his mother coming out of their room and where he'd left Sachiko as he didn't feel comfortable going into Akane's room. Mirei just about collided with Nodoka, coming to a sliding stop in her socks only to then fall backwards as the weight of all the stuffed animals tipped her over.
"Mirei dear, you can bring two of your new toys with you, please leave the rest downstairs and go get ready for bed. Ranma I think its best if you take the couch tonight, I'll bring you down a change of clothes for the morning in a bit." Nodoka said in her pleasant but not looking for any arguments voice. Mirei was about to stomp her feet before seeing her grandmothers face and then quietly headed back down with the toys to make her decision for the night. Ranma, a bit irked at how easy that seemed for his mother watched Mirei go down the stairs, turning back when an arm touched his shoulder.
Pulling him into a hug as he turned around, Nodoka held him tightly for a moment before pulling back and giving him a smile. "I'm so proud of you son." She told him, her eyes damp around the edges.
"Huh? But Sachiko's…" Ranma replied, a bit surprised at his mother after what all had happened that night.
"She's in a rough spot, because like you, she has a hard time forgiving herself for what happened between you two. Tonight you kind of took away a...safety net of a sorts." She explained, looking back at the door to their room sadly.
"Safety net?" Ranma replied confusedly.
"When she asked you about how you felt about your time with her in junior high. My guess is that one of her coping method with having tricked you was that she told herself that you liked it, and that made it all a little more "okay". Tonight was kind of like ripping off a band-aid when you admitted you hadn't thought of it as...much more than learning a new move."
"Ah crap, I'm sor" Ranma started to apologize, now understanding a bit more why Sachiko had freaked out like she had.
"That's not something for you to apologize for, you told the truth, which I'm also proud of you for, but the main reason is that you forgave her." Nodoka said, leaning forward and putting her forehead against his and giving his shoulders and tender squeeze. "Now, we just need to work on you both being able to forgive yourselves." She whispered.
Ranma could feel his heart racing, his emotions confused as he expected to feel guilty for making Sachiko feel bad, not this warm feeling from being praised. "Thanks mom. And yea, Dr. Suzuki reminds me that each week, I uh, think its why I thought to tell Sachiko that." He replied, staring at the floor as looking at his mom this close was too awkward after a quick glance.
Nodoka finally lets go of him as they hear some movement coming towards the stairs from the living room. "Good, I'm sure this will be a good topic to discuss on Sunday, along with what happened between you and Lufa…" She said with a wink as she turned around and headed back to the room. "Help Mirei get ready, and I'll get you some clothes and bring you down a blanket in a bit." She said before entering the room once again.
# # #
Ranma awoke silently, his senses telling him someone was nearby even though it was still pitch black downstairs. Reaching out with all his senses, he felt the slight tremble of the sliding door to the back yard opening though it made no sound. Suddenly the figure landed next to the couch, no footsteps at all so they must have leaped. Not feeling any malice but not wanting to play it too safe, he grabbed the hand that seemed to be reaching for him and flipped them over the couch and ended up straddling them on the floor, quickly pinning the other arm.
"Humm, is this how your prefer your ladies at night Ranma, or maybe you're looking for an encore?" Lufa's voice whispered up at him.
"Lufa?" He exclaimed in a loud whisper as he quickly jumps away.
"Just dropping off a little present I've been working on…" She said, shaking her hand to rustle the bag it was holding.
"Couldn't it wait?" Ranma replied as he walked back to her.
"Oh, its a very...private kind of present." She said, thrusting the bag into his hands before turning and heading towards the back entrance.
"By the way, page seven was what I was wearing at the festival." She said coyly before sliding the door shut and jumping away.
Ranma reached into the package and pulled out what felt like some sort of paper bundle, maybe a magazine. Walking over to the kitchen he flipped on the small light there only to nearly drop it like it was a venous snake, as the cover was a picture of Lufa herself in a swim suit that probably couldn't be worn at any public pool. Ranma covered his mouth with both his hands before he let out a loud yell in shock as the magazine had fallen and opened to page seven and while it involved far more clothing material, almost none of it wasn't see through.
Quickly grabbing it up and putting it back in the paper bag it came in Ranma turned off the kitchen light and made his way back to the couch. Shoving it over his pillow, he tried to think of every kata he could, something to make the almost painful swelling go away. After almost half an hour he headed to the bathroom to change and hope that would let him sleep, staring into the mirror though, after being stuck for what felt forever the previous week he really didn't want to change back into a girl.
It wasn't until he noticed the bottle of simple hand lotion on the counter top and some of the more depraved things his friends had talked about that he decided on a plan B. A plan B that was quickly followed by a plan C that involved going and getting the magazine and bringing it with him back to the bathroom. By the time Ranma did wake up in the morning, he had to admit it was one of the best nights of sleep he'd had since leaving the traveling life style, though now he had a problem on where exactly to hide his gift.