An unusual disclaimer: Ranma ½ is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. And Son Turned Daughter was originally written way back in 2002 by the FanFiction author Tangent, it and his characters Megumi, Yasushi and Ayane have, likewise, been borrowed without permission. Please see the first two chapter under his pen name. This story is written for non-commercial purposes only.
[][][] [][][] [][][]
It took Kuno less than a moment to comprehend. "Then you are a woman who would date two men at the same time."
"I am?" Ranma appealed to Akane.
"No, you're not!"
"Yeah! What she said!" Most the girls PE class applauded. Hearing it, the redhead confidently said, "What they say!"
"Are the they you refer to martial artists?" There was a show of hands. There were quite a few. None of them, though, belonged to Ikuko or any other members of the Truce Enforcement Club. Where were they?!
"Be there any fair Valkyrie who would challenge what I said about her dating habits?" A couple did keep their arms up, but were forced to lower them by the hands of other girls. "Then you are, indeed, battle maidens and recognize that a wager accompanies all challenges. Note then, that this frontline female officer of your ranks lost her wager to I and in so doing won a date with this same Tatewaki Kuno you do see before you! She could not be considered a woman of honor if she did not make good on what she proffered!" The second-place debate winner turned from the jury to the defendant, "Are you a woman of honor? Are you a good woman?"
"Man, must you use the word woman?" Ranma's memories of her male sensibilities were threatening her. She didn't want to date any guy at all, none, zero, zilch! And most especially to bandage boy!
"I am too much of a noble gentleman to use any of the lesser terms that accompany a woman that freely dates two men at once. But that is what you admit to when claiming to be a good woman of honor."
"Twisted," Yasushi said.
"Twisted is right!" Akane agreed, violently. Where was that hammer when she needed it?! "Don't listen to Kuno, Ranma, or you'll be drawn down into his mad world!"
It was her turn to be addressed by Kuno, the mummy, "I understand that you are to be raffled off like an object as well, Akane Tendo. Am I also to understand that you two worthiest of worthy opponents are to accompany one another during your dates with such callow and callus boys who dare to treat you as chattel?"
"What did he say?" asked Ranma.
"If you mean are Ranma and I going to go on a double date, yes!" They hadn't gotten that far into considering the details, but it made sense. Ranma certainly needed a born-girl watch over her, preferably a fellow martial artist who could minimize any damage if/when she went crazy again.
"Nay, I will not hear of said travesty being a double date!"
"You have no say in it, Kuno!"
"But I do, by right of winning the challenge that Ranma Saotome did herself issue to me! It shall, instead, be a..." Kuno was at a loss for a word, of all things. He feigned superior vocabulary skills by confidently finishing, "double-and-a-half date!"
The girls PE class burst out in hearty laughter at the ridiculous neologism. "Half of four people would be two more, wouldn't it!?" ; "No, that would be a triple date! What he's saying is that he'll be the fifth wheel!"
Kuno looked his bandages seemed to be becoming red and he almost ready to admit to being humiliated, when he had a mad inspiration, "Nay: Not a fifth wheel, but the fifth ray of a pentagram! The pentagram is the very symbol of Onmyodo, the most ancient and most Japanese of sorcery!" He now felt exalted, as if Amaterasu, herself, the sun goddess and the highest of even the male gods, were shining down upon him!
With that, he placed the spine of his wooden sword on his shoulder and strode proudly from the basketball court in his most courtly manner. "There shall be magic on our dates! I shall have my manservant and ninja Sasuke keep watch over you fairest of all Ladies-in-waiting. I look forward to the hour of our shared tryst."
"Man! Why couldn't they have bandaged his mouth shut!" Ranma growled.
[][][]
The next class was, appropriately, math. But they didn't talk of the One Way, the Two Halves, the Three Originals, the Four Virtues, the Five Elements, the Six Sounds, the Seven Stars, the Eight Trigrams, the Nine Directions, or anything else that complicated magic. Today's lesson seemed to be about how important math was to science.
Ranma's mind drifted. After Kuno had left the girls had shown the sympathy and even pity. Most, anyway. There were a few whispers about how the new/strange girl may be the kind to not only date two men at the same time but let them buy her drinks at a booze wagon. She may have learned her martial arts only so she could get away with her "Wild Filly" ways. But how well could she protect herself while passed out drunk, or, worse, drugged?! It hadn't happened to her yet, probably, but it was only a matter of time before...
It wasn't fair! It wasn't fair! She really was cursed!
[][][]
It wasn't until the last class of the day that Ikuko showed up. The whole class, girls and even guys, gasped! Any thought of paying attention to the teacher vanished. Ikuko walked with her greatest dignity to her desk in silence. But the other students couldn't stay quiet. None talked with her, though. None dared!
"Psst, Akane, why is Ikuko's hair like that, now?" Ranma didn't whisper but sounded like the lowered voices of the boys.
"I don't know!" Akane whispered back. She felt really bad for Ikuko. She herself had finally gotten her hair as long as Big Sister Kasumi's and she would absolutely hate, hate, hate having to be seen in a geisha haircut, to use the term loosely. There was no suggestion of style or beauty to it.
Ikemizu-sensei, the hard-headed teacher who was almost good enough at almost all subjects to be the all-purpose substitute, had lost his concentration. In English he would talk about Japanese history then go into the Okinawa dialect and Japanese literature and finish up with straight math equations that for all the students knew could be about home ec recipes. He kept looking at the clock, looking less like a teacher and more like a student who couldn't wait for school to be over with. He, and they, were about to be released for the day, when a voice came over the PA.
"All de keiki be listen' good now! Dis iz da Big Kahuna, da Headmaster of Furinkan. Aloha!"
All of the papers the teacher had been holding flew up in the air as his nervous breakdown arrived.
[][][]
It was after school hours. The students should have been able to leave. Instead, they all had to attend assembly by order of the Big Kahuna, The Headmaster, or, as the teachers warned them, the owner of Furinkan. The reason it could put so much emphasis on the martial arts was because it was a private school not funded by the government at all, except through a few grants. The Headmaster controlled all other of its money. What he said was as good as law.
Ranma walked into the large building with rows and rows of seats casually, with her hands behind her red head. She was already not impressed with this so-called "Headmaster". "Why ain't he callin' himself Kouchou? Why does he hafta use an English title? Japanese ain't good enough for him?"
"I don't know. But the entrance standards are low and the tuition is quite cheap," Akane informed her.
"You get what you pay for," Nabiki informed her.
"Is that reason enough for we havin' to do whatever he says whenever he says? Geez! You'd think he thought he was feudal lord and we're all his peasants." Ranma, unlike the Tendos, came from a long line of peasant warriors. Denied swords and other conventional weapons they had had to improvise with whatever was available to them. They had been masters in anything-goes before anybody had appropriated the term.
"Nerima is technically the Kuno fiefdom," Nabiki reminded her.
"Kuno my "lord and master"? Yeah, right! As if that's gonna happen!"
[][][]
Their heads bowed like servants waiting for their master to arrive, the teachers waited on stage. Well, all except the English teacher, Miss Yukari, she was always unpredictable, Ranma was told, and took nothing really seriously. She was the opposite of Ikemizu-sensei, who took everything seriously.
Suddenly over the PA came the music for "I want to go back to little grass shack; In Kealakekua, Hawaiʻi…" And out came -
"What's the matter, Ranma?!" Akane tried to keep from crying out in concern on seeing Ranma's reaction.
"It's him! I know it! He's got that same little palm tree on his head!"
"You've got better eyes than I do," Akane said. "From where we're sitting, all I see is a mummy wearing a Hawaiian shirt."
"He looks like Kuno's daddy," Nabiki laughed remembering her classmate from earlier that day.
The Headmaster came up to the one prop on stage, a podium with two microphones. Like Kuno, they had neglected to bandage up his mouth. "Can me hear a big "ALO~HA!" for da Big Kashuna!? Da keiki's beloved Headmaster has returned!" Student looking at student, waiting for the first to do it, finally there was a half-hearted but loud "Aloha!".
"Me tank me pupilz ve~ry much! Me know me keiki miss da Big Kahuna! Me have many big announcement! Change iz comin' to Furinkan! First iz da suspension of da Truce Enforcement Club until me decide different." There were groans from the girls and applause from the Hentai Horde.
"He can't do that!"
"Yes, he can," Nabiki told Ranma and Akane.
"Maybe me decide different when Ranma Saotome come on stage!"
"I will!" Ranma got up from her seat. She was surrounded by a sea of students. But not for long. The little redhead in the schoolgirl dress leaped onto the backs of the empty seats that were scattered throughout the auditorium, only occasionally stepping on the heads of those boys who had applauded. Some got nosebleeds from the view they got up her dress, even though she was wearing green panties
In one final bound, she was on the stage. "This is the guy at the booze wagon!" She told everybody, not needing a microphone.
"Wahine keiki iz right. Da Headmaster alway show hiz concern for hiz pupilz! Keiki should no be drinkin' de illegal drink!"
"It Wasn't like that! -He, tried, to, cut, off, my, PigTail!!"
"Pigtail no belong in school! Da dress code say so!"
"You Made the dress code!"
"Da code iz de code and da Big Kahuna must enforce da code on all da unfortunate keiki! Da Headmaster haz no choice. Da keiki haz not be obeyin' da code since me be gone. Ting's be too easy, now be hard. Be betta for studyin'!" And with that, the bandaged man picked up one of the microphones and walked with it to the middle of the stage, just yards from Ranma. "Startin' today, all da wahine keiki be gettin' da geisha haircut and da kane keiki be gettin' da topknot."
There was instant rebellion among the students. Megumi had her own crowd, but Akane was recognized as the strongest girl still in the audience and was instantly elected their leader, while Kuno the mummy became the hentai horde's. Hiroshi and Daisuke set the example for those who did not wish to fight. They sat it out in the auditorium.
The rebels just stood, preparing to move, waiting… for the Wild Filly, Raging Red, the Fury of Furinkan to make the first move! Up there on stage with all eyes on her, Ranma felt the pressure. She wanted to rush off stage! She wanted to be a man - the man, the hero! But here she was, a damsel in this stressful situation! Her reputation depended on winning! What was wrong with her?! The last time she felt like this was with...Shampoo! That was it! The last time she felt all eyes on her was in the amazon village! Back there she had been so new to being a girl she was still almost all-boy. Then that all changed with the Kiss of Death and her being forced to run. It made her feel less of a man and that made her more of a girl. She had actually been reduced to cowering a few times. Like she wanted to do now!
Where were those hormones when she needed them the most?! They weren't there because of the Something: The something that didn't let her steal, borrow, or reject gifts. This Big Guy was not only the kouchou, he owned the school. Akane had told her that they were basically here was because this topnut guy had made their education practically a gift! She was obligated, no matter how much the peasant warrior in her wanted to cry To Hell With You, You Hair Molester!
There was only one thing she could do. The little redhead reached around and undid her pigtail.
"Ranma!" Akane screamed above the gasps of surprise and total disappointment in their hoped for heroine! Some broke down and cried. The Hentai Horde proved that men could cry, too. And there was even a tear in the eye of tough-girl Megumi.
Fighting back her own tears, the little schoolgirl turned and told her boss. "Do it! Do it now!"
"Da keiki iz more da good girl dan da Headmaster give wahine credit for!" His giant shears came out and with one snip, the petite cutie had a pixie cut in back.
"No!" Even Hiroshi and Daisuke had risen from their seats. They reflected the sentiment of salaryman of the booze wagon, a work of art had been totally desecrated! Tragedy was felt by all.
"Now for da bangs!"
"I Don't Think So!" Ranma cried! "You attacked me! Again! That's all I needed! Physical assault! Ranma Saotome won't allow no third time!" She wrenched the big scissors away from him and: Snip!
The palm tree from the top of his head fell to the stage. The Feudal Lord of Furinkan was without his topknot.
"Ranma!" Akane cried, doing her first far-jump from a run. She went from the aisle to the stage and landed beside her friend. She was so surprised with herself, her fighting stance was sloppy.
The Wild Filly went up to her and the audience thought they were quickly agreeing on a strategy. The Hentai Hater nodded and stepped back, allowing her ally to take the lead. Raging Red was ready to become the Fury! This battle would be the stuff of legend….
"Attention! I have something you all should hear!" Ikuko said, speaking into the second mike of the podium. She held up a ream of paper. "The Truce Enforcement Club members will be passing copies of these throughout the assembly. They're the school record of the Headmaster!"
"School is over! We don't want any reading!" , "Yeah! We want to see the action!" , "Bring on the fight!"
But others did read. "That's his name!?" So many people repeated it at nearly the same down it was like a roar that echoed down onto the stage. "KANETO!?" , and more than one said, "That's more of a little boy's or little girl's name!"
"No! The record prints a base, vile and utter falsehood!" Kuno did his own running leap onto the stage, the mummy's wooden sword poised to smite. "There is no way I will allow this foreigner to despoil the noble syllables of Kuno!"
"But, Sahib, dhe name means Nine Abilities. Dhis dhe Maharaja will demonstrate that no one may think otherwise!"
"He changed accents?" , "Oh, look, it says here his family name is Kuno" , "I think he is a Kuno" , "Yeah, just as insane." , "Believe it or not, more insane." , "Look!"
A rope was dropped from above the stage. Kaneto Kuno put his hands in two of its many cloth loops and was pulled up higher and higher. "Dhe Maharaja knows all dhe secrets of dhe fakirs!"
"Yeah! A fake fakir!" , "Yeah, but he did that pretty well for a guy who flunked PE." , "Do you see his other grades?!" , "Even I have better grades than that!"
Schoolgirl Ranma's stance had changed to where her she was leaning on the handles of the points-down shears as she coldly looked at Kuno waving his bokken around, getting it more and more entangled with a rope. The idiot had actually thought if he cut the bottom the rest would fall, taking the other idiot Kuno down with it, and was still not quite convinced it wouldn't work. "Come back here! You prove you are not a samurai by not fighting like a man! You are but a foreigner who needs be deported for showing no respect to the Magnificent and Noble Japanese culture!"
"I wish they had bandaged up both their big mouths!"
[][][]
While Ikuko and the others of the 'disbanded' Truce Enforcement Club were selling raffle tickets to the students gathered in the auditorium, the two prizes, Ranma and Akane, slipped backstage. They could still hear her, though, over the PA system. "...win dates with the two most popular girls in school! Just 1,000 yen a ticket! Show your support for our club! Stand up to the Headmaster!"
"Akane, you do have the Dragon Whisker I gave you?! Tell me you do! You didn't lose it!?"
"No, I still have it." She was about to place her hand where it was, remembered where it was, blushed a little, and said, "It's in my bra."
"Bra!?"
"The uniform doesn't have pockets!" she frowned.
"Okay! Okay! As long as you got it! Without it I can Never be a guy again!"
Akane did touch her chest this time. "Oh, Ranma! I'm so sorry! I thought it was only water that affected your curse!"
"It does! The whisker is for another curse!"
"Another?! You have another curse! Why didn't you tell me?! We're friends!"
"Aw, man! I guess I shoulda, but things've just been so crazy! There's so much to try and remember as a girl!"
"I understand," Akane said, placing a hand on her.
"Come on, I want to get that whisker back safely in my hair as soon as possible! Which way to the nearest girls room?"
"But(?) you don't have any hair left to put it in."
[][][]
"So you really do need those pruning shears!" Akane said after her friend had revealed yet another truth to her. It was still a little hard to believe, but she wouldn't have believed a boy could become a girl - and back - so easily before she met Ranma. "First you have hair too long, then no hair!"
The very short-haired redhead nodded, then frowned. "Maybe you should do the cuttin'. It's gonna be kind of awkward doin' it myself," she said, testing to see how well she could get the big scissor around to the back of her neck.
"Okay."
"Leave it a little long! Below maybe all way to my waist. Kasumi can trim it proper-like when we get home." Ranma was about to push the backstage restroom door open when it opened on its own.
A little man in a purple ninja costume was coming out. "That was sweaty work pulling up the Master."
"Okay! What were you doin' in a girls room!?" Ranma demanded. "Guys should not go in them!" The irony was lost on her.
"What?" the small man said, lifting the strip of cloth he was using as a blindfold. "Who are you?"
"That's My question!" And Akane agreed with her.
"Wait! Red hair, and … I do not see a pigtail. Is your name Ranma?"
"Forget my name!"
"I cannot! I am under orders to keep a Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo under surveillance. Oh, hello, Akane. I didn't see you there."
"You know me?"
"A ninja tells no one but his master. Or mistress. And even then, it is difficult to tell my masters or mistress...anything."
"Tell me your name!" Ranma threatened to beat it out of the runt.
"A ninja is anonymous! He has no identity of his own!"
"Sasuke! Sasuke! Help me out of this binding the despicable foreigner has ensnared me in!"
"Yes, Master!" And Sasuke hurried to unwrap Kuno from the rope that now was not only tangled around in his sword but himself as well.
"Come on!" Ranma yanked Akane into the girls room. "Maybe we can escape from Kuno in here!"
"But his pet ninja doesn't seem to have a problem going where only girls are meant to be!" Akane growled. Again, the irony was lost. Ranma was only a girl then. He would become a guy, full of memories.
And that guy brain was about to make his reappearance.
But first, she had to go to one of the stalls. "Turn on the hot water in a sink, Akane while I get outa my dress and panties."
"Don't forget your whisker!" she said, unbuttoning the top buttons of her blouse. She was glad she had the privacy. She was still afraid that everybody in the auditorium had seen her put it in her bra even though she had done her best to keep them from seeing what she was doing. (Of course, everybody's eyes were on Ranma, not her. Well, all except Hiroshi and Daisuke. They had radar about that sort of thing.)
"Wait until I got nothin' on! Gotta keep my hands free to undress. There!" Her things on the toilet seat lid, the completely nude petite girl with the best figure in all of the school, if not Nerima, came out of the stall. She got the whisker from the friend, who was having a wave of envy that bothered her crotch, and bent over the sink with the running water. "Okay, we gotta time this right!"
"Right!" Akane said, the shears ready, already snip, snipping.
"One, two...three!" The redhead stuck her head into the sink water. And the brunette
...did not appear. "The water's not hot enough!" she cried in frustration.
"Hot water costs money," Nabiki said, coming out of a stall. "What kinky game are you two playing? Big scissors, Little Sister," she said, making it sound suggestive.
"It's Not like that!" Ranma cried, her bared boobs jiggling more than usual from her being agitated. "I need hot water to turn back into a guy!"
"You'll have to wait. This is a low-end school and most of their budget goes to repairing the damaged caused by you martial artists. They nickel-and-dime where they can."
"You mean they won't reset the hot water heater," Akane said, remembering, at last, that the water at school had only been tepid. Despite getting sweaty and smelly playing sports, everybody had to use one of the large, concrete trough-sinks to clean up before their next classes. Like so many Japanese schools there were no showers in the gym. And this in a country that thrived on public bathing!
"I can reset the hot water heater," Sasuke said, falling down from the ceiling onto his butt. He meant to land on his feet, but the blindfold made that too difficult for what ninja skills he had.
"What are you doing here!" Akane cried. "Get out!" Ranma yelled.
"I have a right to be here! My masters own this school."
"Wait!" Nabiki said to the girls. Going over to the small man, she squatted down to be on his level. She grazed her finger over his costume. "You'll make the water hotter, won't you? It would make things so~o much better." And not just for Ranma.
"I cannot do that without the permission of one of my masters, Nabiki Tendo."
"Oh!" She said, raising up and frowning. "You think your masters own the house where I and my sisters live, as well?!"
"You do have a mortgage. Several."
Nabiki knew when she was defeated. But she wasn't entirely defeated. Like Ranma, she never lost! "If we can get Kuno-baby, that is, the Tatewaki Kuno master of yours, to agree, you'll see that the water is hot enough to steam?"
"I would not have the choice not to."
[][][]
And so they found their way, backstage, past props and to costumes.
"Honestly, Ranma, why don't you just wait until we get home and can use the hot water there?!" Akane asked.
"Because I'm cursed! I'm a water magnet! It's all been cold water this far, but I don't got my Dragon Whisker! Hot water has to come after me! You have no idea how bad, bad, bad the hair curse is!" It was made worse by her growing mania over her idiot Old Man! The very, very, very last thing she wanted was to look like him! Especially as a girl!
"Okay. If you say so, Ranma. I guess I can understand," her friend said. She said to Nabiki, "Why do we have to wear these costumes?" Her middle sister was the only one still in her uniform.
"Because, despite what Kuno-baby says about the "Magnificent and Noble Japanese culture", he has a thing for European culture. Heut cuisine is his favorite food, and Shakespeare is his favorite playwright. The dresses you have on are from Romeo and Juliet."
"Really?!" Akane was delighted, finally focusing on something more than the problems of her friend. "Is this Juliet's costume?!"
"Really!? Does it matter!?" Ranma had no time for this! Hot water was lurking everywhere!
"Yes!" she snapped at her. Then mellowed. "Yes. I listened to your truths, and you'll listen to this one of mine. Later." Ranma wasn't the only one with a curse or two, she thought.
"Okay, I will!" and the anxious redhead hurried to meet her "Romeo", whatever that character was. She hadn't a clue and didn't care. All she knew she had to pretend she was in some stupid romantic play.
[][][]
"I tire of being blindfolded, Sasuke." Now only his mouth was visible.
"It is for the sake of the modesty of your Ladies-in-waiting, Master. They told me they are preparing a surprise for you! Of a good kind, I was assured."
"Oh? You do say?" and a cocky smile appeared that could be seen between the bandages. "My persistence in the pursuit of romance is finally bearing fruit. Then it shall be! I await the wonder they will present me!"
"Oh, Ku~no! It's me! Your Ran,Romeo!"
"Juliet! Juliet! Right now you are Juliet, Ranma!" Akane loudly prompted.
"Whatever! Just take off that blindfold and look, you (...)" she forced her voice to so low he couldn't hear what she was really thinking of him.
Having seen the two coming, Sasuke had sneaked away and was now turning on a portable spotlight. This was the glare that reached Kuno as he took off the blindfold. "It is the sun!" His eyes adjusting, he saw the redhead. "...and Juliet is, indeed, the Moon."
"Hey! I'm Juliet, too!" Akane yelled.
"Nay, not merely a Juliet. Akane you are Diana herself! The Roman Artemis, goddess of the hunt and all thing wild!"
"Hear that, "Wild Horse"?!" It thrilled her no end to be upstaging her.
"And you are Venus herself!" Kuno "consoled" his other Lady-in-waiting. "The Olympian Aphrodite come down to Earth in maidenly form. Your beauty is my aphrodisiac."
"Oh, Kuno. That's the first time somebody's called me beautiful," that she had bothered to remember. Was being beautiful better than being cute? Maybe not to the Japanese, but Kuno was being European.
As Sasuke was maneuvering the spotlight so the two stars of his master's fantasies could be given the best, beauty-enhancing lighting, he didn't see one of the sandbags he had used to raise Master Kaneto Kuno. The wheels bumped against it hard enough for the spotlight to topple! The large lamp on the end of the long pole fell not onto the stage but into a prop that was also used for cleaning: A trough of tepid water.
Only the electrical sparks and the electricity now zapping through it made the water hot! All that did not really startle or concern Ranma. It was the splash and steam!
"Eeek!" Ranma screamed like the little girl she appeared to be - And jumped into Kuno's arms to be raised about the water.
"Oh, my goddess of love! Again you throw yourself at me!" And this time he had a very close view of the cleavage her decolletage revealed. "You cannot keep yourself away from me!
'It's a curse,' is how he heard her words and added a maidenly blush to go with them.
"Nay, say not so, It is but your uncontainable expression of love for your Romeo. Fight it not! Love is the very reason, the source of life! Feel the vital energies that come-"
"Kuno!" Akane screamed at not having the starring role. "What about Me!"
"I have not forsaken you, my Dianic Juliet."
"Kuno-baby, your vocabulary is off," Nabiki said as a casual audience. "Also your dialog. There are no real Shakespearean quotes. You're just like your daddy, after all. No wonder you attend the school your family owns."
Kuno paid no attention, as the noble scion was too busy ogling the other two, albeit in a more refined why than Hiroshi or Daisuke were capable of doing,
Meanwhile, Ranma was cocking back her fist, ready to deliver it to the creep's bandaged face. Until Akane saved her, "Hot water heater."
"Guh! Grr! Ugh! Aaaa! I can't do it! Please, Akane! Please! Anything, but PLEASE!"
A great big smile broke out on the now star of the show. She walked up to Kuno and bent forward. "You can hold me, Romeo, if you put the second-rate Juliet down."
"SECOND-Rate!"
"Ranma," Nabiki reminded her. "This is one time you want to be first. Bow out gracefully."
"Gracious!? I ain't never been gracious!" She felt her craziness beginning to get out of hand. She had to do something or she was going to totally lose it! What?! That? Yes: THAT!
"Ku~ *Yuck* Kuno, will you do something for me if I…" *Gag* "kiss you?"
"Yes. Anything." He tried to be as suave as his skyrocketing ardor allowed.
"Promise? Word of honor?"
"I am the very embodiment of a Man of Honor!"
And Ranma kissed Kuno!
"Ran,MA!" Akane screamed! Juliet was HER role!
"Just how bisexual is Ranma?" Nabiki asked herself.
[][][]
"No hot water! No hot water!" the short-haired short redhead cried, threatening to go into a tantrum. At least she was back in her schoolgirl dress. It had taken some doing, but Akane and Nabiki had finally convinced her to not stay nude in the backstage girls restroom.
"You heard that ninja voyeur!" Akane said. She was still ticked about not getting to really be Juliet.
"And he's right. A hot water heater can't magically make hot water." Not if it goes against the nature of the magic being used, or that was Nabiki's guess. "And especially, when it has to heat up all the water of the school!"
"But what about the hot water! There's hot water out there! It'll get me!"
"Here!" Nabiki said, presenting her with a yellow rain slicker and a motorcycle helmet. "This will protect you from getting wet!"
"Where'd you get them."
"Let's just say 'costumes'." Why was the magic cooperating now? She didn't know. But her guess was that the Jusenkyo curse was stronger than the hair curse - whatever that was. Maybe it didn't like the competition and was showing the other magic which was stronger.
[][][]
With the little woman covered up so nobody could really tell she was a schoolgirl or had red hair, the three of them headed for the Tendo home. Their school day was finally, finally over!
And still, Akane could not drop it. "You stole my kiss!"
"I. Did. Not! It don't count if I use a bandage!"
"And Ranma used one Kuno's own bandages, too," Nabiki said, highly amused.
"And then I made sure the bandage would keep his big mouth shut!"
