Chapter 1:

Nabiki rolled her eyes, "Saotome, a thousand yen says that this will blow up in your face."

Ranma rolled his eyes in return, "And when it does you want me to keep your family out of it."

The ice queen smirked, "So long as we are on the same page. You are still on thin ice after the wedding fiasco."

Ranma growled, "That was more your fault than mine. You sold almost all of them a wedding invitation."

Nabiki smiled, though it wasn't a pleasant one, "I am not the one who destroyed the dojo looking for a cure that has managed to land in your lap in a different way."

Akane shook her head, "Do you think Gosunkugi would be able to cure your perverseness too?"

Ranma glared balefully at his fiancée, "If there was any there to find, maybe."

Ranma caught sight of Happosai rolling his eyes and silently giggling. Only the ancient pervert had got the joke it seems. He sighed, after the wedding things between him and Akane had seemed to sour somehow. It really wasn't easy to tell the difference from their normal behavior, but being forced to kill someone had done a good job of forcing Ranma to examine the meaning of life. The result of it all, was that he matured. He became able to mentally, and sometimes physically, separate himself from the chaos that was his life. He saw only one way out of the insanity of Nerima, considering the fact that none of the others seemed to have grown any wiser at all in the time he has known them. His way out would have consequences, that were gradually looking even more appealing by the day.

He raised an eyebrow at the little pig walking through the door. The pig managed to give a sort of shrug to the unasked question. Ranma rolled his eyes and nodded in the direction of the stairs leading to the furo. The pig nodded and started to walk in the opposite direction. Ranma rolled his eyes as he grabbed the little porker by his striped bandana.

Ranma called over his shoulder, "I am going to take a bath, no one walk in please."

Akane growled, "Why would I want to?"

Ranma sighed as he watched his mother tilt her head in confusion at Akane, "I don't know, 'Kane. This whole mess started because you walked in on me taking a bath."

Akane bristled in anger, "Yeah, and you still took a good look at me, you pervert."

Ranma sighed again, "How could you tell? I was watching your eyes the whole time and you never once looked me in the eye."

Akane turned the deep red of embarrassed anger, "Why… you… you!"

Nabiki smirked at her sister, "So now the truth comes out."

Ranma shook his head as he moved up the stairs, "What do you mean now? I told you guys as much shortly after it happened."

Kasumi, ever the peacemaker, said, "You did, Ranma-kun, but you didn't exactly explain what happened."

Ranma looked backwards over his shoulder and held up the hand that was unoccupied with two fingers stuck into the air, "'She walked in on me', 'she took a good look at me.' What more was there to it?"

The family remained silent until he disappeared from sight. Then Genma turned to Soun, "Something is wrong with the boy."

Soun raised an eyebrow, "Will it disrupt our plans?"

Genma's eyes narrowed contemplatively, "Maybe…"

Ranma filled the furo and then placed the small pig on the end, and when said pig looked at him questioningly he sighed for what felt like the millionth time in the last week, "You didn't try to be violent with me, so I am returning the favor in kind. Not that you could do much to me in that form."

The pig nodded thoughtfully as he jumped into the hot water, coming up as a boy wearing a yellow and black poke-dotted bandana around his black hair, "Killing Saffron has changed you, Ranma."

Ranma shrugged as he started to get undressed to join Ryoga for a long soak, "No more than your break-up has changed you."

Ryoga winced at the reminder, "I did care about her, but when she insulted me at every turn, it was kind of difficult to like her."

Ranma nodded as he slipped under the water, "Believe me, I know the feeling." Both of them stewed on that for a little while, then Ranma chuckled, "Look at us, having a heart to heart talk without it devolving into a fight. What kind of insane universe is this?"

Ryoga grinned, "I could always go back to kicking your butt."

Ranma shook his head, "In your dreams, Porky."

Ryoga glared at him, "Since when have you been watching old American Cartoons?"

Ranma shrugged, "Since I have had the time to compare them to my life."

Ryoga thought about it for a second, "How close are they?"

Ranma pointed at the bucket of cold water sitting in the corner, "I turn into a female version of myself when splashed with cold water, you turn into a pig, and we know many similar people who can get punched through brick walls and walk away without even a tear in their clothing. You tell me?"

Ryoga nodded, "Not to mention the fact that I have threatened to kill you many times."

Ranma grinned lopsidedly, "You and I both know you wouldn't be able to follow through on that threat, Ryoga."

Ryoga grunted, "Not for lack of trying, but when it comes down to it, I just can't actually bring myself to hate you."

Ranma smiled a normal smile, "To me anyways, that just means we are friends with disagreements."

Ryoga raised an eyebrow, "Our arguments have the potential to level city blocks."

Ranma nodded, "See what I mean about our lives being looney?"

Ryoga nodded, "So what is this about Gosunkugi giving you a cure?"

Ranma shook his head, "The idiot said that these little glowing ball gems he had given me could cure my curse."

Ryoga gained a somewhat eager look to his face, "More than one?"

Ranma nodded, "Two actually, the only condition to it according to him is that I need to be holding it while fighting some Magical Girls in the Juuban ward."

Ryoga smirked, "Always a hard thing to fight your own kind of people, huh?"

Ranma glared at him, "I was going to offer you one, but if you are going to be like that…"

Ryoga held up his hands in surrender, "I take it back. So when are we leaving?"

Ranma sighed as he leaned back, "This afternoon if at all possible."

Ryoga raised an eyebrow, "Want to get it cured quick, eh?"

Ranma rolled his eyes, "You know as well as I do that it has very little chance of working with our luck the way it is."

Ryoga nodded, "There is also the fact that Gosunkugi would probably be far more likely to try to make you permanently female."

Ranma smirked, "That would be the case, except for the fact that he doesn't exactly know I overheard him mumbling about them, and I didn't give him a chance to try and screw me over by using them for some harebrained scheme."

Ryoga glared at him, "So you stole them."

Ranma shrugged, "Would you rather he use them to summon some sort of demon that would probably kidnap Akane and that we would have to chase after and put down?"

Ryoga opened his mouth to object and paused, "Good point."

Ranma nodded, "See what I mean, the fact that he would do something like that shows how looney our lives are."

Ryoga chuckled, "I am your fiancée's pet pig, who gets routinely beat up at night. I get your point already."

Ranma smirked, "Now I just need to figure out how to get out of here without causing a riot."

Ryoga raised an eyebrow, "You haven't told them where you are going yet?"

Ranma shook his head, "If Akane knew I was hunting down magical girls to kick their butts, what conclusion do you think she would draw from that?"

Ryoga winced, "I see your point… hmmm… you could always tell them you are going on a training trip with me."

Ranma tilted his head to the side, "That is close enough to the truth. I am probably gonna end up insulting you telling them."

Ryoga glared at him, "The day you don't insult me the world is going to end."

Ranma managed an offended look, "Who do you take me for?"

Ryoga grinned good-naturedly, "Ranma Saotome, biggest jerk in Nerima."

Ranma stuck his nose in the air, "Shows what you know."

Both of them paused, then started laughing hard. It took them a few minutes to get it under control, and when they did Ranma got up to get dried off and pointed out the door, "You got clothes hidden in the laundry area?"

Ryoga nodded, "They should be in the cupboard behind the soap."

Ranma raised an eyebrow, "In other words they are probably behind the toilet."

Ryoga growled, "I am not that bad."

Ranma grinned as he walked out the door with the towel wrapped around himself, "I have seen you under the floor before and you have asked me what I was doing in Hawaii."

Ryoga growled and looked pointedly away from him. Ranma chuckled as he closed the door behind him and got dressed, mentally running through some techniques that he had been taught and had made himself while doing so. He was mentally running through how the fight against some magical girls might go. He knew from what little he had seen on TV that they tended to be power types that used the spray-and-pray method of aiming. He had little doubt that he and Ryoga could probably just tank the damage they dished out, but he didn't want to bet his life on it. He also knew that at least he would be able to dodge whatever they threw at him, but he was worried. Would they be able to take a hit? If they couldn't then the fight would be over really quickly. If they could then the fight had the potential to drag out, with a good likelihood of dragging in innocent bystanders and media coverage. He would like to avoid that if at all possible. Beating up the defenders of Love and Justice would not look good on a college resume.

He tossed a towel and Ryoga's clothes in to him, and waited for his friend to exit the room. He made sure to keep an ear to the door so that Ryoga wouldn't be able to get lost on him. He heard the window open and he rushed in and grabbed Ryoga's wrist before he could make it outside. Ryoga growled at him, but paused when he saw Ranma's smirk.

Ranma motioned outside, "It will make the training trip more believable if we fight before-hand."

Ryoga raised an eyebrow, "In what way?"

Ranma smirked, "Cross training. You got things I want to learn, and I am willing to bet you want to learn some of my techniques. We just have to say as much while we are fighting in front of everyone."

Ryoga sighed, "And you think Gosunkugi comes up with harebrained schemes. When did you come up with this?"

Ranma motioned to the window, "When I heard you opening that."

Ryoga shook his head, then with very little warning he grabbed Ranma's collar and threw him out the window, diving out after him before he could lose track of it. The family down below heard a scream of surprise and anger echo from the air above them as Ranma went flying through the air face first into the Koi pond. The resounding splash was accompanied by loud triumphant laughter.

Ryoga fell down to the rock path to the Koi pond, "Is that all you got. I am gonna beat you this time."

Red hair popped up from the pond as a lithe female form launched from the pond onto the rocks surrounding it, "I am so gonna get you for that."

Ryoga smirked as the air seemed to waiver around him with a green light, "You will try, but I haven't been slacking off on my training while I was gone."

Ranma growled, "I haven't either you nit-wit."

Ryoga smirked at the blue glow surrounding his opponent, "Then let's see what you have come up with."

Ryoga launched himself forward cracking the rock he had been standing on, his right leg coming high into the air in an attempt to catch his opponent in the side of the head. They both knew it wouldn't be able to connect, but that was the language of martial arts. It wasn't about what your opponent was doing in the moment, it was about anticipating what they would do next. Ranma reached out with her small hand and tapped the side of Ryoga's knee, and he found himself spinning around with slightly deadened feeling in his leg. He was slightly shocked at that outcome but he poured his ki into his right fist which rocketed towards Ranma's chest. Her glowing left hand came up to intercept his fist and her other hand reached out to grab his shirt sleeve. Her eyes widened when she was unable to grab the supposedly flimsy material, causing barely a half-second opening in her defense that Ryoga capitalized on by allowing her to grab his fist and using that and the spin she had sent him into to launch his left elbow towards the top of her head. He was barely able to connect before she had used her natural speed to basically bull-rush underneath him, unbalancing his spin even further. He land wobbly on his still slightly deadened right foot and launched himself up onto the wall surrounding the house and Dojo.

Ranma nimbly jumped from her position on the other side of the Koi pond at him. Kneeing him in the gut and meeting the same resistance she had when she tried to grab his shirt. She saw him smirk, but he winced though when he backed away from her.

They eyed each other with their guards up, Ranma spoke first, "I really have to figure out that iron cloth technique of yours."

Ryoga spared a hand to rub his stomach, "And I need to see about learning that chestnut fist."

Ranma grinned viciously, "Let's see what else you have up your sleeve."

Ryoga returned the grin and stuck a finger into the wall, "Fine by me."

BOOM

Everyone's eyes widened on seeing the wall underneath Ranma explode, but they widened even further on seeing the dust disperse in a miniature burst of wind. Ranma was in the air with her fist towards the wall, the last vestiges of a miniature tornado disappearing from underneath her.

Ryoga whistled appreciatively as he launched himself at her, "Neat trick."

She intercepted him with a flurry of punches, "Thanks, it was a pain to figure out how to do it using only my energy, but it is nice to know it works."

Ryoga shook his head as he took the punches on his shirt to launch a fist into her gut, "You and your creating techniques on the fly."

Ranma grinned as she used the momentum of the punch to disengage from the fight temporarily, "It's what I do."

She landed in the tree and used it as a perch while her cerulean energy gathered in her open palm, "Moko Takabisha."

Ryoga defensively formed his own technique, "Shishi Hokodan."

The blasts of energy launched at each other and met in the middle in a furious explosion that charred the grass underneath them. Both combatants launched from their respective positions into the dust cloud that had been kicked up and traded midair blows for the couple seconds it took them to hit ground again. When they did Ranma kicked Ryoga back into the air using her right leg and launched a pressure wave of air and ki right into his midsection using her left leg. Genma started at what she did. It was similar to what he could do with his arms using the Yamasenken, but because kicks weren't technically part of the school Ranma had essentially used some of its philosophy in a different way to avoid having to use the sealed schools.

Ryoga was able to take the hit, but his clothing had suffered from him using it to buffer against that attack. He winced as he pulled multiple bandanas off his head and flung them at Ranma. Ranma's eyes widened when the bandanas started following her like heat seeking missiles. She started smacking them out of the air with precision strikes from her ki-infused hands. She launched herself at Ryoga the moment he touched down. He moved to block her and felt the impact of her left palm on his crossed arms and saw her blazing right fist sneak in to hit him in the gut again. Even his toughness training hadn't prepared him to be hit like that. He doubled over, and used the apparent stumble to grab her arm and throw her over his shoulder. She reversed the grip he had on her and used the momentum against him to pick him up and slam him into the ground. The dirt and stones he had cratered into were formerly part of the path leading to the Koi pond. He launched a punch as soon as he got up that was deflected easily, but he was using it and his body to shield the secondary punch that launched Ranma into the men's Go board. She broke it almost the instant she hit it, but ended up decimating it completely when she hit the table with it in between.

She grinned, "Now this is starting to be a good spar, pork butt."

Ryoga rolled his shoulder, "Meh, barely even a warmup for me."

She launched herself at him again, well aware of the mess they were creating. The next few minutes involved a lot of powerful hits being thrown this way and that. With each passing moment every member of the two families present were getting more and more distraught. The next casualty of the fight was the dojo door. After that it was the clothesline that Ryoga then used as a makeshift Martial Arts Gymnastics ribbon. Ranma ended up using a flagpole that broke as a quarter staff. More of the boundary wall was sacrificed in their destructive dance. One of the garden statues ended up shattered by a wayward ki blast. The final straw that ended the fight was Happosai's bag of recently ill gotten "wares" being shredded by a miniature Tornado.

Later Ranma would deny that she squeaked in terror, but Happosai turned his ki into a serpent like projection that wrapped around the two martial artists, "YOU WILL CEASE AND DECIST THIS INSTANT, YOU MISCREANTS!"

Once they had "calmed down," the entire group living at the Tendo Dojo surrounded them, looming like giants in their disapproval of the two fighters.

Genma growled at them, "You boys better have a good explanation for this."

Nodoka nodded, "This display was most unmanly."

Everyone froze temporarily on hearing that, but Ranma coughed into her fist and said, "He crawled out of the cupboard asking me what I was doing in Hokkaido. One thing led to another, and we started fighting."

Akane growled, "You were picking on him again weren't you? When are you two going to get along?"

Ranma smirked, unable to help herself, "When pigs fly."

Ryoga smacked her over the top of the head on pure reflex, "Don't call me a pig."

Soun used his demon head technique before either of them could build up any momentum into another fight, "YOU WILL NOT BE FIGHTING LIKE THAT AGAIN!"

Nabiki raised her eyebrow, well aware of the cost it would take to repair the place after just one round of them going at it, "Isn't there some way to keep you two from fighting."

Happosai rubbed his chin, "Going on training trips together did it for Soun and Genma."

Ranma managed to keep the smirk off her face, but internally she crowed when the families started backing that idea, especially when her mom said, "Maybe you can use your time away to cure your most unmanly curse."

Ranma bowed to her mother, "I promise, Mom. I will come back a man." But she grimly whispered under her breath to Ryoga, "Or I won't be coming back at all."

He caught the look in her eye, and gulped, realizing what she was implying and that here was neither the time nor place to question her about her decision.