Author's notes: Wow, there were so many wonderful reviews I felt super motivated to write! Not near weebee speed, but faster then I have ever managed before. No one has proof-read to catch any mistakes that I may have missed. Anyone interested in proof-reading for this story just send a message to brindani2000(at symbol)yahoo(dot)com.
Disclamer: I don't own Ranma ½ or any characters therein.
For the Love of Akane's Cooking
By: brindani
Chapter 2: Ranma's ill?
Ranma was floored, pinned by a pleasant red headed weight lightly squeezing him. 'Oh no, not the L word again; the one thrown around by all of my fiancées. Well what can I expect?' Ranma thought resigned to the continued insanity that seemed to dominate his life.
"L…Love?" Ranma stuttered out.
Oblivious to his discomfort, Ranko continued to cuddle up to Ranma for all she was worth, her blanket slipping again with the continuous movement.
"Ranko, I believe I have some old dresses that may fit you." Kasumi offered as she rushed in before another awkward scene could develop. Quickly she gathered the young girl up, and dashed Ranko to her own room.
Ranma, relieved that he was off the hook, tiredly wiped his brow.
Ranma turned to the other people still gawking after the eldest Tendo. "What's going on here?" He asked more then a little confused.
The first to come to her senses, Nabiki turned away from the recently closed door to look back at Ranma, "You know just about as much as we do, Saotome. Apparently that girl is the goo that covered you last night from Akane's meal." Nabiki indicated by shrugging towards the door that the girl had disappeared into.
"WHAT! I didn't make that… that girl." Akane screeched.
"Quite down sis. She is just in the other room; it wouldn't be hard for her to hear you.
Akane humphed before stomping down the hall into her own room, slamming the door behind her.
Ignoring Akana, Ranma continued to seek answers from Nabiki.
"So it is a copy of my girl side?" 'I always thought that Akane's cooking would jump out of the pot one day and greet me face to face, I just didn't expect it to have such a great figure.'
"I don't know. Tofu should be here soon. Hopefully he will be able to find out."
"Did someone call me?" asked a voice from the stairway.
Everyone shifted their attention to see Dr. Tofu walking up the stairs, curiously watching them.
"Dr. Tofu." Ranma acknowledged
"Has something happened? I tried to get here as fast as possible, but it took a little while to wrap up that last experiment."
"Well, that is somewhat hard to explain," Akane answered, walking out of her room after hearing Tofu's voice.
"Well I see that Ranma is back up and walking so things seemed to have resolved themselves." Tofu said with a pleasant smile.
"Dr. Tofu, it is so nice to see you."
Tofu's glasses instantly fogged up. "Kasumi, what are you doing here of all places?"
He instantly sobered as Nabiki delivered another slap across the cheek.
Tofu lightly rubbed his sore cheek.
"Hello mister Tofu." Tofu blinked as he noticed an additional person peeking out from behind Kasumi. Standing straight he turned back to Nabiki critically examining Ranma as he stood confused and slightly disoriented.
"Nabiki, please do not slap me anymore, I'm seeing double."
Nabiki sighed as she closed her eyes, feeling another migraine coming on. "It isn't your vision, Doctor; there really are two of them."
Dr. Tofu blinked again before looking between the two; tentatively speaking after a few seconds of inspection. "Ranma?" he asked of the male woozily standing next to Nabiki.
"Yes doctor?"
Turning to Ranma's female form, Tofu blinked again. "Ranma?"
"No, Ranko, silly." Tofu shook his head. Seeing what he viewed as Ranma's cursed form acting feminine without any apparent motivation was very disconcerting.
"Do you like my dress, Ranma?" asked Ranko as she ran past Kasumi, up to Ranma and giving a nice twirl in her knee high light blue outfit with a lovely rose motif.
Ranma blinked. He wasn't sure what to say. Even he had to admit that the dress looked very nice, but it was on his girl side which, unless he was in disguise, was a bad thing. Still, he had to remember this wasn't him.
"It does look good on you." Ranma replied, leaning against the door frame. He wasn't feeling coherent for some reason.
Ranko squealed, running to Akane, clutching her hands and jumping up and down in excitement.
"Did you hear that, mommy! Ranma liked the nice dress aunty Kasumi let me borrow. He really liked it!"
Akane stood dumbfounded while Kasumi raised her eyes and shook her head. 'I'm too young to be an aunt.' She thought, slightly depressed.
Akane was saved from answering by a helpful chough, drawing the young girl's attention back to a very perplexed Dr. Tofu.
"Excuse me, what's going on?"
Still shaking his head, Doctor Tofu helped a lethargic Ranma hobble towards his clinic. Goo becoming a person was amazing and unusual, even given all the weirdness surrounding Nerima. Medical implications alone for such a vast reconstruction were astounding. If it could be applied on a limited scale then replacement limbs could become a reality.
That the girl had a separate personality from Ranma was even more intriguing. He would have to do extensive testing to find out exactly what happened, but already he was excited. That he could still be excited after two days with no sleep was impressive for the good doctor. He had stayed up all night trying to identify all of the different ingredients from Akane's little foray into chemistry.
Seeing his clinic ahead, Tofu walked a little faster as if a child approaching an all you can eat candy factory. After ushering Ranma inside, everyone else following after, he directed both Ranko and Ranma to sit down in separate examination rooms.
Starting with Ranma, Tofu gave each a thorough examination, finding that they both appeared healthy, if a little exhausted in Ranma's case. Ranko was on the opposite end of the spectrum, peppy and wide-eyed as a newborn toddler. Now that Tofu thought about it, she kind of was. Still, something seemed to be odd about the whole situation, aside from the obvious.
"Ok, I'll need to take a blood sample. Ranko? Ranko?" Tofu called twice before receiving her full attention which had wandered to a chirping bird out on the windowsill. He didn't know if she understood, so took out the needle to draw the sample.
He was further surprised when there was absolutely no reaction to the whole process. Most people would have been watching him at the very least. This girl didn't even flinch when he inserted the syringe.
"What is that?" Ranko asked, pointing with her unhampered hand towards the window.
Tofu glanced back, taking a better look. The bird had a white breast, brown head that was currently cleaning feathers from one of its light brown wings.
"That's a sparrow." Tofu replied realizing why she had been so good, she hadn't even known he was doing it. Smiling to himself, he capped the sample he had just taken.
"A sparrow…" Ranko's eyes went wide with amazement as the bird jumped off the window and flew into the air.
Nodding his head, Tofu took the vile and wrapped Ranko's elbow with a bright purple latex band. "This will take a little while to complete, why don't you have a seat in the waiting room with the others while I examine this in the lab?" Tofu asked before leaving through a door labeled Lab.
Tentatively, Ranko stood, walking to the window, looked around until she spotted the same bird in a nearby tree. It was feeding some squawking baby chicks in a nest. "Wow." Ranko whispered before reluctantly leaving out the door she had entered through.
Entering the main waiting room, Ranko's eyes lit up as she spotted Ranma. The young red head repressed a squeal when she noticed that the chair next to him was unoccupied. She quickly walked up to the pigtailed youth and watched him, shuffling her feet uncertainly.
Hearing something in front of him, Ranma cracked open his eyes, and lifted his head to meet Ranko's startling blue gaze. It was a little disconcerting looking into the face of his girl side without a mirror.
"What do you want?" Ranma asked cautiously, not sure how to act given the situation. Usually girls expected him to know exactly what was on their mind and give it to them without being asked. If he wasn't fast enough to offer, he usually got hit by something heavy and blunt.
"Could I… could I sit next to you?" asked the girl shyly.
Confused, Ranma looked to his left where his pop had fallen asleep long before his own examination was complete, snoring, and slumped half way down the seat. Turning to his right he found an empty chair. His brow raised, someone actually asked for his permission? Was the apocalypse starting or something? Not seeing any meteors when he checked the window, Ranma shifted his attention back to the girl whose eyes where scrunched in worry. He blinked several times. He knew that expression, he had worn it himself on occasion when he was by himself and something was tearing him up inside. Mind you, he made sure that no one ever found him like that.
"Sure, have a seat." Ranma almost had to shield his eyes after exposure to a thousand watt smile. 'Damn, no wonder that ice-cream kid gave me so much with something that intense aimed at him.'
Happily, the girl sat down next to Ranma who laid his head back, the feeling of drowsiness hitting him hard.
"Are you alright, Ranma?"
Forcing his way through the nausea, Ranma found a concerned Ranko watching him closely.
"Yup, I'm the best. I'll be fine soo…" Ranma slumped back in his chair.
"Ranma? Ranma?"
Her yell drew the attention of the rest of the Tendo household who quickly came over to find out what was happening.
"What's wrong, Ranko?" Kasumi asked as she happened to be the closest non-snoring individual there.
"Ranma just fell back while talking!" She answered pointing to Ranma's slumped form.
Kasumi nodded before taking Ranma's wrist to feel for a pulse. Finding it steady, if a little slow, she examined his face. She quickly noticed his eyelids shifting up and down. Smiling she turned back to the distraught girl.
"Ranma will be just fine. He is just sleeping. Whatever happened last night must have really tired him out." She said soothingly.
"So he'll be alright?" Ranko asked one of the few people she knew in the world she recently found herself in.
Kasumi smiled down at the girl. Ranko reminded her of herself when a close friend of hers was involved in a traffic accident; very distraught and in need of comfort. "Yes, he just needs to rest. Why don't you look after him while he sleeps?" Kasumi suggested to the endearing girl.
A slow smile spread across Ranko's cheeks before she nodded her head. "I'll make sure that Ranma gets his sleep!" She stated before shifting her head back and fourth almost as if she expected something to spring from the shadows to disturb Ranma's rest.
Kasumi smiled before going back to her seat to wait for the nice doctor to find out what was happening with their new guest.
Thirty minutes later found an even more confused doctor scratching his head while walking through the door.
Everyone's attention was drawn to him as if a moth to a blazing inferno.
His nose stuck in his papers, Dr. Tofu was unaware that he had become the center of attention.
"Well doc, what is going on?" Nabiki asked, her hand out in case the good doctor got a case of the Kasumi highs.
Casually looking up, Tofu sighted Nabiki and immediately ducked. 'I think I'm beginning to see how Ranma has felt ever since he arrived.' Tofu thought to himself before standing up, finding everyone watching him.
"From what I can gather, it looks very odd. The sample consisted of multiple substances, some of which I could not identify. What is really odd is that this substance is actually changing into a variation of Ranma's girl side's DNA. Well, at least half of it is."
Seeing Tofu reimmerse himself into the various papers he held, Nabiki decided to field a few questions. "What do you mean 'a variation of Ranma's DNA'?"
"Hmm? Oh, I've compared it to the records we have on file for Ranma and found that they are very similar, but not an exact match. I would have expected her to be closer to a sister, but apparently that isn't the case. If I had to make a comparison it would be like she was a forth or fifth cousin of Ranma's.
What is really odd is that half of it perfectly matched with Akane's DNA. It was only luck I happened to run it against everyone living in the Tendo home." Akane stiffened her eyes as wide as they would allow.
"What does that mean?" Akane asked, more then a little frightened of the answer.
"Again, I can only speculate, but in a general sense she would be your daughter."
"da..da..daughter?"
"Congratulations Akane, you're the first person since the virgin Mary to have a child without doing it." Nabiki said smirking.
"But how?" Akane asked, not even hearing Nabiki's remark.
"I don't know. Did you happen to cut yourself while making the udon?" Tofu asked.
Akane looked down at her finger, covered by a band-aid with various puppy dogs playing.
Taking a guess from the appearance of Akane's finger, Tofu continued. "There is still a lot I'm going to have to go through. I'll keep you informed, but the best thing to do for now is return home and rest. Especially Ranma as the whole ordeal appears to have drained him considerably." Tofu finished, gesturing to the lightly snoring boy.
"Ok, we'll head home," Nabiki replied, looking expectantly to Genma now awake after a swift kick from Akane.
"Boy, wake-up, we're going home now," Genma said, whapping his son on the head.
"What? What's goin' on pops?" Ranma asked as he lifted drowse eyes to Genma.
"We're going home. Now get up before you embarrass me further."
"Embarrass you, ha what a laugh." Ranma said as he slowly stood up and staggered towards the doorway.
"Ranma, are you alright?" Ranko asked as she hovered next to his sagging form.
"Never been bett…" Ranko let out a small grunt of surprise as she found herself supporting Ranma's full weight.
Dr. Tofu was there moments later, taking Ranma out of her hands. "On second thought, it might be better if Ranma remained here."
"What's wrong with him?" Ranko asked, quickly becoming hysterical.
"Calm down Ranko. I will check him again and see if I can find out."
Ranko followed Tofu as he carried Ranma's limp form into an examination room.
Tofu inspected Ranma once more, his pulse was steady yet slow. Still, there didn't appear to be anything physically wrong with him. Dr. Tofu stood back before sighing.
"Could everyone please leave for a moment? I need to think on what might be causing this," he requested after turning around to find Genma, Soun, and Akane trying to crowd around him with Nabiki and Kasumi standing just outside the door. Hesitantly, everyone left to wait. Akane looked like she was going to fight for her right to remain, but his steady yet firm gaze informed her otherwise.
He was about to shew Ranko out as well, but noticed she hadn't looked away from Ranma since Tofu laid him on the table. She was shifting from one foot to the other twisting her fingers into her dress anxiously.
Sighing again, he gently guided Ranko into the seat next to Ranma's bed, lightly shifting her head to face him. It took several moments for her eyes to meet his.
"Ranko, I can see you are really worried about Ranma. You may stay if you remain quite, okay?" She slowly nodded her head before looking back to Ranma.
"Hey, why does she get to stay with him?" Akane demanded after opening the door to find out where their newest addition had gone to.
Tofu turned back to Akane, taking a stern stance, which made Akane take a step back.
"I do not think that Ranma suddenly becoming lethargic is just a coincidence, Akane. I believe the reason behind it is tied with Ranko's appearance. If I need her I won't have to continually come out to retrieve her. Now please stay in the waiting room while I look into what is happening," Tofu explained, finally loosing patients after three days of non-stop work.
Sufficiently cowed, Akane left after gently closing the door. Tofu shook his head again. There was a lot of things happening recently that made no sense, but they typically didn't here in Nerima.
Returning to Ranma's side, he found that Ranko had taken his words quite seriously as she sat just watching Ranma with eyes brimming with unshed tears.
Somehow there was a connection between the two, he was certain. Maybe when Ranko was made it took something out of Ranma? Still there was nothing apparently wrong with Ranma.
Tofu started to rub his temples as he felt the perpetual headache that had plagued him since this all started, increase in tempo. 'Ok, let's review what we do know. Some of the items that Akane used when preparing that dish of Udon were very potent herbs that I haven't been able identify yet. Getting a second opinion from someone familiar with Chinese herbs like Cologne would probably help, but with Ranma in a weakened state the price may be his freedom, not to mention how Shampoo would react once she finds Ranko looking after Ranma so diligently.'
Tofu smiled as he watched the touching scene between the two in front of him when something clicked. To test this new idea, Tofu made his way to the sink across the room, filled a glass full of water and returned to the examination table to splash Ranma with it. Tofu was startled when nothing happened except some slight tossing from Ranma before he quieted.
'It appears Ranko absorbed the curse. Perhaps after living with it for so long it has created some kind of dependence. Now that he is free of it, he is suffering from some form of withdrawal? If it is withdrawal then Ranma just needs some time.' Holding his head again, Tofu realized that he wouldn't be able to do much more for now. If his conjecture was right, he wouldn't need to until tomorrow. Nodding his head he walked back into the waiting room where every eye locked onto him once more.
"Everyone, I think it would be best if Ranma was kept here for observation. I know it is hard, but I think it would be best if you all returned home. I will contact you if anything happens." Akane opened her mouth to argue, but stopped when she felt Kasumi's hand lightly touch her shoulder. Lowering her eyes she allowed Kasumi to lead them out with everyone else following closely.
Turning, Dr. Tofu was surprised to find Ranko standing in front of him, looking at him with large puppy dog eyes. Smiling down to her, he lowered himself so that they were eye to eye.
"Ranko, can you do something very important for me?" He asked as she sniffed.
"What?" she asked.
"Could you stay here and watch Ranma for me? I haven't slept for two days. I don't think anything will happen, but I need someone I can rely on to look after him. Do you think you are up to it?"
He was rewarded with a hesitant smile and a nod of Ranko's head.
"Good girl," Tofu said patting her head before moving to his bedroom.
Ranko returned to the examination room; the doctor was trusting her and she wouldn't let him down.
Going back into the room, she scooted her chair closer to Ranma's bed, watching his relaxed face. 'He looks so peaceful.' She thought as she observed him laying there.
A small frown crossed her face. She knew that this was somehow her fault. She must have taken something from Ranma. If only she could somehow give it back. Her thoughts faded as she felt sleepy herself. Lightly, she placed her head on Ranma's chest soon falling asleep.
Ranma let a large yawn loose as he stretched his stiff arms out. 'That was quite a nap. It feels like I've been sleeping for days.' Ranma blinked as he realized that he wasn't in his room. 'Where am I?'
Looking around, he recognized Tofu's favorite dancing partner, Betty, hanging in the corner. 'Doctor Tofu's office? Why am I here? Did I get hurt or something?' moving his body around, Ranma was surprised to find that not only did he feel ok, he felt great! He felt like doing advanced kata's for a week straight. He had never felt this good.
Hopping out of bed, Ranma walked out the door and straight into Tofu who was rubbing sleep out of his eyes.
"What? Ranma, what are you doing out of bed?" Tofu asked as he managed to replace his glasses to look up at Ranma.
"I don't know what I was doing here in the first place, doc."
"You don't remember? What about the day before yesterday with the udon and Ranko?"
"Ranko?" Ranma thought deeply. Somehow his memory felt a little clouded, but he did remember something about his girl side walking around. "You mean that wasn't a dream?" Ranma asked.
"What do you mean dream? Didn't you pass her on your way out?"
Ranma blinked. There hadn't been anyone that he could remember in the room with him. To verify, he checked into the examination room, looking critically around he didn't spot anyone.
Tofu was doing likewise beside him with a perplexed expression. 'I left her here. I know I did. It looked like she wasn't going to leave even if a hurricane came through. Was it really a dream? Guess there is only one way to find out.
Tofu walked past Ranma back into the room straight to the sink and refilling the glass sitting there with cold water. Turning around, he tossed the water at Ranma who spluttered as he found him now her face full of water.
"What did you do that for?" Ranma demanded trying to rub the water off of his currently female features.
Tofu blinked before shaking his head. Apparently he had been staying up way to much recently. 'I have to work on getting a full eight hours of sleep at least once ever three days.'
"You look alright Ranma, you can leave." Tofu said, uncertain what was happening anymore. He watched Ranma leave through the front door before sighing. 'I better get some more sleep.' He was about to move thought to action when he noticed one of Kasumi's old dresses lying in the chair. Picking it up, Tofu ran to the front door to catch Ranma.
"Ranma, could you…" Tofu looked around finding no trace of Ranma, but did see an odd trail of leaves fluttering in the air in the direction of the Tendo's
'Guess I'll have to return it.' He thought, leaving for what was becoming a common house call.
The currently female Ranma simply shook his head as he walked out of the clinic's door. Stuff like this always seemed to be happening. He just didn't think that the doc was going to get in on all the weirdness.
Ranma strolled out into the bright sunshine and smiled. He felt like a million bucks and couldn't keep it contained. Dash away, Ranma starting running faster then he ever remembered going in his life. It was exhilarating, the wind blasting past him. He appeared a blur to anyone happening to look in his direction.
Far too soon for his liking, Ranma reached his destination. He was tempted to go around the block a couple more times, but reconsidered when he took a deep breath of fresh air only to gage when he caught a whiff of himself. Thinking back, he realized that it must have been several days since his last bath.
Walking into the house, Ranma deposited his slippers next to all the others before heading into the house. It was still early yet so he wasn't surprised when he only found Kasumi in the kitchen making breakfast.
"Hey, Kasumi, I'm home." Ranma greeted, walking past the kitchen and around the corner into the furo.
"Welcome home, Ranma." Kasumi said automatically while adding just a touch of salt into the meso. It took a couple of seconds before Kasumi blinked and turned towards the door. 'Ranma?' Hurrying out into the hall, Kasumi looked around only to find the hallway empty. "Oh my, I'm so worried I'm starting to hear things." Turning back, Kasumi resumed her preparation for breakfast.
Ranma quickly undressed, putting his soiled cloths in the hamper while making sure to place out the occupied sign. That was always a good idea as Akane had a tendency to walk in on him otherwise.
He was happy to find that the furo was already filled. 'Good ol' Kasumi, always on top of things.' Slipping in the bath, he sighed as the warm water enveloped him sending the familiar tingle he associated with his curse reversing go through his system.
"RANMA! YOU'RE ALRIGHT NOW!" Ranma jumped as he was glomped from behind by a female form not there a moment before.
"AAHHHH!"
Post author's notes: Is Ranma cursed now or not? I've left several clues to the answer, but you'll have to wait until chapter 3 to find all the details.
I wanted to take a second and thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter,
Thank you!
brindani