Ranma woke up suddenly. He normally woke up this way, but he had gotten used to not having to wake up because a bucket of cold water in the past week or so. He felt the change immediately, a feeling that he had gotten to recognize only through lots of practice.
Instantly she jumped to her feet and faced her father, "What did you do that for?" she demanded angrily. There stood a panda, holding a bucket, out in the middle of the woods.
'Wait, woods?' Ranma questioned. She didn't have time to get much further then that though, because Pops came barreling at her at full speed, swinging a sign at her with a viciousness that made Ranma almost unable to read it.
You're getting soft! it accused. Ranma ignored this, because it was something that her father always told her.
"Ha! You wish old man!" Ranma taunted, "'Cause then you'd actually have a chance of winning." Pops came charging at her, and Ranma lost herself in the heat of battle. 'Man, I've missed this,' she thought. 'It's nice not having it happen everyday, but when it doesn't happen you get to missing it.'
They stopped momentarily to break camp and have breakfast, then resumed their fight as they traveled. At lunch they took a breather, and Ranma began noticing things around them. 'We've been here before,' she thought vaguely, having found some warm water before going into the restaurant. This didn't happen often because they were rarely a welcome sight in the places that they'd been before.
The waitress who took their orders didn't seem to recognize them, even though Ranma recognized her. She was one of Akane's friends, and always smiled at him and giggled when she saw Ranma, as if she knew a secret or something. 'Man this chick's annoying,' he thought as he started eating his rice. 'Probably some trick to get me in trouble with Akane.'
"Ranma my boy," Pops began, having turned back to a human before they went into the restaurant. "We're going to be settling down soon. My friend is expecting us."
"Huh?" Ranma said smartly, rice paused halfway to his mouth. "What are you talkin' 'bout Pops?" He was honestly confused. Pops had told him that they would be settling down with the Tendos almost two years ago, and now he was changing his mind.
"My friend Soun Tendo is expecting us," 'Duh,' Ranma thought. "We've arranged for you to marry one of his daughters."
'Wait, what?' Ranma thought. 'I'm already engaged to Akane. In fact, she's probably pissed at me for not being there for out morning run.' "What?" He said intelligently.
"When you were born, Tendo and I arranged that you would marry one of his daughters and unite the schools," Pops was striking what he thought was a noble pose.
"I already know that Pops," Ranma interrupted. "You told me that like two years ago."
"I did?" Pops said, "I don't remember this conversation."
Ranma just nodded and continued eating his lunch. 'Why's Pops actin' so weird?' Ranma asked himself. Akane's friend came back with the check, and left. Pops took one look at it, and excused himself to go to the bathroom, taking his pack with him. 'Pops hasn't done that since we moved in with the Tendo's,'
Ranma was beginning to be suspicious. First, Pops was ignoring Mom's rule about not starting a fight before breakfast. Second that friend of Akane's was actin' she'd never seen him before. Third, Pops was behavin' like he did before they moved in. 'What if Pops decided to run?!?'
Ranma went from suspicious to angry. He quickly paid for the bill, then ran after Pops, pack in hand. 'How the hell did he pack everything up and sneak me out of the house without me wakin' up?' he questioned idly, and discarded the thought just as quickly, because he was really ticked off.
"You've done some pretty shitty things!" he shouted at his father, prepared to fight his way back home, "But this takes the cake!"
"Boy, have I not trained you to give your life for the sake of your training?"
"What the hell does that have to do with anything?"
"Son," Genma stopped shouting and tried to sound reasonable, "This was an arrangement made between myself and Soun when you were born. It's imperative that you marry one of his daughters so that the schools can be joined."
"I know that Pops!" Ranma shouted in frustration. "That's why you engaged me to Akane!"
"Who?" Pops shouted back.
Ranma froze, and he felt a jolt of energy shoot down his spine. It was a familiar feeling that had helped him through the years in his career as a martial artist. He looked around for immediate dangers, and found none. Then his brain went into overdrive, people were acting like they'd never met him. 'And lets face it, everybody knew him. Pops was actin' like they didn't have a home, or Mom waiting there, knowing when they get into trouble. Pops don't know who Akane is!'
An odd thought came to him, 'What am I doing two years in the past?' He didn't faint, but he was close, and in that second of weakness, his father snuck up behind him and everything went black.
Ranma woke up upside down, with water trickling down her nostrils. It was raining. She started choking, and sputtering. In her high-pitched voice she started demanding that her father let her go, so that she wouldn't choke to death. Her father, who was currently a panda ignored her and went inside a building.
"Leggo y'ol' fool!" She shouted, but nothing happened. 'Wow, Pops really doesn't trust me to go through with this,' she thought. Ranma could hear two sets of feet running up behind him.
"Ooo," Nabiki's voice could be heard from the distance, "It must be Ranma!"
"Saotome, my friend. We've been waiting!" Mr. Tendo shouted in greeting. There was a silence, in which they obviously got a good look of Pops. Then there was the sound of feet hastily going in the opposite direction. Pops, being the genius that he his, ran after them.
When Pops stopped, Ranma started talking, "Hey yo!" he shouted to get Pop's attention, "You're scaring 'em spit less!"
"Daddy… This is your friend?" he could hear Kasumi ask. There was a silence, then Nabiki shouted, "Oh, so this panda just decided to visit! Happens all the time!"
At this, Pops picked Ranma up off his shoulder and placed him roughly in front of Mr. Tendo. Ranma looked up at him, and wondered how he was missing the fact that she was female.
"You… wouldn't be…" Mr. Tendo stuttered.
"Ranma Saotome," she muttered, playing with her braid and looking away. He caught sight of Akane then. 'That's right. Her hair used to be long,' he thought. 'That was my fault.' "Sorry 'bout this."
Mr. Tendo grabbed her by the shoulders and shouted at him, "At last! You've come!" Ranma couldn't help the look that crossed her face. 'How can this man be so blind?' she asked as he shifted her breasts higher.
"Oooo! He's cute!" she heard Nabiki say, and Ranma just felt numb. A tiny voice in the back of her head sniggered, 'Lesbian,' again. The last time this had happened to her, she had had the same thought.
Mr. Tendo was babbling on about how good it was that she had come, and Ranma kind of drifted off. She'd been through this before, and remembered faintly that she had done the same thing last time too. She'd kind of been numb to what was going on until…
"Hmmm…" Nabiki's hum brought her out of her stupor as she felt her breast being poked multiple times. It was very annoying.
"Um," Ranma started, trying to keep calm, "could you stop that?"
" "He" is a girl," Nabiki said, stating what Ranma had felt was the obvious for quite some time. 'Seriously,' she thought, 'I'm stacked. You'd have to be blind not to notice that I'm a chick.' He heard Mr. Tendo hit the floor, and watched with mild interest as Akane and Kasumi picked him up and took him to the living room, where they set up a futon for him to lay on.
"Oh, poor Daddy. He's so disappointed," Kasumi said in sympathy. She was wetting a cloth for Mr. Tendo's forehead.
"He's disappointed. Some fiancé this is!" Nabiki spat. Ranma felt her eyebrow twitch at this.
"Stop it you two!" Akane said. 'Good old Akane,' Ranma thought with an internal grin, 'Always there to defend me unless she's mad at me.' "He…She is out guest!"
"This is all your fault Daddy," Nabiki whined, and once again Ranma wondered how this girl had managed to get so much money out of him. "You should have made sure!"
"Well, he said he had a son," Mr. Tendo tried to defend himself.
"Do you see a son here?" Nabiki demanded while grabbing painfully onto Ranma's breast. "Hmmm. Do you?"
"Um, I really wish you would stop that," Ranma said. If it didn't stop soon she might just forget about her rule about hitting girls and give her a titty twister.
"Hey. Join me in the practice hall?" Akane offered, standing over her shoulder and bending at the waist. Her face was right in hers, and Ranma could feel the tiniest bit of a grin appear on her face. "I'm Akane. You want to be friends?" The offer was just like she remembered it, and Ranma was hopeful that they might get a second chance to start off right. 'Where'd we mess up anyway?' she asked herself, 'We started off great.'
Akane showed her where she could find the practice equipment, and where she stashed her cinderblocks, something that she hadn't done last time. The tour was winding down, and it looked like Akane was going to leave her alone to explore by herself. 'It's too soon,' Ranma thought, knowing how rare moments that they get along are. 'Do something, say something!'
"You do martial arts don't you?" She asked, and wished she hadn't almost immediately. 'What was I thinking?' she thought in a panic.
"A little," Akane said cautiously. "Why, do you want to have a little match?" Ranma wasn't sure what to say. 'Dug myself in too deep.' "Just for fun." Ranma noticed that she didn't assure her that she wouldn't get hurt, which made her glad. That last bit had really gotten her goat.
Ranma nodded slowly, and watched as Akane tried to center herself. Something that she rarely did. Ranma easily dodged the first attack, and the second. She was getting closer, but she was also getting more frustrated. 'How do I end this without bugging her?' she asked herself as she dodged a few more attacks.
"What's wrong?" Akane demanded. "You can swing at me. I wont break." 'Yeah right,' Ranma thought, then she got a genius idea. 'I won't be hittin' her, and I'll still win!' When Akane swung her final punch, Ranma dodged, then caught her wrist and twisted it up behind Akane's back. This brought them uncomfortably close. 'Last time we were like this was jusenkyo,' she felt a shiver run down her spine at the thought.
She felt Akane pause, and could tell that she was assessing what she could do next. There were several moves Akane could have done, but most of them would end up hurting her more then they would hurt Ranma.
Akane turned in her grasp, and instinctively Ranma loosened her grip. Akane seemed to notice this, and started chuckling. Ranma, not sure why Akane was laughing, joined in nervously.
"Ahem," Akane started some of the laughter died down. "You're… pretty good." Ranma wasn't sure where this was going, so she stayed silent. "How'd you get so fast?"
'Did Akane just ask a personal question without having something weird happen?' she asked herself. "Uh, Pops normally has me fight with my pack on," she explained. "I guess it's pretty heavy." Ranma was nervous now. 'This isn't how I remember it going.'
"That's right," Akane said, seeming relieved for some reason. "You've been on a really long training trip. That must have been really fun."
'I don't want to talk about that,' "It was okay I guess," she shrugged. 'Yeah, let me count the ways we aren't going there.'
"Well you'll have to tell me more about it later," Akane offered as she made her way towards the exit. "Make yourself at home." With those words, Akane was gone, and Ranma really wasn't sure what to do now.
Ranma decided that she should explore the Tendo's home again, before there were so many holes in the wall that the stately manor started looking like swiss cheese. She looked around the house, a million memories of things yet to come flooding her mind. 'This is too weird,' she thought, and decided to sit on the porch. She felt Kasumi approach from behind.
"Wouldn't you like to take a bath?" she offered, holding a towel out for her.
"Huh? No!" Ranma said, remembering what happened last time. 'Wait, too strong.' "I mean… it's okay."
"No it's not!" Kasumi insisted, and Ranma felt herself giving in to what she wanted, "You must be all sweaty from your work out!" She gave Ranma the towel, and showed her where the bathroom was.
With dread, Ranma started the bathing process. 'Everythin' was goin' so well, and 'cause I can't say no to a chick, it's all goin' to happen again,' she thought grumpily. She cleaned herself up, and considered leaving it at that, but knew that she couldn't stay a chick for too long. She got into the bath, and felt the change come over him.
'What to do? What to do?' he thought. As he felt the heat relax his tired muscles. 'Maybe I should hurry up and leave the bath before she gets here?' he thought, and was struck by the simplicity of the idea.
He pushed himself out of the water, and stepped over the rim just as the door opened. For the second time in his life, he froze as he door revealed a naked Akane. 'Damn.'