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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Notes are at the bottom of this chapter.
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When Romeo had first kissed Akane it was because he had to. It had been to save everybody at school. When Romeo now kissed Juliet it was because he had to. It was to save his manhood. He hadn't disliked it, but enjoyment wasn't the purpose of that first kiss. This time, he knew he had to enjoy it! And thanks to the medicine, he thought it was pleasurable.
Just pleasurable. His treatment had just begun.
But even before the medicine, he enjoyed the pleasure of Akane's company.
The long-haired girl looked up into his eyes and smiled, "Don't force it."
"What?" he didn't understand. Had he crossed a line and done something he shouldn't have?.
"You're not supposed to force yourself to be interested, remember?" She made to get up, and Ranma moved away from her. "That's not how a girl wants to be wanted."
She put her hand on his cheek and brought herself to him. She kissed him. "...or in a hentai way."
He watched her move back to her table under the cherry tree. Ranma didn't know if he was still Romeo. "Aren't I supposed to want sex?"
"Do you want it? Is it just something just for you? A girl wants the so-called man to be thinking of what she wants, too." Her eyes lost their focus for a moment, saying, "That's what romance is. The first level, anyway."
"There are levels?" It sounded like a game, a tournament, to him. What were the rules?
"Come, have your okonomiyaki."
Ranma's stomach grumbled. He went and plopped down at his table. He stared down at his half. It really wasn't enough for him. He grabbed it whole. But he saw Akane use her knife and fork. He hadn't seen Akane use them before. (The Asian way did make much more sense.) So, eating this way had to be "romantic". Of course, why not. "Romance" was something Western. (They even had Romance languages.) Ranma grumbled as he picked up the ones meant for him.
"Take your medicine, Ranma."
Why? It was to awaken his sexuality, a desire. In Buddhism, desire was suffering. And it sounded to him that to get sex he would have to go through the obstacle course called "romance". "I can't use these things you gave me if I do. I need to eat the whole thing at once to get the taste oughta my mouth."
She sighed. "Fine." She picked up the large bottle of medicine from the ice bucket and opened it. Only then did she remember, "I didn't bring a spoon."
She thought to use a fork, but saw it wouldn't work. Instead, she poured it on top of the okonomiyaki. "Eat it before it runs off."
He did. Sweet! Salty! Sour! Bitter! Passionfruit. Ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, oyster sauce and honey. Wheat-soy bread.
Akane had her first bite of hers. "Maybe passionfruit wasn't the best choice. It sounded good."
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After Ranma all but accused her of only liking the idea of passion, Akane tried to explain the difference between recreational sex, sex when in love and sex when in something called limerence. That last word was something she learned from Dr. Tofu. Maybe he could help him understand it better. But right then, Ranma wasn't really in the mood to. Romeo was gone. To him it all meant his friend wasn't really interested in sex. (He remembered her talking about people who were as perverts.)
It didn't help his mood that he was still hungry.
While he was struggling to forget his stomach, his gaze drifted up into the tree. And then to the ninja. "Sasuke, how about a store run? You know all the shortcuts."
"Who will pay for the purchases?"
"Nabiki. She's payin' you, right?"
"Not exactly. (It is more like blackmailing me. And all because of what my masters have ordered me to do as a ninja.)"
"That's a long mutter," Akane said.
"You heard that, too? You want to ask what it's about?"
Akane's own stomach rumbled. That was her answer.
"Okay, how's this? You pay now, and I'll pay you back from the money I make from Nabiki?"
"Ran- umm, uh! You're not going to..." She stopped herself, remembering the eavesdropper.
" "Know Your Enemy". I think it's time I infiltrate and get to know your sister better." He fixed his gaze at the ninja. "She's gonna make money off of me without me gettin' none if I don't." The shame on Sasuke's face told him what he guessed was probably right. Kuno, maybe even Kodachi (and their dad?) had told him to spy on the Tendo's and Nabiki had helped in return for money or something she could make money from. Kuno's library had too many albums of Akane for that sister not to have known about their photos. He would see that Akane got her share of Nabiki's profits off of her! And herself.
"Besides, a deal is a deal," his gaze turned her way. "This date may not be "romantic", but it is perfect. I get to spend more time with you away from everybody."
Akane took his hand. "It is perfect. It's like love."
Ranma was about to tell her it wasn't love. But didn't. Why spoil things for her, his friend.
Before he left, Sasuke let go of the boombox. After catching it, "Romeo" turned off the violin music. This kind of romance wasn't him and Akane.
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The two friends's time alone together had to come to an end. It would soon be time for classes. While the ninja manservant cleaned up, Ranma and Akane put the bottle of medicine in one of the shopping bags Sasuke had brought. They had given up on trying to fit the large bottle into the narrow bookbag.
Once on the school grounds, they went directly to the PE equipment shed. A thermos of hot water was inside, of course.
While Akane guarded outside, Ranma was to change back into her schoolgirl uniform. The redhead was in her snug panties (and new pad) and camisole when she gave into impulse and tried posing. Or what she thought could be considered posing. She really wasn't sure what Nabiki would be asking from her. When she was in that French maid uniform with the short, short skirt and many, frilly "slips", for the sake of her dignity, she had concentrated on cleaning the house and refused to remember whatever posing Nabiki had gotten her to do (which wasn't a lot). The next time she would remember!
This was another reason she thought to go ahead and make the "Easy Payments". If she had a normal girl's brain, then she had better learn how born-girls used their bodies to attract - shudder - boys. (Just maybe not the kind before the Furinkan Battle of the Sexes. Maybe.) She wished she knew that and the one-thousand-and-one things they knew before her date with Ucchan.
Ucchan? They were no longer kids. They were no longer even close friends. Even two guys could add "-chan" to their names if they were. Well, maybe they could become friends again. But it - shudder - wouldn't be as kids. It wouldn't be as two guys. It would be as a man and a...woman.
"Kuno," she reminded herself. "I need Ukyo to save me from Kuno."
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Walking back to Classroom 1-F, Akane did most of their talking. Ranma wasn't really there for her any more. She was feeling like she was moving away from her guy-self. Was she taking on a different personality? Before China, before today, even, her black-haired version would never ever think of dating a guy. Now a part of her (though hardly all of her) looked forward to it. If it were Ukyo.
Entering, her eyes went automatically to Ukyo, at his desk behind hers. Again she was struck by how boyish handsome he was. Handsome? Put him in a homongi kimono and he could maybe, probably pass as a girl. (Of course, he would have to put up his very long hair.)
Ranma shook it off! It had to be wishful thinking! It was okay if she was interested in a guy! She was a girl, now! Girls are interested in guys! (Just not in sex?) The girl she became had to be interested in him as a guy! (Any guy, actually. Any guy but Kuno.)
By the time she was in her seat, she had detailed every masculine trait she could detect in him. (His upper body strength was one.) She had even convinced herself that the long hair he kept in a ponytail was a mark of his manly determination not to be like every other modern boy! It warned everybody he had the confidence in his martial arts abilities to take on anybody who didn't like it! No girly man was he!
Why was she going back to thinking like a martial artist!? Forget that! She had to think the way born-girls think about guys! She wouldn't let 90 minutes as a guy away from him change her infatuation with him. Or was it limerence?
The question was: How did she get it back without forcing herself to? It was the problem of wei wu wei, action without action. And all without thinking like a martial artist.
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Fifth period was math. Calculus and trigonometry were things her trained body knew, not her head. (Why her female body also knew them was another rule of magic, she guessed.) But this was algebra. She got a 66 on the pop quiz. Not for the first time in her (rather his) life did a teacher recommend she attend an after-school cram class.
But, of course, she didn't have the money. (Or want to be cramped up in a classroom any more than she had to.)
"Perhaps, I can find some time after school to tutor you, then, Ranma," Norimaki-sensei suggested. As he talked it was almost as if he became less dumpy.
"No girl wants to be alone with you," Akane said. "(Pervert)."
"Ukyo can tutor Ranma!" Ikuko said, swiftly raising her hand.
"What!? Me?! I know business math!" Ukyo protested.
"It's settled!" Ranma made her move. "Ukyo is my study partner!"
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Between classes, Ranma had to go to Ukyo's desk because he wasn't coming to hers. She positioned her body so he could not ignore it. She didn't, though, think she had the most effective pose.
Annoyed (or, as Ranma wished to think, being too much of a man to show his true feelings for a girl?), he opened the algebra book and began to explain what he could. Fascinating!
Well, he was. Her wei wu wei was helped by memories of their times together as kids coming back to her...
"Are you paying any attention?!"
"What? Oh, yeah, I am! Uh, Algebra is about X and Y and…." Ranma now flashed to this morning's talk of a boy band's chromosomes. As the girl, Ranma had no Y, but Ukyo did have Y. The problem was what would result when his Y came together with her XX. And Romeo's Y. "...handwritten character."
"What? It's not "ji". It's "zi". Or maybe "zeddo"." The alphabet letter "Z".
She became worried. "Which one do girls use? -Does my female Japanese sound alright?!"
He sighed. "It's okay."
She smiled, "Your male Japanese sounds very good."
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After Ikemizu-sensei's 6th period class, school was officially over! Ranma could begin her date with Ukyo-kun! (Maybe he could become her Ucchan again!)
The first thing he told her was, "I'm not spending much money on you. I have to have it for the restaurant I'm getting.
"In fact, I was going to look at what's available in town." (He muttered something she didn't want to remember.)
"That's fine!" Ranma smiled, moving closer to his side, and wondering if she should grab his arm or hand like a girlfriend. She saw her burned hands and remembered the lame story she had told (a teakettle?) "As long as I'm with you. You don't overeat on a date!" Akane's advice was useful.
"Ranma, are you really going on the date?" Akane asked, frowning.
"I told you I was." She had told her on their date that afternoon. She had learned from the first day they met she had to be open and tell her friend everything if she wanted her to be her friend. She wished she dared to be the same way with Ukyo. "I have to fight the Something. I have to!"
"Fight something!? You want me to fight your battle?" Ukyo said, moving away from the redhead.
Ranma did grab hold of his arm. "I'm a great martial artist! The best in my age-group! And others, too, I bet! I can fight my own battles! I just need you to be my, uh - cheerleader! There are male cheerleaders, aren't there?" She really wasn't sure. This was her first high school.
Again, he sighed. "We'll see."
Akane turned her frown at him, threatening him even as she held the bag with the medicine in it. "Remember: Ranma can defend...herself."
"I'm not a pervert! I hate perverts! That battle I will fight!" He brought forward his giant spatula.
Akane was no longer frowning. "How did you do that?"
"Do what?"
Ranma realized it, too. "Your weapon! You had it leaning against the window."
"Of course I did. I can't sit at the desk with it." Then he realized. "How did it get over here?"
Akane and Ranma looked at each other. It was silently decided. Ranma pulled Ukyo towards the door. "In martial arts, when you incorporate a move it becomes such a part of you your mind becomes by-passedl!" It was true, but Ranma knew it was done with magic. Like how she infected women with her curse so that their periods changed to be like hers, so other things happened: Akane and her mallet, Nabiki and her camera, Kasumi and her tea(?), and mom and her ability to put the large bottle of medicine inside a too narrow bookbag? Ukyo's new hidden weapon "technique" did show her magic bled over into more than just women.
Near the door, away from the inside windows, Nabiki was standing, leaning against the wall, her arms crossed. She was smirking. "Hello, O Highly Trained Martial Artist."
"I am trained," Ukyo touched the handle of the spatula now in its quiver on her back.
"And you, too, Kuonji-kun. Don't forget to have Ranma show you where Dr. Tofu's clinic is.
"Unless you want to go there now."
Ukyo was tempted. But he found himself saying, "I have to go on this date, first."
Nabiki studied the little redhead. "It must be very important to you." She stopped leaning. "I'm timing you, Ranma." When her arms were not crossed, it was revealed she had a stopwatch. She walked away. "Good-bye for now, two-timer," she laughed.
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What to talk about on their way to the town shopping district? Algebra? Yeah, as if that were something either really wanted to talk about. In the past, when Ranma came to a new town, always a boy then, he would boast of how great a martial artist he was. It got people's attention, and sometimes challengers. (That was how he first met Ryoga.)
But her stories seemed too tied in with when she was a boy. She was afraid she might slip and reveal the truth. Ukyo would have to find out, but later, not sooner. First, he had to get to like her. Better still: Love her! Love was enough to overcome the problem, right? hopefully, maybe.
That left, "Tell me about yourself, Ukyo!" Try not to boast back, Ranma!
"Then you go and tell your step-brother, Romeo? Reconnaissance! I'm no jackass."
"Uh, no. I'm not going to tell him." How can she promise not to tell himself?
"Tell me about Romeo, then."
Ranma smiled! Here was the way she could boast! But first, she had to tell him, "The time he spent with you in Shizuoka was just about the happiest time he had." Before she met Akane. "You were both on training journeys. And he would challenge you - And win!"
The thought did not make Ukyo happy. "And that's why I wanted to learn Anything-Goes. I was cheated!" His voice became even more serious. "But I taught myself anything-goes. And it will..." His eyes turned towards hers, but he looked beyond her. "...when I meet Romeo."
"And, uh, step-dad." She remembered the black humor she and Akane had had at her old man's expense.
" "Step-dad"?" He became confused. "That's what I thought until Nabiki told me Genma Saotome is your dad."
"He is?" If Nabiki said it, she had better play along. She was the better strategist. "Of course he is! Romeo is, uh, mom's, I mean, my step-mom's kid."
Ukyo didn't pick up on her struggle. He was too focused on challenging the boy he once knew. "Nabiki said Genma was also his, Romeo's, sensei before he married his mom. After that, he stopped wanting him to be his student. He didn't want him interested in his "sister". It's like, you know, the i-word."
"Wow! That makes sense." Nabiki was good!
And it was an opening for boasting! "Romeo hasn't been seen in the house lately." And maybe won't be for the next two months. "But that's okay with him. Since before he met you, Ukyo, he's lived on the road. He has no problem camping and finding food." Enough food was another matter.
"Do you see him much?"
"Not as much as I'd like to."
Ukyo snorted, saying in a low voice, "The i-word."
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It wasn't a long walk. It could have gone on for more than a kilometer, close to a mile, if they had stayed on this street. Dr. Tofu's clinic was at the end of it. But instead of going to one of the side streets, they turned left then left again to be on the main shopping street. Like most of Nerima, it was considered pedestrian (no sidewalks) but they were expected to get to the sides of any of the few cars and trucks that drove down the middle of it. There was only room, though, for one vehicle at a time.
"Now's your chance to go girl and shop." Ukyo said.
"Girls shop?" Maybe she should, if that was what he expected of her. "No, I don't have the money." What girl thing would she have to buy? She promised her mom she wouldn't wear girl things unless she had to.
"I said I wouldn't spend much money on this date. But a guy is supposed to treat the date to something, right?"
"I guess." Was he guessing to?
Ranma followed his turquoise eyes as they searched the displays along their walk.
Finally, "Here!" he said, going to a shop with the only door rolled up and out of the way. There was no one inside, there were just four levels of gachapon machines for adults. Insert a coin and turn the handle. The game is you don't know which of the plastic eggs inside will come out. But you know from the picture over it what is in the eggs that you are trying to collect.
"How about this one?" Ukyo suggested, pointing to one with characters from Hello Kitty.
"N,n,no! I don't wanna say hello to no, no...mewer." Ranma only shook a little. So far.
"Not a cat person, huh?" He continued looking. "How about something from Urusei Yatsura?"
"No thanks. I'd probably get Ryuunosuke."
"I'd worry about getting Ataru. Why am I thinking like I'm back in boys middle school! Girls wouldn't be interested in something shounen. What shoujo thing are you interested in?" he asked.
"I'm not. Uh, how about Super Pig? No, in Japan it's Tonde Burin!" Maybe if she gave it to Ryoga he would be more willing to forgive her. It had been a dirty trick taking his clothes like that.
"Wasn't that a kodomomuke show?" He shrugged. "It was a mahou shoujo, magical girl, show, I guess. She was transformed into a heroine with powers." He scanned the pictures. "I don't see no gacha gacha for it. But there's one with a pig!"
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Ranma, of course, 'won' a panda. It was a souvenir of their date and it may have been considered rude if she hadn't let Ukyo attach the charm to the handle of her bookbag. Having a trinket there was in fashion with girls. And Ranma wasn't actually wearing it.
As they were leaving, she went to take his hand.
But he first stopped to play a gachapon machine. He lucked out and got the one he wanted on his first try. Ranma hadn't lucked out. It was a Hello Kitty. Ukyo kept it in his hand. Ranma could no longer grab onto him.
They no longer went to any more shops, though Ukyo did check out those that sold different kinds of foods. "I'm seeing how many have the ingredients I'll need for my okonomiyaki."
When they came to the middle of the block, he stopped. The sign read, [Bathhouse Cafe]. "Are we going to eat here?!" Ranma asked hopefully.
Ukyo frowned at her, "I said I'm saving for a restaurant of my own."
"Maybe this one?"
"No. This doesn't look like it's set up for my kind of cooking. I need a long cooktop, solid preferably, not with individual burners only heating part of it. Of course, I already have those!" he boasted. "Maybe it can be a simple conversion. Anyway, I should check out the competition."
Inside it looked like a typical restaurant to Ranma: Tables in front (with a waitress older than her mom) and (an even more elderly one in) the kitchen that could be seen through a windowless opening. There weren't many customers at the time. (As Ranma remembered it, after the town celebrated the Tendo's winning the Fine Dining match, the high schoolers had gone to The 2nd Branch Okonomiyaki restaurant (which was more like a cafe), and the older people had gone here (which was more of a restaurant). Young people just didn't hang out here.
"Welcome! Welcome!" the motherly woman bowed. "What may I get for you?"
"What do you have? Anything close to okonomiyaki?"Ukyo asked.
"For okonomiyaki you should go down the street and take the left side street."
"No thanks. That belongs to the Second Branch. I'm from the First Branch." He looked at the menu options on the wall. "I'll take the curry ramen." He looked at his date, and added, "Large."
"Yes, young sir! Miss!" and she went to talk with her mother, who was already preparing it.
"You're going to share with me.?" Ranma said, smiling. He does like me!
They ate Chinese style, from the same bowl. Both barely controlled their urge to have dueling chopsticks for the best morsels. (Ranma wondered if chili could make water hot enough to change her. She didn't want to find out now, though. Did broth even count as water?)
Ukyo asked questions and found out that the two women wanted to sell the place and retire.
It was the elderly woman in the kimono who reminisced, "When I was a child, this wasn't a restaurant, but a bathhouse - an Onsen! It had a real, natural hot spring!" And she pointed down. "It is still there! In the basement!"
Then she became more melancholy. "The water level kept lowering. And everytime it did, my family dug a little more and rebuilt the spa! Each time they made it more grander to attract more people! But then… *choke*"
Her daughter had had to hear the story all of her life. "It became too expensive and had ventilation problems. It stopped being a bathhouse and became what you see today." She looked at the place she had never left. "Even up here, it's becoming too expensive."
Ranma felt sorry for them. She thought she knew what happened: The Kuno's! To run their giant estate on just steam power like they did, they had to steal from the underground thermal energy of all of Nerima if not beyond.
"I think I am interested in this place," Ukyo said, getting up from the table.
"But Ukyo, you said-"
"Shh!" he told her. "Come on. I have more of this town to see."
"Oh, wait!" The motherly waitress told him. "You forgot your charm!"
"Oh, yes!" Ukyo made the mistake of looking at Ranma. He did not like seeing how a simple cat toy was upsetting her. That became more important than saving her from herself when she used her burned hands. "No. Keep it.
"You could use a Maneki-neko. Maybe it can bring good luck to your cafe."
"I'll save it for you," the waitress said, hopeful for the sale.
Ranma was heading out the door, saying, "I would never want to go to a place called Neko Hanten," Cat Cafe.
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With no cats in sight, out in the fresh air, Ranma felt better. She had to ask, "You said the place was the wrong kind for your kind of restaurant."
"It can do, if I really try," he said. "But I'm interested in it for leverage. There really is no room in a town this size for two okonomiyaki establishments. It would all come down to which was the best! A challenge and a showdown between the two Kuonji branches!"
"Y,you'd really put your cousin Ikuko's family out of business? I thought you were more than just family! She's the one who set up this date…. Oh," Ukyo really didn't want this date. He wasn't grateful to Ikuko. If she got hurt, it was "just business".
"No, I don't think I have to. But they have to know I might. The Nerima branch isn't their only restaurant. I think I can get them to let me run one of them. If only for practice. You see, like your family, I've been on the road most of my life. I've sampled and trained in okonomiyaki up and down Japan! I've even traveled outside of it!"
"Not to China, I hope."
"No: Honolulu! L.A.! São Paulo! Any place with enough Japanese in them to have okonomiyaki! - But when I'm done, the whole world's going to know what okonomiyaki is!"
There was no denying his dedication and commitment. Ranma found it something she could relate to. It made him all the more interesting to her! She had to get to know him more! So did her stomach.
"The point is, I know okonomiyaki techniques the rest of the clan doesn't! Not even my stinkin, effing, jackass dad!" His words could apply to her own pop, but then he got a look on his face that Ranma had become familiar with internally. "None of the clan like him. They may even help to set me up in my own business just to spite him! I'd be the success, not him!"
Ranma forgot "herself" and slapped him on the back, and spoke in male Japanese, "Me 'n you've got a lot in common!"
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Speaking of what they had in common, it was time for Ranma to take Ukyo to meet their "sensei", the man who had done the most in shaping them into what they were today, her pop, Genma Saotome.
On the walk to Dr. Tofu's clinic. Ranma could almost forget she was a girl. It was almost like she was picking up where they had left off as kids. The only difference was that she did have to remember she was a girl. (She no longer slipped up into male Japanese.) It was her "step-brother" she was living sort-of, not-really vicariously through.
"You know a lot about what happened between me and Romeo," Ukyo said, suspiciously.
"Me and Romeo are closer than anybody I know!" A panda and a pig didn't really count as anybodies. Their bodies were animals's. "We have no secrets!" Which wasn't to say she completely understood how her guy brain's works when she had her girl's. And when she had her guy's, she understood even less of the opposite sex. After all, she was a born-guy, not a born-girl or somebody with enough practice at being a girl to understand how they thought..
Ukyo didn't say the "i-word" out loud, but he was thinking of it. Or maybe it was just the fact he didn't think his rival, Romeo, deserved a girl like her? Ranma hoped that was it.
"Uh, I've lived a, uh, 'remote' life, off in the mountains. I, the girl, didn't get out and do anything until a month ago."
"Kami! That jackass dad of yours is a real piece of work! He trained Romeo but he wouldn't let you train as hard just because you're a girl!? No wonder I didn't see you with them when we met!"
"Wow!" The story was getting better and better! "But I'm still a great martial artist! Romeo made sure of that!"
"Hmph!" Ukyo snorted in begrudging respect. "I'll give him points for that. A girl should be given the same opportunities as guys." Man! Ranma saw how serious the guy was. He was to be admired for his attitude. When having to be a girl, that's what she wanted.
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On the long block that encased the pole in front of the clinic were the words, [Moxibustion], [Acupressure], [Chiropractic], and [General Practitioner].
"Is he any good?" Ukyo wondered. "Sounds like a "Jack of All Trades But a Master of None".
"Oh, he's good, alright! And on top of all that, he's a psychologist (psychiatrist?) and a martial artist."
"How good?"
"You know, I don't know. I've never spared with him. Akane says he's great. Maybe I should take him on."
"If he tries to stop me from getting my revenge on effing Genma Saotome, he will see just how great a martial artist I am!" he said, taking out his giant spatula from the quiver on his back. "And it won't be sparring!"
"Well, I know the rules of fights. I promise I won't stop you. I may have to protect the weaker guy, but I won't do it until it's certain who that is and the situation becomes critical."
"What about your dad?"
"HA! You'd be doing me a favor! I love him too much to give him what he really deserves!" She smiled. "Mom loves him, too, I guess. Too much, maybe. But she's still thinking of making him keep his seppuku vow. I'm glad she forgave mine."
"Your family's harsh. My dad just abandoned me."
"Me? It was the opposite. Pop made me abandon people. Never again." She put her hand up on his shoulder. "I'll be here for you, Ucchan."
"He left you in the mountains."
"He didn't leave me there." Man! Maybe he could have if she couldn't become a guy again! "Because of Romeo."
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Genma Saotome was in the lobby as if waiting for them. He didn't make a move. He just stood there, sweating and quivering.
"Pathetic," Ukyo said.
"It is a disappointment," Ranma said. Hardly a man among men. Well, at least he faced his doom literally as a man, not a panda. "Go into your speech, Ukyo. After all these years, you've got to know what you want to say to the man who ruined your life."
"Shut up! You took part of it!
"Okay: Genma Saotome! I am the child you left behind! You will PAY for what you did!"
"C'mon! Say something, Pop! Ukyo deserves your sniveling!"
"I was afraid of that," Dr. Tofu said, coming into view at last. "He is no longer conscious."
"Coward!" Ukyo screamed.
"It is more complicated than that...Ukyo, is it? Ukyo Kuonji? I am Ono-sensei, but everybody calls me Dr. Tofu. I am currently the physician of the Saotome family."
"And everybody else in town," Ranma said.
"Enough of the introductions! Tell me why I can't just attack the effing jackass like he is!?"
"You may. I give you permission."
"What?"
"It won't be very satisfying for you though, as he has used the hypnotic treatment I'm giving him to retreat into a feverish healing trance. I have also given him some pain medication for his dislocated joints."
"Somebody got here before me!? I can believe that! The jackass must've ruined tons of lives!"
"I'm the one who "got here before" you, Ukyo. And I am the one who set him here in the lobby for you to find. Here," the Doc said, gently putting his hand on the blade of her spatula, "it is now your turn."
Ukyo's arm followed the movement of his spatula . His metal weapon touched where the that of a seppuku blade would slash.
Genma quivered, then shuddered, shook - And folded over! His body dropped to the floor into a ball! It was worse than the other times Ranma had seen the man or panda bent out of shape. It was a very tight contortion that Ranma doubted even the best yogaist could achieve and still be able to disentangle themselves!
And still he shuddered and quivered.
"This is part of the treatment," Dr. Tofu explained. "His, but mainly for those he has mistreated. Any time anybody puts pressure on him, he will become helpless like this. In a day or two, he should remain conscious when it happens. I invite you to come back then, Ukyo."
[] [] []
The doc's right. I am not satisfied," Ukyo growled as they left.
"How far would you've gone if pop weren't like that?"
"Far!"
"Maim? Mutilate? Spindle?"
" "Spindle"? I never thought of that one," he said, thinking of it now.
"That's what the doc did. He spindled pop. He turned him around on himself!"
Ukyo gave up the idea. "I could never do it as well as he did."
"You could also say pop's been maimed and mutilated. Not permanently, but usefully. We don't have to have any regrets. He'll still be able to do what he normally does, but if he causes any more trouble - like he normally does -, we get to maim, mutilate and spindle him all over again! And again!" She was enjoying the thought. "And again!"
"You don't want to see the jackass suffer as much as you said you did."
"Yeah. I guess I do love the...stinkin, effing guy." She did manage a hopeful smile, saying, "When he can't retreat and is off the meds, he will be able to feel pain! He never did learn to tolerate it as much as I have. He said it had to do with his old master."
"In the meantime, I have nobody to take my pain out on!"
"You have Romeo."
"You don't mind? But you and Romeo are in love or something."
An opening! "It's you I think I could love," she said, sounding (she hoped) seductive or something.
"Sorry. I'm not interested." He fell back on his standard, "I have to think of my business first."
Ranma's soprano growled in frustration. She needed a tactic! Nabiki may be a strategist, but she was great at tactics! "You want to hurt Romeo? What do you think he would think if you took me away from him?"
"It wouldn't be honest. I'm really getting to like you, Honey. But I could never love you." He turned away from her. "A school counsellor told me love and hate were the two sides of the same thing." He made a fist.
"...Romeo?" Ukyo! Her heart broke. Then she got angry, "You can't! We-you were just kids: Too young! Friends only!"
"Then why can't I stop thinking of him!? Friends come and go! Everybody in my life does! But Romeo was the first, the only, one who it hurt like it does! I can't forgive him!"
Man, her grudge against her pop was nothing compared to this! It hurt Ranma to feel how hurt Ucchan was. What would a girl do to make it better?! She didn't know. There had only been one thing that seemed to have worked before.
But it wouldn't this time.
She stretched up, used a pressure point, and while he couldn't react. "When you find out the truth…. You hate me anyway." She kissed him.
"I said don't!" he said, backing away from her.
"It's a good-bye kiss. I, the girl Ranma Saotome, will not bother you again unless you want me to. And because of what I did to you, I give you up. I won't use you as a crutch. I'll face Kuno on my own. It's the sacrifice I'm making for you, Ucchan. To show you how sorry I am!"
"Okay," he said, not understanding.
"I don't know how to be a girl, but I do know how to be a martial artist. You want to see Romeo hurt? Emotionally?
"Come with me! I'm findin' some hot water!"
[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []
Norimaki-sensei is based on Dr. Slump himself.
Opportunity missed. In the famous Ranma, right from the beginning, without Ranma being anywhere near, with Genma being caught entirely off guard, Ukyo had the chance to put the idiot in the hospital, if not the morgue. It did not happen. Ukyo was simply not capable of going "too far". Dr. Tofu won his educated gamble on the martial artist. If he had been wrong, he was capable of defending (and healing) his patient.
