From last chapter:

Akane gave a small smile, while she ignored Nodaka's angry hiss. "I think you should do what you feel is best, Ranma. It is your brain, after all, and you will have to live with any changes that happen to you after the surgery."

Ranma sighed and fiddled with his pigtail. "How do I know what's best? And do I do what's best for me, or for mom or for someone else."

Akane's face settled into a calm expression. "You must do what you feel is best for you, Ranma. Ask yourself this: Are you better off the way you are? Or would you be happier if you were able to better understand your feelings?"

Ranma frowned and fiddled with his pigtail, ignoring the others in the room. Akane was telling him to decide if he'd be happier in his current state, which was usually confused and frustrated that he couldn't understand what other's were trying to tell him, or would he rather have the surgery and be able to feel and know what other's were talking about when they mentioned those things he didn't understaand. The real question here was: Was he ready to grow up? Or did he want to stay a child for the rest of his life?

Ranma was nervous. He tried to fidget, but he was tied securely in the hospital bed. He stared at the ceiling, trying to remain calm at the thought of what was about to happen. He nearly regretted agreeing to this surgery just on the basis that they'd had to cut his hair. It was the one part of himself that he'd held any true vanity over. Much like Akane, it had helped him mark his age and independance from his father. It had become a symbol of who he was, most people recognizing him from his hair style alone. His long pigtail had been a tie in both his form, marking him as different from the others around him.

He watched out of a corner of his eye, as the anethesiologist approched with the mask. He held his breath as the mask was put in place, struck by a minor fit of annoyance. The man approaching was not someone he knew. He was a specialist brought in for this one purpose, to put Ranma to sleep for the beginning of his surgery.

The surgery was rather short, and part of it meant it was needed for Ranma to be awake. So the specialist had to be careful to give Ranma the proper amount of the gas so that they could easily wake him at the proper time.

While he followed the doctor's instructions to breath deeply and count backwards, Ranma took a moment before the blackness swallowed him to once again question how he had come to agree to undergo the operation. Would it be worth it?

In the end, an image of Akane's smiling face peeking shyly at him from under her blue bangs was the answer. Nothing in his life mattered more to him than having Akane happy with him. The surgery would allow him to express and feel and understand the feelings her mere presence evoked in him. He gave a feint ghost of a smile as sleep claimed him.

Akane paced the waiting room worriedly. She was twisting a magazine in her hand. If a physicist had seen her earlier, as she sat folding the papers, they would have been forced to revise their theory that no piece of paper could be folded in half more than 7 times, for somehow, Akane had managed to fold several pages of a pamphlet 9 times before it had become too small for her to hold.

Throwing the magazine down on the table, she slammed into a chair beside her eldest sister, who was calmly leafing through a magazine on mental health.

"What's taking so long?" she demanded of no one in particular. "They said it wouldn't take long, and it's already been two hours!"

Nabiki put down her financial news magazine and took her sucker out of her mouth. "Try and relax, Akane. You don't want the staff to ask you to leave too, do you?"

Akane looked stubborn for a moment, before she slowly collapsed bonelessly into the oddly comfortable chair. She did not wish to be evicted like the others.

Ryoga, Shampoo, Mousse, Genma, her father, and Nodaka had all been thrown out of the hospital for causing a disturbance. Luckily, the hospital had skilled security staff that had stopped the growing unrest before it could grow into a potentially disasterous conflict. Akane was well aware of the damage that the chaos in Ranma's life could cause, having witnessed such damage at the school and her own home on numerous occassions. The Kuno's would have been thrown out if they'd been there but Tatewaki was still in police custody, and Kodachi was in an institution under constant surveillance.

The pair had been there for several months, ever since they had tried to attack/seduce Ranma/Akane not long after the night the doctors had visited the Tendo-ke. Ukyo was avoiding Ranma and Akane, and Konatsu was sticking to her to make sure she didn't attempt anything stupid like what had occured at the failed wedding. That left the three Tendo sisters, Dr. Tofu and Cologne waiting for news on Ranma's condition.

Kasumi finished her magazine and replaced it in order in the rack next to her seat. She turned to study her youngest sister. She had changed greatly since what they'd come to refer to as the 'Kitchen Talk'. She had come to terms with her feelings for Ranma, both versions of him. It had been nearly a month since she'd reached for a mallet to smack Ranma with when something happened. She'd grown more in those few short months than in the years since their mother's death. Ranma's injury was a blessing in disguise for her family, since it had forced Akane to admit to herself and to others how she felt for her fiance, and had forced Ranma to decide to put away his childhood for good and to take on the mantle he so often fought to project: Manhood.

Even today, the day of Ranma's surgery, Akane had shown a previously impossible level of patience as Shampoo had groped Ranma while he awaited the doctor and hinted to the poor boy about how she would greet him when he was healed. Not even Nodaka's stubborn refusal to address Akane or the snide comments the woman had made to Ranma regarding his fiancee had stirred the now rare displays of rage. She had sat patiently next to Ranma, one of his large hands craddled in both of hers as the nursing staff preped him for his surgery.

She had managed to salvage his pigtail from the pile of loose hairs left behind by the doctors clippers, and had tied it with one of her ribbons. It was nestled safely in the pocket of her dress, one she had known to be among Ranma's favorites. It was the same dress she had worn the first time she'd met Ranma, and it held a history for them. It, and the hair, were symbols of all they'd gone through to reach this point, and of the things they were putting behind themselves. Kasumi knew that after today, Akane would likely hang the dress in the closet, never to be worn again.

She reached over and patted her sister's shoulder. "Everything is going to be fine, imoutochan. The surgery will be a success, and Ranma will soon be up and moving. I'd say he'd be back to normal, but this will change him, Akane. I hope you are able to continue to love him, even with the changes."

Akane turned her watery eyes on her sister. For most of her life, Kasumi had filled the role of mother and confidant. Since the horrific time right after their mother's death that she could only dimly remember, Kasumi had been the one Akane had turned to for everything. Kasumi had bee nthe one to explain what had happened to their beloved mother and that no matter how much any of them wished it, she would never be able to to return to them. It was Kasumi who would bandage Akane's scrapes and bruises. Kasumi who had shown Akane how to read and write. Kasumi who taught her about the family history and told her stories before bed. It had been Kasumi who had told Akane about the changes her body would go through, and about the situations she would face now that she was becoming a woman.

"No matter what happens, what he becomes or what changes he goes through, he will always be Ranma, and I will love him, Kasumi." she stated, with a surety and confidence that would have startled anyone who had known her her whole life. Akane was a shy girl, slow to make friends, but for those few she blessed by taking into her heart, she held on forever, never wishing to feel the pain she'd felt when her mother died. And no one had ever reached as deeply into Akane's heart and soul as Saotome Ranma.

Kasumi smiled and hugged her sister. "I am so proud of you, Akane. You've grown so much. Mother would be so happy for you." The two gave each other loving smiles, before discretely turning away and wiping their eyes dry. No one noticed the other sister doing the same under the guise of turning a page of her magazine.

Conciousness came slowly, and Ranma could feel his eyes struggling to open against the weight of induced exhaustion. He finally managed to open them, only to snap them closed as the bright lightshone down on his face. His hearing kicked in and he heard someone speaking to him but coulnd't quite make out the words.

"nn n n .n. .. Nani?" he finally managed to eke out.

"Mr. Saotome? Good, you're awake. It's time for you to help yourself." the voice stated, much clearer. Ranma could now identify the speaking as Dr. Yosami.

"How?" he asked, his mind clearing slightly. "What do I do?" Even to Ranma's ears, his voice sounded oddly detached and toneless.

Dr. Yosami moved from behind his were he'd been doing his work into Ranma's line of sight. Ranma had tried to move his head, but he was totally restrained. "Well, we've drilled through the bone and are inserting a small camera to search for the bone splinters. If you'd like, we can but the image up on the screeen where you can see them."

Swallowing what little saliva was in his mouth, Ranma answered in the affirmative. His eyes turned to look at the screen angled down towards him from it's position several feet above his legs. The image on the screen was both startling and frightening. Since he'd learned about the surgery, Ranma had watched several other surgerys being performed. He had become familiar with the sight of the human brain in it's natural habitat. But here, now, he was looking at his own brain. It was something people were not meant to see, yet there it was. He could even recogninze the sharp bits of bone stabbing into his brain. It was funny, he thought, that your brain is the center of your nervous system, the place were all the sensations of your body were processed, yet it had no feeling itself.

He could not feel the pieces of bone, yet as the camera moved, occassionaly bumping his brain, he could see the pieces move, some of them digging into his brain. He watched wide eyed, as the camera slowly withdrew from the hole and he was given a close up of the they'd drilled into the back of his skull. A shiver of revulsion ran through him, and another quiver of hysterical laughter threatened to erupt at the realization that he was feeling a physical reaction to a part of himself that had not sensation. The camera stopped moving and the image centered on the hole. A long, thin set of forcepts came into the image, and pushed into the hole.

Ranma wanted to look away or at least close his eyes, but he was glued to the image. He watched as the camera zoomed in and showed the forcepts open and then close over a small piece of bone. A voice from beside him distracted him and he looked away, again catching Dr. Yosami as the doctor looked down at him.

"How can I help? I can't move!" he stated, his mind snapping back to the question the doctor had posed.

Dr. Yosami chuckled. "While I am certain that your hand-eye coordination and spatial memory would make it possible for you to perform the surgery on yourself, as long as we were here to guide you, we need your help with something else." He nodded to the screen, were the forcepts were now approaching his brain, the piece of bone no longer grasped in its claws. "After we remove a piece of bone, we will test to see if there is any reaction by pressing on the portion of the brain it was pressing against.

While you won't feel us pushing on your brain, you may experience other sensations on various parts of you body, perhaps even a few you are only dimly aware of possessing. What we need you to do is to describe what you feel when the forcepts push on your brain. I want you to watch the screen so you know when it happens, and describe what you feel. It might take a moment or two for the sensations to kick in, but I don't want you to worry. Nurse Oneil here will be recording you with a digital microphone as well as writting everything down. Dr. Kanai will be removing the larger pieces, and I will remove the smaller ones and the ones furthest from the opening."

Ranma gulped again and blinked rapidly. "yeah, sure. Whatever you need, Doc. Er. .. How long will this take?"

Dr. Yosami smiled at Ranma, his eyes dancing above the face mask he wore to protect against infection. "Oh, no more than an hour or two. With your help, possibly sooner."

"Then let's get the show on the road, Docs." Ranma's eyes turned to watch the screen as the forcepts pressed agains his brain. It stayed there for a moment, before lifting and pressing again. Ranma and the doctors waited as patiently as they could for the brain to send the signals along Ranma's neural paths.

Ranma frowned as best he could. At first, he could feel nothing when that part of his brain was touched. Now, he could definitely feels something happening. Something deep in his body, in his stomach, but not quite. He described the sensation to Oneil, who had become something of an unofficial member of the close-nit trio of Doctor's treating Ranma.

He and his wife had shown up at the dojo one day, asking to joing a class. Soun had been dumbfounded that anyone wanted to learn from him, but after Oneil mentioned that he'd discussed with his wife how active and how much energy the Tendo and Saotome famiy members exuded, that had turned to pride. He'd eagerly agreed to take on the Oneil clan's training, and Oneil had in turn provided more willing students as both he and his wife convinced their coworkers of the benefits of the Tendo style of martial arts.

Oneil grinned, though he knew the younger man couldn't see it through the hygenic mask he was wearing. "Ah. Near the stomach but not quite. Is it causing anything else?"

Ranma blushed as he recognized the feeling. "Er...yeah? I ...um... I feel like I need to ... to go, you know?"

Oneil nodded and marked it down on the forms he was holding. "That's perfectly normal at the moment. If it get's out of control, just relax and let it happen. We've already taken precautions against your total embarrassment."

Still blushing, Ranma watched as the tool now neared a second piece of bone. He waited as the forcept withdrew and got his glimpse of the bone being dropped into a small water filled bowl before the bowl was lowered out of camera range. He watched, now enthralled, as the forcept was again moved carefully through the unnatural opening in his skull to press against his brain.

Over and over the doctors took out a piece of the damaging bone and pressed into the soft tissue of his most important body part. Time and again he listed the effect those soft touches had on his body. Frequently the effects were less then pleasant, but occassionaly, there would be a pleasant tingling along various body parts at the touches. He endured it all with the same calm he showed during a battle, having decided that this was a battle. Not against a foe intent on harming him, but on his past and on the barriers preventing his mind from growing to match the man his body was becoming.

He'd learned much in the time leading up to the surgery, about himself and about what it meant to trully be a man. And he'd learned that he was more than the body he was in at the time. That being a man had nothing to do with the form of his body, but more to do with the tenents of his beliefs and the truth of his statements and actions. And until he could feel the same pressure and desires of other men, he could prove to himself and others that he was being true to those beliefs.

It was time for him to put away childish things and to become the man he was meant to be. No matter the gender of his body.