Chapter 66: More Outings than a Game of Baseball
Ibari glared as he walked up to the breakfast table, dropping himself down like a bag of bricks. Hibari and Ranma both wondered what they'd done to tick him off this time, when his eyes turned to Gekijirou.
"I do not appreciate being made a fool," he said in a tone deadly flat with disgust. "Your father always had an odd sense of humour, but this…"
Gekijirou's eyes narrowed to meet Ibari's. "As far as I know, there ain't been no jokes."
"I read the old letters your father sent me," Ibari replied.
Hibari let out a groan, while her sisters looked between Gekijirou and their father with confusion. Ranma rolled his eyes, while continuing to eat. Ibari's rude behaviour was nothing unusual, and therefore nothing to miss out on food over, in Ranma's opinion.
Having paused for dramatic effect, Ibari continued. "Especially a letter from sixteen years ago where he talked about his precious new baby girl, Geki-cha—"
"My NAME is GEKIJIROU!" the new boy hissed, slamming the table with his fist.
"What," Tsubame said, her eye twitching.
Suzume's eyes, meanwhile, began to sparkle. "You're like big sis Hibari, but… the other way?"
"Pretty much, I thi—" Gekijirou began, having been taken in by the girl's innocent enthusiasm.
"And I'll show as little patience for a girl who wants to be a boy as for a boy who wants to be a girl!" Ibari shouted, his face red as it looked like a vein in his forehead might pop.
"Father, please don't be rude to our guest," Tsugumi said softly.
"Don't be ru—don't be rude to—I…" Ibari began, before his eye twitching grew worse. He then clutched his chest, letting out a pained rasp as he fell over.
"Seiji!" Hibari shouted, not bothering to stand up. "Dad's having another heart attack over nothing!"
The heavily built man rushed in with a medical kit in hand. As he and Sabu fussed over the Oozora patriarch, Ranma leaned over and patted Gekijirou on the shoulder.
"Don't worry about that doofus. He always gives me an' Hibari an earful, but he pretty well never actually does nothin'," the pigtailed boy said with a grin.
"Ya just accept his verbal abuse?" Gekijirou asked, looking unimpressed.
"Not much of a' thing next ta what my pops has done ta me, so… yeah?" Ranma replied.
Gekijirou blinked. "Wait, what—?"
"Time for school," Ranma said, hopping to his feet.
"Why can't there be any normal cute guys around here!?" Tsubame fumed, before marching off herself.
Gekijirou followed Hibari and Ranma to Wakaba High School, trying not to feel too depressed about the 'aggressively outed to his host family' thing. It wasn't working very well.
"Remember, sticks and stones an' all that," Ranma said, slowing his pace to match Gekijirou's.
Gekijirou glared at him, not caring for the other lad's dismissive attitude.
"Yeesh, lighten up, Geki-cha—"
"-jirou! Gekijirou!" the mulleted boy fumed. "Get it right! How would ya like it if I called you—"
"Ranchan! Yo!" Ukyo's voice called out, as the chef arrived, doubling the number of gakuran clad teens in the group.
"Oh, hey Ucchan," Ranma said with a grin.
"Who's the new b'y, Ranchan?" Ukyo asked, pointing a thumb at a dumbstruck Gekijirou.
"Son of a friend a' Hibari's dad," Ranma replied.
"A bit grumpy, but we'll get him to loosen up in due time," Hibari added.
"…chan?" Gekijirou mumbled, pointing at Ukyo.
Ranma stepped over to lay an arm around Ukyo's shoulder. "Mhm. Ucchan an' I go way back."
"Ranchan an' I was even engaged fer a bit, but I right messed that one up. Now we's be friends, and I's be plenty happy with that," Ukyo added.
"I… tha—"
"AIREN!" Shui's voice shouted, the cursed girl's muscular form flying down the street to tackled Hibari and Ranma into a hug.
She would have tackled Ukyo as collateral damage, if the chef hadn't dodged.
"I missed you both!" Shui said, holding both Hibari and Ranma off the ground and swinging them about.
"As much as I don't mind being held in those beefy arms of yours, we saw each other the day before yesterday?" Hibari replied.
"Too long, now that we can be together," Shui replied, though she did set them both down.
"Who's the human cannonball?" Gekijirou asked, turning to Ukyo (as the chef was the closest person to him).
"Shui. Or Shampoo. Depending on the temperature of the last water to hit her," Ukyo replied.
"Last… wait?"
"Mhm, she's a girl with a boy curse," Ranma explained, before grabbing Shui's bicep. "And she makes pretty well every guy feel inadequate."
Gekijirou paled as he took in Shui's hunkish form. Sure, the cursed girl wasn't much taller than he was, but she still had a couple of centimetres on him. It was mostly the muscles he envied, though.
"Do not worry, airen Ranma. You have nothing to feel inadequate about," Shui said, giving Ranma a wink that confused the poor boy.
Across Nerima, Akane spotted a familiar sight that had been so wonderfully absent the past few days: Kuno Tatewaki. He had a rolled up banner stuck to the wall behind him. He had a sparkle in his eyes.
He was about to do something idiotic, and Akane hovered for a moment at the gate, debating skipping for the day. (Or, at least, sneaking in the back.)
"Tendo Akane-kun!" he shouted. "Nay! Tendo Akane-chan!"
Akane's eye twitched. What was with the sudden familiarity?
Kuno pulled on a string attached to the rolled up banner, the movement drawing the eyes of other students on the front grounds. As the banner descended, Akane stared in confusion at what it said.
'Society for the Support of Tendo Akane's Femininity: Let the Heart Speak!'
"W-what?" Akane muttered.
"Thine sister Nabiki informed mineself of thine struggles between a masculine body and a feminine heart! And that thou hath begun to doubt thine ability to live as a woman! But, worrieth not! I, Kuno Tatewaki, am here to support thee in thine quest for womanhood! I hath seen thine heart and it doth be the heart of a maiden, whatever others may say!"
Akane stared in shock, as the crowd around began to mutter comments. Whispers of 'really a guy' and 'pervert' and a dozen other things that set Akane's breath racing. All while Kuno wore an idiotic grin, calling for cheers from the crowd. Apart from Hiroshi and Daisuke (who seemed to be genuinely supportive), no one joined in. Instead the rumours only grew louder. Boys asking if Akane was trying to turn them gay, girls debating if they'd seen enough of Akane in the change room to determine the truth.
"YOU IDIOT!" Akane burst, marching over to Kuno and grabbing him by the gi. "THAT'S NOT THE SITUATION AT ALL!"
"'Tis no—" he began, before Akane shifted stances and threw him into the perimeter wall of the school (forcing several students to dive out of the way).
After Kuno slammed through the wall, a section of it collapsing on him, Akane felt slightly better, and turned to the assembled crowd. "I was born female, but I'm sick of the sexist expectations boxing me in, alright!? I tried to be the perfect little yamato nadeshiko and it drove me up the wall! So I'm just being myself now! Gender is too much work!"
The crowd stared, confused, but quiet now. With the initial rumours quashed, Akane marched off into the school. Guilt gnawed at Akane's gut for not defending those like Hibari, but the young martial artist reasoned it probably wasn't the best way to dispel the nasty rumours that had been starting.
The classes of the day had gone well enough for Gekijirou. Ranma and Hibari hadn't outed him, so he was just 'the new guy' rather than an instant outcast. Well, a lot of the girls stared at him, but… he was pretty sure that it was with an interest that made him nervous.
He found a seat near the back beside the window and stared out of it, worrying about his father. He'd been ready to drop out of school to get a job and support him, but his father had said no. So now he was stuck living with his father's apparently transphobic friend. At least a few of the Oozora girls seemed nice.
And, reluctantly, he supposed he'd probably end up getting along better with Ranma in future. When he was in a better mood.
Gym class left him worried, though. He didn't want to draw attention to himself by changing elsewhere, so he followed the other guys. He was ready to run the classic 'put the new shirt on, then remove the old shirt' technique once he got to the changeroom. Only to be distracted by seeing Shui go in with them.
Were the guys in the class not aware… no. No. The blushes on their cheeks seemed to confirm they were quite aware.
Shui noticed his confusion, and shot him a mischievous grin. "Nervous about changing when a lady is present?"
Ranma let out a brief snort at that, which drew the cursed girl's attention.
"Ah, yes. One and a half ladies present," Shui said, pulling Ranma into a hug.
"I guess that's why Saotome still changes in the guys' room sometimes," one of the boys said to Gekijirou. "Personally, if I could be surrounded by cute girls getting changed, I'd never come back."
"Ya'd be on display fer all of them, though," Gekijirou replied, remembering uncomfortable stares after he'd started hormones, but before his old school had let him change where he got changed.
The boy paled, looked down at himself. "Y—yeah… I guess I'm not as ripped as Saotome, so I'd probably get pretty self conscious…"
"Speaking about being on display, you b'ys better not makes this weird for me this week, alright?" Ukyo said, walking over to his locker.
"Why would we make things weird for you, Kuonji?" a boy with glasses asked.
The chef let out a tired sigh. "Coming from running out of powder today."
"Powder?" another boy asked.
"Oh!" Ranma said. "Do you want me to explain it to the girls? I'm sure they'd be fine with ya goin' there, Ucchan?"
"My stuff's here," Ukyo replied, before removing their shirt.
Gekijirou and the other boys did a double take at the fact Ukyo was wearing a sports bra and, well, was filling it out.
"You've got… boobs?" a boy asked.
"Is it a problem?" Ukyo replied flatly.
The boys were clearly a bit distracted, but it was confusion, not excitement in their eyes.
"So… which way are you?" another boy asked.
"Started like this, but sexism sucks an' I never really cared for femininity, so I's decided to use magic like Shui's got," Ukyo said, voice still flat.
There were murmurs of general acceptance to that which left Gekijirou flabbergasted. He looked at the guys, who were going back to getting changed, and then back to Ukyo. Then he turned to Ranma, who gave him a smile and a shrug. He then turned back to Ukyo, still in shock.
"Ya's got a problem, Taiga?" Ukyo asked, eyes narrowing as they pulled their gym shirt on. "Cause I's ready to take this outside if you wants."
Gekijirou paled, before shaking his head. "N-no… I, uh… I…"
"If ya don't then spits out why's you're staring," Ukyo replied, stepping forward and cracking their knuckles.
His cheeks went red, but he decided there was one efficient way to clear up the confusion with words failing him. Even if it was something he'd have never done in a million years otherwise. He lifted the front of his shirt.
Ukyo blinked. "Oh. You's… but the sideburns?"
"I'm on hormones," he muttered, becoming aware of the other guys looking at him and pulling his shirt back down. "I'm fully a guy. I didn't know about this magic stuff. So I've been transitionin' medically."
The various boys nodded, while a few looked between him and Kuonji. Other eyes drifted to Ranma and Shui. Ukyo, however, slapped him happily on the upper arm.
"Nice! Nice! I's glad I ain'ts the only one around!" the chef said happily. "I mean, I don't knows if I be fully a guy, but I's closer to guy than girl."
There was whispering amongst the other guys, before one of them stepped forward. Or, more accurately, was nudged forward while the others slipped behind him. The guy was blushing as he cleared his throat.
"On behalf of the other guys, I've been asked to thank you two, for showing faith in us," the boy said. "We've heard some of the girls accuse us of being horndogs who'd chase anything with—well, anyway. Also, we can only guess how awful it is. After Ken and Haruki told us about that instant powder stuff… a couple of us did get curious, and… uh… got kind of freaked out having our bodies changed."
"Not really refutin' the 'horndog' label much by admittin' that," Ranma muttered with a lidded stare.
"We're not Edo Era monks or nothing," one of the other boys protested.
"And some of us used it to try flirting with strange guys safely, since you got half of us to question our sexualities, Saotome," another added.
Gekijirou gave a nod. "Well, I'm glad to know I'm at the best school in Japan for someone trans… and not just from the principal."
"Mhm! The girls are pretty chill too," Ranma added with a smile. "So don't worry 'bout losin' your fan club if they find out."
"Wait… does that mean Oozora really is…" a boy muttered, resulting in sharp looks from the four… less cis teens in the room. The boy paled. "I, just, my older sister heard… and asked if… but, like, most of us have a crush on you, Saotome. Hibari being like that doesn't matter to any of us."
"It'd better not," Shui said with a glare.
"Uh… we should probably bes getting to class," Ukyo said.
There was a moment of realisation on everyone's faces, before they scrambled to the door, not wanting the gym teacher to yell at them.
Ranma and Hibari had a shift at Fumiko's after school, which had resulted in them walking with Shampoo for a bit (who had changed back to her birth form after gym class). Gekijirou, not wanting to go back to the Oozora home alone, had left with Ukyo. Hibari was mildly annoyed to hear that the boys had found out about her being trans, but happy enough with their responses. She was also glad the boys had accepted both Ukyo and Gekijrou. She insisted that she'd trained them well. Shampoo and Ranma let her have it because her confidence was simply so cute.
Ranma and Hibari had then passed on Gekijirou's questions about how hot water reversing Jusenkyo magic might impact hormones. Unfortunately, Fumiko had no close friends who had managed much luck with getting on hormones, due to Japan's restrictive laws, so she wasn't sure what the impact might be.
After that, the shift seemed fairly quiet and normal, until a tall and battered looking lad in a kendo-gi entered the cafe. The Kuno idiot from Akane's school.
"Saotome Ranma!" Kuno shouted, the bruises and bandages on him apparently doing nothing to decrease his volume.
"If ya want ta fight me again, let's take it outside, alright?" Ranma groaned.
Kuno blinked. "N-nay. I doth wish to apologize."
"Really?" Ranma and Hibari replied in shocked unison.
The tall lad nodded. "In mine attempt to protect Tendo Akane's honour, I may, perchance, have committed the blunder of a lifetime."
"May have?" Ranma said flatly.
"…very well. I didst commit such a blunder. I was unaware of the situation of Akane's birth, and didst not realise she would share a kinship with thee," Kuno explained, resulting only in greater confusion from the two teens behind the counter.
"Do you know what he's talking about?" Ranma asked, turning to Hibari.
She shook her head.
"What's going on out here?" Fumiko asked, stepping out from the back. "Oh. It's you again…"
"Fair owner of this… quaint establishment, worry not! I come in peace with the desire to make amends," Kuno replied.
Fumiko did not look convinced.
"Do you think he means you and Akane have the same Western zodiac sign, maybe?" Hibari offered.
"I don't even know what my sign is," Ranma replied.
"You don't? When's your birthday?" Hibari asked.
"I speak not of Horoscopes of Occidental superstition," Kuno said, his tone sounding tense. He took a moment to breathe, before adopting a calmer and more matter of fact tone. "I speak of the fact that fair Akane was born male, but strives to be a wo—"
Tatewaki's sentence was cut off by three hands covering his mouth, Ranma, Hibari, and Fumiko all staring at him with horror as they shushed him. As Fumiko glanced over at the two housewives at the far end of the cafe ignoring the world for their gossip, she let out a sigh of relief.
"Young man, that is not something you loudly declare around strangers," Fumiko said as she lowered her hand.
Ranma and Hibari were slower to lower theirs, but did so after Fumiko's lead.
"It is not?" Tatewaki asked in slow confusion.
"Ya attacked me for basically the same thing!" Ranma hissed. "How d'ya not see that other people might attack Akane if they thought what you were sayin' was true?"
"That was quite different. Ye were spending time with mine beloved. I would not care if you had spent time with her mercenary sister Nabiki nor mine own sister," Kuno replied.
"Yeah, well, plenty a' guys at your school probably have crushes on girls Akane changes with, so they'd probably see it how you saw me an' Akane," Ranma replied.
"Many others would not even need that to turn violent against one they would see as a 'boy' in female spaces," Fumiko replied.
Kuno seemed completely baffled, so Hibari stepped in, wrapping a hand around Ranma's arm.
"There's the assumption that any guy interested in girly stuff is a pervert, and so couldn't be trusted around women in mixed spaces. Let alone in female spaces," Hibari said.
"The glares ain't fun," Ranma added, trying to shield Hibari from any possible outing by making it seem like it was all about himself. "Folks at school have learned I ain't a deviant or nothin', but… it took a while."
Kuno nodded a few times, crossing his arms in thought. Then he tilted his head, apparently finding an issue. "But, fair Akane is not a boy, she hath a maiden's heart…"
"Not everyone's as willing to accept that idea as you," Fumiko said, with a soft smile. Maybe the boy was passionate, but his heart did seem like it was in the right pla—
"So that is why she threw me through two walls after I announced my support of her struggle to the student body," Tatewaki said, realisation slowly dawning on his face.
Fumiko's eye twitched as she took back her improving opinion of him. Hibari steepled her fingers over her mouth and took in a deep slow breath, struggling not to hit Kuno for the sake of not damaging the cafe. Ranma slumped over the counter, feeling like his very spirit was escaping through his mouth as he let out a long moan of frustration.
Tatewaki stared at them, confused by the response. He was willing to admit he might have messed up slightly, but this seemed excessive to him.
"It's very lucky that you were wrong and Akane could easily disprove what you said," Hibari said, at last.
"I… am wrong?" Kuno asked. "But the photographs of Akane in her youth…"
"She was a tomboy," Ranma said, pushing himself back to a standing position. "And… to keep it simple, that's what she's goin' back ta."
"Oh…" Kuno replied.