Disclaimer: Insert standard disclaimer here
A/N: Sorry been so long since I updated. Wasn't sure I liked how I had written this chapter at first. After reading several dozen more fanfics and completely exhausting the Onna-Ranma C2 collection I have more insight as to what I want to write here. Oddly enough... after 2 months of having this chapter completed and lying in wait... I decided I didn't need to change anything! So yea, sorry about that. Anyways... enjoy this chapter and expect another soon.
Evening came to the tendo home. Nodoka came to wake Ranma from her nap as dinner was nearly ready. She walked into the bedroom to see Ranma lying in her futon hugging her pillow tightly. She grinned and lightly shook her.
"Ranma, it's time to wake up for dinner dear." Ranma's eyes slowly opened. She stood up and stretched then rubbed her eyes. "Take a bath and get changed, dinner should be ready soon." Nodoka left the room to help finish preparations. Ranma got up and went to take a bath.
'Ugh, why did I have that kind of a dream. Makes me sick just thinking about it. Stupid Ryouga.' Ranma blushed after thinking of Ryouga and the dream she had. She made it to the bath and undressed and began to wash with warm water, not quite warm enough to trigger the change back to male. 'Stupid curse. Stupid body. Why do I have do be attracted to guys. I don't like em' like that when I'm a guy so why did I act like that.' she has noticed in the past few months that while female she "checks out" guys subconsciously. For the past year she has felt somewhat uncomfortable around guys while in female form as well. 'Stupid stupid curse! I don't wanna be attracted to guys!' she finished bathing and slowly stepped into the furo. Ranma groaned as she didn't change back.
"Great, perfect timing." she grumbled to herself as she sank into the water to soak. 'I hope Ryouga isn't still around. I don't know if I can handle being around him like this. It's like my body has betrayed me.' After soaking for a while she got up, dried off and dressed to head to the dinner table. When Ranma finally made it to the dinner table everyone else was already seated and waiting. "I'm sorry, did you wait long?" she asked.
"No dear, in fact we all just sat down a few moments ago. Come, sit by me." Nodoka said smiling as Ranma noticed Ryouga at the table. Nodoka motioned to the spot between her and Ryouga. Ryouga had been looking down at the table until he heard Nodoka talk to Ranma. He looked up at Ranma and their eyes locked momentarily. Ryouga blushed and looked back down at the table. Ranma blushed as well and looked at the floor then proceeded to walk and sit down. The family noticed this display and Nodoka and Kasumi both smiled. Nabiki had a look of intrigue on her face and Akane just looked confused.
"What's the deal with you two?" Nabiki asked leaning on the table with her hand under her chin and an eyebrow raised.
"What are you talking about, Nabiki?" Ranma asked looking down to the table.
"I'm talking about that little display the two of you just put on." Nabiki persisted in her interrogation. "Is there something going on between the two of you that we should know about?" she smirked hoping to extract any relevant information.
"I don't know what you are talking about." Ranma staring blankly with an annoyed look in her eyes.
"Y-yea, there's n-nothing going on at all Nabiki." Ryouga laughed suspiciously. Kasumi had finished serving the meal and they promptly began eating. Ryouga ate as quickly as he could. He dismissed himself and headed in the direction he thought was the dojo but was really the kitchen.
"Spill it Ranma, the two of you are acting awfully strange." Nabiki glared at the pig-tailed girl. "Why are you still a girl anyways?"
"I don't wanna talk about it, and I told you. There is nothing going on." Ranma glared back equally intensely.
"Ranma, you're acting strange today. Are you feeling ok?" Akane asked in concern. "Why did you run away from the fight earlier? I've never seen you do that before."
"I transformed and my shirt was ripped, what was i supposed to do? Fight with my chest hanging out?" Ranma fumed.
"No, but you at least could have finished the match first." Akane yelled back.
"Whatever, I'm going for a walk." Ranma got up and left and Akane stomped off to the dojo.
"Oh my, what was that all about?" Kasumi asked in general, not really expecting an answer.
Ranma arrived at the Neko-hanten to be greeted by Shampoo.
"Ni hao, Ranma. You come take Shampoo to date, yes?" she glomped Ranma.
"No, Shampoo. I need to talk to the old ghoul." Ranma squeaked unable to breath. "C-can't breathe." Shampoo noticed Ranma turning a dark shade of blue and let go of her. she gasped for air.
"Well, hello son-in-law." Cologne seemingly appeared out of no where behind Ranma causing her to leap in surprise landing in Shampoo's arms. Cologne laughed, "Even at my ripe old age I can still easily sneak up on you. It would appear more training is in order. Now, what is it you wished to speak with me about, son-in-law?"
"I need to speak with you in private." she climbed out of Shampoo's arms and followed Cologne towards a back room, Shampoo attempted to follow. "I said "alone" Shampoo."
"Grand-daughter don't you have a restaurant to take care of?" Cologne hit Shampoo on the head with her staff. "Get going! You have customers waiting." Shampoo grumbled and went into the kitchen. Once in the room Cologne shut the door and Ranma sat in a chair by a small wooden table.
"I want you to tell me everything you know about my curse. Lately I've been having some strange feelings I had never had before. I think it's due to the curse." she explained as Cologne stood on her staff listening.
"Well what sort of strange feelings have you been having?" Cologne raised an eyebrow.
"Well for example, earlier today Ryouga came back to town and challenged me to a duel as has become our normal greeting. I was in male form and we started fighting. He attacked me and tore my shirt so I counter attacked and shredded his. He attacked me and I dodged only to be sprayed with cold water by a sprinkler and transformed into a girl. I turned to him to retaliate but when I saw him I froze. My stomach felt weird and I felt hot all over. When I regained myself I paniced and ran. Of course, I had to get home to change my shirt anyways because mine was ripped and my chest was hanging out." she cringed remembering the events. Cologne merely cackled after hearing this.
"Sounds perfectly normal to me son-in-law. It's only normal for you to be attracted to some men while in female form. It's your hormones. Ironic you seem to have taken a liking to Ryouga considering the koi rod incident" Cologne continued to cackle.
"What are you talking about? I'm not attracted to guys! No way! How can I all of a sudden start liking guys? I've been cursed for nearly 2 years now and I didn't start having these problems til a few months ago." she paced back and forth both angry and somewhat scared of the concept of liking guys. "What is happening to me ghoul? Is my girl side taking over? I swear this is all mother's fault!"
"No, son-in-law. I do believe you have finally matured as a woman. All of your feelings you have are just your hormones reacting. Your girl side is fully active now. Meaning you can have children and you will find yourself to be physically attracted to men just as you are attracted to women while a man." Cologne explained while Ranma paled. "In otherwords, you are a fully functional woman." She cackled loudly.
"So I'm going to start liking guys?" Ranma's eyes were wide in fear.
"To be more precise, you are already physically attracted to men. Whether you act on this or not is dependant merely on your mind and what you ultimately choose. Based on what you told me earlier, you seem to be attracted to Ryouga subconsciously. Seems somewhat fitting seeing as how close you two are while you are a man. This could pose a problem for us. You merely need to get used to being attracted to men, it's common to be shy when you don't understand what is happening with your body. That's probably why you ran away when you saw Ryouga without his shirt. He could clearly see your exposed chest and he is a fine specimen of man, if I do say so myself, so naturally your body and subconscious mind reacted in embarassment to him seeing you exposed. This is a problem for us, however. You need to come to terms with your curse or you may go insane." Cologne looked troubled. "There is no cure for the curse, son-in-law. I haven't told you this until now so you would have hope and keep training, but since your female side has matured you need to know. You will be this way for the REST of your life."
With this Ranma promptly fainted. Cologne expected this reaction and called Mousse to carry her home, however, he didn't have his glasses on and attempted to carry away a bag of rice.
"That's a bag of rice you near-sighted fool. Put on your glasses." Cologne smacked him on the head with her staff. He noticed the bag of rice and put it back then picked up Ranma's body and carried her home.
Back at the Tendo dojo, Ryouga was sitting by himself in the dojo in meditation. He was contemplating what had happened earlier in the day. He linked together the incidents from the day. Ranma blushed, yelped like a girl and ran away during the fight when he transformed. Then Ranma had a dream in which she talked in her sleep saying she loves him.
'Ranma how can you have those kinds of feelings for me? You are still a guy aren't you? Or did the curse finally take you over?' Ryouga thought to himself feeling sorry for Ranma, believing the curse had taken over his mind. 'I'm sorry but I can't return those feelings. I love Akane.' he paused his thoughts for a moment.' Oh no, if Ranma is in love with me then what about Akane! She is in love with him. It's hard enough to stand between them knowing how they feel for each other but if Ranma really is in love with me... Akane will hate me! I can't stay here anymore!' Ryouga lept from the dojo but failed to realize it was raining outside and transformed. While he was attempting to free himself of his waterlogged clothing Akane walked into the dojo.
"Ryouga? Where did you go?" she looked around the dojo.
'Oh no if she sees finds me by my clothes she will know the truth! I'll have to distract her.' Ryouga quickly escaped his clothing, pulled his pack by the dojo wall and ran over to Akane jumping in her arms.
"P-chan! Where have you been?" She saw Ryouga's pack by the dojo wall. "I guess Ryouga is out for a walk." she shrugged and walked back in with P-chan in her arms. "Come on P-chan, I'll get you a snack." she smiled at the piglet as it blushed.
A few minutes later Mousse arrived at the Tendo dojo to be greeted by Kasumi.
"Oh my, what happened? Kasumi asked concerned.
"As far as I'm told she fainted in shock at something that dried up monkey told her." Mousse explained bringing Ranma inside. He brought Ranma to her room and placed her on a futon, Kasumi proceeded to tend to her. "I believe they were discussing her curse. I may have problems seeing but my hearing is excellent so I overheard some of their conversation from the next room. Something about having matured as a woman and being this way for the rest of her life. Not exactly sure what they were talking about but it has nothing to do with me." Mousse shrugged and made his way out and headed back to the Nekohanten.
Akane overheard what had happened in the hallway and came to see what was going on. She saw Ranma asleep in her futon with Kasumi caring for her.
"What happened to Ranma?" she asked in concern, still clutching P-chan in her arms. P-chan also looked on in worry.
"Mousse says Ranma was talking to Cologne about her curse. Something about having matured as a woman and being this way for the rest of her life. I wonder what she meant by that." Kasumi answered.
"You don't think... Ranma's curse isn't locked is it?" Akane ran downstairs and got a kettle of hot water and brought it back upstairs. She poured the hot water over Ranma's head waking her up in the process but she didn't change back.
"Huh? What happened?" Ranma looked a bit confused. She then remembered the last thing Cologne said and paled. "I think i'm gonna be sick."
"Oh no, Ranma. How did your curse get locked again?" Akane paled, afraid the man she loved was stuck as a woman forever.
"What?" Ranma noticed the kettle and the fact she was wet. "Oh great you found out. Don't worry, Akane, this is only temporary." she sighed and turned away.
"But then, why are you locked? What did Cologne mean by matured as a woman and that you would be like this forever?"
"What? She told you?" Ranma screamed.
"No, Mousse overheard some of the conversation but he didn't know exactly what it was about. If you aren't locked then why didn't you change back? What did she mean by "final stage" and that you will be this way for the rest of your life?" she pressed on still mostly concerned but boardering annoyed.
"I don't really wanna talk about it, but don't worry. In a few days I'll be able to change back, it's nothing to worry about." Ranma explained lying back down still turned away from Akane.
"Please don't worry about me. Thanks for worrying but I'll be fine." Kasumi nodded to Ranma and left the room. Akane stayed for a bit longer still wanting to talk to Ranma.
"Are you sure everything's fine, Ranma? You've been acting strange all day. Now I find out you are stuck as a girl and you won't even tell me why. I'm your fiancee and believe it or not I am worried about you." she somewhat yelled the last part while blushing.
"I know, Akane. I'm sorry but I really don't want to talk about it. I need some time to think is all. Don't worry, you'll find out soon or later anyways. I'd like to be alone now." Ranma was quite clearly depressed and hadn't even noticed P-chan in Akane's arms.
"Fine, I'm only trying to help. Jerk!" Akane stormed out of the room leaving Ranma to her thoughts.
'What is going on with me? Am I really becoming a real girl? But I'm still the same when a guy! I can't be both a guy and a girl... can I? Insane she said... I'm gonna go insane! No one makes it through the final stage without going nuts. These dreams aren't helping either. WHY RYOUGA?' She pounded the ground with her fists in frustration, being careful not to destroy the floorboards. Ranma continued in silent contemplation and soon was overtaken by sleep.
A/N: Next chapter I will flashback to the feminine training!