Chapter 34: Mountains are Summer

Hibari stopped her studying as she heard the sounds of someone in Ranma's bedroom. Either someone was snooping around or Ranma was back. Hopping to her feet she slipped over and slid the dividing door open a crack, get the pleasant view of a male Ranma shirtless and in the middle of undressing.

"So, were you hanging out with Kousaku again today?" Hibari asked.

The pigtailed boy looked a bit nervous. "I, yeah... felt like doin' guy stuff today."

Hibari walked over and sat herself down on Ranma's bed. "You've had quite a few of those days, this past week or so."

Ranma sat down on the bed not far from Hibari, feet lifted off the ground as the boy seemed to shrink a bit. "I know... it's like, he's normal. I've never really seen normal fer guys before. Closest I had was middle school, but I ended up hangin' out with Ryoga instead. And maybe gettin' too close ta him, so I ended up an outsider ta the others anyway."

Hibari leaned up against Ranma and looked up into those charming grey-blue eyes as they stared off into middle space. "So, are you changing your mind about being a girl then?"

Ranma blushed a bit, before turning the meet Hibari's gaze. "I... well, remember when we were talkin' with Shampoo about bein' 'girls who like both' an' all that?"

"Mhm?"

"It got me thinkin'. Maybe I don't just like both, but am both too? I dunno why, but sometimes I want nothin' more than ta be cute in a dress and have ya doin' my hair. Then other days, I'm doin' guy things all day and likin' it. I... so I'd like ta try at bein' both, maybe? If that's an option you're allowed," Ranma explained, turning once more to the empty room.

Hibari smiled, and leaned up towards Ranma's face, getting close enough he could feel her breath on his cheek. "None of this is 'allowed' Ranma. You know how my dad acts about me being a girl. But that isn't what matters. What matters is what you want."

Ranma turned, wanting to add something. Only to accidentally brush his lips against hers. Hibari was quick to take that as an invitation, and Ranma soon found himself splayed against his mattress under the forward and adventurous girl as they kissed. As Hibari broke for air, she looked down at him from her position on her knees and elbows she smiled and blew a bit of her red hair out of her face.

"It's an interesting choice you've made, but I'm certainly happy I get to have both your forms around," she told him, her seductive tone being almost too much for Ranma.

"Ya know, I'd kinda like ta try that again, but in girl mode," the pigtailed boy said, feeling a bit guilty, but realising he was growing to like Hibari's physical affection more and more.

"What happened to this being a 'guy day'?" Hibari asked with a quick wink.

Ranma stuck his tongue out mischievously. "Maybe it ain't always gonna be so cut and dry. 'Specially considerin' how the curse works."

The awful smashing sound as a boulder slammed into a tree made Mousse wince. After all, there was a human sandwiched between them. As the boulder fell away, Ryoga was left looking more than a little ragged.

"Are you sure this is how I'm supposed to learn the technique!?" the fanged boy bellowed.

"It's a classic Nujiezu training method," Mousse shouted back. "I know what I'm doing."

Ryoga snarled and braced himself for another impact as best he could while tied up like he was.

Mousse felt a little guilty. It was true that this method could teach someone the breaking point technique, but only if they had rather ridiculous chi potential to start with. The real purpose of it was conditioning. Still, he figured that Ryoga wouldn't be fond of continuing if he found out.

Hibari gave a quick double check to her backpack. Everything necessary was present. A cute jacket for the mountain air. An emergency nyannichuan packet, just in case. A water canteen. All that sort of stuff.

"It's not fair," Suzume pouted as she watched Hibari finish packing and occasionally glared at her father. "Hibari's going to the mountains. Tsubame went off to the beach with her friends. Tsugumi is in Guam! Guam! You'd better have something planned for me! My marks were good, and you said I'd get to have a fun trip if I managed A's!"

"I... let's discuss this after your brother leaves with his, er... with Ranma," Ibari replied nervously, still unsure if he considered Ranma as Hibari's manliness tutor or felt it would be easier to mentally label the pigtailed teen as Hibari's future bride. (The latter was easier, but would require accepting the idea of letting Hibari have a husband at least part time.)

Hibari glared silently at her father. Sure, the cold showers to maintain the Jusenkyo magic were mostly for her own benefit, but she'd still hoped the truth would finally break through that thick skull of his sooner or later.

"Alright, let's get goin'," Ranma announced as he appeared in the hallway. His hefty pack looked like it would topple the average teen if they tried to carry it.

"Coming!" Hibari chimed as she hopped to her feet and hoisted her much smaller rucksack.

As the pair headed towards the front door Ranma couldn't help eyeing how small Hibari's pack was. She had to be missing things. He was just about to say something when the front door slid open to reveal a smiling Ukyo standing there with a backpack of her own.

"Hey there Ran-chan. Heard there's going to be a nice little trip to some secluded mountains. I figured that, as your fiancée, I should be heading along to keep you company."

Ranma and Hibari were left silent for a moment as they tried to work out how Ukyo had gotten wind of their training trip with a smugly smiling Ibari appeared.

"Ah, Kuonji! It's good to see you. I do hope you'll use this trip as an opportunity to get some quality time in with my son," the mustachioed Yakuza boss stated, glaring at the chef towards the end to underline his reasoning for keeping her informed. He still hadn't totally given up on getting Hibari a 'proper' bride afterall. (Or at least as proper as Ukyo counted as.)

"Y-yeah! Of course, boss," Ukyo replied with a casual salute and a slight grimace.

The trio had managed to walk in awkward silence for a few minutes before Ukyo couldn't take it any longer.

"Listen, I'm Ran-chan's fiancée too, and I'm not about to just roll over and let you declare victory, Hibari," she declared.

"I'm not bothered," Hibari snapped defensively. "I know I've already won. This will just mean Ranma and I get to show off our love. Right dear?"

"It's a training trip. Ucchan, if you're comin' along then you're trainin' too, got that?" Ranma said, sliding between the two glaring girls.

"I'm a martial artist too. I'm happy to train," Ukyo replied curtly, turning with a huff to stare ahead.

Ranma let out a defeated sigh... this was just going as poorly as possible, wasn't it?

"Nihao!" Shampoo called out. She'd been waiting for them at the bus station, her pack all prepared.

Ranma's eye twitched. "Sh-Shampoo. What a surprise... who told you about this trip?"

Shampoo looked back and forth from Hibari to Ukyo with genuine confusion. "Hibari said you and her would be gone from today to Monday, to let me know you and her be out of town for a bit. Then spatula-boy says she is going to mountains with tongzhi... maybe gloating? That makes me think should come along too. Join the fun."

"Would you stop calling me spatula-boy!?" Ukyo shouted.

"You'd prefer spatula-girl? That would lead to many questions at school you know," Shampoo replied casually.

"I. Have. A. Name," the chef seethed.

"Mhm. Spatula-Boy," Hibari said.

Ukyo took a deep breath and tried to swallow her anger. "Nope. Nope. I'm going on this trip. I will have a good time, and Ran-chan will be happy to have me around, and you and China girl can go canoodle in the woods for all I care."

"Let's just get on the bus," Ranma sighed.

The cool mountain air was a welcome reprieve too all. Especially Shampoo, who was simply not used to Tokyo summers (even if she was now freed of the Cat's Tongue). Following the others up the mountainside, Shampoo was certain that she'd look into buying a cabin up in the mountains after she was married. Tokyo was fun, but she wasn't sure how many summers she could handle there. The Oozoras could certainly afford to buy a cabin, she'd just need to accept it might get decked out as something of a safe house.

The Chinese girl then realised she'd fallen a bit behind while lost in thought, and hurried forward to catch up to the others.

Ranma felt a pang of satisfaction as the four of them rounded the bend. There ahead of them was one of his favourite camping spots. It was just high enough to stay cool all summer, and the view off to the east, where you could watch the sun rise, had always struck him as magnificent.

The trip might not being going to plan, but some things were still working out.

"Alright, time to set up camp," Ranma announced.

There were mumbles of agreement as the three girls began digging through their rucksacks. Ranma was sliding poles in place on his own tent when Ukyo let out a dramatic sigh.

"Oh no. I managed to forget my tent," the chef announced dramatically. "I can only hope some gentleman will let me share his."

Before Ranma could complain Shampoo released a similarly over the top gasp. "I forgot tent too. Hopefully tongzhi share tent? Honourable option."

"Really, you two? You 'forgot' your tents?" Hibari said, chiding them both. "Very smooth."

Ranma was about to thank Hibari for showing common sense when he realised that she'd done no unpacking whatsoever. Did all three of them really decide on what had to be the lamest excuse Ranma had ever heard? "It looks like you forgot your tent too..."

"Forgot? I figured the plan for this trip from the start was to share," Hibari replied casually. "This being a romantic getaway and all."

Ranma let out an exasperated sigh. "It's going to be crowded, guys... My tent's only big enough for me and pops."

"The ol' Panda's easily the size of the three of us combined," Hibari replied. Shampoo and Ukyo both nodded. Disparaging remarks about Ranma's father was something all three of them could support.

"Well, at least we shouldn't be cold tonight," Ranma grumbled. "I'm puttin' you three in charge of gatherin' firewood while I continue settin' up."

A brief rain shower had resulted in two Jusenkyo curses activating. Otherwise things had gone well enough. Ranma had put the others tree leaping practice for a few hours, slowly adding more rocks to their backpacks as the day went on to make things more challenging. In the end, Shui was proud to be carrying by far the largest pile of rocks. A fact that made Ukyo surprisingly annoyed. They were also exhausted, as Ranma had decided to try to push the three to be too tired to argue.

Now though, came the challenging part. Satiated on a mixture of Qinghai cuisine and okonomiyaki, the four were now trying to work out sleeping arrangements.

"I call beside Ranma," Hibari announced, finding a second wind with which to prepare to argue.

"What? Nu-uh. I'm going beside Ranma. You hog him...her...um, Ranma enough as is," Ukyo declared.

"I've got two sides ya know. If it'll really ensure peace, I'll sleep between ya both," the short redhead replied.

Hibari and Ukyo glared at one another briefly before acquiescing to the plan.

"I call other side of tongzhi Hibari," Shui added.

"Are you going to get changed before night?" Ukyo asked the cursed girl, sound almost a little accusative.

Shui paused a moment to weigh the options. "Nah, am warmer in guy form. It gets cold in mountains at night, no?"

"A bit nippy, yeah," Ranma replied. "I guess you can try birth form tomorrow night?"

"Ooh, maybe."

As Ranma and Shui pulled off some of their clothing to reveal that both were wearing a sports bra and boxers, Hibari noticed Ukyo glaring at Shui. The taller redhead of the quartet raised an eyebrow. Was Ukyo considering Shampoo the greater threat... or was that envy in those greenish eyes?

Hibari felt warm with strong arms wrapped around her. Snuggling in, she wondered absently what Ranma had been doing to add that bulk. She could stay like this all day...

"You two awake yet?" Ranma's female voice called out from behind her somewhere.

"Tongzhi is still sleeping," Shui's voice replied, Hibari feeling the vibration of the cursed girl's chest as she spoke.

Hibari shoved off Shui and rolled away, feigning being asleep still. She did her best to maintain that until she felt Ranma reach over and nudge her. Stretching and blinking a few times, she turned to the cute little redhead.

"Morning sweety," Hibari said, before leaning in to kiss Ranma on the cheek.

"Woah, hey... with Ucchan around, maybe we shouldn't be quite so forward with things, in case she sees," Ranma protested weakly.

"I saw," Ukyo commented dryly from somewhere outside.

"Gah!" Ranma winced, scrambling out from the tent to try and placate the chef in question. "Listen, Ucchan, let's try ta focus on trainin' alright?"

Ukyo smirked, before standing and walking over to her short fiancé(e). Placing a hand on Ranma's chin, she lifted Ranma's face towards her. After taking a quick glance over to Hibari and Shui, who were still climbing out of the tent, and giving the pair a smug look, Ukyo leaned in and planted her own lips on Ranma's. Moving her hand to the small of Ranma's back, it was quite clear to the others that Ukyo was taking a very masculine approach to this kiss... and Ranma wasn't resisting in the least.

As the pair broke and Ukyo gave Hibari a confident smile, Ranma reached forward subconsciously in her hope for a bit more of that. Shui meanwhile jumped back a bit as Hibari looked ready to blow.

"I... I'm going for a walk!" Hibari shouted. She had not missed Ranma's body language.

Turning, she grabbed her pack, pulled out her jacket, grabbed her shoes, and stormed off in her underwear before Ranma had recovered from Ukyo's kiss.

Shui was left frantically looking between Ranma and Hibari, trying to figure out who it was more important to follow. Locking eyes with Ukyo, who was grinning ear to ear, Shui decided staying to keep an eye on the chef was the better option.

Ryoga felt himself swaying slightly in the breeze.

Mousse had gone off to find another boulder, Ryoga's attempts to find the breaking point having finally damaged that one beyond use. The fanged boy wanted to say he was proud of the progress he'd made, but... it had been nearly a week and he'd still not mastered the breaking point. He was due to have his duel with Ranma in two days. And then... even if he somehow won, that was only a small part of his bid to win Hibari's heart.

Things were looking hopeless when a bit of movement on the edge of his peripherals drew his attention.

Someone was approaching, and it wasn't Mousse. The jacket was too dark.

It took a moment for the mixture of the rising sun and the girl's approach, for Ryoga to realise it was Hibari (her hair red, to Ryoga's joy). For a moment he thought she was wearing one of Ranma's shirts, but soon realised it was a satin red bomber jacket with white trim. And... no pants. That gave Ryoga a bit of a nosebleed.

"Ryoga?" Hibari asked, peering up into the trees. "Who tied you up like that?"

"I'm training. Mousse tied me up," Ryoga called back nervously. What was she doing here? And alone? Could... could his dreams have come true, and Hibari had dumped Ranma?

"Huh... never realised Mousse was into that sort of stuff. Kinky," the girl replied, before sticking her tongue out.

"I... it's not like that! I swear! I'm not-" Ryoga stuttered on his own defense. Was he really going to try to tell Hibari he wasn't gay? That wouldn't go well for his romantic efforts... or would it? He knew Hibari was focused on being feminine.

Ryoga let out a defeated sigh as he realised he had no idea which option was better. He'd just play it safe. "I'm not interested in Mousse like that."

Hibari giggled a bit, before hopping her way up to a branch near Ryoga. "I've told you you're cute when you're flustered, right?"

"I... uh," Ryoga replied as he struggled to keep his mouth shut, taking in Hibari's slender and shapely legs as she stood on the branch near him. She was just. So. Perfect. "Wuh-what are you doing here? Is Ranma around?"

Hibari pouted, shifting to a crouch as she stared back to where she'd come from. "One kiss and she turns into butter... turns out it doesn't matter who the kiss comes from. I don't know, maybe I shouldn't be too surprised. No way he got much love from that dumb panda of a father... but is someone who doesn't fall in love with a new person every three days too much for me to want?"

Ryoga found himself unable to meet Hibari's eyes as he thought of that infatuation with another redhead. Guilt also welled in him at the feeling of temptation to try kissing Ranma for himself, to see how that went.

But no. He was certain that if he won Hibari over he'd be loyal. It was just his doubts about being able to win her heart that was leading him astray. It had to be.

Filled with determination, Ryoga turned to her and met those bright blue eyes with his gaze. "H-he doesn't deserve you! I'll... I'll beat him tomorrow, to get back at his hurting you."

Hibari smiled. "You do certainly know how to make a girl feel important, fighting over me like that."

"Heh, well, uh," Ryoga began, growing more flustered as Hibari stood and stretched, revealing that she was indeed not wearing anything beyond shoes, underwear, and jacket. The sight of that lacy pink tie up thong caused Ryoga to nearly lose consciousness for a moment.

Hibari was wondering just what else she could do to tease Ryoga when a voice cut across the forest towards her.

"You! Come to spy on us, have you!?" Mousse shouted, angrily dropping the rope he'd been using the drag the boulder behind him as he hopped up into the trees not far from the other two. "If you've come for a fight, I'll gladly give you one, Saotome!"

The last comment was shouted directly at the trunk of the tree Mousse was standing on. Hibari and Ryoga both had to wonder how Mousse found was able to land on something as thin as a branch, yet had vision bad enough to mistake a trunk for a person.

"Does he echolocate, maybe?" Hibari whispered to Ryoga.

"No idea."

Mousse spun around, having heard their voices, and decided to put his glasses on. "Oh. It's the other one. You both wear red too much... it's confusing... Anyway! I'm not going to let you spy on us either."

"I'm not here to spy," Hibari countered, placing her hands on her hips and leaning towards Mousse. "I didn't even know you guys were out here. I was just going for a walk."

Mousse's face scrunched up in annoyance. "Well, fine. Keep walking then."

"Whatever," Hibari replied, waving Mousse off before turning to Ryoga and giving him a wink. "I'll see you later, handsome."

Ryoga was a blushing mess as Hibari hopped down from the tree and kept walking. Mousse glared at him for a moment, before silently admitting that it it was essential to his plans that Ryoga was interested in Hibari (as much as he was certain a household without a 'real' woman to take control was doomed). Hopping down and heading back to drag the boulder into the tree, Mousse wondered if Hibari or Saotome could manage to take control or a relationship. They were both remarkably feminine... and then there was Shampoo, debasing herself for foreign males with her curse. Could he still love a woman who was willing to let a man be the head of a household as Shampoo seemed prepared to do?

It left the bespectacled boy more than a little confused as he brought the boulder into place.

"Prepare yourself, Hibiki. I'm going in for another swing."

Ryoga turned, locking eyes on the boulder. He had hope again, all he had to do was master this technique.

As the boulder swung towards him, it felt as if it were moving in slow motion. Ryoga felt a surge of chi in his body as he studied the boulder. Suddenly he saw it as a spider's web of tiny cracks. Nearly all were converging to one place.

Letting out a confident cry of fury, Ryoga swing his finger to hit that point.

The cracking noise as the boulder shattered into a hail of pebbles was nearly deafening for Ryoga. Yet he swore that he barely felt the explosion of rock.

Smiling, he turned up at Mousse. "I did it!"

Mousse stared in shock. Ryoga had done it... was this dork really a qi prodigy?

Not far away, Hibari heard the sound of an explosion, and stopped her rifling through Mousse's backpack in search of a protein bar (or anything else to fill her currently empty stomach... why had she stormed off without food?).

She didn't know what caused that sound, but her gut was filled with worry for Ranma (despite her current annoyance with the pigtailed teen). She knew she needed to head back around to investigate, and set the pack down... only to have a chocolate bar fall out.

Sure, it was a Tirol bar, and Hibari wasn't really a huge fan of nougat, but it was better than nothing. She pocketed the chocolate, and hurried around to take a peek at what Ryoga and Mousse were up to (if Mousse would accuse her of spying, then maybe she should actually spy).

Slinking along, she found Ryoga laughing in a rather unsettling way as he wandered around causing small rocks to explode by... poking them?

Hibari had no idea how that worked, but knew she had to tell Ranma.

Ranma and Shui were panting as their sparring round wrapped up. Ranma tried to blame Shui's winning on how distracted she was, watching the treeline to see if Hibari would return. Maybe she should have gone after the taller redhead... but Ranma still felt Hibari had overreacted. It wasn't like Hibari had been so against the idea of a trio before. What made Ukyo such a bad candidate?

"Tongzhi, if your mind is not in state to fight, maybe I should spar with Kuonji?" Shui asked, glad to see Ranma was worried about Hibari.

Ranma missed that while turning to the shirtless masculine form of Shui. The short redhead briefly wondered why Shampoo was so comfortable being shirtless in cursed mode... wasn't she supposed to have some feminine modesty?

"Pheh, ya, sure. Ucchan needs ta get some sparrin' in too," Ranma replied, waving the chef into the field while wandering over to sit on a nearby rock.

The glare Ukyo gave Shui while walking into the 'ring' was nasty. The chef had been feeling extra competitive all weekend. It just wasn't fair how someone as feminine as Shampoo, who put so little effort into presenting masculine at school that everyone had slotted Shui as gay almost instantly, was still getting to have all the advantages thanks to Jusenkyo. No need to bind. Increased muscle mass. Added height.

"Begin," Ranma called out casually.

Ukyo charged. Sure, unarmed combat wasn't the chef's usual style, but it would probably be satisfying to land a punch to Shui's unfairly handsome face. Ukyo knew exactly how to play the part of a boy. She'd studied so well that playing the part of a girl felt alien now... She couldn't lose on both fronts to Hibari and Shampoo.

Unfortunately for all her rage, Shui dodged or blocked almost all her strikes. The few that got through were little more than glancing blows. A sudden knee to the gut from the cursed girl caught Ukyo off guard.

Stumbling back, Ukyo was now on the receiving end of Shui's counteroffensive. A flurry of strikes that proved the Nujiezu warrior was at least close to Ranma's equal, if not there, thanks to pushing herself harder than she had back home. It was harder to feel a push to improve when she was the best youth in the village (sent to spar with adults from age 13), but now, with so many more martial arts to study, Shampoo had doubled down on training.

Shui was about to knock Ukyo down with a leg sweep as Hibari's voice called out across the clearing. The spar ground to a halt as everyone turned to watch an out of breath Hibari emerge from the trees.

Ranma and Shui rushed over, leaving Ukyo to sigh before hurrying after.

"Is everything okay? What happened? Were you running from something?" Ranma asked, placing a hand on each of Hibari's arms in an effort to reassure the taller girl.

"Ryoga's not far away. Mousse was training with him. He... he did something to make rocks explode with his finger," Hibari replied, between her panting. "I know it sounds crazy. It's what I saw, though."

Shui nodded sagely. "Breaking point technique. Mousse probably just wanted to toughen him up, but it seem pig-boy is a fast learner."

"Breaking point? What does it do?" Ukyo asked.

"What it says. You find weak point. Hit with pressure and a little qi, then boom. Thing explodes."

The other three paled. Ryoga was bringing something like that to tomorrow's duel?

"S-so... if he touches me, I'll explode?" Ranma asked, her adorable baby face only magnifying the look of fear she had.

"What? No, no. Person is too complicated. And squishy. Could maybe work on fingernails and teeth, if he touch that. Would work on bone, but if bone exposed you already in trouble," Shui explained.

The others let out a sigh of relief in unison.

"Don't relax. Training technique makes skin hard as... well, not quite iron, but close. I am not sure if tongzhi Ranma strong enough to hurt pig-boy now," Shui continued, sounding rather nervous. "With fight only tomorrow... not sure how to get Ranma enough stronger in time."

Ranma shrugged. "I mean, pops has been havin' me do more strength trainin' lately. Tryin' ta get me ta be 'less girly'."

"Still, have felt your punches," Shui replied. "Not enough for breaking point master."

"Have you done this training, luv?" Ukyo asked. (Suddenly that sensation of rivalry vanished as the group faced a common threat.)

"Not full training yet," Shui replied. "Usually wait until an adult. But know what is like to spar with masters who have."

Ranma nodded, growing deep in thought. What would increase her punching force? ... Well, obviously the quickest improvement would be switching to it being his punching force, but that still might not be enough.

"What about my kicks?" Ranma asked.

"Worth shot. Try kicking trees. If can split grown tree in one kick, then... maybe?"

"Well, time ta get crackin'," Ranma replied, grinning at her own terrible pun.