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, and his characters Megumi, Yasushi and Ayane have, likewise, been borrowed without permission. Please see the first two chapters of this story under his pen name. This story is written for non-commercial purposes only.

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The red-haired "son" casually looked at her Old Man. Using the training he had given her, she sized him up as the opponent he currently was.

Her answer to his challenge was a swipe. Not at him, but the photo on the table. "Better catch it, or my fiance's gonna see it."

Genma had to reach for it - The wrong way, the sudden crick in his back told him! Having his attention on the photo, he didn't have enough for standing. He folded back towards a ball!

But at least he had the photo in his hand. Of course, he had the dirty mind to misinterpret the frozen moment of her and Ryoga's nightmare battle. "You said he was only going to sleep with you!"

In her lingerie, the little redhead put her little fists up to her face and acted all cute-as-a-button. "I also giggled!"

"Ranma, have you no male pride," Ryoga asked.

"The picture shows I wasn't a male. *Giggle*" Guh! Her mania towards her pop was growing! She was actually doing this in front of a guy who knew, with the absolute certainty that he himself turned into a pig, that she was really a guy herself.

"What are you!?" Genma's anger turned on the pig-boy. "Just how bisexual are you!" he accused.

"Wha, WHAT(!)?!"

"And in my own bed! I'll have to burn it!"

"You don't own that futon, you know!" Nabiki said before her daddy could. "You'll have to pay for it. Plus interest for the wanton destruction of other people's property!"

"Ryoga," Ranma invited.

"Gladly!" Ryoga swung his leg back, ready to-

"Hold it a sec," Ranma said, up and bounded over to her Old Man. She snatched the photo from him. "I'm keeping this to remember our first night together," she said all girly.

"What(!)? What do you mean by that?!" Ryoga cried,

"Oh, don't be so rigid, man! You'll end up all bent outta shape like my pop."

"Right. Okay. I guess." And he punted the ball of human flesh and bone out the open shoji doors and over the Tendo yard's wall.

Ranma put her hand on Ryoga's high, broad shoulder. "Don't tell me you don't got no sense of direction. Pop's headed right for Dr. Tofu's clinic."

"But I wasn't aiming. I didn't even know there was a clinic."

Ranma gave the photo to Ryoga to tear up. "Okay, you don't got no sense of direction. What you got is superior tracking sense!"

"Tracking sense?"

"Sure!" she moved to where he could see her acting like a sensei. "You followed me for three years! You kept getting lost from us, but you always found our trail!"

"Three YEARS!?" Akane cried. "Oh, my," Kasumi said. "Talk about a one-track mind," Nabiki opined.

"Could somebody help me, here," their father pleaded. He was still like a misformed pretzel.

"Oh, my! Sorry, Father!" Kasumi went to him. "Maybe, I can help. I've studied most of Dr. Tofu's books."

Everybody ignored his cries and whimpers of pain.

Meanwhile, Ranma invited Ryoga to sit and have breakfast. He was on her left, Akane on her right. To him, she said, with her mouth full, "You know, I bet when you get lost this next time, you'll find us again pretty soon after."

"Really?" Dared he to hope?!

"Ranma, aren't you forgetting something?" Akane asked.

Ranma looked at her. Then at her now nearly empty bowls of miso soup with rice on the side. "The Challenge! I need to find techniques Madame St. Paul's School-" , "La Belle France." , "- Right - techniques they don't use and won't use!"

She looked around the table. Ryoga was picking at his, lost in his own thoughts. And there was her no-good, food-stealing pop's meal. And he wasn't here to defend it!

But it was! A ball of panda came bouncing over the wall and through the shoji doors. [A technique I learned from Tofu!] read its sign.

"Oh, my, how like a panda!" Kasumi smiled. "I've seen pictures of pandas curled around large balls."

"Ow!" her father cried, loudly and wetly. But at least his joints were straight. Too straight. It was difficult, now, to bend them.

Ranma swatted the ball of fur away. It bounced back. Ryoga used his fist. "Hey! I want a turn!" Akane yelled, bringing out her hammer.

"No!" Ranma said, putting her hand on the mallet.

This time when the animal came at them, she grasped it one hand and held it up in the air. But not for long! She had to let go of the hammer and use both hands. With her arms shaking and her body jiggling, the creature began to descend on her.

"Let me," Ryoga said, relieving her of the furry weight. "You're not as strong as a man"

"Hey! Don't be sexist!" Akane cried.

"He's right, Akane," Ranma said, rubbing the ache out of her muscles. "We have to go with what we got. That's the secret to bein' a martial artist. If you don't face reality, you can lose your reality. You could be dead."

"Tell me where to punch him!" Ryoga said.

"Hmm," the redhead looked around. "There. Set him down at the end of the table next to Akane."

[Set me?] That was Ryoga's question, as well. But he did it

"You make sure he stays there, Akane," Ranma told her.

"I will!" she said, making threatening motions with her hammer.

"Ryoga, Ranma wants you back where you were sitting," Nabiki said, her camera out and ready.

"?" went Ryoga. But he did as he was asked.

"You're going to help me develop new eating techniques!" Ranma said chipperly in her girl Japanese. But, in a quieter, male Japanese, she told him, "This is an act. Don't take this seriously." Returning to girl, she said, "I'm going to feed you like you're my big, handsome man and I, his girl, wants to be so~o cute!"

[You're not cute!] Smash! Akane's hammer broke it.

"Open...open…" Ranma urged Ryoga, fingers under his chin and her thumb above it. She applied gentle but persistent pressure...until he finally gave in. His lips were just parted and his teeth could allow only grains of rice to pass.

And that is what Ranma did! She used his chopsticks to inserted grain after grain between them. When she had developed the rhythm, she tapped her thumb beneath his lower lip, her thumb returning to keep control of his jaw and the teeth. Faster and faster her chopsticks went! Faster and faster her thumb went!

"I can't. I want to, but I can't," Nabiki struggled not to comment.

"Don't look at me," Akane said. "I'm not going to hit my finger between my lips and go…. I almost said the sound!"

"Childish," Soun said.

[Cute!] Then, smash!

"Grr!" the redhead said. This wasn't working, in both ways! It wasn't showing how she could eat without people seeing her lips move AND it wasn't making her pop angry and disgusted seeing his son acting like a girl flirting with a guy!

She brought the chopsticks up to, first, Ryoga's, then, her own nostrils. But rejected the idea.

[Give it up! Change back to your true self!] Smash, again!

"I have to stay a girl! The girl is faster than my own body! Speed has got to be the answer!"

"Right," Ryoga nodded. "Like speed is how I can fight as a pig."

"Not just speed," his sensei said. "The pig's also got agility. Dexterity. Endurance. Geez! Those makes it sound like a girl."

"WHAT!?" Akane cried.

[Ranma thinks girls and pigs are alike!]

"Oh, my!"

"They ARE! At least they and little pigs like Ryoga have the same fighting abilities! There's more than just speed in my girl arsenal!" The fire was lit in her. "There's more than one way to approach my problem!"

"And what is that?" Nabiki coolly asked.

"Like you have an idea!"

"I do. Two, in fact. But they probably involve cheating."

"Ranma doesn't cheat!" Ryoga shouted. Then, asked, "Do you?"

"How do I know they're cheatin' unless I hear them?"

"And if you use any, you'll owe me, right? Big time. After all," and she said melodramatically, "I'd have saved you from a marriage to a man you did not love." Then she gave her the wicked gleam, "Bit would be obligated to make love to."

"G-ee-Yuh!" Creepy, disgusting shivers went through her body.

"Ranma!" Akane was at a loss over what to say or do.

Smash! Her hammer hit the food, the bowls and the table in front of her greedy sister. Okay, she had thought of something to do.

Nabiki picked up her napkin and wiped herself with it. Things like this were definitely not supposed to happen to her. What small relief she had was the fact she had just about finished her meal.

"Oh, my! My table setting!"

"I, I -I'm sorry," Akane bowed from her side of the table.

Then she sat straight up. "No, I'm not! Tell me, Nabiki! Tell me, and, and I'll pay the price! Not Ranma: Me!"

"So. You'd be willing to cheat for him. I mean, her? Assuming, Ranma would let you."

"We don't know it's cheating until we hear your ideas! And, yes, I'm prepared! At least, I am a girl! Maybe it's better I marry the guy, Picolet Chardin!" Romeo would be gone from her life anyway if he did! At least she would have saved her fantasy man, His memory would forever live in her woman's heart as What Could Have Been! So romantic!

"No, Akane! No!" her dad cried.

"Why do I get the feeling the other shoe is about to drop?" Nabiki said.

"Oh, my! Father, you, too?" Kasumi wasn't as naive as she let on.

"What?!" Akane was slow on the uptake.

[We both signed the betrothal contract!] But with everybody looking at Soun, they were ignoring the sign.

Whakgh! A thrown sign hit Ranma is the head. "Hey! What'dyou do that-" Then she read it.

"No way! I ain't lettin' Akane take my place, Old Man! And they wouldn't let her! I've got more battle aura potential!"

"What!? I'm just as much a martial artist as you! My potential is strong - It just hasn't been developed! Nobody has trained me properly! Not dad! Not Tofu! And now not even you, Ranma! The only one who even tried was MOM!"

And then she broke down into tears. "And she died before I could make her proud of me being a martial artist."

Ryoga's heart broke. "I'll train you, Akane."

"And who will train you(?)" Ranma said.

"So, this is about battle aura potential," Nabiki said, finished with the napkin. "Then I'll keep the techniques for myself."

"What!?" More than one cried. While one went, "Oh, my!"

"I'll hold off judgment until I meet this...what is his name, Picolet? Chardin? If this rich man isn't the complete idiot Kuno-baby is, he could be the big opportunity I've been looking for."

"You go right ahead, Nabiki!" Ranma laughed. Then said sarcastically, "I can just see you fittin' in with that group of far-out-of-date stuck-ups!"

"But you can see yourself fitting in?" Nabiki touched back.

Ranma wasn't the only one creeped out by the thought. Akane had also met them, the Les Exiles de la Belle France à présent Gauche.

Still, there was a greater principle than investment. "I'll make them recognize my potential!"

"And I'll outshine you and make sure they don't! You're gonna marry somebody you wanna marry!"

"Oh, my! I think I'll get in on the fun, too!"

"What!?" , "You, too, Kasumi?" , "Not my last, remaining daughter!" , [Go for it, Kasumi!]

"Yeah, yeah," Ranma said. "Like you have any battle aura potential."

"Oh, my. I don't?" She walked over to the panda. She lightly touched one spot on it.

The panda was no longer contorted into a ball. [I can move again!] the sign read as it tested its sore joints.

"Remember, I have read most of Dr. Tofu's books." She then bowed her head and clapped her hands twice in prayer.

Now the panda was fighting its joints as they twisted back into the shape they had just left.

"KASUMI!" her father wailed, now bent out of shape, again, himself.

"Oh, my! Sorry, Father! But that's what happens when you let somebody who doesn't know what he is doing do something like this to you." And she hurried over to his aid. "This won't be as easy to fix as with Uncle Saotome."

For the first time, Ranma took Kasumi seriously. She probed deep past her surface and into battle aura potential. "Eeeyer!" She may - may - have had a stronger one than she herself had! May have, because, one, she always downgraded any that came close to her own, two, she didn't know what her potential was in this body, and, three, Kasumi's potential was unlike any she had come across before!

Nabiki saw her reaction. "We never make Kasumi angry. You wouldn't like her when she's angry."

"Really?" Ryoga said. "It sounds like we have something in common."

"Don't kid yourself," Ranma said quietly, and more to herself than him. "You have potential. But she has something else." That something wasn't an aura but was similar enough to an aura to just barely flicker on the edge of her perception.

"There you go, Father! Now that I understand how you've been mangled, it will be easier to treat you."

"Treat me(!)? You mean this could recur?"

"Oh, my, yes! Please, be careful not to make any sudden moves, Father."

"Hear that, Pop!? No fights with nobody for a while!"

[Bwa!]

[][][]

Among the items from the woman's (and crossdresser's) appel shop were some that Kuno or Sasuke or the saleswomen commissioned to find the appropriate items would never have sent to the Tendo house. And some that they couldn't have, even if they had tried. Nabiki was the only one to suspect magic at work. Why? After the Miracle of the Battle of the Sexes she was not ready to place any bets on understanding the paradigms behind its operation. She would have to observe more of how this magic, Jusenkyo magic, worked.

So it was that on this day, Sunday, when Ranma didn't have to wear her school uniform, she had on a simple green blouse that could, if the man was manly enough to be himself distracting, pass as a shirt, and special, black, pleated slacks. Special because the pleat disappeared when she wore it as a guy. And since it was black, it was hardly noticeable even when she wasn't a guy. But it did fit her well, allowing others to see the feminine shape of her ass and legs, though, in a modest fashion.

Akane, too, was admiring her own new outfit, when she saw Ranma leaping over the yard's wall. She smiled when she saw what her friend was holding, "You found him!"

"You won't believe where Ryoga got lost to! Even he don't know how he got onto the roof of the school!"

"Here, let me hold him!" she asked, almost demanded, as she reached out for the little, black pig.

"Sorry, man," Ranma said, handing him over. "But I still need to figure out how to win the challenge but lose the betrothal contract." And it would keep Akane from doing her own figuring.

"Poor Ryoga," Akane said, petting him as she held him in her arm like a baby. "I'm going to look for the collar we had for Rokumon."

"Akane! Ryoga is no pet!"

"Of course, he isn't. I know that." Akane frowned at her. Just how dense did Ranma think she was!(?) "But a leash is the best way to keep Burin-chan from getting lost."

"His name is Ryoga!"

"Oh, and when Ikuko and the others ask how the little pig is doing, we tell them he's really Ryoga? What kind of name is that for a cutie like this?" And she rubbed it under its chin.

Ranma leaned over, giving it a stare. "Are you smilin', Ryoga? You're enjoyin' bein' in her arms, aren't you?"

"Bwee," it said in its daze.

"Be careful, or I'll be doin' that to you."

"Bwee!"

You say your pet's name was Roku-mon? I got a feelin' Ryoga could be a Burin-monster." Then she had to ask, "Why'd you call Roku a monster?"

"Because it was! That darn cat was always-"

"C,C,CAT! You hada cat!? What happened to it!? Where is it!? Where!? Where!?"

"Ranma! Rokumon is no longer around! It's not coming back! Calm down! What's your problem?! Please tell me!"

"C,C, those things always do this to me! It's something else I gotta get back at Pop for! I'll tell you about it, but not now! Not until after the Fine Diner has come and gone."

"Aren't you going to ask why we had a leash for a cat, Ranma?" Nabiki smirked.

"No! I don't want to talk or hear nothin' about those, those things."

"It was a Maine Coon. Imported from the United States. A special breed. You can walk them."

"More information than I wanted."

Nabiki bent down to Burin-mon's eye level, smiling. "Magic will out, the leash should be found soon."

It snorted in her face.

"Don't pick on Burin-chan!" Akane said, holding it up her like how a baby is burped.

[][][]

Ranma left Ryoga to his Burin-chan fate. She had more important things on her mind. These led her to the kitchen. "Kasumi, have you seen- There's the iron corset! It looks great! Thanks, Kasumi!"

"It was easy to remove the rust. I just used the things I had in this kitchen. A lot of the steel came off, though. The rust was steel. Or iron. It isn't very good steel."

"Okay," Ranma nodded. It might be important to know if something happened to it in the middle of the battle. Though, what damage it could receive during a rule-bound eating contest where the only thing touched was the food she had no idea!

She inspected the crack. "Hairline." Not really noticeable. Yet. It had started where her pop's knee had been and moved sideways. Its two ends were stopped by the rounded, reinforcing rims left and right of the center of the hourglass segment of armor.

Ranma remained squatting, and staring, and thinking. "They, the Fine Diners, said this was an important part of their school's eating technique. I don't see how." Her hand on the crack was. "It seems more like something for people who don't want to eat, to diet. It shouldn't give the stomach room to let more food in." Her hand moved down lower on the corset. "The only way the extra food could go is up - puke - or…. I don't even want to say the word." It seemed to upset her womanly sensibilities.

"Skat."

"Kasumi!"

"I am the one that cleans the toilet." Then she had a thought. "Do you think the La Belle France gentlemen and ladies also wear diapers?"

"Kasumi, please! No more. I recently ate." Geez! How can a woman think of things like that!?

"Yes! You ate my food!" Genma said, coming into the kitchen. He went straight to the refrigerator. He swung open the door!

"Uncle Saotome! Do you want me to pray for you?"

"What?" He was distracted by his hunt for a meal. Then he wasn't! He slammed the door shut.

"Uncle, would you kindly pick up the magnets that have fallen off the door?"

"Magnets? Of course, Kasumi-dear."

"...What's the secret to their iron corsets?"

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"Ah, yes. Iron!" Soun Tendo nodded from his usual place at the head of the Tendo table. "It has some unusual properties, and I am not talking about modern science, but ancient science, Onmyodo and the related ways of magic from around the world. Especially China."

"Magic!" There was that evil word again!

"Our former master, that of your father and I, was an avid collector of anything-goes lore, including magics. I have nearly his complete collection of books, scrolls and clay tablets in my attic. If you would care to go through the material…."

"No, Mr. Tendo. I ain't got the time to wild-goose chase."

"Ah, yes. Chapter 37 of Canadian Wisdom of the-"

"Mr. Tendo! Tell me quickly about what you know about iron! Steel! It may save your girls!"

"My daughters! Wah!"

"Don't get the tears on the iron corset!" Ranma cried, pulling away to the other side of her.

"Right! Right!" he said, snuffling up his tears. "For my daughters!" Then he seemed ready to begin all over again with, "And you, my future son-in-law! If you're somebody else's wife, how can you be one of my daughter's husband!?"

"The Iron!" Ranma demanded. "Or do I go all the way to the Doc's?! Maybe I should! I'm not gettin' anywhere here."

"It's Sunday, Ranma," Kasumi told him. "This is his one day off. He's probably visiting his mother. But I could look up her number."

"No!" both of them cried.

"What are you talking about?" Nabiki said, coming in, eating an apple.

"Magic!" Kasumi smiled.

"Bye!" Nabiki said, leaving. "I think the less I know, the better. I'll go "play" with Burin-chan and Akane. She's up in the attic looking for Rokumon's things and finding things saved from when we were infants." And she said with a laugh in her voice, "He doesn't have much male pride!"

"Ryoga's got plenty of male pride!" Ranma told her, tempted to wrap the corset around her - how can anybody with womanly pride wear that?! "How would you like bein' stuck with a pig's brain!?"

"Oh?" she pauses. "And just how much of the brain of a pig does he have? He obviously can understand you. Language skills aren't exactly porcine. I'm willing to bet he can also read and do just about anything human his little, hooved body allows."

"Magic don't gotta make sense!"

"Maybe. Ciao, "Little Sister"!"

"Are you stayiin', Kasumi?"

"I don't really need to hear about magic. I have my book learning from Dr. Tofu's library, and I have my prayers and my songs. But I'm done with my chores, for now. So, yes, I'll stay."

"..."prayers" and "songs"?" Ranma shook her head. "Back to you, Mr. Tendo - IRON!"

"You need not shout!" The man's nerves were getting on Ranma's. "Iron, then. According to the Wisdom of the East, from yinyang came the five agents. One of them is termed "metal", for metal is the best example of it. And iron is the best example of metal. Others think the metals that go into the alchemic formula for immortality-"

"I don't want to hear about immortality!"

"Right. It's probably too late for me, anyway. I'd have to be as fortunate as the Eight Immortals-"

"Father!"

"Uh, right, Kasumi. Forgive me. Iron is the secret of lodestone, which points to the north. The truest North is that found at the end of the Northern Bushel, or Little Dipper, or Little Bear. It is the Pole Star! That is where the truest, purest of the Tao/Dao is, the Primordial Breath. That is where Kami-sama, the Supreme One, is most at home. Everything else literally turns around that Star of Stars, the Hub of the World."

Ranma looked at the iron corset. "You tellin' me, this thing might be able to…." She frowned, trying to relate what she heard to something she did understand, the martial arts. "This corset might have access to the Ki of all ki energies?"

"I hadn't thought of it that way, but yes. And no. If the iron came from a meteorite, it could have heavenly ki, otherwise, it has Earthly ki. Earthly ki does not point to True North."

"Iron has its own, particular magic," Kasumi said. "It has been known to both aid and disrupt different magics." She, then, smiled more. "Or so I have read."

A glint comes to Ranma's eyes. "Wouldn't it be somethin' if this could disrupt magic used against me? Kasumi, Mr. Tendo, help to cinch me in it! Oh, and St. Paul used a lock. Got any iron ones?"

[][][]

She was back to wearing just her lingerie. This time, most of her chemise under the corset.

"Tight!" Mr. Tendo could be strong! "I have to adjust the way I breathe!"

"The Primordial Breath has been compared to the softness of the breath of a baby," Mr. Tendo said.

"Right! Breathing is always important to a martial artist. And yoga. And mystic magic. It's gotta be part of the secret of this thing!" Ranma stood there in it, searching for the type of breathing with the right feel.

After she thought she found it, she asked, "Now, what?" A few minutes later, her impatience was getting to her, "I have to do somethin'!" She started in on one of her katas, martial arts patterns of movements. But she wasn't thinking of them. "Maybe you know magic words to make the magic work?"

"Why not pray to Kami-sama him/herself," Kasumi suggested.

"Or the Yellow Emperor of Earth," Mr. Tendo said. "Of course, if the iron does come from a meteorite, it would be better to pray to the Jade Emperor of Heaven."

"Oh, Father. That seems more Chinese than Japanese."

"I'm prayin'! I'm prayin'!" She gave up her kata and dropped down to her knees.

"How un-Japanese," Kasumi said.

"You're right!" She slammed her hands down onto the table. "And un-me. I'm a guy of action! There's gotta be somethin' I can do!" Her impatience and nervousness growing, she started drumming the tabletop with her fingers.

Her eyes drifted down to her bust. Or, rather, below it. She placed her hand on the corset. "This might be it."

" "It"?" Mr. Tendo asked.

Ranma moved her hand away to let Big Sister touch it. "Oh, my, I understand. You are beating your belly against its inside," Kasumi smiled.

"And its vibrations are havin' an effect on my insides! And the food I ate! Now, I just gotta find the pattern of beats that feels right!"

"But you said if somebody sees your mouth open, you lose. How will what happens below the mouth affect your mouth? "

"I, Don't, Know!" she screamed in frustration.

[][][]

Ranma had taken her pacing out to the greater room of the yard. She always ended near the koi pond. She finally looked at the symbol of her curse and the body it had given her. The sun came over the roof and the water reflected its rays in its glistening surface.

"Flash! FLASH! There was always a flash that went with her eatin' technique!"

She rushed to her advisors and told them.

"Electromagnetism?" Kasumi suggested. , "Lightning," Mr. Tendo nodded.

"But there was no lightning! I woulda picked up on it!"

"Not if it was directed not to earth but to Heaven. Hear me out, Son. The Sages were famously transported to the Little Dipper on the back of a bear carrying a bushel basket. Er, well, not literally, but it does make sense of all the different names for the constellation."

"And the Little Dipper was used to collect Milky Whey." When both of them looked at her oddly, she said, "The metaphor does have to do with food."

Getting more serious, she suggested, "Perhaps instead of beating against the iron corset with your belly, you should try rubbing it. Rubbing could bring out its static electricity."

[][][]

"Why does this magic hafta be so complicated?" Ranma asked herself glumly after Mr. Tendo and Kasumi had left to prepare for the match with the la Belle France School of Martial Arts Fine Dining.

"Because you are making it complicated," Nabiki said, coming into the common room. "And, I venture to say, they are, too. Magic doesn't have to be complicated."

Ranma looked at her. And she rose to her feet. "You're wearin' clothes just like they wear!"

"You like?" Nabiki said, doing a turn in her mauve, hoop-skirt dress. Except for the elegant draping effect, it was quite simple (pouf shoulders not counted). It did show the tops of her boobs. "You like? I found it in my armoire closet. You know, as if by magic."

"I'm sick of hearin' about magic! If it ain't got nothin' to do with winnin', I'm not listenin'!"

"But it is about winning. Me winning. Apparently, I have magic on my side, this time."

Ranma stopped and listened. "You mean you might really win? And if you win…." A smile came to her face.

And then she lost it. "That would mean I lost!"

"You're really a hopeless case, aren't you, Saotome. You'd risk getting married to another man, just so you can say you didn't lose a challenge?"

"Yes!"

"You really are a hopeless case." It was Nabiki's turn to smile, "I'm back to thinking Jusenkyo magic is about making your life worse. It's betting on you losing."

"I won't lose! And I won't marry that guy! And there Will be a rival school!"

"Bet?"

Ranma growled. But she barked, "Yes!"

"You'd better get into your own dress," Akane said, in a yellow hoop-skirt one with pink bows on it. She was pushing a baby carriage. Ranma didn't have to guess who - no, what - was in it.

"I ain't gonna dress up in a get-up like that!"

"Then you'll forfeit the challenge."

"What!?"

"Honestly, Ranma! You remember how you had to dress for it at the restaurant! Madame St. Paul said she wouldn't compete against anybody in the "elegance of etiquette" unless they at least looked elegant." She then looked down at the decolletage that showed the tops of her boobs, and frowned, "Her version of elegant."

"Forfeit and you lose," Nabiki smiled.

[][][]

Ranma was wearing either an exact copy of the dress she had worn in the restaurant or, somehow, the same dress: bare arms, puffy sleeves, low neckline, and pink with red ribbons around the hooped-skirt. She even had on the petticoats and pantaloons. And the iron corset, of course. "Stupid."

Nabiki was not amused. "The more of this kind of clothes I see, the more I think magic might be helping you to win, Ranma. You may very well become Mrs. Picolet Chardin, and not me."

"Oh, my, everybody else has dresses like mine," Kasumi said, coming in, wearing a baby blue and lacy versions of theirs.

She doesn't stay on the subject, though, as she notices the baby carriage, "Oh, my! Is Ryoga in there?"

"Call him Burin-chan," Akane said.

"Bwee! Bwee!" Ryoga asked her to, too.

"It's gonna be less embarrassin' for the guy if everybody does call him that when he's the pig." Ranma could relate. She had been thinking of letting everybody at school know about her curse, but the more being the girl was hurting her manly pride, the harder it was becoming to actually do it. Everybody, at least, thought Romeo was manly (despite his tights...and silk underwear).

"I have never worn a tuxedo before," Mr. Tendo said, running his finger around the collar, feeling he might choke in it. "I do wish Kasumi would allow me to wear my do-gi. This is a martial arts battle."

"It's a battle over who can be the best at Fine Dining, Father."

Ranma looked at him, then looked down at what she herself was wearing. "Why do the guys get to wear dark" , "or white" , "clothes(!)? Why must girls' things be colorful!" And hers pink!

The Tendo front door opened and somebody called out, "Bonjour, honorables mesdames et messieurs, I have arrived to transport you to the Fine Dinner." It was that Aron, the guy who had driven the carriage that had brought Ranma, Akane, and their dates to their homes last night.

"I still haven't got the hang of this corset! I'm gonna have to wait and see if I can see how they use theirs! Maybe then(!) I'll get the missin' clue!"

"But I'm ready for my maybe-cheats," Nabiki smiled.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Isn't that right, Burin-chan?" Akane said, reaching into the baby carriage and rubbing its ear.

"Bwee, bwee!" it agreed.

"And I, as well," Kasumi said. "I have an idea how I can dine finely."

"Okay," Ranma screwed up her courage and started for the door.

She was almost out of the common room before she realized, "Hey, where's Pop?"

"I prayed that Uncle Saotome wouldn't cause trouble," Kasumi said.

The little redhead smiled. "Is he a human or a panda ball?"

[][][]

"You do know you're going to have to leave that baby carriage behind(?)" Nabiki said. "It will not fit into this horse-drawn carriage."

"Not with four of us wearin' hoop skirts!" Ranma said.

"I hadn't thought of that!" Akane said, greatly disappointed.

"How far is it to this skyscraper restaurant?" Kasumi asked.

"I am not to transport you to any of the Chardin restaurants. Or to his estate, either," Aron informed them. "A different arrangement has been made by Monsieur Kuno."

"Kuno!?"

"We're not to be having it in the Kuno Castle, are we?!" Nabiki demanded to know.

"Oh, my, no!" Aron assured them. "Monsieur Chardin et entourage refuses to enter such a dangerous place!"

"That's a relief!" the redhead said. "Not only is that where Kuno is, but that Kodachi, too!"

"Don't forget Headmaster Kuno," Akane said.

"Actually, the Kunos, Tatewaki and Kodachi, haven't seen their dad in years," Nabiki informed them. "Tatewaki-baby, in fact, completely refuses to recognize the Headmaster as his long-lost daddy. Such is the power of denial." And she as she was saying this, she was looking at her big sister, Kasumi.

And then her little sister and her pig.

"So, where's this Fine Dinin' eatin' match gonna be?!" Ranma demanded.

"As I was informed, since the others that were with you last night were interested, the arrangement allows them to view the event. And they invited their friends to join them."

"Ack! It sounds like everybody at school's gonna see me win or lose!" Ranma said, actually daring to think she might lose - And in the most humiliating way!

"Oui, Mademoiselle, that is exactly where the event is being conducted, at Furinkan High School."

"That's wonderful!" Akane said. "Then I can walk there!"

"Akane! Don't be stupid! You can't walk all the way to school pushin' a baby carriage and dressed like that!" Ranma tried to talk sense to her.

But she, too, ended up walking to school in a hoop-skirt. And Akane even got her to push the baby carriage. But only once!

[][][] [][][] [][][]

In the 346th chapter of the manga, Kasumi Gets Mad, everybody is deathly afraid of that she might. So there is some justification that she could have special abilities that even skilled martial artists would have trouble dealing with. And, by the way, Kasumi has been shown to get angry in the manga.