Nodoka awoke from her 'nap'. She had sat down for a moment in the middle of cleaning some linins, and had dozed off in the chair. The only reason she awoke was because of the shrill chime of the doorbell going off. She wiped her eyes quickly before heading off to answer the door.
She opened the door and glanced out at the person on the doorstep.
A large werecheetah stood there, looking down at her. There was a large burn mark on his revealed shoulder.
"Ranma?" She asks.
"You knew," Ranma sighed.
"Oh…" Nodoka said, "Please, let us talk inside."
Ranma nodded and allowed Nodoka to pull him inside.
Ranma found himself sitting in a small chair in the living room. Nodoka sat beside him, gently wrapping his burnt shoulder in a bandage. He was still in hybrid form.
"How…" Ranma said, "How long have you known about me?"
"I found out a small while after we adopted you," Nodoka said slowly, "Your nightmares used to cause you to change."
Ranma blinked. That was true, his nightmares when he was young were horrible, and he often awoke in his hybrid form.
"I have to admit," Nodoka said, "I often thought about confronting you about it, but you seemed to be trying to hide it the best you could, and I was afraid it would scare you off."
Nodoka looked up at Ranma.
"You were very cute like that," Nodoka said smiling.
"Heh heh," Ranma chuckled, but that made his shoulder her, "Ow, ow, ow…"
"Tell me," Nodoka said, "I don't know much about… people like you. I…"
"I'm a werecheetah," Ranma said, "No, I'm not like the ones in the movies. I was born this way, the rest of my family were werecheetahs as well."
"The rest of your family," Nodoka said, "What… happened to them?"
Ranma sighed as the painful memories came floating back.
"They were killed," Ranma said, "By the werewolves. Almost all of the werecheetahs were killed. I'm probably one of the last few remaining."
Nodoka looked at the floor, thinking that over.
"I wanted to ask you something," Ranma said, "You've never treated me like a son, and I thank you for being my friend."
Nodoka smiled slightly.
"I couldn't leave you like you were in the orphanage," Nodoka said, "Genma seemed adamant in adopting you, and I wanted to try to help you."
"I… I want you to remain my friend, Nodoka," Ranma said, "I've been given a chance to try and find my baby sister… and I wanted to ask if you would allow me to stay here for a while. I really don't want to meet the others again any time soon."
"Of course you can stay here, Ranma," Nodoka asked smiling for a moment, "You have… a baby sister?"
"Yes," Ranma said, "She probably doesn't remember that I exist. She was only a few months old when the werewolves attacked the village."
"How'd you survive?" Nodoka asked, "You must have been either very fast or very lucky."
Ranma smirked, something that he hadn't done in a while.
"Yeah, I was lucky," He said, "I was lucky that I was a werecheetah, I would have died if I was just a human. I was trapped underneath a pile of wood that fell from one of the burning houses. Luckily the wood was wet, so it didn't burn very well. Werecreatures heal extremely fast, so every time I was burned, it healed within a few minutes."
A pause.
"And yeah," Ranma smirk grew, "Werecheetahs are extremely fast. I can run at least 200 miles per hour, although I haven't tested my limits lately. I wasn't that fast when I was younger, so I would have been easily caught."
"200 miles per hour?" Nodoka's eyes grew.
"Probably a lot faster," Ranma said, "My mother and father could almost break the sound barrier. That's about 360 an hour."
"Okay," Happosai said, "The first one we'll do is the middle of hot and cold. The way you do this is easy, if not a bit painful. But in your hybrid form I'm sure you can do it."
"Painful?" Ranma asked.
"You need to immerse yourself in extremely cold water," Happosai said, "This causes your body to go into that extreme. When the water heats up to room temperature, it'll settle you near the middle. Then you do the same with near boiling water. This allows your body to settle in the middle of hot and cold."
"And it'll allow me to stop changing back and forth?" Ranma asked hopefully.
"Not quite," Happosai said, "This centers your BODY, but not your mind. You have to concentrate on the feeling of the icy water for the entire time in it. You can't ignore the pain. The same with the hot. Then, it's just a matter of realizing how the center between the two extremes feels."
"That doesn't seem that hard," Ranma said, "Just time consuming."
"I doubt you'll do any more than centering hot and cold today," Happosai said, "Although you might. You're a lot bigger in your hybrid form that I was when I was young. And after that, you only change when you allow the water to affect you."
"Great!" Ranma said.
"But you're going to have to allow it to happen a few times," Happosai said, "It involves the one we'll do after this."
"What?" Ranma asked, "Which one?"
"The center between male and female," Happosai smirked, "You're already at the extreme of male, so you need to at least get to the extreme of female before you can center yourself."
"No," Ranma said, exasperated, "I don't wanna."
"Are… are you okay, Ranma?" Nodoka asked as a werecheetah immerged into the house. The still rather tall cheetah girl was shivering like crazy.
"Cold," Ranma said, "No talk, tongue frozen."
Nodoka blinked and watched Ranma-chan walk into the furo.
"Maybe I should ask Happosai," Nodoka said.
Ranma again lay in the water. It was damn HOT! And again, he breathed through a small tube that he placed in his mouth.
The chill combined with the sting of the hot water. It made his furred skin crawl and it felt like it was burning his skin off. Eventually, the chill left him, and the hot water started to numb his skin.
At least it didn't hurt anymore.
He kept concentrating on the feeling. He laid there, unmoving for at least two or three hours.
Suddenly his eyes flew open as a tingle went through him. He couldn't feel the heat anymore, but he was absolutely sure it was still extremely hot.
Then he felt his chest.
He was a she in warm water.
Ranma again concentrated on the warmness of the water. A tingle flew through him as he went back to being male.
Ranma could feel the heat and the lack thereof in the water. It was a rather unsettling feeling. He could also almost see it. Heat glowed slightly red, where the lack thereof was a dull blue.
He slowly arose out of the pool. He glanced over to see Happosai sitting on the sink. Even in Happosai, he could see the red glow and the dull blue.
"See?" Happosai chuckled as he saw the still fully clothed werecheetah arise from the water, "Rather interesting, eh?"
"No!"
Nodoka was cooking dinner when a female werecheetah flew through the kitchen as a blur. She then saw Happosai chasing after her.
"Oh, please!" Happosai said, "They're not that bad! It'll only be for a few days!"
"No!"
"But I picked out this lovely black set!"
"NO!"
Ranma was in hell. This sucked, but after experiencing the center of hot and cold, he couldn't argue that the Anything Goes techniques worked wonders.
He had found out in the few hours after the centering of hot and cold that he could now chill and heat up his body. This made Ranma's mind buzz with ideas on martial arts techniques. The Hiryu Shoten Ha without going in the spiral was easy enough now; as he could now fire it in any direction in a compressed version he called the Wind Cannon.
Of course, the next thing Happosai had wanted him to center was the whole masculine and feminine thing. Happosai had said that after he learns it, he would be able to control the change directly, just like Happosai could control his.
So, Ranma was being forced to go to school again. And she was also forced to wear feminine undergarments. She was still very thankful that Happosai wasn't making her wear a dress or anything.
The first thing she saw as she walked onto campus was Akane. Or rather, Akane dashing at him with a mallet twice the size of her body.
Just as it was coming down with a screech of 'RANMA NO BAKA', Ranma acted.
Her rather loose clothing stretched to fit nicely as her body and bust grew. She was thankful that she had on a sports bra instead of a normal one.
Akane watched as the mallet was shredded into several pieces. She blinked as she realizes that Ranma had disappeared. Akane whirled around, looking for her.
Ranma was standing behind her with a pitying look in her eyes. Still, being an almost 7 foot tall cheetah girl at the time still made her quite intimidating.
"I feel sorry for you, Akane," Ranma-chan said, "You weren't supposed to end up like this."
Ranma had been thinking about the Tendo Anything Goes style. Akane's case was rather advanced, she was almost always angry, which was occasionally interrupted by embarrassment, confusion, or an occasional insanity.
"If I were you, I'd forget the Tendo style," Ranma said, "It's a poison."
"Perverted freak!" Akane yelled at her, "I will never give up martial arts!"
"I didn't say to give it up entirely," Ranma said, "Just the Tendo art. Learn other styles, other ways of becoming strong. The Tendo art is poisoning your ki with too much anger."
Akane roared at him and attacked again. Ranma sliced another mallet to pieces.
"FREAK!"
Akane hadn't noticed, but Ranma was using the neko-kens techniques.
"I'm not a freak," Ranma growled, "I am a werecheetah. I was born a werecheetah, and I always shall be a werecheetah."
Ranma stunned Akane by slapping her left arm lightly. Akane yelped as she felt her arm go numb as an icy chill over came it.
Ranma left Akane standing there as she watched frost form on her skin.
Akane attacked her seven more times at school, until Ranma got fed up and had shown her the limits of Ranma's new abilities with temperatures. She definitely was shocked when Ranma melted a metal baseball bat in gym class just by touching it.
The next day was Saturday. Ranma could smell the strong odor of booze, and there was a slurred voice in the wind. More than likely Akane and Nabiki had told Genma and Soun of Ranma's 'possession'.
Ranma waited for Genma and Soun to near her. She heard Soun gasp as he saw the werecheetah girl trying out some new techniques in the back yard.
Ranma was wearing her usual black silk pants, although in a larger size. She also had on a white tank top.
"Ice Claw!" Ranma shouted. She opened up her 'claws', which quickly turned from the transparent red to an icy blue than seemed to steam with its coldness. Ranma swiped her ki claws at a small target.
The target was split in three places by the claws, before it froze together again. Ranma kicked the target and it promptly exploded into large chunks of ice.
"Flare Claw!" The icy blue claws turned into a red-orange color. Ranma swiped her new claws at another target, which instantly burst into flames. The white-hot flames quickly destroyed the wooden target, burning it to ashes in a single moment.
"I'll shave you boy!" Genma leapt out of the bush. He rocketed in a beeline towards Ranma. Talking several detours along the way as his body swerved, as he was extremely drunk.
"Shave me?" Ranma asked herself.
Ranma saw that Genma held a large kettle of hot water. Ranma allowed the water to be splashed on her.
Genma's eyes went wide as he instantly sobered. Ranma hadn't changed into a boy!
Genma's eyes then widened even more when he saw the telltale signs of Ranma's sports bra. Now wet, the straps of the tank top had fallen down, revealing the straps of the sports bra.
"Boy, vy are shou wearink zat?" Genma asked in a slurred voice.
"Training," Ranma said a matter a factly.
"Oh the shlame!" Genma yelled.
Ranma could now see Soun standing up in the bushes crying his eyes out.
"Husband…" A voice came. Nodoka walked out of the house, "May I speak to you a moment?"
"Not now Nodoska!" Genma said, "I neeb to teash ze boy a leshon!"
The sound of a katana being rapidly drawn from its sheath came from behind Genma.
"Um…" Genma muttered, "Yesh dear."
Ranma watched Genma and Nodoka walk back into the house.
The area went silent for a moment. Ranma glanced at Soun, who had passed out and was using a briar bush as a pillow. He was snoring LOUDLY.
Then the sound of a large explosion came from the house.
"OW!" Genma's voice yelled.
