Chapter 12: Perfect Pair

Ranma sat nervously in the hall as his classmates prepared for their physical examinations. He'd been told he'd have to participate, but was going to be handled privately. It wasn't his own exam that worried him though. He glanced over at the blonde he tried to tell himself he hadn't fallen in love with.

Hibari had seemed strangely confident (and her skin extra radiant). Sure, Ranma didn't really like keeping Hibari's secret, it was the backlash of it getting out that scared him... at least so he tried to tell himself. Sighing he headed into the office where his exam was to be held.

It was honestly worse than Tofu's exam had been. Lots more poking and prodding with cold metal. Ranma was half convinced they stored the stethoscopes in a fridge beforehand. The bright lights in his eyes were no fun either.

"Well, I'm not sure why the principal asked for your examination to be done privately," the nurse said, "But you are an overall quite healthy young woman. I get the impression you were a bit malnourished at certain points in your youth, but seem fine now."

Ranma just fidgeted uncomfortably at the appraisal.

"Puberty is has certainly been hard at work on you as well. If you don't wear proper support you're likely to develop back issues in the future young lady. I recommend getting measured first. Most women wear the wrong size when they try to work things out on their own."

Ranma realised the woman was expecting a response, and awkwardly nodded. Why did he have to deal with this? Which kami had he upset? He soon received a lecture on female hygiene which grew longer and longer due to his blank stares in response to many suggestions.

He felt like he knew more about how to maintain his cursed form than his natural form by the end of it.

Finally dismissed Ranma slid into the hall and waited for Kaori girl and her friends emerged after a few minutes, all looking quite confused. Kaori lashed out and punched her ponytailed friend.

"I'm going to hit you," Kaori grumbled.

"Why do you always say that after you've hit me," Sachiko complained, rubbing her sore and soon to be bruised arm.

Ranma just watched the small crowd pass by with his confusion growing ever greater. Just what had happened?

Hibari emerged only a couple minutes later, almost skipping as she left. She all but ignored Ranma while heading home. Ranma continued to ask the blonde for an explanation, but received only a few giggles on the walk home. He questioning was slowly silenced as he fell once more into slight hypnotism over the swaying of her hips. It seemed somehow more enchanting today and he had no idea why. Once they'd arrived at the Oozora compound Hibari finally spoke.

"If you really want to know how I did it, come with me," Hibari told him, giving one of her mischievous winks.

Ranma followed the blonde, and grew nervous as they entered her room. Hibari quietly shut the behind them.

"So, are ya gonna tell me what happened? How did you get them all to think you were a girl?"

Hibari gave a dismissive shrug. "By being one."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Hibari just giggled and then undid the buttons of her shirt. As the red dress shirt with multi-coloured zigzags fell open it revealed Hibari's bra clad chest. That was not a male chest. Ranma blinked in shock a few times before leaning forward and poking Hibari's breast to verify the validity of what his eyes told him.

"Hey now, you'll need to actually take me on a date if you want to touch any more," Hibari replied with laughter.

"Did ya take an overnight flight to Jusenkyo? The closest airport was still like a 3 day trek."

"Nope," Hibari replied as she pulled a small packet from her bag to and tossed it to Ranma.

"'Instant Nyannichuan Powder'," Ranma read aloud, "Where'd ya get this?"

The day before Hibari had followed the excited Shui into the back door of the Neko Hanten. The long haired boy was being a bit too mysterious right now for her liking, saying the excitement was worth it. As they moved through the kitchen Hibari saw a middle aged chinese man chopping some vegetables. His wispy goatee and dark sunglasses were a pretty distinct look.

"Hello father," Shui said with a smile. "Have seen Cologne or Shampoo?"

"No... Cologne is out dealing with some paperwork, She should be back by the dinner rush though. As for Shampoo, I've not seen her lovely face since this morning," the man answered.

Shui turned to Hibari with a smile. "Is good timing. No interference. Follow Shui."

Hibari continued to follow the cryptic long haired boy. At least he'd worn some nice tight skinny jeans today so the view wasn't too bad. (He tended to dress in a manner quite pleasing to the eye.) They hurried down the stairs and soon arrived at a bathing room. Shui filled a bucket with some water and then produced a small sachet which he tore open and poured the contents of into the bucket.

"Here," he said, handing Hibari the bucket.

Hibari looked down a bit confused at the bucket in her hand. She knew Ranma's curse was water linked, but still wasn't quite sure what she was getting into. Shui noticed her hesitation and suddenly smacked his forehead.

"Sorry. Shui too excited. Forget to explain things," he said, and held the sachet up for Hibari to see. "Is instant Jusenkyo powder. Exist for many springs. Guide tell Shui this when visiting. Each dose provide tongzhi one change, turn back with hot water like normal curse. Unless have curse already, then next cold water wake up curse, because real curse stronger. So not very useful for those with real curse."

"So... this water will turn me physically female until I take a hot bath," Hibari said, staring into her reflexion. She was half oblivious to the world as butterflies flared up in her stomach.

"Yes. Shui find three more packets so far. No Nannichuan, which no good for tongzhi Ranma. No find phoenix pill yet either. Still, this solve exam issue for tomorrow."

Hibari held her breath and poured the water over her head. The world seemed to grow a bit, and for a moment she worried she'd shrink as much as Ranma. If that happened the powder wouldn't help with the physical (even if it was still a wonderful thing). Luckily her clothes only grew slightly looser. Apart from her bra which suddenly felt very tight. Reaching to adjust it she realised the tightness was mostly due to the pads that had previously been filling it and let out a disappointed sigh. Sure, plausibility meant that a smaller chest was useful and she knew Tsubame's figure wasn't exactly competitive with Ranma's, but she'd gotten her hopes up.

Still, this was a wonderful sensation.

Hibari leapt over and grasped Shui in the tightest squeeze she could manage. She giggled for a moment when she realised that the move closely imitated Shui's Amazon coworker. Shui seemed to melt a bit under the pressure.

"I owe you a million Shui. How can I repay you?" Hibari asked. Her voice sounded rather shrill, and she realised she was still pushing the pitch upwards as she always did.

"M-maybe a date?" the Chinese boy replied, looking rather nervous.

"A date? You really-Even though you know... Yes!" Hibari replied, happily brushing her bangs from her eyes.

Her bangs that were now the wrong colour.

"Your hair still looks blonde to me?" Ranma asked, interrupting Hibari's retelling of the previous days events. He also rather wanted to object to the date idea, yet also didn't want to admit to objecting.

"Haha, no. This is just a wig," Hibari replied.

"Why do ya have a wig on hand that perfectly matches your own hair?"

"Sometimes I ask Tsubame to fill in for me on something. We've got a wig that matches her hair too for when I've filled in for her."

Ranma was more than a little surprised to learn that. Hibari and Tsubame hadn't seemed to get along very well in his experience, but maybe their sibling relationship weren't to different his own attitude towards his father: always fighting, but still willing to help out when it really came down to it.

"So what colour did your hair turn?"

Hibar replied by smiling and pulling off the wig. Beneath was a head of red hair. Not as vibrant as Ranma's fire truck red, but still definitely red.

"Huh, so the Nyannichuan just turns everyone's hair red," Ranma commented.

"Not according to Shui," Hibari replied, shrugging. "It varies from person to person. Probably genetic? It is cute that we match though."
He watched her face light up as she hurried off to a dresser. As she crouched down to open a drawer Ranma could say for certain that while not much had changed on her chest she'd definitely picked up hips closer to Tsugumi's.

Ranma didn't really know what to say. Hibari as a total girl was a bit too much for him. He was about to admit to things he didn't like the idea of admitting. There was only one defense left.

"Of course, you're still pretty flat chested. Also a twig. So I've still got ya beat in the figure department."

Hibari was busy digging through her dresser when she froze at those words. Turning she shot an icy glare at Ranma.

"I'm cuter though," she replied, sticking her tongue out.

"We'll need a neutral judge on that," Ranma insisted.

Hibari then pulled the article of clothing she was looking for from the dresser. It was a long sleeved blue silk shirt, the style overall similar to Ranma's prefered shirts (apart for what looked like three red strawberries sitting on the left breast).

"You should go get your blue shirt. We can match and annoy everyone."

Ranma hesitated at the door between their rooms for a moment. Did he really want to get involved in Hibari's scheme? Looking back at the blonde-turned-redhead Ranma knew the answer was yes. They were at least friends, against all odds (more if Ranma was being honest with himself... but he wasn't). As Hibari removed began changing shirts Ranma blushed and hurried over to his own dresser.

Ranma pulled off his own shirt while digging for the new one.

'I shouldn't be blushing. We're both boys,' Ranma thought to himself. Though he found his eyes involuntarily drawn to his mirror. 'Or are we both girls right now?'

The two redheads with matching hairstyles and similar outfits arrived at the dinner table a short time later. All eyes were on Hibari's hair, which she found amusing. Tsugumi tried her best to brace for whatever chaos was about to break out (she'd always found it better to stay on the edge of Hibari's chaos to be the stabilising influence, and with Ranma's chaos added on she'd found herself turning into an expert at calm out of necessity). Genma and Ibari exchanged cheerful glances.

"Haha, I told you Ranma would start to be a good influence on your boy," Genma announced with a laugh.

"I wasn't expecting him to copy so closely," Ibari replied. He then turned to Hibari. "Certainly didn't expect you to dye your hair. Still need to lose the padded bra though."

"My bra isn't padded," Hibari objected (while protecting her bowl from Genma and Ranma's eternal food battle).

"So not only are you being a pervert, you're also lying?" Tsubame asked, leaning over and poking Hibari in the chest. "That feels really realistic..."

Tsubame then pinched her 'brother' 's chest to test just how realistic whatever was down Hibari's shirt was.

"Ow!" Hibari yelped, slapping her sister's hand away.

"Quit messing around!" the mustachioed Ibari declared, pouncing over at his second youngest child and yanking at her shirt.

The loose clasps of what was really a pyjama shirt burst open, revealing Hibari's Nyannichuan enhanced chest to all at the table.

"What... no," Ibari muttered before his eyes glazed over and he began clutching his chest, "And the white crocodiles!"

The yakuza leader collapsed twitching, causing Suba and Seiji to burst in. All of the other diners sat in stunned silence (apart from Tsugumi who had her eyes closed to think about how calming her illustration work tonight would feel... maybe she should take up meditation too?). Hibari then looked at the gawking faces and shrugged.

"You guys said I should use Ranma as a role model."

Genma shot Ranma a cold glare. "Ranma, did you somehow-er, do this?"

"It wasn't me," the shorter redhead objected. "It was a guy at school who's staying with the Amazons. He's a martial artist too, and decided to help Hibari out with the medical exams we had today. Got some instant powder thing. Means a one time change."

Genma's eye twitched. Ranma had gotten better since the curse, dropping enough of that overly soft heart of his to be tolerable to Genma. Just generally pushing himself harder to be manly. Yet Hibari sat there in a bra and a smug grin.

'That blonde boy is going to drive me mad,' Genma thought to himself. 'And might just undo all the effort I've put in to make Ranma an acceptable son.'

"Ranma, it's time for sparring," Genma announced as he stood suddenly.

Ranma was stunned. Mostly because Genma had barely eaten one bowl of dinner. The younger Saotome had casually enjoyed his meal while the household fell apart (and didn't need to eat quite as much while stuck in girl form) so leaving the table wasn't too bad for him.

"Can I join you two?" Hibari asked.

"If you want to play at being a girl then I have no interest in training you," Genma declared.

Ranma just gave Hibari an awkward shrug before following his father into the backyard. The two bowed and adopted fighting stances. Genma unleashed a fury of punches fast enough that Ranma could barely block them all. Ranma countered with a leg sweep the older martial artist swiftly dodged.

"You'd better not be letting that deviant influence you Ranma," Genma shouted as his roundhouse just barely missed the small figure of his opponent.

"I ain't doin' anything girly," Ranma grumbled as attempted a leaping punch. "But maybe this'll be good for him? Let him get it all out of his system."

Genma had to nod sagely as he dodged a number of blows from Ranma. That might just make sense. Genma's whole philosophy in life was about adaptability and trying new angles.

"Very well, I suppose it's worth a shot. I want you to keep a close eye on him though, got that?" Genma ordered, while attempting an uppercut.

"Yeah, yeah," Ranma said while deftly deflecting the blow.

The two Saotomes provided the Oozora gang thugs another forty minutes of entertainment as they sparred. Finally Ranma knocked his father into the koi pond and declared victory over the panda who emerged.

The small busty redhead then marched off for a bath. Sure, he couldn't enjoy a nice warm soak, but still needed to clean the sweat off. As he slid the door to the washroom open he froze with fear.

Hibari stood there, her shirt removed and her pants halfway off. She noticed him and raised an eyebrow. A quick once over revealed she'd clearly avoided any hot water so far. Ranma closed the door slowly.

"S-sorry," he announced to the closed door.

A moment later Hibari had cracked it back open, and was peaking out at him.

"What are you sorry for? There's enough room for us both."

"I... but-er," Ranma began to protest. He didn't have a coherent response.

"We're both sort of girls right now, so there's nothing wrong with it," Hibari stated with a giggle.

"No we ain't," Ranma replied with a harumph. The expression seemed adorable on his small build.

"So... then we're both boys? There's nothing wrong with it that way either," Hibari countered.

Ranma realised he couldn't argue out of either option. Instead he begrudgingly complied, and went in for his bath. They both entered the bathing area with its distinctly traditional and wooden design. (An odd contrast from how modern much of the home was. Especially the mostly concrete dojo.)

The two quietly lathered up. Ranma then raised an eyebrow when he noticed Hibari produce a razor and begin shaving her legs.

"Do you usually do that?"

"Huh?" Hibari was a bit slow to respond, having been a bit lost in concentration. "Well, yeah. I always shave my arms and legs."

Ranma nodded to himself. Hibari had always seemed silky smooth yet somehow Ranma had assumed it was natural hairlessness. Ranma's eyes strayed to his own legs and the hair growing there for a moment. Ranma shook his head and continued bathing for a bit, shivering whenever he dumped a cold bucket on his head. He didn't like the cold, especially not in his smaller form which got cold so much more easily.

"I'll scrub your back if you scrub mine," Hibari suddenly offered.

Ranma was briefly filled with fear to have her turned completely towards him. The pigtailed martial artist had to mentally reassure himself that his own figure was better, so there was no need to be fluster.

"Yeah. Sure," he managed to reply and turned to face the door.

Ranma had to admit Hibari was good at scrubbing. Firm yet gentle enough. He was truly getting used to the sensation of the back rub as it ended. A bit disappointed Ranma turned around and returned the favour. He was worried about not being able to return as pleasant a cleaning as Hibari had provided. Then his fiancée let out a moan of pleasure that shot a jolt through Ranma and caused his pigtail to stand on end. Flustered, he scrambled to finish. Hibari was disappointed in how quickly he finished, but accepted, rinsed off quickly, and headed out to the main bathroom. Ranma supposed he wasn't actually that surprised Hibari had avoided a hot soak.

As Ranma watched Hibari leave one thought popped into his mind: 'If I ever can't get to be a guy again... Hibari would be the best 'husband' I could find.'

He quickly blushed and looked away. Ranma couldn't believe the thought had just struck him.

Hinari's towel completely behind her to dry her back she let out a panicked shriek when she saw a small (and obviously confused) piglet on the changing area floor. Hibari moved to cover herself, but the diminutive Ryoga had already passed out from blood loss via his large pig nostrils. Ranma scurried out to Hibari to find out what happened.

"H-he was peeping!" Hibari declared, clasping herself onto Ranma.

"I-I think it w-was an honest mistake," Ranma managed to mutter, trying to ignore the fact that the two of them were currently naked. He wasn't succeeding. "Ryoga probably couldn't find his way to peep if he'd wanted to. Probably wanted to find the kitchen or something."

Hibari looked at him with sad blue eyes. "He still saw me naked."

Ranma swallowed the rising emotions of protective jealousy and decided the best way out of awkwardness of the nude hug he found himself was some good old insulting.

"He's seen me naked before already and I'm much better built, so I'm sure he'll forget seeing you by morning," Ranma declared with false bravado.

Hibari stood up straight and glared down at the shorter redhead. "Hmph, I think I'll be extra friendly to Shui when we go on our date. At least he's a gentleman."

Hibari then hurriedly dressed herself while Ranma dragged Ryoga into the bathing area. When Ranma heard Hibari storm off he tossed the small pig into the warm bath (careful to keep away from any potentially burning splashes). Ryoga stumbled to consciousness and coughed up some water as he sat up.

"Ya okay pig boy?" Ranma asked, his voice as flat as he could manage.

Ryoga began to blush furiously as his eyes filled with a wonderful memory. "She's so beautiful."

"Were you peeking on purpose?"

"Huh? No!" Ryoga declared defensively. "I was on my way to Suzume's room to sleep. I still don't understand why her room is in the basement though. Makes it so hard to find."

Ranma slipped onto his back at that.

"The Oozora's don't have a basement," Ranma muttered as he sat back up. "Have to say though, I'm a bit disappointed you responded so strongly to Hibari, yet don't care about my being naked. Ain't my figure better?"

Ryoga had to thank his lucky stars he was already blushing furiously from the thought of Hibari. Otherwise the reminder of Ranma's current form would have made him blush enough to reveal the truth.

"Ranma. You're a boy. That's totally dif-wait. Why are you in the bath? You weren't bathing with Hibari were you? You-you enemy of women!" Ryoga bellowed, standing up to loom over Ranma.

"It was Hibari's idea! Honest! I didn't wanna, but didn't have a good wait out of it. Plus I really needed the bath. I didn't look or nothin'!" Ranma declared.

"Poor Hibari. That girl is too innocent and naive for her own good," Ryoga announced dramatically. "Such a pure heart, seeing the best in everyone. I will protect her from you Ranma!"

"Hibari... innocent and naive? Have you spent more than five minutes with-"

"I won't have you slandering her," Ryoga stated, cutting Ranma off. His glaring face was slightly too close to Ranma's own for comfort.

Ryoga also realised how close he'd gone to Ranma and pulled back nervously. Ryoga then marched out of the bathing area, splashing himself with cold water from the sink. The small piglet then returned to his long trek in search of Suzume's room.

Ranma however took a while to process something important about the conversation.

'He thinks Hibari is really a girl. How on earth has he managed that?' Ranma thought to himself as he got dressed. 'I knew he was a bit oblivious but this has to be a new record.'

Notes: So, how did I decide on Hibari's cursed form hair colour? Well, first I decided I wanted it to change, because keeping it the same was boring. Then I was thinking blue like Suzume (because she has the most interesting hair colour in the family for the anime), but wasn't sure. It seemed too on the nose, influenced by the blue-ish colouring of Shampoo and Akane.

So... I turned to the manga to see what hair colour Hibari tended to have. Blonde showed up in most of the publicity shots, but there were two times we got a couple manga pages where she showed up in full colour which both gave Hibari the same hair colour. Combined with a few partially coloured pages and some covers that colour was the most common one for the manga overall. That colour being red of course. Clearly I wasn't thinking on the nose enough. (Brown eyes in the manga vs the blue of the anime though.)

Oh, and if Suzume were to get splashed with Nannichuan she'd go redhead too, since in the manga she's usually given red hair when coloured. Also in manga she's said to look just like Hibari used to, which I see as more evidence for manga Hibari being a redhead. (There's a chance that the scans I've used were missing some of the original colour details, but the full colour pages seem a good argument to me. More so than cover art. After all cover art gave us a red headed Shampoo at least one time...)