An unusual disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is the trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. And Son Turned Daughter was originally written back in 2002 by FanFiction author Tangent, and his characters Megume, Yasushi and Ayane have, likewise, been borrowed without permission. Please see the first two chapters of this story under his pen name. This story has been written for non-commercial purposes only.
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The Note at the bottom of this chapter will explain why the estate of the castle Chateau Kuno seems more dangerous than the one witnessed in the Kuno's House of Gadgets! Guests Check In, But They Don't Check Out.
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Shampoo was out of the laboratory and was on the way out of the Kuno greenhouse when Ranma stopped her by a question. "Why let the smoke stay inside? It can't be good for the plants."
"Ranma no see chimney in alchemy room? Only heavy smoke stay inside. Drop on, fertilize plants. Come! Time go!"
The teen boy fingered a large, shiny, living leaf. "It feels like metal." And its edge was sharp. It must have absorbed the smoke's metal particles that fell on it.
"Blade plant," Shampoo said, unimpressed. "Real danger is metal poison plants have." She struggled to find the Japanese words for it and came up with, "Neurotoxins. They attack and damage the nerves."
The teen with the sliced, shirt-like blouse whistled. "Advanced al-chemistry. Kodachi ain't to be trusted."
The teen in the torn, yellow sports bra pulled at her intended. "Shampoo no like place with too too many plants! Remind Shampoo of childhood enemy!" What was her name again? Link? Pink? The girl kept switching between them. Like she had a split personality.
"I wish I could destroy this place. Maybe one day."
"Mad Laugh Girl still have money."
"You're right," Ranma frowned, letting Shampoo pull him to the door. "She can just buy some worst stuff. And would." Though faint, the hero's siren called for him again. If only there was a way to take her money away without stealing. Then all of her dangerous stuff could be made to go away and stay away.
They had almost made it out before the automated, overhead irrigation system went off.
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"Honestly!" Akane said, more irritated with herself than Tatewaki. Why was she trying to untangle him from the bolos that tied him to this tree? Was it because despite the way she looked with her ruined, smeared makeup and mud-caked clothes he was still gazing at her the love-sick way he always did? Before it had always brought her an inward shudder. She thought he was like other boys, a pervert only interested in the female parts of her body, not her inward worth. Now she knew….
She shook it off! Denial was so much easier! She was freeing him because he could lead her away from hidden traps all around Chateau Kuno and to safety!
No sooner had one arm been freed, it had taken her shoulder and was hugging her against him. "Fear not, Irreplaceable Akane, I shall protect you as I have done before!" he heroically declared.
"Fine! Whatever! But you can't if you're still tangled up! Let go!" She was tempted to knee him. Then she thought of less perverted weak spots. She had attacked them before. But, now, she wasn't feeling as angry as before. The difference was enough for her to remember the warning. Kuno loved her attacking him! Ranma had been trying to avoid falling into the trap she had fallen into. And he did seem less interested in him as a redhead. He still admired the female martial artist. Greatly! Too greatly!
Akane used a simple nerve pinch between his thumb and index finger. And she removed his hand from her shoulder. She would have had more satisfaction if she had attacked him.
She turned her attention to the bolos. "How did it get tangled like this!?"
"It is a trap. And like most all in Chateau Kuno, ingenious," he said proudly. "In fact, once one has escaped from one, the Ruinmaster is hired once more to upgrade the design!"
"What!? You don't pay for the proper repair of the steam-powered gadgets that run your place, but you will pay to increase the chances you'll get seriously hurt, maimed, or killed?!" The ropes fell away.
"It is cheaper," Kuno said. And he proudly spread his arms out towards the hidden traps."Besides, is it not better than a mere Danger Room.?"
" "Danger Room"?" Akane asked, stepping back before he grabbed her again.
"It is something My Honorable, and Departed, Father enlightened my "dear" sister and I of after reading marvelous American comics. Before this event, the protections of the Chateau Kuno had been less elaborate and extensive. We were more dependent on an expensive staff of servants and bodyguards. We even employed a clan of ninja." As he was bragging on his history, he neglected to grab at Akane.
"My clan," Sasuke said, sticking his head out from the hole in the tree that had been hidden behind the tied up Kuno. This startled Akane.
"Against what one would believe, money does not buy loyalty," Kuno frowned. "The Kuno Clan has long had to endure through countless problems and inconveniences from the menials."
"Gee, imagine that," Akane said. How many were there and at what price had it taken for them to tolerate the Kunos's insanity?
"And thereby was the motive for Father's inspired solution! With the whole of the Chateau the Danger Room, the Kunos have the opportunity practice our combat skills each and every day! We would no longer require bodyguards. Nay, we would be far more proficient!" And he laughed in mad triumph!
Akane didn't see it that way. "And the danger chased all the other servants away, right.?"
"Right," sighed Sasuke. "My masters even broke faith with my clan, claiming the Kunos were more skilled. I am assigned here only to keep alive the ages-old compact my clan has had with the lords of Nerima since before the kuge family bought the title and rights of the samurai clan of Kuno."
Akane remembered that Tatewaki had admitted that during the Great Modernization of the Meiji Era, his ancestors had been kuge, bureaucrats, not samurai. They had become rich being bribed by those who wished to study outside of Japan. No national loyalty, there. They had then bankrupted the true clan of Kuno and claimed its title and hereditary rights. Yes, Tatewaki had admitted that. But he also believed that his ancestors had been themselves bankrupt samurai before they became bureaucrats. And the crazy thing was, in traditional Japan, like China, the kuge, bureaucrats, were more respected and ranked above the samurai, warriors! At least they didn't have the right to slash and kill on a whim.
"But what glamour is there in being a bureaucrat?" Sasuke said, as if he knew what she was thinking.
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The easiest way to avoid traps was to take to the rooftops again. Ranma felt the wind on her exposed skin, including her boobs her ripped and badly wrinkled blouse revealed. But she felt no need to cover them. And neither did Shampoo, though she did have the yellow sports bra peeking out from her torn blouse. "Ranma no have wear stupid boobie holder; Shampoo take off stupid boobie holder!"
"You're a girl. Girls wear bras. I guess." Or Ranma thought they were supposed to. "I ain't a girl."
"Ranma no girl?" Shampoo chuckled. She reached out for the exposed boobs,
Conditioned memories of Kiss-of-Death Shampoo had the redhead's body automatically react. Get away from her. Hide first, think later. Ranma fell off the roof. She was trained to easily land without thinking.
The redhead was shocked into thinking when her muscles suddenly painfully contract. Then they refused to loosen for no more than a moment! What had she done wrong?! She felt she had done everything right! She turned her mind on regaining the muscle control martial artists needed. This left her vulnerable to attack!
The Chinese warrior landed beside her. "Shampoo read body. Ranma have cramp, no?"
"I haven't been practicin' my katas enough," she told her, stretching, or trying to.
"Ranma is girl!" Shampoo smirked. "Is end of month time, remember? You bleed, no?"
"Bleedin'?" Ranma checked for any visible signs of wounds.
"Not up there. Here!" and she clapped her hand up into the crotch of the redhead's pants.
"Hey!" Ranma cried, her hands shooting out to grab the offending wrist. But she also felt the thick wetness between her legs. And Shampoo's "joke" made it more of a mess.
"Ranma need rag! Blouse is rag," Shampoo said, pulling on Ranma's and then her own camisole. "But is wrong material. Shampoo go find good, clean rag!"
"I can find one myself!" Ranma told her. But she was already leaving. She made to join her, but realized she wouldn't be able to keep up. Frustrating! She knew how to deal with cramps! She was a martial artist, after all! But they were centered around a part of her body she never had to train for as a guy! It would take time to train those muscles. And they were muscles she didn't want to train! They had too many unmanly associations.
Maybe she wouldn't have to, if she found a knowledgeable sensei. Dr. Tofu? He would probably know, but as a guy he never personally experienced a period. Who then? Akane? Kasumi? Nabiki would charge her.
It might be worth the price.
"The intruder warning system of the estate was right! And who do I find?" said Kodachi. Her leotard was somewhat bloodied and judging by her face, it was her own. "The butch dyke who was not woman enough for me to steal her femininity! Yet even she menstruates!" And Kodachi gave out with one of her best, and irritating, noblewoman's laugh!
Was it that obvious!? Was everybody going to know Ranma's shame!? The only comforting thought was that as a martial artist, she, like Shampoo, read the bodies of their opponents. Opponents! Cramps and loss of blood had to be a handicap in a fight!
Maybe. Anything-Goes was about turning even weaknesses into battle tactics. But first she had to recognize just what her weaknesses were. Her mind and distressed body had to get in synch.
"If but my 'Dear' brother could see you now!" She had a sudden mood swing when Ranma made herself turn and face her. Only then did Ranma remember her boobs were uncovered. "You vulgar vamp! You are here so brother can see you! Your indecency is part of your scheme to weaken my claim to the Kuno inheritance!" She still did not think to cover them.
"I ain't interested in Kuno!" Her fists were at least ready.
"Why, pray tell, should I believe a schemer.? You have what attracts brother most in women: Your total lack of femininity!"
"Oh, man! Ain't that great!" As Ranma remembered the explanation, before he - he was at his peak masculinity at the time - sealed Kodachi's way to the ki reservoir, she had been saturated and overflowed with the feminine yin she had stolen from young girls. Having to live with her, Kuno had been constantly over-exposed to the raw allure and reacted against it. Maybe he was afraid of incest; maybe he was afraid of the power his sister would gain over him; maybe he was afraid her feminine power was stronger than his masculine power; maybe he just overdosed and developed an 'allergic' reaction. She didn't know which it was. And she didn't care to know.
"You and Akane Tendo are perfect for his pale shudo fantasies!"
"Shudo!?" Now that got to Ranma! It had been part of samurai culture to prefer the company of men. Like her pop believed, women were thought to weaken men, making them less of a man. Sure they could have females as sex partners, but they were told to favor male ones. Unless they were an outright gay, they would, of course, like the partners to remind them of girls. Just not too much, or his fellow warriors would accuse him of not being man enough to have a bishōnen as a partner. To compete, girls would do things like wear obi to help hide their un-male figures to place themselves in-between. Girls who were not too much like girls (or boys) could be desired. That was Ranma as the redhead! Even hiding her curves could work against her.
Ranma had a gut-wrenching realization, "Kuno could maybe want me as a guy, too!" But he didn't look like a girl when a guy! Right?!
Kodachi didn't notice the outburst because she, too, was distracted: Using a gymnastics somersault, she broke a nearly invisible wire. Still in motion, she leaped on the log that emerged from the leaves of a tree! She used her skills to direct its path straight at the redhead!
Ranma didn't need her laughter to alert her. She instantly backed away!
But her trained senses warned her of a threat behind her! The first log had released another! She could have been bashed by it! She was prepared, though: Her cramps did not keep her from jumping on top of this log! She, too, used her skills! The two logs were on a collision course!
Both martial artists leaped off their logs at the last moment. Crash! Cer-Rack!
Out rose a cloud of the powder hidden inside the logs!
Ranma landed - but could not stand! She was being paralyzed! She still could see her opponent.
Kodachi had leaped far enough away as to not be affected! She just had to wait for the cloud to settle!
Shampoo returned with the "rag". She had found a roll of cheesecloth in the garden. The warrior used it as Kodachi would have used her lost ribbon. She snapped it around the Mad Laugh Girl and spun her into the cloud!
Kodachi fell paralyzed, too.
Now it was Shampoo's turn to wait.
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"You yourself, Accomplished Akane know the glory that is the samurai tradition!" Kuno would have grabbed her if she hadn't put a foot to his stomach. Her timing was off; her impulse had been to punt him. Now she stood there with only one foot on the ground, her arms crossed over her chest. And still he talked. "Are you not the fruit of a proud samurai clan!?"
"Proud?" She knew she should have added the word 'Ha!' for effect, but she wasn't in the mood. "Dad hardly ever talks about it." But, then, he hardly ever talked about anything in the past. And when he did, he cried. "Me myself, "Accomplished Akane" am proud of being an anything-goes martial artist: no or improvised weapons. I don't use swords or archery." Which didn't mean she didn't have a shinai and knew some kendo. It helped her to know some of the ways to use an improvised weapon.
"Sasuke!"
"Yes, Master!" After a brief blur, the short ninja was on his knees, presenting Kuno with his fallen bokken.
"Would that I could be like you, Proud Tendo Woman. But it is more is involved than that the sword marks my noble status, as once only a samurai was allowed to possess the blade superior to all others in the world. It is a part of my very own identity! Does not Tatewaki mean "Bringer of a Sword"!?"
Akane's leg was getting tired being held against the tall guy. On its way to the ground, she swept it against his wrist. She lucked out and did hit a pressure point. Kuno briefly lost his hold on the wooden sword. He fumbled to keep it from falling again. It was he who dishonored the sword by touching it improperly. "Change your name!"
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"Stupid honor," Shampoo growled. "Shampoo should kill Mad Laugh Girl now while no can move. Shampoo will give Kiss of Death when Mad Laugh Girl attack Shampoo!"
A wicked smile lit up her face. She placed that face close to the face of the still conscious Kodachi. She could see in the girl's eyes that she knew her life hung by a thread Shampoo held.
Shampoo yanked her up by her hand. Before Kodachi had fallen, the Joketsuzoku warrior had wrapped most of the cheesecloth around her. It tightened in her hand when her unworthy foe hit the ground. Tearing the cloth from the bolt, she finished up by finding the other end and tying the two together, binding Kodachi.
She stood over her mockingly. "If Mad Laugh Girl have pride of warrior, Mad Laugh Girl will attack Shampoo! Then Shampoo kill!" As a final insult, she turned her back to her and ignored her.
Walking over to Ranma, she said, "Stupid Ranma. Must be better warrior, or Shampoo will fulfill Kiss of Death vow!" She was serious. But the smile that now crossed her face was not.
Going to her knees, she leaned over the paralyzed redhead.
Ranma's eyes went as wide as they could as she saw the lavender-haired girl bring her lips close to hers. She heard her whisper, "Ranma or Shampoo, one must be superior! This Kiss mark Ranma as belong to Shampoo. Boy Ranma defeat Shampoo, Shampoo belong to Ranma. Is challenge!" And she planted her lips on the girl.
Unparalyzed, Shampoo's eyes were able to become very wide!
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"I cannot, dare not as long as my sister lives, change my name from Kuno!"
"Honestly! I didn't say change that name!" In a lower, more muttering voice, Akane added, She grabbed him by his arm and swung him in front of her. "Change Tatewaki to something more modern and less stupid!" She pushed him in forward. "You do know English? If you have international companies and contacts, you should! How do you like them calling you "Wacky" behind your back?"
"They would never."
"They wouldn't!? You're called wacky in Japanese!"
"Sasuke?"
"Do not make me say it, Master," he said in a way that implied the truth of Miss Akane's words.
Suddenly his sword was raised! Traditionally, a samurai could kill any who offended him!
But it fended off a crossbow arrow!
And then another!
Akane was glad she had made him take the lead. He was her shield.
"See the value of my blade!?" Tatewaki said, vindicated.
"Oh?" she said as she watched the arrow embedded in the bokken split the wood along its length. She herself held an arrow that she had caught before it had penetrated her.
Frowning, determined to prove his worth to the woman he intended to marry (or concubine), he said, "Sasuke, find the whereabouts of the Small Sword."
"Your sister, Mistress Kodachi?!" The ninja knew how dangerous it was to leave them alone to face the many booby traps of the castle. But his master had survived them since childhood (though not without many blows to the head). He was correct, though, in his understanding that Code Name: Small Sword could be the greater threat. "Yes, Master!" And he sighed. "I shall have to use my too special ninja technique and split myself into many pieces." It was enough to make a lesser ninja cry. "I shall never regain my true height!"
But he was here, then with a brief blur he was gone.
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Shampoo quickly withdrew her lips! She put her fingers to them, testing them. They were becoming numb. "Is strong potion! Mad Laugh Girl spoil moment! Shampoo go punish!"
"N,n,no…." Ranma managed to say. She was marshaling her ki techniques, including her healing ones, to overcome the effect of the paralysis powder.
"Ranma spoil revenge of Shampoo!" But she could not bring herself to punish the redhead. All she could say was, "Stupid Ranma have too, too much stupid honor."
"(Just) get us out of…."
"Shampoo can not. Too much touch and Shampoo no can move too!"
"I can help!" announced the ninja in purple as he suddenly appeared. Reaching into a hidden pocket. He sprinkled its powder on the red-haired girl.
Ranma was able to move again. Though with a body full of tingles.
But as she was rising, Shampoo attacked her lips again!
Ranma pushed her away.
"Shampoo like way lips tingle," she giggled, touching her lips once more with her fingers.
"Oh,dear! Maybe Mistress Kodachi is right about Miss Ranma being a lesbian." He blushed, turning away as he realized her breasts were fully exposed.
"Shampoo come from village of proud warrior womans where no mans live! Defeat and love other warrior womans is honor!"
"Stupid honor," Ranma repeated Shampoo's earlier words. Were you really less of a warrior if you had sex with somebody not your own sex? Samurai and 'amazon', they both seemed to have the same stupid belief. It was enough to make Ranma shudder.
And the cramps and blood from her period wasn't helping her attitude. She could see the stains had seeped through her pants.
"A moment!" Sasuke said. He blurred, disappeared, and was back before the first blur was entirely gone. "Here! Some of Mistress Kodachi's sanitary supplies!" He was holding a couple of boxes, one of pads and one of tampons.
"Ranma need underwear to hold even new kind of rag. Shampoo make underwear out of cloth Shampoo find!" she said, getting up and to head for the roll of remaining cheesecloth.
Another couple of blurs, and the ninja was holding an unopened package of panties. This, too, embarrassed him. He kept his eyes away from them as well.
This was too much for Kodachi! "Sa, Su, Ke!" she threatened, forcing at least her mouth to move. Even paralyzed, she was making threatening motions inside the cocoon she had been wrapped in.
Giving the redhead the package of panties, he hurried over to his mistress. "Forgive me, Lady Kodachi! But I believe I am serving your interests! You have been pining of late over one Romeo Saotome. Ranma Saotome, here, is his sister!" It was only then that he spread the neutralizing powder over her.
She was still trapped in cheesecloth. This gave him the time to try to reason with somebody who could be totally unreasonable. "He is very fond of her and would not look kindly on anybody who harms her." Only then did he cut the knot that bound her.
Still wobbly, Kodachi rose to her feet with the best gymnastics move she could muster. First things first. "You, foreign, Chinese invader! You dare vow you will kill me!? I shall be the one that does the killing!"
"Lady Kodachi.?" Sasuke spoke again. He knew he was pressing his luck, but he had to give it a try. "Romeo's sister will not like you killing her lover! That would be like harming her!"
"I am not her lover!" Ranma protested.
"Is!" Shampoo grinned, glomping onto the redhead. "Ranma belong to Shampoo!"
"I do not!"
"We seal with kiss." And she stole another kiss. And giggled. "Defeat Shampoo and Shampoo belong to Ranma."
"I can't win," Ranma groaned.
Mad Laugh Girl laughed her noblewoman's laugh. "Then when I defeat the Guizi inferior, I will own both dykes!"
Shampoo let go of Ranma and put herself into the defend-or-attack stance. "Is Law of Zhànshìnǚrén! But no honor woman with no honor! Must defeat Shampoo in combat with no potion or other trick!"
"I will not require my alchemical skills to defeat the likes of you!" Kodachi smirked. Then laughed!
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With the wooden sword now little more than a splintered handle, the two had made it to the main gate of the chateau in one piece. Akane's accordion dress hadn't been. It had been ruined before, but not this badly. A runaway buzzsaw had ripped its side away, revealing her panties on her right. As that part of her wasn't covered in dried mud, it stood out even more. "I'm leaving!" she told him, daring him to try and stop her!
"Here! Take this to cover yourself," Kuno said, taking off his kendo jacket and draping it over her shoulders.
She hated this display of consideration. To her, it seemed out-of-character for him. But she accepted it, pulling its cover around herself. It made her feel femininely small inside the large, sweat-and-musk smelling uniform. Unwilling to say "thank you", she did say, "I shall get it back to you, senpai."
"Keep it, Dearest Akane. Let it be a memento of our time together!"
"That's something I want to forget." She wasn't sure if she said it out loud. She turned and grabbed the pull-ring of the gate.
And the gate was too heavy for her to move.
"Well, Kuno?!" she challenged him to let her out.
"Let me remember…." He seemed to be in serious thought. "Where is the mechanism that activates the gate? It is usually a task for my manservant. I believe…. Yes! The mechanism is in the gatehouse! Now I just have to remember how it is operated. It has been temperamental of late these ten years."
"Never mind! I'll just do what Ranma would do: I'll jump over the wall!" It was a sore spot. If she had had the rooftop training, she could have followed her and Shampoo and would not have been stuck having to deal with the insane Kuno siblings! She would begin her practice now!
"No! Do not!" he warned. "AKANE!" he screamed.
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Shampoo took the initiative and charged.
Kodachi calmly held up her hand. "Stay!"
Shampoo stopped centimeters away from the hand. "Why Mad Laugh Girl say stay?"
"If we are to have a proper challenge, we need to do it with the fighting styles of which we are best trained and accustomed. I am not prepared with mine, yet."
Shampoo growled. "Is true. Is way to honor challenge and have victory worthy of honor." Stupid honor. But victory in a challenge needed the loser to honor the wager agreed to. They must not feel cheated.
"I fight in the style of Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics."
"Shampoo has Dark Arts of Womans Battle!"
" "Dark Arts"? You dare to disparage my methods when you yourself practice trickery!?"
"Dark Arts mean hidden weapons!" Shampoo said half-truthfully. And she pulled out from seeming nowhere her large, solid metal chui battle maces.
"Then I will only participate in the challenge if I am given a compensation. We will use the battle ground of my choosing."
"Shampoo battle any place!" And to emphasize that, she jumped up onto one of the now still logs. It reminded Ranma of the log on which she had first met the girl willing to tirelessly track her down across China and Japan to get her revenge.
"Then my manservant shall make the arrangements. Sasuke!"
"Yes, Mistress Kodachi?" the ninja bowed. "Shall we proceed to your private gymnasium?"
"Shampoo no want! Shampoo no trust honor of Mad Laugh Girl! Choose ground, but Shampoo choose place! Shampoo choose public space, where Mad Laugh Girl will lose face! All people know when Mad Laugh Girl no honor agreement!"
"That is more than acceptable to me! I wish to humiliate you as much as possible, Guizi! That would be in the place you hale from. I shall charter a private aircraft to China!"
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After much fumbling and a false start, Kuno was at last able to start the gate opening.
He rushed to the fallen Akane and swept her up in his arms. "If you were awake enough to fear, I would say 'Fear not, Akane!'. I shall be your hero and deliver you to one with the medical prowess rescue from Death's Door! If but only the appellation for this gate where not so true!"
The old, in-need of repair, mechanical gate was slow to open.
Kuno pushed his weight and back against it and forced it wide enough for him and his precious burden to exit.
Bare chested, his jacket like a blanket on Akane, he ran!
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"We're not gonna go to China!" Ranma cried. She was just pulling up her blood-stained pants. While everybody had been distracted, she had opened the box, figured out (sort of) how to use a pad and shoved it in the panties she knew she also had to use. He boxer-like panties were not going to keep the pad where it needed to be. "You chose the ground!" she pointed at Kodachi. "You chose a public place!" she pointed to Shampoo.
She pointed to herself, "I choose the place - Japan! Right here in Nerima!"
"Ranma no want go China?" Shampoo asked.
"If I knew I could be cured there, yes! But I don't!
"And, if we go there, you're gonna have to go back to tryin' to kill me! Right, Shampoo?!"
Shampoo became sad. "Is true. Only outside of China Shampoo have way around Kiss of Death. Vow remain." Then she tried to brighten. "If Ranma defeat Shampoo-"
"No! You challenged me with that Kiss of whatever - Ownership? - when I was paralyzed and couldn't stop you!" And she directed her irritation on Kodachi, "And you think you can own me if you defeat Shampoo!"
"And the Chinese simpleton has wagered herself as well!"
"Simpleton!? Again with Shampoo as a Simple Girl! Shampoo understands and can talk Japanese as well as you can, Stupid Noblelady with Deranged Laugh! I just want to talk as close as I can to the way those of the Middle Kingdom of the World speak! That is how I do my best thinking!"
"Not now, Shampoo!" Ranma as good as told her to shut up. "This is about me!
"I have a stake in this challenge! I demand a tournament! The winner owns the rest!"
"Ayah! Ranma want own Shampoo!" Maybe she was a simpleton. She sounded happy.
"A commoner does not own a noble!" Kodachi retreated. She seemed to think Ranma had a greater chance of winning the challenge than the foreigner.
"But would you marry a commoner? Like: Romeo?"
"Romeo?!" Kodachi's resistance was nearly broken. "M,marry? Perhaps date…."
"She has the hots for him!" Shampoo grinned. Ranma did not know what details to look for, but her martial arts senses told her the aura around Kodachi's sex and boobs had pulled energy from the rest of her body. Including her brain.
"If I win, I will give my ownership over you to Romeo. Now, do we have a wager?"
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A short while later, Shampoo broke through one of the solid rock outer security walls of the Kuno castle. "See? This good way out! This way in Shampoo want!"
"Naw! Too many dangers we didn't know about! Now we know!"
"Next time?"
"Do you want a next time? But it gave us more info about the Kunos. ' Could come in useful."
"Spy mission success!" Shampoo grinned. "Ranma make cute Mata Hari."
"What's a matahari?"
"Ranma no know of famous spy?! Mata Hari in Zhànshìnǚrén Register of Heroines!"
"I ain't no heroine." Unfortunately, she wasn't feeling like a hero or even a guy, either. Her period wasn't letting her forget she was right then very much a girl. Hot water would make it go away, but it would just be back with cold - worse!
"Ranma have what make heroine!" And Shampoo finally was able to reach out and squeeze her boobs. Only they were now wrapped up in layers of cheesecloth.
Still: "Hey! How'd you like me doin' it to you!" the redhead glared at her.
"Would you?" Shampoo grinned, daring her. She even pulled her sports bra away far enough to give Ranma a down-blouse view. If she dared.
Ranma didn't accept the dare. "What time is it?" They both looked towards the Sun, but it was her that said, "Aw, geez! It's almost time for school to be let out! I can't let them see me like this!"
"Is race against time, no? Run!" And she got off to a fast start.
Ranma tried, but was left behind. "Stupid cramps! But I really need to keep goin'! Born-girls have got to have figured out how to overcome this handicap when they have their periods!"
Heading back for her, Shampoo kept to the wall and fence tops, looking for signs of steam. The Kuno property was the largest in the neighborhood, dwarfing the others just as the Tendo's did its, but they were all obviously expensive. And that made all the difference. "Shampoo see hot tub!"
"No, Shampoo. The Doc says I gotta stay a girl for three months. Maybe less if I keep at it! It's how I can learn how to work this body I'm cursed with! What use is a martial artist if they can't use their body good!"
"Ranma no know philosophy behind martial arts? Good! Great-grandmother try explain to Shampoo, but need body to win battle! Shampoo no argue, Shampoo body do!" And she dropped down and took the smaller girl up into her arms.
"Shampoo! Let me down! This is humiliatin'!"
"Shampoo do what Shampoo want with property of Shampoo!" she teased as she leaped over the wall.
"I never said I'd let you own me! We ain't even had the tournament yet! Let go of me, or I will hit you! Girls can hit girls!"
"Okay! Shampoo let go!" But she tossed the lighter girl across the yard and into the uncovered hot tub! Splash!
The guy that rose out of it screamed as he shoved his hands into his pants! "The panties are too tight!" His strength tore them loose! Meanwhile his expanded chest flexed, and broke the cheesecloth. It was wet, but did slip towards off.
He growled, "Shampoo! I thought you understood how important it is to practice!"
"Ranma can practice later! More important no one will see red-hair Ranma no be cute!"
Her laughter suddenly stopped. In a cry of pain, she doubled over, grabbed her lower belly.
Then collapsed.
"SHAMPOO!" Ranma yelled and leaped out of the water and was beside her before the trail of water had hit the grass. "Shampoo! Shampoo, what's wrong?!"
The Guizi girl tried to speak. But puked!
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"Doc! Doc!" Ranma cried out, bursting in through the clinic's front door with Shampoo in a fireman's carry. "I got an emergency!"
"He's with Akane right now, Son," said the magenta-haired woman in a kimono.
"Mom!" Ranma was surprised to see her. "What are you doin' here?! Are you okay?!" Shampoo was not as important to him.
"It's your father."
"Pop!? What's his problem." His old man wasn't as important. He had seen the loud-mouthed, overbearing sensei he had to live with for ten years survive too many times to be overly concerned.
Nodoka became embarrassed. "Well, it's like, uh…. Let us just say he expended too much energy."
Ranma was confused. "But I thought you were goin' to a love hotel?"
Nodoka sighed. "You are not truly a man among men if you do not understand that." She went and touched the girl her son was carrying. "This woman could teach you. Or is she still just infatuated with your cursed form?"
"I ain't sure. She wants to own me!"
"That is a start." She looked into the stricken face and eyes of Shampoo. "It doesn't look to be too serious. Take her to the infirmary upstairs, and I will attend to her until the doctor can."
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"Here, this bed," Nodoka indicated.
Ranma noticed it was the bed across from his pop. He wasn't a panda. But he did growl and roll over, not wanting to look at them. He pulled the blanket up over his shoulders and took a fetal position.
Ranma carefully set Shampoo down in the bed. "Shampoo no need modern medicine. Shampoo know ancient Chinese medicine. Shampoo know healing techniques. Shampoo…." Shampoo rolled to her side and dry-heaved.
Nodoka was quick to turn her son away. Ranma caught her looking down at his pants. "Son...are the, uh, 'family jewels' safe?"
" "Family jewels"?" He looked down at his blood-stained pants. "Oh, I got this from my period!"
"Your period!?" Nodoka clasped his arms. "This much blood?!"
"The longer I'm a guy, the worse it gets when I do become a girl again. That's what the Doc said."
"But what about Shampoo's period blood?"
"Shampoo's?" Ranma turned, and finally noticed the blood stain seeping through her pants. He felt sympathy. He could relate to what was happening to her. At least he hadn't felt like puking. Yet.
Still, it seemed strange it came on her hard and sudden. Maybe something more was involved than just it being her "end of month time". He would make sure the doc checked her thoroughly. They had just been fighting the evil alchemist, Kodachi. Shampoo had said something about neurotoxins.
"Clean yourself and then go to that closet and get a gown, Son," Nodoka said. "Then do go and see your fiancée, Akane!"
"I'll change into girl. More blood is building up. And I gotta learn how to live with periods! The more I learn, the less of a problem they'll be!" At least, that was the theory.
"Clean with hot water! And stay a man. Blood is not sterile!"
Ranma sighed. "You're right, Mom. I'll stay a guy in the clinic."
As he walked away, his trained hearing picked up his mom softly saying to herself, "My son is menstruating. Somehow I do not feel like having red bean rice."
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In a one-size-fits-all gown which did not close all the way in the back, Ranma approached the examining room he was told Akane was in. Kuno was outside, waiting. Ranma frowned. "What happened?!" he demanded.
"Romeo! Akane was electroshocked before I could stop her! Would that I could have taken the lightning before her!"
"Electroshocked!?" his heart froze! Never in his life had he felt anguish like this!
"The doctor assures me he can heal her! He is using ancient Chinese medicinal methods!"
"I'm goin' in there and see for myself!"
"She may not want you to enter. You see she is having her womanly time."
" "Womanly time"?" Ranma's eyebrows and eyelids shot up. "She's having her period!?" Her, too?! Three of them at the same time! Was that normal?!
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Kuno's House of Gadgets! Guests Check In, But They Don't Check Out was originally aired as Episode 17 of Season 2. The events in Son Turned Daughter are happening at a much faster pace. The story happens before much of the gadgets and traps have stopped working because of age and neglect (and a particularly destructive battle between Tatewaki and Kodachi). Besides being called in to repair them, the Ruinmaster will also be installing new ones. As he is replacing them, the previous ones will have to first be disabled.
Martial artists of the caliber in Ranma 1/2 stories have to deal with injuries all the time. But in the original they didn't seem to know better than to move injured people the way they do. And neither do they do here.
