It wasn't the usual casual walk to school atop the railing for Ranma today; instead he was forced to sprint the entire way there. It was incredible, he was faster, more agile, and more nimble than the blue-haired girl chasing him but she still managed to keep up with him, the giant hammer ever present in her hands. He attempted to lose her more than a few times, he wanted to get to school quickly for once but not if that meant taking 'Air Akane'.
Eventually he rounded a corner and slipped into the Umi-Sen-Ken, gratefully watching as Akane ran steaming past. He couldn't understand it; it had never taken something as trivial as this to set her off in such a manner. Of course she might become angry every now and then when she caught him in incriminating positions; at least that he could attempt to understand. All he did today was help out her sister and only slightly mock her food, which to be fair could actually be classified more as hazardous chemicals than actual edible substance.
'Maybe if she tasted her own food after cooking it once in a while...' No, he banished such thoughts; they weren't going to help him out of this situation. Instead he just decided to suck it up and apologise for once, he guessed he should at least try and be a bit more encouraging for once. Maybe he could get her to try harder instead of just mocking her and causing her anger ever time. He smiled briefly, now when had he become the one to so openly admit to themselves they were in the wrong?
He had to revaluate his own position; perhaps the two years under the Tendo roof had changed him more than he originally thought. He moved on towards the school with a bit more bounce in his step, convincing himself over and over in his mind that today of all days was going to be a good day, even if he had to make it that way. Crossing the school gates without the hated cry of "Ah, the vile sorcerer Saotome has finally come to meet his end at the hands of the blue thunder of Furinkan High!" only convinced him that it would be so.
Kuno's graduation from Furinkan could honestly be said to be one of Ranma's happiest moments that he could remember. The relief of him leaving and taking his love-crazed, emphasis on the crazed, sister with him brought a smile to the young martial artist's face every time he thought about it. Luckily, despite the distraction Akane's chase had posed, when he looked up at the large clock face on the front of the building he saw that he wouldn't be late today, a strange but not wholly unwelcome change of events.
He managed to even elicit a small smile of surprise from Miss Hinako when he entered the classroom on time. He even surprised himself when he sat down and saw that he wasn't even the last one into the class. There were only a small trickle of students who came in after him but that was more than usual. Akane was among them, she looked red-faced and panted heavily so he assumed she must have been running around looking for him long after he lost her.
When she did see him it was a mixture of confusion at his promptness and anger at him ditching her. The result was a look that could have sent chills into even the most stoic sailors. As it was Ranma just offered up a small but genuine smile in return, trying to edit out the usual cockiness that he knew drove Akane mad. This at least caught the girl off guard, as it did many of the other girls in the class who caught the genuine smile.
Ranma at least went up in the eyes of more than a few girls that day as they took stock of the seemingly new boy that had been so set in one image for the last two years. And throughout the rest of the morning he caught the occasional dreamy glance sent his way, something that unnerved him more than any Dragon Prince or Phoenix God ever could. Surprisingly it was Ukyo who rushed in just as the bell went for lessons to begin, apologising in a barely intelligible stream of words.
Ranma just figured it had something to do with Konatsu, whenever Ukyo was this distraught it was generally because of the gender-confused ninja. If he had to place a bet with Nabiki he would say it was Konatsu messing up something in the breakfast rush that Ukyo had to stay a bit later to fix. From what he understood from his friend he could be a real nightmare when left to his own devices. Apparently gender wasn't the only thing that confused Konatsu.
Despite what Ranma had promised himself earlier the morning went far too much like it usually would. No matter how hard he tried to focus on what the young-looking teacher before him was saying he couldn't stop his mind from wandering to the most trivial of things. The distractions mounted and he barely absorbed any of what was being said but at least for once he didn't fall asleep. Somehow his mind drifted onto the morning and the joy he had felt with the simple task of cooking and the resulting praise from Kasumi.
It was almost like his mind hated him as it continued to fixate on that one point in his day as he nervously watched Kasumi bend down to sip some of the sauce he prepared. He offhandedly noticed the way her hair fell about her shoulders when she did so, as well as the way her lips pursed ever so slightly as she took in the thick red sauce. He shocked himself out of his almost drunken stupor and looked around the classroom, where he was getting more than a few odd looks.
With an internal moan he realised he had been unintentionally staring dreamily into the back of Ukyo's head. Somehow the Okonomiyaki Chef had managed to miss it but unfortunately Akane wasn't quite so unobservant. Currently she was staring daggers at him with eyes so cold she could have stopped one of Saffron's attacks in its tracks. Most of the other looks he was getting were of amusement from the guys and, he noted with a gulp, jealousy from the girls.
Now that he wasn't lost in his own thoughts reality began catching up to him and he quickly realised just how hungry he was. Not having his father fight with him for every last morsel of food had allowed him to eat at a more sedate pace. Unfortunately he had forgotten to account for the fact that Akane chasing him out meant he couldn't finish his breakfast. This was a fact that was announced to the entire class when his stomach let out a startling grumble of disapproval.
There were a few giggles and light elbow nudges but Miss Hinako managed to quiet everybody down and continue with the lesson. Akane just smirked at him with contempt and finally turned back around, happy that Ranma was receiving some kind of punishment for whatever wrong she had managed to twist in her head he had committed. His stomach continued to protest throughout the rest of the morning and his good mood quickly evaporated, disappointing a few of the people who had noticed the welcome change in the pigtailed teen.
When the bell finally rang for the lunch break, one teen couldn't be happier as he shot up from his seat, only to quickly sink back down with a very audible groan. In the rush this morning he not only managed to miss half his breakfast but he also forgot to grab a lunch. Nabiki had recently cleared him out of all his loose change in one of her schemes so going to the school shop was out of the question.
He remained in the seat for a while, grumbling pitiful things into his chest as his eyes grew darker. What had really started out as a great morning had really managed to deteriorate into what could be called another piece of the rest of his life. Very luckily for him, at least one of his friends was there for him in situations like this and when everybody else had filtered out of the room Ukyo happily bounced over to him, evidently out of the bad mood she was in earlier.
"Hey Ranchan." She shot him a cheeky smile. "I noticed you don't have any lunch today, care for me to whip you up your favourite seafood Okonomiyaki?" He smiled gratefully at her, something that still managed to make his oldest friend blush, even after so long.
"Thanks Ucchan, missed breakfast this morning." She giggled a bit, looking at his stomach.
"Yeah, me and the rest of Furinkan noticed." It was his turn to blush even as her faced turned a bit more serious. "Was it Akane? I noticed her shooting looks at you all morning, well worse looks than usual." Ranma decided that it wasn't the best idea to pit his fiancées against one another right now and he really didn't want Ukyo squaring off with Akane.
"Nah, you know Akane, same as always, it was just Pops an' his stupid training." He hoped that the neutral figure of his father, somebody he knew Ukyo already despised, would be enough but the Okonomiyaki chef was unconvinced. However she at least seemed satisfied and was happy enough to walk down to the schoolyard with Ranma, already getting her supplies ready. Outside he instantly scanned the vicinity, immediately noticing Akane off in one corner under a tree with her friends. Silently telling him she had no intention of even making an effort to relieve his hunger.
She didn't look too pleased right now so he figured an apology could wait until later when she had time to cool off a bit. He knew that was complete bull, Akane only grew angrier with time but he convinced himself against that just so he wouldn't have to face the confrontation just yet. Ukyo led him over to the opposite corner and started to cook. His mouth was watering before she even put the batter down but it was well deserved as she placed a freshly made, delicious-smelling okonomiyaki in his hands.
He was so absorbed in the immaculate piece of food-art in front of him that he only had milliseconds to dodge when his danger sense went off and a large mallet struck the ground where he had been only moments before. It shattered the concrete below it and with a genuine look of fear Ranma realised that it may have actually seriously injured him. An attack strong enough to shatter concrete could have done the same to his bones or organs. Akane was still gripping the mallet, even more furious that Ranma had actually dared to dodge her attack instead of take what she felt he more than deserved.
"I should have known you'd be over with one of your floozies Ranma." She shot an equally hateful glare at Ukyo who simply returned it.
"All he was doing was enjoying some of my cooking Akane-honey." Despite the sweet words her voice was laced with venom. "Unless you're deaf you could not have missed the fact he's hungry, and he does have the right to eat. Something he can't do with you and your horrific creations." Ranma could quickly see this was just going to escalate out of control. Normally he would try and act as peacemaker but a tiny voice in the back of his mind, something that hadn't been heard from for a while, managed to convince him that every time he did so things would only get worse.
Akane and Ukyo were about five minutes into their angered bickering before either realised that Ranma wasn't even there anymore. Akane grew redder when she noticed he had run away while Ukyo just looked confused.
"Oh great, you made Ranchan run away Akane. Great going." Akane just glared before she took off in the direction Sayuri saw him leave in. Ukyo was quickly in pursuit, not wanting to let Akane hurt her Ranchan.
Ranma didn't think it was the bravest, or as his mother might put it 'most manly' thing he could have done, but something just wasn't clicking in him today. The part of him that used to thrive off of conflict wasn't in its right state and he just couldn't face the resulting verbal fight between two people he honestly did care about. As he walked away from the school, convinced that if he went back he'd only make things worse, he started thinking about Ukyo.
Whenever he did so he always found a smile crept onto his face. It wasn't for the normal reasons that a teenage boy would be smiling when thinking about a girl, it was because of all the fond memories he had for his first and oldest friend. Memories that he found were increasingly sullied as time went on. Increasingly he found that he was having difficulty picking through his thoughts to find nice ones about Ukyo, especially as she was further pulled into the broiling conflict of the fiancées.
It had hurt Ranma deeply to have found out about her involvement in the wedding fiasco and whilst he had forgiven her quickly, something changed about her in his eyes. It also disappointed him when she started to become petty and use their friendship almost in the same way Shampoo used her village laws, as leverage over him. Whilst he could understand she was just trying to keep up he at least had hoped she would be above such emotional blackmail.
He sighed even as he did latch onto a few good memories of his childhood; Ukyo would always be a friend for him, that at least he knew would never change. In a way that would make it all the harder to admit he had no romantic feelings for her. In his mind she would always be that friend, perhaps even one day he could come to think of her as a sister but beyond that, he just didn't know anymore.
It also slightly frightened him how she saw their futures together, whilst it was true Ranma never really put much thought into what he wanted to do, the who fiasco with the moxibustion had convinced him it definitely was not going to be working in a restaurant, taking care of children the rest of his life. So lost in his thoughts he only just managed to hear the ominous ring of a bicycle bell before something painfully knocked him to the ground.
"Nihao Airen, you not in school to take Shampoo on date, yes?" He groaned, mostly because of the large bike wedged between his shoulder blades but partly because of what he was now going to have to deal with.
"Heya Shampoo, no I'm not coming to take you on a date. I was just thinking." The lovestruck Amazon took on a dreamy stare, even as she somehow managed to work herself into a hug with Ranma without him even noticing.
"Airen thinking about Shampoo?" He desperately tries to disengage the iron-like grip the lavender-haired teen managed to pull him in to. Knowing his luck this was right about the time somebody showed up and-
"Ranma you pervert! What are you doing with Shampoo!?"
"Ranchan, I thought I was the cute fiancée." Shampoo decided that the arrival of the other two girls wasn't a good enough reason to let go of her love, what with her getting so few opportunities to be around him.
"Airen come to take Shampoo on date!" She said it with such glee and conviction that if he hadn't been on the receiving end of a glomp Ranma might have even been inclined to believe her. He tried one last ditch effort to free himself from the otherwise unbreakable hug but only managed to free an arm before being sent soaring by Air Akane. All he could do was sigh and wait for the inevitable impact, most likely in water knowing his luck and the way his curse seemed to act like a magnet for such bodies of liquid.
Before he could fly out of sight he caught the beginnings of a particularly savage squabble between the three girls, each with some claim on him that even two years couldn't break. He was going to have to solve this situation soon but if he couldn't figure out a way in the time he had already been given then he didn't know how more was going to help.
He wasn't even angry as he stood there; ringing out his shirt at the side of the pond he had miraculously landed in and thus turned him into a girl. Right now he was too tired so it was more disappointed annoyance, one day; that was all he ever asked for. One day of normalcy, one day when he wasn't glomped, attacked, malleted, threatened with sepukku, guilted, forced to rescue someone or uphold his honour and the honour of his family. It didn't even register with him that an eighteen year old boy shouldn't have to deal with such problems as it was all he had ever known.
That wasn't to say he accepted it or was happy with it, far from it. He knew that he probably had the worst luck in Tokyo, except maybe Ryoga, but even then the lost boy had some respite whenever he turning into a pig. He didn't know if it was the gods playing some cruel but somehow cosmically funny game with him, or perhaps his chaos and pain served some higher purpose he couldn't see. Either way he just wanted it to stop and give him one single day where he could go to school and just act like a normal teenager.
Of course whatever it was that had caused all this in the first place seemed naturally indignant the boy would even dare question their judgment and as punishment sent him two new pains to play with. Pains in the forms of a white robe-clad Chinese boy and a yellow and black clad part-time piglet.
"Saotome, you will die today and relinquish your evil hold over my fair Shampoo!"
"Prepare to die Ranma!" He held up a hand as he continued to wring out his shirt which confused the two boys vying for his life. Ryoga shook his head as his glare became even deeper. "Your mind games won't work on me Ranma!"
The aforementioned teen merely stood up and sighed, wearily looking at the two boys who wanted him dead daily, but merely lacked the means or ability to do so. With a slight hint of disgust he realised that these two were the closest things to male friends he had and on so many levels he realised that was just sad.
"I'm not playing mind games with you Ryoga; I just don't like fighting in wet clothes." The eternally lost boy's grimace only increased as he took in his rival's rather flippant approach to his death threat. Like it was an insult Ranma wasn't cowering in fear of Ryoga's might. Ranma appraised the pair once again, noticing they had obviously come together. "So you guys teamed up again? Didn't that go horribly wrong last time?" It seemed to be Mousse's turn to speak now.
"That was a while ago Saotome and we have both improved greatly since then!" Rama grew moderately annoyed when he realised Mousse was addressing the bush next to Ranma as opposed to the martial artist himself.
"Hey duck boy, I'm over here. You ever considered getting your eyes fixed? They do have technology for that in this country. Maybe you wouldn't miss me as much!" He couldn't believe he was actually giving his 'enemy' tips on how to defeat him but right now he figured the kid would at least be less irritating. "Look guys, could we do this some other time? I'm really not in the mood." Ryoga beamed and for a single fleeting second Ranma actually believed the boy might have had a change of heart.
He should have known better by now.
"I always knew you were a coward Ranma! Ever since you ran out on our fight!" Ranma's shoulders slumped, he shouldn't get his hopes up like that; maybe he was just too trusting for his own good. Ryoga took this momentary change as a sign to begin attacking, however Ranma was true on his word; he really didn't feel like fighting. Instead he casually side-stepped the clumsy attack, pivoted and roughly pushed Ryoga into the lake behind them.
It wasn't the most honourable defeat he thought as the small bandana-clad piglet rose to the surface but it would have to do. He also wasn't particularly proud of his next move but he figured it would be the simplest way to remove Mousse as a contender for now. Casually he picked up a small pebble and flicked it with immense skill and accuracy at the boy's glasses. Being the sometimes blind boy he is Mousse couldn't even dodge as the small stone smacked him in the face, cracking his glasses and leaving him useless as a fighter without the ability to aim.
Ranma sighed and sank even further as he walked away from the snarling piglet and cursing Amazon. Things like the occasional scuffle with Mousse and Ryoga never got to him like this before; maybe it was all just starting to pile up on his shoulders. He remembered hearing a wise saying from a master on one of his many journeys in China. 'I would carry a boulder any day than a thousand pebbles.' That sounded about right for how Ranma was feeling now.
He decided against going back to school, even if that had gotten him in trouble last time, but instead of meandering aimlessly he at least set himself a destination. He figured at least at home he'd be safe from Akane for a little while and could train to take his mind of things like usual. He didn't head in a straight line over the rooftops like usual, instead he wandered through the streets, not really paying attention to anything in particular.
A while ago he may have been distressed or embarrassed by all the looks guys gave his female form but he learned to tune them out. It had done wonders for his self esteem and ability to tolerate his cursed form. Tolerate may not be the best word for it any more, if anything Ranma had actually accepted his other half, as that's all it was. It was him, just with a different look. His personality didn't change, so why should he really care?
He knew why, it was everybody else that cared. The way people looked at him like some kind of freak or how Akane called him a pervert. The very first image of the time the Tendo's had seen his curse in action would be burned into his memory forever. The abject fear at this strangeness that drove the two older girls to instantly reject him without even getting to know him first, how it made him feel like an outsider, like a freak.
Occasionally he would regress back to that but for now he was fairly comfortable like this, it really wasn't that big an inconvenience. Anyway, as far as he knew there wasn't a cure. If Taro was anything to go on then submerging yourself in another spring only mixed the effects. Ranma would rather be stuck a girl forever than a hideous amalgamation of the two genders. Better to be two genders one at a time than two genders at the same time. He tried to move his thoughts to something that didn't make him want to fire off a massive Shishi Hokoudan but, crushingly, he couldn't find anything even remotely bright to latch onto.
His shoulders were sagging low by the time he reached the Tendo house and he had managed to garner a little respect for Ryoga if this was how he felt all the time. He could even understand briefly why he was always so intent on taking out his frustrations on him. Something to beat up right about now would feel pretty good. Speaking of a punching bag he spotted Genma sitting out on his own, for once not absorbed in cheating his way to winning a game of Shogi or Go with Soun.
"Heya Pops" The man swivelled, obviously confused by something.
"Boy, you're supposed to be in school!" Ranma grimaced and his fist clenched subconsciously.
"Yeah, that wasn't really working out today, wanna spar?" Genma gulped, as much as he enjoyed a chance to beat his son and prove he was still the better martial artist, he knew it wasn't so. Recently he had noticed that Ranma needed less and less effort to beat him, and it was starting to become slightly more vicious than it used to be. He wasn't sure if it was something to do with Ranma or how his other fights were starting to turn but Genma didn't like getting thrown around the back garden.
"No thanks son, I've already trained enough today." Ranma snorted, he knew it wasn't true and the old man was just covering his own ass but he let it slide. It did leave him rather frustrated however, now he was going to have to vent them the old fashioned way. On his way out he turned, hesitantly looking back at his old man who had gone back to whatever thoughts possessed him during the day.
"Hey Pop?"
"What is it my boy?" Genma stared at him curiously as he fought for the right words.
"Can we, you know, talk for a bit?" The older man seemed genuinely startled; the two hadn't really 'talked' for a long time, not since the early days of their training trip. For the briefest moment he considered it, before the infuriating part of his mind that had a hand in moulding Ranma into what he is today took charge.
"Talk boy? Men don't talk. You leave the chit chat to the women. You want to be a man among men then start acting like it!" He smiled as if it were the only thing he could have said in that situation. Once again that day Ranma had gotten his hopes up only for them to be dashed against the ground, over and over. His eyes narrowed into a stare that made Genma immediately douse himself with water and enter what the other's liked to call 'don't mind the cuddly panda' mode.
Ranma just walked out in disgust, only for him to accidently bump into his mother. He was surprised for a moment, firstly because he was so wrapped up in his thoughts he hadn't noticed her and secondly because he thought she was off dealing with contractors about the house for a few days. She wasn't supposed to be back for a few days at least.
"Mom?" She smiled sweetly at him but he couldn't help but drift his gaze toward the package, innocently enough slung over her back.
"Son, you know what I think about you walking around in that form don't you?" His head dropped, one of the other people who could emotionally hammer him into guilt about something he had no real control over.
"Um, yeah, I was just going to, um, you know, deal with it." He hated the way his mother managed to make him twist his own words with only a smile. He didn't loathe his curse in the way he used to, sure he would take an opportunity at a cure if it came around but until then he was fairly content, why couldn't others? Everyone else got to make use of their curses so why was he the only one not allowed to?
"Oh good, I won't keep you any longer, can't have my manly son walking around as a girl all day can I?" Ranma didn't know what it was, maybe there was a full moon tonight, or perhaps he really was hopelessly trusting he had decided on one more shot.
"Hey Mom, what if there is no cure for this?" That firmly halted Nodoka in her tracks "Would you hold me to the seppuku contract? If by chance I was stuck like this no matter what?" His mother was shocked, never had they really had a proper talk about the agreement before, she could tell something was different about her son that day but couldn't place it. Actually she had hoped for a long time that this conversation would happen, she just thought that if she brought it up he would be scared of her.
Of course she wouldn't hold him to such a barbaric contract, the very idea of making her own son, who she had only reconnected with after so many years apart, commit suicide was sickening. Yet it was the only way to ensure that Ranma would come back to her safe. Even though she wanted to scream all this out to him, like it was beyond her very control, her mouth moved in well practised sentences, on auto-pilot.
"Don't speak like that son, you will find a cure for your terrible curse, I'm sure of it." She actually wanted to break out weeping when she saw the tiny flicker of hope in Ranma's eyes get trodden on until it might as well have been extinguished. She had no clue what possessed her to say such a thing, when her mind screamed at her something else, but the damage was done. Her son had finally reached out to her, looking for some kind of emotional stability and she had thrown it back at him because it was what came easily.
Ranma walked away from her, shoulders slumped and head held low, he never saw but she held her arm out a little as he left and a small tear rolled down her cheek.